Finding Freedom Under God's Authority Ed Young
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00:00 We are identified with Him. Christ is in me. I'm in Christ. So when Jesus died,
00:07 I died. When Jesus rose,
00:10 I rose.
00:12 When Jesus ascended, I
00:14 ascended. When Jesus has and he does victory over sin, I do too. Over the demons, I do too. Over the devil,
00:22 I do too.
00:24 Do you understand who you are?
00:27 [Applause]
00:29 Lisa and I were in New York City this past summer.
00:38 We walked out of our hotel and an employee handed us,
00:45 well really he handed it to me,
00:48 an umbrella.
00:50 He said,
00:52 "You're gonna need this
00:54 because the weather doesn't look very good. So
00:57 just use it."
00:59 I said, "Okay. I'm not a big umbrella-toting guy."
01:04 Thankfully though, I had the umbrella.
01:09 Thankfully when it started raining, I actually just opened the umbrella and
01:16 that was it.
01:22 Let me see if I can do it. Yeah, here we go. Yeah, open the umbrella.
01:24 And I was able to
01:28 protect us from the,
01:31 from the elements.
01:33 Now it would have been pretty sad
01:35 if it had been raining and I had just
01:40 kept the umbrella like this, wouldn't it? I mean, I would have been a complete and
01:45 total
01:47 idiot
01:49 to walk the streets of New York being pounded by the elements with an umbrella like this.
01:55 So instead of like this,
01:57 I had the umbrella
01:59 like
02:01 this.
02:03 Again, I'm not a big umbrella guy, but I've been doing some research on the umbrella. The umbrella is
02:10 one of the most left items, TSA tells us, on
02:16 public transportation.
02:19 It's like the umbrella is number one, then the phone, then keys, then wallets, if you were just
02:26 wondering about that.
02:29 There are different names for the umbrellas that I have
02:33 discovered.
02:36 Some
02:37 umbrellas are called parasols. That's another name for them.
02:41 Another name is a sunshade.
02:44 Yet another name is a bralley.
02:48 Another name is a
02:50 bumper chute.
02:53 Yet another name is a
02:55 protector ship. And that's where
02:58 we're going today. We're going to look at this umbrella as a means of
03:04 protection, as a means of avail, means of shielding us
03:15 from the elements, or you could say the hellaments.
03:19 The umbrella.
03:23 Do you use the umbrella? Okay, I
03:27 think you do now and then. But how about in a deeper sense?
03:32 How about not just walking the streets in
03:37 inclement weather, but how about in life? Are you using the umbrella in life because
03:45 when I was a kid,
03:46 my father used to talk about authority now and then, and he would use an umbrella as an illustration.
03:54 He would simply say,
03:57 "You know, we need to get under the umbrella of
04:00 authority."
04:03 That's a pretty good word picture, isn't it?
04:05 And he went on to explain to me that God is a God of authority.
04:09 This is my father, and we need to get under the authority of
04:14 God.
04:16 When we get under the authority of God,
04:18 then God will show us what should be under us.
04:23 But until we get under the authority of God, we'll never know what should be beneath us.
04:31 When I say the word authority, I know what you think. Oh my goodness, what a depressing word, authority.
04:41 Rules, curfews,
04:43 limitations, laws,
04:46 taxes. I don't like the word, Ed. And hey, I totally understand.
04:55 But
04:58 authority in God's economy is an awesome word.
05:02 It's a great word. It's a wonderful word, a word that is key
05:10 to you and to me.
05:12 Authority.
05:16 Do you have authority issues?
05:18 As we look around our world today, a lot of people have authority issues. Our first authority figure that we ever really
05:25 noticed externally were our parents. And what a lot of us do is,
05:30 throughout the journey of life, we project that
05:35 authority vibe we had with our parents on to every other
05:40 authority. And
05:41 if you look back in recent history,
05:43 think about the 1960s, think about
05:46 the anti-authority
05:49 mentality that's been perpetuated in education,
05:54 entertainment, and in pretty much every sphere of life. Today,
05:59 it's cool. It's hip
06:03 to be a rebel, to be anti-
06:08 authority.
06:10 Then we have
06:12 neo-Marxism. We have
06:14 this
06:15 wokeism
06:17 that
06:18 simply critiques
06:20 hierarchy, yet
06:23 they
06:25 want to become
06:27 the authority. They don't like
06:30 authority, yet they want to rule and
06:34 to reign. So it's a
06:37 paradoxical,
06:38 twisted,
06:40 satanic
06:42 situation.
06:44 Authority.
06:46 Authority is a good word.
06:48 I follow a guy on my Instagram feed and he teaches people how to speak because I'm always trying to improve
06:56 how I speak. And one of the things he said was, he said, "When you smile
07:01 and
07:05 you talk,
07:07 things are
07:10 received
07:12 oftentimes in a better light." Just try it.
07:16 Okay, just try it with me right now. I want you to say with the smile on your face, "Authority." One, two, three,
07:24 authority. One, two, three,
07:27 authority. One, two, three, authority. Man, I feel so positive. I feel so happy.
07:35 That's how we should look at authority. So authority is not negative. Hey kids, it's not negative. Single adult,
07:42 it's not negative. Young marriage, it's not negative.
07:45 Those of us who are older, it's not negative. It's a positive thing.
07:50 I'm not talking though about power in this series. We're gonna talk about this for a while. I'm not talking about power. Power is innate.
07:58 Power is something, "Ah, grab."
08:03 Authority is given.
08:05 Authority always comes
08:08 from above.
08:11 March Madness is here, correct? You'll see all these
08:14 amazingly talented athletes,
08:17 massive guys,
08:19 powerful guys, go up and down the hardwood, shooting threes and playing defense, and you're like, "Whoa,
08:26 these guys are
08:29 powerful, man."
08:32 They don't though have the most power on the court.
08:36 Do you know who has the most authority on the court?
08:41 The little
08:44 wimpy guys in tight black polyester pants with striped shirts going,
08:50 "The referees!"
08:58 That was a pretty good imitation, wasn't it?
09:01 The refs have authority because the authority has been given to them by the NCAA.
09:09 As a believer, I have
09:13 amazing authority because it's been given to me by the God of the universe.
09:22 So I'm afraid
09:25 most people, I'm talking to myself, we don't really realize
09:30 who we are. We don't realize the authority
09:34 that we've been given.
09:37 So in today's opening remarks, I'm going to talk to you today about
09:42 authority and the power that should surprise us. I'm going to describe to you the power
09:49 that comes from the authority of God.
09:54 Next week is going to get really fun. I'm going to talk about the authority figures that God has placed in all of our lives.
10:01 God has placed authority figures in every person's life and these authority figures have, here's the key word,
10:09 jurisdiction in certain situations and spaces and places in all of our lives.
10:17 Here's what I'm talking about.
10:21 As a father, you have a certain amount of jurisdiction.
10:24 As a boss, you have a certain amount of jurisdiction.
10:29 As a Christian, we have jurisdiction.
10:34 A coach, a teacher,
10:37 the government, I could go on and on. We're going to talk next week about how do we deal with that and moreover,
10:44 how do you deal with that jerk at work who's in authority over you?
10:49 How do you deal with people who abuse authority?
10:54 That's next week. And then Easter, we're talking about the ultimate
11:00 power of authority and how to leverage it
11:05 where we live and it obviously comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So that's where we're going over the next several weeks.
11:12 But this authority issue is
11:16 like the
11:19 issue, the foundation
11:21 when it comes to the nature and the character of God and who God wants you and me to be.
11:27 Because we identify with Christ.
11:30 Those of us who are believers, we have identity in Him.
11:35 I'm sure you have a passport. That's your identity. I'm sure you have a driver's license. That's your
11:43 identity. We show our driver's license. We show our passport. That's our identity. That's who we are.
11:50 In Christ, and I'm going to talk about this, think about this,
11:55 we are
11:57 identified with Him.
11:59 Christ is in me. I'm in Christ. So when Jesus died, I died.
12:05 When Jesus rose, I rose.
12:09 When Jesus ascended, I ascended.
12:14 When Jesus has and He does victory over sin, I do too. Over the demons, I do too. Over the devil, I do too.
12:22 Do you understand who you are?
12:25 I mean, if I was truthful, I sometimes forget who I am.
12:30 One day Jesus was in a town called Capernaum and a
12:35 centurion
12:37 sent some of his people to Jesus. It was kind of like a ancient text situation.
12:43 And these representatives from the centurions said, "Hey, the centurion wanted me to give you a message, Jesus, that
12:51 one of his
12:53 servants is sick on his deathbed, and if you'll just give the word, he will be healed."
13:00 So
13:03 Jesus healed him at a distance.
13:06 He told, you know, the centurion's people, "Hey, everything's cool."
13:10 This is my paraphrase.
13:12 "This guy is gonna be healed." And in Luke chapter 7, verses 7 through 8,
13:19 this centurion, through his
13:22 representatives,
13:24 talks to Jesus about, you're not gonna believe this,
13:28 authority.
13:30 So one minute he's talking about, "Jesus, will you heal my servant?" Then he pivots
13:36 Isn't that a big word in today's culture? "Let me pivot."
13:39 He pivots and he starts talking about authority. The Bible says this in Luke chapter 7, verses 7 through 8.
13:47 "For that reason," we pick up in the middle of the conversation, "I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you,"
13:55 this is a centurion, "but just say the word and my servant shall be healed."
14:00 I mean, that's some serious faith, isn't it? "For I also am a man placed under authority."
14:04 So the key phrase, the key word is "for I also," the key word is "also." Say "also" with me.
14:10 "Also." "Also am a man placed under authority." In other words, he's saying, "I'm under authority as a centurion.
14:18 I have the governor over me, the emperor over me, and Jesus, you're under authority too." It's interesting.
14:25 "For I'm also a man placed under authority, with soldiers under myself."
14:31 And I say to this one, "Go," and he goes. To another, "Come," and he comes. And to my slave, "Do this," and he does it.
14:39 Authority.
14:42 What does authority mean? Authority is, you can write this down, an official legal right to rule.
14:50 It's an official, let me emphasize this word, legal right to rule.
14:57 It's an
15:00 authorization to make decisions within
15:03 the particular, I've already said the word earlier,
15:07 jurisdiction.
15:10 That's what authority is.
15:12 And the Bible says that Jesus, I don't have time to read the entire story,
15:16 marveled at this centurion's faith.
15:20 Only twice did Jesus marvel, and this is one of the times. So when Jesus marvels at something, we better go, "Well,
15:28 we better focus in on why, why, why, why?" Well, this centurion was like, "Okay, I can give the word, and
15:36 people do stuff.
15:38 Jesus, you can give the word, and someone can be healed.
15:41 Jesus, I'm under authority, and
15:44 because I'm under authority, I have over a hundred people reporting to me. And Jesus, you're under authority as well."
15:51 Now stay with me for a second.
15:54 Jesus
15:57 voluntarily was under the authority while on earth of his Father, and
16:03 the Holy Spirit, and
16:07 the Word of God.
16:10 We need to understand the origin of authority.
16:13 The origin of authority. The origin is God. It comes from God. God is the author of
16:21 authority.
16:25 It's in the name of God.
16:27 The Bible says in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, you'll see it on the screens,
16:31 "Let us,"
16:34 that's the word Elohim, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, "Let us make man in our image."
16:42 God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three in one, one in three.
16:46 Within the Trinity, the name of God, you have
16:51 voluntarily, the Godhead voluntarily submitting
16:57 to one another, and
16:59 also, we know that they are
17:02 equal in form, unique in function.
17:07 They're the same,
17:09 but you have authority within that. When Jesus was on planet earth,
17:15 he was under the authority of his parents. He was under the authority of laws.
17:19 He was under the authority again of the Father, of the Holy Spirit, of the Word of God.
17:24 Jesus was fully God and fully man, something we'll never totally understand. He lived not as God on earth,
17:30 but as man on earth, yet he was still
17:33 fully God.
17:36 The origin of
17:39 authority. God
17:41 thought it up. It was his idea. So it's in his name, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, authority.
17:47 It's also in his nature.
17:50 As we understand the isness of God, as I've said before, as wet is to water, as heat is to fire,
17:57 authority is to God. He is
18:02 the authority, the creator, the maker, the sustainer of
18:08 everything.
18:11 The origin, that's God. Authority always comes from above.
18:17 That centurion knew it came from above and because he got under
18:22 what was over him,
18:24 God allowed him, the centurion,
18:27 to rule and to lead those people who were beneath him.
18:33 And he wants to do the same thing in your life. Yet too many of us live life without ever knowing
18:41 what should be beneath us. And that brings us to the second aspect of authority. Just some introductory words today. The origin is God.
18:49 The object, you ready for this?
18:52 That's you and me,
18:55 mankind. We're the object of
18:57 God's authority. God made us for
19:01 authority.
19:03 The Bible says in Genesis chapter 1 verse 28, "Then God blessed them,"
19:07 talking about Adam and Eve, "and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Have," say it with me,
19:14 let's smile when we say that,
19:18 "Have
19:21 dominion." Okay, because it's a good word.
19:23 "Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
19:28 The word dominion means to tread upon.
19:31 God gave Adam and Eve
19:35 authority. He gave them
19:37 dominion. And one of the authoritative things they were able to do was, God says, "Name all of the creatures on planet earth."
19:46 Hey moms and dads, especially young moms and dads,
19:50 don't we love to name our kids? We go online, check out certain websites, go on Pinterest, read books.
19:58 All these unique names in today's culture.
20:02 You know, when the twins were born, I wanted to name them Monique and Unique, but Lisa said no. I can't believe it.
20:09 But I love these creative names.
20:12 I really, really do.
20:15 We're the object of God's authority.
20:17 God made us to have dominion. He made us to have
20:22 authority. It's a legal right to act.
20:26 That's why I'm here. But you know what happened? Adam squandered it.
20:32 He fumbled it. He
20:34 messed up.
20:37 And we have been dealing with that for a long, long time.
20:40 To give you the cliff notes,
20:42 what Adam did was,
20:45 when he sinned, he literally
20:49 dethroned God and enthroned himself, which meant he enthroned Satan.
21:00 And the Bible says,
21:01 whoever we're
21:03 enslaved to, we are their slave.
21:05 So literally, he became a slave to Satan and his offspring
21:12 have that issue as well.
21:15 It's pretty heavy, isn't it?
21:19 So you have the
21:22 origin of authority, that's God. You have the object of authority, that's man.
21:29 Adam legally, remember because authority is a legal term, legally lost it.
21:36 Legally.
21:38 Now you might be going, "Well, why didn't God just snatch it back? Come on. I mean, how easy is that?"
21:45 Because God is not gonna make a farce of his justice.
21:51 It has to, to
21:55 righteously, I'm talking about authority, it has to righteously be regained
22:00 by a man, but the man, stay with me now, cannot or could not be a
22:06 slave or a son of Adam.
22:09 Okay, what did God do? That's why the virgin birth is so huge. Are you with me?
22:15 Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a woman, you have Jesus, the God-man.
22:24 Jesus
22:26 dying on a
22:28 rugged cross for our sin,
22:30 obviously living perfectly,
22:33 then rising
22:36 again. So Jesus
22:38 righteously regained the authority that Adam had
22:43 squandered. Does that make sense? What an ingenious plan of God.
22:51 So God did that not because he needs authority, he is authority. He did that for you and me.
22:57 I ask myself, "Ed, why sometimes do you live such a defeated life?
23:02 You don't realize your ID. You've not read your passport. You've not looked at your driver's license."
23:10 I mean, when he died, I died. When he
23:13 rose, I rose. When he ascended, I ascended.
23:19 He has victory, Jesus does, over sin and the demons and the devil and
23:23 so do I. Not perfectly, that won't happen until the millennium, of course,
23:29 but we have something called
23:31 kingdom
23:33 authority.
23:34 The origin of authority,
23:36 okay, the object of authority, all right. The opposition of authority, we know that is, that's the enemy.
23:44 That's the devil. Why does the devil come after authority? Well, that's an easy answer. Think about the heavenlies.
23:51 He was the worship leader in heaven, Lucifer. He tried to usurp God. He tried to dethrone God and enthrone
23:59 himself. It didn't work. He was kicked out. He took a third of the angels with him. They're now the demons.
24:07 So he is trying to get done on
24:11 earth
24:13 what he didn't get done in
24:16 heaven.
24:18 That's why he went after Adam and Eve the way he did.
24:20 But Jesus righteously
24:23 regained it.
24:26 That's why he's after your authority and mine. That's why he doesn't want us to understand who we are.
24:33 That's why he loves when people abuse authority or misuse authority.
24:37 He
24:39 doesn't want us to know
24:41 who we are.
24:43 And then we have the octane, of course, the octane of authority.
24:48 That's the power. The word authority in Luke chapter 10 is
24:54 pronounced exousia.
24:57 Exousia is mentioned over 102 times in Scripture. And the Bible tells you and me in Luke chapter 10,
25:04 I believe it's verse 19, "I've given you authority," exousia, "over all the power of
25:12 the enemy."
25:14 The Emancipation Proclamation.
25:20 January 1, 1863, set forth by President Abraham Lincoln.
25:27 When it came down the pike,
25:32 a lot of slaves in the South hadn't heard the news.
25:39 And if you know their history, they still worked on the plantations, worked for their masters.
25:46 Some slaves heard about it, but they were like, "Oh, this is too good to be true."
25:52 But then one day they all discovered, praise the Lord, freedom.
26:00 It could be.
26:09 And your life and mine, that we're the same.
26:13 We've been set free. We have this authority.
26:17 This freedom of choice. We've been empowered. We have this responsibility to leverage authority.
26:24 And some of us have never even understood that. We've never heard it.
26:30 And then others are like, "Oh, Eric, this is too good to be true. You got to be lying to me." No, no, no, no, no, I'm not.
26:37 It's from the Word of God.
26:39 Our origin, our origin of authority is God.
26:48 And the opposition is the devil.
26:53 And the octane is the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
27:02 Get under those things God has put over you. It starts with God,
27:09 because God has your best interest in mind.
27:13 And then you'll understand what it means to be over those things that God has placed beneath you.
27:22 It's all about the umbrella.
27:28 Let's bow our heads. Father, thank you for this message. Thank you for your truth and your Word.
27:33 And it's my earnest prayer if you're here and you've never ever asked Jesus Christ to be Lord of your life,
27:42 to move under His authority that you would make and take
27:47 this step.
27:49 Just simply say, "God,
27:51 you're my authority. You're my Lord. I turn from my sin and turn to you, Lord."
27:57 Many of you need to say that.
27:59 Others here,
28:02 maybe for the first time you just realized, "Wow,
28:04 I have authority I didn't know I had.
28:08 Authority over that sin.
28:11 Authority over the enemy. I have authority and God, I want to walk in it."
28:18 Others here, maybe you've forgotten it or you've not really
28:24 applied it.
28:27 God, go with us over the next several weeks as we take this journey
28:30 beneath
28:33 your umbrella of authority. In Christ's name we pray.
28:36 Amen.
28:38 Hi guys, thank you so much for watching the Ed Young YouTube channel.
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