Episode Transcript
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I fear I will remain standing.
Please do. And let's turn our attention
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to Romans, chapter thirteen. Romans
thirteen verses one through seven. Romans Thirteen,
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verses one through seven. Let every
person be subject to the governing authorities,
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for there is no authority except from
God, and those that exist have
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been instituted by God. Therefore,
whoever resists the authorities resists what God has
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appointed, and those who resist will
incur judgment, for rulers are not a
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terror to good conduct, but to
bad. Would you have no fear of
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the one who is in authority?
Then do what is good and you will
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receive his approval, for He is
God's servant for your good. But if
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you do wrong, be afraid,
for he does not bear the sword in
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vain, for he is the Servant
of God, an Avenger who carries out
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God's wrath on the wrong doer.
Therefore, one must be in subjection,
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not only to avoid God's wrath,
but also for the sake of conscience,
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for because of this, you also
pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers
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of God, attending to this very
thing. Pay To all what is owed
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to them, taxes. To whom
taxes are owed revenue to whom revenue is
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owed, respect to whom respect is
owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
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May God bless his word, he
may be seated. One of the
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things a good father, good mother, good teachers due for their children is
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they open up the world to them. They point to various parts of our
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world and say, let me explain
this part to you, let me show
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this part to you. This is
how to write a resume, this is
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how to dress for work, this
is how to make a friend, this
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is how to treat your elders.
These kinds of instructions that we are get
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that we give two children, I'm
to those who are in need of instruction,
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because we love them well, we
want them to do well, we
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want them to succeed, we don't
want them to trouble, fall into trouble
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or make trouble. Well, our
heavenly father does the same thing for us.
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This is, of course, a
really wonderful thing, because he's the
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one who made the world, he's
the one who works in the rule world,
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rules over it, coverns it,
and he doesn't sort of ignore us
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as his children, but he takes
us into the world and he and he
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shows us things. He explains what
he has made and and our place in
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it. This is one way to
describe much of what God is doing in
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scripture when he gives us instructions and
commands. But sometimes he does more than
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instruct US and command us. He
also explains the reasons behind those what's going
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on in a larger picture, and
that's exactly what he is doing here in
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Romans Thirteen. He talks about governing
authorities. This refers to a political leaders
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but more than that, taxes are
of course mentioned, but other things as
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well. Look at Verse Heaven Again. Pay All, pay to all what
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is owed to them. It's a
general statement. Right, whatever is owed
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to anyone you, we ought to
pay it. Taxes are mentioned first as
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a sort of obvious example, but
he goes on revenue. To whom revenue
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is owed, respect to whom respect
is owed, honor to whom honor is
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owed. So when we think in
this broader way, there are a lot
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of different kinds of governing authorities.
To govern something is just to rule something,
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to be in charge. So you
might think, who are the people
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in your lives that are in charge
that that rule? There are, of
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course, senators and representatives, judges
and governors, presidents police. These are
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all political leaders and rulers, people
who govern us that we are called to
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be subject to and to honor and
respect. But there are leaders within the
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family as well. We think of
parents or grandparents, maybe even ants and
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uncle's or sometimes even people that come
into our families and sort of like a
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father figure would we sometimes say,
people that aren't necessarily related by blood,
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and yet they're so close through the
Lord's Providence that we respect them and honor
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them. There are commercial authorities,
owners and managers. There are religious authorities,
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pastors, elders, deacons, various
kinds of mentors and teachers. We're
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talking about people who are in charge
over any particular sphere or institution in life.
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God has put people in charge and
he tells us that we are to
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be subject to them, not just
the ones we like or those the one
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the ones that we think are doing
a good job, but to all of
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them. This is especially striking when
we consider some of the emperor's and some
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of the rulers that Paul had to
suffer under. Some of them he interacted
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directly with, and you can see
good reason for not respecting them. Think
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of ponscious pilot, for example.
Think of other people and other political leaders
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in the New Testament. I can't
think of one off the top of my
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head that we can sort of be
amazed at and say, well, they're
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there is one who's really deserving of
honor and respect for the wonderful things they
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are doing. At best they seem
to be short of struggling along kind of
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mixed bag. Nevertheless, Paul tells
us and tells the Christians in Rome to
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be subject to the governing authorities,
and he gives reasons for this as well.
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He says to avoid God's wrath was
a very strong reason. He also
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gives a second reason, for the
sake of conscience, a kind of external
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and an internal one. You might
die, he says, if you don't
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obey the governing authorities. They do
not bear the sword in vain. They
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are called to administer justice and crush
evil and and and if you refuse obedience,
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you will likely face not only their
wrath but God's wrath through them.
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And then an internal reason, for
the sake of conscience, he says.
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What does he mean by that?
Well, if you've ever been pulled over
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by a police officer for even a
minor thing, or maybe even something that
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you knew you didn't even do anything
wrong, and found yourself shaking and nervous
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and wondering what was going to happen
and unable to even control your physical body.
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You know what that means to be
have your conscience worried. It's not
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a pleasant thing to feel like you're
about to be in trouble or that you
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are in trouble. It's one of
the most difficult and frustrating and scary feelings
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if you think that you're about to
get pulled over or fired or go to
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jail. Refusing obedience, not fearing
and respecting those who are in authority can
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bring a kind of inner turmoil as
well as an external turmoil, to put
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it that way. So these are
the things that God speaks to, but
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to get behind them a little bit
and understand why he says them, want
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to first just point out that the
simple thing God has made an orderly world
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and we have to find our place
in it. Paul teaches us that the
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relationship between those who are in authority
and those who are under authorities no accident.
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He makes this clear in several ways. For example, he says in
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verse one, let every person be
subject to the governing authorities, for there
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is no authority except from God.
You See, this is no accident that
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this person or that person is in
authority over us. They have, they
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are, they come from God.
He'said. Goes on to say that those
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who exist have been instituted by God. Then, in verse two, he
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says those who resist authorities, resist
God, resist what he has appointed.
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He calls them, as I mentioned
earlier, ministers of God, servants of
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God. These are strong words that
are also used of ministers of the word.
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This the same kind of idea.
This is somebody who is administering something
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of the Lord. Now, it
doesn't mean that they're always good or that
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they always do right, but it
does mean that in God's Providence, he's
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using them in our world and and
even when we don't respect them because of
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the things that they do, even
when we don't like their policies and we
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think the things that they are doing
are bad or even dangerous or even ungodly,
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we're still called to respect them.
Might meant them in particular because of
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their office, because of their authority
as God's ministers. God has made an
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orderly world and we must find our
place in it, those who are in
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authority and those who are under authority. That's is not because of any accident
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and it corresponds with the very way
that God made the world. This did
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this didn't come into existence in Romans
thirteen. Know the world has been ordered
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in this way. First of all, we know, when we remember Genesis
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One and two, that when God
made the world, it was God who
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made the world. It wasn't random, it wasn't an accident, it wasn't
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just power struggles and people setting themselves
up. No, God made the world
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with this a kind of order,
by his power, by his sovereignty and
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design and creation, he established a
world in which there were rulers and those
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under rule, family, business,
government, church, from soccer leagues to
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Senates to sessions, there are these
things that God has put in place,
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structures. We see this in the
human world, but the animal world as
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well. We talked about Queen Bees, King Lions and or lion kings and
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leaders of the pack. This is
something we recognize. Might even say it
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it applies even to none living creatures. God says, when he made the
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Sun and the moon, that he
gave the brighter light to rule the day
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and the lesser one to rule the
night. Even between the Sun and the
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moon. We have a kind of
status and order and their way that they
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rule and are lifted up in creation. There is a way in which they
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are called, they are considered to
be ruling. This also corresponds to the
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God's covenant with Noah. After the
world was destroyed through the flood, he
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makes a covenant with Noah and he
established as a kind of system of order.
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He says to Noah, to those
who shed your blood, blood shall
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be shed. There's this principle of
justice that God covenants with all creation.
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The fact that there is good and
evil, that there are those who are
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called to uphold good and put down
evil, is not just an accident.
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It's not just a sort of group
decision of human society that we all came
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together and said, well, this
seems like a good way to run things,
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why not? But this, nope, these things exist because God made
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them this way and God made a
covenant with the whole world, the seasons,
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the animals, with man, that
there would be this order and a
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continuing on until the new heavens and
the new earth would come and so when
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we stand in this world and we
consider this authority figure or that authority figure,
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we have to place ourselves in a
much larger picture, which ultimately is
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one that is under God. We
belong as as parts within a larger whole,
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a system of of order and and
and rule, but under it all
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is God who created the heavens and
the earth. We just sang of this
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in the last hymn. I don't
have it open, so I can't remember
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it off the top of my head, but it spoke of angels right,
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Angels Sing to him rejoice, a
sun and moon and planets. This this
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sort of praise. We are calling
all praise to lift up to WHO?
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To God, not to a social
constructs, not to a nice idea,
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but to God who made the heavens
and the earth. And we have to
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start here if we are to be
wise people, if we are to live
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as Christians, who are who trust
the Lord and are related to him and
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his world. In this way,
we have to recognize that God has made
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an orderly world and we have a
place in it. Well, this is
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perhaps a good place to point out
that there are consequences for those who reject
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reality. I wonder if you've ever
known someone, or perhaps you've been this
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person who just didn't get it.
Sometimes we talk about socially awkward people.
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Right. What do we mean by
this? Socially Awkward People, people that
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just don't seem to get it right. They can't seem to understand the relationships,
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is what we're saying. They can
don't understand their relationships to other people,
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those who are the peers, those
who are below them, those who
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are above them. They either don't
want to find that out, they have
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no interest, or maybe they're just
confused and need instruction. Either way,
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we see them as foolish right because
they're failing to manage in a good and
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healthy way the world in which they
live, whether that's the world on a
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sort of grand scale, or even
just the little world of a of a
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dinner party or a time together with
friends or being in the workplace. People
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who have trouble relating in these ways
is people have trouble understanding their world,
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really struggle. They find themselves embarrassed
and ashamed. Sometimes they find themselves in
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very difficult positions. We, for
example, you might imagine a father cowtowing
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to his children, trying to act
like them be like them, gain their
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attention and love by being a child. We look at that and we rightly
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go that's weird, because he's not
understanding his place. Likewise, a child
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who decides to who be the boss
of the household, a child who decides
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that he or she knows what's best
and mom and dad can be treated as
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equals, doesn't usually last very long, doesn't kids? A student who tries
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to treat his professor like a peer. I'm in college now. I know
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what's smride and what's not. I've
had biblical training. These people are foolish
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and often get bad grades. Imagine
we well, we could go on and
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on. The point is is that
there are immediate consequences these things have at
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its least important you may not in
getting invited to the party again. At
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higher levels, you might lose your
job, gain a bad reputation, be
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disrespected, but the consequences, the
higher the stakes go, of the greater
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the consequences go for refusing to recognize
these things, to anticipate them, learn
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about them and understand them. You
could lose your job, your marriage,
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your children, but Romans Thirteen says
you can lose your life. Those who
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say I'm going to do what I
want to do, I'm going to live
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how I want to live, and
I don't care what anybody says. Often
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find themselves in very bad places.
They find themselves dead, they find themselves
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in jail, they find themselves,
even if not in these situations, suffering
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greatly, greatly in their souls,
because they're fighting not just against the order
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of the world, they're fighting against
God himself. And ultimately, to look
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at God, or try to look
at God in the eye and say,
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well, I'm going to do what
I want to do, is to be
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the ultimate fool and to risk losing
one's own soul. So how do we
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go about following this instruction? Well, first simple enough. We ought to
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listen to it, not to hear
what God is saying and recognize it and
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believe him when he says that we
are to be subject to governing authorities,
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him first and foremost above all,
and those he is instituted as well.
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But this will never happen unless we
are first reconciled to God himself. And
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you can see why this is important. If God is the one who has
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made the world and all things in
it, if God is the one who
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is supreme over every governor, over
every leader, over every head, and
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we decide, all right, well, I'm going to respect my authority figures
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give honor to those whom honor is
owed, but I'm not going to bother
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doing that with God, the one
who is the chief leader, the head
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of all things, the maker of
the universe, the ruler and governor and
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King of all of everything. We're
failed from the beginning. If we truly
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want to live in this world in
a wise way, in a good way,
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in a way that corresponds with it
and works within it, we have
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to begin by recognizing the one who
is the maker of it, the head
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of it, and be reconciled to
him. And that comes only through one
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way, through faith in Jesus.
It only comes through faith in Jesus,
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because Jesus is the king. Jesus
is the one who has come to rescue
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us and to save us from all
of our disobedience, all of our sinfulness,
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all of our disrespect. If we
simply go to God, and will
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try to put it this way,
if we go to God and we say,
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okay, I see how you've made
things, I see how you've made
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the world, I'll do better,
and I'll give you a handshake to prove
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it. We've not understood who we
are. We've not heard his very own
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word, that is said, no
one is righteous, no, not one.
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We've not heard him when he's told
us that we are sinners and weak
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and frail, that were disobedient and
unruly. If we truly respect God and
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what he has said, and we
will, then we will have to be
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reconciled to him, then coming to
him, not as equals or even worse,
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as God's above him, setting things
on our terms, but we must
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come to him in reality, in
the situation as he has described it.
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We come to the maker and the
ruler of the world and we say,
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I have a problem, I am
failing, I am falling, I do
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not understand your world, I am
socially awkward, I struggle to love my
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neighbor, I struggle to love you. Save me. You See, God
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not only rules the world in this
way that administers justice and wrath, he
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also rules in the world in a
way that administers grace and love. This
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is why he has given Jesus to
us, so that we can come to
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him and be rightly ordered in the
world, rightly ordered with him. If
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we want to live godly lives in
the world, we have to start by
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being reconciled to God. We go
to him in faith and repentance. We
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tell him we're sorry, we trust
in him, in the salvation that he
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promises to give, and we accept
that he has made us something new.
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We interact with the world in a
new way. On the basis of that
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faith. We say, I am
not a citizen of this world. Ultimately,
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I my first and primary citizenship is
with God and in heaven. But
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on the basis of that, I
understand that he has not left me alone,
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but he has placed me here and
I can obey and honor and respect
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those who are over me because I
ultimately obey and respect and honor my God.
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Once we are reconciled to him,
then the second thing becomes much easier,
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that is, learning to perceive everything
in light of him, his rule,
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his reign, his justice, his
authority, his love and His grace.
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Until we are reconciled to him,
it's impossible to see these things and
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it's impossible to live in a way
that pleases him. So Romans Thirteen tells
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us that as we interact with others
in the world, particularly with those who
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are above us and those who are
below us. By God's Providence, we
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are to keep our eye and our
hearts on the center of all things,
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which is God, as he has
revealed to himself in Jesus. Once we
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are reconciled to him, once we
are in a position that is treating him
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with the respect and fear and honor
that he is owed, then we will
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be in a position to make sense
of our world, to give priorities where
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they are needed and really exercise a
lot of wisdom in what is a very
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messy and difficult situation. And I'll
end by just saying that our great hope
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and our sure hope is that one
day God will lift us out of all
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the difficulties and troubles of bad leaders
and bad followers in this world and he
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will take us and, as he
has united us to Christ, establish a
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consummated kingdom and which we will be
able to live with him ruling and reigning
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over US forever and ever, without
ever any dissension, without any other any
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problems or strife, but God strong
and keeping us all within his will.
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Let's pray that's the God would work
his will into our hearts
