Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Life On Loan - Luke 20:19-26

So that's actually what we're gonna jump right into. But

before we get into God's word, who remembers their first job?

Do you remember your first job? What you did? Mine

was bagging groceries and pushing shopping Carts's kind of a

like a classic first job. It was a good time.

Anyone else did anyone else push? Yeah? There we go?

Heck yeah, how about I remember getting hired and maybe

this was similar for you. The minimum wage at the time,

I think was nine to seventy three, what right? But

I remember I got that job, and this was the

first time that I had this opportunity to make money

for myself. And I remember getting starting my seeing like

the schedule for the week and looking over and going like,

all right, so if I worked this many hours, I

put in this much time, and when I get that paycheck,

it's gonna be good. Right. This is coming from no

money to having I don't know, grocery bagging money. You know,

it's not much, but it's something. But who remembers their

first paycheck? Remember that? Yeah? He remembers the money that

was missing and their paycheck. I remember that. They're like,

where did it all go? What are these other lines?

Why didn't that come to me? I don't know if

you've seen those videos on social media. It's kind of

been a more recent thing where people film their kid

opening their first paycheck. They're like, what's this. They're like,

that's taxes, kid, and they're like what. It's always it's

always a good time, but also for the parent, for

the people who've been through that same heart break and pain.

But we realized very quickly life and its realities kind

of start to hit hard as we grow up, especially

as we get older, we get bigger jobs and they

take out more. Most of us, I'm sure here have

some kind of love hate relationship with paying taxes or more,

and I'm sure it's probably more on the hating side

of things. And I want to make it clear that

I'm not convinced that after today that any of us

are going to love paying taxes by any means. But

I am hoping, I am praying that the Lord is

going to work into our hearts today to show us

what he does require of his people, And I pray

that He will give us a strength and the grace

through his spirit that dwells every born again believer to

be obedient to what he calls us too with joy

and actually live it out in our lives knowing that

he has called us to it. And that's not just

in regards to paying taxes. That's one of them. It's

kind of an easy one to talk about, but that

also goes for other things that maybe we struggle with,

like laying down our lives for our wives, to submitting

to our husbands, to obeying and honoring our parents, to

working hard for our employers, maybe being considerate of those

that we ourselves employ, all things that we may wrestle with.

But I do believe that today will be challenged and

Lord willing set free to live out the lives that

the Lord God has given to us. So how we're

going to start with this is by reading our text,

praying over it that it impacts us, plants down deep,

and then we'll jump into it. Sound good, awesome? So

I talked about taxes and everyone's like, oh, I haven't

got quiet. Really really quickly, we're gonna be in chapter

twenty of Luke. We're gonna be starting in the verse

actually that we left off of last week, which is

verse nineteen. And if you do not have a Bible,

please please please feel free to go grab one for

yourself to keep. We have them out on the resource

booth in the lobby twenty nineteen through twenty six, says

the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands

on him at that very hour, for they perceived that

he had told this parable against them. But they feared

the people, so they watched him and sent spies who

pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in

something he said, so as to deliver him up to

the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. So they asked him, teacher,

we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show

no partiality, and truly teach the way of God. Is

it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?

But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, show

me a denarius whose likeness an inscription does it have?

They said, Caesar's. He said to them, then render to

Caesar the things that are Caesar, and to God the

things that are God's. And they were not able in

the presence of all the people or of the people,

to catch him in what he said. But marveling at

his answer, they became silent. This is God's word. Let

us pray. Lord God, you are overall. You sit on

your throne, reigning, and we just humbly gather in your name,

submitted to you, Lord God. And I just asked that

our beliefs even would be submitted to you, that we

would come before you humbly seeking what your word says,

not so that we can judge it, but so that

we can submit to it. So I asked that you

would help us by our spirit, by your grace, as

your people show us, guide us, lead us, and how

you want us to live out this time before you return.

The Lord God, So please give us clarity, help us

have conviction. And most of all, Lord God, I just

asked that you would be glorified and that we would

look more like you in Jesus name. Everyone said amen.

So we've been going through a series titled Luke The

Orderly Account of Truth, where we have been following the

carefully investigated account of the life and ministry of the

Lord Jesus. And the hope in the series is that

as we go week by week and verse by verse,

looking at everything Jesus taught and did, that we would

grow firmer in our faith, and that our certainty of

the person and work of Jesus would continue to grow

and bear fruit in our lives. Now, last week we

looked at the first challenge that came to Jesus since

he's been at Jerusalem. He came to Jerusalem, people were rejoicing.

He goes into the temple. He starts flipping tables, and

everyone's like, what gives you the right to do any

of this? To be saying what you're saying? See, Jesus

rebuked them. Interesting enough, this challenge to Jesus's authority came

from none other than the leaders and authorities themselves at Jerusalem.

Instead of accepting him, we find this pushback. We saw

them challenge Jesus, but they were unwilling to answer Jesus'

question because it would expose them as the hypocritical leaders

that they were. Then we saw Jesus tell a parable

about servants who had rebelled against their owner, and instead

of giving the owner what belonged to him, they tried

to keep it for themselves. Jesus told the crowds that

the people who did that that their destruction for doing

so was sure to come about. Well. The leaders, perceiving

that Jesus was pretty clearly talking about them, as you

can imagine, didn't like that very much. They're pretty they're

pretty upset by that, and we see that in verse nineteen.

But it's interest because because of their fear of the people,

they didn't do anything about it except keep plotting to

try and chap Jesus so that he could hand they

could hand him over to the Roman authorities. So today

that's kind of what we're looking at. We're looking at

another example another time. We talked about this a little

bit last week, that we're kind of going into this

fight night or fight days with Jesus where the people

are going to continue to come against Jesus and bring

challenge after challenge after challenge. We're going to see Jesus,

wise with wisdom and full of the wisdom and spirit,

answer them perfectly. So today we're going to see another

time where through flattery and craftiness, they try and catch

Jesus in his words. So instead of just a rebuke

to his authority, what kind of what gives you the right?

They try a different approach. But like last week, we're

going to see that these wicked leaders were no match

for the word made flesh today is a personal favorite

text of mine because you just see how awesome Jesus is.

And when you actually start to read the Bible a

little bit more, especially in the Gospels, you realize that

Jesus is truly unlike anyone else. The questions and chaps

that are asked of Jesus, Jesus always has the perfect answer,

the perfect response. And when you read the Gospels and

see the life and teachings of Jesus, I believe it's

hard for anyone to walk away and not at least

see that Jesus isn't like anyone else. Lord willing for some,

as they hear and read and see the life and

ministry of Jesus, that they they don't walk away at all,

but instead that they have the same response that Simon

Peter did when he said, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life, and we have

believed in how to know that you are the Holy

One of God. Now for today's text, we're going to

see the Israelite leaders send spies and insincere people to

come question Jesus, and we're going to see him answer

them with the perfect answer and leave them in awe

and speechless. So if you're taking notes today, our message

is titled Life on Loan, Life on Loane. Like I

said at the beginning of today's message, my hope is

that as we look at this brilliant yet simple answer

that Jesus has for his crafty foes, that it will

challenge us all the more to live even more for Christ,

as we learn the truth about who we are and

what we are to do. What that means is that

we are God's people and learn how we are to

live as God's people. So let's look at our setting

once again. Verses nineteen and twenty says the scribes and

the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at

that very hour, for they perceive that he had told

this parable against them. But they feared the people, so

they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere,

that they might catch him in something he said, so

as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisation

of the governor. So here Luke clearly shows us the

frustration and hatred that the leaders had for Jesus. They're

mad that he spoke the parable against them, and now

they want to see him destroyed. Have you ever had

someone make a fool of you? That's how I feel

when people make a fool of me. I'm like, I

want to destroy you. It's not a good feeling. All

I'm saying is I'm wicked like these leaders are, and

the Lord has shown so much grace on me. So

they're now deploying spies and people pretending to be sincere

seekers to try and get Jesus to trip up and

say something that they could later use to convict him

and hand him over to the Roman authorities. So they

come to him with a question and say in verses

twenty one twenty two. So they asked him, teacher, we

know that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality,

but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful

for us to give a tribute to Caesar or not?

Now here's honestly a scene that kind of makes my

skin crawl because it's I picture this. Maybe it's not,

but I picture this them kind of like they're pretending

to be sincere. So I can see them almost saying

this through their teeth. Oh, we know that you preach

the word of God, you show no partiality, So tell

us then, what we see is that these spies have

come in and are now trying to flatter Jesus with

their lips, with hearts far from him. They don't actually

want answer. They have ill intention in their hearts. They

have ill intention in their question. They want to know

if it is lawful by God's law to pay tribute

to the Roman emperor Caesar. That just sounds like a

question they're trying to get him in trouble with. Now,

just a little bit of context. The Roman emperor was

considered by some of the Romans to be from divinity.

Some considered him the son of a god. He held

the title Pontifex Maximus, which first of all makes me

want to watch Gladiator, and second of all, is regarded

and was recognized recognized the emperor as one of the

highest religious officials in the Roman Empire. And as I

read my commentary, it was basically kind of saying that

that he was basically like the high priest in their paganism.

Now we need to understand how they were setting a trap, like,

how is this a trap? Sounds like a trap. Were

talking about it like its chrap. How is this a trap? Well,

let's imagine someone comes up to you right now and

asked you should we have to pay taxes? Depending on

who's asking, that's either a great conversation with your friend

or a trap all day. I know that some of us,

and a lot of us potentially might be like, well,

within my rites of free speech, i'mist say whatever I want.

But in Jesus' day, that's not how it was. They

were in a different setting, under a different government, in

a different time where depending on what you said specifically

about the government could hold you liable for all kinds

of punishments. And this one's about not giving the government money.

I can guarantee you the government was not gonna like that.

Israel is under Roman occupation and they're not exactly the

good guys as it regards history, or is it regarded

the hopes that Israel had for their future. That's not

the future that they wanted. And this tribute, this tax,

was something that they owed to this occupying force to

show and be reminded of their subjugation to them. I

believe that though we live in a different type of

governmental structure, there are some of us who are troubled

by what our tax dollars are used for and so

may actually feel this tension of giving to something that

feels like it's not being used to promote righteousness or truth.

So I actually think that there's some sense here where

we can empathize with the sentiment that's going on here,

with the question that's being asked, even though they're asking

from a bad place. I believe it's a similar sentiment

that the Israelites had when there's this idea of paying

tribute to this oppressive ruler who thought himself God. It's

kind of a lot of issues with that. If you

hard to feel like you could partake of that without

giving up some of your convictions. But if Jesus here

says no, you shouldn't pay the tribute, well, very quickly

religious leaders is going to run along and be like Tattletale. Right.

They want that answer. They want to get Jesus in trouble,

accused of rebellion. But Jesus is greater than any craftiness

of Satan. He's certainly greater than any craftiness of man.

And so Jesus, unlike Adam and Eve who fell for

the serpent's craftiness, through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit,

brings back to these crafty wicked leaders their answers back

to the crafty, wicked leaders with the perfect answer, and

we see this in verses twenty three and twenty five.

It says, but he perceived their craftiness and said to them,

show me a denarius, which is a gold coin. Whose

likeness an inscription does it have? They said, Caesar's. He

said to them, then render to Caesar the things that

are Caesar's, and God the things that are God's. Jesus

gives the perfect answer. He says, render to Caesar the

things that are Caesar's, and God the things that are God's.

Very simple, he says, if the coin bears his image

and he wants it back, give it to him. It's

just money, It's just a coin. And I believe that

Jesus here is affirming not only that we are to give,

but we're also to live with civil obedience to our

governing authorities. That's not all Jesus is saying here. That's

some of what Jesus is saying here, because it's actually

very interesting is he's now made a distinction between God

and Caesar. That, yes, Caesar may be an authority with

some right to exercise that authority on others. But he

is not the ultimate authority. God is, meaning we should

live in obedience to our governing authorities, but we still

recognize that there is an ultimate authority that supersedes theirs.

Jesus says, if it bears Caesar's image, then give it

back to him. He then says, if it belongs to God,

give it to God, and that thought should provoke a

question in us, well, what belongs to God? Everything? Well,

everything belongs to God? Or how about, more specifically, in

the way that he just talked about Caesar, who bears

God's image? We do. It's the perfect answer because Jesus

kind of gives this answer of yes and and no,

and to a yes or no question, it's brilliant. Yes,

we should, in one sense get back to Caesar, but

not as a God, because what is owed to the

true God is to be given only to the true God.

We see also that this was the perfect answer because

just the reaction from Jesus's audience, it says in verse

twenty six, and they were not able in the presence

of the people to catch him and what he said,

but marveling at his answer, they became silent. Jesus's answers

are so good. It made him shut out. It was good,

that's awesome. They couldn't catch Jesus in his words. They

were simply outmatched. Once again, these leaders couldn't catch Jesus

in his words. And yet with such a sort answer,

Jesus had said so much. These religious leaders had presented

the question like, you can only really do one or

the the other, that to pay tribute to Caesar with

something against God and to honor God. That instead you

should be honoring God by not paying it would be

something against Caesar. It's all kind of a tricky thing.

Jesus had affirmed both the authority of the government, but

not over and above the true authority that belongs to

God alone. But more importantly, Jesus is pointed to the

proper order of things in this text, that there are

things that are owed to the government, and there are

things that are owed to God. And that's exactly what

we're going to spend the rest of our time looking

at together, because the New Testament actually speaks to these

ideas extremely clear all over the place. So what Jesus

says here in such a small moment, there's entire there's chapters, paragraphs,

versus and verses and verses that I believe actually bring

us more clarity because like, well, what Caesar is just

the things that have his picture on it. We get

really picky and choosy about these types of things, but

Scripture makes it very clear for us. So I want

to make that evident by the testimony of God's word.

But I also want you to feel and see the

truth of God's calling on our lives and how we

are to glorify Him with our lives, even in our

relationship to a government, doing so all with the intent

of living in alignment with the life that He has

given us and wants us to walk out. I want

us to look at what God calls us to do

in our responsibility to the authorities we find ourselves under,

because we just happen to find ourselves under and a government,

it's just this government right now. The first we're gonna

look at governing authorities specifically, and then with God himself.

That's the order that Jesus gives here. So we're gonna

look at rendering to Caesar, and we're gonna look at

what we are to render to God. And I'm really

hoping to see clarity on what scripture has to say,

So please stick with me. It's very potential that we're

already like I'm I'm preparing my case for whatever I'm

about to say. But I honestly what I want us

to do in this time is be able to go, like,

what does scripture just say? And we have a couple options.

We can either go with that or we can make

it weird and go like, well, I mean, I know

it sounds like it's saying that, but so I just

want us to be able to kind of look a

little bit of what scripture has to say. And I

think that's a good thing for us to also dialogue about,

because we are God's people, and He's given us instructions

for how we are to live, and he didn't hide

it from us, and so he's given us instructions to

live in so many diferent situations, and so we're gonna look,

does he have anything to say about what we are

to owe in some kind of way to the government. So,

if you're taking notes, the first thing I want you

to write down is render to Caesar. What is Caesar's

We're gonna jump right over to Romans thirteen, big chunk

of text we're gonna read it, talk about it a

little bit. Romans thirteen, verses one through seven says, let

every person be subject to the governing authorities. All right, guys,

we can go home. I'm just kidding. For there is

no authority except from God, and those that exist have

been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists

what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment,

for rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but

to bad. Would you have no fear of thee who

is an authority, then do what is good and you

will receive his approval, 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 and Avenger, who carries out

God's wrath on the wrong doer. Therefore, one must be

in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also

for the sake of conscience. For because of this you

also pay taxes. For the authorities are ministers of God,

attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is

owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed revenue

to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed,

honor to whom honor is owed. Paul is very clearly

telling us that we are to recognize that there is

no authority outside that which has been instituted by God himself,

which is very interesting, that could be shocking, that could

be surprising. If you read your Bible even a little bit,

you will start to notice, especially in the Old Testament,

that God raises up both good and wicked leaders all

to the purpose of fulfilling his purpose. And it needs

to be stated to stay with me that and yet

God raises them up to these positions. But we also

see that God will hold every authority, good or wicked,

accountable to the authority that He gives them. So sometimes

there's we see in scripture a wicked leader take over

in places. Sometimes that wicked leaders like it's because I'm

awesome and I took over God's people, and God's like, no,

you didn't, I'm using you to punish them, And then

he turns around and says, and how dare you lay

a finger on my people? It's very interesting. God is sovereign,

God is supreme, He's over it all, which is good news.

So he's going to hold them accountable. And why is

this important for us to know? Because history is full

of good, some good, and mostly probably bad leaders. We

were to do probably a one to one. They come

and go, they constantly change, and sometimes every four years.

But here's why it's important. The Christian commitment to what

God calls us to never changes. We are to subject

ourselves to whatever authority in government that God has put

over us. Peter also affirms this. Maybe you don't like

Peter so well, or maybe you don't like Paul, so

we'll look at what Peter has to say. I was

look at first Peter. Two, we're looking at verses thirteen

through seventeen. I think there's something really important to catch

here too. In the very first verse that says, be

subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether

it be to the Emperor as supreme or to the

governors as sent by him, to punish those who do

evil and to praise those who do good. For this

is the will of God, that by doing good, you

should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live

as people who are free, not using your freedom as

a cover up for evil. But living as servants of God.

Catch this. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, Honor

the Emperor. And that has to be noted that when

Paul is writing this, he's not saying this when there

is a Jewish king over the land of Israel, but

in fact there's a wicked Roman emperor. So he doesn't

just have like rose colored glasses on in this moment.

He's not like, man, things are awesome, we should submit

to this guy. He's saying this when it's a Roman, gentile, pagan,

wicked emperor. And I think when he says this last verse,

he really wants something to be made clear. Did you

catch it? He says honor everyone, but he also ends

up by saying, what honor the emperor? Well, shouldn't have

that have included already when he said everyone? This is

I think Peter knows our hearts. I think Peter knows

how we can be like, yeah, I'll honor everyone, but like,

surely we don't mean that guy. And even in Peter's context,

he says honor everyone. And just in case you didn't

think I was meaning him, yes him, honor the emperor,

he means honor everyone. Why this is also important for

us is because God has a standard for how his

people are to operate in this world, regardless of the circumstances.

I'm gonna say that again, God has a standard for

how his people are to operate in this world, regardless

of the circumstances. And this is seen by the following

chapter where Peter addresses the potential objection that might be

on everyone's mind even right now. Let's look at it.

Chapter three, verses thirteen through seventeen. He says, now, who

is there to harm you if you're zealous for what

is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake,

you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor

be troubled. But in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord

is Holy, always being prepared to make it defense to

anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope

that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect,

having a good conscience, so that you show that when

you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in

Christ may be put to shame. For it is better

to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will,

then for doing evil. Peter says, yes, You're still to

do good even if that means you suffer. And that

goes both ways. God still wants his people to live good,

upright lives even if they're suffering. What does that mean.

It means that there's no amount of oppression that justifies

disobedience to God's commands, specifically even to submitting to authority.

And I read it in a kind of more succinct

in one of the commentaries I was reading, basically just

said being oppressed is never an excuse for disobedience. Now,

if you didn't audibly gasp, I can assume that you did. Inside. Yeah,

I think it's fair. But why Because this goes against

what our flesh wants to do. It wants to say, Well,

if you're not gonna fight fair, then I need to

find some kind of loophole in these scriptures. Lets me

play dirty too, fight dirty, fight evil with fire, or

fire with fire, or evil with evil. But that's actually

what we're told not to do. You're not gonna play fair,

neither will I. God says no, no, no, no, no, you

play fair, you obey me. It needs to be clear

that others doing evil never justifies us doing evil. On

the contrary, that's where God wants us standing in the

face of evil with righteousness, even if it means we

suffer for it. Now, there's another potential question that I

could feel gnawing, because I know it gnaws with me

as well. That being so, there's never a time to

disobey the government or the authorities that are over us.

There's never a time. But there is a time that's

wheneverthelesser earthly authority tries to keep us from obeying what

the ultimate authority has commanded us to do. That's where

we tell them, you have no power here. That is,

to put it more clearly, if the government tells you

to disobey God, you go right ahead and disobey them.

Duncan deans, do you feel like the laser dot? You

don't mean like on the forehead anyways. Sorry, And actually

we see examples of this. You see very clearly these

the apostles, at the very beginning of Acts in obedience

to Jesus, who had just risen from the dead, tells them,

I have all authority, It's all been given to me.

I'm gonna go sit at the right hand of I'm

gonna go. I'm ascending him to heaven. And he tells them,

I've been given all authority on heaven and earth. Therefore go,

he tells them take the good news, start baptizing, teaching, preaching.

But the religious leaders, even though they killed Jesus and

probably weren't happy that he was back, supposedly they had

some stuff to deal with. And so now you have

these apostles running around saying Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive,

and they keep telling them to stop, stop saying that.

And this is how Peter and John respond and Acts

four nineteen through twenty. It's awesome. This is such a

just dope. Respect Whether it is right in the sight

of God to listen to you rather than God, you

must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we

have seen and heard. And then literally the next chapter,

when they get in trouble again for doing the very

same thing, because they were going to obey God. This

is what they said. They just shortened it up a

little bit. But Peter and the apostles answered, we must

obey God rather than men. So Scripture clearly teaches us

that as long as the government isn't forbidding something God

commands us to do, we are to obey and submit

ourselves to the government. But even in the case where

we're going to suffer for doing good, we should not

allow that to be an occasion for disobedience to God.

I think that's really important because we want to find

all kinds of houts, even in our own life and

our own struggles with sin. But if you are still

having a hard time understanding how to make sense of

any of this, I would humbly point you to Christ.

Going back to that Peter text that spoke about suffering well,

and that is suffering for doing good, if that should

be God's will. Peter then gives an example of when

suffering for doing good was God's will. Not in our savior,

Christ Jesus. We see this in one Peter three eighteen

through twenty two. For Christ also suffered once for sins

the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us

to God, being put to death in the flesh, but

being made alive in the spirit, in which he went

and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly

did not obey. When God's patience waited in the days

of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which

a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through water. Baptism,

which corresponds to this now saves you not as a

removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal

to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of

Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at

the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers

having been subjected to him. That is that Jesus gave

his righteous life for our unrighteous life. Then now, because

of what Jesus did, we can be saved from the

wrath do our sins. But he did that through suffering

the unjust punishment and execution at the hands of his government.

We get a glimpse into how even Jesus viewed his

situation when he was going through it, not as hopeless

as if life was out of control, but in fact

the opposite. When Jesus was on trial before conscious pilot

and he was remaining silent before pilot pilot, the governor

kind of tries to flex his authority a little bit,

and he's like, don't you know, he kind of tries

to show the severity of the situation. He's like, don't

you realize that I'm the one who has the power

to either release you or crucify you. But what was

Jesus' response? So cool? He told Pilot, you would have

no authority over me at all unless it had been

given you from above. So baller, He's like, You're not

the one in control here, buddy, Like it's crazy. Jesus

knows that everything is in God's hands. In church, we

should believe and have that same confidence when we face

good times and fiery trials of life, trusting that it

is in His hands for His purposes, especially if and

when we find ourselves under an unjust government. Do we

can obey in one sense and give to Caesar what

is Caesar's, but not as God. He's only God is God.

And God has shown us that we are first to

obey him and then to obey our government. But that's

not all that he said. Jesus said, render to Caesar

what is Caesar's and give to God what belongs to God,

which is the next section we're going to be looking at,

and I need the band to come up. Please give

to God what belongs to God. We spoke about this

actually quite a bit at the end of last week's message,

that we are servants and image bearers of God, that

we've been given a task of stewardship, not of our stuff,

but of His, that everything that we have is his

and should be used for His purpose and glory. So

when we look at this text, we are forced to

the question, are we giving God what's his? I know

the government is taking theirs, but are we giving God

what is his? I think this is an important question

for us to ask ourselves, because we concern ourselves so

much with the things we believe. We owe our allegiance

to our family, our bosses, our government. But we're not

going to get any of that right if we aren't

first submitting and rendering everything that we have and even

our very own lives to the one it truly belongs

to in the first place. Ultimately, to put it plainly,

you belong to God. Your life isn't your own. Your

life is on loan. When Jesus says to give to

God what belongs to him, that should cause us to

marvel and be silent because of the sobering reminder that

nothing that we have is truly ours, but that we're

merely stewards of what is his. For every believer here

in this room, we need to remember that you were

bought with a price. In six nineteen through twenty says

or do you not know that your body is a

temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have

from God. You are not your own, for you were

bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

And it should be said that the context that this

comes off the back of is there's people carelessly using

their bodies for sexual morality and sin. That's the setting

of this, and Paul wants to remind them of the

fact that they belong to God, that they're given this

life and body not for their own sin and self indulgence,

but for Him. We use this verse often, and I

think it's because we need it, but we get that

perfect picture of what it's supposed to look like in

Romans twelve one. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by

the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a

living sacrifice, holy and acceptab to God, which is your

spiritual worship. That is that your life is to be

offered back to God in service for His glory and purposes.

Your worship doesn't belong to Caesar, it doesn't belong to

your government. It doesn't belong to your family, and it

doesn't belong to your hobby. Your worship belongs to God.

And where I think so many of us get tripped

up is that we're living like our life belongs to us.

That's why we get grumpy about paying taxes, obeying the government,

honoring our parents, working well for our unjust boss, submitting

to our unloving husband, loving our disrespectful wives. We've lost

the ability to suffer well when we live like this,

life is meant to be rendered unto our pleasure, rendered

unto our comfort, rendered unto our purposes or dreams. We

don't suffer well because we believe our life is ours.

But when we remember that He is in control, when

we remember that we are to be obedient to the Lord,

no matter the circumstances, then we render our lives to

the one to whom they truly belong. Our life is

not ours. Our life is on loan to us, and

we are to be but stewards of it. And one

day God is going to call every one of us

to account, and we will see if it's been used

for him or for us, And for every one of

us who have lived for ourselves and tried to keep

our lives selfishly to ourselves, we will lose it and

there will be eternal punishment in wrath to our rebelliousness.

He's what does Jesus say, Luke seventeen, Whoever seeks to

preserve his life will lose it. But whoever loses his

life will keep it. Or put it another way, in

John's Gospel, it's a little bit more intense. Whoever loves

his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in

this world will keep it for eternal life. Why we

struggle to obey God is because we don't want to

live for him. We want to live for us. We

want to render life to ourselves. But Jesus makes it

clear that if we try to keep what he tells

us to give, we will lose it. Jesus told us

to give our lives, to render everything, render ourselves to

God because it belongs to God. It doesn't belong to

you or Caesar. Belongs to God. And I believe that

if we truly let the seep into our soul, it

will inspire us to live for Him. The situations that

you find yourself in, we can be assured that God

has a plan. You might not know it yet, but

God does, and He wants you to live for him

faithfully in those situations. So I pray in hope that

if you have been not obeying God in giving him

what is truly his, that is your obedience to the

new life He has given you in Christ, that you

would repent and hand your life over to Him for

his purposes, his glory and your good. If you've never

given your life to God, hear Jesus' call to give

to God what belongs to him. Give up your life,

submit yourselves to Him, and you will have eternal life.

This he offers to anyone who puts their faith in

the finished work of Jesus on the cross, where Jesus

died in the place of every sinner who would believe

in him who satisfied the wrath of God. Do anyone

who would believe, so that they can be redeemed and

given a new life. And this was proven by proven

true by Jesus Christ, not just dying for sin, but

also after being buried, being raised to life where he

now sits reigning in heaven as the highest authority until

he comes again, where he will judge the world by

bringing wrath on the unrepentant, and salvation to those who

are eagerly waiting for him. So I pray that you

will repent and turn to him and give your life

over to the one who has loaned you this life,

and that he will renew you and save you and

fill you with hope in life with Him forever. And

you may hear people say like, surrender your life to God.

And I actually think that this is a really fitting

time to say so, because I was thinking about it,

and I was like, I wonder if that has anything

to do with rendering, And that literally is a compound

word to surrender, to give back over. That's what it means.

It's to give back over. So surrender your life to Christ.

Give your life back over to Christ. We're to render

to Caesar what is Caesar's. But most importantly, in first off,

we must render to God what belongs to him. So

render your obedience to him if that means paying taxes,

if it means submitting to an annoying speed limit law.

We're called to be God's holy people, and imagine how

that reflects to a world that sees us claim to

be God's Yet we live wickedly for ourselves. We claim

to be sons and daughters of the Most High, and

yet we don't love and serve our spouses and the

way that we ought. We don't prioritize the mission God

has given us to spread his good news. And we

could go on and on and on and on. But

this is my plea to you today. Give to God

what belongs to him. We're called to give to God

what truly belongs to him. So let's live out this

call and obedience and humility, knowing that this life is

not our own, and that everything that we have is

from Him and for Him. Amen, I mean, would you

please stand