The Submission Sermon
Memory Verse:
'And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. ' Galatians 6:9
Sermon Sentence: All the life of being a disciple of Jesus is lived in submission to those we are called to serve with.
'And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. ' Galatians 6:9
Sermon Sentence: All the life of being a disciple of Jesus is lived in submission to those we are called to serve with.
Day 1
Read Ephesians 6:1-9
All of our lives have to be lived in subjection to someone. I remember hearing of a famous pastor that struggled with this idea. When he was told that he needed to place himself under someone for accountability, he responded with the idea that there was no one big enough for him to do that. His thought was about the size of his church, which was clearly one of the largest in the nation, but the sentiment that he expressed was extremely dangerous. That church no longer exists as it suffered one of the most complete collapses of a church in American history. His statement is no different than the man that also feels he has reached a point where he no longer has to place himself under anyone because of age, status, accomplishments, or anything else there.
Beware of the person that thinks they don’t have to humble themselves. Beware of the teacher that teaches against submission at all stages of life. We will never arrive to the place that we can’t be led by someone and called out for some issue at some point. All of our lives are lived in community and community requires authority and leadership.
Why does the family structure have to contain the elements talked about here to function properly?
How do you struggle at work with the idea of following those that are in authority over you?
How does the person's competence or even your own opinion about how to do a job get in the way of submission?
How does this become your prayer today?
All of our lives have to be lived in subjection to someone. I remember hearing of a famous pastor that struggled with this idea. When he was told that he needed to place himself under someone for accountability, he responded with the idea that there was no one big enough for him to do that. His thought was about the size of his church, which was clearly one of the largest in the nation, but the sentiment that he expressed was extremely dangerous. That church no longer exists as it suffered one of the most complete collapses of a church in American history. His statement is no different than the man that also feels he has reached a point where he no longer has to place himself under anyone because of age, status, accomplishments, or anything else there.
Beware of the person that thinks they don’t have to humble themselves. Beware of the teacher that teaches against submission at all stages of life. We will never arrive to the place that we can’t be led by someone and called out for some issue at some point. All of our lives are lived in community and community requires authority and leadership.
Why does the family structure have to contain the elements talked about here to function properly?
How do you struggle at work with the idea of following those that are in authority over you?
How does the person's competence or even your own opinion about how to do a job get in the way of submission?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 2
Read 1 Peter 2:13-25
Don’t you hate when people tell you what to do? I didn’t know you were who you are when I wrote that statement, I just know that it chomps at the basics of what it means to be a human so much, it doesn't matter who was reading it or what stage of life they are at, they get it. We hate it when we are children and we hate it when we are older. There is something about our very nature that houses the rebellious spirit that wants to rise up against authority all the time. If I were to break it down and chase it through who we are as humans, I would say it comes from the strange place that we tend toward destruction when we were made for life. Authority is not inherently bad. It clearly has the tendency to be corrupted, as so many other things are.
Peter tells us submitting to authority is the will of God. I always cringe when people claim that something is the will of God. I mean, that is a huge claim! You have got to be careful saying what you think God is all about. Especially when you come to a subject like authority that is something that clearly can be abused and taken advantage of. It doesn’t take one long to find an example of how someone could and has taken advantage of a teaching like this. So this teaching clearly deserves some time to roll it all over in thought.
How does “doing good” in submitting to authority “silence the ignorance of foolish people?”
Explain verse 16 as if you were talking to someone not familiar with the Bible.
Verse 23 explains the reasoning that is needed to call for submission to authority, even though authority could be abused. How does trusting the ultimate judging of God help with this obvious human fear?
How does this become part of your prayers today?
Don’t you hate when people tell you what to do? I didn’t know you were who you are when I wrote that statement, I just know that it chomps at the basics of what it means to be a human so much, it doesn't matter who was reading it or what stage of life they are at, they get it. We hate it when we are children and we hate it when we are older. There is something about our very nature that houses the rebellious spirit that wants to rise up against authority all the time. If I were to break it down and chase it through who we are as humans, I would say it comes from the strange place that we tend toward destruction when we were made for life. Authority is not inherently bad. It clearly has the tendency to be corrupted, as so many other things are.
Peter tells us submitting to authority is the will of God. I always cringe when people claim that something is the will of God. I mean, that is a huge claim! You have got to be careful saying what you think God is all about. Especially when you come to a subject like authority that is something that clearly can be abused and taken advantage of. It doesn’t take one long to find an example of how someone could and has taken advantage of a teaching like this. So this teaching clearly deserves some time to roll it all over in thought.
How does “doing good” in submitting to authority “silence the ignorance of foolish people?”
Explain verse 16 as if you were talking to someone not familiar with the Bible.
Verse 23 explains the reasoning that is needed to call for submission to authority, even though authority could be abused. How does trusting the ultimate judging of God help with this obvious human fear?
How does this become part of your prayers today?
Day 3
Read 1 Peter 3:1-8
Ok, Paul is called out in other places for being a bit harsh and needing to get better at communicating his point. Maybe this whole marriage thing is better in that category? That’s a good thought, until you decide to go to Peter and he seems to be espousing the same ideas. These text ideas are hard to apply in real life. They are easy to demand from a position where you do not have to live it out. Remember in the previous devotion when we were talking about the ability for the leader to take advantage of the situation of authority? Well, Peter seems to address the marriage from that perspective. He is aware that sometimes you have a spouse that is interested in the things of God and one that is not. That makes the idea of submission really difficult to work out in real life. For Peter, the God given idea of how the wife is to act does create a very vulnerable situation and clearly he is not interested in one making themselves subject to abuse, but doing things God’s way is a great way to show people what God is like. Even with the fear of someone taking advantage of God’s system, still the God ordained way of doing things is the better idea. So what about the leader that takes advantage of the situation? Well…God will take care of that, rest assured. Remember, our call is to obedience, not to work out all the other details. God is big enough to handle all of the situations that we will find ourselves in and also able to help in more ways than we could ever imagine.
What are some ways that a believing spouse can share Jesus with their spouse that does not believe?
How can you make your role that you are called to have in your marriage more helpful for your spouse to live out theirs?
What are the most difficult parts from these verses for you at this point in your life?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Ok, Paul is called out in other places for being a bit harsh and needing to get better at communicating his point. Maybe this whole marriage thing is better in that category? That’s a good thought, until you decide to go to Peter and he seems to be espousing the same ideas. These text ideas are hard to apply in real life. They are easy to demand from a position where you do not have to live it out. Remember in the previous devotion when we were talking about the ability for the leader to take advantage of the situation of authority? Well, Peter seems to address the marriage from that perspective. He is aware that sometimes you have a spouse that is interested in the things of God and one that is not. That makes the idea of submission really difficult to work out in real life. For Peter, the God given idea of how the wife is to act does create a very vulnerable situation and clearly he is not interested in one making themselves subject to abuse, but doing things God’s way is a great way to show people what God is like. Even with the fear of someone taking advantage of God’s system, still the God ordained way of doing things is the better idea. So what about the leader that takes advantage of the situation? Well…God will take care of that, rest assured. Remember, our call is to obedience, not to work out all the other details. God is big enough to handle all of the situations that we will find ourselves in and also able to help in more ways than we could ever imagine.
What are some ways that a believing spouse can share Jesus with their spouse that does not believe?
How can you make your role that you are called to have in your marriage more helpful for your spouse to live out theirs?
What are the most difficult parts from these verses for you at this point in your life?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 4
Read James 4:1-12
We have been struggling with the idea of submission this week. We started the week talking about that desire that rests in each one of us and makes us want to be out from under all authority in our lives. That is the very idea that shows us that we need to remain under authority at all times, to some degree in our lives. If we don’t want to be under authority, there has to be a reason that reveals something about what is actually going on in our hearts. It is the same struggle that we have with God. Why do we not submit our desires to Him at all times? Sure, we may get there sometimes or even most of the time, but still there are those days that we do what we want to do that we know we should not do. It is the one struggle we all share in common. Then in those moments when we seem to snap back into our right minds, we finally surrender to Jesus and allow Him to have his way. Is this not the same struggle of submission over and over again?
James seems to be mapping it out for us that the struggle of submitting our loves to God is born out of the desire to have more and get all we can for ourselves. The fear is that there will not be enough for us and our enemy, the Devil, is constantly playing on those chords to draw us further and further away.
Is there a place in your heart today that you need to submit to God that you have been wrestling with?
When have you seen the formula played out recently that James talks about here: submit to God, resist the Devil, and he will flee from you?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
We have been struggling with the idea of submission this week. We started the week talking about that desire that rests in each one of us and makes us want to be out from under all authority in our lives. That is the very idea that shows us that we need to remain under authority at all times, to some degree in our lives. If we don’t want to be under authority, there has to be a reason that reveals something about what is actually going on in our hearts. It is the same struggle that we have with God. Why do we not submit our desires to Him at all times? Sure, we may get there sometimes or even most of the time, but still there are those days that we do what we want to do that we know we should not do. It is the one struggle we all share in common. Then in those moments when we seem to snap back into our right minds, we finally surrender to Jesus and allow Him to have his way. Is this not the same struggle of submission over and over again?
James seems to be mapping it out for us that the struggle of submitting our loves to God is born out of the desire to have more and get all we can for ourselves. The fear is that there will not be enough for us and our enemy, the Devil, is constantly playing on those chords to draw us further and further away.
Is there a place in your heart today that you need to submit to God that you have been wrestling with?
When have you seen the formula played out recently that James talks about here: submit to God, resist the Devil, and he will flee from you?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read Proverbs 8
I visited the Grand Canyon a few years ago and was amazed at the amount of rails that it DID NOT have. There were signs warning you to be careful on the cliff sides, and they are in all of the places that I would have assumed to be a good place for a rail. Every single year there are multiple deaths from people falling from the Canyon taking selfies or who knows what else. When I stop and think about it, I don’t know that rails would stop them anymore than signs do. You know what I mean? You know who listens to the signs? It is the people that assume that the signs have their interest in mind. The person that doesn’t assume that their safety and care has been considered in this message on that sign, are the people that are not really going to listen to it.
The Bible is a lot like signs at the Grand Canyon. It contains the wisdom that has at its heart our best interest and consideration. It's there, but you don’t have to pay attention to it. Wisdom is there to consider, if you feel that is needed for you. If you don’t, you have already invited death and destruction into your life.
There are so many great images of wisdom in this chapter. What is your favorite and why?
What does verse 12 mean?
How does wisdom equal life and the lack of finding it equal death?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
I visited the Grand Canyon a few years ago and was amazed at the amount of rails that it DID NOT have. There were signs warning you to be careful on the cliff sides, and they are in all of the places that I would have assumed to be a good place for a rail. Every single year there are multiple deaths from people falling from the Canyon taking selfies or who knows what else. When I stop and think about it, I don’t know that rails would stop them anymore than signs do. You know what I mean? You know who listens to the signs? It is the people that assume that the signs have their interest in mind. The person that doesn’t assume that their safety and care has been considered in this message on that sign, are the people that are not really going to listen to it.
The Bible is a lot like signs at the Grand Canyon. It contains the wisdom that has at its heart our best interest and consideration. It's there, but you don’t have to pay attention to it. Wisdom is there to consider, if you feel that is needed for you. If you don’t, you have already invited death and destruction into your life.
There are so many great images of wisdom in this chapter. What is your favorite and why?
What does verse 12 mean?
How does wisdom equal life and the lack of finding it equal death?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
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