Day 9: To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

I remember well my first conversations with Frank. He was a coworker at the bank where I worked when I was in seminary.

Frank knew that I had been a successful bank executive before I answered the call to vocational ministry. He knew I had returned to banking part-time just to put food on the table. He knew, or could have surmised, that my pay had gone from an executive salary to that of an hourly employee.

But Frank did not understand this.

How could I give up the fast-paced life and good income to end up selling all my possessions and working for a relatively paltry pay? What kind of person does that?

Frank asked a ton of questions. When I attempted to explain what Christ had done in my life, he countered defensively with his own good deeds. “Hey, I’m a good person,” he said, with certainty that his overall character was equal to or better than mine. Or he would point out how he helped someone with a business plan that was “making a boatload of money every year.”

Frank was convinced that his sacrificial behavior was sufficient for God. It seemed like he kept an internal scorecard where he felt like his good deeds were more than his bad deeds. My efforts to explain grace to him seemed to fall on deaf ears. He just stared at me when I explained Romans 3:23: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

The prophet Samuel had a challenge with King Saul. The king wanted to demonstrate all the sacrifices he had made on God’s behalf. He wanted to convince the prophet that his good outweighed his bad. Samuel spoke forcefully and bravely to the king: “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22).

For Day 9, we will focus on praying for our own obedience. We will pray that we clearly hear God’s commands and admonitions. And we will pray that we will be obedient to them. We will seek to know with greater clarity that obedience is better than sacrifice.

When I left that bank to become a pastor, I felt sorrow and even a bit of guilt that I had been unable to communicate the truths of the gospel to Frank. Though I knew I shouldn’t carry the burden, I admit that I felt like a failure.

But God continued to work in Frank’s life. I didn’t hear from Frank for thirty years—until he called me one day at my office. Thirty years down the road he wanted to talk to me!

We were both living in Nashville, and he asked if he could come see me at my home. I welcomed him gladly. The man who came into my house was a different man than I had known three decades earlier. He no longer had the bold self-assurance I remembered. And he looked sick, very sick.

Frank told me he was dying. The doctors had told him he had about six more months, and that proved to be accurate. During those six months, Frank and I talked many times. I visited his home. We talked about faith. We talked about the step of obedience of becoming a follower of Christ. Frank repented of his sins. By faith, he accepted the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Frank became a Christian.

In his final days, he asked me to officiate his funeral. I was able to tell his friends from different walks of life that Frank was in heaven. I was able to tell them how they could go to heaven.

Never underestimate the power of God to change someone’s life.

Obedience to him leads to eternal life.

THAT FIRST STEP OF OBEDIENCE

The call of Christ is an invitation to obediently follow him, to embrace him as Lord and Savior. It is an acknowledgment of our sins. Again, Romans 3:23 says it well: “Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” No one measures up on their own merit. Everyone has sinned, and that sin separates us from God’s holy perfection. There is no way that we ourselves can bridge that gap.

Our obedience begins when we not only acknowledge our sin, but also desire to turn away from our sin. It is what the Bible calls repentance. The apostle Paul spoke cogently about repentance: “I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:20-21).

Paul often spoke of repentance and faith in the same breath, much like he does in Acts 20:21. Repentance is the act of “turning from.” Faith is the act of “turning to.” When we move away from something, we are simultaneously moving toward something else. We move away from sin (repentance) and move toward Christ (faith).

The Christian’s first step of obedience is when we repent from sin and place our faith in Jesus Christ. When we do, we are given a new life. We are born again. We had a physical birth. Now we have a spiritual birth. We have been obedient and have chosen to follow Christ as Lord and Savior.

OBEDIENCE TO A COMMISSION

It is clear that Jesus has a command he wants Christians to obey. Though there are different places in Scripture where we can find the command, we looked at Acts 1:8 in detail on Day 2: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We call this command, and others like it (such as Matthew 28:19-20), the Great Commission. The terminology is not incidental. It is indeed one of the greatest commands we have to obey. If we have become followers of Christ, we are commanded to tell others about Jesus and what he has done in our lives.

The action step for Day 9 of the thirty-day challenge is another prayer: “Lord, help me to be obedient to your Great Commission. Give me your power, strength, and discernment in my life as I share with others what Jesus has done for me.”

Don’t allow the simplicity of the prayer to diminish its importance. You’re praying that God will give you everything you need to obey the Great Commission.

Note that you are not praying for a certain methodology; you are simply praying for obedience. That obedience may come in the form of inviting someone to church where they can hear the gospel and become positively influenced by other believers. The obedience may come by simply praying to God each day for an opportunity to share the love of Christ in word or in deed. The obedience may happen when someone like Frank comes into your life and asks you point-blank questions.

Like the other days we have dedicated to prayer, Day 9 is an important day. When we ask God to help us become more obedient, he is pleased to respond positively. On this particular day, we are praying for obedience to the Great Commission. We are praying not only for opportunities, but also that we will do exactly what God wants us to do when those opportunities arise.

Take a moment now and pray for obedience, particularly obedience to the Great Commission.