Sermon to the Governor of Arizona

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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We truly believe that it's important for the Christian church to have an engagement in the public square with the

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Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor.

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Though I'd love to be, I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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God's design for individual Christians to be part of a local Christian church under the care of qualified, faithful, biblical elders.

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And so as much as we love all of you watching these sermons and we're thankful to God that God uses them to bless you, to encourage you,

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That is vitally important and actually a biblical command. And so as much as, again, as we love for your participation, your partnership, and we are so thankful to God that He's using these in your lives, we want to encourage you to get plugged into a local church.

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You can, though, actually partner with Apologia Church as we proclaim the gospel and provide a defense of the biblical gospel all around the world.

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You can partner with us, and I want to say one last word about that. Do make sure that none of your giving and partnership towards Apologia Church interferes with your giving, your worship, your tithes, your offerings to a local body of believers in your area.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. If you would, turn in your

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Bibles to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 10.

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I encourage everybody to spend some time in the book of Isaiah. So much important theology and perspective about the world and the future is often neglected that comes from the book of Isaiah.

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And in particular, if you paid attention to the first ten chapters, I think you could have a full transformation of your own world view and perspective about Jesus, his rule, his kingship, his kingdom, and God's concern for justice.

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But in Isaiah chapter 10, there's a particular word for those who would give iniquitous decrees, and so to that we turn right now.

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Isaiah chapter 10, verse 1. Hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees and the writers who keep writing oppression to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil and that they may make the fatherless their prey.

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What will you do on the day of punishment in the ruin that will come from afar?

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To whom will you flee for help and where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain.

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For all this his anger has not turned away and his hand is stretched out still.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together. Father, we come before your throne grateful for your love, for your grace, for your mercy that none of us deserve.

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We do not. We ask God that you bless us now as we come before your word, which is a special gift.

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We pray that you would teach us through your word, by your spirit, that,

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Lord, that your word would go out from among this fellowship, this congregation into the world, that it would pierce hearts, that it would cut where there needs to be cuts, that it would change minds.

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We pray that you would allow our honorable governor and our legislature to hear this word and to be changed by it.

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We pray for our neighbors, Lord. We pray for the injustices. We pray for those who are sick.

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We pray for those who are vulnerable. Please bring protection. We know, Lord, we have defied you to your face.

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We don't want your ways. We have hated your law. We have turned aside from your son.

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We destroy the innocent children among us. We decapitate them, disembowel them.

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We turn them into ash. And, Lord, we do not deserve your mercy. We do not deserve your gaze.

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We do not deserve your love. All that you owe those outside of Christ is judgment.

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But, Lord, we ask for mercy. We ask as your church, as your bride, to allow the waters of life to flow from this holy city into the world to bring healing to the nations.

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We pray, Lord God, that you would fulfill that promise. We know that you will, Lord, but we pray for it in our day.

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You would fulfill that promise that the Messiah would bring justice in the earth. The coastlands are waiting for his law, and that certainly means the desert as well.

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So we pray, Lord, for our proclamation today that it would bring glory to you and that it would be healing to the nations.

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And, Lord, that it would bring transformation in our governing authorities, minds, and decisions. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So it's obviously a very powerful passage not often preached today. The average sermon in the regular evangelical church may go for 25 minutes to 30 minutes.

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A lot of self -help messages, a lot of best life now messages. We don't often go to passages like Isaiah chapter 10.

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You see, the God of Isaiah is different, he's unique. He's the one and only true and living

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God, the one and only God. Isaiah 43 .10, God says, Before me there was no

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God formed, neither shall there be after me. God says in Isaiah 44 .6 and Isaiah 44 .8

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that he's the first and the last. Besides him there is no God. He even asked a rhetorical question,

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Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is no other God, I know not one. There is only one true and living

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God. And the God spoken of by the prophet Isaiah is the sovereign God who declares the end from the beginning.

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He's the God who actually challenges the idols and the gods of men, the false gods, the gods of our own imagination, whatever those may be.

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He challenges, tell me the future. The problem with false gods is they don't do a lot of talking so they can't tell you the future.

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And he even says something unique, he says, Tell me the past and why it happened the way that it did. That's the unique character and power of the one and only true and living

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God. He can tell you the future because he controls it, he's the true sovereign over every molecule, no maverick molecules in God's universe.

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And he can tell you the past and why it happened the way that it did because everything has a purpose in God's plan.

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There is no purposeless evil in this world, including what we're facing today with this awful virus, with this awful sickness that's just very, very devastating and kills people.

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We acknowledge that from the start. But when I talk about the God that's portrayed in Isaiah, we're talking about a

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God that can speak to our governing authorities, hence the title of the sermon today, a sermon to the

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Honorable Governor of the state of Arizona and, of course, to the legislature. Why would you dare, you may ask, as a pastor of a smaller church, not a mega church, dare to think that you could preach a message to the sermon of the governor of the state of Arizona?

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Answer, there is only one true and living God. And this is his word. And it is the basic proclamation of Christians from the very beginning.

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And, of course, it is something that is affirmed by our governor, that Jesus is the

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King of kings, that he is the Lord of lords. I want you to stop and think about that just for a moment.

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Can we all acknowledge something, that that's just mostly a pithy slogan said by Christians?

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Can you acknowledge that? King of kings and Lord of lords is ultimately, in 21st century evangelicalism and in the

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West, it's ultimately just that. It's a pithy slogan. It's a bumper sticker and T -shirt at best, usually an ugly

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Christian T -shirt, but that's what it is. King of kings and Lord of lords ultimately means nothing in praxis, in daily life and application.

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But that is, of course, the proclamation of Scripture from beginning to end, is that this Messiah was coming to be enthroned on this

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Davidic throne. He'd be the ruler of the world, that he has all authority in heaven and on earth,

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Matthew 28, past tense, and that he is the King of kings and he is the Lord of lords. Jesus is the ruler over the kings of the earth.

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That's my Jesus. And because of that, this word is applicable to the governor of this state and to our legislature, whether they like it or not.

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It's sort of like the child in the house, rebelling against the authority of the parents and the commandments of the parents.

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The problem is that you're living in that house. It doesn't matter if you like the rules, you're answerable to the parents.

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They have the authority. And whether or not our governing authorities and kings and rulers want to yield to the authority of Jesus Christ, the

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Scripture says in Psalm chapter 2, that the Father says to the Son, ask of me and I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession.

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Jesus did not forget to ask. He rules over the world. And then the Father actually has a word to the kings of the earth, to the rulers of the earth.

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And the word is, to obey the Son or you will perish.

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That Son that was prophesied to rule the world, to bring all the nations to God in salvation and for forgiveness.

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All the families of the earth would return to worship God because of this Messiah. Jesus' authority extends everywhere.

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All authority, according to Jesus, means all authority.

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But where? Oh, we love to have Jesus enthroned in that spiritual place called heaven. We love to say that Jesus is the king over heaven.

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And every Christian will say yay and amen to Jesus being enthroned in heaven and having full authority there.

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That's where Jesus must be obeyed. But remember, the word from God is for the kings of the earth to obey

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Jesus. And Jesus in Matthew 28, 18 through 20 says, all authority in heaven, and here it is, on earth has been given to me.

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Therefore, the title of the sermon, a sermon to the governor of the state of Arizona. Governor, you must obey

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Jesus. You must uphold God's standards. And governor, we are praying for you.

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We are praying for our legislature. We are not your enemies. We are speaking as those who have been redeemed.

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We are sinners. We are humble. We recognize the authority of the governor and the legislature, but we recognize, as Christians have from the very beginning, the higher authority.

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That God has ultimate authority. You see, early on, the Christians were persecuted in Rome.

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They were persecuted in Rome because they said, Caesar, we'll respect your position.

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You are the government. We'll be good citizens. We'll be obedient. But there is another king,

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Jesus. He has ultimate authority. You see, Christians were killed because they were seen as enemies of the state.

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They were seen as enemies who were defying the ultimate authority, the ultimate authority being

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Caesar, the authority of the government. This is the ultimate, that's God. Christians died, ready, because they wouldn't say,

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Kaiser Kyrgios. Would you? Would you die? Not proclaiming that.

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Refusing to utter the words, because that is what our forebears did. They died refusing to say, Kaiser Kyrgios, that Caesar is ultimate,

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Caesar is Lord. They said, Jesus is Lord. Because they understood there is only one

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God. God has a purpose and a plan for this world. Jesus is the king.

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And Christians have, throughout the ages, understood that God's word is the reference point.

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God's word is the ultimate standard. And we've recognized that God is concerned not just with salvation for sinful people.

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Is it true that the gospel is about reconciliation and peace with God? Amen, yes.

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There is salvation in no one else but Jesus Christ. He is the only way for anybody to be saved.

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And repentance and faith is the way to Christ for peace with God. He is the only way to God.

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All of that's the truth. But this is, of course, in Scripture, called the gospel of a kingdom. Hear it again.

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Good news of a kingdom. We've lost that in our day. It's the good news of His rule and His reign.

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And this ruling king has a concern not only for salvation of sinners, but also for justice in the earth.

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You see, we have forgotten that God is just. We love the gospel of love and mercy and grace and peace.

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But recognize this. Those are attributes of God, but they are not the only attributes of God.

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God is also just. He is concerned with justice and love for neighbor. Isaiah chapter 10,

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God speaks to those who would write iniquitous decrees. Again, woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees and the writers who keep writing oppression.

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That's the God of the Bible. But we have to ask the question. When we're talking about government and we're talking about the church and we're talking about individuals, what does the

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Bible teach about those things? And what's important here is to recognize what the

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Bible does teach about these different spheres of government. You see, the Bible recognizes that there are differing spheres of authority.

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The Bible opens up and what's that first form of government? It's the family.

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There is a family sphere of authority. God creates that. That's a divinely instituted thing.

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The family. It has its own authority, but notice that authority is not an ultimate authority.

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It is a derived authority from a higher authority. And it's an authority that is supposed to be under the one true and living

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God. And as Scripture progresses, we see that God also creates the church. He gives divine revelation as to what is just, what is right, what is wrong.

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He gives his law and he gives the church the role, the duty to foretell his word and proclaim it, to teach his word, to give his word to the world.

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The church has to safeguard the word of the living God. The church has an authority under God, under the rule of God.

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And of course the Bible tells us that he has given us the gift. Please hear that. Very important.

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He has given us the gift of government, civil authorities, the civil magistrates.

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You see, we actually as Christians recognize the God ordained institution of civil government.

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We are not rebels. We are not renegades. We recognize that God is the one who institutes civil government.

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And we must obey civil government. However, there is a caveat.

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There is always a nuance to the obedience of civil government. And that is that we will obey civil government.

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We will submit willingly where civil government is in line with God's righteous standards.

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Where civil government, please hear this, where civil government seeks to defy the worship of God or where civil government destroys justice and our neighbors, we are required to rebel and to disobey.

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Because we must obey God rather than men. God gives us these spheres of authority, but please note, and this is a word specifically to our governor, our honorable governor

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Doug Ducey and to our legislature. I say this as humbly as I possibly can, but it is the truth and I must say it.

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While God gives these spheres of authority and they are distinct and they have their own purposes and they have their own rules, all of these spheres of authority are supposed to be under God.

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They are all supposed to obey God. You see, we recognize as Christians the biblically ordered definition of church and state as separate and distinct.

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But we reject the perverse reinterpretation of our day that says the church has nothing to say to the state or the state doesn't have to obey

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Jesus. That's not what Christians meant when we gave you that distinction of separation of church and state.

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By the way, that's from the bible, so you're welcome. But church and state, according to scripture, are supposed to be under Jesus.

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Remember that the governor of the universe says to the kings of the earth, obey the sun or you'll perish.

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That's the word from the ultimate governor of the universe. But in Romans 13, people will often point to this.

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Romans 13 says, obey the governing authorities, obey the governing authorities, and we say to that yes and amen.

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However, Romans 13 exists, believe it or not, in a context. Romans 13 does not teach unlimited obedience to government.

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Romans 13 does not teach unlimited obedience to governing authorities. Romans 13 1 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.

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So we say, praise God for government. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what

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God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. Terrifying thing. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

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Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he, that is the government, is

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God's servant for your good. You see, according to Romans 13, the inspired apostle says that the governing authorities are instituted by God, and it says that the governing authority is to be

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God's deacon. We have deacons here at Apologia Church.

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These are the ones that serve the church. Their specific role is not the teaching ministry of the church. It's not this ministry at the pulpit.

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They're not the shepherds of the church, but they are vital to the life of the church. They're the servants of the church.

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They make sure that the church's needs are taken care of. They feed mouths. They pay bills.

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They make sure that rent is paid. They make sure car payments are paid, that people have vehicles to get to work. They make sure that nobody goes without.

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They are servants of the church, and isn't it interesting that in Romans 13, when people try to use this as unlimited obedience to the government, just obey the governing authorities, not only did they neglect the context that Paul was, in fact, actually disobeying the governing authorities in his day, and he's the one that wrote it, by the way, but Romans 13 says that the governing authority is the deacon of God.

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So here's the question that must be asked. Which God does our government serve? Which God does our government serve?

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Because according to Romans 13, the proper role of government is to be God's servant. Now, brothers and sisters, there is only one true and living

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God. There is only one God. And our government must be a servant of the true God.

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And the answer from the Father to the kings of the earth is if you don't obey the Son, you're going to perish. But in Scripture, it says that God's servant, verse 4, he is

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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.

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There it is again. And avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. So here we know that the role of government is to serve the true

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God and to wield the sword of justice. So what's the limited role of government according to this passage?

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To punish evil. To punish evil. It says, therefore, one must be in subjection not only to avoid

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God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes for the authorities or ministers of God attending to this very thing.

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Pay to all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed. Respect to whom respect is owed.

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Honor to whom honor is owed. Scripture teaches very clearly that the government is God's servant. Government is to punish evil.

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Government is supposed to protect the righteous. That's the role of government. However, the government's authority is not unlimited.

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I'll give you an example of this. We all understand this because Romans 13 has been abused amusingly by governing authorities today and even by our beloved brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.

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Romans 13 we must obey. Our governments have said to shelter in place, to stay home.

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Never mind the economic impact. Never mind the poverty it's bringing on. Never mind the people who are standing in front of bare pantries.

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Never mind the people who have lost savings and businesses that have been around for decades. The government says shelter in place and here we go.

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Two weeks? No. Four weeks? No. Six weeks? No. Eight weeks? No. Maybe July. Who knows?

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Maybe September. But we need to obey our governing authorities. Brothers and sisters,

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Scripture does not teach that the government's authority is unlimited.

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And where the government again attempts to disrupt the true worship of the living

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God or attempts to actually impose injustice or to crush our neighbors, we must resist.

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And we must resist as humble people but also people who are bold. Humble boldness.

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You see, Romans 13 is not unlimited. A comparison again would be an example used where people say to the wife wives, submit to your husbands.

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Now brothers and sisters, when we read the passage that says wives, submit to your husbands and everything, does that mean unlimited obedience to the husband?

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Does it mean that? Everybody recognizes the nuance placed upon that text.

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Submit to your wives and everything is with the assumption that they're being obedient to God. And where a husband is violating the law of God, the wife must not obey the governor of the home in that moment.

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The wife must resist any sinful impulses of the husbands. Because the law of God is something that stands above all of our heads.

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And so we recognize that a husband's authority in the home is limited and we recognize that the government's authority is limited.

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You see here, the church willingly submits to righteous and wise actions of the servant of God because it's

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God's servant. We resist when you perpetuate injustice and crush our neighbors.

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God's word is the ultimate standard for the people of God. The church, by the way, also ought to even go along with silly and inconsequential rules.

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You all know this. It's often abused. Jesus says to people in his day, there's an historical context to this, he says, if somebody asks you to go one mile, go with them what?

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And people have all kinds of t -shirts, go the second mile, like, you know, sort of a Christian, like, go the second mile, sort of a thing.

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Do you know the context to that? It has to do with a silly and inconsequential law in Rome where a

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Roman soldier could actually commandeer you on the street to have you carry their baggage a mile.

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That was the law, and let's be honest, that's stupid. But here's the point.

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Jesus teaches his people in effect, when there's a silly and inconsequential rule like that, humble yourself, be a servant, and obey.

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Something that is silly and inconsequential like the one mile, go with them too.

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However, scripture condemns injustice. Scripture condemns those who would attempt to thwart the worship of the true and living

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God. The Bible teaches, woe to you who write iniquitous decrees.

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When you unjustly disrupt the proper gathering and worship of God or destroy our neighbors, we must speak to you and we must resist.

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We must call you to consistency. We must call you to God's word. I've already pointed you to Psalm chapter 2 where the father says to the son that the earth is his whole inheritance, everything belongs to Jesus.

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And the father says to the kings of the earth to obey the son or they'll perish. Psalm 110 1 it says that Jesus is in that position of authority.

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He is seated and he's putting all of his enemies under his feet. In Isaiah chapter 9 the

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Bible teaches that we're going to have someone come into history who is a son and a child.

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He was going to be God himself, El Gabor. He was going to be the prince of peace and the government would be upon his shoulder and the increase of peace and justice would never end.

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The Bible teaches in Isaiah chapter 42 that this Messiah would establish justice in the earth and that the coastlands would wait for his law.

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The Bible teaches of course Isaiah chapter 10 you've seen that God opposes the iniquitous decrees that crush our neighbors but I want to point you to another passage that is vitally important to get for Christians in the context we are now living.

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Go to that same book Isaiah but go to Isaiah chapter 1. I'm just going to spend a moment here in this and I would plead with you to think about what

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God is saying here. Meditate upon this. In Isaiah chapter 1

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God has a word for the people of God and this word concerns their worship of him and his concern for justice.

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Consider that. Please hear me on this. Isaiah chapter 1. You don't have to go far into this book to see the heart of God.

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This particular chapter concerns the worship of the people of God and God's concern for justice.

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You see, why am I stressing that? Please come with me on this. Hear me. This is so important. So many

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Christians today will think well the main thing is I'm still going to church and I'm worshipping or I'm gathering here or gathering there and what happens in the world around me is really of no concern to me because I'm worshipping

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God. Right? I'm right with God. I'm worshipping God. All the injustices all around me really are not my ultimate concern or responsibility because I am worshipping

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God. Here's what God says in that context. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 10.

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Hear the word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom give ear to the teaching of our

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God you people of Gomorrah. Isn't it interesting? Here God is speaking to the people of God and he uses some dirty words.

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You see Sodom and Gomorrah to the Israelites. These aren't compliments.

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I didn't know if you knew that or not. Not compliments. It's a place that didn't go down well in history at all.

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As a matter of fact it was incinerated. And they know this codifies wickedness.

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Sodom and Gomorrah. And here God is speaking to the church. Did you hear that?

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Here God is speaking to the church and he says to them hear the word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom give ear to the teaching of our

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God you people of Gomorrah. Put into modern context it could be saying to the modern church hear the word of the

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Lord you rulers of Auschwitz. You see God is concerned in this text with not just their worship but the justice around them.

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The injustices. He says this to the people of God. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices says the

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Lord I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well fed beasts I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.

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When you come to appear before me who is required of you this trampling of my courts?

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Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations.

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Here it is I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

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Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. Yes there are some displays of worship or engagements in worship that God says he hates.

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He hates them. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands

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I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood wash yourselves.

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Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Here it is please hear this worship and justice.

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Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice.

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Seek justice. Here it is correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless.

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Plead the widow's cause. Here is God actually repudiating their hypocritical worship because of all of the evil and iniquity among them and around them and what he says to them is this.

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He says cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. People might be saying

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Pastor Jeff what right do you have to preach a message to the governor of the state of Arizona brothers and sisters

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God commands us to be concerned with oppression and injustice and if the governor of our state even with pure motives is perpetrating injustice upon our fellow citizens, our neighbors then we are called as Christians to speak out for those who are being oppressed.

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You see I'm going to just point this out. You've probably heard it. Tell me you've heard this. I know you have because it's actually come out of the mouth of people who have sought to pervert the word of God for their own purposes and authoritative positions.

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They've said things like this. We need to destroy society which is what's happening.

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We need to wreck the economy. We need to plunge people into poverty.

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We need to destroy businesses, destroy employers ability to pay employees.

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We need to have 30 plus million people unemployed and here's why.

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We need to love our neighbors. You see we need to love our neighbors. Hold on.

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I have a question about that because I love that law. It's the golden rule.

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We love God and we love our neighbor. That's what all the law and the prophets are based upon. Love God and love neighbors.

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So I agree with you. Amen and hallelujah but I have a question. What do you mean by love your neighbor because what

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I see is all my neighbors being destroyed. And what they mean by love their neighbor is they mean draw a small circle around sick or potentially sick people and hear me on this.

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I don't mean this in a cavalier fashion but I mean it in terms of what we do with this and to hell with everybody else.

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Love for neighbor means being concerned with justice for my neighbor and what's important here is to recognize also that in scripture, this is so important.

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We have so many Christians saying just yield to the governing authorities. Just yield. Yes but our neighbors are being destroyed.

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No just yield but everyone's losing their homes and their businesses and their income and how are they feeding families.

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No you just yield. You just yield and we say but this is not just and it's not righteous. It's not wise.

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It's not consistent. No no God wants you just to yield. That'll make you a hero. I want to point out what should be the obvious to anybody who's read their

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Bible a little bit. All of our heroes resisted governing authorities.

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And I want to point something out to you as well that our greatest hero Jesus was put on display crucified as a common criminal by the authorities.

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And I want to point out to you also that our heroes in the New Testament are those who actually were beaten, bruised and whipped by the authorities and they said things like we must obey

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God rather than men. Brothers and sisters I'm saying we use the word of God as the ultimate standard by which to test the authorities and when the authorities try to subvert the true worship of God or perpetrate injustice upon our neighbors we must resist and proclaim the truth of God to them.

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I'll give you some examples so you have a record. In Acts chapter 17 in Acts chapter 17 we're not going to read the whole passage but in Acts 17 the early

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Christians were accused of going against the decrees of Caesar saying there was another king

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Jesus. So in Acts chapter 17 you have to recognize immediately the early

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Christians were being seen as and they weren't really but they were being seen as enemies of the state because they recognized that there was a king above the

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Caesar and that was seen as subversive. It's the same thing that sent the pastor in China to nine years in prison recently the official proclamation of the

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Chinese communist government was that he has nine years in jail he's there right now by the way pray for him that faithful man of God who preached the true

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Christ and the true gospel he's in prison right now in China and what was the charge?

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Same charge here he was saying that Jesus is the ultimate king he has more authority than the

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Chinese government and the Chinese government said nine years in jail. Why? Because you're subverting the authority of the

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Chinese states. The early Christians were accused of the very same thing they say there's another king one

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Jesus. You know the story in Acts chapter 5 I want you to see this one in Acts chapter 5 you have an example of our early

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Christian heroes resisting an unrighteous command of government and in Acts chapter 5 we have that famous story of Peter speaking directly to this issue in Acts chapter 5 17 it says but the high priest rose up and all who were with him that is the party of the

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Sadducees and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison but during the night an angel of the

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Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life and when they heard this they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach now when the high priest came and those who were with him they called together the council all the senate of the people of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought but when the officers came they did not find them in the prison so they returned and reported we found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors but when we opened them we found no one inside now when the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these words they were greatly perplexed about them wondering what this would come to and someone came and told them look the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people then the captain with the officers went and brought them but not by force for they were afraid to be stoned by the people and when they had brought them they set them before the council and the high priest questioned them saying we strictly charged you not to teach in this name yet here you have filled

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Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us but Peter and the apostles answered we must obey

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God rather than men that's a principle now that's a principle now by the way

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I want to go ahead and address the objection yes pastor Jeff but see they were they were stopping them from preaching

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Christ no government today is saying don't preach Christ well no the governing authorities today started with a mild suggestion right maybe this many people no not gathering there maybe this many no not even maybe three ten fifty and then the government says no we're not trying to control your worship to any degree and then you have governments that have said only recently okay we'll let you worship but now we're going to actually tell you how to worship they said things like you can worship but as the governing authorities we're telling you no sacraments no lord's table don't take that and we're going to tell you no singing to God but don't worry just suggestions there of course are examples today of people being told that they have to register church membership being registered so the government knows where you're at what church you're in all the rest you see these begin as mild suggestions and people say we're not stopping your worship but brothers and sisters the principle still stands we must obey

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God rather than men means the church has the right and the responsibility to weigh the decisions of the government in light of what

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God has already said and if we're in a context where the government says right now everybody has to shelter in place we need to love our neighbors the church should immediately respond with respect let me listen to you this may be wise is this the black death is this the

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Spanish flu that affects everybody young and old indiscriminately it'll affect everyone exactly the same way what's the mortality rate is everybody going to die from this would it be right to shelter in place for maybe a week a small time period let's listen to the government and then the numbers begin to come out and then you see the facts and then you see that ultimately sheltering in place to destroy the global economy and to plunge everybody into poverty isn't in accord with God's standards of justice and righteousness it is in fact wicked it is in fact evil and anybody who perpetuates now based upon the evidence the lie that we ought to shelter in place because of love for neighbor is guilty because everybody can look at the facts and the difficult part of this at this point where we're at today please hear me on this is that the governing authorities today admit the projections were wrong this is what we're really looking at and yes it's comparable to other communicable viruses that we face on an annual basis and so that everyone raises the hand and says can

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I be seen as essential now can I feed my families can

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I take care of my wife and my children and the governments today even in the midst of all the evidence are saying no stay in place and it's evil and it has to end another example in scripture

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Daniel 6 Daniel in the lions den Daniel's told to stop praying to God and of course we know how that ended he's a hero he resisted the governing authorities stopped making petitions to any other gods and Daniel did anyways

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Daniel chapter 3 verses 8 through 18 we know the story of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego I have to always say it like that now because I raise children with veggie tales so I literally cannot read the text without hearing it in that voice but we know the story of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego they would not serve the gods or the image that they had set up now the principle does apply here the governing authorities say our word is ultimate you must obey the ultimate

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God that we've set up bow to its image we tell you what is ultimate you must bow and we know how that ended

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Shadrach Meshach and Abednego refused to bow even at their own peril and God rescued them and of course

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I'll end with this one in terms of resisting government decrees that are in fact unrighteous and wicked in Exodus chapter 1 it's the famous story of the

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Hebrew midwives I'm not going to go into all of this but I want you to hear this if you don't know the story it's an amazing one our bible opens up with women heroes resisting governing authorities and here's how the story basically goes

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Exodus chapter 1 it says verse 8 now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know

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Joseph listen closely to the details and he said to his people behold the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us come let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply and if a war breaks out they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the lands therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens they built for Pharaoh store cities,

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Pithom, Ramses but the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad and the

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Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel so they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service and mortar and brick and all kinds of work in the field and in all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves then the king of Egypt said to the

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Hebrew midwives here it is, here's the command of the government one of whom was named

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Shivra and the other Apua when you serve as midwife to the

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Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool if it's a son you shall kill him but if it is a daughter she shall live but the midwives feared

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God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them but let the male children live so the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them why have you done this and let the male children live the midwives said to Pharaoh because the

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Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them so God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong and because the midwives feared

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God he gave them families isn't that amazing, here's the decree of the government they resisted and they even resisted to tricking the government itself and God did what, he blessed them but I want you to think about the principle and the context here the

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Hebrew midwives were commanded to kill the newborn sons of the Israelites they refused they risked their lives and resisted an order of the government that put lives in danger

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God dwelt well with the midwives and he blessed them the king over Egypt, hear this the king over Egypt made the decree based upon a public safety issue did you hear it did you hear it there's always an excuse for tyranny there's always an excuse for injustice, did you hear that it doesn't come at you with its fangs out it comes to you with flattering words and a kiss you see when injustice is coming from a despot or a tyrant it always comes cloaked in the words of grace, compassion and love, in Pharaoh's case he says, kill the sons of the

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Israelites, why it's a public safety issue right, it's for the health and public safety of the

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Egyptians if they outgrow us, they can outnumber us and ultimately defeat us so it's a public safety issue, do what kill these, so what are we saying the

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Egyptians are most important here do away with these lives and the midwives were dealt with well by God because they upheld love for neighbor you see they just drew a bigger circle over the

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Egyptians and the Israelites do you see the point so in scripture we have the constant testimony that God is glorified when the people of God resist those who attempt to subvert the true worship of God or perpetrate injustice upon our neighbors

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God commands us to love our neighbors now we are in this state, I want to remind our honorable governor and our legislature we are in the

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United States because of the influence of Christianity let me just say that again, because of the influence of Christianity we are citizens here and we are not subjects

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I must say that again because it has to be understood we have a terrible education system today, we don't know from where we come

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Christianity, the biblical worldview and God's standards of justice are what gave us most of the blessings that we are hanging on to today and what we have in this country is a system where we are citizens of the

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United States of America we are not subjects we are a constitutional republic and that means the governing law and authority of the land is the constitution now this is not a sermon praising

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America this is talking about the principle that we have in our country in terms of what is the governing authority and it is not a person currently residing in the

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White House that is not the ultimate authority we are a constitutional republic, which means we are governed by law that is written down, the legislature creates law not the governor the legislature creates law, think about our constitution for a moment in terms of governing authorities and law, please hear me on this does the president according to our constitution create law?

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it's explicit congress makes law we do not have a system that allows for despots and tyrants and rulers to lose control and control the citizens of this country that's a blessing of the

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Christian world view of accountability and authority but we are citizens not subjects, this is a constitutional republic let me just say in terms of where we are at today my concern is for my neighbors please hear me on that my concern is for my neighbors it is highly offensive to call one neighbor's work essential and not the other because don't we see it now everyone's work is essential to them it's essential to their wife, it's essential to their children, it's essential to their employees, it's essential to their aging parents and I want to say ultimately in another respect worship, as my friend says is the most essential thing we do worship is the most essential thing we do and we need to hold our governing authority accountable for the actions and decrees that they make, you see limited government is what we have and here's why it should be limited in our country that's so influenced by the

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Christian world view, limited government because there's only one true and living God you see in a place like North Korea they don't understand limited government, why?

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because the leader is God in a country like ours that was established with the

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Christian world view in the atmosphere and all around us and much of the time explicitly referenced we have a limited government because there is only one true and living

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God, you see the concept of an ultimate is unavoidable it's unavoidable everybody's gonna have an ultimate even if you're an agnostic or you're an atheist you have to recognize you're gonna have an ultimate, either you have the final say with your preferences or your interpretation if somebody says to you, how do you know that?

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you can say, because I feel this way because this is the way that I see it or my experience because what

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I know or you could go on to the other thing you could say, well it's because what we've decided on together, our society has determined this is right and this is wrong, we are the ones that decree this, the people deem us democracy you could say we are the

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God of the system or you could say ultimately Caesar is the God of the system, that guy over there, that girl over there they're the ultimate, having an ultimate is unavoidable in this world you see also the concept of worship is unavoidable because you see, worship is glory and sacrifice giving glory to something someone, glory and sacrifice sacrificing to, we all understand that in church, you come in here and we worship

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God, we give him the glory, we pray to him, we worship him, we sing to him, he has the glory, he has preeminence,

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Christian sacrifice as a form of worship when we give as Christians the offering, we are worshiping

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God because we are sacrificing or if we go to the abortion mill to preach the gospel, to love those mothers and fathers and to save what do we say, eight babies yesterday in one day, that was some serious sacrifice at two o 'clock in Arizona in the afternoon that sacrifice, what was that?

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that was worship, you see worship is also unavoidable we are going to glory in and sacrifice to someone or something, the question is this will it be

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Jesus or Demas the people as the ultimate, will it be

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Jesus or will it be Caesar, you see that's the conflict Jesus versus Caesar, Jesus versus Demas and I want to say as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, no king but Christ no king but Christ you see, we need to point to this as well to our honorable governor and to our state legislature the laws regarding quarantine for the sick and the vulnerable are good they are so good and the reason we know they are good is because they came from scripture did you know that did you know that's actually a distinct part of biblical revelation the laws of quarantine for the sick isn't that amazing so when we say as Christians looking at the government saying we need to think about quarantine, we say hey guys good job, you can thank him for that it wasn't part and parcel to pagan practice and world view but it is of course according to scripture a way you love your neighbor you quarantine the sick, you quarantine the vulnerable however, please hear me on this we are almost done however it is a perverse injustice to decree a pre -emptive quarantine of the healthy that leads to the destruction of liberty gathering for worship the loss of livelihood the closing of businesses the potential destruction of the food supply chain and the thrusting of the citizens into poverty governor there is more than one way to force death upon the citizens of the great state of Arizona here's a fact just one fact we could do this all day if unemployment hits 32 % approximately 77 ,000

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Americans are likely to die because of suicide or overdose this this is not just a numbers game, it's based upon experience what we know, what we see as trends what we know and understand about history when we see something like that 32 % we know that approximately 77 ,000

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Americans are likely to die due to suicide or overdose these are called deaths of despair, that's only one aspect of this so what am

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I saying? I'm saying, love your neighbor I'm saying love your neighbor you see,

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I want to answer this because I know that it's in the back of someone's mind or they're already typing right now online I can hear the keystrokes somebody's saying yes, but people will die my answer is yes, and it's horrible it's a fallen world can we hold that as a basic presupposition?

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here's what everyone neglects in this world today as you face COVID -19 this is a fallen world we're sinners against a holy

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God we have to contend with communicable viruses on an annual basis we have to face this all the time every death is tragic and that's not a meaningless statement

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I just said to love your neighbor so we ought to care and we ought to mourn for those who lose their lives because of any communicable virus that we face on a regular basis yes, it's serious however, the facts are the facts in Arizona 362 deaths in Arizona we had 875 deaths from the flu in Arizona in 2017 somebody says oh, you're saying this is the flu it's just like the flu well, if you weren't listening, that's what you heard

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I was making a comparison between different communicable viruses that we have to contend with on a regular basis no

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COVID -19 is not just the flu however, it's a fallen world and people die all the time in this world and here's the thing, hear me on this we don't destroy all of society we don't plunge mothers and fathers into despair and poverty you see, something isn't matching something isn't consistent because we could ask this question we live in a fallen world we face communicable diseases annually will you, governor destroy the economy and our livelihoods again next flu season will you do it again next flu season because this sets precedence if you're making a cost -benefit analysis and you're saying at this many deaths

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I'll destroy everybody's livelihood then this is an ongoing pattern that we should expect over and over and over and over and what

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I call that is tyranny I call that injustice it is inconsistent it is immoral to destroy our neighbors so here's the principles here we are one, love

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God obey His voice He is concerned for justice

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God's word is the standard as to what is just and what is right two, love your neighbor

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I want to argue please help me with this we need to take that back it's been hijacked people say stay home out of love for neighbor no, no, you're drawing a small circle around certain neighbors and you're forgetting about everybody else

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I'm saying hashtag love your neighbors plural love thy neighbors plural all of them consider the consequences to all of our neighbors consider justice for all of our neighbors

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I'll give you an example here again we could go all day one in four businesses in Phoenix it's been announced one in four businesses right now we haven't even been in this for very long we're just barely getting into this and one in four businesses in Phoenix is said to be permanently closed one in four businesses in Phoenix permanently closed it's been suggested that it can take us six years to get back to normalcy because of what's been done in six weeks to our neighbors and the numbers, brothers and sisters do not match they do not match the decisions that have been made unemployment is said to have topped thirty million over the last six weeks here's the thing, can we be honest

01:00:37

I can't fathom that you can't comprehend it but what

01:00:46

I can comprehend is the woman that I know a friend who said that she was standing in front of her pantry weeping over the last week because she didn't know how she was going to feed her babies

01:01:01

I can understand that connection, the person that I know and that I care for who's standing in front of a pantry that's empty because her husband's business has been decimated

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I understand that but what does it really mean to have thirty million

01:01:20

Americans unemployed right now I would actually suggest none of us can possibly comprehend the consequences right now

01:01:28

I believe it's like a seed that grows into a tree and then starts to bear fruit it's going to take time for us to feel this, but we're going to feel it and many of you right now are feeling it, and we ought to care this is being called right now, six weeks in, this is amazing, it's being called the worst employment crisis in U .S.

01:01:50

history six weeks the worst employment crisis in U .S.

01:01:55

history, now watch, big word employment crisis, what that means is neighbors what that means is people hurting, businesses closed, children hungry, people dying, hospitals closing, do you understand that when we say thirty million unemployed, brothers and sisters we're talking about love your neighbor, it's injustice it's inconsistent it's unwise it's wicked, again we understand the woman standing in front of her cabinet weeping you see we've had businesses this week announce,

01:02:33

Arizona businesses, that they have been alive for thirty to forty years thirty to forty years, and now they're dead you could drive past a business with it's air conditioning shut off and the doors shuttered and you could say, oh that's tragic, there's a building there that's empty, what you're forgetting is that, that was an owner that was a family those were employees, those were children, those were hungry mouths to feed, every business is a love your neighbor issue and again, don't say to me,

01:03:10

I know but we need to love the sick and vulnerable, here's what I would say to you, be consistent, love the sick and vulnerable, make sure that they stay home and are quarantined, don't destroy the lot of everybody else be consistent be consistent, and if somebody says, yes but people will die right, fallen world, people die, you don't destroy everybody because some people die, it's a horrible thing, it's a tragic thing but please remember, love for a neighbor considers all the consequences for all the neighbors hashtag, love thy neighbors all of them you see the hospital industry is being crushed due to the absence of normal business, isn't it amazing isn't it amazing, all the hospitals, millions and millions of dollars put into building additional space for people all these different beds, and what are you seeing on the news, it can't be avoided, it's a fact, can't avoid it what are they doing, they're closing all those down, why can't fill them up, but beyond what you're seeing in terms of closing down these cities and these tents and these beds because we didn't need them we're seeing the regular hospitals themselves now losing millions and millions of dollars a day and putting off employees doctors, nurses and everybody else because they can't afford to pay them why, because we've drawn a small circle around certain neighbors and said we need to potentially protect these so we'll destroy and annihilate the rest of society this is a love your neighbor issue there are entire industries that are dying and we're finishing here these are the main points people say but we need to love our neighbors, say our socialist liberal friends, we need to love our neighbors, say the socialist liberals well forgive me for not taking seriously the advice over compassion and love for the vulnerable, coming from people who praise the decapitating dismembering and disemboweling of little boys and little girls in the safety of their mothers womb

01:05:17

I confess to being suspicious of their compassion this is a principle about consistency please hear this the

01:05:32

Hong Kong flu the swine flu SARS the bird flu did you know that 675 ,000 people died from the bird flu 675 ,000 people died from the bird flu did we destroy the global economy did we destroy all of our neighbors no we didn't you see what we know is that the early predictions again were wrong and we know this that the virus discriminates in a way you'll capture the main point of concern if you hear this part here we know that this virus discriminates in a way it's not like the

01:06:13

Spanish flu or other communicable diseases I'm not minimizing how horrible it is if you say that I am you're lying it's devastating but this particular virus we know as a fact discriminates what do

01:06:32

I mean by that it's not like the Spanish flu or other sicknesses in history where it didn't matter who you were where you were, what you were a child, a baby a teenager, a young adult an old person, where it all affects you exactly the same way we know as a fact there are entire groups of people who had coronavirus,

01:06:55

COVID -19 were asymptomatic didn't even know that they had it we know people who had it and it was like a bad cold or a mild cold so what do we know we know that this virus in a way discriminates sadly people who are elderly or have compromised immune systems or many health issues are the ones who are most in danger of destruction from the virus which means what sanity prudence wisdom would be protecting them them and not decimating our children and grandchildren because of this final words to our

01:07:50

Honorable Governor and our legislature in the state of Arizona Governor, you've shown yourself to be a courageous man it takes courage to do what you've done you've shown yourself to be a courageous man who tries to operate on principle we believe that about you courageous enough to shut down entire industries that takes courage but I want to point you to a problem in terms of consistency on average approximately 12 ,000 abortions occur in your state annually 12 ,000

01:08:36

I want to call you to be consistent to be courageous as you have shown yourself to be shut down the abortion industry and stop the murder of the preborn more children have died every year in Arizona than the coronavirus will ever take anything less would be rank hypocrisy and I do not believe you to be a man who revels in hypocrisy

01:09:08

Governor, you're courageous and principled, please do the right thing, you have demonstrated now that you have courage to shut down industries for the sake of human life, shut down the industry that is taking the most in Mark 16,

01:09:26

John the Baptist was killed for speaking prophetically to Herod hear this he told

01:09:33

Herod it was unlawful to have the wife of His brother as a minister of the gospel of King Jesus I am telling you,

01:09:44

Honorable Governor, it is not lawful for you to have the life of my neighbor it is not lawful for you to have the life of my neighbor, so the call and the witness to our

01:09:56

Honorable Governor today and to our legislature is do what is just love all of our neighbors liberate the state of Arizona and the citizens of this great state, in the name of Jesus Amen.

01:10:17

Let's pray Let's pray Father we pray that you'd please allow this word that went out today to go where it needs to go to bring healing to our state, to our nation and to our neighbors who are being destroyed

01:10:40

God, grant wisdom establish justice please allow us to see more than ten feet ahead of us please grant to our

01:10:53

Honorable Governor the courage to do what is right before you and to protect the lives the livelihoods of the people around us

01:11:05

Lord Jesus, you commanded us to love our neighbor that's what we have sought to do today please put your hand of blessing upon what we have asked for today and we pray that you'd bring healing to this state for your glory and your namesake in Jesus name,