Generation. Youth. Christ.

“Authority and Accountability”

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants:

Home

Series Code: GYC

Program Code: GYC180003A


00:33 How can people get involved here
00:34 with GYC beyond this upcoming year?
00:37 Yes, in the next year,
00:38 if you look in your app sometime
00:40 or go to GYC Beyond webpage,
00:43 in the app, there's a link to GYC Beyond,
00:45 but if you go to gycweb.org/beyond,
00:48 we have some exciting new things.
00:49 We have the workbook, we have the podcast,
00:51 but we've also developed an ideas database
00:54 where you can see a variety of ideas
00:56 of different mission and service things
00:58 that you can participate in in your own church,
01:01 your own area, at a school, wherever you are,
01:04 and you can submit ideas
01:05 for other ministry opportunities,
01:07 maybe in different careers or trades
01:09 to try and broaden the bank of ideas
01:10 that people can participate in.
01:12 One of the things that you see there
01:14 is different mission trips,
01:15 different opportunities where you can participate in
01:17 as Eric said,
01:19 but as we thought about this year's theme,
01:22 to the end,
01:23 we realized that this is not enough.
01:27 No.
01:28 We have to go to the end.
01:31 And what that is all about, for 2019,
01:33 you will see now in a short video.
01:41 What if we came together as an army of youth?
01:46 What if we went beyond
01:48 what we've ever attempted before?
01:52 What if we prayed for God to work mightily
01:55 and expected Him to actually do it?
02:00 What if God is calling you to the end?
02:18 In 1973, a United States DC plane
02:23 ran out of fuel over Iceland.
02:26 It had to crash land on Solheimasandur beach
02:29 in Iceland.
02:31 The pilots made a mistake
02:33 and switched to the wrong fuel tank,
02:35 and they ran out of fuel and crash landed on that beach.
02:38 You see a picture there on the screen.
02:42 What happened was
02:44 that the focus was in the wrong direction.
02:47 The story of this plane is a great illustration
02:50 of what happens when we run
02:53 on the wrong fuel of self-sufficiency.
02:57 What happens when we do not trust God
03:00 to accomplish what He can do?
03:03 This plane crashed on Iceland.
03:06 It's a great illustration of what can happen
03:09 when we do things without the Holy Spirit.
03:12 But if we want to fly in our ministry,
03:15 if we want to have a flight experience
03:17 in a personal spirituality,
03:20 we need the Holy Spirit to fill us,
03:23 we need a powerful prayer life,
03:26 and we will see mission work like never before.
03:29 This plane crash in Iceland,
03:31 a country that is trapped in secularism,
03:34 darkness, a history of paganism, and occultism
03:39 is waiting for missionaries.
03:41 Only the power of God
03:44 unleashed through surrendered people
03:48 can make a difference.
03:49 And this is why we have decided to take a very radical approach
03:53 in claiming the country of Iceland for God.
03:56 So as we thought about this, we've reached cities before,
03:59 we've reached smaller areas before,
04:01 but we thought what would God have us do
04:04 if we aimed as high as we could possibly imagine.
04:07 And so we thought why not go and reach an entire country
04:10 for Christ.
04:11 But how do you do that?
04:13 You just go in and start giving Bible studies
04:14 and just being invasive and,
04:16 you know, telling people that you want to go in
04:18 and just baptize people for Christ.
04:21 I mean, we want that, don't we?
04:22 Amen.
04:24 But we thought that we would do something else instead,
04:26 something far more radical, far more crazy,
04:28 and far more powerful for God to be able to work.
04:31 And so we thought
04:32 why not go to this first year and just pray,
04:35 why not knock on every single door
04:37 that we can find on the entire country landscape,
04:41 and knock on each door and offer to pray for people,
04:44 to take prayer requests,
04:45 to say, "God, what will You do in the lives of these people
04:49 now that we have prayed for them?"
04:51 And then walk around the cities praying for them,
04:53 walk around the island praying for them.
04:55 What could God do far beyond we could ever imagine
04:58 if we tried to just do it all ourselves?
05:00 We believe that God is at work around us,
05:04 and He's always relevant, He's always powerful,
05:07 but He's always waiting for people
05:08 to collaborate with Him.
05:10 And so that's why we have decided
05:12 to join forces with GYC Europe
05:14 and going to Iceland in the summer of 2019.
05:17 In this first endeavor, we will be, as Eric said,
05:20 trying to knock on every door in Iceland, praying for people,
05:23 praying through the darkness,
05:25 the darkness that hovers over this island.
05:29 In future years, we may come back
05:31 and do more holistic efforts to try,
05:34 take that further to go back and say,
05:36 "What did God do in your home?"
05:38 Our goal is to be able to track and see,
05:39 okay, we prayed for this door, what did God do here
05:43 and to begin to build a relationship with people.
05:45 But as we do that, we're going realizing
05:47 that this is a difficult mission field.
05:49 The church in Iceland
05:51 has 150 actively attending members
05:54 out of about 450, 500 on the books.
05:58 That's not a whole lot, is it?
06:00 For a country with 350,000 people,
06:02 that's about one Adventist for every 2,300 people
06:06 compared to North America,
06:07 which has 1 per 300 or so.
06:10 It's a place that needs light more than ever before.
06:13 And so we are praying that you will join us this summer
06:16 on this trip.
06:17 If you want to be part of this, you can see on the screen here,
06:20 you can go to the website,
06:22 GYCweb.org/Iceland or in your app.
06:25 If you open your Attendify app, and you go to the menu,
06:28 and you click Iceland 2019,
06:30 you will be able to sign up there for more information.
06:33 You're not signing up for a trip yet,
06:34 but you're signing up for more information
06:36 as we will be sending those things out
06:38 very soon.
06:40 And we want you to be part of this,
06:41 but we only want people who are fully committed
06:44 and who really are willing to go to the end.
06:47 We need God to do something,
06:48 and so we are trusting that He will unleash His power,
06:52 unleash His light as we pray for this country of Iceland.
06:56 GYC, let's go beyond, let's go to the end.
06:59 Amen.
07:00 See you in Iceland.
12:43 Thank you, Brother Carlot,
12:45 for that beautiful ministry of music.
12:48 Happy Sabbath, everyone.
12:51 It's a beautiful opportunity to be in the south
12:53 when you live in the north
12:55 and enjoy some of what even though
12:58 it might be a cool day for Texas,
13:00 it's a warm day for Berrien Springs, Michigan.
13:04 Let's pray together.
13:07 Thank you, Lord,
13:08 for the privilege of Christian convocations.
13:14 Thank You for the blessings that You've already poured out,
13:16 and I pray now, Lord, continue to prepare our hearts,
13:20 anoint the presentation,
13:23 we know Your Word is spirit-filled
13:27 and spirit-breathed.
13:28 So now, Lord, I pray may we do nothing
13:30 to short circuit its power.
13:33 Bless us as we worship You through this day.
13:36 Set a watch before my lips
13:38 and a guard before the door of my mouth,
13:39 and give me a holy boldness as well, I pray,
13:43 and readiness of heart myself
13:44 and those who have gathered here
13:47 to search the scriptures.
13:48 In Jesus' name, amen.
13:52 If you have your Bibles, open them if you would
13:53 to the book of Corinthians,
13:56 1 Corinthians.
13:57 I have a challenging topic this morning.
14:01 But we've gathered as Bereans
14:05 seeking to discern truth.
14:09 As Christians, as Seventh-day Adventist Christians,
14:13 we have allowed God's Spirit to be the guiding beacon
14:17 of our lives through His Word,
14:20 through the Spirit of Prophecy,
14:22 in communion and community with each other.
14:26 The Book of 1 Corinthians is one
14:28 that I like to call the postmodern gospel.
14:31 It's resplendent with a variety of challenges,
14:34 some that would make your church
14:36 look like the healthiest church on the face of the planet.
14:39 But it's not a stellar beginning,
14:42 even though it's a beautiful ending.
14:45 Paul finds himself dealing with a fractured church,
14:49 a group of people that are celebritizing
14:52 their allegiance to people instead of to Christ.
14:57 He's gotten word back from one of the notable
14:59 and trustworthy women of the church
15:01 that there's a problem,
15:02 and he's confident that it is so.
15:06 Now Paul does not practice
15:07 the modern forms of pastoral esteemism,
15:12 he speaks with love, the truth as it is in Jesus,
15:15 and he speaks directly.
15:17 1 Corinthians 3:1,
15:19 I'm reading from
15:20 the New American Standard Bible.
15:23 It says, "And I, brethren,
15:24 could not speak to you as spiritual men,
15:27 but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.
15:32 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food
15:34 for you were not yet able to receive it.
15:36 Indeed even now, you are not yet able,
15:39 for you are still fleshly.
15:42 For since there's jealousy and strife among you,
15:45 are you not fleshly, and are you not walking..."
15:49 I like this supplied phrase in the New American Standard,
15:53 "Are you not walking as mere men?"
15:56 The implied directive is that
15:58 the indwelling presence of Christ,
16:01 the friendship of Jesus,
16:02 the power of the Holy Spirit,
16:04 and the direction of the Father raises us up
16:06 above what regular humanity would allow us to achieve.
16:11 So this morning,
16:12 I want to talk about
16:13 something very challenging to every human being.
16:17 I want to talk to you about authority,
16:19 and I want to talk to you about accountability.
16:22 The first thing I want to ask you is,
16:24 are you subject to the lawful legal God appointed authorities
16:28 in your life?
16:30 Are you accountable to anybody?
16:32 Are you infected with the spirit of this age
16:35 that defies your own opinion and your own experience
16:38 and turns it into reality?
16:41 This morning, we find ourselves in a larger picture
16:45 as a world body of believers
16:47 stressing and struggling over how to conduct our business,
16:52 but I want to come back
16:53 to the individual experience this morning,
16:55 I want to come back to the experience of your home.
16:58 I want to come back to the experience
16:59 of your church, your workplace.
17:02 God has said in this very same
17:04 or apostle that all things be done decently and in order.
17:08 It is impossible to do things decently
17:10 and in order with individuals
17:13 who are nurturing, cherishing, fertilizing
17:16 a spirit of independence or rebellion.
17:20 So my story is just a little bit unique
17:24 because I'm the child of a rebellious woman.
17:27 Now my mother is highly esteemed in my life.
17:32 And if she had the link, perhaps this morning,
17:34 she'd be watching,
17:36 instead she's probably watched the pastor at the church
17:38 where I'm usually at,
17:40 but my mother is the middle of three girls
17:43 whose life was difficult, her father was an alcoholic,
17:48 and the stories that I can recall
17:50 from my own experience
17:52 as well as the one she told like she and her two sisters
17:56 fleeing from their drunken father,
17:58 hiding with their mother,
17:59 my dear grandmother who prayed me into this church,
18:02 locking themselves in the bathroom
18:04 because grandpa was drunk with a butcher knife
18:07 and was chasing them around the house.
18:08 This is not an ideal childhood.
18:11 I can remember as probably a 10 or 12-year-old boy
18:14 sitting in the car,
18:17 looking up onto the porch
18:20 and saying, "Dad, grandpa is hitting Mom."
18:24 He had her by the hair, and he was beating on her.
18:28 Now my father is at least was before he became agent,
18:32 a larger man than myself,
18:34 and to watch my dad go deliver my mother
18:37 from the hands of someone
18:39 that was supposed to create security
18:42 was a strange thing.
18:44 So you could say my mother had excuse or reason.
18:48 She was expelled from her academy
18:50 six weeks before she graduated.
18:54 My mother was a rebel.
18:57 The Spirit of God is moving on her heart,
18:59 and she is submitting step by step to Jesus Christ
19:01 in her older age.
19:03 Can you say amen?
19:04 Now it's a strange thing
19:05 that my mother in her younger years
19:08 should make some of the decisions she made.
19:09 I learned early on in my home what authority was.
19:12 By the way,
19:14 this is one of the first things to be achieved
19:16 by human parents
19:17 is the loving direction
19:19 of proper authority and control.
19:22 Children who don't learn it become a blight to society,
19:26 to their own homes, to the churches,
19:28 and the institutions they attempt to work for.
19:31 My mother taught me she meant what she said.
19:34 I can remember when I was in the sixth grade,
19:36 attending that little public school
19:38 at Market Heights, Illinois,
19:40 getting a missive from the principal
19:44 who had appeared at the door of my sixth grade classroom
19:47 and had directed the teacher to send me out,
19:50 I was being sent home.
19:52 This was exceptionally unusual.
19:53 It was the middle of the morning.
19:55 You don't leave school to go home
19:57 unless there's an emergency.
19:59 Well, in her point of view,
20:00 there was a problem sizable enough to call me home.
20:04 When I got home, what I found out was
20:06 that the problem was that I had not cleaned my room
20:09 the way she had told me to clean my room.
20:14 Now this wasn't terribly surprising to me
20:17 to be called home to do what she had told me to do,
20:21 but what was more troubling was when my room was cleaned
20:24 and my mother said to me,
20:25 "Now you're going back to school," and I thought,
20:27 "I'm going to face a thousand questions,
20:29 and they're all going to be about why I left school."
20:32 My mother taught me that she meant what she said.
20:34 That was important because a year or two later,
20:37 at the end of a little summer vacation
20:38 at my aunt and uncle's house,
20:40 she called me out on the porch and she said,
20:43 "Ronnie, some things are going to change for you."
20:46 Now you have to remember
20:47 by the time I was 13, 14 years old,
20:49 I was taller than my mother, and I was looking down at her,
20:52 and she said to me, "You are going to church school
20:55 in a few days."
20:57 And I said, "No, I am not."
20:59 Now you have to remember, for me,
21:01 church was a bad association.
21:03 When I was a little boy,
21:06 my grandmother had tried over and over again
21:07 to make this church thing stick.
21:10 And I can remember going into the primary room,
21:13 this is my first memory of church,
21:15 it's still fairly vivid in my 54-year-old mind.
21:19 And I'm sitting in a circle with all these primaries
21:22 in the basement of the Peoria Church,
21:24 and they had handed out books of the Bible.
21:28 Now unfortunately, for me,
21:30 I didn't get Haggai or Zachariah
21:32 or something like that,
21:33 I got the easiest book in the Bible to pronounce,
21:36 except I got it wrong because when they came around to me,
21:39 I said I had the Book of Job.
21:43 And that's exactly what happened.
21:46 And I decided
21:47 I don't ever want to come back to this place again.
21:50 Now it wasn't their fault,
21:52 and yet every parent with a little child
21:54 ought to send their children to Sabbath school
21:56 knowing they're going as a missionary
21:58 because some backslider's kid might be there that day
22:01 because the grandma is praying for them.
22:03 That's what happened to me.
22:04 And I thought when I show up in that church school,
22:06 I'm just going to get perpetual rounds
22:09 of being a misfit,
22:10 only now, I'm a lot older,
22:12 and it bothers me a whole lot more.
22:14 My mother wasn't going to back up an inch.
22:16 She had fought my father for years,
22:18 a good man,
22:20 but a man who didn't understand why you'd pay good money
22:23 to leave a good public school,
22:25 but my mother, in a strange situation,
22:27 a paradox, as it were,
22:29 from her own life of rebellion
22:31 was now exerting an authority over me.
22:33 And pretty soon, standing on that front porch,
22:35 I was weeping, and crying, and praying
22:38 that she would change your mind
22:39 because I saw that steely look in her face.
22:42 There was no going backwards.
22:43 I was going to Peoria Junior Academy because
22:47 she said so.
22:50 And when I walked into that classroom that first day,
22:54 and the Spirit of God was there upon the teacher
22:56 and upon many of the students,
22:58 I began a trajectory that has me standing before you
23:01 here today because in my home,
23:03 there was a proper understanding
23:05 of who was in charge and what authority meant,
23:07 loving, proper, firm, kind authority.
23:13 Now this morning,
23:14 I want to remind you of some stories in the Bible.
23:17 We're living in an age
23:18 in which independence of thought,
23:20 the postmodern mantra for how you're to live
23:23 is that what happens between your experience
23:26 and the synapses in your brain create your own reality
23:30 and nobody has a right to question it.
23:32 But this is not what the Bible teaches,
23:34 this is not how healthy homes work,
23:36 and this is not how healthy churches work.
23:38 We believe in a higher authority,
23:39 that is God's Word.
23:41 Amen.
23:42 That authority directs our path.
23:44 It supersedes culture when it comes to moral living
23:48 and societal directions
23:50 on how to maintain this authority in the home.
23:53 We can go all the way back, take your Bibles,
23:55 go back to 1 Samuel chapter 2.
23:57 We can see that this authority should be practiced first
24:01 in the home.
24:02 1 Samuel chapter 2,
24:04 the sad story of a man who did not properly exercise
24:09 his authority, Eli, his boys,
24:13 they had no sense of the sacred,
24:15 they did not recognize their father's authority.
24:20 1 Samuel chapter 2,
24:22 looking at verses 12 to 17,
24:27 we won't read it all,
24:28 but let's just start with verse 12.
24:30 It says, "Now the sons of Eli were worthless men,
24:33 and they did not know the Lord."
24:36 Skip down to verse 27,
24:40 there was a man of God sent to Eli's house.
24:42 "The man of God came to Eli and he said,
24:44 thus says the Lord,
24:46 'Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father
24:50 when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house?
24:53 Did I not choose them from the tribes of Israel
24:56 to be My priests,
24:58 to go up to My altar, to burn incense,
24:59 and to carry an ephod before Me,
25:01 did I not give to the house of your father
25:04 all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel?'"
25:08 And then this telling rebuke,
25:10 "Why do you kick at My sacrifice
25:14 and My offering
25:15 which I have commanded in My dwelling,
25:17 and honor your sons above Me,
25:21 making yourselves fat
25:22 with the choicest of every offering
25:25 of My people Israel?"
25:27 And then if you turn over to the next chapter,
25:29 come down to verse 13,
25:31 we know that Samuel has a vision.
25:34 It'd be a heavy vision for a young person
25:36 to relate to an older person.
25:38 And by the way, Spirit of Prophecy,
25:40 speaking of this arrangement between the aged Eli
25:42 and the youthful Samuel says this is as it should be.
25:45 If you want to avoid issues with authority,
25:48 practice the cross generational honor
25:51 that God has put in place, start with your parents,
25:54 go to the Sabbath school teachers,
25:55 the preachers, and all those other individuals
25:58 that are in your life.
25:59 This young man had a telling painful prophecy
26:02 for his mentor.
26:04 Verse 13,
26:07 "For have I not told him,
26:09 I'm about to judge his house
26:12 forever for the iniquity which he knew
26:14 because his sons brought a curse on themselves, "
26:17 and the final telling epitaph
26:20 on the Ministry of Eli's family is,
26:23 "and he did not rebuke them."
26:27 So I want to ask you today, are you under authority?
26:29 Husbands, do you recognize
26:31 that there are people put in your life
26:33 to bring accountability to your manhood?
26:36 Young people,
26:38 does the admonition to obey your parents
26:40 matter to you?
26:42 Or do you believe
26:43 they don't have rights in certain places?
26:45 Ellen White commenting
26:47 on the story of Eli and his sons and challenging
26:50 a dysfunctional family of her day
26:54 reminds them
26:56 that while they are under your roof
26:59 and even beyond,
27:01 your parental authority,
27:03 the parental authority in your life is not over.
27:05 Does it change?
27:07 Does it morph? Does it adapt?
27:08 Yes, but that admonition to honor those
27:11 that are placed in authority over you is imperative.
27:15 Take your Bibles and go to the Book of Matthew.
27:17 Matthew chapter 8,
27:20 leading off in the New Testament gospel
27:23 after the Sermon on the Mount is this powerful story.
27:27 It's the story of a non-Israelite,
27:30 a non-Christian, a non-Adventist, if you would.
27:33 The story of a man who had been watching from a distance.
27:37 Matthew chapter 8,
27:40 he has a sick member of his household,
27:43 and he would like them to be healed,
27:46 a servant.
27:49 Jesus says in verse 7,
27:51 "I will come and heal him."
27:53 But the centurion said,
27:55 "Lord, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.
27:59 Just say the word,
28:01 and my servant will be healed."
28:03 And this phraseology of verse 9 is exceptionally powerful.
28:08 He says, "For I also..."
28:11 what a strange leading to honor Jesus.
28:13 But He says, "For I also," me too,
28:18 I also am a man under authority,
28:21 with soldiers under me,
28:22 and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes,
28:24 and to another one, 'Come!' and he comes,
28:26 and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it."
28:30 And Jesus is almost stunned by the experience.
28:35 It speaks to Him so powerfully
28:37 that He stops and makes a commentary
28:39 where He says, "I've not seen such great faith
28:42 in all of Israel."
28:43 I think sometimes we forget that Jesus is the lead example
28:47 of how to live under authority.
28:48 Jesus was under His parents' authority
28:50 with a few exceptions
28:52 when the authority of his father
28:54 dictated a different course like at the 12-year appointment
28:57 in the temple.
28:59 Jesus Himself walked under the direction of His father
29:03 with no literal, structural,
29:06 governmental authority in His life,
29:08 He walked in the way that God chose for Him,
29:12 and this was the model for you and me.
29:16 So what does it mean when we start to dialogue
29:19 about dynamics of authority in the church?
29:24 Ellen White will speak, and she says,
29:27 "Men and women,
29:29 who, in their different organizations,
29:31 are brought together in church capacity,
29:34 have peculiarities and faults.
29:37 As these are developed, they will require reproof.
29:41 If those who are placed in positions never reproved,
29:46 never rebuked,
29:48 there would soon be a demoralizing condition
29:50 of things that would greatly dishonor God."
29:54 There's something
29:55 about the dynamic of someone standing in your way
29:57 when you're marching down the wrong road.
30:00 That is absolutely imperative to eternal salvation,
30:02 and health, and happiness in this world.
30:06 Now we all come from a variety of churches.
30:10 Your church may be very healthy at the moment,
30:12 your church may be struggling.
30:14 We also are involved in a larger body.
30:17 Ellen White has 1,000 references.
30:20 Now, of course, many of these are repeats,
30:22 but when you go to the website
30:24 and you study the phrase press together,
30:27 when you go to the website
30:29 and you study the phrase the prayer of Christ,
30:31 all of those can be tied back
30:33 or most of them to the references
30:35 to John chapter 17,
30:36 Christ's prayer for oneness.
30:39 It is impossible to be one with someone
30:41 who is nurturing the route of rebellion
30:44 of independent thought and spirit.
30:46 If you're married to somebody like this,
30:48 I feel sorry for you.
30:49 Keep praying, be wise and patient.
30:52 If you're raising a child
30:54 who has decided that their own way
30:56 is better than anybody else's, this is a challenge,
30:58 God will work in the midst of it
31:00 to do something in you,
31:01 and eventually by God's grace and through your prayers
31:03 and the life of the child.
31:06 If you're in a church
31:07 and there's stress factors all around, don't give up,
31:10 it's a call to prayer.
31:12 Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be one
31:15 just as He and the Father and the Spirit were one.
31:18 It is so absolutely important that we are one
31:21 because this oneness is more and more unique
31:24 in an age of polarization and stress fracture.
31:29 Ellen White, writing in 1888,
31:31 when the church was undergoing
31:32 one of its most painful moments, said,
31:34 "Satan is the accuser of the brethren.
31:36 And when he can set the level of dissatisfaction
31:39 to work in the human hearts, he's exalted.
31:41 When he can divide the brethren,
31:44 whether it's at home or church or wherever,
31:46 when he can divide the brethren,"
31:48 listen to this phrase, "he has a hellish jubilee."
31:53 This kind of party should not be thrown
31:55 with the encouragement of thinking,
31:58 praying Seventh-day Adventist Christians.
32:01 It's not our job to fertilize
32:03 or nurture the kind of division,
32:05 it takes too much work to stay together.
32:07 Look around, everything's falling apart,
32:10 families, institutions, even the government.
32:15 It appears that people can't talk anymore,
32:18 and it must be about time for those prophetic strokes
32:21 described in the Book of Revelation to take place
32:23 when we see a great overreach of authority,
32:26 a dominion over conscience.
32:29 She goes on and she says,
32:30 "I think if our brethren could see
32:32 as I've seen how much wrong is done
32:34 in speaking evil of our brethren,
32:36 there would be an entire change
32:38 in the way we treat one another.
32:40 You do not understand yourselves,"
32:42 very interesting phrase,
32:43 "you misinterpret words and deeds,
32:45 and you measure them
32:47 from your own finite standpoint.
32:49 Your imagination leads you astray,
32:52 your feelings, your tongues, which are not sanctified,
32:55 are employed in service and work
32:57 that is anything but holy and Christ-like."
33:01 I had a member send me an email just a few weeks ago.
33:07 And he told me of a painful story
33:09 there happening in Southwest Michigan.
33:12 Very respectable member,
33:15 sound solid man, older gentleman,
33:17 respected in the community,
33:19 he said he went to do some work.
33:21 He was probably consulting somebody
33:23 on a project for he's an expert in his field.
33:26 And in the process, somebody who had worked,
33:29 if you'd like to say it in such a way
33:31 farther up in the organization,
33:32 the church went into their house,
33:33 and they came out with a cartoon.
33:36 The cartoon had a picture of one of our leaders
33:39 wearing a Nazi SS Gestapo uniform,
33:42 and the person holding the piece of paper
33:44 thought it was exceptionally funny,
33:47 the member who related the story
33:50 to me did not,
33:52 and he fulfilled a proper role in challenging in love
33:57 the perspective of the individual
33:59 who thought that the caricature of one of our leaders
34:02 was humorous.
34:04 I don't know that he changed anybody's mind,
34:06 but he did the right thing in challenging a wrong mindset.
34:14 We're reaping the bitter fruits of at least one generation,
34:16 maybe two in America and beyond America
34:21 that, largely speaking, has not been held accountable
34:23 by its parents, its teachers, or its ministers.
34:27 When Paul says, we're to walk worthy,
34:29 and he writes a book
34:30 that he thinks may break his relationship
34:32 with the Corinthian church,
34:33 what he's doing is being a faithful father
34:36 of that flock.
34:38 Doctrine is important,
34:39 and it matters that we have right doctrine.
34:43 I want to assure you today that parental authority,
34:47 pastoral authority, even positional authority
34:50 is all part of saving us
34:53 from driving our spiritual conveyances
34:56 to heaven off a cliff.
34:59 And it's absolutely important, that in my heart,
35:01 as Edwin Friedman says in his book,
35:03 "A failure of nerve
35:05 that I am responsible and honest
35:07 with myself about myself
35:08 because I might not see myself the way God sees me."
35:14 I was dealing with a number of pastors,
35:18 many of them exceptionally wonderful people,
35:22 and I shared with them a summary
35:24 of one of my presentations of a recent message
35:28 on authority and power.
35:31 The pastor lingered around for a little bit,
35:33 and he said to me, "You know, I agree
35:36 with what you're saying mainly,
35:40 but I'm not so sure
35:42 about the maneuvering at the top,
35:44 some of the maneuvering behind the administrational choices."
35:49 Now I need you to understand a word.
35:50 There's a word in our English language,
35:52 it is the word pejorative, the word pejorative is a phrase
35:57 that means the words you're using
36:00 are dripping with some form of negativity
36:04 or detrimental speech,
36:06 something that casts a negative light.
36:09 If one of your church members were to come to me and say
36:12 that you and your position were maneuvering something,
36:15 it's got the sound in the field of manipulation,
36:19 it's not a proper way
36:20 to describe somebody else's actions.
36:24 But in my reflecting on the scriptures,
36:27 I think there were some others
36:28 in the scriptures who thought that maybe there was some
36:31 maneuvering going on.
36:33 Take your Bibles and turn to the Book of Numbers
36:34 chapter 12.
36:37 They were at the very top almost.
36:40 Their younger brother was the leader,
36:42 his name was Moses.
36:46 And it appeared that he had chosen
36:47 to take advice from someone else than them.
36:52 It created a bit of jealousy,
36:53 the spirit of prophecy will write,
36:54 it created a bit of suspicion.
36:57 But what's worse is it in their journey to reconciling
37:01 that somebody else
37:02 was in the circle of administration,
37:06 they became blind.
37:08 It was a blindness they could not see.
37:12 Writing in Patriarchs and Prophets,
37:14 the author states that
37:16 Jethro would come into the camp,
37:18 father-in-law of Moses,
37:20 and that Miriam and Aaron feared
37:22 that his influence with the great leader
37:25 exceeded theirs.
37:27 "Miriam, Aaron," she writes on page 83,
37:30 "were blinded by jealousy and ambition."
37:34 Now to me, that's a very important phrase
37:38 because when you're blinded, you can't see.
37:42 She goes on to state, "Had Aaron stood up firmly
37:44 for the right, he might have checked the evil,
37:48 but instead of showing Miriam the sinfulness of her conduct,
37:50 he sympathized with her
37:52 listening to her words of complaint
37:54 and thus came to share in her jealousy."
37:57 Now I need you to understand something.
37:59 I have a very, very expensive education.
38:03 I'm not talking about the one I got in Andrews
38:05 which was worth every penny,
38:08 I'm not talking about the one I got at the seminary,
38:11 which was exceptionally beneficial to me,
38:14 I'm talking about the one that I got after that,
38:17 the 30 years of parenting and pastoring
38:19 where I have lost sleep, lost friends, lost favor.
38:25 I'm talking to you about the rejection
38:27 and the resistance to a ministry
38:31 that I believe most of the time
38:32 has been motivated by a genuine love
38:34 for my people.
38:36 Some of you have more expensive educations than I
38:39 because you've sought to be faithful
38:41 through the years and you're older than I am.
38:44 This life that we're living when we live it with Christ
38:46 is the ultimate teacher for Jesus Himself
38:48 is the shepherd and the architect.
38:51 He is the engineer of every day
38:53 to teach us the things we need to learn
38:55 in the journey we're on.
38:56 Yes, this education is expensive.
38:59 And I want to make sure you know something.
39:01 You need to be very careful how you listen to people.
39:05 You listen to somebody the wrong way,
39:08 you have reinforced wrong thinking.
39:11 I said on the airplane last night
39:13 between Karen and Sunshine Ray, that's her real name.
39:19 Sunshine Ray was younger than me,
39:21 Karen was older than me.
39:23 Sunshine's on her way to take care of a relative
39:27 who's struggling mentally,
39:28 she's concerned about her mental well-being.
39:31 Listen, if you don't show
39:34 the right kind of discretion and listening,
39:36 you should always listen long enough to understand,
39:38 but you better be careful you don't listen
39:40 in the wrong way to the wrong sentiments
39:42 because you can reinforce them and set the person on a journey
39:45 that they will pay a high price to make a U-turn on.
39:50 Aaron should have stood up to her.
39:52 Aaron should have said, "Miriam,
39:53 you're going the wrong way.
39:55 God is clearly marked out our younger brother
39:57 as the leader."
39:58 But instead of showing Miriam her sinfulness of her conduct,
40:01 he sympathized, and pretty soon,
40:02 she knew she was right, and he thought she was right.
40:07 Numbers chapter 12,
40:09 the Bible has a very interesting
40:12 and painful confrontation recorded in this chapter.
40:16 And probably most of you have missed the power
40:19 of its painfulness.
40:21 It says in verse one, "Then Miriam and Aaron
40:23 spoke against Moses
40:25 because of the Cushite woman he had married,
40:28 *for he had married a Cushite woman, and they said,
40:31 "Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?
40:35 Has He not spoken through us as well?"
40:38 And then this short phrase, "The Lord heard it."
40:43 Now all of us should be reminded
40:45 of what Timothy is told by Paul in 1 Timothy 3:3, 4, and 5.
40:51 "The purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart,
40:55 a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."
40:59 If you're a younger leader, if you're a parent,
41:02 if you're a pastor, if you're a teacher,
41:04 if you're just a Christian, remember this.
41:06 Paul will summarize his book by saying,
41:08 "Look the purpose of the commandment."
41:10 If you forget everything else, Timothy, remember this,
41:12 "The purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart,
41:17 a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."
41:19 When you say something you shouldn't say,
41:22 when you think something you shouldn't think,
41:24 and God plucks the cords of your conscience,
41:27 don't turn that into something religious
41:29 that you need to kick to the curb.
41:31 There is a living God. He's unseen, but He's alive.
41:34 He wants to dwell in your heart and mind,
41:35 and He will talk to you if you've educated your heart,
41:39 mind, and journey in this book.
41:42 When Miriam and Aaron began thinking wrong
41:45 and speaking wrong,
41:46 you can be sure the Spirit of God
41:47 was ahead of time contending with them.
41:49 They chose to reject it,
41:51 but there is this commentary that God Himself heard it.
41:56 Verse 3, now the man Moses was very humble
41:58 more than any other man
41:59 who was on the face of the earth.
42:02 And suddenly the Lord said to Moses, and Aaron,
42:04 and to Miriam, "You three,
42:06 come out to the tent of meeting,"
42:08 so the three of them came out.
42:11 You know, when my mother called me by my entire name
42:14 with all my siblings and I was told to appear,
42:18 it was a troublesome moment, which this will be.
42:23 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud
42:25 and stood at the doorway of the tent,
42:27 and he called Aaron and Miriam.
42:28 And when they both confirmed, He said, "Here now My words,"
42:33 this is a very direct encounter,
42:35 there's not a lot of warm up,
42:36 there won't be a lot of post lewd.
42:39 "If there's a prophet among you, I, the Lord,
42:42 shall make myself known to him in a vision.
42:45 I shall speak with him in a dream,
42:48 not so with My servant Moses."
42:50 In other words, God's taking him up a notch,
42:52 "He is faithful in all my household.
42:56 With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly,
42:59 not in dark sayings,
43:00 and he beholds the form of the Lord.
43:03 Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant
43:08 against Moses?"
43:09 "So the anger of the Lord burned against them,
43:13 and He departed."
43:15 What you need to understand
43:16 is that in the book of Exodus chapter 22,
43:21 Moses directed the congregation of evil of Israel
43:26 not to speak evil against the ruler.
43:28 This is what Paul was referencing to
43:30 when in Acts chapter 22 or 23,
43:33 he's standing before the Sanhedrin,
43:35 and he starts his speech out by saying,
43:37 "I'm standing before You here in all good conscience."
43:41 And the high priest doesn't like it,
43:43 and he says to his attendant, "Hit him in the mouth."
43:45 He just gives a little hand moment.
43:47 And he hits Paul in the mouth,
43:48 and Paul says under inspiration,
43:51 not as irritated response, he says,
43:55 "May God strike you, you whitewash wall
43:57 for striking me against the law."
44:01 And the person standing next to Paul
44:02 says something very interesting.
44:04 He says, "Are you going to talk that way
44:06 about the high priest?"
44:09 and Paul says, "I didn't know it was the high priest."
44:14 And then there is his statement
44:16 which is a reference to Exodus chapter 22,
44:19 "Don't speak evil against the ruler."
44:23 This dynamic has been communicated
44:25 to Israel and yet it is something
44:27 that Miriam and Aaron seemed quite casual
44:31 and going against.
44:32 You should not be speaking evil against dignitaries
44:35 for even the angels, Peter or I,
44:37 don't bring riling accusations gainst them.
44:39 When you lose proper structure in society,
44:43 you can lose civility.
44:44 And when you lose these dynamics,
44:46 you've lost more than you can get back
44:48 in a generation.
44:49 A home that has not properly under authority,
44:51 a church, an administrative structure,
44:54 there is to be a humility about the servants of Christ
44:57 with an appropriate submission to each other
45:00 that allows God to speak through the ones he appoints.
45:04 When David is being chased around the wilderness by Saul,
45:08 he's in the cave.
45:10 David sneaks up to him.
45:12 His men are all saying, "This is what God said,
45:14 'I'll turn your enemies over to you.'"
45:16 David goes up on his hands and knees,
45:18 pulls his sword out of its sheath,
45:21 the light coming from the entrance of the cave
45:23 is glistening off the blade,
45:25 but all the while love from a pure heart,
45:28 a good conscience, and faith unfeigned
45:30 are wrestling with the would be king's
45:33 and the will be king's heart.
45:35 And David is close to taking the life
45:37 of his persecutor, but then he slides the knife
45:40 back into its sheath, and he goes back and he says,
45:43 "I'm not going to be the one who raises my hand
45:45 against the Lord's anointed."
45:48 David later finds another opportunity.
45:50 This time, he's with one of his mighty men,
45:52 Abishai, his nephew.
45:55 This is the man who will save David
45:57 from one of Goliath's relatives later on,
45:59 and they'll tell David,
46:01 no more coming onto the battlefield with us.
46:04 They go all the way into the center of camp,
46:06 which is a gutsy move.
46:09 And as they are there with a divine slumber
46:11 on all of David's enemies, Abishai says,
46:15 "Let me take the spear and I can take care of him.
46:18 In one thrust, it'll be over,
46:19 and life will be better and different."
46:22 And David says, "There's no way.
46:25 God can take him out, God can deal with him,
46:29 I'm not going to be the one
46:30 who strikes the Lord's anointed."
46:31 I want you to know something.
46:33 If you are a child barring some unusual circumstance,
46:36 God has anointed your parents
46:38 to be a proper authority in your life,
46:40 and it didn't end when you got old enough
46:41 to come to GYC.
46:44 It changed and it'll keep changing.
46:49 If God has called your pastor to your church,
46:51 I hope that before he came,
46:53 you got down on your knees and did a lot of praying
46:55 because personal decisions are great big deals.
46:58 But once he brings him,
47:00 it's important for you to make sure
47:02 that you understand
47:04 that there were prayerful administrative moments,
47:07 and there was a laying on of hands,
47:09 and he is or she is to be the one
47:11 that is guiding you on this journey.
47:15 God is in the midst
47:17 of His administrative componentry
47:19 if we will bring Him in.
47:22 Verse 10, "But when the cloud had withdrawn
47:25 from over the tent, behold,
47:26 Miriam was leprous, as white as snow.
47:30 As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.
47:33 Then Aaron said to Moses, 'Oh, my lord, I beg you,
47:37 do not account this sin to us, which we have acted foolishly
47:42 and in which we have sinned.
47:44 And don't let her be like one dead,
47:46 whose flesh is half eaten away
47:49 when he comes from his mother's womb!'
47:52 Moses cried out to the Lord,
47:53 saying, 'O God, heal her, I pray!'"
47:57 And listen to God's response.
48:00 "But the Lord said to Moses..."
48:04 Now this is going to strike many
48:05 as offensive to the sensibilities
48:08 of our modern society and our culture,
48:11 this is going to strike many as out of character
48:15 with the very nature of God,
48:16 but I'd like to challenge you this morning
48:19 that when you become blind and when you become jealous,
48:22 and God's got to come down and smite you with leprosy,
48:25 there's a pretty serious spiritual disease
48:28 that's farther advanced than you might know,
48:30 and it might require a severe rebuke,
48:33 which is what this whole chapter is.
48:36 But this is what God says,
48:39 "If her father had but spit in her face,
48:44 she would bear her shame for seven days.
48:48 Let her be shut outside the camp
48:52 for seven days.
48:54 And she can be received again."
48:57 This manifestation,
48:59 Ellen White will write of the Lord's displeasure
49:00 was designed to be a warning to all Israel,
49:03 to check the growing spirit
49:05 of discontent and insubordination.
49:08 If Miriam's envy and dissatisfaction
49:11 had not been signally rebuked,
49:12 it would have resulted in great evil.
49:15 The judgment visited upon Miriam
49:17 should be a rebuke to all who yield jealousy
49:19 and murmur against those
49:20 whom God lays the burden of His work.
49:23 You know, we have a responsibility
49:25 and a right to our leaders,
49:27 whether it's a parent or a teacher or a pastor
49:30 or a governmental leader,
49:31 we have the obligation to pray,
49:34 Paul says, for those that are in authority.
49:36 We have God divinely directed, counsel of Matthew 18,
49:40 to go and talk to people.
49:42 If I had $1 for every time somebody said to me,
49:45 "Pastor, it won't do any good."
49:48 How do you know it's not going to do any good?
49:51 You don't know until you go.
49:53 And besides the good it will do will be in you
49:56 by giving you the proper humility
49:58 and courage and love
49:59 that will only make you a more effective leader
50:02 the rest of your life.
50:04 And whether or not does any good in the moment,
50:06 it has the power to do good somewhere down the road.
50:10 If you haven't read the rest of the Book of Numbers,
50:13 you need to understand that
50:16 this problem with insubordination
50:18 was an Israelite problem.
50:20 Stephen will be stoned in the Book of Acts
50:22 because he says that Israel was a stubborn, rebellious,
50:26 stiff-necked people.
50:28 It's true the people in the camp of Israel
50:30 needed no encouragement
50:32 from the second and third in command
50:34 to stand up to the leader
50:36 and act like they're leaders too.
50:38 And if you read the next chapters
50:39 of the Book of Numbers,
50:40 you see rebellion after rebellion.
50:42 You may think something that if you say
50:47 will sow the seeds of doubt in resentment,
50:51 and insubordination, and rebellion
50:53 in the heart of somebody else
50:54 and Satan's right there
50:55 behind you to water and fertilize it,
50:57 and it may cost them their eternal life.
51:01 This is why God shows up so powerfully in this story
51:05 and says, "There just isn't going to be any of this."
51:11 You know, there's a lot of references
51:12 in the scriptures to military metaphors.
51:17 Paul will talk about a soldier
51:19 not going to war at his own expense.
51:22 We sing about onward Christian soldiers
51:24 and stand like the brave.
51:26 The Spirit of Prophecy will talk about
51:28 not everyone being able to be generals,
51:30 and captains, and sergeants, or even corporals,
51:32 and I'm quoting from her now out of Christian stewardship,
51:36 "There's a hard work of other kinds to be done.
51:38 Some must dig trenches and build fortifications,
51:41 some must stand at sentinels, some are to carry messages."
51:43 You know why?
51:45 God has a specific special place for your life,
51:47 but He may not be calling you to lead,
51:48 He may be calling you to follow
51:50 and hold up to the hands of the ones
51:51 He's called you to support,
51:53 the ones that He has called to lead.
51:56 There's all kinds of metaphors
51:57 of military might and military order
52:01 in the Scriptures, but right now,
52:02 the devil has one goal.
52:04 And this is the point he wants to make sure
52:07 that Seventh-day Adventism
52:08 is at war with nobody except itself.
52:13 And I want you to think about it.
52:15 It's not your job to go home from this message or another
52:17 and flavor your Christian life by chewing on the preacher
52:20 or the teacher or the Sabbath school leader.
52:23 That's not how you're to flavor your Christian experience.
52:25 There has to be a beautiful submissive humility.
52:28 It's enough humility to stand up in love
52:30 when you should, and it's enough humility
52:31 to get down on your knees and pray often,
52:35 until we recognize that we need accountability,
52:38 we will probably resent and resist accountability.
52:42 And I can assure you for anyone
52:44 that's dealing with dynamics of resistance right now,
52:49 that if someone will not submit to authority,
52:52 eventually they will have to convince themselves
52:54 that that authority is abusive
52:56 and not legitimately do the support
52:59 of those that find themselves
53:01 in the structures of governance underneath them
53:03 if you should say it in such a way.
53:06 I'm holding in my hands an amazing device.
53:10 I want to illustrate this because in a crowd this big,
53:12 there's bound to be somebody for whom this is salient.
53:18 If I could smash every smartphone in the world
53:20 that was held by an adolescent hand,
53:22 I'd do it.
53:24 Not because it's inherently evil,
53:28 just because I'm the father of four,
53:30 and I've gone through so many chapters
53:32 where the world is trying to get between me
53:34 and the rightful discipleship of my child
53:37 by the unaccountable access to their mind
53:40 with a moving of the thumb.
53:44 They can be sitting at my table, I can walk in,
53:46 and with one sweep of the thumb,
53:48 they can be in a different world.
53:50 If you think I don't have experience,
53:51 I pastored for almost 20 years next to an academy.
53:55 But my real experiences in raising four children,
53:58 you know, my mother actually bought one of these
54:00 for one of my children whom I will remain nameless,
54:03 so you only get a 25% chance in figuring out who it is
54:06 if you know my kids.
54:09 And before it was put into their hands, I said,
54:11 "Now you know that as a dad,
54:13 I have a right to look at this phone whenever I want,
54:16 and look at anything I want."
54:17 And you know what they did?
54:19 They couldn't turn their head up and down fast enough
54:22 to agree with what I was saying.
54:25 But I want to assure you when the day came
54:27 that I wanted to look at it, that was none of my business.
54:32 Now I want you to think about this.
54:36 Are you a woman?
54:38 Are you a man?
54:39 Are you a boy? Are you a girl under authority?
54:42 Are you your own authority?
54:43 If so, the work of rebellion
54:45 which is how God characterized Moses' inability
54:49 to go into the Promised Land,
54:51 read the Book of Numbers,
54:52 he is told that he acted in rebellion.
54:56 We must conduct ourselves on the high plane of a noble,
55:00 dignified, submissive spirit.
55:03 Timothy tells us to test the spirits.
55:06 John tells us to test the spirits,
55:08 the spirit of independence of thought,
55:10 and pride, of opinion.
55:12 We don't worship idols anymore.
55:14 We worship our own thinking.
55:15 And that is perhaps the most dangerous way to live.
55:20 We're to reject the factious man
55:21 the scripture say.
55:25 Now I'm about out of time,
55:29 and I want to appeal to you.
55:33 I'm not God, neither are your parents,
55:36 neither is your boss,
55:37 neither is your conference president
55:39 or anywhere up the line.
55:42 But there's something about you that lends itself
55:46 to this fantastic vitality of spirit,
55:49 which sometimes doesn't want the reins pulled in on it.
55:54 There's not a person listening to me today
55:56 who doesn't have to wrestle with their own cardinality
55:59 and the idea of wanting to be right
56:01 and not be told that they're wrong,
56:05 but it's dangerous.
56:08 We are living at the end of time,
56:12 we cannot afford
56:14 to practice the mentalities of independence
56:17 of thought and the rejection of proper authority.
56:21 We must model proper governance and structure
56:26 for the sake of the world to see that the Holy Spirit
56:29 reigns in our midst individually
56:30 and collectively.
56:31 And this morning, God has appointed me
56:34 to ask each of you,
56:36 are you too a man or a woman under authority.
56:40 Can God speak to you through someone else
56:43 and it's not abuse of power,
56:46 it's legitimate love and concern,
56:48 it could even severely rebuke you,
56:52 and would you accept it like David did
56:54 when Abigail came to him and later on wrote,
56:57 "Let the righteous smite me,
56:58 and it shall be an ointment to me,
57:00 and shall be balm for my soul"?
57:02 I'm appealing to you, whatever role,
57:04 position, or place you hold to let the Lord Jesus Christ
57:08 who submitted Himself to terrible abuse of authority,
57:12 and I'm not suggesting there's not a proper way
57:14 to stand up and speak truth to power
57:17 with the Spirit of Christ, I'm simply saying,
57:21 let the truth speak to your own soul first
57:25 so that you wouldn't be blinded
57:27 and miss the elemental Lordship of Jesus Christ,
57:31 which would allow us to dwell together in unity,
57:33 and it could be like oil
57:34 running down on the beard of Aaron.
57:38 Let's pray.
57:41 Lord, touch the hearts of my brothers and sisters.
57:45 Do what only You can do to make us one.
57:48 May we individually...


Home

Revised 2019-03-28