LIFE IS AN ATTITUDE – PICK A GOOD ONE
How To Experience Real Freedom
Sunday March 25, 2007
Scripture Reference: Romans 12:2, 1 Peter 2:13-25
Intro.
A. Today I am sharing with you the last attitude in this series on developing attitudes that lead us into the life God desires for all of us. I said last week that I wasn’t looking forward to this day and I’m not. I am grateful that these sermons are available for us to listen to on our sermon player and I will tell you that one of the hits our sermon player gets each week is from yours truly. I have been listening to these messages while I am in the office during the week. I do that for two reasons, one is that I want to hear how the message actually came out of my mouth and consider ways I can improve my presentation of my message. The second reason is more important though and that reason is that I want to hear God’s word again for myself so that I can be challenged and encouraged to grow in these important areas of my life. I want to encourage you again to take advantage of our sermon player. There are so many different ways you can use it and ways that you can give it away to others. I think it is a fantastic ministry tool.
Trans. Well enough of this lamenting let’s move along to explore this last positive attitude that we need to develop in our lives to replace the negative attitude we explored last week of rebellion.
B. The attitude we are going to be learning about today is the attitude of submission. I wonder what is the attitude you have towards submission? What are the feelings you have when I bring up the word submission? If you are like me and I know you won’t admit it if you are but if you are anything like me you quickly discover that you have within you a built in resistance to submission. The very word itself makes you feel just a little bit uncomfortable. You probably find yourself saying something like this, “OK, but…” In other words you believe that submission is OK but only up to a certain point. You might be willing to submit but with certain qualifications.
1. Why is it that we have this built in resistance to submission? Well I think there are two definite reasons we are not friendly towards submission. From the spiritual side it is because we are all sinners. We have all been born into sin and therefore we all have a bent towards the attitude of rebellion instead of submission. The second reason we have this resistance towards submission is because submission is something that has been both misunderstood and abused in our society and for those reasons we don’t care for it a whole lot. What we need to understand at this point is that just because something is misunderstood or has been abused that doesn’t mean it is now a bad thing or something that needs to be gotten rid of. It just means that we need to get a proper understanding of the attitude and we need to ignore those who have abused it. There are many things in our society that have been either misunderstood or abused but we don’t abandon them. The institution of marriage comes to mind. There have been many abuses when it comes to marriage but we still get married. Why? Because we believe that marriage is a good and honorable thing and it is something we feel will enrich our lives. So let’s not abandon submission because it has been misunderstood or abused.
B. Here is something else I think we need to know as we begin to look into this attitude of submission. Submission is a universal principle. What I mean by that is that submission is not something for select group of people. Submission is not something that only concerns a certain portion of the population. Submission is something that all of us need to do whatever station in life God has placed us.
1. Submission is not just for Christians it is for everyone.
2. Submission is not just for wives it is for husbands as well.
3. Submission is not just for children it is for parents also.
4. Submission is not just for employees it is for employers also.
5. Submission is not just for students it is for teachers as well.
6. Submission is not just for the congregation it is for pastors also.
7. The fact is life runs much more smoothly and is more enjoyable when we all learn how to willing submit ourselves to those God has placed in authority over us.
Trans. So if submission is not the bad thing that we have been trained to believe it is then how can we incorporate submission into our lives so that it becomes something that brings about God’s blessing and helps us to live in this abundant life the bible promises to us? What I want to do today is share with you five principles about submission that when understood and applied will bring about that promise land living we desire. So let’s look at principle number one.
I. HOW TO MAKE SUBMISSION WORK.
A. Our Submission Is A Duty We Owe To God.
1. This a very fundamental principle of submission. I think we will see this more clearly as we move through this message, but one of the reasons most of us bristle at the thought of submitting is because we see ourselves submitting to another person, but we are failing to understand that any real submission that we enter into from a biblical perspective is not submission to a person it is submission to God. Look at what Peter said in V. 13-14 (read). For whose sake are we to submit? God’s! Not for the government’s sake, or your husbands sake or for the policeman’s sake, but for the Lord’s sake. Look at what Paul said to us about this in Romans 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Paul makes this point very clear for us; our submission is a duty to God that happens to play itself out in our duty to men.
2. Now this may sound basic but it is one of those things that I feel we often need to remind ourselves of. Submission is a choice. This is what the word means when we speak of submission. The word submit means to place yourself under the authority of another. I am going to speak of this a little more but let me say right here that there is no such thing as “Forced Submission”. It’s like if as I as the pastor have to keep reminding you that I am the leader. The reason I have to do that is because I am not really the leader. I may have the title but if I have to keep telling you to follow me it is because I am not leading. So listen up husbands. If you have to tell your wife to submit to you it is because you are not being the leader God called you to believe.
3. Even if I am a person with authority as a pastor or a husband or a policeman or the president of the United States, I cannot command submission from you. You may yield to my authority because you feel forced to do so but you are definitely not submitting to me. A real leader and I encourage everyone to hear this. A real leader RECEIVES submission from those under their leadership.
4. Now you are probably thinking right about now, to whom must I submit myself? Can I say, “I am submitting myself to God not you?” I think this is both a good and bad question to ask. It’s good in that we want to know to whom we are to submit but it can be bad in that we might be tempted to make that our ceiling. What I mean is that we might be tempted to say, “Well you are not on the list of those the pastor said I had to submit to so I don’t have to submit to you.” Here is what the bible tells us. Look at V.13-14, 17-18, 3:1, and 7-8. This is not an exhausted list in that it specifically names every person to whom we are to submit but it gives us a pretty good general view. What these verses tell us is that these are the people or institutions that God myself has ordained to be authorities over us and so when I submit tot these people or institutions then I am submitting to God.
Trans. The second principles I would share with you is this.
B. Our Submission Provides Us With Protection. V.14-15
1. One of the reasons we don’t like to submit ourselves to anyone is that we like to be or at least feel that we are in control. What these verses tell us is that if we will do as God commands then we will not be in danger. We are told two things. Number one is that those who do wrong will be punished. God tells us that vengeance is His and He will repay those who do wrong. The Bible also tells us that our sins will find us out or they will be revealed. We may not like the things that the person to whom we are submitting is doing. We may feel they are being crooked or dishonest, but the Bible says they God will punish them. It is true that the wheels of justice sometimes turn slowly but they do turn and wrong doers will not go unpunished for their actions.
2. We are also told in V.14 that those who do right will be honored or blessed or rewarded. Once again the wheels of justice seem to turn much more slowly than we like but they are turning. God sees your faithfulness and He has promised to reward that faithfulness. The big question is whether or not we are willing to let God be God and do things in His own time and way?
3. Here is a very important truth. We must continue to do right even when things seem wrong. Now let’s just admit to ourselves right now that this is extremely difficult for all of us. When we are getting ripped off, when we are getting dealt a bad deal, when we are getting the short end of the stick it is not easy to get on doing the right thing. We see people who are doing the wrong things, they are cheating on their taxes, they are lying to their boss to get ahead, and they are saying things about us that are not true so that we will be passed over for positions or promotions. It is hard to keep doing the right thing when those who are doing wrong seem to be prospering, but look at V.15 (read). Do you want to know how to silence your biggest critic? The bible says, “Keep on Keeping On.” Keep on living the way God calls you to live. Keep doing what He calls you to do and you will put a muzzle on those who seek to hurt you.
4. Let me say this again. Submission is your best place for protection. Now I want you to consider with me the context of Peter’s words. Peter wrote these words during a time period when it is estimated that there were 60,000,000 people serving as slaves. Many of these new converts to Christ were those slaves. Yet Peter tells them to submit to their masters. Here is another point that I find even more striking. Peter wrote these words during the time that Nero was emperor of Rome. We all know that Nero was one of the most brutal rulers in all of history and his treatment of Christians was even worse. Now consider that in the back drop of Peter’s words that they were to submit to the king. How could Peter say that knowing what Nero was like? Well I can only surmise that Peter knew someone who was greater than Nero, His name was Jehovah God.
5. Look quickly with me at 1 Peter 5:5-7. What do these verses tell us? They tell you but I don’t want to be on God’s bad side if you know what I mean? I don’t want or need the opposition of God and yet this verse tells me that if I am proud, if I chose to say no to submitting myself to God then He will be against me and that my friends is a no win situation in case you didn’t know it.
Trans. Now about this point some of you are saying the same thing I was saying. “Well there has to be some sort of limit to my submission.” “I mean what I am supposed to do when someone in authority over me is doing something that is dangerous or immoral or unlawful?” “I am supposed to sit back and do nothing?” Let’s see if we can answer that burning question.
C. Submission Has Limits Under God.
1. What submission is not is it is not slavery. The issue of submission most often comes up in the subject of marriage. Since the Bible tells the wife to submit to her husband wives are prone to ask, “Well what if my husband is abusive?” “What if my husband asks me to be involved in something that morally or legally wrong?” “Am I supposed to submit to that?” Well if we go back to Ephesians 5 where Paul speaks to this we will find that Paul tells the wives to submit to their husbands as unto the Lord. What this means is that she is going to follow him as she follows Christ and Christ will never ask us to do things that are contrary to His will or to His word.
2. Notice what it says in V.16 “Live as free men…” What is the place of a slave master told him to kill someone what would his position be? His position is to kill that person, he is a slave he has no free will to say no because if he does he will be killed. Now you might say, “Well pastor doesn’t the bible tells us that we are slaves?” “Didn’t Paul say he was a slave?” The answer to both questions is “yes” but you left out the most important question, “Whose slave was Paul and whose slave are we?” We are slaves to Christ not slaves to this world. I am commanded to obey Christ so if those in authority chose to act outside of God’s clearly defined will and they ask me to participate I cannot do that.
3. Now let me balance what I have just told you with some other things you need to know. Look with me at the rest of V.16 (read). You are not a slave; you are not obligated to do things that you know are wrong, but be very careful. I say that because it can be very easy to use this freedom Peter speaks of to as he said, “cover up evil”. Here is what I mean. You may say “My boss wants me to move to another department and I know there is no real room for promotion in that department.” “I am not his slave for him to direct me where he wants so I am going to raise a stink about this.” Have you done the right thing? NO! You are using your freedom to cover up the evil of rebellion. If you feel that such a move is not good for your future you can make the decision to move on to another company, but in this case your boss is not asking you to do something that is wrong so to fail to submit is to rebel against the authority god has established over your life. What if you husband asks you to some service club party where you know people will be drinking and you are adamantly opposed to drinking so you feel it is right for you to refuse to go. Are you doing the right thing? Are you acting like a free man or are you using that freedom to cover up rebellion? Your husband may be asking you to do something uncomfortable for you and maybe he shouldn’t but he is not asking you to do anything immoral or that is opposed to God’s word.
4. Let me just remind you again here that God established these authority positions over our lives and our rebellion against them is also rebellion against God and as we said earlier you sure don’t want to be in opposition to God. It is definitely not the winning position.
Trans. Let me share with you quickly the last two principles of submission.
D. Submission Brings Us God’s Favor.
1. We explored this idea a little earlier so we will not spend a lot of time here. Look with me at V.18-20 (read). We are all going to find ourselves in this position where we suffer under someone’s authority and all the while we were trying to do the best we could. We probably have all worked for someone who was not very appreciative of our efforts. People who seemed to be critical of whatever it was we tried to do. What these verses are telling us is that God sees that faithfulness and he will honor it. He will reward it. But remember this. If you are sloughing off, if you are cutting corners, if you are making 10 minute breaks 20 minute breaks and you get in trouble for it or find you are being passed over from promotions. God is not honoring that. If you are punished for doing wrong then you are getting that you deserve.
E. Submission Brings Us Greater Intimacy With God.
1. Let’s look at V.22-25 (read). What I see here is the fact that suffering is a part of our Christian life. I know we do not like it we don’t look forward to it but nevertheless it is a part of what we can expect as we walk with God. Verse 21 tells us that Christ left us an example to follow. That word example literally means something you would use to trace with. We are to trace our lives the way Christ did and we all know that Christ suffered greatly and he also suffered unjustly. When we look at the life of Jesus we see he tremendous intimacy with God. Why was that? It was because he had fully and willingly submitted himself to God. If you and I desire that same level of intimacy then we must learn to submit ourselves to God as fully and as willingly as Jesus.
2. Here is something you are not going to like and I know this because I don’t like it, but if we are to enjoy a deeper and growing level of intimacy with God then we have to learn how to embrace suffering. This means that I have to submit myself to God and to the authorities He has established even if it hurts for a while. Even if it doesn’t seem fair or right. I am doing this because I believe what the bible teaches me and I believe that God really is in control and I believe that he rewards those who trust in Him fully. Do you trust Him enough to submit? To come under the authorities He has placed in your life? It really is the only way to know true freedom.
LIFE APPLICATION:
A. How Well Do I Practice Submission? Here is a partial list of those who are or might be in authority over you. I want to ask you to rte yourself in how well you feel you are submitting to these people. I have left a few spaces for you to fill in some people that I haven’t thought of. Policemen, Officials, Employment, School, Parents, Spouse, Church, and how about the ultimate GOD?
B. What steps do you need to take to begin to come under that authority? What do you need to do to begin to submit? Maybe you need to go to the person to whom you have been rebelling against and apologize and ask them to forgive you for your poor attitude. Maybe you need to go into work tomorrow and tell the boss you would be happy to fill that position he asked you to fill a while ago but you refused. You know what you need to do in your own life. The big question is always, “Will we do what we know we need to do so we can begin experiencing God’s blessing?”
