Simple Instructions, Hard to Follow? Here’s Why

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for being with us this week. Well, today we’re talking about how it’s simple but hard. What is simple and what is hard? Well, God wants you to do one thing and one thing only. Say, “Wait a minute. I thought the Bible was filled with all kinds of commands.” True, but it boils down to one thing.

And now, I know I’ve said that before. So, before, if you are a returning visitor, before you jump on here, hang on a second. It’s simple but hard. God wants you to do one thing, and that is to follow Him. And if you follow Him in everything you do, that is all you need to do. But, of course, following Him involves many more things.

Now, last week we had a sermon about the two greatest commandments. I’m jumping ahead a little bit, but the two greatest commandments. We’ll put it in a card up here. You can check that out. We said the two greatest commandments were love God, love your neighbor. And it all boils down to one thing: love.

If you act in love, everything you do will be following God, will be loving your neighbor. You will be obeying every commandment. If everything you do is in love, and God wants you to do one thing, and that is to follow Him. He is love. If you are love as well, if everything you do is in love, you are following Him. If you follow God, how do you do that in this world? Act in love. It’s really simple.

It’s so simple, but it’s hard. All you have to do is follow God.

We have another sermon, “Follow No Matter What.” No Matter What. Check it out. It’ll be in a card, or go to our YouTube channel, website, or you can type in “No Matter What.”

What does that mean? It means obeying Him and doing what He says. It means following God and, in anything you do, doing what Jesus would do. You do what God would want you to do. You choose the hard path. You choose the narrow road. You do everything in love for someone else. Because if there is no love in you, then what? The love of the Father is not in you, because God the Father is love.

You see how all of the Bible is so connected that literally every statement that we make in a sermon can be tied to another verse. That’s the glory of God. That’s the power of God.

That’s the infinite wisdom of God: that no matter what we say, as long as we are doing what God wants us to do and operating in the Spirit and letting the Spirit flow through you, flow through me, when I make statements, they can all be pointed back to Scripture because God says His Word is truth.

And if you speak the truth, you are speaking God’s Word. Obey God and do what He says. We have another sermon, “Be a Doer.” Check it out in a card up here or go to our website. “Be a Doer.” You need to be a doer of the Word. That’s it. It’s simple but hard.

Let’s go to a verse. Deuteronomy 28:1. “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on Earth.”

Guess what? Read the rest of that chapter because it continues to tell you all the blessings. All these blessings will follow you, will come to you if you obey the LORD your God. So, you want blessings? Guess what? It’s always an if. Blessings come if you do something, if you obey God.

All those blessings—read them and then understand the magnitude of the situation, of the fact that, listen, if you obey God and follow Him no matter what, if you act in love in everything you do, then you will be blessed beyond all you could ever think or imagine. Another verse: God will give you immeasurably more. Another verse. See what I’m saying?

Everything God says in the Bible can be summed up into one command, and that is to follow Him. That is to live in love. One word, like we said: love. Think about it. If you truly love God, you will follow Him. You will obey Him. What did Jesus say? “If you love Me, you will keep My commands.”

So, one word: love. The one command: follow God. And if you do everything in love, you are following God. You are loving your neighbor. You are following all of the commands. It’s simple but hard to do.

Matthew 22:37. Matthew 22:37 says—let’s get there. Then Jesus replied, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Love the LORD your God with everything. So, what does that mean? It means that if God wants you to do one thing, and that is to follow Him, and Jesus says it’s, “Love the LORD your God,” then how do you follow God? You do everything in love. You love Him. You follow Him by doing that. “If you love Me, you keep My commands.”

It’s like a circle. You say circular reasoning is terrible. Guess what? If it all points back to God, that is the only reason you need. Do everything in love. You need to be completely dedicated to Him.

I mentioned that sermon we did last week on the two greatest commandments. Check it out. It’s pretty related to this because doing that is really related to every one of our other sermons. Because if you watch the other sermons and you learn from those, it all comes back to loving God, following Him, and loving your neighbor as yourself, doing unto them what you would have done to you.

Love. To follow God means you must be completely dedicated to Him, completely dedicated, fully committed. We have a sermon playlist called “Fully Committed.” Check that out on a card here in the YouTube channel or go to our website. You need to be devoted to God. You must put God first. And guess what? If you do that, remember, then all these blessings will follow.

Jesus even echoes that in the New Testament in Matthew 6:33. He says, “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Okay. So, what is going on here? Well, back in Deuteronomy, it was saying, “Love the LORD your God and do this.” And then, if you read the rest of Chapter 28, it says, “All these blessings are going to follow you, will come to you if you obey God.”

And Jesus is saying, “Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness on Earth as it is in Heaven.” So, you are working every single day to reverse the works of the devil, to beat back the enemy, to enforce Christ’s victory, wearing the uniform of Christ, being an ambassador of Christ.

And if you do that, seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness on Earth as it is already in Heaven, making Earth look more like Heaven, building the Kingdom here on Earth as it is in Heaven, then guess what? All these things will be given to you as well.

Why? Because if you are faithful over the little things that you have right now and you show God that you can listen and obey in whatever situation you are in right now, then guess what? He is going to give you immeasurably more so that you can do even more.

Meaning, if you have a dollar to your name right now and you are using that dollar to build the Kingdom, He’s going to say, “Guess what? If I give that guy $10, he’s going to be able to build 10 times more.” Why wouldn’t He give you then a million dollars?

James says you pray and you ask, and you don’t get what you want because you want to spend it on your desires. So, no, He wouldn’t give it to you if you’re just going to go blow it on earthly, worldly things.

But if you are going to use it and show that you are a good steward with whatever He gives you, we have sermons on that. “Good Steward.” Google them. Then guess what? He will give you more because He will allow you to use more.

If you go through your life and live your life following God, then He provides you with everything you need. Everything you need.

Let’s go to Philippians 4:19. Philippians 4:19: “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.”

Read that verse. Think about that verse a little bit. It says, “My God will meet all your needs.” All right. So, who is— is it just my God, or is it your God, too? You know what? It’s God the Father, Yahweh. So, He’s my God, and He wants to be your God. Are you making Him your God? Are you serving Him? Are you following Him?

It’s simple but hard to do. Make Him your God. He wants to be your God. So, our God will meet all of your needs. It doesn’t say some.

Look, there are two words here. Let’s focus out. We like to pull apart words. A lot of people like to pull apart words. They say, “Oh, it says when you do this, not if.” Okay, yes, fine. Let’s pull apart some words here, then, because if you can do it with one verse, you better be able to do it with all the verses.

It says God will meet all your needs. Okay. So, does that mean God might? Does it mean, “Oh, God is able”? “Oh, God can.” No. It says He will. That’s a guarantee. Will doesn’t mean maybe. Guess what? He’s going to meet your needs. Not maybe. He will.

Okay. Now, let’s go pull apart another word. It says God will meet all your needs. All right. So, does it say God will meet some of your needs? God will meet 90 percent of your needs, and you’ll still have 10 percent of your needs that just go unmet? So, you’ll have, like, a house and food and clothing, but you need whatever, a car or money, and you won’t have that? No, it says all.

So, it says God will meet all of your needs.

Now, the next word—let’s pull apart this word “needs.” You say, “I want this.” Do you really need it? Now, of course, God wants to give you more than you can ask, more than you can imagine. So, yes, He probably will give you all your wants, but He will meet all of your needs. Get that through your head. Understand that.

And how is He doing that? “According to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.” So, when He meets your needs, you need to recognize that it’s according to His glory. You need to give Him the glory. You didn’t meet your needs.

You say, “Well, I work hard. I work 80 hours a week. You better believe I meet my needs. I put food on the table.” No, you don’t. God put food on your table. God gave you the ability to work. God meets your needs. Humble yourself. Get that through your head.

God will meet all your needs according to His glory, His riches in Christ Jesus. Live according to that promise and know and trust Him that He will meet all your needs. Yes, He is giving you that ability, but recognize that it is God giving you that ability. Serve Him. That’s what He wants. He wants you to follow Him in everything you do.

Again, it’s simple. It’s really simple, but hard to do because we get caught up in life, or pride gets us going, saying, “Look at this. I made this commission. Look at my bonus. I did this. I worked really hard for this.” God got you that. God did that for you. Give Him the glory. Serve Him, and He will meet all your needs.

Now, it may not be everything you think you need. It may not be everything you want, but it will be everything you need.

Let’s go to Psalms. Psalm 34:10. “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.”

Listen to that. You will lack no good thing. Now, a lot of people, a lot of pastors included, say, “Oh, it means you will lack nothing.” No, that’s not what it says. They always like to leave out a word to make it sound better because they want their parishioners or their congregation or their flock or their sheep or whatever they decide to call them to keep coming back.

And so, they give them a little bit more, and they’re twisting the Word of God.

No, that’s unacceptable. What does this verse say? Now, of course, there are other verses they might use, and that’s fine as long as they’re using them the right way. I’m not dogging anybody here. I’m just saying that we need to be preaching the Word of God exactly as it says.

Now, you say, “Well, you’re talking about it in English. You should be preaching out of the Greek or the Hebrew.” I get that. That’s true. Have a Strong’s Concordance. Dive into these verses. We’re going to put them below. Dive into them.

What is the point here, though? The point is that the Bible says you will lack no good thing. You will not lack. It doesn’t say you will not lack anything or you will lack nothing. You will lack no good thing, meaning that God will give you all good things so that you can use them to build His Kingdom.

He’s not going to give you tickets to—I don’t even know what things are called—some strip show or something. What do they call those? Um, where the guys—gentlemen, whatever—or some drag show that maybe you wanted to see, or a strip club. You’re not going to own a club that makes a ton of money if it has pole dancers in it or something, because those aren’t good things. That’s not Heaven on Earth.

See what I’m saying? If you are a liquor store owner, it might not be a good thing. They don’t have those in Heaven. You know what I mean? The point is, you will lack no good thing. So, what is good? You need to decide what is good. Anything that is good is what is on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Food is good because it nourishes you. Spiritual food is good because it nourishes you. You might need a car. Is a car good? Sure, if you’re using it for good, to build His Kingdom here on Earth as it is in Heaven. Clothing is good. Why? Well, because ever since the Fall, we have shame and we cover ourselves. We dress modestly. We dress up for God.

What are you doing with what you have? Can anything be used for good? A pen. I could kill someone with this pen and use it for evil, and then it would be used for bad, or I could use it for good. So, you could argue that you will lack no good thing.

Well, that just means that you need to make sure everything you have or want will be used for good. Okay, that’s true. Yeah, a firearm could be used to kill someone or defend someone. So, if you’re using it for good, you will not lack it.

So, is it all just our interpretation? Or is it God’s goodness? This is a whole other sermon here. How are you using the things you have—for your glory or His glory? It needs to be for His glory, because He will provide your every need. Because what? According to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.

Those verses work hand in hand, like everything else in the Bible. You will lack no good thing. There’s another verse that people mess up. When is it that Paul says, “All things work out for the good of those who love Him”? And a lot of people say, “All things work out for good.” That’s wrong. That’s a lie. All things don’t work out for the good of everyone. All things work out for the good of those who love Him.

And He provides all of their needs, and they will lack no good thing. But He won’t provide all the needs of people who are not following Him. And He won’t work out the good of those who do evil. And He won’t make sure that those who aren’t following Him, living in disobedience, lack no good thing.

See what I’m saying? You’ve got to follow God. And all these promises are for you.

If you constantly think about doing what God would do, you will have these things in your life. Think, “What would Jesus do?” We have a sermon on that. WWJD.

When you do that, when you live in love, you will be a tremendous witness to others. You will be setting a Christlike example. You will be a true ambassador for Christ. You will be wearing the uniform of Christ and being an accurate representation of who Jesus was when He was here on Earth, because He’s still here. He’s in you. If you believe in Him, He’s in you, and He wants to live through you.

So, get out there and be Christ’s hands and feet to the world. You will be that example for them to see and hopefully follow.

Let’s go to 2 Corinthians 5:20. “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf. Be reconciled to God.”

We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is working through you to make His appeal to others. Show them that you lack no good thing. Show them that God will meet your every need. Show them that you are Christ’s ambassador, that He works everything out for your good. And inspire them to do the same. Lead them to Christ.

It’s simple but hard to do. But guess what? The more you do it, the easier it will become for you. Not the easier it becomes for everyone—the easier it becomes for you.

You see, people tend to forget these extra words that make it apply to us, because these are the promises of God for God’s people, and you are part of God’s people. If you believe in Jesus Christ and are saved, you’ve been grafted into the faith. If you have not done that, we invite you to do so. It’s very simple. Say, “Dear Jesus, come into my life. I want to live for You.”

Contact us, and we’ll help you get started doing that. Engage in our sermon discussions on the Discord server. Follow us on social media. Let us disciple you with our Ministry Minutes every single day. Engage in the Word of God. These promises are for you.

Do that, and you will be a real Christian, a true Christian, a Christlike example. It’s simple but hard to do.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank You for this concept that it is simple but hard. Help each and every person realize that they would fully grasp Your promises, that they would hold on to the whole promise, not part of it, that they would understand the brevity, that it is simple. But that they would also understand the concept of it all and know that, yes, it is hard to do, but that they would do it and it would become easier for them.

That they would practice and make it perfect, or almost perfect. That You would inspire them. Please, Father, inspire them to continue living in You, abiding in You, communing with You, seeking You, so that You will live with them and live in them and abide in them and commune with them, and that You will be found by them. That they would do everything You’ve commanded them to do. In Jesus’ name, amen.

It’s simple but hard. But you can do it because you can do all things with Christ who gives you strength. Have a great week, and God bless.