Authority and Submission - Beautiful Together

The subject I want to talk about this morning is, um, it's a word that, uh, I think women dread, men fear, and society hates it.

And you may ask the question, why would I choose to talk on such a, such a, such a word? Now, what's interesting, um, I'm going to kind of start a conversation with this whole thing because the more I studied the subject, I came up with so much information that I didn't know where to stop and start.

Um, the thing, the thing grew. And what's interesting, so I ended up with this word after talking to different people, um, a couple of guys I've been talking to, and how that they struggle with authority.

And so this thing's been going around in my head. Why do, why do I struggle with authority? Why do you struggle with authority? I won't ask how many people struggle with authority, but I think it's a common problem.

And why, why is that? Um, so a lot of times, you know, people will go down the road, well, the reason we struggle with authority is because of bad authority, poor, poor authority, poor leadership, right? It's bad people doing bad things. So we struggle with authority. There's bad governments, there's bad church leaders, there's bad parents, there's bad everything.

And so we have a problem. We struggle with authority. And as I, as I thought of that, I, I went to the scriptures and I just started, I started looking. And so these are the three words I want to discuss.

I want to discuss submission and authority and rebellion. That's the three words that, that came out of my, out of my thought processes.

A lot of times when we think of submission, we think of that submission is expressed in two ways. We think of submission as expressed either being defrauded or unjustly wrong. So like I submit when only when I'm defrauded or I'm unjustly wrong. Okay. That's a lot of times the framework of what we think that's what submission is.

I want to add to that, that submission is also submitting to authority. Okay. I think that's the reason we have trouble with authority because of the whole problem with submission. So to put this in perspective, think about a baby. We've had a bunch of babies here lately. Think about a poor baby that's born. First thing he's born into of the mother, it's his authority.

Then he's got a father that has his authority. You have, he has his brothers and sisters. He has his community. He has his, if he's a, if he's a Christian, he has his church community, uh, church, church, church authority, government authority.

Everywhere in our society, there's authority. Like it's a part of how God has put it into order. So I want to just, just going to throw some, um, throw some scriptures up here and I want us to read them. For the mind that is set in the flesh is hostile toward to God, for it does not submit to God.

For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Now, as a church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit and everything to their husbands. There's this concept of submission and authority.

And I don't know if I ever, I think often we think of authority and we think of submission. And one of my goals today is to take that and them two concepts and put them into one. So I'm going to propose the idea or suggest that I don't think a person does well. Like I don't think a father makes a good father in a position of authority. Like he's there by default. If he has a child, he's there by default as a, as a, as a person of authority. But I don't think he does makes a good person, a good father if he doesn't understand submission.

I think that the, the two together is what makes a really good father. You don't, you don't make a good father if you just understand authority and you don't make a good father if you just understand submission. I think the two has to be together, understood that, that it's, I'm not sure what for word to use. It's, it's, it's reciprocal or it's, um, if I don't know how to submit and learn what that looks like and learn to submit to God, neither will I make a good father, figure, father of authority.

And the older I get, the more I, I realize the people that do well in authority understand submission very, very well. They, they have submitted themselves to God. So I'm going to read a couple more verses and I, because I'm trying to create this idea in your mind, what you think of when you think of submit. So here's some more verses. We're to submit ourselves to, to ministry. Okay. We're, uh, wives are, there's a, wives are submit to their husbands. Um, here it says, obey them to have the rule over you and submit, submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Submit yourselves to ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.

Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves to the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. So this concept you have, you have children submitting to parents, the young submitting to the old, us submitting to one another, us submitting to, to governments and peoples. Like it's a concept that, that is at every level.

And I think it's why people get into this framework. Like I think one, one of the things I think we need to ask ourselves, are we, when people look at you, do they look at you as a person that has submitted or a person that has rebelled?

If you look at the scripture, that's, that's the narrative, the two narratives, rebellion or submission to what? To authority, right? Authority at all levels. Now I'm going to, so I, I was thinking about all this, like we're either submitting ourselves to God or we're, we're rebelling.

If someone asked, what's Kevin like? Like my, what I represent, I'm either going to represent rebellion or represent submission. And my goal is that I represent submission, but my goal is that our whole church, we individually understand what does that look like.

Like I think it's something that needs to happen deep within us. And, and I think we need to really understand that, that if you rebel, you're going to be against all authority. Like if you, if you rebel, if you're rebellious, like, like I hear people say things like, well, I'm just rebellious or I'm antagonistic.

That's, that's, that's rebellion against all authority at all levels. Like if you're rebellious, you're against the order that God has set up. If you're submissive, submissive, you have submitted to the order that God has set up. What's interesting about this concept is it's not whether it's good authority or bad authority.

That's what's, that, that's the hard part.

You don't have a choice whether you have good parents or bad parents, right?

But as you grow up, you have to decide, am I going to submit to, submit to them or am I going to rebel against them?

And there's a thousand places, like, you know, you have good governments, you have bad governments. I'm going to suggest we have good church leaders and bad church leaders.

You have good brothers and sisters and bad brothers and sisters. Like if you're, if you're the younger and you got older brothers and sisters, like, you know, some of them are just the pain, um, and then some of them are okay.

It's at all levels. And I don't know if I've ever really wrapped my head around this concept that authority is everywhere and that we either choose to submit or to rebel. So I, I went and I started digging around a little bit. I'm just going to read some, um, some quotes that of, of early Christians of how their concept of submission was. And it's really interesting. It says, let us therefore flee from warning threats pronounced by wisdom on the disobedience and yield submission to his all holy and glorious name. So I wanted to look at the words before the words. So we're to yield submission. The other one is, I'm not going to read all this, but we're to be scrupulous in our submission.

What's that mean? We're to be detailed of how we submit. Very, very, very scrupulous.

Devout attention. We're to be devout in how we submit. Like what does that look like? Now, the greatest example, and this is not new, but when Jesus said, when Jesus said that I do only what the Father tells me, like what level of submission is that? Like it's in a level that you and I can hardly relate to. Like he has submitted to the Father in everything. That's why God exalted him. I personally think that if you don't learn to submit to God, he cannot exalt you in your authority. You understand what I'm saying? Like if you're a bad parent and you don't learn to submit, you'll never gain the respect of your children, of your community, of, of whatever.

Like you won't be exalted. God won't, will not exalt you.

The interesting thing about it is, is we can't change authority, but we can change ourselves in how we submit to it, whether it's good or bad. And another concept is, so in scripture, it talks about a wife that is in a really difficult situation with a husband that's belligerent.

Now it says, according to her chaste conversation, it's God's way of appealing to him that he has, that he might change. It doesn't guarantee he'll change. But as she submits to the difficulty, she doesn't rebel against it. That's God's way of moving him that if she responds well, that's God's way that he might repent.

Take the rebellious woman. Do you think there's a chance of, of him, of him changing? No. In the same way, when you relate to your parents, when you relate to your spouses, when you relate to your siblings, when you relate to government or to anyone around you, you hold the key of whether you're going to respond in submission to or rebellion to. Like we have that power. We can actually, and it's, and I think it's God's avenue of, of changing, changing people. I mean, the simple fact in this thing that when, if a, you know, if a cop, if you are going too fast and you could pull it over by a cop and you're a little irritated, like why was he sitting there?

Well, he should have been sitting there. Number one, you were going too fast. But if you respond kindly, your chance of not getting a high ticket is way greater than if you're rebellious, right? Yeah. Cocky and lippy and mouth him off. Like the whole thing works. That God has put it into place. Now that's maybe easy compared to difficult things of submitting.

But I think if we understand that we need to be, like we're the ones that can change how we submit to authority that is in all levels. Or we can just pick up the rod that I'm a rebellious person. I'm rebelling against all authority. And we see that at every level of our society. We see it from the youth all the way up into governments, just rebelling against governments at all levels. And we even say it's our God-given right to rebel and to be obnoxious and to say all kinds of terrible stuff.

Scrupulous in submission, devout attendance to submission. Very, very interesting. Here's another one. It talks about in the midst of, of all Jesus' sufferings, he spoke more for his firmness and submission than all that was said by the Greeks. And it's this idea that in his, in his suffering, that Christ in his submission, his voice was louder, his impact was louder than all that was said by the Greeks.

You follow what I'm saying? It's like, it's like a someone that you, when you, when you're somewhere and you see someone being defrauded and you know it's being defrauded, that person's being defrauded. And if he responds in submission to, he doesn't fight back. He submits to it.

What, what's your valuation of him? Your evaluation of him goes way up. But if he rebels against it and acts obnoxious and demands his rights, you may say, yeah, that's the right thing for him to do. But you're not really impressed.

You follow what I'm saying? You're not truly impressed. Here's another one. It talks about the instability of his submission in regards to the word of God. So what's interesting? So we're to be stable in our submission to the word of God, not unstable.

Are you, are you, is your submission stable to what's right? It talks about with the utmost submission, Bishop of Alexander. And there was, there's actually a fair amount of, um, discussion on this idea of our utmost submission to one another. And we talk here a lot about preferring our brother. It's that same concept, but this is like almost, um, I don't know, another, another level because it's, it's everywhere. And that's what I want to impress upon you, that as Christians, as disciples of Christ, we're to represent this utmost submission, this attendance to. And it's really, it's what that's, it's one of these difficult things to understand. It's like prayer and fasting.

There's, there's hard things to do. I think submission is one of these complicated things to understand, but in it is the greatest power for you to have. Like this comes back to your development, your understanding this. It's your most powerful tool that you have in the kingdom. Because if you represent this well, you impact your family, you impact your community, you impact your, um, your church, your government. Like if you do this well, I think it's one of the greatest avenues that God has given us. And it's, it's so misunderstood. Like, like it's just so hijacked. It's so messed up. But if we understand the kingdom and his, um, what God wants from us and how we're to respond, I think it just opens to me, it opens up the door into the kingdom in a way that, um, or our impact for the kingdom is just huge.

Um, here's another one that I like. First, he owes the infliction of chastisement to whatever sentence or law he, uh, promulgates for the vindication of his authority and for the maintenance of submission. I like that. Do you maintenance your submission well?

Are you scrupulous? So my, one of my goals this morning is to reclaim the word, but more importantly, reclaim the purpose of what submission is to all of this authority around us. Clement says this, submission is the precursor of salvation. I thought that's a powerful statement. Submission is the precursor of salvation.

So this here is a quote that, um, or not a quote, I, I put this together, but I truly believe this. I believe that submission is equally a part of the creation order, just as authority is of creation order.

It's, it's the same, it's equally a part of it. There's authority. We all relate, we all submit in so many ways and in so many levels to many authorities around us. Like it's just everywhere. And as disciples of Christ, and we say we want to impact the world, impact our communities to be, to represent this, represents the creation order, like in a massive, massive way.

So let's, um, I want to look at a couple of words, uh, uh, of authority.

So it says, but Jesus called them unto him and said, you know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are of great, great exercise authority upon them. So there's authority, bad authority. Next verse says, when he came into the temple, chief priests and the elders and the people came unto him as he was teaching and said, by what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority? You know, it was one of the questions that was asked Jesus a lot. He'd walk into a situation and he represented authority.

Even the, the people that had, the governments that had authority, like what authority do you have? There's this authority battle, okay? He had it up on them, um, because they recognized something, but it's like, what authority do you have? Okay?

Like they were dealing with this whole thing of, were they going to submit to his authority or were they, or weren't they? And they didn't.

How did Jesus have authority over those who exercised their authority over others?

It's an interesting thought. He walks into a situation, he doesn't have authority, and they recognize authority. It's just an interesting concept. And why I think he had authority is because he submitted to the Father. He was exalted. And I think you and I, if we understand this and we submit ourselves to God, he will exalt us in our authority, whatever that is.

Like I don't think you can have it. You end up, if you do have authority, you're going to be like these, these guys. They just have dominion over something and exercise their authority upon them and make them listen. Like it's this forceful thing.

It's also why I'm actually not an advocate of, um, people come to me, you know, and you know, they want their wife to submit. I'm like, ask her, don't make her. Like I think it's a bad way to approach it. You need to ask them, but it's a free will.

If you demand it, it's not going to go well for you anyways. Um, I've seen people that try that and it's a mess. Here's some more verses. Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask you, ask of you one question and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. So here's this, this question that comes up over and over. And they answered and said unto Jesus, we cannot tell. And Jesus answered, saith unto them, neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. So there's this, there's this battle. For the Son of Man is a man taking a far journey who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to every man his work and commanded the porter to watch.

So when the, when he left, he gave, um, he gave authority to his servants. So you see, I'm just trying to communicate authority is everywhere. It's at every level of society. And they were all amazed and spake among themselves, saying, what a word is this? For with authority and power, he commanded the unclean spirits and they come out. There Jesus represented authority. He, he, he commanded the unclean spirits to come out and they listened to him.

Now that's authority. Who submitted? The unclean spirits. Like they, they submitted. Here's a couple more verses. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers. And this I find is one of the most amazing and powerful stories in the scripture when you think about authority and submission and this whole thing of understanding authority. And it's so amazing here that Jesus actually stops and recognizes this and he, he actually compliments this, this, um, this person. He says, for I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers. And I say to one, go. And he goeth. And to another cometh. And he cometh. And to my servant, do this. And he doeth it.

Now in that story, there's this, he wants Jesus to come and heal his daughter. All right. And he says, I understand authority and submission because I send soldiers out and they come. Soldiers submit and they go. And I give them authority to go do what they get. In the same way, he recognizes Jesus' authority that he doesn't even have to come to his house.

Jesus recognized that with this man.

And I think that I just find that so interesting that, that he understood this thing of authority and submission. That's how, that's the order that God has put in so many areas of life and so many, in so many levels.

Now I want to talk about another, um, another word that it's not probably a new, a new word to any of you, but it's really an interesting word.

So it's synergism or synergy. Okay. You're probably familiar with the word, right? But it's a really powerful concept. So it's this idea that I'm just going to read the definition. Okay.

It refers to the interaction between two or more things when the combined effect is greater than if you add the two things independently themselves. So if authority stands by itself and submission stands by itself, it's a little lopsided, right? Going both ways. Nothing works out well. When it's working together, it's 10 times as powerful. And that's how God has designed his order, that authority and submission works together. Look at, look at a, look at a, um, a husband and a wife, a family. Let's look at a family element.

If you take a husband and wife that does well together, you have a husband that loves and leads well, you have a wife that loves and submits well, and they have children, and then children grow up and they have a healthy, a healthy environment. That is much more powerful than just a man and a woman independently. You follow what I'm saying? When the submission and authority comes together, the impact goes out in ways that no one can measure.

A church is the same way. If we understand this concept and like, like we're working, like I love how we're working on this thing of preferring our brother, but if we understand that that submission and authority is working together among us, like our impact is going to impact, I don't know how you can measure that. Like I just don't know.

And I think we have impacted. I get, I get phone calls. We impact people and they wonder, one of the big questions is, how's, how do you guys having so many non-anabaptists and anabaptists in the same church and you've stayed together this long? Like that's seriously the question that comes down to bite.

And you got people from very conservative backgrounds to non-anabaptists and like it's a genuine question. I think it's because we have learned, we're learning this concept, submitting to one another. That's one of the things that we emphasize. And it's just has, has, it has convinced me more than more that that's one of the things we need to stay focused on. And it's why when those two things are working together, our impact is way greater than just talking about authority or talking about submission, if you understand what I'm trying to communicate.

So synergism, I think, is the result of submission and authority working together. It just goes, it's like a, it's like a pebble you throw in a pond and the ripple effect just continues to go and go. Like you can't measure that impact. So the next one I want to just, um, to close, uh, follow up, close up on is, is rebellion.

Let's just read some verses.

It says, let no one deceive you in any way. We were talking about this morning in Sunday school. Ralph was talking about deception. For what day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction? So what comes before deception? Rebellion, not submission. I think that's an interesting concept. I've never put that together before. If you're rebellious, deception will follow that. Like it will, it will lead you into into deception.

And I don't think we understand that. Like we, what's interesting when someone's rebellious and they don't want to submit to God, they think it's, I don't know how to communicate it. Like they think it's their right. Like they think they're doing themselves a favor by being rebellious. They don't understand they're being led into deception. That's the precursor to deception, rebellion. Just like submission is the precursor to salvation, rebellion is a precursor to, to, um, to deception.

Hebrews says, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the days of testing in the wilderness. So when we're tested, do we rebel or do we submit?

As it is said today, if you're here, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Like it's interesting to me how this rebellion is, is, is a precursor to deception. Woe to them, for they walk in the way of Cain and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to, to Balaam's error and perish in Korah's rebellion.

Now I want to close with one more word that I think maybe connects to us a little bit better than the word rebellion and antagonism. I hear antagonism among the Christian world and people abroad, like people, people like to be antagonistic, especially if they don't like you or if they dislike you or if they don't like something. Like they're just, they just walk around and they're not rebellious. They're just antagonistic.

Antagonistic is the opposite of synergism. It's taking them two things and making them separate and not working together. It's the opposite. So if you, like, like you lose, like to be, to be rebellious or to be antagonistic, you lose in so many ways. You not only lose the independent position, it leads you into deception.

Like it's, it, it, it's like the disadvantage, the opposite way versus the advantage builds begets advantage. And what's, what's so powerful about this concept is I think God has put in creation order this thing of authority and submission to that, that if we understand it, we actually, it's advantage begets advantage. If I, if I grew up as a child and I learned to submit, what submission looks like, I try to submit well to our, well to our parents, the best that we can, I guess is what I'm trying to say. But you learn to submit well. Then you learn to go out into, as you grow up, you learn to submit well to your boss and you learn to submit well to whatever you come in contact with.

You learn to submit well. Advantage begets advantage. Look at why there's so many people in jail and so many people are in our society, in American society. I'm not really saying this about other countries, but in American society, they're, they're so incredibly poor and they're so incredibly don't have anything to their name because they won't learn to submit. Like it's at the root of this thing. They would just rebel against everything that comes their way.

They want to do everything opposite. They end up in a very, very disadvantaged situation. But when you learn what submission and authority, you then get synergy. You get something that builds and grows and grows. I'm going to close with, uh, with this verse and this is just kind of an overall verse that I personally kind of like. It says, likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud and giveth grace to the humble. And so right there in that verse, you see this thing of submission, authority.

When you do it God's way, he'll, he'll clothe you with humility. If you resist God, he's going to resist you. Like it's a real, like, like, like God's in this whole order thing. If you submit to his order and his authority and his way of responding, God will be on your side. If you resist it, God isn't just not on your side. He's against you.

His right arm is against you. And that's why I think the whole deception thing starts to spin and, uh, become the experience. So, um, that's my thoughts on that. Any, uh, any other closing thoughts? Any questions? Anybody have a, anything they want to share?

Uh, that is just, uh, really well put together. Um, Casey and I, on our journey, we, when we were reading the early Christians, first we had read the whole why submit to your husband, rebel unto Christ. And I had never heard that preached in a sermon until today, I think. Maybe one other time in this church, probably. Um, and I said that would never be preached anywhere. That you'd get stoned anywhere we were going. And then when we were reading the early Christians, Irenaeus, the bishop that was appointed bishop by John, John, Apostle John said, submit to your elders as unto Christ. And Casey and I read that and we were talking and we're like, we don't have any elders we submit to.

And then we were looking for elders to submit to and we couldn't find in the other churches. They're, they're just so worldly. It was like, how do we, so we went on the journey to submit. And there's something interesting. You think submission's like a slavery thing.

Um, but the, it's, there's actually a freedom in submission. Like you don't have to like be enslaved to your own thoughts and what you need to, you're always trying to figure out what you need to do and how you got to do it. You can listen to the people above you and just do what they do tell you to do or advise and it just makes you free. Not a, like a, people think of oppression and bondage, but it's really the opposite. There's a freedom and a power in submission.

Um, anyway, that was amazing. Good job.

Thank you.

I think somehow, somehow the concept that I feel of being a victim is real closely tied into this concept. Um, people, people feel like they have a, when people position themselves as being a victim, then they have in their minds the right to rebel because they're a victim.

And it kind of ties to what Daniel was saying about the, it seems like submission is a slavery thing, like I'll get taken advantage of. But it's not when you can get, some people have a mind frame where they can in an instant consider themselves to be a victim and their own minds would be their victim. And then there's other people who through practice, like you can't make them a victim. Like when someone has that mentality that they're, like they have to be really sinned against before they would ever start taking the position of I'm being a victim to the people who take the victim position, it looks like those people are getting walked all over, but they live free lives because they don't live in their own minds as, as experiencing on being victimized.

I'm being victimized. I have this right to rebel. Um, so it really is free to not be a victim. And I think that we have, um, a lot of control over whether or not we are going to allow ourselves to have a victim mentality or a, or not to have a victim mentality.

That's all I got. Thank you for sharing that. You said it really good. Thank you. Mike? Sorry. I was just going to say, like one thing that stood out to me is when Jesus was questioned, like who gave you this authority? And the whole idea that like good and proper authority is given because out of the Great Commission, he said, all authority has been given to me. I thought about that versus the authority that lords it over, which is taken. I'm going to take that and I'm going to lord it over you. Whereas a good authority is given and that's given from without, from something else. But what lies within us is whether or not we're going to submit or rebel.

That's the part that lies within us. Good authority is, is kind of given, like from the Father to Christ, from Christ to his apostles. And yeah, so anyway, that's just kind of. Yeah, that, that's actually a good thought. I like that, Mike, because, um, I don't know how far to take it, but it does, it would almost appear, yeah, like good authority is given from God and, and everything else is taken. So it's a very interesting thought. Someone has seen a hand up back here.

So I was just thinking, um, you started out talking about, um, where the resistance to authority comes from. And I think it is true that bad authority can damage you, like damage your perception, make you resistant to submission. But I think most of it comes from within. Um, I've, I've heard submission defined, um, by some people as submission, like we bring our mission under another mission. So Jesus' mission is the mission and we bring our mission of life under that. And like in a marriage, um, we can discuss why God said that the husband is community. That is the way it is.

And the wife's mission has to be brought under that. Um, and if, if there's a conflict, you know, uh, worked out that way, you know, in the secular world, you can speed them, speed that mission, keep people safe on the road. And our mission to get somewhere fast has to be brought under that. And we just, I think everybody has an inborn resistance, like my mission is the mission and I don't want to put it under any of them.

So I, I think that's where a lot of rebellion stands. I, I forgot to add, I, I like your thought there and I forgot to add this part. I was thinking, like, I think one of the greatest ways that your understanding of submission and authority will be tested is if you have children. Because having children to, to follow your mission, like a parent's mission, like they're where they're going, it's actually a really tough, difficult thing to do. And there's this constant battle of you, the parent, understanding submission and authority and how to position yourself in a way that's, that your, your children want to follow in your footsteps or they don't. Like they're either going to, they're going to want to duplicate you or, yeah, duplicate you or, um, can't say the right word.

Imitate, huh? Emulate. Emulate, like, yeah.

Or they're going to rebel against you, like, or they don't want you, or they don't want anything you have. And like, it's, it's truly a test. In fact, like, I think it's one of the greatest tests that we have. Like, and, and I think in church life, like, like in church life, we're in that battle all the time. Like, are we doing this whole thing well? Like, that's why the older I get, I realize that authority isn't the problem in my life. It's learning to be, it's learning how to respond to submission. And I think the more I understand that, then the more I relate to it and, and wrap myself around it, hopefully I do better in wherever I'm at.

So, um, someone else had their hand up back here. Conrad. I was just rolling through my mind. I like the, I like the way you brought up synergism. I think what gets missed so often in this subject is the fact that we tend to think of authority as a vacuum cleaner and submission as a jerk.

And it's not that way. It's not that way at all. It actually is. Anybody have any doubts?

I really, the, um, polarizing issue there in saying, are we my submission or rebellion? That really was a good thing for me to think about. And because it's not a, Jason brought up the thing about being, being a victim, looking at yourself as a victim and a full, or a submission isn't something you do based on the other party.

Uh, submission is something you do because of who I am, because of my relationship to God. And then that creates the way I relate to everyone who's in authority in my life. I mean, the same way that you don't, you don't respect, treat a lady with respect and courtesy based on how honorable she is. You do it because you're a gentleman. And, um, I thought about David in that, we went through that recently in youth Bible study.

And I thought, you know, as much as people go to the Old Testament and they say, he first without war, David was a man of war, you know, God teaches my hands the war, so both steel is broken by my arms, you know. Um, David would never have participated in the American Revolution because his response was always I will not lift my hand against the Lord's Lord. I'll run and hide. I'll go, you know, do whatever I got to do, but I'm not going to attack him. And it was because of who David was. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think that's a good thing. I think in the whole thing about being a victim, I think if we keep that straight, that that's my, that's my position of power is finding my mission under whatever God's put in my life.

And I know that, you know, the government's going to abuse that authority at times, but I don't view that. Like this is my place of power is to submit. And that's my way of changing the world. Um, that helps, I think, rewire that whole thing about, uh, about framing yourself as a victim when, when, when, when leadership, you know, doesn't do what they ought to do.

I think that's the mentality that David had there because that was his place of power was to respect who God had put in authority.

Uh, and bringing up the whole David thing, I was thinking, like if you have bad parents, you still can learn to submit well and God will raise you up. And I was thinking of David and Saul. Like Saul was a bad leader, a bad king. And here David is running around here submitting to that. And guess what was happening? God was exalting him. And I think, and Saul knew, knew it was coming. Like he knew his days were numbered and it drove him crazy.

But God was against Saul. Like he's against the proud. And I think it's the exact same thing happens. If we respond well to difficult situations and you do that well, like David did, God will exalt you and you'll become whatever you become. But, uh, so, okay. Anything else real quick? I just have one thing. I thought it was really interesting that you said that rebellion is a precursor to, uh, deception.

And I thought it made a lot of sense to see that in the world. Um, but it was also, it's a comforting thing because looking at rebellious people or even people who are rebelling against society, it seems like they're the ones, um, who have the advantage. They're the ones that are pushing for certain reforms. They're the ones that are making things happen.

Um, but to actually see them as the disadvantaged ones, as the ones that are actually being deceived, um, and we are actually the ones, if we are in a proper position, um, and like you brought up with the whole synergy, like that really is the power and the strength. And so to think of that, we are actually on the side of the strength and the, the ones that aren't going to be deceived. Um, I found that really, really inspiring to, to pursue, uh, to pursue that this combination of submission and authority.

Yeah, I like that. That's very inspiring because, I mean, in some ways you can know if you're on the right side or wrong side. Um, if you're doing the right thing, at least if you're rebellious and you're deceived, you might not know you're on the wrong side.