Let Every Soul Be Subject
First B Jackson
2016-10-16

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Hey. Good morning, church. Good to see everybody. Very good to see you all. About that time, what do you say we stand up and, let's warm up to the Lord?

Give him praise that he's due.

God, I'm running. God, I'm running for your heart, running for your heart till I am a soul on fire. Lord, I'm longing for your ways waiting for your day when I am a soul on fire till I am a soul on fire. Alright. Nice and loud.

Ready? God, I'm dawning for your heart, dawning for your heart till I am so alone on fire. The Lord I'm longing for your ways, waiting for a day when I am soul on fire. Till I am soul on fire. Lord, restore the joy I had.

When I've wandered, bring me back in this darkness lead me through until all I see is you got them running. God, I'm brawning for your heart, brawning for your heart till I am a soul on fire. Lord, I'm brawning for your ways waiting for the day when I am a soul on fire. Till I am a soul on fire. Lord, let me burn for you again.

Let me return. Let me return to you again. Lord, let me burn for you again. Let me return to you. Let me return to you again.

It's our

prayer, God. We wanna be close to you.

God, I'm running for heart, running for your heart till I am soul on fire. Lord, I'm going for ways waiting for a day till I am soul on fire. But till I am soul on fire. Till I am sold on fire. Till I am sold on fire.

Is everyone awake? Are we okay? Alright. I was just checking. It's kind of a fast song, and then I, you know, you know, you want to sing it with enthusiasm.

We'll get there. We'll get there. Okay. You can have a seat.

Good morning. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements if they come up

on the screen.

There they are. So, connect hour. If y'all have forgotten about that, we still are doing the connect hour between services. So, if you want to have some sort of transference between the first service and the second service or one church that exist in two services, okay? So, if you want to have some connection to em, the connect hour is a place to make that happen.

It's in the fellowship hall between services. The men of men's fraternity this morning have prepared the in between time snacks, that sort of stuff because right now, we have a ladies retreat that is going on up at the Heart six. So, Tanya is preaching right now. Pray for her. It's her least favorite activity.

So, that is happening right now and they should be heading back into town around eleven or so. Awana is happening tomorrow night. So Awana at 06:00 for the kids, pouring scripture into their minds and into their hearts. It's a great program. It happens at the time as Monday nights at first b down the hall.

That's right. Yep. We're in Luke five. Again, just kind of examining on our our attitudes toward Jesus and how we approach Jesus. And guess what?

Felix and Guadalupe are gonna be cooking tomorrow. It's gonna be so wonderful. If you miss it, you're gonna be so disappointed.

Yeah. Disappointed. That's that's exactly right. Alright. There is Peak Children's Church today.

That'll be just after the song service before the sermon time. You'll see the cavalcade of the kids that are here getting up to head downstairs. There's not a girl study today as the leaders are all up at the women's retreat, but there is still a guy study for high school eighth through twelfth grade guys. That's from 09:30 to 10:30 down in Rinsey's office. Men's fraternity.

Come on up, Kyle. Men's fraternity is starting back up.

Yeah. Men's fraternity is starting up. Men's fraternity is starting up again on Wednesday, 06:00 this week. It'll run till February. Men's fraternity is the men's breakfast group that runs through the school year every year.

This year, we're going through Robert Lewis' second year winning at work and at home, and it looks at, like, the two main places men spend their life at work and at home with their family, and gives a good biblical foundation for having a plan for your life, a biblical plan for your life. I encourage all men in the church to come. Invite men from other churches and especially men who do not go to church. It's a a men's breakfast group that includes the Bible, includes a biblical foundation, but it's very open. It's not really pushy to people who are not churched, so it's a comfortable place.

And along with that, the last thought I will leave you if you're considering coming and not sure, as men, we go through life alone. We try to accomplish everything alone, and that's usually where men get in trouble, when they don't allow men into their circle. So I'd encourage you, especially if you have not been coming to men's fraternity, to come. You will not regret it.

Thank you. Perfect. So that winning at work and at home starting and it is 6AM, okay? That's six in the morning. It's a breakfast group.

Alright.

There's good hot breakfast.

Yeah, very good. December 11, there's going to be a Christmas play called Reflections. It'll be in three different parts. The sign up and auditions have happened but it's coming up and so there's a rehearsal schedule up there. This is in your bulletin also.

So, if you're at all interested in being a part of this dramatic team, then, please let Nancy Cummins know. Now, she is up at the women's retreat today but if you'll talk to me afterwards, I'll get you in touch with her. For all the other announcements, you can check your bulletin. There should be several in there that I have not mentioned but the announcements are just too long. Do you all agree?

Not really. Do you agree? I need some backing on this. Alright. Alright.

Now, y'all stand up and greet one another. We'll bring you back together with a song.

Your love will surely come find us, bees and wild fire Alright. Your love is let's sing. And your love is a radiant diamonds bursting inside a pleasing wildfire, singing your name. God, God, mercy. Have surrendered to your design.

May this offering

This is my

prayer. This is my prayer in the desert when all that's within me feels dry. This is my prayer in my hunger need. God is a God who provides. And this is my prayer in the fire.

Weakness or triumph, there is a fit, brood, a more worthy gold. Refine me, oh, Lord, through the flame. And I will bring praise. And I will bring praise. I will bring praise.

No weapon formed against me shall remain. I will declare God is my victory, and he is. And in all of my life and in every I have a reason to worship. Yes, we do indeed, all my life. And all of my life and every season, you are still God.

Of

I'm be

gonna

peace. This is my prayer in the harvest.

And this is my prayer in the harvest in favor in providence flow. And I know I'm filled to be emptied again. Seed I've received, I will sow.

God, I thank you for the seed of of faith that you plant in us. And, like, week, we were looking at the scriptures about the kind of soil that falls on, and I I pray that the soil of our hearts would be truly fertile, that we would receive it, and we wouldn't harders harden ourselves against you when you are speaking to us through your word. And I thank you, God, that your word is truly a solid foundation to stand on and that it is totally secure. And then when we get that part right and we have that solid foundation of you, the rest of our structure is sound and it's stable. But I continue to go and think back to the part about surrendering ourselves to you, and it's not just a one time, one and done.

It's a constant everyday surrendering ourselves to you and to your will. And that's difficult, and, we confess that on our own, we we can't do that, but with your strength that we we can. And so I pray that we would call on you and that we would come to you, every day, recognizing our need for you. You say, blessed are those who realize their need for you, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them, and I pray that that would be us. Amen.

Alright.

Hope is built. My hope is built nothing less

Let's sing that again, shall

you for what you've given lord. I thank you for the gift of music and I thank you how encouraging it is to get together as a body and just hear other voices crying out to you and thanking you for being who you are. I thank you that you are our firm foundation and our cornerstone, lord. We want to acknowledge right now, lord, that you have given us so much. You've given us every good and perfect gift.

You've given us this great offer of salvation and this room is filled with people who have taken you up on your offer, lord and so, we want to see other people do exactly that same thing. As much as we hate to see temporal human suffering, Lord. It is even worse to see eternal human suffering. So God, would you use these tithes and offerings to reach out as light in the darkness, would you spread your gospel? You said that you would build your church.

Lord, we're showing that we trust you to do it. Would you take these, multiply to do your kingdom's work. In Jesus name, lord, we thank you for the solid foundation that you've given. We thank you for the comfort that you offer and we thank you that you are with us. In Jesus name, amen.

So, on on Friday morning, it was we got a call that Betty Jo Height, ladies here at church was in the hospital and her health was failing and she was she was fading. She was fading fast. And Ray and I got to just kinda sit bedside and and just be with her and hold her hand and read scriptures. And I'm telling you what, the twenty third Psalm, it is so comforting. And that's what this this song here is about.

I'm just invite you to take it in.

Your rod and your stand, they comfort me. They comfort me. You bring a table before Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. They comfort They comfort me. They comfort me.

Amen. Thank you, Carl. Alright, kiddos are heading out. Kyle, I didn't mean to throw you under the bus wherever you are, buddy. When I said the announcements are too long, I wasn't talking about you.

I'm talking about me. If I'm going hear myself talk on Sunday morning, I want for it to be about the Bible. I know all the announcements are centered around that but that's what I was talking about. So, we are up to Romans thirteen one through seven. There should be chuckles.

If you know what it's about, there should be chuckles right now. Romans thirteen one through seven is where we find ourselves at this point in history and I'm amazed. I love God's timing. I love what I think is his sense of humor and I'm glad to be back up here. It's been three straight weeks that I haven't been up here during the preaching time.

So, I've been sitting out there with y'all. I've appreciated all the missionaries and what they had to say and the missions that God has given but I'm glad to be back. So, here we are. Romans thirteen one through seven has this. This is Greek.

I'm only showing this because I want you to see this. Let every soul be subject to the authorities over it. This part of Romans for a lot of commentators, they think that this is a departure from what he's been talking about and then, what is that doing there? Seven verses that are there that talk about the civil authorities and the secular government. It's right in the middle of this passage about the love of God and getting on down from there more about the love of God and it just seems to be stuck there.

A lot of people don't understand it. Well, hopefully, we'll see it in the larger context here today but I wanted you to have confidence in what the translation says. It does mean it. Okay? We're Americans.

Whoo. Most of us. And those of us who aren't came here because we're Americans, right? That's the thinking that we have. There's a freedom and liberty that's associated with this country.

But I want you to hear what it says. This says every pasa is every, all soul, suque, Pasuke. Soul, every soul, let every soul, don't leave anybody out. Let be subject. Now, we don't usually do third person commands.

If I command Phil to do something, I say, you, Phil, do this. Okay. But I don't usually have a third person command that tells every soul in English. So, we say, let this be. Let every soul be subject to, okay?

Nothing extraneous. The authorities, that's the plural of authorities could be translated powers, the powers that are over it, the authorities that are over it. Over it, governing over it, literally. And if you see Exousia right there, you're a Greek student, and you see it right there, over authorities, the ones who are given authority over you. So that's what it says.

Let every soul be subject to the authorities over it and in this season, we hear a lot of rhetoric from both sides but as Christians, this is a direct command to everyone of us and actually, since it says, let every soul, it's not even just Christians. Let every soul be subject to the authorities that are over it. That's a hefty, hefty command right there. When I see authorities, this is what I think of. Do you all remember John Cougar Mellencamps?

When I fight authority, authority always wins. That's just to remind me of that. So, I fight authority, authority always wins. Do you get that? That's basically what this passage says.

If you're fighting against authority, you're resisting God. That's what it says. So, if there is to be resistance, there has got to be very very sound biblical underpinning for that resistance. The preamble, since we're talking about our system here, I thought I'd talk about the preamble, not of the constitution yet or the declaration of independence but my preamble like understanding and applying the Bible. I feel like my job is to help all of us, me included, to understand and to apply the Bible.

So, I like what Norris had to say and how the gospel spreads so fast in some places in The Middle East. It is what does it say? What does the Bible say? What does the does the passage we're studying say? What does it mean and how am I going to be obedient to it, okay?

So, that's understanding and applying and if you do one without the other, like if you just understand it but you don't do it, you're a hearer and not a doer, James says. So, what does it say? What does it mean and how am I going to be obedient to it because all of those need to be present. So, the bigger context that I told you I would mention is this, you remember, twelve, one, and two. Now, it's been a month since we were around any of this at all but twelve, one, and two says, that we should present our bodies and this is to Christians.

We should present our bodies as living sacrifices. Living sacrifices unto God. It is our reasonable service to present ourselves and all that we have, all that we are present to God. So, that's the center of the bull's eye right there but the concentric circle that goes out from that is how we should use our gifts that we have been given to serve the church. So, that's the next series of verses.

It's twelve three through 13 and then beyond that, it's society around us, outsiders 14 through 21. So, you see these ever widening circles? Shoot for the center of this bull's eye pleasing God and if you're going to do that, you'll be right in the center of helping out the church and serving the community around you and then the even bigger context is the government and that's what thirteen one through seven at least are about this morning. So, we're talking about the governing authorities that that rule over us. As Americans, it's a little more difficult to hear this message probably than it is in some places in the world because we are born.

Well, I'll get into it in a minute, okay? If you're born under a king or a despotic ruler of some type, an authoritarian, then, you would read these verses and go, whoo, I gotta do it. It's my Christian duty to continue to serve under this and you might even think, long live the king. God has put him in authority over us and this is a great system. It's for our good and it's established and ordained by God.

That'd be great. The government. So, here we are. Romans thirteen one A says, every soul you saw it a minute ago but every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. That's a good translation.

It's the new American standard. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. Why? Why? Anybody?

Take a stab at it. Paul takes a stab at it next. So, why? For there is no authority except from God and those authorities which exist are established by God. I can already feel my hackles getting up.

Can y'all? There's no authority? There's no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God. So, Paul's answer to why should we is because God is sovereign and he has set these rulers up. He has raised them up.

Alright. Wow. That's a tough order and we're not even to verse two. So, this is just verse one. So, God, center of the bull's eye, says, we should serve the church, we should serve outsiders, and we should be dutiful citizens to the government.

Praise God. Therefore, whoever resist authority has opposed the ordinance of God and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. So, man, that don't leave a lot of wiggle room either, does it? So, resisting the established authorities is tantamount to resisting God. Are there limits to our submission to the authorities?

In those two verses, there are no limits and if you adhere to the government over you, you are following your biblical command for this first two verses. Are there limits to our submission to the authorities? Now they are secular authorities. They are governing authorities, and we are to be good citizens and it says that plainly. It's hard to argue against it but as Americans, this is a pretty hard biblical pill to swallow.

Would you agree? Yeah. We all want to say, well, our country was founded on biblical principles and I believe that it was but that's a pretty hard one to get around, isn't it? Do you agree? Alright.

So, we were born as a people out of rebellion and resistance against the king. Now, the divine right of kings, y'all know throughout history had been justified by these verses, these first couple of verses and that was it. You deal with it. Now, the king was responsible to God for every action that he made in the government. Everyone in the government is responsible for every action that they take in ruling.

That's pretty clear from scripture. The queen is to be a nurse to the people. The king is to be good. Now he has to deal with that. We have to deal with the king though because the authority structure that's over us.

We were born out of rebellion and resistance against the king. This is actually Ben Franklin's idea for the great seal of The United States. The backside of the great seal of The United States. It says, rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. That seems to go directly against what we just said, right?

This scene right here is hard to see in black and white but that is a pillar of smoke and fire. These are people on the shore of the Red Sea and this is the governing authorities drowning in that Red Sea. Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. Are there any biblical examples that you can think of after seeing the great seal there where someone righteously opposed the governing authorities that were over them? Well, there's one, okay?

Moses, but he went and he said, I'm delivering the message for I am. You know, I'm delivering the message for God. Let my people go and it was not a violent overthrow at least as far as the slaves, the Hebrew slaves were concerned. They did not get violent. It got kind of violent.

The plagues were kind of violent. Remember, just a few verses back in Romans, it says, leave room for the wrath of God. Leave room for God to do his work. So, Moses did go and went and submitted but humbly said, this is what the Lord says. Now, let my people go.

I think of Daniel. So, we've got Daniel who is under Nebuchadnezzar and he's not going to bow down to that idol. He's going to still pray the way he prays. He's going to do things his way. So, he was submitted to the authorities over him.

God being the greatest authority over him and then these under rulers respectfully disobedient, civil disobedience you might call it. Daniel. How about Daniel and Cyrus? Same thing. Sneaky politicians, gather around the king, get him to make a law, pass a law so that they can punish Daniel and Daniel opposes and he suffers the consequences for his opposition, spends a night with alliance.

God brings him through. Daniel, anymore? Anybody got anymore? There you go. Very good.

God protected them. He took them through and then it ends up that Cyrus makes a declaration, doesn't he? About that. God receives glory from despotic rulers. If Christians do what they are supposed to do.

Now, there is a civil disobedience there. Civil, non violent, disobedience. God raises up the powers and he brings them down and he does it for his own reasons which I don't completely understand. So, Rex Lex or Lex Rex, which is it? Is it that the king is law or the law is king?

Which is it? Now, Israel had not had a king. Remember this? They didn't have a king but they did have a law. They did have Torah and God wanted for them to be ruled by the law.

Being good to others and being good to God. In submission to God and helpful to others. So, Lex Rex was the way that old Israel was but they wanted a king, Rex Lex, and then the kings did what? Eventually, abused them and dragged them down. So, Rex Lex or Lex Rex for our history, we've got The US declaration of independence.

I'm gonna read it if y'all won't mind. We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their creator. Praise God. They mentioned God right there. Capital c, creator.

With certain unalienable rights and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the declaration of independence found in document but not law, right? That to secure these rights, governments are instituted. Now, I always talk about these passives, divine passives in the Bible. That's a divine passive right there.

God institutes governments. They say, governments are instituted among men. They're recognizing that by their creator, they need some sort of governance. Governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers, their just powers from the consent of the governed. I'm not sure we can back that one up biblically but anyway, it is our system and we should go by it that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it's the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem likely to affect their safety and happiness.

That is very American. Unfortunately, it's not terribly biblical. Okay? Our safety and our happiness is not all that it's about. Now, I do agree that that's the way we have to be since we are not all Christians and all living in this utopia.

We do have to look out for the safety and the happiness of others and limit our own rights voluntarily. Prudence indeed shall dictate the government's long established like the king in English should not be changed for light or transient causes and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object, events is a design to reduce them under absolute despotism which is evil, okay? Absolute despotism, absolute power corrupts what? Absolutely.

It's their right. It's their duty to throw off such a government. So, we get Ben Franklin's rebellion to tyrants' obedience to God and with some biblical backing like we said. When you are asked to do something unbiblical that opposes your Christian conscience, The Holy Spirit speaking to you, then, you should follow the Holy Spirit. So, king is law or law is king.

I would say God's law is king. In the law of the land, we are supposed to submit to our civil authority. So, the law of the land is over us and we should submit to it. I like this preamble too, okay? We, the people of The United States, how many y'all would sing this if you had to?

If you had to, if you had to state it out loud right now, would you remember the schoolhouse rock from the early seventies? When I was in civics class in high school, miss miss Jackson said, I want for every single one of you. You're going to have to prepare this and she told us ahead of time, you cannot sing it. So, all of us were up there singing in our heads and trying to say it out loud. We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity to ordain and establish this constitution for The United States Of America.

Kinda mid seventies. Anyway, it's great. This document is wonderful and this is the law of this land. So, before you think, oh, he's going political finally. It's going to happen.

It ain't going happen, alright? This is the law of the land. Thirteen three says this, for rulers established by God, right? Are not a cause of fear for good behavior but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority?

Do you want to have no fear of authority? I do. Well, to do what is good and you'll have praise from the same for it is a minister of God to you for good. So, now, he's telling us that governing, the governance over us is a minister of God for our good. It doesn't have limits on that.

It doesn't say godly government is good. It says that it was sent to restrain evil, to promote good, promote the general welfare. For it's a minister of God to you for good but if you do what is evil, be afraid for it does not bear the sword for nothing. He's saying, you can be punished. You should be punished for your crimes against the government.

Look at this. For it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Rulers, authority, minister of God, minister of God. It says it multiple times. It's hard for us to look at that and go, that can't be.

I think of Hitler. I think of Stalin. I think of Idi Amin. I think of all these bad bad guys. I think of Assyria in the Old Testament.

God says that right now, as Israel was doing, what Israel was doing, which was walking away from the Lord and not walking together. He said, even now, I'm rising up the Assyrians to take you. He says that they are used like an axe in my hand to cut you down. Man, so it is, why should we obey the rules? Because of the sovereignty of God.

God has established and I believe God's established the constitution in this country. I believe he's established the rule of law in this country. And the rule of law is an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. That is the way that that goes. So, the two biblical roles of government that we see here are promoting goodness and restraining evil.

Those are the two that we see just from those verses. As I flip through on down to verse five, it says, therefore, it is necessary. This is another kind of a third person command. It is necessary. It's a must.

It's on you to be in subjection not only because of wrath, not just because you fear what the law can do to you but also for conscience sake and as much as it depends on you, live at peace with other people, right? Paul has said that multiple times. Not only because of wrath or fear in the wrath of government but also for conscience sake. The wrath is on one who practices evil but for conscience sake If we've got verses one and two that said, let every soul be in subjection. For for your Christian conscience, you have to go, I'm going to try to abide by the law.

Now, when it when it goes outside of the bounds as Nebuchadnezzar did and as Cyrus did and as Pharaoh did, then, it comes a time where there, you do have to answer to God and not to man. Do we see this in the New Testament at all? All of our examples a little while ago were Old Testament. So, New Testament, Peter and John were preaching Jesus. Many were being converted and the Sanhedrin stops them, brings them to jail, beats them, and warns them.

The Sanhedrin was the ruling authority over them and said, you must not any longer speak in this guy's name. No more Jesus, alright? No more Jesus. No more evangelism. This is getting out of hand.

Stop it. And what they say? Am I going to obey God or am I going to obey man? And they went on doing what they did and Jesus kept on building his church up through him. So, there is some New Testament example of resisting non violently, resisting authority.

Now, I want to give the classic example right here for authority. Exousia that we saw. Actually, it's been coming up a lot. The power of God or the authority of God has been coming up a lot in the book of Luke on Monday nights and so when you're looking at authority or you're looking at power, there are two different ways to say that in Greek. Exousia is authority and raw.

Some people say naked power, just power is like democracy, it is rule by the people, powered by the people. Okay. So, power, raw power to rule or authority. When Jesus was questioned by Pilate and he came to him and he said, don't you realize that I have the exousia, the authority could to condemn you and Jesus answers back and says, you would have no such authority except that it were given to you by God. So, in the eternal purposes of God, Pilate was used.

Though he's responsible. Pilate was used and his authority was used. To condemn Jesus, an innocent man. Does it happen? Yes.

Are Christians blasted a lot of the time unnecessarily and without reason? Yes. Will it happen more and more as we see the day approaching? I think so. It shouldn't be something that surprises us but for conscience sake, we need to know that we are going by the law as best we can until it contravenes God's law.

That's what we have to do. For because of this, you also pay taxes. For rulers are servants of God. He's already called them ministers. He's already called them ministers twice.

Actually, avengers once and then servants of God devoting themselves to this very thing, ruling, practicing, and exercising the authority that has been given. Render to all what is due them, tax to whom taxes due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor. Reminder, for those of you who filed the form forty eight sixty eight with the automatic extension of time to file, tomorrow is the deadline, okay? That's what I thought about the humor. That's funny to me and actually, I'm one of those people.

I file an extension almost every year. This is it. Please remind me. If I forget to do this, I will not be a dutiful citizen. I'll be directly resisting God and I don't want to do that.

It's ready. It's signed, sealed, just not quite delivered. So, it's tomorrow. Render to all what is due them and tax to whom taxes due. These are direct tax taxes like our individual income taxes.

It's taxed on taxes on persons, on your work here in The US, your wages, like those individual income taxes. Those are direct. Indirect taxes, those that could be avoided by not practicing business, not buying or whatever like sales taxes, levies, or tolls, take a different road, that sort of thing. Those are indirect taxes or called customs. So custom to whom custom, those are indirect taxes and he says, pay them.

Don't sneak around the system. Fear to whom fear and that means exactly what it says. Fabas, like phobia. Have a holy and righteous fear to whom you should have fear and I think of John and Peter in that case. Who are we going to fear?

God or man? Who are going to obey? God or man? So, fear to whom fear and honor to whom honor. We should be respectful.

Of those who are in power over us. Now I know that there is a lot of, there are a lot of unpopular politicians who are in office right now, and there are other unpopular politicians that are running for office right now. I know that. Those who are in authority over us, we should honor. We should respect.

The Bible is very very clear about it and if you hear that and you go, I can't ever do that and cross your arms and say, that's not going to happen. I'd say you're resisting God. This is a hard message to preach right now. Render to all what is due them. Tax whom taxes do custom to whom custom fear to whom fear and honor to whom honor.

So as we shoot for presenting ourself as a living sacrifice and serving the church and serving outsiders by being dutiful citizens. You know, I I'm appalled and embarrassed by what I hear. From Christians in some cases from pulpits about what they think about our governors, the ones over us. Politics. This is my least favorite subject.

Does politics figure into this passage at all? There's only been one US president who never became a member of a Christian church. Y'all know who that is? Anybody? Just wonder.

Any history buffs that know this? There, nope. Is it this guy? Abe Lincoln. President during a very tough time of our history.

Very, very tough. Probably, arguably, the toughest time in our US history. He looks pretty solemn right there, doesn't he? This guy is Phineas Densmore Gurley. Phineas Densmore Gurley.

He was the pastor at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington DC. It's about four blocks from the capital four blocks from the White House. And while Lincoln was there, he had never been a member of a church in the past. And there are different reasons people speculate the reasons he says several of them. I think he's suspicious mostly of people's motives for why they preach what they preach.

So, Phineas Gurley was the pastor at this and it was not the most popular, the biggest, the largest, or the most notable. There were other churches that most presidents had gone to or most notable members of congress had gone to but he chose this one and so Lincoln, I like him better there. He's smiling a little bit. About Phineas Gurley says, I like Gurley. He don't preach politics.

I get enough of that through the week. When I go to church, I like to hear the gospel. We get enough bad news all week long. I want to hear some good news. The good news of the gospel should be the center of what we preach.

So, understand and applying the constitution. This is political as I get. What does it say? What does it mean? And how we going to go by it?

That's as political as I get. I like what Tony Evans has said. He says that God doesn't ride the backs of elephants or donkeys. He says that if you're gonna vote Republican, vote Republican light, L I G H T. If you're gonna vote Democrat, vote Democrat, L I G H T, whatever happens to be in the light, vote that.

I like that. So, for me, applying Romans 13 looks like this. As a Christian believer, I am to be a dutiful citizen who pays taxes, contributes to public order, and disdains anarchy, yet never places my hope or confidence in this political order but in the one who has ordained it. So, Doctor Tony Evans has, there's a video clip right here. Can you turn the sound up on this?

I thought I might read it but I think it'd be better coming from him. His inflection is much better than mine. So

In football, there's a home team, there's a visiting team, and they'll never get along because one is going this way, the other is going that way, and they are built to resist one another. And there is nothing you can do to put them on the same page. But then there is this third team. It's called the team of officials. This third team, team of officials, they're on the field, but they're not of the field.

They're in the middle of the chaos, but they don't belong to the chaos. Their job is not to listen to the roar of the crowd, be they booze or cheers, or to the fractions that are

So, if the base was overwhelming you there, those officials belong to a different kingdom. The center of our bull's eyes pleasing God and he says, obey the government, okay? Unless they directly contravene him and you might still receive the punishment from the government. Do you get that? You might get thrown into that fire.

We ought to be very very sure that we're with God and he's given us a direction to be with the government but we're not to be of the chaos like Tony Evans says. I like the third team. We're on the third team. We are the officials and we're supposed to be pointing to the rule book and pointing to the author of that book. So, in Jesus name, would y'all stand with me?

We're going to sing. You are God alone, I think. That's what we're going to sing. Stan will get that going and I've got one last verse as a benediction too.

By your band, that's just the way it is. And you are God alone. And before time began, you were on your throne. You were God know. And right now in the good times and bad, you were on your throne.

You were God alone. You're the only God whose power none can contend. You're the only God whose fame and praise will never end. You're the only God who's worthy. If anything we can give, you were on your throne, you were God low.

And right now in the good times and day, you were on That's what you are. Won't unchangeable. Unshakable. Won't run stable. And riding on in the good times and bad, you were on your throat and you were God low.

Now, I know, like I said, there's a lot of complaining going on but let's think about this. Let's try. This week, As much complaining as we do for the candidates, for the governors, for the president, for the system, as much complaining as we do. Let's try to double that in prayer. For as much time as you spend complaining, double that in prayer.

Listen to this. First of all, Paul's urging his true son in the faith, Timothy. First of all, then, I urge that in treaties and prayers, petitions, and Thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men. For kings and all of those who are in authority over you so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. In Jesus name, may God dignify us.

Amen.