Learn to Drive Series
The Obedience Factor Part II
Commit to Submit
As you should know by now,
that we’ve been talking about
“Learning to Drive”.
This means learning to take responsibility
for ourselves as we drive the journey of life.
We talked about road signs,
which are the warnings God gives us in the Bible
that protect us from danger
and give us a safe and fulfilling journey,
But last week we saw
it wasn’t the WARNINGS that protect us,
but our OBEDIENCE to those warnings.
Does anyone remember
the three parts of obedience?
(What?) Doing exactly what you are told.
(When?) Immediately.
(How?) With a happy heart.
How many of you have been working on that?
This week, I want to continue the obedience factor,
and look at WHO we are to obey.
Let’s look at the people in our lives
that God says we’re to submit to.
Ephesians 6:1, “Children,
obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”
If you’re a child, who are you to submit to?
Write their names in your bulletin.
Ephesians 5:22, “Wives,
be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord”
I Peter 3:1, “In the same way, you wives,
be submissive to your own husbands
so that even if any of them
are disobedient to the Word,
they may be won without a word
by the behavior of their wives.”
If you’re a wife, who are you to submit to?
Write his name in your bulletin.
Ephesians 6:5, “Servants,
be obedient unto them that according to the flesh
are your masters,
with fear and trembling,
in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.”
Titus 2:9-10, “Servants are to submit themselves to their masters and please them in all things. They must not talk back to them or steal from them.
Instead, they must show that they are always good and faithful, so as to bring credit to the teaching
about God our Savior in all they do.”
I Peter 2:18-19 “You servants
must submit yourselves to your masters
and show them complete respect,
not only to those who are kind and considerate,
but also to those who are harsh.
God will bless you for this,
if you endure the pain of undeserved suffering
because you are conscious of His will.”
If you’re an employee, who are to submit to?
Write their name in your bulletin.
If you’re self employeed, who do you write down? \
Not yourself.
If you’re self employeed,
then you know that you have to submit
to the customer!
Our next area of submission is found in
I Peter 2:13-15
“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake
to every human institution,
whether to a king as the one in authority,
or to governors as sent by Him
for the punishment of evildoers
and the praise of those who do right.”
If you’re an American citizen,
who are you to submit to?
Write the government and President Bush’s name
down in your bulletin.
Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your spiritual leaders
and do what they say.
Their work is to watch over your souls,
and they know they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this joyfully
and not with sorrow.
That would certainly not be for your benefit.”
I Timothy 5:17-19, “Elders (Pastors)
who do their work well should be paid well,
especially those who work hard
at both preaching and teaching.
For the Scripture says, ‘Do not keep an ox
from eating as it treads out the grain.’ And in another place,
‘Those who work deserve their pay!’
Do not listen to complaints against an elder
unless there are two or three witnesses
to accuse him.”
And if you go to church, who are you to submit to?
Write his name down in your bulletin.
James 4:7, “So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you.”
And finally, if you’re a walking, living,
breathing human being, who are you to submit to?
Write His name down in your bulletin.
Now you just made a list of 4 - 7 names of people
that God has put into your life,
and has commanded you to submit to.
Some of you teens may be looking at your list
and saying, “Yes, but you don’t know my parents.”
And some of you wives are saying,
“But you don’t know my husband.”
And some of you employees are saying,
“You really don’t understand who I work for.”
And probably all of you are saying,
“Have you met my pastor?”
But what does God say?
God says we are to obey and submit
to those in authority over us.
Now there’s some of the people on your list,
you DIDN”T choose to be under.
You were born to your parents,
and God picked them out Himself.
Or maybe your parents have remarried,
or are living with someone else
who has become the “Father figure” in our life.
And then there’s some people on your list,
you did get to choose for yourself.
Wives, you chose your husband. You picked him!
I don’t think we have any arranged marriages here,
do we?
You wives chose to put yourself in subjection
to his authority.
Teens, this is important, you need to listen!
Some of you wives are thinking,
I didn’t realize who they really were,
let me have another chance to pick!
Sorry, it doesn’t work that way,
one shot is all you get.
That’s why we as parents urge our children
to choose their mate wisely.
We tell our children not to hang out or go out
with anyone from the opposite sex who’s not a Christian, because they’re setting themselves up
for a possible long term relationship, even marriage!
And it’s hard enough to stay married when you have your faith, race, and values in common but when you introduce a lot of differences it can tear the relationship apart and destroy the marriage.
Because of the order of authority
God has set in motion, wives are bound to submit
and to obey their husbands whether you picked wisely or not.
Now some of the authority that we’re under,
we can choose to remove ourselves from.
You can divorce an unfaithful spouse, quit your job, move your citizenship, or leave the church.
But before you make any move like that,
you need to make sure God is leading you to move,
and that you aren’t just trying
to take the easy way out of your problems.
But once you have put yourself under someone’s authority, then you’re bound to submit and obey that person.
There are only 3 instances where you have a right to disobey your authority.
You may want to jot this down.
You don’t have to obey your authority
if they ask you to do something
Illegal, Immoral, or Un-Biblical.
I know some of you think that some of the people in authority in your life,don’t deserve your respect, honor, or obedience.
But you know what? It doesn’t matter.
You are still bound BY GOD to obey and submit
to your authority.
It doesn’t matter if they are un-likeable, stupid,
or even dead wrong.
When God places someone in authority,
it’s not your place to attack them in any way.
And you are just as wrong as they are, if you do.
Let’s look at I Samuel 24:1-22, “After Saul returned from fighting the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of En-gedi. So Saul chose three thousand special troops from throughout Israel
and went to search for David and his men near the rocks of the wild goats. At the place where the road passes sheepfolds, Saul went into a cave to relieve himself. But as it happened, David and his men were hiding in that very cave! ‘Now’s your opportunity!’
David’s men whispered to him. ‘Today is the day the Lord was talking about when He said, ‘I will certainly put Saul into your power, to do with as you wish.’
Then David crept forward and cut off a piece of Saul’s robe.But then David’s conscience began bothering him
because he had cut Saul’s robe.‘The Lord knows I shouldn’t have done it,’ he said to his men. ‘It is a serious thing to attack the Lord’s anointed one,
for the Lord Himself has chosen him. So David sharply rebuked his men and did not let them kill Saul.
After Saul had left the cave and gone on his way, David came out and shouted after him, ‘My lord the king!’ And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him. Then he shouted to Saul, ‘Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you?
This very day you can see with your own eyes it isn’t true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave, and some of my men told me to kill you,
but I spared you. For I said, ‘I will never harm him –
he is the Lord’s anointed one.’”
God had made Saul a King,and King Saul was not always
wise, fair or even right.
In fact, in this particular story, he was trying to catch innocent David so he could kill him.
We’re talking a literal chase through the countryside.
What was David to do in this situation?
He’s suppose to respect and submit to his authority
even though the authority in his life was trying to kill him for no good reason!
When David was given the opportunity to kill Saul to protect his own life, he refused to do it.
David was big enough to know that God Himself put Saul in the position of king, and David refused to rise up against him.
That speaks volumes for David.
Now what about us here at New Hope?
I know sometimes I might not be a real likeable person.
Sometimes I might make a poor choice,and once in a blue moon, I might even be wrong!
But have I ever tried to kill you?
There will obviously be times when you won’t agree with me on some things, so what should you do?
God says you should submit.
That means if you agree with me, or any other authority in your life, that’s fantastic!
But it’s not submission.
Submission can’t happen until two people disagree.
It’s when you disagree with your leader, but you humble yourself to their authority, that’s when you have truly submitted.
What’s your response when you disagree
with the names you wrote in your bulletin?
Do you submit to their authority,
Or do you argue with them?
Do you try to push your point of view,
Or even disobey, and do it your way?
God says to submit.
In our eyes, David had the opportunity
and even the right to retaliate against Saul.
But David was too wise to kill his authority.
He knew God put Saul in that position,
and that God would deal with Saul on a higher level.
You need to realize that you are NOT responsible
for your leaders’ mistakes, but you ARE responsible for your own.
God will hold our leaders to a higher standard of responsibility, and He will reward or punish them, as He sees fit.
But He will also reward and punish us for our good deeds, or our disobedience.
I want to give you a picture to help you understand this concept of authority:
It’s called the Umbrella of Protection, and you can see it in your bulletin.
Ephesians 6:12 –
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Now remember, God is our umbrella of protection.
God is the authority over the Husband,
The Husband over the Wife,
The Husband and Wife over the Children.
The Employer over the Employee.
The Law of the Land over the Citizen.
The Pastor over the Church Member.
And as long as you stay under your authority,
you will be protected by God, and blessed by God.
But the minute you step out (through disobedience) you have set yourself up for anything and anyone to attack you.
You have forfeited God’s blessing, power and protection on your life.
Where do you want to live? Under the umbrella.
Now I want to talk to those of you who find yourselves in leadership positions in your life.
You may have a leadership position at work,at home,
or you may be a ministry leader here at church,
let me talk to you for a minute.
You have a big responsibility to shoulder.
Not only do you have the responsibility to lead those under you to succeed, and be held accountable by God if you don’t), you are also told to honor them as well.
Did you notice that every time God told someone to submit to their authority, God also had a command for the authority?
In Ephesians 6 verse 1
God told children to obey and honor their parents, then in verse 4, He had a word for the fathers “Provoke not your children to wrath,
but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
When God told wives to submit to their husbands
in Ephesians 5:22, in verse 25
He told the husbands to “Love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it;”
And again in I Peter 3:7, “In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat her with understanding as you live together.
She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. If you don’t treat her as you should, your prayers will not be heard.”
When he told the servants (or employees)
to obey their masters to the best of their ability,
He told the employers in Ephesians 6:9
to withhold threats to employees, and not to show partiality. “Masters, do the same things to them,
and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master, and yours, is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.”
To Pastors He said: “Feed the flock,
take charge willingly, not with filthy lucre,
but with a ready mind, don’t be a “lord” but an example.”
From Jesus’ Own lips in John 19:11,
He tells us Who the giver of authority is,
“Jesus answered, You would have no authority over Me,
unless it had been given (to) you from above."
God the Father is the authority giver.
As I close let me leave you with two relevant passages of scripture.
I Peter 5:5,6, “You younger men, accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, serve each other in humility, for God sets Himself against the proud,
but He shows favor to the humble.So humble yourselves
under the mighty power of God, and in His good time He will honor you.”
I Timothy 2:1-2, “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them, and give thanks.
Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness,
in godliness and dignity.”
Please bow your heads in prayer and let me lead you through a prayer.
Pray right now that God will help you to submit to the authority of those you wrote down in your bulletin.
Ask God to give you a respect for the office that they fill,realizing that He put them in that position.
Now ask God to give your leaders wisdom and guidance.
Now thank God for the leaders in your life.
“Father as we continue in prayer, we realize that our destiny is directly related to our leaders.
Lord, we want our leaders to succeed so we ourselves, won’t fail.
Please help us to pray every day for those that you have placed in authority over our lives.
Humble us to the point that You can use us in a mighty way for Your purposes.
We realize that we will never lead and be successful
until we learn to obey and follow.
God, help us to commit to submit...”
