Activating the Authority of the Believer in Christ

"I'm going to do my best to not beat a dead horse and belabor anything. But at the same time, it can be difficult because the Lord has really placed upon our hearts in this series as we're talking about the authority of the believer and the authority that we walk in that the challenge sometimes as a preacher and a teacher of God's Word is you want to bring something new." [00:00:14]

"What we're really doing is we're re-emphasizing and re-instilling. It's more of, in music, what would be called a reprise. See, in a broken record, it's looping on accident and unintentionally. A reprise is when you intentionally go back and pull something back that you were doing before." [00:01:22]

"It's about having the ability and the power, the understanding to activate that knowledge and to put it into practice, put it into work. Jesus said this. He said, blessed are those who hear my words and do them. Not just enough to hear God's Word and to know God's Word or to be able to quote God's Word." [00:03:47]

"The significance of this idea and this picture that you and I could relate to of this key card that opens up the door is that this authority that we have. you've been given as believers that's what we're unpacking and that's what we've been looking at the last several weeks we understood as pastor robert so beautifully pulled out that this authority and all these things that were that were given remember they come from christ they're found in him apart from him jesus said apart from me you can do nothing that there's nothing that you and i could ever accomplish or ever achieve that's worth anything without him but his message wasn't to say you know so sorry stinks for you what he was saying is if you'll just abide in me john 14 if you abide in me and i abide in you you're going to bear so much fruit or john 15 rather you're going to bear all this fruit i'm going to work this in to your life i have given you this access but what happens i think to us as believers so often is that we have this card figuratively we have this key card that would give us access to the entire facility the whole place and we just keep it in our pocket we don't use it we don't recognize what we have in it in fact sometimes i would dare say we're trying to unlock doors that won't seem to open it's like we're banging against this door why won't they let me in without realizing that i have the key card in my pocket that will open every door that we ever have need of the significance of this is great the significance of this is vast we need to recognize and realize that it all comes from christ as we've been setting up and we talked about how this authority it's rooted in him and it's from him we need to depend on him for it we talked about how he's given us authority over sin that sin no longer has to control us sin no longer has to dominate our lives that jesus broke the back of sin that he's given us his spirit that by his spirit we no longer are slaves to sin the scripture says that we don't have to look this way we don't have to walk this way we don't have to operate this way but if we don't identify that and continually lean into that we'll keep habitually doing what we were doing before and that's one of the ways the enemy works is he gets you in a pattern and he gets you to stay locked into a frame of mind without identifying and realizing that there's more he's given us authority to overcome every work of the enemy talked about this a couple weeks ago that the enemy cannot stand in the way of the life of the believer and the work of god because jesus has already been victorious and triumphant over everything and every power of darkness this is really really great news it's opportunity for you and me but too often for you and i it's a missed opportunity because we don't walk in this authority pastor robert talked last week about how you" [00:07:04]

"authority and power are linked he said this i love this he said identity is the basis of authority and authority is the grounds of power just to reemphasize this point what it what it's saying the simplistic nature of this profound point is that all of our authority all the authority we have is rooted in our identity with christ that we're not the ones with authority he is but scripture says that he gives us the right he gives us the privilege all those who put their faith and trust and hope in christ to be the sons of god and therefore the heirs and co -heirs with christ and so all of his authority becomes ours through identity and it's that authority that grants and gives us power pastor robert gave a really really great analogy last week about a police officer that the power that a police officer carries and holds is really rooted in the authority that's given to them this authority that's given to them is through the agency of the police department or the government or whatever agency that they're behind they say this is the backing that's what wearing that suit uniform is all about because you have the backing of all of that that you need to respond to and you need to lean into you need to it's in charge so that authority gets exercised and then it translates into power all that to catch us up to this point in this premise of this authority that you and i have this authority that you and i have to wield it and to use it or to open this door that this power that the we would walk in this authority that the power would be present as a result because power follows authority and so we need to learn how to walk in and walk through this authority that accesses christ jesus said in matthew 28 all authority in heaven and earth it's been given unto me if there's any authority needed in any way i'm the highest authority the highest power there's nothing that doesn't fall under my rule and reign as we sang today you reign above it all you reign above it all you know what the scriptural significance is you know the new testament's written in greek old testament's in hebrew and so a lot of times our translation we need to go back and we study and we'll do this in preaching a lot we'll say you know that word it really signifies this and it means that and we've translated it like this for our understanding but it means this but when jesus said all authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me do you know what that word all means in the original language it means all sometimes i think that we don't really fully comprehend that jesus has all authority he has total authority there is nothing that he does not have authority over in fact sometimes that can cause us if we realize that it can cause us to be a little bit disgruntled with god because if you have all authority then why are you letting this thing happen right when we're tapping into the full understanding and the full scope that he has authority over it all sometimes we could be disillusioned and disappointed because we don't know why it's not going the way we think it ought to go but what we have to remember about his authority is scripture says that his ways are higher than our ways that he understands things that he sees things that nobody else sees you know as the lead pastor of the church um the one who has to make decisions a lot of times many many times i i take input i'm a collaborative thinker i i just feel like i know i'm gifted and i have some good ideas but for no way shape or form do i think i have the corner on every good idea" [00:10:14]

"that there ever was, so I like to get different and hear different points of view and perspectives, and I think you're gifted too. But I'm the only one seated in the seat that I'm uniquely seated in to see the whole picture and everything. And so sometimes people come to me and they're frustrated, why didn't you do this thing I wanted to do? They say, well, because that thing you wanted to do, I thought it was a great idea. It was a good idea in this area." [00:14:34]

"I'm not saying I'm God, but I'm saying in a much greater and grander way, God has this understanding and this scope and this lens of eternity and the earth and the world and His history and His story and everything that He wants to do where sometimes He just says, listen, I'm doing something that you don't yet understand, but if you'll trust Me, you'll see that it's for your good. And so God has complete authority. Christ has all authority, but in that verse, in that chapter, in that last chapter in the book of Matthew, when Jesus is commissioning His disciples, it's after He's resurrected from the grave, it's after He's revealed Himself again unto them, and it's right before He's going to heaven for that final time, because He's going to return one more time, right before He goes to heaven, He says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given unto Me." [00:15:07]

"He says, therefore, or because I have all this authority, go into all the world and make disciples. Here's what He's saying. He's ultimately, we call this the Great Commission because He's commissioning them or He's putting them to work. He's saying, listen, I am in complete control, so because I'm in control, I choose to send you. What He's saying is, I'm authorizing you, or I'm giving you access. The significance of Jesus saying, I'm in complete control and everything's under My hand and everything's under My feet, is to put trust and faith in them to say, it's in My power that you're going to walk and you're going to go. I want to say to some of us today is that you don't realize the authority that's been given to you by Christ." [00:16:04]

"We talked about it the other week, to trample over serpents and scorpions, or the works of the enemy, the works of Satan, He said. Jesus said this powerful promise to you and I that no foul thing's going to touch us. Look at what it says in Mark chapter 16 and 17. He says, and these signs will follow those who believe. Anyone who believes in My name, this is what's going to follow you. It's running behind you. You can't stop it. It's just coming if you believe in Me. In My name, they're going to cast out demons. They're going to speak with new tongues. All in My name. They'll take up serpents. If they drink anything deadly, it'll by no means hurt them. They'll lay hands on the sick and they will recover. Cover. Thank you." [00:16:48]

"you know i understand that a lot of times in our christian faith and our christian walk and understanding god's word that there are some mysteries there are some uncertainties there are prayers we pray that don't go answered there are miracles we're asking for that we don't see there are healings we pray for that don't happen i understand and that can be challenging and sometimes i wish i had the simple answer to say what and why and how even that answer well understood is quite complex to grasp it's simply that he is sovereign and he knows greater and he knows better but that doesn't always give us comfort but the point that i'm trying to say is that i know that while those times exist and those things happen way more often than not you and i have authority and access that we've been given that we just aren't exercising that we just aren't yet using that we aren't tapping into we're fighting battles that we were never intended to fight on our own we're fighting an enemy that is stronger than us but when we fight in the power of christ he's already been defeated we're fighting an enemy that's already lost see but if he can get you and i to think that we need to show up for this battle and he could win we've already maybe had a setback but if we would understand this authority think about this when when jesus came and he and he was walking the earth there was a there was a situation at a time where he came and there was someone who was demon possessed see and jesus said i give you the power to cast out demons the disciples they went out they cast out demons in fact there was a time where there was others they came back and they said they were casting out demons too in your name but we didn't know they weren't part of our church so we stopped them we told them you know hold off that's not the right deal and jesus said please listen they're doing it in my name and they're not against us then they're for us just leave it it's more than just you guys sometimes i wonder if they really thought they were helping jesus or they thought i thought we were the ones who were supposed to cast out the demon you know i thought that was my power human life is so good at putting pride and ourselves in the center but the point is is that jesus gave them this authority and this power that they could speak in his name and cast out demons really really powerful but let me show you how much authority and power jesus had jesus shows up and as he's showing up as he's getting near to this one with demons it said the demons began to cry out jesus jesus jesus please please please have mercy on us they understood that when jesus stepped out" [00:18:20]

"And when Jesus walked, as soon as He stepped into the arena, everything was changing because the thing was over. This whole battle was done. They were already defeated. They were already powerless. Everywhere He walked and everywhere He stepped, this is what He carried. The significance about that is I think that we don't really need much arm twisting to believe that Jesus has this authority." [00:20:27]