Independence -> Interdependence // Matthew Anderson

Good morning. Hey, I don't know if you all know this, but Antioch is a network

of churches. Specifically here in the U.S. we're over 50 churches and one of the

things there's a there's a couple things but one of the things that ties us

all together is the D school. All right so so most I don't know about

a lot of the churches have D schools and then we have certain we have a set

curriculum that we have to teach. It's not it's more of we have set

principles and values and things that we have to cover in the D school so that

if any one of you decide that hey I want to go be on a church planning team in

Utah we would look and say hey we do have a church in Utah let's call this talk

to them and their first question is like have they done the D school because if

they know you've done the D school they know what you've gotten does that

make sense they know what you've been taught and trained so it kind of ties us

together and so it's it's there's there's a lot of reasons why to do the D

school of course the number one is to to know God more we want to go deep with

him but it also anchors us into this community that we call anyok and it's

pretty cool and so just want to I don't I didn't know if we all knew that and so

I kind of want I think it's important for all of you to know it's one of those

things that ties us together nationwide and really worldwide and so it's

pretty cool so anyway I highly recommend it where I came from in Omaha we had a

D school and and and everybody that went through it their life was transformed

so yes and amen okay hey we've been in a series orphans no longer yeah and I've

heard I've heard talk going around which I love it when talk goes around and so

you know we started a few weeks ago and we kind of looked at that 12-step

progression down into fully being oppressed by this orphan spirit that I

called that's kind of over our nation really world since the fall of mankind

and we looked at that and God just kind of moved in us which not kind of he

did move in us and then the following we we looked at the seven Ps the things

that we used to medicate our heart instead of actually being embraced by the

fathers like the orphan you know we looked at seven things the orphan would

use to medicate its heart and again God convicted a lot of us in

challenge and we we really spoke to hey we need we need to acknowledge the

fact that some of us have parents that that didn't do a great job and we need

the first step into the fathers and praise is actually forgiving our earthly

parents and so we looked at that and then last week we looked at hey though you

might have been wronged you probably are responsible for at least 2% and you

need to own that 2% and you need to seek forgiveness right and so so that's

kind of where we were and so are you ready for the fourth week I'm excited

I'm always excited because I think it's gonna be good but so let's do this can

we quite our can we quite our minds just focus on Jesus for about 30 seconds I'm

gonna we're gonna breathe in if if if you're new and you haven't been here we do

this we breathe in and we just it's a little prayer it's like good good

father and then as we excel into your hands I commit and you commit

whatever might distract you today from hearing from him all right so everybody

breathe in and breathe out

so father we just quiet our minds and our hearts and we fix our minds and our

hearts on you today would you speak to us would you Lord work that we might

know you more that we might come closer to you that we might encounter you

deeper and more and more and more so Lord we trust you and we give you this

this time and we pray all this in your name amen all right so we live in this

culture that worships the self-made man or the self-made woman right and I think

especially here in the West where we've kind of got this frontier spirit right

and especially in Alaska anybody from Alaska okay anyway I just think of

frontier when when I think Alaska and so but but here here's here's the

frontier spirit here it is you ready I don't need anybody I'll figure it

out myself I'll protect my own piece all right and I honestly think it's a

spirit that goes deep in our culture we've been taught like to look out for

number one right to pull what's the what's the pull your own bootstraps is that

how you say pull up your own bootstraps whatever yeah you laugh at me that's

fine my wife's saying stop right now anyway it's this independent spirit that

we have we can take care of our own and in in our world independence is the

ultimate goal we celebrated on the Fourth of July we strive for in our bank

accounts but in the kingdom of God independence is a transit station not a

destination all right let me say that again in the kingdom of God

independence is a transit station not a destination so so here's here's the

progression we start as children as dependent right then we hit adolescence

and we begin to gain independence all right we begin to develop our identity at

that point but then we move on to become true sons and daughters in the

maturity and we move to interdependence all right so dependence independence

independence but here's the problem orphans don't and can't move from

independence to interdependence an orphan heart is fiercely independent

because it is a defense mechanism for the orphan if you were let down by a

father or a mother or a leader your heart probably made a vow and the vow was

this I will never be dependent on anyone again but here's a deal about that

vow it's a prison it leads to burnout it leads to isolation it leads to a

spiritual funk that cuts you off from the very blessings God wants to flow

into your life so today we're gonna address truth number three beyond the

screen here it is you must move from the isolation of independence into the

safety of honor and we want to talk about this let's key to moving into a

life of interdependence so let's number one let's define honor and so to

understand this we've got to look at what honor actually is in the mind of God

in our modern world we think honor is just being polite but in the Bible the

definitions are much more physical all right so we're gonna look at the Hebrew

perspective and then the the the Greek perspective so the Hebrew perspective

the word is kabad all right in the Old Testament it literally means to be

heavy think about the word glory it's the same root word all right so to honor

someone is to treat them as a heavyweight in your life all right do you get

that to honor somebody is to treat them as a heavyweight in your life

Samuel 230 says this therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares I promise

that members of your family would minister before me forever but now the

Lord declares far be it from me those who honor me I will honor but those who

despise me will be disdained another translation is those who honor me in the

word there's kabad I will honor and those who despise me shall be lightly

esteemed you see the contrast dishonor isn't necessarily hating someone it's

treating them as they were light it's the whatever attitude towards somebody

it's treating your spouse or your spouse's needs as light or your boss's

instructions as light and so when you treat authority as light your own life

loses its weight in the spirit that's the Hebrew perspective what about the

Greek perspective the word is temay which means to value or preciousness don't

think of Lord of the Rings sorry so here's it it's a commercial term all right it

refers to the price tag you put on something so first Peter 217 says this show

proper respect to everyone love the family of believers fear God honor

the emperor the better translation from Greek to English is instead of show

proper respect to everyone honor all people all right so that it's the same

word there is it so honor the emperor it's the same word but for some reason the

the the NIV translated it respect and said honor but the better translation is

honor honor all people it's a command to stop discounting people everybody an

orphan spirit looks for the flaws so it can mark down the price of a person right

oh they're just a politician oh they're just a difficult parent oh they're

just they're just there whatever it may be it's we're looking to be able to

somehow discount them but here's the deal y'all there's a spiritual law and we'll

call it this lies called the lid of dishonor and here's the law you cannot

receive the reward of what you do not honor you cannot receive the reward of

what you do not honor so here's the deal if you treat a mentor as ordinary you

will only receive ordinary advice from them if you treat authority is light

you will find your own life lacks weight to move forward y'all the orphan

heart says light or stays light because it refuses to give anyone else weight so

let's anchor this all in scripture all right if anyone had to be had the right

to be independent and dishonoring it was David David had been anointed to be

by God to be the next king but the current king who was Saul right was a man

possessed by jealousy and I would call a spiritual funk of his own so Saul

wasn't just a bad boss man he he was a well let's just leave it there he was a

bad boss okay he took 3,000 elite troops into the wilderness specifically to

murder David all right so let's look at first Samuel chapter 24 I'm going to

start reading and verse one this is a story after Saul returned from pursuing

the Philistines he was told David is in the desert of Ngeti so tall Saul took

3,000 able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men

near the crags of the wild goats he came to the sheep pins along the way a cave

was there and Saul went and to relieve himself yes he was going to the

restroom sorry lost in place all right so David and his men were far back in the

cave the men said hey this is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you I

will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish then David

David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe afterward David

was conscious stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe he said to his

men the Lord forbid that I should do a such a thing to my master the Lord's

anointed or lay my hand on him for he is the anointed of the Lord with these

words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul and

Saul left the cave and went his way then David went out of the cave and called

out to Saul my Lord the king when Saul looked behind him David bowed down and

prostrated him prostrated himself with his face to the ground he said to Saul why

do you listen when men say David has been on harming you this day you've seen

with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave some

urged me to kill you but I spared you I said I will not lay a hand on my Lord

because he is the Lord's anointed see my father look at this piece of your robe

in my hand I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you see that there

is nothing in my hand to indicate that I'm guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion I

have not wronged you but you are hunting me down to take my life may the Lord

judge between you and me and may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to

me but my hand will not touch you as the old saying goes from evil doers come

evil deeds so my hand will not touch you all right so David's men whispered

him can you can you see it hey this is the moment dude we've got him it's your

time you're to be king we all know it take his life he's here God's given him

into your hands right and so David creeps up but instead of cutting his throat

which he could have he cuts a part of his robe all right and even then the Bible

says David's heart was smitten he was convicted why because he realized that he

had treated the Lord's anointed as light you'll listen David has a heart of

son of a son he's the heart of sonship David walks out of the cave bow to the man

who's trying to kill him and calls him my Lord the king he didn't honor Saul

because Saul was a good man he honored Saul because David was a son you got to

get this we all the time we choose to dishonor people because they're not good

people I would like to promote or insist that we need to learn how to honor

people because your sons and daughters not because of someone who someone else

is David knew that if he pushed his way onto the throne by dishonoring the

current authority he would create a culture of dishonor that would eventually

destroy his own kingship he knew it he could feel it he could sense it you'll

listen sons and daughters don't have to take their inheritance they wait for

the father to give it independent says I'll kill the king to get the crown

interdependent says I'll honor the position and trust God with the person

it's super super important that we give this everybody especially in our

culture where honor is far and few it's like honoring people's far and few

between right we just we've stopped and I think we need to take it back as the

church which leads me to this third point which I've called submission pushing

up it's the most controversial word I think in the church today submission oh we

don't like it I mean come on let's be honest but here's the deal I believe we

want to get out of the funk we have to get into the order now let me explain

what I mean by that most of us treat the word submission like a dirty word but

listen to first Peter 5.5 he says this in the same way you who are younger

submit yourselves to your elders all of you close yourselves with humility toward

one another because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble so the

word here for submit is hoopotasso all right it's a military term all right and so

hoopo the first part of it means under and tasso means to arrange so it

literally means arrange yourself in order under arrange yourself in order

under all right and so submission isn't about being lesser than it's about

being submission underneath the mission it's getting under the mission of

another and using your strength to push them up orphans try to pull people

down so they can get on top but sons and daughters they push people up

because they know their father is the one who ultimately promotes them you

got to get this we've got to get this everybody we're so we're so as a

culture we're so striving for top top top so we're taught and so it's it's

power over power over we make people submit and yield and like God says no get

under that's why they didn't understand Jesus he got under they said we'll kill

you may he said fine right even as disciples it's like when he said hey that's

enough swords they thought yes they're gonna be dead two swords like what are

they gonna do with two swords against a legion I know what they were thinking

like maybe they thought Jesus had swords somewhere else Jesus didn't have

swords somewhere else because he wasn't gonna fight their battles the way the

world fights them and he's still expecting his people not to fight the way the

world fights listen to son and daughter honors his or her father by pushing

his or her father legacy up oh this is a good one employees honor their boss by

pushing the company's vision up some of us we work for companies that you

struggle with and so you don't want to you don't want to push it up then leave

no seriously then leave find a company you can push up but I would I would

before you do that I'd ask God if he wants you to leave maybe he just wants

you to change your mindset and begin to push your boss up for the sake of the

kingdom look at 1st Peter 5 5 again says God opposes the proud but shows favor

grace to the humble you know listen when you arrange yourself under the

authority in your life you move under a spiritual umbrella a protection where

God's grace freely flows it's it's a it's a kingdom principle so I've had

the privilege of traveling all over the world and I've had the privileges of

being on staff at several churches and in my younger years some of my

travels I want to say affected me in some of my beliefs and not necessarily in a

good way all right and so I got to travel into places where I saw a lot of

poverty and rest and it was a part of rescuing street kids off the streets of

places like India and we got to do a lot of that and I got to also minister on

garbage dumps were were children and people were living and and got to see

them fed and got to see churches planted in some of those areas and but but

what what what what began to happen in me is I begin to have this

disdain for churches in America and because I felt like they they lived in

opulence and luxury and and they didn't understand things and all that kind of

stuff and and then God God's in his kindness took me to be on staff at one of

those churches and I I would I honestly guys for the longest time I kind of I

kind of had one step I had one step in the church and then another step kind

of not in the church does that make sense I it's like why because I was I was just

I still was because because I could always judge the church if I left part of

myself out of it in some men I have okay okay I have time

we we um it says that God didn't come to the world to condemn the world to

judge it but to save it he didn't send us it says that the father sent us the

same way he sent the son into a world not to condemn it but to save it if if we

continue to judge people we'll continue to fight God and we don't really do that

good we just point fingers and just kind of you know and by the way there's a

difference there's a spirit of judgment and then there's a spirit of family

where we can actually sit around the table and and critique in a good spirit like

hey let's let's get better at this let's like we need to work on this that's a

different thing than then actually point your finger standing from outside saying

you look at that does that make sense and so so that was me I left myself

purposely on the outside just enough so I could keep pointing my finger to the

inside saying look at that you know and praise God that I had past leaders that

put up with me you know for long enough for God to speak to me so I'm in a man

and I traveled the world together when we first got married went all of the

world we we lived on my so we both worked jobs I'll just tell you a little bit

this is kind of fun we lived on my salary and we used her salary to travel

all over the world doing missions so we did for for seven years and of our

marriage and then we had kids and so anyway and that was awesome too it's its

own mission and so so so we were in Liberia and at the time in Liberia had been

in a civil war for three nine years and and they just come out of war and we

were going in because they had kidnapped how they did their wars they

kidnapped children all the way down to the age of five brainwash them and

these children became the warriors all right so so we were going in to train

now the war was over so children were coming home all right so they were

coming they were coming literally coming home they weren't home because they

were warriors they're coming home and parents were saying we don't know how to

deal with our kids like they're not our kids like they they were they're

trained killers right but they're coming home now and so we went in to train

parents how to deal with them I laugh because I think I am no expert God's an

expert and he aligned us with experts that helped us and gave us material

and all that kind of stuff anyway and so we're there and we're it's just an

amazing time people are getting wrecked by God and and we're doing all kinds

of kids stuff and parents are interacting with kids again and it's pretty

cool but I get malaria okay and I've had it two or three times in my life

fun and and so I have a very high fever and very high and my wife Sam

delusional I was delusional but I was hearing God all right and and I'm on

I'm on this bed with a mosquito net a wrapped around me and a hundred and

some odd degrees with a hundred and some odd degree fever 105 I think at the

highest and so and I'm I'm the Lord begins to speak to me and this is what he

said to me he said I need you to go home and I need you to submit to your

leader fully I'm like excuse me he said you haven't done that I need to do

everything you can to make his vision work this was the leader of the mega

church by the way and so I said okay and I did now here here's the point of

that whole story well I'll tell you the point of it later in life the lead

pastor of that mega church became pretty good friends of ours and I was on

staff and he at one point said I was so scared of you when I hired you because

you were so different than me but then he said but now I'm getting ready to

turn the church over to you when I retire now that didn't happen because God

called me somewhere else he called me to plant churches right but but here's the

deal once I was able to submit to him the favor of God began to flow and tell

them though it was like there was a hold back from the Lord does that make sense

y'all listen we've got to learn how to get under someone else's mission and

full submission and push it up and when we can learn to do that then God

can trust you with more so in closing today I want to I want to ask a couple

questions who are you treating as light today is there a soul in your life a

difficult leader or a flawed parent is it a spouse you have stopped valuing is

it this church or another church are you staying independent and autonomous

because you're afraid that if you give this community community or another

community weight you might get hurt again oh shoot I hate that question because

that's a real question some of us we've been hurt by what we call the church

what we that's a safe way to say my friends hurt me that were a part of the

church right when we blame it on the church it's just easier but the reality is

what I find for people everybody we we get hurt by people that we've actually

let in which means they were your friends or a trusted authority it wasn't the

church it was a person who belonged to the church and so now we're afraid and

so we just kind of keep everybody at a distance it's easier to judge the

church for what they're missing than to actually open my life up again and be

a part of the solutions because that means I might get hurt again right so here's

the deal we need to shift we need to shift well how do we shift here here's how we

shift number one identify the lightness all right when we're gonna do this here

in just a minute we're gonna ask always spirit to show you where you've used

sarcasm or distance to strip the weight off of someone then we repent of the

independent spirit we tell the Lord I'm tired of being self-made I want to be

father-made and then the action step is that we choose to push up so this

week we find one person an authority and find a way to honor them not because

they're perfect but because you're a son or a daughter of the king so what we're

gonna do this morning is we're just gonna it's the music plays we're just gonna

pray we're gonna say Holy Spirit is there anyone that I have stripped the

weight off of and how I feel about them and how I've treated them and my

sarcasm and the way I've distanced myself from them

and then we're just gonna repent of the independent spirit right I love the

gift of repentance it's like here's here's what I love and I think some of you

need here if God's asked us to forgive 70 times seven then don't you think he's

willing to forgive 70 times seven I think sometimes we think how can I go to him

again and ask again because that's the kind of God he is he just he died that we

might live free he's paid the price so Father as we sit here Lord would you

just Lord is there anybody in our life that we've we've stripped the weight off

of them we've not treated them with the weight that you've treated them with

or you died for them so that's pretty weighty Lord would you just Lord if

there's anybody that we need to just repent of not honoring of stripping the

weight off would you would you just reveal that to us there's this word that we use

that I don't I don't know sometimes it's it's called gossip I don't know I just

sense the Lord just highlighting that it's like when we when we talk to our

friends about another friend in a way that strips the weight off of them that's

dishonoring and I don't know I just feel like he's highlighting that today it's like

we we do it so easily and so Lord would you just reveal to us anywhere that we've

done we want to we want to get we want to clean our hands Lord we want to be a

people with clean hands and a pure heart that we may ascend the hill of the

Lord so do it Lord I'm going to ask all of us to stand and

minister team if you can just come up and if you need to respond in repentance you

can come and get prayer you can come and just kneel before the Lord if if you

just need to do business always if you just need to do business with God you can

just come and get before him that's always allowed you know but if you need

someone to pray for you we're here to pray for you as well we're going to

worship and if you need to respond you respond