The Authority of Man - Part 2

Well, this is the third sermon in the controversial subject of authority. And we started with what's sort of obvious, and then the second sermon got a little tougher, and now this one gets even a little tougher. Because first of all, we talked about the authority of God, which is based in his sovereignty. And he owns us. He owns everything. And so he has an absolute right as creator to have authority over us. In fact, not only does he own us because he created us, because we, as the human race, moved away from him, he sent Christ to die for us, and he bought us back. So he owns us twice. He owned us because he made us, and he owns us because he bought us. And so that concept should drive us towards a relationship with God as our Father, a relationship with Jesus Christ as our Savior, and to accept that only God knows how this works. He made it. And so we will submit to him in the midst of Satan's world. The second was a little bit more difficult, the second sermon. Because since we do live in Satan's world, we're under the dominion, if you will, of Satan. God has allowed authority to exist. And in fact, and we're going to talk about today, he even delegates some authority. Human beings were originally told, this is your planet. Okay, this is your garden. You tend it. You take care of it. You keep it. They were given authority. It says human beings were given dominion over the earth. And it would have been fine, except they stepped outside of God's kingdom. Once they stepped outside of God's kingdom, of course, it failed. And then Satan came in, and now we have the total misuse of authority throughout human history.

I was going to make a joke, but I'm not going to. I'm going to move on. He looks so serious, I thought, what's happening?

So he has given authority or allowed authority in the kingdoms of men. And we showed how the abuse of authority is one of the greatest experiences in all of human history. All human governments abuse authority. All human governments do not do what God would do. So all we have are thousands of years of repeated failures in human government. The United States government will always end up in failure.

It's a miracle it's lasted this long. It's going to end up in absolute failure, because it's not based in submitting to God as the sovereign king. Any government that's not based on that is going to fail. But he allows it, as we showed. He even gave judicial power to human beings when he said, if someone actually commits first-degree murder, you have the right to take their life.

He now gives a governmental authority to human beings and said you have the right to set up a judicial system. Well, judicial system is a part of a government. So governments would be formed. God has allowed all this. You know, God did not ordain Joseph Stalin. He didn't choose Joseph Stalin to be in charge of Russia. He did allow it by not intervening.

Now we do know that he's going to intervene at some point. In fact, when you read through the Bible, you know what the Bible is? It's the story of God, as I mentioned in that first sermon. Paul talks about, or Luke, what he describes Jesus coming into the, you know, as God coming to earth. He said he, it was the finger of God.

What you find is the whole Bible is the finger of God saying, nope, you're not going to go that far. Nope, that's not going to happen. No, I'm going to make sure this works out so that his plan works. The finger of God keeps coming into human history in all this chaos and mess.

He keeps sticking his finger in it, not always controlling everything because he's going to prove that we can't do it. He's going to let us know you can't do it, and you sure can't follow Satan, and it won't work. So he allows this human government in which he works with it once in the while. We see in ancient Israel, he worked with their government until they failed to the point that at the time of Hosea, he literally tells them, you think I choose your kings, but I don't.

He wasn't even picking their kings anymore. You're so far off base, I don't even pick your kings because of the direction you're going in. So he keeps it. We haven't destroyed ourselves so far. And remember, Christ comes back just before humanity destroys itself. See, the finger of God comes down, you know, real heavy when Christ comes back. So we have this delegated authority, and we talked about how, especially Apostle Paul writes about, look, work with the government, submit to the government. They have authority unless they tell you to do something against God, and then you don't do what the government says.

Because governmental authority is not ownership, God's authority is ownership. It's simply allowed. And so God says, well, unless they're telling you to do something wrong, go ahead and get a fishing license. Go ahead and drive the speed limit. Go ahead and obey the laws. Do what you should do, unless it interferes with God's rule in our lives. So we looked at those two. Of course, that second one gets a little more difficult because it's like, well, what if I don't want to do this? And both Peter and Paul say, well, just do it unless it goes against God.

You know, I don't like a lot of things the government does, right? But we do it as long as it doesn't go against God. Now we're going to break this down into other areas of authority, of responsibility. Now, remember the point I brought out, once God either allows or delegates, we're going to look at some places today where he delegates authority, all authority has responsibility, but all authority has goals. It has limitations.

Whatever human authority God gives, it has limitations because we don't own. We don't own, only God owns. So the first one we would look at is in Colossians 3. We're going to be in Colossians today. Colossians 3.

Well, let's get there. I went before it and after it. There we go. Colossians 3.

In verse 22. Now, we read through these things and then we have to stop and think, okay, God says, I own everything and any authority that happens is because I allow it. He can take authority away from anybody at any time. He says, bondservants, now a bondservant could be, you know, a slave, but usually the word bondservant means that you work for somebody as an agreement. So we'll see the same principles in other places in the New Testament. Use the slaves, absolute slaves. So we can use this to, most of us here are employees, right? So we're bondservants. We have an agreement and we're working for someone. He says, bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, okay, according to the flesh. You're not to obey your employer or your boss in spiritual things. So he's not saying if your boss says you have to work on the Sabbath, you work on the Sabbath. This is real important. He says, if you're working for somebody and they're paying you, you have a responsibility to respond to the authority they have over you in that job. Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service, not because you're trying to play a game, or as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. He says, walk into your place of employment, not as, oh, I don't like working for these people. They're bad people. They're not good. I hate this place where I work. Of course, we all have an option. We can get other jobs. Throughout history, people didn't have the option of getting other jobs a lot of times. But he says, go into that job saying, I'm here because I represent God. I'm here and I'm submitting to my employer as an example of what a Christian should be. He says, whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men.

He says, you give everything you have to that job, not because you like your boss, but because that's what your character is. That's what your character is. You give everything you have as if you're working for God. As if you're working for God. You know, it is amazing how you can spend eight hours at a job and you hate every minute of it. Every minute of it. And you just, pretty soon you're not even accomplishing much. You're just waiting for the day to be over. And it's a whole other thing to jump into it and do it. Just because it's worth, if I'm going to do it, it's worth me giving all that I have. I learned that when I was in charge of the janitorial crew at SEP.

I can't explain to you what it's like to have a bathhouse with hundreds of kids coming through there that's set up for half that number. And every day I had to take a dorm of boys and the dorm of girls, different one they traded off every day, take them into a bathhouse where all the toilets were plugged up and overflowing. The floor was covered with everything you can imagine and say it's our job. And I'm thinking they don't pay me enough to even think about this job. I wish I'd have known this before I'd taken the job. And I would have this little speech.

We can do this in 20 minutes. You can put the gloves on. We'll divvy up jobs. There are certain things if you're going to throw up we won't have you do that job. That's how bad it was. But here's what we're going to do. We can do it in 20 minutes and you have the whole rest of the hour, you know, it's an hour and a half period. You have the hour and 10 minutes to do whatever you want. Or we can do it in an hour and a half and if it's not done you will be required to stay here until it's done. And you'll miss your swimming class or whatever it is. And I will help you do this so we can get it done. And you know, to get those kids motivated, to get a 15-year-old the motivator to do that is not easy. But I then had to follow my own advice. I had to act like cleaning toilets was the most fun thing you could ever do. And I didn't realize what kind of impact that could have until years later a man came up to me and said, I own my own business and I make a lot of money. Who are you? You know, he was a guy in the church. I was visiting a church area. He said, and you know, I have a couple people in life that had a profound influence on my work ethic and you're one of them. I said, when did he said a camp? He said, you made the worst mess, the most foul-smelling situation in life, a team effort where we all pulled together and got it done. And he said, it taught me something and I use that today in my business.

Oh, he said, I do remember this. He says, I remember one toilet. I will describe it. But he said, you walked over and he said, there were three of us boys, senior. He says, just, I said, yeah, green. I do remember that. And he said, gentlemen, there's a time when the boss does this. And he said, you put gloves on and you unplugged this toilet. And he said, I remember that. And he says, I say that to my people all the time. Gentlemen, there's a time when the boss does it.

That's this principle. Who are you working for when you go in there? Because if it's worth giving your time, it's worth doing it because you're doing it for God. You're doing it because that's your character and you're submitting to your employer. It's a little different idea that we think of. You know, we can always look at his employers as a, you know, well, they're just getting rich off of me and they may be. That's not the point. The point is it's your time in your life and how you spend it is important. As he goes on, he says, knowing, verse 24, that from the Lord, you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ.

He says, so you serve them. You serve your employers.

And you try to find some kind of joy in doing that. Now, there's also instructions in chapter four, verse one. Masters, okay, employers, give your bond servants what is just and fair, knowing that also you have a master in heaven. If you are an employer, if you're a boss or you own a business and you have people that work for you, what Paul says is, I want you to remember you have authority here. And there's someone who has authority over you who judges you by how you use that authority. You go back in Deuteronomy and there's a number of places where ancient Israel was told, if you don't pay the people that work for you, if you don't, if you hold back their wages, if you don't pay them on time, if you cheat them, God himself holds you responsible. Any authority we have, God holds the person with the authority personally responsible to him. So you think, well, I work for a terrible boss. Eventually, he will report to a boss above him.

That's the whole thing with authority. Since God owns it, he's sort of serious about it. He's sort of serious about it.

Now, sometimes, once again, that's not easy, working for somebody that is just a terrible boss. And that gives us the ability to, we have this ability to leave jobs, which is nice. I mean, there's some case of jobs you just can't hold. The person's abusive and you just can't work in that environment. But you give it all you have while you're there. And I said, once again, the instructions to those who have the authority are pretty stern from God.

To abuse an employee, he takes it personal. There's always limits to human authority. There's always limits. Back to 1 Timothy 6. Well, yeah, we'll come right back to Colossians. Let's just go to 1 Timothy 6, because that's an interesting way this is presented. Paul says in verse 1, Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of honor, so that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed. In other words, you're doing this as a representative of God. You do this because you're a representative of God. You're a representative of the kingdom of God. And that's how you approach the person that you work for.

And those who have believing masters let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort such things. So there can be real problems when people work for each other in the church. Now you'd think that would be the least of problems. But people who work for each other in the church can make two mistakes. One is the employer thinks, well, they're in the church, therefore, if I ask him to do a little extra work or I do, it's okay. They'll get it because they're certain, you know, they're a good Christian. On the other end is, well, you know, he's a good Christian and I had a chance to, you know, to go out with some friends this today. So I'm going to say, hey, look, can I get off work today so I can go to the park with my friends? You know, we're going to water ski. And they take advantage of each other because they are Christians, when the exact opposite should be happening.

This is part of Christian living. This is all part of Christian living. It's sometimes just something we don't think about. Okay. Now there's other scriptures. I just want to bring that one up to show you. Yes, an employer has certain authority and they're held responsible before God. And employees have a certain responsibility to honor that employer. Another area of authority we have is that parents have authority over children.

Parents have authority. When we start breaking down authority, what we do is we usually like the authority we have. We don't like the authority somebody else has. But this is all part of the same subject because all authority comes from God. Now the authority to parents isn't just allowed by God. It is delegated to parents. God delegates authority to parents to raise their children.

Colossians again. Colossians 3 verse 20.

Children, obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Now it's hard to convince a two-year-old of that, but as children get older, they are to start seeing their obedience to their parents as something God requires of them. Honor your mother and your father. So we need to help our children understand that we actually have some authority here. We can tell them not to play in the street. We have responsibility and authority.

But you know what happens if we abuse that authority?

We will break down their ability to actually trust us.

Right? We know God has authority, but if you don't trust God, you're not going to do what he says.

Oh, he has the authority. He can squash me like a bug, but I just don't believe he really loves me. I think he abuses me, so I'm not going to obey him. I've heard people say that.

If we as parents abuse our authority so they don't understand that what we're doing is because we love them and because we're concerned with their well-being. And what's really hard as a parent, and I know I've been there, doesn't it? They just can be so annoying that you explode if they're annoying you as if they're doing evil.

And then they sometimes can't tell the difference between doing bad and annoying you. Think about that. What's the difference between making dad annoyed or mom annoyed and doing something bad? And of course, you'll sometimes get a real smart one who decides they like seeing you get annoyed and they play that game. Now they are doing something bad. They've switched over from annoying you because they're a child to annoying you on purpose, and we have to figure that out because one is just an issue of childishness and the other is an issue of rejecting your authority. But as parents, we are supposed to protect them. We're supposed to guide them. Right? I mean, how many times we read this, stay here in collagions, but let's go to Deuteronomy. Remember, though, our authority as parents, and this is a hard thing, we don't own them. You know why that's hard? Because at 18 or whatever, they're going to leave. And our job is to train them to leave. Our job is to spend 20 years teaching them to leave us. That's our job. So they are functional adults that can stand on their own two feet. That's our job. And we don't want them to leave us. Right?

Deuteronomy 20... I'm sorry, 21 verse 18. No, that's not where I want to go. Where am I supposed to go? I wrote down the wrong...

Okay, you know what I'm talking about. Training your children, right? Wherever they go, you're to talk to them. You're to teach them God's way all the time, every day, every place. When you walk, when you're working, you know, when you're eating. We're supposed to be exhibiting God's way to them in our lifestyle and teaching them in that. If we are not living the lifestyle and we're correcting them for doing wrong, you know what they will decide? My parents are hypocrites. When they get old enough, that's what they'll decide. They teach me one thing and live another way.

So we must be teaching them, guiding them.

And that is what we're told to do. That's the principle of childering. It is a daily lifestyle and there's authority in it.

There's authority in it. And they'll reach a point in time where if they want to reject your authority and leave, they will. Right? And there's a time when they will test, especially in certain teenagers, they'll test your authority as part of that development stage.

And little after little after little, you actually are exercising authority less and less and less in their lives as you as they grow. But you have it and God holds us responsible. You know, the worst thing I've ever heard parents say, and I've heard this a couple times, I want my children to choose for themselves. So I'm not going to teach them any religion until they get to be like 16, 17, 18. And then I'm going to teach them God's way. I'm always shocked when I hear that. Of course, I haven't heard that in years, but over the years, I've heard a couple people say that. All you've done is turned your children over to Satan, denies your authority that God has given to you, and he will hold you responsible for that decision because he gave it to you. This isn't allowed authority, it's actually delegated authority as parents. You know, even Jesus, when you think about when he's 12 years old, and they go to Jerusalem, they're on the way home, and they can't find him, and the parents panic, and they go back to Jerusalem, and there he is in the temple discussing things with the priests, and they were all upset. And all it says in Luke is that he obeyed his parents.

He, oh yes, I'll come home, you know, and they're probably saying, oh, you terrified us, you terrified us, and he went with them. Now, he obeyed his parents at 12 when they said he should do something. That's an example for us.

So, parents, we have this authority because it's designed in the way God created things, that little babies can't take care of themselves physically, but they also can't take care of themselves morally. They can't take care of themselves emotionally or mentally. We're all part of that process of that happening and growing up. And each one of them is different, aren't they? Each one has a totally different personality, different strengths, different weaknesses, and it's wonderful. That's why, you know, you don't have a favorite kid, you don't have a favorite grandkid, because each one is unique as a human being created by God. And you know who owns them? God. See, we don't own them. He does. That's why he takes parenting so seriously, because he owns them just like he owns you and me. They're his. And I think about it, he tells you and me, here, take one of my children and raise him for me, raise her for me, take care of them for me. That's what he does. He delegates that authority to us. Now, we have another level of authority we have to talk about, because in the family, if parents have authority over their children, back in Colossians 3, I should have written down that Deuteronomy. You think you have everything memorized? I'm sorry? Oh, I was only a few verses off. Okay. Well, you could read it. So it's 21, 6, and 7. Deuteronomy 6. Yeah, okay. That's right. Okay. But you know what I'm talking about. You all know the scripture enough to know that. See, I need to write everything down. I usually do. And every once in a while, something pops up and I just run off. Sometimes I'm there, sometimes I'm not. Colossians 3 verse 18. Oh, boy, here's the one where it gets tough, right? Wives, submit your own husbands as it is fitting in the Lord. And husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.

Submitting to a husband doesn't mean, gentlemen, that we own them. We do not own them. Our wives are a gift from God. And we're both made in the image of God.

And by the way, it says to your husband, I've known some men throughout the years who think every woman has to submit to them. And that's why they're not married.

That's why they're not married.

So this is a relationship in which, like all relationships, and especially in marriage, you're going to live life together. You're going to have lots of decisions that have to be made. And you have to struggle through the decision-making process.

And it takes both of you to make the decisions. He's not saying, husbands, you have full authority to make all decisions. And wives, you have to do everything he says. That's what he's saying. Submit to them, and you honor them, and you treat her as your help, not as a subordinate. There's nothing that says that a wife is inferior to her husband, but it is a different role. And that's not light in today's world. It is a different role. You work together as a team. Anyone who's played sports knows what it's like to be on a team. You all have to work together. And you all sometimes disagree with something. And no matter who the captain is, sometimes they make a mistake. But in the end, you know, when you get together, whether it's basketball or volleyball or football, when you get together and you're all looking at the captain and he says, here's what we're going to do next, you give your input when the captain says, let's go, what do you do? Anyone who's played sports, if you're going to be a team, you do it. Now, a good captain sometimes says, that's a better idea. Right? Because we're a team. This is not the boardroom.

Wherever it comes to see, you know, the wife comes in and the children sits around and the husband stands up there and says, thus sayeth the boss. Okay, that's not what this is.

But it is something that takes teamwork and there are points where a wife has to submit. She never submits if the husband's going to do something against God. She can't because she is a child of God with the same responsibility before God is the husband. Understand that. But you have to have teamwork and you have to work together.

And so there is a point sometimes where she has to submit.

1 Peter 3. I would... 1 Peter 3.

2 Peter 3. This whole section of this chapter is about husbands and wives. I'm just going to read two verses because they balance out what he's saying here. Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives. In other words, sometimes, you know, a woman in this case, that there were women coming into the church that were literally married to pagans. And he said, okay, you be a good wife so that he can see there's something special about you.

Now he didn't say, so if your wife's, if your husband says, you know, I want you to cheat on our taxes, the wife says, okay, he ordered me to commit a crime. I'm going to do it. That's not what it says.

As a Christian woman, a Christian child of God, you have to say, no, I can't do that. I cannot go against the one who owns me. But he says, you know, if you're a good wife, a lot of times you can win over a husband, too. You can win him over.

But you know, as a man grows in his relationship with his wife, he learns to trust her more and more. What do we do?

You know, there's a point, there's times Kim will say something and I'll say, you know, that affects you more than me. Just make a decision. I'll make it work. You know, does that mean she has taken over my position as husband? No, it means we figured out how to work this out. And there's times I'll say, Kim, I think this is the way we have to do it. And she'll say, okay, and you know what? She does it. And I know sometimes it's like, I don't think that's going to work or... But you know, we work it out. We do it together. That's what this is.

And sometimes a husband may make a decision that the wife disagrees with. And if it's not against God, you know, then you say, okay, we'll do it.

But look at verse 7. Husbands likewise dwell with them with the understanding, with understanding. In other words, we must... God here has given us men an impossible task to understand a woman.

Man, if that doesn't keep you awake at night, that's the point. You have to work with her, and you must understand her. This is about leading. It's not about domineering somebody. It's not about always being right. It's about having somebody to lean on you. But you know what happens in that relationship? You get to lean on her, too. That's what happens.

Husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel. Not... A woman is not spiritually weaker than we are. We are to help them grow spiritually, but they're not spiritually weaker than we are.

In fact, sometimes we've all seen marriages where the wife was spiritually stronger.

But he says just physically. Now, every once in a while that's not true, but most of the time most men are physically stronger.

We weren't married very long. On the first times I saw her cry. She's not a crier. She came up behind me and did something, grabbed me to scare me. And I'd taken a wrestling class. I threw her over my shoulder and had her pinned down on the ground. And I'm thinking, wow, I didn't even know I could do that. I forgot all that. I mean, it was a reflex. And she's... You threw me onto the ground. And I'm like, I'm sorry. But pardon me saying, whoa, that was impressive. But I didn't want to show that.

Man, I took a wrestling class. And all I did was spend a whole semester getting a tar beat out of me. But anyways...

And I apologize. I did not mean to do that. I did not mean to do that. A woman who fears her husband's physicality means that you're failing as a husband.

She can't fear that.

He then says something else. And as being heirs together, the grace of life, heirs together. We are equal before God. So we have authority. Yes. But think about what that means.

Because this person's equal before God. And then he says something that has bothered me for 45 years of marriage. Because this pops into my brain every once in a while. That your prayers may not be hindered. All authority has responsibility before God. And what God tells us, you treat her bad. I don't listen to her. I don't listen to you.

You know, I have a son and I have two daughters and I understand this.

My son is like, hey, come on, man. Be a man.

My daughters are, you hurt them and you're dealing with me. That's God.

He built that in men. He built it in women. Because we're both what? Made in his image. We're two halves of a whole.

We're two halves of a whole.

And there's many a time I've been upset with my wife over something trivial. And I thought in my head, don't come to me, son.

Because your prayers will be hindered.

Is that a verse? Yeah, I better go deal with this. I better go deal with this.

We have a responsibility, but boy, do we carry a load as men if we really understand what this means.

And you wives, you can't fight him all the time. There's times when you just say, okay, we'll make it work. We'll make it work. And I'll do my... It's not like, okay, you're going to make a bad decision. I hope that fails. So I can tell you I was right. No, it's we're going to make this work. And if it fails, it's because we both failed together.

No, once again, I'm not saying...

There are just certain things you don't do against God. Or like, you know, we're going to sell the house, liquidate everything, and we're going to go live in a cabin in up in the northern parts of Alaska and live off the land. Okay, I'm not saying you have to submit to that. That needs to be worked out. Okay, that needs to be worked out. No, Tim, you can't do that.

It's like you look at Debbie's eyes, like, it all light up. Let's do that! No, no, you can't do that, Tim.

Okay.

We have to work... Because part of the responsibility now is, I am responsible, since I am the one with authority, I am responsible for you, and I can't do certain things to you.

It's irresponsible for me to do so.

That's a load, guys. And it's a load for you women, too. You have to understand your responsibility before God to work with him.

And sometimes he doesn't understand your viewpoint. That's true. Sometimes he doesn't.

He'll try, but he doesn't.

And then one last point of authority is Ephesians 4.

And verse... Let's see. Where do we want to start here?

Verse 11.

Talking about the church. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. In other words, there are certain people that are given jobs, if you will, within the church. Well, there comes a certain responsibility with that and a certain authority.

But that authority has limits. It has goals, and it has limits.

I, as a pastor, have been given a certain responsibility, but it has goals by God, set by God, and limits set by God. And I fear stepping over those limits because guess who holds me responsible?

God does.

He says, for the equipping, here's the reason why.

You know, we have deacons here. We have elders here. They have a specific job from God. For the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the work of service. Service to God and service to each other. That's what we're supposed to lead you in.

For the edifying of the body of Christ, so that the body of Christ, so that you all are serving God. The purpose of the ministry isn't to be served, it is to help you learn how to serve God. That's our purpose. That's our job. Until we all come to the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In other words, the purpose of our job is to focus on you. You know, when you're a new parent, you suddenly realize, wow, my purpose now is to focus on this baby. I mean, something changes, right? You're in charge of a baby. And your whole focus now is, it's my job to take care of and help and teach this baby, and the baby someday becomes a full-fledged adult that probably will take care of you when you get old. Well, this is what the office holders in the church are supposed to do. The fruit of it is in you.

The fruit of it is in you.

It's not in how great of speakers we are, or how organized we are, or it's not in that.

The fruit of it is you.

That we, talking about the church, should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head of Christ. That's where any authority in the church is not owned by those who, you know, like you're not owned by the elders of the church. We're all owned by the same head of the church, by Jesus Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by whatever joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. That's a remarkable statement there. That's a remarkable passage.

And he says, this is why God says, okay, I want you to help lead these people.

It can never be for self-purposes. It has to be for the fruit that happens in you. That's what it has to be about.

And there is protections. I'll give you an example. When United was started, we understood that better than we had before. Those principles. And so when United was started, that's why we have a constitutional government. United has a constitutional government. There's limits to all authority. Now, there are responsibilities in that authority. There's things that are supposed to be done, but there's limits. And I'll give you an example.

If I would decide to take one of you and disfellowship you, which actually, there's the authority to do that in the scripture. But say I did it in the wrong way, or I mistreated you, or it was a reason you should have never been disfellowshipped from. You have a right to appeal that. You have the right to appeal that. And they will investigate the situation. I say they, it's actually a group of older ministers that have been around for a long time, and they will investigate me. And I am quite comfortable with that. I am real comfortable with that. Because in the past, sometimes in the church, disfellowshipment was abused. Of course, I understood that because I was disfellowshipped and publicly marked because I wanted to keep the Sabbath.

So I have no problem with that. There always has to be the responsibilities and the limitations to the authority so they can't be abused. Or if it is abused, it can be fixed and apologies can be made. I mean, nobody's perfect, so you have to be willing to say, okay, I didn't do that right. I'm sorry.

So this, when you start realizing this and breaking this down, you realize, yes, God has all authority.

God has all authority. And He has allowed some to have authority, and He has actually delegated authority. And everybody in this room, man or woman, has some delegated authority from God. Someplace in your life, there's a delegated authority, and God holds you responsible for it.

This is a very controversial subject. I'm going to end with, well, I may give a sermon on this story. I was, I may just wait and give a whole sermon on Abigail. You know the story of Abigail and David. There was a woman who understood her value, her responsibilities, and the authorities of men. And both of the men in her life, one her king and one her husband, were misusing their authority. And how she worked that out is just genius. She understood it, and yet she never tried to overthrow their authority. It's just remarkable. So I may give a whole sermon on that sometime, is Abigail.

But let's go to 1 Corinthians 15, because this summarizes everything we've been talking about.

1 Corinthians 15, of course, the resurrection chapter.

But there's a comment made here at the end. What happens?

Verse 24, in the future. Verse 24, then comes the end. This is the end of the first and second resurrections. This is at the end of the Great White Throne Judgment, the Lake of Fire, New Jerusalem comes to earth.

Then comes the end, when he delivers, in the subject here is Jesus Christ, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and all power. Now, we've got to go to the next verse, but think about this. There comes a point when Christ, whose job it has been since Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden, is to bring humanity back to Eden, back into a relationship with God, and to remove Satan and remove sin. That's what he's been doing all these thousands of years. And this comes a point when he gives the kingdom to God. He's created the kingdom for him.

For he must reign until he's put all the enemies under his feet. So Christ is going to reign over this earth when he comes back until everything is prepared. All enemies are gone. Satan and any human being who refuses to repent and accept God will have died in the lake of fire. So all the enemies are gone. And the last enemy that will be destroyed is death, because those who are left are only those who have been changed into spirit, and they will die. For he has put all things under his feet, but when he says all things are put under him, it is evident that he who put all things under him is accepted. In other words, Christ is no everything except for the Father. Now, when all things are made subject to him, when Christ has prepared this, and all authority has been brought under him. Now, this is fascinating. It shows you something about authority. When Christ has finally brought everything on earth under his authority, he rules. Satan's gone. Everybody that is going to follow has been changed into spirit beings. He now has the family prepared. And what does he do? And when all things are made subject to him, then the Son himself will also be subject to him, who put all things under him, that God may be all in all. Isn't that amazing? Jesus Christ, we talk about him coming and reigning and doing all this, but he has a purpose in it. His purpose is to prepare the family and give it to God. And say, here I have completed the work you gave me to do.

And it says, God will be all in all. The Spirit of God will be in everyone forever. Everyone in his kingdom will have God's Spirit in them forever. That will change everything.

So Jesus Christ leads us by even showing us about authority.

He submits everything to the Father, even the kingdom that he's going to spend all these thousands of years creating, joyfully give it to the Father. So authority is a subject we touch on. Three Servants, it seems there's a lot on this subject, but no, it's very important. It's very important to us to understand all of us submit. We submit to each other. No matter what authority you have, you sometimes submit to others, right?

You submit, you know, there's a time when a husband might submit to a wife because she's right. Right? There's a time when, as a pastor, some of you did that experience. You come to me and said something. I thought, you know, that's right. And suddenly I'm submitting to you. Let's do that because that's right. As we submit to each other, we all have different positions, different authorities, but we all submit to each other because we're submitting to Christ. And then there's going to come a point where we all submit to God the Father.