Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Lord, as we come into your presence this morning, we thank you for sending the Lord Jesus Christ to be
our Redeemer, our Savior, our representative, our head, to be the
one who would pay the price for us that we might be forgiven, that we might
have our sins forgiven.
We thank you for the cross.
We thank you for the resurrection.
We thank you for your word that reveals you to us and reveals us to us, that
we might know our sins and our foibles better.
Father, let us look to your word this morning.
Be encouraged, be strengthened, and be reminded afresh of how gracious you have been to
us.
We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Well, I have a quiz for us this morning, but I wanna start with another quiz, which is this.
The statement that God doesn't want religion, he wants a
relationship with you.
God wants a relationship.
Christianity is a relationship.
It's not a religion.
What's wrong with that thinking?
Is there anything wrong with it?
Is it right?
Okay, when you talk about a relationship, it almost sounds like you're on the same level.
I think that's right.
There's a certain familiarity with that, right?
Like Jesus is sitting at the table and is just kind of waiting for you to come sit by him, like we're
gonna sit together and have lunch at school or something.
In fact, I mean, it does remind me, we were in Israel and the
graduates of another seminary were holding a worship service, which we were
attending.
And we're sitting there and they talked about, Jesus calming, because we're in the Sea of Galilee, Jesus calming the
waters, raging storm, Jesus calms the waters.
And then man says, he goes, and the point of this story is that Jesus wants to have a
That's what I said, except I didn't say it aloud because we're in a worship service.
What?
In my mind, that's what I was thinking.
I just thought, you know, I think it was probably one of those things where I'm sitting there going, and my eyes got really big and I probably couldn't
control my facial expression.
But the idea that somehow God wants a relationship with us,
kind of demeans it a little bit, I think.
Now, if you said, Christianity isn't about religion,
it's about reconciling a relationship, right?
That'd be closer, but what do we find so offensive?
What's so offensive to us about the idea of religion?
Okay, so good.
So legalistic external religion is not what God's ever, he's never been after
that, right?
It's never about just going through the motions, making sure you, where I phrase it sometimes, kind of
punch the clock.
Can you imagine at the lobby, time clock, you know, everybody's name with a card there, you
just come in, Steve, right?
For what?
So at the end of my life, God can look at all my time cards and go, oh, well, Steve did pretty good.
I mean, that's the wrong idea.
But is, what are they really trying to say when they say God wants a relationship
and not religion, Charlie?
That there's no value in being religious and religiosity that is
being regenerate that counts, and that would be true.
But I think there's something else though that maybe isn't true.
Okay, that it's just about a relationship, make it easier to accept.
Yep, I go with that and I think we're almost there, Charlie.
Well, yeah, I don't think that's what they're after though, but yes, everybody has a relationship with God, right?
Yeah, some of them have a very hostile relationship with him, but everybody has a relationship.
What's that?
Okay, some of this is about English, about our usage of words.
Okay, I would like to put it another way.
How about this?
If I were in an advertising agency, here's how I would describe
Christianity.
God wants a relationship with you.
It's not about religion.
Religion is old, stale, duty.
Relationship is loving, kind, gracious, hugging.
It's kind of warm and inviting, right?
Relationship is cold and if I may say it this way, religion is cold
and heartless.
You don't want that.
And here's my point.
We've been talking about spiritual leadership the last few weeks and this morning, I wanna talk about something different and that being
submission, right?
If you're a leader, we understand that there are things that are required of leaders,
but we're all followers, right?
If you're a Christian, you're a follower because it's become cool to say that I am a follower of Jesus rather
than say I'm a Christian.
But submission is something that every Christian in one way, shape, or form
is involved in.
And so it's this idea and what I wanted to establish in the beginning is we talk about relationship.
Well, what is our relationship to Christ?
It's not sit at the table and have lunch with him.
It's we are in submission to him.
We wanna live a life that's pleasing the Lord, why?
You know, if we look through several of the books of the New Testament, if we look at Colossians,
Ephesians, Romans, the typical pattern is doctrine and then
doctrine and then duty is the word, right?
It's theology and then it's practical.
This is who you are, what God has done, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And then this is how you then live, right?
And submission is part of that.
So with that said, we have a quiz this morning.
Question number one, these are true or false because I try to make it as simple as possible.
You got a 50 % chance all the time.
True or false?
Submission is subjugation.
False, false is correct, mostly.
And I put this, I said, it can be.
Why do I say it can be?
Because the definition can be, listen, from the most
well -known Greek dictionary, to cause to be in a submissive relationship, to be or
to subject, to subordinate.
In other words, someone can cause you to
submit.
We know that from, by the way, don't raise your hand, don't acknowledge this, but if anybody
follows this, what is this?
Oh yeah, MMA.
I like what Phil Johnson said, the multi, what is that?
You should know that.
Mixed martial arts.
I like what Phil Johnson said here a couple of years ago.
He said, you know, if you like watching women beat each other up and strangle each other, there's something wrong with you, you know?
And if you like watching guys do it, I guess that's okay.
But it can mean that, the verb can mean that.
So that's number one.
Number two, true or false?
The Bible tells elders to make sure the congregation submits to them.
I heard a false, I heard a true.
Let's look at Hebrews 13, 17, see what it says.
I don't need to turn there because I've got it in my notes because that's what I do.
I print them out right there in my notes.
Would somebody read Hebrews 13, 17, please?
Good, thank you.
So again, let me read the question and now we can answer it with a more informed perspective.
It's false.
It's directed to whom?
It doesn't say leaders.
Make sure your congregation submits to you.
It says, obey your leaders and submit to them, right?
This is a voluntary submission.
And what is submission?
How should we view this then?
Willing submission, right?
So here's how some people will define submission.
Submission is you tell me what to do, I grumble and that's
submission.
Is that submission?
I am in a submission, I just don't like your decision.
That's a way to look at it.
What is submission though?
Submission is willing, I think.
And it is when there is a disagreement, right?
If submission was, I agree with you, therefore I submit, how much will does that take?
I tell Janet, we're gonna do X or Y or Z and she says, I agree with that.
Okay, is that submission?
That's agreement.
Submission is when I don't agree, I'm not sure.
I don't know if I like that.
That really doesn't sit right with me.
But nevertheless, I submit.
That's submission.
And again, it's interesting in Hebrews 13, 17, it says, obey your leaders.
Why?
And submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls
as those who will have to give an account.
Elders have a great responsibility.
And so there's a reason why in 1 Timothy, Paul writes, that you have to have that desire.
Well, why is that?
Because not everybody wants that responsibility.
It's a weighty thing.
Because you're going to have to give an account.
It never says that deacons are gonna have to give an account for the souls over whom they shepherd because they're not
technically shepherds.
Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you.
You want the elders to be joyful.
And I wanted to get number two out of the way before we get to number three, logically.
But for another reason, true or false?
The Bible tells husbands to make sure their wives submit to them.
What do you think?
False.
Good, we're getting somewhere.
But you know what?
I've actually heard husbands say that their
wives, you know, with their wives in the room, my wife needs to submit to me.
I tell her that all the time.
Is that a good idea?
Stop digging, pal, put the shovel down.
Pastor Bob says, yeah, yeah, this is a good idea.
The answer is no.
Let's look at, and you might as well turn to Ephesians five because we're gonna be there for a little bit for various
things here.
Now listen, listen to what it says in Ephesians five verse 22.
And then I'm gonna skip to 24 because kind of similar ideas here in mind.
Ephesians five 22, wives, let me say that word again
because it's tricky for some folks.
Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.
Verse 24, now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should
submit in everything to their husbands.
Noticeably missing is the idea of husbands making sure that
their wives submit to them.
It's not there.
Why is that?
It's not their job.
There's a funny thing at play here.
You know, in fact, we won't see, I'll just spoiler alert.
We won't see in Ephesians five 25, these words, wives.
Make sure that your husbands love you like Christ loves the church.
Why won't we see that?
Because it's not their job.
Whose job is it to make sure that you are in submission?
It's the Holy Spirit.
You know, I mean, there are a lot of, I'll call it this,
mental sins that we commit, right?
Sins of the mind.
Who is it that convicts us of these things?
You know, our attitude, Holy Spirit.
And it is a dangerous,
I wanna say, you know, in the worst possible sense, it really is ultimately blasphemous
because to take the place of the Holy Spirit, right?
I mean, it's my job.
It's arrogant, certainly.
It's my job to make sure that somebody else has the right attitude and they're thinking rightly and everything, it's
my job.
I'm gonna take on the role of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Now, it's one thing, you know, let's say we're out and Janet and I are out and I
don't know why I would do this, but I shoplift.
That's a different situation.
It's no longer a matter of, you know, consciousness or conscience.
This is a matter of right and wrong, breaking the law, et cetera, et cetera.
Thou shalt not steal, that's pretty clear.
But it's not her job to make sure that I'm loving her, thankfully.
You know, she doesn't run around and go, you know, you're not loving me like Christ loves, because that's all she'd say.
You're not loving me like Christ loves the church.
That would be a really bad relationship, wouldn't it?
Can you imagine, husband all day long, you're not submitting to me, wife, you're not
loving me.
You think there are relationships like that?
Yes.
I'm gonna tell you that there are relationships like that.
There are marriages like that.
Why do marriages exist like that?
Because people are self -centered and they're more interested in getting what they want out of a relationship than they are
listening to what the word says.
If your focus is on loving your wife like Christ loves the church, you're not gonna be consumed with,
my wife is not submitting to me.
How about this, pastor, you need to make my wife submit to me.
How do I do that?
Pastor, you need to make my husband love me like Christ loves the church.
Well, okay, Janet, I'm gonna be gone for about six months.
I gotta move in with this couple.
See you later.
I'm gonna be monitoring all their activities, making sure that...
What I find interesting, going back to Ephesians 5, in verses 22 and 24,
you know, this is pretty odd.
In the Greek, in the best manuscripts that we have, not in the
ones that were used for the King James, the word submit, the
verb there is not there.
There's no verb at all.
It's an ellipsis.
And it's kind of understandable because if you study Hebrew, you're gonna find that
there are a lot of words that are just implied, you know?
And so what it says basically in the Greek is wives to your husbands,
which is really interesting because the idea is so...
I mean, it's from the overall context, the previous verses and everything, but the idea is so
clear that it's not even there.
And in fact, in the King James, in that version or a couple hundred years
later, it's become so commonplace that they actually inserted those words into the Greek
texts.
Okay, number four, true or false?
And I already gave you the answer.
The Bible commands husbands to submit to their wives.
Is that true or false?
Well, it's false.
There are people who say it's true, who assume it's true, and we'll get to that in a minute.
But it does say in Ephesians 5, 25, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself
up for her.
So here's the point.
Wives are to submit to their husbands.
Husbands are to love their wives like Christ loved the church which means sacrificially,
right?
He gave himself up for the church.
Husbands are to give themselves up for their wives.
Now, what does that mean?
Does it mean that he does whatever she says?
Sometimes.
I mean, there are times when she just needs help and he needs to do it.
But is that the point?
The point is, that's not the point.
The point is they need, husbands need to have that attitude towards their wives of sacrifice.
Now, number five.
This is a rather controversial these days.
The Bible says submission should be mutual.
Doesn't it say that one place that the members of the church should submit to each other?
It might.
One of those letters.
It could be right in Ephesians 5.
Matter of fact, Ephesians 5, verses 18 to 21.
And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit.
Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody of the Lord with
your hearts.
Giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Now see, it was kind of tricky because it really isn't true.
It is about membership in the church and not about marriage.
It's about being believers, about how we should think about things.
Let me read you what one commentator, O 'Brien says.
He says, on grounds of semantics, syntax, and flow of Paul's argument.
In other words, all the fancy hermeneutical things.
And the flow of Paul's arguments, we prefer the latter interpretation which I'm about to read you.
The apostle is not speaking of mutual submission in the sense of reciprocal
subordination.
I don't even know how that would work.
I submit to you.
No, I submit to you.
No, I...
Okay, I don't know.
But submission to those who are in authority over them.
If this subordination is the result of the Spirit's infilling believers, then its motivation is
the fear of Christ.
What it says, they're submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
He says, although many modern translations tone the term down to reverence or
respect, renderings that are too soft to catch the nuance intended, fear is
still the best translation.
Although it does not convey the idea of terror or intimidation for those who are in Christ, it
signifies a sense of awe in the presence of one who is Lord and the
coming judge.
In other words, this idea, why would we submit to other people as being an
authority of us, over us?
Well, it's because we are in Christ Jesus and in light of the awe and
reverence we have for him, we do what he says.
We obey.
We could even say we are religious about certain things.
And it's interesting because the next verse after 21 is logically 22.
And that's where we have the ellipsis, the missing verb, right?
He's just talked about submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
And then in verse 22, it says, wives to your own husbands
as to the Lord, right?
And so the idea is out of fear and awe and
reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ, wives submit to your
husbands.
Let's turn over for a moment.
Now that we're done with Ephesians five, let's turn over any questions or comments before we go.
Yep, in verse 33, she needs to have fear respect for her husband,
exactly.
And in fact, going to Titus two, to just kind of finish that thought
before we go to question six, Titus two versus three and five, older women
likewise are to be reverence in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine.
They're to teach what is good.
And so train the young women to love their husbands and children,
to be self -controlled, pure working at home and submissive to their own husbands.
Again, it's that same word, the hupotasso verb.
And what it means is to, you probably heard this before, but
it's the idea of a military formation and making sure you're in the right place in that formation,
understanding your rightful place and putting yourself in it.
So Paul says, be submissive to their own husbands that the word of God may not be reviled.
So here we have out of respect for the Lord Jesus Christ, we do this.
Out of fear of the Lord Jesus Christ, we do this.
And why else do we do it?
So that the word of God may not be reviled.
These are pretty good reasons, right?
External reasons for internal thoughts and actions.
Number six, true or false.
The Bible tells children to submit to their parents.
He doesn't like that.
Bible tells children to submit to their parents.
False is correct.
And you say, well, what, what?
Now let's go to Ephesians six because it doesn't say submit.
What does it say instead?
Obey.
What's the difference?
The difference is when you submit, you are voluntarily placing yourself under somebody else, right?
It's not that way for children.
Ephesians six verse one says, children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
And that word for obey, it's not hupotasso,
it's hupokuo, which means this.
Kuo means to listen to.
Hupo is the preface, which basically means do it with zeal, super
listen, okay?
And so a child is told to super listen to his parents.
What does that mean?
Means obey, it's like, aye, aye, sir, right away, sir, ma 'am.
That's the idea.
It does mean, I guess you could say in a sense to submit to, but the idea
is really just not voluntarily, it is mandatory.
Being obedient to what your parents say.
On the other hand, in verse two, it says, honor your mother and father.
So you're not only to obey them, to be super listeners, to be,
you know, get it done kind of children, but you're also to honor them, which means to ascribe to them
what they are worth, to revere them, to respect them in the right way.
So I just want to make clear that there's a different standard for children than there is for, let's say, wives, or
believers to the elders, or something like that.
This is a different standard, a higher standard, I would say, they
need to just jump on it.
Number seven, true or false?
Submission is necessarily demeaning.
Submission is necessarily demeaning, false.
Let's look at Luke chapter two, Luke chapter two, verse 46.
I don't really, you know, here's a little inside baseball.
I normally don't really like word searches a lot, you know, word studies, because I think a lot of times they don't really
help us.
And you find different contexts, different words used different ways, and not always helpful.
But I did it for today anyway, because it seemed actually helpful.
So, this word, hupetazo, again.
Listen, starting in verse 46, this is, you know, Jesus,
young, I don't even know what I want to call him.
I mean, he's old enough to walk around, and talk, and teach, and do all these kinds of things by himself.
And he disappears, right?
Verse 46, his parents are looking for him.
After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and
asking them questions.
And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and answers.
And when his parents saw him, they were astonished.
And his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us so?
Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.
And he said to them, why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?
And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.
Verse 51, and he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was
submissive to them.
It's that exact same word, hupotasso, he subjected himself to them.
So if it was necessarily demeaning, wasn't demeaning to Jesus, wasn't even demeaning
to subject himself to submit to mortals,
to mere mortals, even though he was both human and
deity.
And his mother treasured all these things up in her heart, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor
with God and man.
So is it necessarily, does it make you less than somebody else?
Number eight,
if you fall into these categories, single and not a church member.
So you're single, not married, and not in church membership.
You are free with regard to submission, true or false?
Not a church member, you're not in marriage, so you don't have to submit to anybody.
Okay, it's false.
Because certainly everybody has to submit to God.
James 4, verses six and seven says this, but he gives more grace, therefore it says,
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Verse seven, submit, and this is for every believer, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil,
and he will flee from you.
So even if you're not married, even if you're not a member of a church, which I think is an
erroneous idea, but I don't wanna talk about that right now.
You still have to submit to God, you have to subject yourself to him, obviously.
Now, number nine is gonna be a little controversial, so I wanted to leave a little time for it.
You need not submit to police officers.
False is the answer.
In spite of the fact that I like to post funny memes about it.
Let's say, I mean, there are several things here.
And my goal here with this question is I just thought, how many of you are familiar with the idea of Christian
anarchy?
Christian, we know what that means.
What is anarchy?
Okay, against the establishment, against, if we just think about the word, if you think about the word monarch, what does monarch mean?
One ruler, right?
Arc being that.
So if you have anarchy, it means against rulers, right?
You don't want anybody to rule over you.
A Christian anarchist is somebody who basically says this, we will have no king but
King Jesus, no one, right?
So we worship Jesus, we are ruled by Jesus, and we don't
acknowledge the laws of mankind.
Is there a problem with that?
Yeah, there's a little problem, it's against scripture.
Yeah, sure, there's that, you know.
Let's look at 1
Peter 2, verses 13 to 15.
Yeah, well, yeah, it's against the Bible.
1 Peter 2, verses 13 to 15,
be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it
be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish
those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
For this is the will of God, but that by doing so,
you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
So when the Bible says something is the will of God, how is it possible to ignore that?
Well, you can, but there's a word for it, it's called sin.
Christian anarchy, you can be a Christian or you can be an
anarchist, but I would say that you can't be both.
You can't be a Christian and refuse to have human governments.
You can't say we'll have no King, but King Jesus.
I've got some other verses I wanna read.
Daniel chapter two, Daniel
chapter two, verses 20 and 21, Daniel answered
and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might.
He changes, talking about God, he changes times and seasons,
which by the way is timely because today, days start getting longer, yay.
He changes times and seasons, he removes Kings and sets up Kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
This idea that
I don't like having a government, well, God thought it was a good idea.
He establishes Kings, he takes Kings down.
He gives us presidents, he removes presidents.
Gives us governors, he removes them.
You may not like it, but that's the way it is.
Romans 13, commonly used to support this, let every person,
verse one, let every person be subject to the governing authorities.
And listen, for there is no authority except from God.
Again, this whole idea, God establishes the rulers over all of us.
There is no authority other than that, which is from God.
Well, what about really evil people?
What about Saddam Hussein?
What about Paul Pott?
What about Mao Tse Tung?
What about Adolf Hitler?
What about Joseph Stalin?
What about people who killed millions and tens of millions of people?
There is no authority except from God.
Now, does that always mean that every ruler that God puts in place is a righteous ruler?
No, and all we'd have to do is look at the history of Israel and of Judah, the two kingdoms,
the Northern and Southern kingdoms, and we would see, what, mostly good rulers for the people or bad rulers?
Bad rulers, those who allowed idolatry in all manner of things,
but they were God's chosen leaders.
And sometimes it was the...
I mean, why would God give people an evil ruler?
Why does he put bad people in charge?
Yeah, to fulfill his will.
And if we think about Pontius Pilate, I mean, we don't give him his due for
being wicked, but I mean,
if God had installed somebody who was fair and righteous and wanted to do the right thing, then
guess what?
Jesus doesn't get crucified.
He was put to death by wicked men, including those in authority.
God puts people in charge sometimes for judgments, for judgment of people.
I mean, when we just think about the United States of America today, and we think about a nation where,
you know, it's somewhere around 50 of the people approve of abortion, probably more than that
approve of homosexuality.
There's even somebody running for president who's married to another man, you know, a man married to another man.
You know, are these righteous times in which we live?
I think the answer is no, right?
So is it any surprise that we don't have, I guess
we could say, you know, God honoring rulers?
I don't think it's a surprise.
I think it's a judgment on the nation.
And we look around the world, what do we see?
The same thing.
1 Timothy 2, verses one to four, tell us why basically we should pray
for these people, but I think it gives us some really good insight on this.
1 Timothy 2, one to four.
First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for
all people, for kings and all who are in high positions.
Listen, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and
dignified in every way.
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to
knowledge of the truth.
We submit to authorities, and in fact, we pray for them.
Because our goal is not to agitate and overthrow the government.
Our goal is to lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in
every way.
If the government is convinced that their main goal should be crushing Christians in order to
establish tranquility, peaceful tranquility, then we're not
gonna have this kind of peaceful and quiet life.
We're not gonna be able to meet in churches.
We're not gonna be able to do the things that we wanna do because we're out doing the things that we are not supposed to
do.
If we're the rabble -rousers, if we're the revolutionaries, if we're, you know, of course, if you
read enough, I could say this, if you read enough liberal ideas about who
Jesus is, who is he?
He was a radical revolutionary.
Well, I don't think he was.
He was revolutionary in the sense, in what way was Jesus revolutionary?
I mean, from a human perspective, not talking about, you know, God becoming
or taking on human flesh, but in what sense was he a revolutionary?
And that would be it, right?
He said, what you guys are teaching is wrong.
You've heard it said, but I tell you, you know, all that the Pharisees
are teaching you is wrong.
They're talking about external religiosity, again, to bring it all around.
And I'm talking about a religion of the heart, if you will.
You know, I want your heart circumscribed.
I want you to obey me out of joy, not out of sheer duty with
no joy whatsoever.
I want you to obey me because of who I am and what I've done for you, not
because, you know, you think it makes you look better to other people.
No interest in that.
God isn't interested in our external duty.
He wants to know what motivates us.
So, but the last one isn't really true or false.
It's a question.
Why does submission, that word, why does it have such a negative connotation with us?
Why do you think it bothers us, you know, as a society so much?
Does it bother you, you know, Taylor?
I think our, you know, our identity as Americans can sometimes
intercept our identity as Christians, right?
When you think, well, I don't want to submit to anybody because I will have no king rule over me.
You know, I'm independent, I'm autonomous.
I bow the knee to nobody.
Well, what is submission?
Submission is essentially bowing the knee,
but it is not done out of, well,
I'll tell you why it is done.
It's done out of fear for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why do we submit?
We submit to governmental authority.
We submit to church authority.
We submit to authority even within our own homes.
Out of fear for the Lord and not out of fear like, oh, he's gonna do something horrible to me if I
don't submit.
It's understanding all that he's done for me and in light of that, how should I then live for him,
The difference between religion and relationship is, religion is done for outward
motivation, for being perceived the right way.
That relationship that people talk about, what it really is talking about is, I want to be pleasing to the
Lord, not just with my actions, but with my attitude,
with the way I think.
If we just think this way, as a man thinketh so as we think we
are, right?
As a man thinks so is he.
Any thoughts or questions before we close?
I see you're all in submission to me.
Okay.
Father, we thank you for your word.
Thank you for what it teaches us, what it shows us.
Lord, I pray that you would make us ever more reliant upon your spirit and your word
to, just like a laser beam, go to our heart and show us
the areas where we fail to submit, where we are still rebels,
where we have let the identity maybe even of Americanism
stop us from doing what you command us to do.
Father, strengthen us each one, that we would have the attitude of humility that Jesus Christ
had in laying aside the exercise of his
godhood, as it were, taking on human flesh, coming to earth, living,
dying, and being raised from the dead, all in humility.
Let us have that attitude.
Let us emulate Jesus in that way, we pray in his name.
Amen.