Living Obediently | Acts 8:26-39

Have you ever felt like God wanted you to do something, but you didn’t want to do it? It can be uncomfortable and inconvenient. What do we typically do: we start to renegotiate. “God, I’ll do it, just not right this moment.” “God, I’ll talk to them, but I am waiting for the right time.” “God, I know I need to stop doing this, but I’m enjoying it right now.” Most of us don’t struggle with knowing what God wants us to do, we struggle with doing it. We often don’t say no to God, we say, “not yet.” Here’s a hypothetical, not real life at all. Have you ever asked your kids to do something, like take the trash out and they say, “Yeah, I got it.” Then a few hours later, you notice that they did not do it at all and it’s too late the trash as ran. It can be frustrating, so you go to them and say, “Why didn’t you do what I asked you to do?” They say, “I meant to but…I got distracted or I forgot or I was busy.” Here is what you are thinking as a parent, “You didn’t forget what I said, you just chose to do something else.” If we’re honest, we do the same with God. “God, I love you, BUT… I’ll follow you, BUT… I’ll obey you, BUT.. whatever is on the other side of the BUT is what we think is more important in that moment. It doesn’t matter what your intentions are; Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

In Acts 8, the gospel is on the move. It is spreading beyond Jerusalem to Samaria and everywhere the gospel goes it changes everything about everything. People are being set free from their sins, addictions, darkness and demons all because of the resurrection power of Jesus. But the Christian life is not just about believing something, but it is about following SOMEONE. If you are going to truly live alive in Jesus, you are most alive when you live obediently. Every step of obedience in the Christian life is a step of love, joy and peace. One of the very first steps of obedience for every believer is baptism. In this passage, we are going to see two men who are living obediently. If we are going to live obediently, we must first believe in Jesus and then take the next step towards obedience.