You are listening to Radical with David Platt, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from

pastor, author, and teacher David Platt.

If you have a Bible, I invite you to find Matthew Chapter 5 with me.

Matthew Chapter 5.

And as you're turning, I want to ask you a question today, but don't answer it too quickly and don't answer it

out loud because I really want you to pause and think about it.

Here's the question. Who is the authority in your life?

And I realize as I ask this question,

we all have different authorities in our lives even at different times.

So some kids or teenagers might say my parent or parents are the authority in my life.

So if you have teachers who are authorities in your life, so if you

have a boss who is an authority in your life. There's a sense in which the government and

under which we live is an authority in our lives.

But what I'm asking here is who in practice is the authority in your life?

Like who is the one who tells you how to live? Who tells you

you what to think and you actually listen and you think that way?

Who tells you what to do and you actually do whatever they say. And I ask this question because we live in a world that says at every

turn you are the authority in your life.

And it's not just the world who says this to us.

From early in our lives we say this to ourselves.

As a da da da. early in our lives we say this to ourselves.

As a dad of a toddler, I can testify that even the sweetest, cutest, most precious to your little girl in the world is hardwired to assert her own authority.

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