Submitting to Authority

So many times I hear people complain about the Covenant, with comments everywhere from “I should be able to make those decisions on my own” to “They are making unmoral decisions into morals.” It doesn’t matter what you think, because the only truth is that which comes from the mouth of God and from his mouth came the Holy Bible for it is written, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Dear friends before I go on from there, I want to make sure that you know that I come before you in humility, for I am no better then the worse of sinners. I have been a hypocrite many times in my life and have called people to follow the covenant, infact rebuking them for not even knowing what it says. But the fact is that I am one of those people who have broken the covenant many times, for we all are all sinners and come before our most high God guilty unless we stand under the blood of Christ. For it is only in the blood of Christ that we are clean. It reminds me of a quote by Rich Mullens, “Whenever people say, 'Christians are hypocrites,' I say, 'duh, every time we come together we are confessing that we are hypocrites, weaklings in need of God and each other.” The truth is, to be a Christian is to be a hypocrite, because we stand in Church and agree to live by the standards of God, “Be perfect therefore as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Who of us can live up to a standard like that, of course we are going to fall, but that does not mean that we should unless stop from giving our heart away to the effort of “walking as Jesus walked.” So as I say all these things I say them also to myself, as I point a figure at you I am pointing the rest strait back at me.
Now going back to 2 Timothy, I am coming to you in a effort to rebuke you of false thinking and correct you that you might be ready to be trained in righteousness by the Christian authority of Crown. The Bible makes it very clear that we need to summit to the authority that is placed above us. It is so important that it is restated three places and then elaborated in the third. First Paul addresses it in Romans 13, “EVERYONE must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is NO authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” Paul makes it very clear in the first two verses of the chapter that everyone needs to submit to the authorities because God put them there, for there is no authority that God has not placed there. For even the evil of nations that conquered Israel were put there by God. He is trying to make the point that because we are free in Christ doesn’t mean that we should be lawless, but rather law abiding. Then in verse two Paul makes a strong point for submission, for if you rebel against the authority it is the same as rebelling against God which brings judgment onto you!
The second passage is from Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Here the writer of Hebrews is imploring them to obey so that they will not be burdened by the law that they are under. For when we rebel against a law or an authority above us, there is always a consequence fro our actions, even if we believe that the actions were justified or the rules unfair, the punishment still is there. So why not rather submit so that it will not be burdensome for us, because even if we rebel we now have the punishment and the rules to bear instead of only the rules to follow. For even Jesus talked to this, for in his time on earth the Roman empire was ruling over the Jewish culture imposing their laws upon the children of Israel, but did Jesus say that they should right against them as a zealot? Far from it, instead he said, “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” Jesus never wanted us to rebel, but instead show love in our service to that authority.
The final scripture that I want to bring to your attention is that of 1 Peter 2, here is a passage from the man that Jesus said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Someone who has been given authority by God and Jesus for the building up of the Church, aka someone we should listen to. In his first letter he says this, “Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.” (1 Peter 2:13-14) Peter addresses the same issue that Paul addressed twice before, that we are to submit to authority, but he makes another statement in there, “for the Lord’s sake.” (is that like saying for Pete’s sake?) You are not doing this because you want to look good, but rather that you are doing this as unto the Lord. He continues on in this right after that on the issue of respect, “Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’” (1 Peter 2:17-22) Peter takes this to every part of life or social status, make sure that all who read understand that we are not to shun authority or be disrespectful to the cops or even the president, no matter how much we dislike them. He says show everyone proper respect, and not just the ones who are nice to you, but even to the ones who beat you or mistreat you. Slaves are not suppose to hate their masters, but rather show them respect and submission. But do not stop at only the outward, for out of the heart comes all things, just as you are to live the example of Jesus, who “no deceit was found in his mouth.”
I leave you with the words of John, “ We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:3-6)

Gospel Presentation

“In the beginning God created the heavens and earth” (Genesis 1:1). Then on the sixth day God created man, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground’" (Genesis 1:27-28). So in the beginning God created man to rule over the earth, to taking care of all that God had created from the plants and trees to the beast of the field and the birds of the air. But that was not the only reason that man was made, for God created man so that he might have a relationship with them for, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:8-9). God was not some powerful force that sat in the heavens and just watched the world take its course like a TV sitcom, but rather He wanted a relationship with His creation. God would walk with man, showing that there was an intimate relationship between the two. He calls out to them, “where are you?” and engages with them.
But God had allowed for his creation to have free will, as seen in Genesis 2:16-17 when God tells man, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Here you see that God clearly gave man a choice to obey what he was told or to disobey; free will. Again it is seen clearly in chapter 3 where the snake tempts the woman; God doesn’t stop them but allows her to make the choice. Finally it can be seen in the way that the devil has to tempt her to take the apple by giving her a twisted truth, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1) He put doubt into the heart of the woman and she decided to eat of the tree that God had told them was forbidden, “she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked” (Genesis 3:6-7). When God came to them during the cool of the day He called out to man, but they hid from Him and when they had told him what they had done, he placed a curse on man and woman. To each he cursed them and their pain is ours to bear as well, for the Bible says, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). So because of the sins of the first man and woman, we have all sinned before God. We have been born into sin, completely unable to do anything about it, for it says in Psalms 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Then also in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” clearly stating that we can’t make it to God’s glory on our own. Some will say that they are a good person, but no one is good enough to meet the standards that God has called us to, for it says in Leviticus 19:2, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” The standard is set far beyond anything that we can match for it also says in Isaiah 64:6, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” and so we know that we are completely effortless to do anything about our helpless state.
For the majority of my life I have tried to live a good life in the eyes of my church, parents, and friends, but because it was only in their eyes, behind closed doors, or when no one was looking my life was not the cleanest. I went to youth group, but there was nothing that could ever really help me get past the sins in my life. For I have always tried to live a good life, following the commandments in the Bible in an effort to be a good Christian, yet my life was still void and I couldn’t figure out why I was so empty. In my senior year of high school I was not walking with the LORD, but I had not walked away from him, so I knew that when I chose a college it had to be a Christian College so that I could grow with God. So when I finally found Crown College I knew that God was calling me to go there. I knew it was a calling to come here because I was challenged to a faith that was more then just my law abiding mentality that I had when I was younger, but instead I gained a relationship with the God. My faith and love for God and people has grown leaps and bounds since coming here and I praise His name. He set me free from a lifestyle that was fruitless and void of life with Him.
The change that happened to me while in college was due to one Man, and if it was not for Him, I would still be living a worthless life trying to serve God with my fruitless labor; with my “filthy rags.” But when I came to college I met Jesus for real, and this Man’s life changed mine. If you don’t know Him or if you think you know who He is, let me explain what the Bible really says about Him or even what He said about Himself. First, you have to understand that Jesus was a man yet fully God, for in John 1:1, 2 it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning” and then in verse 14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus is the word of God and testifies to that in John 14:6 when “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” So we know that Jesus was God and man, stating that he was and is the only way to Heaven, the bridge to bring us back to a relationship with God. For it says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
So how do we respond to all that? It may sound like the work is done and I don’t have to do anything, because Jesus already did it. This is only half true. For in Romans 5:8 it says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We did nothing deserving God’s plan of salvation or restoration but God loved us enough to give His Son to bridge that gap so that we could come back. So yes, the work has been done for us to come back to a relationship with God, but you have to accept that hand that Jesus offers to come across the bridge. “For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:13), because “if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10). Jesus did all the work for us to come back to God, but it is still up to us to accept that love. The first and hardest part is done, all that is left is for you to believe it and confess that Jesus is LORD.