God's Established Authorities

authority. For some of you, just the mention of that word causes your blood pressure to rise. For a lot of us, we think about our authorities. We roll our eyes in boredom, we clench our teeth in anger, or we stick out our tongues in disgust. We do not like authority. And that's particularly true for Americans. We love autonomy. We love autonomy and we scoff at the idea of anyone in authority over us. We'd like to be self-made, self-ruled, independent. And so when we come to a text like ours this morning in First Peter, we are swimming against the tide of our culture. That is very clear. But that shouldn't surprise us. For those of you who are new here, those of you who have been a meter reminder, it's been a while. I've been preaching occasionally over the last year through the book of First Peter, and so far we've made it to chapter two. We've seen how Peter is writing to this new people of God, these Gentiles throughout Asia Minor who are now God's people. All the blessings and promises God made to Israel are being fulfilled in these people. And so we've seen how Peter is calling them to rejoice in the salvation that God has given them through Christ, to live in hope that he will one day save them and bring them into his kingdom and then call them to love one another, live together as his people. A couple of months ago in October, we looked at verses 11 and 12 of chapter two, and what we saw is that this new identity as God's people has given them a new citizenship, a new government, a new allegiance, more fundamental than what they were born into. And as a result, they are now aliens and sojourners in this world. And Peter called them to abstain from the passions of the flesh and to display honorable conduct to the world that would commend the gospel. And so the next few sermons in the next few verses of First Peter are really unpacking what that looks like in various aspects of life. So today we're going to be looking at First Peter, chapter two, verses 13 through 17. If you're using one of the Bibles in the rack in front of you, it's on page 1015. And as you're turning there, what I want us to see this morning is that Christians are called to glorify God by submitting to earthly authorities. So we as Christians, we as God's people bring glory to God by submitting to earthly authorities. That's what I want us to see this morning. So First Peter, chapter two, verses 13 through 17. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. Whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God. That by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free. Not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. I'll have four points this morning. First, the call itself, the call and the basis for the call, the purpose for the call and the beauty of the call. So the call itself to be subject. Let's look again at verses 13 and 14, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as those sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. Peter calls us. to be subject to every human institution. It's a little tense in here, isn't it? Every human institution, every level of authority from the top, the emperor, the king, the president, whoever the top level of authority all the way down every level be subject. We're called to submit to those authorities. So right off the bat, let's let's think about that for a minute. How are you doing with that? Very few of us here this morning are in outright rebellion against those authorities in our lives, but very few of us are also in complete, total compliance. As we think about this text, I just want us to feel the weight of that this morning. Be subject to every human institutions. Let's face it. There are a lot of them. There are a lot of human institutions, federal, state, local governments. employers, schools, families, even churches. That's a lot of authority, a lot of rules. You're starting to feel how expansive, how big this call is. Do you see how easy it is to fail to submit to all of these authorities? And yet that's the call before us. Second, I want us to see the basis for this call. Peter says we are to submit for the Lord's sake. So verse 13, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. And here's how we begin to formulate sort of a Christian view of authority. We aren't called to submit mindlessly, but quite the contrary, we are called to be mindful of God as we submit to authorities. And the reason for that is because all authority is God's authority. Proverbs 21, one says the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. You'll remember during Jesus's trial, during his trial leading up to his execution, he tells Pilate, you would have no authority unless it were given to you from above. God tells the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, the most high. That's capital M, capital H, the most high God rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he wills. And God tells Pharaoh for this purpose, I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed, proclaimed in all the earth. All authority is established by God and all authority works according to God's plan to glorify himself. All authority is God's, so we don't submit to earthly authorities simply for the sake of it or because it makes life easier. We submit to them because we as Christians understand we are ultimately submitting to God. By submitting to human authorities, we are worshiping God. We celebrate God's wisdom in establishing a universe, a creation that exists on the basis of relationships of authority and submission. That's something that's easy to overlook. God is the one who established it that way. That relationship of authority and submission is what characterizes the eternal Godhead. The Father and the Son exist together, live together for all of eternity in a relationship of authority and submission. The Son submitting to the will of the Father. God orders the world. All of creation is ordered around authority and submission. We see that in the institutions God has established. In the government, in the church, and in marriage. All of them established by God for good. We need order. We need the structure that comes from authority. We need the parameters and the boundaries of authority and submission. Now, the problem with those institutions is, of course, not God, it's us. We corrupt them with our sin, but the institutions themselves are good. In fact, if you think about it, all of those institutions point to Christ government. Christ is our king. The church is a picture of Christ. Christ is the head. He is is the church is the body and Christ is the head. It points to him. And then even in the family, Christ is is our savior. He is our our older brother. He is the head of of the body that is the church. And we exist as the family and the people of God. All of those institutions point to Christ. And so as we apply that, we glorify God when we embrace our role, our part, whatever it may be. In submission to God's ultimate authority. A lack of submission, our unwillingness to submit is really at the heart of sin, isn't it? If you remember back all the way to the creation, the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, God created them in his image. He gave them a unique role in the creation to exercise dominion, to have authority over the creation. And God gave them the freedom to eat of any tree they wanted to eat, except for the one. And so when the serpent came to tempt them, you remember, what did he do? He he immediately introduced doubt in God's authority. God's restrictions, they're not good. God, he's got it all wrong. He's not protecting you. He's withholding good from you. He's insecure, you're better off without him. You should decide for yourself what's good and what's evil. And so as Adam and Eve bought into the lie and when they ate the fruit, it wasn't just that they were breaking some arbitrary law that God had set for them, they were casting off God's authority. They didn't want it. They declared their independence from God. They wanted to make their own laws rather than listen to God's laws. And so that continues to today, doesn't it? That same spirit is at work in each of us. When we hear law, when that comes to us, our first impulse is not one of submission. It's rebellion. We want to go our own way and make our own law and decide for ourselves. Listen to the first three verses of Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the peoples of the earth plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. The issue for most people is not a question of belief in God, the question is submission to God. We don't like God. We don't like a God who makes claim for our lives, tells us what we have to do. Some people may live in outright rebellion against the idea of God, but a lot of people, they just create their own God, right? They just create one that looks a lot like the God of the Bible, but he's a little bit tamer, a little bit calmer, maybe a little bit more like me. You know, each of us says that to ourselves. We create a God that's more suitable for us. But either way, we reject the authority of the one true and living God. As he's revealed in his own word. And that's one of the reasons that this call is so expansive, just in thinking about this text and how to apply that this week, I've just noticed how easy it is to relax law. And the more we relax law, the easier it is to relax law, the more gray areas we try to find, the more gray areas we find as we blur lines, suddenly all the lines start to become blurry. And when we when we look for the spirit of the law, we find that very few letters actually remain. I wonder if you see that pattern in your life. We don't naturally submit to law, and the problem is not with the law, it's with us. We rebel against the law. That's the condition that we find ourselves in is we are in rebellion against the God of the universe. And that's why the gospel comes to us as such amazing news. You see, Jesus Christ came not for law keepers, but for rebels, for enemies. Romans says Christ died for us while we were still sinners, while we were still God's enemies. We were raising our fists in rebellion against God, and Christ was being nailed to the cross to die for sinners. And even more than that, he was also fulfilling the righteous requirements on our behalf. So Christ was living the life of perfect obedience, perfect submission, the life that we owe to God. He lived for us. And in the gospel, God offers us forgiveness and reconciliation by changing places with us, canceling our offenses with him, by counting our sins paid for in the death of Christ and in counting his righteous work, his righteous obligations, his fulfillment of all of God's law. to our account. So we confess our sins, we confess our rebellion against God, we surrender to him in humble submission, and God makes that great exchange for us. If you'd like to talk more about that today, I would love to talk to you after the service. But when we when we give up our rebellion against God, when we submit to him, we then submit naturally to every human authority. And we'll get to the why. But I want us to think for a minute about these human authorities, about the government. What is the purpose of the government? Peter says here in 13 and 14, governors are sent by the emperor to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. And that's not. All we would want to say about government, but that is kind of the seed form. That is the basic foundation for why governments exist. They are given by God to establish parameters for us. As a general rule, they are given to uphold a system of good and evil. And that is, again, for our good, we need the law. We need those restrictions. In exchange for that, in exchange for having a system whereby society sort of agrees on what is good and what is evil, and that's rewarded and punished appropriately, we give up our rights to absolute autonomy. So that's been true throughout human history. It's true now in our country, in our state, we forfeit our rights, some of our rights for the goods that government provides. So, for instance. You don't get to drive however you want. You don't get to drive without a license. You don't get to drive however fast you want. You don't get to park wherever you want. You don't get to turn wherever you want. You have to submit to those laws. You forfeit your rights to your own money. You have to pay taxes and fines for all the driving laws you broke. We don't get to build whatever we want, wherever we want. We have to get a permit and permission to do that. We don't get to educate our children when and how we want. There are guidelines for all of those things. There are hundreds and thousands of rights we give up in terms of autonomy in order to benefit from the good that government brings to us. And it does benefit us. It is good for us. We benefit from a government that makes and enforces laws. There are places around the world in history and even now you can look to and say we are better off with government than without. Now, as American Christians, most of us here this morning, I want us to think about what this means as we relate to our government. We're in a unique place in human history. We get to vote on the people that are in authority over us. We get to examine our candidates and their stances on various issues and vote for those. And so the issues of good and evil that we're hearing about in First Peter, those are the things that should inform the way that we vote as Christians. We first go to God and go to his word and ask him what is good and what is evil. And then we turn to the candidates and based on their stances on the various moral issues that are before us, we vote And we evaluate and then vote accordingly based on how they conform to God's laws. We have a say in forming our government and we should exercise that as God's people. But there's also a word of caution in order there. You see, as Christians, we can't be so identified with a party or a platform that we lose sight that our true identity is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in a king, a king who is coming. We look forward to the day when he returns, when every knee bows in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confesses Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He is the one who will come and will rule in perfect justice. He is the one that we look to. And so until then, we understand that we will be governed by sinful men. We understand that change doesn't take place through legislation. It takes place in human hearts when we give up our sin and follow Christ in repentance. So our hope as God's people can never rest in politics. It rests in Jesus Christ. Now, we have a democracy. We praise God for that. We understand, though, that democracy is not a permanent solution. Jesus is the permanent solution. He comes to rule and will do a great job at it. But now we exercise our rights, we exercise our freedom under Christ to vote, to have a say. And we seek to reflect the heart of our king and his priorities determine ours. But he is the one in whom we place our hope. Now, some of you may be wondering this morning, you know, what happens when governments get it wrong at various times, all human institutions get it wrong, that happens. All are made up of simple men who don't perfectly uphold good and evil. And we've even seen in history that Christians have been involved in actually overthrowing oppressive governments. When things get so out of whack that rewarding good and punished evil are lost, they're replaced by oppression. Christians have, with clean consciences, worked to establish forms of government that are not oppressive, that do uphold right and wrong. And I trust that in those situations, God has given those Christians unique wisdom and unique grace to navigate that situation. But in general, the Bible makes it clear that the only exception or the general expectation is that we submit to human authorities up to the point where they would require us not to submit to God. So we, as long as we can, with a clean conscience, maintain our allegiance to God, we submit gladly to earthly authorities. And we have a lot of examples of that in the Bible. Think about Peter and John. So Peter, author of this book, in Acts chapter four, Peter and John are arrested by the Jews for preaching the gospel. And so they promise to release them from prison on the condition that they stop preaching this name. And so here's Peter's response to them. Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. So Peter draws the line quite clearly. He's willing to submit to their arrest. He's willing to comply with their expectations, except to stop doing what Jesus told him to do clearly. Think about the wise men. So we're still on the on the tales of Christmas. The wise men came to Herod, asked, they were seeking this child, this new king that was born. And remember, Herod told them, oh, yeah, when you find him, come back and tell me, because I want to worship him, too. But what happened? The wise men were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. And so they didn't. They went another way. They did not submit to his authority. God's word is our primary and ultimate authority. We never have an excuse to disobey God's word. We see this with the Hebrew midwives who refused to kill the newborn Israelite males. We see it with Rahab, who committed treason against her people in order to be aligned with God and his people. We see it in the book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who are willing to forfeit their own lives to be thrown into the fire to not worship somebody they knew was not God. God's word is ultimate, and he always trumps human authority. But where God's word is not on the line, where God's word is not compromised, we are called to submit. And by doing so, we're trusting God's authority over those in authority over us. The basis for our submission is God, his glory, his authority. And so now we get into the purpose of the call, the purpose of the call in verse 15. For this is the will of God, that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. So are doing good here by doing good, you put the silence. It's the living in submission to authorities, the putting to silence You remember in the last sermon, we talked about this new identity, new citizenship we have in our other worldly identity changes the way that we behave in this world. It calls us to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which means that we don't participate with the same people in the same way that we once did. And as a result of that, those people start to speak against us as evildoers. We're changing. We're not like we used to be. For Peter's readers at the time, it could have been that they they were failing to participate in the cultic worship that characterized a lot of these Roman cities. And the accusation was that they were actually in rebellion against the empire. Or it could be that those who were looking into this this new Christian faith thought that if if I really believe that there's another king out there, I'm from another place that will cause me either to disengage from the society I'm in or to be subversive toward that society. Peter's point is that by submissive behavior, by Christians being obedient to their authorities, they will put to silence those accusations. And it's easy to see, right? If Christians are lawbreakers, if we show no regard for the law, the message of the gospel then is maligned. If we violate the order by which society functions, if we're actually doing evil and not good, Then we would rightfully be accused by the world, right? That makes sense. So Christians must submit to authorities over them. Those who don't understand Christianity may make accusations, but our conduct. Our conduct, and particularly as it relates to authority, will commend our faith to the world. Christians are to show that because of our faith in God, we submit to our earthly authorities. We understand that God is sovereign. He is king over all. And just as the emperor has appointed various officials, so even all of our greatest authorities have been appointed by God. And so we respond to them as such. So, again, let me ask you, how's that going? Are you in submission to the God ordained authorities in your life? Are you in submission such that no one could look at your life, look at your conduct, and accuse you slander Christianity. Do you demonstrate happy, joyful submission to your authorities? Is your heart soft and eager to respond to their requests? That leads us to our last point, the beauty of the call versus 16 and 17. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Peter tells us we are to live as free people. Paul says in Galatians, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. This whole idea of the language of freedom and slavery. We were once slaves to sin. Sin was our master. We were unable to do anything but sin. But the gospel tells us that through Christ we are free from sin. We are no longer captive to sin as our master, but we are not then completely autonomous. Those who have been truly set free from sin gladly take the easy and light yoke and burden of slavery to the Lord Jesus Christ. We become his bond servants and we gladly submit to his authority. Christian freedom always works that way. It's never about freeing us from all obligations and all restrictions. It's about freeing us from the obligations and restraints of sin so that we can live under the obligations and restraints that God intended for us. And it's only when we submit to God's restraints that we can fully realize the beauty of the freedom of living as his people. Just like someone who wants to be a great pianist or a great dancer or even a great athlete has to take on the yoke, the burden of practice. Only when they submit to that yoke can they then fully experience the beauty of performance. So we must submit to God's restraints in order to display his glory at work in and through us. So in our last verse, Peter tells us what that looks like to live as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Honor is for everyone. We acknowledge that every human being is created in the image of God and therefore has unique value and dignity and worth. Christians reject anything that degrades human life, that elevates one person over another in terms of value. Christians are not to be swayed by race or social status or political preference. Even the worst of sinners are still human beings created in God's image and deserving of honor. We're also called to love the brotherhood. That means we acknowledge our unique identity as God's people. We are being built into a spiritual house. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. And so we're called to live together in love because we will be together forever. Love shows a unique priority, not less than honor, but more. We are to show a familial kind of affection and allegiance to one another. Fear God. For Peter, fear, the word fear, is the controlling, most fundamental desire for any of us. It goes beyond and deeper than both honor and love. In verse 17 of chapter 1, he called us to conduct ourselves with fear because we were ransomed with the most valuable thing in the universe, the blood of Christ. And so to fear God means that at any moment, he is more real to us than anything else. His voice is the loudest. He's the trump card. No matter who else is around, no matter what they're saying or doing, the person that fears God is following God. He's the authority. He's the controlling factor, no matter what. The last exhortation, honor the emperor. So we owe the emperor, the king, the authority, respect for his position. God has given him a unique role and unique responsibility. And so we acknowledge that by showing him honor. But notice that that's the same posture we take to everyone else. The emperor is a man, he's a man like every other man on the face of the earth, he was positioned by God, but he was created by God as well. And so precisely because he was created in God's image, he deserves the same honor that we owe to all. I want us to see there's there's a priority here, not in the order that Peter gives these, but but there's an order that comes and it starts with having the right fear. The fear of God has to be in place and that then will determine the other priorities. It determines the right love and the right honor. If we truly fear God, we will love those who also fear him. And we will honor all who are made in his image. So let's think about for a minute what happens if we get the order wrong. Let's say that we, what we really fear is not God, but it's the brotherhood. So we may, we may claim to honor God, but if our true fear, the thing that we care about the most lies in the brotherhood, then we get consumed with making ourselves look good to other Christians. And that means we don't really care that much about sin in our lives as long as nobody else sees it become become self-righteous and self-deceived. We don't show tough love to Christians because we're afraid they might reject us. We don't show honor to all people, but we become judgmental to those people who don't share our opinions. Most of all, though, we lose our relationship with God in the process. He may be a concept in our minds, but he's not the active and dominant and controlling factor in our thinking and in our acting. And God doesn't come to us as a consultant. He comes to us as a king. Maybe it's not the brotherhood we fear, maybe it's just everyone. We may be happy to sort of participate in the church so long as nobody knows about it. that God and his people are interesting, but what we really want is to fit in and be relevant to the world around us. We wouldn't stand for God's truth if it caused us to lose face with family or friends. And that's what the Bible diagnosis is, is double mindedness or carnality. And that'll eventually manifest itself in being licentious or lawless. Maybe what we fear is not the Brotherhood or everyone, maybe what we fear is the emperor. The president, the governor, the boss fill in the blank authority. We can fall into the same trap where we can't stand for God's truth because of how it conflicts with the people that we're trying to please. We become idolatrous and this is real. We become idolatrous where we look to a person for meaning and purpose that only comes from our creator. We see that over and over again, the book of Daniel is really interesting, where Daniel is constantly placed in a position where he has to choose whether he fears God or whether he fears the emperor. Maybe it's it's not so much fear, but it's the love that's off, at least in terms of our confession, we claim to love everyone. No distinction between the brotherhood. In this case, that reflects a misunderstanding of the fear of God. The fear of God sets the priorities for who and how we love. But if we take a stance of love to everyone, we find that we, in the process, lose the gospel. We can do all kinds of things in the name of love without ever really addressing humanity's deepest need and the gospel as the only solution for those things. And that's essentially what the social gospel is. We lose sight of God and then we see all problems as here and now and then all solutions as here and now. So I want us to think, as we conclude, about how we can set these priorities in place and cultivate them in our lives. How do we practically fear God? One way is just through the spiritual disciplines. That's where the disciplines can be so helpful, is continuing to set before us, to remind ourselves that God is real, that he's in authority. So we go to his word, we go to him in prayer. But we also realize that that's something that's really hard to do by ourselves. So that's one of the reasons we gather on Sundays is to remind each other about God, who he is and what he's done and set that before us intentionally. We encourage each other to persevere, to fear God and follow him. And we surround ourselves with Christians. We open ourselves up to our struggles. We show them the ways that we're struggling so that we can keep each other mindful of the fear of God, comfort each other with the truth of the gospel. How do we love the brotherhood? As we grow individually in the fear of the Lord, we come to value and appreciate the presence of other Christians. That's kind of what I was just speaking about. We know more of our own weaknesses. And so it's natural that we need the help of others, and we also understand others have weaknesses and we can help them as well. And so we commit to each other to do to do so. We also understand that God has uniquely equipped and gifted each one of us for a unique purpose. And so we come together to do that. And I'm talking about what we call it here is church membership, not just having a name on a roll, but actively committing to a body of believers for encouragement and for accountability. That's one way we do it, but it's not the only way. One of the other ways we love the brothers is by appreciating what God is doing around the world and actually participating in that. God is at work everywhere, and so we partner with those who are spreading the same gospel message that we know and love. And so that's that's one area we're seeking to grow. That's one of the reasons we've hired an outreach pastor is to help us in terms of thinking about those relationships, how we can be more active and loving brothers, not just here, but around the world. And that's also something that I've seen modeled very, very well in the time that I've been here. I've been so encouraged by those of you who open your home to believers that are coming in from other parts of the country or other parts of the world. And so thank you for the service that you show and how you practically demonstrate your love for the brothers. A lot of you also just live very simple lives so that your income and your resources are free to support the work that God is doing around the world. And that also is really encouraging. How do we honor everyone? Think about the people that you come into contact with on a daily basis. your family, your neighbors, the clerk in the checkout line, the fellow drivers on the road, the person who speaks to you in broken English, the person who doesn't look like you or talk like you or think or act or smell like you. Christianity leaves no room. For hatred or disgust toward any other human being. We see every man and woman. As being in in having been created in the image of God. And not only that, but as Christians, we see not only the image of God, but we see how Christ came to redeem men and women from every tribe, tongue, language, nation, people. We remind ourselves of this truth and we honor all human life, we work to honor each person. We don't think of ourselves, we don't position ourselves as better than anyone. But we seek to do good to everyone as we have opportunity. Finally, how do we honor the emperor or the king or the president, the governor? I think one of the ways that we can practically think about how we honor those in authority is in our speech. A lot of us don't don't have the conduct, the contact with those who are in authority over us. Especially in government, but even in other situations, work, you know, it may be that you have a direct supervisor, but you spend very little time with the CEO or whatever, whatever the structure is. It becomes very easy for the authorities to become the authorities and not people created in the image of God. And so it becomes really easy for us to speak about them in a disrespectful and dishonoring way. So that can play out around the water cooler at work or in the privacy of your own home or even in the emails that you choose to read and forward to people around you. Do you spend as much time praying for the people in authority as you do talking about them and criticizing them? One of the ways we can honor our authorities is by talking about them less and by praying about them more. In our actions. We honor the authorities in our lives by submitting to them. When we are not prevented from our allegiance to God, we submit to the authorities over us, and that brings us full circle, doesn't it? As Christians, we must see that the impulse to rebel comes from our flesh and its roots are all the way back in the fall. We repent of that rebellious spirit in the fear of God. We recognize that he is the ultimate authority over all, and we live in glad submission to him by submitting to the authorities he's put in place so that we do not bring reproach upon the name of Christ, but we commend him to the world. That's the beauty that comes from the freedom of the gospel. We're freed through Christ from the selfish entrapment of sin. We're free to love and to serve others as Christ has loved and served us. And that's the picture we see in the Lord's Supper, right? That's why we take it as a reminder. Our king, the Lion of Judah, appears not as a glorious king, as a lamb that was slain, slain for us, given his life as a ransom for many. And that's why we celebrate. Over and over again, the freedom that we have provides us the opportunity to display the beauty of Christ to the people who are around us by fearing God, by loving the brothers, by honoring everyone, even those in authority. May God empower us to live this way in joyful submission for his glory. Let's pray. Our father in heaven. Where we pray as we sung before Lord that your Word would be given success. We confess, Lord, that these verses are so simple and yet so hard. So we confess again, Lord, our rebellion, our sinful rejection of your authority, Lord, and we ask that you would grant us repentance, Lord. We pray that we would see The beauty and the goodness of authority that you have created. Our relationship with you as creator. Christ's relationship as the son. And his relationship to us as our savior. And that by the beauty of that picture of his submission to you, even to death on a cross, we would find the strength and the grace to live in humble submission as you call us, Lord. We pray that you would keep us from the kind of behavior that would give fuel to those who speak against us as evildoers. Empower us by your spirit to live in such a way that Christ is displayed in the world as beautiful. We confess that we need your help to do that as we ask for it through Jesus. Amen.