Obedience: May I Have Another?

This episode focuses on embracing obedience in our lives can lead us to unexpected peace and transformation, even when it feels uncomfortable. The episode focuses on the connection between humility and obedience, using biblical stories to illustrate the rewards of trusting God’s plan.

• Discussing the struggles of pride and rebellious nature 
• Analyzing Peter’s obedience in Luke 5 as a model of faith 
• Exploring the trust required to follow God’s commands 
• Highlighting personal stories of obedience and its rewards 
• Encouraging listeners to commit to acts of obedience in their daily lives 
• Preparing for the next episode focused on endurance 

Let’s ask God where he’s calling you to obey. What is the next step you can take?

Chapters

• 0:00 Obedience
• 1:20 Episode Intro
• 2:56 Luke Chapter 5
• 6:00 What Does Obedience Require?
• 8:30 Personal Testimony
• 12:09 Take a Moment to Ask God
• 12:56 Pause for The Cause: Weekly Challenge
• 13:33 Outro and Prayer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Low Life Show, a space where we have conversations about the struggles of life, where we declare war on pride and walk humbly into renewed living with a surrendered heart. Where we take our past failures and turn them into a roadmap for you to live in peace and living the low life. Whether you're working through personal struggles or simply seeking a fresh perspective, this podcast will inspire and equip you to live low and let God lift you up. I'm your host, dl the Low Life, a reformed professional dirtbag who's here to tell you that I now live a life of peace, transformed through humility. Join me, let's get low what's good. Welcome back to the Low Life Show. I am DL the Low Life, and today we're diving into a big part of living low Obedience.

Speaker 1: 1:29

This one is rough. I mean, we're human. We are rebellious by nature, prideful, we love going against the grain. Pride tells us we are in charge. You're not my dad, I don't have to listen to you, to others, and then when your dad says something, you ignore him too. Pride will always pass the buck and justify it. Whatever it takes to live that Burger King life and have it your way. How many of you were perfect kids, always listened, never got in trouble, enjoyed chores Me. I feel like I've always been in trouble.

Speaker 1: 2:08

From my childhood up even to this last decade, I was a believer in rules are made to be broken. Thing is, if there are rules like literal rules, by the definition of the word, they can't be broken. They rule. To be a rule implies that it's sovereign like God. So we're going to say getting low is a rule and obedience is a key that helps us get there. Humility isn't just about getting low, it's about staying low, and staying low means trusting God's plan over your own, even when it doesn't make sense. Obedience isn't always easy, but it's always worth it. So let's talk about why obedience is a key part of humility and why and how to take that next step in faith towards living a low life. We'll begin today in Luke, chapter 5.

Speaker 1: 3:04

Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around him and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret and he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land and he sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat. Now, when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Simon responded and said Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as you say and let down the nets. And when they had done this, they caught a great quantity of fish and their nets began to tear. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats to the point that they were sinking. But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying Go away from me, lord, for I am a sinful man, for amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken. And likewise also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners to Simon. And and likewise also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners to Simon. And Jesus said to Simon Do not fear, from now on you will be catching people. When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Speaker 1: 4:28

To me, this story is wild. Peter had been fishing all night. No luck, not a fish, cleaning his nets already. I'd be frustrated. I'd imagine he was too Losing hope. I'd think. Then here comes Jesus and says, try again. Peter could have said, no, I'm good. But instead he obeyed and ended up with a catch so big it nearly sank his boat. If I was Peter I wouldn't have done it. I'd be like, look bro, I've been here all night and got nothing. And I've been doing this try again thing and caught nothing. Like we're good, I'm not doing it. But Peter didn't do that, he obeyed and he got the haul of a lifetime. I'm not doing it, but Peter didn't do that, he obeyed and he got the haul of a lifetime.

Speaker 1: 5:05

This story illustrates exactly what obedience to God and living low leads to A whole lot of fish. Mmm Sushi, just kidding. Obedience leads to a more fulfilled life, one where survival isn't a thing, you just thrive. You experience riches. This world doesn't value like God's blessing, and it sits just on the other side of obedience. Being obedient might look crazy in the moment, but it is always worth it.

Speaker 1: 5:36

There will come a time where obedience may look like doing things differently than you're used to, different from the rule of thumb. It might make zero sense, but remember, sometimes faith defies logic. So what does it take to fall in line? Well, obedience requires trust. You may not understand God's plan, but you have to trust Him. He's the only one. If ever it was going to be just one person, that's who you trust. Trust God.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Ask yourself this what does it take for me to trust the people in my circle, the ones I actually do trust? Consider that. Consider how that came about. Some of you might say I'd have to see if they have my back when it counts. When things get rough, do they run or are they there standing back-to-back to fight with me? Others those of you who have done time, like me, might have found your trustworthy people in prison. I've met a handful of folks that wouldn't trust you if you didn't do time. They really test a person's character. Maybe you have to know where they come from, like how they said back in the day, if they come from good stock. You want to hear something funny.

Speaker 1: 6:58

When it comes to God, the way you learn to trust him is also the reward. The way and the reward is intimacy, a deep relationship with the Father. Every step of obedience brings you closer to him. By trusting Him, by surrendering control, by saying your will, god, not mine. By giving Him control in all areas, not just the major crisis and all the problems, even the meaningless things, the trivial matters. God, what TV show should we watch? God, is this the right amount of sugar in my coffee? His word says all things. My grandfather made it a point to define all for us. All means excluding nothing. That means every aspect of your life. If it's on a list, god should be right there next to every item. By inquiring of His will in all areas of your life, you get a chance to grow a real relationship with Him. You get the privilege, the honor of entering His rest in His presence.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Here's the beauty of obedience when it comes to God. Half the time you won't even know it's Him leading you. The other half, you'll be chomping at the bit to do it anyways. Fair warning though it will stretch you past your comfort zone. But on the other side of that comfort is joy waiting to embrace you. Walking in obedience to God's will is where you will find meaning and purpose in your life. If you're too scared to trust God, then trust me. And trust me when I say trust God.

Speaker 1: 8:29

By now you know that my path to this point has not been easy. What I can tell you, though, is each time I saw a breakthrough, it was a result of obedience. Remember that first time in the prayer room, when I hit my knees? That was an act of obedience. I was never going to do that, ever in my life. It was a planned thing. Never To me, a man on his knees was of no good use to anybody at all. I wouldn't have even done it to propose. It just wasn't in me. So it was surprising when God led me to do it. What did I get for my troubles? What did I get for breaking my own rule? I got overwhelming peace. Peace that makes no sense, peace that allows me to be calm in the middle of storms. Remember, when I came out west from St Louis, I wasn't trusting God with the result. I thought it was me, so the job didn't come through, but he was the one leading me the whole time, and now I have an actual relationship with him, a real one, not just head knowledge of this mystical force up above A close personal relationship with the person of Jesus. Even now, I can give you an even more current example this show. Right now, this moment, me sitting here speaking to you. This was and is obedience through and through. I'm putting my whole life online.

Speaker 1: 9:47

I was hesitant to do this. Getting online and bearing my soul to the world is not easy. It's not appealing to think that my life would be accessible to everybody. Truth be told, I also couldn't stand the sound of my own voice, hated it. I'm still actually getting used to it now. So it took me a long time to get started because I needed to be comfortable with how I sound in the process altogether. I mean, I went as far as looking into filters that might make me sound in a way that I could hear myself better, that I could actually accept that that's my voice and I'm good with it, even though it wouldn't be my voice. Honestly, I don't know what different dimension to my voice I was looking for, but I was determined to be obedient. So I got started. Recording was easy, but then there's editing. Editing requires listening to the playback, hearing my voice again, the voice that makes me cringe. To be fair, nobody else had said that to me. It was just a personal problem. The editing that also came with its challenges. There's so many best practices and protocols out there, so I just fumbled my way through it and I'm still not sure I got it right.

Speaker 1: 10:51

Then there's you, the listener. What would you say? There are a ton of obstacles to being obedient enough to do this, and yet here we are. You're probably waiting to hear what the reward on the other side of obedience was for this. It's you, the listener, and I'm thankful for you. My reward is knowing that at least one person may be able to avoid a little bit of pain and hurt in their life. My reward is that we're here at episode 10 and you're still listening, that you followed along and either gained from what's happened here or you have something to critique me about. Regardless, you've been walking with me through this life of mine, as we walk through all of my experiences and my flashbacks and the things that I've learned. You were there, step by step with me, and that's the whole reason we're here. Your struggles are my struggles. Your pain is my pain. I mean it when I say we're all we got. We got each other and God has us. If you find yourself thankful for anything that came as a result of this show, thank God. He brought me through and he taught me how to obey.

Speaker 1: 12:12

Now take a moment and ask God where he's calling you to obey. Maybe it's in your relationships or your habits. Maybe it's how you spend your time. Write it down and make a commitment to yourself to take that step. If building a relationship with the Father is a new concept to you, a very simple way to start is by getting in the Bible, getting into His Word, learn about Him, see what His promises are, understand the character of the Father, and then remember one thing Every promise he's ever made has been fulfilled. He's kept them, all of them. He breaks no promises. The other thing that makes it a wise choice is it was written a long time ago, but God never changes. He's the same yesterday, today and he will be the same tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 12:56

Now let's pause for the cause one time, for our weekly challenge. This week, I challenge you to take a bold step of obedience, whether it's forgiving someone or stepping out in faith, or surrendering another area of your life. Do it and trust God with the outcome. This means making it a point to put the result out of your mind and just knowing, whatever it is, god's got it and it's going to be good. After all, every good and perfect thing comes from Him. Remember, obedience is the heartbeat of humility. In order to be obedient, you have to be humble. When you live low, you open the door for God to move in powerful ways.

Speaker 1: 13:32

Next week we're talking about endurance how humility helps us stay strong when life gets tough. Let's pray, father, we thank you. We thank you that you give us so much opportunity and time to become obedient, that you do all the work you lead us through it, that you're patient and you extend so much grace and mercy to us. We thank you that, even when we're resistant, you still care, you still love us, you still want us. Thank you that you never stop coming after us. Bless the listener and teach them how to obey a little bit more this week so they can get one step closer to you In Jesus' name. Amen. Endurance, not going to want to miss it. Until then, stay low, stay blessed and stay ready for the next episode of the Low Life Show. Peace, outro Music.