Do Christians Have to Obey the Government? // Romans 13:1-14

We are officially in the Burr months, right? September, October, November, December keeps getting colder. We want to let you know about something that's very important on the calendar, okay? And by the way, we do not host events that could have been emails, okay? So we're telling you this because it's really important. If you've ever been to one of our prayer and worship nights, we call them multiply nights, okay? Our builder's night is a multiply night on steroids, okay? We're moving at the Friday night, guys. If the 10th anniversary video and our 10th anniversary celebration was all about the past, builder's night is all about the future. And so we want you and your family to be here. Donovan and his team are gonna be leading us into worship. And I'm gonna be sharing with you where we're headed next, okay? But also this Friday, okay? Can I hear from all the men? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't be ashamed, that's right, that's right, okay? Listen, men, we have a men's night, a men's gathering this Friday night, right? Let's go, are you excited? You better show up. You need to bring somebody with you too, right? We all know, we love the men in our city, okay? We all know that there's like one or two guys

that you know, okay? That they fell out of church or de-church or un-church. They need to be here, guys. I told you before, and I checked the FedEx tracking, okay? The gifts get here tomorrow. I'm giving each of you, I'm not telling you what it is yet, you gotta come, okay? Something special, an individual, you're not gonna wanna miss it. Listen, we want in this church strong men, okay? Strong men are not the problem, okay? Silent men are, weak men are, passive men are. And so we're gonna be coming together, looking at God's word, and my goal, literally, is I want to strengthen the men of our church, by God's word, to better serve women and children, okay? So that's what we're gonna do, you don't wanna miss it. Let's pray, let's particularly pray for the men, okay? Because men need encouragement, and they very rarely get it, okay? Well, as I've met a lot of young men, here's what I've got. Very few men ever get encouraged, and all they need is just a very little bit of encouragement, and almost no one's ever given it to them. Let's pray. We're gonna pray particularly for the men in our church, and we'll pray for the women with the women's encounter later, but Lord, we just take a moment to pray for the men, fathers, husbands, sons, brothers.

I pray against the spirit of fear, and the spirit of discouragement, which makes men focus on their past, and be afraid of the future. And I pray that you would bring together men. I pray DNA groups would come with each other. I pray community group men would come with each other. I pray that it would be the right time to do a come and see for men who are far from God, but close to us. We pray this in Jesus, then, amen. All right, guys, you can open up your Bible to Romans 13. We're gonna come back to Romans 12. We're not skipping it, okay? But today we're gonna be talking about God and government. It's interesting, my dad was in town. Okay, my mom and dad were in town. They were at the nine o'clock service, love them. Dad was in town 'cause I was playing with him in a golf tournament, okay? And yesterday, you kinda play all these different matches. Anyway, yesterday I played two different matches, and in the second match, I meet this guy. And I'm doing the pleasantries. Hi, my name's Kyle, and we're talking about our kids, and we start talking and he goes, oh, I know who you are. And he said it kind of a warm way, so I said, yeah, hey, and he says, oh yeah, we visited your church a couple times, and we liked it, but then it came one time, and you talked about the government. And he said, my wife doesn't wanna go back.

And I thought, I cannot invite him to church tomorrow. (congregation laughing) It is literally we're doing it again. I think in the history of this church, I've talked about God and government two or three times does this come up, okay? 'Cause that's what happens, okay? It's actually a very timely message 'cause what, 200 on July 4th, we just celebrated 250 years as a nation. But guys, we're actually still a really young nation. I mean, when Paul writes this letter today, he writes it to the capital city in the Roman Empire, okay? And the Roman Empire lasted a thousand years. I told you guys, I was in London this summer. There are pubs in London older than our nation. But we all love July 4th, right? What are we doing for July 4th? We blow things up, amen? We cook a lot of meat and you buy your half-off mattress. And we just say, praise the Lord, okay? I wanna talk to you guys about something. There's a lot of debate, and I just gave you the reader's digest version. There's a lot of debate on the founding of our nation. When I was at Dude Ministry at Duke, I actually took a class at Duke Divinity that was all on this subject. So I mean, I actually know a decent bit about this. And what's interesting is it's a very, the answer is Christian was,

America found it as a Christian nation, the honest answer is it's complex. And if you're like, you know, America was definitely found as a Christian nation. Then you're like, look at George Washington, and you're like, in the Declaration of Independence, you know, nature's law. Thomas Jefferson? And what about Benjamin Franklin? And what about the whole idea that in our Constitution, God doesn't mention one time? But then on the other hand, well, yeah, but there's all these illusions in our Constitution. Guess what? The most quoted kind of other texts in our whole Constitution that's alluded to is the book of Deuteronomy. Okay? So it just gets, here's what I want you to know, because this isn't about the founding of America today, but I want you to know this. There's no doubt, okay, that America was founded as a nation where Christianity could run free. And what we're going to talk about today is what does, what does our faith look like in the public square? What you're going to hear today is, you know, people want your faith to be privatized, right? They don't mind your faith as long as you're Christian faith. I mean, they'll bring their love equals love bumper sticker and they'll put their rainbow flag on their cubicle, but they would like you to keep your faith in your heart and in your home. They would like you to take your entire Christian faith. And if you could just keep it two places behind your eyes and between your ears, if you'll just keep it right there, everything will be fine. In fact, if you don't, they'll call you a derogatory phrase, a Christian nationalist, right? Which is the new term, okay? It used to be the religious right. It used to be the moral majority. It used to be the Bible thumpers. It used to be the fundamentalist. It's just, there's nothing new under the sun. It keeps being repackaged, okay? But I just want you to know, because basically, part of what I'm going to call you today is like, it's just time to be a real Christian and be a Christian in public. That's all, okay? And if you do that, you're going to be called things, you know, and I've been called worse than the Christian nationalists. It's fine, okay? So here's what we're going to do. We're going to read the rhyme by talking about this because in the book of Romans, in Romans 13, 1 through 7, is the clearest and the longest passage in the entire New Testament on God and government. So that's what we're going to do. We're just going to read it. We're

going to talk about it together. Okay? Let's look at it. Romans 13, let every person, okay? So it's talking about you. Look at your neighbor right now and say, "You ain't the exception. You ain't saying to him. You ain't the exception. You ain't the, tell him. There's not an asterisk next to this verse, right? And so for some of you you think there's an asterisk next to this verse, and then you flip to the back of the Bible and there's a picture of you saying an exception. There's not, okay? Let every person, that's you and me. Let every person be subject. We don't like that word, okay? Don't worry, it just means submissive, okay? Let every person be subject, here it is, to the governing authorities. Imagine Paul writing that in his days. For there is no authority except from God. And every battle is about authority. And those that exist have been instituted by God. We're going to talk about that. Government was God's idea. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed. But what do you do with Adolph Hitler and Stalin and Mao? We'll talk about that. And those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Notice in Romans 13, Paul's not talking about the fallen human reality but the biblical ideal. Then do what is good. Or would you have no fear of the one who's in authority? Then do what is good and you'll receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be, here it is, we can't escape it, Paul's like, don't try to escape it, I'm writing it down twice. Therefore, one must be in subjection. Not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, did you know I was going to preach on this today? For because of this, you also pay taxes. The IRS right here in the Bible, here it is. For the authorities or ministers of God attending to this very thing, pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom, taxes are owed, revenue to whom, revenues owed, respect to whom, respect is owed, honor to whom, honor is owed. All right, we're going to do a lot today. Put your thinking caps on. For both of you who take notes, there's going to be a lot of notes there. Listen, here's what we're doing. First, I want to talk to you about how should the state and the church interact? And I'm going to tell you four ways that, I mean, this is the only good thing maybe about being 2,000 years into church history. It's like, we've tried everything, okay? And the state and the church has been a complex issue since Paul wrote, that's why he's writing Romans, okay? There are four ways that you can

organize the state and the church. The first three are bad, okay? So when I say these, don't be like, yeah, the first three are bad, okay? So it'll be like cheering for them, okay? Because I know it's coming. And then I'll tell you the fourth, okay? The first one is, this is bad. The state controls the church, okay? Does anyone want to live in China? We love, we want to reach China for Jesus, but I don't know if anyone wants to live in China. Why? Because it's a state-run church, okay? I've been to China twice. Last time I was in China was 2014, it was a long time ago, but I'm just telling you, here's what happens. Everything, big church, small church, you know, all that. Revival, persecution, it's all true. 'Cause it's so big. Okay, here's what happened. The state church, China has a state church. One of the things I was told by somebody is in the state church, the Bibles that give you don't have the book of Acts and the book of Revelation. Well, that's interesting. The book of Acts is how you get it started and the book of Revelations, however the ends. What else is interesting is they vet the sermons of the preachers. Could you imagine if someone was vetting my sermon, right? It was supposed to be 50 minutes, but now it's four minutes, right? Here's the three things I'm allowed to say. They put a picture of the president of China in the church and they take out the cross. You do not, I mean, obviously, let's just think about this. We do not want the state, okay, controlling the church. The second one, do we want the church to control the state? The answer is also no, okay.

We don't want religion to run politics, okay? You see what's, and it's Islam very different, but you see what happens, that's what happened in Iran after 1979, the religion runs politics. Let me explain to you why as a Christian, 'cause you might think, well, why would we not want the church to control the state? Here's a really simple answer, but you gotta think about it. Because we don't want anybody thinking they're a Christian just because they're a citizen. This is what happens. We have enough church history to know when this has happened before. When the church controls the state, people think they're Christians just because they're in that nation. It's like, we actually believe this is very important. We don't believe faith can be forced. We don't believe in coercion, we believe in conversion. And we would never want to put the church in a situation where it starts to persecute. By the way, when the church controls the state, it leads to a lot of just people saying they're Christians, it leads to a lot of hypocrisy, you don't want that. Okay, the third one, the church, or let me say this way, the state favors the church. Now that doesn't sound too bad, should think about it. Except that what ends up happening is when the state favors the church,

this is, we just have this as well documented. The church becomes soft and fat and weak. Because as soon as, right, what's the old saying, don't bite the hand that feeds you? You know, all of a sudden, if the church, if the state started giving all this extra stuff to pastors and you'd say, well, don't talk about that issue. Don't upset this person. The church would lose its prophetic arm. So the biblical model that Paul describes here is the church and the state are partners. They stay in their own lane, okay? Here's what you actually want. Someone famously said this, I don't know who it was. We want as much Christianity in the government as possible and as little government in our Christianity as possible. They're partners, they have different lanes. Let me explain how this works. We're gonna get back to the text in a minute. I read it to you, I wanna get the big framework. God gave three institutions, the family, the church and the state. This is, I mean, this is world view paradigm shaping. This, you'll see, this gets real practical. We'll start with the family, okay? The family is such an important unit. Think about it. Israel was 400 years out of king. They were never a day without a family.

The family is so important. The government tries to do a lot of things. Guess what we can't do? We can't create children. So the family is so important. In fact, each of these institutions, God gives a symbol. What is the symbol for the family? The rod, in Proverbs, that's the symbol for the family. I know some of you go, we don't discipline Timmy. We know, okay? He's in our kids ministry. We would like you to take the rod and discipline him, okay? Think about this. The family is so important because it's comprehensive. It's in some sense the most. It's also the first government and the first church. And it brings children into the world and hopefully in 18 years, some of you took 25 years, but raises them to maturity, right? And raises them in the fear and ammunition of the Lord and is responsible, no matter what school they send or don't send them to. It's responsible for their education and their spiritual development is super important. Okay, that's the family. And then there is the church. And what is the symbol of the church? I think I can find this interesting. God gave everyone of these a symbol.

The keys, Matthew 16. Peter is given the keys to the church. Now, what does this mean? It's like, look, the role of the church is to preach the word of God and to make disciples. And the role of the church, why is it only in the church where there's baptism in the Lord's Supper? Because baptism is the way the church tells the individual person you really are a Christian. That's one of our jobs so that people wouldn't be deceived. It's like, you know, I know you think you're an American. You're like, no, no, I cried at camp 10 years ago. I'm definitely a Christian. It's like maybe not. How many other things have you been wrong about you about? It's like a lot. So part of what the church does is come in and say, let me hear your testimony. Let me hear how you explain the gospel. Let me see your life. Man, let me baptize you, brother. You're a true believer. Let me baptize you just to be a true believer. So, and by the way, the church is made up of families and the family can't replace the church, okay? And then there is the government. And the government, you know, we'll get into all what it all does today. That's kind of what the sermon's about.

But its symbol is, and we'll see this is the sword. Let me tell you this way. This is another good way to think about it. And churches have gotten this wrong and then they get in bunch of trouble legally and otherwise. The job of the church is to care for the soul. And the job of the government is to take care of the body. Here's what I mean by that. If the, if say that's, I mean, this hasn't happened in our church, but say somebody does something terrible and commits some crime against somebody else in our church. Well, there have been churches in the past that don't understand the role of the church and the government. So they get the families together. Something terrible happened. Maybe some kid was molested or something like that. I mean, stuff like this has happened in other churches. And they get the families together and they say, "Well, you know what it says, forgive one another." Is that, and be reconciled. It's like, is that it? It's like, no, forgive one another. And this guy needs to go to court and probably go to jail and all that kind of, you know what I'm saying? So there's a division of labor between what the church does. I can forgive somebody and still turn them into authorities. Okay. So the first thing we have to understand

is the role of the church and the state is they are partners. They have different lanes. They have different roles and responsibilities. Okay. Now we're gonna go back to the text. So now we're gonna talk just about the government. Here's what it says. Says this. Verse one. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment. Okay. The first thing we're told is that government was God's ideal. Okay. Government is not a bad thing. I know it's on both sides of the political aisle. If you're especially, if your candidate's not in there, it's just, it's so easy to hate on the government. But actually God gave the government authority, okay? Authority, by the way, is the, if you're like wanting to know it's a good definition of authority. It's the ability or power to make decisions that affect other people for good or bad. And so we have this, the government comes in. In fact, what's interesting is look what he calls

the people who work for the government. For rulers are not a terror, I'm in verse three, are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who's an authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval. Look at this. For he, this is, it's speaking about people in political office, look at this. For he is God's servant, literally the word, it's the same word that's used of my role, minister. The word servant and minister in the original language Greek are the same. So it's like, in some ways these public servants are ministers, even if they don't even, even if Nebuchadnezzar doesn't know it. He's a minister of the Lord. He's doing God's purposes. Look here. Says for God's servant, for you're good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword, there it is again, in vain, for he is the servant of God an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. Okay, so he talks about government officials, right? Or just in general, we think about all the public servants. This would be first responders, police officers, our military, you know, we love all of our first responders,

you know, here we always say, we stand beside or behind those who stand in front of us, okay? But what he says here is that there's these government officials, now here's what's interesting about today. Back then, think about Paul's context. Paul's context is Nero. If you don't know about Nero, just write in your notes, bad guy. I mean, he is a bad guy, okay? He killed his wife by kicking her to death while she was pregnant, historical facts. He got so mad at the Christians that he covered them in tar and then lit them while they were alive to light up his gardens during a festival he was having at night. I mean, we're talking about a terrible guy. Now what's interesting about the time that we live in, there's all different forms of government, by the way. Paul does not prescribe a certain form of government. There's monarchy and democracy and tyranny. There's a lot of different things that people do. Here's what Paul's saying. Paul is saying that they back then didn't get to pick their government officials. What's very interesting about our moment in history, very new for Christians is that we actually get to vote in and vote out the people that represent us. That's very unique. Well, Paul continues.

Here's what he says. He says in verse, let me go back, I'm gonna read, I wanna read these verses again 'cause I wanna show you one more thing. For rulers are not a tear to good conduct, but to bad. Verse three, would you have no fear of the one who's in authority, then do what is good and you'll receive his approval? For he is God's servant for your good. in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrong doer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. According to Romans 13, there are other places in the Old Testament in New Testament of the government. According to Romans 13, there are two main purposes for the government, okay? And I think they work, another biblical, and how you apply them and live them out, we can discuss and debate and disagree on without dividing one. Basically, here they are, punish evil and promote good. That's the two things the government is supposed to do, okay? The first is to punish evil, okay? And basically, this is why they're given the sword. So back in Romans, or Genesis chapter nine, so you don't need to turn there now.

But if you want to go, where does government first show up? Well, in one sense, it shows up with Adam and Eve and having dominion. But officially, it shows up in Genesis chapter nine, so a long time ago, after the flood, no is there and God basically gives him, you know, as one of the things that establishes the government is the death penalty, a life for a life. And so you have this, when the government has the sword, it's the ability to use force, right? They can, the government can take your right away. The government can put you in jail, the government can find you, and the government can even take your life. But it's supposed to punish evil, here's what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to protect people and protect property. That's it. Why is it punished evil? 'Cause it's trying to create a world in which we can flourish. So it's protecting people and protecting property. One of the reasons why Christians everywhere have always been pro-life from womb to tomb. The reason why Christians are so passionate about the unborn, whenever we do that, you know, or go to a pregnancy care walk, I mean, a long time ago, by the way, I was at this. I never, I was like in college. And I went and I did one of those peaceful protests that was a pro-life peaceful protest.

And like, I chose the nicest sign I could. There was some, I literally picked up the sign that said adoption is an option. I was like, this is nice, you know? And so I just remember that. Cars, I mean, people were giving me half a peace sign a lot, I'll tell you that. We were on the side of a road, and so people were fake swerving like they were gonna hit us. And that was my first of the pro-life movement. I'm like, this is pretty intense. But when the reason is we're not trying to get all, the church is not trying to get political. The church is actually just trying to say the government, listen guys, you are not doing the very, you don't have a big, you have a very simple job. It's a big job, it's a very simple job. You are supposed to protect life and somehow we've made being in your mother's womb the least safe place in America to live. So you're supposed to protect life, okay? And then you're, protect people. And then you're supposed to be able to protect property. Okay, this goes back to the Ten Commandments, okay? The Ten Commandments, two of them have to do with property. Do not steal and do not covet are two commands that have to do with property. So it's pretty simple when we say, and we can, you know, what Christians can debate

about the death penalty and the difference is that, but it's like the government is supposed to punish evil. And they're doing that to create orders so that people and property can be protected so you can flourish. Here's the second part. You're supposed to promote good. Now here's the thing about the government. The government is supposed to promote good but the government can't make you good. That's where the church comes in, preaches the gospel, Christ changes the heart, that's what makes you good. But the government's supposed to promote good. Now here's the big debate, I'm just giving you the big debates on this, okay? The big debate is, what does it mean promote good? Because hasn't every political person, every like politician that you've ever met, doesn't matter. Democrat, Republican, Independent. What do they say as soon as like they get in office, as soon as they want to pass some legislations? What's the classic race? This is for the good of the people. Well that's interesting, everything's for my good. That's a big category, I don't know if everything's for my good. So there's two views on this. One view says actually what this means is the government is supposed to create an environment

mostly by just creating order and peace and prosperity to where you can pursue good. That would be more of a limited government view. The bigger government view is actually, know the job of the government is literally to do good. And so here's healthcare and here's more and more social security and here's more education, and again, Christians can disagree, but I want you to know the battle is over, is the government, what role does the government have to do in producing good? Okay, I'm not about that. Now I want to talk about our role. Because there's lots of questions. So what's our role? Let's go here, I'll show you this. Our role, we'll go back to verse one, or verse six, I'm sorry first, right afterwards. For because of this, you also pay taxes for the authorities are, here it is right in the text. So look, there's always like that one Christian guy, who doesn't have a license and lives in the woods and doesn't think he needs to pay taxes or something like that. The Bible is so clear we have to pay taxes and Jesus Christ himself, and just do the Jesus juke on somebody, okay? It's like, listen, Jesus paid taxes. He was so poor that he had to catch a fish and there was a coin in the fish's mouth and that doesn't work really for us.

You can try it, but there's not gonna be anything to you. You're gonna have to work and then pay, okay? Here's the interesting thing about taxes. Why do we pay taxes? Well, it's like, 'cause it costs a lot of money to run our nation. So we have a property, as you guys know, the Northwest Boulevard property that we paved that parking lot. We paved this parking lot. I know what it costs to just pave a parking lot. And so every time I get on the highway, I'm kind of weird. I'll be driving and most times I'm driving, I'm like, this road was so unbelievably expensive. I can't even handle it. When I drive to Asheville, I'm like, I cannot even want, I don't even want to know how much it costs to build this road. It's like, man, look, there's a lot, so here's the thing. Free always costs somebody something, okay? Somebody pays for free. So what's interesting is taxes are interesting. I remember my first job, I'm working at McDonald's, you know, do you want fries with that? That's kind of what I did for, you know what I'm saying? Okay, I was 15 and I got paid five, 15 an hour, which isn't a lot of money. And I, you know, this is back in, who knows, this is like in 2000, 2001, when we wrote our dinosaur to work and all that kind of stuff.

And I remember, you know, back then there's no direct deposit, at least not for me, and there was no taking, there was no smart phones, you got your check, you know, every two weeks and then you took it to the bank. And so I had this check and I'm like, you know, okay. And I look, you know, I worked this many hours, I'm like, that doesn't equal five, 15 times that. And I flip it on the back and I'm like, who is FICA? Who is this guy who's taking all my money? Right, here's what's interesting. Taxes are taken from you, right? The government doesn't ask nicely, it takes it from me. If you don't pay them by August 15th, you know, that all thing. And so what's interesting, in the average person, I looked this up in America, the average household, based on the average household income of the modern American, is going to pay somewhere between 24% and 34% over your taxes. What's interesting is taxes are very different than the tithe. The tithe is something that God doesn't take from you, it's that he's asking you to bring it back to him as first and best and as a form of worship. And interestingly, he says, even though I own all of it, I want you to bring back the first 10%, which is actually even less than what the government takes from us. But there's more than just paying taxes,

it has to be a disposition of a heart. This is where I want to go back to verse one. Here's what he says. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by God. So I want to talk about being submissive to the government and then for how long and to what extent, all that kind of stuff. Now, whenever you talk about submission, I've been doing this for 10 years, most weeks of the year, I'm up here. And every time I talk about submission, I just know people don't like it. I have to like height myself up before I get out here to tell women, why I've smit to your husband's. I'm like, ah, here comes again, you ready, yeah. And I got to put all the air rags around it. I know your husband isn't the greatest guy ever, you know, but da, da, da, da, da, da, you know. I want to talk about submission. 'Cause submission is, it's something that when I talk about it, let's just admit it, most of you don't like it. You're like, you know, you start, I start talking about submission, you start sweating like Mike Tyson in a spelling bee, you know? You get all nervous here like a cat with water. I want to talk about this, okay? By the way, submission is beautiful.

Here's what's, here's my favorite definition of submission. An invitation for somebody else to lead. Isn't that amazing? That's what it is. When a teenager submits to his parents, what is he doing? He's inviting them to lead. Why don't we like submission? Because we're like our first parents, Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, in the garden, what's the issue? What's the heart issue? What's the root issue? I know you, they ate the fruit. What's the issue? They didn't submit to God. Do you know what the first war was ever? The first war, I know there's lots of wars going on right now. The first war was a war in heaven. The first war was a war about government, heavenly government. The first war was a war between Satan and God, in which Satan didn't want to submit to the government of God. And as you know, it didn't go very well for him. We struggle with this posture of submission. Part of it is, you know, the 19, it's very cultural. It's more Western, our struggle with submission than it is Easter. We have the culture of the 60s made rebellion seem cool and where everybody thinks that their teenager needs to go through a season of rebellion, they don't. But here's the question. At what point do you say, I'm not going to submit to the government anymore in this area because they're

telling me to do something that's unbiblical and wrong? In the same way that I would tell, well, I've submit to your husbands, well, not if they're, you know, asking you to sin. Here's the phrase. One of the phrases I hope will stick with you because we are going to, you know, I'm not a prophet, but we got crazy days ahead of us. I'm sure all of us do in nation and government and all this other stuff. Here's the, here's the phrase. You want to be a good citizen until you can no longer be a good Christian. We want to be the best citizens ever. And most Americans are good citizens or most Christians are good citizens. It's like we want to be a really good citizen, a plus, best citizen until we can no longer be a good Christian. And this is, I mean, guys, this is a question that they had to ask with Adolf Hitler. You know, in Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who's a complex character, you know, plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler and he wrestled with it. As a Christian, should I kill an unbeliever that I know will go to hell? And do I give him time to repent? He's not repenting. And do I try other things? I mean, this is, this is the different things they wrestle with. Here's what's going to happen. There's something happening in our society right now. Okay. So we're about to get, if you're new, we're about to get real for a second, real, real. The big tension in our society, there's two of them. The first one's easier to talk about. The first one is people today want to talk about the average, like I'm talking about the elites, the secular media, the quote, unquote experts that you'll notice this, they want to talk about freedom of worship instead of you having religious liberty. Freedom of worship is like in their mind, even though we know worship is all of life, when they say freedom of worship, they mean, go ahead and do your devotionals in your home. If you want to send your kids to youth group, that's fine. And if you raise your hands on worship and sing some songs, I mean, that's great. That's freedom of worship, but don't bring it anywhere else. We believe in religious liberty, okay? Which this is the big thing about religious liberty. This is the second thing we'll talk to you about. There is a unavoidable conflict coming. It's already here, okay? There's an unavoidable conflict coming between erotic liberty or sexual liberty, same thing, and religious liberty. So, you know, when you like, just this week, I didn't say this in the nine o'clock of someone after the nine o'clock told me about this, but I guess just this week, you know, Gavin Newsom in California is passing this new law to make any business organization, maybe including churches, they're not sure, have to do anti-H speech training, if they have more than five employees.

It's like, well, you know what that's all about. That's all about the pronoun police, okay? And what's going to happen is people have got that you can't have two highest liberties. The world wants to say sexual liberty is the highest liberty. I want to be transgender. I want to sleep with whoever I want to sleep with. I want to call marriage, whatever I want to call marriage. I want to force you to use my pronouns. I mean, all of that stuff. And then there's religious liberty. And you have to ask, well, what's obviously, biblically and historical under nation religious liberty is the higher value. There is, I'm just telling you, there's some of you and you, we'll talk about this as we close today too, but there's some of you. It's it's time for you to stand out as a Christian at work. And it might be time for you to stand up. Okay, don't do things at work that make you feel weak. Don't go to the goofy DEI training that makes you feel totally weak inside every time. And you're like, well, I just, I just won't say anything. I just won't say it's like, yeah, it's just so you know, this is a tip about being brave. It never gets easier to be brave. Right now is your number one time to be brave. Every time you choose the comfortable thing, it's way more hard to be brave. Everyone's like, Elon Musk is so brave because he's a multi billionaire was a trainer. No, Elon Musk has been brave his whole life. And when finally, when it came time to be brave with billions of dollars, he was brave with billions of dollars because he's been brave his whole life. You do not become brave by being more protected. The more, this is what happens with everybody. If you're, this is what happens all the college professors. I'll say something eventually. I'll say something when, you - You know, I know I'm gonna show you. Oh yeah, I will. I'll say something when I'm, you know, when I finally get tenure, it's like, then they never say anything. Because they've been so safe and protected their whole life, they no longer have the ability to say what they think. So there, you may need to speak up. But here's our policy, here's our policy. Paul's like, but here's what most of us need to do. Most of us just need to be a better neighbor in our nation.

Look at this. Verse eight, "Oh, no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." So in other words, Paul goes, there's only one debt you should owe, okay? And it's the debt of love and you can never pay it off. Let me tell you what this means. This means, this is good for you to know. When you think about, let me actually first define here neighbors, your neighbor, right? I know we all want to say, you know, we love people. It's like, it's so easy to love random people. Oh yeah, we, I love this whole church and I love our whole nation and I love the city of Winston. It's like, do you love your spouse? Do you love your kids? Do you love your coworkers? Do you love your classmates? It's like, you love the person in front of you, okay? And then don't just love them in your heart. Some of you, yeah, I really do love you. You love them in your heart. How about you love them with your words? How about you love them with your actions? And here's what he says. He says, "You can never pay the debt of love." Here's what this means, this is so good to know. You can never be too loving. In fact, you know, the Stoics are becoming very popular right now. Stoicism is particularly with young men

because young men are lost and so stoicism makes sense to them. And in one of the lines of stoicism is everything in moderation, you've heard that. Well, everything in moderation except for the fruit of the spirit. Think about this love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithless, gentleness, self-control. Guess what? What does Paul say after he mentions all this? He goes against such things there is no law. You ever wonder what that means? What do you mean Paul? There's no such law. He means you can't max them out. Did you ever go, you know what? I was just too self-control. I regret it, too much self-control there. No, it's like, and you can't be too loving. Now, you can do things that you think are loving that aren't loving and that was wrong. But don't do the thing, right? I'm just gonna, don't start saying, I wanna do the loving thing. Here's what that means. If someone ever tells you, "I wanna do the loving things." Here's what I mean. I'd like to do the easy and comfortable thing. Loving means committed to another person's highest good, which means I might wanna upset current Kyle to help future Kyle

because I'm committed to him across time. But then it ends with this. He says this, "For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." So during, he says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." That's the summary of all the teaching, which is great. It's a summary of all, it's like we need a lot of help. So thanks for summarizing all 10 commandments and say, "Love your neighbor as yourself." That's really helpful. Here's the problem. On my sabbatical, I read the great works of C.S. Lewis, like the compilation. And I loved all of it. But in the Screwtape Letters, it's a book about an uncle demon, it's fictional. It's a book about an uncle demon writing a bunch of letters to a nephew demon on how to tempt his new Christian convert. And he's all frustrated because the guy meets a good Christian girl and he's like, "All right, you know." And then they get married and so the uncle keeps writing these letters and he says, "Now that they're married," and this is a word for some of you, this is what the demon says. He says, "Now that they're married,

the way to make them unhappy is to have each of them focus on being unselfish instead of being loving toward the other person." He said, "What we've done," he was talking about the demons. He goes, "What we've done is we've taken a positive attribute, love, and we've replaced it with a negative thing that's self-focused, being unselfish." And so how many of you, you keep a sacrificial scorecard. This destroys me, I've seen this. Well, you were gone all weekend, so you know, I had the kids the whole weekend and I just, I hope that you know, look here, look how unselfish I was. Oh, that's why you watch the kids. You watch the kids so you can watch you watch the kids. And it's this form of self-righteousness. And you are, you're, and then, you know, it could be husband or wife. And then the husband, you know, well, I guess she just doesn't notice that I came home three hours early from work. And some people asked me to do my hobby this weekend, but I said, "No, so unselfish of me." Hope she noticed that I did the laundry. I'm so unselfish, you know? It's like, it's all about you. Somehow you made that all about you again.

How about you do the laundry 'cause you love her? How about you come home early from work? How about you don't engage in your hobby 'cause you love her? Is you the change? And if you're becoming bitter and resentful toward people, it's because you're focusing on being unselfish instead of being loving. And that doesn't mean you're dormant. You need to have conversations about all this, but you get what I'm saying. Here's where Paul ends, Paul ends with the future. Paul ends with the government to come, look here. Besides this, you know the time, okay? Americans are the most time obsessed people, right? Until a couple hundred years ago, no one knew what time it was if the church bell didn't ring. Now it's on our phone and on our watch. And on every device we have. But this, but besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. Look at this, for your salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. What does Paul mean? Paul goes wake up, Jesus Christ is going to return. This is what he's saying. When he says your salvation is nearer than when you first believed you're like, am I only partly saved? I thought I was, when I gave my sin in self to Jesus,

he saved me, yes, but what he's talking about here is a future in final salvation that happens when you die or Christ returns. Whenever you talk, most people, when we talk about the return of Christ, they're like, yeah, it's a real thing, but he hasn't returned, it's been a long time. He hasn't returned in a lot of other people's, you know, other Christians, lifetimes. He's probably not going to return to mind. Well, guess what, you're still going to die. And what's the difference between the death of Christ, or sorry, your death and the return of Christ for you personally will not much of a difference. We're all meeting Jesus in less than a hundred years. Some of us in less than 10. And it's like, okay, then that, what death is to the individual, the return of Christ is to everybody. And here's the interesting thing. When you think, I don't know that there's a better, how would I say this? I don't know that there's a better litmus test for you to diagnose yourself spiritually than to go. How would I feel if Jesus Christ came back today? I heard the story of a missionary couple, they were up in some mountain area, whatever, and their vehicle almost tipped over. It basically did kind of tip over the door opened up. They thought they were both going to fall out of the vehicle

where the vehicle was going to flip and go down the mountain. Thankfully, it kind of miraculously didn't. They finally calmed down when it's all over, you know, the vehicle's off to the side and the wife. These are missionary couple. The wife says to the husband, I was ready. What an amazing thing to be able to say. Like once you finally calmed down, well, I almost died and thank God we didn't die. And then she'll sit her husband and goes, I was ready. Paul says, get ready. He says, get ready by dressing for another place. Look here, the night is far gone, the day is at hand. So let us cast off the works of darkness. He's using the language of clothing and put on the armor of light, let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. Here it is, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ to make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Friend of mine was heading to a wedding. And weddings are like still today in American culture. It's just like, it's like the last formal event we have. And he was actually in the wedding. And so, you know, when you're in the wedding, you have like the full tuxedo that matches all the other groomsmen.

And so he's heading to this wedding, he's got his full tuxedo on, I don't know, he's in somewhere in Tennessee or North Carolina or something and he's driving through the mountains. And he realizes, my car is basically you're about to get out of gas. I'm not gonna make it to the wedding. So he says he pulls in to this rinky dink old gas station, okay, but there's lots of people there. He says he gets out of the gas station and he starts to pump gas and he has this reality. I'm in my tuxedo. And he says he looks around and everyone's kind of looking at him, what are you doing? Why are you in a tuxedo at a down and dirty gas station? And then this is what he said. He said, I had to realize I wasn't dressed for where I am. I'm dressed for where I'm going. And that's the Christian life. The Christian life is, you know, we feel, here's how you feel it works sometimes. Like you're wearing a tuxedo pumping gas and everyone's like looking at you like you're weird. 'Cause you're a generous person or you forgive people or you actually believe Jesus Christ is gonna return or you share your faith with other people. I wanna encourage you to dress, not just from where you are, but dress for where you're headed. You know what's interesting? Paul ends by telling us this conversation on government

and our role and then he ends with the return of Christ and to dress for it, why? He's like, because one day Jesus Christ is gonna split this guy and it's gonna be the end of all political parties. It's gonna be the end of all forms of government and Jesus Christ is going to run a one party kingdom where he reigns and rules forever. Amen, now here's how it started, yes. And here's how it started though. You know we talked about submission. It's like, do you understand that Jesus Christ submitted? He submitted to God the Father by becoming a man. He submitted to God again in the garden saying, "Not my will be done, but your will be done." And here's what else is powerful. The way that you become a Christian is by submitting to Jesus. Submission is the first step of salvation. And in a minute, we're going to sing a prayer. And if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ before, I want you to come down to the altar and I want you to submit to Him as Lord and Savior and treasure of your life. But there's another group of you, listen, and as I was talking, okay, you know that you have been focusing on being unselfish instead of loving. And I want you to get down here and I want you to say, Lord, help me to be a loving person and not a self-righteous person who's always keeping the sacrificial scorecard. But then there's a group of you, listen, and as we've talked about the church and we've talked about the family and we've talked about the state, I want you each to find your role in all three of those domains. You may be a single guy and you come down here and you go, God, get me ready to lead my future wife and my future family. Some of you may need to get down here and go, look, I, God, I repent.

The church is God's plan A to reach the nations and I've been on the sidelines and today, Lord, I submit, I want to get on the front lines. Some of you politically, it's like, some of you need to run for mayor, you know, you need some of these moms need to get on the PTA, I mean, you just need to get invested and involved. And so what I want to do is if you'll bow your heads, if you'll close your eyes, I want to invite you forward in a minute. I want to invite you forward to submit to Christ in a new way. I want to invite you forward to trust God even as we head into an election cycle. I want to invite you forward to say, Lord, what place am I supposed to take in the family? So men need to maybe get down here and say, I'm recommitting to leading my family. Men and women may need to get down here and say, you know, I'm recommitting to be deeply invested in the life of a local church. And others just say, you know, I'm committing to wherever I am, I'm committing to stand out, to stand up. And if God calls me to stand against, we ask this all in Jesus name. Please stand. Please come forward. [BLANK_AUDIO]