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Part 9 of 20
Romans Series
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This week has brought turbulence, tension, and confusion to our culture—things that jar all of us. As believers, we need to figure out how we function and participate in the world we're in while honoring God, staying rooted in our values and convictions, and playing our part as a diverse congregation reasoning well together.
We are studying the book of Romans, known as the believer's constitution. It answers the question: How do any of us truly get right with God? Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome in the middle of the Roman Empire, dominated by Nero—a maniacal leader. It is by God's providence that we arrive at Romans 13 during a week like this one.
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted. And those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath, to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment, but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes. For the authorities are God's servants who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him. If you owe taxes, pay taxes. If revenue, then revenue. If respect, then respect. If honor, then honor.
Scripture establishes three institutions by God, appearing in this order: the family, the government, and the church. Throughout human history, there has been pressure, tension, and resistance to these institutions. While we more easily accept God's role in the family and the church, we wrestle with what Paul is saying about government—especially when we recognize real issues among those in authority.
One objection many raise is: "Paul, you don't know our context. We live in a polarized world with political tension." But Paul was writing to the church in Rome under Nero. The Roman church could have pushed back, saying: "Nero himself turned some of our own into human torches just last week. You want us to submit to this governing authority?"
When we approach Scripture, the challenge isn't to show up looking for justification and trying to conform God's word to our lives. Rather, we must show up humble and available, open to God's written revelation transforming our lives.
When God institutes government, it serves four primary functions:
As believers, we have a role to play in recognizing and supporting these functions.
Many want a clear separation between faith, the Bible, and your relationship with God on one side, and politics and your citizenship on the other. The challenge is that things have been biblical issues for centuries, yet are increasingly becoming political issues. The moment a politician speaks on something, suddenly a pastor cannot—and that creates a real tension.
There is a growing movement to categorize the word "sin" as hate speech. If that happens, what will pastors do? We cannot stand silent when God's word instructs us that evil, wickedness, hatred, and violence stem from the brokenness within every human being—from sin alone—and only a personal relationship with Jesus Christ remedies this.
You will never hear a political endorsement from this platform. I will never endorse a candidate other than Jesus Christ and Christ alone. But there will be times when we go to the pages of Scripture, and unless you want me to sidestep what God's word is saying and cherry-pick things that make us feel good, there will be times God instructs our values and forms our convictions about things that are now being navigated politically. This is a tension we must hold.
A biblical worldview says: I view everything through the filter of God's word. I view my marriage, my parenting, my suffering, how I manage my resources, how I treat people who agree with me, disagree with me, look like me, don't act like me—I view it all through God's word, including my politics.
A political worldview says: I view everything through the political lens. I view family, how you raise children, everything—including my faith and religion—through the political lens.
If you resolve to live with a biblical worldview, running everything through the filter of God's word, know this: you will be met with the vast majority of our culture subscribing to a political worldview. Your view on life will be counterintuitive. It will run against the grain of society.
But remember: Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Only dead fish swim with the current. Those alive in Christ run against the grain, stand rooted in firm conviction, and despite the pressure, despite heartbreak, despite evil and wickedness, we declare in faith: Darkness, your hour is over.
That's still a battle cry within our hearts—even if it's not yet a current reality. That's the tension. Faith is trusting in advance what will almost always only make sense in reverse. God, I don't understand what we're going through, but I trust that somehow, redemptively, you will use all things for good.
Much of Paul's argument is rooted in sovereignty—the idea that God is in full control with a plan, weaving His redemptive will through the brokenness and fractures of our lives. We anchor ourselves to this sovereignty: Somehow, God, you're going to use this. Nothing takes place without the sovereign approval of our God.
Does this create tension? Yes. You look at things and wonder, God, how are you allowing this?
Scripture shows God sometimes establishes righteous leaders leading to national prosperity and well-being. At other times, God allows maniacal, ruthless, opposing leaders to take office. Scripture reveals that at times, God allows this to serve as judgment upon His people—to quicken the bride of Christ and call God's children to wake up.
For the past 15 years, I have often thought: Lord, are you bringing judgment upon your people to awaken the bride of Christ? When I read Genesis and the days of Noah, and look at our world, I wonder if we're living in similar times.
Consider what happened recently at a Phillies game. A home run ball was hit. A man caught it and gave it to his son with a hug. Unknown to him, a woman chased him down claiming the ball was hers. People pulled out phones. Social media erupted. The woman's identity was released, then her employer, and then demands came for her termination.
We now live in a world where you cannot take a kid's baseball, but you can take the dignity, reputation, and career from a woman—and that's okay. When I see things like that, I think: We are losing our way.
People in comment sections were unrelenting, scaling and propelling cruelty throughout our culture online.
Paul is not calling for blind submission. He's not saying, "Check your brain at the door. Whatever any leader says goes." He says you must function with consciousness. Pick your battles. Identify the hills you're going to die on as a believer—things that truly violate your convictions and values. Distinguish these from things you simply don't like.
There do come times when things run against the grain of our values, when they absolutely violate God's will and design. Anytime the community of faith loses its ability to speak truth to power, we silence the prophetic voice we're called to operate with in the world.
If a believer doesn't at least have a hint in their consciousness that we are losing our way, then either they're not reading God's word or they're not reading the times. Folks, we're losing our way. This past week brought all kinds of things—school shootings continuing to take place.
Paul is not calling for blind submission. He's not saying, "Check your brain at the door. Whatever any leader says goes." He says you must function with consciousness. Pick your battles. Identify the hills you're going to die on as a believer—things that truly violate your convictions and values. Distinguish these from things you simply don't like.
There do come times when things run against the grain of our values, when they absolutely violate God's will and design. Anytime the community of faith loses its ability to speak truth to power, we silence the prophetic voice we're called to operate with in the world. If a believer doesn't at least have a hint in their consciousness that we are losing our way, then either they're not reading God's word or they're not reading the times. Folks, we're losing our way.
This past week brought all kinds of things—school shootings continuing to take place. We recently had the Enunciation school shooting in Minneapolis. Now we have another one in Colorado. We had the poor young lady who was on her way home from work and then just randomly for no reason is murdered on a subway, and the murderer just walks off the subway while every bystander just sits there and remains silent in their seats.
We are becoming numb to wickedness and to evil. We have lost the ability to truly grieve with the reality of what's taking place. This is an indication that we're losing our way.
I know many of you are upset with me, and I get it. I recently expressed concern over the assassination of Charlie Kirk. If you're new to Northview, just know I think church is a dialogue, not a monologue. I do engage with my critics. If I'm not talking about what you're talking about in the lobby, then this is a kind of tone-deaf conversation.
I know many of you are frustrated that I would put out something on my social media that prayed for someone who was on the right side of politics. But remember it wasn't too long ago that some political figures in Minneapolis were assassinated and they were on the left side of politics, and others of you were upset with me for expressing my disdain for that act of violence as well.
Folks, it doesn't matter what you vote politically. Nobody should be executed publicly all because you disagree with them. It's wrong.
Charlie Kirk, folks, was just as much of an evangelist as he was a political activist. If you're aware of what he has been doing from college campuses all around the country, this man was captivating the hearts and minds of young people. He was championing and contending for the faith in a way that I found to be very astonishing and wildly effective.
As someone who would take pride in being a student of God's word—someone who can defend their beliefs and relay what I feel is true in my heart that aligns with God's word—I watched him contend for the faith. He would give anybody a microphone, allow them to determine the conversation, ask him any taboo question, and with honesty and clarity, he would respond. Quite frankly, I've never seen someone contend for the faith in a space the way he was doing it.
We've talked at our church over the past season that there is a clear resurgence of faith among young people across the nation. Young people are placing their faith in Jesus Christ at extraordinary rates. To not see the role Charlie Kirk was playing in that—serving on the front lines and reasoning with young people—is simply choosing to look the other way.
There is a young generation that now lost a prominent spiritual figure who in their mind and in their hearts and in their faith journey moving forward will always represent a martyr who stood for his beliefs and was executed by someone who disagreed with him. That is going to shape the spiritual journey and the faith approach for most young people adhering to Christianity for the rest of their life.
Some will say, "Well, pastor, there were certain things that he said that didn't seem too Christian, certain policies that he supported that didn't seem too Christian." Anytime we start to determine the genuineness of someone's faith based on their political ideologies, we create a slippery slope that eventually leads all of us to doom.
Let me ask you this: Over the last 12 years, have you voted? Exactly. Every single one of you cast a vote for a political party that on both sides has some brokenness and some things that are concerning.
The reality is we are trying as believers to live our lives in the confines of this two-party system that leaves a lot of people to some degree feeling slightly misrepresented. Yet we're trying to do our best to say: How do we support and participate? How do we discern who is the best available option willing to give it a try?
Charlie Kirk was giving it a try. Quite frankly, if I was able to go down the list of everything he possibly said that had a political component to it, I would guess that there would be some things in his politics that maybe I don't agree with. I've yet to find a single politician who I agree with on everything. And in full humility, I've yet to discover fully who's right and wrong in some of those situations.
If any one of us were to have to sit in front of a crowd and answer honestly and with clarity where our political views are at, we would all walk away misinterpreted and disliked by a lot of people. But when I would watch him contend for the faith, there are certain things you can't fake. I truly believe Charlie Kirk was a sincere disciple and follower of Christ. He had a tremendous influence on the next generation when it came to opening their lives to the truth of the gospel and embracing a relationship with God.
You're going to disagree with people politically. But to start to void their relationship with God because they don't support your pet policy is so dangerous. We not only are okay with someone losing their life, we're okay with participating with the accuser of the brethren—a nickname for the devil—in which we feel like now we can condemn a person's soul because they didn't agree with us on every political thing. If we don't see the danger in that, we have lost our way.
If we're going to have a biblical worldview versus a political worldview, we're going to have to understand that the context that we're in is not perfect. We're going to have to try to do our best to honor God to the best of our ability and participate civilly knowing that there's not always going to be full agreement on things politically.
Paul says you submit to the authorities. He's saying you understand that you have a higher authority. Anyone who serves in leadership at some point is going to be accountable to God—no matter who they are. You will be accountable to God.
And so we submit to lesser authorities because we submit to a higher authority. God's in control. God is the one who is sovereign, and I am placing my hope in him and I am trying to do my best to participate. Along the way as Christians, we're going to have to discern when are the times that we are going to have to function in civil disobedience when the governing authorities go in different directions that run against the grain of our faith. But to weaponize every conversation is super dangerous.
This week for me was heavy. When I saw the text we were going to be discussing, nothing in me wanted to show up to work this weekend. I would rather not go to my job. But I love getting to serve as your pastor.
All week I kept thinking, "How am I going to land the plane?" And quite frankly, I'm embarrassed to admit this: all week I had a level of just anger—legitimate anger filling my heart. Just mad. Mad at both parties. Mad at different pockets in society. Mad at some of you. All week I was trying to justify in my anger my right to just voice my mind.
Then I was with my son yesterday heading to his basketball game, and he gave me an assist to help convict my own life. He asked me, "Dad, what's one of the most powerful things you've ever seen God do?"
I had to think about all the wonderful things God does in our lives. There was a time in church growing up—I was 13, riding the coattails of my parents' faith. Really can't say that I was a true follower of Christ at that time. It was during the middle of a worship service.
There was this lady in our church who we had known for years. Her entire life she was in a wheelchair, born into that circumstance. Her upper body was still fully supported with the proper muscles, but there's a deterioration that happens in the lower body when those limbs are not functioning. So this lady had very scrawny legs.
In the middle of worship, she started just screaming out. At the time, it wasn't like a joyful scream—it felt and sounded like a very painful scream. People rushed around her to see what was happening. Her legs were expanding. And I know some of you will disbelieve this stuff. I don't care. Your opinion doesn't trump my experience. I know what I've seen.
This woman in real time developed muscle and stood up from her wheelchair and she walked. It was one of those moments that still to this day is etched in my mind.
My son asked me, "So, did she ever have to use her wheelchair again?" I said, "Well, here's the crazy thing, buddy. No, she never needed a wheelchair again moving forward. But tragically, she started playing tennis and within a year's time, she left her husband for her tennis instructor. And it messed me up. Like you just had this unbelievable encounter with God and then you turn around and do something so foolishly."
He said, "Why? Why do people do that?" I said, "You know, buddy, like you see it all the time in scripture. You see the Israelites. God faces off with Pharaoh. He delivers them from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. He parts the Red Sea, leads them by cloud by day, fire by night, provides them manna in the morning for them to eat. These people were living a miracle.
Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God. Eventually he will come down with the Ten Commandments. And as he comes down with the revelation of God, what does he find the people of God doing? Worshiping idols.
This tends to happen. And I said to my son, "The terrifying thing is it is so easy, so obvious, so apparent to recognize these things in other people. What makes it terrifying to your dad is it's really hard to see it in the mirror."
And the moment I said those words to my son, I was overwhelmed with conviction. I look at things within our culture and our world and I can just see absolute foolishness. I can look at things and be like, "What are you thinking? Why would you do that?"
As your pastor, I'll look at what some of you are doing and I'll think, "What are you thinking?" And there was this flesh part of me that wanted to show up and call everyone to repentance. But then it was like this rip of the soul where in that moment driving with my son to his game, I realized the same sin, the same brokenness that was in the man who took the life of Charlie Kirk, folks, it's in me.
That's the thing we don't want to admit. It's so easy to look at them and we want to play the blame game. We want to go all the way back to the garden where that is our default response to brokenness. It's their fault—because it's so easy to see it in other people but it is so stinking hard to see it in the mirror.
Folks, I really don't have much for you this week apart from showing up and saying, "I think I personally just need to publicly repent."
I know this: I need to repent for allowing anger to fill my heart that has come with truly callous thoughts and feelings towards other people. I need to repent for all the times I have swelled up in arrogance and I have tried speaking to things that I am not qualified to speak to, that I'm not educated about. I need to repent for all the times that I just took a talking point and spread misinformation like other people. I need to repent for all the times I have operated in just sheer ignorance, diminishing the experiences of others because it wasn't my personal lived experience. I need to repent for all the time I've swelled up in pride, all the time I've cast judgment on other people for things.
Guys, in the same way there's no perfect political party and there's no perfect politician, there's no perfect church and there's no perfect pastor. And when I look in the mirror, there's so much room for improvement.
Let God work in your life how you see fit. All I know is I don't have time to point the blame anymore. I've got way too much work to do in my own heart.
I'm not looking for someone who's fully figured out how to run the world. I've already discovered that person and his name is Jesus, and he's the only person who can offer us the hope that we need.
Scripture says, "If my people would humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways and pray, I will heal their land." Folks, what we see in culture that's breaking our hearts, it's in all of us. And I pray that the Holy Spirit helps us do a better job of going out there and living like Jesus.
