ROMANS: The Good of Submission

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You describe yourself as the great I am.

You say I am.

When you told Moses to go do that which seemed and felt and was humanly impossible, and he said, Who shall I tell him sent me?

You said, Tell him I am sent you.

The present indicative, the God who always is, who's never out of date, out of touch, uh, or out of style.

You tell him, I am.

And so, Lord, we've come to bow down before the greatness of who you are.

To open up your word and say, Speak, Lord, your servants are listening.

Give us understanding so we can be liberated from desperation and demonstration.

We can be delivered from trying to get from people what we can only find in God.

We're so tired of that.

We're so tired of walking in the room as a single woman and going, Is my husband in here?

We want to walk in with our head up and say, My God is in here.

My God's here, and that's enough for me.

Until God brings me a husband, this is enough for me.

I don't have to go try to meet my needs.

Because when we try to meet valid needs in invalid ways, the Bible calls that sin.

And so, Lord, give us understanding today from your word.

Liberate us from the smallness of a normal life.

And call us into the bigness of the Christian life today.

We pray and we listen now in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat if you've got a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open it up to Romans chapter 13.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.

I'm on page 948.

And I want to talk to you about something that's burning, been burning hot in me since about Wednesday.

I kind of wish that we had a Wednesday service that I could preach at.

And then Thursday it got even worse.

And then Friday it got even worse.

And then yesterday, my kids were like, Dad, just please go preach, okay?

We don't hear any more about it.

Because it it what I want to talk to you about is that it's one of the biggest needs in our culture, but it's one of the things that our culture understands and adheres to the least, and quite frankly, doesn't want.

And I want to talk to you today about the good of submission.

The good of submission.

You say, well, what do you mean about we're going to talk about being submitted to the authority in your life, and the Bible's going to tell us that there's no authority except that which is instituted by God.

And we'll get to that in just a minute.

But when you kind of uh one good thing about just preaching the Bible as it's written, not just picking topics and finding a verse that has your word in it, but just good preaching.

Remember this good biblical preaching goes with the grain of the Bible.

Where the Bible's sad, the preaching's sad.

Where the Bible's angry, the preaching's angry.

Where the Bible's joyful, the preaching should be joyful.

If you go to a church or you watch somebody on TV that's always smiling or they're always angry, they're not preaching the Bible.

The Bible has more nuances and more movement to it than that.

And this is one of those passages.

So I've just been kind of, ever since we've a couple weeks, uh, Lance preached last week, and so for a couple weeks I've been just like doing Lamas breathing, like because the more I think about what the Bible says about submission to authority, the more I realize that we're we're we're a long way from what the Bible says we ought to be.

And so this past week, my wife's been gone since Thursday morning.

My kids have not had a vegetable since Wednesday.

She does not get back till tomorrow.

So pray for my kids.

They're like, let me get a subway or fried chicken.

What's wrong with that, girls?

Uh but but but but I've just been kind of like I I don't watch a whole lot of TV.

That's not like a spiritual thing.

I just don't find most of it that interesting.

So, but I want to hang out with my kids, and so I watched TV with them this week.

And yesterday I finally had to say, just turn the Disney Channel.

Uh and they're like, What?

It's a Disney Channel.

All the dads on the Disney Channel are buffoons, they don't know what to do.

The kids are in charge.

The kids on the Disney Channel are all super spies or witches or warlocks or whatever, and the dads are just bumbling idiots who don't know anything.

And and and all the kids are are in quest of a relationship.

And for the commercials, they have these Disney Channel bands singing about you and me all night on the dance floor, and I wanted just to shoot my TV.

So I just said, Hey, by the way, and and and I told them in the first service, I might as well tell you.

My kids are like, oh dad, you're against relationships.

No, I'm not.

Just answer me this, riddle me this, Batman.

Uh uh because some one kid came up to me in church and I feel sorry for your daughter.

She can't even date.

Let me tell you something, son.

Don't feel sorry for my daughter, okay?

Let me just ask you a question.

What needs are you gonna meet in my daughter's life that her God and her parents and her future husband aren't gonna meet?

Answer me that.

You sound smart when you open your little disrespecting mouth, but when you meet a man, you're found to be a boy.

Your turn.

And so yesterday, my daughter had a study group come over.

I'm great, I'm I'm a nice guy, but they're all back there in my office, and they kept closing, boys and girls, they kept closing the door.

I go back there, open the door.

A few minutes later, walk by, door's closed, open the door.

Finally, I just propped it up and said, This door stays open.

Oh, wait, wait, this is my house.

You're gonna do what I say in my house.

I don't know how it rolls at your house, but this is how it rolls at Big Daddy's house.

This door stays open.

And I was walking out, one of them said, Have fun.

And I just turned back around and go, hey, if you had any idea what would be fun for me, you wouldn't say that to me.

Now you may talk that way to your dad at your house, but I'll get up in your business here.

Uh uh.

Aren't you like a preacher?

Yeah, I'm not those guys on TV.

It'll be on like conky dong right here.

Uh uh.

So I'm gonna walk out again.

Say something disrespectful and see what happens.

You'll go home with no taste in your mouth.

And my daughter's like, thanks, dad.

Awesome.

I'll be living in this room when I'm 40.

Hey, don't come looking at my kids.

I got two daughters.

And now one of you punk-faced boys come to my house, unless you're gonna answer the question, what exactly needs you think you're gonna meet in my kid's life that her God, her parents, and her future husband aren't gonna meet?

So I told them in the first server, you shouldn't even be dating.

Okay, what grade you're in?

One girl just folded her arm.

Tell you what.

Good luck with that one, whoever marries her.

Let's get to the Bible, huh?

Kind of got awkward there for a minute.

You feel that?

Y'all are like the visitors like, dang, this dude's not in a good mood today.

No, I'm in a great mood.

Romans chapter 13.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

Now I want to pick up in the last verse of chapter 12, verse 21.

Look what it says.

He said, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Now, a lot of people, to give you the context, read Paul's writing to people Christians in Rome.

They read in chapter 12, verse 1, or verse 2, hey, don't be conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed.

And they're thinking, don't be conform to this world.

I don't have to listen to the government or the state authorities or anybody.

I don't have to pay taxes or pay my debts or anything.

And so Paul just kind of just keeps rolling.

He says, Hey, don't overcome evil, don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

How do you overcome evil with good?

By submission.

Chapter 13, verse 1.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except from God.

And those that exist have been instituted by God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authorities, resist what God has appointed.

And those who resist will incur judgment.

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?

Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid.

What's wrong with America is those who do wrong, they're not afraid anymore.

He says, But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.

For the same reason you also pay taxes for the authorities or ministers of God, attending to this very thing.

Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed.

The text kind of falls out in a natural break in three in three sections.

And each section kind of makes a point.

You say, What do you mean?

How do we experience the good of submission?

Because submission is a four-letter word in our culture.

We are all born with this tattooed on the backside of our hearts.

You ain't the boss of me.

And the Bible comes along and says, hey, let's think about this.

First thing the text says to us is how do you experience the good of submission?

Number one, you take sovereignty.

You take God's sovereignty seriously.

You take God's sovereignty.

What do you mean?

I will say this: your practice and my practice of submission to authority is not a reflection of how we feel about that person that's telling us what to do, be it your boss, your teacher, your coach, your stepdad, your stepmom, a prince, a policeman, whoever.

I mean, your submission, uh, your the practice the way you submit to authority is not a reflection of how you feel about that person.

It's a reflection of uh of how you understand God's sovereignty.

You say, what do you mean?

Look at verse 1 again of chapter 13.

He says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God.

And those that exist, the authority that exists has been instituted by God.

You say, Well, I, oh man, mmm, golly.

See, the motivation the Bible says for for obeying the authority that is over you is not some pragmatic pep talk like, hey, your life's gonna be better, or the way you have a civil society is that we kind of do this.

The motivation is do you understand the sovereignty of God?

And no authority exists except that which is instituted by God, which means you have the parents you're supposed to have.

Sometimes my kids look at me like my dad's an alien.

My dad thinks a 16-year-old doesn't need a boyfriend.

Absolutely, I believe that.

Just bring me a bring me an answer to the question I ask, and then we can talk.

But but but the Bible says, hey, here's the deal.

It's not, hey, uh, this is how I feel about this.

It's do you understand who's running the world?

Governments and everything.

Now I've got friends who like to mess with me and give me a hard time.

They know I'm a preacher, and they say to me, Well, you're the most conservative person I know.

And then does that bother you that we refer to you like that?

No, because you say you're the most conservative person we know.

And what I hear is, Neil, you're the rightest person we know.

Well, I'll tell you what, I can't believe, I mean, this day and age, I mean, I don't think you can we can know who's right.

I said, you can only not know who's right because you don't believe absolute truth exists.

But when Jesus said, hey, if you hear these words of mine and put them into practice, you're like a man who builds his house on the rock.

And when all hell breaks loose, your house, your life's gonna stand up.

So I'm eating with some of these sinners not long ago.

We're walking out of a restaurant and somebody has on their back windshield a huge bumper sticker and it says, I heart Obama.

Now, check yourself.

I don't want to hear it.

I feel some of you are like, oh Lord, are you kidding me?

Well, these are my friends, and they're like, hey, hey, what do you think about that, McClendon?

Hey, I'm 49 years old.

You can call me by my first name.

We're not in high school.

Uh McLean, what do you think about that?

Because they just want to go off and impeach Obama and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I just kind of, here's the danger of reading the Bible.

It starts showing up in your everyday life.

They're like, what do you think about that?

I said, well, the issue is not, does this person have the right to be in that office?

About this time, people, other people walking out of the restaurant and they're like, What's going on?

I said, My friends are quizzing me about this bumper sticker.

Yeah, I didn't vote for him.

And I said, the issue is not, does he have the right to be in the office?

The issue, if you believe the Bible, which says that all authority is instituted by God, the real issue is, does God have the right to put him there?

And all of a sudden it got real quiet in the parking lot.

And I just walked to my buddy's car.

I was like, So are you telling me it's God's will that Barack Obama is the president of the United States?

And I said, Let me just quote the Bible to you.

The Bible says in Romans 13, 1, let everyone be, let every person be in subject to the authority of the Lamb, for there's no authority except that which is instituted by God.

So your problem is not with who's in the White House or who's the governor or who's your congressman or whatever.

Your problem is with the sovereignty of God.

And so, how do you experience the good of submission?

Number one, you take the sovereignty of God seriously.

It's easy to say and hard to do.

And by the way, it may help us to kind of understand that Paul is writing to people in Rome who are ruled right now, while he's writing to them, they're ruled by a man named Nero.

You ever heard about Nero?

Nero was one of the most tyrannical tyrants ever ruled.

He hated Christians.

He killed more Christians than anybody ever did.

Matter of fact, he would not only kill them, he would have their bodies stuck up on stakes and set on fire so he could drive his chariot at night.

He used the bodies of Christians as street lamps, if you will.

And Paul is writing to people while he is their ruler.

There's also a guy named Pharaoh in the Bible, but I don't, I don't, I'll skip over him.

If you're in Romans, go to the left to the book of Daniel.

Daniel chapter 4.

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

Just kind of go to the Psalms and hang on right, and you'll trip into Daniel.

I want to talk to you about a man named Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar, the problem with being in authority and being a ruler is that you start thinking, this is about me.

Look at what I did.

Because people don't, they fail to understand that God is sovereign.

We need politicians and congressmen and governors and presidents who get up every day and get on their knees and say, it is by the grace of a sovereign God that I have this office.

Let me act in good stewardship with this responsibility that I have.

And so it's not like Christians just exit the public square and get out of the marketplace and get out of politics.

No.

Jesus said, you're the salt and the light.

Let me just say this: a nation is great, not because of its laws, but because of the moral character of its people.

You cannot legislate morality.

Jesus said, You're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world.

He didn't say you're a major voting block.

You should all get together and sign a petition and make politicians come and court your vote.

Are you kidding me?

You think that's what Jesus died for?

Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel chapter 4.

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

Start reading verse 27.

Nebuchadnezzar had had a couple of dreams.

God's going to talk to you one way or the other.

And the way he talks to a lot of people in the Old Testament, especially people that rebelled against him, was in their dreams.

And he couldn't understand him.

So he got a man named Daniel to come and interpret the dream.

And look at verse 27 of Daniel 4.

He says, Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you.

That's the Bible's way of saying what I'm about to say to you is going to hurt a little bit.

You ain't going to like this.

Let it be acceptable to you.

He says, Oh king, let my let it be acceptable.

He says, break off your sins by practicing righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed.

That there may be perhaps a lengthening of your prosperity.

And let me just pause right there.

Look at me, beloved.

God's not out to get you.

He doesn't, authority and submission is not about God just kind of rubbing your face in and going, I'm God and you're not.

Say uncle.

No.

He says, hey, look at what he says.

He says, hey, do this so that there perhaps would be a lengthening of your prosperity.

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar, and at the end of twelve months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon.

And the king answered and said, Is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?

And while the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you, and you shall you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar.

He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair grew as long as eagle's feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws.

Howard Hughes.

God is out to liberate people from believing a lie about themselves.

And the most dangerous lies we believe are the lies that we believe about ourselves.

Nebuchadnezzar, verse 34, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me.

Lifting your eyes to heaven kind of helps clarify what matters.

My reason returned to me, and I bless the Most High, and I praise and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, What have you done?

And at the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me.

My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right, and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.

That's a man who understands who's sovereign and who isn't.

The second thing the text says to us is simply that resistance brings judgment.

Resistance brings judgment.

Now this is hard for us to grasp because uh uh a lot of us go it's hard for us to grasp because we grew up, some of us, in homes where resistance did not bring judgment.

And you say, well, what do you mean?

If you grew up in a home where your parents said, don't do that, and you did that, and then you tasted the consequences of disobedience, then you're a lot farther along than people that grew up in a home and their parents said, Hey, mama's gonna count to three.

One, two, three.

Well, okay.

Then if you grew up in that kind of an authority structure in your home, then what the Bible says about every person be in subjection to the authority of the land, that goes, that that grates on your last nerve.

And I just want to say this you gotta put parenting in kind of a in in a bigger picture.

You can't parent your kids because, well, I'm just tired, I'm just worn out.

They wear you out.

Absolutely.

I mean, my wife left Thursday morning to go surprise her dad for his 80th birthday, rang the doorbell in Florida, and they're like, oh, and she's been eaten out every meal, left me here with these kids, doing it all by myself.

I'm going, you ungrateful woman, you better get back here and bring me a present.

No, actually, the thought went through my mind, how does my wife do this?

And every night she cooks a meal.

I don't mean like Chick-fil-A, that's not a meal.

I mean like prepares, like grilled chicken or salmon and asparagus and a salad.

I'm not kidding.

I'm just like, dang, this is this is like Paula Dean without all the bad stuff right here.

Uh but but I I so I've had to do it all.

Be mom, dad, fix lunches, get to school, get here, get there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Yesterday the study group was coming over at 2 o'clock, and my kids have chores every Saturday.

They got to do their chores.

And I said, I'm not a yeller, I'm not a screamer, I'm not doing anything, but I am a man of consequence.

If you don't do your chores, there will be consequences in my home.

And so I said to my oldest, six-year-old, I said, Hey, babe, you your friends are coming over at two, it's 12 30.

You hadn't even got started on your chores.

But look at me.

So, just so we'll understand, because a clear understanding makes for a lasting friendship.

And I want us to be buddies.

My kid can't be my friend.

We're not peers.

Now I can be kind to her, and I am, but but we ain't buddies.

And I just said if the doorbell rings and your chores aren't done, I'm gonna answer the door and say, You need to go back and get in your car.

Because Madison thinks she can disobey me and still do what she wants, and she can't.

And you better pray to God and Jesus, your friends don't try to fix me.

Because I remind Them how broke I am.

And to her credit, she got up and got it all done.

I was a little bit depressed because I was looking forward to saying something.

And that's that's the sick part of me.

That's my confession.

I had to go in the backyard and talk to my miniature schnauzers and tell them what I was going to tell them kids.

But what am I saying?

Here's what I'm saying.

Let me just read the Bible.

That's the best thing.

Back into Romans chapter 13, because I want you to see something.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

Especially, do we have anybody in this room that is a policeman or a constable or a sheriff or anything like that?

Any kind of law enforcement in this room?

Hello?

There's one right over here.

Yes, there's one right over here.

Yes.

David Ryder, the chief of the Fort Bend Independent School District, uh police force, is a member of our church.

You ought to put this on when the Bible says, because it kind of breaks out in three sections.

He says in verse 2, therefore, whoever resists the authorities, resist what God has appointed.

And those who resist will incur judgment.

You're misrepresenting God if your kids resist your authority and there's not some judgment.

I don't mean be harsh or be over the top, but there's got to be a consequence.

But look at verse 3.

He says, For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?

Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval.

Verse 4, for he is God's servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.

For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

I'm telling you, David Ryder, you should have this painted on all your police cars.

Instead of to protect and serve, paint on the door of the police car, Eddie Cruzel, you should put it on the side of your sheriff's car, right there out of the Bible.

You say what?

That part right there where he says, servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

And you just drive up to career day at school and get out and just stand there doing that.

Guess what I'm here for, kids?

Because to protect and serve doesn't quite convey it.

You say, what do you mean?

What it means is what the Bible says.

Resistance to the God ordained authority in your life brings judgment.

It's just always gonna be that way.

Now, now I I said earlier, hey, mark verse 4 in your mind, because if you're a thinking person, you're like, oh, so we always gotta do what you tell us to do, what our authority figures tell us to do.

And one of my kids asked me that.

When she was about six years old, she said, Daddy, do I always have to obey you?

And I said, as long as dad, uh unless dad tells you to do something that goes against what the Bible teaches.

Because if dad tells you to do something and and and it's not the right thing, God's gonna hold me accountable.

But you're in a family, and it's a member of this family, you're under this umbrella of authority, and I'm responsible for protecting you.

I don't want to make your life miserable.

I know I told her, I said, you're six years old right now, almost seven.

Right now, it's easy, but you're gonna get to be 13 and 14 and 16, and it's gonna be a lot harder.

You're gonna be 19 and 21.

And here's the deal: there comes a point where your kids just, they're they're they're they're too old for you to discipline them like you used to, and they can move out and they can just kind of go, what are you gonna do?

This is what you say to your kids when they're like, hey, I'm 23, what are you gonna do?

I'm gonna pray for you that when God brings judgment, he remembers mercy.

And I'm not being smart, Alec.

You cannot violate what the Bible says if you're a Christian.

You can't violate what the Bible says and there not be some sense of consequence.

So, you know, people, if you're thinking, you're like, well, do we always have to obey what the authority says unless they tell you to do something that violates God's word?

Because fidelity to God is our highest priority.

And let me say this: listen carefully.

I'm gonna back it up in the Bible.

Whenever laws are enacted which contradict God's law, civil disobedience becomes the Christian's duty.

Let me say it again.

All you Tea Party people are jacked up now, aren't you?

When whenever laws are enacted, we're probably not far from that in this country, and I'll demonstrate in just a minute.

Whenever laws are enacted which contradict God's law, civil disobedience becomes the Christian's duty.

You say, No, what do you mean?

I'll just give you biblical examples.

Uh, Exodus chapter 1, Pharaoh said, Hey, I heard the Messiah's gonna be born.

Exodus 1 · chapter mention

I want you to kill all the firstborn, all the boys, all male children that are born.

I want you to kill them.

There are two Hebrew midwives, one named Shifra and one named Pua.

If you're looking for a cool name nobody has for your babies, there's two right there: Shifra and Pua.

And the Bible says of Shra and Pua that they feared God more than they feared Pharaoh.

And they said, we're not gonna do that.

They disobeyed.

And he was like, hey, these babies are being born, and they're boys, what's up?

And they said, These Hebrew women, man, they're strong women.

They just boom, they have the baby before we get there.

And then the Bible also says this.

Listen to me.

That because these women feared God more than the powers that be, God gave them children.

They went into being midwives because they didn't couldn't have kids of their own.

They were infertile.

And they just want to be around babies.

And because they obeyed God rather than men, God said, I'm gonna give you children.

It doesn't stop there.

There's there there's another guy in the Old Testament, his name was Nebuchadnezzar.

We read about him earlier.

He issued an edict at one point that all his subjects would fall down.

He made this big golden image, this big statue.

He'd roll it out, and everybody when they rolled it out had to bow down and worship it.

And then there were three guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And they just didn't do anything.

They just stood up, they just stayed standing.

Everyone bowed down and they said, We can't worship that because we worship God.

Our highest priority is to worship God.

And he got them and said, Hey, listen, if you don't bow down, we play the music.

If you don't play along, if you don't get in to get along, remember the first time your boss asked you to do something other ethical and it kind of bothered you.

We live in a country that doesn't respect authority, much less the authority of God.

And you can give in and get along and keep your job and make a lot of money and live in a big house and worship a little bitty God.

And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were like, hey man, we don't have any other option.

We appreciate it.

And it so enraged him that he said, I'm not gonna throw you in the furnace.

I'm gonna stoke up the fire seven times hotter than normal, and then I'm gonna throw you in there.

And they said, Well, that's up to you.

We just know this.

Our God is able to save us.

He doesn't have to, but we know he's able.

And he threw them in the furnace.

And one of his men looked in there and said, How many did we throw in?

And he said, Three.

Why do you ask?

Because there's four in there, and one of them's real shiny.

Rut row.

And the Bible says they came out and they didn't have a smell of smoke on them.

That's why you should read the Bible.

It's in there.

There's also another man insecure.

Biblical people, rulers in the Bible are just radically insecure.

Kind of like today.

Man named Darius decreed that no one, I mean, how jacked up you gotta be to say this.

For the next 30 days, no one prays to any God or man except me.

And there was a man named Daniel.

Civil disobedience.

The Bible says, as was his custom, he would open his windows and pray facing the east.

Daniel was like, no, no, not me too.

I'm not gonna be like everybody else.

Just me always, as was his custom.

Goes into the New Testament, Acts chapter 5, about verse 29.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

The Pharisees brought in the apostles and they said, Preach no more in Jesus' name.

And they smiled and said, Hey, uh, we must obey God rather than man.

You're kind of thinking, okay, I don't get it.

Let me give you a modern-day example.

You ever heard of a company called Hobby Lobby?

My 10-year-old looked at me yesterday and I said, Babe, what do you want to do today?

Don't ask a 10-year-old that.

Oh, Dad, I want to go to Hobby Lobby.

I could just feel the flames of hell lapping around my legs.

It's like a hundred thousand square feet of crafting supplies.

So I said, awesome.

I was hoping you'd say that.

And we went to Hobby Lobby with no idea what we were looking for.

So we had to walk every aisle until it hit her.

I think this is what I want.

Great.

Just put it in the cart.

Hobby Lobby, in case you don't know, they are in a court battle right now with the federal government because Hobby Lobby is owned by a man who is a Christian.

Because he's a Christian, he believes the Bible.

He's pro-life.

And the government is saying you have to provide not only birth control for your employees, but on your insurance if they get pregnant or get an abortion.

You've got to pay for that.

And the man said, I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to do that.

That's civil disobedience.

So when I say, and I said earlier, and some of you are like, oh, come on, dude, this is America, home of the free, land of the brave, blah, blah, blah.

Whenever laws are enacted which contradict God's law, civil disobedience becomes a Christian duty.

Not calling for protest or anything.

I'm just saying, let's not act like it's not here.

Third thing the text tells us to enjoy the good of submissions, it tells us that submission is a must.

Submission is a must.

Look at verse 5.

We see another, therefore.

The text kind of falls out in three sections.

He says, Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.

For the same reason you also pay taxes for the authorities or ministers of God attending to this very thing.

Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed.

The reason the Bible says this is because there was a subset of Christians in Rome that are like, we're not going to listen to you.

We're Christians.

The rules don't apply to us.

I was at a conference years ago for college students.

It's like midnight, and everyone is out in the lobby and it's open in the hotel, and there's just wraparound hallways, and students are hanging over the balconies, nine floors deep, and they're singing worship songs.

And people are calling the front desk and saying, Hey, what's going on?

Are we being invaded with people who have bad pitch and the front desk?

The manager's out there going, Y'all gotta be quiet.

And one guy way up there yells out, we must obey God rather than man.

And I snapped.

I'm there leading a community group and drinking my coffee.

It's midnight, and I just somebody said, Hey McClinton, do something.

Why is it always me that's gotta do something?

There's like a thousand college kids.

They've taken this place over.

Just walked out in the middle of this area, and I'm like, and I just said, Hey, hey, you're not being Christians by disobeying these people.

People paid for hotels.

They don't want to be serenaded with worship songs.

Be quiet and go to bed.

And the manager looked at me and said, I'm a Christian too.

I got a boss, man.

I'm gonna get in trouble.

No, you're not.

Go to bed.

Go, go, go.

Well, man, we're like warriors for Jesus.

No, you're 20-year-olds who live off your parents' credit card.

Go to bed.

Warriors for Jesus.

This is not a battle.

This is disobedience.

Disobedience is not a principle where you can stand on.

Go to bed.

Submit to the authorities.

Be done.

One guy with his guitar walked over.

You want me to sing one more?

No, I want you to be done.

So I got back to the room.

My wife's like, What'd you do?

I told a thousand kids to be quiet.

She said, How'd that go?

Oh, they hate me.

They try to play the oh, we must obey God rather than man.

No, the Bible says right here, loud and clear, therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.

How do you, in good conscience, put this man's job in jeopardy because you can't follow the rules?

You say, I don't know what subjection is a Greek word, hupotasso, and it means to place yourself under.

To place yourself under.

Now, unless I sound like I got it all together, one of the reasons I'm passionate about authority, what the Bible says about authority, is because when I was 18, I worked at a Christian camp where I had three bosses.

I had a camp director, and then we had an assistant director who's over facilities, and then we had a program director.

Love the camp director, love the assistant director, could not stand the program director.

We were like oil and water.

And he would, I felt like he was always riding me, always on me.

I was a lifeguard and I'd be lifeguard.

He'd come down there and say, Hey, do you have suntan lotion on?

Yeah, I don't want to get a burn.

Well, you can't, when you're on duty, you can't work suntan lotion because the kids, if they grab onto you, if you get in to save somebody, that their hands will slip off.

And because you're 18 and you figured out all the loopholes and every conversation, I said, Well, when we were getting trained, they said that you don't want to get in the water and you don't want people to grab you because they can drown you.

This will keep them from drowning me.

And he stands on the show and he just said, Hey, get out of the water and go to your cabin.

You're done.

Somebody go take Neil's post.

And I just walked by and was like, What an idiot.

God, just give me a.

I was there for 12, 13 weeks.

And for the first six, I hated this man with the white hot passion of a thousand sons.

I'm just being honest.

I'm not bragging about it.

People knew, people come up to me, hey man, what's the deal with you and Bill?

I can't stand that guy.

Just leave me alone.

And every time we'd have a confrontation, he would cry.

And I remember thinking, oh, come on, puddin' pop, are you kidding me?

We had staff meeting every morning at 7.30.

And you had to be there.

If you were late, you got fined a dollar.

We made$32 a week.

They paid our room and board, and we got$32 a week.

A dollar was a big deal.

If you were late more than twice, you got fined$2.

About three weeks in, I was up to$5.

I couldn't afford it.

I was paying them when it came time to get a check.

And here's why.

Because I was in rebellion to the authority over me.

Until the assistant director, his name is Mel Carker, basically the maintenance man.

That big old beer gut.

Had one of those clips with a bunch of keys.

You hear him come in, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.

Walked over to my table one morning and said, I'm sipping coffee, and he put his elbows on the table and just kind of smiled and said, How are you and Bill getting along?

I said, I can't stand that guy, Mel, because I was thinking, here comes some sympathy.

In about four minutes, Mel Carker changed the trajectory of my life as it relates to authority.

I said, He's always on me.

And then when we have a conversation, he cries and he's sipping his coffee and he just set his cup down.

And he goes, You ever wonder why he cries?

I don't know.

He didn't get enough love and affection as a kid.

He's just stroking his beard and he said, No, he cries because he understands the path where the path you're on is going to take you.

And you don't.

You ever in a conversation, all of a sudden it goes somewhere, you didn't weren't ready for it to go?

And there I was, just kind of like, uh, see, what it was, the pookie, ray, right, uh, no, we're gonna play some basketball late now.

Oh, okay.

Uh see, uh, and here it was 1983.

I had on a navy blue Brookhaven staff shirt, had the on the logo, had some white piping on the shoulders, white rings on the sleeves.

Because I remember just looking down.

And Mel Carger says, Son, you got a decision to make.

You can be here the rest of this term, and you can get out from under the God-ordained authority in your life, or you can leave here at the end of the summer with God's authority on your life.

I I I remember just thinking, that's bigger than me.

Memo to self, don't talk.

And I was kind of reeling from that.

And he said, and by the way, I see all these other guys on staff, all these counselors feeling sorry for you and commiserating with you.

You gotta ask yourself, do you want the acceptance of your peers or the authority of God to be the characteristic of your life?

And all of a sudden I cried.

And he would have picked his cup up and just dropped it and walked off.

This week I will spend some time.

I'm not on Facebook, but I'll I'll I'll find Mel Carter.

And I'll tell him, hey, I I preached on authority, and I remember what you said, and I want to thank you for saying it.

Because he wasn't done there.

A couple days later, he says, You got your Bible?

And I was like, Well, not on me.

He says, Well, I got mine.

Cracked it open to Romans 13.

He said, You got a pen?

I said, Why?

And he said, Because I'm smarter than you, you should write down what I say.

Yes, sir.

Let me give you three things that change the way you think about submission.

And I stole these from Mel Carker in 1983.

Number one, submission is not about losing, it's about it's about gaining.

When you put your life under the authority of God's word, your life takes on the authority of Christ, and his authority is manifested in your life.

It's not about losing, it's about gaining.

Secondly, it's not weakness, it's strength.

You got a jerk for a boss?

It's not about weakness, it's about strength.

Thirdly, submission acknowledges that there's an ultimate authority in this world.

The most tangible way for you to demonstrate to the atheist and the agnostic that there is a God is to live like it.

It's to live in subjection to the authority.

And subject that's submission, subject.

Boy, that just grates on our last nerve.

I get that.

I don't agree with it.

I'm 49 now.

And by the grace of God, God sent a maintenance man who saw a punk kid that was too smart for his own good.

And he just smiled.

His eyes were like two bonfires.

I mean, they just blazed.

It was a little bit convicting, scared, because you know what he's gonna say.

And he just looked at me and smiled.

I want us to finish today by uh thinking a little bit about what this text has said.

So I'm gonna put some questions upon the screen.

And don't worry about trying to jot them all down as much as kind of just scan through them and ask God which one has your name on it.

Questions like, as a parent, do you bear the sword in vain?

Do you have any outstanding debts that you haven't paid?

Being a Christian doesn't release you from keeping your word.

Matter of fact, it binds you by honor to keep your word.

Do you think you have to agree with someone to respect them?

To whom do you owe honor?

Is your conscience clear when it comes to the authority figures in your life?

Is acceptance so important to you that you're willing to forfeit authority to have it?

See, these are the kind of questions the Bible asks us.

And this is why we prioritize the Bible here.

If you're our guest today, we'll just spend a moment thinking about these things.

And in just a minute, we'll be dismissed, and myself and some of our elders will be available down front.

Can we, if we can help you, pray with you, answer any questions?

There was a spine surgeon in our first service who came up to me afterwards and he said, Hey, what's the difference in honor and respect?

I said, Honor is how you feel about someone, respect is how you treat them.

I said, Did you ever read the book to Kill a Mockingbird?

And if you haven't, you should be made to see the movie.

And he goes, Yeah.

Best scene in the movie.

And that lady looks at the little girl and says, It's hard for me.

Because years ago, I was in a little town in Alabama, and a lady said to me, Your wife was an English lip major at Baylor, right?

And I said, Yeah, and she said, Harper Lee is a personal friend of mine.

And I said, Who's Harper Lee?

And she passed out on the ground.

My wife has a signed copy of To Kill a Mockingbird that Harper Lee signed for.

And I said to my buddy, the surgeon asked the question.

I said, Remember that scene where the lady looks at the little girl and says, Stand up.

Your father's passing.

I said, That's that's respect.

I didn't have a dad like that.

What makes that emotional for me is it's not long after that.

Our kids were little.

I came home from work and my wife said, our kids, stand, your father's walking by.

And I knew what she was saying.

And I didn't think that's right, your dad's home.

I thought, God, I feel the weight of responsibility of being a father and a husband now more than I ever have in my life.

All the conferences I've ever been to, held in comparison.

My wife just looked at our kids and said, Stand, your father's passion.

Stand to your feet if you would.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out if you would.

Your great God, who is creator and creative, has created you to function on authority, to be done today living for permission and acceptance and popularity.

And take your lives into the realm of authority.

That is your native environment.

And it's what you created to be.

Depart now and be that in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.