Service and Submission
Celebration of Discipline • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Recap -
Inward Disciplines - Prayer, fasting, meditation and study
Outward Discipline - Simplicity, Solitude, Service and Submission
Questions
- Where is God in this?
- What is God saying?
- What is He asking me to do about it?
- How does this choice increase the reign of the Kingdom of God?
Notes to help with the reflection on this
Discipline of Submission
Discipline of Submission
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all. - Martin Luther
As I say this word, submission how does it make you feel?
I know I feel uncomfortable with the term, it has negative connotations.
This is because of its abuse, of all spiritual disciplines none have been more abused than the teaching on submission.
Richard Foster - Nothing can put people into bondage like religion, and nothing in religion has done more to manipulate and destroy people than a deficient teaching on submission.
Those that seek power, seek to make others submit to them.
But in God’s upside-down kingdom, those who submit themselves have real power and influence.
Christian Submission is not something to gain, it is only given.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
When we humble ourselves and submit to God’s will for our lives that is the path to freedom.
All of these disciplines are to assist us towards freedom in our lives. Disciplines are the vehicle to this, end result. We can be easily tempted to put ourselves into the bondage of these disciplines.
Instead, forever centre on Jesus and view spiritual discipline as a way of drawing us closer to His heart, His will for us.
Submission brings freedom from always wanting things our own way.
what this week put you in a bad mood because it didn’t go your way?
Your team lost? TV drama’s
When things don’t go your way, how do you respond?
Anger, bitterness, revenge.
Jesus calls us to lay down our right to retaliate
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.
Tim Dyer - secular society looks to the church because it lives these verses out.
Sadly in churches it also accrues - church splits
My history with churches - currently
I have a deep heart for unity - this is Jesus' prayer, it is how we are to be known as Christians.
How do we get to the point, where we make the decision to break apart God’s church? As good faithful people, how does this happen?
Richard Foster highlights on this matter that in these situations fights and splits occur because we do not have the freedom to give to one another. We insist that these are critical issues, fighting for sacred space. Perhaps this is the case. Usually, it is not. Often we cannot stand to give in because it means that we will not get our own way or we are afraid of change. Only in submission are we enabled to bring this spirit to a place where it no longer controls us. Only submission can free us so that we can discern together between genuine issues and stubborn self-will.
If we take the position that most things in life are not major issues, then we could hold them lightly.
The book was first published in 1978.
Not getting our own way does not capture what hurt and trauma might be behind people's responses.
we are blinded by our Hurt, sometimes we are not even aware of it.
Yet the practice of submission is still the correct response.
Biblical teaching on submission focuses on the way we view other people.
In submission, we are set free to value other people. Their dreams and plans become important to us. We see life through their eyes, a new, wonder. This freedom to give up our own rights for the good of others, means we are led to love people unconditionally. We have given up the demand that they return our love. No longer do we feel that we have to be treated in a certain way.
We are free to rejoice in other's success. We feel genuine sorrow for their failures. It is of little consequence that our plans are frustrated if their plans succeed. We discover that it is far better to serve our neighbour than to have our own way.
The touchstone of Biblical submission is captured in Mark 8:34
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Jesus gives us the ultimate example of laying down his life for the sake of others.
Jesus calls us to follow him and deny ourselves our wants.
Self-denial is understanding that we do not have to have our own way to be happy.
Also, our identity is actually found in self-denial rather than losing it.
Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
So hear me when I say, self-denial means the freedom to give way to others. It means to hold other’s interests above our own interests.
the limit to submission is when we are asked to do something destructive or contractionary to God’s love, and compassion for people or devalue others.
All through Jesus' teachings and as they are lived out in acts and the letters to the church. they are all called to lay down their own interests for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
Where today are your own plans taking you away from God rather than drawing you closer? Is there hurt or things that you are carrying that you don’t need to? Try to hold things more loosely and love others as God loves you.
read the verses provided for more reflection.
Which leads us to
The Discipline of Service
The Discipline of Service
As the cross is the sign of submission, the towel is the sign of service.
When Jesus gathered his disciples for the Last Supper they were having trouble deciding who was the greatest.
An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest.
Greatest or at least not last.
They knew part of Passover was to wash the other's feet.
Here is where Jesus redefined greatness
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
In this action and others like it, Jesus abolished the pecking order of greatest through to least. The one with true authority or spiritual authority was not in a title or a position but in a towel.
As we read of Jesus' actions it calls us to humility. The spiritual discipline of Service is what helps us grow in our humility.
I like this from Richard Foster - Nothing disciplines the desire of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desire of the flesh like serving in hiddenness.
We desire recognition and to be seen doing good, but acts of true service are done in secret or with no desire for reward as it is an act to God.
Hidden can be just to come - submission and service overlap
Not just on a Sunday - serving during the week
People of peace - like you, listen to you and serve you
Strategic Plan
Let us return to the last supper
communion
The pass-over meal is a reminder of god’s intervention in slavery, breaking chains and releasing people into freedom.
We have talked a lot about laying down our freedom to serve and submit to others. Freedom is available to us by what Jesus has done on the cross for us.
over the next 5 minutes can you share with the person beside you (not a spouse) your conviction in life/ what you hope to see in your lifetime, share and then read Phil 2:1-11.
Take communion together (I will bring it around) - bread Jesus' body (in submission), the cup the new covenant of freedom (freely serve God and others) that we are under when we accept what Jesus has done for us in what we read in Phil 2:1-11.
if you are willing maybe someone prays.
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.