00:00:00
S1: Have we quietly shrunk God down to a pocket sized emergency contact? Mark Job challenges us to regain the awe of who God really is today on bold steps.
00:00:11
S2: When you understand the awe of God, it will lead you to want to obey God, worship God, live for God, follow God. It'll cause you. When you're living outside of God, to want to get right with God. That is the awe of God. And the Bible tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
00:00:43
S1: Welcome to Bold Steps with pastor Mark Jobe, founding pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, we're picking back up in our message titled How to Approach God. And today, Mark is going to challenge us on two fronts how quickly we obey God when he speaks and whether we've quietly shrunk him down to something far smaller than he really is. Before we get started, though, let me remind you the place to go in case you ever miss one of these messages is our website, Bold steps.org. Now let's get right back into the message how to approach God.
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S2: You know, it's hard to be a good listener, isn't it? How many of you struggle with being a good listener? How many of you while while your spouse is talking, you're already thinking you're putting together what you want to say and you start to say what you want to say before they're done saying what they want to say. And they have to tell you quite a few times, hold on, hold on. Let me finish. Hold on, hold on, let me. I have to acknowledge sometimes in our conversation, I have to be told that because I want to interject. Hold on. Let me finish. Because sometimes we're not good listeners. We want to express our opinion. We want to tell you our thoughts. We want to. But when it comes to God, let me tell you, God is in heaven. You are on earth. The one that knows it, the one that has the right to speak is God. And sometimes we don't approach it that way. In fact, if I were to ask how many of you today, as you walked into this building, in this place, in this time of worship, how many of you actually said, God, I want to stop. I want to pause. Speak to me, God. There's something powerful about that, something compelling about listening for the voice of God. Solomon is trying to tell us that a lot of people miss it because they're too busy with the clutter of their mind, too busy with the conversation of their lips, too busy checking the box of rituals of worship, and not spending enough time stopping, pausing and listening to the voice of God. You know, God seldom shouts to make himself heard, he whispers quietly. So we'll draw close in here. I love the story in First Kings, where Elijah, he ends up in a cave and there's an earthquake and there's fire and there's, um, there's a wind like a tornado, all these things that would get your attention, that are loud, that are powerful, that you think God would be in them. And it said, and God was not in it. And then the quiet, gentle whisper. And God was in the whisper. Can I tell you something? I believe that God is whispering to people today. The problem is, when you're talking, you can't hear a whisper. When you're loud, you can't hear a whisper. When your mind is preoccupied, you can't hear the whisper of God. And so I'm. I can guarantee you that the God of the universe that designs you, made you prepared. You known your story. He. He's known you since you were small. He knows the inside of your heart. He knows your heart, your attitudes, what you struggle with, what you cried about last week, what you laughed about. He knows your insecurities. He knows your fears. He knows your hopes. He knows your dreams. That God of the universe that knows you better than anybody else. He is continually seeking to speak to you. The problem is very few people pause to listen. And Solomon is telling us as we go to worship, that that needs to be the question of our heart, God, how can I pause and listen to you? A.W. Tozer, a pastor here in Chicago, wrote quite a few books. He said, Listening to God begins when we stop listening to ourselves. Solomon is telling us that one of the biggest mistakes that we make in approaching God is that we don't turn up his volume and turn down our volume. You know, recently I was driving to a place with my wife in the car, and I had my GPS on. I had Waze on with the volume on, but it was low. And so it's supposed to tell you take a left turn and, you know, 900ft, take a right turn. By the way, you can choose the accent. Take a right turn in the hay. I said take a right turn. You choose. You could choose whatever accent you wanted to have. But the volume was low. And so I, I was talking to my wife and I was looking at the traffic and we were. And I missed my turn. And I looked down at the GPS and listen. The GPS was not malfunctioning. The GPS was correct. It was giving me guidance. The problem was I was being too loud to hear what the GPS had to say, because the voice of the GPS was lower than my conversation and my voice. That's the way it is with God. So many times God is trying to whisper to us, but we cannot hear him because of the noise in our head, the words in our mouth, the busyness of our soul, the congestion of our lives that we don't pause to hear the voice of God. The Living Bible translates this verse this way just as being too busy gives you nightmares. So being a fool makes you a blabber mouth. I kind of like that translation. So first of all, we need to pause and listen as we approach God. Secondly, listening is where worship starts. But it can't stop there. Hearing the truth means that we have to act on it. We have to do something about what we hear. And so the second point is we need to be quick to obey. In verse four, Solomon says, when you vow a vow before God, do not delay in paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what? Pay what you vowed. It is better that you should. You should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let your mouth lead, not lead you into sin. And do not say before the messenger. That was a mistake. You know what he's telling us? In the Jewish culture, people would make vows before the Lord, and it was important that they would hold their vows. They would come in the temple. They would make a vow. God, I will do this. I will do this in your name, or I will. I commit to give this and commit to this. So they would make, uh, they would be they would listen to God. They would make a vow before the Lord. And we have a lot of examples of that in the Old Testament where people would make a vow before the Lord and God takes those vows super seriously. What Solomon is telling us is when you hear God and listen to God and choose to make a decision, you need to follow through on that decision. Delayed obedience. Is disobedience. You know, I run into a lot of people that they camouflage their disobedience with procrastination. Oh, pastor, I I'm going to do it. You know, I've known you for about five years. You've been doing you've been saying you're going to do it ever since I knew you. So when you say I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. You check off the box, like if you've done it, but really, you haven't done it. Really? You're walking in disobedience. So what Solomon tells us is if you say you're going to do something before God, then you need to do it quickly. Obedience needs to be soon, quick, fast. Let me tell you why I believe that the voice of the Spirit of God is compelling and strong, and he speaks to us. But the Bible tells us that when God speaks to us and we resist obedience, that that voice starts to diminish in volume. It sounds strong and compelling in the beginning, but the more we resist, the more numb and harder our heart becomes. So that after a while of hearing his voice and not doing something, the voice gets smaller and smaller and quieter and quieter. The Bible calls it a seared conscience. We live long enough a certain way. We stop being convicted about it. We stop feeling compelled about it, and now we barely hear the volume of God's voice speaking into it. You say, well, pastor. Yeah, I thought it was. I felt it strongly. I knew I had obeyed, but, you know, now I don't feel it as strongly. I wonder why. Can I tell you when God has convicted you about something, the Holy Spirit. If you're new to Christianity, you need to understand this, that you are not to live your Christianity in your own power. God has given you something. Someone called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a third person of the Godhead. Jesus said, I have to leave so that the Holy Spirit could come. The Holy Spirit. The moment that you surrender your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells inside of your body. It's God within you. He's your coach, your guide, your convict or your prompter, your leader, your. He's the one that that that empowers you to do things. He's the one that convicts you about things. It's God. It's your personal God coach inside of you, leading you, prompting you, guiding you, empowering you. You can grieve the spirit. You can be led by the spirit. You can be empowered by the spirit. But if you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you. But the Bible says that you can grieve the spirit. How do you grieve the spirit when you're walking in delayed obedience? You know that there's something you need to do. You said yes to God already about it, but you just don't do it. That's disobedience. Uh, you know, I when my children were small, my wife would say, hey, clean your room, go up two hours later, mom, I'm going to, I'm going to. How many of you have heard that? I'm going to, I'm going to. But it's not done. I'm going to. After a while, if there's not done, it's no longer no, no, you're not going to. You have to. And this is when you need to do it. And these are the consequences because I'm going to isn't enough. That's disobedience. The Bible says in James that when we look at the Word of God, it's like a mirror. It shows us what's wrong about ourselves. And sometimes we look at the mirror and we walk away and do nothing about it, even though it's exposed things about us. You look at the mirror and you see a piece of hair just popping up there. You say, oh, that's bad, makes it look bad. I better deal with it before I go to work. And you walk away and do nothing. Never happens to me. But. Some of us are about the Bible that way. You're in church or you're reading the word, you're convicted about it. You say, I need to do something about it, but you walk away and do nothing. That's delayed obedience. That's really disobedience. That causes you to stop hearing the voice of God as loud as it needs to be in your life, and ultimately you stop hearing the voice of God. After a while.
00:13:11
S1: We're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Before we get to the rest of today's message, I want to make sure you know about a few of the ways you can stay connected with bold steps anytime and anywhere. Download the free Bold Steps app to access hundreds of messages from Mark Jobe, plus daily devotionals and prayer resources. You can also subscribe to the Bold Steps podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Perfect for your commute or workout. And if you enjoy video content, check out our two YouTube channels. Mark's main channel, Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, features short clips, behind the scenes content, and extended teaching videos. And then, if you're looking for our full radio programs, check out Bold Steps with Mark Jobe programs on YouTube. Both channels are great ways to stay connected and share bold steps, content with others. Now let's get back to today's message. Here's Mark continuing how to approach God.
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S2: You know what God delights in? God delights in prompt obedience. Let me give you a story. I don't know if he's here in this service or not, but, uh, one of our brothers a couple of weeks ago, I think it was about two weeks ago. I saw him during small group time on Tuesday, and he came up to me and said, pastor, I just want you to know that I have those 21 days of prayer changed my life. I was a prodigal. I wasn't doing well, but I decided I'm going to follow God, and God brought me back. I was at all the prayer times. God has stirred my heart. I'm ready to follow him 100% now and I just want to, he says. I'm all in now. I said, Praise God, brother, and I'm I'm glad. And I said, are you married? He said, no, but I do have two kids and and a fiance. I said, are you living together? He said, yes, but we're couching it. You know what couching means? Okay. Just in case. Kind of Christian lingo for we're living together but not having sex together right now. That's just couching it. He said we're couching it. And I said, brother, you just need to get married soon. Fast. You got two kids. You've been together several years, and you said I needed to hear that word, brother. I needed to hear that I. This was Tuesday. I saw him on Sunday. He came up to me on Sunday. He said, brother, I want to show you something. He showed me a picture and it was him and his fiance getting married on Saturday. So they got married that Saturday. Now that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about prompt obedience. And he came up to me and said, brother, after you talk to me, I knew it was the Holy Spirit telling me, stop waiting for the ideal wedding. Stop waiting for the big wedding. You just need to act in obedience. And he said, I act in obedience and I'm really happy that I did that. That's prompt obedience. And I want to say, when the Spirit of God deals with you, listen, if, if, if two years ago the Holy Spirit convicted you about smoking weed every weekend to relax yourself, and you decided, I'm going to trash it, I'm going to flush it down the toilet. I'm done with that. And you're still doing that saying, well, pastor, I'm waiting till things calm down at my work. No, that's disobedience, not delayed obedience. Are you hearing me? If three years ago you you got convicted about cohabitation, about living with your boyfriend girlfriend, and you got convicted and you say, I need to move out or get married. You got convicted about and you're still doing it. Listen, we're waiting for the right time, pastor. No, no, no. That's disobedience, not delayed obedience. You need to do something about it. If a year ago you got convicted that you needed to tell someone you're forgiving them and have that conversation, you said, God, I'm going to do it. And you still haven't had that conversation. Let me tell you, you're walking in disobedience today because God convicted you about it. You said you're going to do something about it. You determined you're going to do something about it, and yet you have delayed doing something about it. That's disobedience. You say, well, pastor, I'm waiting for the feeling to get stronger. No, no, no, it's going to get weaker with time because the more God tells you, the less you obey than the quieter his voice becomes inside of your head. The Bible calls us to walk in obedience and to walk in a quick obedience to respond to the Spirit of God quickly. Today the Bible says in Hebrews chapter three today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Today, if you hear his voice, respond to him and do not harden your hearts. Hey, if you were thinking about baptism and it's been four years that you've been thinking about baptism, you know you need to do it. You just. I'm waiting for the right time and I don't feel like I'm hey, I don't feel like I'm worthy. Then you got a wrong idea. Jesus Christ has made you worthy. He paid the price, washed you, cleansed you. He's changed you. If you've repented and are ready to get baptized, then you need to get baptized in Jesus name. So he tells us in this passage, I want you to be quick to obey. Let your mouth not lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger. That was my mistake. So don't start to backtrack out of the steps of obedience that you know that God has called you to take in Jesus name. And then lastly, number three, not only do we need to pause and listen to the voice of God when we've heard the voice of God, be willing to act on it in quick obedience to what God tells us to do. But number three, he reminds us not to lose our reverent awe of God. He says in verse six, why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? This is someone that's in the house of God, but is occupied and busy and doing things without meaning, and not listening and not obeying. He says, why? Why should God be angry with you? For when dreams increase and words grow, many. There is vanity. When dreams increase, it means you have a lot of ideas. You have a lot of thoughts going on in your head and there's a lot of talk. Hello. Stop with so many ideas. Stop with so much talk. Listen and obey. Start following through. Start saying yes to God. And this is what he says. And he. He says this. Listen. But God is the one. You must fear that word. Fear. There is not about this cringing. Terrified before God. It's about a reverent awe of God. You know, we live in a society in which God has been shrunk. You remember that movie years ago called honey, I Shrunk the Kids? We could say, honey, I Shrunk God. We live in a society in which we have. We have tamed and shrunk God to a manageable size for us. Romans chapter one says, we've made a God in our own image. We've. We've taken the God of the universe, the powerful, awesome God, and we have shrunk him so that he is convenient. We put him in our pocket when we want to do our thing. Party on the weekends. Pop the pills. Get angry. Do whatever we want to do. And then. Then we take them out when we go to the doctor. Lord, you know me. I've. I've been to church and you know I'm one of yours. This is a bad report. This is, um. You know, Lord, I pray for a good. Then we put him back in our pocket. We keep him down there. We don't let it affect our lifestyle, how we do, who we hang with, what we do. And then when we want a job, that promotion, we pull them out and say, God, remember me, man. I'm one of yours. I, I really need you. Come on. Jesus. Can I just tell him he's not Jesus? Can I just tell him he's King of kings and Lord of lords? He's the awesome God with no beginning and with no end. He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the omnipotent, omniscient, holy God of the universe. He is awesome in power and might. He is infinite and holiness, full of compassion, faithful. He knows all things. The. The theological word for him is he's immutable, which means he never changes because he's always perfect and he cannot improve on perfection. That God. We should stand in reverent awe of. You know, they tell us, tour guides tell us that when people see the Grand Canyon for the first time, especially from certain angles, that they're talking and chatting, but when they walk up to it, they all get quiet and go, wow! That's how it is with our God. When you understand the grandeur, the holiness, the power, the magnificence, the the unblemished ness of God, how the angels, uh, call out before him. Holy and holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The Bible says that us in our finite human being cannot stand before his holiness without being consumed. This mighty, omnipotent, powerful God. He's the God that we should stand in awe before. And when we come into a place of worship, it shouldn't be like, yeah, let's worship God. You know, like this. You know, we stand before God and it should cause us to say, you are an awesome God. We stand in awe of you. When we read the Bible, we should not just read it casually because we stand in awe. The God of the universe. We want to align our life according to his will. We want the designer of our soul to tell us how to live our lives. We live with a reverent fear of God, with a reverent worship of God, with an expectation that he's everywhere, all the time coaching us, guiding us, empowering us. When you understand the awe of God who will lead you to want to obey God, worship God, live for God, follow God. It'll cause you. When you're living outside of God, to want to get right with God. That is the awe of God. And the Bible tells us. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And this is not a fear as in I'm afraid of punishment, but this is a fear as in God. You are an awesome, amazing, omnipotent God. So I'm wondering if some of you, God has spoken to your heart today. You've allowed the image of God to be downsized. Or maybe you've been living with a pocket sized view of God, a God that you pull out of your pocket when you need him. A god that sort of subject to you. A God that you use when you're in trouble. Hey, that's not the God that we serve. He's high and lifted up. And so some of us need to regain the awe of God. You gain it through worship. You gain it through the Word of God. You gain it through remembering how finite we are. And I'm going to pray for some of you right now, that you would enter in a new chapter where the awe of God will be revealed to you in a fresh, new, powerful way. Father, I pray for that person that has allowed their view of you to be diminished and their view of themselves to grow. God, I'm praying for that person who has allowed themselves to become the center of their universe, as opposed to seeing how great and awesome and big you are. I pray God that you would restore afresh. Or I pray God that you would, um, like Isaiah had a fresh vision of your grandeur that you would, uh, allow some individuals to have a fresh encounter with your magnificence, with your power, with your amazing presence. God. And I pray in that new awe that there would be a new fear of you, a new reverence, and a new desire to obey and worship you God. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
00:26:22
S1: Amen. Thank you Mark. You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, the end of a lesson titled How to Approach God. You know, if today's message stirred something in you, if you walked away wanting to take God more seriously and stop shrinking him down to fit your own comfort, we want to put a resource in your hands that will help you keep walking in that direction. It's this month's Bold Step gift, a book called The Church in Babylon. Heeding the Call to Be a light in the Darkness, by Doctor Erwin Lutzer. It's true that our culture is changing fast, and a lot of us feel like exiles in our own country. Not quite sure how to hold on to our faith when everything around us seems to be shifting. Doctor Lutzer takes us back to the Old Testament story of God's people living in Babylon, exiled in a pagan culture that didn't share their values. And he shows us step by step how they stayed faithful. This isn't a book about giving up or hiding out. It's a book about how to shine right where God has placed you. No matter how dark it gets around you. If you want to be equipped, encouraged, and ready for whatever comes next, request your copy of The Church in Babylon today with a gift of any amount to bold steps. Just go online to bold steps.org or call us at 800. D.L. Moody, that's (800) 356-6639. You can also send your gift through the mail by writing to us at Bold Steps, 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 606 ten. And if this ministry has made a difference in your life, we invite you to step up and help make a difference in someone else's life in the same manner by becoming a monthly bold partner. because it's your steady monthly support that keeps this program going, bringing the life changing truth of God's Word to new listeners wherever we can find them. And for a gift of $30 or more each month, you'll also receive a signed copy of Mark's book, Unstuck Out of Your Cave Into Your Call, an exclusive bi weekly email from Mark, and a 50% discount on all Moody publishers resources. It's one of the best ways to make sure this ministry keeps reaching new listeners in your community and around the world. Sign up today at bold steps.org or call 800 D l Moody. I'm Wayne Shepherd. That's our time for now. But tomorrow, Mark will help us learn how to find God in the middle of our drama. So join us Friday here on Bold Steps with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of the Moody Bible Institute.
S1: Have we quietly shrunk God down to a pocket sized emergency contact? Mark Job challenges us to regain the awe of who God really is today on bold steps.
00:00:11
S2: When you understand the awe of God, it will lead you to want to obey God, worship God, live for God, follow God. It'll cause you. When you're living outside of God, to want to get right with God. That is the awe of God. And the Bible tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
00:00:43
S1: Welcome to Bold Steps with pastor Mark Jobe, founding pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, we're picking back up in our message titled How to Approach God. And today, Mark is going to challenge us on two fronts how quickly we obey God when he speaks and whether we've quietly shrunk him down to something far smaller than he really is. Before we get started, though, let me remind you the place to go in case you ever miss one of these messages is our website, Bold steps.org. Now let's get right back into the message how to approach God.
00:01:18
S2: You know, it's hard to be a good listener, isn't it? How many of you struggle with being a good listener? How many of you while while your spouse is talking, you're already thinking you're putting together what you want to say and you start to say what you want to say before they're done saying what they want to say. And they have to tell you quite a few times, hold on, hold on. Let me finish. Hold on, hold on, let me. I have to acknowledge sometimes in our conversation, I have to be told that because I want to interject. Hold on. Let me finish. Because sometimes we're not good listeners. We want to express our opinion. We want to tell you our thoughts. We want to. But when it comes to God, let me tell you, God is in heaven. You are on earth. The one that knows it, the one that has the right to speak is God. And sometimes we don't approach it that way. In fact, if I were to ask how many of you today, as you walked into this building, in this place, in this time of worship, how many of you actually said, God, I want to stop. I want to pause. Speak to me, God. There's something powerful about that, something compelling about listening for the voice of God. Solomon is trying to tell us that a lot of people miss it because they're too busy with the clutter of their mind, too busy with the conversation of their lips, too busy checking the box of rituals of worship, and not spending enough time stopping, pausing and listening to the voice of God. You know, God seldom shouts to make himself heard, he whispers quietly. So we'll draw close in here. I love the story in First Kings, where Elijah, he ends up in a cave and there's an earthquake and there's fire and there's, um, there's a wind like a tornado, all these things that would get your attention, that are loud, that are powerful, that you think God would be in them. And it said, and God was not in it. And then the quiet, gentle whisper. And God was in the whisper. Can I tell you something? I believe that God is whispering to people today. The problem is, when you're talking, you can't hear a whisper. When you're loud, you can't hear a whisper. When your mind is preoccupied, you can't hear the whisper of God. And so I'm. I can guarantee you that the God of the universe that designs you, made you prepared. You known your story. He. He's known you since you were small. He knows the inside of your heart. He knows your heart, your attitudes, what you struggle with, what you cried about last week, what you laughed about. He knows your insecurities. He knows your fears. He knows your hopes. He knows your dreams. That God of the universe that knows you better than anybody else. He is continually seeking to speak to you. The problem is very few people pause to listen. And Solomon is telling us as we go to worship, that that needs to be the question of our heart, God, how can I pause and listen to you? A.W. Tozer, a pastor here in Chicago, wrote quite a few books. He said, Listening to God begins when we stop listening to ourselves. Solomon is telling us that one of the biggest mistakes that we make in approaching God is that we don't turn up his volume and turn down our volume. You know, recently I was driving to a place with my wife in the car, and I had my GPS on. I had Waze on with the volume on, but it was low. And so it's supposed to tell you take a left turn and, you know, 900ft, take a right turn. By the way, you can choose the accent. Take a right turn in the hay. I said take a right turn. You choose. You could choose whatever accent you wanted to have. But the volume was low. And so I, I was talking to my wife and I was looking at the traffic and we were. And I missed my turn. And I looked down at the GPS and listen. The GPS was not malfunctioning. The GPS was correct. It was giving me guidance. The problem was I was being too loud to hear what the GPS had to say, because the voice of the GPS was lower than my conversation and my voice. That's the way it is with God. So many times God is trying to whisper to us, but we cannot hear him because of the noise in our head, the words in our mouth, the busyness of our soul, the congestion of our lives that we don't pause to hear the voice of God. The Living Bible translates this verse this way just as being too busy gives you nightmares. So being a fool makes you a blabber mouth. I kind of like that translation. So first of all, we need to pause and listen as we approach God. Secondly, listening is where worship starts. But it can't stop there. Hearing the truth means that we have to act on it. We have to do something about what we hear. And so the second point is we need to be quick to obey. In verse four, Solomon says, when you vow a vow before God, do not delay in paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what? Pay what you vowed. It is better that you should. You should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let your mouth lead, not lead you into sin. And do not say before the messenger. That was a mistake. You know what he's telling us? In the Jewish culture, people would make vows before the Lord, and it was important that they would hold their vows. They would come in the temple. They would make a vow. God, I will do this. I will do this in your name, or I will. I commit to give this and commit to this. So they would make, uh, they would be they would listen to God. They would make a vow before the Lord. And we have a lot of examples of that in the Old Testament where people would make a vow before the Lord and God takes those vows super seriously. What Solomon is telling us is when you hear God and listen to God and choose to make a decision, you need to follow through on that decision. Delayed obedience. Is disobedience. You know, I run into a lot of people that they camouflage their disobedience with procrastination. Oh, pastor, I I'm going to do it. You know, I've known you for about five years. You've been doing you've been saying you're going to do it ever since I knew you. So when you say I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. You check off the box, like if you've done it, but really, you haven't done it. Really? You're walking in disobedience. So what Solomon tells us is if you say you're going to do something before God, then you need to do it quickly. Obedience needs to be soon, quick, fast. Let me tell you why I believe that the voice of the Spirit of God is compelling and strong, and he speaks to us. But the Bible tells us that when God speaks to us and we resist obedience, that that voice starts to diminish in volume. It sounds strong and compelling in the beginning, but the more we resist, the more numb and harder our heart becomes. So that after a while of hearing his voice and not doing something, the voice gets smaller and smaller and quieter and quieter. The Bible calls it a seared conscience. We live long enough a certain way. We stop being convicted about it. We stop feeling compelled about it, and now we barely hear the volume of God's voice speaking into it. You say, well, pastor. Yeah, I thought it was. I felt it strongly. I knew I had obeyed, but, you know, now I don't feel it as strongly. I wonder why. Can I tell you when God has convicted you about something, the Holy Spirit. If you're new to Christianity, you need to understand this, that you are not to live your Christianity in your own power. God has given you something. Someone called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a third person of the Godhead. Jesus said, I have to leave so that the Holy Spirit could come. The Holy Spirit. The moment that you surrender your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells inside of your body. It's God within you. He's your coach, your guide, your convict or your prompter, your leader, your. He's the one that that that empowers you to do things. He's the one that convicts you about things. It's God. It's your personal God coach inside of you, leading you, prompting you, guiding you, empowering you. You can grieve the spirit. You can be led by the spirit. You can be empowered by the spirit. But if you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you. But the Bible says that you can grieve the spirit. How do you grieve the spirit when you're walking in delayed obedience? You know that there's something you need to do. You said yes to God already about it, but you just don't do it. That's disobedience. Uh, you know, I when my children were small, my wife would say, hey, clean your room, go up two hours later, mom, I'm going to, I'm going to. How many of you have heard that? I'm going to, I'm going to. But it's not done. I'm going to. After a while, if there's not done, it's no longer no, no, you're not going to. You have to. And this is when you need to do it. And these are the consequences because I'm going to isn't enough. That's disobedience. The Bible says in James that when we look at the Word of God, it's like a mirror. It shows us what's wrong about ourselves. And sometimes we look at the mirror and we walk away and do nothing about it, even though it's exposed things about us. You look at the mirror and you see a piece of hair just popping up there. You say, oh, that's bad, makes it look bad. I better deal with it before I go to work. And you walk away and do nothing. Never happens to me. But. Some of us are about the Bible that way. You're in church or you're reading the word, you're convicted about it. You say, I need to do something about it, but you walk away and do nothing. That's delayed obedience. That's really disobedience. That causes you to stop hearing the voice of God as loud as it needs to be in your life, and ultimately you stop hearing the voice of God. After a while.
00:13:11
S1: We're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Before we get to the rest of today's message, I want to make sure you know about a few of the ways you can stay connected with bold steps anytime and anywhere. Download the free Bold Steps app to access hundreds of messages from Mark Jobe, plus daily devotionals and prayer resources. You can also subscribe to the Bold Steps podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Perfect for your commute or workout. And if you enjoy video content, check out our two YouTube channels. Mark's main channel, Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, features short clips, behind the scenes content, and extended teaching videos. And then, if you're looking for our full radio programs, check out Bold Steps with Mark Jobe programs on YouTube. Both channels are great ways to stay connected and share bold steps, content with others. Now let's get back to today's message. Here's Mark continuing how to approach God.
00:14:12
S2: You know what God delights in? God delights in prompt obedience. Let me give you a story. I don't know if he's here in this service or not, but, uh, one of our brothers a couple of weeks ago, I think it was about two weeks ago. I saw him during small group time on Tuesday, and he came up to me and said, pastor, I just want you to know that I have those 21 days of prayer changed my life. I was a prodigal. I wasn't doing well, but I decided I'm going to follow God, and God brought me back. I was at all the prayer times. God has stirred my heart. I'm ready to follow him 100% now and I just want to, he says. I'm all in now. I said, Praise God, brother, and I'm I'm glad. And I said, are you married? He said, no, but I do have two kids and and a fiance. I said, are you living together? He said, yes, but we're couching it. You know what couching means? Okay. Just in case. Kind of Christian lingo for we're living together but not having sex together right now. That's just couching it. He said we're couching it. And I said, brother, you just need to get married soon. Fast. You got two kids. You've been together several years, and you said I needed to hear that word, brother. I needed to hear that I. This was Tuesday. I saw him on Sunday. He came up to me on Sunday. He said, brother, I want to show you something. He showed me a picture and it was him and his fiance getting married on Saturday. So they got married that Saturday. Now that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about prompt obedience. And he came up to me and said, brother, after you talk to me, I knew it was the Holy Spirit telling me, stop waiting for the ideal wedding. Stop waiting for the big wedding. You just need to act in obedience. And he said, I act in obedience and I'm really happy that I did that. That's prompt obedience. And I want to say, when the Spirit of God deals with you, listen, if, if, if two years ago the Holy Spirit convicted you about smoking weed every weekend to relax yourself, and you decided, I'm going to trash it, I'm going to flush it down the toilet. I'm done with that. And you're still doing that saying, well, pastor, I'm waiting till things calm down at my work. No, that's disobedience, not delayed obedience. Are you hearing me? If three years ago you you got convicted about cohabitation, about living with your boyfriend girlfriend, and you got convicted and you say, I need to move out or get married. You got convicted about and you're still doing it. Listen, we're waiting for the right time, pastor. No, no, no. That's disobedience, not delayed obedience. You need to do something about it. If a year ago you got convicted that you needed to tell someone you're forgiving them and have that conversation, you said, God, I'm going to do it. And you still haven't had that conversation. Let me tell you, you're walking in disobedience today because God convicted you about it. You said you're going to do something about it. You determined you're going to do something about it, and yet you have delayed doing something about it. That's disobedience. You say, well, pastor, I'm waiting for the feeling to get stronger. No, no, no, it's going to get weaker with time because the more God tells you, the less you obey than the quieter his voice becomes inside of your head. The Bible calls us to walk in obedience and to walk in a quick obedience to respond to the Spirit of God quickly. Today the Bible says in Hebrews chapter three today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Today, if you hear his voice, respond to him and do not harden your hearts. Hey, if you were thinking about baptism and it's been four years that you've been thinking about baptism, you know you need to do it. You just. I'm waiting for the right time and I don't feel like I'm hey, I don't feel like I'm worthy. Then you got a wrong idea. Jesus Christ has made you worthy. He paid the price, washed you, cleansed you. He's changed you. If you've repented and are ready to get baptized, then you need to get baptized in Jesus name. So he tells us in this passage, I want you to be quick to obey. Let your mouth not lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger. That was my mistake. So don't start to backtrack out of the steps of obedience that you know that God has called you to take in Jesus name. And then lastly, number three, not only do we need to pause and listen to the voice of God when we've heard the voice of God, be willing to act on it in quick obedience to what God tells us to do. But number three, he reminds us not to lose our reverent awe of God. He says in verse six, why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? This is someone that's in the house of God, but is occupied and busy and doing things without meaning, and not listening and not obeying. He says, why? Why should God be angry with you? For when dreams increase and words grow, many. There is vanity. When dreams increase, it means you have a lot of ideas. You have a lot of thoughts going on in your head and there's a lot of talk. Hello. Stop with so many ideas. Stop with so much talk. Listen and obey. Start following through. Start saying yes to God. And this is what he says. And he. He says this. Listen. But God is the one. You must fear that word. Fear. There is not about this cringing. Terrified before God. It's about a reverent awe of God. You know, we live in a society in which God has been shrunk. You remember that movie years ago called honey, I Shrunk the Kids? We could say, honey, I Shrunk God. We live in a society in which we have. We have tamed and shrunk God to a manageable size for us. Romans chapter one says, we've made a God in our own image. We've. We've taken the God of the universe, the powerful, awesome God, and we have shrunk him so that he is convenient. We put him in our pocket when we want to do our thing. Party on the weekends. Pop the pills. Get angry. Do whatever we want to do. And then. Then we take them out when we go to the doctor. Lord, you know me. I've. I've been to church and you know I'm one of yours. This is a bad report. This is, um. You know, Lord, I pray for a good. Then we put him back in our pocket. We keep him down there. We don't let it affect our lifestyle, how we do, who we hang with, what we do. And then when we want a job, that promotion, we pull them out and say, God, remember me, man. I'm one of yours. I, I really need you. Come on. Jesus. Can I just tell him he's not Jesus? Can I just tell him he's King of kings and Lord of lords? He's the awesome God with no beginning and with no end. He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the omnipotent, omniscient, holy God of the universe. He is awesome in power and might. He is infinite and holiness, full of compassion, faithful. He knows all things. The. The theological word for him is he's immutable, which means he never changes because he's always perfect and he cannot improve on perfection. That God. We should stand in reverent awe of. You know, they tell us, tour guides tell us that when people see the Grand Canyon for the first time, especially from certain angles, that they're talking and chatting, but when they walk up to it, they all get quiet and go, wow! That's how it is with our God. When you understand the grandeur, the holiness, the power, the magnificence, the the unblemished ness of God, how the angels, uh, call out before him. Holy and holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The Bible says that us in our finite human being cannot stand before his holiness without being consumed. This mighty, omnipotent, powerful God. He's the God that we should stand in awe before. And when we come into a place of worship, it shouldn't be like, yeah, let's worship God. You know, like this. You know, we stand before God and it should cause us to say, you are an awesome God. We stand in awe of you. When we read the Bible, we should not just read it casually because we stand in awe. The God of the universe. We want to align our life according to his will. We want the designer of our soul to tell us how to live our lives. We live with a reverent fear of God, with a reverent worship of God, with an expectation that he's everywhere, all the time coaching us, guiding us, empowering us. When you understand the awe of God who will lead you to want to obey God, worship God, live for God, follow God. It'll cause you. When you're living outside of God, to want to get right with God. That is the awe of God. And the Bible tells us. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And this is not a fear as in I'm afraid of punishment, but this is a fear as in God. You are an awesome, amazing, omnipotent God. So I'm wondering if some of you, God has spoken to your heart today. You've allowed the image of God to be downsized. Or maybe you've been living with a pocket sized view of God, a God that you pull out of your pocket when you need him. A god that sort of subject to you. A God that you use when you're in trouble. Hey, that's not the God that we serve. He's high and lifted up. And so some of us need to regain the awe of God. You gain it through worship. You gain it through the Word of God. You gain it through remembering how finite we are. And I'm going to pray for some of you right now, that you would enter in a new chapter where the awe of God will be revealed to you in a fresh, new, powerful way. Father, I pray for that person that has allowed their view of you to be diminished and their view of themselves to grow. God, I'm praying for that person who has allowed themselves to become the center of their universe, as opposed to seeing how great and awesome and big you are. I pray God that you would restore afresh. Or I pray God that you would, um, like Isaiah had a fresh vision of your grandeur that you would, uh, allow some individuals to have a fresh encounter with your magnificence, with your power, with your amazing presence. God. And I pray in that new awe that there would be a new fear of you, a new reverence, and a new desire to obey and worship you God. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
00:26:22
S1: Amen. Thank you Mark. You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, the end of a lesson titled How to Approach God. You know, if today's message stirred something in you, if you walked away wanting to take God more seriously and stop shrinking him down to fit your own comfort, we want to put a resource in your hands that will help you keep walking in that direction. It's this month's Bold Step gift, a book called The Church in Babylon. Heeding the Call to Be a light in the Darkness, by Doctor Erwin Lutzer. It's true that our culture is changing fast, and a lot of us feel like exiles in our own country. Not quite sure how to hold on to our faith when everything around us seems to be shifting. Doctor Lutzer takes us back to the Old Testament story of God's people living in Babylon, exiled in a pagan culture that didn't share their values. And he shows us step by step how they stayed faithful. This isn't a book about giving up or hiding out. It's a book about how to shine right where God has placed you. No matter how dark it gets around you. If you want to be equipped, encouraged, and ready for whatever comes next, request your copy of The Church in Babylon today with a gift of any amount to bold steps. Just go online to bold steps.org or call us at 800. D.L. Moody, that's (800) 356-6639. You can also send your gift through the mail by writing to us at Bold Steps, 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 606 ten. And if this ministry has made a difference in your life, we invite you to step up and help make a difference in someone else's life in the same manner by becoming a monthly bold partner. because it's your steady monthly support that keeps this program going, bringing the life changing truth of God's Word to new listeners wherever we can find them. And for a gift of $30 or more each month, you'll also receive a signed copy of Mark's book, Unstuck Out of Your Cave Into Your Call, an exclusive bi weekly email from Mark, and a 50% discount on all Moody publishers resources. It's one of the best ways to make sure this ministry keeps reaching new listeners in your community and around the world. Sign up today at bold steps.org or call 800 D l Moody. I'm Wayne Shepherd. That's our time for now. But tomorrow, Mark will help us learn how to find God in the middle of our drama. So join us Friday here on Bold Steps with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of the Moody Bible Institute.
