Main Message I want you to have a look with me in Romans, Chapter 13. We've been looking at God's order, and how God wants to order the home, and order the family. Now I know there are single parents here, and you'll be bucking and whatever, over some of the things I'm saying. There'll be women whose husbands are not saved, and they'll be [grrr grrr grrr] but let me just say this: most situations that are out of order, are out of order because men failed somewhere. If you're a single parent here, let me tell you this: I know there's a man who failed. He failed to be a man, he failed to protect you, he failed to honour you, he failed to make commitment to you; and part of the reason you're in the place you're in, is because a man failed seriously. It doesn't mean you're not responsible for your situation, but it does mean: a man failed. When marriages break up, guess who God holds responsible? The man! This is where I'm aiming for, I want you to understand, if we want things to work right, we've got to discover God's order, and find out way into God's order, because it works.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8:4, where the word of a king is, there is power; and who can say to him: why are you doing it that way? Where the word of a king is, there is power; and who can say to him: how come you're doing it that way? So Jesus is the king that we serve. We come to know Him through a personal relationship, we receive Him as our saviour, and now we have access to a whole new realm of living. We don't live our life according to the way we were raised, according to our culture, according to the society around us. We have a whole new realm to learn how to live. It's called the kingdom of God, it's got its own value system, it's got its way of working; and God has set in place laws in the spirit world, as well as laws in the natural world. The Bible says: He upholds them, or sustains them, and makes them work; so there are principles He set in place, I can't change the principles. I can't say: well how come You set it up like that? I can't just say: well God, I disagree with the man being the head of the woman. I don't like that doctrine, I don't like that teaching at all.
It won't make any difference. Where the word of a king is, there is power. He doesn't say: He's going to make it that way, He just says: this is how it is. He says: the man is the head. It's a position God has given to him, which he is required to be responsible for fulfilling. Now I want you to have a look in Romans 13, and I want you to see - again we'll just recover a couple of points, so we pick people up who weren't here. In Romans 13: let every soul be subject under the higher powers. It's talking here about our attitude to people who occupy roles of authority, or delegated influence somewhere - for there is no power or authority but of God, and the powers that be are ordered, or set in place, by God Himself. That means: He arranged it, and set it up. It doesn't mean they're doing a good job at it, it just means that God arranged it - so it says: whoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of what God has set in place; and those that resist, shall receive to themselves judgement.
Let me just read that part again. Let every soul be subject; whoever resists, resists what God has ordered; and those that resist, receive to themselves, a judgement or sentence passed on them, because they failed to respond right. God has created order in the natural universe, and the spiritual universe. He just set certain things in order. Now the devil has got very limited realm to move. People have a big devil, and a very little God; but you don't understand that the devil can only work in the area God has let him work in. The area God has let him work in, is the area outside the law of God; so when a person responds to the law of God, they automatically remain in the place of light and the blessing of God. When a person violates the laws of God, they're automatically in darkness, where the devil then is allowed to operate. The Bible says to you and I, it says: do not give the devil that kind of opportunity in your life. In other words, let your life be in order, as God wants it to be, and you'll walk in a river of blessing and of life, and the devil can't touch you. That's why it says: those that overcome the devil, they are strong, because they exercise, and because they have practiced in this area, and the word of God is in them. They know what God wants and expects of them.