Skip to content

The River ChurchSermons

Romans 9-16

Submission to the Authorities

Noble Baird · Sunday, 9 November 2025 · Romans 13:1-10 · 47:25 · 6,622 words

Romans S29 · 13:1-10

Listen to this message

The sermon walks through Romans 13, teaching that every person—believer or not—is called to submit to the governing authorities God has placed over us, because all authority comes from Him. It emphasizes respect, honor, and prayer for those officials, while reminding us of the biblical caveat that we must obey God rather than man when human commands conflict with Scripture. The speaker challenges listeners to examine their attitudes toward leaders, to pray for them daily, and to demonstrate godly obedience in everyday life.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

governing 44 authority 56 instituted 15 obey 31 single 30 submission 11 call 50 position 15 follower 20 father 27 county 8 local 9

Topics

Government & Authority 10 Obedience 10 Prayer 6 The Gospel 2 Salvation 1 Mission & Evangelism 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Sin 1 Hope 1 Faith 1 The Holy Spirit 1 The Law 1

Scripture referenced 33

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 13 0:58 2 Timothy 4:2 5:54 Romans 13 6:58 Romans 13 7:04 Romans 13:1 7:06 Romans 13:1 7:15 Romans 3:23 8:49 John 3:16 9:02 Romans 10:9 9:30 Philippians 2:9-11 9:41 Romans 13 10:33 Romans 13:1 11:57 Romans 13 13:06 Romans 13:2 13:06 Romans 4 14:15 Romans 4 14:17 1 Corinthians 15 14:33 1 Corinthians 4 14:45 1 Corinthians 4:19 14:45 Romans 3 15:22 Romans 3:15-18 15:27 Romans 3:15 15:31 Romans 3:4 21:33 Judges 17 22:41 Judges 17 22:43 Judges 17:6 22:45 Matthew 22 32:43 Matthew 22 32:45 Matthew 22:17-21 32:48 Romans 3:7 34:21 1 Timothy 2 35:27 1 Timothy 2:1 35:28 2 Timothy 2 40:53

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:35. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hi everyone, my name is Jules, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

We are so glad that you're here, and we want to connect with you and your family.

The easiest way to do that is to text THERIVERCHURCH to 97000.

There you can ask questions, submit prayer requests, and even support The River Church financially.

At the end of the day, we just want to connect with you and be a blessing in any way that we can.

You can also visit our website at theriverchurch.cc to learn more about us and what we have going on as a church.

Thanks again for joining us, and we hope that you are blessed by today's message.

Well, good morning, church. I'm back.

Alright, it's good to be here.

Again, my name is Noble, and Connections Pastor here, and just truly grateful to gather together and open up God's Word.

And a couple weeks ago, we talked about this Sunday.

This is an exciting Sunday, as we are going through the book of Romans.

And today we will be in Romans chapter 13, talking about submission to authority.

Talking about our governmental authority that has been established by the Lord today.

And so leading up to that, probably about a couple months ago, all of our location pastors went out and they invited all local government.

We even sent a letter to President Trump.

We sent a letter to the governor.

And so, I mean, we covered everything.

Seriously, inviting them to all of our gatherings.

And so today, across all nine locations, we have local governing authorities who are attending all of our gatherings.

And so we're super grateful that they accepted.

They accepted our invite.

And here this morning in Holly, we have seven who are with us.

And so we're super excited.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to read off their names.

I'm going to read their position here in the Oakland County area.

And then they're going to go ahead and stand up.

And we're going to applaud them.

And we're going to applaud them, thanking them for what they are doing for us.

Taking on that position to take care of our county.

And then once they are all standing, we're going to pray for them.

Together as a church.

And so the first one we have is our Holly trustee, Ryan Mattson.

So grateful to have Ryan and his wife with us.

Next, we have our Holly Village President, April Brandon.

We have our Holly Council Member, Buster Weinbrenner.

We have our Springfield Council Member, Lori Beattie.

We have our Springfield Council Member, Sean Miller.

We have Oakland County Commissioner, Charlie Cavell.

And we also have...

We have our Oakland County Captain, Todd Hill.

We are truly so privileged to have you with us.

Hey church, would you stand please?

And I just want to stand in unity with our local leaders, our local government.

And we're going to pray for them.

Intentionally pray for them.

Because that is the call from God's word.

For us to honor them, to respect them, and to pray for them.

And that's what we're going to get into this morning.

So let's go ahead and pray.

So God, we come before you.

Father, we thank you for what a privilege it is to come to this place.

Worship the name of Jesus.

We thank you for sending your son to die on a cross for our sins.

And through his glorious resurrection, we have life.

And Father, I thank you so much for every single government official that is here this morning, Lord.

I thank you.

I thank you for Ryan.

I thank you for April.

I thank you for Buster.

I thank you for Lori.

I thank you for Sean.

I thank you for Charlie.

And I thank you for Todd, Father.

I thank you for their sacrifice for our county, Lord.

I thank you for...

What they do on a daily and weekly basis here for us as a people.

And God, I ask that you would be with them.

Father, I ask that they would experience your peace unlike they ever have.

Father God, I ask that they would look to you for guidance.

I ask that they would look to you for leading, Lord.

As they lead humbly.

As they lead rightly.

In obedience to the law, Lord.

And that they would be obedient to you as well.

Father, I thank you for their sacrifice.

I thank you for the sacrifice of their families, God.

And I ask...

I ask that you would continue to watch over them always.

Protect them, Father.

And we're just so privileged to have them here with us this morning.

God, we love you and praise you.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Go ahead and grab a seat.

Oh, well, it is so good to be with you this morning, church.

You know, several years ago, Pastor Caleb and I, we got together.

And we used to have these massive, heavy preaching tables.

And as we had more...

More locations that came and were adopted.

They had random preaching tables all over.

And so we were like, man, we need like a single preaching table that's light.

That's easy to carry.

Easy to transport.

And so we found these.

We searched far and wide.

And I found these on Amazon.

And it's like the perfect wooden top.

And so I called up my buddy, Mike and Rich Mosier.

And we were like, hey, can we go ahead and get some CNC work on them?

And so what happens is on the top of all of our preaching tables, it says 2 Timothy 4.2.

And it says,

And I just love that reminder that this table is.

But what's going to happen is that I'm going to have to etch something into this.

And it says,

Preach the word.

Be ready in season and out of season.

And 12 hours before the gathering because Pastor Caleb is stuck in Florida due to government shutdowns.

With the FAA affecting it.

So that is why I am here with you this morning.

And it is a privilege.

Yes, Pastor Caleb wishes he could be here.

He sent me a picture.

He's sitting in the airport.

His plane got delayed again.

He called me last night.

He was like, dude, I can't get anywhere.

And so we were just laughing.

It's pretty good.

As we're talking about government authority, here we are.

The government shutdown.

It's okay because guess what?

God is in control.

God is in control.

God is in control.

God is in control.

And I'm just grateful that I get to open up God's word with you this morning.

And so if you have your Bibles, we are going to be in Romans chapter 13.

Romans chapter 13.

We're going to begin in verse 1.

And we're just going to go through this this morning and just open up and see what God has for us.

And so we begin there.

Paul writes in Romans 13 verse 1.

He says,

And those that exist have been instituted by God.

And so Paul begins this passage by declaring who his audience is.

He says,

Let every person, every person.

You see, here there's no exceptions.

All right, there's no exceptions.

Paul is speaking to both followers of Christ and those who have not followed Jesus.

They have not made the declaration that Jesus is their Lord and Savior.

And so really when we boil it down to looking at our world,

those are the two categories of our world.

There are those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,

who have confessed him the Lord of their life,

who have confessed their sins,

who say, God, there is nothing good in me.

And I thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins.

I believe in you.

I believe in the resurrection.

And I want you to be Lord of my life.

And then there's the other part of our world that is lost,

that is hurting, that is broken.

And they have not come to a place where they see and understand,

understand the need for the Lord in their life.

And so these are the two eternally defining factors in our world.

Those who are saved, those who are not saved.

And Paul is talking to who?

Every person.

You see, it's amazing as we go throughout scripture,

there are several passages of scripture where we see a similar phrase,

where every person is the audience.

Earlier this summer, we read in Romans 3, 23,

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory.

Again, all, every person has sinned and falls short of the glory of God.

The classic John 3, 16,

Again, we see here that it is a reference to the world.

Every single person.

God so loved our world.

God so loves every single person in this world

that he sent his son,

Jesus to die on the cross.

And all we have to simply do as Romans 10, 9 tells us

is that we must confess and believe in our hearts

that Jesus died and rose again.

Another verse that I love so much in Philippians 2, 9 through 11 says,

therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him

the name that is above every name

so that at the name of Jesus,

every knee should bow.

In heaven and on earth and under earth

and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

You see, there is no exception on that glorious day.

We will all bow and confess Jesus Christ as Lord.

And so I go through those three quick passages

and we would all agree that those three passages

are pointed to every single person in our world.

That is the audience of those three passages is every person.

There's no exception.

However, this morning, we begin here in Romans 13

talking about submission to government authority

and we read, let every person,

and there have been many times in our lives,

there's been times in my life where I'm like,

I think there's an exception to this passage.

I don't think that Paul really meant every person.

I don't think the Lord is calling every one of us.

I don't think the Lord is calling every one of us to do this.

Amen, that we're all sinners.

Amen, that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

Amen, that one day we will bow a knee

and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord.

I don't know if we want to submit to government authority.

No, this morning, we must.

Every person is called to be subject to governing authorities.

And so what does this word subject mean?

It means to place oneself under,

under the authority of another

and recognize their position,

having respect for that position.

So why?

Why are we as followers of Christ

called to submit,

to subject to the governing authorities around us?

Well, as we read there in the second half of verse one,

it says there is no authority except from God

and those that exist have been,

they have been instituted by God.

They have been instituted by God.

And we're so privileged to have just seven

here with us this morning.

And guess what?

Every single one of them have been put in place

because of our heavenly father.

He has put every single one of them in place.

He has put every single one of you in place.

And I'm grateful that he has.

So we've established the audience.

The audience of this passage this morning is everyone.

It is our entire,

those who believe in Jesus as their savior

and those who do not.

We have established who has put that authority,

who has instituted our governing authorities,

both local and across the entire world.

Every single authority,

governing authority put in place

has been instituted by our heavenly father.

And now if we go into Romans 13 verse two,

Paul gives us a warning.

Paul gives us a warning.

He says,

Therefore, whoever resists the authorities

resists what God has appointed.

And those who resist will incur judgment.

And so understanding that every single governing authority

that has been put in place

has been put in place

because of the work of our heavenly father,

there is this call to obedience.

And there's also a stern warning

that if we decide to resist,

what the Lord has appointed,

we will incur judgment.

Now I want to take an important pause.

Now there is one caveat to this call

of obedience to our governing authorities.

And that is whenever our governing authorities

call us to do anything

that violates the command of the Lord.

So what do I mean by this?

We go to Acts chapter four.

In Acts chapter four,

Peter and John are proclaiming the gospel.

They are sharing the good news.

They are not being aggressive.

They are not agitating.

They are not being combative.

They are simply proclaiming

what we read in first Corinthians 15,

the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

who they had walked with

and they had seen with their own eyes.

And so beginning in Acts chapter four, verse 19,

but Peter and John answered,

the Sadducees and the teachers of the law,

whether it is right in the sight of God

to listen to you rather than God,

you must judge for we cannot but speak

of what we have seen and heard.

And so what is happening here

is Peter and John are telling the governing authorities

as they are telling them that they must stop preaching

the word of God,

that they must stop proclaiming the gospel.

They said, we cannot and we will not stop preaching

the gospel of God.

We cannot preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We go back to the Old Testament in Daniel chapter three,

beginning in verse 15 through 18,

we have King Nebuchadnezzar.

Beginning in verse 15, we read,

now if you are ready,

when you hear the sound of the horn,

the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe,

which I had no idea bagpipes are that old,

and every kind of music to fall down

and worship the image that I have made well and good.

But if you do not believe,

if you do not worship,

you shall be immediately be cast into the burning fiery furnace.

And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered

and said to the King,

O Nebuchadnezzar,

we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If this be so,

our God whom we serve is able to deliver us

from the burning fiery furnace

and he will deliver us out of your hand, O King.

But if not, be it known to you, O King,

that we will not serve your gods

or worship the golden image

that you have set up.

Again, we have Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego.

And they're declaring to King Nebuchadnezzar

that they will not worship any other God

but the true sovereign creator of our world,

our Heavenly Father.

And so these are just two instances, right,

where we see Christians call,

the follower of Christ call.

It's a duty not to obey governing

authority for what they are calling

the people to do.

Now this is a very fine line.

This is a very fine line.

And we're going to get into it here in a little bit.

But I want you to know that there are very clear things

in scripture that we have a duty

to obey.

And there are very clear things that are not in scripture

that our country,

that our local government has put in place

to regulate law and order

which we must obey.

So what are some of those things that are not

in God's word, but we do

see in our world that we are called

to obey as God has

instituted these governing authorities

for us? Well, here's the first one.

I-75.

Captain Todd, you know what I'm going to go with, right?

70 miles an hour.

Today you may have done it.

Maybe. I doubt it though, because

some of you, I know you can't make 1030.

70 miles an hour

is the speed limit. You go 71,

72, 73,

90, 100. Guess what?

You're breaking the law.

There are ramifications for that because

you are disobedient to the governing

authority and the laws they have instituted.

So yeah, you're going to get a ticket.

That's how it works.

Our taxes. We are called

to pay our taxes

to the governing authority

so that everything continues to work

as it is supposed to. And guess what?

You decide not to pay your taxes,

there's a fine. Okay?

There are some other things in God's

word. You know, I mean, here's the deal, right?

We're in Michigan. U-turns.

Alright? U-turns. You decide not

to read it right, okay? You go to a

red light and it says, stop at the

red light. But you're like, ah, no one's going to be

here. I can turn, right? No. Guess what?

You're breaking the law. You get

a ticket because you're being disobedient.

There are some things in God's word

that also lines up with our

governing authorities as well.

Murder. Theft. Fraud.

Okay? These are things that are very

clear in God's word that we as followers

of Christ not only are called

to obey, but as

5 tells us,

we are called to be ambassadors

of Christ. And so

guess what? In that purview

of the lanes of authority

that we are called to be obedient to God's

word and be obedient to the law of the

land, you should be an

example. We are called

as followers of Christ to be an example

to those who do not

know the Lord, who have not accepted

the Lord as their

Savior. And so my first

point this morning is as followers of Christ

we are called to submission

to the governing authorities, all

of which have been established

by the Lord. As

followers of Christ, we have been called to

submission to governing authorities

because he has instituted

each and every one

of them. Local, country,

continue on in verses

3 and 4 and Paul

now takes a little step and he's

going to outline the roles

of our governing authorities.

He now takes the time to share

with them what their call

is as they've been instituted

in this position by the

Lord. Paul starts out in verse

3 and he says,

For rulers are not a terror

to good conduct, but

to bad. Would you have

no fear of the one who is

an authority? Then do what

is good and you will receive his

approval. For he,

referring to the governing authority,

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

And so what does this mean?

What does this mean in

talking about governing authorities'

role in relation to

the Lord? They are God's

servant. Paul makes it very clear

in verse 4.

For he is God's servant for

your good. And so

yes, our governing authorities

are truly put in

place by the Lord to be

his servant. To

what? To protect, to

lead and take care of

the people. To take care

of the county they are in charge in.

To take care of the state they

are in charge in. To take care of the country

that they have been put

in position over to

take care and guard. You know,

imagine, and there's tons

of movies out there, right? Like you can

always find like an end of the world

You can find a movie where it's just like

total chaos, right? That's like

a very niche market in

Hollywood. They love those chaotic, crazy

I remember one like back when I was a kid

like Waterworld. I mean like the

whole world floods, but like, which is

crazy in and of itself. But like,

I'm pretty sure like it goes, like the world

goes into chaos, okay?

In Judges 17,

in Judges 17, we're going to go back. In Judges

17 verse 6, in those

days, there was no king in

Israel. And everyone did what

was right in his own eyes.

This is what happens when

we don't have any governing authorities.

Everyone did what was

right in their own eyes. Can you

imagine if all of a sudden

on Twitter, social

media, the news,

I doubt it would be in the newspaper.

I don't know if we still get those or not. I'm not

sure. All of a sudden it said, hey,

no governing authorities. Everyone do

what's right in your own eyes. Anyone in

here signing up for that? No way.

It's utter chaos.

It would be a catastrophe.

There would be, it would,

immorality would be a plague

everywhere. Thin, rampant,

everyone just doing what they want,

when they want, where they want.

It would be utter chaos.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to

live in that kind of a world.

And that is why the Lord has established,

our governing authorities, in

power over us, right?

If you will. Because they are there

to keep the law and order.

They are there to protect us.

They are there as God's servants

to make sure that we don't find

ourselves in a place

where what? Where everyone is doing

what is right in their own

eyes. I thank God that we don't

live in the Old Testament times.

We are so privileged to live here

in America. We are so privileged

to live here in Holly.

Where guess what? We got up on the

stage this morning and we declared

glory to the Lord. Where we sang

boldly the name of Jesus.

Where we came out here and we prayed

for all of our

governing authorities here this

morning. Where I am here, able to

open up God's word and declare

His truths to you without

any fear of anyone coming up here

and trying to stop us and tell us that

we can't do that. Those are the

privileges we have in this

country. Our governing authority

is here to be

To do good. But there is

a caveat, right? It says

there, it says the rulers are not a

terror to good conduct

but to bad. They are

a terror to the bad

because they are called to uphold

the law of the land. They are

called to uphold but then they are

called to also execute punishment

for those that break

the law. For those do not follow

what has been established

and so again

going back to us as followers

of Christ being submission to

governing authority

this is not something that we should be afraid

of. As followers of Jesus

Christ, we ought to obey

the Lord's commands.

We ought to do good.

We are called as followers

of Jesus Christ to be an example

of Jesus Christ to our

world. And so if we are truly

walking in step with

the Spirit, if we are truly obedient to the

Spirit's leading in our lives

then guess what? Why are you

afraid? We shouldn't be because

we're being obedient to the laws that have

been placed before us. Yes,

there is going to be that caveat of

if they're telling us to stop preaching the word

of God. If they tell us to worship

any other God but our

Heavenly Father. If they want us

to commit any immoral

acts or violate

any of the Lord's laws

outside of that clear definition

in God's word, we ought

to be obedient. And we ought

to be an example of that obedience.

So we understand

our audience. We understand our call

as followers of

Christ to submit to governing

authorities. And here in verses

3 and 4, this brings us to our second

point. That our governing officials

are called to be God's servants

who are in place for our

good and they're there to serve

and protect us. Every single one

of them. That's why they are established.

It's very easy.

For us in this country to

be vocal. We have the privilege

of freedom of speech.

We have the privilege of

free will to say what we

want, to think what we want.

It's amazing as

Paul is writing about

submission to authority.

If we truly take a step back

and just try to remember

what is going on in

Paul's life right now.

Paul doesn't have a luxurious

relationship with the governing

authority there in Rome.

We really take a step back

to how government was during

the time of Paul.

We look back to the time

of Peter and John. What they

were living in. The Romans

were in charge. Everything they said

and did was final.

You stepped out of line. They didn't like what you

did. Boom. They're right.

Doesn't matter what you think. Doesn't matter what

you say. Here Paul is claiming

his Roman citizenship so

that he has an opportunity to speak.

He's just saying, hey, this is the one thing

that I can hold on to and share.

He's claiming his Roman citizenship

and now he is sharing

and teaching and preaching these things.

But Paul did not have luxury

with his local

government as we do

here in 2025.

I think we need to remember Paul's

heart that as he is

experiencing so much hardship,

as he's experiencing persecution,

yet he is still

submitting out of reverence

and obedience to

the Lord. But there are times

where we find ourselves as Christians

and we're just humming and hawing.

We're mad and we're kicking the ground

and we're going to send out an angry

tweet. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know

if people tweet anymore. I just feel like that was a thing

for so long. Alright, you put out an angry

post. What does that do?

What does that do except for show

that you're not being a good

example of a follower of Christ?

Because that's what Paul is calling us here.

We love you church, but we are

called to submit

and here in the last

few verses we are going to read

how we are called to respect

and we are called to honor

every single one of our governing

authorities. In verse 5

Paul continues, he says

therefore one must be subject

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.

And honor to whom

owed. And so my final point

this morning for us

as a church, for us as

followers of Christ is a

godly obedience. We are

called to have a godly

our heavenly father and

through that a godly obedience

and submission to those who he

has instituted in

governing authority. Yes

there are very clear things

and we as a church have been

outspoken about some of those things

such as abortion. That

as followers of Christ that goes against

God's word. That is a very

clear area that we are like

nope that goes against God's word

we will not stand on that

we will not support that because

we believe in the sanctity of life.

And we believe that God

has ordained each and every

life at conception.

And again outside of a purview of

disobeying God's commands

what are we called to do

as followers of Christ?

We are to show respect

and honor to every

single one of them. Every single one

of them. I love how Paul

points back to Matthew 22.

He points back to Matthew 22

verses 17 through 21

where we have a

the teachers of the law and they are

coming to Jesus as they often do.

They always come and try to

trip him up and try to get

him to slip and not be able

to answer a question which

I have no idea what they were thinking.

Like oh we are really going to slip up Jesus this time

this is going to be a real humdinger.

Nope. So they come to Jesus

and they say tell us then what do you think

is it lawful to pay taxes to

Caesar or not? And Jesus aware

of their malice said

why put me to the test?

You hypocrites. Show me the coin

for the tax. And they brought their

Daenerys and Jesus said to them

whose likeness and inscription is on

this? They said Caesar.

He said to them therefore

render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's

and to God the things

that are God's. Our Savior

has called us to

an obedience first and foremost

to our Heavenly Father and

because of our obedience to our Heavenly

Father there is a submission to

our governing authorities. Jesus

preached this. Jesus declared

this. Paul is reiterating

the words of the Lord for

us and I love how he

intentionally, I truly

think it's intentional as Paul ends

verse 7. How he ends with

respect and honor. Calls

us to respect them and to honor

them. And that was our goal this morning

as a church. To bring them out

to let them know that we are so thankful.

Thankful for every single one of you.

For the position that you have taken on.

For the position that you have taken on.

To lead our county.

To lead our city.

Protect. It is a high calling.

And us as followers of Christ

as a church, I hope that

afterwards you will go up to them intentionally

and thank them. I hope that you will go up to

them, introduce yourself and just thank them

for stepping into that

position. But also

I'm going to give us a challenge.

In 1 Timothy 2

beginning in verse 1 Paul writes

he says, first of all then I

urge that supplication

prayers, intercessions

and thanksgiving be made

for all people.

For kings and all

who are in high positions

that we may lead

a peaceful and quiet life

godly and dignified

in every way.

You see as followers of Christ

we are called

to pray for our governing

authorities. We are called

to lift them up

in prayer to the Lord.

Asking for peace in their

lives, for protection

for them and their families

for discernment and

leading that only can

come from our heavenly

father. The Lord has established

and instituted every

single position from president

all the way down

in every single one of those positions

is meant to be

filled with one of God's servants

for our good and to

serve us, to take care of the people

to provide that law and order.

But you know what's amazing?

With an understanding that chain of command

that the Lord has instituted is that

we forget that our entire

world is filled with broken sinners.

Every single one of us

is broken. Every single one of us

is a sinner. There's not one

person here this morning that's perfect.

Not one. Every single one

of us. We mess up daily. Even

those of us, right? Who have called upon

the name of the Lord. We still

sin. We still break his commands.

We still mess up every

single day. And yes,

we do have some in governing authority.

Right? From president

all the way down. You look at that

entire list. I couldn't even

tell you all the lists, alright? But

there's so many positions in our governing

authority, right? And we do

have some brothers and sisters in Christ

in those areas

who fill those areas.

But we also have those who do not

know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

And so guess what? They do to the

best of their ability to make the

right decision, but we need to

remember that they're also

sinners who are

filling that seat and doing their

best to help protect and lead

and take care of us

as a people. And so what does that

look like for us as a church?

First and foremost, remember

that submission to governing authority

is being obedient to

what the Lord has instituted.

Remember that. As a follower

of Christ, we must submit,

because God has placed

them there. If we choose to be

disobedient to them,

being disobedient to what the Lord has

established. Yes,

there is the caveat of the Lord's commands.

be weary. We must always be

faithful to the commands

of God's Word. If we

ever see, if we're ever called to

do anything that is outlined,

that is outside of this book,

that is outside of His commands,

yes, it's our duty and obligation.

Just as it was for Meshach,

Shadrach, and Abednego. Just as

it was for Peter and

John, right? They said, no,

I'm sorry. I love you, but I'm not

going to do that, because the Lord has

called me, and the Lord has commanded

that we preach His Word, and

that we only worship Him, right?

But I want to call us, ultimately,

to a godly obedience.

That we, as followers of Christ, would live

this out every

single day, when it comes to

our governing authorities. That maybe

before you say

some words against another

governing authority, that we take a pause.

That we remember that they were created

by our Heavenly Father.

That they were put in place by

our Heavenly Father. Remember

that they are a broken sinner,

just like you and me.

And sure, there might be some policies

you don't like. Axes might be

raised. Maybe the construction

has gone on too long. But in

that moment of frustration,

instead of letting our anger take hold

of us, instead of letting our annoyance

take hold of us,

and lead into disobedience

against our Heavenly Father, I want

you to do what Paul calls us to do here in

2 Timothy 2. Stop and pray.

First and foremost, pray for your own heart.

Just help me realign with you,

Lord. Help take this anger away

from me. But also, I pray for

that person specifically, who I

didn't like their policy. Or man, I didn't

vote for them, but they got in. Pray for

them. Man, if they don't know the Lord,

what are we called to do, church?

We are called to pray for

their salvation. We're called to pray that they

would submit to the Spirit, that they would

come to a relationship, that they

would come to confess Jesus Christ

as their Lord and Savior.

And we no longer look at them as a political

card, or we look at them in

anger, but we can see them as a brother and

sister in Christ, because that is our goal.

That is our call.

This morning, I just want to encourage you,

church, that it's not an easy

passage. It's not an easy thing

just to do and say. But it is

something that we daily have to work

at. And I want to encourage you. I want to challenge you

with the words of Paul.

I want to encourage you to respect

and to honor those positions.

But more than anything, I want

to call you to pray for them. Pray for them

on a daily basis. That the Lord

would lead them. That the Lord would guide

them. That He would mold their hearts

to be the servant of

His that they have been put in place

to be for our good.

A few moments after this song,

we get to celebrate that life

change that we have all experienced

through the death, burial, and

resurrection of Jesus as we celebrate

a couple coming forward and they're

going to get baptized. To see that

step of obedience. So this

morning, I just want to encourage you, church. I want to

encourage us that we will be

obedient to God's word. That we

remember that the Lord has instituted

every single person in governing

authority over us. That

they are called to be God's servant for our

good. And that we as followers

of Christ ought to be the example

of submission. We ought to be

the example of godly

obedience every single day of our

lives. I want to challenge you

just this week. Pray for every single

official who's come here this morning

to be with us. Pray for every single

one of them. Introduce yourself. Let them know

that you're praying with them. Praying for them.

And I want to challenge you. Next time you get frustrated

politically, you get frustrated

because, man, maybe your policy

didn't go through or your candidate

didn't get voted for, pray for

the one that the Lord instituted. Because

there's not one person that's

ever been in governing authority

and there will never be a person

who's in governing authority that the Lord

did not put in place. Because he is

sovereign. And he is in

control. Will you pray with me, church?

God, we come before you. God, I just

thank you for this day. I thank you for

the privilege it is to just come before your

throne, Father. God, I hope that my words

would illuminate a desire

in our hearts, Lord, to be

obedient to your scriptures, God.

God, would you do a work in my

heart for that obedience?

God, I thank you for every single

governing authority that you have put

in place. I thank you for them

all. Lord, I ask that you would

watch over them. You would protect them.

That you would lead them, Father.

For those that do not know you, Lord,

that your spirit would move in their lives.

That you would place those in their lives

around them. That would show them your

love. That would be the hands and feet

of your Son, Jesus Christ.

Father, that they would

come to a place of

submission to you, Father.

That they would declare Jesus Christ

their Savior.

That they would seek the forgiveness for their

sins. That they would stand

boldly on the name of Jesus.

And for those who are in

governing authority, Lord, who have accepted

you, who do know you, would you strengthen

them through every single day?

Would you do a work in our hearts?

We would submit. That we would

submit out of obedience

to you, Father. That you would give

us discernment to cling to your

word and your commands. That

your spirit would lead, if anything, is

leading us away from what your

word says. That we would put

our feelings aside. That we would not be

subjective, but we would objectively

look at your word. And that

we would be obedient in honoring

and respecting our

governing authorities every single

day. God, I do thank you for

our local leaders who you've brought

here this morning. God, I ask that you would continue

to watch over them. That you would encourage

them, Father. That they would feel

your love and your leading as

they take up this position as your servant

to lead and protect and

serve this county

and this place, Father. I thank

you for them. I ask that you would bless them.

That you would protect them every

single day. God, we love you. We praise

you. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Listen to this message