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Reality Check: What is the Purpose of Government?
October 23, 2024 · 34 min
In this talk, Pastor John Mark focuses on the importance of understanding the role of government from a biblical perspective, especially during the election season.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton October 23, 2024 · 34 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
In this talk, Pastor John Mark focuses on the importance of understanding the role of government from a biblical perspective, especially during the election season. ...more Show the full description Show less In this talk, Pastor John Mark focuses on the importance of understanding the role of government from a biblical perspective, especially during the election season.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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101K followers
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
101K followers
0:00 You glad you're in God's house today, 11 o'clock? I will tell you there are times, and that was just 1 of those that I hear that and I'm like, how in the world do I0:12 follow that? Was that not just amazing? Give God a hand. Man, what a blessing that was. If you are new here, we've been in the middle of a series entitled Reality Check over the last couple of0:23 months and we've been looking at some of the tough topics, the hot topics that everybody seems to be talking about this year. It's certainly election season and we've dealt with the issue of marriage, what is marriage0:34 really about? Do I really need a church? We talked about salvation being by faith. We talked about eternal security. A couple of weeks ago I talked about the election and the issues that should matter most to Christians0:45 and the encouragement that we should go vote. I was reading another article the other day that in many places less than 50 percent of Christians will actually cast a vote. And it just amazes0:57 me that we would let someone else choose our leaders. And last week we talked about the idea that you hear, hey, just follow your heart. Today I wanna have a little different1:08 shade. I wanna talk to us about the role of government. We are in election season and we we wanna talk and look at what is the role of government and why does it matter?1:21 Well, I'll talk about the role of government, but why it matters is you see governments all the way through scripture. You see good ones, you see bad ones, but you also see, and we're gonna look at Romans chapter 13,1:30 Paul lays out the reason you and I ought to submit to the government, submit to a point, and what is that point? That I have to become a bad Christian to continue submitting. And so we're gonna talk about1:42 what that looks like. But you say, pastor, why is it so important to talk about the government? Well, obviously economically, if you didn't know this, our government spends basically 22 percent1:55 of our entire GDP. So 22 percent of our entire GDP, man, they have a lot to say in all of our lives, they have a lot to talk about what drives things, and we need to talk about these2:06 tough topics. There have been a lot of times in this series that I've gotten a lot of emails. Some are are some people are not fans. They're not fans of me addressing tough topics. They would2:18 they would rather not be made uncomfortable. Let me just share with you my thought, alright, why I deal with tough topics. Number 1, if everybody else is talking about it,2:30 all the media, everybody on social media, everybody's posting about it, and I don't say anything about it. I say I think it says 1 of 2 things about us or me.2:42 1, I'm afraid, or 2, I've got nothing to say. And can I tell you this, as Christians we are not to be afraid to speak the2:53 truth? Alright? We shouldn't be fearful of that. But here's the second thing which I think is more important for us to understand about the next3:05 generation. If every time they open their phone, every time they see something, every time they hear some other people are talking about it and we don't talk about it, they think we don't have an answer.3:18 And so child of God, we need to be willing to talk about it because we have the ultimate answer for everything. And so today I want to talk about the role of government, and then ultimately3:30 my response and how I submit to a government regardless of who is elected come November. Alright? Now when we think about governments, my guess is there are a lot of thoughts going through your head,3:41 some ideas, some funny things of who you wanna vote for. Now I just ran across a couple of quote couple of quotes. How many of you remember Mark Twain? He says, listen, no man's life, liberty, or property are safe3:53 while the legislature is in session. How many of you kind of feel that way? Right? We can kind of say amen to that. How about Will Rogers? He was looking at the government, reporting on government. He says I don't make4:04 jokes, I just watch the government and report the facts. You know there are a lot of things that we look at our government and say, really? I mean you're really, that is your platform, that's what you're gonna4:16 do? My my favorite quote of all times is when I finally got to the age where I could cast my first vote, this is the man I voted for, Ronald Reagan. How many of you remember these words from Ronald Reagan?4:29 The most terrifying words in the English language, I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Man, the the sad part of that is there's a lot of truth in that. That4:41 there are times that I look and I see and I go, what are they doing and what are they thinking? But so here's what we need to understand. As Christians, we have dual citizenship. Don't we understand that we have a4:53 heavenly citizenship and an earthly citizenship? And we are to be responsible to both. That's absolutely the case. Look at what Paul says, we're gonna be looking at Romans 13, those are Paul's5:04 words about the government that we ought to follow, but before we even get there, let's look at Philippians chapter 3, pick it up in verse 20, notice what Paul says. He says, but our citizenship is in heaven.5:16 We have a dual citizenship as a follower of Christ, earthly and heavenly, and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have5:28 a dual citizenship. If you have trusted Jesus Christ as savior and Lord, you have an eternal citizenship in heaven. That when your earthly citizenship ends with your death, it starts5:40 and lasts forever. But I also want you to know, and there's there's a lot of confusion, a lot of people, there are a lot of Christians, a lot of Christian organizations and Christian sects who who will say, well we5:51 Christians should just get out of politics. We should just withdraw from politics. Can I tell you, that is not what we were told to do in scripture at all? Part of why we're doing this series is we've got a lot to say6:03 about a lot of things. See, a lot of people, and like, we Christians, we just need to withdraw from society. You know, we're not ever told in scripture to go hide in monasteries, or6:15 in nunneries, or go build us, you know, some place that we don't have to connect with the world. You know what Jesus said in the greatest sermon that was ever preached? Matthew chapter 5. He said,6:26 you, everybody say that's us. That's us. He says, you are the salt and light. See, a lot of times, Christians wanna keep us in the salt shaker, and I6:38 guarantee the world wants us to stay in the salt shaker. But how does salt ultimately have impact in today's society? If you're like me, we don't use salt. We have now refrigeration, we have all of these6:50 things, we can freeze our meat or keep it chilled. But in those days it was different. In those days you used salt to preserve the meat. How did it preserve the meat? It had to come into contact with7:02 the meat. Right? See a lot of times we use salt, if you're like me, I salt my salted chips when I go eat Mexican, then I salt the salsa. How many of you do that? Right? And then I visit the doctor7:14 and he goes, have you been and I look at him and lie. But the truth is folks, the when Jesus says you are the7:26 salt of the earth, that means you and I have to be willing to engage with culture. Engage with a culture that oftentimes if we aren't careful it's gonna7:37 decompose faster than we want. And so then not only did Jesus say you are the salt, he said you're the light. See, at no point in scripture are we told, hey people, be salt, come7:49 into church, that's the shaker, never leave. We're supposed to influence society. When salt made contact with meat, it changed the competence composition. It slowed8:01 the decay. And sometimes, here's what I want you to know, part of why we wanna be active, we wanna communicate, if nothing else we can slow the decay which is a good thing. But then he says you're the light.8:14 Man, the light's not supposed to be just in here, it's also supposed to be out there. Folks, when you go into your school or into your neighborhood or into your office or wherever it is, you are to8:25 be the light of the world. We are called to influence our culture and if we have opportunity to also influence our government. Notice what8:37 Jesus said here in Matthew chapter 10 verse 16. He says, I am sending you out. Everybody say out. See Jesus didn't say hey, come in here, let's all hide, let's wait for Jesus8:49 to return. He says no, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. Boy, he's acknowledging the reality it is dangerous out there. Does that make sense? He says, what do what9:01 do wolves like to do with sheep? Eat them. Kill them. And so Jesus acknowledges, I am sending you out in the world like sheep among wolves. Therefore,9:13 be as shrewd or as wise as a snake and as innocent as a dove. Now I know some of you are thinking, some of you may not have ever seen that verse before. That last part sounds very Jesus.9:25 That first part sounds not so much like Jesus. You're like, understand the innocent is dove part, but Jesus says be as shrewd as a serpent. That word shrewd just means wise9:37 in how we talk and how we act and how we live. He says when you journey out there, be smart, be sharp, understand what God wants. Boy,9:49 if you look at Paul the way Paul put it over in Ephesians chapter 5, he says, listen, when you walk out there, be sure you if you grew up on the King James, walk circumspectly. NIV changes it10:01 to walk with wisdom or walk wisely. That's that's circumspectly a combination of 2 Greek words. 1 that we get our, our word circumference for. In other words, all the way around, walk in such a way that10:13 you understand everything that's going around you. And the other Greek word that combines for that is the same word we get our word glasses from, spectacle. That as children when we leave here, we need to look around10:25 at culture and society. We need to hear the voices that are speaking. I as your pastor and and our student ministry, they need to hear the voices and the arguments that are being made to our10:37 students as to why this is true and that is true and this is wrong and that is wrong. And they need to be able to answer those questions. So we need to walk wisely. Why? Because Paul said, the days are10:49 evil. Jesus said, the wolves are out there. So when we come to this idea of what is the role of government, probably the quintessential passage on the on the role of the11:01 government or what the government should do is Romans chapter 13. And so all I wanna do today is walk you through the role of the government. What is the primary purpose of the government? And hopefully these will11:12 elevate some insights into your life. Thought number 1 is this, that we always have to remember God is the ultimate source of authority, not the government. God is our ultimate source11:24 of authority, not the government. We have to know that. James Madison, who is often called the framer of the constitution. Here's what he said when he was drawing up a constitution. He says, if men were angels, no11:35 government would be necessary. Here's what he's saying. If we were all good people, if we were all doing the right thing and never the wrong thing,11:47 James Madison, as a matter of fact, said when we come to the new world, we came as people of faith looking for religious freedom. He said we would rather not have a national government,12:00 but acknowledge the reality. But since we're not all angels, if we don't have a government, anarchy will ultimately be the rule of the day. The last thing12:12 we want is anarchy. Why? Because let me tell you about anarchy. The vilest, most evil, meanest people win in anarchy. And so James Madison said, listen,12:24 I would rather not design a government, but since we're not angels, we need to design a government. But he says, let's don't forget the ultimate source of all authority is God. Look12:36 at Romans chapter 13. Let's read the first couple of verses of it. So God is the source of authority. Here it is. Romans 13 verse 1 says, let everyone, everybody say all of us. All of Be subject.12:48 I'm gonna tell you how far we are subject here in a second. I'm gonna show it to you. We are subject to the government to the point that obeying the government makes me a bad Christian. Anything this13:00 side, we say yes to whatever the government tells us to do. So here it is. Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, that's the earthly government. That's what he's talking about. He says for there is no13:11 authority except that which is God has established. So here's he's talking about our 2 citizenships. Heavenly 1, God's in charge, earthly 1, government's in charge, but God even13:23 set up government because they're a good thing. Why? Because God understands our sinful nature. He says the authorities that exist, he's not talking about the Democrats or the Republicans,13:34 he's talking about governing authorities, alright, the government itself, the authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently or therefore13:46 whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. Now you say, well,13:58 that's easy for Paul to say because he doesn't understand the 2 parties we live under here today. Can I tell you what? Let me remind you of the government of Paul's day. Paul was not living in a14:09 democracy. He did not have a choice between the Republicans and the Democrats. He didn't have the choice between Kamala and Trump. Alright? He lived in a monarchy, an autocratic society.14:21 He lived where there was a Caesar in Rome over the whole Roman Empire and you had to treat Caesar as if he was divine. You had to worship Caesar. That's what Paul is talking about. Here's what Paul14:33 understands, probably the good of government overwhelms the bad of government. Now the beautiful thing and it kind of played over into the founding of our country, the beautiful thing about Rome that the14:45 the empire was so big, they divided up their empire into these provinces just like we do in America with these states. And every state has its own governor and its own house and its14:57 own senate and own this, and that's really kind of what Rome did. But here, even in Paul's day when he's talking about we need to submit to the government, he understood that Rome, the15:09 Caesar you had to worship, but then they would look at the provinces and they would elect leaders over each province. Remember in Jesus' day, Herod was called the king of the15:21 Jews? He wasn't ultimately Caesar, but his province was made up mostly of Jews. And so Herod was called the king of the Jews, that was the people that he15:33 mostly ruled over. Now the beautiful thing is in those days there was a lot of religious freedom that Christians were tolerating. You say, wait, what about the persecution? That's about 815:44 years after Paul writes Romans 13 when Nero shows up and starts persecuting the Christian. So Paul is sitting here saying, listen, we wanna obey the government as much as15:56 possible. So thought number 1, don't ever forget, governments and authority ultimately reside in God's hands. Here's thought number 2. Government's primary responsibility, if you wanna know what should16:08 my government be doing for me, the primary responsibility of a government is to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. That's it. That is the prime if if16:20 governments fail at this, they fail. The number 1 call of a government is not to be compassionate. It's not to be empathetic. The number 1 role of the government16:32 is to make sure there is law in order. You say, where do you see this? Look at in verse 3. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do16:44 wrong. What is he saying? He's saying the government that God established is for the purpose of maintaining peace, to allow innocent people to go about their business, make money, live their lives, and make sure that16:55 those who are guilty, those who are evil, those who commit crimes are punished. Alright. Continue to read on. He asked a question. He says, do you want to be free from fear of the 1 in authority? He just asked a simple17:06 question. Do you wanna not be afraid of the government? Here's his answer. Then do what is right and you will be commended. So in practice, you say, how do I have to not17:18 fear the government? Do what is right. Whatever laws they institute, follow them. I'm gonna tell you here in a second, to a point, to the point it makes you a bad Christian. So now let's continue to read. Look at number17:29 4. He says, for the 1 in authority is God's servant for your good. But if, everybody say if. But if you do wrong, be17:40 afraid. Be afraid. For the rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. So here's the key. Paul is saying, listen, here's why we obey the government. Because17:52 in their essence, their primary responsibility is to protect the innocent and to punish the guilty. Man, we we we see our our society right now and our government18:04 that the chief and don't ever think the government's number 1 responsibility is to be compassionate. What do you hear mostly now? Well, we're gonna pay for this, and we're gonna pay for this, and we're gonna18:16 pay for this. And they will say that's a lot of empathy. I will tell you a lot of what I see from our government today is what I would call toxic empathy. They're trying to have compassion, but they're ultimately18:27 hurting the next generation in our country. But here's the key, if you wanna know how you grade your government, first of all, is there law and order? Is there law and order? We can18:39 think back just a couple of years where places defunded the police. Go ask them how that went. Right? Let's be honest. You got open drug addiction, you got on the street. So government stepped in, said we're gonna18:51 provide needles. Really? How's that helped? It hadn't helped at all. So don't ever think that your government's number 119:02 job is to be compassionate or to be empathetic. Because once it's compassionate, once it's empathetic, then whoever's in rule is gonna spend your money on whatever they like. So step back19:14 and understand the number 1 role of government is to protect the innocent, that would be most of us in here. We want laws. There are gonna be laws they pass that I don't like, but I'm gonna follow19:26 them all until the 1 I have to follow makes me a bad Christian. They are also to punish the guilty. Why? Because there are some people that won't live by the law, they would rather have you or your life or anything and19:36 everything, and so we want the government to step in. So continue to read on. They are God's servant. They have the sword for a reason. I love that. They have a sword for a reason. They're God's servant agents19:48 of wrath to bring punishment on wrongdoers. Now you say, yeah, but pastor, man our society there's so much in inequity and and what people have and the wealth they have and20:00 you know, justice system. Can I remind you? Paul is writing into a day when you and I have no idea the kind of class20:12 differences they had financially. About a third of Rome were slaves, it's estimated during this time, about a third of Rome were slaves. You had the elite who had it all, and you had a lot of20:24 people who had nothing. You had a very small middle class. But Paul says we wanna obey them. Beyond that, social justice, let me tell you what, you go read the Roman code of justice, if you're in the upper20:35 level, the elite level, your punishment for a certain crime was very different than the 1 at the bottom. If you're in the social elite in Paul's day, in Rome's day, and you committed a crime, you might get slapped in the20:47 hand. If you're on the lower level, if you committed a crime, you might get killed for it. So understand, Paul was not writing in the midst of a perfect government. He was saying, listen, but the reality20:59 of it is they are better than no government at all. Why? Because with no government at all, anarchy rules. When anarchy rules, then those who are most evil and most will willing21:11 to do bodily harm ultimately win. And again, in Paul's day, a few years later in 80 64 when Nero shows up and he begins to persecute the Christian, that's after Paul21:22 writes this. But even while Paul is writing this, man, the government wasn't perfect. Rome wasn't perfect. And so what does he say? He says number 1, don't ever forget when it comes to government, God21:34 is the ultimate source of all authority, we have a dual citizenship, heaven and earth. Number 2, the primary purpose of the government is to protect the innocent and punish those who are21:46 guilty. Here's number 3, the question is how then should we live? Paul gives us 3 ideas. How should we live in relationship to the government regardless of who is elected here in a couple of weeks?21:58 Let's read it. Pick it up in verse 13, chapter 13 verse 5. Therefore it is necessary to submit to the authorities not only because of possible punishment,22:11 but also as a matter of conscience. This also is why we It's in there folks.22:22 This is why we I don't even think I can say it. This is why we pay taxes. For the authorities are God's servants who give22:34 their full time governing, give to everything. You say you don't like who's governing? Go vote. Alright? Give to everyone what you owe them and yet throw it in there again.22:46 If you owe taxes, pay taxes. If revenue, then revenue. If respect, then respect. If honor, then honor. He tells us to do 3 things. How do we live relationship to government? Understand God is the22:58 ultimate source of authority, we are very blessed in our country to get a choice as to who rules over us, that's called a vote, alright, then we submit to whoever is our leader. There are 3 things he23:10 tells us to do. First of all, submit to the government with a clear conscience. What does it mean with a clear conscience? That you understand, hey listen, I may not like who's in charge. I may not like this specific23:20 rule or this specific law, you know, I have driven down streets before, then I feel like I could go way faster and still be safe, but they have a speed limit. How many of know what I'm talking about? I mean, I know a lot23:30 of things, right? But what do I wanna do? I need to understand it's probably better the slower I go than the faster I go. So I wanna submit to the government with a clear conscience understanding23:42 while I may not agree with all of their laws, if as long as they don't impede upon my faith and me being a good Christian, I wanna submit with a clear conscience because I know it's better for23:54 us to follow the law than disobey the law. Remember, they have the sword. Alright. Been setting this thought up. When does it become okay24:06 not to submit to the government with a clear conscience? When submitting to the government makes you a bad Christian. Acts chapter 5. Acts24:18 chapter 4, Acts chapter 2, Pentecost happened, the gospel is exploding and all of a sudden, Acts chapter 3, Acts chapter 4, Peter and John and the apostles are called in, they're flogged, they're beaten, they're told not24:29 to preach the gospel. Acts chapter 5, guess what they're doing? They're preaching the gospel. Sure enough, the religious leaders of the day, the Sadducees, the teachers of the law, the Pharisees come together, they bring24:38 Peter and John, they put them before the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin are about to kill them, and then a guy named guy named Galileo Galileo goes up and says, hey, you know, if it's of God, you don't wanna be fighting God,24:50 but if it's of man, it's gonna go away. And so here's what they did, they decided and reasoned among themselves to look at the apostles and said, listen, we're gonna let you live but don't preach the gospel.25:04 See part of our call as believers is to preach the gospel. It's to be salt and light. It's to go and make disciples. So in Acts chapter 5 verse 29, I love it,25:15 they looked back at those religious leaders of the day and says Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than man or human beings. So child25:27 of God, we obey the government and submit to the government with a clear conscience until obeying the government makes us a bad Christian. Does that make sense?25:40 If they ever come in and start saying you've got to stop preaching the gospel, I'm out. If the government ever comes in and says, know, you can preach most of the Bible,25:53 but we don't want you to preach this part of the Bible. Then guess what? We don't submit to the government. You say can that happen here? Go look in Canada. Go look in26:04 Tehran. Go look in China. The government can do that. If they say this, then what do we do? We say no, we're going to obey God rather than man. Now here's the good news26:16 child of God. From what I know about all of our laws in this country, as much as we may not like some of them, none of them force us to be bad Christians. So we26:28 should submit, we should honor them, we should love them, we should say yes and we do it with a clear conscience. Now, I can't tell you what will happen in 4 years or 8 years or 12 years, but that's where we are right26:38 now. But if the government ever comes in and says, John Mark, you can't preach Romans chapter 1 anymore. Then I can no longer support the government with a clear conscience. But until26:50 that happens, I'm supposed to submit to the government even the laws I don't like. Does that make sense? And Paul is writing Romans 13, child of27:02 God, you and I would hate living under the government that Paul lived under in his day, but he still understood God set it up for own benefit. Hey, go to the Old Testament.27:14 Remember Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? Those 4 guys served under pagan kings the whole time in pagan regimes. They worked for them, they served, they made27:26 revenue, they managed as Daniel did a great job in what he did in serving the king, then all of a sudden the king named Nebuchadnezzar, another pagan king comes along. Guess what? Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and27:38 Abednego, they served Nebuchadnezzar like crazy. They did a fantastic job for him, did an excellent job serving this pagan king. And then all the pagan, all of a sudden the pagan king made a mistake.27:50 He says, listen, we're gonna go build an image, build an image of me and when the horns blow and and the harps come, then everybody's gonna fall down, you're gonna worship me. Uh-oh. Ding ding ding. I've got commands28:01 against that. Thou shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make yourself any graven images. So listen, they followed everything Nebuchadnezzar said to do until28:14 following the law made them a bad Christian. Does that make sense? Then they said we're out, and it cost them. It could have cost them more. So Nebuchadnezzar28:26 calls them in and says listen, I made a decree that if you don't bow down and worship this image, you don't worship me, you're going into the fiery furnace. Remember the response in Daniel chapter28:37 3? Said listen, our God is able to save us, but even if he doesn't, we're not gonna bow down. So child of God, there28:49 does and could come a mark, and there are missionaries and pastors and preachers and Christians all over the world who live under tyrannical governments that they have29:01 to cross that mark. They're gonna obey everything else the government says, but they're not gonna stop sharing their faith, they're not gonna stop planting church, they're not gonna stop sharing the gospel. And if they29:10 can do it, how much more when we leave this place today? Should we be salt and light? Should we be salt and light? Alright. So here's where it gets a little29:22 bad. Thought number 1, submit to the government with a clear conscience. Here it is. Pay your taxes. I mean, was Paul29:34 thinking? Really? Did he understand what he was giving the government permission to do? Here it is. Verse 6. This is also why you pay taxes. Man, let me tell29:46 you, I did some research on the Roman tax code today, it is just like our code. They had a property tax, a head tax, a province tax, a road tax, a temple tax, a trade tax, a tax, a fishnet tax, a fish29:58 tax. If you had a fishing net and you weren't any good at fishing, they still tax the net. Then should you be good enough to fish and catch a fish, they're gonna tax the fish. I mean, think about it. They taxed you for30:08 looking in their eyes or breathing in their air. They had a cart tax. Do you know this had a cart tax? And the cart tax, much like today, if you had an 18 wheel cart, was an expensive tax. Wheelbarrows were30:20 real good back in those days, just 1 wheel. Right? But I mean, they had all kinds, they taxed everything. If you had a male, had they taxed you at this level. If had a female, taxed you at that. They taxed everything.30:32 When you're going in and out of the city, they had a tax, they had a temple, they had every they had taxes for everything. It says, so this, this is also why you pay your taxes for the authorities are God's servants who30:43 give their full time governing. Now, we all wish our government could do things cheaper. Right? I love this quote from Colin Hightower. He says talk is cheap except when Congress does it.30:56 Our government is the only government in the world that can figure out how to pay 1000 dollars for a hammer. Right? It's just shocking to me. But the reality of it is, we are called to pay31:08 our taxes. You know, 5 percent of the people in our country don't even file a tack file taxes. 5 percent of those who are who are citizens who work don't even file31:20 taxes. Another 40 40 percent of people in our country pay 0 taxes. That means the rest is paid by the other 60 percent of the people at31:32 differing levels. But the truth is Paul says, pay your taxes. I pay my taxes. I don't like paying my taxes.31:44 As a matter of fact, since I came here years ago, 29 years ago, a guy on the personnel team also does my taxes. So that way that guy knows that I'm always faithful to God31:56 and the government. But I also want you to know paying your taxes means pay your taxes. I have never called him and said, hey listen, this sounds a little low, is there any way I could pay some more taxes? I've never32:06 said that 1 time. You know, I wanna tell you, I wanna encourage you, if you've got an accountant that thinks that way, how can I make you pay the most? Get a different 1. Right? I pay as little as I can32:18 in taxes. Why? That's smart. Right? That makes me understand. Man, do it. Pay it. But then we also understand it's what helps subsidize our32:30 government so that they can protect the innocent and punish the guilty. And that's where we wanna be. So thought number 2 is pay your taxes. Here's number 3. Man, be prayerful and respectful.32:43 God, we see so much disrespect today all around. Notice it says give to everyone once you owe them. If you owe them taxes, pay taxes. If revenue, revenue. If respect, then give them respect. If honor, give32:55 them honor. I know what you're saying is you say pastor, if I'm supposed to re respect my government, what am I gonna post on social media? Something better?33:06 Hey, here's the deal. As Christians, you can post all the truth you want on social media, but you're supposed to speak the truth in love.33:19 So post everything you want on social media that is truth. Say everything you want in the office. Say everything you want in the neighborhood, but speak the truth in love. In that way,33:31 the gospel wins. The role of government is established by God for the protection of the innocent, punishment of the guilty. Our job, submit until33:43 it makes a bad Christian, pay our taxes, and then honor them where honor is due. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for this day. God, thank you for the opportunity just to33:54 just to talk about government. God, we've got an election coming up, and we are blessed beyond belief, just set with a missionary this week that we support, that he doesn't have34:06 the opportunity to vote in his country, but he's sharing the gospel. God, let us take this seriously, but let us also understand at the end of the day, we're gonna pay our taxes. We're gonna submit to the government.34:18 We're gonna honor. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.
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Blessed: Choose Mercy John Mark Caton Oct 15
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