'tis The Season To Submit Series

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?