Imagine I gave you instructions to my house.

Obeying the instructions does not earn you the right to come to my house. I already gave you that by inviting you over.

But you have to obey the instructions to get to my house. If you don't obey, you'll never arrive.

This is precisely why we obey God. He gave us instructions to His goodness. It's how we live in the overwhelming abundance of His kingdom.

We don't obey to earn it, because we can't earn something that's already been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We obey because, if we don't, we'll never get to where His goodness is. Without obedience, we are wandering around in the wilderness for no reason.

If you obey to earn, you're lost. If you think obedience isn't important, you're lost.

But when you understand that everything God asks us to do is so we can arrive at His goodness, you're living the abundant life Jesus died to give you.

God wants you to feed on the wealth of the unrighteous. And not only that, but you are to boast that their riches are now yours.

If that causes you to cringe, it's because you've believed a lie.

What I just told you are the very words of God recorded in Isaiah 61.

Read the whole chapter, and you'll find out that God wants His people known for their prosperity.

If you have an aversion to being wealthy as a Christian, now's the time to deal with it. The wealth of the wicked is coming into the hands of the righteous.

But if you are resistant to God's wealth, you'll miss it. You'll miss the greatest opportunity to use the wealth of the world to bring salvation to the nations.

Renew your mind with Isaiah 61. Prepare yourself to become mega wealthy by the hand of God.

Have you ever deceived yourself regarding faith?

You talk like you have faith. You act like you have faith. But inwardly, you're wavering.

Now's the time to stop trying to impress God or others with your performance of "faith" so you can step into real, mountain-moving faith.

One of the indicators to let us know if our faith is genuine or not is patience. True faith always produces patience.

Even though it may take a while to see the promise you are believing for, you remain in confident expectation along the way.

Many give up if the healing or miracle is not instantaneous, or at least show up within the same day. This reveals that not much faith was present, if any at all.

Faith is the assurance that what you are believing for will come. There's no other option. You will have it.

When true faith is present, time disappears. You already know it's yours, so there is nothing to worry about. It will show up at just the right time.

Should we expect to be rewarded by God for obedience?

This is a widely debated subject that is easily settled in Hebrews 11.

Turns out, we can't please God without believing that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

But hold on, because there is a distinction that needs to be made.

There's a difference between obeying with expectation and obeying to earn.

Both have the reward in mind, but their motivations differ.

If you try to earn something from God, you won't receive what you desire because nothing from God can be earned. It is all freely given through Jesus Christ.

But this doesn't mean we dismiss the reward of obedience in some "humble" display. No. We simply shift our motivation.

Instead of trying to earn the reward, we expect to receive the reward because it already belongs to us in Christ.

There's this odd pressure within the church not to get too radical with your faith.

One way it is often said is, "Don't be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good."

No matter how many amens you get when you say that, there will always be One who doesn't agree with you: the Word of God.

In Hebrews 11, we read about those who truly lived by faith. Guess what they have in common?

Faith produced radical obedience to God that was far beyond human comprehension.

Noah built a large boat when it had never rained before.

Abraham left everything He knew to follow God to an unknown destination. And when he arrived, it didn't look good. He had to live in a tent as a foreigner. Even so, he trusted the plan of God.

All of this was to prepare him to believe for a son, even though he was way too old to bear children.

To live by faith, you'll have to stick to what God revealed, even though you can't wrap your mind around it.

To live by faith, you have to endure ridicule from those around you.

To live by faith, you have to be so heavenly-minded that you don't fit in with the world.

Did you know there is insight about the rapture in Hebrews 11?

This is the chapter that lists all the heroes of faith and what was accomplished through their faith.

It was Enoch's faith that caused him to be raptured. He didn't die. He just went straight to heaven.

But there is even more insight than that because the scripture about Enoch's faith continues. We get a more detailed description of his faith. You'll hear it a lot in church, but it is never tied to Enoch.

Here it is: "It's impossible to please God without faith. You must believe that He exists AND that He rewards those who diligently seek Him."

Enoch is the one who gave us the example of this kind of faith. And what did it accomplish? He was raptured!

If you want to please God, you must believe that He is so good that He will rescue you from the great time of testing that will come on the whole world.

Not believing in the rapture is not pleasing to God.

You know why? Because it reveals that you don't believe that God rewards those who diligently seek Him.