In the sermon 'Willfulness and Obedience,' Chris Hayzlip discusses the dangers of willfulness and the virtues of obedience through Biblical teachings. He begins by examining the meaning of 'self-willed,' highlighting synonyms such as stubbornness and obstinacy, and explains how a willful person places their own desires above others, including God's will, often due to pride or laziness. Hayzlip uses examples from Romans and 1 Samuel to illustrate how willfulness is contrary to righteousness and can lead to rebellion, equating it with witchcraft and idolatry. He warns that rejecting God's will can result in societal chaos and tyranny, paralleling current political issues. The sermon transitions into the nature of obedience, defined as submission to a higher authority, emphasizing that God's commandments are for our good and are acts of love and worship. Hayzlip argues that true obedience involves humility and consistency, even in the face of persecution, demonstrated by Jesus Christ's life. The conclusion stresses the ultimate duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments.

I'm still getting used to wearing glasses. I don't always need them, but it's becoming more and more frequent. I want to say how wonderful it is to finally be here as a member of this church. It's good to be in the house of God. And I pray that we can all leave saying that it was good to be in the house of God and that we were all fed by his word.

And to that end, let's begin reading in 2 Peter chapter two. We'll read the first 11 verses together. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness, they shall they with famed words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemn them with an overthrow, making them an ensemble into those that after should live ungodly, and deliver just lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the ungodly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed.

They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities, whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. I have two subjects I would like to speak on this morning. The first, it might as well make the most of my time, right? Wish you could have seen the look on David's face. The first being this word we find in verse 10, self-willed.

I looked that up, and it has several synonyms, words that mean the same things. Self-willed means stubbornness, willfulness, obstinance, perverseness. So I looked up the definition of willfulness, which is going to be my first subject. And I always like to begin with definitions, because it's important for us to understand the words we're talking about. One of the tricks our enemy likes to use to deceive us is to use the same language we do but with different definitions.

That's called equivocation. We see it all the time in politics but You look at other denominations and they say they use a lot of the same language we do like baptism But they'll change the definition to mean sprinkling or pouring When really we know it means dipping so I'm going to begin with a definition willful I'm going to get two definitions one from Noah Webster's dictionary He says it is governed by the will without yielding to reason, obstinate, stubborn, perverse, inflexible such as a willful man. Then the Oxford English Dictionary defines it like so. Willful, Having or showing a stubborn and determined intention to do as one wants, regardless of the consequences. So sometimes we call this, these kind of people strong willed or we say they have an iron will and many times They're looked upon as Being Somebody who's a great leader That's not the way God looks at it.

Somebody who's full of will cares only about their own will and nobody else's. They will not yield to reason as we saw by our definitions. They are called obstinate, stubborn, perverse. But that part that said, regardless of the consequences, caught my attention. And I brought to mind Proverbs chapter 22, verse 3, which tells us, A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and heighteth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.

So by definition, a willful person is neither reasonable nor prudent. Turn if you will to the book of Romans chapter three. Having learned the meaning of willfulness, we're now gonna look into the nature of willfulness. Romans chapter 3, let's read verses 10 through 12 together. Verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.

No, not one. It says they are all gone out of the way. By the way it means God's way. Yeah. And so the first thing we notice about a willful person is they believe their own will is superior to everyone else's, even God's will.

And this is where they deviate and that's why Noah Webster said they're also perverse because they deviate from God's will. And what are the causes of this? A lot of times it's pride. We are very prideful people. And so submitting to somebody else's will damages our pride.

But You know, a lot of times it's not just pride, it's laziness. It's easier to do our own will than somebody else's. Early this morning my wife woke me up and she said, you need to go to the store and get some Tylenol. Your son has a fever. He needs Tylenol to break the fever.

My will was to stay in bed and go back to sleep. But you know, God's Word tells us we're to submit ourselves one to another, are we not? So submitting to her will took some effort. Fortunately, after I got dressed, she found some and I could go back to bed. Okay, so another thing we see here in Romans chapter 3 is that willfulness is an act of unrighteousness.

It says there, there is none righteous, no not one. You see, before we can be righteous before God, we have to be right with God. And just as His truth brings us in alignment with His person, His will. Being righteous means we're in line with His will as well. So it's not enough just to know the truth, you have to also conform to his will.

It also says, they are together become unprofitable. That means willfulness robs us of our worth. Think about that for a moment. Dogs. You ever had a pet dog?

You ever had a willful dog? That was a horrible dog to deal with. But you give that dog some training. You break its will to Where it starts submitting to your will and all of a sudden that becomes the best dog you've ever had. It comes when you tell it to, it goes when you tell it to.

It shuts up when you tell it to, that's a big one. But even guillant dogs, look at children. Willful children are problem children. Obedient children are profitable children. Employees.

Any of you who have employees or a bent employee? Yeah. You got a willful employee? What happens? Before long, you know, I don't think this is working out.

I think you need to go. If you want to be profitable, you need to submit yourself to the authorities that are over you, especially to God. Turn, if you will, to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 15. The first Samuel chapter 15. We see in Samuel chapter 15 an example of a self-willed man.

Saul had just been commanded by God to go to the nation of Amalek and destroy every last man, woman, child, and beast, destroy everything because of how they treated Israel when they were fleeing Egypt. But Saul went in and did something different. He spared the king. The children of Israel spared the very best of the flocks, supposedly to make sacrifices unto God. But when the prophet Samuel came and saw this, look in 1 Samuel chapter 15 verses 22 and 23, we see the rebuke God told Samuel to give Saul.

And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king." Rebellion is as, or stubbornness is as the sin of iniquity and idolatry. Stubbornness is, willfulness.

It's not hard to see why either. Because if you're rejecting God's will, you're holding to your own. You're setting your own will above God's you're making yourself an idol a false God It also says rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft. And you know what stubbornness leads to? It leads to rebellion.

If you're going to hold to your own will, then eventually you're going to violate the will of the authority over you. Rebellion is the sin of witchcraft. You know what witchcraft is? Witchcraft is a witch was someone who was an oracle for a false god, who delivered the will of a false god to somebody to follow. So rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

We become our own prophet to our own false God when we hold to our own will rather than submitting to God's will. Turn if you will to the book of Psalms, chapter 106. Having now looked at the meaning of willfulness and some examples of willfulness, let's look at the consequences of willfulness. Psalm chapter 106, let's read verses 39 through 42. Thus were they defiled with their own works and went a-whoring with their own inventions.

Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance, and he gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them and were brought into subjection under their hand." Kind of see that going on in our nation today, don't we? We have rejected the will of God. God has told us, well, if you don't want to be ruled by me, you can be ruled by your enemies. Look who's in the White House now.

Somebody who fully rejects the will of God. We have an entire government who rejects the will of God. Willfulness leads to anarchy. How many of our laws are being ignored now by our government. They don't care that they exist.

Voting laws, look what's going on here in Georgia. Border laws being ignored. Bathroom laws being ignored. Bathroom laws being ignored, marriage laws being ignored, and what does anarchy lead to? Chaos.

And that's by design too. You see, chaos is meant to establish a void where there's no government. You ever heard the saying, nature abhors a void? Nature abhors a void. You get a jar, you suck all the air out of it, put a vacuum inside, seal it up.

First thing you do when you open the jar, new air comes in. You destroy a government, a nation's government. There's a vacuum. Anarchy sets in and pretty soon the very people who thought they would love that freedom are begging and crying for some sort of government. Any government.

And that's when tyranny, master, comes in. Same thing with God. If you reject God's government, he's not going to leave a vacuum. He's going to allow Satan to become your master. You know, and that's the purpose of church discipline.

If you reject God's authority, if you reject the church's authority, whom He left in charge, the purpose of church discipline is to turn you over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. You don't like God's government, see how you like Satan's government. I'm going to give you a few examples here, two from the Old Testament, two from the New Testament of the consequences of being self-willed or stubborn. Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 58 through 62 tells us, If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayst fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God, then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. Moreover, he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee also every sickness, every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed.

And ye shall be left few a number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because thou wouldst not obey the voice of the Lord thy God." Proverbs 13 13 tells us, who so despiseth the word shall be destroyed, but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded. Romans two, verses eight and nine. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath and tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile. Second Thessalonians 1 8, inflaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. What I'm demonstrating by making that progression from the Old Testament to the New Testament is willfulness is a sin that is consistently punished by God.

From the earliest part of the Old Testament to the latest part of the New Testament, we see that God is very consistent in breaking the will of his people. Willfulness, stubbornness, it is the sin of rebellion, it is the sin of idolatry, it is the sin of witchcraft, and it will not be tolerated by God. Now on to my second subject, obedience. And as with the first one, let's begin by a definition. It is compliance with an order, request, or law, or submission to another's authority.

Turn, if you will, to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 10, and we'll look at the nature of obedience. Deuteronomy chapter 10, let's read verses 12 and 13. And now Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command thee this day, for thy good." Do you hear that last part? For thy good. You know, as children of God, that's something we ought to be able to relate to, especially if we've had children ourselves.

We don't give our children orders. Well, sometimes it's for our own pleasure, but usually it's for their own good, right? Same thing with our Father, and He loves us a lot more than we can ever love our children. All of His commandments are for our good. His commandments are to make us conform to be like Him.

You know, it's kind of ironic if you think about it. People who rebel against God try making themselves their own gods, but really it's through obedience you become like God. Obedience implies a higher authority. When we submit ourselves through obedience, we recognize that there's an authority higher than us. This is an act of love and worship.

Psalm and worship. Psalm chapter 119 verses 47 and 48 shows us that obedience is also submissive. The psalmist writes in Psalm 119 verse 47 and 48 and I will delight myself in thy commandments Which I have loved My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes." Obedience is submissive. You know, submission in our day has gotten a bad reputation. A lot of people equate that to kowtowing.

It's not. Let me explain the difference. Kowtowing is when somebody is forced or beaten into submission. The person who kowtows does not submit willingly. In their heart, they're still rebelling, but with their body, they're submitting just to prevent getting punished by the authority over them.

Biblical submission is willing. It's an act of love that we show to our Savior. You know there's no way we can repay Jesus Christ for the act of love He showed to us on the cross at Calvary. But we can show our gratitude to Him through our obedience. He told us that, if you love me, keep my commandments.

Submission is an act of love. It's also an act of peace. Proverbs chapter 16 verse 7 says, when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Look at the contrast there. Willfulness being an act of rebellion against God, meaning you're at war with God, but submission being an act of peace.

You're at peace with God, and in return, God makes even your enemies to be at peace with you. Isn't that wonderful? Turn to Hebrews chapter 11 and we'll start looking at ways we should obey God. Ways we should obey God. Hebrews chapter 11, we'll read verse 8.

We're to obey without arguing. It's written here of Abraham in Hebrews 11 verse 8, by faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went. How many times as a child, when your parents told you to do something, you said, why? How long's it gonna take? Where are we going?

What are we going to do when we get there? When are we going to get back? Who? What? When?

Where? Why? How? You know, I have found oftentimes when my children start questioning an order I give them it's not a search for knowledge. It's a stall tactic.

Especially when you answer one question and you get another one and another one and another one. They're really just arguing with you. So I adopted the Policy, you obey first, we'll talk about why later. And really, that's how God expects us to behave with Him, too. Obey me first, you'll learn why later.

And a lot of times, we learn why through obeying. Experience is a great teacher. We're also supposed to obey cheerfully. Psalm 119 verse 16 tells us, I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word.

You know, when we obey cheerfully, you know what that means? It means we have successively suppressed our own will. And we are then able to be happy to do our Lord's will. Turn to John chapter 8 and we'll learn something about obedience from Jesus Christ that we're supposed to obey consistently. Jesus in John chapter 8 verse 29 tells us, and he that sent me is with me.

The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him." Where to obey consistently. You know the best and pretty much the only way we really learn is by repetition, doing things over and over and over again. My nephew is very eager to learn martial arts and he's learned that I'm a martial artist. And he's always asking me, how did you learn this? How did you learn this?

Well, basically it's by doing it 10, 000 times. You do the same thing over and over again, 10, 000 times. Do it the right way, 10, 000 times. The old saying is practice makes perfect, but only if you practice perfectly. But yes, we're supposed to obey consistently.

Children need consistency growing up. If you're all the time, if one day this thing's wrong but the next day it's okay, you're not being consistent. That's confusion. God is not the author of confusion. And thank God, His Word is settled forever.

He is very consistent with us. What was wrong yesterday is wrong today. It's going to be wrong tomorrow. And yet we still don't learn, do we? Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 8, We'll learn a couple things there.

Philippians chapter 2. In there we're going to learn where to obey with humility and regardless of the consequences. Philippians chapter 2 verse 5, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He humbled himself.

You know, I got the idea a while back that him becoming, coming in the form of a human was humbling. No, I'm wrong. See, God changes not. He's always been in human form. That's why Adam was made in his likeness after his image.

No, it was after he was found in fashion as a man that he humbled himself. I've heard it said from people, they said, you know, a humble person will not know that they're humble. That sounds good. But after giving it more thought and after studying the scriptures, it's so wrong. Jesus Christ says here, humbled himself.

He is omniscient. You're telling me he didn't know that he was humble? He knew it. How about King Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament? God humbled him.

Did he know when he wrote that part of scripture that he was humble? You better believe he knew it. How about David in the Psalms? Did David know that he was humble? Yes, he did.

How do people know when they're humble? Because it takes a lot of work to be humble. You've got to suppress your own will and submit to the will of God. And that goes against our nature. It's not an easy thing for us to do.

But also says he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Obedient unto death. You know, obedience is sometimes easier to perform than others because there are consequences to being obedient to God. This world hates God. This world is at war with God and this world hates you because you're his children and they're going to try to stop you.

So there are consequences to obeying God in this life, But this life is just temporary. Don't be afraid of what man has to throw at us. Christ said in Matthew chapter 10 verse 28, And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Christ humbled himself and was obedient even unto the death of the cross. It's not just death. You know, you and I, eventually we all face death.

We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But God has told us, oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? But think about Christ's death. That was torture.

They tortured him before he gave up the ghost and he submitted himself unto that torture. What are we willing to face to obey God? Christ tells us in Matthew chapter 5 verses 11 through 12, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." You know, sometimes we get strange ideas of what persecution is. We think we're going to go out in the world and the world is going to attack us and bombard us and destroy us.

Read your New Testament. Where did all the persecution come from? It came from those who called themselves the children of God. Christ was persecuted by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So were the apostles.

Who slew the prophets in the Old Testament? It was the children of Israel who did. And I'm going to tell you, most of your persecution is going to be coming from those who call them the same selves the saints of God Turn if you will to Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and I will close by reading this verse Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 13 And I thought this a fitting conclusion. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man.

Now I turn it over to Brother David. Thanks for watching!