2 Corinthians 9:13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others,

When was the last time we heard a sermon on submission? It is so long ago for me that it has faded into my memory like a figment of the imagination. I am not even sure what was said.

Allow me at this moment to confess that I have trust issues. That comes from a lengthy history of those that failed me. From parents who did not communicate, to a brother who hated my very existence to someone I knew shooting me. It has been one event after another in a long line of lessons about who not to trust.

Submission doesn’t come easy for me. Who can I trust? The obvious answer here is God and God alone. How could I learn to trust a God I did not know? The simple answer is that He proved Himself worthy. Doing that for someone with major trust issues wasn’t easy, but He did just that.

Extraordinary feats take supernatural effort. God did not prove Himself worthy of my trust in the natural sense. He did not get my attention through the agency of man. He did it Himself.

I could list a series of events that God Himself showed up in the moment to prove Himself to me. The danger in doing that is in the risk that it would sound fake, a lie to elevate my own image. Glorifying God does not work that way. He shows Himself to each of us in a way we can accept Him, believe Him and trust Him.

One person I do trust had a miracle story so impressive that it made the national news and became a movie. Hundreds of witnesses knew his story at the time and saw a pure miracle in its rawest form. His story did not lead me to trust him. It was his humility.

He never let his fame overshadow his faith in God. Media attention can do that. He stayed focused on the God that saved him.

I still have trust issues. I admit it and I am fully aware of what kind of problems lack of trust can create. I am quick to judge and I struggle with keeping that to myself and not allowing it to hinder the preaching of the gospel. Judgment has no place in the gospel. The grace of God draws the needy to God, not judgment.

John 12:47 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.

We can only follow someone we trust. Submission is the key to following.

Colossians 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,

Nothing encourages us more than to see progress in the right direction. Achievement awards mean more to a child than participation awards. It is not enough to just show up, we want to be used. God understands that better than anyone. When He shows us His will and we acknowledge the challenge to join Him, we are encouraged to have been chosen.

Isaiah 49:7 Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

This Word of prophecy is all about His chosen. Despised by the ruling class, abhorred by all, and nothing more than a slave in their eyes, a thing to be abused, that was all of us. But then we were chosen and our redeemer put us first and ignored the ruling class.

Unlike the playground pick, God doesn’t choose us because we are the most talented, the biggest, fastest, or strongest. He chose us because we are the most pliable.

Jeremiah 10:9 Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men.

We are the raw material that has no shape or form but in the hands of the Master Craftsman, we become a thing of beauty and worth. God is that craftsman. When we mature in the knowledge of the mystery of Christ we are used by God as tools in His hands to shape the next generation.

The secret to that is to surrender to the Master. His hands do the work.

Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

The secret to that mystery is to surrender our will to His.

The only way to discover His will is in a close personal relationship with the Master.

2 Corinthians 9:13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others,

Our participation award is our relationship with Him.