Rebellion

Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.

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   hallelujah we thank you lord that you promised god where two or three are gathered together in your name that you're in the midst of them lord i believe that every time lord that you're faithful in your omnipresence but lord there's times you manifest your tangible felt uh presence lord and we we long for that god we hunger and thirst for that now we praise you that you've made a way for us to enter the holy of holies by the blood of jesus you've made a way for us to experience your powerful presence by sending your holy spirit to live and dwell in us lord there's so much we have to learn about this lord we are just your people we are hungry and thirsty for you and we long for the day that we will be with you forever in that place that is filled with your presence every minute every second for all eternity lord we worship you and we thank you and it's in jesus name we pray amen and amen well i hope you have your bibles this morning and if you don't or you need one there's some back there in the back i want everyone to take your bibles this morning and i want you to turn with me to the book of second chronicles chapter 36 is where we're going to start this morning for some time the lord's been laying this on my heart that i'm going to preach to you because it's such a serious issue i've alluded to it at times in messages but i don't think i've ever really done a message in the three and a half years of fire and grace church on this specifically by itself um but god knows what he's doing there's always a method to the madness um i'm going to talk to you this morning a little bit about the danger of not listening to counsel the dangers of not listening to wise counsel and people whom god has placed in spiritual authority or whom god has put callings on their lives and placed them in positions of authority this is something that is a principle of god throughout both the old and new testaments um right now i just want to say this before i get into this in any depth but right now in the church world and especially in america there is an epidemic of people who do not respect their elders and their pastors and prophets and apostles and evangelists and people that god's placed in authority now before i get into this in greater depth and show you what i'm talking about this morning um i want you to know that i know that there are false prophets out there there are false apostles false prophets there are deceivers and we're to beware and god

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   wants us to check people out and discern things and and check and make sure that they're preaching the word and check and make sure that they operate in the right spirit and all that but that's not what i'm talking about this morning once you determine that a man or woman is a true man or woman of god and the calling of god rests upon their lives it is very dangerous to come against that person it's very dangerous to not listen to their counsel even if they're giving it to you in a very casual way we have a serious problem with a lack of honor and a lack of respect now i'm not saying that for this church and per se but this is a huge problem okay and there is a danger that if you don't respect those whom god puts over you in authority god's delegated authority it's a danger that if you can't respect them and listen to them and even obey them at times that you are going to find yourself in some serious trouble and also i'm going to say this authority spiritual authority or god's covering god's leadership in a church is not really tested in your life until you don't agree this is the same it works at work or at school or with the government and the police you know i think it's fine sometimes as you know as long as we want to do the speed limit everything's okay right but there's a moment we don't want to do the speed limit and then what there are some consequences to pay if we get caught right well god takes the issue of rebellion to authority disrespect of authority putting our mouths also against people in authority he takes that very seriously because the bible clearly says and we'll look at romans 13 in a minute that all authority is from god i mean even if it's evil god doesn't let any man or woman get in a position of power or authority it doesn't happen by accident and if it happens if an evil one does get an authority guess whose responsibility is for the god for who for who it is to deal with them of course it's not ours it's god's god will deal with them one way or the other but i want to show you this principle in the bible but just the danger of not listening now let me let me preface one more thing i guess i should before we read this passage and get into the word um i know that in the new testament in the new covenant new testament believers all have the holy spirit in them i believe that and all can hear the voice of god and be led by the holy spirit all should okay but just because you can hear from god yourself does not negate the fact that god will speak to you through others that are

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   wiser older been in it longer than you no more than you or have been placed in an office that is above the office that you're in so it is important to know god will speak and if you start fighting the authorities that god has put in your life don't be looking to hear from god anytime soon there are people in marriages that wonder why women wonder why they're not hearing god or feeling god's presence sometimes well you know what it may be because they don't want to submit to their husband and we're going to talk about the difference about obeying and submitting here's the two different things there how many of you know that you can obey but you're not really don't really have a submissive heart i heard a preacher put it this way he said there was a little kid in a church service and he said he kept standing up in his pew and the mom kept telling him to sit down and he kept standing up and so finally she popped him real good on the leg said sit down or i'm going to take you outside and i'm going to really wear you out so the little boy sat down but then he started making this strange face while he was sitting there now he was obeying he was sitting down but he's making this strange face and she goes what are you doing he goes i may be sitting down on the outside but i'm standing up on the inside that's where a lot of people are they obey maybe but they're not truly submissive in their heart so we're going to talk about this but this issue of not listening to whom god sends and bring great hurt and pain into your life amen let's read this this is in second chronicles chapter 36 and of course this is where god had raised up jeremiah and ezekiel and others to be prophets to speak to the king of judah to the elders and the high priest and all of this and he had done so for many years and he had warned them that the king of babylon was coming to destroy them he had given them specific instructions to submit to the king of babylon and god would would make him go easy on them but the people wouldn't listen they rebelled the prophets certain prophets rebelled certain priests rebelled they wouldn't listen to jeremiah and god puts this and testifies this here at the end so let's read this chronicles chapter 36 starting verse 11. are you with me zedekiah was one and 20 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 11 years in jerusalem and he did that which was evil in the sight of the lord his god and humbled not himself before jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the lord and he also rebelled against king nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by god but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the lord god of israel moreover all the chief of the priest and

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   the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the healing and polluted the house of the lord which he had hollowed in jerusalem and the lord uh god of their fathers sent unto them by his messengers rising up quickly or early in sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place but they mocked the messengers of god and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the lord arose against his people till there was no remedy see here is a picture even within the old testament of the mercy of god god said i kept sending you my messengers i kept sending you prophets i kept sending you warning you to turn from your iniquities to stop your rebelled rebellion to submit first to the lord then to submit to the prophet jeremiah submit to even the king nebuchadnezzar respect these authorities and these messengers that i've sent in your life humble yourself and change your ways before destruction comes to you that cannot be remedied you see this is the principle of the lord let me give you another one go to proverbs solomon said it in a much shorter verse of scripture proverbs 29 verse 1. you won't hear this one preached on too often proverbs 29 verse 1. are you with me i'll wait i want you to see it i like you to see scriptures because i don't want you to think it's just proverbs 29 verse 1. remember we just read that they hardened their hearts they stiffened their neck meaning their hearts weren't as sensitive anymore to god's conviction they stiffened their neck meaning they refused to turn okay here's what what uh god had solomon put it this way verse one he that being often reproved that word reproved means corrected rebuke instructed he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy pretty strong in it let's go to the new testament and see if god feels the same way let's go to the book of hebrews chapter 13. book of hebrews 13 you know what saddens me i can't tell you how many times as a as a pastor as a prophet as a

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