 Amen. Okay, go ahead and keep your place there in Romans 13. So Romans 13 is a short chapter, but it's a sort of famous chapter in the Bible. Many people quote Romans 13. Many things are taught out of Romans 13. Many things are misapplied out of Romans 13. Romans 13 is you can see it's talking about government and kings and things like this in our life and the higher powers. And a lot of people use Romans 13 to say that you know you should do what the government says no matter what. And especially the first part of Romans 13. So what I want to do tonight is just kind of just dig down into what the Bible actually says and see what Romans 13 is actually talking about because what the Bible says is true. So let's find out what it says. In Romans 13, in verse number one, the Bible starts out and says let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. So notice that it says unto the higher powers. It doesn't say the highest power. It says that there are higher powers. So what are the higher powers in your life is what we need to know to understand this verse. What this verse is talking about is obeying the authority in your life. Now it doesn't matter how great of a man you are, how high up you are, every person in their life is under some sort of authority. And I've often said throughout my career and explaining things to people that either work for me or work with me that 90% of your success is knowing who your customer is. I've said that many times and what I really mean by that statement is if you can thoroughly understand who you work for, you're going to be successful in this position. It's when people get outside of the realms of who they work for and they either are not obeying who they work for or they're working for somebody else or they're getting outside of their bounds of their higher powers is when they start getting themselves in trouble in the workplace. So I just want you to notice that the Bible says here that there are higher powers and we need to know what those are. We'll get into that in a little bit more detail here in a little bit. But what it's basically talking about is everybody, no matter who you are, has higher powers in their life. Everybody has the higher power of God in their life. If you're in a church, you're underneath a pastor. The pastor has the authority in this church. I am underneath the pastor of this church. You are underneath the pastor in the matters of this church. Children, you're under the authority of your parents. You are also under the authority of a higher power than your parents, which is God. We talked about this in the sermon on raising small children and raising older children. Wives, you are under the authority of your husband and also under the authority of God. So everybody has this hierarchy of powers in your life. That's what the Bible was talking about. Look at verse number two. So you're supposed to do that which is good, but not the evil. For he is the minister of God to thee for good, meaning the ruler. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. So government is to do good, and their purpose is to execute wrath upon evil. That's what the Bible is saying here. God ordained human government. That's what the Bible is explaining. But the government has rules. They have jurisdiction just like you have jurisdiction in areas of your life. Turn to 1 Peter chapter two. 1 Peter chapter two. Let's look at another verse that teaches, that talks about government and being submissive to rulers and see what it says. In 1 Peter chapter two, look at verse 13. And the Bible says, Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him. For what? For the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. So what I'm trying to get you to understand here is really two points is what the Bible is teaching. There are higher powers in your life. There are ordained higher powers in your life. There's a structure of man-made power that is ordained by God. And number two, this governmental power is created by God to punish evil. That is what it's for. But notice when it says you are to be subjected to the higher powers. Here's how it works. If your husband tells you something to do, or tells you an order and it goes against a higher power, that's not his jurisdiction. He is outside of his jurisdiction. You are to obey the higher powers. So if the government, what's above the government? Your boss at work is not above the government. God is above the government. So if the government gives commands or tells the people to do something that goes against the word of God, God is the highest power. He's at the top of that chain. That's the highest power that we are supposed to be subjected to. The Bible here is teaching that God has ordained government. The authority of man has a scope or a jurisdiction. God doesn't. That's the difference. God doesn't have a jurisdiction. He has jurisdiction over everything. Men, women, we all have jurisdictions in our lives. Either we have authority above us. I think about all the authority in my life. You think, oh, I'm the leader of this satellite church. I am under a lot of authority in my life. I am under the authority of a pastor of this church. I go to work and I am under the authority of my boss, my boss's boss, my boss's boss's boss, and my boss's boss's boss's boss. I mean, these are all people that are, these are all people, literally physical people, that come to me and tell me things. I'm talking to these four people that I work for all the time. And I work for them. I am under their authority. And if I don't understand that, things aren't going to go well for me. But if they give me a command or an order that goes against the Bible, that does not apply to me. You see? That's how it works. This is why, you know, this whole, like, working moms versus stay-at-home moms argument in this country is just completely ridiculous to me. Because if you have any idea how much freer a stay-at-home mom is than some working mother, I mean, it's crazy. I mean, she is under the authority of only her husband. Think of the working mom. She's under the authority of her boss, her boss's boss, her boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss, and then her husband as well. I mean, she's much less free than the stay-at-home mom, who's just under the authority of her husband, and she has her children under her authority. So it's a much better life for her. That's the structure, by the way, for women that is ordained in the Bible. It actually makes sense. You won't see in the Bible God ordaining some other man to come and give your wife orders in the home or whatever. You know, I mean, it would be outside of my scope as the satellite leader of this church to come and try to do things outside of this church. I can't tell you what to do in your home. I can't come to your house and order your wife around. That's outside of my jurisdiction, you see? So, the government can also get out of scope. Now, do you think that our government today is out of scope? Probably just a little bit. They're there to punish evil. That's it. Think about how far out of scope the government in the United States is. I mean, when you think about the Constitution in the United States, the Constitution was basically written, and everything that was not in the Constitution was supposed to be left up to local governments, to states, to local governments. And instead, you know, our federal government today has taken control of education, has taken control of health care, has taken control of just almost everything, and they're trying to take control of more and more things. So, how do you handle this as a Christian? You know, when you look down at Romans chapter 13, the Bible is telling you, you know, hey, as far as things that don't supersede the Bible, or don't contradict the Bible, you know, you should obey what the government says. That's what the Bible says. And when you get a government that's so far out of scope and is trying to tell you to do things and all this, well, I mean, first of all, you're just not obligated to obey things that go against the Bible. That's the bottom line. But my advice on this is this. When you get a government that's trying to dictate every part of your life, my advice for you to avoid as much of this as possible is to just take nothing from them. Take nothing from them. Think about if I provided Brother Frank a free house that I gave him, and it was my house, and I let Brother Frank just stay in it. Don't you think that that would give me a lot of authority over Brother Frank's life? Maybe I could tell him when I want the lights turned off, how much water I want him to use. You know, Brother Frank, I think you just have to take a two-minute shower from now on. I only want, you know, I could dictate pretty much every aspect of his life within that house. This is one of the reasons that we push homeschooling so much in this church, because we want that independence for ourselves. We don't want, guess what? If you put your kids in public school, that government program gets to decide what to teach your kids. And there's nothing you can do about it. It's a federal machine. It's designed so you can't change it. So don't participate in it. And then you don't have to deal with that. If you go to that public school, they can tell you what kind of shots that your kids need to have. They can dictate all those things, or you can't, because Brother Frank, if you don't do what I say, you're going to lose. See? I got him. So to avoid this, take nothing from them. When the whole health care thing happened a few years ago, this is going to be such a huge government power grab on people. Because when the government is paying for all of your health care, now all of a sudden they can tell you what's healthy and what's not. You know, they can tell you what to eat, what to drink, how to live your life, what's a healthy lifestyle, what's not. Maybe they can say, you know what, we think that it's dangerous to have firearms in your home. And this is where this stuff could go. Take nothing from them, folks. Take nothing from them. Now, be independent. It's possible to still, with an overreaching government today, to be independent. And I believe that our government is overreaching in many, many, many ways today. Now, that being said, I want to talk a little bit this morning as far as government authority over your life, as far as people that peg the needle too far in the wrong direction. Don't go too far with these things. For your own personal life, get off of all the government, whatever. Don't take anything from them and do things yourself the way the Bible says that you should do things. It's possible today. It's possible to homeschool your kids. It's possible to make your own medical decisions. It's possible today. It's not against the law, okay? People are doing it. Now, an example of someone who takes things too far is this, we need no government, these people. The anarchists today. They're out there. You know, the extreme libertarians. You know, I would probably, if I was political, I'd probably consider myself, you know, a Christian libertarian. But there's people that take these things too far. Look, God has ordained human government. That is what Romans 13 is talking about. In Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, in these books of the Bible, God not only ordained human government, but he gave us the exact details on how to implement it. Down to the details of every rule. On how to manage people. You know, just because our government doesn't do any of those things and does a bunch of extra things, doesn't mean that, you know, God didn't ordain human government. You know, there's these anarchists out there that say we should have no government at all. Most of the time, these people are going to be tied up in the legalized drugs movement and there are a bunch of pot heads and things like that. But there's actually like people out there that have a huge movement on just getting rid of all government. And that's not biblical. There was actually a story in this, beginning of this year, I think, of some famous American anarchist that moved his, himself and his girlfriend to Mexico and they moved to some town in Mexico to live the anarchist life or whatever. And he was like, a couple months ago he was murdered. Like a cartel busted into his house and like shot him, because he was probably selling drugs or something. But the point is that in a place where there's no one to punish evil, the strong will just overrule the weak is what happens. And I remember reading that news article and his girlfriend was frantically calling for help when they were being invaded and he was shot. So look, the way it goes, I hate to tell you the ending of how things are going to go in this country, but basically the way it goes is that freedom and morality are basically directly proportional. So as one drops, the other is going to drop with it. The actual founders of the country knew this when they gave us the country. I'll read you just a quote from John Adams in 1798. He said, we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. He said, our constitution was made for only immoral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for, you know, inadequate to govern of any other. So the police state is going to get worse. I hate to break it to you. It's going to get worse. And the reason I can say that is because the police state and the government taking more and more control in the United States today, it's not the cause. It's the effect. Does that make sense? It's not the cause. The cause is the decline in morality. I mean how many times have we seen in sermons in the last couple months where just the statistics of everything is just getting worse? The great falling away. I mean look at the churches that are growing today. The churches that are growing today are these big churches where they stand up and nobody's saved and they're not preaching anything. They just say nothing and they have a big rock concert. That's what people want to hear today. Morality is getting worse and worse and worse and so the government is going to fill that gap. You see? That's how it works. It's a law of nature or something. It's just going to happen. So yes, the government's overreaching but I'm telling you if the police went away tomorrow, this would be an extremely dangerous place to live. I mean I remember saying when we were in Manila last year, we would walk through the streets of Manila in the dark from wherever we were at like the restaurant or the mall or whatever and it's just this poor packed city. It's the most population dense place on the planet. Imagine that. And we would just walk through all these ghettos and alleys and you know what? There's places in Sacramento and there's places in Fresno that I would not do that. Walk through neighborhoods at night like that, like we did. And you think that if we just got rid of all the government and all the police today, I mean we have examples of how that goes in this country. Hurricane Katrina I was living in Texas when that happened. Most of those people from New Orleans came to either Houston or Dallas and I was living in Dallas at the time and the stories that came out of that town for several weeks after that hurricane happened when law and order drops this is not a great place to live. Let me tell you because the morality of the people is not there anymore and they're not going to police themselves. Now this is another reason by the way that you need to be armed. I mean as a responsible citizen you need to be armed. The law of law and order in this country is extremely thin. And you know we're all living in a city and everything's just available to us at all times but it just takes one little panicked event and everything's gone, people are freaking out and there's a lot of bad people in these cities. So you need to have a little this isn't a doomsday prepper sermon but you need to be at least a little bit prepared to protect yourself in this country. There was actually an article or a study that was done several years ago that said if the power went out in the United States I mean it was a real engineering study if the power went out it was presented to Congress in like 2015 said that the power went out in the United States in like less than a year 90% of the population would be dead. I mean think about that. So the government's there for a reason that's ordained by God to punish evil, to hold back evil and it is doing that job it's doing way more than that today. It's advocating a lot of evil but to just say we can just get rid of government is not the answer either okay. So don't move to the woods don't live in a hole but you know you should be armed you should be prepared don't crawl in a hole that's not your duty as a Christian. Be balanced stay focused. So there's this hierarchy of power in your life there's God and then there's the man-made powers in your life your government your pastor your husband your parents your goals to deal justice against evil to punish evil doers. Look down at verse number 5 verse number 5 wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience's sake for this cause pay ye tribute also for their God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear and honor to whom honor to whom man anything but to love one another for he that love with another hath fulfilled the law translation pay your bills don't become a tax protester it's right here turn to Matthew chapter 12 Matthew chapter 17 sorry Matthew chapter 17 the funny thing about these people that are just like these they just go off on this tax issue look I don't like taxes right I mean who likes taxes raise their hand but the funny thing about it is like Jesus actually addressed it like directly in two separate situations he directly addressed it look at Matthew 17 in verse 24 should we pay our taxes are we all going to go to prison after this sermon here we go let's find out and when they were come to cumbernum he came to Peter and said not your master pay tribute so the tax collectors came to him he said yes and he was come into the house Jesus prevented him saying what thinkest thou Simon of whom do the kings of the earth take customer tribute of their own children or of strangers Peter saith unto him of strangers Jesus said unto him then are the children free notwithstanding lest we should offend them go thou to the sea and cast in a hook and take up the fish that first comeeth up and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of money that take and give it to them for me and thee so did Jesus like it did Jesus like paying the tribute money no he said if they tax you you're not free so he didn't like it but he said what lest we offend them he said just go and get the stupid money and give it to him turn to Matthew 22 that's a creative way of paying your taxes I could do that Matthew 22 look at verse 15 now the Pharisees are trying to catch Jesus then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk and they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians saying master we know that thou art true and teach us the way of God and truth liars neither cares thou for any man for thou regardest not the person of men tell us therefore what thinkest thou is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar but Jesus perceived their wickedness and said why tempt thee me show me the tribute money and they brought unto him a penny and he saith unto them whose image whose is this image in superscription and they say unto him Caesar's then he said unto them render therefore unto Caesar the thing which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God he's like pay the tax give him his stupid money back I mean whose face is on the money that we have it's not God just give them their money pay the tax these people that die on this hill of taxes I don't get it I mean I do get it and I'm going to tell you what it is but it's a battle that we're clearly not called the fight I mean talk about pegging the needle what's interesting though on the issue of taxes what is interesting you know I've seen this on several people that grow up and they go out into the workforce for the first time I saw it with Garrett about a year and a half ago and suddenly they start getting their paychecks and they're just like you know because they had done their calculator and they're like I make so much an hour and they're like I'm going to have this much money and then they get their paycheck and they're like who's Fika and why do I have to pay him I mean what who is this guy and all these other guys these other acronyms who are these people it's interesting to see people come to that conclusion that they're paying so much of their money to taxes they start realizing you know that it's but look it's one thing to notice that you know you become a man now and you're working and the government basically steals your money and gives it to a bunch of bums who don't want to work I mean it's one thing to notice that right it's another thing to peg the needle and be like I'm not paying my taxes you know because look the government will kill you if you don't pay your taxes I mean people that are this is why I say that you know the welfare system is theft because look I'm not willingly giving my money up it's the fact that you know they're threatening me with force that I pay the tax right I mean because government is the threat of force that's what I mean the bible said that in Romans 13 it said you know he will not use the sword in vain I mean the government is the sword that's the weapon that they have so look it's another thing altogether though to completely obsess over it you know to fight the government over it you know it's just money take it all at the end of the day they're going to tax me at 99% take it all take it all because look really what it turns into if you're pushing things this far it really just turns into greed you know I don't like it I don't think it's moral I don't think that you know the government has a right to do it but they're doing it and I'm not called to fight that battle I'm called to fight some battles and those battles that I'm called to fight I'll fight all the way but it's not this one I mean poor Kent Hoven you look up you look him up now on the internet and he's described like I looked up his Wikipedia page Kent E. Hoven is an American Christian fundamentalist even Kent E. Hoven is an American Christian fundamentalist evangelist and tax protester that's how he's known now I mean the man went to prison he lost his family his wife went to prison it over a hill that he was not called to die on I don't get it it's not something that we're supposed to take take on as a fight folks look down to verse number nine be balanced just be a balanced person always focus on the Bible what the Bible tells you that you're supposed to be doing Romans 13 verse 9 for this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely that thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law turn to Matthew 22 you should sort of be there there's basically Paul's talking over here about living you know the Christian life and he's basically saying that there's basically two categories of commandments if you look at Matthew 22 in verse number 36 the Bible says again master which is the greatest commandment in the law and Jesus said unto him thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind this is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself and on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets so basically what the Bible is saying is that all the commandments fit into those two categories that you're either by having no other gods before you by not creating a graven image or any other commandment that talks about how we're supposed to act towards God by fearing the Lord it's one of those two categories by loving God or loving your neighbor all the commandments fit into those two categories Romans 13 verse 11 and that knowing the time that now it is time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed the night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting or drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof more advice on living a balanced focused Christian life so look Romans 13 is teaching us really that we need to choose our battles biblically it's explaining what government is in our life that it was ordained by God turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4 but we need to be careful that we're not taking things too far and always focusing on what God wants us to do with our lives God wants you to do a certain thing with your life I'm going to read for you Mark 13 verse 37 the bible says there it says and what I say unto you I say unto all watch so look Jesus was talking about a lot of end times events in Mark 13 it's good to notice things it is good to not be an idiot and be prepared for bad things that could happen those are good things to do it's good to watch Jesus told you to watch we will understand more thoroughly as bible believing Christians what's actually happening as things get worse and worse we will understand it we will see these things coming we will see the nation moving in a certain direction when these big world events happen we will see it through the lens of the bible and we will understand in a better way other than what people who don't believe the bible understand we will see it happening look at 2 Timothy 4 verse 3 I'll give you an example for the time will come they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heep to themselves teachers that is not today I don't know when that day will be that has got to be today we are definitely witnessing that now the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine churches where there is not sound doctrine and they just tell people what they want to hear about everything have thousands of people in those churches those people have itching ears and they're scratching those itching ears for them I mean I'm up here sitting here I'm up here Sunday morning Sunday night and Thursday nights just yelling the word of God at you maybe not so much tonight but just yelling the word of God at you and just telling you all the things that you're doing it's a beat down sometimes it can feel that way but that's what the bible says the bible says that we're supposed to preach these things and preach sound doctrine but look we are to stay on this path all these other things will distract you because it's good to watch and notice things it's another thing to start chasing these squirrels you see what I'm saying I mean you'll see Christians in your life chasing these squirrels you're gonna see it I mean ultimately our calling is the same I mean we had some people at church a few years ago that were like I mean they were pegged out big time I mean I'm all about the second amendment I mean I love I've been going to gun shows with my dad since I was like this tall and I mean I love guns and I love more guns and the second amendment love it but you know when you start talking about like taking up arms against the government and you know all this stuff and you know I'm sitting here listening to two guys talk about taking up arms against the government who had never fired a gun before in their life and I'm just like are you serious what in the world I was just talking about maybe going to a sportsman's warehouse later you know not starting a war you know so I mean look I mean there's people out there that have got the needle pegged so our calling is the same preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering indoctrin that's what we are supposed to do and he said unto them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature that's our stand that's our bigger picture okay now when they tell us that you can't open a bible and preach the word to somebody that's my stand that's when I'll go to jail that's where I'll take a stand when it when the when the government tells me something you know when they say that we're going to force you know your family to do this we're going to force you to put your kids in this school that's where I take a stand because that's against the bible but we're not at that hill right now in this country but there are stands but it's not money and taxes and things that don't matter you know so throughout the moral slide the following away you know our call is to go out and preach the gospel to people there's still I mean as bad as it gets all the way up to the end there's still people that are going to need to be saved and how are they going to get saved I mean seriously think about it how can you preach the gospel when you're living in a bunker you can't how many Christians are doing that are going out and they're like I got to live in a hole you know it's stupid I don't even know what the day or the hour I mean you're going to live in a hole and you won't be able to preach the gospel to anybody because how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher you so that's the bottom line we just need to stay focused government is ordained to punish evil and we understand we are watching this happen we are watching an overstepping government we are watching a moral decline we are watching a government get more and more powerful in our country but we're watching and we're noticing I'm noticing aren't you so we can watch but always keep focused on where we're supposed to be which is preaching the word of God let's bow our heads and pray Dear Heavenly Father we thank you for tonight we thank you for the word we thank you for Romans 13 Lord for the destruction that you've given us Lord we thank you for your ordination of government even though our government doesn't follow the Bible or the rules that you've set forth in the Bible at all Lord we thank you for just keeping us focused and just help us in this room understand that while we can watch these things happen we have to understand what our calling always is Lord and to not get too wrapped up with all these things that are happening around us we love you Lord and we thank you for tonight in Jesus name Amen