[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's words you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] be sure to also check out our Bible Study podcast. Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that same dumb red flying I was lost but now I'm found Was lost but now I see Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears freely how precious in that grace of they are my first healing.
[00:01:44] Speaker C: My.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Chains are gone I've been set free My God my Savior has ransomed me and like a flood his mercy Grace Unending love Amazing grace the earth will soon dissolve like snow the sun forbear to shine But God, God who call me here below Will be forever mine My chains are gone I've been set.
[00:03:01] Speaker C: Free.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: My God my Savior has ransomed.
[00:03:09] Speaker C: Me.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: And like a flood his mercy reigns Unending love Amazing grace My chains are gone, I've been set free My God my saviour has ransomed me and like the flood his mercy reigns Unending love Amazing grace Unending love Amazing Grace.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: I think the song Amazing Grace means a lot of things and maybe something special for you. And I think there's certain songs that are like that. But there are also songs that, once you know the meaning behind those songs, they tend to mean a little bit more. And that is the case with this song, Amazing Grace. If you look in your songbooks, it's written by a guy named John Newton.
And a fact that you might know about John is that one time in his life, not only was he a slave owner, he was also a slave trader. He ended up giving his life to Jesus Christ, and when he did, he left that lifestyle.
But one of the struggles that he had was why and how would God choose to rescue somebody like me and give me his grace based on what I've done?
And so he chronicles in his biography, which was called From Disgrace to Amazing Grace, how amazing the grace of God is. And that's partly what encouraged him to write the song that we sing. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
And so what ended up happening was he used that song and it got really popular over in Britain at first. And then he also had a friend, a guy named William Wilberforce.
Similar to John, William decided to give his life to Jesus Christ. And when he did, he had this dilemma. And here was his dilemma. He's like, listen, I'm following Christ now. And now knowing I'm living in a government that at times does not believe what I believe, but also has laws that seem to contradict what God wants me to do. What I think I'm gonna do is just walk away from government altogether.
But then in comes John Newton and he encourages him. He said, listen, I know you wanna go into full time ministry, which is great, but I want you to understand you also have a full time ministry that you can have in your job.
And so what I wanna encourage you to do is to stay in the British Parliament and leverage your abilities, leverage where you are in this leadership role for the good of God's kingdom.
And praise God that there's somebody like John Newton that encouraged him to stay in that role. And here's why.
Because in 1833, William Wilberforce led the way in getting rid of slavery in the British Empire.
These are two men that had gospel responses and decided to use the power of the gospel and the rescue they all experienced through Jesus Christ to make a difference in their world.
And Wilberforce later, after he decided to stay in what he was and to make a difference, he said, every single one of us have to ask these questions that one day I'm going to stand before God and when I do, can I give a joyful account about what I've done.
But the other part he mentions is really leveraging our freedom, leveraging our resources and our ability to have influence for good. He says to put into practice the things that we really believe as a servant of Christ.
And we have to ask ourselves, are we moved to serve other people by the principle of love that grants freedom from the obsession of fame, ambition, greediness?
Today we are in the next to last week of our series on the book of Romans.
And as we get into this next last week, we find ourselves In Romans chapter 13, dealing with a topic that we're calling Christian and government submersive and submissive. And I know nothing could possibly take the air out of a room quicker than hearing that the preacher's going to get up and talk about the Christian and government.
But what I want us to see as we deal with this topic where Paul addresses the Two different sides, right? The one that is leading, the one that is in that government position, but also those of us that are falling into that role as being a citizen, that it's easy, I think, at times to maybe get caught up in the law, to get caught up in who is actually in an office.
When Paul loves to address this, and I think it's so important is this, that our disposition is way more important than any government decision. I want to say that again, our disposition as Christians is way more important than what somebody decides in an office.
And the reason why I say that is because Paul, that's what he keeps hitting at over and over again. But also think about it. You've kind of been there before.
Have you ever been at a time where you voted and the vote didn't go how maybe you wanted, like, your guy or your girl didn't get into office?
And when that happens, I want to go ahead and tell you it's okay to be a little disappointed.
But here's what's not okay.
It's not okay for us, especially as Christ followers, to be hopeless people.
Our hope is never dictated and impacted by somebody in an Oval Office.
That our salvation didn't show up here because of an Oval Office or through the wings of a F16.
It showed up actually cradled up in a manger.
And so our salvation is always tied to Jesus Christ, King Jesus.
But the other part is it's also not okay for us to be unhelpful. And that's what Paul deals with, too, that we definitely shouldn't be hopeless people. But we also have a responsibility to go out and to make a difference in our communities and to be the citizens of God's kingdom that he wants us to be.
And so, as we read into this text this morning, I want you to keep in mind what we talked about in week one that kind of set the stage for this whole series. Remember, the Jews had been kicked out of Rome.
And so finally what happened is they're allowed to come back into Rome. But keep in mind, even though they're there, they don't really feel home. And the reason why they don't feel home is there's like this growing suspension, suspicion, and we might say, like a tension in the air between the Jews and the Roman leadership.
Because the way they're thinking about it is like, well, these Christians are living here in Rome, saying they live here, but yet they're saying they're citizens of another kingdom, and they're driving down our streets in their chariots and their horses but yet they say that they worship another king. So you can kind of see the dilemma that they're in. And so in that this is what he says, let every person be subject. Some of your translations use this word, submit to governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists authorities resists what God has appointed. That word subject or submit means to fall under one's leadership or willing subordination.
This does not mean that you always have to agree. And this doesn't mean that you always see eye to eye. But notice what he mentions as, like, the whole premise behind it all.
You're subject to these authorities that God has placed there and God has appointed and God has instituted. So here's what we know. If God can institute something, if God can appoint something, what God can also do, he can take something away.
The same God that could put them there could also take them out of that position.
And I want us to keep in mind as you read this, if you're like me, one of the things that I read when I hear be subject to governing authorities, I thought, well, what about this?
What about, like, I look on the news and I see what's going on in our world today. And there's this I don't agree with. And there's this I don't agree with. Well, see, that's a whole different thing, right, Paul?
Well, their society and their leadership, like, if you think some things are out there that you don't agree with, if you live, then, like, the whole backdrop of Romans 13 was written against the backdrop of a extremely pagan, extremely secular culture. I'll give you some examples.
Caesar at that time, who was ruling technically should not have been ruling. He was truly unfit to raise a dog, but yet he was in this position.
And when he became, like, the king of their area, as Caesar, he killed his mom, he killed his brother, because he was just a little concerned that they might try to take his position in leadership.
And then what he did was he ended up having relations with some of his sisters.
And then he also, on top of that, had a horse that he really, really liked.
And he made that horse a senator.
Yes, you heard that right, A senator. But I told the early crowd, I guess the benefit of that is, you know, when they're voting in the Senate, you know, all in favor say aye.
All not in favor can say nay.
Sorry, that was a very dad joke. I couldn't wait to share it in front of my children.
But anyway, the other thing that was so bizarre that this guy did is he didn't like the fact that one day it was raining outside in bad storms when he wanted to be out and do what he wanted to do. He got his soldiers to get on boats, grab whips, and to go out in the water and beat the waves, to punish the waves and to gather shells as loot to be like, look what we got.
That's him.
Okay. And then the then transition to power was a guy named Nero.
And Nero, by the way, ended up getting into office because Nero's mama killed Caesar in his sleep.
And then Nero takes the throne. And as most people believe, historians do, that all of Rome was burned by him. And what history says was as it was burning, he blamed the Christians. And while he's blaming the Christians, he's playing a musical instrument while watching all of Rome catch fire.
He used the taxes only of Christians Christ followers to build the arenas that would kill the Christians in the courtyards of his palace. He would put Christians on the light poles to be torches to light the courtyard at night.
And one thing I read said he was personally responsible for the crucifixion of thousands of Christians.
So, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, when it says here in this text, be subject to governing authorities, that's who's leading at the time.
And you might think, wait, why is this here? Because this is such a book of, like, power, of God's grace and God's goodness, and how now we stand in grace when we used to not. And we are where we are because of Jesus Christ. What does this have to do with that? Well, turns out this has a lot to do with that.
Because you might remember what Eli talked about last week, and it's this, that because we have this standing with Christ, it impacts how we treat people. It impacts how we see situations, how we see whatever it is in our world. Because as Christians, knowing that we stand with Christ no matter what happens in an election, which, by the way, they didn't even get to vote.
And so what happens, no matter what, in an election, we're not like, wondering what's going to happen. I'm kind of nervous, and I think about the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews says that right now God is up in heaven. He's not pacing back and forth. He's not sweating. You know what the posture of God is right now?
Seated.
That means a king is seated. That the idea is that no war needs to be fought. The battle's already been won. He is confident.
And so knowing that you get to Romans 12 right before this verse.
Romans 12 kind of sets the stage to be subject to governing authorities. And he says, if you remember just a few verses before that, the whole thing of vengeance, let me handle that. In fact, if you look In Romans chapter 12, this says this beginning, verse 17, repay no one evil for evil.
Do what is honorable in the sight of everyone.
And if it's possible, as it can depend on you, live peaceably with everyone.
Never avenge for yourselves, but leave it to God, vengeance is mine. I'm going to repay, says the Lord. So what he's saying is, let me do the vengeance.
Because we know that ours is always going to have a little bit of human in it, that at even our best, there's going to be some sin involved. He said, so let me who is perfect and justice handle it.
So part of the reason this is in there is to practice that. The other reason is because one of the primary ways for us, as the body of Christ, as the church, to practice overcoming evil with good is in the relationship that we have towards governing authorities.
The way we handle things that we don't agree with really speaks volumes.
Yesterday we were at a store, and yesterday was crazy, by the way, if you went out with the tax free weekend, which, in case you didn't know, it's tax free weekend, if you want to take advantage of that. But there were so many people at the store. So I don't know the backstory behind why this lady might have been so frustrated, but there was this boss that was so rude and so mean in front of several people to one of her employees.
And when she was the one that she was being rude to, she said, yes, ma', am, I'm sorry. I will definitely do better.
And then she chewed her out somewhere, and she goes, yes, ma', am, I'm sorry. And then with a smile on her face, just walked away.
And I was like, walking over there because I was like, I'm gonna tell this girl I'm sorry. And then this other lady beat me to it, and she goes, hey, I just want to tell you, I really appreciate how you handle that. I don't know how you did that, but that was awesome. And so we went over there and was like, hey, I'm sorry. She goes, oh, it's okay, it's okay. And I was like, man, it made me think, yeah, we're gonna get in the car and we're gonna tell the kids. You don't act like that. But we're also getting in the car to remind them of the other side is that here were all these people walking up to this girl because of how she responded.
You know, that the way that we overcome evil with good is light shining against dark things.
But here's the other thing. Most scholars agree that one of the things that happened in Rome is that when letters were sent through the mail, talk about censorship, like, then there was a ton of censorship. And so they were expecting, like, Caesar or someone that worked with Caesar to read this. And so one of the things that they wanted to make sure of was, like, there was no idea or that there was any little bit of a hint of us wanting to overthrow the government. In fact, there was a group of people called the Zealots that were doing that. He's like, no, that's not what we're trying to do. And, in fact, you might remember when Jesus was about to get crucified, and I love what you shared in the communion thoughts this morning. So much of what they even did was against the law.
So it was an injustice. In the middle of an injustice, Peter grabs a sword, and what does he do?
He slices the ear of that guy. And Jesus says, whoa, hold on a second. That's not the kingdom I came to establish. The kingdom that I've come to bring about is not of this world.
Do y' all remember when Jesus was about to ride into Jerusalem right before his crucifixion? The followers of Christ, they were ecstatic because they thought, here's what's gonna happen. He's gonna go in, he's gonna overthrow Rome, and he's gonna show them what's up. He's going in to make war. And so what does he do? He hops on a horse, right?
No, he hops on a donkey.
Horses were symbols of war.
Donkeys were symbols of humility and peace.
Instead of making war, he brought a new kingdom in riding on that donkey.
And so then it gets to verse four.
And in verse four, he lets us know what the role of the government is to do. He says, for he is God's servant for your good, but if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. This is not a debate on lethal force. This is not a debate on war. What he is talking about is that one of the roles of the government is to protect, to keep out the bad and try to keep in the good. You know, and I was thinking about this this past week as and while you look at a verse like these sections of verses, and then we also read and see what we see that we may not like or agree with that's going on in our government. And it can be easy to focus on that and sometimes to miss the fact that we are protected.
And that is one of their jobs and their goals. And I was thinking about specifically the family here at Madison.
I want you to think about for just a second if this fits you. Any of you in this room that have either been retired from a government position, been retired from working as a government contractor, you're currently a government contracted position, you work for the government.
Maybe it's in the army, maybe it's a social worker, maybe it's a teacher.
If any of you in this room that fits you retired, currently, anything government, raise your hand and keep it up, raise it high for me.
That's a whole lot of people are. You put your hands down and you think about that. It becomes a little bit more personal when you think about it like that, that there's all of us in these opportunities to bring about good.
And so now it's our responsibility. Well, what do you want us to do? Well, remember what he said in verse one, to be subject or be submissive to governing authorities. Well, he says it again when you get to verse five. He says, be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of your conscience.
Notice what he says here and in verse one, that the reason why we're subject to governing authorities is it's a way for us to say, listen, we believe King Jesus is in control, but the other part is because of our own conscience.
There's a joke about taxes. And there's this Christian man that paid his taxes, but he said he couldn't sleep that much at night because he knew he didn't pay everything. And so what he did is he wrote like a $100 check and wrote a note and sent it to the irs. And he said, hey, just want to let you know, enclosed in this envelope is a $100 check. I couldn't sleep, so I just wanted to give this to you. And if I still can't sleep, I'll give you the rest.
You know, that's not the way God wants our conscience to fully nudge us, but kind of an interesting fact. In 1986, a new law with taxes happened. And it was this 1985, and before you could claim anyone or anything as a dependent, and you didn't have to explain it, and you would get a tax write off.
So, like, you could claim Rover your dog, Fluffy the cat and get a tax break. Well, then in 1986, they changed the law. And the law says that now you don't have to just not only put their full name, but you also have to put their Social Security number. You know what happened in 1986? All of a sudden, 7 million Americans vanished.
Gone.
And then what also happened is $3 billion was added to the budget.
And when he speaks about conscience here, what he's really getting at is this.
Our motivation to do the right thing is not about whether or not you or I are going to get caught.
You and I choosing to do the right thing is because it's an example of trust and faith in God, but it's also we're following what he called us to do. When we get to this text in Matthew 22, you'll notice in your commentaries or maybe in your reference down the middle of your Bible, there's a cross reference to Matthew 22. And so a lot of people believe that when Jesus said, hey, give to Caesar, what is Caesar? And give to God what's God's that he was referencing actually this part of Jesus's ministry. And you might remember what happened. The Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus. They said, all right, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to get him to answer the question, what do you do about taxes? Because we've got him either way. So they thought, they thought, well, listen, if he says they got to pay taxes, then we can tell his followers, hey, guys, you're paying for your own crucifixions.
And you know those arenas that you go to watch those events where he pulls a random Christian out of the crowd and makes them fight an animal till they die? And yeah, that's your king.
But then on the other hand, if he says, well, you don't have to give anything to Caesar, then we can arrest him and kill him. You know what Jesus does? Jesus does the original Jesus juke. Jesus. Jesus jukes them.
And what he says is, how about this? Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but when it comes to God's things, give them to God's.
And they were so amazed at this response where he says, listen, we're not of this world, but we're in this world.
What do the people do? They marvel at that type of response.
But the other part is to honor.
And if you'll notice in First Peter, this is something that was mentioned again Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Again, this doesn't mean you have to agree with them.
And one of the things that I kind of want to point out, too, is that there is a difference between honor and respect. We've kind of grouped this.
A man named Martin Luther King.
And you might remember this Martin Luther King, he was in a Birmingham jail. And if you've ever read what he wrote in that jail, it is impressive.
And he makes no bones about it, that what's going on in America with the racism and all those kind of things. He says this statement, unjust laws have no business being laws. So he called it out.
But the other part of it, if you remember what he said, was he said, but we must keep in mind, though, that these people are in these positions.
And so we also have to handle ourselves well. Do you see what he's doing there? It's honoring, but also engaging.
Because one of the things he did was talked a lot about the importance and the impact of prayer. When we see things around us that we don't like.
That's what Paul said to Timothy, to pray for those that are in leadership positions. So one of the ways that you and I can engage is by prayer. But there's some of us that maybe what God needs you to do is to work in our cities, to work in our states.
But also think about this, that the opportunities that we have just here by the people at Madison and the Christians in our community to go into those government offices.
I mean, what an amazing opportunity we have here. And I was talking to somebody this morning. He said, andrew, I want you to think about this.
Have you noticed that we have so many people at Madison that are way up in government positions?
And I was like, that's true. He said, you know why that is, right? I was like, why? He said, jesus Christ.
That's exactly right.
We have an opportunity. You have an opportunity to leverage where you're at as a ministry for good.
Daniel did this in Daniel, chapter six. You'll notice in verses one and two, it says that there was 120 people that Daniel was over.
He was one of the top three guys in the kingdom. Well, what was it about this Daniel guy that made him stand out? It says this. Daniel was distinguished above everybody else because there was an excellent spirit in him, and the king planned to set over him the entire kingdom. Remember what he said? Our disposition is way more important than any type of government decision.
It's striking, that balance between being submersive, making a difference, but also being Submissive.
There's so many examples in Scripture of people doing this. And I'm glad because I think we've all had questions like this. Well, how can I honor a political leader when I don't approve of what they're doing?
Or are there certain limits, like with authority and the state?
And there. Are there situations where I might refuse to submit to which I can tell you? Yeah, there are.
In fact, think about this. Aren't we glad there was, you know, two Hebrew midwives that. When there was that law that says, listen, kill all the male firstborn babies, they're like, nope, I'm gonna put one in a basket and float it down the river.
Moses. Like, they didn't make a big stink.
They weren't trying to bring a lot of tension to themselves.
What about Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego? Remember when King Nebuchadnezzar said, hey, bow down to this.
Well, they weren't trying to make a big stink either. But what did they do? They said, well, we can't do that.
What was their motivation, the exact motivation? Paul talks about here? God.
Well, God. And here's what God will do. He'll rescue us.
I mean, he may not be here on this earth, but he will rescue us, because that's who he is. But even if he doesn't rescue us here on this earth, we're still not going to do what you say.
Acts, chapter five. You might remember when Peter and John were arrested, and the reason why they were arrested was that they had helped perform that miracle in the name of Jesus Christ. And they said this.
Do not speak of his name again. But here's what happened. They just got together with the other Christians. And by the way, what an amazing example of worship. They got together for worship. And like the adjective that was used to describe that worship is the place was shaking.
They got together for worship and they said, hey, you can't do that. And what did they say?
We must obey God rather than you.
You think about what Jesus even said to Pilate. Hey, listen, Pilate, the whole reason why you're in that position in the first place is because God gave it to you.
See, he was both submissive and submersive. And so as we think about these questions, when Paul talks about in this text, that part of the reason why we submit is because of our conscience. Please understand, conscience swings both ways, that there are times when your conscience will say obey, but then there's other times that conscience will set a limit to that obedience.
Y' all remember during Hitler's reign. One of the things that he made preachers do is to stand before churches and groups of people and preach his very racist policies.
But there was several preachers that wouldn't do it.
One of those that would not do it was a man named Martin. And I try to pronounce his last name. I'm not going to try. His first name's Martin. We'll go, Martin.
So Martin would not preach what Hitler wanted him to preach. And so what happened to Martin? Martin was thrown into prison.
Well, then a preacher friend and a chaplain showed up to visit Martin in the prison. And when they visited Martin in the prison, they said, hey, Martin, what got you in prison?
And I love what he said back to them. He said, a better question is, why are you not in prison?
And I think it is a powerful reminder of that very thing, of how our conscience works.
And as we are both submissive and submersive, it's a picture of, can we be influential? Absolutely. Be salt and light, yes.
But understanding that conscience swings both ways, here's the neat thing.
He lays the groundwork for all of these really difficult to practice things, verses 8 through 13. And look what he says.
He says, owe no one anything except this one thing.
Love, love, loving one another fulfills the law. He says for the commandments like don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't covet, all of these commandments. He's basically saying all the things that as citizens, people are leaders, are at times geared to want to be and do. All of that can be summed up in this. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does not keep.
Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. But then he says this. He brings salvation into it.
Because you know this time that the hour has come from you to wake up from your sleep. Salvation is closer now than even we first believed. Do you see where the framing of this is? He's framing all of this within the context of your salvation and my salvation and all of us loving our neighbors just as we've been loved. So the context of this very difficult command is in the context of the fact that we are a saved group of people. That's why this has a lot to do with that. The rescue that we've experienced completely changes the way that we interact with people that are around us.
So how does a saved person that understands the rescue and salvation they have walk around? And how does a person that understands that it's all about loving my neighbor walk around? Well, Number one, we walk around as people that have already moderated our expectations. We believe what God says in his word here, that God appointed them, and if God can appoint somebody, he can also take them down out of that position.
We are under the assumption that God is always in control. Number two, sometimes, and most of the time, our best efforts and our greatest work is when somebody is in that office that we did not ask or want to be in that office.
Do you remember earlier when I mentioned that we've all probably been guilty of living in the disappointment, which is normal, but sometimes if we're not careful, we can live in the hopelessness, the fact that our guy or our girl didn't get into that position.
One of the things I want to remind ourselves is we have to live with the mentality that our God, Jesus Christ, is always in power.
He's always seated on the throne, not sweating, not pacing back and forth.
The other thing is, as people that are saved, how we walk around, we understand, listen, I'm not just an American.
More importantly, I'm an ambassador from heaven. I represent Jesus Christ. That's what Paul says in the Book of Corinthians as he's encouraging the Church of Corinthians. Listen, you guys are not of this world.
And so ultimately, your allegiance is to Jesus Christ.
Yes, you can love your country, enjoy it, and be loyal to it, but you don't worship country, you worship King Jesus.
But also as a saved person, we also understand that wherever we go, we don't just represent ourselves. I don't just represent Andrew Itsyn. And you don't just represent you.
Whatever position you're in, whatever job you have, you are also representing Jesus Christ. And the final thing is this, to leverage the freedom that God has given you for the sake of other people around you. Do you remember in the Book of Galatians when Paul is trying to correct a mindset within the church and he says, listen, you know the freedom that you have in Christ, the reason you have that freedom is not to indulge the flesh, but to do the things you should do. What he's basically saying is Jesus Christ, who had all the power in the world, he still leveraged his freedom for you.
All of this can be summed up in this. Our disposition is way more important than any government position.
When you go back to Matthew 22, when Jesus was dealing with those Pharisees that were trying to trap him and they said, hey, what do you do about taxes?
I know his response caught them off guard.
It was pretty brilliant. If you think about it.
But the one thing that I want us to think about when we think about that coin is I don't know if you guys are like me. As I was going through this text, I was like, you know, I feel pretty good about myself.
You know, I pay my taxes. I don't speed a lot.
You know, I don't have a lot of issues with the government.
I guess what I'm saying is not to brag, but I've given to Caesar what's Caesar's.
And that's great and all, if you've given Caesar what is Caesar's?
But I think we also have to ask ourselves, have we been giving God what is God's?
Because his image is on you.
When you get to Luke 15 and you read that a man goes searching for a sheep, you get it because it's an animal.
We love our animals. Except cats. We love them all.
You get when a father sitting on a porch, waiting for a son, because that's a human being, that's a child.
But, guys, somebody goes searching for a coin, it's illogical. You know why? Because during that day, you made two or three coins a day.
Yet she spends an entire day looking for a coin when she could have made two more.
Why that one? And then on top of that, if you notice in the text, it says she throws a party for a coin.
I mean, can you imagine going to the mailbox and getting that? You know, Betsy gave us an invitation to a party. Whose birthday? No one's. Well, what are we celebrating?
She found her coin.
And that's the point. It's an illogical approach to value that things in life that we might think of as dismissible, not important, are valuable because of the image that is on it.
See, the reason why God was searching was because of whose image is on that coin, right?
God's image is on you.
And so it's important for us to understand that the reason why he goes to such great depths to rescue you and to rescue me is we all bear the image of Jesus Christ.
And so it's good that we give to Caesar what is Caesar's.
But are we giving to God? What is God's? Are we giving all of us?
So maybe you're here today and you look at your life and you're like, man, I haven't done really well with that.
I've been given back part of myself and haven't fully given myself to God.
Maybe for some of you, you've never made the decision to let Jesus Christ wash your sins away.
As we talked about a few weeks ago. In Romans 8, you're given the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And when he dwells within you, what he says is that he convicts you. He counsels you, he comforts you. He gives you what you need as you try to navigate through life. You can't do it on your own. That's why he said, listen, it's good that I'm leaving.
I'm sending you the comforter. So whatever it is that you have need of today, maybe is to give your life to Christ.
Or maybe it's a fresh, new understanding of whose image that you're bearing. Whatever it is you have in need of, please come while we stand and we sing this song.
