INTRO.- ILL.- One day a police officer stopped a driver. The police officer said, “Since you were wearing your seat belt, you win $5000, what are you going to do with the money?”
The man said, “I’m going to get me a driver’s license.”
The lady next to him said, “Don’t listen to him officer, he always talks crazy when he’s drunk!”
The loud talking woke the guy in the back seat. When he saw the police he said, “I knew we wouldn’t get far with this stolen car!”
Then the police heard a voice from the trunk and in Spanish, the voice said, “Are we over the border yet?”
What about this seat belt business? Do you wear yours? Some people just don’t want to be bothered even though the law requires us to buckle up. “Click it or ticket.”
ILL.- According to the Associated Press, a New Zealander named Ivan Segedin took it to an extreme. The police ticketed him 32 times over five years for failing to use his seat belt. Even though this was costing him big money, Segedin refused to buckle up. Finally, instead of obeying the law, the man decided to rely on deception. He made a fake seat belt that would hang over his shoulder and make it appear that he was wearing a seat belt when he was not.
His trick worked for a while. Then, he had a head-on collision. He was thrown forward onto the steering wheel and killed.
That man’s disobedience caused his death, but disobedience to God can cause even more trouble and a worse death!
Romans 8:7 “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”
The person who lives in sin and for sin does not and will not submit to God and will eventually pay the penalty for that lack of submission.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What about Christian people? Must we submit to God in obedience? WELL, WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Many people are quick to call Jesus the Lord, but they don’t want to do anything His Word tells them to do. Jesus is clear that accepting Him as Lord means that we must be obedient and do God’s will.
Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
Obeying the Lord Jesus is probably one of the hardest things we will learn to do in life, if indeed, we ever learn this lesson.
Why is obedience hard to learn? Because our natural tendency is to do our own thing. It’s called our sin nature, our dark side. We don’t like to think about, talk about it or own up to it, but it’s true and we all have it!
Luke 11:28 Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Powerful!
John 14:23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
Do we want Jesus to be at home with us? Do we want Him to dwell in us always or just at certain times, like when we pray or when we go to church?
ILL.- Thomas a Kempis wrote: Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Whoever strives to withdraw from obedience, withdraws from Grace. POWERFUL!
Since this is the time of the year when more people are thinking about God, Christ, eternal life, etc. I think we all need to be reminded that God is management and we are in sales and we must do as He says!
Sometimes Christians get the idea that God is simply our great Giver and that He is only here to please us! We can play, have fun, go our merry way, do anything we want but we don’t have to do what the Bible says. That God is here only for our good, not us for His good or His glory! NOT SO!
Since God is God and He gives us every good gift and the ultimate promise of eternal life, He still requires that we submit to Him, that we obey Him! ‘Tis the season to submit to God!
Ephesians 5:24 “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
As the church submits to Christ. THAT’S YOU AND ME! Are we submissive to Christ? If so, how so?
PROP.- Let’s see how important it is to submit to God and what happens when we do.
1- Submission to God brings life
2- Submission to God gives victory
I. SUBMISSION TO GOD BRINGS LIFE
Hebrews 12:9 “Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!”
Submitting to God who is the Father of our human spirit brings life. He gives us life and a better life when we submit to Him!
ILL.- When I was in grade school I remember that my best friend, George Huffman, had a new bicycle and apparently, he invited me over to his house after school. SO I WENT. However, I forgot something. I forgot something my parents told me.
After about an hour at George’s house, he took me home on his new bike and my dad was standing in the front yard waiting for me. However, he was not standing there with open arms to greet me. As soon as I got off George’s bike, off came dad’s belt and I got a whipping because I was told that I was supposed to come straight home after school.
Do you think I ever pulled that trick again? No, I didn’t. Of course, I did other things that I shouldn’t have done and I don’t remember if I got a whipping for those things or not. Some, I’m sure. Others, I may have gotten by with.
Did your daddy discipline you? And did you respect him for his discipline? And if you submitted to him didn’t life go better for you? You perhaps steered clear of many things in life because you were taught better and disciplined when you went in the wrong direction.
Ephesians 6:1-3 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
There it is! When children submit to their parents and obey them things may go well with them and they will enjoy a better life on earth. Whereas if kids disobey mom and dad they are asking for trouble! What’s the worst punishment you got for disobedience?
The same principle applies to our Heavenly Father. When we obey Him and submit to Him, life is going to be better for us! But if we don’t, watch out!
Hebrews 12:5-6 “And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”
Have you ever been disciplined by God for your disobedience to Him? Chances are, you have, even though you may not be able to pinpoint that discipline.
It could have been a lost job, a catastrophe at home or at work, a series of financial losses, etc. It could be any number of things or perhaps a combination of bad things. I think sometimes God disciplines us by allowing bad things to happen to us. He doesn’t necessarily cause them, however.
ILL.- I remember having a conversation with an older preacher friend of mine at the OCC convention some years ago. I told him how I used to enjoy running and was doing so well and then suddenly I had to stop running completely because my doctor said I had almost completely worn out my hip joint.
My old preacher friend laughed and said, “Ah ha, God got you, didn’t he?” Did he mean that God caused my hip to wear out because I was doing something I shouldn’t have been doing or I was not obeying God in life like I should? That may have been what he was thinking but that was not my thinking.
I remember distinctly at that time in my life I was trying to do the will of God in my life and ministry. No, I think my hip wore out simply because I ran too much! I wasn’t particularly doing anything wrong and I wasn’t neglecting my ministry.
But there are times when God disciplines us because He knows that we’re going down the wrong path. He disciplines us for our good. He’s not trying to hurt us, but rather help us by trying to get us to wake up and look up! God is trying to bless us with the abundant life here on earth! And to do this, there are times when He has to shake us to wake us!
ILL.- At a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Bobby Richardson, former New York Yankee second baseman (1955-1966), offered a prayer that is a classic in brevity: “Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen.”
ILL.- Someone wrote: The best way to know God’s will is to say “I will” to God. Saying “I will” to God is the best thing any of us can do. Saying “I will” or “I submit” brings life to our lives!
II. SUBMISSION TO GOD GIVES VICTORY
James 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Guess what happens if we don’t submit to God? If we don’t submit to God we’ll submit to someone else and perhaps without knowing it!
ILL.- Do you remember many years ago when a cartoon appeared that showed an angel on the shoulder of a person and on the other shoulder was the devil? Each one kept whispering in the ear of the person, bidding them to come their way.
WELL, THERE MAY BE SOME TRUTH TO THIS IDEA! I do believe that the devil is constantly tempting us to do evil although he may not verbally whisper in our ears! The evil one is the tempter, not God. Don’t ever blame God for evil. The devil is evil and He is the one who is behind all evil in this world.
Ephesians 2:1-3 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”
You followed the ways of this world and OF THE RULER OF THE KINGDOM OF THE AIR. Who is this? Satan. Many people are duped by the devil and they don’t even know it. They are following him and have no idea they are doing it. Of course, many folks don’t believe in Satan in the first place. They think he is figment of someone’s imagination. WRONG!
ILL.- A Christian slave in America was overheard by his master. The black man was groaning, weeping and praying to the Lord for deliverance from the devil. His master said, “You seem to have a good deal of trouble with the devil and he never bothers me at all. And yet you are a good, praying Christian and I am not a Christian. Why doesn’t he bother me?”
The black man replied, “Master, I will explain this. When you are out shooting ducks, which do you send the dog after first, the ones that fall dead or the ones that wounded and are trying to get away?”
The man replied, “Well, of course, I send the dog after the wounded ones. The dead ones we are sure of and can pick them up later.”
The black man said, “And so it is with Satan. He already has those who are not born again, fast and sure. But those that know the Lord are the ones that he sets his dogs after. He knows he can pick up the others later.”
If someone doesn’t know the Lord then, in a sense, Satan already has them in his grasp and he doesn’t have to work too hard to keep them there. But Satan wants to deceive everybody and if someone is already a Christian then he has to work very hard to trip them up! But believe me, He is working on us! He is a tireless workers who never lets up!
I’ve heard it said that even though we had days off and holidays off, the devil never takes a holiday!
ILL.- Christian author, C. S. Lewis wrote: “There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan.”
ILL.- Look at the broken heroes in the Bible—Adam and Eve were tempted and sinned. Cain killed Abel in a jealous rage. Moses killed the Egyptian. Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife. David committed adultery and murder. King Saul was destroyed by pride. King Herod was brought down by jealousy and fear. Ananias and Sapphira was devoured by greed. Judas was destroyed by materialism.
Why did these things happen? It was because of failing to submit to God. When we fail to submit to God we will not experience victory in life. We experience defeat, failure, misery, etc. But if we submit to God’s will and do what we know He wants, we will be blessed with victory over Satan and a certain amount of success in life!
ILL.- George Ferdinand Müller (September 27, 1805 – March 10, 1898), a Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024 orphans in his life. He also established 117 schools which offered Christian education to over 120,000 children, many of them being orphans.
Mueller had only two shillings to his name when he began the orphanage work, but over the next sixty years God sent more than $7,500,000 to supply their needs. New buildings were built or purchased, staff was hired, and the hundreds of children never missed a meal. Many times prayers were said over empty plates only to have food arrive at the last moment.
Müller prayed about everything and expected each prayer to be answered. What was the secret to George Mueller’s success in the Christian life?
To one who asked him the secret of his service, George Mueller said: “There was a day when I died, utterly died;” —“died to George Muller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will—died to the world, its approval or censure—died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends—and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.”
Submission to God brings victory in life. Victory over sin, victory over life’s problems and victory over Satan.
CONCLUSION-----------------
ILL.- I read one time that next to the person who does not pay his bill, the doctor’s most annoying patient is the one who refuses to follow orders. It has been estimated that between 16 to 90 percent of all patients leave half-empty pill bottles, cheat on diets, continue to smoke, or never return for checkups despite careful prescriptions and cautious advice.
Failing to follow your doctor’s advice could get a person into trouble or cause them to lose their health or worse, but failing to listen to the Great Physician and obey Him will bring on worse problems! I say, Tis the season to submit to God.
