Sermon Overview

Scripture Passage: Ephesians 5:23

Adrian Rogers says, “We can never be over those things that God wants to be under us -- until we get under those things that God has put over us.”

In order to learn how to cultivate a marriage and a healthy home, we must first understand godly authority.

Ephesians 5:23 says, “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the Savior of the body.”

This does not mean wives are inferior to their husbands; in Christ, we’re equal. But God created us to meet different needs and fulfill different roles within the home. When the Bible speaks of the husband being the head of the home, it is not speaking of his rights; it speaks of his responsibilities.

There are three major responsibilities that deal with the husband, the first being his servant leadership.

Ephesians 5 does not call the husband a dictator. Rather, we are given the example of Jesus Christ, who is head of the Church, yet serves her and meets her needs. We are to meet the needs of our wives, who submit to our servant leadership.

Husbands are also responsible for sacrificial love, which is first passionate. It is a commitment that comes from the deepest part of our being.

It is also a purifying love, as Ephesian 5:26-27 says: “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word... not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

Husbands are to express their love through their protection. If the enemy wants to attack our homes, he has to go through the husband. Husbands are also responsible for offering loving provision, to meet our family’s physical, spiritual, and emotional needs.

Finally, husbands are responsible for showing steadfast loyalty. Jesus promised to never leave nor forsake His church. (See Hebrews 13:5.) Likewise, we are responsible for keeping the vows we made when we entered our marriage covenant. If we think of marriage as a contract, we will look for loopholes, and miss the blessing that it truly is. But if viewed as a covenant, we will cultivate something beautiful.

Apply it to your life

Are you cultivating a marriage based on servant leadership, sacrificial love, and steadfast loyalty?

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: 1 Samuel 24:1-7
King David was a remarkable man after God’s own heart. He lived by principle, not by appearance. He was a warrior who knew many victories, but perhaps his greatest victory was the one over his own spirit when subjected to authority.

In 1 Samuel 24, David is hiding in a cave after King Saul has put a bounty on his head. King Saul comes into the cave, unaware that David and his men are hiding just out of sight. David has the opportunity to kill Saul, the man actively trying to kill him. But he does not; instead, he shows us how to behave in a cave, when no one else is watching.

He refuses to take vengeance and acts as we should according to Scripture: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

Like David, we must remember the principle of spiritual authority. David knew that he had no right to take Saul’s life because Saul was God’s chosen and anointed king. There is no king, no power, no ruler that has not been ordained of God. To rebel against them is an act of rebellion against God. We are all subject to them and must submit to their leadership.

Second, David gently pleaded for change, with reverence, respect, and reason. David relied on God to change Saul’s heart.

If the authority in question commands us to do something that is contrary to the Word of God, we should obey God rather than men. But we must be sure that even when we disobey our appointed leader, we have a warrant from Scripture. Even still, we should act in a manner that respects authority. God took care of Saul, and God will take care of our enemies as we learn to rely on the Lord.

Finally, David made a gracious promise to King Saul, that when he became king, he would protect Saul’s loved ones.

The spirit of God was in David. Adrian Rogers says, “David never won a greater victory than he won that day in the cave: a victory over self, a victory over Saul, and a victory over sin.”

Apply it to your life
Are you facing conflict in submitting to spiritual authority? Consider how David behaved in the cave. Recognize the great principle of authority and show respect to those God has placed over you.

Sermon Overview

Scripture Passage: Romans 5:1-5, 17

Any Christian who has not discovered the tremendous power of kingdom authority is living beneath his privileges.

However, Adrian Rogers says, “God will never place you over those things that He means to put under you, until you get under those things that He has put over you.”

Many of us fail to think of the Holy Spirit as a person with authority, yet the Holy Spirit has authority to rule and reign in our lives. In fact, kingdom authority is mediated by the Holy Spirit.

Romans 5 reveals why we should be under the authority of the Holy Spirit.

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).

Adam was the first man created by God and was given dominion over the Earth. But Adam sinned; he forfeited his dominion to sin. And because we are his offspring, we are identified with Adam in this slavery to Satan. Through Adam, we received weakness rather than power and gained ungodliness rather than godliness. We also received wrath rather than approval, warfare instead of peace. We inherited our sinfulness from Adam: not only when we do as we shouldn’t, but also in failing to do as we should.

But Romans 5 also reveals what we receive through Jesus when we join the kingdom of light:

“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17).

When we submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit, we receive justification of our sins and reconciliation with the Father. Through the Holy Spirit, we have the fellowship with God that was severed when Adam sinned. We’ve also been regenerated and made righteous to reign through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Apply it to your life

Each one of us is either with Adam in the kingdom of death, or we are with Christ reigning in the kingdom of life. Choose Jesus today; choose kingdom authority through the Holy Spirit.

Sermon Overview

Scripture Passage: 1 Peter 1:23-25

There is an ongoing war over the Bible. There are those who despise it, but some of the greatest enemies of the Bible are those who disregard that it is the very Word of God.

If we want the kingdom authority that God has promised His children, we must be under the authority of the Word of God.

We must see it as incontestable:

There is no contest, controversy, or denial that the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is absolutely perfect, for the God of truth cannot speak in error.

1 Peter 1:23 claims: “...having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever…”

Second, we must see the Bible as the incorruptible Word of God; there is no blemish or spot in it.

Though many have come against it with their own personal agendas and opinions, the Bible outstands them all.

Third, we see that it is indestructible:

“...because “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever...” (1 Peter 1:24-25).

Finally, the Word of God is indispensable:

“Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25).

The Gospel is the message of the church, and we get the Gospel from Scripture. We don’t need a new or modern Gospel for the new and modern age; it stands the test of time. The Bible also prescribes the church’s method, which is (and always will be) preaching.

Adrian Rogers says, “No church will ever grow and prosper and be a New Testament church until the pulpit is central and the Gospel is central in the pulpit.”

In order to join a church body, one must be born again into the family of God. Only the Gospel can grow this family, and therefore, grow the Church.

Apply it to your life

Do you see the Bible as the incontestable, incorruptible, indestructible, indispensable Word of God?

Adrian Rogers says, “We can never have Kingdom Authority, speak or preach with authority, witness with authority, live with authority until we get under the authority of the Word of God.”

Sermon Overview

Scripture Passage: Romans 14:7-12

God wants us to live with kingdom authority, but there can be no reigning in this life until we confess these three words: Jesus is Lord.

Lord means “someone or something having power, authority, or influence.” When we claim to commit to Jesus Christ, we must surrender to His lordship, as Paul explains in Romans, “For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself” (Romans 14:7)

First, remember the redeeming claim of His lordship.

“For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).

When Jesus died for us, He purchased our souls with His redeeming blood; we are no longer our own, we belong to Him.

Adrian Rogers says, “When you gave your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, that was the last independent decision you ever made.”

Second, we see the resurrection conquest of His lordship.

“For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Romans 14:9). There can be no other king in our lives; no man can serve two masters (see Matthew 6:24). Christ requires our submission and absolute ownership of all we possess with unquestioned obedience.

We shouldn’t be afraid to trust our lives to the One who loved us enough to die for us.

Finally, there must be a regal confession of His lordship.

“...As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God” (Romans 14:11). We will confess Christ as Lord, whether in this world or the next.

Confessing Christ as Lord seals our salvation and conquers Satan; it also comforts and confirms the saints. The more we assert it to others, the stronger our faith becomes.

As we confess Christ’s lordship, the things of this world fall away. Our separation from this world convicts those who see the difference in our lives and want to understand the source of our joy.

And when we claim Christ as Lord, our decisions seem to make themselves, as He guides us in all things.

Apply it to your life

Have you surrendered to the lordship of Christ? Is He Lord of all that you have and do, Lord of your thoughts, your tongue, your temper, time, and testimony?

Sermon Overview

Scripture Passage: Luke 10:17-19

When we were born again, we became spiritual freedom fighters in God’s invasion army. We cannot be neutral in this spiritual battle: we are in a fight to the finish. We must learn how to come against the enemy and use our kingdom authority in the warfare of prayer.

First, let us remember that our kingdom authority has been sovereignly established by God. He delivered us from the bondage of spiritual death. Without Christ, we are spiritually dead, but when Jesus came, He gave us life through His sacrificial death.

We’ve also been delivered from our staggering debt; in His death, Jesus paid the debt of our sins in full.

Jesus also delivered us from the bondage of satanic dominion. Colossians 2:15 says, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

Through His resurrection power, Jesus stripped, shamed, and subdued the enemy. Adrian Rogers says, “We don’t pray for victory, we have the victory; we stand in victory.”

Secondly, kingdom authority must be strongly enforced if we want to do what our King wants us to do. While we were slaves to Satan, in bondage to his dark kingdom, Jesus came to set us free. Even though Satan’s defeat is absolute, it must be appropriated. He will not roll over in defeat; he will fight to keep us bankrupt, brokenhearted, and bound to our sin. We must come against him in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, kingdom authority must be strategically exercised through the children of God who bear clean hearts. Those who act according to the Spirit must also come from the right position: seated with Jesus in the heavenlies.

Adrian Rogers says, “Without Jesus, you are in Satan’s dark kingdom, and Calvary is your defeat. But when you come into the kingdom of God, it is now your victory.”

Apply it to your life

Are you longing to pray with kingdom authority? Understand the necessity of your clean heart and begin praying from your victory in Heaven. Remember this wisdom from Adrian Rogers: “Stop praying from earth to Heaven, and start praying from Heaven to earth.”

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: Luke 7:1-10

The Lord did not create us to live crushed and defeated lives, but to reign and live victoriously. The centurion’s faith in Luke 7 is an example of strength through kingdom authority.

“When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick” (Luke 7:9-10).

In this passage, we first see the source of kingdom authority: it comes from a higher power. Adrian Rogers says, “Authority comes from above; therefore, any authority that you may hold is no better or stronger than the one who is over you.”

The reason God’s children have authority is that God is over them. It is the doctrine of identification. When He died, He died for us, so we died with Him and when He rose, we rose with Him, bearing resurrection life. When Jesus ascended, we ascended with Him; therefore, Jesus’ victory is our victory.

Second, we see the secret of kingdom authority: God does not give it to rebels. Adrian Rogers says, “You cannot be over until you are under; if you do not know the restraint of the Spirit, you will never know the release of the Spirit. If you cannot operate the spiritual brakes, God’ll never show you the spiritual accelerator.”

Jesus lives as an example of how we are to subject ourselves to authority. Though He was God, He lived as a man, under the authority of God, the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, His earthly parents, and the government.

Third, we see the scope of our authority: we cannot refuse, confuse or abuse it. In Genesis, Adam was given authority over the forces of nature, but in Christ, we are given spiritual authority over the power of the enemy.

Finally, we see the strength of kingdom authority, which comes from surrender. The centurion in Luke 7 was a man who had many people working under him; yet, he humbled himself, surrendering to the authority of Jesus as he pleaded for his servant’s life. True surrender takes incredible strength.

Apply it to your life
Do you understand the source, secret, and scope of your kingdom authority? Have you surrendered to the Holy Spirit and been strengthened by His power?

Sermon Overview

Scripture Passage: Ephesians 1:15-2:6

As Christians, most of us can accept that Jesus Christ is King and He has authority. However, some of us fail to grasp that He has given that kingdom authority to His servants.

Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

We’re in a spiritual battle, up against the organized, mobilized, and demonized powers of Hell. Therefore, we must understand what kingdom authority is in order to utilize it.

First, kingdom authority over all God's creation was gloriously given to Adam.

God made us to have dominion; it is the very reason we were created.

Second, that kingdom authority was legally lost by Adam.

When tempted by the devil, Adam and Eve failed to use the kingdom authority that God had given to them, and therefore, they became slaves of Satan.

Third, kingdom authority has been righteously regained by Jesus Christ.

Adrian Rogers says, “God owes Satan nothing, but God owes everything to His own justice and His own holiness; Jesus Christ came to this Earth as the second Adam, to gain back what the first Adam lost.”

Kingdom authority was lost by a man, and it was legally regained by a man: “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).

Adrian Rogers says, “Jesus died that we might have spiritual authority, not to do what we want, but authority to do what He wishes.”

Until you are under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Word, and the things God has set over you, you will never live with authority.

The devil hopes that you will not understand the incredible power we’ve been given; that he can keep you in the dark. If we ever utilize kingdom authority, all of Heaven will break loose.

Apply it to your life

If you are struggling to claim your kingdom authority, remember: the same weapons that belonged to Adam in the Garden of Eden were the weapons that Jesus Christ used in the wilderness. Spend some time in Scripture, saturating your life in the Word and in the Spirit of God, that you may understand your kingdom authority.