Sept 22,  2024
Submit to God 

Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements 

Call to Worship
Who is wise and understanding among us?
Those who seek wisdom and understanding
each and every day. Those who delight in God
and meditate on God’s law.
Come, learn more about the wisdom from above,
a wisdom that yields a harvest of righteousness.
O God, your wisdom is more precious than jewels!
We draw near to you. 

 

Hymn:  650  He leadeth me

Prayer of Adoration 

We draw near to you, O God,
Source of all understanding,
and ask you to draw near to us.
Teach us your wisdom from above,
that we may bear good fruit in our lives.
Root us beside the streams of your wisdom,
that the green leaves of our goodness,
fed by your insight,
may not wither. Amen. 

Prayer of Confession:
O God, we live our lives as best we can—dealing with difficult relationships and situations, putting failures and disappointments behind us, and moving into each new day with as much energy, goodwill, and optimism as we can muster.
But here, right now, we seldom have the right answers, we seldom seek your higher wisdom in our lives, we just move ahead.
Forgive us for not asking for your insight. Fill us with your wisdom, that we may live lives of goodness and peace. Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon 

Assurance of Pardon 

When we come before God in humility and honesty, God draws near to us with forgiveness and renewed blessing. 

Thanks be to God!
 

Passing the Peace
 

Hymn:  625  Seek ye first

 

Scripture:
Responsive Psalm: 1  p 842
James 4: 3, 7-8  p 1884
Mark 9 : 30-37 p 1569 

  

Sermon:  Submit to God

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines submit, in these words:   to yield oneself to the authority or will of another : to surrender.  It also defines it as:  to defer to, or consent to, abide by the opinion or authority of another. 

In our world, or our culture, we don’t always see that to submit or to be submissive is a good thing.  It all depends on what or whom to which you are submitting.   

We know of how devastating it is when people submit themselves to a partner or leader who makes impossible demands on them, and most often is abusive.  It is never good to submit to someone who will harm us. 

Or we may even know of leaders in congregations who demand that you submit to their understanding of God, usually an understanding in which God is demanding and punitive.   

 

I can understand that when I suggest that we need to submit to the hand of God, that there might be a sense of reluctance.  Some of it is the problem of those examples of the wrong people to submit to, but it is also because we want in small or large ways to maintain control of our own lives.   

We like to be in charge. 

When we submit to God, we will no longer be in charge.  Do we see that as a hinderance, or a freedom? 

If we take this call to submit and base it on what we know of God, the meaning of submission takes on a whole other dimension. 

 

So, first, what do we know about God? 

We know that he loved us so much that he sent Jesus to die for our sins. 

We know that his mercy is great, and he gives us to us when we sin, so that he can grant us grace and forgiveness. 

We know that God wants us to submit to his blessing, and that he wants to shower us with good things. 

 

When we look at it from that perspective, submission to God is something that we willingly undertake.   

Well, okay, it might be a little bit more complicated than that.  Maybe it would be more accurate to say, “we might be willing”.   

We start by putting our focus on God.  God is not an abstract idea, but the One who walks with us every day, who talks with us, guides our footsteps and if need be, carries us.   

 

This life of submission that we give to God is most definitely about living in his blessing; but also, about sharing his blessing.  It is a submission to a life lived in a calling to share grace, love, mercy, forgiveness and salvation with others.  It is a life lived in caring for others when they stumble and fall.  It is a life lived in such a way that it points to God shining in us and through us.  

More than that it is a life through which we are servants, like Jesus was a servant.  That means putting ourselves and our desires aside. 

 

Today’s lesson from James points out that the life submitted to God, is lived in relationship with God.  In that relationship God shares his wisdom and guides us in the way of living a practical life.   

The commentators on James agree that wisdom is always a practical gift and that it leads to a life that is lived in the purity of faith.  Perhaps that is better described as a life lived in honesty of faith.  What we believe, and whom we serve is seen in the ways we live.   

The wisdom directed life is filled with peace, and one through which we share peace. 

 

The wisdom directed life is filled with gentleness.  God comes alongside us and lifts us up.  Therefore, when we come alongside others, we lift them up.  No judgement, no lectures, just a hand up and encouraging words as we walk with them into knowing God’s grace more fully.    

 

The wisdom directed life is willing to yield to God’s correction when we ourselves stumble.  Then, when we know what mercy feels like, we are eager to extend it to one another.   

Most of all, the wisdom directed life changes our excessive desires as we learn how to submit and learn how to pray properly.  

  

James calls on us to grow in nearness to God and to desire every good gift as we centre our lives in good works. 

In the letter from James, we are reminded that in this life we will be inspired to walk humbly with God, allowing God to live in us and work through us. 

The Psalm shows us what walking humbly with God will look like. 

It begins with a choice of two pathways.  The path of the righteous or the path of the wicked. 

When we choose the path of the righteous, we choose the path of the one who is blessed by God. 

On that path we will understand the sense that we are walking in the right direction.  We will know that we are doing the things that God asks of us.   

When we walk that path, we will know deep contentment and peace of mind.   

 

I recently read a novel about choosing the life you want to live.  The character tried on various versions of her life, and thought she was going to settle on a version in which she was married to a kind, generous, loving man and had an adorable impish daughter.  She was teaching philosophy at university and reveled in being able to share her knowledge of her favorite philosophers.   

She often thought it seemed like the perfect life.  She dreamed about staying in that life. 

Yet there was a sense that something was missing.  She didn’t know what it was, until one day a chance encounter at a nursing home changed her vision about what a meaningful and fulfilled life was all about. 

She recognized a neighbour from her real life, and he didn’t know her.  He didn’t know the many chats they had.  He didn’t know how she helped him with chores and brought his groceries.  He was living in care because he had no one to help him. 

In that encounter she discovered that what was important to her in living, in really living, was to be able to help others.  When she helped others, it gave her a sense of purpose. 

 

In the end, she made the choice to go back to her real life, and in it to make sure that she focused on developing real relationships with people, whom she could help and who also helped her.   

From a Christian perspective we would see God at the centre of all those relationships.   

When we look at it that way, we see that our relationship with God is at the heart of the relationships we have with others.  How are we going to be Jesus for them? 

Being Jesus for others is the kind of life that we live, when we are submitted to God. 

But we also know that we are never perfectly submitted to God.  Sometimes our own desires get in the way.  Sometimes, even when we think we are walking with Jesus, our own ambitions and desires get in the way. 

We see the disciples walking with Jesus, and Jesus is teaching them along the way when the brothers John and James get into an argument about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God.   

When our desires interfere with our walk of submission with God, is when we want to be noticed and recognized for what we do.  We fail to remember that what we do is in obedience to God.  We fail to realize that in the gifts and skills we share with others, God is at work in us.   

We are reminded that the Kingdom of God is constructed differently than any human reign could ever be.  Whereas human leaders like to surround themselves with those who prop them up and do what they want; those very people whose loyalty they seek are also seeking what they can get out of the relationship.  The “What’s In It For Me” lifestyle flows two ways and in the end, never works for either party. 

In the Kingdom of God, we are given everything that God has, and called to freely give away what we have been given.  Then the surprising truth is shown to us, as what we give away keeps being replenished and in fact overflows in our lives.  There is joy, and hope, and satisfaction to be found in the life that is submitted to God.   

In Mark,  James, John, and the other disciples who seek recognition, are reminded that those who are submitted to God are the ones who are servants.  They are reminded that those who are servants are the ones who are honored above all.   

Those who submit themselves to God are servants of all.  Those who submit themselves to God welcome everyone whom God is seeking to bless. 

When we embrace that truth, it changes our lives.  

Submitting to God is to be blessed.  Those blessings overflow through us, because we are blessed in order to be a blessing.  Being a blessing increases our blessedness.  The cycle is never ending.  

So let us in all that we do choose the path of the righteous, the path that fills us with joy and purpose and the path that increases our blessing again and again.   

Let us make the choice to submit to God, and see how God fills our lives with freedom, love, joy, peace, hope, and purpose.   

Amen 

 

Hymn:  626  Lord of all power

 

Scripture teaches that God’s Wisdom is present and active in our lives when we open our hands to the poor, and reach out our hands to the needy. Jesus calls his disciples to this same generosity. Let us give out of this same generous wisdom—a wisdom that seeks a presence and purpose in our lives on behalf of all.   Your offering will now be presented. 

Offering and Doxology 830

Offertory Prayer
You O God are the generous one, full of mercy and goodness for your creation.  Send your wisdom with these gifts,  that they may reach those who need your love and welcome.
Bring about a harvest of goodness in our giving and living that we may reach those who need your love and welcome.   Amen. 

  

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession 

We are gathered in worship, but also to tune our thoughts, our words and our actions and align them with the greatness of your heart.  We are in awe of your deeper purposes, and long to live more fully in them.    

Today as we submit to your deeper purposes we give you our hearts and trust that you will hold them and send them forth.   

We sense your beckoning O God and willingly respond to plead on the behalf of others.  You alone know the specific needs of those for whom we pray this day.   

Therefore guide our prayers and where our words fail us, we trust you to generate the response that is most needed.  

JOYS 

 

 

 

CONCERNS
Missing Girl, Burns Lake 

 

 

 

 

 

WORLD
Ukraine/Russia 

Israel/Middle East 

 

 

 

 

We pray also for ourselves, asking that you fill our lives with your mercy, and our days with evidence of your grace shared with others.  Let our compassion always be active, and our hearts sensitive to your calling. 

Call us as your children to always care for one another in prayer and in action, living as Jesus lived and praying as Jesus prayed, saying: 

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen 

 

Hymn:  637  Take my life and let it be

Benediction  

Go in confidence and peace, joyfully serving the Lord who walks with you. Bring hope to the hopeless, joy to those who sorrow, peace to the afflicted. Be true witnesses to the love of God through Jesus Christ. AMEN. 

Blessing Song:  Go now in peace

Go now in peace. Never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
Public Domain 

3 Fold Amen