Blessed Are Those Who Hear The Word Of God And Observe It

I want to start by asking you a question. What makes a child happy? What makes a child happy? And I want you to go ahead and answer. Okay. Candy, sugar, and what did you say? To see dad. Boys make children happy. Toys. Okay, toys, not boys. All right, all right. Think less minute by minute and think about what makes for a... A child whose disposition is happy. Safety, what? Happy parents. Stability, yeah. Discipline. You know what kind of kids are happy that actually get at all of these things? Obedient children are happy children. Okay? They're content. They're safe. They're secure. They're provided for. They're instructed. And if you go to a store or a restaurant, if you go out in public and you think, okay, happy child?

Or unhappy child. You can just as easily say, how do you determine whether that child's happy? Well, you determine it by whether they're obedient or disobedient. If that kid's mom is giving them the big bug-eye look and the whisper that's a scream, that they're warning, you have a disobedient child. You have an unhappy child as well. And a disobedient child is not only unhappy, but he's also alone in his misery. Nobody wants to be around that bad kid, right? You don't want your kids around them. You don't want your kids to be like them. So why am I bringing that up at the beginning? Well, because I want us to have in our minds as we come to God's word this morning, the idea of the connection between obedience and happiness. Those who obey, they're the ones who will be happy. They're the ones who will be blessed. And those who don't obey will not be happy. And the reason I want this in your minds at the very beginning is what does Satan promise you?

If you sin, he promises you joy. He promises you contentment. He promises you satisfaction. And he is a liar. He is a liar. He is lying to you. And if you're honest about looking at your own life, when you sin, you'll realize that it doesn't make you happy. Because happiness is according to obedience. That's what we're going to be talking about this morning. That's what we read in our text this morning. is that blessing or happiness flows from obedience. If the talk of obedience to God or sanctification is a drudgery to you or it seems like a miserable topic and you go, oh man, here we go again. I'm going to get my arm twisted. I'm going to get manipulated. I'm going to have this pressure to do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really want to do. Then what I want to say to you is you don't understand obedience. You don't understand it because obedience to God is a joyful thing.

It's a joyful thing. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I want you to know from the very beginning, you haven't obeyed God then. Because those who obey God understand his blessing and the joy that it produces in them. And God has designed it this way to spur us on, to goad us on, to further, bigger, better obedience. Because that's what produces glory for him. And so if you don't know what I'm talking about, you should try it sometime. You should try with a cheerful heart. Say, I'm going to do it because the pastor told me that the Bible says it and he's got a text this morning that demonstrates it. I'm going to try to obey with a cheerful heart. Not a grumbling heart, not a dutiful heart, but a cheerful heart. I'm going to do it because he says that it will be the conduit by which God blesses me. So that's what I want you to try. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's what you've got to do. You've got to try it. And you'll realize it's nothing like what you expect it to be.

It's nothing like what you expect it to be. In the same way that you take a little child, you try to get them to do some task, and they're slow, and they're tired, and they've got excuses, and they've got a tummy ache, and this hurts, and this little thing on my finger, and isn't it bedtime, and all the rest. If the child does the work, for one, it doesn't take nearly as long as all the whimpering and whining did, and they enjoy it. They actually enjoy it. They're happy. They're strengthened. They're encouraged. That's what obedience produces in us. And so this morning we're going to see from God's word how that works and why it's important. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word? From Luke chapter 11, verses 27 and 28. This is the word of the Lord and it is eternally true. While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and she said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that wished you nursed. Now does that make you uncomfortable to have someone yell that out in a crowd?

I'm sure she was louder than I just was. Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed. But he said, on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Now, before we dig right into our text this morning, I want to give you a little bit of context because our text starts out by saying, when Jesus was saying these things, we have to understand what these things are. What was he saying? What caused this woman to cry out and exclaim the way she did? Well, Jesus has just taught his disciples how to pray. They came to him and said, Lord, teach us to pray. Even John teaches his disciples how to pray. Would you do that same thing for us? And so he teaches them the Lord's Prayer. And then he moves on from there and he comes to a demon-possessed man and he heals him.

And there's a division in the crowd. The crowds observe it. They see what's going on. Some of the crowd are amazed. They go, whoa, this is incredible. And yet the Pharisees accuse Jesus of casting out this demon by the power of Satan. And so Jesus is discoursing with them. He understands the thoughts of their hearts and he says, no, it's complete idiocy for you guys to even accuse me of this. Because how do your sons do it? Do they do it by the power of Satan or do they do it as an act of worship to God? And the answer was obvious to the Pharisees. And so there's this tension going on. Jesus is demonstrating his wisdom, his knowledge, his authority. And some of the crowd are amazed by it. And some of the crowd despise him for it. And that's the context in which this woman speaks up. She speaks out. She calls out, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast which nursed you. Which seems like a really strange thing to say, doesn't it?

Here he is, he's teaching you how to pray, and he's casting out demons, and he's talking about kingdoms and households not being divided, and then this woman cries out about his mom. Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breast at which you nursed. Now, Roman Catholics have taken this sort of thing, where it looks as though Mary is being elevated, and they said, see, look, there it is. Mary's this amazing woman. She's incredible. Even this woman here knows it. And yet they abuse the text because what comes right after this is Jesus' correction or improvement upon what this woman says. And yet what this woman says is actually true. Because Mary says in her Magnificat in Luke 1 that all the generations would call her blessed. And so this woman is only doing what Mary said would be the case. And so for this exclamation to make sense to us, We have to understand what was behind it. What was she communicating about Jesus by what she said? She wasn't saying, Mary is to be worshipped. Because Jesus doesn't affirm that in his response to her. He doesn't say, yes, you've spoken well. You've chosen the better part. He says, no, on the contrary. And so we have to dig in a little deeper. What is she saying? What is she communicating? What motivates her to say?

Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed. But what she's acknowledging is who Jesus Christ is. She understands. She's been listening to him. And she says, yes and amen. You are the best kind of man I have ever met, I have ever seen. You are spectacular. The things you have to say and the things that you can do, no one is like you. No one is like you. You speak with authority. He acts with compassion. The Pharisees hated him for it. And so he rebukes them. But part of his message was that he taught that an oppressed people, and remember that the Jews at this time are occupied. They're under Roman rule. And Jesus' message, the message of the gospel, is that those who are oppressed, those who are in bondage, those who are in slavery, are set free through him. And so he provides hope to the hopeless.

He healed their infirmities. He taught them with compassion. He ate with them. And so the people loved him. The leaders hated him, but the people loved him. And so when this woman cries out to him, blessed is the womb that bore you, what she's saying, she's speaking as a mother. And what does a mother want? What is most important to a mother? It's her children, isn't it? Isn't it her children? And so what is she saying? She's saying, I want my sons to be like you. I wish I was your mom. I wish I had kids like you. Now, we don't know anything about her children. We don't know if she even had children. But we recognize that she, as a woman, understands the joy that would be brought to a mother who had a son like Jesus. In her mind, there's nothing that could give her more joy. And so what's the first thing we learn from our text? You mothers ought to want your children

And this isn't exclusive to mothers, but it's particular to mothers. You mothers ought to want to have children like Jesus. You ought to want your children to be like Jesus. And that ought to be the thing that gives you more joy than anything else in the world. And it requires vulnerability. Because what if they don't listen? What if they don't obey? What if they're not like Jesus? Because you live with them and you see them and you know what their sins and their struggles are. And it causes you to fear and it causes you to worry and it causes you to withdraw. And I say, don't do that. This woman understood that it's a good thing for people, for your children to be like Jesus, that there's no greater joy that you're going to see apart from salvation and a godly marriage, a godly husband, than seeing your children become like Jesus. And so she exclaims it. Your mom has the good part in life because look at what kind of son you are.

What a joy. It's amazing. Mothers ought to desire this. They ought to pursue it. What does it mean for you children, your kids? If you want to bring joy to your mother, be like Jesus. It's really simple. If you want your mother to be happy, serve God, be like his son, and you will have a happy mother. And if you won't do that, children, there isn't anything else you can do that's going to make up for it. This woman has a good desire that her children should be like Jesus, that there is nothing better, that that would be supreme. And so you mothers, you pursue that. You desire it. It's good for you to want that, whether your children are young or whether they're taller than you. It doesn't matter. You should want them to be like Jesus Christ, and you ought to desire it. You children have an obligation to glorify God by honoring your parents and serving their God.

Being like them. Proverbs 23, verses 24 and 25 says, The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who sires a wise son will be glad in him. And this is a father writing to a son, right? So he's saying, fathers are happy about this sort of stuff. And then he addresses to his son, he says, Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her, your mother, let her rejoice who gave birth to you. Let her rejoice who gave birth to you. You children have an obligation to bring joy to your parents. And the way you do that is by serving Jesus Christ. That's how you do it. You don't do it by making a bunch of money. You don't do it by being the best athlete. You don't do it by being the strongest kid. You don't do it by being the coolest kid. You don't do it in any of those ways or any of the other ways. You do it by becoming like Jesus Christ. That's how you bring joy to your parents.

Whether you're young or whether you're old, that's how you bring joy to your parents. We have to understand what motivates her exclamation if we're to understand how Jesus replies. Because he doesn't reply with this big, long discourse about his mother or anything else. He just says very simply, very briefly, very succinctly, on the contrary. You know, she's saying the best thing in the world would be to be your mother. And so what's she doing? She's praising God. She's praising Jesus Christ. She's acknowledging his lordship, his deity, his goodness. And yet another part of what she's saying is it borders on a lament. It almost is a grief to her. Because the other side of what she's saying is, since I'm not your mother, I can't be close to you like your mother can. You know, we all have...

We're a family, right? The church is a family. It's a household of faith. We're a family. And yet we're made up of individual people and individual families. And every one of us ought to make effort to open our homes, to open our families to other people, right? Now, what is the danger? What is the temptation that those whom we welcome into our house who aren't blood, what is their temptation? Their temptation is to think, I'm not a real son. You tell me I'm a son. You call me son. You treat me like a son. You really don't do anything differently for me than you do for your sons. But I think that you're closer to them than you are to me. I'm second rate. This is the temptation that we face. When you get close enough to another Christian family, you get close enough to think, I'm not quite as close as the real kids. And I'm thankful for how close I am, but I'm not as close as they are. I'm not really family.

And that's a grief to you. I've experienced this in my own life. Not having had a father that was involved in my life, when God was merciful and he gave me godly Christian fathers and mothers, I always wondered, so am I, like you treat me well. In fact, you treat me better than the rest of the people. But do you love me the way you love your own kids? And the temptation's always there to believe that they don't. And that would be a grief to you, would it not? thankful that you don't just ignore me, but I kind of feel like a bastard child. And I know that you don't mean to make me feel that way. I know it's just something that I struggle with. And so we suffer that. We believe these lies in silence. We don't talk about it. One of the sweetest things I've heard recently is I had a man tell me, he said, you know, I didn't feel as loved because I didn't get to do what all the other guys my age got to do. They all got to go do this cool thing. They all got to have this close relationship with this father. A man who'd made it his business to open his home and his life to other men for discipleship, for help, for all kinds of stuff. Another man says, who didn't ever get to go through that, he says, I don't understand why I never got that.

And I know that he loves me and I know that he cares about me. I know all this stuff, but I never got the family treatment as I see it. And that's what's behind this woman's lament, this woman's exclamation. I wish I was your mother. I wish I was your mother. I wish I could be as close to you as your mother. I wish I could get behind the closed doors of your home and receive your love and your teaching. That's what I wish. And yet she speaks as though that door is closed to her. That she can come this far and no further in terms of her proximity to Jesus Christ. That's what Jesus is responding to. That's the subtext of what she said and Jesus replying to her. He says to her, on the contrary. It seems like a non-sequitur. A non-sequitur means, you know, now for something completely different. Someone's talking about this and then you start talking about something completely different and you go, where's the connection? That's a non-sequitur.

This is not what Jesus does. He replies directly to what she said. He addresses her heart. And given how the Roman Catholics have abused Mary, we would expect him to say, don't talk about my mom like that. I'm the one who's the point here, not her. That's what we'd expect a Protestant to say. And yet that's not what Jesus says. He says, on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. This is similar to, you remember when Jesus is teaching in the house and they come to him and they say, your mother and your brothers, they're outside. And they want to get in, but they can't get in because it's too crowded and it's too full. And why would they come tell Jesus that? Have you ever wondered, why did they come tell Jesus that his mom and his brothers are outside? Because everyone assumes that his physical family has priority. They have access to him when they want it. They can displace the other people because they're his blood.

And what does Jesus say? Clear the way and let them in. No, what's he say? Behold, my mothers and my brothers and my sisters. Those who do my father's will, they are my mothers and my brothers and my sisters. And so when he says that, he's declaring the people who are in my family by blood are not those who are closest to me. Because that's the same misconception that this woman has. Those who are closest to you, Jesus, are those who are related to you. And Jesus says, effectively, no, that's not true. Those who are closest to me, those who are closest to me, are the ones who do my Father's will. That's how he describes it in Matthew. And here in Luke, those who hear my word, hear the word of God and observe it, those are the ones who are closest to me. Those are the ones who are blessed.

not those who are related to me by blood. So what does Jesus do? He takes this woman's lament. He takes what's sad to her, and he turns it into joy. She says, I can get this close and no further, and I'm thankful for as far as I've been able to come. And he says, you can come closer. And not only you, but all who hear, those who hear my word and observe it, they're closest to me. They're closest to me. Those are the ones who are blessed. Now this is good news for you and me because none of us are direct descendants of Jesus. This is good news to us. In Psalm 68, verses 3 through 6, we read, Let the righteous be glad. And we understand the righteous to be God's children, his people, those that he saved. The righteous. Let the righteous be glad.

Let them exult before God. Let them rejoice with gladness. Sing to God. Sing praises to his name. Lift up a song for him who rides through the desert, whose name is the Lord, and exult before him. Why? We go on and we read how he's described. A father to the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in his holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely. He leads out the prisoners into prosperity. Only the rebellious, are left in the parched land. And we have the same message here in Psalm 68 that we have in Matthew 12 and then again in Luke 11. Those who are closest to God are the ones who do his will. They're the ones who are closest to him. He's merciful to them. He saves them. He leads them out. He's a father to the fatherless. He's a judge for the widow. He creates a home for the lonely and the needy.

He leads the prisoners out into prosperity. This is God's work of salvation. This is what he does for us. And the only people who are left behind are who? Psalm 68 tells us, only the rebellious remain in the parched land. What's it mean to be rebellious? It means to not obey his word. That's what rebellion is. It's not hard to understand. Those who don't obey God's word are not the recipients of his blessing. It's that simple. You don't have to go to seminary to figure it out. Those who do God's will are blessed by God. They are happy. And the rebellious aren't. The rebellious are left in the parched land. They're left in the desert. They're left without. They live under God's curse, not his blessing. Those who hear his word, though, and who obey it, they are blessed. And so what does God do?

He takes the grief of this woman and he turns it into joy. And what does he do with us? What grieves us? What grieves a Christian? What ought to grieve a Christian is their sin. It ought to be a grief to you. And I'm not saying it should be hopeless to you. The fact that you sin should not be hopeless to you. Because God has been merciful to us, because he sent us his son, we're not without hope. We're not left to bear our load. We're not far off from God because of it. We're brought near to him. As near as you could ever want to be through Jesus' obedience. That's how he saves us. And you say, okay, well that's the point of the text then. This is all about justification. This is all about Jesus' righteousness and our sinfulness and double imputation and all these big words. And I say, yes, but not really. That's not what this woman was talking about. She was talking about growth and holiness.

Do we have any place to obey God? Is that a responsibility of ours as God's children, to obey him? Yes. Is our obligation to obey God done away with because Jesus obeyed God? Well, in terms of becoming his son and pleasing his righteous law, his perfect law, yes. But is there anything more to the Christian life than that? Or is it just that we get saved, we get justified, we become God's children, and then you can live however you want, you can do whatever you want, and you don't have anything more to worry about? No. We read in our scripture lesson this morning, this is the will of God, your sanctification. God desires that we would grow in holiness. What does growing in holiness mean?

Don't think too hard about it. It means obeying his law. That's what it means to grow in holiness. That's what it means to be sanctified. That's what it means to become more like him, to bear his image and reflect it more fully. It means simply to do his will, to do what he says. And those who do that are blessed. They're happy. They have joy. He turns their grief over their sin into joy. And the only ones who don't get it are the rebellious. They're left out. They're left on the side. They're left on the dock. They're not blessed. Because they've believed a lie about what actually will give them joy, what actually will make them happy, what actually will satisfy them and fulfill them and give their life meaning. They hear God's word and they refuse to obey it. They refuse to submit themselves to it. So do you realize that we live in a land and in a time which actually isn't distinct from any other time?

We all believe that the time we live in is the worst time that Christians have ever had to live in, and that's not true. It's really not. Especially for us. There are Christians who've lived in times much more difficult than ours. Much more difficult. But we're inclined to think that our time and our struggles and the pressures that we face are unique. That we need to have a little carve-out somewhere for how difficult it is to obey God's Word. and to honor him in our day and age. And for us to believe that is to believe a lie. Our time is not as hard as many other times in history. Our time is getting harder. But what do we want to do when it gets hard? What happens if you're losing a fight? What should you do if you're in a fight and you're losing? Fight harder. You should fight harder. If you were running a race and there were people that you were racing against in front of you, what do you need to do?

Run faster. But what does our culture tell you to do? Have a little pit stop and have a little pity party over on the side? Poor you. It was hard for you. That wasn't fair to you. They're not leading you into the kingdom of God with this junk. That's not the message of the gospel. It's not to feel sorry for the difficulty of your particular life. Did Jesus come to lead you out of prison into prosperity? Yes. Does that require things of you? Yes. So if you're going to run a race, do what Paul says. I'm going to run the race in such a way that I might win. And I'm going to do it by the rules. That's sanctification. And I want you to know that our day and age and the times that we live in have our particular temptations. And yet you are still able because God is real and he's powerful and he gives his Holy Spirit to every one of his children to dwell in their hearts, to strengthen them.

You were able to obey God in the midst of such opposition. And you'll be fearful and you'll be scared and you'll fail. And God will be merciful. You know the God of the Old Testament is really mean and nasty and he's not merciful and all that kind of stuff, right? We're all dispensationalists. And he was the God of judgment and wrath and all that. Now we've got love and soft-haired Jesus. Did you listen to our call to confession this morning? What did it say? I've got to get it. I don't have it with me. What did it say? Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look upon you in anger, for I am gracious, says the God of the Old Testament. That big, mean, distant God. Return, and I will not look upon you in anger, for I am gracious. I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity. Acknowledge it. Be honest.

Please be honest. Say who you are. Know yourself. Know what you are. And then don't hide it. Because you're not fooling anyone who has one eye to see. And you're certainly not fooling God. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God and have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree. Do any of you want to venture what the scattering of their favors to everyone under any green tree actually is? Do you know how Ezekiel describes it? As the nation being a whore, spreading her legs for anyone who would come in and not receiving money for it, but paying for it. That's the sort of sin they're talking about. That's the sort of sin that they're being called out of and say, the Lord says, come and acknowledge your sin and I'll be merciful, I'll be gracious to you. Only admit who you are. Return, O faithless sons, declares the Lord. Does Jesus know your sin? He knows it better than you do. Far better than you do.

Did God then, in that time, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, know his people's sin? Yes. And what does he say to them? You come to me. You come to me. And be honest as you come. And I won't be angry forever. What does this woman who exclaims out to Jesus say? She says, I can only come so far. And he says, no, you can't. You can be close to me. Closer to me than my own mother. Through obedience. So what's the application to us? Here's the application. You will never be closer to Jesus Christ than when you obey Him. You'll never be closer. You can't bring anything to win His favor. You can't manipulate Him into giving you His favor. None of it will work. And if it's a grief to you, like it was to this woman, that there was some distance between her and her Lord, then Jesus tells you how to close that gap.

On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. Those are the ones who are closest to me. Those are my mothers and my brothers and my sisters. And he's not ashamed of you. If you refuse to obey his word, you will be miserable. That's the experience of our own lives. When we don't serve God, when we serve our lusts, it eats us up from the inside out. It makes us miserable. We become shells. It's awful. And the reason is because God made us to glorify him. We bear his image. And when we sin, we should be miserable because we're not demonstrating, proclaiming the truth about God. And so it's his mercy to us. Listen, it's his mercy that you're miserable when you sin. That's his kindness to you. It's to teach you not to do it again.

And so even in our rebellion, even when we sin against God, he's merciful to us and making us miserable in it. So if you want to be close to Jesus Christ, you have to obey his word. You have to obey his word. If you feel distant from God, if you feel like he's not your father, and I think especially you men need to hear this. If you feel like God's not close to you, and you didn't have a father similar to me, or you had a father but he wasn't a great father, and even if you have a good father, he's not a perfect father, and yet somehow you're supposed to become a man, who honors God, then obey God. Do his will and you'll be close to him. And it won't be some ethereal, theoretical closeness. You will feel close to your father in heaven. You will identify with him. And that's because that's what you were designed to do. You were made to obey God. That's what you were made to do. He didn't make you to disobey him. He made you to obey him, to serve him, to glorify him.

And it's no surprise that when you do what you were made to do, it brings you joy and you are blessed. It only makes sense. God doesn't view obedience that he requires of us as some sort of, well, you're going to do it because I said so. And you should be happy that I haven't kicked you out. No. No. He is a father who loves us, says, here is the right way. Here is the way that honors me. Here is the good path. And here are the blessings that are along that road. Walk down it. Come down it. You think you can't come down it because you're a sinner? I bid you come. Walk down it. And you'll never be more fulfilled or satisfied or sure of God's kindness than when you obey him. Obedience is the means by which God blesses his people. Satan will tell you only bad things will come through obedience. And sometimes obedience will bring about hardship because wicked men who hate God will make your life miserable. That's true. That happens.

But that doesn't mean that you're without hope or joy in this world. Obedience is the way, the means that God uses to bless his people. The rebellious are left out of that blessing. They don't receive it. They don't get it. The final thing I'll say to you with regard to application is obedience has to do with your actions. It has much more to do with what you do than what you think. Now, do you have to glorify God? with your mind. Yes, absolutely you do. Obedience is according to knowledge. And so your ability to obey God will never surpass your knowledge of God. And yet we have to understand that us growing in knowledge and our understanding and wisdom of God and of his truth and his law and all the rest is so that we would obey him. So that we would do what he says. Not so that we would know what he says.

And we see that here with Jesus saying, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. Not just those who hear the word, but those who obey the word. And so it's not sufficient for us to know what we should do or what should be done in that situation. We actually have to do it. The blessing comes through the obedience, not the knowledge. If you have children at home and you left them a list of things to do, here's your chore list. And you came home and your son said, I read it. I know what I was supposed to do. You told me to do this and then this and then that. And you told me to do it in this order because if I don't do it in this order, it's going to get all messed up like this. And you told me not to do that. You told me to do it like this and like that and then here. And then I was going to be able to go to my friend's house tonight. But I didn't do that list of stuff. I studied it all day. I memorized it. I understood the logic that's hidden behind the commands. But I didn't do it.

Because, Dad, I thought that because I'm your son, you should let me go to my friend's house without me having to, you know, do what you say. What does a faithful dad say? You don't get to go to your friend's house tonight or tomorrow. You get to do today's work tomorrow and you get to do tomorrow's work tomorrow. There won't be any time for a friend's house because I love you. That's what a good father does. He blesses his children. Through their obedience. What's the point of the list? It's to teach their children to be diligent, to work hard, to have self-control. There's all kinds of reasons you leave that list. And it's not just so the work gets done. Though that is part of it. The work has to get done. And if it's going to be done, it should be done well. And you, son, should learn how to do it well. I can envision when my boys start cutting the grass, how it will get done.

And I don't think it will be done well at first. I think it will be uneven. And I think it will take a long time. And I think it will waste a lot of my gas. And I think there will be cowlicks in my yard and grass on my patio. And someone probably with a cut on their leg because they were standing at the wrong spot and the lawnmower shot out the toy that they didn't pick up. That's what I expect it to start like. And I say, son, mow the grass. Okay, I'll mow the grass. And he goes out there and that's what happens. See, I told you I shouldn't have to mow the grass. I'm terrible at this. I shouldn't have to obey. I shouldn't have to do what's hard because I'm bad at that stuff. I want to do what's easy for me. Let me go to my friend's house. That's easy for me. A loving father says, no. I would love for you to be able to go to your friend's house. I want you to go to your friend's house. I want you to be a blessing to them and to us. And the way this is going to work is you're going to get the lawnmower back out and you're going to,

mow the grass the way I said. And I'm going to come out and I'm going to help you. That's what a good father does. That's what our Father in Heaven does. He doesn't leave us to squander and to fail by ourselves without his help. He gives us his Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts to help us to obey him, to glorify him. You don't have this work to do by yourself. So hearing is not sufficient. It's not okay for you just to know what you should do. You actually got to do it. And when you do that, you'll be amazed at the blessings that God pours out in your life.

And you actually ought to be motivated by blessings. You actually ought to see a good thing and go for it. Because that's what scripture teaches us to do. When we see good things, we pursue them. Do young men want to get married? Young ladies want to get married? You know what? Good. Good. It's an honorable estate. It's a good desire. I'm glad for you to have it. Now learn what it means to be pursuing it. God blesses us through obedience. not through knowledge. I'll close by reading this to you from James chapter 1. Prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides in it,

Not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. Blessing follows obedience. You want to be blessed by God, obey him. And he will bless you in his time with better than you can imagine. You won't have it any other way. You won't get it any other way. All of us want it. And so I'm saying, there's the path. This is how God has ordained to bless you. Walk in it and receive God's blessings. Let's pray. Father, what a comfort it is to not be held at a distance from you because of our sin or because we don't have the right blood in our veins or we don't live in the right land. Father, it is a privilege and a joy that we have access to you, direct access and full access as a son does to his father.

through your Son and the power of your Holy Spirit leading us in obedience. I pray, Father, that you would help us to obey you, to do it by faith and with joy, Father. Make it sweet to us. I pray for the children that you would be teaching them now, even as they're young, to obey their parents and to honor them. I pray that you'd help their parents to expect them to obey and to be tender with them as they disciple them. I pray, Father, that you would be merciful to us as we love our neighbors, as we interact with them, as we talk to them and care for them and learn how they're entrapped and how they're burdened and how they're in bondage to sin. Help us to love them and to care for them and to proclaim that they too can enjoy the blessing of you as their Father.

I pray that you'd make each one of us know it intimately in our own lives. Help us to pursue obedience by faith. Help us to look for the blessing of your hand. And help us, Father, to work for your glory so long as we have life and breath. We love you, Father, and we praise you. And we pray in your Son's name. Amen.