Tues Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

There are really only four sources of authority that you are going to follow. One, of these four, is going to guide who you decide to be, what you decide to do, and why you decide to do it. How you do life will be guided by one of these four sources of authority.

The first is -

· Reason

Reason says, “I’m going to live my life the way I think I ought to live it. I’m going to do what seems right to me.”

The second source is -

· Tradition

I am going to do what others have always done. I am going to follow what others have always said. Churches love this source of authority. How many times have you heard this in church, “We’ve never done it that way before.”

The third source of authority and I think probably the greatest one today is -

· Culture

I am going to do what everybody else is doing. I’m going to believe what everybody else is saying. If it is stylish and it’s cool that is where I’m going to land.

The fourth and final source of authority is

· Revelation

Revelation is truth as revealed in the Word of God. This is the line of thinking that says, “I’m going to be who God tells me to be. I’m going to do what God tells me to do and I will be it and do it, because that is what God has commanded.”

This is a big deal. If you want to take God seriously you’ve got to take the Bible seriously. If you are going to take the Bible seriously, the Bible can’t just be one of four streams of authority and you just drink from the stream that tastes the sweetest at the time you are trying to make a decision. For our church there will always be only one source of final authority. It won’t be what I think is right. It won’t be what our past has said is right. It won’t be what the outside world says is right. It will be what God says is right.

There is a very practical reason why this must be true of our church and it must be true of you and me. There is an unbelievable benefit of getting under the authority of the Bible that can have an eternally positive impact on you, your marriage, your family, your finances and even on your health.
Keep this in mind - the way you relate to the Bible will determine how God relates to you.