You can open up your Bibles again to Matthew 21. We’re going to look at verses 23 through 32 this morning. Matthew 21:23 through 32. Today’s message is all about authority. No one applauded that. No one cares. No one likes this. No one likes this. No one likes this word. No one likes authority. No one likes having authorities over them. Nobody likes authority. At least most don’t. Because the word authority is It’s filled with all these emotions, also maybe even a bit of angst. You’re like, oh, gosh. They did a Pew research study of Americans. They surveyed 1,100 Americans and asked their opinion on authority figures. And what researchers discovered, I would say, was interesting but not very surprising. They asked the perceived trustworthiness of authority figures in America. Quick quiz. Here you go. What percentage of Americans Do you think believe that Congress members are trustworthy? Here’s the answer. 17%. And some will say, That’s more than what I thought it would be. That means that 83% of Americans surveyed said that they don’t trust those who are given the authority to make laws. The trustworthiness of CEOs was also quantified, and it was at 31%. Law enforcement officers, 50%.
That means that half of Americans do not trust those who are in direct legal authority over them. And it’s because in America, and they concluded this, there is a general view of untrustworthiness towards authority figures. Here’s actually the direct quote from the survey. It says, The findings of this survey and focus groups conducted by Pew Research Center, indicates that Americans continue to distrust and then it listed all of the authority figures. We just continue to do it. We just don’t really trust them. And here’s why, or I guess if you ever wonder why, I think there’s a couple of reasons. The first is obvious is that often, I would say maybe sometimes, authority figures do wrong. It’s just true, right? We can all admit that, whether you’re for authorities or against authorities. But people who wear badges, people who sit in high offices, people who run companies, people use their powers to elevate themselves. This happens in every single field. It happens in every single type of person. People who are given power abuse that power. But there’s a second reason why, and I think the second reason is probably more important than the first reason.
And the second reason is that the concept of authority is something that Americans who are given the liberty, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness do not really like. Because when we talk about authority, what we’re talking about is a word that has intimidation connected to it. It denotes permission. It denotes privilege. It talks about the idea of power and of rule and of control. When someone has authority, what it means is that you’re on top of someone else. It means that they get to determine for you what you do. They get to decide for you what you do. They get to render judgment about whether or not what you did was good or bad. They get to decide and make a verdict. And they have these privileges and rights to do all these things over you. And I would say, as an American, I will not stand for it. Nobody likes that. That’s just like something that we don’t enjoy. But you know what we do like? And sorry for the long intro, but we’re getting somewhere. You know what we do like? You know who we do trust? Studies indicate we trust celebrities.
A related study done that the trustworthiness of celebrities is substantially higher than the trustworthiness of authorities. You know who we trust? Morgan Freeman. 87% of Americans said they trusted Morgan Freeman. He pretended to be God in a movie. We love him. We trust Tom Hanks. We trust Samuel L. Jackson. He did a movie called Snakes on the Plate. We trust Beyoncé. We trust Keanu Reeves. Maybe because I don’t know why we trust him. All these people have a higher trustworthiness rating than Congress, then CEOs, and then police officers. And here’s my conclusion. We prefer celebrities over authorities. And the reason is because we prefer being fans over being subjects. Fans, you could say, I like you or I don’t like you, but you don’t determine what you do with my life. But to have an authority means that you are subject to someone. Last example, this is the best one. This is the best example I have. This is not a political statement. It’s just the best example of what I have. This, how about Donald Trump? Now, don’t say anything. Nothing political here. Donald Trump had a trustworthiness, a favorability score of about 18 % when he was on celebrity apprentice.
You fired. That guy. 18%. People thought, generally, I like this guy. He’s wonderful. Whatever. When he became President, he went to a whopping negative 48%. That’s a 64% change. Some will say it’s because of politics or whatever else. But I think it’s that nobody really cared about his politics or any of that stuff when you were just a fan. Nobody cared. You’re fired. I love that guy. He didn’t impact your life at all. But the moment he became an authority, half of Americans said, No way, I do not like this guy. Here’s my point. We’d rather be fans than subjects. We prefer celebrities over authorities. Now, all this comes to a head when we talk about Jesus. Do you know why? Because our view of Jesus and our view of authority, I would say, impacts our relationship with our Lord. It impacts it in a really profound way because the scripture tells us very, very clearly, very clearly, that Jesus has authority. In fact, he demands respect. He demands to be put in his rightful place. And when we are pushed in a position where someone is demanding our authority, we have to, or demanding that their authority be given, we have to make a decision.
Will we be fans or will we be subjects? And here’s what I’ve learned. Fans of Jesus become hostile towards Jesus once he tries to exercise his authority. This happens in the scriptures. It happens even today. And what we’re going to see in this text is going to show us exactly this. We’re going to look at the text, we’re going to study the text, and then we’re going to come back and make a relevant point for all of us. But for now, let’s just state the obvious. I mentioned this before, Jesus has authority. How much authority you might ask? Well, Matthew 28:18 declares this, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He is the authority above every authority. He claims all privilege, all rights, all power, all permission, everything. He has authority, the Bible says, over all things. We see it again and again and again. We learn that he spoke with authority. The Bible says he taught in such a way where no one ever taught like him as one having authority. In that particular culture, what that means is that he didn’t quote anybody. He didn’t get up there and go, You know what?
There’s a commentator who said, This is what the Kingdom of God means. He just said, This is what I say. And then he said, I am the word of God. And then he said, My word is truth. Imagine a politician doing that. Imagine Joe Biden be like, My words are the word of God, and my word is truth. People would be like, No. But this is what Jesus just confidently declared. I have all authority. My words are the word of God. He spoke with authority. He had great authority. The Bible tells us he has authority over disease. He has authority over sin. He can forgive sin. We learned that in the gospel of Mark, chapter one, right? There’s a demon possessed man. He has an unclean spirit in him. And Jesus is like, Oh, I can just take that out of you. And they marveled because he had authority over the demonic world. He also had authority over the physical world. Remember that time he’s on a boat. John 6, he’s on the boat, he’s hanging out, and all of a sudden a storm comes and he goes, Oh, yeah, be quiet. And the storm just stops.
And the disciples, they say, were terrified because he had authority over the physical world. He taught with authority. He had authority over sickness. He had authority to forgive sins. He had authority to cast out demons. John 1 says that he has verse 12, he has the authority to make us children of God. He has the authority to exercise judgment. He has authority over all things, life, death, everything. And Philippians 2, It confidently declares that at the end of time, every knee will bow to his authority. Jesus has total and complete authority. And so if we don’t like authority, it’s going to be really difficult for us to fall in line with what who Jesus wants us to be. This has been and continues to be because it has always been the problem with anybody who comes to Jesus because they have to decide who has final say in their lives. Do you get the final say or does Jesus? We’re going to talk a little bit more about how this impacts you. But this idea of our relationship with God and all of this really comes to a head in Matthew Matthew 21. Matthew 21, we meet some religious leaders.
Religious leaders used to really like him. They used to be fans. Nicodemus in John 3 came up to Jesus and was like, You’re a good teacher. We can tell you’re from God because no one who could perform the signs and wonders that they were doing. They liked him. But eventually, Jesus stopped asking for them to be involved in anything. Jesus didn’t consider their authority to be a legitimate authority. And so this is what Jesus did. These the religious leaders, and Jesus did not ask them a single time for approval about any of his teachings. He wasn’t like, You know what, Sanhedrin, guys? Am I allowed to say this? He just said it. He didn’t ask them one time to approve his doctrine. He didn’t ask them one time to approve any of his healings. He just totally ignored them like they didn’t even exist. And these people are wearing fancy hats and wearing scarves, and they believe that they’re like the third person in the Trinity or the fourth person in the Trinity. They believe that they’re so important, and Jesus never even asked them. He was like, high priest, do you think that I should be teaching like this?
He just did what he wanted to do. And all this, again, comes to a head when Jesus clears the temple. Because Jesus doesn’t ask the Sanhedrin, what’s the rules for cleaning the temple? He just did it. So the leaders are distressed, they’re discouraged. And when we get to Matthew 21, Jesus has come in in a parade of people, and then he comes all the way in, and this is a picture of the temple. That’s what the money changers might have looked like. He just flips off all those money tables and throws everybody out. He’s chasing everybody out. He doesn’t ask a single person about whether or not he’s allowed to do it. He just does it. And the next day, he goes back to Bethany, and then he comes back into the temple. And when he comes into the temple, the religious leaders are waiting to question him. And what we have is two whole chapters, quite a long morning of Jesus literally rebuking the chapters, rebuking the Pharisees and the religious leaders for two whole chapters. So I just want to let you know the next couple of sermons are going to be intense because this is what Jesus was teaching.
Here you go. Jesus entered the temple court, and while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. By what authority are you doing these things? They asked, and who gave you this authority? Again, the issue is authority. The temple I mentioned This is this huge courtyard. It’s surrounded by these high walls and these pillars and these porches and portacles and colonnades. And all the people have been mulling around because it’s Passover. And Jesus has just flipped over all the tables and now is standing in the middle of a group, I would imagine, and just preaching the gospel. He’s just preaching and everybody is gathered around him. And everyone is listening to him, and everyone’s going, whoa, what is happening here? And you might ask, well, what is he teaching? The Bible tells us that he’s teaching about the Kingdom of God. That’s what he always taught about. He’s teaching about humility and about brokenness and about being poor in spirit and all the things in the sermon on the mount about riches and about marriage and about forgiveness. And the Bible tells us in Luke 19 that all the people hung on his words.
So he’s talking. People are just, I’ve never heard anybody speak like this. He had all of their ears, everyone’s listening, and the religious leaders are like, there’s a revolution on our hands. And so they ask him the question. I’d imagine the scene looks like this, and they walk up to him and they ask the question, By what authority are you doing these things? I want to tell you who these people are. Matthew says it’s the chief priest and the elders. It’s a generic term. It’s like saying the office of the President. It could mean a lot of people. So it would be the high priest, then the captain of the temple, and then there would be the priest of the weekly courts, that’s like 24 people, and then the priest of the daily courts, probably another 156 people. Then you have the overseeing priest and the treasury priest, and all of those people have come to question Jesus. In addition to that, you have the elders. That’s what it says. And they ask the question, Hey, give me your credentials. Do you have a permit for cleansing the temple? We do public teaching on Mondays and Wednesdays.
You’re not allowed to be here? Show me your paperwork. By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you that authority? Where’s the permit? Where’s the authorisation? How are you allowed to be speaking here? Jesus has just waltzed in the temple without telling anybody, without getting any approval. And so that’s a fair question. You can imagine if someone walked in here and was like, Hey, I have an announcement. The hospitality team might go. They would not be very hospitable, I would imagine at that moment. They’d be like, Excuse Excuse me, sir. No, no, get out. What authority do you have to be taking over this worship service? And imagine I was here and someone walked down the thing, I would be a little offended. Hey, take it easy, buddy. I prepared for this lesson. You’re walking up here just talking. I might be a little offended. Just imagine that’s me without a fancy hat, without being all high and mighty. These guys are not like that. And so they’re really curious. Who is this? Who are you, sir? What are you doing here? What are you doing in the temple teaching and flipping over a table?
Who gave you that authority? Who gave it to you? It’s a fair question. Jesus, of course, does not answer their question. And Justin said, asks his own question. He replied, I will also ask you one question. You ask me one? They actually asked him two. But I’ll ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. If you answer my question, I’ll answer your question. It’s a fair thing. This is what rabbincal people did. They answer questions by questions. So Jesus is not trying to get out, trying to maneuver. He’s just doing what rabbis did. So here’s the question. Such a good question. John the Baptist. Where did it come from? John’s baptism, sorry. Where did it come from? Was it from heaven or of human origin? John the Baptist. You might remember who John the Baptist is, the voice crying in the wilderness. Everyone knew who he was. He was the last prophet of the Old Testament. He had been out there in the Jordan preaching a message of repentance, saying the Messiah is coming. Repent because the Messiah is coming. And then one day, you might remember, Jesus is walking up and he goes, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the Earth.
And so John the Baptist acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Remember that because this is the issue. So here’s the question, Hey, all right, you want to ask me whether or not or where my authority comes from? I want to ask you a question. Where did John the Baptist come from? Is he from God or is he from human origins? Is he a godly man or is this an earthly situation? And so they huddle. They call a huddle. Huddle. A hundred of them, at least, going to the little thing. You don’t know how long it takes, Jesus, I would imagine, says, You want to take some time? Go in the corner. I’m just going to continue to preach. Blessed are the poor spirit. And they’re in the corner. They’re working out their whole thing. They’re trying to figure it out, and they’re thinking to themselves, Okay, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? And we get an inside look into what they talked about, which is so cool, right? So we had a spy on the inside. I got that from Hamilton, I think, that line. They discussed it amongst themselves and said, If we say from heaven, he will ask, then why did you believe him?
But if we say human origin or of human origin, we are afraid of the people For they all hold that John was a prophet. Here’s the situation. If we say it’s from heaven, then we have to admit what? That Jesus is the Messiah. That’s the issue, right? Because the guy said I was the Messiah. Or he was the Messiah. But if we say from Earth, then we have a problem because all the people love John the Baptist, and all the people think John the Baptist is a prophet. And so if we stand up and go, John the Baptist, no, not a prophet, then all the people are going to go, you obviously cannot discern between right and wrong. So here’s what’s happening. There’s another little picture. There you go. They’re all coming up there to talk. So you have this. Here’s your crowd. Here’s your leaders. Here they’re coming up. And here is the astute answer given by the mass of religiousness in all of the state of Israel. Are you ready? Here it is. So they answered, so They answered Jesus, we don’t know. Guys, here’s a good answer. Just say you don’t know. If you say you don’t know, then you don’t have to answer the question.
It’ll be perfect. Good way of doing it. They understood what was going to happen. Now, it was their duty as overseers of religion to know. So they just ignored all the evidence. They would not be put in a position where they had to admit that Jesus Christ was the authority. That’s the key here. They don’t want Jesus to have domination, even though they know. And so that’s the response. Look, we don’t know. We don’t know. And so Jesus responds this way. Then he said, Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. You don’t answer me? I’m not going to tell you. I’m not answering your question either. And I have nothing else for you. No more, nothing else for you. They have so long rejected him that, again, he rejects them. Then he begins to tell a story where he begins to connect the dots for these guys to distinguish between them as fans and them as true followers. Here’s what it says, What do you think? Here’s a story. What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to his first and said, Son, go and work today in the vineyard.
I will not, he answered, but later changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He said, I will, sir, but he did not go. Simple parable. There’s a vineyard. Here’s the vineyard. This is the place of work. This is the place of work. And God calls… Or sorry, God is the landowner. He’s called two different sons. Hey, son, go work. And he goes, I’m not going to. One son says, I’m not going to. And then later on, repents. And goes. The other one goes, I will do it, Father. But he never actually goes. Get it? Cool. So then here’s the question, which of the two did what the Father wanted? The first, they answered, the guy who said, I won’t, and then eventually did it. The person who repented. They did what was right. That’s what’s right. So if for some reason God calls us or God, whatever, the Father calls you to do something, and then you say you’re not going to do it, but eventually you decide to do it. God loves that heart. That’s a repentant heart. That’s a beautiful heart. That’s a wonderful thing.
Great. They got it right. Hooray. Then Jesus says something devastating. Jesus said to them, Truly, I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of you. Blessed are the poor in spirit. They just keep preaching, I would imagine. What’s the issue? Those who say no, but then eventually turn, are much better than those who say yes, but never obey. God prefers real service over lip service. God prefers hearts that are willing to turn from people who go, Oh, I have been turning. It’s been years I’m here. All things are wonderful, and they never do anything. I want to say this because this is the point of the story, and we’ll tie it back to the concept of authority. But Christ judges your discipleship by your obedience, not by how you cheer him on, not by the songs you sing, not by you saying, you know what? I am a Christian, not by you saying, I am dedicated to that, not by you saying how great he is, not by clapping and cheering. Those are wonderful things. But it’s not about being a fan. It’s about being a servant, about being really a subject, a slave of Christ.
You want to know who’s right in God’s eyes? It’s those who accept his authority. It’s those who accept his authority because there’s a connection between authority and obedience, right? If someone just tells you to do something and you do it, you are subject to them. That makes sense, right? So what is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying, look, God has told some people to do something, and they eventually did it. They have accepted my authority, and they are right ahead of the one who just gives me lip service. Fans say, Okay, you’re awesome. That’s a great idea. Oh, wow. Following Jesus is such a great idea. That’s what fans say, but they never actually obey. Followers struggle to obey, might even refuse to obey at first, but eventually, in the end of the day, do what Jesus told them to do. And Jesus knows these religious leaders are phony. He knows that they are the second son. And so he says, Look, I want you to know that prostitutes and tax collectors are entering the Kingdom of Heaven before you. That’s like saying the scum of the Earth is entering the Kingdom of Heaven before you.
That’s basically what he’s saying. He’s saying those who you perceive as not having any value, they’re way more value in the Kingdom of God than you are. In other words, he’s saying you won’t enter, and they will. Here’s what I want to lay before you to consider as a relevant point as we bundle this whole thing up and tie up some loose ends. These guys loved Jesus for about 30 seconds. When he came on the scene, they actually were really like… They liked him. They liked him. They enjoyed him. They thought, wow, his teachings are great. His thing is wonderful. He’s a good teacher. They were a little concerned, but they liked him. But eventually, because they were just fans, right? They never wanted to be followers of Jesus. And here’s what I’ve learned, and this is for you and this is for me. But fans of Christ eventually become persecutors of the church and persecutors of Christ. And here’s where this really lands on you and me and in our lives. I think people come in to a place like this and think, wow, this is cool. That Jesus guy is a cool fella, and this is fun.
And eventually, what happens is that Jesus demands your loyalty and your obedience. He starts with, look, come as you are. Come as you are and come and marvel at the wonderful things that I’m going to offer you. Come as you are and come and marvel at the glorious riches of the Kingdom of Heaven. Come, come, come. And people come and go, You are incredible, Jesus. You are so amazing. And then he says, Now I want your allegiance and your obedience. And they go, No, no, no, no, no. I signed up for church on Sunday mornings from 10:00 AM to 11:30. That’s what I signed up for. I did not sign up to be a servant of a God who I can’t even see. That’s not what I signed up for. And so eventually, those people become people who say the church is too demanding, the gospel is too hard core, we should be more open about blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah. And eventually, the fans all become persecutors. This is what happens with the crowd. Hosana, Hosana, Hosana. Hosana, Hosana, Hosana. Blessed is who comes in the name of the Lord.
A week later, Crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. Same people, same people, because Jesus demands authority. For those of us who are willing to be disciples, we are under the authority of Jesus. As disciples, that’s who you are. We do as Jesus says. But I’ll tell you this, people start hating the church and even Christ himself once it feels like they can’t do what they want to do anymore. Jesus’s authority was fine when it was doing things that you were never going to do to begin with. It was like, You can’t smoke. It’s like, Well, good. I don’t smoke anyway. It’s like, You Can’t drink? Well, I’ll go. I mean, whatever. I’m not trying to make a doctrinal statement. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. Like, okay, all right. Sounds good. Or you should do that. Yeah, I do that anyway. It’s like, you should do this. It’s like, I don’t want to do that. This church is too intense. The Struggle comes when all of us desire to treat God as a pet, to order him around and ask him to do one thing or another, Fix this for me. Help me with this.
At that point, those fans eventually… Sorry. At that point, Jesus is not to be trifled with, and that’s just not acceptable in the Kingdom of God. And those people who feel like they cannot receive that become persecutors of the church. I just want to say this. If you’re choosing to become a disciple, this is what you’re signing up for. You don’t have the rights over Christ. You don’t have privileges over him. You can’t make judgments that are above his judgments. You don’t get to decide how things work in his church. He does. You don’t get to decide who is a Christian who’s not because you like someone or don’t like someone else. He gets to decide. You don’t get to decide who’s healed. You don’t get to decide what God should be doing in the world. We are subjects of his. Now, should we pray for those things? Of course. But you get my point. You don’t get to decide what the Bible teaches. You don’t get to decide who gets rewards and who doesn’t get reward. The goal as a disciple is not to lend your opinion to Jesus so that he could do a better job of leading the world.
Oh, you know what? If God just did this a little bit differently, you sit in judgment of God and God will sit in judgment of you. As disciples, we are called to be under his authority, which means if Jesus says something, we do it. If he commands us to do it, we do it. All authority has been given to him. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. How does the account end? This, verse 32. Jesus has finished telling the story, he says, The prostitutes and the tax collectors are entering the Kingdom of Heaven before you’re entering it. Now, they don’t say anything, but then Jesus says something, For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, okay? And you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. Look, why are you not coming in? It’s because he came from God to show you righteousness. And you didn’t believe him because you didn’t want to have your authority lessened. You didn’t believe him.
You did not believe him. And so you know who came? The tax collectors and the prostitutes. They came and they did believe him. And even after you saw this, meaning the miracle of people becoming Christians, you did not repent and believe him. Like today, these guys preferred to look like they were right over actually being right, right? To look like it, to stand out in the crowd like they knew what they were doing. And so they sat in judgment. And I’ll tell you, you sit and you can listen to me preaching today, to others preaching, to the gospel of Is this being communicated, to the saving message of Jesus. And you can sit here and you cannot believe because it has too much of a demand on your life. I love the song that says, It demands my life, my soul, or my song or something like that, My all. It demands my all. You go, I don’t want that. And that’s fine. That’s up to you. But I’ll tell you, if you want to be a Christian, you are under the authority of Jesus Christ. Why do people hate Christ? Because of his authority, because they don’t want to be told what to do.
How can you tell me? How can you tell the difference between a fan and a follower? Well, look at their obedience. Who obeys and who doesn’t? Man hate authority. And again, I just want to wrap this up. Sometimes you hate authority, I would say, for good reason, or you’re skeptical of authority for good reason. Earthly authorities have proven again and again and again to not be the real authority. It’s true. That’s just the truth. And so it’s no surprise that we don’t like authorities. But when Jesus is in charge, he makes his purpose to glorify God very clear. And part of that purpose is to bring his sons to glory and his daughters to glory. And so I want to say this, being under the authority of Christ is the greatest gift anybody could ever have. Have you ever noticed this, that so many of your problems come because you want to be in control? Have you ever solved the problem by getting more control? No. All it does is give you more anxiety because you can’t actually control it. None of your problems are solved, but you getting more control. And so to be a subjected to Christ is actually to live free.
Is to go, look, God, I don’t know what’s going to happen here, but I trust you and I love you and you’re in charge. We’re free from our anxiety and freed from our fears and freed from our frustrations when we allow Christ to lead our lives. But I’m telling you this, he has a demand on you. Who will you be? Who do you want to be? That’s the pertinent question for today. Who do you want to be? Are you going to be a fan? Are you going to be a fan who comes and sings and cheers and dances? I don’t know if you dance. You clap, maybe you read every once in a while. Or are you going to be a follower who takes their entire life and hands it over to Christ and says, Look, you lead and I’ll follow. I don’t know about you, but I want to be a I want to be a follower. I want to be a follower of Jesus. I don’t want to be someone who just gives him lip service. I want to be someone who gives him service in the Kingdom because I know serving him is the most freeing thing I could possibly do.
I’m telling you this, this teaching is hard, but it is rewarding and freeing. Rewarding and freeing if you will just give him the time of day. Let’s pray. God, man, what I wouldn’t give to be in that circle listening to Jesus preach. Just to hear him talk. And I know I would be challenged. I know I would be overwhelmed. And so much of my Christianity, I feel like in this time, are things I already agree with. And so periodically, God, I find myself even running into passages of scripture and going, That can’t mean that, or I don’t want to believe that. And I pray for myself, Lord, that you would allow me to have a conviction to submit to you. And Father, I want that in my life. I want a conviction to be in total submission to you, where I can offer my body as a living sacrifice. God, and I want that same thing for the people in this room. I don’t know what it is for everyone here. I know that there are pressing areas of obedience that are required here for everyone here. There are things that you are calling people to do.
You are calling people, some of us, to relinquish some religious pride. We have been in discussions and we have so much religious pride and we have so much belief that we know exactly what we’re doing and you want us to humble out. God, I pray that you will compel us today, those of us who are in that camp, to be obedient to you. God, that we will come broken before you. God, there are some of us who need to obey in the area of righteousness, of our own greed, of our own lust, of our own insecurities. God, there’s so much in us, Lord. I just pray that you will compel us today to be fully transparent about who we are so we could become followers of you that are transformed by your riches and your grace. God, I feel like sometimes it’s really hard for me to communicate the good news of the gospel and And Lord, I just pray that you will impress upon the hearts of the hearers today that it is a good thing to be subject to you. That’s a wonderful thing. I think about Peter who says, We’ve given all things.
We’ve left all things. And then Jesus’s response that anybody who has left will not fail to receive 100 times as much in this age and the age to come. God, allow us to really believe in the goodness of submission and the righteousness of being under authority, and let it be transformative for us. God, today, as we take communion, the bit of juice that represents your blood poured out and the bit of bread that represents your body broken for us, I pray that we could just have a moment of reflection. We could just remember just how wonderful it is to be under you, to be led by such a good leader in Jesus Christ. We love you. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.