Emerging Conservative

Well, here’s some random thoughts from this past week’s message that I keep running back to and thought I’d share them with you. We are going through a series we’re calling “WWJS”. What would Jesus say to us as a church and as Christians by looking at his teachings mostly in the book of Matthew.

Now this week we were talking about submission and something interesting jumped out at me. Jesus would have made himself a fine ministry with thousands of followers if He just dropped the submission thing.

See, a lot of people were drawn to Jesus. He spoke differently than the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the other religious leaders at the time. While they focused on the law, guilt, and their own personal status in the community; Jesus focused on his love fulfilling the law, forgiveness, and  becoming a servant leader to others. If you add in the miracles, healings, and deliverance of people from bondage, then you start to get a picture of why so many were drawn to Him. He even spoke against those religious leaders by telling them to follow what they preach but not what they do because they were hypocrites, vipers, and said “woes” to them for their failings. In a parable, He even suggested that God was going to do a new thing and bypass them since they did not “produce fruit”. (Matthew 21)

His beef with them is they would not submit to Him and His Father’s calling for love. Even when the religious leaders realized He was talking about them, they did not submit but started their plans to kill Him. If only He didn’t care so much about submission.

It wasn’t just the religious leaders…..it backfired in other arenas too. At one point, Jesus had a few thousand following after Him. In the middle of the night, He moved to a new place and when they woke up and saw Him gone, they chased Him down. Long story short, they asked Him “What does it take to follow you?” Submission….total 100% submission. They refused and each and every one of them turned away saying “Who can do this?” (John 6)

What if Jesus just said “Hey wait! I think we had a little misunderstanding! Maybe we can meet half way someplace!” If only he didn’t tell His little tale to the religious leaders and said “Well, at least you’re getting the word out there. Maybe this will work itself out in time.” If He just became forgiver and not try to be Lord, He would have had thousands of followers and lived to a ripe old age.

However, that is not why He came. He came to be Leader and Forgiver in our lives. He came to live a perfect example and to die and be raised again to offer a gift of salvation and a relationship with His Father. All He asks in return is total submission so there is a clear road for the Holy Spirit to move in your life for your freedom and the furtherment of His kingdom.

So what does this have to do with John the Baptist? Look at this verse as said by Jesus….

“I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has been none risen anyone than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in heaven is greater than he.” Matthew 11:11

What an awesome thing to have Jesus say about you…out of everyone born in the human race (by natural means), no one is higher than John. Old John raised higher than Noah, Abraham, Elijah, Moses, David and anyone else you want to mention. Why? Because of 100% submission. How would you like Jesus to say this about you? Well, step back and think it through before you answer. What are you willing to do to have this said about you? Let’s look at John and what he did….

Sacrifice – John had no wife, no children, no 401k, no home (just hanging in the desert), and eventually sacrificed his life. He held nothing back for his own but followed God.

Utilized his calling – We all have a calling. All of us. There is not a single person in the Bible where they said “Who’s that?” Oh, that’s Larry. He;s not doing anything because God gave Him a free pass. Have a nice day Larry!” John found his calling and followed it to find His place and duty.

Be Sold Out – Obviously, John was sold out to God’s calling. Unlike most character’s I mentioned above who at different times struggled with what God was calling them to do, we don’t find this same story with John.

Master Contentment – The Bible says that Godliness with contentment equals great gain. John wore camel hair for clothes and ate locusts for dinner. Some of us could get a little tired of this and think we deserve more. However, one time Jesus asked a group, Why did you go see John in the desert? Was it due to his nice clothes? No it was because of God’s message through him. Can you imagine if John said one day, you know, I do alot and I deserve a nice suit. Then Jesus would not have had that opportunity to use John as an example due to vanity.

Integrity – Integrity means do the right thing. Just that simple. John did the right thing by confronting Herod about the sin he was committing by being with his brother’s wife. Eventually this led to his arrest and death. However, fear was no reason for John not to do the right thing.

Teachable – There was a couple of struggling moments for John. One was when Jesus wanted John to baptize Him but John resisted. Who could blame him? I am not worthy of baptizing the Son of God either. However, Jesus said to John, we must do this to fulfill all righteousness. In other words, even Jesus had to submit to God.

What about you? Are you willing to give God your all? Some of us have things between us and God…. maybe it’s a addictive sin….maybe it’s a wrong relationship with another….maybe it’s a personal goal that you know is not God’s goal for your life. How we struggle and get angry when God isn’t fixing everything in our lives. How we blame Him first and look at our own lives, our own walls, our own weeds in His garden second, if at all.

To submit, it 100%. It’s everything. What is the Holy Spirit telling you today you need to change, let go of, or just stop doing? I pray you have the courage to do so. I pray you don’t collect a basket of excuses on why you can’t or don’t want to. I pray you open your life for full freedom of the Holy Spirit. If I can help in any way, let me know. You can do this…….

The full sermon will be up soon here.