INTRODUCTION:  The English ship Bounty, commanded by Lt. William Bligh, journeyed to the South Pacific in 1787. Many signed on considering the voyage a trip to paradise. Bligh appointed a young friend, Fletcher Christian, to the post of second in command. The Bounty stayed in Tahiti for 6 months and led by the happy go lucky Fletcher Christian enjoyed paradise to the fullest. On April 28, 1789, Fletcher Christian staged the most famous mutiny in history. He and his mutineers set Bligh and his supporters adrift in an overloaded lifeboat. The mutineers aboard the Bounty immediately began quarreling about what to do next. Christian returned to Tahiti, where he left some of the mutineers, kidnapped some women, took some slaves, and traveled with the remaining crew a thousand miles to uninhabited Pitcairn Island. There the little group unraveled. They distilled whiskey from a native plant. Drunkenness, disease, and murder took the lives of all men except for one. John Adams, a.k.a. Alexander Smith, found himself as the only man on the island surrounded by an assortment of women and children. Then an amazing change occurred. Smith found the Bounty’s neglected Bible. As he read it, he took its message to heart, and then began instructing the little community. He taught the colonists the scriptures and helped them obey its instructions. The message of Christ so transformed their lives that twenty years later, in 1808, when the ship Topaz landed on the island, it found a happy society of Christians living in prosperity and peace, free from crime, disease, murder --- and mutiny.

That true story is a testament to the transforming power of obedience to the Word of God.  I’m in a sermon series based on Paul’s letter to the Philippian church.  I’ve entitled this series “God’s spiritual stimulus plan.”  The recipients of this letter were living in extreme poverty.  The author of the letter wasn’t doing real great himself.  Nevertheless, the letter to the Philippians reveals the provisions that God has made to keep our spirit’s strong and healthy even when our economy is weak and sick.  We’ve already studied some of the elements of God’s spiritual stimulus plan including relationships, the gospel, hope and humility.  Today I want us to look at the power of obedience to stimulate our spirits.  Let’s look at three qualities of stimulating obedience.