Friday April 25, 2014

Read Romans 1:1-5. Romans 16:19, 26

Every successive year more people are traveling the world to the shores of Gallipoli where the ANZAC legend was born. Many cite it as the “spiritual” experience of their lives. Similarly, there are many Christians in the world today looking for an experience or a buzz. Some want a spiritual high. Others want that warm fuzzy feeling they had when they first believed. Still others want that emotion of assurance that once surged through their veins. Some want to feel the Holy Spirit.

Spirituality in the Bible is not a feeling or a buzz. To define the word spiritual you could easily substitute the word ’obedient’. Those who are obedient are the spiritual ones according to the Scriptures. It’s not the ones who have some kind of experience! Satan can easily counterfeit an experience but he can never counterfeit true obedience!

Walk Moment

The Bible says we find our selves and our life when we lose it for Jesus. Read Matthew 16:24-25 You can lose your life in obedient serving of others and by putting their needs above your own. It is here at the bottom of the pile that you find the heights of spirituality you are looking for.

Romans 1:6 makes it exceedingly clear that spirituality and obedience are parallel. Paul was called by God to be an Apostle to the Gentiles. His mission was to call others by preaching the Gospel. At the end of verse 5 we see what Paul was calling people to. Read the verse carefully and notice that people are called by God through the preaching of the Gospel to the “… obedience that comes through faith.”

The bench mark of Christianity, the hall mark of spirituality, the core of our faith is OBEDIENCE! What God loves and values is consistent, daily obedience. The mother who obeys God loving her husband and raising her children in accord with God’s word pleases God. The husband who loves and cherishes his family and acts in line with the Word of God puts a smile on God’s face. The single man or woman who walks humbly in obedience refusing to act like the world or to chase the pleasures of the world finds God’s approval. The teenager who refuses to indulge in the passions and lusts of the world is pleasing to God.

Discussion Questions for families and groups

1. A believer says to you, ‘I need to be slain in the Spirit again. I’m desperate for it.’ How do you respond?
2. Why should a Christian strive to be obedient?
3. Obedience doesn’t save us yet we are called to be obedient. Please explain.

The book of Romans begins with a call to obedience and finishes (Romans 16:19, 26) with obedience suggesting that it is a major theme of the Gospel call. As we’ll see throughout our Romans series obedience is not just trying harder and harder in the desperate hope that one day we will overcome our struggles and be a better Christian. Obedience comes through faith and is as much a work of God’s grace as our salvation is. We do have a role to play but it is definitely NOT to try harder in our own strength. That will inevitably lead to frustration and hopelessness in our struggle with sin. Obedience comes and grows as we grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer

Use today’s readings to write down prayer points

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

• Ask the Lord to be working powerfully among our youth. Pray that they would grow in their faith and that grace would strengthen their hearts, protecting them against the lusts of the world, the ways of the world and the desires of the world.
• Pray that our youth would shine brightly for Jesus bringing many people into the kingdom through their lifestyle and witness.