ED:  If you ever get a chance to travel to Hollywood Boulevard in Southern California, make sure you stroll down to an area around Grumman’s Chinese Theater. Right there in the sidewalk you will see the handprints of the stars.  When celebrities hit the big time, they get a chance, an opportunity to place their handprints in a slab of cement.  All the icons are there from John Wayne to Jim Carey, from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna.  It is something to see, those indelible prints that they have made in that cement.

Moms, on this Mother’s Day I have got some great news for you. You have made it.  That’s right.  You have hit the big time.  You are something special and you have been given the opportunity to place your handprints on something that is far more valuable than a slab of cement on Hollywood Boulevard.  You have an opportunity to place your handprint of love on the lives of your children.

If you haven’t noticed lately, our world is kind of going nuts.  Over 3,000 divorces take place per day.  Little boys and little girls watch their parents split up.  Substance abuse is out of control.  In the 80s and early 90s we had it under control a little bit but now it is breaking record numbers. Children these days are exposed to more adult decisions and adult situations than ever before.  Our media is mesmerizing, for the most part, the minds of our children with their agenda and their focus.

What do we do about it?  Do we pretend it is not there?  Do we throw up our hands?  Do we put our heads in the sands of denial?  Do we allow society to suck our children into the funnel of futility?  What do we do about it?  I’ll tell you what we do.  God has given us a mandate to make a difference in the lives of our children by placing upon them that handprint of love.

Maybe your goal is spiritual.  Talk about some different scripture verses and get your family members to research each one and to present them in their own way.  I don’t know what it is, but plan it and ask God for the creativity.

What makes the devil the devil?  Rebellion.  So when I’m rebellious, when you’re rebellious, we’re like the devil.  And Saul was like the devil.

Enter David. Every time we rebel against God’s authority; every time we move from underneath God’s authority, what does God do? God always brings the replacement to do what we should have done in our lives.

Saul blew it. He missed it. He had opportunity after opportunity.  God though, tapped another guy on the shoulder—that Hebrew hick, that kid from Canaan.  God’s appointed and future anointed King of Israel, David.

David’s career starts blowing up. He took out Goliath. He killed the lion and a bear.  The Bible says David was walking into town and all the women began to sing this:  “Saul has killed his thousands, David his tens of thousands.”  Scripture tells us that Saul looked at David with an eye of envy; he was eaten up by jealousy.  King Saul, is this crazy, went psycho. And David was number one on his hit list.

So what did Saul do?  Saul recruited about three thousand Navy Seals, three thousand of the best troops in the world. And all they did was track David.  Their agenda was to take David out.

David and his men fled. They were hiding in some caves near the Dead Sea. I’ve been in these caves and they’re pretty intricate.  And the Bible’s a very straightforward book; the Bible says that Saul had to relieve himself.

Here’s Saul in the desert near the Dead Sea, and Saul has got to relieve himself. So Saul walks into a cave to take care of business.  Take a wild guess at who was in the cave hiding with his men.  You guessed it—David.  His eyes had already been adjusted to the light and to the darkness and he could see a little bit. And David’s men say, “David, oh man, you got Saul with his pants down!  This guy’s trying to kill you. This guy is psycho. David, you’re a warrior. You’re the man. Take him out now!”

Let’s move now to a third decision we face.  Lecture vs Listening.  Lecture vs Listening.  I love this one because it is my inclination to lecture.

When I want an explanation for everything, when I want an explanation for every authority figure in my life, I have an authority issue.  With God, we say God, “Explain it to me.  God, why?  Give me the what’s and the why’s and the how’s.”

What if God sat down and explained to you and me the why’s, the how’s, the what’s behind everything He does in our life.  We would die with Him still sitting there and explaining stuff to us.

We’ve got to trust God. We’ve got to have faith in God.  That doesn’t mean we check our intellect at the door. We trust God, we get up under, beneath God’s authority.  We get under it and we understand God’s placed it there. And we can ask some questions, but basically, we obey because when we trust and obey. There’s no other way to have the ultimate life.  That’s it. We trust God.  Look at God’s track record. It’s pretty strong!

When I go to the dentist in a couple of days, they’re in authority over me.  The hygienist is in authority over me.  The dentist is in authority over me. God has placed them in authority over me, either knowingly or unknowingly in their lives, to help mold and make me into the kind of person God wants me to become.  I don’t know how they’re going to do it, but they’re there.

So every time I live my life, every second of every day, I’m a link in God’s chain of command.  God always works through authority. I find where I fit I place myself within that chain and then my life will surely, surely click.  Ed Young but if we don’t, if we get out here away from the umbrella; if we diss God and diss God’s authority structures, we’ll never discover the greatness that God has for us.

They had this confidence because of the little word “our”.  Circle that.  They did not say, it’s a god, or this god but our God, my God.

Moses was available and Moses put himself under the submission of the lord in the school.  Are you doing that?  Are you in a desert?  Have you stopped?  Are you drinking the water called faith?  Have you enrolled in God’s university?  Remember when i said earlier in the message that god’s working and we’ve got to say, “God, i want to get in on where you’re working,” and to get in on it, you cannot remain the same.  You’ve got to change.  You’ve got to develop.  I’ve got to change.  I’ve got to develop.

This past week i went to sam’s wholesale club and i bought leebeth this basketball goal that you can dunk on; it goes up to seven feet.  This basketball goal was one that had fallen on the display area at sam’s wholesale club so i got a great deal on it.  I take it home and i’m not mechanical at all, if you know me.

Don’t worry about your sat or act scores, thank the lord.  He only accepts failures.  That means i can get in.  He only accepts failures at desert university, god does, at desert university.  You know what failure is?  Failure is the back door to success.  Moses was so prideful, he was so puffed up like a giant balloon that the power of god couldn’t get into his life.  It took god year after year after year at desert university to drain him of all this ego, of all this self-sovereignty in order to make him into a useful tool to one day deliver millions of israelites from bondage.

You see, we put too much emphasis on “oh, moses was a great-looking guy.  He was a natural speaker, a gifted leader.”  It all came from god.  God can use whatever he wants to.  He can use this plant if he wants to, to lead someone out of bondage.