Are You Obeying Out of Love or Fear? Breaking the Cycle!

As our church prepares for Passover over 28 days, there is a common misunderstanding I notice: the belief that "I obey because I love." Although I wish this were the case, my experience over 20 years shows that this isn't true for many people. We claim to love God, but often our obedience doesn't stem from love.

We need to grow in our relationship with Christ. Many people have not seen growth in their faith for years, indicating that God may not be active in their lives. Real growth should be visible in our prayer, worship, and relationships. There are blessings for obedience, including spiritual growth and the building of God's kingdom.

Join us as Pastor Chris looks at the truth behind why many people struggle in the relationship with God.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
As our church continues through 28 days preparing our hearts for Passover, there's a misconception
I hear a lot.
"I obey because I love."
While I wish this were actually the heart's motive when approaching God, I've actually
found that to not be true.
Over 20 years, lots of individuals, we say we love God, but that's not why we obey.

(00:29):
Welcome to the HHP Podcast.
My name is Chris Franke and I am the Senior Pastor of HFF Church in Oklahoma City.
Join me and others from around the country as we talk all things Bible, church, and family.
We may be right, we may be heretical, but that's for you to decide.
Drop a like, a share, a comment, subscribe, and let's get to it.

(00:53):
If you love me, you will adhere to my teachings.
I know very few people who would read those words in the scripture, multiple times in
the scripture, and say, "Well, if we love God, we don't need to adhere to his teachings."
But if we love God, we should obey, we should adhere.

(01:19):
But sometimes we obey and we don't love.
I know that seems a little harsh, but over the last 20 years, roughly 176,000 correspondence
per month in various different ministries, I have found that most people obey because
they're scared.

(01:39):
They have some warped view of who God is, what his judgment is, and what he requires
of us.
And rather than just operating in a place of, "I love the Lord and I'm just going
to do my best," there's a lot of fear.
And there's no way in a six to 10 minute podcast that I could ever do justice and even

(01:59):
come close to answering all the various questions.
But I can say that we talk about how much we love the commandments and which commandments
we're required to keep.
This is not a new argument.
What does that look like?
How do we think about others?
Are they doing it the way they should?

(02:21):
A year after year cycle of broken records saying the same thing, beating the same drum, having
the same arguments.
If we are in Christ and Christ is in us, a broken record is not what we're called to
be.
We are called to be walking humbly and growing in our walk with Christ.

(02:45):
Growing being the key word.
I know many who would say that they have not adjusted, they have not changed or found any
growth in their relationship with God or the community that they're in in years.
That means God isn't active in their life.
Now a disclaimer, swinging the pendulum from one extreme to the other is also not the answer

(03:09):
and it's definitely not healthy.
So having some sort of erratic behavior doesn't say that you are somehow growing in Christ.
And so I need to make that disclaimer.
But sustainable growth in your prayer life, your worship mindset, your marriage, your family,

(03:30):
your church, how you execute the gifts of the spirit should all be visible and present
to you and to the others around you.
The reality is even in Leviticus 26, the reward and the blessing for obedience is prosperity.
And before you write me emails, it's not a prosperity gospel as it's been taught by

(03:52):
many.
This means that we should be prosperous in growth, fruitfulness, and increasing in the
life altering gifts of God.
Why?
For the multiplication of the kingdom and the edification, the building up, stabilizing
of the kingdom.
This is actually a requirement for believers, be fruitful and multiply.

(04:16):
And this is far less of a sexual reference and far more of an underlining goal of all
the ways of our life.
You see, fruitful, be fruitful and multiply is used to justify having lots of kids and
lots of these other things.
And I believe in context that's not in error.

(04:37):
But what about your marriage?
Is your marriage growing and being fruitful and multiplying?
Or do you fight constantly with your wife and your husband?
Are you more concerned about your needs or your wants or your desires than your spouses?
What about your kids?
How do they listen and act?
Is there a real tangible growth in them or are they the ones that everybody doesn't want

(05:01):
to be around?
That's partially a parent's responsibility.
What about how you treat others?
Whether it's people in the marketplace or it's people in your church.
Do you treat them well because it's a means to accomplish what you want?
Or are they a treasured possession of God's and you treat them as such?

(05:24):
These are just some of the questions we should be asking ourselves to make sure that we're
bearing the fruitfulness of the Spirit of God in us.
It's easy to get stuck.
It's easy to say, "Well, I fear the Lord and I love the Lord, so I'm going to keep
these commandments."
But as a father of five, I know many times my children will obey something and they don't

(05:49):
love it.
They don't want to do it.
In fact, there's a term for it.
It's called malicious obedience.
It doesn't necessarily just fall with children, sometimes it's with adults.
If we are in fear and that's what we're trying to do, then I need to ask you, if we are in

(06:10):
fear, we hide.
If we are free, we thrive.
Jesus didn't give us a spirit of fear.
He bought our freedom to be fruitful and multiply.
Are you multiplying the kingdom of God?
Are you being fruitful with the gifts that God's given you?
If not, it's time for some self-reflection.

(06:31):
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(06:55):
you