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Authority: Government · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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Well, good morning. We are on our final week in a series on authority.
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This first week of our study, I worked to make a case that there is God-ordained authority in the world and that we do well to understand this and submit to it.
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We then considered briefly the authority of the family.
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Over the next two weeks, we thought together about the authority of the church and elder-led congregationalism.
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Now, in hindsight, I think I would have spent the four weeks set aside just working out the case for elder-led congregationalism and all of the implications thereof.
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But, alas, here we are.
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Today, we have purpose to consider the authority of the government.
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Now, in my study and preparation for today, I find that I will struggle to make a comprehensive presentation that won't raise more questions than it answers.
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Interestingly, if we think about the authority of the government in our particular system, the primary authority holder is the citizen.
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And so, it creates a lot of interesting complications that I'd like to work out in their entirety, but I don't think we'll have the time this morning.
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So, I'm going to backpedal just a bit, which I hope will serve the greater good.
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So, this morning, we're going to do three things together.
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First, I want to remind you once again, and very briefly, of the eight overarching biblical assertions I made on week one and have reminded you of in each subsequent week.
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Number two, we will unpack in brief our Confessions article on civil government, the one found in your bulletin, the one that was part of our recitation this morning.
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So, we're going to take that sentence by sentence and look at some scripture proof for that.
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So, we're not going to ignore the issue of governmental authority altogether this morning.
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But then thirdly, I will make a short case for the good of submission to godly authority.
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So, kind of round this thing out for our service.
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Now, our time will not be devoid of the Bible, but I do not have a text for you to turn to to begin with.
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You may be wondering what text I turn to, and you probably know, if you're paying at all attention to my preaching, that I have all of the scripture references in my notes.
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I don't frantically flip.
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I find that that takes a lot of time.
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I'm not as fast as turning pages as I'd like to be.
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So, I put them right there in my notes, but I still bring up and open up the scripture, typically to the primary text we're preaching on,
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because it's a visible sign of the authority that's over my preaching.
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So, as we're thinking about authority, I always wanted to be really clear that this is under the authority of God's word.
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So, this morning, I turned to Romans chapter 13.
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We are going to reference it, but not in very much detail.
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But that's why I do this.
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But I do want you to have your Bibles in hand, to listen actively, and to take notes.
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I'd be really happy to have you turn with me and turn your attention to the scripture as we think clearly this morning together.
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So, if you want to study this topic further, so if you've been primed to think about authority more,
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if this has created good conversations in your family, amongst your friends, at work, etc.,
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and you want to do more work with this, I'll be really glad to do so with you.
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I would like to spend some more time on it.
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And what I'm going to do is suggest that we read together the book I've referenced a number of times called Authority,
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How Godly Rule Protects the Vulnerable, Strengthens Our Communities, and Promotes Human Flourishing by Jonathan Lehman.
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So, this is that book that I hold in my hand.
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I've referenced it again a couple of times.
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I do commend it to you.
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I'm not sure that I agree with every jot and tittle in it just yet,
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but I think it'll create some really healthy conversation amongst us.
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And so, I'll make a post this week on Slack to just gauge interest.
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So, if you're interested in doing so, interact with that post,
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and we'll see if we can come up with a plan to think more about this very thing.
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As I said today, session four of this on authority, the government.
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But first, here are the eight overarching biblical assertions in our study so far.
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So, firstly, and quite possibly most importantly,
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God's authority is innate.
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That means that it comes from him.
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Nobody gave him authority or he has the highest authority.
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And as such, it is final.
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So, if God says something, that is the standard by which everything else must exist.
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So, God's authority is innate and it is final.
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Number two, God's authority is necessarily good because he is good.
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It's part of his very nature and therefore anything that emanates from him must then be for our good.
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So, we often immediately think of authority as a bad thing, an oppressive thing,
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but not the case with God's authority.
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His authority is necessarily good because he is good.
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Thirdly, humankind has an authority problem.
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We do not like authority.
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And we're going to revisit this particular point as we kind of pick up this argument for the good of authority in our lives.
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So, I'll move on from it now.
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But we have an authority problem as humankind.
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Fourthly, the way God's authority works out in the world is through delegation.
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So, God delegates authority that always has limits and is always subservient to the one who delegated.
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So, God remains the highest authority even as he delegates authority.
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That authority answers to him.
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Fifthly, when a person or institution takes up a responsibility not granted to them, right?
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So, they seize authority when it's not been given to them.
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Or exercises an authority that is granted to them in a way that's not granted to them.
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It is at best ineffective.
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It is at worst abusive.
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A scale to be had there.
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Sixth, the aim of exercising authority and submission to God's good authority is for,
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and this was borrowed from the subtitle of the book I mentioned,
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the sake of protecting the vulnerable, strengthening our communities, and promoting human flourishing, right?
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All very good things, right?
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I think we could say yes and amen to all of those.
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So, exercising godly authority is for this very good end.
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Number seven, God delegates his authority through three institutions and six positions.
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And I'm just going to rattle off the three institutions for you quickly.
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The family, the church, and the government.
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Okay?
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So, family, church, government.
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And you do really well, and Lehman's book does get into this idea of sphere authority.
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There's these three institutions, and they're given reign over particular things.
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What are those things, and how are they meant to interact together?
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So, three institutions.
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The family, the church, the government, and then there are six authoritative positions.
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And then, eighth, lastly, within these three institutions and six positions, there's granted two types of authority.
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The first is the authority of command, or you could think in terms of coercion.
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So, it's the power to make someone do something by force, right?
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There's serious consequences if you don't do the thing that you're being told to do.
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It possesses the right of corrective discipline.
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So, we talked a bit about those tools that are given.
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The rod, given to the family.
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The keys, given to the church.
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And the sword, given to the government.
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So, this type of authority is the type of authority that the government has.
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The authority of command.
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The other type is the authority of counsel, or persuasion, which is the power to convince someone to do something.
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So, it's an authority granted to that person.
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Commands given.
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The example that we repeated quite a bit is husband to wife.
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A wife is commanded to submit to her husband, but the husband does not have the authority of retribution, right?
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To bring about some kind of punishment, right?
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It should bear on her conscience to listen to his counsel.
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But all he has in his authority is to counsel, right?
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To give her good advice, godly advice, to plead with her to obey it.
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That's where that lies.
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So, the authority of command and the authority of counsel.
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And I think, it has been for me, all of this is a really helpful rubric for us to think about the world in which we live, right?
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How am I to submit?
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And what authority has been granted to me?
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And if granted to me, how should I exercise that authority?
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A lot of frustration exists in our world, I think, because we don't have a clear view of the way God has delegated authority in our world.
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Okay, so those are the reminders, those eight overarching assertions that have been made.
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So, let's think now, secondly, together, about government.
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And I just want to unpack that sentence.
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So, if you have your bulletin, you can look at that sentence, and I'm just going to take it bit by bit.
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First part of that statement, we believe, and this is from our current confession, the CFC Statement of Faith,
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which is borrowed from the 1833 New Hampshire Confession.
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So, it says this,
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We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society.
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So, God creates and controls civil authorities for his glory in his global purpose.
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Divinely appointed, the governments are.
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The scope of his working is impossible for us to fathom.
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There's times you just think, how could this possibly be the person elected?
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Could this be the Lord's will?
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And the answer is, yes, it is.
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Do we fully understand why?
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Rarely these days, right?
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But nonetheless, we really can't deny that governments are of divine appointment and, generally speaking, are for the ordering of society.
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The reason we can't deny it is because the scripture teaches it.
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So, first reference, Romans chapter 13.
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I'll read the first seven verses of that chapter.
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Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.
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For there is no authority except from God.
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And those that exist have been instituted by God.
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You see why I said there's no denying that fact?
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We are to be subject to governing authorities.
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For, this last half of verse 1,
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there is no authority except from God.
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And those that exist have been instituted by God.
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Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed.
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And those who resist will incur judgment.
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For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.
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Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?
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Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval.
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For he is God's servant for your good.
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But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.
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For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
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Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
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For because of this, you also pay taxes.
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For the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.
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Pay to all what is owed to them.
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Taxes to whom taxes are owed.
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Revenue to whom revenue is owed.
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Respect to whom respect is owed.
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Honor to whom honor is owed.
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So, when we re-engage in our study of Romans, which we'll be doing next week, Lord willing,
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we will soon have an opportunity to study this text further.
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And we will.
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But just note, at this point in this confessional statement,
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that Paul is calling Christians generally to submit to governmental authority.
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So, we believe that civil government is of divine appointment, whether we understand it or not,
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for the interests and good order of human society.
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Next part of the phrase.
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And that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed.
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So, there's commands that we ought to pray for those who are in charge.
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And I must admit that I am far too guilty of talking about those who are in charge and not praying for them.
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I, as an individual, need to be better about this.
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We, as a church, need to be better about this.
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1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 1 and 2.
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First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,
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for kings and all who are in high positions,
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that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
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Right?
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I think there's a couple of things going on in this text.
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I think we're meant to be praying for those who are in power so that they will make decisions that lend towards peaceful and quiet, godly, and dignified lives.
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When society is ordered as society ought to be ordered, it is much easier for those who claim the name of Christ to live lives in this way.
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But also, I think that Paul means for us to see that if we are praying for those who are in power,
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we are much more likely to find ourselves living these kinds of lives in response.
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It is difficult to be indignant towards somebody that you're carrying before the throne of God.
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So we are to pray for those who are in charge.
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And we are to conscientiously honor them and obey them.
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1 Peter 2, verses 13 and 14.
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Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,
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or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
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So, for much of Christian history, and right now in much of the world,
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these kinds of commands, there's not much space for disobedience in them in those societies.
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Ours is a bit different, and it raises some interesting questions.
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It actually seems to be the responsibility of good citizens to revolt at times.
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This very nation was founded, and there was a theological debate happening.
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Was it appropriate or not to cast off England as a ruler?
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And people fell on both sides of that argument in that day.
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People fall on both sides of that argument in this day.
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Was it proper for, was it biblically faithful to become a rebel and to fight against England?
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And I think it was, but I digress.
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So, these are important questions for us to be asking and thinking about,
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but we have a bit of a luxury even to ask it, right?
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People in other places in the world are not living in any measure of righteous society,
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and yet have to consider what it means to be subject to a human institution, right?
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Magistrates are to be prayed for, they are to be honored, and they are to be obeyed.
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Accept, right?
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The next bit of the phrase.
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Accept only in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Not too many years ago, we were faced having to consider this very thing
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as governments across our nation shut down the meetings of people.
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And this was not an easy thing to navigate.
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It was difficult.
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Was it reasonable?
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Was it unreasonable, right?
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I think there are times in which not gathering as people might be appropriate.
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And we're not neglecting to gather as saints.
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And then there are times when it's not appropriate and not reasonable.
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And we had to navigate that gray area.
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What ought we do in this particular case?
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But we have some more clear examples in the scripture, right?
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We have the examples of the apostles in Acts chapter 5.
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This is beginning in verse 27 when the captains with the opus questioned them, right?
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So they have already been beaten and told not to speak in the name of Christ,
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and they're doing it anyway, so they're re-arrested.
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And the council says this,
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we strictly charge you not to teach in this name,
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yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching,
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and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us, speaking of Christ, right?
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We told you not to do this thing, and yet you're doing it anyway.
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That is sharing the good news of Jesus.
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And Peter responds, this is Peter and the apostles, verse 29,
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we must obey God rather than men.
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So that higher authority that all civil authority is subject to,
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we must obey God rather than men.
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And we have also, and most importantly,
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the example and teaching of Christ himself.
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He said in Matthew 10 in verse 28,
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Christ was quite the rebel in his day.
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He said,
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Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
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Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
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So there's a higher authority than those civil authorities.
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So we're to obey except only in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Charles Spurgeon, this is on the back of your bulletin, once said,
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There are points of inevitable contact between the higher and lower spheres.
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So he's saying God's authority and lower authority.
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Inevitable contact between the higher and lower spheres.
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Points where politics persist in coming into collision with our faith.
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And there we shall be traitors both to heaven and earth.
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If we consult our comfort by sinking into the rear.
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So he's saying if we appease our comfort by shrinking back when we ought to press forward.
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But traitors both to heaven, to God and our allegiance to him,
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and to earth, the good of mankind, if we don't press back against.
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So there's this huge spectrum in Christendom, right?
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People on the one end of the spectrum who would focus most of their energy on being politically involved
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and bringing about the temporal good of the place in which they live.
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There are churches that are in some sense political packs, right?
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They get together and speak about how they're going to be involved.
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And that's the extent of what they do together.
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It's a bit of a mission drift, I would argue, for the church.
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On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who would be gospel only, they would suggest.
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So we'll not be involved at all.
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There are Christians in this country who don't vote.
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They don't want to be encumbered by the affairs of this world and have nothing to do with it whatsoever.
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And would say the only thing that we ought to do, both as a church collective and as individuals sent from it,
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is share the good news of Jesus.
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I think, I believe I'm thinking clearly about it, that the truth is somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.
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That we are for sure meant to be gospel proclaimers.
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We are to obey God rather than men.
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We are not to shrink back, as Charles Spurgeon says, sink to the rear.
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But the degree in which we are involved in politics, I find, is fairly limited.
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Last part of the phrase.
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So they bring back this divinely appointed, right?
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We must obey Christ first because he rules over all who he's delegated authority to.
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So you may be familiar with Psalm chapter 2.
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This is the first half of it.
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The psalmist says, why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
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It's a rhetorical question.
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Why?
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Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
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The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed.
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We know this to be Christ.
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I find this psalm so comforting, right?
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As we see the world.
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I mean, not just our country, but so many countries in such political turmoil and upheaval, right?
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All of this rejection of God's good authority, right?
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Let's cast them off.
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Let's burst their bonds.
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But God laughs at it, right?
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It's laughable to him that they think they can avoid his authority.
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The Lord holds them in derision, the rest of verse 4 says.
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Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, and here's what God the Father responds to this kind of rebellion with.
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As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.
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The Lord Jesus Christ, I say to you, presently reigns and is bringing all things into subjection under himself and will one day set all things right and reign forever.
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So we have such comfort as we think about how it is that we are to engage with civil authority.
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But, oh, all the situational complexities of living out the summary teaching of this statement.
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But I will digress at this point, right?
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We can have a book club and talk about all of the complications if you would like.
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Again, let's be thinking through this biblical rubric.
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And if you'd like to join me, we can study it further together.
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So, simple thoughts for a complex world that I hope will help us live godly lives in this age.
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Third thing I want to do together is bring back this overarching assertion that I made.
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It was the third one that I made, which was, humankind has an authority problem.
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So the whole idea of this topic of authority came up because we were being asked to teach more about congregationalism.
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Some of you wanted a clearer understanding of that.
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And I hope we have in some measure given that to you.
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But authority is a good thing for us to think about because of this authority issue that we have.
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To really consider whether or not we are good at submitting ourselves to proper authority.
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And I find that we are generally not.
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As Americans, it is ingrained into us to have a sense of rogue individualism.
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It's part of our culture, which isn't all bad.
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Our experiment in ordered liberty certainly has sentiment that leans heavy on the liberty portion of that equation.
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If you get into much of a political conversation with me, I typically plant my flag as a libertarian.
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Not the totality of the libertarian platform.
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But that's kind of where I lean off into.
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In the idea of ordered liberty, I want more liberty and less order.
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It's part of who we're built to be as Americans.
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Additionally, we have all seen authority abused.
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We can observe it from afar.
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It's happening all the time.
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And many of you have experienced firsthand the abuse of authority.
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And you have a lot of deep, understood hurt because of abused authority.
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And so we just have reason to be suspect of it.
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Beyond all of this, though, at our very core, apart from the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, we're rebellious people.
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Those of us who are in Christ have been set free from the bondage of sin.
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Those who are not in Christ, though, I mean, that is what you do.
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Having been set free from it, we do still sin.
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We still rebel because at our very core, that's who we are in the fall.
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And you can trace the biblical narrative.
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It's everywhere in the scripture, this kind of rebellion.
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You go backwards.
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New Testament churches not heeding the words of the apostles.
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Many of the letters that Paul wrote were reminding people of the things that they were meant to be doing.
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The Jewish people again and again and again reject the teaching of Christ.
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And they crucify him for what they believe to be blasphemy.
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Israel over and over turn away from the prophets.
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They don't take care with their temple worship.
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They neglect driving out the people from the promised land as they were commanded.
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They refuse to fight for fear.
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They desecrate holy places and on and on and on.
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It's one of the themes of the Old Testament.
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This rebellious people that God loves anyway.
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And all of it finds its beginning with our first parents.
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With Adam and Eve.
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The original rebels.
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Who doubted God's good authority in Genesis chapter 3.
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And so Paul says in Romans 3 verse 10 and following.
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None is righteous.
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No, not one.
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No one understands.
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No one seeks for God.
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All have turned aside.
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Together they have become worthless.
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No one does good.
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Not even one.
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Their throat is an open grave.
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They use their tongues to deceive.
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The venomous ass is under their lips.
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Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
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Their feet are swift to shed blood.
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In their paths are ruin and misery.
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And the way of peace they have not known.
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There is no fear of God before their eyes.
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No one seeks for God.
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The end of verse 11.
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All have turned aside.
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They've turned away from the way of God.
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There is no fear of God before their eyes.
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Right?
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Prior to Christ.
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This is the state.
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Right?
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Rebellion.
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And the response.
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The right and proper response is repentance and faith.
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That we would turn away from our disobedience.
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Recognize it as rebellion.
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A great offense against an authoritative God.
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A good God who's given us commands.
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That we would say, I haven't submitted myself to your good authority.
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Right?
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I am wicked therefore.
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And I need to turn from that.
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Place my faith in Jesus Christ.
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My belief in Him.
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His person.
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And in His work.
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Right?
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His accomplished law keeping.
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His sacrificial death on my behalf.
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And submit myself to your law.
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Being set free from the power of sin.
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Being made new in Christ.
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Putting off the old self.
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Putting on the new.
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Placing myself under good authority.
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And I want to suggest to you that repentance and faith necessitates submission.
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If we are in fact in Christ, we will find our lives in varied degree.
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Having been justified, we will be sanctified.
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Our lives will grow in holiness.
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Grow in submission to God's law.
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A really interesting case.
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This is Luke chapter 7.
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It's the story of the centurion when Jesus meets him in Capernaum.
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We can read beginning in verse 2.
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Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death who was highly valued by him.
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When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews asking him to come and heal his servant.
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And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly saying,
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He is worthy to have you do this for him for he loves our nation and he is the one who built us our synagogue.
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So significant centurion, right?
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A commander of troops.
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A Roman citizen who was sympathetic towards the plight of the Jews.
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And Jesus went with them.
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When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends saying to him,
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Lord, do not trouble yourself for I am not worried to have you come under my roof.
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Therefore, I did not presume to come to you.
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But say the word and let my servant be healed.
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So he doesn't want to inconvenience Jesus in the travels.
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Then he says this,
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For I too am a man set under authority with soldiers under me.
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And I say to one, go, and he goes.
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And to another, come, and he comes.
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And to my servant, do this, and he does it.
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So note what he's saying.
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He's saying, look, I'm a man with authority.
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I'm under authority, and I have authority, and I recognize that you are a man with authority.
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That's what he's saying, right?
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When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him.
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He's marveling at the centurion's submission.
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And turned to the crowd that followed him, said,
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I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.
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Jesus ties the idea of faith, believing in who Christ is, with submission to him.
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And then just in case you don't know the story, verse 10 says,
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And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.
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So we have this wonderful example of the centurion and Jesus tying these ideas together.
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But we have also, and more importantly, the example of Christ.
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God himself.
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God in flesh.
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John chapter 4 and verse 31.
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In your reading of the Gospel of John, look for this theme.
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It's repeated again and again and again.
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Verse 31, we see the disciples urging Jesus to eat.
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They're trying to get him to nourish his physical body.
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But he said to them, verse 32,
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I have food to eat that you do not know about.
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So the disciples said to one another,
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Has anyone brought him something to eat?
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And Jesus said to them,
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My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
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So we have in Christ a picture of, a perfect picture,
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of submission to the authority placed over him.
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Now, I have found myself to be a bit of an outside-the-box type of person.
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And just in my personal life, I think in the way that God wired me,
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I question everything and obnoxiously question everything.
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So I want to read to you a little bit from the Jonathan Lumen book that I've referenced to you.
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What piqued my interest to actually pick it up and read it,
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I've been thinking about authority for quite some time.
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We had actually decided to do this series on authority before this book ever was released.
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But I heard an interview with him.
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And in that interview, he was talking about his own experience,
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just kind of being kind of a rebellious personality.
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And I really resonated with that.
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He has, though, a particular situation in which he decided to submit.
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So I think it's helpful, and I don't.
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I think it just little bit, little bit, little bit over time.
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God taught me lessons about submission to authority.
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But I think his example is helpful.
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It was, to me at the very least, I hope it will be to you.
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So just listen to what Lumen says.
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He says, sometime, and let me preface this.
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Jonathan Lumen is going to talk about moving to D.C.
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And he went to Capitol Hill Baptist Church.
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And the pastor there is Mark Dever.
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He just calls him Mark.
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But that's who he's talking about.
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Sometime in my junior high years, I became aware of how much my brain bent toward nonconformity.
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The kids in the youth group were discussing a political matter.
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And I found myself arguing for a position I didn't believe,
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merely because something in me needed to oppose the room's consensus.
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Part of that need to oppose, I believe, is my brain's...
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And then search for a synthesis.
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But another part of that instinct was just plain old immaturity and sin.
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Something in me enjoyed standing alone and standing against.
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I think my heart found a sense of purpose and worth in thinking of myself as courageous in these stances.
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So, if I was in a room of Democrats, I would argue like a Republican.
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And if I was in a room of Republicans, I would argue like a Democrat.
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To be sure, this nonconformist tendency helped me academically in high school, college, and graduate school.
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I wrote good papers.
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Gratefully, I also had patient parents.
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In my early 20s, I moved to Washington, D.C.
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And for the first time in my life, joined a church.
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Still, I was that guy.
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The guy who asked persnickety questions in Bible study.
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The guy who pestered the pastor with what ifs.
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The guy who always thought he knew better.
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And if you at that point think that that could be you, it is.
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I had a high opinion of myself since I did well in school.
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In fact, the friend who told me about the D.C. church mentioned that it had a brilliant pastor.
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And I said to myself, this is sincerely embarrassing to admit.
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We'll see.
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A year or two into my membership, the church voted on a batch of brand new elders who had been nominated by the same pastor, Mark.
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The Constitution required 75% approval from the congregation.
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Yet all five received somewhere between 69 and 74% of the vote, meaning all five failed.
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The congregation was shocked.
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We wondered what the pastor would do next.
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Two weeks later, we found out.
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He announced he was again nominating the Save Five Men.
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What?
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Are you kidding me?
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That was my internal response.
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The congregation voted, buddy.
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You lost.
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And you're the one who taught me to be a congregationalist.
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Now you want to call a redo because you didn't get the results you wanted?
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Sorry, pal.
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No way.
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My nonconformist instincts were in full flare.
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I had voted for three of the five candidates the first time around, but now I would protest vote against all five.
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This pastor, Mark, was a jerk and a tyrant.
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Shortly after the announcement, Mark hosted a question and answer time on a Sunday afternoon concerning his renominations.
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I attended.
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Standing before God as our one pastor, he said he could not in good conscience put another slate of men in front of us.
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Therefore, he offered, I'm asking you to trust me.
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He said this meekly and gently, yet he said it clearly and directly.
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You might expect my heart to have gone into rebellion hyperdrive at that moment, but for some reason, somehow, it didn't.
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His request made sense.
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It landed softly on my heart.
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He is my pastor, I thought.
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I should trust him.
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You might call this my rich young ruler's moment.
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I didn't have much money to give up, but I did have a high opinion of myself.
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And I sensed the Lord Jesus saying to me, Jonathan, if you want to follow me, follow Pastor Mark.
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Yet unlike the New Testament's rich young ruler, I surrendered myself and followed.
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God's spirit was at work.
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A week or two later, I voted for all five men, and enough people joined me that all five passed the 75th.
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How good that was for the life of that church.
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Not only that, my life began changing.
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I changed from non-conformist to team player, from rebel to disciple, from raising my hand to stump the pastor, to raising my hand to ask a question that might help the group.
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I began to grow in the faith, fighting sin, reading the Bible, wanting to do good in the lives of my fellow church members.
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Sometimes I wonder if that whole affair was when I actually became a Christian.
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Something else changed.
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Little by little, I began receiving opportunities to lead in the church.
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First, it was a Bible study for other single men, then co-teaching a Sunday school class,
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then a deacon of member care, tasked with visiting older members and distributing the church's benevolence fund.
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Finally, I became a pastoral intern and was sent to seminary, paid for by the church, and became an elder at that same church after seminary.
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Before heading off to seminary, I remember reflecting back on what God had done in my life over the previous few years.
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This thought struck me.
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Submission to Mark and other men in my life had led to my growth.
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Not only that, nobody had ever told me how powerful submission is for spiritual growth.
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Why hadn't I heard a sermon on that?
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Evangelical Christians in America are missing this amazing gift.
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I concluded.
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So, at least a path to godly growth is submission to God's godly authority.
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Perhaps in some frail measure over these past four weeks, I have now helped you to see the good that submission to godly authority can bring in your life.
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And I hope that we will all be a people.
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May our church be characterized by godly authority and godly submission for the protection of the vulnerable,
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for the strengthening of communities, and of the promotion of human flourishing to the glory of our great God.
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Let's pray together.
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Thank you.