Project Change Weekly Messages

WM 47 Worship Series #2 February 9, 2018

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭6:9-10‬ ‭KJV‬‬

This wasn't addressed to people who've never heard of God before. Paul was warning the church that disobedience and sin will still bring you to hell, no matter how saved you are.

Some people believe in Once Saved Always Saved. That once you do a certain scripture or number if scriptures, you're set for life and "grace will pardon all your sins automatically" or whatever.

And I guess we could waste hours and paragraphs arguing about it. Some Greeks believed Once Saved Always Saved, especially the Corinthians, and Paul gave them 100 billion reasons or more why they were wrong and needed to repent and live Holy in his letters. But I'll give you one reason.

The Bible says that He will call those who get to Heaven good and faithful servants (Matthew 25). If a man is commiting the act of adultery when Jesus comes and takes all the Christians to heaven, is God going to PULL HIM OFF of the woman he's cheating with, throw him a towel to wear, set Him next to his wife and kids he betrayed, and tell him "Well done, my good and faithful servant?"

I'll leave that up to you.

But yeah. Obedience to God and the whole Bible, and repentance (asking for forgiveness and turning away) every time we sin, is necessary to be saved. If you don't believe me or want to know where some of the many verses that tell us that are, comment here and I can shower you with Bible verses, and I'd be happy to do so!

Luckily for us, Jesus died on the cross so that whenever we are disobedient and do something God told us not to, we can pray to Him for forgiveness and help to turn away from that sin, and God will help us! (1 John 2:1-2)

We need to repent, not just one time or once in a while, but we need to repent EVERY DAY in prayer and prayerfully do everything to turn away from sin in the power of Jesus Christ.

Obedience Authenticates Praise

"But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."
‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭15:21-22‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Without obedience, the praise we talked about last WM is worthless. That's not to say that praise isn't one of the most important parts of a relationship with God; it only means that all the nice words and raised hands you gave in church Sunday look hypocritical to God when He catches you being hurtful to someone or doing something sinful on Tuesday. Obedience is the fundamental expression of love and respect towards God, and it makes your praise mean something; all the compliments in the world don't mean anything if you don't really respect Him!

Israel's first king, Saul, disobeyed God by attacking a city before the priest blessed them like God commanded, and refused to destroy what he wanted of the cursed city, and thought he could cover or make that up by praising with a burnt sacrifice.

Boy, was he in for a rude awakening. God took away the kingship from his lineage. Saul praised without worshipping by being fake and disrespectful towards His commands, and his relationship with God was tarnished.

Obedience is self-explanatory. It's showing love and respect for God by following His commands. While, once again, I'm not knocking praise or saying it's less than necessary in our lives, all the songs and poems and prayers in the world can't compare to serving God, doing what He wants and resisting the rest. When we are disobedient, we personally backstab God for our own selfish dssires. It's the respect that every relationship cannot live without, and we need obedience to make our praise authentic and genuine to God.