Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Welcome back to day three in our study of Galatians chapter two. We're going to look at verses six through ten. And what we're looking at is honor and submission. In verses six says, And from those who seemed to be influential, what they are makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles. And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they ask us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. All right. In the world that God created, there are different spheres of authority and responsibility. There is home, church, work, and government. And a part of the way that God works is that God always works in and through authority. And so you can even see here that even though Paul knows that God shows no partiality, he also recognized that God had appointed and given certain responsibilities to certain people, primarily Peter, James, and John. And he gives these people this place of authority. And then Paul decided to willfully and humbly submit himself to them. He honored them by showing up to the Jerusalem Council. He honored them by laying this gospel that he had been preaching before them. And he was not looking for their validation, but he was trusting God and trusting the authority that God put over him. So let me tell you this: don't ever expect God to give you authority until you learn to live under authority. And this is true in all four spheres of your life in home, at church, at work, and in government. And the reality is all of us submit to authority, even if you're quote unquote the boss. Now the question then is, well, how far do you take it? Well, I mentioned this yesterday. If your authority requires you to either do something the Bible says don't do, or to not do something the Bible says to do, then you must appeal to a higher authority, which is God Himself. The ultimate authority in our life is God. And the way we know what God wants us to do is by his authoritative revealed word. We call that the Bible. You see, the people that are in authority over you, at church, in the government, at work, whatever it is, that they want or they need two things from you. Number one, they need to know that you think they are rightly positioned because of the sovereignty of God. And secondly, that you think they have what it takes to do the job. Now, if you don't believe that, then you should probably bounce. If you don't think the pastor that you sit under has what it takes to do what God has called him to do, then you're at the wrong church. If you don't think your boss has what it takes, then you need to bounce. Now, sometimes maybe you're a military guy and you hate your commanding officer right now, your immediate one. And so sometimes you just have to suck it up and understand that God is in control over all things. Let me tell you how this applied to me. We started the service called 1122 back at Beach Church in 2008. I worked for Pastor Jerry Sweat. At that time, he pastored a United Methodist church. Since then, because of that apostate denomination, his church has left that denomination because that denomination teaches things that are counter to the word of God. All right. All that being said, I was not a Methodist at all, but I worked for Pastor Jerry. So I did not just go out in rebellion and start the church of 1122. I did it under the authority of my pastor. I asked for his blessing and his permission. And I'm just telling you, a part of why God is doing what God has done in 1122 is because we submitted ourselves to his authority, Pastor Jerry, under the authority of Christ. And there's just something in the heavenlies that gets broken open when we do things God's way. I mean, look at Peter at Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi is a place where Jesus says, so who do people say that I am? And the disciples are like, well, they say all kind of things, John the Baptist, Elijah, some religious leader. And then he says, but who do you say that I am? And Peter says, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This is the first time that Peter has publicly declared Christ as that, Son of the Living God. Jesus, you are the Messiah, the anointed one, you are the boss, you are in charge, and I submit and surrender my life to you. It was not until Peter submits and surrenders to the authority Jesus that Jesus then begins to trust Peter with some authority. The thing that happens after that is then Jesus gives Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven to loose and bind things on here on earth that will be loosed and bound in eternity. I say all that to say this: that God works in and through authority, and don't ever expect God to give you authority until you learn how to live under authority.

Amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.