We are continuing our true faith series, the book of James leads us to submission. True Faith Submits. I wanted to talk about a few things that we all really enjoy submitting to (notice my sarcasm). Speed limits, traffics (any else hit 475 on the way in?), diets, taxes, government leaders, budgets, caffeine intake recommendations by the FDA, etc. Submission is hard! But when we don’t there are consequences. When we do, there are benefits. Every action has a result. 

Submitting ourselves to God is both biblical and wise. The book of James calls us to the privilege of submission. Often in our world today the word “submission” is a negative term. But James is inviting us to the gift of submission. You heard that right, the gift of submission. To submit to God, is to receive a gift. When we submit to God, we receive the privileges of being his son or daughter. When we submit to the world, we receive the false promises and negative consequences of living by the world’s standard.

Submission is the path to victory, submission is the way of discipleship, submission is picking up your cross and following Jesus. 

Submission creates unity

Unity is the heart of God. Matthew 12:25, Jesus tells us a house divided cannot stand. Unity with others is what immediately comes to mind, but that isn’t actually what I am after in this point. I am talking about unity with God. 

Unity with God means an alignment with him. It means we are unified in what he wants both for our lives and for the world. When we live in rebellion, the opposite of submission, we are unified with the world. We are aligned with what the world desires and concerned with what the world thinks and what the world wants. 

The best example is of course Jesus, completely in unity with the Father. In fact, in John 10, Jesus said the Father and I are one. Jesus led a life that was in total union with the Father. When the enemy tempted him, it was a temptation to follow the world. To do what the world deemed right, what the world said would fulfill. 

My question for you to ponder this morning is this: am I in union with God or with the world? What holds my attention more often? What gains my affection the most? 

When we submit to God, the world fades quietly into the background. When we submit to God’s ethics, we live lives of holiness. When we submit to God’s mission, we live lives of action and evangelism. When we submit to God’s thoughts about us instead of the world’s, we live lives of fulfillment and wholeness. 

Submission to God means unity with God. Submission to the world means unity with the world. We all submit to something, who will you choose to be unified with?

Submission is the path to victory

Repeat after me, “I cannot do this.” You can’t! But God can. For too long, the church has tried to white knuckle their way to victory over sin. For too long, we have turned to our own efforts and ability to conjure up success in spiritual things. Now I am not advocating we don’t try, effort is vital! But it is effort through Christ. It is the power that He gives, that he provides, that he wields through us! 

When we lead by our own strength, we fail. When we submit to God’s authority and power, we tap into his potency and step into his victory. We cannot beat the devil. We can’t overcome him, we can’t defeat him. What does Jesus say is John 15? Apart from him we can do… nothing! Submit to God, walk in victory.

Your failures and your brokenness is all a result of refusing to submit to God. Think about it, this all started because Adam and Eve refused to submit to God. Do not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. What did they do? They followed their own wisdom and did what was right in their own eyes. 

We do the same thing all the time! We do what seems right to us! Humility is saying, “God, your way is right. Even if I don’t understand it fully, even if I don’t agree with it, even if my feelings disagree… your way is right.” This is humility, this is submission. 

When we submit to God, we experience freedom from sin and death. Verses 7 and 8 tell us what awaits on the other side of submission. The devil flees, you experience single mindedness (what a gift that would be), our mourning turns to joy, and we are lifted up. And the best one, the best gift we get, is God draws near to us. 

This is how important this is: God opposes the proud… he is against and in opposition to those who are prideful… that is how serious this is! When we submit to God, he draws near to us. We experience my next point this morning: intimacy with God.

Submission leads to intimacy with God

Does God feel far from you? This is an indication of an area of your life that you have not submitted to God. It really is that simple. See, the enemy wants you to think it is more complicated than that but it really is not. You have an area of your life that you are not submitting to God.

More often than not, we don’t see what that is. This is why prayer, silence before the Lord and listening to the Holy Spirit, daily devotion to the scriptures and God’s word to us, are all so vital. It is in those moments, those daily practices that God can reveal to us through his wisdom and his sovereignty, what areas of our life that we need to turn over to him. 

Do you desire intimacy with God? For those that might not and are considering this morning: can you imagine how freeing and how wonderful it would be to have the author of the universe, the God of all things, the all powerful, all knowing, all sovereign one, close to you? It would be better than being best friends with the president. 

Humble yourselves before him, and he will lift you up. When we engage in submission to God, we experience him in deep and profound ways. Humility is the pathway to the throne room of God. There is no other path worth walking down. 

Conclusion

True faith, one that is authentic, submits to God. The world has sold a lie that submission is a bad thing. An admittance of weakness, one that puts all the onus and burden on you. Friends, submission to God is the path to life and life to the full. 

The devil has worked overtime to convince you otherwise. He wants you to remain in bondage. He wants you to stay in brokenness and defeat. He wants your soul to be permanently separated from a loving God. 

We talked about how submission leads to unity with God instead of unity to the world. James is challenging you and asking you in his letter to evaluate who you are aligned with. Are you aligned with the things of God or with the world that is antithetical to God’s way?

After that we spoke about the path to victory. Are you being beaten up by sin? Are you hopelessly lost to a battle in your life that you desperately cannot overcome? Then there is something in your life that you need to submit to God. Allow him to speak to you in this, and then don’t hesitate to crush anything that separates you from him. 

And finally, God wants a deep, authentic relationship with you. Not a call me on the weekend for 2 minutes, but every single day, in every single way, we want God working and moving in our lives. Sin separates us from God, when we submit to him and he removes it, intimacy and deep relationship awaits on the other side. Shame is destroyed, victory is won, and you and your heavenly father are in a close and life changing situation that not even the devil from hell can destroy. Are you living in submission? It’s time.