In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: Obeying God's not always easy. But listen, if you live by this principle, you will be blessed all your life, no matter what. Obey God, the sovereign of the universe, the author of love, the giver of every good and perfect gift. If you obey me and leave all the consequences to me, I will take care of your consequences.

And you see, for a person to disobey God, here's what they're saying: I don't like what He wants, I don't want what He wants, or I think I can improve on this, or I'm going to do it my way.

Guest (Male): When life is busy, it's easy to lose your spiritual bearings. And that can make you feel stuck in a constant state of turmoil. But today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, you'll be reminded that God wants us living in His peace consistently. Today's lesson helps with organizing our priorities so we can stay on track. Let's listen in.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Why is it that so many people begin their Christian life very sincerely? They trust the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. They intend to live a Christian life, but somewhere very soon along the way, something happens. Either they get discouraged by something, or they have some personal problems, or maybe something somebody says, maybe old habits that they used to have begin to harass them, or maybe it's just that they didn't quite understand to begin with.

I want you to think about something. You may fall into this category, or you may not. But if you don't, you know somebody who does. Think about this for a moment. When you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you're coming into a whole different world. Because the world in which you and I live and the world of sin and disobedience and all the things that go on is a totally different world and a different way of thinking than when you trust Christ as your Savior.

So, somebody presents you with the Gospel and says to you, you must be willing to ask God to forgive you of your sins based on the fact that Jesus went to the cross, laid down His life voluntarily, willingly, paid the debt that God demanded that had to be done. And so, Jesus was crucified, shed His blood, and that vindicated God's justice that sin must be paid for. And now all of us who are willing to ask Him to forgive us of our sins based on the shedding of His blood, that's the way we become a Christian—not by doing better, not by works.

It has nothing to do with works; it has to do with faith, placing your trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Now, when that happens, the Holy Spirit comes into your life to seal you as a child of God. Your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Forever and ever and ever, you're a child of God. It doesn't mean you'll be perfect. You'll falter at times, you'll sin against Him, you'll have to ask Him to forgive you. And so, the Christian life begins a whole different lifestyle than you're used to.

So think for just a moment, what's this all about? What a shock this is. In fact, Jesus called it being born again. Well, how do you live it out? And most of us were never explained what this Christian life was all about. And you've heard me say it before, but I was saved when I was 12 years of age. And they simply told me—the pastor said, "You grow up and be a good boy, when you die you'll go to heaven." That was the sum total of my instructions.

So, we expect this person to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and begin living a godly life in this world and somehow understanding what this is all about. Most of the time they don't because it was never explained to them. It's a whole different way to think. It's a whole different attitude. It's a whole different perspective on life. Everything changes. That's why He called us new creations created in Christ Jesus.

And so, what happens and why does it happen? Primarily because nobody ever really explains, now that you've trusted Jesus as your Savior, this is the way you walk. And not only that, this is the way you can tell how well you do it. This is sort of a measuring rod. This is a track that you can live by, and in the process, anywhere you are in your Christian life, you can sort of know where you are, how well you're doing.

So, what I want to do in this message is this: I want to give you a track. It's just the track that I know that has worked for me for a long, long time. It was a long time before I ever called it a track. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this is my track. This is what keeps me aware of where I am in my Christian life. So I want to encourage you for just a moment, whatever you hear, the major points of this message, I want to plead with you to write them down.

Because what you'll have when it's over is a godly track, a biblical track, a way to sort of look at yourself and see where you are and what needs to be checked up on. Remember, because when you get off the track, life's not going to work right. Trains aren't going anywhere off the track. The train has to stay on the track. And that track has been designed for that kind of train. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Proverbs chapter three.

In this third chapter of Proverbs, I want to begin with the first verse, but there are two verses primarily that I want us to notice. So Proverbs 3, verse 1: "My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart... let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you." Listen to that. When you and I walk in His will and we are on His track, He says, "Listen, length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you."

"Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man." Now watch these next two verses. In fact, these are my anchor verses in life. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." He will keep you on the track.

So let's think about your Christian life for a few moments. Many of you have been saved a long time; some of you have been saved a short period of time. I don't know where you are in your Christian life, and that's not the issue at this point. Probably you don't know where you are. A lot of you don't, I understand that. If nobody said, "This is how you live the Christian life," if nobody said, "These are the things you need to look for and watch for in the Christian life—joy and peace and happiness and prosperity and blessing and heartache and trouble and trial and difficulty which you go through"—then how do we do it?

So I want to lay down a track. And I'm telling you, I know that it works. God will show you how to apply that to your own life. But the first stage of this track is number one, and that is: schedule prayer and meditation in the Word as the daily priority of your life. If you'll think about some of the Psalms we all memorize at times in our life, and this is one we probably don't realize how very important it is, but Psalm 1, listen to what it says.

"How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers." But look at this. This is the blessed man. This is the way we describe the blessed man: "His delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law He meditates day and night." Well, what will happen? "He'll be like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers."

Look at that promise. But what is he doing? He's meditating upon the Word of God. He's delighting in the law of the Lord day and night. Now, the Bible is very clear here about what He's saying. And that's simply this: that it is very important for a child of God to spend time meditating upon the Word. So what does that mean? That means that you open the Word of God and you begin to read. Let's say you started reading in the first Psalm we just read a few moments ago. To meditate upon that means what? That you read it, that you ask, "What does that mean?"

And you ask yourself the question, "What is that saying to me personally? And how can I do that?" The message here is: if I meditate upon the Word, I'm going to get direction to live my life in such a way that I'm going to be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Plenty of moisture, fruitful all the way through the end of our life. So you begin to meditate upon the Word of God, what happens is the Spirit of God will take the Word of God, drive it into your heart, and do what? Equip you.

Now watch this. When you begin your day in the Word of God, whether it's a short passage like the Psalm 1 or whatever it might be, here's what you're doing. You're asking God, "Lord, since You know all about what I'm going to face today, I want You to speak to me in some fashion. You know what I'm going to face, You know what I'm going to need. And if there's something I'm going to face that's very difficult, I trust that You'll speak to my heart in some way in this passage that will encourage me and prepare me for it."

And what happens is this: you're beginning the day with the Master. You begin—listen, that's your private time between you and God getting you ready to face the day. And why do I know that's important? Because that's exactly the pattern in Jesus' life. In Mark chapter one, the 35th verse says that a great while before day, Jesus was out in the mountain talking to the Father. But I'm simply saying this: this is the way the Christian life should start every day.

And that is with the Father. He knows everything you're going to face, He knows all of your needs. He knows you're going to get hurt, knows you're going to get rejected, knows you're going to get loved on, whatever it might be. And so, this is the way it begins. There is a track. And every single stop on this track you're going to see is very important, very scriptural, very biblical, and very essential to staying on the track.

You can get off track easy. You can get off track by neglect or you can get off track by deliberately, willfully sinning against God. If you're going to live a consistent life and put yourself in a position where God can bless you with His best... there's not anything in the Bible about God blessing anybody with His second best. He wants the very best for His children. So His children must walk the pathway that allows God to be just and holy and at the same time bless us.

So number one: meditating upon the Word of God. Number two, you've heard me say this many, many times. A very essential step on the track. If you're going to stay on the track, it's obey God and leave all the consequences to Him. And it's interesting because obeying God takes courage. Obeying God takes patience. Obeying God takes understanding. But obeying God, being obedient to Him—listen, that's the way you stay on the track.

For example, in the 14th chapter of John, which is one of those precious chapters in Jesus' last days because the next day He's going to be crucified, and chapters 14, 15, and 16 are precious, wonderful chapters because you see Jesus' heart. He's pouring out His heart to His disciples to get them ready for His departure. Watch this carefully, chapter 14 verse 15: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments," which means, "If you love Me, you will obey Me." Verse 15.

Then if you go to verse 21: "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me." If I have the Word of God and I love the Word of God and obey the Word of God, He says, "Then that's evidence you love Me." In the 23rd verse, same chapter, "Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.'" Now, here's what I want you to see. If I should ask you, "Do you love God?" "Why sure." Well, are you obeying Him? "Well, sometimes." Well, that's not love. He says, "If you love Me, you will obey Me."

And watch this: not only if we love him will we obey him, but if we love him, listen, we desire to obey him. Because we understand He has the best for us. There's no way to improve on God's plan. Nobody ever has, it cannot be done. And God has the best plan for your life. And obeying Him and leaving the consequences to Him simply means what? "Lord, I'm going to do what You tell me to do." I don't know how it's going to work out. Sometimes we don't.

"God, it looks like it's going to be painful, looks like it's going to be hurtful, looks like I'm going to get rejected, looks like I'm going to lose in this whole deal. But if this is what You want me to do, I'm going to obey You because I love You." Now obeying God's not always easy. But listen, if you live by this principle, you will be blessed all your life no matter what. Obey God, the sovereign of the universe, the author of love, the giver of every good and perfect gift.

If you love me, He says you will obey me. If you obey me and leave all the consequences to me, I will take care of your consequences. And you see, for a person to disobey God, here's what they're saying: I don't like what He wants, I don't want what He wants, or I think I can improve on this, or I'm going to do it my way. You cannot improve on the best. Obey God, leave all the consequences to Him. Do you realize what that means?

That means you don't have to worry about a lot of things. You say, "Well, if I do thus and so..." You see, you teenagers, you young people, they're going to say, "Yeah, but if I do thus and so, here's what's going to happen." No, if you obey God, God is going to take care of your circumstances. You say, "Well, does that mean He's going to eliminate all the pain and suffering and hurt?" No, indeed. But here's what you can remember: this same sovereign God is the one who says He—watch this—will cause, that means He gets behind it, He causes all things to do what?

To turn out for your good if you love Him and you trust Him and you live for Him. So I can leave all the consequences to Him because here's what He said: God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and, listen, if you love Him you obey Him, called according to His purpose, to those who obey Him. If I love Him, I will obey Him. If I want to stay on track, obedience is the key.

Now, there is a third one here that I want us to look at, and that is to trust God in every circumstance. What did He say in Proverbs 3? He says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." With all your heart. In other words, what you have to decide is: is God trustworthy or is He not? And what you have to decide is: do I believe that God will keep His word? "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean to your own understanding."

In other words, because our understanding and trusting God oftentimes are in conflict. Because He will tell us to do something that from our perspective and our thinking, there is no way for it to work out. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, don't lean to your own understanding." When there's conflict between what God tells you to do and what you see and what you feel, you choose what He says because He knows how to handle your choosing and your feeling.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, don't lean to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him." What does acknowledge mean? It means I recognize He has power, I recognize that He has the privilege and He has the solemn holy right to guide and direct my life. Trust Him with everything, no matter what. Then, there is a fourth and that's simply this. And this is a difficult one. And that is to wait upon the Lord for His direction.

In the 27th Psalm, this is the admonition, and I love the way David said this because this is so much a part of it. He doesn't say just wait on the Lord, but here's what he says: "Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord." Watch this: when God tells you to wait about something, remember this: He's working on the other end of your request. Think about how foolish this is: when almighty God tells you not to do something, who is the almighty God who has all power, all knowledge, all understanding, knows all the details of why He's telling you not to do something...

And He says, "Wait," you say, "Well, I know that's what it says but I'm going to do it anyway." That's a disaster. What you do is you choose—listen, you choose to get off track. Whenever you're off track in your Christian life, you're losing time, you're losing blessing, you're losing something of your intimacy and your relationship to God. You cannot have an intimate relationship with God and be disobedient. He says God acts in behalf of those who wait for Him.

So remember this, watch this carefully: when God tells you to wait on something, what is He doing? He's acting in your behalf. If you were falsely accused of something, you would want, if you had to have a lawyer, you'd want the best to act in your behalf. Here's what He's saying: God acts in behalf... He works at the situation... of those who are willing to wait for His timing, His choices, His price, whatever it might be. He says He acts in behalf of those who wait for Him.

And in the Christian life, there are times when we have to wait. And it's when we refuse to wait for His time and we just barrel it on down the road, going to have our way in our time, there's always, somewhere along the way, there is a disaster.

Guest (Male): You can avoid disaster by learning to wait on, hear from, and obey God. As we heard today on In Touch, God will always give direction to believers who are committed to following Him. We'll wrap up this message tomorrow, but in the meantime, you can study more about how to keep your spiritual bearings at our website, intouch.org, or review what you just heard by following the link to Today on Radio. And if you go to the bookstore page, you can order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, Staying on Track. Our web address again is intouch.org.

Call or text to 1-800-InTouch. If you prefer, you can write to us at In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. You might have a lot of friends, but do you know one you could trust with your life? Today's Moment with Charles Stanley is coming up.

Dr. Charles Stanley: The peace of God is tranquility and quietness of the soul. It is the assurance that no matter what's going on around us, everything is secure. Peace is not determined by circumstances. Neither is it a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. In a world filled with noise and uncertainty, you can discover peace that cannot be shaken. Get your new free booklet, Peaceful and Still: A Guide to Experience God's Rest in an Anxious Age. Visit intouch.org/peaceful.

Guest (Male): In Touch Plus is streaming on Local Now, featuring all the best of Dr. Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: It's important to have strong convictions based on the Word of God. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future.

Guest (Male): In Touch Plus, your streaming network for quality Christian programming 24/7. Now watch this. In Touch Plus, streaming free on Local Now.

You're listening to In Touch. Do you have a best friend? If you're a believer in Jesus, you can. With an illustration from early in his ministry, here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: How many real true friends do you have? Not nearly as many as you think. You have a lot of folks that you have acquaintances with, and you may have sort of levels of friendship that you call true friends, but deep abiding friendships—we don't have many of those in life because it takes time to develop that kind of a deep relationship. To whom are you a real true friend? Do you know what the real qualities of true friendship really are? All of us need deep abiding friendships.

A fellow said to me one day, who is a member of this fellowship, much, much older than I am, in our conversation he remarked that he had a friend with whom he had been intimately acquainted and fellowshiped with every week, sometimes several times a week, for 35 years. When he said that, all of a sudden I had this sinking feeling. I thought, "35 years with the same friend? I've missed something in life."

Now I began to think about my friendships, and then one day it dawned on me that I've had one friend. The Bible says He sticks closer than a brother, and His name is Jesus Christ. And I began to think about, well, let's see if Jesus Christ is really my friend. I know He's my Savior, I know He's my Lord, I know He's my Master, I know He's God. But most of my life, I never looked upon Jesus Christ as being a friend.

But if you'll turn to John chapter 15, you'll see a little different side of the Lord Jesus Christ which all of us need to see and begin to discover what kind of friend Jesus Christ is to all of us. He says in verse 12, "This is My commandment: that you love one another, just as I've loved you. Greater love has no one than this: that one lay down his life for his friends." And you see, if you look to see what Jesus said in the Gospels, He was always instructing others how to relate to other people and how to develop friendships, and He continuously said we are to love each other, which is the basis of real true friendship.

Guest (Male): Jesus loves you, and He's your friend once you receive His gift of love and grace and trust in Him to forgive your sin. Learn more at intouch.org. Did you have an eye-opening experience as you listened to this program? Tell us what you learned today. Tomorrow on In Touch, do you really believe God loves you? Discover how the answer to that question affects your ability to endure difficulty. Join us again Tuesday for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.