Mash of Maturity

What do you think of when you think of maturity in a believer? I would confess to you for a long time I thought in terms of maturity, in terms of healing lines, or in terms of a person who could address a large gathering of people and see souls rolling down the aisles into the heavenly bin. I used to think of maturity in terms of a person who could look at me and say, here's a scripture verse for you. I'd say, wow, that's what I'd like to be. That's maturity for me. Because I've wrestled with this passage of scripture in the last days and weeks. I've come to see that Peter has another indication of maturity, an indication that perhaps we won't find to our liking. It's not an expected word. The word that I see over and over again in 1 Peter is the word submission. Submission, finding your place in God's order. That's a mark of maturity. I was sharing with one of the church secretaries this week the subject of the sermon, and I won't tell you which secretary it was. I said, how would you like to speak about something that most people don't really understand? On top of that, they don't really want to understand it. On top of that, if they did understand it, they'd probably get fighting mad about it. She said, oh, there's nothing like that, Jay. Don't worry about it. What are you going to preach on? I said, submission. She closed her mouth and turned around and went back to her desk and didn't say a word. And yet submission is a very significant and relevant topic. It's one that I think that if we'll come to grips with it, strikes at the very heart of what it means to be an obedient Christian and what it means to receive the fullness of God's life in each of us. I noticed some of you husbands as I was bringing up the subject of submission were going to your wives and saying, I'm glad I brought you today. You're going to hear what you need to hear. But that's not what it's really about. For submission is a far greater topic in the scripture than just wives and husbands. It's the only way to be happy as a Christian. My time in the Marine Corps, one of the fellas that bunked in my barracks with me was a pretty rebellious little guy. He'd always show up to roll calls and so on with one of his boots unpolished or one of his buttons unshined or his helmet would be a little half cocked in his hand or whatever. Finally, after a few days of this, the drill sergeant who was not particularly impressed by his loveliness came up to him and said, he grabbed him by the strap and said, you better fall into line around here or you're going to be miserable. And that was a prophetic word. That guy was miserable for the next 10 weeks because he never really fell into the order of the training. And that's basically what submission is about is finding your place in God's order. And I think it's so significant that as we look at first Peter, remember last week, we were talking about living stones and being built as a structure of God's people together. Well, Peter takes us from the loftiness of that spiritual insight into the nature of the church down to the nitty gritty. Look at the words that he uses. He says in verse 11, the passions of the flesh that wage war against the soul. And he goes on to talk about governments and he talks about slaves being submissive to your servants. And he talks about wives and husbands, and he talks about conduct. He gets down where you and I live in the trenches of life and says, here is where we live. And that's where the maturity is really established. I ask you to bear with me as we look at the subject. What is submission? And I know that there's some here right now who say, I'm not interested in submission. But I would say to you, if you're interested in living under the canopy of God's grace and love, then you need to come to grips with the fact that his plan involved this principle. And if you want to be happy as a Christian, you need to come to grips with it. First point, what is submission? I've basically defined it already as fitting yourself in the God's order of things. God, as we know, has established a structure. God has designed the universe. God has designed even the civilization. He is the one that's established the order of things. To not find our place in that is to really, at the very core, rebel against what God really wants. The word in Greek, kupotasso, means rank yourself under. It's a military term. It simply meant find your place. If you're a corporal, then sergeants are above you. If you're a captain, then majors are above you. And that's the entire meaning of the word. Rank yourself in your proper place. Now, unfortunately, in our 20th century culture, this isn't very popular, is it? In fact, if there's one word that comes to my mind that describes what happens when people try to enact discipline and order, the word is lawsuit. And if you watch the papers or listen to the news, you over and over again find people who are raising up a clenched fist and saying, you're infringing on my rights when you tell me where I fit in. I was really stunned when I read that in Finland now, it's a punishable crime to enforce corporal discipline on your own children. I think, where are we going as a society when that kind of thing is true? I don't know how they'll enforce it, but a child could literally bring his parents to court for corporal discipline. The reason why our society is rejecting the whole idea of submission is because submission equals weakness. If you're meek, you're weak. It conjures in our mind Casper Miltose. How many of you remember Casper Miltose in the old comic section? Don't put your hand up, evade yourself. But Casper Miltose is our picture of submission. Land, unassertive, do nothing, never ruffle anyone's feathers. When we think of submission, we think of some little woman hunched over, walking two steps behind her husband and carrying the trail of his robe. When we think of submission, we think of some college student who forfeits a bright future in education and flees to follow some cultic fanatic. When we think of submission, we think of some little man behind a desk who every time his boss comes in, cowers down and never does anything but writes little notes to himself. And yet what submission really means in the biblical sense is an entirely different thing. The word is prouse. To be meek in the Bible is to be strong. Prouse. The word has its foundations in the usage of training warhorses. You may have seen Ben-Hur a few years back. Probably the most exciting scene in Ben-Hur is the chariot race where you see side by side horses and chariots and they have this fight sticking out of the wheels and they're trying to destroy one another in this race to the end. Well, those warhorses were trained, first of all, to be as strong as they possibly could be so they could stay out in front of the pack. But they were also trained to be entirely under control so that the slightest movement of the reins of the chariot master, that horse would respond. And when a horse had reached his full strength and was completely under control, that horse was called prouse. Meek. Strength under control. And that is the spirit of submission. Submission, as we define it, brings authority into our relationship. You say, well, I thought if you were submitted, that means people were in authority over you. It does. But do you know you bring authority to them as well? I wonder for you, who is the person that bears the most authority in your life? I know who it is for me. There's only one person that I would basically change my suit for, or cut my hair in a different way, or go to the supermarket at 5.30 in the evening. That's my wife. She bears more authority in my life than anyone else. And the reason is that my wife is submitted. And I trust I'm submitted to her. But she brings authority because she's submitted. Submission isn't weakness, but it's strength brought under control. Second, why do we fear submission? Why do we fear this attitude of fitting into our place? I'd say the greatest reason is that we fear the loss of self-esteem. We fear that by finding our role underneath someone else, that we are going to be diminished in some way, that someone is going to pound on us, to take away something that's rightfully ours. And I don't know about you, but the way that I see this most exemplified in our society is that every newscast, just about, you turn on, there's somebody who somewhere is striking. You ever notice that? And it seems to be more prevalent now than it ever was. This group wants their raises, and this group wants their right to a pension, and less than that. And people everywhere are seizing their rights, because they fear that if they don't, they won't get them. They'll be diminished. And yet I want you to see that the Bible teaches us that our self-esteem, our work in God, Jesus imparts to us our value. We needn't fear clutching after things, because God provides. When you seek to clutch, you wrench, but when you seek to submit to God's plan, you receive from the hand of God. Second, we fear submission because we fear the cost. Not only do we fear that we may not receive, but we fear that we may not receive when we want to receive. One of the teenagers was saying how frustrated he was with his parents, because they were making him come in at 11 o'clock with the clock. He was saying, do I have to do that? Can I stay out till 1 or whatever? You see, he didn't want to submit, because it cost him having things his own way. Think of David and his kingdom. You know, David could have seized from Saul the kingdom of Israel and could have taken it in his own time. But instead of doing that, what David did was to wait until God gave it to him. Do you know what the result is of one who waits for the Lord to grant his blessing instead of clutching it? David's kingdom was established forever. It was the throne of David from which Jesus came. And if we'll allow God to act in his time on our behalf, then we'll receive on a permanent basis God's plan. Finally, I'd say we fear submission because of our ego, our pride. We don't want anybody telling us what to do. Children rather don't want their parents to tell them what to do. Parents don't want their bosses to tell them what to do. The boss doesn't want the government to tell them what to do. And the government doesn't know what to do. And so we're all running around with no direction. But you know what I'm finding? That people who won't have anyone tell them what to do, because they're clutching at freedom, are the people who are the most enslaved. Because they're enslaved to themselves. Their ego controls them. And I believe that freedom, true freedom, is the freedom to obey someone else. And we as believers, we choose to be free in Jesus Christ and in the people that he puts over us. Third and probably the most difficult question, and I struggled with this as I studied this week, and yet I believe that this is what the Lord would have us to come to grips with. To whom do we submit? Now if we can agree that submission is part of God's plan, to whom do we submit? And this is when most of us will raise our Bibles and say, praise God for James 4 7, which says, submit yourselves therefore to God. Hallelujah. Submit yourselves therefore to God. If I'm a committed Christian, I'm submitted to God. He's my final authority. He's my final court of resort. And I can submit myself to him. And you know, that's right. And that's, that's biblical. And it's, it's absolutely right that God is our highest authority. But do you know that that's the only time in the New Testament that the Bible says, submit yourself to God? Every other time, we're told to submit ourselves to one another or to authority or to government or whatever. And it boils down to this, that submission to God is submission to the people that he places over us. There is no submission to God unless you're submitted to the authority that God has placed above you. Think for you, if you would, for a moment of a soldier in West Germany, an American soldier, has his uniform on and he's standing there in the street corner and you come up to him and you say, soldier, I see, I see that you're stationed here. Where's your, where's your base? He said, well, I'm just over here. I'm just here in Europe. Well, don't you have a home base? He said, no, I'm just here in Europe. And then you say to him, well, soldier, who's your commanding officer? He says, the president of the United States. He's my commanding officer. And you'd say, well, that's really ridiculous. And yet that's the way a lot of Christians are. You see, they have no local body of Christ to be their home base. They have no leadership to whom they're submitted. They're only submitted to Jesus. And yet that all that, can you imagine what would happen to the army if everyone did that? And it's the same thing that happens to God's people. Submission to God is submission to the people that he places over us. Look what Peter says. He says in verse 13, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. That's the word submissive. Submit yourself. Verse 18, servants be submissive to your masters. That word in the Greek culture, the Romans, their servants or slaves were everything from laborers to doctors and nurses. All of the conquests that they made, those people became their servants. So really a better word for us would even be employers. And then it goes on in chapter three, wives be submitted to your husbands. You see, it's people. God says, be submitted to people because I am working by authority through them. You say, well, Jake, people are imperfect. They're sinful. They could take my life and distort it and twist it and lead me off into error. I could never submit myself to people. Jesus did. Jesus wrestled with God in Gethsemane and said, father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, thy will be done and not mine. The father freed Jesus Christ to go ahead and obey him. And what did Jesus do? He submitted to the authorities, to God, yes, but to the authorities, and it cost him his life. Now, I want to say we need to be wise in choosing those for whom we submit ourselves in cases where we have a choice. I was counseling a couple not too long ago where I could tell that the gal involved was having a difficult time submitting herself to the man. She really just in some areas could not bring herself to submit to people. And I later shared with her, I feel like you're in for trouble. You need to choose a spouse that you can submit yourself to. You need to choose a church and a pastor where you can submit yourself. But there are some areas in life where we don't have a choice. Teenagers, you can't go to your father and say, dad, you're not the kind of person I want to be submitted to. If you're on a job and a new boss comes in, you can't say to your boss, I don't really want to be submitted to you. You're saying, well, Jay, does that mean you can never assert yourself? That you can never leave a situation? That you always have to do what you're told? No, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that what we need to do is to first submit, and then allow God to lead us and direct us where we need to be. You see, if you go with an attitude of, you can't say that to me. If I don't care who you are, you can't tell me to do that. But that attitude indicates that you've not really come to grips with submission in your heart. You see, biblical submission is so trusting in the divine nature of God that by his sovereign will, he can, if necessary, overrule individuals and even institutions on your behalf. And that is maturity, you see, when you can so trust in God that if you'll obey him, if you'll submit to those over you, that God will work on your behalf to bring about righteousness and justice. I saw a beautiful illustration of that about two or three weeks ago. A gal in our church faced a very important job decision, and she was struggling with it, and she basically had come to a decision, but she wanted to talk to her father about it, and so she did that. And her father gave her an entirely different life. And though she wasn't really convinced that he was right, after much prayer and encouragement from others, she decided to do what her father had suggested. And she went and she shared her heart and her situation. She basically submitted herself to the authorities involved, and she came back the next day and called and said, God just worked beautifully, and things worked out better than I could have imagined. Now, I'm not saying that every situation will work like that, but I am saying that God will work on our behalf. If we could submit ourselves to him and the people that he places over us, you say, well, where do I draw the line? When have I submitted long enough that I can go ahead? I want to say, if that's your attitude, basically, you haven't submitted long enough. You see, what God wants to do is to bring about a change in your heart in oppressive situations like that. If you have to leave with bitterness and anger and resentment in your heart, then you really haven't come to the point of being submitted as God would have you to be. You see, we lose our peace because of circumstances. We think, well, if I can just change the circumstance, I'll get my peace back. But you know what I found? That's not really true. When we lose our peace, then God is anxious to change something in us, and that if we flee a circumstance without having submitted to it, then peace won't come our way. God will just raise up another circumstance, and we'll have to learn this whole thing over again. Romans 5 tells us that we are to suffer patiently, and as we do so, character is built. Did you know the Bible says that Jesus learned obedience through suffering, Hebrews 5a, that it was in his suffering and submitting himself to human institutions that Jesus learned obedience. That's what we as Christians must do as well. If you withdraw or rebel or assert yourself without having submitted, then you're not going to have the peace of God. But I will say this. There are times in Scripture when clearly Jesus and the apostles did not do what the authorities said. When a command given to you by an authority directly violates the written word of God, then you face a tough decision. And I could not, for one, stand in the pulpit and say, you must do what they say anyhow. But what I have found is that kind of submission, blind submission, is what brings us to Nazi Germany, to Jonestown. However, if we're honest with ourselves, most situations aren't like that, are they? Most of them involve an ego trip. Most of them involve what I said before about our pride and our self-esteem. Peace is the ruling spirit. If you can withdraw and assert yourself in peace, then God has worked a submission in you. Okay, moving on quickly, why should we submit? Well, I want to suggest three things. First of all, submission is what makes us happy. You see, really, the Bible says, without faith it's impossible to what? Please God. And likewise, I would say, without pleasing God, it's impossible to be pleased yourself. And at its core, submission is faith that God is working for you. Submission is faith that God is working for you. Second, we ought to submit ourselves because of what it does for our testimony to the world. Look with me what Peter says in verse 15, chapter two, for it is God's will that by doing right, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. In chapter three, Peter tells the women that if they'll submit quietly to the authority of their husbands, that they can be one without a word. You see, the brilliant wisdom of God is that men are looking for security and realizing that when they clutch it, they don't really have it. Men turn to those who do, and we convey that in our submitted attitude to God. I went to buy a car a few years back, and I remember that the man said, I forget, but the price of the car was $2,000 or so. And he said, when we go to the notary, let's just tell them we paid $1,000 for it. Then you'll save $60 in tax money. I remember thinking that was pretty appealing because no one would really know. Then this passage of scripture came to my mind. And I said, I said, I mean, I can't really do that. And he thought that was crazy. He said, why? I said, because I believe that the government's established this policy, and I've got to live by it. And I shared that I do this as part of my commitment to God. And he started mumbling, as most people do when you mention God in a conversation. But that is just an illustration. You men, day in and day out, have an opportunity to bear witness to the love of God by your submitted attitude. And it strikes me as so strange that we, on the one hand, will condemn people in government for their underhanded ways and their illegalities and the corruption in government. And yet we, on the other hand, will do just that kind of thing, of which I've spoken, trying to chisel a dollar here and a dollar there from the government. The third reason why I believe that it's wise for us to be submitted is, look with me in verse 21, chapter two. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should also follow. We are to be submitted because our Savior was submitted. You know that I look at Jesus and I think, not only did he suffer, but he died. And yet in that death and suffering, Jesus, one of victory. And you know, the Bible says that Jesus has been given every authority in heaven and earth. Because of his ultimate submission, Jesus gained ultimate authority. And to me, there's a real victory in that submission. As I look at him as my example, that I can see the victory that I too can walk in as a submitted son of God, and that we as a people can walk in. Then finally, after we know who to whom to submit, why we should submit, how do we do it? This is the great struggling point for many of us. I've spoken with scores of people in this congregation who said, I know what I should do, but I find it really difficult. Well, the first thing I'd say is expect suffering. Expect it to come. It's going to come. And much of that suffering is going to be unjust. Don't go ahead and suffer justly and then think that because of what God's doing in your life. I was talking with a high school person who was taking his family car out when his dad said not to, and it wrecked the car. I called him out and I said, how come you haven't been in fellowship? He said, well, I've been grounded. I said, why? He said, well, because I wrecked the car when I wasn't supposed to have it. He said, yeah. I said, well, that's really a shame. He said, I'm really suffering for Jesus. I said, no, you're suffering for your disobedience, but suffering is going to come, even unjustly. Jesus experienced it. Let's face it, you will as well. The second thing that we can do is to see that the secret of submission is habitation and not imitation. You see, we're going to find some people that we find it difficult to submit to, and no matter how hard we want to and try, we're not going to be able to unless the love and power of the indwelling Christ works within us. You know, for the longest time, I wished that for just one afternoon, the ability of Bjorn Borg to live inside of me. I take some of you out here who have knocked me all around the tennis court at different times, and I'd let you get a few points in, and then I'd let it go, and I'd drive serves by at backhand volleys and lobs, and I'd have you running ragged. You'd say, what happened to you? I wouldn't tell you my secret, but my secret would be the ability of Bjorn Borg within. We have, as Christians, the ability of Jesus Christ within. The secret of submission is not achieving it, but receiving it. Finally, we can learn to submit by looking beyond the circumstance and the people to the hope that God offers us of victory. Hebrews 12.2 says that Jesus, for the joy that was set before him, talking about his exaltation at the right hand of the Father, endured the suffering of the cross. And likewise, my brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to look beyond circumstance and beyond people and see that God has a victory and a joy set before us, and that we can walk in that as we learn to submit to those that he's placed over us. Whom do you have in your life today that you find it difficult to submit to? Where is it that God has brought a rug point in your life? And will you choose at this point to walk in his power and his plan and receive his blessing, or will you choose to live on your own? The choice is yours. I invite you as we pray at this point to release that burden of the Lord right now. Lord, only you know how difficult this is for all of us. Only you know, Lord, those in this congregation who have suffered much abuse, much persecution, even injustice. And yet you know, Lord, what character and what life and what power that that is building in you. I just pray that you help each of us to persevere in this discipline, that we might be recipients of the grace and love of God. We ask it in Jesus. And I encourage you to lay your burden of submission as we sing our burden of prayer. Lord, I find it so difficult in my own heart to acknowledge that this is an attitude that must be developed. Lord, that it is identifying with Jesus. Father, we as a congregation would offer up the struggles that we have to submit ourselves to you and to those who place those. We confess, Lord, our need to receive your strength and your life to carry on in this battle. And the confidence, Lord, that you watch every move, that you know each and every situation that we are involved in. And that, Lord, you won't leave us, that you won't forsake us. Lord, indeed, we know that you'll redeem us and impart to us grace and life and character that we might become like Jesus. Lord, this day I pray for those in our congregation who not only have not come to a point of submission, but who are living in a spirit of oppression. You are bringing to bear hardship and struggles against those who are submitted to them. And I pray, Lord, that you would cause them to see that in your plan, they are indeed responsible. Exercise the authority that you've given them in a way that pleases you and that honors those below them. And I pray that you speak that word to their hearts. Lord, I thank you that as a church, we can learn and grow into this attitude, that the world, the community around us might know that our trust is not in our ability to seize and clutch, but that our confidence is in God, and that our happiness is in his provision. And I pray, Lord, that for everyone in this congregation who is struggling with the living out of these principles, that you'd empower and infuse them with the Spirit of God to do so in joy and in victory. Lord, we pray for those that come to our knowledge now who are struggling with other areas of life, with decisions that are to be made, with loneliness that besets them, with sickness that has bound them up, with frustration, with lack of fulfillment in jobs, with fear of relationships, that, Lord, you would release to them life, filling them with the Spirit and providing for them, Lord, the way and the truth and the life. We pray, Lord, that you'd bless Jerry and Carolyn on their vacation. We pray that you'd refresh many members of this congregation as they take time away from their responsibilities and duties. But, Lord, never let us take time away from you. Let us draw closer to you than ever, as we break from our routine, that we might come to experience anew the refreshing of your presence. Receive our prayer, Lord, because we raise it in Jesus' name. Sing with me the first and last verses of Hymn 4, let us pray.