1. Walking Towards Obedience
Mark 8:34-38
Sunday August 9, 2015

2. Obedience What is obedience?
Not a well regarded concept
We’ll never have to go to school
Forced into submission
By monstrous, crabby teachers
Who’ll make us learn addition!
Obedience associated with weakness, subservience, oppression, lesser-ness
 All negative

3. Christian / Holy Obedience
Christian concept of obedience is different
Active not passive
We choose rather than being forced
It is thoughtful, intentional
Denying the Self / Self-Renunciation
Jesus: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-5)

4. Christian / Holy Obedience
Denying the Self / Self-Renunciation cont’d
We live this out in two types of relationships:
Human relationships
Not about mindlessly following another
Rather – deny / renounce / give up one’s preferences for the sake of the other person or community
2. Relationship with God
Goal of discipleship: be transformed into the likeness of Christ
Cast off the old self, and put on the redeemed self
Renounce our own will and take on the will of God

5. Christian / Holy Obedience
Lifestyle & Attitude
Not about following rules and regulations
Rather, it is a way of existing in the world, a way of understanding the self relative to others
Profoundly counter-cultural
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,     neither are your ways my ways…” (Isa 55:8-9)
The opposite of culture, i.e. Kim Kardashian’s 455 page book of selfies, called Selfish
In sum, Christian Obedience is a powerful, positive call to a life closer to God & in service of others

6. Fruit of Holy Obedience
Thomas R Kelly: “Then is the soul swept into a Loving Center of ineffable sweetness, where calm and unspeakable peace and ravishing joy steal over [the soul].“
Jean Vanier: We have a “guarantee of presence, light and the strength of God.”
We all long for these things!
Holy Obedience can lead us to them

7. Putting Others Before The Self
This is hard to do, which is why inequality and injustice are everywhere
Tackling the big issues starts with small steps
Example of Christian obedience in human relationships
Story of UC alumni who had difficulty making friends
She gave up her self-perception and expectations and accepted the people God brought into her life, many of whom she introduced to Jesus.
This was an act of holy obedience!
There was joy!

8. Putting Community Before The Self
This is about obedience in the face of authority.
Excellent chapter on authority in Jean Vanier’s Community & Growth
Example: my perspectives on church

9. Putting Others Before The Self
Example: my perspectives on church
I was very rigid!
Only wanted to go to a church that I FULLY agreed with.
Things have changed…
Recently, I was asked for advice on how to choose a church when moving to a new place…
No church (or community, or family) is perfect
Trust God & community of believers to select leaders & authority figures
All are flawed, all are on the daily walk towards obedience
God may ask you to go somewhere that is not exactly what you want or like or even agree with.

10. Putting Others Before The Self
Jean Vanier: “making the transition from ‘the community for myself’ to ‘myself for the community’… from the land of slavery to the land of inner freedom.”
I don’t always agree, I’m not always comfortable, but this is the walk towards obedience!
Thank God for grace!

11. Conclusion: Walking Towards Obedience
Simple steps on how to begin the walk to obedience
Richard Foster’s chapter on “Holy Obedience” in Freedom of Simplicity
START NOW!
Christian obedience is hard work in the beginning!
“The will must be subjected bit by bit, piecemeal and progressively, to the divide Will.” Thomas R Kelly
But eventually, it gets easier!

12. Conclusion: Walking Towards Obedience
The goal of discipleship: to do whatever you want because that will be exactly what God wants too! (Dallas Willard)
An Exercise:
In what area of life do you fight the hardest to get your way?
Might God be calling you to release something, to give up or 'deny' your own preferences or desires in order to serve the other, or benefit a community that you are a part of?
Let’s pray.