Submitting to God's Will

INTRODUCTION

How willing are you to follow the lead and direction of another person?

Many of us would say it depends on who the other person is and whether they are or someone we trust and respect.

Let's say the person in question is someone you trust and respect.

Are you willing to be submissive to their leadership and direction?

If you were listening, you would notice that I switched y.

I moved from following the lead or direction of another person to being willing to be submissive to them.

The word submission makes things more complicated.

If you are willing to be submissive, how far down the rabbit hole are you ready to travel?

Let's move this thought from people to God.

A person baptized into Christ and claims Jesus as their Lord and Savior is called to be submissive to God.

I think that is a fair statement.

How far down the rabbit hole of submission are you willing to go with God?

Are you willing to submit to God if God tells you to do something you do not want to do?

If God is leading you to do something difficult, costly, or hard, are you willing to do it?

Today, James will take us to a difficult place for many of us to go, the idea of submitting to God's will.

At times, God will ask us to do difficult, costly, and hard things; the question is, what do you do when you do not want to follow what God has in store for you?

Following God is great until it costs you something that you want.

Our Big Idea of the Message is this: True religion submits to God's will for our lives.

Please turn with me to James 4:7-10.

James 4:7–10 (NET 2nd ed.)

7 So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded.

9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair.

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

SERMON

I. The call to submission.

James's teaching on submission follows from (3:13–18) and flows into (4:11–12) moral exhortation.

At the heart of all attempts at right living is our relationship with God, who calls us to submit to Him.

James goes to this thought because, in verse 6, he quotes Proverbs 3:34.

Proverbs 3:34 (NET 2nd ed.)

34 With arrogant scoffers he is scornful, yet he shows favor to the humble.

The thought in verses 7-9 is that we need to submit to Him since God is scornful to the arrogant scoffer.

Since God shows favor (or grace) to the humble, we must submit to Him.

In verses 7-9, we are given the choice of friendship with God or friendship with the world and what friendship with God looks like.

The ability to develop a friendship and relationship with God is built on the idea of being submissive to Him.

In truth, all relationships involve the idea of submission.

What does this nasty word submission mean?

The word submission is built on two parts of the word that mean "to be under" and "place oneself."

The word submission means voluntarily placing themselves under God by one's own will.

The idea is to yield yourself to God and what He has revealed as necessary for your welfare.

In the biblical sense, submission is a voluntary act of the will, a decision to follow and obey.

To submit means to arrange or yield to someone or something greater.

It's a voluntary yielding, though, never coerced, so it carries with it the connotation of humility.

As James has stated in reference to Proverbs 3:34, in James 4:6.

James 4:6 (NET 2nd ed.)

6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.”

In this context, submission is a readiness to submit to whatever God may impose on you.

This is a characteristic of humility, which we will dive into later.

Submission is a tricky subject for people of all ages.

Postmodern societies value autonomy and self-direction.

Within evangelical churches and youth groups, wonderful teaching on submission to God and within relationships happens regularly, but the topic is also abused by leaders and individuals seeking power.

The second part of verse 7 says that if we resist the devil, he will flee!

The devil sows seeds of doubt, and he goes on the offensive when he sees we have a weakness.

We see this in the beginning with Eve.

The devil planted the seeds of doubt in Eve.

Eve, can you really trust God?

God is not looking out for your best interest. He is holding you back.

When the devil went after Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11, he tried to entice Jesus to avoid the cross essentially.

Jesus resisted the devil, and the devil left with his pointy tail between his legs!

DO YOU REALIZE THE POWER YOU HAVE WHEN FIGHTING THE DEVIL?

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LOSE; YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SUCCUMB TO THE TEMPTATION AND PRESSURE!

SATAN, LEAVE ME ALONE!

You have the power to send that loser away!

USE IT!

Let's turn to verses 7-9

James 4:7–9 (NET 2nd ed.)

7 So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.

8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded.

9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair.

II. The nature of submission.

James 4:7–9 functions independently as a cohesive teaching on the nature of submission, beginning with the command we examined, submit to God, followed by a series of couplets that describe the nature of the submission.

In the first couplet (vv. 7b–8), we're directed to resist and draw near the command's negative and positive aspects.

When we develop a friendship (relationship) with God, those who seek to draw near will not likely be in places we would not want to take God.

When we seek to draw near to Him, we want to know how to do so.

Submission, in its best biblical sense, always serves a purpose.

James teaches that as we draw close to God, God draws close to us.

A simple analogy is the training that athletes undergo.

Just as we submit to God to experience God's nearness, athletes submit to training to reach the goal of success in competition.

Performers are another great example.

Singers, dancers, and musicians submit to tutors and teachers as they prepare for performances.

Drawing near to God entails doing the things that will help us to get to know God and His will.

Then we know what we are submitting ourselves.

We draw near to God by spending time in the Bible and communicating through prayer.

We draw near to God by walking with God, by taking Him with us everywhere we go!

We do jay we are close to God; we draw near to Him with our hearts, mind, and soul!

Matthew 15:8 (NET 2nd ed.)

8 ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me,

Drawing near to God is a privilege!

In the Old Testament, the right to approach God was reserved for the priests!

Exodus 19:22 (NET 2nd ed.)

22 Let the priests also, who approach the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break through against them.”

Now we can all draw near to Him!

The second couplet (v. 8b) describes the inner and outer meaning of repentance.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded.

This part of the text speaks to the issue of repentance.

Drawing near to God must be done with clean hands and a pure heart.

James 4:2 (NET 2nd ed.)

2 You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask;

We have to allow God to cleanse our hands and our hearts.

Psalm 24:4–5 (NET 2nd ed.)

4 The one whose deeds are blameless and whose motives are pure, who does not lie, or make promises with no intention of keeping them.

5 Such godly people are rewarded by the Lord, and vindicated by the God who delivers them.

The Pharisees condemned Jesus and His disciples for not washing their hands as tradition taught, yet Jesus went after the Pharisees for looking good on the outside but having hearts that were filthy.

James is not promoting an outward cleaning but a purified heart, which would lead to pure actions!

James tells the readers they cannot be double-minded, serving God and the world.

The third couplet fleshes out what repentance looks like, as "'Be wretched’ describes the grief one ought to experience when he falls to sin"' (R. Kent Hughes, James: Faith That Works, Preaching the Word [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1991], 164).

Verse 9 is hardcore.

James 4:9 (NET 2nd ed.)

9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair.

The actions and attitudes in verse 9 are things that lead to repentance.

James wants them to understand the importance of repentance.

When James says to let your laughter turn to mourning, he wants them to ensure they see sin's gravity and seriousness.

We are not to make light of sin.

James 4:10 (NET 2nd ed.)

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

III. The call to humility.

Verse 10 concludes with a summary command to humble ourselves.

It's a thorough description of submission: resisting the enemy, drawing close to God, and repenting both inwardly and outwardly by genuinely grieving our sinfulness.

Jesus said in Luke 18:14

Luke 18:14 (NET 2nd ed.)

14 I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

This was a parable Jesus used to show the difference between a sinner who was humble and a Pharisee who had no humility and thought they were perfect.

Humility is the essence of repentance.

When one is not humbled, they will not think they need repentance.

CONCLUSION

I want to share a quote from the College Press Commentary Series.

James & Jude (Section Summary and Application)

In this, the heart of his epistle, James speaks to the contemporary problem of the worldly Christian.

A great percentage of our population claims to be Christian.

But what makes one a Christian?

Are we Christians because we attend church and hear sermons?

This is self-deception.

Listening to the word is no good without obedience (James 1:19–20).

Are we Christians because we believe certain things?

Faith without action is dead (James 2:14–25).

Are we Christians because we pray?

No, even prayer can be evil if we pray for selfish pleasures.

Do we claim to follow God while at the same time following the standards of the world?

Then we are enemies of God.

An old television advertisement asked, "Who says you can't have it all?”

James answers, " God says." One cannot be worldly and follow God.

"Worldly" may conjure up memories of "Don't smoke, don't drink, don't dance" sermons, but worldliness is much more than specific vices.

Application Point: We submit to God when we put him first and order our lives to draw close to him.