Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Iowa City Church Podcast


Welcome to the Iowa City Church sermon and teaching page.  We know that life can be confusing, and sometime just plain hard.  We believe the best way to live life comes through following Jesus.  These lessons and sermons are designed to be a resource to help you on that journey.  We hope you find them helpful!

Apr 2, 2022

Sometimes teachers ask their students to do difficult, strange, even unorthodox things.  In the cult classic movie Karate Kid (and current reboot, Cobra Kai) we meet a gangly NJ teenager named Daniel LaRusso, transplanted to Southern California.  He's trying to fit it, but of course there are the bullies, in this case a dojo of karate thugs who constantly harass Daniel.  Along comes the apartment complex custodian Mr. Miyagi, who also just happens to be a karate master.  Mr. Miyagi befriends Daniel and agrees to train the eager teenager. 

In his first few days of "training" Daniel sands a deck, paints a fence and waxes cars.  For obvious reasons, he becomes angry with his teacher for his lack of teaching...only to find out that in those manual labor jobs he has in fact been learning karate.

From that point forward Daniel learns to trust and be obedient to his sensei's unorthodox, sometimes even unreasonable teaching methods.  It doesn't make sense, but because it's Mr. Miyagi, he does it.  (To see what happens you need to watch the movie!)

As we read through the Bible, God asks his people to do difficult, even unreasonable things (circumcision anyone?)  He doesn't do it because he's mean or angry, he does it because he cares about his people.

The same is true of Jesus.  He legitimately asks his followers to do preposterous things; loving their enemies, selling their possessions, hating their families, and even taking up their crosses to follow him!  Is Jesus just being mean?  Is he trying to put people in their place?  Or is it simply the fact that Jesus cares about what his followers become?  He wants to transform his followers into a new kind of people.  However, for there to be transformation there must first be obedience.  

In Psalm 132 there is a pivotal verse (vs 12) which points the reader to the importance of obedience and how it shapes our story as God's people.  If you want to learn how obedience can shape your story, give a listen to this sermon as we continue with part 13 of Long Obedience in the Same Direction, we know that you will find it to be very helpful!