Romans

So that's page 1140. Romans chapter 13. Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which god has established. The authorities that exist have been established by god. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling what god has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

For rulers hold no terror for those who do rights. But for those who do wrong, do you want to be free from the fear of the 1 in authority, then do what is right and you will be commended. For the 1 in authority is god's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid For rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are god's servants, agents of wrath, to bring punishment on the wrong duet.

Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment, but also as a matter of This is also why you pay taxes for the authorities at god's servants who give their full time to governing Give to everyone what you owe them. If you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue, if respect then respect. If honor, then honor. Let no debt remain outstanding. It kept the continuing debt to love 1 another.

For whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments you shall not commit adultery. Shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not covet, and whatever other command there may be.

I summed up in 1 command. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, understanding the present time.

The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber. Because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over. The day is almost here. So is put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in mention and jealousy, rather clothe yourselves with the lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. Well, good morning. My name's, Pete Woodcock, and I'm the pastor of the church. We've been working our way through book of Romans, I think we've been in it for about, well, 18 months, couple of years or something. And, the reason why, we do little sections at a time is that, we want to we want to treat this as god's word and if I just stand up and choose my favorite passages, I would not have chosen this.

There's no way I would have, chosen this, but the great thing is we want god to speak to us. And so as we work our way through, we see subject and things that we wouldn't naturally wanna listen to and god informs us and recreates us by his precious word. It's it's it's a very It's a very great thing. So let me ask the lord to help us. Father, please send your spirit.

This is your spirit word. Would he open up this word to our hearts? And to our minds, to our actions, would would the spirit recreate us through his word, that we may be people that not only here, but, our doers in Jesus' name, amen. Okay. See whether you can guess what I'm on about.

Some of you'll get it right at the beginning. Some of you won't get it at the end. See if you can guess what I'm talking about. Some people avoid it. Some people evade it.

Some will pay lawyers to get around it. Some, will go to other countries to avoid it. Everyone hates it. Some will do their duty, but only grudgingly toward it. All of us grumble about it.

The Beatles wrote a song about it. What is it? Tax. Yeah. It's tax.

The very famous statement on tax by Benjamin Frank Franklin is in this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes. Someone else said there are only 2 types of people that complain about paying tax that is men and women. Although today, I'm not sure if you can use that sentence anymore. Others have said the Lord Giveth and the inland revenue taketh away. The Beatles song taxman, it was an amazing song, but there's a little phrase within the song.

If you drive a car, I'll I'll tax the street. If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat. If you get too cold, I'll tax your heat If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet. Tax. It's not something that we particularly like.

And I think personally the worst thing about tax is filling in a tax form. And I found out this week that Albert Einstein thought exactly the same. Albert Einstein said this, about filling in a tax form, which he couldn't seem to do. This is a question too difficult for a mathematician. You you need to ask a philosopher.

I thought that was terrific. Now none of those quotes are positive about tax, obviously. And I'm not sure if I'm going to, be able to do this. But Paul is positive about tax and I think we should be then. So this is a strange talk that you're already hating me for.

Already. But Paul is actually very positive about tax. Look at verse 6 of chapter 13 of Romans. This is also why you pay taxes. For the authorities of god's servants who give their time, their full time to governing.

Give to everyone what you owe them. If you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue. If respect, then respective honor, then honor. There's a classic scene and that's where I've taken the title for this talk from. A classic scene from a monty python film.

Some of you have seen it. Some of you never even heard a monty Ethan. But, it's a comedy scene, where there's a whole load of rebels together hiding away in the first century and they want to rebel against the Roman authorities and it is it's really worth watching. It's a great scene. And suddenly, 1 of the rebels says to the to the leader of the rebels, why are we rebelling?

Yes, we've got to rebel. And then suddenly, what why are we rebelling? And then the the the question comes, well, what have the Romans ever done for us? And to the annoyance of the leader, 1 of the rebels after another rebel after another rebel, all we start saying the good things the Romans have done. What about aqueducts?

Yes. What? Yes. Equeducts. It goes like this.

Sanitation, and then there's a whole list. Roads, irrigation, medicine, education, wine, public baths, safe to walk the streets, peace. Yes. Yes. Yes.

The Romans had done that, but what have they ever done for us? We must rebel. And, but what you gotta remember is Paul is writing this letter in the first century under the Roman authorities. So, Paul, if he was in that Montipython rebel meeting would have been throwing out these things and asking the question was someone's gotta pay for these Someone's got to pay for the aqueducts and the roads. Where do you think the money comes from?

They're not free. So Paul would have would have come in there, I think. Now, Paul isn't naive. He's not naive about the the Roman Empire and the imperial powers. He knows that if you threaten the Roman state, you could be executed in horrific ways.

He had seen that stuff happen. Despite the Romans priding themselves on the rule of law, often their Roman officials were would notoriously corrupt I mean, horrifically corrupt. The Roman imperial powers promoted revolting pagan religions. That did awful things to women and children, and all kinds of people, actually young men as well. Slavery was all over the Roman empire, as you know.

So Paul's not writing from a naive position that they just give us aqueducts and sanitation. He knows the dark side of the Roman imperial powers as well. And many of those people, that are gonna receive this letter when Paul first wrote it to the Christians in Rome, many of those were Jewish converts to Christianity and they had known a racist campaign against them that was to cleanse Rome of the Jews. So they they had known the horrors of imperial racist campaigns against them. And remember, you've got to remember this.

It will, if you didn't know, you need to know this. That Paul who wrote this letter would soon have his head chopped off from from the imperial powers. And Pronera was about to kill him. So he's no he's not naive, and yet he writes these amazing verses in the first 7 verses of of Romans 13. Amazing verses.

And it actually if you could get just what this Roman church were going through by the authorities. This is spine chilling. I guess when this letter was first read out in church and they got to this bit, it was like, what is he saying? Let me read the first 7 verses just again. Look, let everyone be subject to the governing authorities.

Who? The Roman imperial powers Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which god has established The authorities that exist have been established by god. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted. And those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror to those who do right, But for those who do wrong, do you want to be free from fear of 1 in authority, then do what is right, and you will not be condemned.

For the 1 in authority is god's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid. For rulers, do not bear the sword for no reason. They are god's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment to the wrongdoers. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to authorities and not only because of possible punishment, but also as a matter of conscience.

This is also why you pay taxes for the authorities of god's servants who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them. If you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue, if respect, then respect If honor, then honor. They dynamite these words if you were sitting there in in Rome in the first century in a church. What Paul is doing and what he's been doing from Romans chapter 12 verse 1 is he's working out How do we live as god's people in the light of god's utter mercy to us?

We have peace now with the living god because of the lord Jesus Christ. It is extraordinary. He'd spent 11 chapters whacking that home. That's why we've taken so long that god's love is dynamite. And it changes our our perspective and our thinking and our actions and transforms us at every level and even with tax.

It's extraordinary. Even the way we treat authorities Pagan, Roman authorities that are over us, that knowing god's love and being at peace with god changes everything. And he's been dealing with all kinds of subjects, and he'll carry on dealing with how it changes. But now it's with authorities. How we see authorities.

God's truth even changes that because what happens when we know that we are so loved by the lord Jesus Christ is that we become lovers We lay our lives down for love, and that's what he's spelling out. And actually these 7 verses, if if you look, are surrounded by love verses. They're surrounded by love verses. And so Paul is saying you need to understand that the love of god in your life transforms you to be a lover even when it comes to authorities in your life. You'll be able to love even paying taxes.

That's extraordinary, isn't it? That's extraordinary, isn't it? I mean, that's a transforming power, isn't it? If I actually like paying taxes. Now none of us do like paying taxes, so there's something wrong with us.

So we need to be more transformed by the love of Christ. You see it? You see why now we need to hear this? I wouldn't naturally have preached on that. Because naturally in my heart, I'm rebellious.

And now, annoyingly to me, The Bible god's word is telling me Pete. I want you to be more of a lover than you are. You see that? It's powerful stuff, isn't it? And that's what's going on here.

And then If you read Romans 12 verse 17 which we preached on and I recommend that you go back and have a listen to that sermon, Romans 12 17 do not repay anyone evil for evil but be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone and we were looking at it's not our job to to personal have personal revenge. It's not our job to live a life of payback time. You did me evil payback That's not the life to live. That's not the life of love, Paul was challenging on that. But the question comes from that, and it did come from that.

Well, how can we live in this world? If there's no justice or, you know, dealing with evil And I'm not to pay back evil for evil, or there's no crying out, you know, for for justice from me, me doing it. How how this world would be a disaster? And the answer is, yes, god does it. God does it through the state.

Just have a look at, chapter 12 verse 19. Do not take revenge my dear friends, but leave room for god's wrath. For it is written, it is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the lord. It's not our job to seek revenge or or to seek compensation from evil that is done done it's not me personally to do that. It is god's job.

And how does god do it? Not just at the end of time. Of course, he will do it fully and ultimately there, but not just at the end of time. He brings in justice and the wrath of god against evil and wrongdoing by the state, by the government. So chapter 13 verse 4, for the 1 in authority is god's servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are god's servants, agents of wrath, to bring punishment to the wrongdoer. So personally, I don't seek revenge, I do wait for the end of time when all justice will be sorted, of course, but in the meantime, there is a state there is a government that actually deals with wrongdoing. That's his point, and that is god's work. You see that?

Now with all of that in mind, let's get into this passage a little. And here's the first thing I want you to see. The principle of authority, the principle of authority. Romans 13 doesn't tell us everything about our attitudes and how we act towards governments and authorities. It doesn't tell you everything in the bible about that.

There are there are many other passages you need to look to. It's not telling us everything. It doesn't tell us everything about what to do with a government that is committing, you know, moral wrong. It doesn't tell us that. He's not dealing with that.

He's dealing with big principles of authority. It doesn't tell us what the best government is. Doesn't tell us that. But it tells us these big broad principles and attitudes that we are in general to have with government and our submission to that government or state. So the trouble is when you read this passage, you can't help asking more about Hitler or what about these, you know, despots?

He's not really dealing with that. There are other passages that deal with with that. And I think the reason he's not dealing with that is because he wants us to see the big principle first. Get that right and then you can work out the details. Do you see what he's doing here?

Now I've already said that the Christian that were, Christian converts in in Rome some of those were Jews, and they were having big problems with the imperial powers. But so were slaves, And so were other Christians, they were being treated appallingly. Many of these Christians were mistreated because They would not say that Caesar, the Roman Emperor, was god or the son of god. They wouldn't bow and pray to him as a god. They said that only Jesus is god.

Now they were absolutely right in rebelling at that point. But then do you go further? And this is what Paul's dealing with. Should we go further? Should we not pay our taxes then to this pagan ruler?

Should we withhold taxes I mean, there's no king but god. Yeah? On all Christians citizens of heaven, we're just passing through this earth. So why should I pay tax to that man? Weren't we told in in Romans 12 verse 13 that we are to share with the lord's people in need and we're to practice hospitality?

Well, the money would be better to go to the church, wouldn't it, than to some pagan ruler that wants us to call him god? So do you see that there's a real, real situation going on here that Paul is dealing with? These are real issues and so Paul spells it out in broad principle. Look at verse 1. Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which god has established.

The authorities that exist have been established by god consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what god has instituted. Is a very clear point, isn't it? All authority comes from the ultimate authority which is God. And all other authorities are under the ultimate authority. If you if you know the story of Jesus, Jesus just before he was about to be condemned to crucifixion was before pilot, a Roman official, a Roman authority.

And pilot is a bit cocky with Jesus and says he can do what he likes. Now Jesus answers him back and shows him, puts him in his place in some ways, But he Jesus says to him, you would have no power, you would have no authority over me if it were not given to you by god. Yeah. So Jesus puts Pilot in his place, but he accepts pilot's authority and goes to his death. Isn't that extraordinary?

And then, you may know the the story when some religious officials are trying to trap Jesus, the pharisees, and they're trying to trap him and they ask him about paying taxes and they know that if he says don't pay taxes, they would click their fingers and call the Roman authorities and say he's a rebel, kill him. If he says, do pay taxes, they'd click their fingers and say, he's a blasphemer because only god is king, kill him. You see? So they're out to trap Jesus, and he knows that, of course. And he says, should we they are should we pay taxes?

And he says, well, bring a coin to me. Will you bring a coin? And they bring a coin? They say who he says whose head is on the coin and they say Caesar's head is on the coin. And he gives it back to them and says, pay to Caesar what is caesars and pay to god what is god's.

It's brilliant. It's brilliant, and they didn't know what to do. But this is exactly what Paul is doing, exactly what Paul is doing. He's saying submit to the authorities because there is a good luck, mate. Because there is remember, children are to submit to authorities.

Yeah. Well, to submit to authorities, because, be be be because they're under god. Paid to Caesar, what is Caesar's paid to god. What is god's? Get it right.

Now why? Because god has set this up to rebel against authority is to lack confidence in god himself and it's to lack confidence in god's goodness towards us. Because god has established authority for our good. It's the best way to survive. So every power has a greater power behind it and that power is god.

And you need to have confident trust in god that he will work out his purposes and you trust god working out his purposes by submitting to the authorities that he has instituted. Now, what does it mean to to submit here? Does submit mean the same as obedience? And the answer is, yes, and no. That's the answer.

Of course, when you say the word submit, it carries with it an obedience, but it's bigger than obedient. Submission is a relationship word. It's a relationship word. It's a phrase that isn't just a bay. It's not just blind obedience, and therefore I've done a job.

No. No. Submission, I think Paul is saying here, is that you are accepting the authority over you and that that authority has right over you. The the root word for submission is order that there is a right order of authority and submission and that I voluntarily deliberately place myself under in submission authority over me. So he's talking about that.

So the knee jerk reaction for the Christian is not revolution. Don't rebel he says in verse 2. The knee jerk reaction to an authority is not outraged. The knee jerk reaction is submission because god is sovereign. I submit to god, and therefore, he's placed these authorities to which I submit to.

And it's god who has set up this world structure on the basis of authority and submission. He's done it everywhere. It's the only way the world can work. In jobs, if there's no authority and submission, you can't work. In family, if there's no authority and submission, it won't work.

In church, If there's no authority and submission, it won't work in society. If there's no authority and submission, on the road. If there's no authority and submission, it won't work. It doesn't mean to say I have to like the policeman that stops me. I may know him.

I may I may think he's a disgraceful person. He may actually treat his wife terribly. He may even treat his employers terribly, but when he stops me if I'm speeding, then I have to submit to his authority. It's the institution. It's the setup that god has set up that I am submitting to.

That is a very important thing. I may actually not respect the individual in office, but I have to respect the office because god has set this up. He's saying, and it's very, very important. So therefore, I don't rebel against it and think that I can do a better job. Part of my submission to god is authority and submission principle.

There's the broad principle. That's how life works. That's what god in his kindness has put into our life in order for us to work. You even have it in the trinity God the father and god the son and god the spirit. Submission and authority are god's way of setting up everything.

So there's the broad principle. Got that? Yeah. Well, you just bored out of your head. You got that?

Now let's move on to the second 1. I'll try and not make it boring. I'm I am trying. Here's the second thing. The purpose of authority.

So there's the print of the authority of submission stuff. Now the purpose of it and you get that in verses 3 to 7. Paul says 3 times that the government has authority from god. 3 times he's rubbing it in. Now he says 3 times that the state, the government, the authority, is a ministry from god.

Look at verse 4. For the 1 in authority is god's servant or minister for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid for the rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are god's servants. Agents of Roth to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.

Look at verse 6. This is also why you pay taxes for the authorities are god's servants who give their full time to governing. See, the word servant These authorities are servants of god. Now the word that is used twice in verse 4 for servant is the word that we use for deacon. It's a church word.

It's a Christian word. It's a a deacon. It's a serving word. He's saying that the governing authorities are deacons of servants. The word that he uses in verse 6 for servant is the word for priest It's a religious word.

It's a word that brings you to god. Now isn't that extraordinary? It's the word that is used of Jesus in verse chapter 15 verse 8 that Jesus is the servant of god. So he's saying now that the governments are god servants. Now you gotta get that right.

They're god servants. We'll see what they do in a minute, but they're god servants. They're no less than god servants. They're no more than god's servants. When they start calling themselves gods, then we've got problems.

But they're god's servants, and they're put here for your good. And what are they to to do? Well, verse 4, they're to do good, they're about our good. So the traffic laws are actually good, aren't they? If you got rid of the traffic laws, It's dangerous.

When when someone is on their mobile phone texting and eating a sandwich, and driving too fast, you know, 45 miles an hour in a 20 mile an hour limit, you want the policeman to come in. And say, can you stop driving like that? Don't you? So therefore are good. These are things for our good.

So therefore are good, but then also you see they're for justice, they're to bring about punishment, the wrath of god. In other words, the governments are supposed to have a terror to evil. That's what they do. And of course, in order to do that, They need money, so they ask for taxes. Do you see that?

Life, is impossible without rules. Have you ever thought about that? You will not keep order or justice without rules or without law. The alternative To law and rulers and authorities is anarchy. And anarchy always brings injustice It's always the most powerful that win and the poor that lose.

Just before I became a Christian, this was the sort of music I was into. Just before I was at came a Christian, I loved a song called anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistals. I still like it, actually, but don't tell the older people in this congregation. It was brilliant. The way it started with the guitar and the drums, and then you had this powerful voice right now.

That's how it starts. Brilliant. I mean, I'm excited by it already. But here's the lines. I am an Antichrist.

I am an anarchist Don't know what I want, but I know how to get it. I want to destroy passers by I am anarchy. What? Now as a young man who didn't know anything about anything, that stirred me up, and I wanted to be an anarchist, even though I didn't really know what it meant. Paul would say that song is absolutely right.

By the way, the bloke who wrote that song went on, wrote to Johnny rotten, went on to do Country Life butter adverts. But anyway, but, I love that, but Paul would say that song was right. I am an Antichrist I am an anarchist. That's what he's saying here. If you're an anarchist, you're anti god, you're anti Christ, you're anti authority.

So Paul would agree. And governments are there to curb this self centered anarchy that we're all shouting for. Governments are there to to curb self centeredness and rebellion and revolution because they always bring instability and war and violence and the domination of the loud ones and the powerful ones over the over the poor and the the quiet ones. So the setting up of authority I I want you to get is a wonderful institution that god and his kindness blesses the world with. It would if just a few days, we had no rule of law.

You would be crying out for law. You know those countries where that happens. It's a disaster. There's a series of films. I've never seen any of them.

They sound better than they are, I I I hear called the purge, where 1 day a year you're allowed to do anything you like, I think that's how it goes. So If I don't like you, I can kill you on that day, and that's legitimate. There is no law. They're called the purge. It's a good concept for a film, but I don't think it works, apparently.

It's just a bloodbath thing. But imagine 1 day of no law, if the if the government said today, there is no law. Imagine the looting and the killing and the speeding and the violence. You know what it's like when the rule of law goes. God in his kindness gives us authorities, and bad governments are better than no government.

That's nearly always the case. Bad governments are better than no governments because there's anarchy. I don't know whether you you read it's 1 of those sort of books you have to read at school, isn't it? I think they've withdrawn it now, because it says too many good things. But, it was a sort of staple school thing, which was lord of the flies, wasn't it?

But I think it's offensive now. William William Goldings, lord of the flies. And he, he was showing the horror of innocent children. That when you withdraw authority, what happens when they're on an island without authority? And it's horrific.

It's horrific what happens. God in giving authorities is showing that he wants our good He wants our good. The third thing, the last last thing I wanna say. The response to authorities then back to that. So governments are god's agents.

We should submit to them. And then in verses 6 and 7, you'll see that he applies it in 2 ways to his heroes, 2 main ways. It's money and attitude. Money and attitude. I think it was Augustin that said that the last thing to be converted when you become a Christian is your wallet, is your pocket, and he's dealing with money and attitude.

Let me break it into 3 things. 1 pay taxes. Now we have a right to debate whether those taxes are fair. We're living in that part of the world that we can do that, but pay them while you're debating. Pay them.

If you object to certain taxes, you can join peace mar marches and rallies and petitions. All of those things are legitimate. And you can do that, but pay them. Pay them. There's ways, legitimate ways to reduce tax liabilities.

Like ISIS, although this is not hardly worth it, and and certain things that you can See, our responsibility is to pay our due not to rep not to pay more than our due. I mean, they're all the tax man will always want more. Now I I have a problem if we're we're we're not just fiddling taxes. We're really trying to avoid them in some kind of legal loophole. I do have a problem with that.

I think we've got to think that through under our own conscience whether we should put our money in Jersey in order to to, keep our business going. But, you know, that's a question you've got to answer. But pay taxes, You don't have to pay more, but you gotta pay your due. Pay taxes. We're responsible to pay taxes.

Don't pay cash everywhere so you can avoid VAT. Pay taxes. That's what he says. Now, That's remarkable, isn't it? So when we set up a house for Terrace in Belarus, Belarus is is called the last dictatorship of Europe.

You know, it is a dictatorship. If you beat the Belarus, it's a dictatorship. There's lots of things you can't do. And when we set up a house as a church, we wanted to buy a house to help the ministry over there, which is what we did do. There were 13000 pounds in taxes.

But Tara knew how to get around that because he says everybody does it in Belarus because the tax is so terrible and this is such an appalling government all Christians get around it. And we felt that was not right. And although we didn't have the money, we thought we've got to try to raise this money to pay the tax the property because when when he's hit, by the government and saying your people are ungodly, he can say, no, no, no, no, no, we submitted to your tax laws. Look what we did. We're good for your country.

We Christians. You see that? Pay taxes. That's the first thing. Second thing, It's not just paying taxes.

It's an attitude, and respect is part of the attitude. Respect. Did you see that? Because you can certainly pay your taxes and have no respect whatsoever. Pay your taxes but pay respect.

Look at verse 7. Give to everyone what you owe them. If you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue if respect and respect, if honor, then honor. So it's not just now, taxes. There's a respect and there's an honor that goes over those that are governing over us.

Our problem is that we all think we'd be a better prime minister than Theresa May. We all think we can do better. And we wanna be careful. We may not like her policies I don't care. This is not a political speech here.

We all have different opinions on who we should vote for, and we have the opportunity to vote her out if you want to vote her out. And to campaign against that in our country. We we have an official opposition, to the governing powers. That's all a a a use full thing that we can legitimately use as Christians, of course. But we're to do it respectfully We need to be careful mocking Theresa May.

She's not a Hitler, remember. We need to be careful when we mock her dancing. I know it's very hard. Not to, and even me saying this is sort of almost mocking. But we've got to do it respectfully.

We have to pay respect You may have someone in power that you completely hate. Lots of people do in America. They hate Trump, They absolutely hate him, but you might hate him, but respect his position. Be careful, says, Paul. You see, we have a revolution as Christians, which is the gospel of Jesus that comes into people lives and show, so changes them that we start respecting people in authority and paying our taxes.

The revolution is the gospel of Jesus. And then the third thing is obviously submit. Submit. Now that doesn't mean that we completely and always and only blindly obey. When governments go too far, as they did in the book of acts to Peter and John and they were told not to preach the gospel.

Peter replied we must obey god rather than human beings. When the state takes over too much power and tells us not to preach, or say that a wrong is wrong and a right is right, then it's at that point that we follow god because he's the ultimate authority. So there's our responses. Now, how does that work out? Can I ask you, are you an anarchist?

Yeah? Yeah? Are you an anarchist? Are you an anarchist? Are you an anarchist when it comes to authority and submission?

Here's 1. What about in church life? Whoa. What about in church life? Do you pay your taxes?

Yeah. I mean, it costs money for you to sit in that seat, by the way. Isn't it? If this was a theater, that would cost you 60 quid in London, sit there in the front row, 120 for you, actually. Yeah?

Actually at the back, they're the most expensive seats. That's a 2 80 at the back there. It costs. There's taxes to pay. Are we just trying to avoid?

You know? We have to think of that, don't we? What about respect to the leadership, to the elders? You know, is it it's distant, you know, there's authority submission stuff going on here. So we've got to think through areas of our lives, where we might be anarchists, and we're called to submit.

And we all have those areas There's areas in life where I have to submit, and there's areas in life where I'm an authority. We're all that. Are we a good authority when we're an authority for good and justice? And are we submitting when we're not an authority? So these things challenge us and they challenge us in ways to see whether we've really understood god's kindness and mercy to us.

Father god help us with these things. Some of these will challenge us. These things will challenge us, more than others. And we pray that you would help us to think them through carefully. We know that application is very hard but we want largely the principle of authority and submission.

And when we do have to push against the law, help us to do it with respect and honor and grateful that you're a god that sets up order in this way. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.