 Anyway, with that, we're going to be looking at chapter 12. We're going to close quickly with verses 16 through 21, because last time we were together, I didn't touch on those verses. Then we're going to move into chapter 13, and hopefully cover the first seven verses of Romans chapter 13. But we'll begin at Romans 12, 16. So I'll read verses 12, rather, chapter 12 verses 16 through 21. We'll get into our study. Paul writes, Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your opinion, your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord. Therefore, if your enemies hungry, feed them. If he's thirsty, give them a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And so we stopped as mentioned in verse 15 last time, and that's when it had said, Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. And so Paul, at this point, has been sharing concerning life in the body of Christ. And he's pointed out that we are to present. He began by saying, present your bodies unto God as living sacrifices. So he had pointed out that we present ourselves fully and completely to God as living sacrifices. And so as we have presented ourselves in that way to him, our minds are being transformed by his word and by his spirit. So as we are taught the word of God, we begin to live different kinds of lives, transformed lives. No longer do we live in arrogant pride, we live with humility, we live by faith. We serve God by faith. He's given us gifts of the spirit. We've been looking at this. And by faith, we exercise those gifts. We prophesy, we may minister or teach, we may exhort or give, we lead or we may show mercy. All of these being gifts of the spirit. It's all done out of a real, a very genuine love for God as well as love for others. We hate evil, he says. We cling to good. We're kindly affectionate toward one another. We're diligent. We're fervent as we serve the Lord. All of these things comes from presenting ourselves fully to God. He said we're to be on fire for Christ. We're to continue to persevere in prayer. We help one another. We're hospitable. We bless those who persecute us. We rejoice with those who rejoice. We weep with those who weep. And since the church is to be a loving family, what we do is we actually experience life together. And so he's been sharing that as we pick up here in verse 16 and he continues by saying that we are to in verse 16 be of the same mind toward one another. In other words, be united in your mutual seeking of and serving of the Lord. He's saying have a heart of unity. Seek the goal of love for God. Seek the goal of loving other people. And do so together. Eliminate the mentality that there are certain people in the church that are what we used to call the beautiful people. That pecking order mentality. That idea that if I get to know that certain individual who's so important, I can become important too. So instead of having a mindset like that, we're to be living in harmony. We should have a unity in our aim, our vision, our direction. He said in verse 16, do not set your mind on high things. In other words, don't be selfishly ambitious. Associate verse 16 with the humble. In other words, don't court the rich and the powerful. Because when you associate with those who are humble, this helps to keep your feet on the ground. Let the poor, godly man be your friend. It's been said, and from his humility, learn to be godly. In verse 16, don't be wise in your own opinion. When you're conceited, you can't be taught. When you already know everything, when you're waiting for that person's mouth to close so you can fill his mind with your understanding, that's called arrogance. And so he's saying, don't be wise in your own opinion. Have the humility to listen and to learn. In verse 17, repay no one evil for evil, but have regard for good things in the sight of the Lord. Don't be vengeful, because when you're vengeful, you begin to follow the inclination of your flesh. And so he had already said in verses 3 as well as 5, don't seek to retaliate. Have a humble and a gentle spirit. Now notice in verse 17 how he says, have regard. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. That word regard is an interesting word. It speaks of thinking beforehand. He's saying, consciously cultivate your way of life. Be aware that your conduct must be regulated and it's regulated by habit. So protect your reputation. Carefully guard your way of life. My father taught me something that I didn't understand. I confessed. I didn't understand when I was young. I do now. I didn't as a young man. But he said, David, he said the most important thing that you have is your reputation, so guard it. And that's true. Your name means everything. Your name means everything. And so be aware. Be aware of the way that you live and protect your reputation. Proverbs 22 verse 1 says, choose a good reputation over great riches. Being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold. In Philippians chapter 127 he says this at the first portion of the verse, whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. So that's what he's sharing with them. These are just words to help to encourage them as living sacrifices. To live in such a way that blesses the Lord and reaches people. In verse 18 he says, and this is interesting, if it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. My pastor Chuck Smith one time says, he says, as much as lies within you, if it is possible, he says, you know what? There are people that it's very difficult to live at peace with. But he said, you're to do your best to live with them in a way that is not in combat constantly. In other words, I'm responsible for myself. So I do my best to maintain peace with other people. Proverbs 15 verse 1, some of us ought to write this one down. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. If we learn to, instead of retaliating and who you think you're talking to, let me tell you, and we want to give them a piece of our mind. You know that old phrase? I gave them a piece of my mind. There's so many people who have given away pieces of their mind. They don't have a mind left. They've given it away. You see, I can exercise self-control, but I can't control someone else. So as much as I can, I do my best to live at peace with others. I can't live at peace with every single person. There are some who don't intend to, so I do my best to live at peace. But for those that I can't necessarily have close relations, I just leave them alone. He said in verse 19, don't avenge yourselves. Give place to wrath. Again, the natural response is retaliation. If I can and when I can, I will retaliate normally. Instead, we give place to God. We leave vengeance in his hands. Leave, he says, leave room for God's wrath. Why? Because he'll take care of the situation and he'll do so fairly. So learn to forgive those who have wronged you. If your enemy's hungry, he says, feed him. If he's thirsty, drown him. No, he says, if he's thirsty, give him a drink. Instead of seeking vengeance, care for people. In Leviticus 19, 18, it says, do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people. But love your neighbor as yourself. I'm the Lord. Verse 20, it's interesting how it says here when he says, do not avenge yourselves in verse 19. I'll repay therefore verse 20, if your enemy's hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. Notice for him so doing, he'll heap coals of fire on his head. What an interesting phrase. In doing so, he'll heap coals of fire on his head. There are various ways to look at this and I've seen several different ways that they point that out. But the term heaping coals doesn't mean bring physical pain to this person. But in your kindness, by being kind to that person, it can awaken his conscience. It can make that person wonder, why are you treating me this way? Why aren't you retaliating? Why aren't you swearing at me? Why aren't you it can actually awaken a pang of conscience and they can sometimes, and some of you have had this happen to you, sometimes they'll even come up to you and say, you know what, I was really being a jerk and I'm sorry. Because what you did instead of retaliating is you awaken their conscience, you heap coals upon their head. You awaken them. You see, we're not to be overcome by evil, verse 21, but we're to overcome evil with good. When you seek vengeance, you're being overcome, he's saying, by evil. You don't show strength when you're taking vengeance. You actually are showing a weakness. So to refrain from taking vengeance reveals a strength, the strength of character. You see, when you love an enemy, you shame him for his hatred and in refusing to get even, you may even make him a friend. Those are all very practical things. And so with those practical things, we move into a practical portion of Scripture that's of a different kind, chapter 13. Beginning at verse 1, Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority to what's good? And you'll have praise from the same. For he's God's minister to you. For good. But if you do evil, be afraid. For he doesn't bear the sword in vain. For he's God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscience's sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes. Oh! For they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render, therefore, to all their due taxes, to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs fear, to whom fear and honor, to whom honor. So we're going to be actually moving into a different kind of portion of the letter here. He's speaking concerning the Christian and government. Notice how he begins by saying in verse 1, let every soul be subject to authorities. Now, Paul is writing on this subject. Let me give you a little background for at least two reasons. One, it is flowing from what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. To spread the gospel, we need to work within the confines of the civil government. So what he's doing is he's writing to clarify our responsibilities to the government. Now, why is that important? That the Jewish people had questions about the Roman government's authority over them as a people. At that time, the writing of the New Testament, many had a certain pride about their independence. In the Gospel of John, it says, they're speaking, the Jewish people are speaking, the authorities, they said, we are in John 833. We are Abraham's descendants and have never been in any one. So they had this thing about being in bondage to foreign rulers. It's interesting to note, though, when they say we've never been in bondage to anyone, they forget Egypt and they forget Assyria and Babylon, the Middle Persians, the Greeks and even at that time when they were saying that, they were in bondage to Rome. And so on the one hand, they're saying, well, we take pride in our independence, but on the other hand, they were subject to a foreign rulership and they hated being under the heel of Rome. They hated the Romans because the Romans were not good to them in many cases. In Luke, for example, chapter 13 gives us an example. In Luke 13, verse 1, it says, there were present at that season some who told him, who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood pilot had mingled with their sacrifices. So there were Galileans offering sacrifices who got massacred by Roman soldiers. And so Jesus was approached with that and that's one of the reasons the Jews hated the Romans. In Acts 5, in verses 36 and 37, we read, some time ago, Theodos rose up claiming to be somebody, a number of men about 400 joined him. He was slain and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. After this, after this man Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, drew away many people after him. He also perished and all who obeyed him were dispersed. The Jews chafed at the idea of pagans ruling over them. They were considered pagan intruders. And so they questioned whether or not they should be in support of Rome to give you a reminder of why Matthew as a tax collector was resented and it reminds you of how the fact that there was also a zealot in the 12 apostles. And so there was a zealot who was anti-Rome but you had Matthew who worked for Rome. And so there was a mixture and a combination of understanding that actually had created some problems. The question of responsibility to civil government isn't a new one. In Mark, for example, let me read this to you Mark 12, 14 through 17, it says this When they had come they said to him they said to Jesus, teacher, we know that you're true and care about no one. For you do not regard the person of men but teach the way of God in truth. And then they asked this loaded question. They were arguing amongst themselves about what the Jews' responsibility to the Roman government may be. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay? But he, knowing their hypocrisy said to them, why do you test me? Bring me a denarius that I may see it. So they brought it. He said to them, whose image and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesar's Jesus answered and said you render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's to God the things that are God's and they marveled at him. In doing so, and I won't go real long on this one he was saying that man has obligation to human government and man has obligation to God. Your obligation to God comes first but you do have obligation to human government. So he pointed that out. That's what he said. When I was 19 I was drafted and so I fought the draft. I won't go into the long story but I resisted going in for some time for months. I was supposed to go in August 25th 1970 and I didn't actually I went in but they refused me because I had burglarized the jewelry store and they wanted to look at my record and so they said we can take you in right now or we can send another order of induction and they said send me another order of induction. So from that point I began to write letters I became a pen pal with the U.S. government because you could you could write them a letter. Your induction date is will say September 10th you could send them a letter and say sorry I have to go to the doctor and they'll send you another induction notice. They did that for months. We became very close. Then I got saved and then I chose my date of induction because I became a believer but what happened is prior to that is I had a question as a new Christian what is my obligation to human government? Now I come from a family where my father was in the Navy in World War II my uncles were veterans there was a certain awareness of obligation to the American government that my father sent into me now I'm saved and I want to live a life that's right before God but I don't know if I'm a CEO, a conscientious object or not. I don't know how I feel about war I don't know how because I was a hippie and there was a lot of resistance to the Vietnam War there was a lot of argument about those things and I honestly had a bit of confusion and I didn't know what to do I'm a new Christian I'll say this quickly I'm praying again I'm a brand new believer I started praying God what am I supposed to do because I was taught to read the Bible and I did and I was reading it and wondering what is my obligation what am I to do and so of all things I was at my aunt's house and I was watching TV and I saw Sergeant York with Gary Cooper that's an old movie some of you oldsters remember some of you so old you forget but Gary Cooper played Sergeant Alvin York who served with the 82nd who was a Medal of Honor winner but he was a Christian and he wrestled with whether he should go in or not I identified with that I thought I'm wrestling with that so I'm watching him as he wrestles it's portrayed by Gary Cooper and he read the Scripture render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that belong to God and under that Scripture that's how Alvin York went into the military and ultimately became a Medal of Honor winner by rendering unto God the things that were God's but unto Caesar the things that belong to him there are certain things that belong to man and there are certain things that belong only to God and I'll sum up that with you we need to remember that we have responsibilities to God as well as to human beings but there are difference between those responsibilities human government relates to person to person relationship and Paul was aware of the friction that exists between these two kingdoms the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man the church hasn't been established to pursue worldly power ambition for power was at the heart of the fall of Satan who said I will be like God I will be worshiped it was that same temptation that he brought to Eve who said look at the fruit it's going to make you wise like God and so it's at the heart of the fall it was at the heart of Satan John Milton who wrote a a book called Paradise Lost and Milton said Lucifer says to reign is worth ambition though in hell better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven that's Paradise Lost better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven it's a prideful hunger for power that permeates human government it's a power hunger that sometimes entices many times entices people to aspire to governmental leadership the kingdom of God is ruled by different principles servant leadership is God's way in Luke 22 25 and 26 Jesus said the kings of the Gentiles exercised lordship over them those who exercised authority over them are called benefactors but you shall not be so but he who is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he who is chief as one who serves it's been said that Jesus rules an upside down kingdom the way of man is to aspire for greatness and the way of the kingdom of God is to aspire to service so he is saying here let every soul be subject to the governing authorities every soul would include every believer and he is saying you are to submit to authority why why will a believer submit to human government because God ordains governments in Daniel 4 32 the most high rules in the kingdom of man and gives it to whomever he desires so he says in verse 1 every soul be subject he is not saying be compliant and he is not saying mindlessly follow orders without a question to be subject means to place yourself under somebody's authority now there are times when we must choose to obey God or the government you see the government as it exists doesn't replace God or my devotion to him so if conflict erupts when man's law breaks God's law what are we to do we resist that now Jesus commanded his believers to preach the gospel remember in Acts 1 8 I repeat this quite often you shall receive power and the Holy Spirit has come upon you you shall be witnesses to me and Jerusalem Judea Samaria unto the uttermost parts of the earth going to the whole world the gospel and so that's our command that's our marching orders in Acts 2 when the church was birthed by the power of the Holy Spirit and the day of Pentecost they immediately began to proclaim the gospel and as we've been going on Sunday through the book of Acts we've seen how as they do so they at first were doing very well and then persecution has finally erupted against them but believers are to obey Jesus and so that sometimes can provoke a confrontation if you will God's command overrides man's commands when the apostle Peter had preached and people were saved and then in Acts 3 when we see him at the gate called beautiful you remember the story we've recently gone through it now Peter and John were walking into this beautiful gate there in the temple area in Jerusalem there was a man there who was begging and when Peter and John were about to walk in Peter said look upon us and the man looking up expecting to receive something heard these words from the apostle Peter silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ they say the man walking leaping praising God is now holding them we know the story people come and assemble this man had been there for so many years they knew something had happened giving Peter the opportunity he preaches people are saved the authorities come they're upset because he's preaching the gospel Jesus had been put to death and the authorities knew that they were responsible at least partially for that so they forbid them preach no longer in this man's name and so that left Peter having to make a decision he's been ordered not to preach but somebody else had given him the order to preach that was Jesus so man is giving an order representing the religious authorities at that time but Jesus had given him orders so in Acts 4 19 and 20 Peter and John answered and said to them whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God you judge for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard whether it is right to obey you or God you make the judgment but we're going to obey God that's what you do God's command overrides the command given by authorities and the same principle rules our lives when it comes to ministry we obey God rather than man why it's a matter of moral conscience now civil law is intended to restrain evil from running rampant that's what it's intended to do so we submit to authority as long as it does not subvert the law of God if a law or government action violates our conscience and understanding of God's word we have an obligation to reject that command now in the United States there are many concerns for us to voice our thoughts about and it's our responsibility to exercise our rights and to express our views in Proverbs 14 34 righteousness exalts a nation sin is a reproach to any people since there's no authority except from God if a nation is asked then does that mean that you submit yourself to every law seeing that authority is from God do we simply submit because we're told to do so well in Daniel 6 there's a record of a response Daniel had to an order to stop praying he just continued to pray no matter what but what happens if a civil law violates a higher law well Exodus tells us in Proverbs 17 the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives whose names were Shippurah and Pua that's not a name I'd like to be called hey Pua get over here anyway when you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool if it's a boy kill him but if it's a girl let her live that was a law not praying the Egyptian tell the Hebrew midwives you stop allowing boys to live those are commands by authorities but the midwives feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt told them to do they let the boys live which resulted in the birth of Moses laws that don't contradict God's laws are obeyed that's because God established civil authority and the law will parallel his law remember this laws are normally almost all laws if not all are simply things that relate to morality or moral behavior do not steal we have laws against stealing do not kill do not murder we have laws against murder do not lie if you purge yourself in a trial under oath you can be put to jail these are all moral principles stealing lying killing if the laws that command us to break God's laws are passed then we are not to obey the laws that reject God's we saw that recently and again I'm trying to be careful with everything I'm saying because there's more that I feel than I'm saying right now we saw it recently with this COVID thing that all of a sudden we saw so many things and I'm trying to jowl this we suddenly had essential and non-essential businesses that's an interesting way to think in the land of the free that you actually have essential and non-essential so essential businesses you'll remember this essential businesses were tattoo parlors and strip clubs and if you're fasting you can gather but you're not supposed to gather in church because you're not loving your brother when you do that and don't sing in church and sometimes I agree with that please don't but you couldn't go to a funeral you couldn't go to a wedding your kids couldn't go to school you were told not to go to church you're supposed to wear a mask everywhere which did some people a lot of good even gollum looked cute with a mask you have to get a shot if you don't get a shot you're going to lose your job small businesses were shut down and business people were went broke some of those things needed to be rejected I would think you agree with that so when a law says to me don't worship Jesus I'm going to worship Jesus it's that simple I'm not going to thumb my nose at the government I'm not going to try and pick a fight with the local authorities I'm simply going to obey God rather than men so years ago we were given opportunity I was along with a few of our members of our fellowship to go and smuggle Bibles into China China at that time was not allowing people to have Bibles there were people in China who were members of underground churches and they didn't have Bibles and so I was given the opportunity with others from our fellowship to bring in Bibles and I had people say oh you're supposed to obey the law it's illegal to bring Bibles in because the law says you can't you know I won't try and violate your conscience but I don't agree with that at all because it's the Word of God that sets people free so I'm going to bring the Bible in which we did and as we brought the Bibles in and I won't tell you how we went about doing that but we brought them in and when we brought them in and got there in Beijing and there we are with all these Bibles and we put our luggage down that had all these Bibles and walked away and left them there we saw people who were the couriers who were going to take these Bibles to churches and we saw them standing that I'm looking at my sister Patty she went with us and we saw them crying because they didn't have Bibles in China and they were crying thank you Jesus see here in the United States we have so many Bibles if we don't know where one is we just go get the other one but not in China not at that time they didn't have them and there they are rejoicing crying that the Word of God came in so no we'll bring Bibles and we will violate the law because we have a higher law and that's how it works and I'm not trying to train you to be rebellious we already are by nature I'm saying some things need to be rejected now he said in verse 2 whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God so laws and government should mirror the greatest moral values and the values are to be enforced by the establishment of law and laws are generally benevolent and are intended to benefit other people in the community they protect people from harm and promote the care of people they're to provide punishment for those who violate the laws all of that is a part of the law so verse 2 whoever resists the authority of the government is resisting the law basically in other words if you break the law you will ultimately end up reaping the consequences now verse 3 says rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil so do you want to be unafraid of the authority do what's good and you'll have praise from the same rulers or those in authority in general don't punish the good citizens that's not always true as we know but they are in general normally to punish the law breaker and that's one of the reasons why and I'll say this quickly when my kids were beginning to drive I told them I said if you get pulled over don't get smart with the police officer just don't show them respect my father taught me to do that show them respect if you ask for your license give them your license proof of insurance proof of insurance treat them with respect why provoke him why get into problems with them so I tried to teach him that and they somewhat learned but obey the law it says in verse 4 that he's a minister for God for your good so I really believed and I'll read the rest of that verse because I have a thought he's God's minister to you for good if you do evil be afraid he does not bear the sword in vain he is God's minister an Avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil so police officers in general and we have quite a number of police officers in our fellowship and I'm grateful for them I've had people get angry at me for saying that for whatever reason but I'm grateful for them if I'm in need and I have a police officer here or a sweet old lady I love that sweet old lady but I'm going to turn to to the police officer it just makes sense to me can you help me and we just need to be understanding of that thing I read something and you'll see what I mean I really believe that we need to be aware of the fact that these people these officials are normally there to be of protection to us we need to understand that so some of you perhaps read just this week that there's a Minneapolis activist named Shivanti Sathan Adhan that's an interesting I hope I pronounce that close to proper but she's somebody in Minneapolis who had called for police defunding she is the Democratic farmer labor party leader but she was recently carjacked in front of her kids she was left with a broken leg deep lacerations to her head bruises over her entire body now she was crying for defunding of the police but now she's saying those who do such things should be held accountable and I think that's sadly ironic she had to learn that we all benefit from protectors she had to learn that Paul said he is God's minister to you for good now if you do evil he said be afraid because you're going to pay a proper penalty if he realizes proper judgment he's going to wield it or should be wielding it properly and so he says verse 5 be subject now I'm going to develop this and close with this he says in verse 5 therefore you must be subject not only because of wrath but also for conscience's sake let me share something very quickly with you Paul says that we are to be subject for at least two reasons you might want to note these in your mind one he said be subject because of wrath but secondly he said because of conscience that's something that's a lot deeper than you see at first reading he says be subject because of wrath why because judgment can come upon you but he also says but be subject for your sake the sake of your conscience which is a higher and more developed reason as Christians we're concerned with doing what is right for conscience's sake not simply what may be legal there are laws that make certain things legal but it does not make them right and we need to know that there are things that are passed that are regarded as being proper that we as Christians would say I can't support that and so we have to be aware of those kinds of things just because it may be legal does not make it moral abortion may be legal but that doesn't make it moral and so we have to be aware of that now there are reasons why people develop a conscience they have the lowest of it is usually what you call a punishment reward mentality that's how babies are doing they'll do it again because they got rewarded if you punish them they won't do it not because they have a moral conscience but because they don't want to be punished and then they grow a little bit and they may they may do something that's good because they enjoy doing it for self pleasure it just makes them happy to do it or somebody is going to reward them for doing that by doing something for them just so that they can win the approval of other people some people will do good because they're oriented to authority and they're going to do exactly what they're told there are others who will do that which is right because it's permitted in the Constitution but the highest reason to do what is right is personal ethics you do what is right not because you get rewarded by somebody or because you're afraid to be punished it's right because it pleases God and what he's saying is that we will do this yes there's a punishment that takes place yes but the reason I do good isn't because I'm afraid of being punished it's because I want to please God and that's what a developed conscience does we're not looking for ways to get away with what we want to do we're seeking to please the Lord and so he says you need to be subject to this but because of your conscience towards the Lord so we keep the law because we have a higher reason for obedience we recognize government as the hand of the Lord because of that Christians ought to be the best citizens in the country and finally he says in a close verse 6 because of this you also paint taxes for they are God's ministers continually to this very thing render therefore to all their due taxes to whom taxes are due customs to whom customs fear to whom fear and honor to whom honor I pay my taxes I will pay every cent I owe but not a dime more so we pay our taxes we serve our country we respect our officials and we even pray for those in office which is what we're supposed to do we pray I do pray for Biden and Harris I do pray for them I don't appreciate what they're doing but I do have a God who can change hearts and I do pray that God will change theirs that's what we're supposed to do and Father we ask