MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
with Rev. Shawn Barkley
Let’s take a deeper dive into the message of June 26, 2022
Below are some questions, thoughts, and additional insights that we invite you to participate in providing in the comments below your thoughts as we reflect on this week’s message:
1. Were there any new ideas or insights you gained from this message?
2. Did the message leave you with any additional questions? If so, what were they?
3. Is there anything Shawn touched on that you would like to have further explained?
Feel free to leave your thoughts, comments, and insights to this message in the comments section below.
I agree that worship should be our first response to God’s love for us, but we also show our love for God when we do what he says. Personally, I don’t like to use the word obedience all that much – in my life’s experience, obedience isn’t particularly relational. It’s more like “do this or else”. Instead, it works better for me to think of following Jesus and yielding my will to his. For me, these images are very relational. Following like the disciples followed meant learning from and becoming like Jesus. Yielding is relational because I acknowledge that I want to do things a certain way, but because I love God, I commit to do as He says. (On a good day), I do as God wants because He loves me and I love Him, not because I’m afraid of what will happen if I don’t. In my life’s experience (my dad was a naval officer, so the idea of following orders is pretty deeply ingrained in me) obedience is mostly about following the rules, but I find that Christian obedience also has a strong element of following the promptings of the Spirit. There’s not a command that tells me to approach a specific person and to ask about a specific subject or offer some specific help, but I think the Spirit prompts us to do that.
Viewed in this way, I think it’s pretty hard to separate worship from obedience, discipleship, sanctification… When obedience flows from relationship, the desire to be with God and to become like God is the basis for our obedience. The desire to be with God and to acknowledge Him for who He is also describes worship.
You can probably tell that I use this forum to help develop my thoughts. When I write, I think more deeply (if not more coherently 😉 ) and then I dump it on you. So I’m equally happy if my words spark a thought in your mind, or if my words just tell you that I’m trying to understand God better.
Your question about our response to God has gotten me thinking.
Thanks for the thoughts Dave…I tend to use the MMQb to develop mine as well! Interesting contrast between the impression we have of the words “obey” and “yield”. I like the language of “respond” as being the basis of our yielding. I yield to Him from a place of deep love and gratitude. We’re looking at Luke 10: 25-37 this Sunday (and this evening!), which also includes the two great commandments. We love our neighbor in response to what Jesus Christ (our good Samaritan) has done for us. Hope you and Carol have a great morning my friend.
I’m going to ponder the use of the word “obedience” in my teaching – what it evokes and conveys.
SB