IT'S NOT WORTH IT: THE COST OF DISOBEDIENCE
Hello my beloved brethren, I welcome you in the name of the Lord to the month of March. I will be admonishing you on “The Cost of Disobedience.”
What is disobedience? According to the Merriam – Webster dictionary, disobedience means refusal or neglect to obey. Disobedience or rebellion against God is a sinful act that the Bible has plenty to say about it. The world is in the huge mess it is today because of Adam and eve’s disobedience.
The word of God defines sin as transgression of the law of God according to 1st John 3:4. Sin is based entirely on plain disobedience. Disobedience is refusing to do what God has commanded or doing what God forbids. With this I mind, Satan is the author of disobedience.
Disobedience to God and to His word has become a norm in our society today. A lot don’t care to know if their lives or actions are in line with the word of God, what matters is I and I alone. The myself seeking pleasure has so much eaten people even Christians that they forget that disobedience is very consequential by nature. In many cases, it ends up costing people far more than they’ve ever thought. The consequences of disobedience are plain all through the scriptures from the book of Genesis to Revelation. Even today, we are witnessing before our eyes how people’s lives are being destroyed through immorality, crime and other sinful activities.
Indeed, God has a reason why He allowed all these negative things to be recorded in the Bible because He wants us to able be to learn from the horrible mistake that various people had made in the past by disobeying Him so that we don’t keep on repeating the same costly mistake over and over again. It is for our own good that these things are recorded because God in His Love for us wants to protect us from the ugly consequences of disobedience against Him, because to disobey Him is to willingly choose to walk in the will of Satan, hence walking out of God’s protection.
Let’s take a look at a character in the Bible in the person named Jonah. Jonah 1:1-5 says, “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay and was fast asleep.” There are many lessons we can learn from the life of this prophet of Israel in the Bible, so that Christians may learn what God expects of His children.
Someone might say, but God has not sent me somewhere, neither have I disobeyed, but He definitely has spoken to you countless times through His word, by His spirit, even through the mouth of His servant to stop something, to disconnect from a habit, to quit that ungodly relationship (James 4:4), to stop stealing, lying, malice, hatred even to forgive that brother or sister. The experience Jonah went through were all part of the cost of disobedience. As children of God we are all to be obedient to His word. When we disobey there is a cost involved.
In Romans 8:15 the Bible says, “…but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, father.” The moment we receive Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we became sons of God and we have come into fellowship with God. When you give yourself to disobedience, your sonship is not affected but your relationship (fellowship) with God is. Hence, part of the cost of disobedience is separation. When in disobedience, Jonah rose up to flee. Of course Jonah could literally escape from God, but there was a separation as far as fellowship with God was concerned. Disobedience results in broken relationship with God. In John 14:21, Jesus said, “He that hath my commandments, and keepth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” Obedience is the secret of intimate fellowship with the Lord.
The cost of disobedience also includes the danger of shipwreck. In 1st Timothy 1:19, the Bible says, “Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.” Anytime you keep putting away the instructions of God, am sorry to say, if you don’t put it right you are heading for a shipwreck. The disobedient Christian runs the risk of losing everything about his Christian service when he does not put things in order. God never intended for Jonah to have such troubles he went through, if only he had obeyed. Some Christians are where they are now because of disobedience. But it never was God’s will to be so.
More of the cost of disobedience is seen in Jonah 1:5. Other lives were also endangered because of Jonah’s disobedience. You may ask yourself, how many other lives are messed up because of my disobedience? Are there shattered relationships in my family because I refused to submit to God’s commandments concerning family life? Is there someone who has been badly hurt because I have been disobedient? What a network of tragedies we build when we are disobedient as Christians.
Finally, the cost of disobedience involves sleep. Verse 5 states that “Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.” What a picture of the disobedient Christian. He is hardened and asleep to the claim and commands of the Lord. Hebrews 3:13b says, “…lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Continuous disobedience to God hardens the heart and obstructs your sensitivity to the voice and leading of God’s Spirit.
The cost of disobedience my brethren is high and numerous. It is far better to follow and obey the word of the Lord than to suffer the consequences of disobedience. If you have disobeyed the Lord in some areas of your life, repent, tell the Lord to forgive you. Continuing in disobedience is a serious mistake in the life of a Christian. Make the change today. What glory awaits you through obedience which the devil wants to steal by you disobeying?
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