In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: Did you know that if you start obeying God your life's going to get exciting? When you start obeying God in little things, you're going to find yourself taking risks. Now watch this. Is it really a risk to obey God if you're obeying omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence? Absolutely not. It may appear and feel like a risk and you may think, "Oh God, I know this is what you're saying and Lord, I'm just going to be honest, God, I'm a little fearful of this." Well, that's okay. He understands that.

Guest (Male): As you think about what's ahead, are you dreading what God might tell you to do? Today's edition of In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, wraps up our series on obedience by reminding us of the reward that awaits for those who choose to say yes to God. Face the unknown with new hope as you hear how to experience the thrill of obedience. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: If you will listen to this message, I'm going to say one thing over and over and over again on purpose. If you'll just get it, I guarantee you something will happen in your life. Something will happen about your attitude about the Christian life. Something will happen about the way God works in your life.

Something will happen about the way you begin to relate to Jesus Christ. Something will happen to your life in such a fashion you will not want to go back to your old lifestyle, to the way that you've been living your life. And so, these are simple principles, but they can change your life if you're wise enough to listen carefully and to apply them.

And the first principle I want you to jot down here, something that is certainly a lesson worthy of learning is this: that obeying God in small matters, obeying God in small matters is an essential step to God's thrilling rewards. God never tells you and me to do anything that is unimportant. It may be insignificant in my thinking. It may be one of many things God may have said during the day.

God does not speak in insignificant ways, nor does he speak with insignificant information, nor does he give us insignificant commands. Whatever God tells us to do, he has a purpose in mind. Every decision is significant in God's eyes. So, therefore, one of the most essential things we have to remember is this: obeying God in small matters is indeed a very essential step if we're going to reap the best rewards that he has for us.

The second principle I want you to notice here is this: that our obedience will usually prove beneficial to other people. If you obey God and God does something in your life, he blesses you, it sends an absolutely undeniable message that God is real. God works. God loves us. He works in our life. He wants the best for us and when we obey him, we're going to have significant blessings.

Somebody says, "But now wait a minute. What about those hard times I go through? What about those difficult times I go through? What about the pain and the suffering and the hurt we go through? How can the world look at us then and say, 'How can you call that a blessing?'"

Because when you and I come through it, and we come through it victoriously, and we come through it rejoicing in our heart, and we begin to tell them what we've learned and how God has blessed us and strengthened us and enabled us. And they see how God has enabled you and strengthened you and helped you to overcome. I'm here to tell you, you send them a message that impacts their heart for good.

It sends a message that impacts their heart, changes their attitude. They begin to understand this God whom you and I serve is a living true God who will enable us in those difficult times in our life. Very, very significant. Very important that you and I obey him because we're going to make an impression on somebody else's life.

The third principle I want you to think about is obeying God may require us to do those things that seem to be unreasonable. When somebody says, "God told me to quit my job and move to so-and-so." You can't afford to do that. "I know somehow just know that's what he's told me to do. I don't know what to do. That's what he said to do." You better do what he said to do.

You just remember this. Every time God tells you and me to obey him, he knows a world of stuff you and I don't know. He knows the end result every single time. He knows exactly what's going to happen. Listen, that is omniscience speaking to us, telling us to do what seems to be unreasonable.

This is omnipotence telling us to do this because he's going to enable us to do it. This is unconditional love telling us to do this because he's expressing love to us by telling us to do it. His guidance is perfect guidance. His blessings are perfectly suited for us.

And he knows that one of the best ways to grow you and me up and the best way to strengthen our faith is to give us those little tests over and over and over again and watch us respond. And when you make it your lifestyle to obey those little things that God tells you to do, when the big decisions come up, that won't even be an issue because you have been in the habit of obeying God in little things.

You will jump to the big thing because you have already learned the thrill of obedience to God, walking in his way, doing what he would have you to do. And so, what appears to be insignificant is not insignificant. When we obey him, we bless other people. When God begins to work in our life, he will require of us things that seem to be insignificant.

Number four, obeying God will never prove to be disappointing. Obeying God will never prove to be disappointing. Think about this for a moment. When you think about what happened in Peter's life. He said, "All right, okay, you can borrow the boat as a pulpit." And then he said to him, "Let's go fishing."

Watch this. Peter was certain, I believe in his heart, that he was going out for the second empty trip in a row. But what an awesome surprise. You know what? You and I can't disappoint God. Watch this now. You and I can't disappoint God because to disappoint somebody you have to have expectations.

Secondly, God can't disappoint us. It's not even his nature to disappoint us. Now, sometimes things may not work out the way I expect at that moment. But here's what I've discovered and I've been a Christian over 50 years. I may not see or experience the blessing right then.

But I can look back in my life over and over and over again and say, "Lord, my, my, my, was that wisdom on your part? Thank you, dear God, for shoving me into obedience. Thank you for just letting me get in the center of your will. Thank you, thank you, you didn't let me do it my way." I'll tell you one thing. Hindsight is absolutely fantastic when it comes to looking at what God's done in your life because he doesn't promise to give me the reward immediately.

There'd be no test of my faith if I know if I do this today, look what I'm going to get tomorrow. Secondly, you don't know what the blessing's going to be oftentimes. We don't know how we're going to be rewarded. And I believe with all of my heart that a great part of God's reward for those apparently insignificant things is what he's doing.

He is preparing us for another test, preparing us for another challenge in order that what? The big blessing, the big reward, whatever it is out there in your life that he has for you. What is he doing? Those little things are stepping stones to get us ready. So part of the reward is what we learn. And so when these things seem to be unreasonable, what is he doing? He's testing us.

Not only that, he's growing us up. He's growing up our faith. So part of the blessing is that every time we obey him, what we've done is we've trusted him again, trusted him again, trusted him again. And so what does he do? He blesses us and we see oftentimes more than not, we see how he rewards us and how he works out the minute details of our life as a result of obeying him. It is very important we obey him in little things and I'm telling you, you won't be disappointed. You can't disappoint him and he won't disappoint you.

Well, let's look at another principle. Number five, and that is obeying God allows him to demonstrate his power in our life. Listen to what happened. Simon answered and said, "Master, worked hard all night, caught nothing, but at your bidding I'll let down the nets." When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, their nets began to break, they had to call their friends, they had two boatloads.

And what happened? The scripture says he fell upon his face and said, "Oh Lord, I am a sinful man." Allows God to demonstrate his power. Now, I think about people who live their life in this way and I'm not being critical. God knows I'm not. I think there are people who get in ruts in life. And you know what a rut is? A rut is a grave with both ends knocked out. That's what a rut is.

And people get in a rut. They do the same thing every day. They don't want any change in their life. They're not willing to take risks in their life. They just do this. All their security is wrapped up in doing the same thing five days a week, six days, seven days, and that's the way they live their life. Did you know that if you start obeying God your life's going to get exciting?

When you start obeying God in little things, you're going to find yourself taking risks. Now watch this. Is it really a risk to obey God if you're obeying omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence? Absolutely not. It may appear and feel like a risk and you may think, "Oh God, I know this is what you're saying and Lord, I'm just going to be honest, God, I'm a little fearful of this." Well, that's okay. He understands that.

It's all right to sense fear at times when it's a big challenge and you can't quite figure out and in fact things are looking a little threatening here. But you know what? Remember, remember who you're dealing with. You're dealing with omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. Friend, you can't beat that anywhere on the planet.

When you're obeying omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, you have God's sovereign power. You've got his sovereign power, listen, with you and you have his absolute unlimited, infinite wisdom directing you. You cannot lose. There's no way to lose. He has your particular life personally, individually. He has it mapped out. He wants the best for you.

There's not going to be any disappointments with him. And not only that, not only are there not going to be any disappointments with him, he's going to demonstrate his power in your life if you let him do it. But you see, when I back off for safety, what I've done is I have deprived God of demonstrating his awesome power in my life. Now, I'll give you a simple illustration.

When people say, "I just don't have time to read the Bible and pray every morning." What you're saying is, "God, you're not smart enough to guide my schedule during the day so that the time I spend with you will multiply my time." Listen, the greatest multiplier of time on the face of this earth, the greatest multiplier of time is not a notebook.

It's not a seminar. It's not some management program. It is time you spend on your knees before almighty God in his word. Spending time listening to him will energize you for the day. Listen, he will guide your schedule. He will keep things out. He will put things in.

He will make your days more profitable. He will make your days more fruitful because he is almighty God, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent in your life and he has your best interest at heart. You cannot lose obeying God and it's foolish to disobey him.

And so when we so govern our lives and leave him out and say, "Well, Lord, I would like to do that but I just don't seem to have time." The apostle Peter could have said, "Well, Lord, I'd like to go fishing but I've got other things to do today and therefore I can't do it." So what happens? We cheat God out of the privilege of demonstrating his awesome power in our lives.

Well, look at another principle. That is obeying God always results in a deeper understanding of ourselves and of himself. When you and I begin to obey God in little things, here's what happens. We begin to see how very interested God is in little things in our life. We begin to see his expressions of love. And I can tell you in my own personal life, there's not a day goes by that I'm not thanking him for this and thanking him for that.

And thanking him for the other because I hope he has taught me to look for the evidence of his fingerprint, his handprint, his footprint pointing in directions of my life and blessing me here and answering this and doing this and doing that. Things I didn't even ask him about. A believer should live their life in such a relationship with him that it's a continuous thanksgiving and praise.

Thank you, Lord. Not just give me this, give me that. Oh God, what about this? What about? We're going to have some of those, but you know what? When obedience becomes your lifestyle, you're going to find yourself thanking him over and over and over. Now think about this. Usually it's when some threat comes and we come through it that we say, "Oh, thank you, Jesus."

But what about waking up tomorrow morning to a beautiful sunshiny day and feeling good? Do you stop before you get in bed and say, "Thank you, Lord. You awakened me this morning. I just want to thank you that you're in charge of my life. Thank you that you're going to guide me all day. Thank you for giving me the desire to be obedient to you, to walk in your will and do the things that please and honor you."

God is so willing to bless us. And you know what? The more you and I show our gratitude toward him, the more he shows us the way to make these wise decisions in our life. Obeying him, we're going to begin to understand ourselves. We're going to understand where we're weak. We're going to understand the kind of things that cause us to doubt. We're going to understand where our strengths lie.

And we're going to understand oftentimes what area of our life he wants to work on. He wants to work on the weak areas so that you and I are not walking around like this as Christians. We look pretty good over here; we're not doing too good over here. He wants us balanced in our life and he wants every aspect of our life balanced. Whether it is in our giving, whether it is in our trusting, whether it's in our relationship to others, whatever it might be, he wants us to walk a balanced life. And what does he do? He works in those areas in which we are not so balanced.

Well, let me give you one last principle here as I think about his life and how Peter responded to what Jesus said. When I think about that, I think about obeying God in small matters can result in dramatic changes in our life. Look what happened to Peter. Here he was a fisherman. The next thing you know, he's pushing out and letting Jesus have his boat as a pulpit.

Next thing you know, he's out here fishing and he has seen the most absolutely miraculous, unbelievable thing in his life. When you wouldn't normally catch fish, his boat is sinking with them. Have you ever felt so blessed by God you thought you couldn't handle it? Can you imagine what Peter thought? His boat's sinking. Now usually a sinking boat's a bad sign. This one was a great sign. I mean, the fish are falling out of this thing, it's so full.

Look at the dramatic change in his life. Watch this now. And you see, I'd like to just open every teenager's head, cut off the top, pour this in, screw it back down so it can never get out. If you will learn the lesson of obeying God early in life, he will make the most dramatic changes in your life. One day he's a smelly fisherman, cleaning his nets, cleaning his boat, out fishing, working hard, trying to make a living.

But before the night's over, here's what he heard. "Peter, from now on, you're not going to catch fish. I'm going to teach you how to catch men for the glory of God." Walked away from fishing. He became a follower of Jesus. For the next three years of his life, he lived face to face with this man Jesus Christ who was God walking on the face of the earth. He was one of the three men who were intimate friends with Jesus: Peter, James, and John. He had 12 disciples but three intimates.

And Peter was one of them. He was a key figure in the life of Jesus among those disciples. He walked with him through difficult times, trying times. He had the awesome privilege of being with James and John and Jesus up on the Mount Transfiguration when these two great prophets of God appeared. And there he was in the presence of Jesus and he said, "Listen, let's make a tabernacle here. Let's stay here."

He was the same Peter who was with the Lord Jesus Christ in the garden in the most trying difficult times in his life when Jesus was really having a difficult time facing the cross. Who was there the closest to him? Peter, James, and John. He had his doubting moments. He doubted around the fire, yeah. But how would he ever forget the day that he walked on the water?

Listen, on the day that Jesus said to him, "Push out a little bit." Never did he ever believe that one day he'd be able to be out there on that same sea with no boat under him walking on top of the waves. Suppose he'd have said, "Borrow somebody else's boat." Experience after experience. He was one of those who ran to the empty tomb and looked in and saw that his master who used his boat as a pulpit conquered death.

It was Peter along with those other disciples and followers who watched him ascend into the heavens. It was Peter whom God chose on the day of Pentecost to preach that absolutely awesome sermon in which 3,000 people were saved and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ exploded.

Suppose he'd have said, "Use their boat." Suppose he'd have said, "I'm too busy. I am busy doing what fishermen do, cleaning their nets and you don't wait all day to clean this junk off these nets. You clean them now." He said, "Nevertheless, at thy will, at your bidding, I'm going to do what you say do."

Now remember this. You will never, never, never, never, never lose obeying God. You will never, never, never, never, never win by disobeying God. That is a biblical, eternal, unchangeable, irrevocable fact and truth. And that being true, would you not agree the wisest thing you can do is to obey our Lord? Do you want God's best? Then do the next thing that you know is an act of obedience to Jesus Christ. And my friend, you will set yourself on the path to enjoy the best that God has, which he prepared beforehand before you were ever born as he planned his purpose and his will and his place for your life. You want his best? Trust him and obey him and you get it.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Are you committed to doing today the thing that obedience requires of you? Whatever that is, choose to say yes and God will reward your faith in him. To hear today's message again, click "Today on Radio" at intouch.org. And that's where you can find many free resources on our website. They can help you understand more about discovering what God wants you to do.

And you can connect to our online bookstore to order a copy of today's complete message, "The Thrill of Obedience," or order our teaching set, "The Joy of Obedience." Again, you'll find these resources at intouch.org. And you can also call or text us at 1-800-INTOUCH. To write to us, address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. The advice of others is sometimes faulty, but the Holy Spirit's direction will always be aligned with God's word. 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.

Guest (Male): 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 Experiencing God's Rest in an Anxious Age." Visit intouch.org/peaceful.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Let your time and your schedule and everything about you revolve around this: that you and I are to develop and continue to develop this ongoing, intimate, wonderful, exciting, satisfying, indescribable, wonderful, incomparable relationship with a personal God.

Guest (Male): Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to helping us get closer to Jesus, as we all want to do. You can learn how at charlesstanleyinstitute.org. You're listening to In Touch. The Holy Spirit helps believers discern God's will and you can be sure that his direction will never contradict scripture. Here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: You and I have a guide. The Bible says that Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, "He will guide you into all truth." Now listen, the Spirit of God living on the inside of you and me. What is one of his responsibilities? Guidance and direction and comfort and faith and all the rest. So what happens? God speaks to us through his Spirit. And this is the way he speaks.

When you and I are listening to him, let's say for example that we are walking in his will and listening to him. When he wants to give us a sense of direction, he will strongly impress our spirit so that we just know we've heard from God. There is a strong impression of the Spirit. Now listen carefully. The Spirit of God will never say anything to you and to me that contradicts this word under any condition. Never. It won't contradict the word. And so if somebody says, "The Spirit just said so-and-so to me." What you have to ask is, "Does that coincide with the scriptures?" If it doesn't, forget it.

Guest (Male): At intouch.org you'll find many resources that can help you know how to follow Jesus more closely. Tomorrow on In Touch: Why did Jesus have to die? Dr. Stanley's message answers that pivotal question next time on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on the station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.