Obedience Leads to Knowing God More - Ryan Fullerton

Well, I don't know how you convince

a bunch of white boys

and a bunch of black boys

and a bunch of Latino boys

to all gather together

in a tiny little room

on a miserable night in November

to hear Bible preaching.

That must be Jesus.

So let's open the Bible together.

So, last night for those
of you that weren't here,

we began looking at the book of Philemon.

And we were talking about the fact

that men are called to lead

and they're called to lead well;

they're called to lead biblically.

They're called to lead themselves.

They're called to lead their wives,

their children.

They're called to encourage their friends.

And we saw that Paul is really the example

of skill in leadership.

And he led with his compelling character.

He says, "I, Paul, an old man

and a prisoner for the sake of Christ..."

He led out of who he was

and the weight of what
God had done in his life.

And then he led really
by a compelling change

that had happened in Philemon.

He's trying to get, if you'll remember,

he's trying to get Philemon

to forgive Onesimus.

Onesimus was a runaway slave

who had done Philemon dirty

and then stolen his money.

And had really stolen himself

away from Philemon.

And now Paul was trying to get Philemon

to forgive this runaway slave.

And so he first of all starts by saying

you should do it;

you should listen to me

because I'm Paul, a prisoner,

an old man for Christ.

And then he goes, and
then you should do it

because this guy's now your brother.

He's now my spiritual child.

He's changed.

He used to be - just like
everyone in this room

who is a Christian -

he used to be useless.

Now, he's useful.

What a great way to think of yourself

as a Christian.

I used to be useless.

Now, I'm useful.

And then he did it by giving
Philemon some space -

the freedom of choice.

He gave Philemon the liberty,

and he said I don't want to constrain you.

I don't want to force you.

I wanted to send Onesimus back

so you could think about
doing the right thing

and come to it for yourself.

And this evening, I want to focus

on one verse in the book of Philemon,

and it's verse 6.

And it might sound like it at first,

but I'll explain in a second

why this is not an evangelism verse.

Although, it certainly has some
implications for evangelism.

But in Philemon 1:6, it says,

"And I pray that the sharing of your faith

may become effective
for the full knowledge

of every good thing that is in us

for the sake of Christ."

"And I pray that the sharing of your faith

may become effective

for the full knowledge

of every good thing that is in us

for the sake of Christ."

Can you imagine that?

Having a fuller knowledge
of everything that is in you?

For the sake of Christ.

Knowing more about all that's in you

for the sake of Christ.

Above all, brothers, above all,

all the earthly treasures,

what the Christian wants is to know God.

That's the main thing
every Christian wants

is to know God.

If you're not in touch
with that right now,

you're not in touch with the main thing

that God has made new about you.

That's that you want to know God.

That's why you're gathered
in this little tiny room

is because we want to know God.

The cry of the Christian is the cry

of the Apostle Paul in Philippians -

"That I might know Him."

The difference between being of the world

and being of Christ is the world

does not know Him

and the Christian has tasted and seen

that the Lord is good.

The promise of the New Covenant

is "they shall all know Me.

No longer shall a brother
say to his brother,

'know the Lord,' but
they shall all know Me."

We look at each other around the fire,

we begin to talk about
the things of the Lord,

if you're a Christian, and you're like,

"Yes, brother, I know what
you're talking about."

Whatever background you come from

racially, socioeconomically,

all of a sudden, you find you have

the most important things in common

with the ones who know the Lord.

How does a Christian change?

We're transformed from one
degree of glory to another

as we see Him.

And we shall ultimately be like Him

when we see Him as He is,

because when we see Him as He is,

we will be like Him.

It's a transformative knowledge.

The more you get to know Jesus,

the more you become like Him.

The main thing about being a Christian

is knowing God.

It's everything.

It's everything to know God.

If there's anything in your Christian life

that isn't leading you to know God more,

you are going down a rabbit trail at best,

and you are going down

a destructive path at worst.

Because everything is meant

to serve the Christian and to bring them

to a knowledge of God.

Have you ever thought about this?

The reason we repent

is because we want to know God.

What's the difference
between worldly sorrow

and godly sorrow?

Worldly sorrow we're told leads to death.

Worldly sorrow is the kind Judas had

where it makes you depressed,

it makes you suicidal,

it makes you want to kill yourself,

but there's nothing godly about it.

Worldly sorrow is depressed
because it lost the world.

Do you know what Judas lost

when he betrayed the Son of God?

He was no longer going to be
able to enjoy the rest of his life.

He was going to have a defiled conscience

as being the one who handed over

the Son of God.

But he had no remorse
really about losing God.

He had no love for God.

Why do preachers who get caught

in sexual immorality

shed a couple tears

and then just try to get
their way through it

in the easiest way possible?

Because they have worldly sorrow.

They're sad that they can't
be the preacher anymore.

And they've lost the world.

It's worldly sorrow.

Godly sorrow is sad that
it's lost its grip on God.

That's why the slightest sin

can ultimately disturb a Christian, right?

Just the smallest thing.

Ugh! I can't enjoy my Lord!

I'm not walking in fellowship with Him.

It doesn't have to even be something
heinous like pornography.

It can be the slip of a tongue.

It can be something that you knew

the Lord didn't want you to do

and you did it anyway,

and then all of a sudden
the day is ruined.

It can be 75 degrees out.

There can be no snow clouds in the sky.

It can be all your friends around you,

and it's all misery because you're not

walking in fellowship with God.

And so what do we do?

We have godly sorrow and we repent.

We've got to have God.
We've got to have God.

Christians can't keep going on

with something on their conscience

because they've got to have God.

They've got to know God.

The Christian life is all
about knowing God,

and it's about knowing
Him better and better.

It's not just about coming to know Him

when we're converted.

It's about getting to know
Him better and better

after we're converted.

And what I want to point
out to you tonight

is that Philemon -

in the book of Philemon,

we're watching Paul,

but Paul is not just giving Philemon

a rule to follow.

Paul's not just trying to
give us an example

of what it looks like to
be an amazing leader

as important as that is.

Paul's trying to lead Philemon

to know God better.

And what Paul is telling us

is that the way you come
to know God better

is by obeying God.

Obedience is God's means

of further revelation to your soul.

Obedience is not just something you do

in response to God's revelation.

It is that.

Obedience is something we do

in response to God's revelation.

Therefore, in view of God's mercies,

offer your bodies as living sacrifices,

holy and pleasing to God.

In view of what He's done;

in view of what you've seen;

in view of what you know,

offer yourself as a
living sacrifice to God.

We obey because of what we know,

but we also know more once we obey.

And in that sense,
obedience is God's means

of further revelation of Himself

to your soul.

Let me spell this out.

Jesus said it clearer than
I'm going to say it.

So we'll just read Him.

He said in John 14,

"Whoever has My commandments

and keeps them,

he is it who loves Me.

And he who loves Me,

will be loved by My Father,

and I will love him

and manifest Myself to him."

Who hasn't prayed for that?

If that's not a regular cry of your heart,

I wonder if you even know the Lord.

I want to see more of You, Lord.

Sir, we would see Jesus.

That's the cry of the Christian.

That's the irony of the Christian.

We know the Lord, and what do we want

more than anything else?

We want to know the Lord.

That I might know Him.

That's our desire.

And here's Jesus telling you,

"I will manifest Myself.

I will display Myself.

I will show Myself to your soul."

The Apostle Paul prayed
for the Ephesian Christians,

in Ephesians 1.

And he prayed for them and he said,

he prayed that they
"might have a spirit of wisdom

and of revelation in
the knowledge of Him."

He wasn't praying that they would

increase their Bible knowledge.

The Ephesians were notorious

for their Bible knowledge.

You read chapter 1:3-14 of Ephesians

and it's pretty clear Paul knew

they had lots of Bible knowledge

because he's just going off -

praising God for God's election

and adoption, and redemption,

and Spirit-filling and sealing.

He's praising God for all of that,

and then he comes to the end of it

and he goes I just wish this
was lit up in your souls.

Isn't that the greatest frustration

of those Christians who have
learned good theology?

Lord, why isn't it on fire?

Why isn't it lit up?

I know more glorious truths

than almost every other Christian I meet

and yet, why isn't it on fire?

Why isn't it lit up?

Why isn't the spotlight

burning in my soul?

You know the difference between standing

out in the middle of that patio

and standing by the fire, right?

There's a big difference.

I want to be by the fire.

And you want God's Word

not to leave you out in the cold,

but to be lighting a fire.

And in Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul

says, "I pray that you'd have a spirit

of wisdom and revelation

in the knowledge of Him."

And he prays that the Spirit would

light up our hearts.

Is your heart being lit up?

What did the disciples say
on the road back to Emmaus?

Or the road from Emmaus?

As Jesus opens up the Scriptures,

they go, "did not our hearts

burn within us?"

Mormons aren't the only people

who should be talking
about the burning heart.

Man oh man, we have the heart

that should burn after God's truth.

You want that, beloved.

You want more of that?

I hate every day I go through life

without the fullness of that.

It's a sadness to the Christian

not to see more of the Lord

and to have - just listen to it -

"I will manifest Myself to you."

"I'm going to show you more of Me."

"I'm going to make your soul
quake with My holiness."

"I'm going to make your
heart melt with My love."

"I'm going to make your heart
thrill with My promises."

"I'm going to show you more about Me."

In Ephesians 1 it says,
"That the eyes of your heart

might be enlightened, that you might know

the power that's at work in you."

That you might know the
inheritance that you have.

That you might know
the hope that you have.

So that heaven is not something

distant and abstract,
but it's lit up in your heart.

So that being God's people

is not just like, yeah, I'm a Christian,

but it's gripping your heart,

so that resurrection power

is not something distant and abstract,

but it's something where
you face a temptation

and you're like,
"I have resurrection power!"

"I know it!"

"I know it's at work in me."

And the pathway into more and more

knowledge of the Lord like that

is greater and greater obedience.

This generation is so
confused about obedience.

Every single time you
mention the word obedience

in this generation, someone is going to

start talking about legalism.

Beloved, obedience is not legalism.

Legalism is one of two things.

Legalism is when someone says,

"you need to obey this

and then you'll be accepted by God."

That's legalism.

Legalism is when someone adds to the Bible

what's not in the Bible

and says, "Thus saith the Lord,"

when the Lord didn't say anything.

That's legalism.

But the Lord Jesus, when He told us

to go and teach people to
obey everything He commanded

was not the world's greatest legalist,

He was the world's greatest Savior.

He was leading His people to follow

the One who had set their souls free

with truth.

And He knew that as He
led them in obedience,

they weren't just going
to be His rule keepers,

they were going to be increasing

in the knowledge of Christ.

Knowing Him more.

And you ought to meet

every command in the Scripture

as a wide open door of possibility

to know your God better.

Isn't that amazing?

We get a command and we're like,

"that's going to cost me."

"That's going to pinch me."

"That's going to limit me."

"That's going to hinder me."

Rather than thinking,
that's going to open me

wide open to knowing Him better.

So here in Philemon 1:6,

the Apostle Paul puts a big umbrella

over the whole book -

a big prayer covering

over the whole book -

and the prayer is that Philemon,

by the sharing of his faith,

would become effective
for the full knowledge

of every good thing that's in us

for the sake of Christ.

Now, in our English versions,

this term "pray for the
sharing of our faith,"

we can't help but think of evangelism.

We call evangelism "sharing your faith."

And that's good.

Evangelism is sharing your faith,

but evangelism is really
not the main focus

of the book of Philemon.

And the whole idea here
of sharing your faith

is really "koinonia" your faith.

Participation in your faith.

A sharing of your faith.

So it's really this idea of:

I want you to live
out your faith, Philemon.

I want you to put into practice:

Christ is a forgiving God.

I want you to put into practice

that forgiveness towards Onesimus.

Christ is a God who makes people

from different backgrounds brothers.

I want you to put that
into practice, Philemon.

And as you put that in practice;

as you share your faith

and participate in your faith

and have this koinonia with the truth,

what is going to happen to you, Philemon,

is that you are going to find

that this becomes effective -

not possible brothers -

effective for the full knowledge

of what we have in us

through the Lord Jesus Christ.

For the full knowledge of every good thing

that is in us for the sake of Christ.

This principle that obedience leads

to greater understanding of the truth,

it's all over the Bible.

It's an evangelistic principle.

John 7:17,

"If anyone's will is to do God's will,

he will know whether
the teaching is from God

or whether I am speaking
on My own authority."

If there's anyone here who doesn't know

that God's teaching comes through Christ,

I'll tell you why you don't know.

Because you're not willing to do it.

You're not willing to do it.

There is some magazine under your bed;

there's something under your Internet;

there's something in your family;

there's some obedience you
know you'd be called to

and you don't want to do it.

And there's some piece
of pride in your heart

that you don't want to let go of,

and you do not want to let go of it
because the minute that you do,

I'll tell you what, you'll know
that it's really from God.

You're in a moral coverup.

You're holding on to your own sin

until you can't even see the truth.

But the minute you're willing to obey,

He'll show you it's all true.

Isn't that amazing?

It goes on not just in our evangelism,

but this principle that obedience

leads to greater revelation

can be found in Colossians 1:10.

And when I say greater revelation,

I don't mean you obey
and you get something

better than the Bible.

I mean you obey and you get deeper,

sweeter insight into the Bible.

Colossians 1:10,

the Apostle Paul - we'll start in v. 9 -

starts praying here again.

"And so from the day we heard,

we have not ceased to pray for you

asking that you may be filled

with all the knowledge of His will

in all spiritual wisdom
and understanding."

So I want you to know God's will

and I don't want you
to be fools about it.

I want you to know it in spiritual
wisdom and understanding.

I want you to have some savvy

and some spiritual insight.

And so I want you to know God's will

in all spiritual wisdom
and understanding

so that you can walk in a
manner worthy of the Lord.

So, you're obedient; walking in
a manner worthy of the Lord.

"Fully pleasing to Him,

bearing fruit in every good work

and increasing in the knowledge of God."

I want you to have mature,

balanced obedience

so that you will increase

in the knowledge of God.

The same principle's in Ephesians 3:14-21.

Ephesians 3 - maybe my favorite passage

in the New Testament.

Ephesians 3:14-21.

The Apostle Paul says,

"For this reason, I bow my knees

before the Father,

from whom every family in heaven

and on earth is named,

that according to the riches of His glory,

He may grant you to be strengthened

with power through His
Spirit in your inner being."

So, the first thing Paul prays:

I want you to have power.
I want you to have spiritual power.

That's what you need to obey.

That's what you need
to do with will of God.

You need spiritual power.

You don't just need it on
the outside coercing you.

You need it on the inside.

And I want to ask that you get this power

in your inner man,

so that...

Christ might dwell in your hearts

through faith.

Well, isn't Christ already
dwelling in our hearts?

Yes, He is.

Yet the word here is oikodomia.

It's this idea of settling down at home.

Settling down at home.

One person has illustrated this

that when you move into a house

and decide you don't like the color

of the living room,

so you paint it the color you want.

You don't really like that lima bean green

in the bathroom,

so you change that one up too.

You wanted a patio in the back,

so you build one of those.

And after ten years,
you're like, this place...

this is home.

Well, Christ moves in and He's like

I'm not really sure I like what
you're doing in the bedroom,

so He rearranges things.

I'm not sure I like what
you're doing in the wallet.

So He rearranges things.

And then He settles down
increasingly at home.

And pretty soon, you open your wallet,

and you know you've got His smile.

You walk into the bedroom,
you know you've got His smile.

You turn on the TV or turn off the TV,

whichever it is and you know
you've got His smile.

And you want that power in the inner man

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts

through faith.

And then he goes on,

"...so that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith

that you being rooted
and grounded in love."

Your roots are just soaking
up the love of Christ.

"...May have strength to comprehend

with all the saints what is the breadth

and length and height and depth

and to know the love of Christ

that surpasses knowledge."

Man, it's important to have knowledge

in the Christian life.

Careful, clear, doctrinal knowledge.

And once you've got it all right,

God will blow it up with His love

and go beyond it.

He does not bypass knowledge.

But He does surpass
knowledge, doesn't He.

He goes beyond knowledge, doesn't He.

You want to know God like that?

I love the story of the preacher.

He prayed that God would
show Him to himself

in more intimacy and power.

And the Lord just descended on him one day

and eventually he had to ask Him to stop.

He was receiving such
manifestations of Christ.

I find in this generation, most of us

are just walking around going, "start!"

I want to live in a "stop" generation.

Lord, it's too much.

It's too much for me.

C.H. Spurgeon said,

"There is as much difference between

a mature Christian and immature Christian

as there is between a
believer and an unbeliever."

There's no end to the heights, brothers.

There's no end of the heights

of the knowledge of God

that we can be brought into,

and yet some people are apathetic

in the Christian walk

and they scoot back from obedience

as if they're keeping some
freedom for themselves.

We're only cheating ourselves when we

don't walk in obedience to the Lord.

Obedience is the pathway

to further manifestation;

to further illumination;

to further revelation from the Scriptures

of what God is like and who He is for you,

and not only that,

but who you have been made in Him.

I don't know about you, but I find

the greatest moments of being a Christian

are when I just realize I am a Christian.

Man, I'm a Christian!

Saved before the world's foundation.

Before there was a creation,
I was on His mind.

He knew I would see the revelation,

Him in all His adoration,

knowing I was His creation,

He walked up Calvary's hill to save me,

before the world's foundation,
I was on His mind.

I was with Him all the time.

It's incredible!

And now I'm a new creation.

Now the third Person of the Trinity

has decided to dwell in me,

so that He can cause me to call out

to the first Person of the Trinity,

"Abba, Father,"

through the second Person of the Trinity

who loved me and gave Himself for me.

What a thing it is to be just a Christian!

I just want to walk through
life knowing I'm a Christian.

I need the full knowledge

of all that God's done in me.

That's what I need.

And all of a sudden
when you get intimidated,

I don't know if you've
ever experienced this,

but there's some people I'm
intimidated to witness to,

and there's some people I'm
not intimidated to witness to.

It's just my shameful pride
that makes it that way.

There are some people
I feel a little better than,

so I just head right in there

and give the gospel to them.

There's some people,

I don't want them to think I'm a fool,

so I'm a little bit more sophisticated

I like to think.

Cowardly is the real word.

What would I need to overcome that?

Just a full knowledge that
I'm a child of the King!

That all I would ever need to be bold

is already in me,

and He wants to help me.

And that, brothers, comes

through a life of obedience.

It comes through a life
of running from sin

and running towards righteousness.

Now, I don't mean that now

you can only trust God's going to help you

when you've been perfect that day.

That's not what I'm talking about at all.

That's legalism.

God's not helping you
unless you're perfect.

That's not what I'm talking about.

We all stumble in many ways.

But I am talking about a bent;

I'm talking about an orientation;

I'm talking about direction

that says I'm going towards Christ

all the time.

And whenever I see myself fall from that,

I'm asking Him to forgive me

and I keep walking towards the light.

Men like that keep getting more light.

They keep getting more
manifestation of Christ

to their souls.

So Paul is saying here to Philemon,

listen, there's a guy who's a slave.

You're a slave owner.

Slave owners and slaves -

you're not really notorious

for having warm,
intimate fellowship, right?

Not only that - that he is a slave,

and that you are a slave holder,

he's done you wrong

and you've been wronged.

And not only that,

but he's ashamed

and you know why he's ashamed.

And I want you to extend
forgiveness to him,

and I want you to know what it's like

to have him as a brother.

I want you to know what it's like

to see God be the glory

and the lifter of his head

and take his shame away.

I want you to see that God forgave you

and now you get to forgive him.

And I want you to feel the pulsing
love of Christ in your heart

forgiving him.

We've been called to
walk as Christ walked,

to fellowship in His sufferings,

to fellowship in His forgiveness,

to fellowship in His mercy.

And that's what Paul is
inviting Philemon into.

So let me just leave
you with this, brothers.

Speak this truth.

We're called to lead.

You speak this truth.

Speak it everywhere you have

even a grain of influence,

and you speak it to each other

over the course of
the rest of this retreat.

Speak this truth:

"Oh brother, I hope that God

will help you to walk in the faith

so you'll know more about the faith.

I hope that God will help
you to walk in obedience

so that you'll know more of Him."

Don't just speak this truth.

Pray this truth.

Did you notice that I've read four texts

that prove that obedience leads

to greater manifestations of Christ,

and three of them were prayers?

Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon -

those were all, "And I pray..."

Brothers, leadership doesn't start

with you talking to people.

It doesn't start with you
at the front of people.

It starts where no one sees us

except our Father.

It starts with us talking
about people to God.

Lord, would You let them see?

Lord, would You let them obey?

Lord, would You let them grow in obedience

so they can know more of You?

You know what that does?

That helps you trust the promises of God

for other believers.

One of the biggest problems that happens

when we try to lead people,

is they get the impression
that we don't think

they're actually going to grow.

"You really need to do this...

Really need to."

Listen to what Paul says in Philemon.

He says that he's confident that Philemon

will obey.

Do people get that from you?

"Man, I just know that
God's at work in your life.

I'm sure you're going to
come around to the truth.

I'm just confident that
you're going to obey."

Now, I'll admit to you,

there are some Christians -

their lives are dicey.

There are harder moments
to believe that isn't there?

You know what Paul said to the Galatians?

I'm confident you'll take
no other view than mine.

Even in this urgent moment,

he's like: these are believers.

They're going to turn around.

And in Philemon, he does
the exact same thing.

In chapter 1:21, when he says,

"I'm confident of your obedience.

I write to you knowing that you will do

even more than I say."

Well, that's even more isn't it?

I'm laying out to you what I
hope Christ will do in your heart.

I just know you're going
to do more than that.

Brothers, there's a power that comes

when someone godly expresses

the truth about God towards you.

It's not the power of legalism.

It's the power that John Paton spoke about

when his father raised him

and poured into him all those years,

and then he left his father
in the hills of Scotland,

and he said, "I just never
wanted to displease that man."

When someone older and wiser

looks at you and says,

"Jesus is working in you,

I just know you're going to
go above and beyond

and really walk with Him,"

you really walk away like,

"Oh Lord, I hope that's true!

I want to see that be real in my life.

I want to see that.

I don't want to make that
hero of mine ashamed."

Those are wonderful,
wonderful motivations.

Fear is not the only motivation.

You need to speak this truth.

You need to pray this truth.

I don't know what you all do
for these kinds of things.

I keep a picture book
of our church with me

and pray for our people.

This would be one of the
things I'd want to pray.

Lord, would You just help them to
obey You so they'd know You.

The last thing I want to leave you with

is would you trust this truth tonight?

Would you take - or,
I'm confident you will take

a practical next step.

What is it?

What is it for you?

I've been a Christian long enough to know

there's almost always something

gnawing at the conscience of a Christian.

Right?

I know I need to grow.

Well, let the Holy Spirit
fill in the blank.

It's not the same for everyone.

Some people - they can barely

pull themselves away from pornography.

Some people - they aren't
even tempted to look.

We face different struggles,
don't we, brothers?

Some people are just naturally frugal.

Some people just naturally aren't.

But we each stumble in many ways,

and we each have areas the Holy Spirit

puts His finger on

and says, "That one's next."

And when He says, "That one's next,"

our flesh screams.

"Don't touch that one!"

"I'll give You one of those
things I'm good at obeying."

I had a guy ask me one time,

how does God help you to be bold?

He was kind of a timid guy.

How does God help you to be bold?

I said I'm going to be honest with you.

That's not really my problem.

I don't have problems
being bold in preaching.

I've got problems in being
compassionate in preaching.

I've got problems being sweet.

That's where the Holy Spirit
might put His finger on me.

Where does He put His finger on you?

That very place is a precious invitation

from the Lord to know Him more.

He wants to reveal
Himself increasingly to you.

And this isn't tit-for-tat.

Hey, I had a good day.
Where was my revelation?

That isn't how this works, okay.

God is not your genie -

if you do 24/7 of obedience,

He'll give you a nice hour of
inundation with His presence.

That's not how this works.

This is all of grace.

It's all of His sovereign good hand.

But I'll tell you one place
He won't meet you:

disobedience.

He only has one thing
He'll do if He meets you

in disobedience and
that is He'll reprove you,

discipline you,

bring you back

even through showers of mercy.

But He wants to reveal Himself to you.

So you take that place,
you hold it in your heart.

Maybe you express it to a brother.

And you recognize that
place as holy ground

where God wants to begin to keep

walking you in obedience

because He's going to reveal
more of Himself to you.

He'll give you more illumination.

And when you speak to people

about the problems in their life,

you realize you're not just there

applying leadership principles.

That's not it.

You're not just trying to get them to be

more biblical or more conservative

or more whatever.

You're inviting them into
the knowledge of God.

You're eager to see them grow

in the knowledge of God.

And when that's there, brothers,

when that's there,

you get churches that can be

insanely obedient,

and they just get more gracious,

not more legalistic.

Because they're just all
digging for treasure.

Lord, give me more.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank You -

we thank You that You would choose us

and make us Christian,

but we pray that if there are any here

who don't know You,

that they would be willing to obey You

and You would show them that
Your teaching is from God.

Lord God, we come before You

and we ask You for those
of us who are Christians

that we would see those
areas You're pinpointing -

maybe an area of self-control,

maybe an area with our finances,

or an action towards our children,

or our wives - maybe it's a lot of things.

Maybe it's just one thing for now,

but Lord, whatever You open up,

we pray that we would just see it

as the pathway to knowing You better.

And we would just acknowledge

that You have made us know You,

and You've made us want nothing more

than to know You more.

So we would just follow that.

Lord, we plead with You for this,

in Christ's name, Amen.