The Sacredness Of Submission (Sermon On Christian Growth)

There were three guys talking about the amount of control they have over their wives, while the third remained quiet.

• After a while one of the first two turns to the third and says, "Well, what about you, what sort of control do you have over your wife?"

• The third fellow says "I’ll tell you. Just the other night my wife came to me on her hands and knees."

• The first two guys were amazed. "What happened then?" they asked.

• "She said, ’get out from under the bed and fight like a man’."

We all have a lot to say about SUBMISSION and so does the Word of God.

God’s Word has a lot to say about it

• 1 Peter,

• Romans 13,

• Ephesians 5,

• Colossians 3,

• 1 Timothy 2, and

• Hebrews 13

are all various chapters that speak about submission in the life of a believer in Jesus Christ.

Submission has a lot to do with Christian growth and it is also a vital part in our marriages.

Illus: A man accompanied his friend home for dinner and was impressed by the way he entered his house,

• He asked his wife how her day went, a

• Told her she looked pretty.

• Then, after they embraced, she served dinner. After they ate, the husband complimented his wife on the meal and thanked her for it.

When the two fellows were alone, the visitor asked, "Why do you treat your wife so well?" "Because she deserves it, and it makes our marriage happier," replied the host.

Impressed, the visitor decided to adopt the idea.

• Arriving home, he embraced his wife and said, "You look wonderful!"

• For good measure he added, "Sweetheart, I’m the luckiest guy in the world."

• His wife burst into tears.

• Bewildered, he asked her, "What in the world’s the matter?"

• She wept, "What a day!

• Billy fought at school.

• The refrigerator quit and spoiled the groceries.

• And now you’ve come home drunk!”

In this sermon I will be dealing with SUBMISSION as a spiritual matter to GROW SPIRITUALLY.

Often we older Christians will tell younger Christians that they need to “resist the devil...”

• And bless their hearts, when the devil hops on their backs they say, "Devil, I resist you." But nothing happens!

• Then, when the devil gets on their backs really bad, they say with an authoritative voice, making an ugly face, "Devil, I really resist you now! "

Illus: That is like a plumbing company that advertised, “We can stop your leaks for a hundred dollars. But we can REALLY stop your leaks for two hundred dollars.”

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

• We need to ask ourselves the question, “What is the difference between STOPPING YOUR LEAKS and REALLY STOPPING YOUR LEAKS?”

• And what is the difference between RESISTING the devil and REALLY RESISTING THE DEVIL?

It does not matter how you say it; you are NOT going to scare the devil off. Satan is not scared of a person in this building…NOT A ONE!!!

Illus: We can all remember when we were children. We could get by with a lot, but when our parents had all they could take, they would call our names with an authoritative voice, and we knew we were in some serious trouble.

But this does not work with Satan.

There is not a human alive that can sound authoritative enough to scare the devil off. It takes more than an authoritative voice.

What we should do is tell the young converts to resist the devil, and then tell them HOW!

HOW DO WE RESIST HIM?

Notice, before the Word of God tells us we are to RESIST the devil, it tells us we need to do something else first - SUBMIT OURSELVES UNTO THE LORD.

Look at verse 7. “SUBMIT yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the devil and HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU.”

The Christian that is not SUBMITTING to Christ is wasting his/her time trying to RESIST Satan, because the devil knows that such a person is no threat to him, regardless of how authoritative his voice may sound.

The apostle Paul is a good example of what God will do through a submissive Christian.

Look at Acts 19:11-12, we read, “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them. and the evil spirits went out of them.”

Some people try to build a doctrine on this unique experience, but notice, the scriptures only reveal that God did this through HIS ONE SPECIAL SERVANT.

Nowhere do we read that Paul said, "If you send me a thousand dollars I will pray over this prayer cloth and send it to you."