Bringing Heaven Home

10 Moral Authority (3)

Hi fathers, mothers, grandparents. We meet again. Welcome to ‘The World Needs A Father’, Bringing Heaven Home series, chapter six. And we are on part three now, on developing moral authority. On part two previously, we touched on clarity of purpose, to be clear of what God wants to do with our life. And so from this clarity of purpose we now move on to develop moral authority.

So what is moral authority all about, and how it can be developed in our lives? First, that is in red there, we need to submit to God’s spiritual discipline in the area of word, prayer and meditation. I need to build an altar of worship, your personal time, your couple time, your family altar. Coming together to worship the Lord, that we can become pure and holy, as we serve the Lord. And then when you look at A, it means this, about developing moral authority. We need to submit to the authority of the word of God. And then we need to allow the spirit of God to take control of our life, so that we can be renewed by the Spirit from the inside, with the word of truth that is in our lives. And then we need to purify our conscience, it’s not perfect, it has been tainted when Adam sinned, towards the path of obedience. And then lastly in D, with that of submitting ourselves to the word, to the Spirit, our conscience will then move us to learn to say no to immoral activities. We need to subject ourselves to accountability, to people, which we are gonna talk about as we move along.

So when we talk about submitting to the authority of the word of God, we need to realize that we need to be saturated by the word of God. The word God is the filter and the authority of all the decision that you make, and there is also the cleansing effect. There are few verses that I just want to quote for us to know the significance of the word of God. Psalms 119:105 is a famous verse to a lot of people, that the word of God is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And then the Psalms 119:9&11, He said, ‘How can the young man keep his way clean and pure? By taking heed to the word of God.’ And in 11 is, ‘Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.’ In the 2 Timothy 3:16-17, it talks about, ‘All scripture is inspired by God and it is profitable for teaching, for a reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.’ Why? ‘So that the men of God may be completely equipped for every good work.’

And again, we talk about moral authority, we talk also about coming to live by the Spirit, by the spirit. Eventually we need to realize it is not by might, not by power, but by my spirit says the Lord, Zechariah 4:6. So we need to be awakened by the spirit through the word of God, as in Hebrews 4:12. Because ‘the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And then we need to align ourselves to the presence and to the control of the spirit of the Holy Spirit. And then in point 3, we need to take action and obey the spirit, so that the spirit can renew our life. And after that, as we take action, we need to be accountable, there is that need for accountability, we need account our action before our mentors, and even accountability group, your accountability group.

The reality is, we are constantly on a warfare, the flesh and the spirit are in constant war. And we need to be consciously aware of it. We need to push away the attraction, the lust of the world, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life away from us.

And these are two verses that I just want to read for us to take note. Galatians 5:19-21 talks about the flesh. Paul says this, ‘Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.’ And in Galatians 5:22-26 it says, ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.’ And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.’ Actually, I’m reading versus on Galatians 5:16-18 and 22-25. Now then is the verse on Galatians 5:19-21, it’s about the flesh. ‘The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.’ So we need to submit ourselves, be led by the Spirit, live for God's purpose, seek for the kingdom of God, mind our minds on the things of God, having a selfless service attitude to serve God. And we need to love God and others above all things, so that God can be honoured and glorified. There's a whole one day teaching about what it means to live by the Spirit.

The key here is a discipline of obedience, when you talk about developing moral authority. To overcome the flesh, as we saw earlier, we need to crucify the flesh, and it's a daily act of obedience. You have heard Luke 9:23, ‘If you are to follow me and be my disciples, you have to deny yourself and pick up your cross’, not once in a while, Jesus said ‘daily and follow me.’ And this verse must always go together Galatians 2:20. And Paul said ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’ It will be a personal journey to crucify our flesh. We need to obey out of a healthy fear of the Lord, and out of the deep love for God. We need to FLOW in the Spirit. It means this, F is learning to Fear and be Faithful to God. L is to Love him deeply and Listen to Him. As you listen to Him, we need to obey Him, in order to become an Overcomer. And we then can Walk in the path of freedom in Christ, and in the path of righteousness.

So as we get ourselves into the word of God and be led by the Spirit, the aim is our conscience need to be purified. We need to examine our conscience. And in Psalms 139:23-24 it says, ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’ So we need to use the light of the word to shine into the deepest corners of our lives, and ask God to reveal and convict our conscience of any conduct and motive that is not right with Him. We need to become transparent. So that the seven Cs that I’m gonna share shortly, process of cleansing our conscience and move towards a consecrated life becomes evident.

The first C is that we talk about we need to be convicted by God, by the Spirit, by the work of our sin. And then we need to confess as the second C. As we confess, we need to seek cleansing from Christ, on his blood. And not only that, we need to be covered by the blood of Christ, to be protected. And not only that, we need to make an intentional decision to cut off all soul ties, be it in gambling, be it in pornography, any sin, there must be a deliberate intention to cut off soul ties. That's not enough. Soul ties of the world, of the devil. And then we need to come to Jesus, we need to commit ourselves, our life to Jesus, enthrone Him as king and lord. And finally, we need to continue in a group Godly fathers in accountability. The 7Cs is so significant. The process for us to be able to really live the Godly life that God wanted us to live. So moral authority demonstrated in a purified conscience, we need to practice the 7Cs that I just shared.

Then as we move on with a purified conscience, we will be able to confront immoral activities. Especially those of you who got a lot of money, it’s so easy to be trapped into immoral activity, with young girls for that matter. We need to confine ourselves with our mentor, the power, the pride, the money, the sex. This is of the world. And fathers, we need to make clear cut decisions from the start that we will say no to karaoke, no to massage parlours, no to porn sites, no to casino, no to internet gambling, and many more. You must decide from the offset, instead of thinking, shall I or shall I not? You are finished. The devil will tempt you to fall into his trap.

So moral authority as you develop, it grows first, when you submit to God in accountability. Remember from the very beginning we talk about moral authority is not bossing, it's submitting to Christ, like He himself, as a servant to serve others. So here's the approach to submission. We need, first of all, to be humble. We need, first of all, to demonstrate accountability by setting a great example for our children to do the same. The intent should never be to show that you are always right, but only to show to our family, to our children that you have a sincere desire to want to do the right thing. And you write everyone in your family, including your wealth in this accountability. The attitude of your children will be very open. They'll be approachable, and they'll be teachable.

And so first, we talk about developing accountability as we developed moral authority. First, you need to be accountable to God, when he revealed your sin. You need to be accountable to your wife at home, in your fathering responsibilities. You need to be accountable to your children, for any sexual misconduct, impurity and treatment of the way you treat your wife. It is important, because they are watching you. And then, there is a table of support surrounding yourself with Godly people and your accountability group. And lastly, if you do not a have a mentor, get a mentor to check on you, to check on you. Very often, we will not do things that we expect, but we will do things when there is someone always checking and encouraging you to move on to that straight and narrow pathway.

And so we end today's session, again looking at the reflective questions. What forms of immorality do I struggle with, and what steps do I take to avoid immorality? Question two, how am I doing on my spiritual discipline – reading the word, prayer, fasting and all that. Why is it important to submit yourself to accountability and the authority of others? I talk about your wife, your children, your mentors. And do you have a mentor to account to? Thank you very much.