surrender_authority

And here's the overarching thought I had growing up: I cannot wait until I'm old enough to be FREE to do what I want to do! Free to do WHATEVER I want with WHOEVER I want as LONG as I want to.

Generally life at home was ok & school had its high points but as a kid everything you did was under the authority of your parents, teachers, coaches & instructors. Again nothing against the authority figures in my past but at some point I thought, "Man, when do I get to make the rules and design my life so I can finally do everything that I want to do?"

And that's how I started out living my young adult life: I was the center of my universe and in the flow chart of life I was at the top of itfinally!

But after a while, after just a handful of years of living a life of "freedom " out from under all the authority figures of the past a really STRANGE thing happened; I wasn't very happy, content, fulfilled.

Some of the places I chose to hang out in were not the most positive influencesit seemed fun and "grown-up" at first but after a while it was kind of depressing. A watering hole looks much different at "last call" than it did during "happy hour."

Even in my more "dense" stages of life I've always been blessed with good friends. But I'll bet in this room there are a lot of people that in their twenty-something days enjoyed the freedom to run with whomever you wanted to and although it was fun for a while you eventually came to a realization that you were running with a bad crowd and it didn't exactly feel "fun" anymore.

I remember being a young adult and getting CREDIT! WOW, I have the POWER to get whatever I want. I have the freedom to choose what I want to buy!

But then as my divorce was in full swing I came about as close to financial disaster as one wants to get---again, not a fun time.

(oh yeah, the divorce is a reference to a marriage that was ANOTHER freedom to choose deal that I was banking on that it was gonna lead to happiness!)

The people around me in my life are the most respected people I could ever hope to hang with. Better people I simply do not know.

Financially we aren't sitting on huge bean-bag-chairs full of cash but we have more than we need; even after we tithe and give to V242.

At this point you might conclude: Wow, Morgan used to make really crappy decisions but not he's gotten much better at it.

Well that would be only partially true. That little "before & after" look at my life is a picture of today's truth which is: ppt

As I told you my "before" story I hope you could relate with it. Maybe you never hung out in the wrong places or maybe you've not been divorced, but if you're honest you can probably remember a string of decisions that were made all on your own that didn't exactly lead down the yellow brick road.

This series is called "A Life that Works." And that's one of those phrases that when you hear it, if you have a pulse, you say, "Yeah, that's what I want."

"A life that works" or a life that works BETTER is the underlying reason that everyone of us took the first step inside this building.

Some came because one of your friends; one of your normal friends turned into one of these Christian-freako-alien people and you had to find out what the deal was.

Some came because you went to church when you were younger and finally after years & years something stirred in you & you realized it was passed time to get back in.

And as you look at your life in a "before & after" kind of way, you might sum it up with this statement: "Life works with God in it."

Check this out: In the "before" snapshot of my life God was IN my life. (believe that??) I was in the Jesus Club. I had prayed the prayer. I believed. I even prayed somewhat regularly. I simply didn't subject the decisions in my life to His authority.

The only reason my life works now is that in each of those areas I learned what God said about it and eventually figured out how to live that way. (easier said than done)

When something isn't working in our life, when we find out how God says we're supposed to do it, and then look at our life to see how we're really doing it. I'll bet you $100 that there's a difference in the biblical picture and the picture playing out in our life. God says it's this way, we're doing it OUR waythat's an authority deal. We're choosing our way instead of God's.

Let me show you what I mean: Let's take marriage for example; a marriage that's having some problems (btw ALL marriages have problems).

/// Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent (SUBMIT) to one another. Wives, (SUBMIT) understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.

Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church; a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything He does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor--since they're already "one" in marriage. No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. ppt

That's how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of His body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh." This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. 33And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband. ///

Show me any marriage that's not working and I'll show you a marriage that does not match THAT picture of it. That passage was all about lifting up & focusing on the other person. A marriage that's not working has self-centeredness all over the place.

A special word to men here: Do you notice how much in this passage that God calls us to take the lead here? Not take the lead in authoritative way but rather we take the lead by cherishing, loving, giving, bringing out her best etc.

This passage doesn't tell women to submit to an egotistical self-absorbed tyrant. But to submit to a very loving caring husband. God says in that passage, "Dude, if you treat her like I laid it out, why wouldn't she submit to & honor you?" (I'm a perfect model for this ;-)

Here's the beauty in a passage like this: So many times the husband and the wife each have their own picture of what the marriage ought to look like; and they're beating each other up trying to get the other to match their picture of marriage.

But in the Bible God says, "Huh uh. Neither of your pictures of marriage is the right one. MINE in Ephesians 5 is the true picture, so stop trying to win your agenda with your spouse and both of you work together at submitting to My picture of marriage because I am the ultimate authority in your marriage not you."

So we go from facing-off at each other in a confrontational way, to both facing towards God and saying, "Alright. What do you want me to do God? How do YOU want this marriage to go?" Then it's no longer you against me but it's now US coming together submitting to God's authority in marriage.

Last word on marriage: There are few things that can get as complex and tangled as a marriage (amen?). And untangling for some couples may mean more than reading this passage together and having a string of productive conversations and some prayer.

If that's you, I urge you to see a Christian counselor and say, "Look, we know what God's picture of marriage is in Eph. 5, but we also know trying to untangle our marriage is too big for us. Will you help take us from where we are to an Eph. 5 marriage?"

Men, if we will suck down our pride and make a bold move like this, the rest of our lives could a complete gas. Men, I challenge you to lead this charge. (call Shelia on Mon. am if need a good counselor)

"A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you."

The keyword here is PRIDE. Pride means thinking too much of yourself. Just for the record, pride makes God's top 7 list of things He hates.

God hates pride because it's the OPPOSITE of submitting to authority. Submitting to authority says "God, You know best." Pride says, "God in all due respect, it's 2004 now, and not everything in the Bible fits-in today; in fact I think I know what's best for me and my family."

In this quote Lewis is saying that pride puts us at the top of the flow chart of life. Then guess what? If we're at the top, then everyoneincluding God, is below us. And pride says, "I know more than you do."

But let's just admit it. Some people DO know more than we do! There are IQ tests that tell us how smart we are. We can all think of a couple people that we're a little smarter than & there's the people that are a little smarter than us.

But think about this: God made each one of us and He actually made some people smarter than others; ever think about that?? God made some people with a few more or a few less oars in the water!

But check this: how smart do you think Jesus Christ was? What would he have scored on a SAT test or a standardized IQ test?

We don't know, but I'd guess he'd be smarter than the average bear, wouldn't you? Here's a question for you: In the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John did he ever come off like, "You loseryou idiotyou are so below me."

And here's Jesus, the sinless Son of God walking around the Middle East and compared to you & me He IS at the top of the flow chart; but Jesus continually makes time to pray, to submit his will to God in Heaven and to be humble.

In the Garden the day before he gets on the cross, He says, God, I submit my will to You, not my will be done but YOUR will be done. And his submitting to authority changed the history of the world. And likewise when we submit, it changes our world.

I love this; Jesus models for us that it doesn't matter WHO you are; doesn't matter how smart you are, how wise, how much experience, what your social status is, everyone, including the Son of God Himself must submit their life to God's authority.

I want to share a little snippet from ppt 1 Samuel 15 in the Old Testament that tells us how God feels about us submitting to Him:

"Then God says to Samuel, 'I am sorry that I ever made Saul King, for he has not been loyal to me and has again refused to obey me."

(ppt) "But I did obey the Lord," Saul insisted. "I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep and cattle and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal." ppt

But Samuel replied, "What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much better than offering the fat of rams. 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 15:20-23 nlt

Now we can read that & think, "Man if I had my own personal prophet who was telling me what God wanted me to dosheesh, heck yeah I'd be doing it!"

(sheepish) Well, we kind of DO have our own personal prophet that tells us what God has in mind. It's called the Bible ;-)

Just a little well-intentioned nudge here: To be obedient we have to know what God wants us to do; we can't obey if we're uninformed about God. So we've got to read the Bible.(pause) How are you doing with that? ///

All of us need to understand that when we read God's truth in the Bible or hear God's truth in church, at the Gathering or in small group that if we're not submitting our life to it, we're being like Saul. We're being hearers of the Word but not do'ers of it.

And here's the thing: when we hear truth but don't mold our life around it, everyone loses. God loses b/c He hates disobedience. And then we stay stuck, in whatever deal that we're in. And the people around are stuck too: spouse, kids, friends.

Having God in our life but NOT submitting our entire life to His authority is like having a car with air-conditioning but never turning it on. It's not enough to just have AC in your car you have to put movement to it; you have to turn it on and then things change.

It isn't enough to go to church, go to small group, go to WOW, go to IronMen. It's not enough to have really good God-stuff in our lives. We have to put movement to it. Our life's flow chart has to have God at the very top, and in every area of our life we have to be asking, "God, what do YOU want me to dowant me to change?"

That's what it is to be a Christ follower. It's getting up every day and saying, "What next, God? What do you want me to change or adjust so that it's a little more in-line with You?"

When we submit to God's authority before you know it, you and I are moving our hands and our feet and our hearts and we start changing how we function in our marriage and we shift how we parent our children, we adjust how we handling our finances, and then before you know it's not religion, but it's a way of life and THAT'S Christianitynot God in little pockets of our life here & there, but a WAY OF LIFE that's in every part of our life.

Under God's authority we become free to be the people He wants us to bethat He knows we can beand that deep-down we want to be! ////

One of the Aramaic names for God is "Abba" which means "Father." And it's "father" that captures the spirit of his authority over us. But not a father that's prone to shortness of patience, or prone to mistakes, or anything any of us earthly dads are known to do. But He's a father whose love for us is like none other. A father who had His Son climb on a cross so that you and I could be

When I think about my "before" life, it was like God set some boundaries for me. Like, because He loved me like a father loves his own son, he wanted me to play in the yard---play within the confines of His Holy fence, because He knew it was safe in there.

But I knew better. So under my own authority and as a free spirit, I wandered beyond His boundaries. And guess what? I got majorly hurt.(pause) Anybody else get majorly hurt in their life?

There are emotional scars and bruises from my time outside the Holy fence that will always be a part of my human life. You know what I'm talking about. Any of us who've done life under our own authority have emotional scars.

And for me, they remind me that God's authority is totally driven by love and a desire that I not be more scraped & bruised than I am already.

No parent wants to see their son or daughter with a pink-contorted-crying face and a bloodied knee. And in the exact same way, our loving Father in Heaven doesn't want to see our emotions and hearts bloodied and our souls damaged. That's the spirit of God's ultimate authority for us.

It's not a negative controlling authority--- God's authority always leads to true freedom and a life that works.

Setup song: Take My Life trac 14 from Passion's Hymns 5:08 ppt lyric support--song serves as a space for people to pray, meditate etc.



	< back Surrendering to the Authorities morgan young May 30, 2004 Here's my life in a nutshell: Stage 1. I was born totally dependant mom& dad center of the universe need fed my stinky dipey needs changed burp me rock me put me to bed Stage 2. I'm a teenager totally independent I'm the center of the universe I don't like your food I'm going out to eat If my attitude stinks, too bad--sucks to be YOU! Burping is cool I like to rockyour music's lame I'll go to bed when I darn well feel like it And here's the overarching thought I had growing up: I cannot wait until I'm old enough to be FREE to do what I want to do! Free to do WHATEVER I want with WHOEVER I want as LONG as I want to. Generally life at home was ok & school had its high points but as a kid everything you did was under the authority of your parents, teachers, coaches & instructors. Again nothing against the authority figures in my past but at some point I thought, "Man, when do I get to make the rules and design my life so I can finally do everything that I want to do?" Because in my big quasi-afro'd teenaged head was this little equation: ppt freedom = happiness. And that's how I started out living my young adult life: I was the center of my universe and in the flow chart of life I was at the top of itfinally! But after a while, after just a handful of years of living a life of "freedom " out from under all the authority figures of the past a really STRANGE thing happened; I wasn't very happy, content, fulfilled. Some of the places I chose to hang out in were not the most positive influencesit seemed fun and "grown-up" at first but after a while it was kind of depressing. A watering hole looks much different at "last call" than it did during "happy hour." Even in my more "dense" stages of life I've always been blessed with good friends. But I'll bet in this room there are a lot of people that in their twenty-something days enjoyed the freedom to run with whomever you wanted to and although it was fun for a while you eventually came to a realization that you were running with a bad crowd and it didn't exactly feel "fun" anymore. I remember being a young adult and getting CREDIT! WOW, I have the POWER to get whatever I want. I have the freedom to choose what I want to buy! But then as my divorce was in full swing I came about as close to financial disaster as one wants to get---again, not a fun time. (oh yeah, the divorce is a reference to a marriage that was ANOTHER freedom to choose deal that I was banking on that it was gonna lead to happiness!) Before I bum you all out too much let me roll the clock forward to present day: My life is not perfect, BUT: The places I hang out in regularly provide the most positive life-changing experiences I've ever known. The people around me in my life are the most respected people I could ever hope to hang with. Better people I simply do not know. Financially we aren't sitting on huge bean-bag-chairs full of cash but we have more than we need; even after we tithe and give to V242. And my wife, Sandra, is one of the hugest blessings in my life. At this point you might conclude: Wow, Morgan used to make really crappy decisions but not he's gotten much better at it. Well that would be only partially true. That little "before & after" look at my life is a picture of today's truth which is: ppt Freedom is found under authority. (say with me) As I told you my "before" story I hope you could relate with it. Maybe you never hung out in the wrong places or maybe you've not been divorced, but if you're honest you can probably remember a string of decisions that were made all on your own that didn't exactly lead down the yellow brick road. This series is called "A Life that Works." And that's one of those phrases that when you hear it, if you have a pulse, you say, "Yeah, that's what I want." "A life that works" or a life that works BETTER is the underlying reason that everyone of us took the first step inside this building. Some came in because we thought it was a good idea for our children to be exposed to church; We didn't need church but our kids did ;-) Some came because you just thought something was missing. Some came because one of your friends; one of your normal friends turned into one of these Christian-freako-alien people and you had to find out what the deal was. Some came because you went to church when you were younger and finally after years & years something stirred in you & you realized it was passed time to get back in. And as you look at your life in a "before & after" kind of way, you might sum it up with this statement: "Life works with God in it." And I would say that's not really correct. (what?! What did he say? Murmur) Life works only when we submit to God's authority. (ppt) Check this out: In the "before" snapshot of my life God was IN my life. (believe that??) I was in the Jesus Club. I had prayed the prayer. I believed. I even prayed somewhat regularly. I simply didn't subject the decisions in my life to His authority. The only reason my life works now is that in each of those areas I learned what God said about it and eventually figured out how to live that way. (easier said than done) Do you have SOMETHING in your life that's not working? Then it's an authority deal. Is your marriage kind of goofy right now? Do not feel as close to God as you'd like to? Having a problem with your kids? Battling financial pressures? When something isn't working in our life, when we find out how God says we're supposed to do it, and then look at our life to see how we're really doing it. I'll bet you $100 that there's a difference in the biblical picture and the picture playing out in our life. God says it's this way, we're doing it OUR waythat's an authority deal. We're choosing our way instead of God's. Let me show you what I mean: Let's take marriage for example; a marriage that's having some problems (btw ALL marriages have problems). Ephesians 5:21-33 the Message (ppt) /// Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent (SUBMIT) to one another. Wives, (SUBMIT) understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands. ppt Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church; a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything He does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor--since they're already "one" in marriage. No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. ppt That's how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of His body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh." This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. 33And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband. /// Show me any marriage that's not working and I'll show you a marriage that does not match THAT picture of it. That passage was all about lifting up & focusing on the other person. A marriage that's not working has self-centeredness all over the place. A special word to men here: Do you notice how much in this passage that God calls us to take the lead here? Not take the lead in authoritative way but rather we take the lead by cherishing, loving, giving, bringing out her best etc. This passage doesn't tell women to submit to an egotistical self-absorbed tyrant. But to submit to a very loving caring husband. God says in that passage, "Dude, if you treat her like I laid it out, why wouldn't she submit to & honor you?" (I'm a perfect model for this ;-) Here's the beauty in a passage like this: So many times the husband and the wife each have their own picture of what the marriage ought to look like; and they're beating each other up trying to get the other to match their picture of marriage. But in the Bible God says, "Huh uh. Neither of your pictures of marriage is the right one. MINE in Ephesians 5 is the true picture, so stop trying to win your agenda with your spouse and both of you work together at submitting to My picture of marriage because I am the ultimate authority in your marriage not you." So we go from facing-off at each other in a confrontational way, to both facing towards God and saying, "Alright. What do you want me to do God? How do YOU want this marriage to go?" Then it's no longer you against me but it's now US coming together submitting to God's authority in marriage. Last word on marriage: There are few things that can get as complex and tangled as a marriage (amen?). And untangling for some couples may mean more than reading this passage together and having a string of productive conversations and some prayer. If that's you, I urge you to see a Christian counselor and say, "Look, we know what God's picture of marriage is in Eph. 5, but we also know trying to untangle our marriage is too big for us. Will you help take us from where we are to an Eph. 5 marriage?" Men, if we will suck down our pride and make a bold move like this, the rest of our lives could a complete gas. Men, I challenge you to lead this charge. (call Shelia on Mon. am if need a good counselor) ***"Morgan's Who's Who" theme!* This is C. S. Lewis (Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe, Chronicles of Narnia etc) who said, "A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you."** The keyword here is PRIDE. Pride means thinking too much of yourself. Just for the record, pride makes God's top 7 list of things He hates. God hates pride because it's the OPPOSITE of submitting to authority. Submitting to authority says "God, You know best." Pride says, "God in all due respect, it's 2004 now, and not everything in the Bible fits-in today; in fact I think I know what's best for me and my family." In this quote Lewis is saying that pride puts us at the top of the flow chart of life. Then guess what? If we're at the top, then everyoneincluding God, is below us. And pride says, "I know more than you do." But let's just admit it. Some people DO know more than we do! There are IQ tests that tell us how smart we are. We can all think of a couple people that we're a little smarter than & there's the people that are a little smarter than us. But think about this: God made each one of us and He actually made some people smarter than others; ever think about that?? God made some people with a few more or a few less oars in the water! But check this: how smart do you think Jesus Christ was? What would he have scored on a SAT test or a standardized IQ test? We don't know, but I'd guess he'd be smarter than the average bear, wouldn't you? Here's a question for you: In the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John did he ever come off like, "You loseryou idiotyou are so below me." And here's Jesus, the sinless Son of God walking around the Middle East and compared to you & me He IS at the top of the flow chart; but Jesus continually makes time to pray, to submit his will to God in Heaven and to be humble. In the Garden the day before he gets on the cross, He says, God, I submit my will to You, not my will be done but YOUR will be done. And his submitting to authority changed the history of the world. And likewise when we submit, it changes our world. I love this; Jesus models for us that it doesn't matter WHO you are; doesn't matter how smart you are, how wise, how much experience, what your social status is, everyone, including the Son of God Himself must submit their life to God's authority. I want to share a little snippet from ppt 1 Samuel 15 in the Old Testament that tells us how God feels about us submitting to Him: (notes for telling story): Saul was the first king of Israel Samuel was one of the early prophets (spokesman for God) Amalekites (bad guys) were the first to attack the Israelites (good guys) when entered Promised Land. God says kill ALL Amelakites and ALL their domestic animals Kept king Agag alive Kept any animal that's in good shape "Then God says to Samuel, 'I am sorry that I ever made Saul King, for he has not been loyal to me and has again refused to obey me." Samuel & Saul argue about the deal (now we're ready for passage) (ppt) "But I did obey the Lord," Saul insisted. "I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep and cattle and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal." ppt But Samuel replied, "What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much better than offering the fat of rams. 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 15:20-23 nlt Now we can read that & think, "Man if I had my own personal prophet who was telling me what God wanted me to dosheesh, heck yeah I'd be doing it!" (sheepish) Well, we kind of DO have our own personal prophet that tells us what God has in mind. It's called the Bible ;-) Just a little well-intentioned nudge here: To be obedient we have to know what God wants us to do; we can't obey if we're uninformed about God. So we've got to read the Bible.(pause) How are you doing with that? /// All of us need to understand that when we read God's truth in the Bible or hear God's truth in church, at the Gathering or in small group that if we're not submitting our life to it, we're being like Saul. We're being hearers of the Word but not do'ers of it. And here's the thing: when we hear truth but don't mold our life around it, everyone loses. God loses b/c He hates disobedience. And then we stay stuck, in whatever deal that we're in. And the people around are stuck too: spouse, kids, friends. Having God in our life but NOT submitting our entire life to His authority is like having a car with air-conditioning but never turning it on. It's not enough to just have AC in your car you have to put movement to it; you have to turn it on and then things change. It isn't enough to go to church, go to small group, go to WOW, go to IronMen. It's not enough to have really good God-stuff in our lives. We have to put movement to it. Our life's flow chart has to have God at the very top, and in every area of our life we have to be asking, "God, what do YOU want me to dowant me to change?" That's what it is to be a Christ follower. It's getting up every day and saying, "What next, God? What do you want me to change or adjust so that it's a little more in-line with You?" When we submit to God's authority before you know it, you and I are moving our hands and our feet and our hearts and we start changing how we function in our marriage and we shift how we parent our children, we adjust how we handling our finances, and then before you know it's not religion, but it's a way of life and THAT'S Christianitynot God in little pockets of our life here & there, but a WAY OF LIFE that's in every part of our life. ppt When we start submitting, life starts changing: Marriages become life-giving instead of life-taking. Children are set-up to be contributors in the world not takers. Finances go from being a burden to being a blessing. And as we submit everything to God's authority we become: free from addiction. Free from pride. Free from greed. Free from control-issues Free from anger & bitterness. Free from__________ for you? Under God's authority we become free to be the people He wants us to bethat He knows we can beand that deep-down we want to be! //// One of the Aramaic names for God is "Abba" which means "Father." And it's "father" that captures the spirit of his authority over us. But not a father that's prone to shortness of patience, or prone to mistakes, or anything any of us earthly dads are known to do. But He's a father whose love for us is like none other. A father who had His Son climb on a cross so that you and I could be totally forgiven. Radically accepted. And endlessly loved by God When I think about my "before" life, it was like God set some boundaries for me. Like, because He loved me like a father loves his own son, he wanted me to play in the yard---play within the confines of His Holy fence, because He knew it was safe in there. But I knew better. So under my own authority and as a free spirit, I wandered beyond His boundaries. And guess what? I got majorly hurt.(pause) Anybody else get majorly hurt in their life? There are emotional scars and bruises from my time outside the Holy fence that will always be a part of my human life. You know what I'm talking about. Any of us who've done life under our own authority have emotional scars. There are situations that when we remember them we whence, or maybe we shudder And for me, they remind me that God's authority is totally driven by love and a desire that I not be more scraped & bruised than I am already. No parent wants to see their son or daughter with a pink-contorted-crying face and a bloodied knee. And in the exact same way, our loving Father in Heaven doesn't want to see our emotions and hearts bloodied and our souls damaged. That's the spirit of God's ultimate authority for us. It's not a negative controlling authority--- God's authority always leads to true freedom and a life that works. Setup song: Take My Life trac 14 from Passion's Hymns 5:08 ppt lyric support--song serves as a space for people to pray, meditate etc. Take My Life Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee Take my moments and my days Let them flow in ceaseless praise Take my hands and let them move At the impulse of Thy love Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee Take my voice and let me sing always, only, for my King Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from Thee Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold Take my intellect and use every power as You choose Here am I All of me Take my life It's all for Thee Take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine Take my heart, it is Thine own, it shall be Thy royal throne Take my love, my Lord, I pour at your feet its treasure store Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee Prayout. < back top o'page email morgan