When we work with integrity
Jeremy MacDonald · Tidal Church Moncton · February 22, 2026 · How Do We Change the World? series
Jeremy MacDonald looks at Romans 13 and what it means to submit to governing authorities, which is different from simply obeying. When we are powerless, we trust God's sovereignty. When we hold authority, we follow Jesus' example of serving others.
More from Jeremy MacDonald · The How Do We Change the World? series
Topics: Holy Spirit, Work, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] It's wonderful to be here together and to be in the third week of a teaching series here at Tidal Church. My name's Jeremy. If we haven't met, I'm our teaching pastor, and if you didn't know, the way that we here, when we gather together as a church, the way that we kinda walk through the Scriptures is we'll often do it in light of a series where we take a bigger idea, you know, how do we change the world? And then we walk it through in a, in a few different weeks. And the idea is that sometimes information and parts of the Scriptures or ideas, you know, it takes time to kind of wrestle through in a process, and there's different elements to it. So two weeks ago, Pat from our team, you know, talked about this way that we're called to live as Christ has lived, thinking of others more than ourselves, thinking of others and deferring to other people.
[0:45] And then last week, our lead pastor, Jim, he brought this great message on what it means to love and to serve the people that are closest to us, our neighbors, in ways that will cost us something even. And so this week I want to kind of get us into this idea and come at this topic from a different angle. And it kind of starts by asking this question: Have you ever actually been arrested? Have you been arrested? It's a rhetorical question, not one that you have to answer out loud, but the idea is that you probably, maybe not arrested, but like, what has been your experience with people in higher authority or people that are in the police force or people in some type of authority over you? And your experience shapes a lot of how you might think about authority, the police, government, all of those kinds of things.
[1:34] And it's not to say that your experience is one thing or another, it's just to say that your experience is pretty significant. My experience, interestingly enough, I, you know, I've got some experience, I've, and that's that I've never had, in all my years of driving, never had a speeding ticket, never had any infractions, no issues. And so that's kind of shaped my understanding in lots of ways. I've been pulled over though a couple of times. My favorite time is, I've only been pulled over a few times, but my favorite time was when I was in Ontario. I was driving home one night and going north on Highway 11. And I was probably like, like maybe just a few over the speed limit, like just not quite a lot, not a lot, just a little bit. And I go, come over, you. You've had this, where you go through like an overpass. It was dark and I see a, like a ghost car, and it was parked there ready to catch people. I'm like, oh, no. And so my heart sinks.
[2:21] I slow right down, the car comes out. You ever had this experience? It's right behind me. I'm like, oh, no. And so I'm like, oh my goodness, this is so nerve-wracking and my heart's pumping. And so, and sure enough, he drives out in front of me and away. I'm like, huh, that's a beautiful thing. And then I keep going. And then he had parked in the next overpass. I go by a second time, I'm like, oh no, here we go. He pulls out behind me and he is tracking along behind me. And then that's the time, light's on, siren's on, like adrenaline's pumping. I pull over, he comes to the window, knock, knock, knock. He rolls down the window. And he says to me, "Sir, why were you driving so slow?" I got pulled over for driving slow. I'm like, 'cause I was terrified. You're right there. I didn't know. I didn't want to get in trouble.
[3:08] And that's my experience with authority. Don't get me in trouble. That's my thing. And my experience and, and whatever your story is, whatever it is, your understanding of authority is likely more personal or cultural than biblical. And that's not like a knock against you. It's not a knock against me. It's just often how we process information, how you and I process even our experience, is that when you have a personal experience, it'll shape your understanding of something. And this goes beyond just authority. There's all sorts of different things in our life that our own personal experience or a cultural understanding is often how we how we live our lives. And that's just how it goes. But the interesting thing is that the Christian Scriptures talk specifically about all sorts of topics. And when we get to a particular passage of Scripture that maybe is different than your personal or cultural experience, it's worth noting that.
[4:03] And my invitation to you is that you would always let your life be shaped by the Scriptures rather than first and foremost by your own experience. Now, if you're here and you're not a Jesus follower, that I can't make that claim on your life. If you've not surrendered yourself to Jesus or the Scriptures, then obviously you get to decide whatever authority is in your life and what you pay attention to. But my invitation to you is that in this place, as we open the Bible, as we open the Christian Scriptures and see what God might speak to you and to me about, I think this is actually the absolute best thing to live under. I think that this is the best way to live your life. And so our hope is that as we get a chance to kind of walk through any week that we open the Bible, that you would discover the God who knows you and loves you and is calling you into something significant and that you would want to walk in His ways because His ways are the best ways.
[4:54] But interestingly enough, whatever your experience of authority is, however many times you've been arrested, however many times you've dealt with an authority over top of you that you were just frustrated by, the great news is that the Scriptures do talk about this kind of situation, and they give you, and they give me, instructions. And so for today, let's take a few moments and look through what will be common. You'll kind of catch this. This is not an exciting verse to go through. This is not like the most easy passage to wrestle through. This will create a little bit of tension for you and for me. And my goal here isn't to necessarily resolve everything because I don't necessarily think I can resolve everything. But where the Lord has brought these texts to us and put His authority behind them, it's worth at least acknowledging the difference and the difficulty of even the most hard of text to read.
[5:48] So with that in mind, Romans 13. Romans is a letter to the church in Rome. Paul's writing this letter to the group of Christians there and throughout Romans, it's a larger book. There's lots of things that are a larger letter, lots of things that he goes through, lots of interesting theology. But the point of these letters is always, you know, you get a chance at the front end. He kind of explains the reasoning. But the idea is that he's speaking to a group of people and he's trying to shape their understanding of what it means to follow Jesus in today and in this particular day. And so for a lot of Romans, he'll, you know, in the different letters, they'll speak to the authors will speak to individual circumstances, things that matter deeply to the readers. But in chapter 13, it starts off with a an interesting note that maybe changes the idea of what Paul is saying and what he's gonna invite us into.
[6:35] And this is how Romans 13:1 starts: Everyone, this is gonna be about authority, but he starts with everyone. And so sometimes, you know, you catch that we're gonna talk about a particular situation. But Paul is about to offer a principle and an idea that applies to, in his mind, everyone. And when he says everyone, surely it's the, in the church in Rome. But then also it's clearly, as you're gonna see, it's something that he calls for every person, every Jesus follower, every Christian. And it's not hard to realize that this applies not just in that moment, but for all time that we can carry the principles and the truths that he's gonna unpack for us. This is for everyone. And since you're one and I'm one here, we are, all of us are part of the everyone that Romans 13:1.
[7:22] Okay, everyone, what must, ooh, not starting off really exciting. Must what? Must submit. This verse that we're gonna, you know, get into, I mean, must submit, we're gonna talk about authority, it's gonna unpack authority. But this very first word, the very first part of what Paul's gonna invite us into is not an exciting and not even a really natural invitation or word for you and for me. Now, interesting thing to note, if you've been a reader of the New Testament, is there's all sorts of verses that talk about submit, that talk about submission, submit to one another. In fact, there's all of these invitations that the Christians in the first century are meant to be people that do this particular word. But the problem is, with any word, is that it has a range of meaning.
[8:12] And oftentimes if we're not careful, we can lose sight of the fact that words carry ranges of understanding. And when they get translated, can sometimes be challenging for us to understand. Now, if you speak two languages, you totally understand this. I try to pretend like I can do two languages. I tried Duolingo for Spanish last fall. Not very good at it. Hablo no español. And then I am mostly trying to get French. 'Cause you know, growing up here, and so I'm back in Duolingo trying to spruce it up, my French, but when you get a language, you got two of them and you're trying to understand what a word in a language means, all of a sudden this principle comes alive. 'Cause you try to explain it to somebody and you end up using language to offer, like, the range of what this word could be. Or the other example is if you have kids and you're teaching them to read, and then they're reading words.
[9:01] And so my kids are like avid readers, and they're beautiful at being able to actually say the words that they're reading. My wife's an English teacher, she teaches them phonetics. So like, they can sound out words perfectly, but then you get to a word and you're like, "Daddy, what does ferocious mean?" I'm like, "Oh, that's interesting." And now you're trying to figure out how do I describe ferocious and the bounds of what this word means. And you're asking what the context is and like, how would you explain to somebody what the word ferocious actually means? And you do this for all sorts of words. So that's the idea, that's the principle. When Paul says, everyone must submit, the idea that I've had about what that means was different than what I think he actually is saying. When you study it. Put this way, one of the commentators, Douglas Moo, he wrote, in the NIV Application Commentary, "In demanding submission, and you'll see, in this verse is to the state, Paul is not necessarily demanding obedience," which is kind of what I think of when you think of submit, is like he kind of, you know, connected immediately to obedience.
[10:02] But he says, no, that's not it. "To every mandate of the state. Key to this restriction is the recognition that the word submit in Greek, hypotasso, and Paul is not a simple equivalent to obey." There actually is a unique word that is close to it in Greek, but that obey, obedience, is actually a different word. And so when we catch that, the range of meaning of submit is actually like a little bit less than obedience, that can be helpful. Maybe submit feels a little bit more like a respect, submit feels more like offer deference. To submit is a little bit more like, "Hey, I want to kind of hear you out. I wanna offer you a position where I respect where you are," as opposed to, "I obey every mandate or everything you might say."
[10:50] So there's just something there to kind of hold onto as we roll through this verse and roll through what Paul's inviting us to do, in particular in Romans 13, chapter 1, to submit to governing authorities, which, wherever you're from, whatever your context is, brings up lots of challenges. I'm like, "Paul, like, let me just tell you a little bit about the taxes that I must pay, or let me just tell you a little bit about the restrictions that I might have, or let me just tell you about how complicated it is to get my documentation in order. Paul, you don't fully understand what I'm going through." And the interesting thing is that in history, when Paul writes this to the church in Rome, he's talking to a particular group of people that are experiencing something pretty, in particular, put this way, James Dunn in the Word Biblical Commentary says, "His advocacy of what kind of amounts to what James would call political quiet." Hey, just like, just kind of fit in and obey authorities and not obey, sorry, submit to authorities.
[11:53] That's the difference. Political quiet is in the context of the political powerlessness of most members of the ancient state. So what Paul's saying is to this group of Christians that they just don't have any authority in any power. The way that the Roman system would work is like, there's rules and restrictions, and eventually the Roman Church would experience incredible persecution. Like it was awful. People would die for their faith. And if you looked at the rules and the way that the taxes could be corrupted, and you know, people would bring all these awful rules to bear on them, you would think, like, surely, Paul, we should do something different about this. And yet here he is saying, no, no, no. Like the goal is a respect to the authorities to live in the same way that the people of God did throughout the centuries, that they would try to live at peace with the people in authority over them.
[12:42] And I don't know about you, but as I go through this, it kind of grates me the wrong way. Like, you know, you get to heaven and I'm like, Paul, like, come on, man, couldn't you have, like, worded this a little bit different? Wouldn't there be, like, some examples where maybe you could have qualified this a bit more? Like, the world's a complicated place. Governments can be awful and corrupt and authority over us. He's like, yeah, yeah, that's exactly what the Christians were facing then. And yet here he is inviting us to live in a particular way for, I think, a particular purpose. But I just wanna be upfront to say, this is hard and and there's tension here that I don't think I'm necessarily gonna be able to solve for you and for me. Paul goes on. So he says, "Everyone must submit to governing authorities, for all authority and this is the reason why this is interesting.
[13:33] All authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God." I could almost, like, it's almost easier at the top end. "For all authority comes from God." If you stop there, I'm like, yeah, I get that. I can understand that. "And those in positions of authority have been placed there by God." Though what Paul is inviting us into is this ancient idea that the Lord is sovereign above all, that the God we serve is not surprised by the person that's in power or authority over you or over me. And yet those rulers are accountable to the Lord. And there's a sense of reordering our understanding of who's ultimately in charge that Paul's inviting you and me into here.
[14:21] And it's something that is, again, pretty old and pretty ancient. So the Israelites, the Hebrew people, they would live under all sorts of oppressive governments. And again, awful, terrible things. The prophet Daniel will talk about this in Daniel 4 and trying to help understand in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar still the sense that the Most High, who is awful, the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world, He gives them to anyone He chooses. And I'm sure in those instances you'd be like, "Well, why did You give then authority to Nebuchadnezzar? Why did You let, you know, Pol Pot work out his terror in Cambodia? Why is there an oppressive regime in North Korea right now?" And the questions go on and on and on. And that's where the tension comes from because it's so frustrating and confusing that we would live in such a way that, yeah, I get that God is ultimately in control, but live in such a way that I'm not meant to ratchet up the tension with these governments.
[15:22] So this is what Paul says. He says the reasoning for, "So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished." Now, the interesting thing to note here is two important things. First off, James Dunn, that commentator I was quoting earlier, he'll say specifically about this, "The words are directed more against anarchy than single issue protest." So the idea of, like, hey, you raise a flag when there's an issue that's understandable, he's saying, but you don't, like, burn the whole thing down and disrespect, kind of thing. What happens, and you see this actually with Paul himself, he's got a measure of authority. He's got a measure of even respect in the light that he has, in this time, Roman citizenship. And so we have examples in Acts where he actually appeals to his Roman citizenship.
[16:10] So he's not saying, like, you just lay out and let bad things happen. He's saying, where you have an ability to make a case for something, you should totally do that. And he says, like, "Hey, you gotta treat me different because of the rights that I have as a citizen. Hey, you gotta make sure that you know the laws applied appropriately." You know, when you see injustice happen, absolutely you should speak of it. And where you have authority, you should absolutely raise up and say, "This isn't how it should be." But when you find yourself powerless, when you find yourself at the end of your rope, when you find yourself in a situation with an authority over you that isn't changing, what are you supposed to think and what are you supposed to feel? And Paul gives us this invitation that repositions perhaps the respect, not because of the value of that authority over us, but because of who God is, that we act and treat that authority differently than we might otherwise.
[17:05] And there was lots of examples of not doing this in his day. I mean, in Paul's day in the first century, there were a group of Jews that disconnected and walked away from, and, like, "We want to create our own kind of community." And so this group called the Essenes, you know, they set up shop in kind of the wilderness. Good things came from them. We got the Dead Sea Scrolls, you know, in in the 1940s, '50s. And so, you know, we're grateful for that, but but there's this sense that they were trying to remove themselves from the world at large and do their own thing. And it's not that it's not awful or bad or wrong, but that's not what Paul is inviting us to. There's also this group in those days, the Zealots. They were like, "Hey, let's overthrow all these powers and authorities, like they're evil and they're awful, and they'll rise up." And I mean, even one of Jesus's disciples came from this movement, the Zealots.
[17:51] It's like, well, no, that's not quite it either. There's this interesting road of being in the midst of the world, respecting authority in such a way that maybe the world around us would notice, and that maybe what God is doing through His sovereignty is bigger than what we would even imagine. But it doesn't change that it's difficult. Paul continues on, verse 3. "The authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. And even there I'm like, ugh. Like, that's, I'm not sure on that. Like, I wanna make a case that obviously there's places where you could do right and you get punished for it. And so I'm just cautious, but also I'm like, it's here. It's in the text. I'm trying to understand what he's inviting us to. "Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Yes.
[18:37] I mean, everybody does. So do what is right, and they will honor you. The authorities are God's servants sent for your good." Are you sure, Paul? He goes on, he says, "But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God's servants sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong." And this feels like just somewhat disconnected from real life circumstances until you realize that the language that Paul is using here is actually a callback to religious texts that he would be referencing. religious texts that he would be referencing or he'd be thinking of. It's not one that we find in our Christian Bible, but it's one that you can find, it's part of like the extended literature of that day.
[19:26] And some people would consider it authoritative. The book is called The Wisdom of Solomon. And in the Wisdom of Solomon, we read, and you'll kind of hear echoes of this language that Paul is using from this ancient source that he would've been, you know, kind of connected to, this is what the Wisdom of Solomon says. And it kind of makes the case that he's trying to, I think, present to us. "Listen, therefore, oh, kings," and speaking, the Wisdom of Solomon is speaking to those in authority and power in any day. But in particular, in those days, "your dominion was given you from the Lord." And here's this sense that the people of God would believe, "Hey, the Lord has given this to these people. They didn't achieve it, or they're not owners of it. The God of the universe is ultimately in charge."
[20:12] And here's where that comes into play. It says, because, and here's that language, as servants, Paul uses that servant language, servants of His kingdom. "And in this particular incident, you did not rule rightly. He will come upon you terribly and swiftly." And this is for those, the people of God, the sense that the Lord will bring His justice and His vengeance. We don't have to be ultimately concerned about it, that if there's somebody in authority and they're expressing that authority in an oppressive way, the Lord sees that and the Lord will deal with that. And so our responsibility shifts, and of course, again, still the caveat, we raise a flag, we fight for those that are oppressed. We want justice to flow and we want to be those kinds of people.
[21:00] But when we find ourselves powerless, we live understanding and knowing that the Lord is ultimately in control and will bring His justice and deal with the powers of this world swiftly. Paul goes on, "So you must submit to them." Again, different than obeying, "you must submit to them not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience." And then this one, come on, Paul: "Pay your taxes for these same reasons." It's like he was building up this, like, idea and you're like, "Oh, that's cool. I can find a loophole here, maybe a loophole here." And he is like, "No loopholes. Pay your taxes." And you're like, "Oh, that's pretty clear actually." "For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do."
[21:48] He goes on to say, "Give to everyone what you owe them. Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them and give respect and honor to those who are in authority." And what he is using here, respect and honor, is again this difference. And there's a clear kind of, not divide, but like, just, it's specific. You know, there's submit, that's different than obey. Respect and honor is different than what we reserve for the Lord, for God. For example, Peter in the New Testament, in one of his letters, he would write this about authorities. He would say, "Respect everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, and respect the king." And so you see this sense of like, there is a distinction between the kind of honor and authority that we offer to the Lord as the one that's in charge.
[22:40] And then this respect is obviously a different level, right? And what the commentators will say about this is just recognizing, obviously, this is in a particular kind of context. So James Dunn would say, "It would have to be said that where a government was not serving God, of which there are so many, for the good of its citizens, any appeal to this passage as a way of maintaining their subservience would be a complete distortion and abuse both of Paul's purpose and of its spiritual significance." Because you see, there's always an opportunity for the people of God to call out injustice where we see it. Like that's an important part of what we do. And even all the way back to the days of like Nebuchadnezzar, when we see this in Daniel, this was a part of the story.
[23:27] When you go to the passage in Daniel, just right before here, "when his heart and his mind," speaking of the king, "were puffed up with arrogance, he was brought down from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. This is, again, the king, until he learned that the Most High God rules over the kingdoms of the world and appoints anyone that He desires." And so these oppressive regimes, they don't ultimately have power and control. The Lord is the one ultimately in power and in control, but it doesn't change the fact that it's challenging. So I think, you know, I'm talking a couple or a month ago at the start of January with this ministry here in Canada called Open Doors Canada. And I'm doing this podcast interview and I'm asking them questions about, they do this annual World Watch List where they tell the story of persecuted Christians all around the world.
[24:18] And so you can, it's a free resource, it's pretty interesting. And they're telling me these stories about Christians in North Africa, Christians in North Korea, places that the regime and the government is so oppressive and there's so much, I mean, North Korea, like, it's just such a terrible thing. And so these Christians that are gathered, huddled up, you know, whispering praises to the Lord, because if they were any louder, they'd be discovered and could be killed. And yet here they are spreading the joy and the love of the Lord in amongst the most awful and evil circumstances possible. And you're like, "What is that? That allows them to have that kind of strength in the midst of that kind of powerlessness?" And the only thing I can think of is that it's the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
[25:05] And then I think, "Shoot, why don't I have that same level of trust and power in my own life as I go through these challenges that I have in my world?" And all of a sudden I'm like feeling convicted as we're talking about this. And I'm like, what an encouragement it is to see people live out their faith under the most difficult of circumstances and how much that spreads. So we're talking in between the services and like, you know, it is like, there's so much to wrestle with here on this, but then I'm like, "Oh, yeah, like you see, like, the church, the Christian church in China, and just the way that it, you know, spread wildly throughout the country, even in the most, you know, some significant kind of challenges." And there's something about when people trust in the Lord, even when there are these kinds of overbearing, oppressive authorities, that just seems to speak something to the people around them.
[26:00] So I'm not saying that we ask for or desire or want oppressive authority over us, but I do think the way that we respond to it says something about who we ultimately trust in our life and our world. So here's the question for you and for me. And again, there's tension to it. I don't have a perfect solve for you, but the question is, where do you experience secular authority? This is not Christian authority, secular authority in your world. It could be in your workplace, could be in your, you know, government, it could be, you know, in in the things that you need to put together. And you've got, you know, authority over you. And the question that you should wrestle with is, what does Romans 13 require of you?
[26:48] And I think you should sort it out in community with people, but I think that the danger for you and for me is that we often come to difficulty or challenges and we let our experience or our cultural realities speak to how we're gonna operate rather than the biblical text. And so what I'm saying is, what if we just started with the biblical text, the whole text, and allow it to shape what happens when we find ourselves in these kinds of difficulties? Now, Paul is, again, writing to people that are powerless. And so that may not be your situation. When you find yourself powerless, though, what does it mean to still offer the kind of respect or submission that Paul is talking about here? Now, when you have the ability, as Paul did, you still, you know, say your piece, you raise the flag, you offer a suggestion, you write to your MP, you talk to the powers that be, you vote differently.
[27:43] All those things make sense. And all those things are the right things for you and for me to do as people that will have authority and power to make decisions on that. But when you find yourself at the end of your rope wondering what you're supposed to do when you're powerless, what is it that Paul's inviting you and me into that might not just give us a sense of what God is wanting to do, but might actually even speak to the people around us in the way that the Christians in the first century, I mean, they were wild kind of people. What happened in Rome is absolutely insane history. Like, just tells the story, like Nero and the persecution of the Christians. And in that first century, the way that they were able to still honestly live and kind of respect and deference to the people that were oppressing them.
[28:32] And yet to come through that and for the world around them to say, "These people are different. They have something. The power that they have inside of them is worth noting." And the gospel and the message of Jesus spreads like wildfire because the power of the Spirit was in these people. Okay? That's the first note. The second note is where, and this is an important one actually, where do you have authority over someone? Because up until this point, we're talking about the authorities that are over top of you. But where do you have authority over somebody else? What does Romans 13 want to say to you? Do you, as a parent, who has authority over kids, as a boss who has authority over a team? If you're in politics and you have authority over people, what does this say to you when you carry a measure of authority over somebody else?
[29:24] And the answer is nothing. This is the dangerous spot when Christians who will read Romans 13 and then use it to bring injustice into their workplace or bring difficulty onto people, this isn't written to people in authority. Romans 13 is written to the powerless church in Rome trying to follow Jesus in the midst of an oppressive regime. When you are a boss, when you have authority, when you have power over other people, your verses you'll find at the end of the gospel accounts when Jesus is the most powerful person in the room amongst His closest followers.
[30:09] And what does He do? He gets down and He washes their feet. Your verse is the verse that Jesus offers. And we talked about last week that when you find somebody that is in need and it has a, like, is, you know, on the side of the road and challenged and, you know, got hurt, that you go above and beyond to serve and to love them at your own expense. That's your verse. You think of yourself less when you're in authority so that you can raise up the people that are under your authority when you're in authority. There's all sorts of verses that you should listen to, but this is not one that you take. And so what we deal with as people here in the this 21st century is we wrestle with the fact that sometimes we are powerless and we carry a measure of expectation with that.
[31:02] And then we also step into another situation where we have a little bit of power and we operate differently accordingly. And the hardest thing to do, and I say this as somebody that will wrestle with this myself, and I and I'm not saying this is easy and it's easy. I mean, it's easy for me to say it out loud. It's hard to actually pull it off. But when you've experienced the authority from somebody else over top of you, and then you have to be the one to let the gospel and the power of Christ reshape you, and that you offer that to the next round of people. And what I mean by that is, like, if you've experienced, like, like bad parents in your life, like parenting, and you think about your parents and it wasn't a good experience, and now you've got kids and you've gotta figure out a way, how do I offer authority over my kids that's different than the authority I received as a child to my parents?
[31:51] Do you see? Like, how do you make that tweak? I think it's by the power of the Holy Spirit. What happens when you've been having bosses for most of your life and they're awful to you and this authority, and you're like, "Well, how do I live with integrity now?" And it's like, well, you don't repeat what you have experienced. You are the one that changes because of the power of Christ in you. And you live out your authority over others differently because of what God is doing in and through you. This is the hardest thing to experience and the hardest thing to do. But when we recognize that the scriptures speak even to the most difficult of circumstances, hopefully your experience and your cultural realities will fall second to the truth of what the Lord is inviting you into.
[32:42] And it's difficult and it's hard and it's easy for me to say out loud, but the only way that you'll be able to pull it off is by the power of the Spirit. And so let me pray for you and me pray for me. Let me pray for all of us that we'll have the wisdom to be able to take Romans 13 and allow it to shape our lives in the way that we interact with those in authority over us, but also let us be protected that we would not be the kinds of authority that require people to be at odds and frustrated, and pray for us. Father, thank You for preserving this text for so long. And it's a challenging one. It's one that I still have got lots of questions for, and there's lots of situations in world history where I'm like, "I don't get it.
[33:32] God, why would You, why did this? What do You mean about this situation? What should have happened here?" And yet, in the midst of it all, Lord, I'm grateful. I'm grateful that I can bring this into my heart and into my community and into conversation with You. And Lord, would You shape me to respond how I should respond to the authorities and the powers that are over top of me? And Lord, for each person here in this room, we're gonna need discernment. We're gonna need wisdom. We're gonna need understanding so that we can offer the kind of respect that You call for, the submission that You call for, but also that we'll have the wisdom to know when that goes against what You've invited us into. And that we would always fear and obey You first, but that in so doing that, we could still offer that beautiful respect back to the people that were around us.
[34:26] And Lord, let our witness of this truth be something that changes and transforms our world in the same way that it did 2000 years ago. Would we be the kinds of people that the world around us would see the way the Christians act in this way? And it would be so shocking and surprising that they would lean in and look to You, the One that offers the strength to do even this in our midst? And Lord, finally, for any of us that have any measure of power and authority over others, let us be the kinds of leaders and the kinds of people that treat others the way that You have treated them, willing to sacrifice anything and everything for the sake of Your goodness in people's lives.
[35:12] And so call us to that high standard and give us the power, the power to take the steps that You need us to take in that regard. Lord, we pray all of these things in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.