Keys of The Kingdom 6 - The 'S' Word

Submission is a term and concept that we often struggle with. We repudiate it and reject it, yet the Scriptures constantly call us to submit to those who are in authority over us, especially human government. Today, in 1 Peter chapter 2, that's exactly what we are looking at: submission to earthly government.

Please stand with me and open your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter. If you don't have a Bible this morning, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are in 1 Peter chapter 2. For the last three or four years, I have begun the year by mapping out where we will be in the Bible and creating my teaching schedule. Normally, we stick to that, but this has not been the case with 1 Peter. We were supposed to be done with 1 Peter next week, but that won't happen. We will not be finished with 1 Peter chapter 2 next week.

We will pick it up at 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 11. Peter writes, "Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation."

Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, yet not using your liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

This word here in these verses is not an easy one for us to apply. As we have seen while going through the Scriptures together, some of the easiest things to understand are often the most difficult to practice. We pray, God, that you would not only give us wisdom and understanding but also the ability and power to do the things that Your word prescribes.

Lord, that we would be honoring and glorifying to You in the way that we live. As we look this week and the week after at this topic, which is not an easy one for us, I pray, God, that You would give us grace, mercy, and the ability, by Your Spirit, to teach us. We pray and ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

It was a beautiful spring night. The temperature was crisp but not too cool, and there was the smell of new growth in the air. Although it was late and would ordinarily be very dark, the full moon overhead cast a bright light upon everything, making it almost like a dimly lit overcast day rather than nighttime. They tried to stay awake. He had asked them and given them a very simple request: just stay awake with me and pray with me.

It was almost unbelievable that he could stay awake, given that it was so late and they had all eaten and drunk so much. It was hard for them to stay awake, and yet he stayed and continued praying. Now, again, they were woken up by his soft voice as he came to them, wiping the sleep from their eyes. They tried to make sense of what it was that he was saying as he spoke to them. He said, "It is time; my betrayer is here."

Just then, there was a commotion in that little olive grove, and dozens of torches came walking in as men filled that area. Mostly soldiers, but at the front of this group of soldiers was a group of the high priests. In the soft, pale moonlight, they could see the face of someone they knew very well: Judas. As he approached the Master, he said to him, "Rabbi," kissing him on the cheek. Immediately, soldiers rushed in, pushing Judas aside. They surrounded Jesus and seized him.

Immediately, one of the disciples sprang forward with a sword in his hand and cut off the ear of the high priest's servant, a man by the name of Malchus. As he did that, the Master, Jesus, said to him, "Put away your sword. Stop! Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword."

If ever there was a time to rise up against injustice, against the wicked authority of the day, against the powers of this world, it would seem that this was the moment. You might expect Jesus to say, "Come on now, this is the time! Let's go to it!" Yet, in the midst of it all, Peter—who is, in fact, the author of the letter we are reading—had that sword in his hand. If you've been around the Gospels for any length of time, would you even question that it was Peter? You almost don't need John to tell you that it was Peter. As you read the accounts in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they don't explicitly mention Peter, but John does, and you just kind of go, "Yeah, that makes sense."

A few hours later, the same Jesus was standing before the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate. He told Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight so that I would not be delivered into the hands of the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here."

The Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, the Lord of everything, the perfect Son of God, was seized upon by a crowd of Roman soldiers. He was unjustly tried, illegally convicted, and later that day, crucified—put to death. You would think that this would be the opportune moment, when they laid hands on Him, to strike back. Peter would be the one leading forth, yet Jesus still said, "Put your sword in its place."

That's not the way this is going to happen. Now, thirty-plus years after that event that took place in Jerusalem, in a garden called Gethsemane, just below the Temple Mount, that same disciple who was with Jesus, the same man who fell asleep as Jesus was saying, "Will you pray with me?" and the same man who took the sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest, writes to a group of Christians who are about to face opposition. They are about to face state-sanctioned and sponsored persecution against them. He says to them, "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake."

Now, let's be honest, especially guys: that has to be the worst possible exhortation in the world. That is not what we want to hear. What we want to hear is, "Stand up for your rights and fight against tyranny!" Come on, that's the way we'd like it to be.

Now, I could be wrong, and maybe one day Peter, when we're in heaven, might come and say, "That's not the way it was." But I imagine that Peter was thinking, "Listen, I'm going to strike first, and then this is going to start the whole thing." I picture Jesus, like Jason Bourne, standing there, elbowing the guy to the left, headbutting the guy in front of Him, grabbing the guy's sword, elbowing the guy to the right, and running the guy through. It would be the start of an epic battle, the first in a series of victorious battles, as Jesus and His disciples cast off oppression.

I mean, I'm thinking that's probably what was going through Peter's mind: "I'm going to strike first." Then Peter, in his enthusiasm, says, "Let's do this thing!" But it didn't happen that way. Instead, Jesus rebukes Peter, saying, "Put the sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." Then He says, "Or do you not think that I could at this very moment pray to my Father, and He would send twelve legions of angels to come to my aid?" Twelve legions—that's over seventy thousand angels.

Now, a little context, if you will: about 2,800 years ago, a prophet...

Isaiah saw with his own eyes what one angel could do. One angel, sitting by God, killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night, 2,800 years ago. Think of what twelve legions could do! Jesus said, "Put the sword away. Don't you know if I really wanted to right now, I could call to myself twelve legions of angels to come to my side?"

That's what we want to see. We want to see legions of angels. In every generation since that night, there have been governing authorities and powers that have acted with wicked injustice against the people of God. Even today, as we see the things happening around the world, we witness people who are persecuted. We see individuals burned at the stake, beaten, beheaded, and killed, especially children, for no other reason than that they follow Jesus.

This is happening in the world, and when you see that, there's no way to look at it and not feel in your heart the desire to pull the sword. Yet, Jesus says, "Put away the sword, the gun, the missile, whatever it may be." There is a sense of confusion; we think, "Wait a minute, why?" This goes against everything in my nature. It really does.

Peter says, "Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake." No doubt, when Peter wrote this, everything was great in the world he lived in. I mean, everything had to be perfect at that time. There was a Republican president, the Dow Jones was at 19,000, unemployment was at two percent, and oil was trading at under thirty dollars a barrel. Everything must have been perfect; that had to be the context in which Peter would say, "Hey, listen, submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake," right?

Not so. Peter was writing from the city of Rome around the year 63 or 64 AD. At that moment, the emperor of Rome was a man named Caesar Nero, who was a complete nut job. He would usher in the first state-sponsored, state-sanctioned persecution against Christians. Many Christians would die, be crucified during this period, simply for being followers of Jesus. And so, Peter says to them, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake."

For the Lord's sake, he writes from Romans. In 1 Peter 2:11, it says, "Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your souls." The terms "sojourners" and "pilgrims" serve as a simple reminder to followers of Jesus that His kingdom is not of this world. If you are a follower of Jesus today, you are simply passing through. This place, this time, and life in this world are temporary.

He says, "I beg and plead with you as those that are just passing through this temporary place for a very small period of time." We are called to reject, renounce, and shun carnal, fleshly desires that wage war deep within our minds and hearts. This brings us to point number one on your outline in your sermon guide: Christians are citizens of another realm. It is a simple reminder, but one that we probably need to receive frequently.

Christians are citizens of another realm; this is not our eternal home. To that point, we can all say, "Thank God this is not our eternal home!" There are many wonderful things about this life, and a lot of great experiences to be enjoyed. There are beautiful places to see, but there is also an awful lot of wickedness, darkness, sadness, and despair in the world we live in. I am grateful that this is not our eternal home; we are citizens of heaven.

Paul says in Philippians 3:20, and Jesus, in the Gospel of John 18, states, "If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight; but my kingdom is not of this world." We are citizens of another realm, and we look forward to another life in another place that is more real than this one. It can be hard for us to grasp this because we often think of and imagine heaven as being a place similar to that dream state we experience early in the morning when we wake up and faintly remember some sort of ethereal thing.

What happened in your mind is gone in a moment. We often think of heaven like that, but heaven is more tangible and more real than this place. It is wonderful, and we are not citizens of this place forever. As Christians, we look forward to another place, another life.

The easiest exhortation for us to obey would be the command to fight because that is in our nature; it is in our fallen nature. We see this from the very beginning. One of the first things that takes place after the fall is Cain killing his brother Abel. Immediately after that, we see wickedness begin to expand even more. There is within every single one of our fallen hearts a desire to fight. Therefore, the easiest command to obey would be if Jesus said, "Okay, go for it, fight." It would be like, "Yeah, right on! Let's do this thing. Give me a couple of those angels from that legion you have going on up there, and let's do this."

But that is not what He says. Repeatedly in the Gospels and the Epistles, we are told the opposite. The teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount to turn the other cheek is so against every inclination of my fallen heart. He says to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

First, we need to acknowledge that there is an internal battle associated with what Peter is calling us to. There is something we struggle with when we get to verse 13, where he says to submit in the imperative. It is a command. He is commanding Christians to put themselves under every institution, every governing authority of man, for Christ's sake. He is going to command us to do that, and there is an internal battle we struggle with regarding those words and that command.

Peter acknowledges this in verse 11 when he says to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. So, step one in being able to actually do what Peter commands in verse 13 is to abstain, shun, reject, or renounce all these fleshly lusts that cause an internal battle within us.

Point number two on your outline is that Christians are to declare war on ungodly internal desires. Christians are to declare war. Now, if I stopped right there...

You go, yeah, that sounds good. Christians are to declare war, but they are to declare war on ungodly internal desires, fleshly lusts, as the Bible calls it. If you've been in church for a while or have read through the Scriptures, then as a Christian, this idea or concept of fleshly lusts is something that you may have heard before. When you hear it, you probably think of something like immoral sexual desires. That's the first thing that comes to people's minds when they hear the term "fleshly lusts"—something that is immoral and probably of a sexual nature. Certainly, that is something we should renounce.

We are told in other places in Scripture that we should flee from youthful lusts. Paul says that to Timothy, and that would speak to that context. However, what is being addressed in this passage is not necessarily that. In this context, he is going to tell us to subject ourselves and submit to every earthly ordinance and every human government that exists. There is a different kind of internal ungodly desire that wells up within us in that context.

There are a number of things that could be classified as fleshly lusts. These include greed, covetousness, envy, spite, and hatred. All of these are things that we should renounce. Every single one of us has the proclivity to greed, malice, envy, spite, and covetousness. However, the things being spoken of in this context, I believe, when Peter says that we are to shun or renounce every foolish fleshly desire, would be things like anger, rage, bitterness, malice, wrath, unforgiveness, anxiety, and fear.

The context is that you may be under a government that is against followers of Jesus. If you find yourself under governing authorities that oppose Jesus and even bring forth persecution, this is happening in the world in places like Pakistan, Iran, and throughout major areas in the Middle East. There are governments that are outright against Christians. If you find yourself in that situation, what will be the internal kind of fleshly desires that well up within us? It could be anger, wrath, malice, bitterness, hatred, anxiety, or fear. Peter says that we need to shun them; we need to push those away.

Why do these things cause an internal irritation in the Christian? They don't cause an internal irritation in the non-Christian. Think back to when you were not a follower of Jesus. You could be angry and filled with bitterness and wrath, justifying it by feeling like it was right and that you should feel that way.

But now that you're a Christian, when you experience these feelings, there's an internal irritation. You feel, "Gosh, I shouldn't feel that way," and you don't want to feel that way. There is a clear difference between the non-follower of Jesus and the follower of Jesus as it relates to this internal battle. The non-follower of Jesus does not have that struggle. They might think, "I really like to kill that person," and feel completely justified in wanting them to get hit by a truck.

In contrast, the Christian experiences irritation. It's like, "Oh, I don't want to feel like that." Why does the Christian have this internal struggle? I suggest it’s a very simple answer: as a Christian, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. Christ dwells in you. If the Holy Spirit of God, who is completely holy, is in you, then feelings like malice, anger, hatred, anxiety, and fear are like cockroaches in His house. The Holy Spirit does not want these things present, and so you feel that internal irritation. The Holy Spirit desires for these things to be removed.

Now, let’s look at verse 12 of 1 Peter, chapter 2: "Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation." Peter has already told us in chapter one that we are to be holy in all of our conduct. We are to conduct ourselves throughout our time of stay here in fear and reverence of God, and we are to do away with our former conduct, our aimless conduct received by the tradition of our fathers.

All of that was mentioned in chapter one of 1 Peter. Three times, he emphasizes that our conduct needs to change. Now, here again, he states that if you are a follower of Jesus, your life needs to be conducted in such a manner that it is honorable—not just to God, but also to non-believers, Gentiles, people who don’t go to church, people who don’t read the Bible, and people who are not interested in the things of God. They might even think you are nuts for waking up early on a Sunday morning.

And coming to 7:45 on a rainy day to sit here and hear the Bible, there are a lot of people in our community who think that's just odd. Why would you do that? He says that we are to have conduct that is honorable among them, so that they look at us and say, "Wow, that's good. That's the way I should be living," even if they are not living that way themselves. Even though they may not like you and speak of you as evildoers, your conduct should be so glorious and honorable that those who can't stand Christians will say, "I don't like Christians, but man, they sure do live in a good manner, in a righteous manner."

So, why should we renounce these internal wicked desires and get rid of these ungodly internal desires? We should get rid of them because God wants our witness to be honorable in the world. We should have conduct that is honorable.

Point number three on your outline: a good witness begins with an internal transformation. In fact, you cannot be a good witness of God in this world without being transformed by His Holy Spirit from the inside out. There is no way that you can drum it up and be a good witness of God in this world without being completely transformed from the inside out.

Let me speak to this from the inverse, from the opposite. In Mark's Gospel, chapter 7, the words of Jesus are recorded. He says, "For from within, out of your heart, come evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things are evil, and they come from within."

So, when we look at a world that is filled with murder, hatred, adultery, fornication, and all kinds of things like that, where does that come from? We are being told by people in our society that it comes from unjust systems, unequal pay, and unequal systems in society. But no, the Bible says it actually comes from within; it comes from our wicked hearts.

The opposite is also true. When you become a Christian, the Old Testament says in the Book of Ezekiel that God gives you a new heart. When you have a new heart that begins to think and act in a transformed manner, good things come forth from us. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

The mouth speaks, and so the external witness begins with an internal transformation and change. If we're going to be a good witness to people who don't know, believe in, or even want to honor God, then we need to have our lives transformed from the inside out.

How does that happen? It begins by declaring war on internal ungodly lusts. We must say, "I'm not going to think like that anymore." By Christ's power, we can ask God to enable us to not think with malicious intent any longer. We can pray, "Would you enable me by your ability to uproot this root of bitterness that is deep in my heart and to forgive, even though I don't want to forgive that person? Would you give me the power to forgive that person as you have forgiven me so much, so that I can be a witness of you in this world during this temporary stay that I am here?"

Then we look at 1 Peter 2:13, which says, "Therefore, abstain from carnal desires and become a good witness through good works." One of those good works is to submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.

Now, this is the "S" word: submit. The concept of submission is often hated, even from infancy. How many of you have ever had an infant under your care? They don't like to submit. When they become toddlers, around two years old, they really don't like to submit. I have a little unsubmitted two-year-old right now. He is cute as can be until he doesn't want to do what you want him to do. Then all hell breaks loose.

At Home Depot, he can scream at an octave triple high C and nine million decibels because he does not want to be in the cart or stay by your side. He refuses to submit, and it can feel like there are dolphins 30 miles offshore.

They're going, "Whoa, submit!" It's the Greek word "hoopotasso" for those who like Greek words. What does it mean? It means to arrange oneself under, to make oneself subject to, yield, or obey; to be in subjection. I don't know if there's any more hated word in human vocabulary. We live in a culture that says, "There is no way!" Submit is not a part of the 21st-century American vernacular.

He says to submit to every ordinance. Now, obviously, he must only mean those ordinances and those leaders and those governments that are good, righteous, and holy. Well, actually, the word "every" is the Greek word "pas," which means all. There's no way to look at that word "all" and say it doesn't mean all; it means every. Submit yourself; put yourself in subjection to every authority, whether to the king-emperor as supreme or to a governor that is lower than him.

I don't need to obey you because you don't have all authority. All I need to obey is the one who is also known as the governor. Why do I need to submit to them? Because they are those who are sent, as it says, by Him. By who? By God.

Point number four in your outline: Christians respect even non-respectable governing authorities, and this is hard for us. "I didn't vote for him; he's not my president!" I don't care. Christians respect, submit to, yield to, and obey every authority. Why? Well, Peter confirms the same thing that Paul wrote in Romans chapter 13. Let me read to you Romans 13, verses 1 and 2: "Let every soul pause. All let all souls be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God."

Well, surely Paul is speaking about a...

In about the year 458 AD, a godly king was writing to Christians in Rome. At that time, Caesar Nero, the most corrupt and insane leader the world has ever known, was the ruler of Rome. He stated, "Let every soul be subject to governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God." The word "appointed" can also be understood as "ordained," as referenced in Acts 9.

Therefore, verse 2 says, "Whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves." This point can be difficult for many to accept: all earthly powers are ordained by God, even corrupt governments. God, in His sovereign direction for His sovereign plan, allows these rulers to govern, even when they are wicked.

We might think, "You can't be serious! Surely, you can't be serious!" However, human governments are established for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. But we might wonder, can there really be just judges and righteous rulers? What about those we didn't vote for?

Paul continues in Romans chapter 13, stating that rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil. He asks, "Do you want to be unafraid of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same." The ruler, even one as hard to grasp as King Nero, is described as God's minister for good.

However, if you do evil, you should be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. The ruler has that sword for a reason; he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on those who practice evil. Therefore, you must be subject, being submissive not only because of wrath but also for conscience's sake.

Because of this, you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers, attending continually to this very thing. Render, therefore, to their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs are due, fear to whom fear is due, and honor to whom honor is due.

If their unjust and wicked submit, but what if they take away our rights? Submit. But what if they allow unrighteousness and pass laws that are in favor of sinful lifestyles and behaviors? Submit. But what if they use my tax money for things that are against God? Submit. Surely, you can't be serious. What if they persecute Christians? Submit. Why?

Look at verse 15 of First Peter, chapter 2: "For this is the will of God." What? Submit and trust that God will judge righteously. That's the way that we do this. How possibly can we do this? Well, this is the will of God. What does that mean? He has a plan. That's what it means. He has a plan, and if I'm a follower of Jesus, then I have to trust His plan, even if I don't understand it.

How many of you have ever walked through something in your life where you go, "Lord, I have no clue what You're doing here"? Gosh, like every Monday. Isaiah 55 says His ways are beyond our ways. I just go, "That's true," because I don't get what You're doing here.

This is my will. Probably the number one question that Christians ask throughout their lives is, "What does God want me to do? What's God's will for my life?" Well, at least it's this, at the very least, because He says it explicitly: "This is the will of God."

What is the will of God? That by doing good, as stated in First Peter, chapter 2, verse 15, "that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." As free and not using your liberty as a cloak of vice, but as bondservants of God. This is God's will for my life and for your life if you're a follower of Jesus: to submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for God's sake.

Why? Because this is God's will, and you're going to trust. I'm going to trust that God has a plan. This is a temporary existence, and in eternity, He rules and will rule with justice. In eternity, He will mete out justice and judge righteously those who were unjust.

Their authority will be responsible for how they led. I will be responsible for how I led as a pastor. The President of the United States will be responsible for how he led as the president. He was given awesome authority and responsibility, and God will hold that individual accountable.

I can say, "God, you are sovereign, and I'm going to leave it in your hands. Whatever happens, it's in your hands." Now, is that easy? No, it's not easy. In fact, there's an internal struggle, a war within your soul and within my soul, because I don't want to do this. I want to be angry and mad, to fight and stand up for my rights, to headbutt that Roman soldier. That's what we want to do. There is an internal war within our souls because our flesh wants to fight, and God says, "Put the sword away." Why? That you may put to silence ignorance and foolish men, that they may, by your good conduct, be saved and glorify God.

Point number six on your outline: submission to earthly power is a witness to God's ultimate authority. How does this play out? Well, there is Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, and before him is a Galilean man who has been arrested and falsely condemned to die by the Romans and the Jews. Here, Pontius Pilate realizes that this man has done nothing wrong; he shouldn't put him to death. Then he says, "Don't you know I have the power, the authority, the jurisdictional power"—the Greek word is "exousia"—"to put you to death or to free you?"

Jesus responds, "You have no power but that which was given to you from God. You have no power; do what you will." What did that do in the mind of the strong Roman governor, Pontius Pilate? It put the fear of God in him. He did not want to put Jesus to death. If you read the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Christ, you will see in every account where Pontius Pilate is mentioned that he does not want to put Him to death. His wife has a dream and says to him, "Don't."

Pontius Pilate was scared to death. Here was a Roman soldier who had probably seen amazing battles and victories in his life, and now he was faced with a Galilean man whom he was going to condemn to die. This man said, "You have no authority except that which was given to you from God, and my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight." In an instant, Pilate was reduced to nothing.

Submission to earthly power is a witness to God's ultimate authority. As it says in the Bible, "As free, yet not using your liberty as a cloak for vice." The New Living Translation reads, "For you are free; you've been set free because you're a citizen of heaven. You're free from all of this, but you are God's servants, God's slaves. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do evil."

What kind of evil? Malice, hatred, unforgiveness, bitterness, wrath—just go down the list of all those sorts of things that are evil. Don't use your freedom as an opportunity to continue to do evil.

Then we come to the final word in verse 17 of 1 Peter, chapter 2: "Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king." These are simple statements. Honor all people. Respect and honor every person, even those you don't like. All of us have people we don't like; there's not one of us here who doesn't have someone we are mad at or upset with.

To honor all people means you cannot be a Christian and be a racist. You can't. God calls us to honor all people and to love the brotherhood. You cannot be a Christian and be unloving to other Christians. Fear God; you cannot be a Christian and not reverence God. Your reverence for God is seen in the fact that you honor the king and earthly authorities.

You cannot be a Christian and dishonor earthly authorities. This is a hard word, and it’s going to get even more difficult next week and the week after that when we get into marriage and submission in marriage. That’s really going to challenge us.

Churches can reduce to like 20 people. You have a harsh boss; submit. That's what we're going to see next week. You have a harsh husband; submit. Wait, what? That's what we're going to see two weeks from today on Easter.

Wait a minute, that's not a good idea. This is the will of God that by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. How? Submit yourself to every ordinance of men for the Lord's sake.

Well, I think we need to pray about this one. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer?

Father, this is a hard command to obey. "Hard" is an understatement; this is impossible for us in and of ourselves without Your power at work in us to obey this command. So, Lord, we need Your help. We pray, Jesus, that You would enable us to set ourselves under, to be in subjection to the earthly authorities, trusting You.

Trusting that they are instituted by You and for a purpose. Trusting that You have a plan. Trusting that there will come a day when injustice in this world— and there is much injustice in this world— and a lot of the injustice in this world comes at the hands of people who have authority and power.

But there is coming a day when You, the ultimate authority, will justly judge injustice. So I pray, God, that You would help us to trust You, to lay ourselves into Your care, and to submit ourselves first to You. Then, in obedience and submission to You, that we would follow the command of first.

Peter chapter 2, verse 13: God, would You give me supernatural strength and ability, and my friends here the same supernatural strength and ability to do that? Through our obedience and submission, may You be exalted, and may people see Your glory just as Pilate did when You stood before him two thousand years ago.

Jesus, Lord, help us to know how to put these things into practice this week. Help us to renounce and shun any internal ungodly desire that is directed or founded in malice, hatred, unforgiveness, and bitterness. None of these things are representative of You in Your kingdom. All of these things are the result of a fallen, sinful, wicked heart.

So, God, would You work in us to make us honorable to You, glorifying to You among those who are inside and outside of the church? Thank You, Jesus. Work in us this week, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.