In this sermon, the pastor begins by sharing a personal story about a horseback riding trip with Pastor Dave and Rose Whittington. He emphasizes the importance of obedience and the consequences of not obeying. The pastor then introduces the Recabites, a group of people mentioned in the book of Jeremiah, who were known for their obedience to their ancestor's commands. He highlights the contrast between the obedience of animals and humans, emphasizing the need for believers to learn to obey God's instructions. The sermon ultimately encourages listeners to pay close attention and not miss out on the challenge of obedience that God has for them.

Good morning. Last Sunday morning we considered the importance of the freedom to believe. We did that by examining the words that are present within the Bill of Rights in our First Amendment. And as we read there, the decision was that government should make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The basis for the belief that the Founding Fathers had about the freedom to believe came from their confidence that that was a gift that was given by God. That natural right that man had was the freedom to believe. And therefore, as he would believe in God and respond to Him, government had no right or authority to deny or interfere with that. Last week we talked about some of the issues in which we find conflict with that going on in our land. And we continue to see that there are others that are happening almost daily in terms of the attack upon the freedom for us to believe and practice our faith. Today I want to move on into a slightly different direction and we're going to be talking about the importance of choosing to obey. We have freedom to believe. We also have the freedom to choose to fail to believe. Not only choose to believe, but we have the freedom to choose to fail to believe and practice what God has proclaimed within His Word. Someone has stated, and I do not know where this verse came from, but I agree with it. It says we have the freedom to choose, but we do not have the freedom to choose the consequences of our choices. Let me say that again. We have the freedom to choose, but we do not have the freedom to choose the consequence of our choices. Unfortunately in our society today, in this 21st century crazy society in which we live, there are many that would reject that concept. And their interpretation or spin would be this. That I have the freedom to choose and if there are consequences, somebody else is to blame. Or somebody else ought to pay the price. Or somebody else ought to fix it for me. Well unfortunately that's not really the way it works in the real world. And so we end up with some very challenging things going on in our land. And there are challenges for us as believers choosing to learn to obey. Shelly is my proofreader for the bulletin when I put it together. And when I handed this to her to look at this last Thursday, she says, who are the Rechabites? How many of you are wondering that this morning? Who are the Rechabites? Well we're going to find out as we go to Jeremiah chapter 35. And as we go to this chapter and as we study what is there. I want you to listen to me very, very, very carefully. If you're not paying attention. If you do not follow the application that I'm going to make going through this scripture. You're going to go home missing the boat. You're going to misunderstand what it is I'm really saying. And in the process, you're going to miss out on the biggest challenge that God can have for you today and going forward. So please try to pay close attention. I'll try to clarify that as we go along. But I just want to give you a heads up to begin with. Before I actually jump into the text, I want to tell you a true story. A story that occurred in my life a number of years ago. And it's one that I think of when I think about the applications for obedience. Such as are communicated in this passage of scripture. Many of you know Pastor Dave and Rose Whittington. That come up here and they've come up here for many, many years. From down South Lake outside of Dallas Fort Worth. Been a pastor down there about as long as I've been a pastor up here. And they enjoyed coming up in the past. And when I had my mules and had the availability of a horse. We would go every summer we would go riding. And so this particular event that I'm remembering. We got on our horses where we used to live down here by Gerard Gulch. And we rode up the canyon. Went up and circled a big knob and came back down. As we round the knob and start back down. My mule JJ all of a sudden had his ears at attention. So I knew there was something going on. Got to looking and here was a bear. And the bear just kind of waddled up over the saddle and went out of sight. And about that time I saw something else. And that was I saw a cow elk beginning to go off down the ridge on this side. And the bear went that way. And I said to Dave and Rose. I said the way that cow is acting. She was kind of hesitant in her travel down the ridge. I said she may have a calf around here. So we need to keep our eyes open and see. We may see a baby elk here. So as I had barely gotten those words out of my mouth. All of a sudden as I was looking down where that cow elk went. Pastor Dave was behind me. He said look at there. We stopped and we looked. And here on the kind of a little hollowed out place. Was a baby elk laying there all curled up nice and cozy. We got off the animals. Went over and took some pictures. And Rose could not resist touching it. Even though I said don't touch. She had to touch it. See how soft it might be. She reached down to touch it. And my mind was going that calf is going to explode right in her face. And knock her and who knows what else is going to happen in the process. But she touched that little calf. It didn't twitch. It didn't blink an eye. It laid perfectly still as if it were dead. After we had taken our pictures and got back on our animals and began to write down. We began to talk and I said to them. I said you know what. Isn't it interesting how God's. Capacity. That he's put in little animals to obey. Their parents when they put them someplace and say. Stay. Exceeds what happens with the human. Child. Those little animals will obey. Us big animals don't obey we're sick them. Amen. And probably sometime this week we proved that. By not being obedient. Unto what the Lord had revealed and communicated to us. So the picture that I want us to see as we build through this passage. Is that the picture of absolute obedience. Following an instruction or a command. And as you follow that you do it because you've been told. To do it. Not freedom to do whatever you want or freedom to adjust it. But freedom to obey what God would have you to do. As you look at your outline you'll see that Roman numeral number one. We're looking at the background of those who are called the Recibites. And as we look at the background. There. Admittedly is limited information that we can gather. But there are just a few things. That I want to call to our attention. That can be beneficial to us. For example. Judges 1 16. We read in the children of the Kenite Moses father-in-law. Went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah. Into the wilderness of Judah. Which lieth in the south of Arad. And they went and dwelt among the people. So we're going to see there's a connection between. Moses's father-in-law. And the Kenites. We're going to see as we go on that the Kenites. Are going to be related to the Recibites. So follow me. Go with me next if you would in your Bibles to the book of Judges. Judges chapter 4. Judges chapter 4. This. Declaration that this is in the book of Judges. And it says. There is a time. When Israel was being disobedient to God. And God raised up other nations to come against them. To discipline them. To bring them to repentance. And submission back to God. And at this particular. Stage in God's judgment upon them. We find that. Deborah. And Barak. Are two that God brought forward. to be the deliverers for the children of Israel so we're picking it up with that in verse eleven this is now Heber the Kenite which was of the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses had served him from the Kenite himself said we had severed himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent under the plane of Zanaim which is by Kedesh jump with me next to verse seventeen how be it Sisera fled away now what is happening is that we have a challenge that is going on Jabin was the king of the Canaanites that were being used of God to discipline them now God is raising up deliverance from the Canaanites and using Deborah and Barak and their armies to do that Sisera is a commander of the Canaanites says how be it Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of jail the wife of Heber the Kenite for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite in jail went out to meet Sisera and said unto him turn in my lord turn in to me fear not when he had turned into her into the tent she covered him with a mantle and he said under give me I pray thee a little water to drink for I am thirsty and she opened a bottle of milk and gave him drink and covered him and he said unto her stand in the door of the tent and it shall be when any man that come and inquire of thee and say is there any man here that thou shalt say no then jail Heber's wife took a nail of the tent or a tent peg in other words and took a hammer in her hand and went softly into him and smote the nail into his temples and fastened it into the ground for he was fast asleep and weary so he died and behold as Barak pursued Sisera jail came out to meet him and said unto him come I will show thee the man whom thou seekest and when he came unto her tent behold Sisera lay dead and the nail was in his temples so God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel and the hand of the children of Israel prospered and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan until they had destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan this is a side light no extra charge for this God called Barak to be a deliverer and he said I won't go unless Deborah goes I want to be as it were under her skirt pale and it's interesting that she went ahead and went but she said the results going to be that the announcement will be that the victory came because of a woman did you notice what happened here Sisera was killed at the hand of a woman move on next with me to First Chronicles Chapter two verse twenty fifty five and the families of the scribes which dealt at Jabez the Tirithites and the Shemitites and the Succothites these are the Canaanites that came of him at the father of the house of recap were zeroed in now on recap second Kings chapter ten verse fifteen and sixteen and when he the he here in this passage is a man by the name of Jay who he was now being used of God to rise up and to destroy a have and the prophets of Baal this is the time of Elijah and Ahab and Jezebel you recall had an all out war against God and against Elijah and the prophets of God and so this is a housecleaning that is is going to take place OK so he lighted upon Jehonadab the son of recap coming to meet him and he saluted him and said to him is mine heart right is my heart is right with my heart Jehonadab answered it is if it be give me thine hand and he gave him his hand and he took him up into the chair him up into the chariot and he said come with me and see my zeal for the Lord my zeal for the Lord so they made him right in his chariot or allowed him to ride and under the hand of Jehonadab the son of recap there was victory and deliverance from the situation of the Baalites and the worshippers of Baal what we have is a bit of a background though it's kind of meager tracking back to Moses his father in law on the Kenites and to Jehonadab and recap so now come to verse one of chapter thirty five Jeremiah thirty five one the word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord in the days Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah saying go unto the house of the Recibites and speak into them and bring them into the house of the Lord into one of the chambers and give them wine to drink then I took Jason I the son of Jeremiah the hunt the son of habits than I and his brethren and all his sons in the whole house of the Recibites and I brought them into the house of the Lord into the chambers of the son of Hainan the son of a man of God which was by the chamber of the princes which was above the chamber of Messiah the son of Shalom the keeper of the door and I said before the sons of the house of the Recibites pots full of wine and cups and I said unto them drink ye the wine this is very strange let me tell you why because what is happening here Jeremiah has been very faithful calling the people of Judah to repentance calling them to humble themselves before God and the consequences been as they have been rejecting they've been ignoring him they've been denying that his message from was from God they have been turning to false prophets and said don't listen to Jeremiah we're not going to go to Babylon as captive Nebuchadnezzar can't defeat us there's nothing to worry about and Jeremiah continued to warn them and so as a illustration to try to drive home a point of the need for Judah to be obedient to God he pulls in these Recibites it's kind of like just reaching out here and bringing a man and as he brings them and puts them in a particular chamber there in the temple he has pots of wine set before them and he says drink up now hang on first things first what this tells us if we're paying attention is this these people had a reputation that said they were obedient to their father and the commands that had been given to them going to see that fleshed out as we go on but the very fact that Jeremiah even knew of such people or knew of what their tradition or their history was some 250 years after their father had given instructions they were still doing it me ask you a question how old is the United States how are we doing about following and obeying those instructions that came by our founding fathers who feared God and called us to honor God there's a comparison and illustration for us to make there so here they've showed up there in this room okay go with me now to verse six but they said we will drink no wine for Jonadab the son of recap our father commanded us saying you shall drink no wine neither ye nor your sons forever neither shall you build house nor sow seed nor plant vineyard nor have any but all your days you shall dwell in tents that you may live many days in the land where ye be strangers now pause with me again this is not only about the matter of would they or would they not drink did you see the rest of the instructions that are there he is calling these descendants to in essence be perpetual better ones how many know what a better one is perpetual people that would move around well intense they would not be agricultural and not have a farm not have a vineyard in other words they would continuously be floating around and in doing so they would be in a very identifiable people there they are in nineteen eighty five when when we were in Israel we went from Jerusalem down to Jericho and those of you that have been there do your study and you know that the Dead Sea is below sea level as you go down from Jerusalem our bus stopped at a particular place and here was a sign out on the side here was a rock with a mark on it said sea level it was dry as a bone everywhere you could look said sea level we went just a little ways further and we come around the curve and here was a better one camp I don't know that those were wreck abides but there were these better ones there they were in a black tent they had animals all around now one thing that I was impressed was they had TV antennas on top of their tents that was a little bit of a shock for me okay but here were these better ones here were these people the wreck abides think with me of them being as better ones wandering traveling people with a very clear identity so that if somebody saw a group of better one kind of people they would suggest those are probably wreck abides they have been doing that for two hundred and fifty years that's their identity now listen listen listen you know what God called his people out of a land and he made of them a special people and as they special people what were they supposed to be from all other people different separated identified by their obedience to who to hold a guy now listen in the New Testament second Corinthians chapter six beginning with four verse fourteen it calls us as born again believers were to come out from among them and be separate thus saith the Lord the church is a called out ones we may not live as better ones in a tent but we are called to be salt and light and therefore the reality ought to be when someone sees one of us wherever we are they ought to be able to legitimately say I'll bet you that's a Christian I've watched them I'll bet that's Chris that's a Christian here a while back met my older brother and sister-in-law down in Del Norte boogies for lunch and as our custom is when we got our lunch we had a word of prayer and as I finished praying Donny V Hill and some of you know Donny V Hill walked by and said amen now I didn't pray for anybody else's attention but you know what I'm not ashamed to pray in public anywhere and none of us should Paul said when I serve and whose I am Paul had an identity with Christ and we should have an identity as well and so these recumbents are being called in and used as an illustration of these are a people these are a people that have been obedient to their father okay read on with me verse 8 thus have we obeyed the voice of John a dab the son of recap our father in all that he has charged us to drink no wine in all our days we are wives our sons nor daughters nor to build houses for us to dwell in neither have we been you don't field nor seed but we have dwelt in tents and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonah dab our father commanded us when I ask you a question how many of you here this morning think that that is amazing isn't that to be commended that these people had that kind of an obedience and identity with their father okay verse 11 tells us how they got into the near proximity there came to pass when Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon came up into the land that week said come and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army the Chaldeans and for fear the army the Syrians so we dwelt in Jerusalem but I think it's fair to say based upon the all the rest of the testimony they were living in tents outside they were still maintaining their identity and because they were maintaining their identity God would indeed bless them now jump ahead with me if you would to verse 18 and 19 what reward was there for the Rehoboamites for them staying faithful in obedience to their father well listen to what is announced from Jeremiah the prophet of God verse 18 and Jeremiah said into the house of the Rehoboamites thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel because you will obey the commandments of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts had done according to all that he has commanded you therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel Jonadab the son of recap shall not want or lack a man to stand before me forever that's awesome Jeremiah is saying this now listen Jeremiah could not enforce that but God can can I project something to you on the basis of God's faithfulness in his word somewhere there are Rehoboamites standing before God today a man I do too wow that's awesome because of their obedience there was that genuine reward so now come back with me to verse 12 because now's the time to look at the application that Jeremiah is going to draw from this then came the word of the Lord into Jeremiah saying thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will you not receive instruction to hearken to my word saith the Lord won't you obey verse 14 the words of Jonadab the son of recap that he commanded his sons not to drink wine or perform for unto this day they drink none but obeyed their father's commandment notwithstanding I have spoken to you rising early and speaking but you hearken not unto me I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophet rising up early and sending him saying return you now every man from his evil way and amends your doings and go not after other gods to serve them if you do that God says if you're obedient to me then what's the reward you shall dwell in the land which I've given to you and to your fathers but you have not inclined your ear nor hearken unto me anybody know what the fifth commandment says honor my father and my mother that it might be well with you in the land that you're going to go into dwell it's repeated in Ephesians chapter one to be six after six verses one through three children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor thy father and her mother that it might be well with you this is the first commandment with promise the recombinant were given a promise by Jeremiah from the Lord because you have done this this you've honored your father this is a reward and now Jeremiah is saying because you have not honored and you have not been obedient to me what you could have had you will lose you will not have latter part of that verse fifteen but you have not inclined your ear nor hearken unto me for sixteen because the sons of Jonah dabbed the son of recap had performed the commandments of their father which he commanded them but this people have not hearkened unto me therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts the God of Israel behold I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them because I have spoken unto them but they have not heard I have called to them but they have not answered and what's the end result to that we call it the Babylonian captivity what happened to Jerusalem what happened to the temple because they would not obey they would not hearken to the Lord God's judgment came upon them now this is regarding Judah friends listen to me previous to that what had happened to Israel the northern kingdom we call it the Assyrian captivity for the same kind of reasons of them not obeying God they had gone into captivity they were scattered they were judged and so we look at this passage of Scripture and it is such a strong strong strong thing that I was challenged as I as I thought and wrestle with this to present it to you this morning and the call that I have for myself and for each of us as New Testament believers is how would you do if God were given a test today about your obedience to him would God hold you up as Jeremiah held up the record bites as an example would God brag on you and your obedience well I thought of a passage you're familiar with this it comes from Job chapter one and verse eight Lord said unto Satan has thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and issue with or hated evil Satan if you considered you know so friends it's not out of line for God to say have you considered my servant and put your name in the blank how many faith and I can't wait for that I'd be excited to see that. But the challenge before us really is in the word go with me if you would next to the gospel of John chapter fourteen John chapter fourteen this is out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus he says if you love me keep my commandments verse twenty one he that has my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him verse twenty three Jesus answered and said if a man loved me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him now I need to clarify something and it's in your outline I want to plug it in here friends in order for us to become a child of God we must be born again when we are born again by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we are adopted in the family we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ God now is our father Jesus is our Savior and Lord and the Holy Spirit living within us is our teacher and guide Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commandments as if Jonah dab said to the record bytes if you love me then you will obey what I've commanded you to do and they did for two hundred and fifty years plus loving him and keeping his commandments he adds something else and did you see it there in birth twenty one and verse twenty three and I will love him and will manifest myself to him verse twenty three and I will come unto him and we will make our abode with him that's a promise that is given just as the record bytes were given a promise through the mouth of Jeremiah Jesus is making a promise to you and to me if we are willing to because we love him because we are a child of his because he lives within us as we walk in faith and obedience to him not to be saved but because we are saved because we are identified with him he promises that he would manifest himself to us he would verify by the peace that we have within by the blessing upon our life that we are his child and that he is in the business the blessing us as we walk together in love go with me to first John chapter two and verse twenty four says let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning I emphasize that phrase from the beginning if that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you you shall also continue in the son and in the father and this is the promise that he has promised us even eternal life these things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you those that are trying to twist you away to go another direction verse twenty seven but the anointing that's the Holy Spirit which lives in you which you have received of him abided in you and you need that any man teach you but as the same anointing teaches you of all things and his truth and his no lie and even as it had taught you you shall abide in him now I'm going to make some attachments as we go along I want you in your mind to go back with me to the time when you first trusted in Christ as your personal Savior one of the things that is the proof of God's Spirit bearing witness with your spirit when you become a child of God is you want to change your life how many of you remember when you got saved you wanted to change your life not only did you want to change your life but now you had within you a desire to kind of separate yourself to push off from where you had been and what you had been doing you wanted a new beginning the Bible says therefore if any man be in Christ he's a new creation all things pass away behold all things become new from the beginning from the beginning these records could go back to their beginning and that was the command that they received from their father and that group of people obeyed that down through a long period of time and we have the Word of God before us that calls us to obedience and Jesus if you love me you will obey and if you obey I will manifest my I'll come and live in you and we'll have an awesome time together Christ and I've come that you might have life and you might have it what more abundantly that's what Christ offers us so the question is are we walking in that that has been provided for us and first John chapter 5 and verse 3 says for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous you know what the devil and the world tells you before you accept Christ as your Savior they tell you if you accept Christ all your fun is gone you're going to have a meager terrible existence no fun to lose all your friends you can do what you like to blah blah blah blah blah well no no no the love of God is that if we love him and follow him his commandments are not grievous they're not a burden to be carried there at the light because a relationship with him makes it a joy his approval is not is that which blesses us as we walk in obedience to him 2nd John verse 6 and this is love that we walk after his commandments this is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning you should walk in it from the beginning when you first became a believer this is what you should do discipleship says this is how you should walk now I want to make some applications I give you a story at the beginning and I'm going to make you an application in the ending I was blessed by a gift from my grandson Hayden for Christmas and the title of the book is God's generals the revivalists and it lists a number of different men in England and in America who were very significant the Wesley brothers John and Charles Wesley for example George Whitfield Jonathan Edwards Francis has very Peter Cartwright it goes on and lists a number of these that have been used of God to produce revival and as I was reading about John and Charles Wesley and one of the things that if you know anything about early Methodist history the reason they were called Methodist is because they had lots of methods okay lots of routines lots of disciplines and here's a list of four things that I came across as I was reading that were requirements placed upon all the Methodist societies leaders lay leaders that they were to share with those that they were leading or those that they were instructing number one what known sins have you committed and then I assume he waited for an answer number two what temptations have you overcome and I assume he waited for an answer number three how did God deliver you and number four what have you thought said or done that might be sinful I'm going to get real meddlesome how about each one of you come one at a time this week to my office and we'll go over these questions you guys are all saying no I'm not into that let me ask you a question though this is speaking to me this is speaking to me when I read that whoa is there not a problem in us as 21st century believers that we really shouldn't be worried about little details like that it's nobody else's business how I'm living and what I'm doing what we're really saying by that attitude is I'm not accountable to anyone you know what that ain't so we are accountable every thought you know the holiness movement that John and Charles Wesley were a part of was about calling people to holiness you know that's not real popular in our society today now as I read on in that book I read this and it was very instructive as well John Wesley had made a trip to Wales in 1763 and this is a quote from what he said he says preaching like an apostle without joining together those that are awakened and training them up in the ways of God is only beginning children for the murderer how much preaching has there been for these twenty years but no regular societies no discipline no order or connection and the consequence is that nine in ten of the once awakened are now faster asleep than ever whoa I want to ask you a question what's the status of the church in America today how many of you would agree that even if it's not night out of ten unfortunately there's a bunch that are more asleep than they were ten years ago the more numb to the instruction the commands and the words of God today in America churches are condoning things that fifty years ago were totally totally rejected now what we have done is we have just said all you know times are changing and we are not good recumbents we are not obeying our father and the consequence is not pretty by any stretch of the imagination Klaus mentioned about the situation of Governor Cuomo and in New York declares himself to be a devout Catholic the cardinal said because a number of Catholics were recommending that he be excommunicated the cardinal says this is not something that a man should be excommunicated for really really but let's move over just a little bit and let's say this how much of what's going on in the Protestant church in America today the word of God would say that's church discipline material and what we're saying I'm not going to touch that that's too non-politically correct I'm not going to go there and listen to me God is doing something in me you may like it may not like it but God is burdening me to call us to repentance and revival and that means we can't say I'm not that bad I'm pretty good or I'm better than it's this if there is anything in our life that we know is sin we need to repent of it anything thought word deed anything we need to repent of it friends listen to me the wonderful wonderful wonderful thing is that repentance will bring restoration if we're a believer if we confess our sin what is he faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all in righteousness if we refuse to repent he will discipline us for whom the Lord loves he will also chase them and therefore we need to take an evaluation of our own life and say have I changed that much from the beginning early on in my Christian walk early on in my life things that I would have never thought of I'd never would have been involved with and today I'm allowing them and I'm not even thinking twice about it friends we're not walking in fellowship with God we need to confess it and repent of it God cannot bless disobedience he will chastise those that he loves and as I've been reading through this book revival came when the people really really got serious and they began to own their sin and repent of it and they weren't thinking about what will Tom or Mary or somebody else say they were saying before God I know I'm guilty and so they repented and God bought revival and the result was hundreds were saved how many of you think we need revival in America today in the church revival starts with me starts with us if there's anything that we need to repent of then we need to do it and just as you were kind of uncomfortable about coming in and that's going over that list I become uncomfortable to come before you and the same list because we know that we are not perfect I'm going to close with the passage and let God's Word do the talking first Peter chapter 1 beginning with verse 13 wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought into you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children not fashion in yourself according to the former lust in your ignorance but as he which is called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation other words all manner of living because it is written be holy for I am holy and if you call on the father who without respect a person judges according to every man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by the tradition from your father's but with a precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you who by him to believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God see and you have purified your souls and obeying the truth for the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever for all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man is the flower of grass the grass wither and the flower thereof falleth away but the word of the Lord endureth forever and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envies and all evil speaking as newborn babes desired the sincere milk of the word that you might grow thereby if so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious friends if you go home and say the preacher preached a sermon today about not drinking you've missed the whole message okay the message is obedience the Bible says that whatever is not of faith sin and it says that if we allow ourself to do something that we know we ought not to then that's out now direct rebellion and sin against God so the call to me the call to us through this morning choose to obey say but pastor if I choose to obey what it might cause me no no no you're looking at all wrong it's what will it pay you what benefits will you derive in obedience to God it may be uncomfortable initially in the repentance but all joy cometh in the morning as you're back in full fellowship and restoration with God would you pray with me Heavenly Father every one of us here this morning are naked and open before the God with whom we have to do nothing hidden and based upon what you have revealed to us in our walk of faith we're either choosing to walk in obedience or we're choosing to walk in disobedience and wherever we're walking in disobedience we're walking in sin and you've provided repentance as a proper treatment for that disobedience turning around going the opposite direction of where we were going and you are faithful and just to forgive and cleanse you're a God of restoration and we praise you for that father I asked by your spirit that you would examine each one of us and if there's anything that you put your finger on that we need to repent of and get out of our life if there's something that needs to be in our life that once upon a time we were very faithful to do but but now we don't have time for Lord may we repent of that as well that we might choose obedience and thereby blessing speak to our hearts have your will and your way in us I pray in Jesus name take your emails please