Romans 13:1-7 (God and Government)

This morning, as we gather here in this place in the year of our Lord 2024, we do so in the midst of a highly tumultuous time in our nation's political history.

Obviously, in the next few days, we're actually going to have our first presidential debate of this election cycle between President Biden and President Trump.

But what's more, we've had almost 20 years now of what seems like unprecedented levels of unrest and division.

And now, while I do think that is a little relative, right, we may tend to think that things are worse than they've been in the past, especially considering that in this country, there's been civil war and we've had contentious elections for quite some time.

I do think that the vitriol of today's political divide is real, right, and there is real polarization that is fairly significant.

And so we are certainly in an uneasy time, though probably not as bad as it has been, not as bad as it could be, and probably even not as bad as it will be.

But for us, as Christians in this land, and at this time, this is certainly a moment where our lived -out

Christian faith does put us in the crosshairs of the regime, as they say. For example, just a few months ago, an analyst on MSNBC opined on a very dangerous sect in our country called

Christian Nationalists. She said, and this is a direct quote, Christian Nationalists, not

Christians, by the way, because Christian Nationalists is a very different— she didn't even finish that, but she—very different— believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don't come from any earthly authority.

They don't come from Congress. They don't come from the Supreme Court. They come from God. Scoundrels, these people.

The ironies of such a ludicrous statement are many, of course. The most glaring, and one that I would even agree with her and thank her for admitting, is that her definition positions the founding of these

United States of America as an experiment in Christian nationalism. If a Christian Nationalist is one who believes their rights come from God and not from government, as she says, then the signers of the

Declaration of Independence were Christian Nationalists. We hold these truths to be self -evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their

Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

This statement wasn't meant to communicate some ambiguous creator in the Declaration of Independence, a god of whichever faith people wanted it to refer to.

This was distinctly referring to the true creator, the one true and living God, the Christian God.

The great Patrick Henry said in 1778 to the Virginia Convention, and he certainly shared this sentiment with his founding brethren, that it cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This sentiment leads to the other great irony in the MSNBC quote. She makes a distinction between this

Christian Nationalist group and your standard Christians, and she establishes that distinction upon where each group believes their rights come from.

And man, if this isn't an example of someone basically telling you that they have absolutely no idea about what they're talking about, then

I don't know what is. Essentially what she did here was out herself as totally uneducated on the

Christian faith and its history in this country, and set herself on the side of the totalitarians who would have us to think that our rights are determined by our government, and that someday we'll all own nothing and be happy.

That's a scoundrel. Right? And it's this idea that the regime and its media cronies today would have you,

Christians who believe that we've all been made in the image of God, and thus have been created with certain rights and dignities and responsibilities, that have you believe that you are actually not

Christians at all, if you think this, that you're this amorphous Christian Nationalist, and that you are a threat to democracy.

They send people like this woman out to create these soundbites to scare you off, so that you won't participate in the public square, or at least that you won't dare to bring your

Christian faith into the public discourse, into the political discourse. And to this we reply with Charles Spurgeon, I often hear it said, do not bring religion into politics.

This is precisely where it ought to be brought, and set there in the face of all men, as on a candlestick.

And that's why this morning, and periodically over the next few months, we're going to be considering God's design for government, or the state, or the civil magistrate.

I'm going to use those terms interchangeably today. And we're going to consider also our place in this design, to encourage us in these wicked times to be unafraid of our

Christian faith and heritage in this land, and to scoff at the labels that the wicked would aim to put on us in order to discredit us.

Today we're going to look at how we should want our government to look and to function, and in the coming months we'll think about how we should answer certain objections from people about concepts like the separation of church and state, religious pluralism, theonomy, patriotism.

We're going to answer these questions not politically, as if we're looking to not offend just enough people to get elected democratically, but biblically, as if we want to obey

God in the civil realm, and bring all of Christ into all of life. Amen? And so with that, let's turn this morning to our base text, a very important text in understanding

Christian political theory, Romans 13, 1 through 7. Hear the word of the

Lord this morning. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority?

Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same, for it is 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, for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake, for because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.

Render to all what is due them, tax to whom taxes due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, and ask this morning that you'd bless us in our time of learning, this passage in particular here in Romans 13, where we ask that you'd help us in our understanding to be open -minded, to learn not right or left,

Democrat or Republican, where but that we would be eager to learn your design for government, where we thank you for government, you created government and instituted it in your creation, where we ask that you'd help us to be a people who long for your design for government and who labor for your design for government.

Again, we do pray for our leaders, and ask that you'd bless them with the gift of repentance, that they would return or they would repent of their sin and come to you in faith, where that they would lead our nation or our state, our cities with a godly desire, or that they would seek to obey you, they would seek to be a blessing to the people that you have placed them over, where they would seek to honor you in all that they do.

We do pray these things in Christ's name. Ultimately, we see that no matter the historical moment or geographical location, discord in all spheres of society exists over the question of authority.

Who has the power to do or not do, to speak or not speak, to lead or not lead? Whether it's in your home, in your church, in the civil government, unrest and division result when there's disagreement over who is in charge and whether they have the right to do or not to do certain things.

For example, in the church, the session, the elders are in charge, so to speak, in the sense that they are to set the direction of the church.

They teach, admonish, rebuke, correct, and they serve and they love their people. But there can be times in churches when that session could overstep their bounds and enter into areas that they don't belong in.

Like, for example, setting the direction of your business. There's a few business owners in here. Of course, we want the

Christian principles that we learn together here, hopefully, Lord willing, that they're good and they're worth incorporating into your commercial endeavors.

But it's not the place of the session as session to make your hiring decisions for you or to set your pricing strategy.

Can they help you as a friend or a business partner? Of course, that's even a good thing. But session as session has no authority in your business dealings just because they are the session.

And that would be a cause of frustration and discord if they did do that. The other way also happens, right?

People with great expertise in certain areas or great wealth, they come in and they approach a church's session looking to leverage their experience or their wealth for authority on a church's decision -making.

Praise the Lord this hasn't happened here and hopefully it never will. But ambitious men could come and try to build a consensus outside of a session, right, to leverage them in a certain direction, to force their hand.

Another example would be in the family. As Will Smith once famously said in the 90s, and I'm sure pop stars today say it even worse, you know what

I'm talking about, say it even worse now, parents just don't understand, right? They don't get it. Oftentimes now we hear about, and some of us have even lived through rebellious teenage years, right?

Teenage rebellion seems to be a common theme in our culture now. Children telling their parents they can't tell them what to do, they don't know what it's like,

I'll do what I want, so on and so forth. Ultimately, these are just areas where the authorities in place are rejected or undermined or overstepped, and it opens wide the door for division and discord to enter in.

And the civil sphere is no different. Issues enter into the civil sphere when the bounds of the authorities are not properly respected by those in authority or by those under that authority.

Now how do we combat these divisions? How do we work to prevent what these breaks in the authority structures around us would cause?

Well, the first and most critical thing that we can do is understand and believe that all authority derives from God and His Christ.

This is very important. All authority derives from God and His Christ. Jesus says in Matthew 28, 18,

All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. All things belong to Him.

Christ, as the King of heaven and earth, rules and reigns over all His creation as sovereign. He is in charge of everything, whether people realize it or not.

Abraham Kuyper famously said, And because of this, we need to understand that the authority that I have in my home as a husband and father is not because I'm stronger than my wife.

It's because God has said that I am to be the head of my wife, just as Christ is head of the church, and to raise my children in the nurture and admonition of the

Lord. The authority that a session has in a church is not because they're the best and brightest, but because Jesus has called them to be the servants of His people and to bind and loose on earth as His representatives.

And finally, the authority the estate has over its citizens is not because the state has greater force on its side, but because, as our text says in verse 1,

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

Because God has said so. They are our authority, and we are to subject ourselves to them. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus Christ, who rules and reigns from the right hand of God the

Father Almighty, and in the hierarchy, He is at the top of every sphere. And yet in His wisdom,

He uses means to exercise that authority and has established His ministers over these spheres of life, through whom

He carries out His will. He has established husbands and fathers under Him, but over families.

Pastors and elders under Him, over the church. Kings, presidents, prime ministers under Him, over the state.

God has established fathers over these spheres to represent Him, our Heavenly Father, on earth.

This is that pesky patriarchy thing that the feminists want to destroy? That's exactly what I'm describing.

Father rule. God has established fathers to rule in certain spheres. All authority belongs to Christ, and He has established certain men across these spheres, those again mainly being the family, the church, and the state, as ministers, as stewards of that authority in order to care for His creation and His people.

And so this is how God has designed that His authority would be carried out. He would establish that authority in certain offices, and to certain representatives, ministers, fathers, who would be under Him and over their people for His glory and the good of the people.

And so the key first point, again, all authority on earth is derived authority. No one has authority in and of themselves.

It's all given by God, and the state is no different. Now with this in mind, how then are we to live as Christians?

Individually, as families, as citizens, as a church, in light of the state's authority over us in their

God -ordained office. Let's start first with the principle, and we'll go a little deeper, because I do suspect, we're so close to New Hampshire, that there's some libertarian bent in the room that will squirm a little bit at the principle on its face.

Principally, we are to live in subjection to the state, for they are a minister of God to us for good, and we are to do so for conscience' sake as submitting to the

Lord. We are to live in subjection to the state, this is verse 1, for they are a minister of God to us for good, this is verse 4, and we do so for conscience' sake as submitting to the

Lord, verses 1 and 5. Again, the clear principle from the scripture is that we are to submit ourselves to the authority of the state.

And this is important, because as Paul writes in verse 2, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

But what does it look like to submit? Well, Paul defines it for us, and the scriptures define it for us.

Verses 3 and 4 of Romans 13, Paul says, For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.

Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same, for it is 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, for it is a minister of God, an avenger, who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

Christians, above all peoples, should be marked by their subjection to the governing authorities manifested most plainly by their good behavior.

Now, the state doesn't get to define that good behavior, and that's how we run into issues with tyranny, right, how we respond to that is something we'll deal with later.

But the point remains that Christians should be marked by their good behavior as citizens in the commonwealths of which they are a part, and those good behaviors are defined by God, right.

The state doesn't define it, God defines it, but we should be marked by those things. First, we should have, or excuse me, now understanding of all of what these good behaviors are, that would take way too long, we couldn't do everything, right, couldn't cover everything, but I'm going to cover a short list today that will hopefully satisfy us as it regards our subjection to the government, what that should look like when it comes to good behavior.

First, we should strive to be men and women and children of good reputation in our communities.

Proverbs 22 .1, A good name is to be more desired than great wealth. Favor is better than silver and gold.

1 Peter 2, 11 and 12, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify

God in the day of visitation. Christians should have good reputations in their communities, not only in the church, though certainly in the church, but also in the broader communities to which you belong.

You should be well thought of by outsiders. It blesses you and it honors God. And we should also read here that we should be known by our communities, right.

It'll look different for many of us, but you should be known in your town to a reasonable degree. You don't have to know every person, but you should be known within your community.

And Lord willing, you should be growing in your reputation there. You should be meeting new people, and their view of you should be increasing, such that they see you as a good and righteous man or woman or child.

Christians also should be peaceable within their communities, not constant trouble stirrers and strive to be at peace with all men.

Just a few verses before our main text today in Romans 12 18, Paul writes, If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

And Paul writes further to Titus about how to encourage godly living within his congregation. In chapter 3 verses 1 through 11 of Titus, he says,

Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.

If justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy statement in concerning these things.

I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds.

These things are good and profitable for men. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self -condemned.

The Christian gospel is a gospel of reconciliation, and we have a ministry of reconciliation.

So we should be sowing seeds of unity and peace that will be good, fertile ground for long -term gospel ministry in our communities.

I'm not talking about compromise here. I'm talking about living a godly life such that people know and respect you and your contributions to the community.

And they'll further, as Peter wrote, even respect your God and glorify him in the day of visitation.

Christians also, in addition to having good reputations and being peaceable in their communities, they should be taxpayers.

Now, before you say, Derek, earlier today, you went on this whole thing about paying taxes, right? I'm talking about real estate taxes, first of all.

Second of all, I didn't say don't pay your taxes. The scripture is clear on the issue of taxes.

We are to pay them as the government dictates. We should pay our taxes as the government says.

If there are unjust taxes, we should work against them. That was the point earlier. But anyways, we should pay our taxes as the government dictates and trust that God will provide.

But that doesn't mean that all taxation is just. Again, further, we should even take issue when those unjust taxes are there.

We should work to try to get those overturned. But the point for now is that Christians should pay their taxes and not seek to skirt the law to avoid it.

Use the law, take the loopholes, all that. I agree with that, but don't commit fraud to pay less taxes.

And why do we do that? Because we're Christians. Because God has said to pay our taxes to those who taxes do.

Paul says, verse 7 of Romans 13, Render to all what is due them tax to whom taxes do, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

And if the taxation is theft, then the government, those magistrates will answer to God for that.

Christians should also work for the common good. This is something that we've touched on as part of reputation and seeking the peace.

But I think it's important to mention on its own as well that Christians should be workers for the good of their communities.

Isaiah 1, 17, Learn to do good, seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

Micah 6, 8, He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your

God. And in Jeremiah 29, 4 through 7, the Lord speaks through the prophet, Thus says the

Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce.

Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and do not decrease.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will have welfare.

Just because we live in exile here on earth, as the New Testament teaches us plainly, the current state of the government or culture doesn't like us, doesn't mean that we should be deterred from bringing the

Christian faith to bear on our communities. If Christians in America over the past 100 years are more focused on building homes, and building families, and building cities, and less focused on the rapture,

I have a hard time believing we'd be where we are today. But for us, we need to hear this as God's charge to us for the future, not just to look back and commiserate over where we are now.

It's God's charge to us that we have a responsibility before him, to the state, and to our neighbors, to bring our

Christian life to bear for their welfare, for their good. We have a responsibility to the state and to our neighbor to build homes, to build families, to have children, to champion policies that will help the people and oppose those that won't.

We owe that to the magistrate. We owe that to our neighbors. We owe it to the future, to our posterity.

So we owe to our governing authorities our subjection. We owe them our good behavior. And we owe them two more things, honor and prayer.

Again, in verse 7 of our text, Paul writes of the magistrate, In 1

Peter 2 .17, Peter writes, The magistrate has been ordained and established by God to be his minister over us, whether we like that person or not.

Whether it's Joe Biden or George Washington, Nero or Constantine, we owe them a type of honor, according to God's word, due to their office.

And last but not least, we owe the magistrate our prayer. 1 Timothy 2 .1 -4, Paul writes, This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our

Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God has established the state over us as the stewards of this sphere of his authority over us.

And in light of this, we have important responsibilities before them. God forbid that we allow our frustrations with government to be the cause for our failure to fulfill our obligations, to be subject to the bounds of their authority, to live as good citizens in honor and pray for them as our leaders.

For this is pleasing to God. Do not let your frustrations hinder these things in your life.

Now, on the other side of this coin, the state also has responsibilities to its people, to its citizens. God has not established them as rulers merely so that people would submit to them, but so that they'd be served by these authorities.

God has established the state not merely to rule over the people, but that they would serve the people and serve them by leading them.

We see this principle in Mark 10, 42 to 45, as Jesus lays out what it looks like to lead in the kingdom of God. Calling them to himself,

Jesus said to them, You know that those who are recognized as rulers are the Gentiles lorded over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.

But it is not this way among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

Those to whom God gives the appointment of leadership are not called merely to exercise authority over their people, but in that authority they're called to serve them by leading them well.

And the civil magistrate, again, is no different. As our civil leaders, they are responsible before God to lead us and to lead us well, and that leadership has certain characteristics.

Primarily, the state's responsibility to its people is to wield the sword of God's vengeance and wrath upon evildoers, and in so doing to strike such fear in the hearts of wicked men as to give them greater restraint from committing the sins they otherwise would.

Again, the state's responsibility to its people is to wield the sword of God's vengeance and wrath upon evil.

Paul writes in verses 3 and 4, For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.

Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For it is, the state is, a minister of God to you for good.

But if you do what is evil, be afraid. For the state does not bear the sword for nothing. For the state is a minister of God, an avenger, who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

Now, we live in a time where you can pull up videos online of businesses being robbed. I don't recommend this because it's exhausting.

Being robbed in broad daylight, squatters moving into people's homes, migrants going over, through, and under border walls, and on and on, right?

And nothing is done about it, right? Why? Because they know that there will be... So why do they continue to do these things?

Because they know, right, the people who are committing these crimes, that there will be little to no consequence for their breaking of the law.

And it's really a heartbreaking thing because then you see people's businesses, you know, fall apart, right? They can't afford the insurance to operate in certain neighborhoods, right?

People are displaced from their homes. The state decides, this happened just a few months ago in Roxbury, decides to subsidize the housing of illegal aliens in community centers.

Right? Such that it changes the landscape of an entire neighborhood and what's available for the children of those neighborhoods.

And these things are injustices, right? These are wrong. And we know that just by observing them, it doesn't take a biblical scholar to know that these are unjust things.

But they're injustices because by nature, we know that the state owes more to its people than that. The state owes its people a proper defense of the good and punishment of evil.

It's not an injustice because I deserve this community center. It's an injustice because the state owes me that they would punish evil.

That is their responsibility before God. It's the state's responsibility to foster that environment wherein godly men, women, and children can thrive in their good works, their subjection to the state, and their honoring of and prayers for their leaders.

It's meant to be this self -fueling, self -fulfilling system of honor and reward, good and blessing, stability and subjection.

It's something that builds upon itself if the state is operating correctly in this way. And what's more, the state, when it's operating in this way, it's within this environment where they foster this good environment for flourishing, that they've not only helped their civil sphere, they not only helped their own ability to govern because people will love them, but they've also been an aid and a protector to the other spheres within God's design.

Again, sovereign authority flows out from God to all parts of his creation, to air and soil, to plant and animal, to a person's body, a person's soul, and in that soul to one's thinking, feeling, and will, and further to society and all its organic spheres of scholarship and business.

And finally, to families, to rural and urban communities, and to the sphere that encompasses all these spheres and has to safeguard them all is the state.

The state's responsibility is to safeguard these spheres by doing justice, seeking justice, promoting the good, and punishing evil.

State is not greater than these other spheres, but it is unique in its responsibility to promote the common good or the common wealth.

That's where we get these names, as many magistrates are known today. Now, as we begin to draw to a close this morning,

I want to acknowledge what is sadly an obvious reality in our current cultural moment.

As we've alluded to several times, our government has in many ways grossly failed in its God -given responsibilities to its people.

And so what is the appropriate response of the people in that case? Are we required to obey commands from the civil government that would cause us to sin against God?

Are we required to obey commands from the civil government when they would speak into areas where they're not God's ordained authority?

The short answer, I hope, is obvious, no. John Calvin wrote in the final section of his

Institutes, but in that obedience which we hold to be due to the commands of rulers, we must always make the exception, no, must be particularly careful that it is not incompatible with obedience to him to whose will the wishes of all kings should be subject, to whose decrees their commands must yield, to whose majesty their scepters must bow.

And indeed, how preposterous were it in pleasing men to incur the offense of him for whose sake you obey him, or you obey men.

The Lord, therefore, is king of kings. When he opens his sacred mouth, he alone is to be heard instead of all and above all.

We are subject to the men who rule over us, but subject only in the Lord. If they command anything against him, let us not pay the least regard to it, nor be moved by all the dignity which they possess as magistrates.

A dignity to which no injury is done when it is subordinated to the special and truly supreme power of God.

God has certainly called us, his people, to honor our leaders in all spheres, but he has not called us to disobey him in doing so.

We must, just as those in authority must, see that our obedience to our God -given responsibilities is in service to him primarily and to man secondarily.

And further, the state is also limited in the places of its authority, and we do well to understand that there are certain areas where they're opining, right, their voice, even if we agree with it, should be met with true resistance.

We may love this past week the legislation in Louisiana that requires the

Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms, and I'm thankful for that to a degree, don't get me wrong there, but the bigger problem in public education is not that the

Ten Commandments were removed to begin with, it's that the state has assumed control of an institution that, per the scriptures, does not belong to them.

The scriptures say in Ephesians 6 that education of the children, the requirement to raise up your children in the nurture and admonition of the

Lord, the paideia and euthesia of the Lord, belongs to fathers as God's assigned head of the family. And yet the state has assumed an authority over what is being taught to the children.

But the children don't belong to the state. They belong to the family. And so, again, even though it seems like a win, it is not.

All that means is that in Louisiana right now there is more people who think like us than who don't.

But the state has no say, and so we don't want them to have that type of power. The state's not the authority in the realm of education, and thus we should resist its efforts to assert itself as such at every turn.

And we should do this as a matter of obedience before God. Abraham Kuyper, again

I'll reference, wrote, every attempt by political authority to try and rule over one of those other areas or spheres is therefore a violation of God's ordinances, and resistance to it is not a crime but a duty.

And so, brothers and sisters, as we close this morning, I want to remind us of this. Do not be dismayed by your government or get so frustrated that you would go full libertarian and reject the authority of government altogether, but rather remember that God is the one who made government necessary, to the end that society may be maintained in proper union, and so that mankind may be under some rule of right, order, and peace.

Remember also that you, as citizens, have responsibilities to your government and to your neighbor as decreed by God himself.

You are not responsible to them because they say so, but because God says so. And you are responsible to show them honor, to be in subjection to them, and to be a force for the good as God defines it in your community.

And remember also, especially as you consider what your politics are, perhaps you're thinking about that for the first time or whatever it may be, which candidates you would vote for, which policies you'd support.

Remember that you should support a version of the civil magistrate that most aligns with God's ordained design for them, that they'd be defenders of good and punishers of evil, that they'd respect the authority of other institutions, and that they would not seek a totalitarian power across spheres.

This goes beyond Republican or Democrat. It's about believing what God says about government and working for that.

And finally, remember that God is sovereign overall. In Christ, the King of heaven and earth, seated at the right hand, the hand of power of God Almighty, he has been given all the nations as his inheritance, and he will have them.

Do not be discouraged by difficult times or seasons or stubborn liberals. Christ has won the victory.

He is the sovereign. There is none greater than him, and there never will be. He is the wisdom of God who says in Proverbs 8, 15, by me, kings reign.

By him, kings reign. So be encouraged. Ignorant people may call you names like Christian nationalists or whatever else, you know, fascists, all sorts of things.

But don't let it stop you. Trust in God, the one who created government, for his glory and the good of his people.

Believe that. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word this morning.

God, we thank you for government. Again, that you've created this institution to be a good for your people, to be a force for good, that it would be a rewarder of goodness and righteousness and a punisher of evil, where we do pray for the governments that we are under today, that you would, again, work their repentance in their spirits,

God, that you would draw them to yourself, that they would labor for building and fostering an environment and a culture where goodness and truth, goodness and beauty can reign again.

Lord, help the people who are in leadership in government, in churches, in families,

Lord, here. Father, may you be a help to them in their authority, in the positions you've established them in, that you would help them to be people who take their responsibilities seriously,

Lord, that they would work for the good of the people that you've placed under their care. God, that also the people who have authority over them,

Lord, that they would rejoice at that authority, they would honor that authority, Lord, that they would work for the good of the communities and the peoples that they are a part of, whether it's families, churches, states, or whatever it might be.

May you build up your people, Lord, as you have designed, God, the authorities that you've sent and established,

Lord, that they would, again, be a force for good. Help us this morning as we continue to worship you,

Lord, to be encouraged by what you are doing, the ways in which you are carrying out your will for this world, that although there are times of difficulty or times of being at enmity with the state or with the leadership,

Lord, of whatever sphere it may be, Lord, may you help us to pray for our enemies,

Lord, help us to work for good, to take seriously our responsibilities. Help us,