His Way Or The Highway:Some Observations About

Introduction

Tony texted me last night asking me what my lesson was on. He was wanting to put a slide together for the announcements this morning. I’m like, I haven’t decided yet. So I got him a title this morning and I left it a little bit ambiguous because I wasn’t quite finished with the direction I was going with it. But I think we’ve got something that hopefully I can present to you without a lot of confusion, and something hopefully that you can get something out of and make some application. And I don’t think it’s anything that deep. Depends on where you’re at, I guess. But what I would like to talk about. And Dean asked this morning, he says, So you’re gonna preach on authority, huh?

And I’m like, so what do you think? Gonna be interesting. He’s like, well, it could be. but I’ll let you know now. It’s not going to be a typical lesson on biblical authority and hermeneutics and how we translate the Bible and look at that. I’m going for a little bit more of a universal scope here. And any of you that know me, I’m kind of more of a big picture guy. I want to look at the top-down view on things and see how that applies to us and how that should relate and translate to things in our own lives. Appreciate Daniel’s prayer and everyone that’s keeping me propped up. You know, it’s a little bit different when Tony’s in the audience, you know.

I feel like I’m I’m getting graded. that was really my comment. I want him to do that, but you don’t grade me on the PowerPoint slides. I just had some blank white slides, and he was like, There’s no background color more. I’m gonna put one on there if you want it. So Tony picked the color on this. But hopefully, you know, we can all improve, we can all work and strive to do better and get more refined in the things that we’re doing in our studies as a Christian. And really, as Christians, we ought to welcome that. Because the only way that you’re ever going to get better is to see where you’ve done something wrong or lacking, and be able to accept some instruction or some not necessarily criticism, but you know, we need to want so much to be right that we don’t mind being wrong.

I know that seems odd, but you know, you should want so much to be right that when someone points out where you’re wrong, hey, now I’ve got that. Now I can go get right. And that’s some of what I want to talk about this evening.

1. Our Roles and Relationships and Limits Are Defined

Our roles and relationships and limits are defined. Okay? And a lot of times we’re not happy in the roles that we find ourselves in. Whatever circumstances brought us to that situation or our particular lot in life. Sometimes we just want to complain or say, woe is me, or I wish I would have it another way. Miriam and Aaron were kind of that way in Numbers 12. We’re gonna we’re gonna read that story real quick, and I think we’ve got some applications that we can draw from that moving forward. Verse 12, chapter 12, verse 1 said, Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. Remember when he fled Egypt, he married in that land that he went to.

And they said, Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us as well? So they were griping, you know, man, I mean, what are we? Chop liver? You know, God’s prophesied through us too. You know, what’s the big deal with Moses? I like this next phrase. And the Lord heard it. Like he wouldn’t. You know. Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth. And y’all put a star by that, circle it, underline it, highlight it in your Bible, whatever you want to do. And suddenly, I like this, the immediacy of this. And suddenly, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, You three come out to the tent of meeting.

So the three of them came out. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and he called Aaron and Miriam. Man, how would you have liked to bend them to? Talk about getting called out to the front of the class. And, you know, they knew what they had been saying. And God’s like, you three come down here, and you and you, I want you even closer. You know, I can just see them now. You know. Well, when they had both come forward, he said, Hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord shall make myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses.

He is faithful in all my household. With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings. And he beholds the form of the Lord. And get this next question. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant against Moses? Legitimate question, isn’t it? On all the face of the earth, I don’t treat anybody like I do Moses. Sure, you prophesy, but I just give you some hazy dream that you have or a vision that you can relate. But Moses, me and him are right here. And you’ve got the gall to be complaining and griping about the role that he’s got. What is wrong with you two? So the anger of the Lord burned against them, and he departed. But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow.

As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous. Then Aaron said to Moses, not complaining about Moses now, is he? So he says to Moses, Oh my Lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us in which we have acted foolishly, in which we have sinned. Now wait, did Moses, is Moses the one that complained about what they were doing? Did he say anything about it? No. Because that verse I told you to highlight? Pay attention to that. It’s important. I beg you, do not account this sin to us in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned. Oh, do not let her be like one of the dead whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb.

And Moses. Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, Oh God, heal her, I pray. So after they slandered him, he turns around and goes to bat for him. What an example is that. But the Lord said to Moses, if her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? That was kind of one of the customs. If they had spit on them, or the father disgraced them, they would be in shame or be withdrawn from for seven days. So he said, Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterwards she may be received again. So Marion was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.

2. God's Ways Are Not Our Ways

What we need to come to realize is that God’s ways are not our ways. There we go.

God’s ways are not our ways. We see that in 1 Corinthians 1, 19 through 20. And I think I missed a slide here. No. Okay. I missed one point. 1 Corinthians 1, 19 through 20. I’m going to look there real quick. 1 Corinthians 1 19 through 20. Tony’s going to be hitting a lot of this in the 1 Corinthians class.

He said, For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside. Where’s the wise man? Where’s the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? Basically, we’ve got our own ideas sometimes about the way things ought to be. God set things in place in a certain order. And the sooner we recognize that, and the sooner that we embrace that fact, the better off we’re going to be. Because really, we’re all under authority. And we’re all in submission to someone at some point, at some time, and several many, in fact, aspects of our life. We see that as far as it has to do with the roles in the church.

Ephesians 4 talks about how there were some given to be elders and some preachers, some evangelists as prophets and teachers and pastors for the equipping of the saints. So the different roles that we see in the church there, 1 Corinthians 12, 28, and following, we see that as well, all the many gifts that were given to them. And he says, y’all need to not worry about who’s got what gift or what role this guy has, or he’s got he’s got tongues. Man, I want that. All I’ve got is understanding. You know. And so they weren’t happy with the roles, and what he’s trying to tell them is that all of them are set in place as God wants them to be. All of them are set in place, and God’s fitting them together to build his church.

He’s fitting them together to build society as he wants to have it. And we see that in a number of things. There’s an order to everything. Each of us has a place. If you have a problem with that, take it up with God. If you dare. Job tried that. I want to read what God told him over in Job chapter 40. Job 40. Verses 1 and 2. This is after Job was complaining a little bit. And the Lord said to Job, Will the fault finder contend with the Almighty? Kind of sounds like Aaron and Marian, doesn’t it? Will the fault finder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer this. And then down in verse 8, will you really annul my judgment? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?

So do we do that sometimes? We want to be justified in what we want to do because we’re unhappy with our light in life. So what do we do? We condemn God. And there’s several other things. This whole dissertation with Job, you know, it says, Do you have an arm like God, verse 9? And can you thunder with a voice like his? He’s like, can you do what I can do? I’m God. And you’re going to question me. How dare you? How dare you? So we need to submit and take on our roles with humility. Just like Moses did. Did Moses ask to leave the children of Israel? Man, he tried to run the other way. There was no ship to get on like Jonah did.

3. There's a Universal Order

You know, he was out in the middle of the desert. But in all of that, he took on what God asked him to do with humility and with patience. And that’s a lesson that we need to take away from this. There’s a universal order. Over in 1 Corinthians 11. There’s universal order to thing, and it goes God, Christ. Everyone go ahead and read it. Man, woman, and child. 1 Corinthians 11. We’re going to read that, and then we’re going to hit the two Ephesians passages as well. 1 Corinthians 11 3 says, But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man. And the man is the head of a woman. And God is the head of Christ. Every man has something on his head while praying.

It goes on into the covering passage. Over in Ephesians 5 22, it says, wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. So you’re doing it as you would to God, because that’s the role he puts you in. Wives, be subject to your husbands. For the husband’s the head of the wife, as Christ also is head of the church, he himself being the Savior of the body. Husbands, love your wives. Verse 25. Just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for. And in children’s relationship, we see that in Ephesians 6, next chapter. Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise. That it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.

I guess the antithesis of that is that if you don’t obey your mother and father, you may not live long on the earth. And we see the results of that sometimes with stupid actions leading to early demise with people.

4. As Parents, We Are God's Agents

So one of the roles that we have are these universal roles, we’ve got some roles as parents. And this may not apply to everybody in the room. It may apply someday to some of you in the room. But as parents, we’ve been given certain duties. We’ve got a role to play there. We’re to discharge our God given duty. We are God’s agents. I know that we usually don’t use that term much. We’re not to be angry, selfish dictators of the home. To where that children’s actions are manipulated to make us look better as parents. Because a lot of times that’s our motivation. And if that’s our motivation, we’re going to raise a bunch of Pharisees. That can keep the rules acceptably well until they’re able to get out from under the authority that they’re in.

And then I’m out in the house, I don’t have to keep the rules anymore. There’s something I want to read. This is what the book that we’ve been going over in the parenting class, and there’s a I couldn’t say it better if I was just going to sit here and talk about it. And he brings into play here these verses that I’ve got as well. And it was something interesting, but about the duties that we have as parents. And really, sometimes it’s hard being a parent because you don’t really feel like you’re equipped with all the tools that you need sometimes. You get frustrated, you get worn out, you get beat down.

But you know something? God put us in that role, and He said, you can do it. And so if you focus on doing the right things for the right reasons with your family, you’re going to have better results. When parents require obedience because they feel under pressure, obedience of children is reduced to parental convenience. It’s convenient for me when you mind me, son. Because I look better to the people around me, and I don’t feel as much pressure when we’re at church because people aren’t looking at my kid misbehaving. It’s wrong reason. Christian parents must clearly understand the nature of godly parenting in children, must be trained that God calls them to obey. Because if we if we can’t train our children to obey us, how are they going to see any value in obeying God?

Because ultimately, you know, we’ve got that soul that we’ve received from God, gave us this little soul. And it’s our responsibility to do everything that we can to send him back where he came from. As a parent, you have authority because God calls you to be an authority in your child’s life. You have the authority to act on behalf of God. As a father or mother, you do not exercise rule over your jurisdiction but over God’s. We’re stewards, okay? This is not your house. This is God’s house that he gave you to be steward over, and this child is a member of that household. So you’re not doing what you want to do. You act at his command. You discharge a duty that he has given you.

You may not try to shape the lives of your children as pleases you, but as pleases God. Little flipping perspective there, isn’t it? All you do in your task as parents must be done from this point of view. Period paragraph. You must undertake all your instruction, your care, your nurture, your correction and discipline, because God has called you to do that. You act with a conviction that he has charged you to act on his behalf. In Genesis 18 19, Jehovah says, I have chosen him, talking about Abraham. And I’ve chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. Abraham’s on God’s errand. Abraham’s on God’s errand. Abraham didn’t choose God.

God chose him, just like he chose Moses. Okay. He is performing a task on God’s agenda. God’s called him to these things. He’s not freelancing. Abraham doesn’t write his own job description. God defines the task. Abraham acted on God’s behalf. It’s no different with us as parents. So Deuteronomy 6 underscores his point of view of prudent or responsibility. In Deuteronomy 6, verse 2, God says that his goal is for the Israelites and their children and grandchildren to fear the Lord by keeping his commandments. The person by whom God decrees, by whom God’s decrees are passed on as the parent, whom God calls to train his children when they sit at home and when they walk by the road and when they lie down and when they rise up.

So God has an objective here. God has an objective.

And God accomplishes this objective through the agency of parental instruction. So, as parents, we’re agents of God, tasked with the role of raising our kids and perpetuating godly living through our family. Same thing he told Abraham to do, it’s the same thing he told the Israelites to do in Deuteronomy 6. And then Ephesians 6 4, we hit that earlier, commands us to bring up our children in the training and instruction of the Lord. That’s 6 4. This is a command to provide the training and instruction of the Lord to function on God’s behalf. Does that make sense? So one more paragraph of this. Understanding this simple principle enables us to think clearly about our task. If you are God’s agent in this task, providing the central training and instruction in the Lord, then you too are a person under authority.

You’re not winging it. You’re also under authority. Just like your kids under authority. You and your child are in the same boat. You’re both under God’s authority. You just have different roles. But you’ve got the same master. And then we talk later on in the book talking about how you’ve got an overunder relationship with your kids where you’ve got to be over them and teach them about authority and their role and what they need to do. But guess what? When they become Christians, at times that role is parallel. When you walk beside them and say, you know what, son, as a as a young Christian man, this is something that you and I both need to watch out for. These are temptations that are out there.

You know what, daughter? Whenever you’re doing this or that with your friends, it’s something you need to watch out for. It’s something I’ve got to guard myself from. It’s not always a vertical relationship because once your kids become Christians and have a relationship with God, you now have a horizontal relationship. You’re both in the same boat with the same master going the same direction, but you’ve got different roles. And us as parents need to realize what our role is and discharge our duties as agents of God. And our children need to firmly understand that role, and we need to imprint that on their minds. But we can’t do that if we’re doing it when we’re angry and when we’re upset. If you allow unholy anger to muddy the correction process, then you are wrong.

5. In Subjection to Government

You’re wrong. There’s no place for anger and discipline or raising kids. You need to ask forgiveness if you do that. Your right to discipline your children is tied to what God has called you to do, not your own agenda. Amen to that. And you know, I’ve been there. I’ve had to apologize to my kids. I’ve lost my temper. And I can freely admit that. Because I’m not without sin. But you know what? When they see the example of, hey, when somebody messes up, here’s how it’s supposed to be handled. Ecclesiastes says there’s not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and never sins. So that means that you could have a righteous man that’s sinful. That’s a given. Government, we’re supposed to be in subjection to government.

We know the passage as well. 1 Peter 2.13 says, you know, be subject to authorities. Romans 13 said that we’ll read Romans real quick. Romans 13 verses 1 through 7. It says, Let every person be in subjection to the government and governing authorities, for there’s no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause for fear, but of good behavior, but for evil. Basically, they’re not there to punish you for doing what’s right. If you do what’s wrong, then you need to have a fear of the government. It is a minister of God to you for good.

But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing, for it is a minister of God and avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due, tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. It’s another role that we’ve got. We’re in subjection to government. And all of these are issues of authority. You know, one thing in the book here, where did I do with it?

That I that he said in the beginning of that chapter I was just at, it said, our culture does not like authority. It’s not just that we don’t like to be under authority. We don’t like being authorities a lot of times. And that went into the section I read on parents is that we need to be in authority. We don’t want to be. You know, sometimes we don’t want to do what the government asks us to do, or someone else that is over us, you know. You know, but on the flip side, when we need to be in authority, we don’t want to be sometimes. Why is that? Because it’s hard. It takes effort. You’ve got to turn the football game off. You’ve got to put your book down.

You’ve got to deny doing what you would rather be doing. To spend time with your children or whoever else may need some attention. You know. But even though we don’t want to be under authority, God calls us everybody to be under authority and governance.

6. We're Under the Elders' Authority

Next thing is that we’re under the elders’ authority. It’s more of a church issue. Kind of getting to the side where, as parents, we’re called to shepherd our children’s hearts, to guide them and lead them in how we want them to act. Well, flip that around, and us as children in the church are under the elders’ leadership. And they’ve got that role, kind of like what parents have, and whether they want it or not, that’s what they’ve got, because that’s what God told them to do. And sometimes they’ve got to do things that are not real easy. On the flip side, the children or us need to not make it grievous on them. 1 Timothy 5, 17. We’re going to read all these because I think they’re important.

1 Timothy 5, 17. It says, Let the elders who rule be considered worthy of double honor. Especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. Over in Hebrews 13, verse 17. Tony references verse before in one of his lessons. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, because this would be unprofitable for you. Now, whether it’s the unprofitable way that Miriam got it, you know, ultimately with God, or if it’s unprofitable for you that just things don’t go real well in your life because you’re not seeking and holding to wise counsel, you can fill in the blank on what you want to on there.

Another passage over in 1 Timothy 5, 19 through 22. Said, do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest may also be fearful of sinning. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of his chosen angels to maintain these principles without bias. Don’t do anything in a spirit of partiality. Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily, and thus share responsibility for the sins of others. Keep yourself free for sin. In other words, don’t get caught up in something. Now, something that I definitely want to point out here is that it said, don’t receive an accusation except on the basis of two or three witness to something, what does that by nature imply?

Something happened that everybody can see. Something happened that is unfortunate.

So what it’s saying here is that don’t receive an accusation against an elder unless you’ve got witnesses. And then it says that those who continue to sin, this is an ongoing, open, witnessable sin. Those who continue to sin rebuke in the presence of all so that the rest may be fearful of sinning. So this is something that a lot of times we’re like, oh, I disagree with elders. They made a bad judgment on this.

Did everybody see it? Is it an action that’s overt and ongoing? If it is, then it needs to be rebuked publicly. It’s exactly what Paul did to Peter over in Galatians 2, 11 through 14. It says, now that no one is justified by the law before God. That is not what I want. I’m in Galatians 3. Galatians 2, 11 through 14. It said, but when Cephas, this is Paul talking here to the Galatians, but when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.

But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, in the presence of all, if you being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? So the reason for this is because the elders are a public figure. In your family, you’re a public figure as a parent. And as far as the church, when the elders are openly sinning, and other people are being publicly influenced by that to do something that they shouldn’t be done, doing. The example and the pattern that we have here is in 1 Timothy it says to, you know, don’t receive an accusation unless you’ve got witnesses, and those that continue to do this, and you rebuke in the presence of those people.

And we see that Paul carries that example out. I think that we need to be very careful and remember who we are and what our roles are. Because the elders have got to give an account of our souls to God. And I don’t think that any person that’s in the eldership position takes that lightly. Because they’re going to have to stand before God on every decision that they make.

Cloth yourselves in humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time. Moses was one of the most humble men on the planet. And God exalted him and had a relationship with him like none other. But the proud, his sister, his brother. When they complained, what happened to them? It wasn’t a happy ending. And we need to remember, and that’s one thing he does, he addresses younger men here, because I think as you get older, perhaps there’s some things that finally click and settle in. And you start learning some of those lessons. Because you’ve been through enough things to start seeing some things and be able to throttle back some on some of your snap judgments decisions.

Conclusion

But in conclusion, I think that we all, what I want everybody to realize is that we’re not in charge. We’re pitiful creatures with no hope of saving ourselves through our own devices. We must be broken and emptied before God can fill us up and revive us again.

Isaiah 57, verse 15 says, For thus says the high and exalted one, who lives forever, whose name is holy. I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit.

He doesn’t dwell with the proud and haughty.

I dwell with the lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Unless we empty ourselves and allow ourselves to be humbled and stand before God with Him as the only solution for our problems.

We’re not going to have the results that we want in eternity either. Which is really what we’re getting down to talking about. Jesus gave us an example in Philippians 2, 7 through 10. Said, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth. We need to be more like Moses. We need to ultimately be more like Jesus.

But you see the pattern here, guys? The pattern is that the humble, the broken, the contrite were lifted up. They were exalted. They were filled up with God’s Spirit. They were given the tools that they needed to execute the tasks and the roles that they were given. So I want to encourage all of us that anything that we’re faced with, role that we have in this life, you can do it. But you’ve got to do it in the right perspective and with the right attitude. Because if you don’t have that, you’re just going to try to be fixing things yourself, and it’s going to end badly. And it just always has. And I haven’t lived that long, but I’ve observed that over and over and time and time again.

So what I’m encouraging you to do is that if you’ve been proud, if you’ve been haughty, been puffed up, trying to fix it yourself, I’m pleading with you just to realize that you can’t. That you need God, you need Christ in your life. And if you need that now, and you’re not a Christian, we can baptize you right now for the forgiveness of your sins. If you are a Christian, you’ve fallen away, you’ve done some things that brought shame on you or others, and it’s something you need to repent of that we can help you with, please come forward as we stand and sing and we can help you.