Good Government
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors of Mill City Church of casey so this is our second week in a row where because of some coveted exposure we're being cautious and we're live streaming so you're joining us online welcome uh glad you're joining us uh we as a Church believe that Jesus is better than everything else because this is true we get to be a Gospel-centered community on mission which is really important for us individually and as a Church right.
Now as culture is is raging as there's all types of of chaos whether it's coveted whether it's the economy or right now in a heightened political climate which is why we're walking through this series messiah 2020 that no matter what we are walking through we don't have to shift with the rest of culture we have a hope that is secure we are Gospel center that our hope is completely bound up in Christ crucified and raised from the grave that our hope is eternal and we live as eternal people in this world living out the Gospel together that's the hope that we that we celebrate on sundays as we sing songs and worship as we sit.
On the authority of God's word it's also the hope that we get to be grounded and centered in in community groups so one of the things we have in our Church is we have community groups which are smaller groups of our Church family that that live life together that that meet regularly that open up the Bible that eat meals together when it's not in a season where we have to not eat meals together uh but we do this to live out the Gospel together to celebrate who.
Jesus is to keep us centered in the Gospel as a Church family so if you're new welcome we'd love to invite you into that to connect you to some of our groups one of the easiest ways to do that is to go to our website millcitycasey.com and you can go to our community groups page you can fill out some information and we can connect with you and kind of tell you more about our groups which one might be good for you to check out.
If you are not new and you call this Church home we invite you to give we believe that our response to the Gospel is generosity and we open up our wallets in doing that so if you're part of our Church family you can give online you can also come by during the week and drop off checks at our office so i'm going to uh to pray for us that i'll prepare our hearts for worship and i'm going to call us to worship from psalm 95.
Father i thank you that we get to worship because of your great love because you came and you rescued us and you redeemed us that we get to uh sit in an eternal reality and out of that we get to praise we get to sing songs i pray you prepare hearts for worship prepare our hearts to to be to sit under your word we ask us in Jesus name amen i'm going to call us to worship from psalm 95 it says this oh come.
Let us sing to the lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving let us make a joyful noise with songs of praise for the lord is a great God and a great king above all gods in his hands are the depths of the earth the heights of the mountains are his also the sea is his and he made it and his hands form the dry land oh come let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand wherever you're joining with us today let's worship together praise the lord the almighty oh my adoration shelters us under have you not seen how our desires have been granted surely his goodness if this praise to the lord oh let all that is in me adore all that hath life and breath come now with praises before again me again.
Lord now my my life is our first treasure may i reach heavens still be my vision i once was lost in darkest nights first i would refuse to upon display your suffering is hallelujah all i have is Christ hallelujah is my life the truth in any way you choose is is Jesus God all we have to claim before you is Jesus and we're thankful this morning that as your Church we are thankful for the cross of Christ we're thankful that he rose from the grave.
Lord this morning as your Church we pray that you would speak to us that that would be the cry of our heart that all we have is Christ and so we pray that you would reveal yourself through your word that you would speak through chet as he comes to preach in Jesus name amen my fellow americans good morning my name is chet phillips i'm one of the pastors here we are in our second week of our messiah 2020 series we're only doing three weeks on this we're taking a brief pause from the Gospel of Matthew to try to get some sound footing to kind of catch our bearings in the middle of the american political.
Season which seems to be unending at this point but we are in an election year and we wanted to address and begin to ask the questions how as Christians ought we to approach politics how should we think about it what should we do what shouldn't we do and just try to catch our breath and get some firm footing so the primary goal of this series is to help us understand that Christians ought to approach politics distinctly from the rest of our neighbors that we ought to have a distinct approach and understanding to government and two politics.
Because we are first and foremost Christians before we are citizens of any earthly place we said last week that we think we ought to look more similar to believers around the globe than just those who happen to vote like us in our own nation and so that's our goal we've got three weeks to do it what we said last week was that we cannot approach politics in the same way as our cultural allies and those who are across the aisle from us we can't approach it the same way.
Because the way we're currently pushed to approach politics is to have a high amount of fear so that we'll give our sole allegiance to a political party or a political leader and then work with a bit of anger and animosity and venom to conquer our political enemies that ultimately our culture is telling us we need a messiah we need a savior we need someone to come in and fix all of our problems to give us a hope and a future and we already have a messiah we already have a savior we already have a hope and a future we are already citizens of an eternal kingdom.
Therefore our approach to politics has to be distinct and so we just tried to dismantle some things last week and this week we're beginning to build it back up a little bit so we're asking the question is okay if we shouldn't approach it as if we need a messiah and if we shouldn't approach it with this amount of fear and anxiety and anger how should we look at politics how should we approach this is government good should we have a government that's kind of where we're starting it's like what's a what's a baseline approach to an understanding of how the Bible treats government.
Because some of us in christianity and some of in our Church family would want to say well politics is just too corrupt our system is too broken Christians shouldn't participate at all others would say well Christian's primary role is the Gospel and the proclamation of the Gospel and that we're spiritual beings and that we ultimately need to see God work so we just need to preach the Gospel and let the world sort itself out but reality is we're called to love.
God and our neighbors and that does mean that we have to live in the place we are and interact in the place we are i have two sons i have a five-year-old and a two-year-old and the two-year-old is just beginning to speak uh he's just kind of putting some stuff together and there's times where they'll be off playing together and um you hear him laughing you'll hear him play and then all of a sudden there'll just be chaos screaming shouting arguing.
And then i'll hear the pitter patter of little feet down the hall my two-year-olds are running down the hall crying and he his brother's name's archer but he pronounces it shasha or arsha he hasn't gotten it yet but he'll come down the hall and he'll say and i know what he's saying he's looking at me and he's saying father i beseech you without your good governance it's anarchy it's become lord of the flies the strong rule over the week and you must come rule and give some boundaries.
So that we might have life and have it flourishing i look at him and say i understand son but really he's asking for good government and the reality is we all need good government and God designed government to be good for our sake in the garden prior to sin he tells adam and eve that they would rule and have dominion and that they would multiply and flourish but God meant for there to be some guiding principle some rules some leadership prior to sin and we don't outgrow government we aren't saved from government we're actually saved into a government that.
Jesus is a king and we're told in isaiah that his of his government and his peace there will be no end so we're not moving to heaven and entering into this free no government system we're moving in and having a king that God's design for government is good and that we're in the middle now where there is sin and it's meant to function in a certain way and so we need to understand how to approach it so what we're going to try to aim at.
Today is the understanding that government is good because it was instituted by God to limit evil and promote good for the good of those governed the government's good because it was instituted by God to limit evil and promote what is good for the sake for the good of those governed and that as Christians we ought to participate but we ought to participate as those who have an eternal perspective so let's pray and we'll jump in God we thank you for your grace we pray that as we seek to be good citizens of your kingdom who have been placed here that we would be good citizens of where we are with an eternal perspective working towards.
The good of our neighbors we thank you for government and its intended design for us and we pray that we would grow in our understanding and appreciation of it today in Jesus name amen go to romans chapter 13. we're going to be looking at romans chapter 13 verses 1 through 7. this is Paul writing to the roman Church and he's talking to them about how they ought to think about government he's done a lot about how they ought to interact with each other and how they ought to approach the.
Lord but he's talking now about how they ought to approach the being citizens in where they are so it says this romans 13 verse 1 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 i'm going to read that again for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God therefore whoever resists the authorities resist what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment.
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad 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 is God's servant for your good but if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain for he is the servant of God an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer therefore one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath.
But also for the sake of conscience for because of this you also pay taxes for the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing pay to all what is owed to them taxes to whom taxes are owed revenue to whom revenue is owed respect to whom respect is owed honor to whom honor is owed so Paul says that all institutions are instituted by God and that there are for our good for your good and i can feel it even as i'm reading that.
Because i can feel it in myself but i can feel it in us that we we just want to hold on i got a question like there's the the ultimate american question that just rises in us is what about bad governments what says don't don't resist them but but i have what about bad governments what about in algeria where they're shutting down churches what about in china when the government's overreaching when they're saying that you can't even be a Christian when they're rounding them up or arresting them or making them have only certain places and certain ways that they can meet what about.
When there's a king who puts taxes on your tea but won't let you have representatives in parliament what do we do when there's blatant governmental evil and overreach that's the question we want to ask immediately to push back on this because the idea that God is over all institutions that he's working through all of them for our good does not seem like that always plays out that way and there are times where it feels like the government is overstepping we currently in our culture right.
Now have people who are standing against government authority we have those who are marching who are standing in roads and blocking off bridges and protesting we have churches that are saying even though the local authorities have told them they can't meet they're going to anyway and it really depends on which side of the aisle you fall on as to which one you're saying yes and amen and oh how dare you but we currently have this question even playing out with us and it's what do we do.
And so i think we have to answer that quickly before we can get into God's good design one the good news for bad government is that all government is under the authority of God the good news for us in bad government is that all government is under the authority of God which means that it will be judged it will be held to his standards and judged according to his purposes and that even in the midst of bad government God can work good he does this throughout the old testament he raises up leaders he lowers leaders he raises up kings he lowers kings he raises up nations he lowers nations they work at his discretion he.
Can revoke them or install them as he wills and so that those that do evil at times are used for God's purposes even pagan kingdoms the babylonian kingdom was used for God's purposes for his people to to punish them to correct them as judgment on his people but then he sent the persians in to punish and correct the babylonians and to bless his people and God does this throughout history so even in the midst of a place where Christians are in a bad government they can hope and trust that.
God is good over it secondly the primary role for Christians is not to just transform our governmental systems or to seek power but to testify to an eternal truth to testify to an eternal kingdom that's our primary role that's what pastor wang yi who's a pastor in china who was arrested by the communist government he had pre-written this and told his Church to publish it if he had been arrested for more than 48 hours i want to read an excerpt from this he says as a pastor my disobedience is one part of the Gospel commission.
So he's disobeying the government by having house churches Christ's great commission requires of us great disobedience the goal of disobedience is not to change the world but to testify about another world he goes on from that to say that he doesn't believe that Christians ought to be changing the institutions but that they ought to be primarily focused on eternal things he says this all acts of the Church are attempts to prove to the world the real existence of another world the Bible teaches us that in all matters relating to the Gospel and human conscience we must obey.
God and not men for this reason spiritual disobedience and bodily suffering are both ways we testify to another eternal world and to another glorious king so that the primary role of Christians is not just to transform government not to have all the policies that we wish we would have but to proclaim another kingdom and so when there is a bad government we still have a primary role to play in proclaiming another kingdom which does at times mean as weighing ye is walking out some form of disobedience.
For the greater purposes of God but not for the greater purposes of our political candidate party or system of choice if this is attention that you're trying to work out i would encourage you to read first Peter chapter two i would encourage you to read all of wang yi's letter it's called my letter of uh faithful disobedience i would encourage you to read dr martin luther king jr's letter from a birmingham jail as a kind of a starter on how to ought we to think about Christians interacting with governments.
When government's not operating properly but primarily today we're looking at God's good design so we're going to focus on that not when it goes wrong because it does go wrong in sin and we do have hope that God is an authority over it and we'll judge it but what's his good design for government you see government matters because people matter life matters joy matters there's the people around you matter and so God has designed it for us to have government the reality is without government there are those who would say wouldn't it be better.
If the government just wasn't involved wouldn't life be better if there just was no government the answer to that is no it wouldn't without government the strong make the rules the weak are pushed to the side sin reigns every time a even an evil government falls immediately it's not like oh good the government's gone now everybody can be nice to each other that's not what happens when a bad government falls there's sin women are raped children are abducted people are murdered.
God instituted government however flawed for good purposes so this is what he says that we ought to be subject to the governing authorities and even there as he walks this out Christians ought to begin looking different than those around us he says be subject to the governing authorities pay your taxes you ought to pay what is owed to those who tax you it says pay honor oh give honor to those whom it's owed so that Christians ought to be respectful you ought to be able to speak about whoever's in leadership over you in a gracious respectful way even as you disagree with them and that right.
Now just doing that will make Christians look distinct from those in their political party that if we can see the good in others and we can speak to the good and others if we can acknowledge where they're right acknowledge where we're wrong and speak in an honorable way of those that we vehemently disagree with will begin to look more the way he's designed for us to look but see the primary role of of good government is to discourage what is evil and to encourage what is good and he gives more attention on discouraging what is evil that's the basic approach the basic role of government it's that to be under God's authority discouraging evil carrying.
Out God's wrath on the wrongdoer and promoting what is good i mentioned my boys earlier but that's the system primary system of governance at my house i want my boys to grow up i want them to love Jesus but much of the work i'm doing with them is i'm just looking at discouraging what is bad and encouraging what is good and if you're a new parent start there is this behavior good will it help them live in our house does it make me like them is this the type of person i want to be around will this help them live in society encourage that is this behavior bad does this make me not want to.
Live with this person you see children have parents for a reason they're meant to have some governance they would not be better off without you they will make terrible decisions and you're supposed to help them grow into a person that can live in the world very simply at my house one of the rules is if you cry and throw a fit you don't get what you're crying and throwing a fit for it makes my decision easy you don't get to watch that you don't get to eat that you don't get to do the thing you wanted.
Because if i give it to them after they cry and throw a fit what i've taught my children is that in order to be happy they need to be miserable and that's not good for them and the reality is that small scale picture of parenting is ultimately what govern government is supposed to do for us as we are adults and still sinful that they're meant to hold evil at bay and encourage what is good he gives again more attention to discouraging evil.
But let's talk about the encouraging good for a second that they're there for our good this means that governments the Bible doesn't give us a system kings parliament a senate a house of representatives a president voting not voting it doesn't give us that it just says that government was designed these things are instituted for our goods so that there would be some system some oversight and someone who avenges what is wrong and promotes what is good so some of the ways that happens here you can we.
Then get into debates about how big should it be how little should it be how much should they promote how much should they discourage but the reality is under God's authority then there's just some how are they going to practically walk that out as long as they're in line with what God says is good and bad so some examples our government promotes generosity it promotes charitable work charitable organizations don't have to pay taxes our Church doesn't pay income tax we don't pay uh property tax we don't pay tax on the land that we live we people who give money to charitable organizations get tax benefits that's them encouraging things that they think are good our.
Government gives money towards education that's them encouraging things that they think are good that help for human flourishing and that's okay that's inside the bounds of the role of government they discourage evil and there are some places where they they maybe don't discourage it but they least shouldn't encourage it the reality is it's not a it's not against the law to lie if you want to tell people that your benchmax is higher than it really is if you want to tell people that the fish you caught was way bigger than it actually was.
If you want to tell people that you caught a lot of fish when you didn't that's all sin but there's no government control over that but then the government does step in when there are places where people are lying in business or they're lying about a business ben johnson was telling us in lebanon they the government recently took up 40 tons they confiscated 40 tons of expired chicken the chicken was dating back to 2016 that was being sold in markets there they came and confiscated it.
Because the government was like this is unhealthy this is unsafe and you're lying about it and the government's put some restrictions around that and they're discouraging something that's bad it's not good for their people to all be sick with eating bad chicken so they step in and those are some of the roles of government how much how far where those are the things we get to discuss but that's inside the realm of God's good design for government the Bible says that they carry the sword he is the servant of.
God an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrong doer that he does not carry the sword in vain this is one of the primary functions of the government to have a military to have police that's good they're servants of God for our good one of my favorite scenes at the end of the movie the guardians of the galaxy and if you haven't seen it it's like a heist movie but in space one of my favorite scenes is after these criminals who are the main people you're following they save this planet.
And so they tell them that their criminal records have been wiped clean because they saved the planet because they came together and did something good they wiped their criminal records clean and so they're talking to the police officer and one of them says okay well let me ask you a question now that my my slate's wiped clean what if i see someone who has something that i want more than they do and i just take it the police officer says yes that's theft that's that's against the law you will go to jail.
Because that make any sense i want it more than they do and they just kind of push him out of the way and then one of the bigger meaner guys on their team looks at him and goes okay well let me ask you something if someone does something that i find irksome so i remove his spine and the police officer looks at him and goes yeah that's that's murder that's like one of the worst things you can do you would also go to jail and as that's meant to be play out.
For humor but the reality is with no laws with no one enforcing what is good with no one avenging what is wrong the smartest the strongest the meanest often succeed people just do what's right in their own eyes they just take advantage of those who are weak those who are smaller that government is meant to be a good avenger on your behalf in romans chapter 12 the chapter before this Paul's talking to them and he tells them that God is the primary avenger don't be avenged.
When someone does you wrong but leave it to the wrath of God that God is the avenger of all wrongdoing but then in romans 13 he says secondarily God has given the sword to governments to avenge on his behalf for our good my brother is a police officer he's a sheriff's deputy and he is according to romans a servant of God for our good that when someone breaks into someone's home and takes what doesn't belong to them when someone harms someone.
When someone uh because they're bigger physically abuses someone that God has instituted for there to be those who are avengers for the good of those who live in this area that they might have someone to call they might have some resource to go to that God has designed this for our good they're those in law enforcement in our Church family those who've been in military and our Church family and that's a good thing to do they're servants of God for our good.
And so they ought to act as servants of God for our good the the part there that that adjusts how we approach politics and how our politicians act and how our military and police is that they serve God first and foremost and so they ought to act in line with him and therefore work from there so this plays out that that is one of the primary ways that we get to push our government towards what is good is by bringing them in line with the word of.
God and we're going to talk more about that next week and how we we actually get to play that out personally as we interact with our world and as we live out as people who live here but some examples of how this has worked in the past william wilberforce became a believer and he began to push the english government to get to abolish slavery he began to say that you're under God and slavery is wrong so you're out of bounds and what you're allowing and you need to abolish slavery he also pushed.
For uh good treatment of animals because of the same thing he was like no you ought not there ought to be some laws that prohibit this sort of behavior in the u.s one of our greatest thinkers and writers and speakers is frederick douglass who was a freed slave who had no political agency whatsoever could not vote had just earned his freedom had been property most of his life but he began to push he began to speak he began to proclaim he was a amy pastor at one point and he began to push those in leadership and said government ought to be in line with.
God and he pushed for the abolition of slavery he pushed for better rights for women because he said this is what God has designed for us and our government ought to be in line in promoting what is good and holding back what is evil and it worked him and others were able to push to get us to line up with more of God's will and God's good design for us and this is one of the ways that we get to participate as americans you get to vote you get to call your elected officials we live in a place where we have representation that we're supposed to have those who are in our leadership represent us.
Spencer was telling me this week that he had heard that they were getting rid of the adoption tax credit that some of the leaders in south carolina specifically those in the republican party were pushing for this because we live in a primarily republican state and most of our leaders are in the republican party they were pushing for getting rid of the adoption tax credit and so he said he called he called every leader in every in the districts he was in.
So his senators his congress people and he said if you're a republican and you're saying you're pro-life then you also need to be pro-adoption you need to help promote this that's what he called and told them and they ended up not passing it and so two of our pastors right now are in the process of adoption and they get to apply for this tax credit so spencer asked me to tell them on his behalf matt razzier welcome spencer fought for what was good.
So that we might promote what is good in our government and we get to do the same thing that God designed government to be a generic grace-filled good for the world that we're meant to have it and so we ought to be in subject in subjection to it paying taxes honoring those that are our leaders praying for them because God designed this to be good to help us but the reality is while government is good and is meant for our good it does have limitations.
So go back just a few pages to romans chapter 8. so in romans Paul has been walking through salvation he's been walking through our need for Christ by the time we've made it to romans 12 13 and forward he starts giving more practical advice but prior to this he's been giving a lot of theological understanding and so in romans 8 he's talking about the law of God to the law that God gave to Moses and the people of Israel so this is ceremonial law this is the law that of how of his moral law how they ought to relate to.
God this is uh state law how they ought to relate to one another this is the law that God handed to Moses so when it says law here in a second it doesn't just mean the laws we have on the books it actually means the law that God gave to Moses so here's what it says romans 8 verses 3 and 4. for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
For sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit so what Paul is getting at there is that the law that God gave to humanity could not ultimately fix human hearts it could not redeem them it could not change them it was a good law but it could not do he says God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do the reason i want us to.
See this is that if the law that God gave to Moses could not change human hearts i hate to break this to you but we will not pass a law in the united states that will be capable of doing it if the law given to the people of God after the Exodus could not ultimately fix them but was meant to show them their inadequacies and their need for Christ then any law we pass any good we promote any evil we prohibit will not ultimately be able to fix our hearts and this is important.
For us as Christians to understand government was given as a good for us but it cannot ultimately fix what is wrong with us it can hold evil at bay it can promote things that are good but Christ has done what the law cannot do he has come in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin to condemn sin in the flesh Jesus Christ came that he took on sin that he died for our sin so that as we place faith in him we might walk in the spirit not in the flesh that we might be changed internally that our hearts might be changed that we might be made new we touched on this idea last week.
When we read a quote from russell moore but what he was getting at was that we could actually get the the right president the best president the right congress the best congress the right policies the best policies but if we do all of that and get the wrong savior we have failed and so Christians are not looking for a savior we have one but we understand that government is good and therefore we ought to participate and promote it as those who understand it is good.
But it is not ultimate we cannot place all our hopes there we cannot place all our trust there we cannot believe that it will fix us that it will save us it will change everything for us that we know ultimately it's good but it's limited and therefore we participate in what is good but we trust that only Jesus will ultimately save us and change our hearts and so we work towards that end i love this quote from martin luther king jr getting at this idea he says it may be true that the law cannot make a man love me.
But it can keep him from lynching me and i think that's pretty important i love that quote and i think it gets at this idea that we believe that government is good that we ought to have it that it's good to have police it's good to have those promoting what is good and prohibiting what is evil and policing that and overseeing that and caring for that and working towards that that they're servants of God for our good so we appreciate our politicians we appreciate those who are in leadership we pray.
For them and we hope for good ones and we trust that God oversees all of that and that ultimately laws will not fix what is broken in us that we have hope for God to do that for our good through Christ so we participate but understanding the limitations we do not give our full hope and our full heart to it we trust that Jesus will ultimately change us and that we need him over and above the good government that God has given us.
So i want to push on those who are politically apathetic have no desire for it it's such a drain on you you think it's a waste of time i want you to see that God designed it for good and that we need good loss we need good oversight we need good to be promoted and evil to be prohibited and i want to encourage you to begin participating there are some people in our Church who should run for office we should have Christians that are holding public office and they should be Christians there's this idea that they should check their christianity at the door.
But nobody else has to do that the the secular humanist doesn't have to check that at the door in order to help make good laws and so we don't believe Christians should either we think you should go and be a Christian and you should help promote what is good and discourage what is evil and that you should use the Bible because ultimately all authority is derived from God you should use that as a good example of how you ought to do this.
So we think some should run for government run for office we think that those who would say but it's too corrupt and therefore you don't want to participate i would push back and say if it's too corrupt we ought to participate all the more we're given avenues for it as Christians in the united states there are some places where we wouldn't but we ought to push we are to participate we are to seek to have that changed so that this can be a good that.
God has given us you ought to vote and here's the thing about voting it's difficult when we only have two parties and you don't like either of the candidates the reality is if you as a Christian are not allowed to vote for anyone who has holds a policy that you disagree with or you as a Christian are not allowed to vote for anyone who holds a moral position a personal position moral action that you disagree with you will not vote so we need to be able to vote understanding that it is not a full endorsement of the character it's not a full endorsement of everything.
But that we've looked and said we think a good bit of this lines up with the heart of Jesus for the good of our nation and we're going to participate and where they're wrong and where they're off we're going to acknowledge it we're going to push for better we're going to practice different things in our personal life that help make up for the fact that i voted here but now i've got to make sure that i come up with some of the deficiencies here.
So you can vote it's not a full endorsement but then you ought to participate in a way that helps compensate start local if you're having a hard time getting motivated to be involved in politics start local this is something i need to grow in is paying attention to our local officials our local leaders caring about them knowing what they're for knowing what they affect but we ought to be involved in the local politics of our city not just our national politics pray that we're meant to pray.
For those who are in authority over us pray for their good not just pray that they would do what we want them to do but that the lord would use them that he'd give them wisdom that he would guide them that he would save them that we would pray for our leadership and lastly trust Jesus government is good and it's a blessing and we should be thankful for it we should be thankful for those who serve for our good they serve under.
God and his authority but we should ultimately trust him that even where things are bad and difficult and things where things are mishandled because we have sinners filling all the offices in our land we would trust that Jesus is working that he will judge what is evil and that all governments are ultimately instituted through him and therefore work at his will and when they get out of line he can remove them or he can bless them and he works through them.
For his good purposes even though we can't always see them so trust him to change hearts trust him to oversee the government we're in and participate in a healthy way understanding that it's good but it's not ultimate so for those of you who have placed too much hope in our political systems too much hope in a political party i would encourage you again this week to repent to begin to detox to begin to break that down so you might understand that it's good.
But ultimately we need God over top of it we need God down here with us changing our hearts and for those of you who've rejected all of this i'll push you to be involved to be engaged because it's a good gift from God that's meant for our good and for the good of our neighbors let's pray God we thank you for your grace your love towards us we pray that you would bless our nation that you would bless our leaders that you would change their hearts that you would give them wisdom and that they would be good servants of yours to discourage evil to promote good.
For the good of those who live in this land i pray that you would help us to not place too much hope in political parties or political systems but to trust you and we pray that you would help us not to be falsely wrongly apathetic towards something a gift that you have given us that we might be engaged for the benefit of our neighbors oh my God like you there is your grace your love exceeds the heaven's reach my my your faithfulness my my guilt and cross laid on your shoulders in my place you broke my bones glory to your.
Lord all right so uh just a couple announcements before we close out uh if you are are new we'd love to uh love for you to check out one of our groups one of the easiest ways you can do that is go to our website go to our community groups page and to fill out some information we'd love to be able to journey with us as we walk through this series as we uh walk through the Gospel together every week in groups come join us uh we'd love to get you connected there.
If you are a part of our Church just a reminder again you can give online uh by going to our website and you can also give by coming by the Church coming out of the building during the week and dropping off checks i want to close us with a word from hebrews 13. it says now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good they may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through.
Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever amen you guys have a great day.