Good morning and welcome in today. Today we’re going to take a look at some scripture from 1st Samuel chapter 15 verse 23 but before we do that…
I wanted to tell you that a few years ago I picked up a few dogs. They were black labs. I had a real difficulty with purchasing them but I did so after constantly being asked by my wife and family. I eventually gave in to what they wanted.
Anybody who has had a new young puppy understands the difficulties trying to train them to walk on a leash. The first reaction that the dog has is to fight against the owner’s control. They completely resist it.
As an owner, what you are trying to do is to teach them that they need to be under your control. But instead of submitting to you, what does the dog try to do? He resists! Here is your first lesson in the human carnal nature.
The resistance to control shows the immaturity of the puppy. They openly and actively fight against that control while they’re on their leash. They really don’t want to be controlled at all. What they do is actively resist your control. I find it interesting to see that quality in a dog while it is also present in the human spirit.
The word resistance means to refuse to comply with or to accept something or to be controlled by something. Resistance in the dictionary says the action of opposing something that you disapprove of or disagree with.
1 Sam 15:23 teaches that Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Well, do you think that dog likes being on the leash all the time? How does it make you feel when he takes off on you and you call him and call him and call him to come home but he doesn’t want to listen to you? In that state they do not want to be controlled, they’re wild and rebellious.
Resistance means to go against those who are your Authority. Instead of complete submission it’s complete Rebellion.
Have any of you out there ever gone fishing before. Anyone who has baited a hook and thown their bobber into the water understands the act of resistance when a fish gets the hook in their mouth.
They don’t want to have to submit themselves to you. They don’t want to be controlled by you or that fishing line. So what do they do? They fight against you when you are trying to reel them in.
They don’t want to come home with you. They do not want to be with you. They do not want you to put them in your Live Well. They do not want you to cook them up for supper, but ultimately that is the fishes purpose for many people; to be food for them and the family. Welcome to the Christian Life everyone!!! It’s learning to be controlled by those who have the rule over you.
Ultimately in the church the Lord Jesus Christ and his teachings has the rule over us. You want to submit yourself to his teachings fully and not resist him or oppose him in any manner. If you were to do so that’s called rebellion.
Just like the dog who fights against that leash there a lot of people who profess to be Christians who fight against the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Again, 1 Sam 15:23 Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
When you are in a place of authority over others it means that you are in control. You are in control of the situations that are presented to you.
Authority is at place of control over others. People who say otherwise are liars. The opposite belief of what I’m telling you is called rebellion.
A dad might tell you that I need you to go and do this today on the property. Instead the son says no way dad, you’re too controlling. I’m not going to do that. God has placed that young man’s dad in his life as an authority figure over him. When you resist them you are resisting the ordinance of God. What actually happens is that the son rebels against the authority of his dad.
Once again, rebellion is a state of resistance.
For many years on our property we’ve raised chickens. Sometimes the chickens get out of their pen and run around the yard. Every time that the children go out to try to catch them, the chickens would resist by running away. The hens would take off running as fast as they could or they would try to fly away. They were in open opposition to being caught or to be controlled.
It is their owner who purchased them who raised them who provides for all of their needs. Their purpose is to serve him by being in their hen house. Although it may feel good for them to run out and try to get away, they are in a state of open opposition and resistance to the owners purpose for them.
Each one of us has a distinctive purpose and calling by God. Although some people want to fight against it,, we need to submit and to comply to what God wants us to do and what he wants us to be. Take it from somebody who knows, I submitted to God’s will.
I said it for 20 years. I told my wife and family that I would never teach because I loathed teaching and I hated it. I promised myself that I would never get involved with teaching of any kind.
But even in my own life, like a dog resisting the owners leash, I gave up the fight. I gave up rebelling against it. I submitted myself to his calling for me. I’m preaching and teaching today for no other reason then it was so contrary to what I wanted to do with my life. I turned because it is what Jesus wanted me to do. Welcome to our callings everyone. God uses repentant sinners to work His will!
I have been obedient to what Jesus wanted me to do for 20 years. Anything else would have been a state of rebellion towards Him. In the years that the Lord Jesus has given me I have learned that life is more than what WE want to do, but rather what we can do for the Lord JESUS.
I know what it’s like. It’s easy to resist or to run off and to run away or to oppose or to reject people because you do not want to submit to them and to obey them. I know what that’s like because I’ve been there. But I guarantee you it’s not the path that leads to eternal life.
Rebellion is a sin. I learned that lesson many years ago. The Christian life is to allow yourself to be controlled by somebody else. It’s allowing yourself to be controlled by your dad. It’s allowing yourself to be controlled by your husband. It’s allowing yourself to be guiding and controlled by the truth of the teachings of Jesus Christ. If you don’t like to be controlled by somebody else, salvation hangs in the balance for you.
You know ever since I was a kid I’ve really enjoyed sailing. When you go sailing you have to go against the wind in order to get all the way up the lake. It can take many hours to get all the way up to the end of the lake.
But you know what I have learned all these years from sailing?
When you finally quit resisting the wind, when you finally quit fighting against it, when you finally get to that point that you have had enough, you open up your jib, the spinnaker and mainsail and run with the wind all the way home to the boat landing. You aren’t resisting the wind’s direction anymore, and it’s a pleasant and easy ride.
If you sail you’ll understand that whenever you go against the wind that the boat struggles. It goes up on its side at a 45 degree angle and fights against that wind.
The more you fight against that wind, the more you fight and you fight and you fight and you fight against it, eventually you open the sails at the end of the lake and give up.
You turn around completely. After that it’s an easy trip all the way back home. There is no more resistance anymore and it’s like flying all the way back to heaven.
I really enjoy sailing because I feel like it’s an example of the Christian Life. Like an immature dog fighting at against the leash, each of us fight aainst the wind. Each of us are fighting with the wind in our own lives.
Its a fight when you get that cat out into a 25 mph wind and the sail is flapping so hard you can hardly hold onto the rope. You can see that mast starting to bow from the stress of the fight. You can hardly keep that boat down on its side.
You’ve got four foot Breakers and the bows are starting to go into the water. It is a fight and a struggle to go against the wind but there is never anything like it until you turn around and go all the way home with the Wind. The resistance is over, and God pushes you in the way HE wants you to go.
Fighting with the Wind, resistance, rebellion and finally submission to the wind and it’s direction, welcome to the Christian Life!
Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
Rebellion is fighting in opposition against something.
I’ve learned that lesson in 40 Years of sailing. You can fight and fight and fight against the wind or you can go with the flow. You can resist, or learn to obey and do what God wants you to do.
Rebellion is complete resistance to authority. One definition says the organized opposition to authority. Its a conflict in which one faction tries to wrest control away from another. Someone who is rebellious resists control. Someone who is rebellious resists authority.
It’s like my son and I who fight against the wind for hours out on the lake, but when we finally get tired out and have had enough, we turn around and go with the flow. There is a personal lesson here that I’ve learned all my life.
The harder and harder and harder you fight against it it’s eventually going to wear you out.
Like a dog on a leash all that resistance is going to eventually wear them out. They come to a point where they’re not going to fight anymore. This is what God wants from us,…submission.
I want you to think about this passage in Scripture…
Matt 21:28
But what think you a certain man had two sons and he came to the first and said Son go work today in my Vineyard. He answered and said I will not but afterward he repented and went.
Here is an example of a son who was fighting against his dad’s authority but he eventually did what his dad had commanded him.
Rebellion is to fight against authority in your life. In the church our authority is the Lord Jesus Christ and the things that he taught.
It’s up to each of us to decide if we are going to repent. Are we going to obey? Are we going to listen to those who God has placed in our path as an authority over us?
Are we going to fight with the Wind, or are we going to run with the wind all the back way home?
Will you rebel, or finally give in to Gods will?
Are you going to fight against the waves, or will you finally decide to go with the flow?
Hopefully we’ll talk some more tomorrow Lord willing…. till then bye-bye everybody
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 