Basic Leader Training: Godly Obedience - Session 1

Another12 Ministries Leadership Training

 

Session 1 Outline

 

Opening Questions

 

What is your personal view of biblical submission and obedience?

 

How important do you feel submission and obedience are for someone in ministry?

 

In what ways do you feel that you rely on God?

 

Is this an area you struggle with? If so, in what way?

 

Key Verse: Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. (Proverbs 21:2-3)

 

Godly Obedience – The Calling of the Cross

 

• Submission to God is essential for obedience. (Hebrews 12:1-11)
  • The example of Christ (Hebrews 12:2, Philipians 2:1-11)
    • Willing submission (Philipians 2:3-8)
  • Godly submission and obedience are essential to ministry success. 
    • Jesus submission to the Father in ministry (Luke 2:49, John 12:47-50)
    • Jesus prayer in Gethsemane (Luke 22:41-42)
    • Jesus power to call for angels (Matthew 26:52-56)
    • Jesus arrest, trial, and execution (Isaiah 53:7, Luke 23:26-49)
• What does the Word of God say about submission? (2 Chronicles 30:6-9, Proverbs 3:5-6, Hebrews 12:9, James 4:6-10)
• What does Godly submission look like?
  • Reliance upon God’s perfect and sovereign will.
    • David 
      • Submission to God’s anointed one cutting off Saul’s robe. (1 Samuel 24:1-15)
    • Apostles Beaten by the Sanhedrin  
      • Rejoicing in suffering and continued obedience in the face of persecution. (Acts 5:40-42)
• What does Godly submission NOT look like?
  • Reliance on self.
    • Rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-30)
      • Selfish desire for riches.
    • Sermon on the mount – Fasting (Pharisee) (Matthew 6:16-18)
      • Selfish desire for men’s applause.
• Evaluate Godly submission in your life. 
  • What areas in your life are you currently not submitting to God?
  • What area do you find most difficult to submit to church leaders?
  • In what areas of your personal life are you struggling with submission?
  • Is your ministry currently marked by how much you RELY on your own knowledge/ability, or in Christ’s?

 

Godly Obedience: The Calling of the Cross

• Submission to God is Essential for Obedience (Hebrews 12:1-11)
  • Submission – the condition of being submissive, humble, or compliant; an act of submitting to the authority or control of another.
  • Godly Submission – Acknowledging that one is of lower station than God. For the believer, this also entails a wilful and joyous abandoning of one’s will for God’s will. (Mark 1:16-20, Matthew 16:24-26)  
    • It is impossible to practice obedience to God without first submitting to him both in humility and gratitude and because of His position and power. Submission is the first step of obedience. Without submission, there is no obedience. 
  • Obey – to follow the commands or guidance of; to conform to or comply with.
  • Godly Obedience – Attentively listening to God’s Word and responding by seeking to align one’s heart and mind with His will.  (Psalm 119:97-104)
    • Obedience is not a suggestion, a good idea, or a preferable path. For the Christ-follower, obedience is mandatory. Those who would identify with Christ are call to obey Him by joining in carrying his message to the lost. “Jesus’ instruction is compelling in its clarity. It is not a suggestion; it is a command. “Go!” He says. “I am sending you!”
    • To submit and obey God requires that Christ-followers follow and comply with God’s commands and Jesus’ teaching. It also means that they will conform themselves to the standards of God and the example set by Jesus Christ. 
• The Example of Christ 
  • Willing Submission (Hebrews 12:2, Philipians 2:1-11)
    • Jesus Christ, through His life, death, and resurrection, is the ultimate example of a life lived in perfect submission and obedience to God. Despite being God, one with the father, Jesus laid aside his position and willingly submitted Himself to the Father in obedience for the purpose of offering Himself as a sacrifice for mankind to purchase redemption with His body. “Christ’s humiliation included His making Himself nothing, taking the very nature (morphē) of a servant, and being made in human likeness.” In doing so, Jesus made Himself the model for obedience to which all Christ-followers are to hold themselves accountable. 

• Godly submission and obedience are essential to ministry success.
  • Jesus modeled submission and obedience to the father in every aspect of His ministry. Those who follow Christ, and partake of the blessings which His work has procured for mankind on the cross, are not greater than Christ but are set by him and subject to Him. As such, Christ-followers must exhibit the same submission and obedience to God in their walk and ministry, just as Jesus Chist was subject and obedient to God. (John 13:12-16)
  • Jesus illustrated that He was fully submitted and obedient to the will of the father during His ministry.
    • Jesus submission to the Father in ministry (John 12:47-50)
      • Jesus submitted and obeyed His Father, even to the point of subjugating His own will. 
    • Jesus prayer in Gethsemane (Luke 22:41-42)
      • Jesus submitted and obeyed in the face of His distress.
    • Jesus power to call for angels (Matthew 26:52-56)
      • Jesus submitted and obeyed despite having the power to walk away from the torment he was about to face. 
    • Jesus arrest, trial, and execution (Isaiah 53:7, Luke 23:26-49)
      • Jesus submitted and obeyed to the end, fulfilling the will of His Father regardless of personal suffering.

 

• What does the Word of God say about submission and obedience? (2 Chronicles 30:6-9, Proverbs 3:5-6, Hebrews 12:9-10, James 4:6-10)
  • The overall theme of the Scriptures is that submission and obedience is pleasing to God. Such obedience will bring blessing, honor, fulfillment, success, and joy into the life of the Christ-follower.
  • The opposite of submission and obedience is sin, arrogance, and self-centeredness. Such behavior will provoke God’s wrath and result in confusion, sin, and destruction. 
    • “God opposes the proud. The word “opposes,” or “resists,” is antitassetai, a military term meaning “to battle against.” To the humble, however, God gives grace. Whether a believer is called to resist his human spirit which tends toward envy or to rejoice in the Holy Spirit who jealously yearns for each believer’s edification, the call is to shun pride and to submit humbly to God’s authority. The cure for conflict is a humble spirit which is rewarded by God’s unmerited favor.”
  • If the Christ-follower is to be successful in obeying Jesus’ command to “make disciples,” it is essential that they begin by entering into an attitude of submissive obedience to God. Without this first step of obedience, all attempts to be obedient will prove futile. 
• What does godly submission and obedience look like?
  • Example: David’s heart when he cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. (1 Samuel 24:1-10)
    • David exhibits godly, submissive obedience by honoring Saul, not because Saul was worthy of it himself, especially in that he was seeking to murder David, but because the Lord had put Saul in the position of authority and David honored God by honoring Saul. 
  • Rejoicing in suffering and continued obedience in the face of persecution. (Acts 5:40-42)
    • In exchange for their submissive obedience to Jesus’ command by preaching the gospel faithfully in Jerusalem, the disciples were arrested and beaten by the religious leaders. Their response was to rejoice that they were worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake and to continue to preach the gospel despite the persecution which was guaranteed to come as a result of their continued obedience. 
• What does Godly submission NOT look like?
  • Rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-30)
    • When faced with the price of eternal life, which Jesus taught was self-sacrifice, self-denial, and slavery to God, the rich young ruler was unwilling to be parted from his earthly riches in order to gain eternal life. His self-centered and self-serving attitude caused him to embrace perishable riches over eternal riches because he lacked the faith to submit and obey Jesus. 
  • Sermon on the mount – Fasting (Pharisee) (Matthew 6:16-18)
    • As He often did, Jesus used the Pharisee’s approach to fasting as an example of selfish disobedience to God. Their approach to fasting was tainted by their selfish desire to gain glory rather than honor God. In doing so, they altered their appearance, so that to all who viewed them, their fast was apparent. This bolstered public opinion of them because people admired their “righteousness.” This division of glory from God was centered in their unsubmissive, arrogant, and disobedient heart. 
• Evaluate Godly submission in your life. (James 1:22-25)
  • What areas in your life are you currently not submitting to God?
  • What area do you find most difficult to submit to church leaders?
  • In what areas of your personal life are you struggling with submission?

 

Godly Obedience – Bible Passages

 

Hebrews 12:1-11 – Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

 

Romans 6:16-18 – Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

 

Romans 12:1-2 – I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 

 

Philipians 2:1-11 – 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 of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on 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 God the Father.

 

John 13:12-16 – When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 

 

John 12:47-50 – If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

 

Luke 22:41-42 – And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

 

Matthew 26:52-56 – Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

 

2 Chronicles 30:6-9 – So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the LORD God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see. Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”

 

Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

 

Hebrews 12:9-10 – Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

 

James 4:6-10 – But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

 

1 Samuel 24:1-10 – When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.” Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wildgoats’ Rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. And afterward David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’S anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD’S anointed.” So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way.

Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage. And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David seeks your harm’? Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the LORD gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’S anointed.’

 

Acts 5:40-42 – and when they (the priests) had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they (the apostles) left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

 

Matthew 6:16-18 – “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

 

James 1:22-25 – But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.