The True Shape of the Christian Life | 1 Peter 5:5-6 | Pastor Andrew Coleman | 1/21/2026

If you do not have a sermon outline,

would you please lift your hand? We have

some guys that are running to the front

to give one to you. Um, everyone will

need a sermon outline tonight. Um, as we

not very silent, are they? All right,

everybody. Spankens when they get home,

give them a spanking and say, "Hey, the

pastor said go silently." We'll have to

help him work on that. But look at that

crowd. Isn't that cool?

>> Isn't that great?

>> That's great.

That's a good thing. [applause]

Um I am very proud of the fact that our

church um just sees God blessing our

young people in so many different ways.

And let me tell you, brothers and

sisters, we must invest. Many of you are

parents. I know that you're investing.

But we've got to be really careful how

we invest. Um, the world is after that

crowd right there. Satan is concerted in

his effort to to take them away from us.

He is concerted in his effort to

convince them of all kinds of lies,

to cause them to look at the here and

now and not to look toward heaven.

Satan wants to take them away from you

as a parent.

He wants to destroy family

relationships. Listen to this. The I I

was doing some research and I and I

noticed one of the things that popped up

in the research was this.

Psychology Today, which is not a

publication I would recommend, but

Psychology Today, you know what the

front cover of the November issue was?

Family estrangement.

the fact that there is an epidemic

of young adults 35 years and under

strangely walking away from their

parents with no real explained reason.

I mean it's just it's happening at an

epidemic level. I mean enough that

psychology today is saying hey how to

hold your family together together. Now,

the gospel has a lot of answers for

that. We're working to answer those

things, too, um, as a church through the

gospel. But the world is looking for the

answers for that. And they're kind of

going, "We don't really know why all

this is happening."

But suddenly, you say, "Well, wait a

minute. That happened in my family 40

years ago. What are you talking about in

this day and time?" Well, yeah, it's

been growing. And it's very interesting

when you look and you and you kind of

boil down some of the reasons for all of

that. And this actually plays into what

we're going to look at tonight.

But when you look into that, it is some

of the some of the influences that they

note in trying to assess why why are

young people being separated from their

families.

the media

and the spirit of the age that is that

is just in the in the culture. It's in

the water. It's in the air of what all

we we consume media-wise is

relationships should only be engaged so

long as they're beneficial,

perceived beneficial to you. And soon as

they are no longer beneficial, you

should leave them. Listen to this. you

should cancel them. So this is part of

cancel culture to just shut it off to

walk away because I don't really

perceive this as beneficial to me.

Whereas the older crowd looks at this

and goes, "Wait a minute. No, family is

important in the good times and in the

bad times. Family is important. And one

day you're going to be to the point

where you're sick or one day you're

going to be in trouble or one day you're

going to be older. And who is it that's

going to be around you at that time?

Well, traditionally it was family. Your

friends kind of come and go, but family

is there when you die. Well, that's a

little bit up in the air right now.

um as people are estranged from one

another more and more and more and

that's sin pulling us apart um without

the gospel to show us how to stay

engaged. So

this is one of the reasons that young

people um should really really really

be

taught to be prudent with all of the

media intake

constantly being on the phone. You you

see somebody waiting on the side of the

road for the bus. You see somebody

waiting in the doctor's office. You see

somebody at the airline. You see

somebody every wherever we are sitting

still for a minute. They pull up to a

light and immediately what happens?

You know, we're constantly

receiving messages. We're constantly,

you say, well, maybe not texts, but

messages, advertisement,

memes, all the things. This is a

constant barrage of thinking upon us.

And so the spirit of the age can be very

easily overpowered from the message of

the gospel um and the message of our

parents and the message that that's why

there needs to be limits. That's why we

need to limit ourselves. One of my

daughters, she's 30 years old. Cheryl

just she has a she has this app on her

phone that when she has looked at a

certain number of minutes of media, uh

the phone locks her out from all social

media and everything else. It's an app

that she set up on her phone so that

YouTube and everything else is

inaccessible after a certain number of

minutes each day. So she's allotted

herself whatever it is 30 minutes, 45

minutes of media and then after that it

doesn't let her see that stuff anymore.

And so that I said, "Well, show Cheryl,

what do you do?" She goes, "Well, I read

my Bible. I talk to my husband. I go

learn a new recipe. I go talk to the

neighbor. I go do something else like we

used to do."

Like we used to do.

So maybe you need to kind of think about

that for yourself as an adult. Don't

just go, "Oh, my son, I'm worried about

my son. He just went out there. I'm

going to Well, think about what example

are you setting.

You see, it all plays in. And so when we

live our lives on those things, okay,

now

this evening, I want us to look at the

true shape of the Christian life. It

goes right with what we've been

studying, and it goes right with even

what we've just been saying. It has to

do with a very important theme that the

Apostle Peter is covering. And I want

you to see this tonight. We're going to

move real fast. Um, and look at this.

So, this is message 25 of our studies,

but it's kind of a Wednesday night

message, which means we're kind of

pulling some things together and and

taking some of this and looking back

over it. But notice this, the true shape

of the Christian life. Last Sunday we

finished a miniseries within our first

Peter series. You see that there? Um and

the miniseries had to do with peace.

Peter is applying the call to holiness

to social relationships. To social

relationships. And um notice this 1

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Peter chapter 2 through 1 Peter chapter

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

3 is dealing with what did we say so

far? Submission to what?

>> Government. So he talks about that the

ruling authority submission in

employment whether just or injust.

Submission in marriage. Now that one we

did a third level minisseries in that

because that was a hot tamalei. We had

to deal with what does submission look

like in marriage and what about those

six verses that dealt with women versus

the one verse that dealt with men. Well,

there's a few sermons on that. If you

missed those, you ought to go back and

listen to those. But God's design in all

of this. And then we looked last Sunday

at submission. Does anybody remember

what it was? Submission within what?

>> The body of Christ.

>> The body of Christ. Submission within

the body of Christ. So fill that in.

Looks like maybe I didn't put all of the

answers in some of these. Is that right?

Okay. So you got to listen. All right.

Submission within the body of Christ. So

it's not just government employment in

your home, but it's also for God's

people. And we said God's people is your

eternal family. Your your bloodline on

earthly family may or may not be part of

the eternal family. Some of you, how

many of you would have lost have family

members who do not know the Lord? They

are not in tune with Jesus. See, there's

there's a lot of us that have that and

we're concerned about that obviously and

there's there's many in this room. I'm

looking around the room and I've heard

your stories. There's many in this room

that you would say, "I am far closer to

the people in this room tonight than I

am with my blood family." And it's not

because I like don't like them. It's not

because I'm being self-active. It's just

that I've I've finally found the reason

I'm on the earth

and what God has done with me and that

and he's the promises of heaven. Of

course, in some ways, I'm going to be

closer to people here than with people

who reject that. So that's part of the

eternal family. Well, the key concept is

this. Fill this in. The key concept is

this. We submit

as we follow our fill it in submissive

savior.

This is what Peter is getting to. This

is an important part of the Christian

life. Can you circle that word submit?

we submit

um as we follow our submissive savior.

There's a few words in my preaching that

I often say this to you and I want to do

it with this one as well, but I say we

think of this as a bad word, but it's

not a bad word. It's actually a good

word. I What have I said that recently

about a few times? Does anybody

remember? It's come up a couple of

times. There's a word that we think of,

oh, that's that's kind of hard. That's a

bad word.

How about the word repent?

We often think of the word repent as a

bad word or a word that just is, you

know, oh, I got to deal with that. I got

to repent. I've got to do this. Listen,

let me tell you, the word repent is a

great word. It's the way you get God.

It's it's a great path. Well, it's a

hard path sometimes, but hard isn't

necessarily bad. We have to remember

that hard can be very, very good. What's

another concept of this? How about the

word? It's a, you know, it's a lot of

times it's four-letter words like this

one. How about this word work?

Is work a bad word?

No. Listen. Adam and Eve were working in

the garden before the fall,

before they fell into sin. Work, it it

says in the in the creation narrative,

six days God worked and then he rested.

Work is not a bad word. Repent is not a

bad word. There's rewards to work.

There's rewards to repentance. Let me

share you share with you another word

that's not a bad word. Submit.

Submit is a good word.

Now your flesh rejects that. Your flesh

doesn't want to submit. I don't want to

submit in my psyche, in my flesh, in my

earthly sense. I want to be me. I want

to

I want to do what I want to do.

If I feel like saying it, I want to say

it. If I want to drive like that, I want

to drive like that. You know, whatever

it is. But we're called to be people of

submission, and submission brings

blessing. In fact, look at First Peter 5

in verse 5 and six. It's right here on

your outline on the screen in front of

you. Look what it says.

Clothe yourselves. And then there's that

phrase, all of you. So now and notice

where this is. This is this is in first

Peter way back in chapter 5. This is at

the end of the book. So Peter has some

themes that he stays with all the way

through the book. And then when you get

to first Peter, how many chapters are in

first Peter?

[snorts]

>> Five. There's five chapters in first

Peter, which means this is where

>> at the end he's summarizing some things.

He's repeating some things and he's

because it's important. And look where

he's summarizing. And look where he

goes. Clothe yourselves all of you with

what?

>> Humility. Yes, that's another word

that's not a bad word. That's a good

word. We think of that as a bad word,

but that's a good word. Clothe

yourselves all of you with humility

toward who? One another.

For God opposes the proud but gives

grace to the humble. What passage did I

put out there to the side?

Psalm [snorts]

chapter 3 and verse 34. And so again,

here's another place where Peter is

quoting from the Psalms. So the wisdom

of the Psalms written couple 1500 years

earlier. Um and so Peter is quoting

that. And then look at verse six. Humble

yourselves therefore under the mighty

hand of God so that at the proper time

he may exalt you. And part of the

picture here is God is mighty, you are

not. So recognize that. Recognize that

he's in charge. Humble yourselves under

the mighty hand of God so that he can

lift you up. He can exalt you at the

proper time. So um the key concept is we

submit as we follow our submissive

savior. And Peter's call is to this.

Peter's call is to submission. It was

never meant to be fragmented or

situational.

Instead, notice this. It describes the

normal posture of Christian living under

the lordship of Christ. And so some of

you are new Christians and I just want

to say to you, we would be a really bad

church and we would be a really

unfaithful church if we did not teach

you right away. You you're you're

following Christ now. You're not the

king. He is. You're not the king over

everybody else. You're you're called to

live a life of submission to him and

submission to your brothers and sisters

in Christ. We submit to one another in

love. That's what we do. And so this is

a key part of the Christian God. Well,

what is biblical submission? I mean,

we've been talking about it for weeks.

Let's let's just kind of remind

ourselves. So, this is as much as a

reminder as anything else. Number one,

it's not passivity. It doesn't mean that

you're just passive. Oh, okay. Whatever.

There it goes. Watch it go by. Um, you

know, a pacifist

um says, "Well, I don't get involved

with wars because I don't believe in

that and I, you know, I'm just going to

stand by and let it all go by."

That's not submission. Submission isn't

that we don't care about things or we

don't engage. No, we we still do. It's

also not inferiority.

It doesn't mean that you you have no

right to this, that you're inferior, so

you're not up to it. You're not

whatever. That's that's not part of

that. That that's not really what it

means. Listen to this. It's not silence

in the face of sin. We're not called to

just accept sin happening around us and

not respond to that as as something

being wrong. Um submission doesn't just

give into all those things. Listen to

this. It's not blind obedience. It's not

that you just do what you're told. Um,

in these in these regards, you can be

submissive

and yet not be passive, inferior,

silence about sin or blind. Here's what

it is. Here's what real submission is.

Biblical submission is a voluntary

placing of oneself

under God orained authority. So whether

it's government, work, family, or in the

life of the church, God ordained

authority, trusting God with what?

The outcomes. Trusting God with the

outcomes rather than insisting on

selfruule

or self vindication.

So, it's that we're we're coming to God

and we're saying,"Lord, you've told me

to submit to some things here in this

life, and I bring myself under the

authority of God

to the Florida government, to the

Broward County government, to the US

government. There's aspect of my life

that I'm going to submit to them so long

as they don't force me to disobey God."

So there may be laws I may not like them

but it's not against God. So I have to

abide by that. Um so there's there's

certain things that I have to do. Um and

I submit myself to that. That's at work.

There's certain policies. How many of

you like all the policies at your work?

You like all of them. Well, there's

probably some things that to you are a

pain, but your employer has said this is

the way it is. This is what you're going

to do. And so we have to submit

ourselves to that. We don't we don't sit

there and grade against it. In family

life, we've talked a lot about that in

recent days. In family life, there's

some things that are hard. We're going

to we're going to look at some detail of

that again in a minute. But we submit

ourselves as we are honoring Christ and

we're trusting God with the outcome.

You see, at its core, submission is not

about authority. It's about trust.

It's about trust. Now,

if you're a pagan in America

and you're looking at the government and

you're looking at laws and you're

looking at all of this, you could make

the whole thing about authority.

But we're called to recognize as

Christians, no, God has put that there.

And sometimes they're right and

sometimes they're wrong, but I'm

trusting God with my role in this. And

so it's it's it's not about authority.

It is about trusting him that he knows

what he's doing. He knows exactly what

he's doing. He is in charge. Look what

it says here. James 4:7. Submit

James 4:7

yourselves therefore to God.

That's really where we're going first

and foremost is we are submitting

ourselves to him. You see, all earthly

submission flows out of submission to

God himself.

You can you can rest in that. You can

trust that. And that brings a lot of

freedom when we realize that we are

trusting the Lord and we're not trusting

the government or trusting our work. And

sometimes even when our families are

really struggling, we are trusting the

Lord that he knows what he's doing. So

what is biblicalism? Number two, why

submission is essential. Circle the word

essential to walking with God. And here

there's a lot of reasons to this. Here's

just a few. From Genesis onward, sin is

marked by refusal to submit. It's when

we the opposite of submission is to

rebel um to stand against. And so look

at this. I mean Satan's lie to Eve is

you will be like God.

You will be like him. So you don't have

to submit.

And this has to do with autonomy instead

of obedience. What is autonomy? What

does that mean?

What is autonomy?

>> Do your own thing.

>> Do your own thing. It's selfruule. Auto

is self. And then the the root word

there has to do with law and and

function. And so it's self-function.

It's self rulership.

If uh when we use the word automatic,

automatic, it it automatically does what

it does. So autonomy is self-ruling.

Um, and so notice this. It's wanting to

be self-ruling instead of obedient.

There's the opposite of it. Self-ruule

instead of God rule. I want to rule

myself instead of God to rule over me.

Um, you see, walking with God has always

required, fill it in, humility before

him. And we see this all through the

scripture. We see those who chose to

humble themselves before the Lord. And

when they humbled themselves, they come

to a place of humility, recognizing who

he is. Moses is out there walking on the

far side of the desert. He's walking

along and he comes up on a burning bush.

And the burn the bush is burning, but

it's not being burned up. It's being

it's not being consumed. And then

there's a voice that comes out of the

burning bush. And what does it tell

Moses?

Take your shoes off, Moses, because why?

>> You're on holy ground. And so Moses

takes off his shoes.

He's standing there. He's he's humbling

himself

before that. Now, part of the picture

here is this.

When a enemy was in front of a superior

and more powerful enemy, one of the

signs of their submission to that other

one is taking off their shoes. Why would

that be the case?

>> A warrior's shoes are a key part of his

battle apparel.

Can you imagine going into battle

barefooted?

Is that going to work very well? When

you step on rocks and sticks and sharp

objects and this and everything else,

you're going to be so worried about your

feet as you. But if your feet are

protected, you can fight. Feet aren't

very protected there. There's a big

problem here. So, one of the things that

you would see when when an army was

being subjugated, they made them take

off their shoes,

there were many that had to march

barefooted

because they couldn't fight. That makes

them very, very vulnerable.

And so, when we see this, we see Moses

being told, "Take off your shoes, Moses.

You're on holy ground." That is a symbol

of submission to God. God would call us

to that. Well, God calls us to be humble

before him. How about this one?

Obedience, even when it's costly. There

were many, many um followers of God in

the Old Testament that were called to to

great cost. Abraham was called to offer

Isaac.

How much was that going to cost Abraham

his one and only son?

um part of the picture of this um in the

life of Christ. How about this? Walking

with God has always required not only

humility, obedience, but surrender.

Surrender of control.

Uh

somebody tell me a little bit the story

of Gideon.

What happened with Gideon? What did God

want Gideon to do? Who was Gideon?

He was a judge, but he was a warrior in

the course of this. He had an army.

And what did God tell Gideon to do with

his army?

>> Reduce his fighting force. Send them

home.

And did God tell Gideon to do that just

one time?

over and over, God is bringing down the

art, the fighting force.

So, what is Gideon learning in this

process? I I'm about to go into battle

and Lord, you keep telling me to send

people home.

It was about surrendering control. He

was starting he was starting to real.

And by the way, I would encourage you to

go read about the story of Gideon

tonight. It's a great story. Great

bedtime story. It'll encourage you. Let

your brain go to bed thinking about

Gideon. Uh in fact, I'm going to do that

tonight. I'm going to before I lay down

to go to sleep, I'm going to reread the

whole story of Gideon because there's

beautiful nuggets in it about trusting

God.

And so he's surrendering control of

things totally depending upon the Lord.

Um Proverbs 19:10 says the fear of the

Proverbs 19:10

Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is

where we we see it's it's absolutely

coming to a surrender and a humility

before God is where we get the wisdom

for life and uh the continuence in in

all that he has for us. Submission is

simply faith made visible. Faith made

visible. So when we submit, we see what

someone really believes.

you're trusting because again what we

said was it's not about control. It's

about trust. It's not about authority.

It's about trust. So number three,

not only number two, why submission is

essential to walking with God, but

number three, Christ fill it in. Christ

is the pattern and the power of

submission. It would be impossible to

preach this message without reading

um Philippians chapter 2. And we're

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

going to see that right here. We just we

read this passage a lot because it's so

crucial to the Christian life. Peter

never calls believers to anything Christ

himself did not completely embrace. And

we just have to remember that Jesus is

our forebearer on this. Jesus did this.

Philippians 2:ES 1-11. Look at it and

read this maybe as if you've never heard

it before. If you can just just try to

hear this as if it's you've never heard

this before that this is completely

fresh. And for some of you, maybe this

is the first time you've read about

Christ's example and what he did.

Philippians chapter 2:es 1-1. So if

there is any encouragement in Christ,

any comfort from love, any participation

in the spirit, any affection and

sympathy,

complete my joy by being, underline it,

of the same mind, having the same love.

Do you remember we we looked at that

Sunday, we used that verse Sunday, of

the same mind. It says united in mind,

the same love, being in full accord with

one another. So he liked Hondas. That's

the reason the Apostle Paul liked Honda

Accords. They were all supposed to be in

one accord.

Okay. Yeah. Sorry. Um

being in an accord. No, being in full

accord and of one mind. So he's saying

this is going to make me truly joyful

when you guys are together. And he goes

says it four different ways. And then

look at verse three. Do nothing from

selfish ambition or empty conceit,

but in there it is humility.

Count others more significant than

yourselves. That sounds like submission,

right? Humility. Verse four, let each of

you look out not only to his own

interest. You have to look to your own

interest to some degree, but also to the

interests of others. Verse five, have

this mind among yourselves. Underline it

which is yours in Christ Jesus. Circle

in Christ Jesus.

So this is what Jesus did. Verse six,

who though he was in the form of God,

did not count equality with God a thing

to be grasped or held on to, but he

emptied himself by taking the form of a

servant, submissive servant, being born

in the likeness of men. So he becomes

like us in physical flesh. Verse 8, and

being found in human form, he humbled

himself by becoming obedient to the

point of death, even death on a cross.

Verse nine, key word, therefore, because

he did this. Therefore, God has highly

exalted him and bestowed upon him the

name that is above every name. So that

at the name of Jesus, every knee should

bow in heaven and on earth and under the

earth, and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the

father. So how did that come about

except that he emptied himself in

obedience? He humbled himself by being

becoming obedient to the point. So Jesus

is your pattern on this. Jesus is my

pattern. And Jesus is where I get the

power to submit.

Consider what Jesus did. He submitted

first of all to the father's will. He

submitted to unjust authorities.

He submitted to suffering that he did

not deserve

in in all of this. Put a big circle

around the last one. He trusted God

rather than defending himself.

And that's what we are called to do. So

the son in perfect obedience to the

father

is entrusting himself to them. In fact,

that's what 1 Peter chapter 2, which we

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

studied a few months ago, look what it

says. Let's read it out loud together. 1

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Peter chapter 2 and verse 23. Are you

ready? Let's read it. When he was

reviled, he did not revile in return,

but continued entrusting himself to him

who judges justly. And that is what we

are called to do.

That is what we are called to do. to not

revile in return but to entrust

ourselves. In fact, that's even last

Sunday. We don't return evil for evil

and reviling for reviling,

but we submit ourselves to one another

and trusting ourselves. So, the cross is

the ultimate act of submission and yet

the greatest fill it in victory in

history.

So the greatest victory in history is

Jesus submitting himself by the father's

will to the cross to pay the price for

his people. So and we're called to

follow in his footsteps. So Christ is

the pattern and the power of our

submission. Number four, submission as

the true shape. That's the title of the

message. It's the true shape of the

Christian life. We want to see that. And

Peter gives it to us in four spheres.

The government, work, marriage, and the

church. So government, this is trusting

God with power structures over your

life. He we're we're trusting him with

power structures. We're trusting God

with responsibilities

of work and injustice.

Sometimes some maybe we're the slave and

there's a master. Maybe there's things

that are wrong that are there before us.

And we we still have to trust the Lord

with that. with marriage, trusting God

with the intimacy of family. This is

this is really in the most in the most

daily uh level of the the the quietness

of your home and or the the

not just the intimacy but the

interrelated nature of family. That's

our most proximal level um in an earthly

regard. And as part of that, it's other

people's sin.

Because at church,

is everybody's sins real evident?

When we're sitting here, is everybody's

sins real evident

at home? Is everybody's sins real

evident?

You get it? You see,

I mean, I don't know what all e Eli's

sins are right now. I could call Marie.

She's not here tonight, but I could call

her and say, "Hey, tell me what is he

really struggling with? How does he sin

against you the most? Just go ahead and

tell me."

He's saying, "Please don't do that."

He's back there shaking his head. No,

no, don't do that. Don't do that.

[laughter]

But I know Eli's a pretty godly man, but

I know Eli's still a sinner.

And you know, I mean, when you're

married to someone, you're going to see

their weaknesses.

You're going to see where they blow it.

And part of our submission to one

another is even when they blow it, that

we're trusting God with their sin.

We're trusting God with their

weaknesses.

And if we're a growing Christian, we're

going to become more and more godly how

we deal with their sin.

Um,

Marcy,

sometimes I would either sin against her

or I would be doing something that maybe

wasn't quite right or whatever. And I

realized what happened after it was

happening for a while. She would become

very quiet and she would be very nice.

And I would started to realize because

by little comments that she made later,

she was just like saying, "I'm I'm

giving you to God."

And I was like, "Oh, don't do that.

Don't do that." [laughter]

And really what Marcy was doing, she was

just like, "Lord, I'm going to duck and

you get him. Go ahead."

you know, um, entrusting instead of

having to fight and be the Holy Spirit

for me,

she was entrusting my sin to God.

And instead, in a very godly way, she

was praying for me and not just praying

impregatory prayers. Do you know what an

impregatory prayers are? in the Psalms.

Sometimes we read the Psalms and David's

writing, he's like, "God, kick out the

teeth of the wicked, you know, get them.

Grind them into dust. Get them, God. Get

them." Those are impregatory psalms.

Those are impregatory prayers. We don't

always Sometimes it's an appropriate

thing to do. But, but don't always pray

impregatory prayers against your husband

or against your wife.

Maybe one of the things that you could

pray that God would really answer is,

"Oh, dear God, have grace upon her.

Lord, have have grace upon this area of

her sin,

knowing that the kindness of God leads

us to repentance."

Lord, would you be kind to Marcy in

this? would you in your kindness let her

see her sin?

That is a godly prayer.

And so we we want to be careful to

recognize that this is this is a key

thing. And then in the life of the

church, this eternal family that we're

to be a part of, we're trusting God with

broader relationships than just family.

But we're there there's a deep way in

which we can go with brothers and

sisters in Christ. And this is this is

so the unifying thread in all of these

government, work, marriage, church is

this submission is how Christians live

out fill it in hope and love when the

world is not yet right. So things aren't

made right yet, but this is how we live

out hope and love. So our hope is in the

fact that it's going to be made right.

He's going to fix it all,

but it's not there yet. And so we have

hope because of what he's promised. And

he's called us to love. You see, we

would have never known the the love side

of God

had we not sinned and needed his love

and his grace.

But because we have sinned,

we see this other side of God. Not just

his power and his might, not just his

design and his just, we see a side of

God that we would have never seen

without our need for it.

And so there's there's a lot of

questions answered there. Um when we

think about where does sin come from and

why and how is this the wisdom of God

and was God asleep at the switch when

this happened? Is he reacting to our s?

No, no, no. God and his wisdom knew the

only way we could really get to know him

is if we desperately needed him.

And this is how we see his grace and his

love. And so we submit to that.

Submission is how Christians live it

out. You see the daily confession is

this. God is wise. God is sovereign.

God is good.

I will trust and obey him here.

That is that is what he's called us to

do. To trust and obey.

Trust and obey. Trust and obey. For

there's no other way to be happy in

Jesus but to trust and obey. That's it.

We sing that song. It's a it's a

glorious glorious song of truth.

So number four is what? Submission as

the true shape of the Christian life.

And so all of this means that we are

called to a self-examination. And

tonight

I hope that you would be willing to even

right now as I'm speaking and as we

consider these for you to say,

am I just learning the paper knowledge

here or am I learning the heart

knowledge?

Ask yourself these questions slowly and

prayerfully.

Where am I resisting submission?

Resisting submission because I fear

losing control.

Where am I resisting submission because

I fear losing control?

Where do I justify disobedience?

Because obedience feels costly.

Well, that's just too hard. I can't do

that.

You know, sometimes God is going to

convict you about sins in your life or

about things in your life that he wants

out

and he's going to say, "I want you to do

this."

And you're going to go, "Huh?

Are you kidding me?

That will cost me a lot."

I'll just tell you one of these. There's

been many of them, but one of these was

when I was in college. I had grown up.

Growed up. Wow. I grown up. I I had

grown up here in South Florida and in my

car, in my boat, and everything as a

teenager. I worked real hard, made money

to have some things. And I, one of the

things that I enjoyed was music. A lot

of music. as a lot of young people like

music. And so I had Altech and Lancing

speakers and Jensen's in the car and

this and that and everything else. And I

I had all of these stacks and stacks of

these big black things called records.

Um and then eventually CDs came along

and I had CDs, lots of music. And there

was a lot of my music that was [snorts]

that was really not honoring to the

Lord.

And some of that music was associated

with

areas of my life that were really

dishonoring to the Lord. And when I

started to walk with the Lord and I

started to say, "Lord, I really want you

to be in charge of my life. I really

want you to make me who you want me to

be. I really want you to make me holy."

The Lord just started

putting his finger on that issue of

music in my life.

and I couldn't I couldn't get away from

it. He kept convicting me about it and

um eventually I put all the music in

boxes and this was before the days of

streaming and all that kind of thing. So

you actually had to have the thing in

order to listen to it. And um I also

kind of got into shooting at that time

like ski shooting and some other things

like that. And this is back when you

used to be able to go out there west of

town and shoot out in the Everglades

whenever you wanted to. And I just

remember me and my brother and a couple

of other guys that were trying to walk

with the Lord. We said, "Hey man, um, we

got all these records and a bunch of

them are really bad. Why don't we just

go out there and like,

you [snorts] know, so somewhere out

there there's like tons of blasted, you

know, Iron Maiden records and everything

else spread all over the the ground. I'm

sure that wasn't good for the

environment. Sorry. But um I remember we

blasted a bunch of it and got rid of it.

But then there was this lingering

struggle

with this that the Lord was continuing

to say, "Lay it down. Lay it down. Lay

it down."

And that was costly.

I had paid a lot of money for a lot of

that. And I liked it. I liked my sin.

I liked the things that the world

was holding on to. But the Holy Spirit

would not let me go on it. He just kept

convicting me about it.

And so in tears eventually I realized I

was up at Florida State and I realized

that I just I've got to give this to the

Lord. And I and I did more and more and

walked away from it and tried to fill it

with other things. And I remember one

day I was going along down Appalache

Parkway and I went to turn on my radio

in the car headed home from class and I

realized it had been [snorts] six months

since I had listened to secular music.

I hadn't turned on any music

in six months that was not honoring to

the Lord. That's just what he convicted

me to do at that time to let all that

go.

And

I remember I just began to weep.

I was like, "Lord, you won this.

You beat this in my life." Because I was

reaching to turn on Christian radio

station or I was reaching to turn on at

that time I was listening to John

MacArthur. I remember I would listen to

him every day at a certain time. And in

fact, I would record I [snorts] set up a

recorder in my room with a digital timer

where every time Grace to You came on,

my little cassette thing would

automatically start with the digital

timer and record the message so I could

hear it when I got home because I was in

class. I couldn't hear it when it came

on. And one of those series that I

listened to was from Romans 56,7 and 8.

And the title of it was Overcoming Sin.

And I just remember at that time that

the Lord was helping me

as I submitted that to him. He brought

victory. So where am I resisting

submission because I fear losing

control? Where do I justify disobedience

because obedience feels costly?

The third one there, do I submit

joyfully when authority is reasonable,

but resist when it's difficult?

Okay, I can I can submit to authority

when it's going my way, but what about

when it's not?

Am I trusting God, circle it, with

outcomes? Outcomes. Am I trusting God

with outcomes or am I trying to secure

my own outcomes?

That becomes an important aspect. And

you know sometimes the Lord will help

you with this because he will put you in

a situation where you have absolutely no

control.

You are totally at the mercy

of the circumstance. There's nothing you

can do. And God is saying,

I'm going to make you trust me.

So stop fighting this and just trust me.

I love you this much. I'm going to teach

you to trust me.

It's not

his wrath that is doing that. It's his

grace. Um so look at this with me. 1

1 Peter 5:5

Peter 5:5. Read it out loud together

with me. Would you read it out loud? 1

1 Peter 5:5

Peter 5:5. God opposes the proud but

gives grace to the humble. That's what

he does. You see, grace flows downward

to the humble. Grace flows downward to

the humble. When you when you humble

yourself, you get grace. That's what God

does.

And all of this comes to the climax of

this is the great promise attached to

submission. And this is amazing. You

see, Peter never presents submission as

Philiden loss.

He never presents submission as loss. We

never see that in his letters. It's

always a victory. 1 Peter 5:6, "Humble

1 Peter 5:6

yourselves so at the proper time he may,

underline that, he may exalt you. He

will lift you up."

And God's pattern is this. Surrender

leads to trust. It's going to lead you

to trust. Obedience is going to lead you

to endurance. That's what James talks

about that you you come to him, you

trust in him, and then you're going to

learn to endure.

And this is amazing. Humility leads to

exaltation.

Humility leads when when we lower

ourselves, the Lord raises us up. And

this is exactly what we just read in

Philippians 2:es 9-11. Look what it

says. Therefore, God has highly exalted

him because Jesus had humbled himself.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him

and bestowed upon him the name that is

above every name so that at the name of

Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven

and earth and under the earth and every

tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father. And so

this is this beautiful picture of he

goes to the cross in perfect obedience

and that is what raises him up.

God raises him up in exaltation. So

we must remember as we consider this in

our lives that Christ's submission led

to his exaltation.

And when we submit ourselves to the

Lord, the Lord applies the same

principle. Now, not everybody is going

to rise up and say, "Bernard is Lord to

the glory of the father and everybody's

going to bow down and worship Bernard."

No, that's not the that's not it at all.

Far better than that is that Bernard is

in line with Christ and Bernard is in

submission to Christ as Jesus, the true

Lord of all, rules and reigns over all

things. So Peter is saying this

in this earthly life you're going to

struggle in this earthly life. You're

going to be mistreated in this earthly

life. There are pains and difficulties

difficulties that are going to come. But

when you submit yourself to the things

that God has called you to submit

yourself to government and employment

and family and in the life of the

church, God is going to care for you.

God is going to give you what he what

you most desperately need, which is his

exaltation through Jesus Christ, our

Lord and Savior. So submission is not a

bad word. It's a good word. And when the

Lord starts to call you to submit

something that you've been holding on

to, don't hold on to it.

Let the Lord have it.

Can I ask you to just bow your head,

close your eyes right where you are

right now?

I got a question for you as you bow your

head and close your eyes.

Similar to what I ask on the sheet,

have you

embraced

God's call

to submit to him.

Have you embraced God's call for you to

submit to him?

And recognizing that that means to

submit to everything that he has around

you in your life to trust him.

Do you have some pet sins

that you refuse to let him into in your

life? Habits, attitudes, actions,

things

that he has put his finger on.

relationships.

Have you submitted those to him?

Has there been things that you've been

afraid that he's going to take away?

Things that you're afraid you're going

to miss?

Tonight I want to encourage you to say,

"Lord,

make me like you.

Just make me like you.

You were a servant.

Make me one, too."

Maybe you would say, "Oh Lord, I am

willing

to what you must do to make me like you,

Lord. Just make me like you,

Lord. I pray that you would help us with

this. I pray that you would help us to

submit

in all these areas. um realizing that

we're submitting to you when we live a

life of joyful humility and submission,

trusting in you for the outcome, knowing

that you know the situation better than

we do. You know our kids better than we

do. You know the future. We don't know

the future.

Lord, you know the resources that are

needed. You know the sustenance that is

needed. Lord, you know how to fulfill

your promises to us. And Lord, it's our

call. It's our

job to submit to you. So Lord, I pray

that you would help us to trust and obey

in these things. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.