There's Matthew. Well, good morning, everybody. Great to see some old faces. John, good to see you. Jack, good to see you. And the rest of these guys, well, heck with you. We're the young faces. They're back. You're still invited to the party. That's right. You're all still invited to the party. Exactly. We are excited. So we're talking about what we're talking about this book called the Titus 10 and we're up to the fifth of the of the 10 stones that he foundational stones of being a godly man and just kind of review them for especially for those who haven't been here. We said the first thing that God expects and wants all of us to understand is that he has given us domain. And he wants us to have dominion over the earth. He wants dominion over evil. He wants us to have dominion over ourselves. And so we first have to understand that dominion is really what this is all about. But you can't have dominion without the gospel. That's the second stone. The gospel is what gets you access. The gospel is what brings you into this family. The gospel is what makes this all happen. Without the gospel, it's all a waste of time. Paul says if Christ has not risen from the dead, we are basically wasting our time. What's the point? So we have this great message that has been given to us that we can have dominion because of him not because of us. It's not due to us and so forth. And so when we have been given that place, we have dominion, first and foremost, over ourselves. We have dominion over the church. We have dominion over the family. We have dominion in the community. And each one of those domains requires us to understand that we can't do any of that without the gospel. And without this understanding that he has come into our lives, that he has changed our lives, that he has done that. And as a result, that then gives us the third stone, which is our identity. And identity is absolutely critical to this whole entire process. But identity is not found in what we do. Identity is found in the fact that we are what we are. It's not what we are, it is who we are. and identity is found in Christ. If, in fact, you've been given this domain, you've been given the gospel, you've accepted that gospel, your identity now is found in Christ. And so Paul said that whenever he started off his teaching, whenever he started off his teaching, he started it off, Paul, a bondservant, a doulos, a bondservant of Christ, and an apostle. So his identity was not found in his apostleship, the fact that he was sent out, it was found in the fact that he is a servant. And this is such a big deal that our identity is not in what we do. You know, it's really interesting how often we mess this up, because the gospel's mandate is, follow me. That's the mandate of the gospel. And so the mandate of the gospel says that Jesus said, follow me. That's what it's all about. So he expects us to follow him, which of course is going to talk about what we're going to talk about today, which is authority. But to follow him is the mandate of the gospel. Well, you can't do that unless you understand your identity. Absolutely. Yeah. So, so identity is really profound because so many people get their identity messed up in that they believe that their identity is what they do. And the problem is, is that as soon as what you do is taken away, you end up in what I call an identity crisis. Because if your identity is not who you are, then everything else struggles. And so when we look at identity and we see this, we see all sorts of great things that Paul talks about, about what it meant to be a bondservant of Christ. But the most important thing about being a bondservant of Christ is that you have to start out as a slave before you can be an heir. You have to start out as a slave before you can be an heir. And it's crazy that what he's looking for is he's looking for total surrender. He's looking for us to say, not only am I a slave, but I want to be a slave. And so we see that great section in Exodus where we look at the Hebrew man who decides that he's going to give up his freedom, so quote unquote, he's gonna give up his freedom so that he can be a bondservant, and in becoming a bondservant, he finds freedom. That's, yeah. God wants us all to be his imagers, We do if we're in Christ. But our identity is found in this idea that we have committed ourselves to Him. That's where our identity is found. It's found in Him. It's not found in what we do. What we do is important, but what we are is more important. I was thinking about the difference between identity and obedience. Well, that gets into assignments. And so identity is really, and we said this, you want to hold your identity tightly, you want to hold your assignments loosely. So you hold your identity in a clenched fist, you hold your assignments in an open palm, in an open hand. And because God, now what's really interesting about that is that you can't add anything to a clenched fist because you don't want to add anything to your identity. You don't want to add anything to your identity. But you always want to hold your assignments, which is the fourth stone, you want to hold your assignments in an open hand because we want God to give us those assignments. And God can't give you something unless your hand's open. Nobody can give you anything. You can't add anything to a clenched fist, but you can add all sorts of stuff to an open hand. But when you have an open hand, it also means that you could drop it. It means you could make mistakes. Well, you know what? That's part of the assignments. Part of this whole thing is God gives you assignments, doesn't mean you're gonna be perfect. Doesn't mean those assignments are always gonna be exactly, you're going to fulfill those assignments the exact way that you think that you should or whatever. This is where the malady of our flesh becomes a reality. So we see this thing, but at the core, our identity is found in four things. Our identity is found first in that we are a slave. Second, if in fact we allow ourselves to be surrendered, God says we're going to be an heir. that he is going to allow us to be an heir, he is going to allow us to be a son, and he has adopted each one of us into the family. This is the beauty, and we talked about adoption and so forth. This idea that he's adopted us into his family, that then allows us to have another relationship, which is remarkable to me, beyond sonship, and that is friendship. You see, I think one of the greatest things that happens in parenthood is when your son or your daughter not only understands that they are an heir, but that they are your friend, that they're your associate, that they are your peer, that they are a person that you can actually have a one-on-one conversation, not in an up-down kind of relationship, but on a parallel relationship. And that friendship is what God gives to each one of us that have allowed ourselves first to identify as being a slave, which allows us to be a son, which allows us to be a friend, and then the most beautiful part is, allows us to be a lover of God, and allows us to have an intimate relationship with God. But the intimate relationship where it talks about, and thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, that doesn't happen if you haven't given over to slavery first, if you haven't already understood your position as an heir, and you become a friend with God. Those things happen kind of in that order. They don't happen necessarily simultaneously, although they might. They happen because one leads to the next. Does everybody sort of get that? But your identity is found in your relationship in Christ, both as a slave, as a son or an heir. as a friend or an associate, whatever word you want to use there, and then finally, as a lover, as a person that has intimacy with God. And to me, that's one of the great mysteries of this identity. But once you identify with Christ, He is then going to give you assignments. That's the fourth thing. He's going to assign you to certain things, and those assignments are going to change. Those assignments are going to be flexible. Those assignments are going to be, Temporary. That's probably the best way to put it. Yeah, temporary. That's the right word. Thank you, Jim. You know, I mean, to me, it's really an interesting experience that when we understand that God gives us assignments and then sometimes gives us new assignments. and sometimes gives us another assignment, along with the first assignment. I want you to continue this, but I also want you to do this. And so he would send Paul, and he would say, Paul, you're an apostle, which means to be sent out. And so God says, I'm gonna send you out, Paul. Well, Paul, I'm gonna send you to Jerusalem. Oh, you know what, Paul, you're good there. Now we're gonna send you to Mesopotamia. Oh, you're good there. We're now gonna send you to Greece. Oh, you're good there. Oh, we're gonna send you. We're just going to keep you, we're just going to kind of move in your assignment here, Paul, because that's what you are. You're in Christ. You're now, and this brings us to what we're going to talk about today. You are under my authority, Paul. You're under my authority. So what I tell you to do is what you do. Now, here's the beauty. If you are, in fact, under his authority, he grants you authority. That to me is one of the coolest parts of the whole entire thing. If you understand this idea that God has called every single one of us to be ambassadors for Christ, read about that in 2 Corinthians 5. If you understand that he's called us to be ambassadors, you gotta understand what an ambassador is. An ambassador has tremendous authority in his mission. Tremendous authority. But that authority is at the behest of the president who gives it to him. And it can be taken away just like that. And it is not to be violated. In fact, an ambassador that speaks on his own regard or what he thinks is the correct answer in his own personal attitude is going to get replaced. Because an ambassador speaks on behalf of the person that sent him. An apostle speaks on behalf of the God who sent him. He doesn't speak on his own behalf. And so this idea of authority, which is what we're talking about today, this fifth idea, or this fifth stone, is big because if you are under the authority of the king, or the president, or the ruler, whatever word you want to use, in our case, God, if you are under his authority, and he has given you authority as that ambassador, then it is your function, your job to speak what he speaks, not what you speak. You see, the beauty of authority is that our authority is in fact, it's gonna blow you away, is completely unlimited when it comes to the things of God. It's unlimited as the things of God, but it is completely limited as the things of the flesh. And that's why in Romans chapter eight, it says the spirit begins to work within us in such a way that sometimes he'll even pray on our behalf because he'll pray with words that we don't even know what to say. So the spirit will say it for us. Why? Because that's what it means to be in Christ. That's the identity issue. You see how it all just sort of flows? So we have this identity in Christ. That identity in Christ allows us to be his servant, his ambassador, and as his ambassador, we have authority. So, we talked about this last week. Here's the problem that I see and that everyone has experienced in some form or another, I'm sure, and that is passivity. And so last week I talked about the idea that our goal is to move from passivity to passion. To move from passivity to passion. Unfortunately, most men live in passivity. They, rather than fight or rather than take their rightful place in the plan of God, they just sit back and go, I'm sure God's gonna take care of this. I'm sure God's gonna do that. I'm sure God's gonna do this. I'm sure God's gonna do that. You see, passivity is an epidemic. It is epidemic. And in the same way that an epidemic requires tremendous diligence to defeat it, passivity takes the same kind of, not obedience, well, obedience is true, but that, strength or that, it has to become important. And so, our goal is to move from passivity to passion, and we need to resist the urge to just exist. Do you think that's a journey at all? Oh, it's totally a journey. It's totally a journey. I mean, look, in the same way that it's a journey to go from slavery to sonship, you know, to lover ultimately, you know, from friend to lover, that's a journey. And it doesn't happen overnight. I guess it could happen overnight. But for most people, it doesn't. And I believe what causes it to be dulled is passivity. Passivity is what dulls this ability for us to do what God wants us to do. Oftentimes it's not a journey. They get stuck in the passivity. Oh, there's no doubt. And that's how people become 30 years old in the Lord, instead of 30 years old in the Lord, one year old in the Lord, 30 times over. So this idea that we do it. But unfortunately, the vast majority of men are like Adam, who basically watched as sin came into the world. I mean, that's what Adam did. What's fascinating is that Adam was right there when his wife took the apple, or whatever word, whatever fruit, you know, the apple, obviously it wasn't an apple, but the idea of the fruit, the unintended consequence was that, of course, they ended up getting completely cut off from God, but Adam watched sin, come into the world and did nothing about it. He could have stopped her. He could have raised, you know, up and said, no. But he didn't. And the enemy knows, listen to me, the enemy knows that he can wreak havoc on the world if men turn a blind eye and do nothing. He knows that. And so that's his easiest tool to use. There's lots of tools that he can use, but that's the easiest tool. The easiest tool is when your enemy doesn't fight. I mean, do you remember when the Germans came into France in World War II? That was the easiest victory that ever existed. Why? They didn't do anything. They just sat back and said, oh, y'all come in here, take us over. Thank you very much. You know, take complete control of our country. We're good. Bonjour. Bonjour. It makes a difference who you're submitting to. I struggle with this thought that, you know, it was Adam just choosing to be passive in terms of there's a And I don't understand exactly what that might have been. He just got Eve and he didn't want to lose her, so he went along with her. He lost his mindset that God was the only thing that mattered. His relationship to God was the only thing that mattered. And so he had a relationship that he was grappling with. that he needed to pay attention to and so he stood back afraid that he would lose something if he was passionate. The way that you have to tame that passion and control and display that passion is something that, in general, the way men are, we're aggressive about being passionate, right? And when you do that in a boardroom, when you do that with your peers, when you do that with people that report to you, it's threatening. And you know, in today's society, it can't be threatening. Everything's an effort, right? So I think that there's a condition. diverters in a river, right? Just guide the flow of the water. You can't stand up as a dam and hold things back. You can't redirect roughly. It just needs to be a smooth guide. That's just my thoughts on it. I'll stop talking. Matthew, look, I mean, what you're saying is spot on. It has always been dangerous to stand up for Christ. Period. It has always been dangerous. There is always... One of the things he talked about in the book is the ripple effect, remember? And this idea that when you throw a stone into the water, it's going to create... It's really interesting. When you throw a stone into turbulent water, you don't even know you did it. Did you ever think about that? When you throw a stone into turbulent water, you don't even know you did it. But when you throw a stone into flat, calm water, everybody knows you did it. And this is really kind of where we're at as believers, is that when things are real calm, when everything is just so nicely going along, the world is just happy with the way they are, and then you throw the stone in there about, well, you know, things have got to change. Man, everybody knows it. But when the world's a mess, It actually, believe it or not, is easier to stand up for things that are important, things that are big, to be part of the resistance. It really is. And more people are going to say, hey, I want in on that. But when things are nice and calm, when everything is just real easy and everything is just, boy, the last thing anybody wants is for somebody to throw a rock into the river and shake that river up. That's the last thing they want. But unfortunately, that's what sometimes we're asked by God to do. That may be the assignment that God's given us, whatever, I don't know. But I can tell you one thing that I know for a fact, Matt, and that is that Satan is going to use whatever he needs to use to get you to do what he wants you to do. And I believe that's what happened in this situation with Adam. He worked on, you know, if you remember the statement that he made, he said, I'll make you like God. I'll make, you know, I'm gonna open your eyes. You know, it's such an interesting concept, this idea that Satan uses whatever he can to get what he wants. He'll do whatever he needs to do. Remember when we studied the book of Job, that was the thing that was, to me, the most apparent in the book of Job. is that he just did whatever he needed to do and then he, if you remember in the book of Job, we hear about Job in the beginning of the book, we never hear about him again. He never talks again, he's never around again, he doesn't even need to be around anymore. Because why? Ripple effect. He threw the stone in. He got it going. And that was all he needed to do. At the end of the day, remember that Satan is not passive. We might be passive. But he's not passing. He's going to do whatever it takes to mess this thing up. So in this case, Matt, what you're saying is 100% true. It goes very much towards what you were talking about on Tuesday. The guys that don't know, on Tuesday we were talking about the Book of Romans, and Matt, you made a great comment about circumcision. Why don't you just repeat that to the guys? Do you remember what you said about that? If not, I'll tell them. Well, then I'll say it. Matty said something that really resonated. It resonated with me. I don't know if it resonated with anybody else, but it resonated with me. And that was that oftentimes we pick on the people in that time saying, you know, the Jewish group there said that all these Gentiles need to be circumcised. And what Matt said, which was really interesting, was that was just the way they understood it. They were just basically saying, you know what, if you're a Gentile and you're going to come into this community, you've got to be like us. So you've got to do what we do. You have to identify in circumcision. And what Paul was trying to bring out to them was that circumcision was not their identity. Circumcision was just a way for God to identify them as a group, but it wasn't to identify them as a person. And so when a person who was not Jewish, who was not part of that group, became part of this group, Paul wanted everyone to know, no, no, those are Gentiles. Those are people that were not of that original ilk. We're not just making little Jews here. which is what you were talking about, Matty, if you recall. Now, do you remember? No. But really, that's a very important point when it comes to this whole idea of identity and then ultimately your assignment and so forth. But here's the question. The question is, do you believe that Satan is actively trying to destroy the church? Do you believe that? See, because I am convinced, maybe in this group, because we're willing to get up at six o'clock in the morning to come to a group of men that are going to study the word of God and so forth. And so we probably are a little bit more in tune with that concept. But I got to tell you, we got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 people here. Oh, I'm sorry, plus we've got 300. We have 18 people here. Like he said, 15. We've got less than 20 people here. We've got less than 20 people here. I've got news for you. Last time I checked, a lot more than 20 men in this church. Last time I checked, a lot more than 20 men in this church. We've got, I believe it's, I believe it's 42 men on the roster of this group. 42 men that have said, yeah, I want to be involved with that. And are from time to time. But many are not. Most guys sign up and then never show up. Did you ever think about that? Most guys sign up and don't show up. Look at the numbers. I have 42 people on the roster. We got 20 people here, less than 20 people here. So that means there are more people that signed up and showed up. Right. I mean, oh yeah, they get, but they get emails. I'll tell you, they don't ever open them, but they do get emails. And, but, but yeah, I think it was the comedian or one of the recent speakers, they asked how many people in the audience are part of a Bible study and virtually nobody raised their hands. It was quite shocking, really. Yeah, I wasn't there, so obviously I did not hear that, but it is shocking, but it's not shocking, Stephen. Do you know what I'm saying? I mean, it is shocking, but it's not shocking, if that makes any sense whatsoever. The fact of the matter is, is that most people are passive. Most people think someone else is going to do it. Go for it, Jack. I think men can skip, because otherwise it's like in this semester. I like my emotions control my actions and that like just act and then like your feelings will come along after that And fruit will bear even whenever you don't feel like it like Go to a Bible study. You don't have to feel like going to a Bible study. Mm-hmm Like it like God we should create spiritual disciplines in our life That like make us who we are like, even if you don't feel like reading the Bible you should still read the Bible like God is still worthy of our worship, you know and it can just it can become so easy to like because you don't feel like it. And that's just not what a godly man is. It's like, even if you don't feel like it, pray with your kids or whatever. And I don't have kids, but you know what I mean? No, I get it. And that's the form of passivity that I'm talking about. That's the problem with things being a little too good. When things are a little too good, we become passive. I go back to France. Things were too good. They didn't want to shake up the boat. They didn't want to get bombed. You know what? We'll just put up with these dudes for a couple weeks. We'll put up with them. We'll negotiate. We'll figure it out. Look, they're our neighbors. We've been living next to these people forever. They're not going to come in here and raise holy hell. That was a mistake. But they did not believe Now think about this, they did not believe Hitler's ultimate goal. They just didn't believe it. So they let him in. We don't believe Satan's ultimate goal, so we let him in. We'd rather not fight him than fight him. It's easier not to fight him. Because look, how much could he possibly destroy our country? How much could he possibly make it, you know, Horrible. Yeah. That gets to the word discernment. I mean, if you don't recognize, you don't discern, in that case, a threat, or you don't recognize that this is my assignment, you do what Jack's saying. You're just on a limb. So here's what happened in France, which is really interesting because it's such a great analogy. They had huge amounts of resources to fight against Hitler. They really did. A tremendous amount of resources. In fact, their special forces were considered the best in the world at that time. Do you ever think about that? It's true. I mean, it's just crazy. But they didn't want to use their resources because they didn't see him necessarily as the enemy. They really did not see him as the enemy. So they didn't wanna use their resources against him. He was a neighbor. He was not the enemy. Well, that's the ghost of the cause and we didn't get involved either. That's right. Same thing. The problem with us is that we are so passive in things, especially when it comes to the things of God. That's why we sin what we sin. Yeah. Men is not actively involved. Men does not take their assignments seriously. One thing you said, in your class that you have taught us, we need to take God serious. And we really don't. And we need to take Satan seriously. But that's the whole point. Well, the whole point. That's the whole point. Yeah. Right. Because if you take God serious, and God told us in the scriptures that this is the purpose of Satan coming. No doubt. You know, we need to take God serious. And when we take God serious, then we will respond differently. If you told your daughter, if I tell my kids to do something, they know I'm serious about it, they move. Oh, yeah. But if I'm not serious about it, they're challenged. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yes, sir. I'm not going to really move. But when they know I'm serious, OK, they get up. Right. And that's what God is doing to us. So in Kingdom Men, in the study that we did called Kingdom Men, which personally is still my absolute favorite study we've ever done in this group, he talked about the fact that the definition of the fear of God is to take God seriously. You fear God, you take him seriously. You also take his enemy seriously. And I'm saying to you that Satan only wins when we don't use the resources that God has provided for us to win the fight. Yeah. I'm going to ask it as a question, but I want us to think through it. I think so often it's because we don't spend time in building a relationship with God. And so, therefore, we don't know how, because we don't have God's wisdom, how to respond to the things that we're facing. No doubt. No doubt. I would challenge anyone who is in passivity to tell me how much time they spend in the Word. Absolutely. I would challenge them to say, how much time do you spend on your knees? How much time have you spent fasting? How much time have you spent in developing a relationship with God in those critical areas? How much are you sharing your faith? I would challenge men in passivity to those questions. And the truth is, is that when I struggle with passivity, and we all do, by the way, anyone who doesn't think that this is a universal problem is not paying attention. It's an epidemic. And in the same way that an epidemic is going to ultimately affect everyone, I remember when COVID first hit, one of the first things I said to my wife, I said, you know, we're all going to get COVID. Eventually, we're all going to get it. We're all going to get it. And some people it affected them really badly. And some people, like me, it was basically a head cold. But at the end of the day, we all got it. We all get it. We all get affected by the epidemic. Different levels, but we all get affected by the epidemic. And the epidemic of passivity is just that way. Some of us get affected by it more than others. I went through a period, personally, I went through a period probably of about 10 years, from about the year 2000 until the year 2010, where I basically just floated. I had it on cruise control. I looked really good, by the way. If I say so myself, that's exactly right. I look really good. I look really good. I look like I had it all together. But the truth of the matter was, I was completely passive. I was just, I had it in cruise control, man. I had an autopilot, whatever word you want to use. And what was happening was, and I didn't even know it, was I was using up all those resources. And I used them up relatively quickly. And then I just sort of floated as best I could, just sort of drifting. Yeah, exactly. Drifting. And that led me to the, to the, to the, uh, to the D's by the way, that, that whole period. But, but, but at the end of the day, God had to punch me in the mouth. I am so glad he did. And you know why he punched me in the mouth? Cause he loved me. That's why he punched me in the mouth. Now here's the deal. I love you too. And that's good. Got to have punched me in the mouth. And then the reason and the reason. So the absence of the threat, what I think, um, Orlando said it earlier, right? Is that, you know, we, we don't take it serious. And you had said earlier in the conversations about I just think of it, this time of year is a perfect time of year, because everybody gets a, well, not everybody, but a lot of people are getting bonuses, right? Your year end is winding up, you get this big bonus, and you're sitting on it, and it's fine. I don't know, there's a lot of employers out there that want their employees in debt. There's a reason why they want them in debt, and it's because when they're under threat of not paying their bills, they work harder. They show up. They've got more ambition, too. Christmas, go out and buy that big screen TV, whatever it is, because you got to make that payment. Now you're showing up on Monday, right? Because now you've got a threat in your life and you're going to act on it. And to the point, to John's point earlier about the relationship, the question to this group and to the men in this church is what's the threat? What is our threat that we're actually acting on? If we're slaves we are slaves to god and we are stewards of his kingdom. I was thinking of the the steward of god or sorry, it's the lord of the rings thing but yeah, you know, like we've been given all of the kingdom because the king is left and we're responsible for that entire kingdom. We have full responsibility, full authority to manage everything in that kingdom. None of it's for us. It's only for the king. Oh, what's the threat? I don't see the threat. I'm so comfortable in what I've got going on because I don't know really what the king was up to. What was the important thing to the king? And I think the threat we fail to recognize, I'm just spitballing here, but I think the threat we fail to recognize is that somebody is going to not have the opportunity to see Christ in the end. and they won't be there. And don't see that as a threat. We forget the severity of what we're up against. Like, you talk about threat, what do we know about safety? What are some things Jesus said about safety? What, he was a liar? He was a murderer. Mm-hmm, right like Satan is playing for keeps to destroy you to destroy your children to destroy Any good thing that God gave you he is playing for keeps a really good example is in Mark Mark chapter 5 Jesus Jesus crosses over the sea. I did a guy as many demons, right? This guy could be restrained So Jesus said to the spirit. He said come out move your spirit it's name. It's an agent but we are many and by the way, when they came in front of Christ, they bowed. Yeah. It literally says he got on his knees. Anyway, those spirits were cast out and they Jesus allowed them to go into a herd of pigs. What did those pigs do? They ran into the water. Yeah. They were the demons destroyed those pigs. They sin destroys us. It's what kind of eats it. Yeah, it completely destroys us. So how do you defend against that? Well, you know, Ephesians, correct me if I'm wrong, Ephesians 6, I think it is. Yep. It gives all these use cases of our tools, of what we have to actually fight. They're weapons of war. You have a breastplate, you have a shield, right? And the breastplates and shields, those are defensive weapons. Yep. And then you have the word of God, which is a sword. That's an offensive weapon. Right. Right. That's where we get literally. So, I've been doing something guys. I I I encourage you all to do it like it's I know all of us are super busy. It's just the way everybody is in society right now and um I've noticed myself even when I'm reading the word, I have a hard time staying in it. Just focus. And also, I just, usually when I find I lose my focus, I go to other tasks, because I just got, like everybody, so much crap to do every day, all right? So something I've been doing is I downloaded an audio book of the Bible. And what I do is I read the word most days, not necessarily every day, but most days, and I'll spend like 15, 20 minutes reading. And right now I'm reading it first-hand. as an example. But then I'm listening to the Bible chronologically in these areas where I have time. So as an example, I go out and I walk the dogs every morning. I listen to the Bible. You know, sometimes 45 minutes to an hour, sometimes an hour and a half or more. When I'm in my car, I listen to the Bible instead of music. It's amazing what it's done. Areas of cinema life. It's uncovered to I gotta get out work through it to God my my attitude my general spirit my Just everything I walk with it draws you and it's a sword. It's me, too So anybody can do it. Well, at least if you have a smart phone and set headphones Just in your free time you're cooking dinner Yeah So it's interesting. So here we are, we're 45 minutes into this class and we have not looked at the verse that this whole class is based on. But the verse is in Titus chapter two. Go to Titus chapter two and verse 15. Now this is right after he says that we have a blessed hope, Lord and His glorious appearing, and of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us that we might, that He might redeem us and make for Himself a, I love this, He make for Himself a what? A possession, zealous unto good works. So that's the gospel. The gospel is verses 13, 14, basically. And then he says this, he says, these things speak, these things exhort, parakaleo, these things reprove with authority. and let no one put you down. And let no one put you down. And remember, there's no chapter break. And he says, and remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be uncontentious, gentile, showing every consideration for all men. You wanna understand the authority that God has given to us? Understand these verses, these three verses, understand them. Because he's saying to them, there's three words he uses in verse 15. He uses the Greek word laleo, which means to speak, just to talk, to have conversation with somebody, laleo, that this saying is, that's laleo. He uses the word parakaleo, parakaleo, which means to come alongside and speak. So the laleo is part of that, but para, meaning to come alongside, it means to counsel. It means to counsel. We have actually this word in English called paraclete. A paraclete is a person that is an attorney, is a paraclete. So we have laleo, we have paracaleo, and then he says, and eleheo. which means to admonish somebody, to tell them when they're wrong. All of these things, these three words require one thing. What's the one thing it requires? What's it require? It requires a tongue. That's what it requires. A tongue. For you to have a conversation with somebody requires a tongue. For you to be able to come along and admonish somebody requires a tongue. For you to admonish somebody requires a tongue. But what does James say about the tongue? Man, it is the potential. It is the thing that can catch things on fire. Right? Oh, that's the point. That's the point. So he's saying that if you're under the authority of Christ, it speaks life. But if you're passive, it speaks death. Everybody see this? Laleo, paracaleo, agaleo. It's just incredible that those are the words he chooses to use. He could have used other words, by the way. He could have used a whole lot of other words. There are all sorts of other words he could have used. It's really interesting. But he chose those words. He chose those words because that's what the Spirit of God told him to do. But he chose those words and then he said, don't let anybody put you down. Some Bibles will say despise you. Some Bibles will say disregard you. But really the word there in Greek means to put you down. And then he says, okay, so if you're gonna speak, If you're going to speak, I want you to understand the context in which you're speaking. You're speaking, you're counseling, you're admonishing. The first is that you do it subject to authority. You do it subject to authority. You do it subject to the king. The king. You do it subject to the king. That's why in that very first, he says, be subject to Ache, which means God, means the one who is in absolute, it's there by birth. It is the ruler by birth. It's the ruler that is there from the beginning. That's what Ache means. It's from the beginning. Well, who's the ruler that's there from the beginning? It's God. So your first requirement is to be in subjection to God. And then he says, be subject also to authorities. Those are the people that are not God. That's just, those are the people that are not God. Those are your elders. Those are the people that God has brought into your life that he's allowed you to be a part of. That's the Greek word, excusia. That's the person who gives you an excuse really. We get the word excuse from that actually. Exousia means the person that is able to forgive you. That's really the idea behind that. And then he says six things. He says, first and foremost, be obedient. Be obedient. That's where it all begins. If you understand this idea of authority, it begins by you being obedient. It starts with being a slave. We said your identity begins with being a slave, then becomes an heir, then becomes a friend, then becomes a lover. And so he says, be obedient. Be obedient to who? Be obedient to the king, be obedient to the excusia, be obedient to these people that God, be first to God, and then to those people that are placed in there by God. And then he says, be ready to do good. Be ready to do good. I think that's so interesting. To be ready to do good means you have to train because we naturally don't do good. Do you ever think about this? Jack plays golf. Jack, how many bad golf swings do you see? A lot. How many good ones do you see? Not many. But the ones that you see that are good, those guys worked at it. Those guys spent a lot of time, right? They didn't just walk out there one day and swing like Tiger Woods. Neither did Tiger Woods, by the way. So the fact of the matter is that we need to be ready to do good. which means we have to prepare. So be obedient, be prepared. And then he says four very important things. He says, first and foremost, don't blasphemo, don't malign, don't blaspheme other people. Well, that means don't not only blaspheme other people, but also don't blaspheme God. So don't malign anyone. And he says, and this is good, he says, in my Bible it says, uncontentious. The word in Greek is a machos. A machos. Do you know what word we get from machos? It's a Spanish word. Macho. Macho. A macho. Whenever you put the letter A in front of a Greek word, what does it mean? The opposite. So don't be macho, is what he's saying there. Don't be the person who has to be all up in somebody's face. or as they say, up in your grill kind of thing. No, no, we don't, no, a macho, okay? So he says, he says, I don't want you to malign anyone, no blasphemo, no macho, no, a machos. And then he says, be gentle is what it says in my book. But really the idea there is to be fair, is to be equitable. That's what he says, be fair. Look at both sides of an argument before you just jump on the boat. Make sure you're on the right side of that. And then finally, he says, be meek. Be meek. The word there, my Bible says, show everyone consideration, is just the same word that Jesus uses in his great sermon on the mount, blessed are the meek, same word. So he's saying, look, I want you to be meek. And meek, of course, as we all know, is not weak. Meek means submitted. That's what it means. and comes right back to the whole thing of slavery. So this idea that God has called us to authority is all about understanding that if you are in authority, you're first subject to the king, you're subject to the people that God has also put in authority over you, you are a person who is therefore to be obedient to them, and then that obedience gets you ready to do good, and then the four things that he wants you to do that are good is he doesn't want you to blaspheme, he doesn't want you to be macho, he doesn't want you to be inequitable, and he wants you more than anything to be meek. Because that's what authority is all about. You see, the authority that God gives us allows us to be lesser than we think we are. You see, a true ambassador, the best ambassador is the one that never speaks on his own behalf. but speaks only on behalf of the king. That is a true ambassador. That is the ambassador that ultimately gets knighted, is the one that doesn't speak on his own behalf, but speaks on only behalf of the king. Mr. Staccuzzi. Oh, I read this definition from Egan. It was like knowing you have power and knowing when to use it. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Like knowing when to control your power. Yeah, and being able, therefore, to control it, because you're ready to control it. I would use the word, we talked a lot about passivity and also aggressiveness, but assertiveness, I think, is really the key word in our language, at least in my language, to be assertive. Number one, I know who I am, the identity, but I also recognize that that other person is a child of God too, whether they recognize it or not. And I think about Jesus talking to the rich young ruler. Jesus laid it out assertively. And when the young man went away, Jesus didn't go, well, hey, let's talk about this some more. He said, no. He let the young man walk away. Yeah. Yeah. Pat. The acronym EGO edging down on it. And you know, it's interesting that you would use that idea because ego is also what causes us so many issues. It really does. It's this whole idea. So, look, God gives us as ambassadors two basic things. He gives us power. and he gives us authority, just like the President of the United States gives his ambassador power, and he gives him authority to be able to rule on his behalf. But Jesus, or here in this case, through Paul, says, but I want you to rule differently. I don't want you to rule as a tyrant, I don't want you to rule as someone who thinks he knows everything and basically has got it all together. No, no. I want you to do it in submission. I want you to first understand submission, both to the king and to those I've placed in authority over you. And I want you to understand that it all begins with obedience. It begins with obedience. And all these other things, the not being blasphemous, the not being macho, the being equitable, the being meek, those are all kind of like under that idea that it begins with obedience. There is no worse ambassador than one who is not obedient. Just think about that logically. Can you imagine the turmoil and the crisis that would go in place if the ambassador to, fill in the blank, spoke a word which was different than what he was being told to speak? Can you imagine? He'd be called back. Oh, he'd be called back like now. Okay, right? And rightfully so. And rightfully so. We're called to take dominion. We're called to be an heir to the kingdom. That's what the gospel is all about. We're called to be a servant of God, that's where our identity is found. We're called to fulfill God's assignments, but we are also called by the authority of God himself. And he has then allowed us to participate in that same authority and given us the right, this is really interesting, and given us the right to be called sons of God. Isn't that cool? even the right to call. Sounds good. Authority gives you the right to teach, to admonish, to speak. It does not give you the right to keep your mouth shut. Well, that's inherent to the student. Well, but think about that. I mean, he doesn't say to him, keep your mouth shut. He doesn't say that at all. He says, no, no, no. Because of the gospel, because of what He's done in your life, because of who you are, because of all the things that you've done, I want you first and foremost to speak. I want you to speak, I want you to come alongside and counsel, and I want you to admonish. But the key word there is, I want you to speak. They all have Laleo in the word. God wants us to say what you need to have said. That's why he gives every one of us a tongue. To me, there is no greater two-edged sword than the tongue. Can we say it that way? There is no greater two-edged sword than the tongue. Because with it, we bless and we curse. With it, we make peace and we start wars. The tongue. And the tongue is what riles people up. And the tongue is also what comforts. It is just huge that we understand. Amen. Amen. And that's what he starts us off with. Remind them to be subject to the archaic, to the God, to, to, to God himself, to the one that was there at the beginning, the ruler that was there in the beginning. I think it's so interesting when he uses that word, ache, and Paul uses it a lot in referring to God. Uses it a lot. Because he was the original, you know, he was the, you know, OG stands for original God. Yeah, so there you go. Let's get out of here. Hey, Father, we thank you so much for your word. We bless your holy name. We thank you for this idea that we can come together and we can share these great, I just thank you so much for allowing us to have this outline that Josh gave us in this book, that we can learn from it, that we can grow from it. And Father, as we talk next week about character. just realize just how big a deal it is that now that you have called us out to be ambassadors, that we have that character, that character of obedience, that character of not wanting to malign, that character of wanting to build up, encouraging. So Lord, we just thank you for your word. We thank you for all that you do for us. I thank you so much for this group. We bless your holy name. We thank you for Jesus and we pray in his name. Amen.