11 22 2020 Pastor Jeff Shipley

Whitten Baptist Church

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A WOW Moment with Vicki, Mercedes and Pastor Josiah (Date: November 12th 2020)

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Turn with me if you will to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8.

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And we're going to look at verse 7 and 8, but topically what we're doing is we're looking at the sovereignty of God and our submission.

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How do those two things come together? On January 20th, 2021, make these do better.

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On January 20th, 2021, unless something happens in the legal department,

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Joe Biden will become the president of the United States. And that's a bitter pill for a lot of folks to swallow.

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There were 70, I think 71 million people in the United States who voted for President Donald Trump and about 74 million,

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I believe, voted for Joe Biden. So basically half of the voting population of the

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United States of America are disappointed. Maybe some of you in here are disappointed.

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Maybe some of you in here have reason to believe that there was some hanky panky going on with some voting machines.

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Maybe some of you believe that the election was stolen, whatever. Daniel chapter 12 says this, it is

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God who puts kings on the throne. At the end of the day, God is sovereign.

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Who is the United States? Who's the president of the United States of America? Whomever God chooses to be the president.

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Now what we as Christians need to do is we need to show a little bit of character. We need to show a little bit of trust and faith in Jesus Christ and his sovereign will.

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So if Joe Biden becomes our president, I am for Joe Biden. Whatever Joe Biden does,

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I hope he succeeds, because if he succeeds, my country succeeds. And where he fails, we will have criticism.

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But where he succeeds, I will also give applause. You see, I don't want to live in a world where I, as a

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Christian, am showing something other than submission to God's sovereignty.

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You know, we as God's people, we talk about submission all the time. In fact, let me take a poll.

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When I say the word submit, what's the first thing that comes to y 'all's minds? What's the first verse that comes to your minds?

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Number one thing. Number one thing. Romans 522 says women get in that kitchen and make me a ham sandwich.

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You know, what's funny is Ephesians 520 says this. Submit to one another as unto the

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Lord. Then it says wives submit to your own husbands. We always leave that part out, don't we?

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Guys, we need to understand sovereignty, but then we need to understand our duty to submit to that sovereignty.

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Look with me in Romans chapter eight, verse seven and eight. Let me read it for you. It says this for the mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God's law for it is unable to do so.

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Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Let me say that again.

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Those in the flesh cannot please God. Oh, Brother Jeff, I worship good this morning.

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I had a little feeling in my heart when I sang that song. I got little goosebumps on my arm.

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If you're not submitting to God, it doesn't matter what you feel. You're still not able to please

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God. So how do we submit? Well, first of all, we need to recognize what sovereignty is.

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What is sovereignty? What does that mean? Well, it is an attribute of the doctrine of God.

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OK, now let me explain this real quick for some of you. There are doctrines in God's word. There are things that are mentioned from Genesis to Revelation that are absolute truths.

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That's what a doctrine means. But then there are attributes of those doctrines.

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In other words, there are things that define and describe those doctrines further. I just heard something.

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Is everybody all right? OK, I didn't want to have to put the Jake on him. Um, guys, some of the attributes of God's sovereignty are this.

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What is omnipotent? What's that mean? OK, this is in Bellevue.

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Let's all say it again. What is omnipotent? All powerful. You have to say it like that, girls.

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When you say all powerful, you got all powerful. There you go. What is omniscient? What is omniscience?

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All knowing. What is omnipresent? Very good. What is immutable? Unchanging, can't stop.

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What? Not able to be muted. Just like your wives. What is infinite?

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Well, no, that's eternal. What's infinite? OK, OK.

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Let me help you all for a second. Can I? What is infinite? It means unlimited. OK, if I have an infinite number of something or if I have an infinite attribute, it is unlimited by time, space and matter.

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Now, what's eternal? Without beginning, without end. OK, these are attributes of God.

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God is sovereign. OK, so here's God. God is sovereign. And these are attributes that help us understand as much as God has revealed to us what sovereignty really means.

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Now, why is sovereignty so important? Well, I want to explain it to you. You see, without God's sovereignty, there is nothing else.

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There is no salvation. There is no hope. Christian, can you imagine walking through this world and hoping in the worldly sense of what hope is?

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Man, I sure hope I get to heaven. Do some of y 'all feel that way sometimes?

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Man, I've accepted Christ, I'm following Christ, but maybe I just don't measure up.

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You see, what you're trusting in is you're trusting in your works rather than God's sovereign promises.

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See, you're trusting in your religious understanding rather than the love of a sovereign almighty

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God. God is absolute sovereign. Now, now that we understand sovereignty a little bit more, let's move on to submission to that sovereignty.

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Here's the problem. When you were converted, you now have been given something that the rest of the world does not have.

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Let me say that again. When you were converted, when you became a Christian, you were given something that lost people don't have.

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You know what that is? The Holy Spirit. But right manifesting gives you choice.

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You see, before you're a Christian, you don't have a choice. See, look up here back in Romans 8.

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Back in Romans 8. Now some of you, this is going to strike you right between the eyes. It says this, for the minds of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God's law.

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Now read this next part, for it is unable to do so.

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You see, when you become a Christian, you have the choice and the ability to wrestle and fight against God.

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You have the choice of disobeying. Before that, you're in a constant state of death and disobedience.

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You see what the regeneration of the Holy Spirit does? When it regenerates your heart, you're able to hear and understand for the first time your need for Jesus Christ as the

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Savior. Now some of you may feel guilty because your moral compass has been kiddily -whopped in religion or your parents or whatever, but the reality of coming face to face with the holiness of God and realizing that you can't meet that standard, that is revealed to you only by God.

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You see, you realize that you need Jesus so much. You realize that without Him, you're without hope.

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Guys, that thought process, take hope in this, comes from God Himself.

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You see, that's how much God loves us. He didn't just say, well, here's salvation. Good luck.

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I hope you make it. He actually reached down and turned your heart into a frequency in which you could receive that.

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How do we submit to God? Well, the first thing is you can't do it unless you're saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.

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You are unable to submit to Almighty God. Some of you in this room claim that you have been a

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Christian for decades, yet you and your heart and your mind don't feel or don't know that connection.

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It's because you can't obey God because you're not trusting in God to give you the power to obey

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God. Without God, you can't even obey. Guys, you've got to submit to the will of God.

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Let me put that out even more a little bit. Look at this. James chapter four, verse seven says this.

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Therefore, submit to God, but resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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Now, I want you to understand this. How many of you have ever heard a Christian say, I rebuke you, demon of alcoholism.

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This house is not clean. We get this idea that there are these demons of drugs and alcohol and infidelity and all this other stuff that are pulling at us.

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Guys, don't be that arrogant and don't be that naive. You see, Satan doesn't have to do a whole lot to us because we are wallowing in sin already.

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Our lustful thoughts. I mean, seriously, guys, when a girl walks down the street, do you have to make, you know what

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I'm talking about? She's a vegetable because she's a cucumber. Y 'all just can't handle my freshness.

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Guys, listen to me. Y 'all wish I was on vacation again, don't you?

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Guys, listen to me for a second. Listen to me, men. You know what I'm talking about?

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When something so fine, you lose your mind, walks down the street. Do you have to go, man,

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I really need to check her out. Or does your carnal flesh just naturally go there?

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OK, that's right. That's right. You, Johnny was not an alcoholic because he's a demon, because he had a demon in him.

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Johnny was an alcoholic because he was self -serving, narcissistic, self -medicating. God was big.

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That's just the way it is. OK, now watch. But I love you, brother.

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Now watch. Listen to me. Listen, the devil does tempt us.

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OK, he does. He does. But you cannot win that fight unless you do the first part of that verse.

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Read James 4, 7 again. What's the first words? But submit.

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Ladies and gentlemen, some of you deal with anxiety and depression. Watch. For procrastination and other reasons.

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But some of you deal with it because you will not submit. You're a child of God living in rebellion.

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And yet you're shocked and surprised when the discipline of God who loves you brings you to your knees. Yet you will move on, continue to do the same thing instead of submitting to God.

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Submission is not a suggestion. Submission is a requirement.

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God is sovereign. That doesn't change. But our level of submission does.

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You want peace in your life? It's not through praise music. It's through submission to God's word.

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You want to know the joy it is to stand and not look at the platitudes of men nor the wealth of men and not be envious, not trying to chase a dream that was never yours to have.

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It's going to come in submitting your mindset away from the world and submitting to what God says is important.

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Store it for your treasures for yourself in not your 401k. I've got

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Christians who are so freaked out about every little thing. They live in a state of fear because they want to rely on themselves rather than submit to God.

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And when that's when that devil or this world steals your peace or steals your joy, you want an emotion to try to bring it back.

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But it never will be. It's not an emotion, an action of submission to Almighty God.

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Guys, and until we get that straight, we have no right in the height of hypocrisy to tell the world you need to submit to God when

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God's own children are rebelling against him. Guys, the height of hypocrisy has got to be a stench in the nostril.

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In fact, the world might even classify churches being full of salvation as a necessary part.

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I mean, salvation, submission is a necessary part of salvation is necessary part of discipleship.

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It's a necessary part of resisting, but it still does not define it in total.

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I'm going to take you four things. And this is the last point I got for you. Just four quick things that may be by comparison and contrasting, we can get a very clear picture of what submission really is.

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The first thing that I looked at was this difference between godly submission and worldly submission is its scope.

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Watch this. I am the senior pastor of this church.

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Hold on. I just can't do it no more. Hurts my back too much.

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According to our bylaws, the senior pastor is in charge of the total church program.

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I'm in charge. Absolutely. I am the boss. There's no committee.

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I'm the boss. Okay, that's the way it is. God said, obey your elders, your pastors that are put over you.

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I'm the boss. How many times have

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I preached that sermon that I'm the boss? Don't have to.

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You see, I understand something. When Andrew is up here and he was directing music, he was up here doing this.

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He had told me before, Pastor, you're going to read the scriptures. You know what I said? Yes, sir.

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And then when he said now, Pastor, because he told me that it was like five minutes ago and I forgot, he said, come on up.

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Hey, dude, I walked up and read them. You know why? Because when he's up here directing music, he's in charge and I am to follow him.

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Does that make sense? No, it doesn't. Not if you're the world. That does not make sense.

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I am the CEO of this church. I am. And I've got to come to you people and ask your permission to spend 500 bucks.

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That's a good thing. That's a beautiful thing. What's Ephesians 520 say again?

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521 submitting to one another. Paul, an apostle chosen by God, went to the church at Corinth.

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And this is what Paul said, guys, I think this guy is really bad for your church fellowship.

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I personally would kick him out, but that's up to y 'all. The wording is actually this.

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I would remove him, it says, by vote of majority. You know why

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I believe so strongly in congregational government? Because God does.

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And the church practiced it. And I'll tell you this, any church that does not practice that and sets the pastor up in any way, shape, form or money to be able to account spend or even know what money is, you are headed for a world of hurt.

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World of hurt. Guys, just because you're in charge does not mean you still can't submit.

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You see, biblical wisdom tells us that submission is to everybody. I'm supposed to submit to May -May.

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Where is May -May? She's in the nursery. Now I'm all depressed.

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I'm supposed to submit to Edgy over there. Edgy, who's that ugly boy by you?

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Who's that boy by you? What you hiding behind Maria for? Maria, who is that? What's his name?

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Jerry. Jerry. Jerry, you a Christian? OK, boys, after service, check

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Jerry out. Don't try to run, man. You just take a beating tired. Guys, I should submit to Mercedes.

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I should submit to Andrew. I should submit to Gwen. I should submit to Carla.

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I should submit to Sandra. If we can't submit to each other, then what are we telling the world?

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Think about the world. This is what the world wants to do. It wants submission to be very narrow.

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In fact, the world says that you are successful. The more people that are under you and the fewer people that are on top of you, right?

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If you have reached the pinnacle of your industry or reached the pinnacle, you're the boss and no one tells you what to do.

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But in reality, in this world, we all submit. We all work for each other.

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Whether you can be the boss. Paul is the CEO of a multi -million dollar company, right?

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Actually, Cindy is the CEO. But Paul is the operations officer, right?

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They own their own business. Paul works for every person who walks in that door. Yes, he's the boss, but he's also in submission to others.

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Christians, when you understand that, it's so freeing that you don't have to have everybody do everything you just say right then because you get all that and something doesn't go your way and you freak out.

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Stop it. Relax. You see, worldly submission says that it's very narrow whom you must submit to.

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Scripture says you're to submit to every believer in Jesus Christ. What's the second thing?

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Submission, the difference to compare it and contrast is this. One is broad and one is narrow. But the second thing, one is freedom and one is legalistic.

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Oh man, I love this one. How many of y 'all have a hard time obeying

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God? The rest of you are liars. OK, got it. You know why we have such a hard time?

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You know why there's so much legalism in churches? It's because we don't understand the power of submission.

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How many laws are in the United States of America? People sit there and go,

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I can tell. No, you can't. Because watch this. Literally tomorrow, there will be more.

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There will be more. Because what? That's very good.

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You can't follow these 10. So we make up 200 million more. Right. But now you can't deliver cotton after dark.

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I did not know that. Guys in the state. Is that in Memphis? In Tennessee, do not deliver cotton after dark.

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Hey, guys, listen. The reason we have to have so many laws is because human beings by nature are rebellious.

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We don't want to submit because submission is of God and our sinful natures fight against what is

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God. My flesh of my mind and my heart and my body. I don't want to submit.

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I'm rebellious. Right. You don't have to teach a kid to rebel. You got to teach him to do right.

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Right. We are by nature rebellious. So here's what government and religion try to do.

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They try to keep making more rules. The whole Pharisee movement was built on this.

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God gave us 600 laws in the Old Testament. 600. That's it.

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By the time the religious people were done, there were over 60 ,000. 60 ,000.

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You know why? Because what we try to do is make holiness through an outside force of legalism rather than what

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God said we should do. What does Hebrews 10 say? It says, in that day, I will write on their hearts the law of God.

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If you truly are submissive, you don't need the rules telling you you must do this because they're in your heart.

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Your heart has changed. It's been regenerated. You want to submit to God. You want to know what it is to live in the peace of letting someone else be in control and be in charge.

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And God's promised you he would do that. But the stiff necked, unrepentant, unregenerated nonbeliever will need more laws, need more guidance, need continually positive and negative reinforcement.

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They never grow up. They never come to a place where they know the peace of having God's law in their heart rather than being hit over the head in it.

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Guys, if you're in this room and your life's a wreck because you're rebelling against God, I promise you this more prayer time, more worship time, more preaching time will never fix you unless you submit to the will of Almighty God.

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There is no hope for you, I'm sorry, there's not. And if someone's not strong enough to tell you that,

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I'm telling you that to your face without you submitting to God, you have no hope.

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Third thing, dependence and independence. God, I was taught from a very young age,

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I was it was drilled into my brainwashed into my head. If I win, it wasn't me, it was us.

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If I lose, it was all my fault. That's a good thing. But I was also taught this.

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You don't need anyone to succeed. I am woman, hear me roar.

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Our whole world is like this. I actually heard a middle aged lady who is supposedly a born again believer write or speak this on her little thing.

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She said this, the age of submitting to your husband no longer applies in the church today.

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OK, so that I don't need to submit to anyone.

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And if you don't need to submit to one and I don't need to submit to one, don't you even think about correcting your children?

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Because here's what they're going to do. Watch this. Come here. It's funny. This may or may not happen, but they will see you disobeying husband, you not submitting to God.

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Why are you not submitting to husband or God? And then you requiring them to submit. And then here's what they're going to do.

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They're going to think the church is full of. I mean, I could be wrong about this. This may not happen.

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Last four generations. And they might totally rebel against everything. God. And then they might develop anger and hatred, too.

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Or maybe I'm just grasping at straw. Guys, listen.

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Independence is not a measurement of success. It's not.

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God tells us in Acts 3 and Acts 6 and Romans 12, the verse I wrote to you, it says, brothers, there's a plurality there.

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It says, brothers, present yourself as a living sacrifice, meaning that there is a corporate mentality to the individual sacrifice.

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You know what that's called? Submission. You don't matter. You're the sacrifice. What matters is the dependence that we need to have on each other.

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We yell about accountability all the time. By the way, accountability leaders right after this. We have a meeting, but we talk about accountability all the time.

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You know why so many people don't want to be in accountability groups? Now, some of the groups are lame.

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I get that, but we're going to fix it. But I don't want to be told what to do. Have you ever heard a

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Christian say this? It ain't nobody's business what my relationship is with God. You are a failure as a

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Christian and you will continue to be a failure as a Christian until you submit to something other than your sassy pants.

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Last night, Rachel and what's his face, Pastor Josiah on vacation.

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And so Gwen and I had the privilege of watching another two year old, which is something

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I've dreamed about my entire life. But thank God she's going to Sandra's tonight.

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So so I said to Ava, I said,

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Ava, she had bumped her head and I was going to check her pupils and do all that. And so I said, Ava, come here. And she looked at me and said, no.

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Well, she sounded like her daddy, but then she also sounded like her daddy because Ava got right with Jesus real quick, fast in a hurry.

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And then she was doing that. She actually did cry like Josiah, because Josiah would be like,

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Joshua sounded like a train. He'd be going. I always called him a train, night train.

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Oh, guys, when

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I forced her to go over here and she came over there, was that submission? Let me say that again.

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When I said, Ava, I think you're mistaken. Would you please come here? And she finally came over there after I grabbed her and brought her into me.

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Was that submission? She never submitted that entire time.

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Guys, do you really want to live your life fighting against God? Do you want to spend the rest of your days here on earth rebelling against God or do you want to submit?

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If you wanted to submit, understand this. You need everyone else in this room. You cannot do it by yourself.

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And the last thing is this. Last thing is this. I wish

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Rebecca. She's not in here. I have rights for those who are on staff.

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They get that joke. Rebecca's Rebecca always runs around saying, I have rights, usually right after someone tells her to do something.

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And she's just playing. She's not being she's not being serious. I have rights.

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Americans, man, we got some rights, don't we? I love the Bill of Rights.

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Maybe I'm the only one in here. I love the Bill of Rights. Hey, praise God. Hallelujah.

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God bless America. I love those Bill of Rights. Paul used his rights, his political citizen rights to appeal to Caesar.

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OK, I love having rights. But my rights are secondary to my responsibility.

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You see, in this country, that's why we're so jacked up. It's not drugs or guns and all that. It's we have rejected

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God and replaced it with a humanist mindset. And the humanist mindset is that I, the individual, come first.

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I have rights. I actually have people that say all life is precious.

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No, go read Galatians 6, 7. All life may start out as being precious, but some choose it to make it otherwise.

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There are folks, according to Genesis, that should be dragged from the altar and put to the sword.

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Absolutely. No problem with that. Guys, our rights as a human being, our rights in any way you want to define them, must always first submit to the responsibility that we have to God Almighty.

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I should never invoke a right as a form of rebellion against God or his word.

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Now, so some people say, well, pastor, I don't care. I'm not going to do anything. Joe Biden says, because I have a right to protest.

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I'm so sick of hearing that term. I got a right to. Where is that in the bill? Oh, you mean the freedom of speech, somehow freedom of speech?

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And you burning down a Walmart? I don't think exactly fit with what the intent of framers had to do.

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OK, I don't think that's the same thing. You know what? I have a right to do. I have a right to die at the feet of Jesus Christ every single day.

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God, Jesus said this. If anyone wants to follow after me, he must first pick up his cross and follow me daily.

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You know what? You have a right to do today. Die to yourself. That's what you have a right to do.

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You want to know peace. You want to know joy. You want to know what real happiness is. Let your wants, needs and desires die at the foot of Jesus Christ.

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Then you're going to understand what peace really is. Then you're going to understand what continuity of logic is instead of following your emotions from this day to the next.

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Guys, but it all must start with this. It almost start with as the music people's come up with this.

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If you do not, if you are not a Christian, listen to me.

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If you are not a Christian, watch this. You are unable to submit.

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You have no way, shape, form or fashion to be able to submit. In other words, you are on the highway to hell in the express lane without God.

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Without the Holy Spirit regenerating you, you cannot submit. The first thing you have to submit to is

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God. Everything else will come after. If you're in this room and you are not a Christian, I don't give a crap about you asking

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Jesus into your heart or any of that other garbage. I'm talking about scripturally. If you have not bowed to the sovereignty of Almighty God and accepted the only payment for your sin.

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Then you are not a Christian. Why believe in God? Who cares? Is Jesus Christ your

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Lord and Savior? If he's not, you can't submit to God in anything else.

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Number two, if you are a Christian, but you have this area you're struggling to submit in, you need help.

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You need to be dependent on something else other than your thought process, because your thought process is jacked up.

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So is mine. You need to get some help. That's what all these peoples are here for, is to help you.

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Number three, if you're in this room and you are a Christian, you need some help, but you will, you feel like it's private.

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You don't want to share all that with you. Guys, you're one of those Zit Christians.

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Yes, I said that that was not planned, but I need a shock value statement. You're a Zit Christian.

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In other words, stuff's going to just keep building up in your life. It's going to get nasty. It's going to get infected.

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Y 'all are all sitting there going, look in the mirror. That's you. If you won't submit to something other than yourself, you are going to ruin your life, destroy it and everything else that you touch.

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Guys, please, in the name of Jesus, I beg you, I beseech you by Almighty God to submit yourself as a living sacrifice.