Flourish

Authority
February 5, 2023
Chris Seidman, Lead Minister, The Branch

Genesis 1:26-28 (NIV)
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

To “rule” or “exercise authority or power” refers to the capacity to make a meaningful difference in the state or condition of someone or something.

The Latin root of “authority” means “that which allows, promotes, protects growth and life.”

Flourishing Involves…

• The proper exercise of authority in our lives.

Psalm 8:6-8 (NIV)
You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

• Exercising authority for the benefit/fruitfulness of people/things under our care.

Genesis 2:4-5 (NIV)
… the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground … .

Genesis 2:15 (NIV)
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Mark 10:45 (NIV)
“(I’ve) not come to be served but to serve … .”

John 10:11 (NIV)
“The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

John 10:18 (NIV)
“No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down … .”

Acts 20:35 (NIV)
“‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Ephesians 5:23, 25-27 (NIV)
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. (vs.25) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish … .

John 10:17-18 (NIV)
“… I lay down my life … . No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down … .”

John 10:10 (NIV)
“… I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”