GET INTO THE STUDY 5 minutes DISCUSS: Draw attention to the picture on PSG page 112 and ask Question 1: What do you think about selfies? SESSION 3 A PRAYER OF SURRENDER GUIDE: Refer group members to the author s definition of a selfie in The Bible Meets Life on PSG page 113. The word fits our culture perfectly. We have become a selfie culture that caters to a self-centered life. SAY: It comes as a surprise to many people from the selfie generation that to follow Jesus means we have to give up our selfish desires and seek first God s kingdom (Matt. 6:33). GUIDE: Introduce The Point on PSG page 113: Approach prayer with humble submission to the will of God. PRAY: Begin the Bible study with prayer. Ask God to teach us to make it our priority to pray for God s will to be done. The Point Approach prayer with humble submission to the will of God. The Bible Meets Life Anyone who has ever helped raise a child knows it s sometimes difficult to explain the reason why the child must do something or can t have something. Children often don t ask for what it best for them, but they must learn to trust the parent or adult. As we come to God with our requests, we must trust Him also. As we pray, we surrender our requests to His will. The Passages Matthew 6:10-11a; James 4:6-10,13-17 The Setting Jesus gave His disciples a model to guide them as they prayed. Using the model, He taught them to honor God s name as holy. Then He instructed them to surrender their lives to God. James also instructed Christians on the meaning of surrender. In his epistle, he addressed the need for believers to give their lives to God with humility. Also, he insisted God s people should give themselves to doing His will as their first priority. 112 Session 3
Matthew 6:10-11a 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done 11a on earth as it is in heaven. KEY WORD: Your kingdom (Matt. 6:10) The eternal community in which God rules as king with complete authority over His people who have received His gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Verse 10. Honoring the Lord when we pray opens the door for surrendering to Him. In the Model Prayer Jesus gave to His disciples, He showed us the path from praise to submission as we approach our Father. 1 Jesus taught us to honor the Lord s name as holy when we pray (6:9). Then He taught us how to move from honor to surrender. Such a step becomes necessary in light of God s kingdom. When we think about a kingdom, images of a castle with walls around it might come to mind. But the kingdom of God doesn t exist in that form. It can t be found on a map, and it hasn t been shaped by political or military power. His kingdom consists of relationships, not territories. For that reason, it s a kingdom without borders. It s composed everywhere of people who have given their lives to the Lord. Because it s formed by relationships with Him, it s a kingdom that has no end. In His eternal kingdom, He possesses complete authority and exercises unending power. (See Dan. 7:14-27.) When we invite Christ into our lives, we become citizens of His kingdom. Life as a kingdom citizen is filled with joy and fulfillment. Our joy comes from a growing relationship with Him that s characterized by redemption and forgiveness (Col. 1:13-14). Our fulfillment grows as we embrace the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) and reach out to others so they can experience kingdom citizenship by God s gift of eternal life through Christ. Jesus intends for us to grow in Him as kingdom citizens and to make Him our highest priority. He knows that as we strive to live out His intention, we will face a serious temptation. We ll be tempted to shift our attention to building our own kingdoms. If we re not careful, we ll find ourselves directing our energy and resources toward personal kingdoms and the agendas related to them. When we give in to that temptation, we ll neglect God s kingdom. In due time, we may ignore it altogether. STUDY THE BIBLE Matthew 6:10-11a 10 minutes SUMMARIZE: Before reading the passage, refer to The Bible Meets Life and The Setting on page 112 to establish the context of the passage. READ: Read Matthew 6:10-11a. GUIDE: Use the KEY WORDS (PSG, p. 114) to explain what Jesus meant when He used the phrase Your kingdom. Commentary 1 to provide further explanation to the implications of the kingdom of God: The image that usually comes to mind when we hear the term kingdom includes medieval castles with walls around them. When you become a Christian, you become a kingdom citizen. Jesus intends for us to grow in Him as kingdom citizens and to make Him our highest priority. SUGGESTED USE WEEK OF OCTOBER 28 113
THE POINT Approach prayer with humble submission to the will of God. GUIDE: Refer group members to PSG page 114 to the following statement: The kingdom of God and the will of God sum up everything that relates to prayer. Consider two aspects of prayer: 1. Those who lack power offer their prayers to the One who has all power. It is an appeal to God who rules His kingdom. 2. Prayer is often a plea for God to make some kind of change. SAY: When we pray for His kingdom to come and His will to be done, we are intentionally surrendering our desires and self-interests to the powerful kingdom of God and to His plans. It is impossible to pray deeply until we surrender to the lordship of Christ and the rule of God. Commentary 2 on this page and page 115 to explain the phrase Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven: We surrender ourselves to Him when we pray so we can do His will. We surrender to Him so His will can be accomplished on earth just like it s done in heaven. 114 Session 3 In a way, the kingdom of God came to earth when the Messiah arrived in Bethlehem. During Jesus earthly ministry, God s kingdom was within reach for anyone who followed Him. But in another way, God s kingdom has not yet come completely. For example, Jesus instructed His disciples to understand that His kingdom would come when He returned (Matt. 25:31-46). Therefore, His kingdom has already come in Christ, but it s not complete here yet. Between now and the day Jesus returns, kingdom citizens have been challenged to advance and promote the fulfillment of God s kingdom in the world. If we re growing spiritually, we eagerly look forward to it. Our eagerness matches our certainty. We re certain God s kingdom grows every time someone receives Christ. Kingdom citizens devoted to Him allow His reach to be extended through them as they live according to His ways and reach others in His name. Because of that certainty, we make the fulfillment of His kingdom our priority when we come to Him in prayer. 2 Verse 11a. In this portion of Jesus Model Prayer, notice that Jesus didn t stop with a request for God s kingdom to come. He went on to address the priority of doing God s will. He showed us what we need to do if we take the priority of God s kingdom seriously. In no uncertain terms, He directed us to live out the priority of His kingdom by submitting ourselves exclusively to Him and doing nothing less than what He wants. We surrender ourselves to Him when we pray so we can do His will. Jesus gave us a pattern to follow. We surrender to Him so His will can be accomplished on earth just like it s done in heaven. We ve already encountered heaven in the Model Prayer Jesus has given to us. It s God s home, and it s our home too if we belong to Him. The mere idea of heaven strikes a chord of hope in our hearts. The closer we grow in our walk with Him, the more we look forward to being there. One of the most favorable features about heaven involves the lack of resistance to God s will there. Whatever He wants is done without question or delay. Sin doesn t exist there, and rebellion against God can t be found there either. For these reasons, no impediments to doing God s will ever enter the picture. We can hardly begin to imagine the perfect joy of serving Him in such a splendid environment. Pondering it makes us look forward even more to being in heaven one day.
But we re not in heaven yet. We live in a world in which sin slows us down and trips us up as we try to carry out the Lord s directives. Just as frustrating is the fact that people around us seem to have little or no interest in God s kingdom. In such a difficult setting, we do our best when we surrender our lives to do His will every time we pray. In doing so, we affirm that we want His will to be accomplished on earth through us in the same way that it s carried out in heaven. When we submit ourselves to doing His will in prayer, His kingdom agenda can be accomplished through us. James 4:6-10 6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 3 Verse 6. James affirmed the need for disciples to surrender to the lordship of Christ with humility. When we examine his instruction in James 4:6-10, we gain a stronger grasp of what it means to surrender to the Lord. James urged followers of Christ to surrender to Him so His kingdom can come through their lives. Granted, surrendering to Him and following through with obedience each day can become a daunting task. At times, living out our surrender to Him can appear to be nothing less than impossible. Even seasoned followers of Christ struggle with surrendering to Him and doing what He wants. We address the struggle by turning to the Lord with humility. When we think about humility, the picture of a servant DISCUSS: Question #2 (PSG, p. 115): What can keep us from surrendering our will to God s will? Alternate: What does it mean for God s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven? TRANSITION: In the next verses, James gave specific instructions to help us surrender our will to the will of God. STUDY THE BIBLE James 4:6-10 10 minutes READ: Ask a group member to read James 4:6-10 Commentary 3 on this page and page 116 to explain the connection between humility and surrender. 115
THE POINT Approach prayer with humble submission to the will of God. LEADER PACK: Display Item 9: Surrender poster and invite group members to consider each of the four ways we can surrender to God. Ask: How can we put each one into practice? Discuss with your group what it looks like to submit to God, resist the Devil, draw near to God, and confess. GUIDE: Refer to the content on PSG pages 116-117 to help group members practice these commands: 1. Submit to God. 2. Resist the devil. 3. Draw near to God. 4. Confess. Commentary 4 to provide further explanation to verse 7 regarding the phrases submit to God and resist the devil. 116 Session 3 bowing before a powerful ruler comes to mind. When we humble ourselves before the Lord, we can count on Him to be gracious to us and give us what we need so we can serve Him effectively. A person filled with pride won t turn to Him. Pride deceives us into believing we don t need any help from God. Humility brings us to our knees in the awareness we can t serve Him without His help. Our expression of humility becomes the opportunity for His kingdom to come through us. 4 Verse 7. The Lord wants to help us so His kingdom can be advanced through us. He wants to give us the grace we need to face the struggles of surrendering to His lordship. As the struggles become greater, so does His grace to us. Therefore, we don t need to resist Him and what He s trying to do in and through us. He s waiting for us to turn to Him and seek His grace so His kingdom can come on earth as it is in heaven. Instead of resisting the grace of God, James taught us that we should resist the manipulation of the devil. He s the predator who s behind every attempt to make us throw up our hands and quit serving the Lord. He s also the one responsible for the lies that would deceive us into turning our backs on the Lord. Resisting the Lord s grace makes us weaker. However, resisting the devil s deceptions releases his grip on us that would prevent us from giving ourselves to Christ and trusting His grace to be sufficient for us. Surrendering to Christ in humble submission opens the floodgate of God s grace in our lives. 5 Verse 8. The certainty of God s grace urges us to nourish a close relationship with Him. However, our natural tendency may be to turn away from Him because of the difficulty of what He wants us to do. With every step we take away from Him, we create more distance between Him and us. The painful consequence of this mistake is that we deny ourselves the opportunity for His power to work through us so we can serve Him well. Because we need His grace in our lives, we re wise when we draw closer to Him. We take a step in that direction when we pray for His kingdom to come on earth. 6 According to James, coming closer to the Lord involves our hands and hearts. Our sin leaves us with filthy hands. If we want the gap between us and Him to close, we must get honest about our sin. In other words, we wash
our hands clean. We re also required to examine our hearts. There we may find that we are trying to serve the Lord and serve our own interests at the same time. Surrendering to Him means ridding our hearts of a desire to build our own kingdoms. Then we can turn our hearts toward the coming of His kingdom on earth. Verse 9. As James appealed to believers to take surrendering to the Lord seriously, he continued to bring up our sin and our attitude toward it. If we take our sin seriously, we begin to see it s a painful matter. Our sin makes us feel dreadfully ashamed of ourselves. In turn, we re seized by a deep sense of agony over the way we ve broken God s heart. Our agony gives way to sorrow that s exhibited in the tears of remorse we shed when we come before Him to confess our sin. No longer do we think of our sin as something funny to laugh at when we think or talk about it. Instead of laughing about it, we find ourselves weeping over it because our hearts are filled with deep regret and repentance. Verse 10. James turned our attention to humility once more. We approach the Lord with humble submission when we acknowledge that we want His kingdom to come on earth. When humility moves us to fall on our faces before Him, He responds by picking us up and putting us back on our feet. Instead of keeping us on the floor, He exalts us so we can be effective in the work involved with the coming of His kingdom. People usually resist surrendering to the Lord in humility. They would rather attempt to lift themselves up. Pride makes them prefer to do it all by themselves. Instead of being exalted by such an effort, they always end up being humbled. By contrast, when we humble ourselves before Him, we can count on Him to exalt us. Nebuchadnezzar serves as an example of humble submission to the Lord in prayer. In his pride, he tried but failed to exalt himself. Then he came humbly to the Lord. In turn, the Lord honored his submission and lifted him up to usefulness (Dan. 4:34-37). Commentary 5 on page 116 to explain the importance of drawing near to God by nourishing a close relationship with God. Commentary 6 on page 116 and this page to provide further explanation to verses 8-9 and our need to confess. Cleanse your hands. Purify your hearts. The painful agony of knowing we have sinned against God and broken His heart. Tears of remorse as we confess our sins. DISCUSS: Question #3 (PSG, p. 117): What are the benefits of surrendering to God? Alternate: What are the consequences of pride in our lives? TRANSITION: In the next verses we will see how we typically live by making our own plans without considering the will of God. 117
THE POINT Approach prayer with humble submission to the will of God. STUDY THE BIBLE James 4:13-17 15 minutes READ: Read or ask a volunteer to read James 4:13-17. GUIDE: Invite group members to share their responses to the quote on PSG page 118: If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. Commentary 7 on this page and page 119 to point out how we normally make plans: We tend to make our plans without any consideration for what the Lord wants us to do. Our ambition drives us get ahead by building our own kingdoms. We have no guarantee that tomorrow will come. We lose sight of the reality that life is short. DISCUSS: Question #4 (PSG, p. 118): How do we balance making our plans and seeking God s will? James 4:13-17 13 Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit. 14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. 15 Instead, you should say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it. 7 Verse 13. In the Model Prayer, Jesus underscored the necessity of surrendering our plans to God s plans. James helped us understand how to put Jesus instruction to work in our daily routines. He brought up a common mistake Christians make as we face the opportunities and challenges of each day. We tend to make our plans without any consideration of what the Lord wants us to do. Our plans for the days ahead unfold with a view toward advancing our kingdoms. When we re in that frame of mind, we think only about what we want to do, and we plan accordingly. Like God s people who lived in the days of the New Testament, we favor getting ahead. That ambition drives us to do what s necessary to earn more money and put away greater funds for the future. In that way, we re building our own kingdom without any concern about His will being done through us. Verse 14. When we live in that frame of mind, we make two mistakes. First, we have no guarantee that tomorrow will come. Planning for the future with the Lord s direction in mind enables us to trust Him to give us tomorrow if He sees fit to provide it for us. When we plan without any concern for His kingdom, we begin to deceive ourselves into assuming that tomorrow will be guaranteed. 118 Session 3
Second, we fail to account for the time we ll be given to live. When we make our plans without thinking of His will for us in keeping with His kingdom, we let ourselves begin to believe we ll live for a long time. In reality, our lives last about as long as the vapor of our breath on a cold day. Our lives can be over in a flash, and we never know when the last day for us will come. It could be today, or it could be next week or next year. We re foolish if we overlook the frailty of our lives. 8 Verse 15. Only the Lord knows when the time will be right to call us home to heaven. For that reason, wise believers take Him into account in planning each day. Our daily plans are submitted to His will because doing His plan matters most of all. For that reason, surrendering our plans to Him reflects His wisdom at work in us. When we surrender to His will as we plan, we place each day in His hands. We trust Him to prepare us for it, to give us what we need in it, and to see Him at work through it. We don t know what lies ahead for us at the breaking of each day. However, we re certain that He s fully aware of the challenges we ll face and the opportunities we can embrace as the day unfolds before us. In turn, we plan our day and our lives under His leadership so His will can be done through us. Our desire to do His will on earth as it is in heaven drives our plans and shapes our days. Verse 16. When we make the Lord s will our first consideration in developing our plans, we show we re growing as the Lord s disciples. However, when we plan our days without surrendering to the Lord and what He wants, we run the risk of turning into braggarts. When we give no thought to submitting our plans to His plans for us, we grow more self-centered. Eventually, we think about nothing but what we want and exclude the Lord completely. Every time we succeed, our egos become more bloated. That s when we re tempted to boast about our accomplishments. Patting ourselves on the back becomes the order of the day, and over time it fosters an arrogant spirit that grows with each successful plan. When our arrogance consumes us, our boasting grows more audacious. In the Lord s eyes, arrogant bragging is evil. It s evil because we re focused on the success of our plans and disregard what God wants us to do. Our eagerness to do what we want takes supremacy over our willingness to do God s will. SAY: Wise believers take God into account in planning each day. Our daily plans are submitted to His will because doing His plan matters most of all. Commentary 8 for further explanation on verses 15-16: Only the Lord knows when the time will be right to call us to heaven. When we surrender to His will as we plan, we place each day in His hands. When we plan our days without surrendering to the Lord, we run the risk of turning into braggarts. OPTIONAL ACTIVITY: Display flags or images of flags (consider using the U.S. flag, your state flag and flags of sports teams your group members will identify with). Then show a white flag and ask, What does this represent? Flags usually produce a sense of pride or loyalty; but the white flag has the negative connotation of surrender. Say: Sometimes surrendering our pride and surrendering the right to do things my way are the best options. Invite learners to suggest times when this might be true. 119
THE POINT Approach prayer with humble submission to the will of God. Commentary 9 to explain the difference between sins of commission and sins of omission. DISCUSS: Question #5 (PSG, p. 120): How does an awareness of the brevity of life help us to live surrendered to God s will? Alternate: When have you discovered God s plans are always better than yours? 9 Verse 17. James reminded us that we should be guided by what s good when we make our plans. What s good is the coming of God s kingdom and our willingness to be submissive to His will for us. Surrendering our plans to Him enables us to accomplish His kingdom plan for us each day. When we refuse to give any consideration to what God wants, we sin against Him. We usually think about sin as something we do that s wrong in God s eyes. Indeed, we sin against God when we decide to take actions that reflect rebellion against Him. We refer to such actions of rebellion as sins of commission. For example, we commit sins of commission when we tell lies or steal from others. But sin can also involve what we decide not to do. When we refuse to do what s good, we sin against God too. It s called a sin of omission. When we know that we should surrender to His will but we ignore Him anyway, we sin against Him. DO: Encourage group members to take a few minutes to complete and share responses to the activity titled Pride Comes Before The Fall on PSG page 120. 120 Session 3
LIVE IT OUT How will the truths of this passage affect your prayer life? > > Evaluate. Evaluate the things you pray. Consider if you are more focused on what you want or on what God wants. > > Surrender. Ask God to reveal areas of your life that you have not surrendered to Him. > > Fast. One day a week, add fasting to your prayer life to help you focus on God and break the power of self. LIVE IT OUT 5 minutes GUIDE: Emphasize The Point: Approach prayer with humble submission to the will of God. REVIEW: Review Live It Out (PSG, p. 121); (see text to the left). Encourage each group member to follow through this week with at least one of the applications. WRAP IT UP GUIDE: Remind group members that it is so important as followers of Jesus to continually submit our lives and our plans to God. PRAY: Father, help us to seek Your will first in every area of our lives. Grow with other group leaders at the Groups Ministry blog. LifeWay.com/GroupMinistry 121