God’s Chain of Command
Our nation began with the revolutionary war. It seems we have been revolting ever since. In the name of individual rights we have crushed the soul of society “submission to authority”. It seems we have been in one rebellion after another. The draft dodgers of the sixties, hippies, mini skirts, bobbed hair etc. And personally -Latreal Spreewell choking his coach PJ Carlisamo. If you do what you are told you are made fun of as a brown noser ..We have the rebel flag, rebel yell, and all kinds of new ways to show rebellion. Dennis Rodman -need I say anymore. Do you know who the original rebel was -SATAN.
Do you want to know why you are living in spiritual defeat, Powerless, and not under the blessing of God. For many it is because you are not living in submission to God given authority figures in your life. Although “rebel” is a popular title in our culture, it is not in God’s economy.
The Word of God says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Witches were to be killed or put out of the land. You know how evil witchcraft is, and God compares rebellion to it.
Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you from being king."
1 Samuel 15:23
1 Obey the government, for God is the one who put it there. All governments have been placed in power by God. 2 So those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow. 3 For the authorities do not frighten people who are doing right, but they frighten those who do wrong. So do what they say, and you will get along well. 4 The authorities are sent by God to help you. But if you are doing something wrong, of course you should be afraid, for you will be punished. The authorities are established by God for that very purpose, to punish those who do wrong. 5 So you must obey the government for two reasons: to keep from being punished and to keep a clear conscience. 6 Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid so they can keep on doing the work God intended them to do. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and import duties, and give respect and honor to all to whom it is due. Romans 13:1-7
I It is to be Learned in the Home.
A. It is the only commandment with a promise. “Honor Father and Mother”
1 Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. 2 "Honor your father and mother." This is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise. 3 And this is the promise: If you honor your father and mother, "you will live a long life, full of blessing." Ephesians 6
B. If you don’t learn it early- it will be difficult to learn late.
-some are sent to boarding school, armed forces, Juvenile Hall.
C. It is submission to imperfect authority.
D. Parents should do their best to Discipline (Fair, Firm, Friendly)
(You can create rebellion) -Fathers don’t exasperate your children to wrath Eph
4 And now a word to you fathers. Don’t make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord. (NLT)
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (NASB)
Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master. (TM)
Ephesians 6:4
Bush Banned Broccoli
After it was disclosed that President Bush has banned broccoli aboard Air Force One, the nation was embroiled in “broccoli discussion.” As broccoli growers dispatched 10 tons of the vegetable free to Washington, the President reiterated his distaste with gusto: “I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m president of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. Now look, this is the last statement I’m going to have on broccoli. There are truckloads of broccoli at this very minute descending on Washington. My family is divided. For the broccoli vote out there: Barbara loves broccoli. She has tried to make me eat it. She eats it all the time herself. So she can go out and meet the caravan of broccoli that’s coming in.”
Resources, #2, May/June, 1990
*Kid is in trouble at school -do we attack the teacher? When I was a kid my father said, "If you get in trouble at school, you will get in more trouble when you get home." Today we attack the teacher instead.
II It is to be taken to School
A. To Respect Teachers, Principals, Cafeteria workers, hall moniters, umpires, referees, anyone with authority over you. EVEN Substitutes, Bus Driver
B. To Obey them (As long as they don’t cause you to sin.)
III It is to be taken to Work
a. Employees-
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. 6 Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. 7 Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 8 Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free. Eph. 6
b. Employers, Bosses
9 And in the same way, you masters must treat your slaves right. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites. Eph 6
IV It is to be taken to Church
Chicken Lady
When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished.
As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line.
“Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?”
“Sorry,” the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.”
“But I’m starved,” the governor said.
“Sorry,” the woman said again. “Only one to a customer.”
Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around.
“Do you know who I am?” he said. “I am the governor of this state.”
“Do you know who I am?” the woman said. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister.”
Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, Page 5-6
17 Obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they know they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this joyfully and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit. Heb 13
Who are they: Pastors, teachers, Board members, Worship leaders,
A. Rebelling against your leaders is tantamount to rebelling against God.
"Our father died in the wilderness without leaving any sons," they said. "But he was not among Korah’s followers, who rebelled against the LORD. He died because of his own sin.
Numbers 27:3
*Samuel was told when Israel cried for a king- they are not rejecting you they are rejecting me.
B. You must respect the position even if you can’t respect the character of the person.
David and Saul
C. You must accept Correction from them.
Jimmy Swaggert refused his 1 year Penalty for being caught with a prostitute, and pulled his church out of denomination. Subsequently he was caught at least 3 more times.
D. To Leaders - Positional Leadership don’t last long.
You have symbolic change in you pocket when you begin a position of leadership. If you do good it increases. If you mess up you lose some. If you mess up too much you run out of change, and people quit following. (John Maxwell)
1. If you have to keep telling people you are the leader - you probably aren’t
2. Leadership is influence -The one with the most influence will be followed whether or not they have the position.
3. In Volunteer organizations Leaders must motivate people to follow them.
1. By respecting the people under them, and making them feel valuable
2. By superior knowledge or experience. (You can’t take them where you haven’t been)
3. By godly character -Live by golden rule
4. Power plays, ruling with iron fist, manipulation, disrespect, people will quit following
E. To the Congregation
Yield
Driving down a country road, I came to a very narrow bridge. In front of the bridge, a sign was posted: “YIELD.” Seeing no oncoming cars, I continued across the bridge and to my destination. On my way back, I came to the same one-lane bridge, now from the other direction. To my surprise, I saw another YIELD sign posted. CURIOUS, I thought, I’M SURE THERE WAS ONE POSITIONED ON THE OTHER SIDE. When I reached the other side of the bridge I looked back. Sure enough, yield signs had been placed at both ends of the bridge. Drivers from both directions were requested to give right of way. It was a reasonable and gracious way of preventing a head-on collision. When the Bible commands Christians to “be subject to one another” (Eph. 5:21) it is simply a reasonable and gracious command to let the other have the right of way and avoid interpersonal head-on collisions.
Stephen P. Beck
V It is to be taken back to the home.
21 And further, you will submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 You wives will submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of his body, the church; he gave his life to be her Savior. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives must submit to your husbands in everything. 25 And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by baptism and God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man is actually loving himself when he loves his wife. 29 No one hates his own body but lovingly cares for it, just as Christ cares for his body, which is the church. 30 And we are his body. 31 As the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one." 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Eph 5 (NLT)
21 Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another. 22 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. 23 The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. 24 So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands. 25 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving, not getting. Eph 5 (The Message)
1 Cor. 11:3
3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
VI It is to be taken into our Relationship with God
Clenched Fist Toward God
A story I heard personally from Malcolm Muggeridge (that stirred me then and still does even yet) was his account of a conversation he had with Svetlana Stalin, the daughter of Josef Stalin. She spent some time with Muggeridge in his home in England while they were working together on their BBC production on the life of her father. According to Svetlana, as Stalin lay dying, plagued with terrifying hallucinations, he suddenly sat halfway up in bed, clenched his fist toward the heavens once more, fell back upon his pillow, and was dead.
The incredible irony of his whole life is that at one time Josef Stalin had been a seminary student, preparing for the ministry. Coming of Nietzschean age, he made a decisive break from his belief in God. This dramatic and complete reversal of conviction that resulted in his hatred for all religion is why Lenin had earlier chosen Stalin and positioned him in authority—a choice Lenin too late regretted. (The name Stalin, which means “steel,” was not his real name, but was given to him by his contemporaries who fell under the steel-like determination of his will.) And as Stalin lay dying, his one last gesture was a clenched fist toward God, his heart as cold and hard as steel.
Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God, (Word Publ., Dallas: 1994), p. 26.
Jonah discovered rebelling against God doesn’t pay.
Not even Moses and Aaron were immune to punishment for rebellion toward God.
Numbers 20:24
"The time has come for Aaron to join his ancestors in death. He will not enter the land I am giving the people of Israel, because the two of you rebelled against my instructions concerning the waters of Meribah.
Exodus 4:24
On the journey, when Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the LORD confronted Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah, his wife, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She threw the foreskin at Moses’ feet and said, "What a blood-smeared bridegroom you are to me!" 26 (When she called Moses a "blood-smeared bridegroom," she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the LORD left him alone.
Dared God to Send an Earthquake
In a book entitled Down to Earth, John Lawrence tells the story of a city that dared God to show Himself and paid a terrible price. It seems that the city of Messina, Sicily, was home to many wicked, irreligious people.
On December 25, 1908, a newspaper published in Messina printed a parody against God, daring Him to make Himself known by sending an earthquake.
Three days later, on December 28, the city and its surrounding district was devastated by a terrible quake that killed 84,000 people.
Today in the Word, October, 1997, p. 25
Conclusion: The only place rebellion is good in the life of a Christian is when it is against the wicked world system. In that since we are rebels. We aren’t supposed to fit in. We are supposed to stand out of the crowd. We are to rebel against the conduct and talk of the age.
If you want to be a rebel, be a rebel for God. Stand for truth against the crowd.
