South Shore Pentecostal Church

J. Craig Ouellette: This morning, we have a subject here called submission. Submission. Praise God. But let's read these scriptures here. Luke 24:4, not 24, but Luke 2:49 through 52.

So it's right near the end of Luke chapter two, right near the end of chapter two, verse 49. It says, and Jesus is talking. He's he said unto them, "How is it that she sought me? Wished ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"

And they understood not the saying which he spoke unto them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them, but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.

Then a passage in the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 22. These are all in the New Testament. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 22. Says, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your husband as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it."

And I missed verse 21 there. I meant to start of verse 21. So let's read that. "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Amen. So the passage is really not just directed to husbands and wives, but it's directed to the whole church body. Amen, that we need to have a relationship, a submission, some type of submission to one another.

And then James 4 and 7. James 4 and 7 says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you." "Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you." Amen.

So the word submission does not occur in the King James Bible. But the idea is conveyed by many other words in such as subject, to be subject, to submit, submitted, submitting, obedient, under. Okay, a lot of places where you see submitting yourself, it's really one Greek word, and if you look up the word yourselves, it means to submit.

So the concept of Lordship and king implies submission. Doesn't it? So we struggle with that in our modern day way of thinking, especially people that are raised in America, because we get caught up in democracy, and democracy is okay for political things. But when it comes to God, he's a king. We don't get to vote. You can't vote God out. Okay, when God's got a plan, if he said something's going to be done a certain way, it's going to be done that way. All right, and we can get all the action groups we want together, but it's not going to change what God is saying.

So as Christians, we need to understand that submission is part of living for God. And if we don't understand this concept, we don't get to the place where we need to be in the Lord. Amen. So we call Jesus King of Kings and Lord of Lords in Revelation 19:16. But Jesus asked the question, "Why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" in Luke 6:46.

So you have a lot of people that say, "Well, I'm a Christian," but they pick and choose what they want to obey out of the Bible. They don't put the whole council together. And it's true, there are some things that God gives us a choice. But there are some things that we've got to apply in our lives, whether we like it or not, because this is the way that God has ordained it.

And we need to understand that when God ordains it a certain way, he's not ordaining it to make it hard for us. He's not ordaining it because he wants to make it difficult, but he's got a reason why he does it the way he does it. And it works out best for us when we do it God's way because God knows who we are and why we're here. Amen. God knows why we're here.

So submission is not not a popular word or idea in modern thinking. And again, submission applies obedience. And obedience includes doing things we don't like, especially when we don't feel like doing them. That's obedience. Obedience is doing things we don't like when we don't feel like doing them.

So a lot of people are fine with church as long as they feel like doing what's going on. But when they're asked to do something they don't feel like doing. Now it's the test of obedience. Now God's trying to test us. Will I obey? And if you read Genesis and you read about Abraham, you find out that a big part of what Abraham goes through is a test of obedience. Right? When he finally offers up Isaac.

Okay, this Abraham's 25 years waiting for Isaac to be conceived. And Isaac is born and he's probably 15 or 16, maybe even 18 when he when he's offered up. Okay, and and here's Abraham now, he's he's 115 or 120 years old. And God says, "Offer him up." And after he offers him up, God says, "Now I know that Abraham will obey me." The test of obedience. If we're going to live for God, God is going to test each one of us in the test of obedience.

And he'll he'll put us against our friends. Our friends say this, God says this. Our family says this, God says this. Society says this, God says this. The test of obedience. God will let every one of us go through that. Amen.

And so modern society is caught up with the idea of my rights. And the honest truth about it is, the only rights we have is what God gives us. If God's in the picture, we really don't unless God is in the picture, we really don't have any rights. The person with the biggest gun or the most money or the most people declares the rights. That's why there's a struggle, okay, because we've got a system that says our rights come from God.

Unless God's in the picture, you don't, I don't, you don't really have a leg to stand upon to say that's my right. And if the right I claim is not a right that God declares, I don't have a right to it either. Amen. Praise God. So many have said true obedience starts when we do what we don't want to do. Amen.

So obedience is a key to serving God. And just a couple scriptures here, Acts 5:32. He says, "He gives the Holy Ghost to them that obey him." He gives the Holy Ghost to them that obey them. All right, now what does that mean? That means you can't get the Holy Ghost if you don't obey him. Okay. Amen.

And then it says, "The Lord will take vengeance on them that don't obey the gospel." So there's something that God is requiring of us. It's it's not just belief. Let me let me put it to you this way. Everybody say, you know, we we talk about Abraham being the father of faith, by faith he was justified. Right? Okay, so when God said your faith is true, God says, "I'm giving you a sign called circumcision."

Now if Abraham said, "Well, I'm not going to do that," all deals are off, even though he had faith and his faith justified him, now he had to do what God said. If he didn't perform circumcision on himself and apply that, even though his faith had brought him that far, the deal was done. Go read Genesis 17. So if you really got faith, it leads you to the place where you start to obey what God says to do. Amen.

So we're talking about submission here. And when we analyze the word, and this is where this came from, I heard Raymond Warbert talking about this, submission. Okay, it's it's sub and mission. It's got two parts. The word submission's got sub and mission. So sub, submarine, it's under. Submarine goes under the water. Mission, okay, mission refers to our goal and our objective or our purpose. So submission means to bring a mission under another mission. Amen. Bring a mission under another mission.

So an example is soldiers. Right, the the army is supposed to win the battle. But within that battle, you might have a a company or a group of soldiers, their submission is to take a hill, or a ravine, or a bridge. Okay, but they've got to do that under the authority of the battle. So they've got to bring their their mission under God's authority. We've got to bring our mission under God's authority, is what I'm getting at. All right, so living for the Lord requires us to make a submission to God.

Now I'm talking about mission, I'm talking about our life's goals, our purposes, what we want. That's our mission. You may not call it mission, but that really is. Because that's what you're trying to do. You've got a view of life of what you think is good and what you want, and you start working, and what you're working at is to to fulfill that that mission. But if you're going to live for God, that mission must come under God's mission, it must be submission.

Get your asbestos gloves out. Amen. So we look at, that's why we read in Luke 2:42 for 49:52. Jesus who is God manifest in the flesh, had to bring his humanity under submission to the eternal purpose of the Spirit of God. When we see Jesus, we see God and man, we see God robed in flesh. Not pseudo-flesh, real flesh. Not a not a pseudo-human being, but a human being like we are.

So that means the minute God robes himself in flesh, God who never felt hunger, can now feel hungry. God who never could feel pain, can now feel pain. God who never stubbed his toe, can now feel a stubbed toe. God who never needed to sleep, now needs to sleep in that humanity. That doesn't mean that God's not awake, okay, when Jesus goes to sleep because God is everywhere. Okay, when you try to put God just someplace, he's not God. Because God is everywhere.

But he manifests himself in a way that we can understand and see him. So God can be down here talking to Abraham or us and still be on the throne in heaven running the universe. Because God is everywhere. Okay, God does not have a problem with talking to you or me or all of us down here and still running the universe. Because God doesn't have a problem if 8 billion prayers go up at once, God can answer them all at once. And he does not forget. He doesn't forget about any of them. Oh, I missed that one. Oh, I I lost the last billion. God does not have a problem. God is so awesome. He's got a name for every star, he's got a name for every planet, he knows every molecule, he knows the dust. Amen. He knows everything that's in creation. So 8 billion prayers is not a problem to God.

And so that same God manifested himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Amen. And so now that God's walking here as a man in the person of Jesus Christ, he had to submit his humanity to the will of the spirit. Amen. Jesus knew why he was here. We read that in Luke, he said, "Don't you know I should be about my Father's business?" He knew why he was here. He's God in flesh. Amen. He knows he's got he knows more. He's got a better connection than his parents, his mother or his stepfather. But yet the Bible says he goes back and is subjected to them. He comes under their authority. Amen. He lets himself be submitted to the purpose of God. In order to accomplish the purpose of God, we must submit to the Spirit of God.

Not just on Sunday. All right, again, that's the problem we have is we come in, God moves, we get excited, we shout and we praise God, but we go out and we don't submit to God in the rest of our lives. If we come in to here and God starts to move, we need to listen to God, and if there's some things in our lives that aren't submitted to God, we need to work on those and get that straightened out when we go back out into the world. Hallelujah. Amen.

So Jesus submitted himself to his parents. He had to grow. Listen, God could have just turned on the God stuff, give him a human mind, give him a human body, a full adult body, a full mind, human mind, that he had all knowledge, was everything was all set and just started right on down the way. But he comes in that humanity, submits himself to the purpose of God. He's being an example to us. Amen.

When he's praying, he's not faking it. He's praying because that humanity needs the Spirit of God to take authority over his human desires. When he's fasting, he's not faking it. He's fasting because he knows our flesh is going to war against our spirit, the Spirit of God. So he's bringing that humanity under the authority of God. And if God in flesh has got to do it, we know we got to do it.

So the Bible says this in Hebrews chapter 5, verses 8 and 9. It says, "Though he were a son, it's on the screen, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." See, again, he's experiencing things that as a spirit, he never experienced. But the minute he puts on flesh, the temptation to want to do things easier. God doesn't break a sweat to do anything. But when he comes in a body, now that body stresses just like our body does. May not feel like getting up. May not like feel like doing that job. May not feel like going over there. May not feel like facing that. But he does that in that humanity. And God is trying to show us this is what we need to do.

So it says, "Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him." You want Jesus to be the author of your salvation? We need to obey him. Amen. Praise God.

So being submitted to Jesus, this is where we're really getting today. That's like groundwork, okay. Being submitted to Jesus also means being submitted to the church. Why? Because it's his body. The body of Christ. Amen. A person's going to, if you're going to serve God, you must come under the authority of the body of Christ. You must. The church is not a man thing, it's a God thing. God created on the day of Pentecost. Jesus said, "I will build my church."

Now, the difficulty a lot of people have is some places that call themselves church are not the church. Amen. And sometimes bad things do happen in church. But we still have to come under the authority of the church. Because it's God's body. So this is where we read this passage here, "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Okay, that means when you come to church, you come to to worship God, you're in a sense you're submitting to one another because you're showing the importance of the body.

I know people today that not going to church on a regular basis, are not really going to church and they they're thinking they're living for God, but they're not. They're not where God wants them to be. Doesn't mean they don't believe in God. See, you can believe in God, you can talk to God, have God talk back to you, have God use you, and still not be where God wants you to be. I know it upsets some of us. Okay, and my statement's not based on my ideas, just think about your Bible.

When you have an idea, think about what the Bible says. Can I think of anybody that God spoke to and they weren't right with God in the Bible? Yeah. Cain. Balaam. Balaam's prophesying and he's not right with God. He's giving real prophecies about Israel and the coming of the Messiah, and he's not right with God. All right, so that tells you that just because I hear God does not mean I am where God wants or right with God. That's how you evaluate statements. You evaluate them by the word of God.

So wives submit your submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. What he's really saying there is there should be a mutual submission between the husband and wife. A mutual submission. If the husband's really submitted to the wife, he'll give his life sacrificially. If the wife is submitted to the husband, she'll obey him when when it's a decision that has to be made.

We're not talking about wrong decisions or bad decisions that are are sinful. But there's a mutual submission that is required in a marriage. They both commit to each other. Just as Jesus is committed to the church, he wants the church to commit to him. Amen. Again, the church is a type of marriage. Okay, that that's why God made marriage with Adam and Eve. Because Adam is a type of Christ, the Bible says. So God in bringing Eve out of the side.