A Better Reflection with Correction

March 26, 2023 Speaker: Tara Detiveaux Series: Man in the Mirror

Topic: Authority Scripture: Romans 13:1– :7

Man in the Mirror Series

A Better Reflection With Correction

Ted and I were talking after service last week about accountability and inviting someone into your mirror that allowed to sharpen you and to help you to become more like Christ, and not just tell you what you want to hear.

It’s hard but necessary. It sharpens us. The mirror is for us!!

And then we sort of talked about when we have offered the accountability and correction and how very rarely was that ever accepted well. We have tried to do that from a place of love and truth and most of the time it just explodes. No one really wants to be corrected.

And we could say it’s the younger generation.

But it’s us also.

There will be times that Ted will tell me something and I’ll just get angry. How dare you tell me something, and it takes a couple of days, and quiet time alone with the Lord allowing him to soften my very hard heart….fine Lord, I get it, I needed to be corrected. He was right.

Its healthy as we look into the mirror of God’s word and also invite others to the mirror.

But sometimes the Lord allows authority in our lives to bring correction to our reflection!

The beautiful thing about authority is that its put in our life to better our reflection of Jesus!

Mirror Illustration (Small Mirror and Inspection Mirror)

And we have an authority problem!!

We don’t want anyone to tell us anything.

The bible warns about this in the end times, it will get worse and worse.

Authority means the delegated right to rule or lead. It means the power to act, decide, command, and judge;

According to the Bible, authority ought to be submitted to and respected. Ephesians 6:6-9 exhorts us to obey not merely to win favor just when people’s eyes are on us, but to act as “slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart,” serving wholeheartedly as if serving the Lord and knowing that He will reward us for whatever good we do.

Romans 13:1-7 (from Paul who is trying to unify the body of Christ at Rome both Jews and Non Jews)

13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in

authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

How to accept correction by authority…

1. Keep Your Mouth Shut and Receive It!

(example at Oaklawn Jr High School, 5th hour class, told me off)

If the son of God could shut his mouth in his crucifixion so can we!

He kept his mouth silent.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Isaiah 53:7

So much of our problem is that we think our thoughts and opinions matter…

I’m not saying that they don’t I’m just saying that submitting to authority matters also!

2. In your silence remember, it is most important that you honor Christ!

Jesus kept his mouth silent because had an assignment. It was the cross.

It was the mission of his life, pay the price for sin.

So do we. We have an assignment. The job. The boss. The teacher. The neighbor.

In it all I want to honor Christ. I want the kingdom to advance, not me!

So, my way is not the most important.

My thoughts on the matter on not the most important.

The way that they told me something, is not the most important.

What they said about me, to me, about by mama, my family, is not the most important.

I am going to submit to the authority that God has placed in my life.

Unless it dishonors the Lord, examples would be that you would have to renounce your faith in Christ, you would have to put other gods before Jesus, you would have to break the law of God or the law of the land those are times when in your silence as you honor Christ, you begin to ask the Lord (calmly) is this a space where I do need to act for the Kingdom?

One of my heroes Corrie Tin Boom asked herself that as she hid Jews in her family’s house from the Nazis, when they got caught, and suffered the consequences she smuggled a bible into the prison camp. But she was acting for the Kingdom.

Psalm 37:6-8 He will vindicate you in broad daylight, and publicly defend your just cause. Wait patiently for the LORD! Wait confidently for him! Do not fret over the apparent success of a sinner, a man who carries out wicked schemes.8 Do not be angry and frustrated. Do not fret. That only leads to trouble.

 IT HONORS HIM WHEN I SUBMIT.

JESUS SUMBITED TO THE AUTHORITY OF GOD.

WE CAN SUBMIT TO THE AUTHORITY GOD HAS PLACED IN OUR LIFE

3. Hold to the good of what was said and allow it to change you knowing that when you do you submit ultimately to the authority of Christ and you become more like Him and lead others to Him!

More in Man in the Mirror

March 12, 2023

The Mirror Doesn't Lie