Get the logos, graphics, and videos Andy used to preach this message. Visit www.andystanleysermons.org.
Rebellion equals freedom. We didn’t actually know how to say it like that, but that’s the premise from which we operated from the time we were about 12 or 13 years old, right? It just made sense. The best way to get free is to rebel against the rules, or ignore all the rules, because as long as I was keeping rules, I wasn’t really free. And we grow up and that sort of morphs into a more sophisticated version of the same thing. As adults, we know that rebelling doesn’t equal freedom because we know the prisons are full of people who rebelled and they lost all their freedom.
So, we’re too smart for that, but there’s still this insidious twist that follows us into adulthood, and the adult version of the same twist goes like this: "If I disagree with a rule, I’ll ignore it. If I disagree with a rule, I’ll disobey it. If I disagree with a rule, I’ll disregard it." It’s the same twist. It’s just the adult version. It’s somehow "I’m still going to be free and I’m still going to do what I want to do, but instead of just dismissing all authority, I’ll just take it one rule at a time, one law at a time, and if I don’t like the rule, if I think it’s too extreme, if I think it’s, you know, redundant, if I think it’s irrelevant, if I think I’ve kind of grown past that, one rule at a time I’ll evaluate and then I’ll decide one rule at a time, and if I disagree I’ll just disregard it."
Now you may not be willing to admit this in church, but everybody listening to this message in about five minutes or less can think of an opportunity or think of a situation where you’ve done exactly that. You know, 40 miles an hour, that’s stupid. It should be 45 here. Fifty-five, that’s stupid. It should be 65. Sixty-five, it should be 75. What happened to the good old days when you could drive 80 miles an hour?
But we’ve all done that. We evaluate it rule by rule. You know, you’re filling out your own taxes and you’re doing your deductions and you’re thinking, "This ought to be a deduction. This ought to be a deduction. This ought to be a deduction. These ought to be deductions. I mean common sense says these should be deductions. God would probably agree that they’re deductions." And there’s something, curfew, whatever it is . . . they’re many, many examples where we just, you know, because we don’t agree with it, we just disregard it.
We started this series last week. It’s called Twisted, and sort of the big idea of the whole series is that there is an invisible world that impacts our visible world. There’s an invisible world, an unseen world, that impacts our seen world. And, if you believe in God and/or heaven, you’re halfway there. You already believe in an unseen world. You already believe there’s a being who somehow impacts or controls that unseen world. It’s the other half that we tend to ignore.
Because last week we said just like germs, the invisible germs that float around all the time and are carried through the air, just like germs are invisible and yet have the potential to impact the visible world, in the same way, we discovered last week that there’s another invisible world that has the potential to impact us, not just physically, but impacts our decisions, impacts our relationships, impacts the way we think about things, impacts the way we view the world. It impacts our entire worldview.
And we said that you don’t need a microscope to see this other invisible world, like you need to see germs. All you need is a rearview mirror, because every one of us, every one of us can look back at a time in our lives--a night, a weekend, a trip, a stage or a chapter of our lives, a relationship--we look back now and we say, "How could I have been so blind? How could I have been so deceived? How could I have been in such a fog?" Some of us think back to times in our lives when people warned us and they said, "Can’t you see that what you’re doing is going to result in disaster?" and we really couldn’t see it. We were genuinely deceived. It’s not like we wanted to destroy our lives or mess up our lives or bankrupt ourselves. It just made sense to us.
Now we look back and go, "Wow. How could I have been so deceived? Why couldn’t I see it?" And the Scripture helps us answer that question. It says that beyond just your personality and beyond just the way you were raised and beyond just self-awareness or lack of self-awareness, or all the things that we tend to blame our mistakes on, beyond that there really is an invisible world, an unseen world.
And then we opened the Scripture last week. This was like "Whoa," because we let Jesus speak to this issue. And in the book of John, Jesus tells us what he thinks about this unseen world. He kind of gives us his take on the unseen world, and it was just right out there. If you weren’t here last week, just a little heads-up. Jesus believed, and believes, that there’s a devil, that it’s not just heaven and God on the one side. He actually believed there was a devil, and he said, he said that the Devil is a murder, that’s basically his goal, and that his art form, or the method or the means by which he accomplishes his will is real simple, it’s deception, that he’s a liar, that he’s the father of lies, that lying is his language, that he is the master twister and he twists things just enough to get us off track without exposing the fact that there is a personality, a devil, behind all this. Now, that’s just kind of weird. In fact, we, we, I even allowed us all to kind of push back from that last week to say, "Do, do we, do we really believe that? Can you be a modern person and believe there’s a devil?" And it comes down to whether or not you take Jesus at his word. In John, Chapter 8, he just called him out and named him for who he was. At the end of last week, we gave some big, giant, sort of national, international illustrations of that, and if you didn’t get the message, hear the message last week, please go online and listen to that, because it kind of sets us up for where we’re going.
So, what we’re going to do today and for the next four weeks is we’re going to look at some of the big twists, some of the big issues that impact all of us, that have gotten twisted and, consequently, confused us in our decision-making, in our relationships, and the way we think about morality, ethics, and everything else. And today I want to talk about this big subject of authority, because this is really where it all began.
Now, I’m like you. I’m all for authority, especially when I am in authority. Aren’t you? I mean, I think authority’s a great idea. I think people should respond positively to authority and should submit to authority, especially when I’m the authority. I just think it’s a great idea. I love being the head of my household, and Sandra was raised in a family where the wife submitted to the husband and so, I get to be the husband, so that works out great. And, you know, children, obey your parents, I just love that verse. It’s one of my favorite verses, ’cause I get to be the parent. And I like being in charge of an organization. I think authority’s great when I’m the authority, and, like you, I think authority is great when authority supports my decisions, right? And I like to be able to call the police. I don’t like to be chased by the police, okay? I’m all for police, but I like to call them to support me in my time of need. I want to see their blue lights ahead of me, not behind me. Now, help me get there quicker. Don’t slow me down.
See, so I’m like you. I’m kind of for authority, but here’s where the twist comes in. Somewhere along the way--and it’s in our culture and it’s from the very beginning in the garden of Eden . . . you can go back and find it, somewhere along the way--the twist is this, that when it comes to authority, when it comes to rules, that our first response and the proper response is to evaluate the ’what.’ What am I being asked to do? What am I being required to do? Whether it’s parents, whether it’s your boss, whether it’s the government, whether it’s the educational system, in whatever arena you’re in where you have someone telling you want to do because you’ve signed a contract or you work for a company or you’re in an organization where there are certain expectations, our first line of response to authority, because of this twist, is to evaluate the ’what.’ What am I being asked to do? And the twist is . . . if I disagree with the ’what,’ and I can disregard the ’what’ without consequences, I’m going to disregard it. If I think that that’s the wrong speed limit, I can just disregard it. If I think that policy handbook for the company is just a little out of bounds, it needs to be updated, and a little bit antiquated, and, besides, I don’t see anybody else following these procedures, then I can just disregard it.
And I don’t feel guilty. I don’t go to bed at night and confess it as sin. It doesn’t even make a mark on my conscience because I evaluated it and decided that’s just a stupid rule. I’m sure God would second that emotion, cause he’s far smarter than me, and if I can see how antiquated that is, if I can see how irrelevant that is, if I can see how impractical that rule is, certainly God can see it. God and me are over here going, "Dumb rule! What do you think?" Second that emotion. I’m not gonna obey it, and God doesn’t blame me and everything’s fine. It doesn’t even bother me, because my tendency, the way I’m oriented because of the twist, we look at rules and authority, and the first line of response is, "Let’s evaluate ’what’ it says, ’what’ it’s asking me to do. And if I don’t agree with it and I can get by with it, then, baby, I’m free and it’s not going to bother me a bit." Now, if I think I’m gonna get in trouble, I may adhere to it, not because I agree, but I’m just trying to stay out of trouble. I just want to avoid consequences.
Now, if all we were talking about is . . . should the curfew be 12:00 or 12:30? If it’s . . . is this really a deduction or not? You know, if we’re talking about a bunch of little things . . . is it 35, or should it be 35 miles an hour or 40, if it was those kind of things, this wouldn’t even be worth talking about. But this is a big, broad twist that impacts us at multiple levels. I mean, it becomes a little more emotional and a little more impactful when you think about a 16-year-old boy getting in the car with his buddies and a couple of six-packs, because, after all, that whole thing about under-age drinking, I mean, you know, that’s for somebody else, cause I’m 16 and I’ve kind of controlled my own destiny and we evaluated that rule. We decided it’s a bad rule. So, we’re gonna do it anyway. And we know there’s an open container thing about ’in the car,’ but, you know, we think that’s a bad rule, too, so we’re gonna disregard that.
And we think the whole thing about drinking and driving, that’s probably a good rule for the average person, but I’m not the average 16-year-old, and my friends aren’t the average 16-year-olds. And, besides, we’re pretty mature. We can handle it. We looked at those three rules and we’ve decided "No, thank you. We’re above that." And since we disagree with the rule, we feel empowered to disregard it, just like his father did when he was filling out his income tax. Just like his mother does when she decided the doctor didn’t know best about her medication, so she has three doctors and they don’t know about each other, and she gets all the prescription drugs she wants, because . . . what do doctors know? What do pharmacists know? I know better than any of them, and I know legally there are some complications, but, you know, I disagree with the way the system’s set up. And so I’m gonna operate differently because I know best. It doesn’t even . . . not even a twinge of conscience. Because when it comes to authority, it’s all about the ’what’ we’re being asked to do.
Now, not surprisingly, when you open the Scriptures, you find a little bit different paradigm. You find a little bit different frame of reference. And here’s where we unmask the twist. And . . . and I’ll let you know up front . . . when we look at these verses, some of you are gonna push back, and that’s fine. This will give you something to talk about over dinner tonight or throughout the week. This may cause you to dive into the Scriptures and find out more for yourself. Some of you, as we go through these verses, will think of exceptions--yeah, but what about and what about, I heard about--and that’s okay.
But, just if you would, for a few minutes, focus on this principle because it is so powerful and it is very, very liberating once you allow it to sink in, because here’s where we’re going. Whereas the twist says when it comes to authority and rules, it’s all about ’what,’ God says, "No, it’s all about ’who.’" I want to evaluate each rule, one by one, and decide if I really want to apply that to me. And if that applies to me, God says, "No, it’s not about ’what.’ It’s about ’who.’"
And here’s why. If you have your Bible, I’d love for you to turn with me to the book of Romans . . . Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts . . . Romans. Sixth book in the New Testament. And, the context, or sort of the setup for these verses, is what makes them so powerful. Romans Chapter 13. Let me tell you . . . this is unbelievable. What gives these words credibility is not just the fact that they’re in the Bible, but the context in which they were written. The book of Romans is a letter and it was written to Christians who lived in--where? --Rome. See, you’re catching on. Rome. That’s why they called it Romans, right?
These were written to Christians. There weren’t many Christians in Rome in the 1st Century? Not a good place if you were a Christian, to live in Rome. And, the emperor during this time, you’ve heard of him. He’s a famous emperor. His name is Nero. I don’t know if you remember anything about Christians and Nero. Not a good mix, okay? He burnt the city of Rome, blamed it on Christians. He burnt Christians at the stake. He lit them, lit up his gardens with burning Christians in wax. He fed Christians to the lions. Christianity didn’t fare very well under Nero and, obviously, Nero was a pagan. He was a terrible emperor. He killed part of his own family. I mean, he was just a maniac. So, he is in charge of the government when these verses are written.
So, with that in mind, here’s what Paul wrote to some Christians living in Rome about authority. Romans, Chapter 13, verse 1. Okay, verse 1, here we go. "Everyone," --that’d be us--"must submit himself to the governing authorities." What’d you say? Okay, we’ve got to have a time-out right there. Don’t you mean we need to look at each rule, rule by rule, and evaluate one rule at a time? I mean, can you just make this blanket statement, "You need to submit to the ruling authorities?" I mean, come on, Paul. Do you even know what our rules are here in Rome?
Paul says, "No, no, no. This is a shift. See, you think it’s all about each individual law and rule. I’m telling you, this isn’t about ’what.’ This is about ’who,’ and you need to submit to the governing authorities."
A little more information here. "For there is no authority except that which God has established." Now, we just need a really big pause and allow that to sink in, because that’s kind of unbelievable. I mean, that’s enough to make you want to take these pages and rip them out of the Bible to say, "You know what? There’s nothing more apparently wrong than that verse. For there is no authority except that which God has established. Could you say that again, Paul?"
Here, look at the second verse, ’cause he knew we would, we would be like, what? "The authorities that exist have been established by God." Now, you must mean religious authority, like the rabbi or the priest or the Pope or the preacher or the . . . no, no, no. It doesn’t even, doesn’t even go in that direction, as the verses go on. No, all authority, all authority, all authorities have been established by God. And he points us to a principle that you will find throughout the Scriptures and, again, if you pause long enough to let this sink in, this is such a powerful concept and it will make sense out of so much of life. It’ll even help you make sense out of history.
Here’s what he teaches. Here’s what the Bible teaches--that God always works through human authority, that God works through human authority. Good human authority. Bad human authority. Righteous human authority. Unrighteous human authority. Believing human authority. Unbelieving human authority. That God works through human authority. That’s how God exercises his will on the earth. I’ll give you some examples in a minute.
So, Paul says, "Look. It’s not about ’what.’ It’s about ’who.’ Because God exercises his will and his authority through the human authorities that he has allowed and he has established." To which we go, "Okay, but wait. Okay, the implications of that are really kind of scary because that’s like saying, "If God established them, that means if I disobey my parents, or if I disobey, rebel at school, or if I do something my company’s asked me not to do, or I don’t do things right with the government, then the implication is that to kind of rebel or disregard those rules is kind of like disregarding or rebelling against God. I mean . . . by putting these things in the same line, you’re making what I do at work a spiritual issue. You’re making my tax return a spiritual issue. You’re making what I do at school a spiritual issue. Surely, that’s not what you’re saying."
Verse 2, "Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves." That God has established the authorities in your life, and as bad as I want to do this, and we’ve all done this, to say, "Okay, God. You know, I’m not gonna do this because that’s stupid. I’m not gonna do that ’cause that’s irrelevant. I’m not gonna do that cause my parents never really have understood what’s going on in my world. I’m not gonna do this because, because, because, because. But God, I want you to know I love you so much, and I love to read the Bible, and I love Jesus. Yes, I do. And I love this spiritual thing I got going on, but don’t you agree with me? I don’t need to do any of that because it’s irrelevant."
And Paul says, "Okay, big time-out. You’re so deceived. You’ve fallen for the first twist, the first twist that started in the garden of Eden, when the serpent said to Adam and Eve, ’Hey, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s evaluate this whole eat from the tree thing a second here. Okay, come on, come on, come on. I know God said it, but let’s don’t worry about ’who.’ Let’s talk about ’what.’ Does this even make any sense that we don’t eat from the fruit of this tree?"
"Well, now that you think about it, now that we examined the rule, no, I don’t think this really makes a lot of sense."
"Well, just go ahead ’cause it’s about ’what.’ It’s not about ’who.’"
And, so, God says to you and me--here’s the overarching principle. You ready? Here we go. That your attitude and response to your human authorities is a reflection of your attitude and response to your Father in heaven. That your response to the authorities you can see is a reflection of your response to the authority that you cannot see. And to think that somehow we can be out from underneath the authorities God has put over us and, at the same time, be under God’s authority is a confused notion. You can’t be out from underneath the human authorities he’s established and under God’s authority at the same time.
And this explains some of the things that you’ve experienced as a Christian, because we so want, so much want to divide these two things. And, let me tell you this, the richer you are and the more powerful you are, the more prone you are to fall for this twist, because the more money you have, the more above the rules you feel, and the more powerful you are in your company, in your industry, in your department, you begin to feel like the rules are for the little people. They’re not really for me. And you forget, or maybe you never knew, this is a spiritual decision. This isn’t God, "Since I’m in charge, I can do what I want to over here. You and me are fine, but I don’t really need to keep those rules because these are two separate worlds."
Paul says, "Oh, no, no, no. You’re twisted. You think it’s about what you’re being asked to do. Oh, no, no, no. It’s about who’s asking. And if they are authorities that God has placed over you, even temporarily in a company or in your home or at school or wherever you are, or the government, then to rebel against those authorities is like rebelling against your Father in heaven."
Yikes. Verse 3. "For rulers," this, I mean, as if that wasn’t enough, "For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from the fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you."
Now, listen to this next verse. If you’re a government official or if you’re a company president, you own your own company, or you’re in education, you’re a teacher, a superintendent, or a principal or vice principal of a school, listen to this next verse. "For he," the ruler, "for he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer."
Now, here’s a big heads-up. Your boss . . . your boss, who is like so non-religious it’s not even funny, did you know he’s God’s servant, he’s God’s agent in your life? You’re going, "Uh-uh. Not my boss."
Oh yeah, your boss. And he doesn’t even believe in God. That doesn’t bother God. God works through human authority--period.
"Are you telling me my parents are God’s agent, Andy? My parents haven’t darkened the door of a church since, you know, I don’t know if they ever darkened the door of a church. My dad is, like, anti-religion. My dad isn’t God’s agent."
Oh, yeah he is. He’s God’s agent in your life.
"But they’re not religious."
It has nothing to do with religion. He’s writing this to Christians living in Rome under Nero, because here’s what Paul knew: God works through human authority, the good ones, and the bad ones, and to rebel against the authorities under which God has placed you is the equivalent of rebelling against your Father in heaven.
You’re going, "I never heard this before."
It’s because it’s the twist.
"Andy, I’m not even sure I believe that."
Of course we don’t, because we live in a world that’s deceived. It’s all about the ’what.’ Besides, we’re Americans, right? Besides that, we’re successful Americans. We are so set up to be fogged by this twist.
You know what the flip side is? It means if you’re a boss, you’re God’s agent for the people that work for you. You go, "I, it’s like, uh, you know, we manufacture stuff. It’s not like we work in a church."
Doesn’t matter. You’re God’s agent in their lives. Did you know that? If you’re a public official, you’re God’s agent for the people who you’re responsible for. Isn’t that amazing? You say, "Well, I really didn’t think of it that way."
You need to understand, God works through human authority, whether they believe in or recognize God or not. And your attitude toward your human authorities is a reflection of your attitude toward your Father in heaven, even though you may not realize it, because this is the way God works.
And it got really quiet at that point in the auditorium, because you know what we’re doing? We’re all thinking, "Oh my gosh, that means, and that means, and that means, and oh, no, this can’t be true, and what about?" Just hang with me. He keeps going.
Verse 5, as if that wasn’t enough. He’s almost done, fortunately. "Therefore, it is necessary to submit . . ." Now, Paul knows what we’re thinking, okay? He knows what we’re thinking. This is so cool. "Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment," --time-out, because that’s what we do. See, I think this is a dumb rule, but if I don’t keep it, I’m gonna get in trouble, so I’ll keep it. So, the only reason many of us submit to the authorities around us is to stay out of trouble. It’s not because there’s any spiritual connection or spiritual connotations. It’s just I want to stay out of trouble. You know, "My dad will kill me if I do that." Well, what if your dad, what if you knew your dad would never find out?
"Oh, well, then I’m all over it!"
"So, what are you saying?"
"I’m saying that I’m not doing this ’cause I agree, and I’m not doing this because I honor my father. I’m not doing this because I think my father’s an agent of God. I’m just doing this to stay out of trouble."
And Paul takes us to the next level, and listen to what he says. Verse 5: "It’s necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment, but also because of conscience." In other words, this is just the right thing to do. And when you untwist the twist, and when this becomes a part of your thinking, then when you’re sitting there filling out your income tax, you’re not just accountable to the federal government, who may never figure this thing out. This should be a matter of conscience, because the federal government is simply an agent of God. That doesn’t mean they’re godly, but they’re an agent of God. I’ll explain that more in just a minute. It means that when you’re taking a test at school and you have an opportunity to cheat and nobody’s gonna find out, it’s not just about a matter of getting caught or not. This is a matter of conscience, because to cheat my teacher, to cheat the educational system, is to try to cheat on God.
You go, "Oh, yeah, I think you’re drawing too close of a parallel."
Read it for yourself. It means when you and your husband, or you and your wife, have agreed on something about your family or your marriage, and you have an opportunity to cheat on the rule and you know that you’ll never get caught, and in the past it’s been all about ’what,’ you realize now it’s all about ’who.’ You see, all of the sudden, this comes reining in on just about every level of our lives and our relationships. He says, "Look. If you’re gonna be a God follower, then come on. This isn’t a matter of keeping rules until you know you won’t be caught. This is/should be a matter of conscience because, ultimately, you’re not just accountable to your father, your boss, your teacher, or the government. You’re accountable to God, and he has placed you under these authorities." Paul’s writing this to Christians in Rome.
And then he gives us an illustration, and why he picked this illustration or application, I don’t know, but here it is. Verse 6: "This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants." Paul, they’re Romans. You don’t even live here! You don’t even know what the tax structure’s like here, right? I mean, how many times have you complained about paying your taxes and looked for ways, you know, illegally or legally, around them? I mean, for over 18 years since I can remember, I’ve heard adults and my parents complaining about the tax structure. I mean, I don’t think there’s anybody anywhere that goes, "Oh yeah. I have the perfect, we have the perfect tax structure. It’s perfectly fine and fair. I think it’s great. I think, in fact, I should probably pay more, right? I mean, we all complain about that, and his illustration is . . . this is why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants.
Now, if you think, "Okay, Andy. Now you’ve gone totally to meddling, okay? You can talk about prayer or love or your neighbor, but now you’re talking about our taxes."
Paul brings it up. And just a little context. If you think the tax structure here seems unfair to you, I assure you that if you don’t pay your taxes, do you know what you get? If you miss, if you don’t pay your taxes, do you know what you get? You get a letter. If they didn’t pay their taxes, you know what they got? A visit. Letter is better than visit. No matter how upside down you are with the IRS, nobody will come and sell your wife, then sell your children, then sell all your property. And if they were able to catch up, then you’re free to go. "Sir, you’re free to go."
"Yes, but you sold my wife and children and all my property."
"I know, but be grateful. You’re free to go."
"Happy to be outta here, you know."
That’s 1st Century Rome, especially if you’re a Christian and you’re already on the bad list anyway. And Paul says, "Hey, Christians in Rome, this is why you pay taxes. Listen, listen, listen. You pay taxes not because the taxes are just. You pay taxes because the government . . . it was established by God. You cheat the government, you’re trying to cheat God."
And, you know, every once in a while I’ll meet some radical, super-hyper right-wing Christian that talks about how he didn’t file for income tax for years and years and years, and the tax code’s wrong and the government’s wrong, blah, blah, blah, blah. And here’s what I think. I think, "You’re a horrible Christian. You’re a horrible Christian. You’re . . . please don’t tell anybody you’re a Christian." And you know what? Even if you could convince me . . . here are 50 reasons the U.S. government . . . and 50 reasons why we should . . . it doesn’t matter. You might be exactly right. God established the government. You pay your taxes not because the taxes are fair, but because they are a representative, they’re an agent of God. And if you think you can be right with God and not pay your taxes, you’re not paying attention to the New Testament. Because it’s not about ’what.’ It’s about ’who.’
Whoa. But, can you understand--and before I inhale a couple other objections real quick--can you understand why in your life--maybe, maybe, maybe--why, on one hand, you’re trying to feel this connection to God and, on the other hand, you’re dissing all these authorities he’s placed over you, and you were thinking it’s two separate worlds and they’re not connected at all. He’s going, God’s going, "Look, you know, it’s not gonna feel personal. It’s not gonna be intimate. You’re not even under my authority."
"Yeah, I am. I’m in church."
"I didn’t place the church over you as an authority. That’s voluntary. I placed the government. You agreed to certain things when you took that job. You agreed to certain things when you went to that school. I put your parents over . . . I mean, the structure’s there. You’re just ignoring it ’cause you’re smarter than everybody and you’ve decided it’s all about ’what.’ You’re out of my will, and I love you, but you’re out of my will because you’ve ignored all or some or part of the authorities I’ve placed over you, because you fell for the twist. All this time you thought it’s about ’what.’ The whole time it’s been about ’who.’"
Sometimes people say, "Well, are you saying we should never question authority?" And listen to my answer. This is very important. You should always question authority. But, when you’ve fallen for the twist, when you question authority, you feel empowered to ignore the authority. When you get this straightened out in your mind, you can question the authority and stay right underneath it. Yeah, I think this is horrible. These are bad laws, unfair, bad rules, but I’m gonna go along ’cause this isn’t about you. It’s about my Father in heaven and, for some reason, he’s allowing this system to exist. So, I’m going to question it. I’m going to complain when I can. I’m going to write letters when I can. I might even march in the street if I can, but you’ll never find me rebelling against them, because this isn’t about ’what.’ It’s about ’who.’
You see, the problem is . . . when you fall for the twist . . . once you question the ’what,’ you feel almost compelled, you almost feel it’s your moral obligation, to rebel because you’ve fallen for the twist. And then people say, "Oh, but what about, Andy, what about?" and these are important questions, so I don’t mean to sound like I’m making fun of them, but sometimes I think, "Do you know?"
Okay, the question is, "Well, what if a dad asks his son to rob a bank?" Gotcha. Okay. The answers to those kinds of dilemmas are in this principle. That’s why it’s such a powerful principle. Because God works through authorities and there are many examples in the Scripture--Jesus, the apostle Paul, Daniel, all did this--because of this principle, when an authority abuses his authority or works outside the law, you simply appeal to the next authority, but you stay under authority. You appeal, you appeal, you appeal. Sometimes in the Scriptures people appealed around their families to a legal authority. That’s what you can do in this country.
If the legal authority won’t help, you can appeal around the legal authority to God, and perhaps God will intervene on your behalf, but you do not rebel. You appeal and you stay under authority. Again, the apostle Paul did this. Daniel did this. Jesus did this. Because seeing a problem with a legal system or with a law does not equal rebellion. That’s the twist.
Now, with that in mind, here’s what you have to think about. You see, if you live with the twist of ’If I disagree, I can disobey,’ here’s where this is gonna come back and haunt you. What are you gonna do when you disagree with some of this? I can already tell you what you’re doing, okay. Been there. When I live with the twist ’If I disagree, I can disobey,’ then when you get to some of this you’re gonna do the very same thing. Again, I love "Children, obey your parents." I don’t know about love my wife like Christ loved the church. Maybe we should skip that one. Do unto others as you would have them do unto . . . well, which others? Let’s talk about others.
Who is my neighbor? Remember that question? Who is my neighbor, really? Love your neighbor. Okay, let’s talk about this neighbor thing, okay? We’ve gotta qualify this. You know what you’ll do? You’ll spend your whole life hop, skipping, and jumping through this book and you’ll never know your heavenly Father, because you’ve lived with the lie, with the twist. If it’s all about ’what,’ it’s not about ’who.’ And if you get to evaluate and pick and choose as you go along, I guarantee you, you will never surrender your life to this book. You just won’t, because of your whole take on authority.
And here’s the other thing . . . then I’m done. Now listen. If you’re a student, a college student, teenager, you’re just kind of starting life, please listen to this. Here’s the thing. You don’t know what God is up to in your life, and you have no idea how God wants to use the good and bad authorities in your life to help send you in a direction, or show you his plan for your wife, life, or wife, or set you up, especially your wife, or set you up for success.
There’s a song that we sing sometimes by Aaron Schuster. I love this opening. I wrote it down. It says, "I am not skilled to understand," [remember this] "what God has willed, what God has planned. I am not skilled to understand what God has willed, what God has planned, and neither are you." It’s absolutely true. And here’s the deal. Because God works through authority, and because we don’t always understand what God is up to, we should be scared to death to get out from underneath the authorities that God has established because we may accidentally thwart God’s will for us.
Case in point. If you had shown up back in the days when the nation of Israel was in captivity in Egypt, when the Egyptian taskmasters were forcing them to build idols and temples and pyramids, Pharaoh thought he was God. They in no way recognized the Jewish God. If you had shown up in that day and age, here’s what you would’ve said. You’d have said, "God, they don’t need to obey these Egyptian taskmasters. They’re not godly authorities. They don’t even recognize you as God. They need to rise up and rebel and free themselves. I mean, God, do something."
And God would’ve said, "I am doing something."
"What are you doing?"
"I’m creating a nation, so shut up, okay?"
"Oh . . . I didn’t . . . I’m not skilled to understand what God has willed. Well, okay."
If you had shown up at the time when Jesus was on trial, what would you have thought? "God, you’ve gotta do something! Come on! The Pharisees, they have abdicated religious authority because they have gone way outside the bounds of the Old Testament. They hired people to lie about him. Now he’s subject to the Roman governor. Pilate doesn’t . . . Pilate’s scared of the people. He’s not gonna make a good decision. Rome doesn’t acknowledge you. Rome doesn’t worship you. Oh my gosh, your son, your son is under two ungodly, wicked authorities who are in agreement together to get rid of him. God, you’ve gotta do something!"
"I am doing something."
"What?"
"I’m saving the world."
"You could use Rome and the lying religious leaders in Jerusalem to accomplish your will and save the world?"
"Yeah. I’m God. I work through human authority. I don’t care if they recognize me or not. That’s how I do things, so be careful. Be careful, because I’m up to something in your life. I’m up to something maybe through that screwy school system you’re involved in. I’m up to something through that organization you work for. I’m up to something through your parents, one who believes in me and one who does not. I’m up to something through your family. I’m at work. But if you fall for the twist and you pull out because you don’t like the ’what’ and you lose sight of the ’who,’ then there’s a sense in which you’re a little bit on your own, cause I’ll tell you how I work. I work through human channels of authority that I’ve established. When you understand it, when you don’t, when it makes sense, when it doesn’t, when they’re godly, when they are not."
Read the Old Testament. God used King Nebuchadnezzar to bring the nation of Israel back to repentance. Nebuchadnezzar didn’t even believe in God when the whole story started. God said, "I think I’ll use these pagans to come in and teach my people a lesson."
"But, God, they’re pagans. How are you gonna use them?"
"I’m God and I work through channels of human authority."
Listen. This is why it is so imperative for those of us who are Christians; we ought to be the best citizens in the United States of America, not because we don’t ask hard questions, but because we ask the hard questions absolutely under the authorities that God has established. We ought to, teenagers, you ought to be, not that you don’t ever question your parents’ authority, they’re gonna be wrong sometimes, but you ought to be the most incredibly obedient sons and daughters, not because you don’t have a will, not because you’re not smart, but because you understand it’s not about ’what,’ but it’s about ’who.’ We need to be the most loyal employees, not because we agree with everything about our organization, but for this time and place when we’ve agreed to work for a company or be a part of an industry, we play by the rules, not because they’re the best rules, but because we understand that our bosses are in some ways servants of God. And it’s not about ’what.’ It’s about ’who.’
But I’m telling you, the twist is powerful, and we have all been taken in by it at some point or another. So, here’s my question and I’m done. What do you do with that? I mean, for some of you, you’ve gotta write some letters. Some of you gotta write some checks. Some of you need to get an attorney . . . one of those anonymous deals. "I have a client who owes you about a gazillion dollars and we’d like to work out a deal, ’cause he’s coming clean." "But whoa, I don’t know." I’m just telling you . . . listen, listen . . . this is a spiritual issue. Your response to the rules at work--a spiritual issue. Your response to the authority at school--a spiritual issue. Your response to authority at home--it’s a spiritual issue. You cannot split these out, because--and then I’m done--I promise, your attitude in response to the authorities you can see is a reflection of your attitude and response to your heavenly Father who you can’t see. It is not about ’what.’ It is about ’who.’
Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, this is a tough one for us. We have been so deceived. And God, there are many of us today, many of us who’ve been so way outside your will, if this is what being in your will is all about. And Father, this scares some of us. In fact, some of us are just gonna walk out of here and talk ourselves out of it. The twist is easier. We don’t want anybody else under our authority buying into the twist, but we, we’re comfortable in it. Father, would you please just, in this moment, expose that lie for what it is? Father, would you just, even if it’s just for a moment, would you let us see this the way you established it? Just for a moment, would you allow us to imagine what it would be like to trust you, to work through the authorities we agree with, the ones we don’t, the ones that are godly, the ones that are ungodly, the ones that are right, and the ones that are wrong. And Father, give us the courage to question while we stand right there under that authority, to be like our Savior who told Pilate in no uncertain terms, "You don’t control my destiny, but I’m not gonna rebel," who let the nation of Israel remain in captivity, hopeless, it seemed, while you worked and were at work the whole time, Father, help us to see ourselves within that context. Please give us the courage to respond accordingly.
Lord, I pray for every teenager. I pray especially for every teenage boy, as he finds that place and he experiences that tension and growing up and exercising his will and all those things that all of us experience, just give him eyes to see this. Father, for every teenage girl who’s feeling that friction with her mom or friction with her dad and just wants to just do her own thing because you put it in her to one day be independent, just give her the wisdom to see that it’s not about ’what,’ it’s not about curfews, it’s not about clothes, it’s not about music, it’s not about cars, it’s not about any of that. It’s about the ’who.’ And would you protect them as they honor this principle? Father, I pray that none of us would fall for and buy the lie. Give us eyes to see. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
