Becoming Teachable in Our Sub-Mission to Christ and His Body - Justin Wadel

I love zeal, and I'm all for zealous young people and zealous Christians. And zeal that's teachable has a lot of potential. Our desire to be disciples of Jesus and citizens of His kingdom and participants in His greater mission. That's what submission is all about.

It's become a very misused word. I think we all know that, but submission is just referring to a greater mission. Whenever we are in submission to something or someone, we're behind the greater mission that they are on. Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.

We were blessed to have a couple of visiting speakers come in recently. And first of all, we had Brother Bryant Martin was here, and he spoke on cultivating kingdom communities of faithful practice and the ways that having kingdom-focused church communities can impact the world around us. He called us in this message to cultivate communities of faithful practice under the rule of King Jesus, engaging and serving people. How, as a faithful community, if we're building, if we're working at building faithful communities of kingdom practice, how that is then going to impact the world. And hopefully, we're all involved in that at some level, engaging and serving people through personal relationships and one-on-one interaction, calling them to come and participate in this living body of disciples, thereby being a proclamation of the kingdom of God on earth.

And the idea of fellowship was just really sprinkled in throughout that message.

The importance of one another, the importance of being together, the importance of spending time together as a church body, and then bringing others into that. And then following that up, Brother Chester Weaver was here last Sunday, and he shared a message on koinonia, which is a Greek word that refers to concepts such as fellowship and sharing and relationships. And he highlighted the need for us to be childlike in our relationships with one another instead of using, I think, what he called power play methods to control and manipulate.

And he spoke about forgiveness in this sense. And if you listen to his message, I don't think you'll ever read Matthew chapter 18 quite the same again. I know I won't. But again, his message dealt very well with maybe a little different aspect of fellowship. So I'm going to encourage everyone, if you haven't already, to find these messages and listen to them either on a website or on the channel once they're on, because, like I said, they deal with the subject of fellowship better than I could have done.

And because I want to advocate that building communities where fellowship is a high priority and love and forgiveness for one another in our relationships is essential. And I want to be an advocate of that. So this morning, I want to talk about becoming teachable in our submission to Christ and His body.

Okay? Becoming teachable in our submission to Christ and His body. And before we begin, I just want us all to pause for a minute and reflect back over the year 2020, which is definitely going to go down in history. And think about the experiences that you've had. Maybe there were tests and trials. You'll probably think about how the current pandemic has affected or is affecting you with all the changes in society and possibly in your own life. And as you reflect on that, just for a minute, reflect on what all has happened over the past year from the beginning of this year until now. This year is almost over. Think about what you've learned, what you've learned from these experiences that maybe they weren't great earth-shaking experiences, but in a year's time, we all go through something or another.

Think about what you've learned. What have you been taught about yourself? Or what about the world? What have you been taught about the world? Or what have you been taught about God's kingdom? Did you allow the experiences in your life this year to become stepping stones or stumbling blocks? Has your faith in God's goodness and your love for King Jesus and His church been expanded, or have you found yourself stepping back in fear and distrust of others, isolation, and what God is trying to accomplish in your life? Like Bill right talked about, sometimes the things that come into our life don't seem like good experiences, don't seem like they could come from a good Father who cares for us, but they really are.

I'll let each of you and myself work out those questions in our own hearts. And I realize that sometimes it's hard to measure growth. It's hard to evaluate our responses as we go through experiences. Sometimes as we look back, it's hard to know, did I really learn something through that? Did I really change? Have I become better? Sometimes it takes a while to realize that. And that's why I'm going to say it's very important to be part of discipleship and accountability groups where we can actually speak into each other's lives and help each other kind of see where we're at and evaluate where we're at and how we've changed or grown. And we can help one another in that and encourage one another in that.

So the purpose of this message is to inspire us to be teachable and to learn submission, especially in regard to our relationships with one another and our desire to be disciples of Jesus and citizens of His kingdom and participants in His greater mission. That's what submission is all about. It's become a very misused word. I think we all know that, but submission is just referring to a greater mission. Whenever we are in submission to something or someone, we're behind the greater mission that they are on or that they are putting out. We are getting behind that. And so I want to inspire us on that and how this thing of being teachable is such a huge part of this and something that I'm trying to grasp and learn.

Just an anonymous quote I have here: "A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice, a practitioner. Disciples of Jesus are people who do not just profess certain views as their own, but apply their growing understanding of life in the kingdom of heaven to every aspect of their life on earth."

And I'm going to read James chapter 3. You can or don't have to turn there. I'm going to start at verse 13 in James chapter 3. "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.

For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace."

So this is telling us that the wisdom that is from above is it's pure, it's peaceable, it's gentle, it's willing to yield, it's full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy.

Another translation, instead of saying willing to yield, says open to reason. So we could rephrase this to say that the wisdom that pertains to God and His kingdom is teachable and submissive, along with the other attributes listed here.

There is another kind of wisdom that James talks about there, and it's rooted in envy and selfish ambition, and the end result is confusion and every evil thing. So mark it down. Where you see strife and confusion happening in churches or in communities, wherever it's at, there's a wrong kind of wisdom going on, not the wisdom that we want to promote. And this really stood out to me here again when I was reading this, that there's only two kinds of wisdom, and we're either pursuing the one or the other. And I'm just going to encourage us to seek the wisdom that is from heaven, the wisdom that is from God. And this wisdom demands a change in our own lives.

It demands a change of attitude, a change of heart. And just since we're talking about being teachable, that is part of this wisdom. This wisdom requires a teachable heart and a teachable attitude.

William Law said, "This and this alone is Christianity, a universal holiness in every part of life, a heavenly wisdom in all our actions, not conforming to the spirit and temper of the world, but turning all worldly enjoyments into means of piety and devotion to God."

So again, what we are conforming our actions to is going to tell what kind of wisdom is driving us. Proverbs 1:7 out of the Septuagint says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and there is good understanding in all who practice it, and godliness toward God is the beginning of perception. But the ungodly or the fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Hear, my son and daughter, the instruction of your father, and do not reject the law of your mother, for you will receive a crown of grace on your head and a gold chain around your neck." Beautiful verses. You have the fear of God directly connected with wisdom, which is then directly connected with receiving instruction and understanding life.

It's got to start with the fear of God, and that brings us to wisdom, which then is going to bring us to a good understanding of life and how we need to live. And this whole thing is just always connected. If you go through Proverbs, wisdom is always connected with the ability and the desire to receive instruction. Just there's always that connection there. I really struggled with these concepts as a young person and even into my early adult years. So this gets really actually personal with me.

I was very independent and felt like my parents' advice and instruction was negotiable, and my willingness to submit to the older men at church was conditioned basically to how they treated me. If I felt like they liked me or commended me, then I could take a little bit of their advice and instruction, but it was very conditional. And I remember very well the confusion and frustration I often felt as a result of this pride and self-sufficiency that I struggled with or wrestled with. And fortunately, God allowed some tough experiences in my own life to help me see through that and help me turn in the right direction. But I often wonder, many times I wonder, I'm 40 years old.

I turned 40 this year. That's one thing that I can look back on this year, and I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but I turned 40. And I often look back and I say, "If I, as a young person, would have got this concept, this thing of receiving instruction, this thing of being teachable, this thing of listening to advice, if I would have got that thing early on as a young person, I wonder where I'd be today."

And I know that I'd be a lot further ahead. If I would have just been willing to listen and be submissive to the older people, whether I always had a cause, I'm sure there was usually a reason I could point out why I shouldn't listen to this person or that person and why it just didn't make sense and whatever. I put the responsibility on myself.

So young people, I'm encouraging each of you to own these principles in your life and responses. And I know that the reason young people, like I said, so often battle these concepts is because of bad examples around them and the negative views towards submission and being teachable. But hopefully, here in this congregation, that isn't the case.

And I love it when I see young people that are locked into the discussions that are going on and the decisions that we're making. And I value that input. That's something I really value in my own life and in the life of this congregation. I feel like the input of the young people is so valuable. And I would love to see us be a church that is able to close the gap that is often so noticeable between the youth and the adults.

And this message is actually putting that inspiration into me to be more active in that. And I feel like we're working at it. I feel like we don't have a big youth group. We don't have a lot of youth here. But if we can get this in place while we're small, I feel like it'll do a lot to help us in the future. All right. So what does it look like to be teachable?

How does this work out in practical ways in our relationships with one another? I think one of the best ways is how we go about giving and receiving advice and input. And you could put the word counsel there. And I know counsel kind of has a bad rap for whatever reason. How do we go about receiving and giving advice and input? Let's read some more verses in Proverbs. Proverbs 8:B to 10, "Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

Give the opportunity or advice to a wise man, and he will be wiser. Instruct a righteous man, and he shall continue to receive it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the counsel of saints is understanding."

Proverbs 23:12, "Give your heart to instruction and prepare your ears for words of perception or knowledge."

Proverbs 11:12, "Those for whom there is no leadership fall like leaves, but there is salvation in much counsel." We see in these verses that a wise man loves advice, all right? And he even loves reproof or correction. Can you imagine that?

And when a wise man receives advice or correction, he becomes wiser because he accepts it and he learns from it instead of reacting to it and pushing it away and saying, "What right do you have to come speak to me and to correct something about me in my life?" No, a wise man actually invites that and accepts it and learns from it. And then to expand on this, what about the counsel of the saints?

What's it referring to there? What about the counsel of leadership? What's that all about? When I need advice because of a situation that I'm in, because I have a problem, because I have a big decision to make, who do I go to? What do I do?

How do I get advice? How do I get counsel? Well, we have a couple of things in Scripture that would definitely apply. First of all, we have the avenue of prayer. And James tells us to ask God for wisdom when we need it. So that's a good place to start, prayer.

Those of us who are married can get advice from our spouse. Get advice from your spouse. A lot of times they see things in a little different way than what you might. You could seek out an older brother or sister that you really trust and get their advice.

And again, trust is the key there. Trust is a huge thing in this. And I'm going to say that's a very good approach, and it is biblical for the older to teach the younger. So I would highly encourage that kind of interaction. Younger, go to the older. They have experience. They have wisdom. Seek out their advice and their wisdom. But I think sometimes it's good to go beyond the one-on-one, although there's nothing wrong with that. And there are at least two specific ways to do that, and I'm going to get really practical here. The one place is our monthly brothers meeting.

And this is a time when all the brothers, usually from about age 18 and up, get together and we discuss different topics. We plan church events, make decisions, and in general, discuss church business for the most part. And one thing that we usually do at these meetings is we go around the circle if we're sitting in a circle, a square, whatever, and everyone has an opportunity to bring up whatever. If they have a concern, if they have an idea, if they have a complaint, there's an opportunity to do that. And I've often wondered as we're going around that circle, and usually there's not much; people don't have much to say. How many of us have some kind of big decision we're wrestling with or have a problem we're working through and trying to figure out how to approach it or have a decision to make that we're not quite sure which way to go?

Or maybe we even have a great idea for the church. Maybe we even have a great idea of how we can better reach out or something like that. But we hesitate to bring it up for whatever reason. We don't want to take everyone's time, or no one really wants to hear me talk, or no one wants to hear my problem, whatever it is. We don't bring it up. We hesitate at least to bring it up.

In 1 Peter, we read about servants submitting to their masters and wives submitting to their own husbands, and the husbands in turn giving honor to the wives. And then Peter says, "Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another. Love as brothers.

Be tenderhearted. Be courteous. Not returning evil for evil, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing." This may be slightly out of context, but right away my mind was drawn to that passage when I was thinking about this. Because if we really do love one another, and if we really are compassionate and tenderhearted and courteous like we're supposed to be, then brothers meeting, the time we're all together as brothers, that should be a great time to hear from one another and get counsel from one another. And I'm not saying that this never happens. It actually does. But I want to encourage more of it. This is a great way to practice being teachable and learning submission.

And also, I think just a great way to build trust in one another. When we come into a time like that and all the brothers are sitting there and I share my problem with everyone, I think someone was saying something about being vulnerable earlier this morning, but you become vulnerable. And like 1 Peter says, if we really do have that heart of compassion for one another, that heart of wanting the other's best, you're going to get some good advice. You're going to get some good input. And in the end, you may still have to make your decision. But I think that's just a great, great place to get counsel and advice.

Okay. And then the other way to receive counsel is from the leadership of the congregation. Now, in this congregation, we choose the elders.

And those elders are given the responsibility to lead the congregation by example and by looking out for the spiritual well-being of each person in the congregation, along with other responsibilities. An elder is called to be hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled.

And again, I realize that leadership has so often been abused and not biblical. But if qualified leadership is in place, and if the elders are looking out for the good of each person, then again, what a great place to go to for counsel and encouragement from the leadership. And I think we all know that, and I think that's in place here. But I'm just wanting to encourage these kinds of ways of becoming teachable, of opening ourselves up to learn from others. And it doesn't have to be the leadership. I'm not saying that. But the leadership is in place, and the Bible says that very clear, that they're in place to look out for the well-being, the spiritual well-being.

They look out for your souls. So a good place to get counsel. The verse that we read there in Proverbs, it's a verse I'd never noticed before, says that those for whom there is no leadership fall like leaves. And I would take this to be referring to those who don't want leadership. Okay? They don't want anyone in place as whatever you want to call it, an authority or something that's there to watch out for you, something that's there to help guide you, something that's there to help give you direction. They don't want that. So those for whom there is no leadership, it says they fall like leaves. And you just get that picture in your mind of leaves falling off a tree, and they just kind of blow around in the wind in some land over here and some land over there.

And there's really no purpose.

It's a sad picture. But there is salvation in much counsel. So when we accept leadership and their counsel, and if we accept advice or even correction from a brother or sister on a one-to-one basis, and we're willing to receive that and learn from it, he says there is much salvation in that. And I take that to mean that we will be saved a lot of trouble and a lot of heartache. And I can testify to that from the perspective of being a young person who didn't really like this. And when you do go to someone for advice or encouragement, as Proverbs says, "Give your heart to instruction and prepare your ears for words of perception."

So often when we go and ask for advice, and we are only willing to hear what suits our agenda, but what if we get advice that isn't quite what we wanted to hear? What if we're told that looking at the situation, it seems like it'd be better if you did this, and we were hoping to do that? Then what? How willing are we to listen and follow good counsel? When we come into that, and we want advice, and we want encouragement, and we hear what we don't want to hear, how do we take that? How do we respond? And I'm going to say, especially if enough people are saying the same thing, how willing am I to submit to the majority, even when I feel very strongly that this is the way I see it best?

And I'm like that. You guys that know me really good know that I'm like that. When I feel pretty strong about something, I tend to really get on a hobby horse about it. But I want to learn to submit to other people's ideas and advice. And again, I'll say that the way we respond in these kinds of situations will prove whether or not we really understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

In conclusion, I would like to read from Philippians 2, "Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for your own interests, but also for the interests of others." Let this mind, okay? Now he's going to back this up. Here's the kind of mind that we're supposed to have. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

I read this so often, and yet I feel like I still miss the power that is there. So Jesus came to earth. He demonstrated to us what it means to be in a submission to a greater mission. He chose to humble himself to the point of death in order to fulfill the mission to save mankind. And because of his submission and obedience, God highly exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name.

And now, as we've just went through in Bill Sunday School, we have a mission. I'm going to say Jesus has a mission, and he's calling us to be in submission to his greater mission of bringing the kingdom of God to earth. Are we willing to humble ourselves, as Jesus did, and be obedient and teachable as we work together to fulfill our mission on the earth? May God bless us as we endeavor to do that.

Yeah, I do want to clarify that in this congregation, we don't micromanage.

We just don't work that way. We don't expect everyone, anytime they have a little decision to make, to come and get advice, and then you got to follow that advice. I'm not talking about that at all. We don't operate that way. And usually, in the end, even with advice and counsel, a lot of times when it comes down to it, we still have to make our decision. We still have to kind of take what we hear. Hopefully, we're praying about it. But listen to the counsel is what I'm saying. That's so huge to get counsel and really take that to heart because we often have our preconceived ideas already of what we really want to do.

And we kind of want to get some advice to hopefully confirm what we want to do, but it doesn't always happen that way.

So usually, we still have to make the decision. At the end of the day, we still have to choose.