I am preaching on the blessing of submission. This is a strange concept for most of us, but it is a Biblical truth. There is great blessing in submission.
Turn with me to Matthew chapter eight. This is another account of what we just read in Luke’s gospel.
We already learned a valuable lesson about wealth. Now we will learn a valuable lesson about submission in the same block of scripture.
Need prayer? Submit prayer request →Matthew 8:5-13 NLT - When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, “Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.” Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.” But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.
Let’s hone in on a very controversial word: servant. Some translations use the word slave. Both are accurate translations.
We don’t like the word servant because, in our mind, we tend to picture a mistreated slave. But that is not what is going on here.
In Luke’s gospel, this sick man was referred to as a highly valued slave. In other words, this servant was held in great honor by his master and carried a great reputation.
To help us wrap our minds around this, we could consider this guy a highly-valued employee—someone who served the business owner with excellence and a great attitude.
This Roman officer was not an evil slave owner like the one you learned about in history class. He was a caring, wealthy man who provided jobs to others.
Our American education and media systems have done an incredible job of making you believe that all CEOs are evil and that every slave owner in the past was atrocious.
If you want to grab ahold of God’s way of submission and authority, you must wipe that false narrative out of your mind.
Sure, there are terrible employers out there. There are still terrible slave owners. But I bet for every bad one, there are at least ten good ones.
Put yourself in the position of a billionaire. You have a lot of money and it just keeps coming in. You now have a new job—looking for ways to do good with your money.
When you have a surplus of money, one of the best things you can do is hire someone to work for you. It gives them purpose and helps them provide for their family.
It’s common for people to rag on the wealthy for hiring people to care for their homes, take care of their yards, and keep up with their vacation homes and boats and whatever else.
Maybe you’ve participated in these conversations. On the surface, it seems legitimate. But put a bit of thought into it and you’ll realize how foolish these gossip sessions really are.
These people have used their wealth to create great, high-paying jobs.
When the vacation home was purchased, hundreds benefited—from the construction crew to the realtor. They even created three full-time jobs to help care for the home and land.
If they would have left that money in the bank, all of those families would have had to look for other ways to put food on the table and pay the mortgage.
But since Hollywood has convinced us that all rich people are evil, we gravitate towards ragging on the wealthy rather than honoring the good they do with their money.
As a side note, you should know that at the root of all negative thoughts about the wealthy is jealously. If you dig deep, you’ll discover you are actually coveting what they have.
Reject the covetous thoughts and behaviors and become content where you are. Then, get with the Lord to figure out how to access His abundance so you can provide good-paying jobs for others.
You can just consider all of that a bonus because I am not even preaching on wealth right now. I am preaching on the blessing of submission. But that helped set the stage.
This Roman officer has slaves, but not how we understand slavery. He was a wealthy man who provided great jobs to great people. We call this employment today, not slavery.
He valued his servants so much that when one became sick, he did something none of his fellow Romans would do. He sent for that wild Jewish man who called Himself the Son of God.
The Roman officer even valued Jesus. While the Pharisees mocked Jesus, this gentile man refused to allow the Holy Son of God to enter his unholy home.
Then, he revealed to us an expression of faith that Jesus hadn’t even seen yet. He said, “Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed.”
He knew this to be true because he understood submission and authority. He was fully submitted to his superiors, and his servants were fully submitted to him.
He knew, without a doubt, that if he said, “Go”, his servants would go. They wouldn’t question it. They would simply do as they were told because they were submitted to his authority.
We don’t have this luxury. What we call submission in America is not submission at all. We will do what our boss says if we want to or if we’ve had all our questions answered first.
But to do what our boss says just because they’re the boss? Oh my. Most would respond, “I ain’t no slave! You don’t just get to tell me what to do.”
This has bled over into parenting as well. My generation, millennials, are the worst at this.
We grew up with “because I said so” parents. When we asked them why we had to do something, they replied, “Because I said so.” We didn’t get an explanation for nothing.
And now that we are parents, we’ve decided that our kids should always get an explanation. They should understand why we are telling them to do this or that.
I’ll confess, I did that for a few years, but I jumped ship a long time ago. Turns out, my parents were right. It’s more valuable for kids to learn to submit unconditionally than to get an explanation for everything.
Before you poo poo on me for relapsing into my parent’s old ways, let me explain why they were right.
At some point, our kids will be adults. If we train them to need an explanation before obeying, guess how they will respond to God.
When the Lord gives them a command in the Bible, they’ll think, “Why? I don’t really understand that, and I’m not doing that until God proves it to me.”
I have let you guys know over the years that questions are okay around here. If you want to ask about healing or prosperity or end times, let’s go.
Some great conversations have spurred from these times of Q&A. But I’ve learned that not every question is a good question.
Many times, our questioning comes from a place of pride. We tend to believe we deserve full understanding before we do what God tells us to do or believe what He has told us is true.
I lived most of my life this way. And it wasn’t an ugly type of pride. It was a very hidden pride. I simply wanted to understand what God was doing before I would go all in.
Then, one day, it hit me. Who am I to question the God of the universe? Can I not trust that what He commands me to do is right? Does He owe me an explanation?
When I had this revelation, I hit my knees and repented. I made a commitment that day, “Lord, I’ll do whatever you tell me. You don’t even have to explain it to me. My answer is yes.”
Since then, there are times when He explains what He is doing and times when He doesn’t. It makes no difference to me because I am obeying regardless.
Do you know why I obey unconditionally? Because I am fully submitted. When He says go, I go. When He says stay, I stay.
Not only do I obey, but I joyfully obey. And it is not a joy I have to work up either because I’ve moved over into a place of complete trust. I know He is always right, and the end result is always good.
Our church is sixteen years old. Over the years, we have put a lot of effort into kids ministry, which is pretty much an unspoken requirement for American churches.
Then, two summers ago, I was walking into our kid's classroom after service and a question rose up in my spirit from the Lord. He asked, “Why do you do kids ministry this way?”
My answer was immediate, yet embarrassing. I thought about trying to hide it from the Lord, but realized that was a lost cause. I replied, “Because that’s what other churches do.”
The Lord didn’t say anything after that. He didn’t have to.
I went on a search to find scriptures that back up the way we were doing kids' ministry. I couldn’t find anything. But, I did find the answer.
God designed parents to raise their children, not the church. Parents are to raise kids spiritually first of all, and practically as well. It is no one else’s job but the parents.
There is no one more anointed to raise your kids than you. God placed that inside of you, and if you want your kids to reach their fullest potential, then you must fully accept your role as the one perfectly designed to raise them up in the way they should go.
After this encounter with the Lord, I pulled the plug on kids ministry as we knew it. And I was excited to do it because the result is always good when you obey the Lord.
So, the next Sunday, I enthusiastically let the church know that we were pulling the plug on kids ministry so the parents could take back their rightful role and the church could focus on its role.
I thought everyone would be as excited as I was to follow the Lord on this matter. Seriously, I didn’t even consider that someone would get upset about returning to a Biblical model.
Imagine my surprise when there was a great upset amongst a few. And, of course, it was those I was close to.
So, I tried to explain it more, week after week. The more I explained it, the bigger of a hole I dug with those who were struggling with the change.
You know what I learned?
Anytime I’ve tried to explain something beyond what the Lord has revealed to me, I’ve only gotten myself into a mess. And yes, I’ve done it more than once.
But not anymore. You can work your hardest to get an explanation out of me. But if the Lord hasn’t provided one, I’ll simply reply, “Because that’s what the Lord wants.”
To that, you might question, “Well, how can I trust that you actually heard from the Lord?”
If you don’t, why are you here? It will be awfully miserable for you to be under my leadership if you constantly question whether I am listening to the Lord or not.
That wasn’t the case for this Roman soldier. He was looking for a command, not an explanation. He knew, without a doubt, that if Jesus commanded healing, that’s exactly what would happen.
Do you remember what Jesus called this? Faith. Great faith. He hadn’t seen faith like this in all of Israel.
You might want to write this down:
Unconditional submission is a high form of faith.
Faith can be expressed in many ways, submission being one of the best.
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