Politics, Righteousness, and Suffering Well

Matthew 14 If you want a title, this one is politics,

righteousness and suffering. Well,

chapter 14 and verse one, at that time Herod the tetrarch

heard about the fame of Jesus, and he said to his servants,

this is John the Baptist, he has been raised from the dead.

That's why these miraculous powers are at work in him.

For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison

for the sake of Herodias his brother Philip's wife, because

John had been saying to him, it's not lawful for you to have

her. And though he wanted to put him

to death, he feared the people because they held him to be a

prophet. But when Herod's birthday came,

the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased

Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she

might ask. Prompted by her mother.

She said, Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a

platter. And the king was sorry because

of his oaths and his guests. And the king was sorry, but

because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded that it be

given. He sent and had John beheaded in

the prison. And his head was brought on a

platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her

mother. And his disciples came and took

the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.

God, we do pray again that you would open the eyes of our

hearts, that we would see exactly what you intend for us

to see in your Word, that you would bring revelation and light

to it. God, I pray that as I preached,

as I teach, as I instruct, that I would bring your direction for

salt this morning, that we would understand fully what you want

us to hear, receive and believe according to Your word,

according to your promises, according to the history of the

church, according to all that it was written because it's

profitable for us today for training and righteousness and

holiness and ungodliness. Holy Spirit, we trust you to

equip us for every good work. Now in Jesus name, Amen.

So this is a gruesome story, obviously.

And you know what's happening now at this part of the story,

we've got Herod. So there, there was multiple

Herod's. I won't give you the full

history on all of them, but there was multiple Herod's and

there was a Herod the Great who had three sons and this is one

of his sons. And now he's ruling underneath

the Romans. Remember, Romans have conquered

and the Jews get to have their thing.

The Romans say, we'll let you do your thing.

And Herod is the the ruler. He's their king at this point.

And we see the history in the story of what Herod's response

to Jesus is. Herod's response to Jesus is one

of fear because he remembered what he had done to John.

And we're going to talk about why his conscience was pricked

the way it was. But we're going to focus on John

mostly this morning. John was in prison, as the

passage tells us, because he was faithful to call out public sin

publicly. It was very public sin.

It would have been completely scandalous what they had done.

So Herod took his, The other Herod brother took his wife to

himself. So she divorced her husband and

he divorced his wife and they married each other.

So this is scandalous. Everybody knows about it and

it's a big deal. So John's commenting on it as a

preacher of righteousness, as a prophet who's bringing the the

razor's edge of truth to say this is right and this is wrong.

And he was bold about it. And other passages tell us in

other gospels that Herod actually even enjoyed listening

to John. So here it had this weird

relationship with John. He wanted to kill him, the

passage he tells us. And at the same time he enjoyed

listening to him. It's a strange thing going on

there. He's going, he's fascinating,

you know, is he sitting up in his temple, leaning out of a

window and John's preaching up at the castle and or, or the the

fortress and people are surrounded.

He's going that guy's crazy. I mean, I'd kill him, but I, you

know, that would, that would impact the people's perception

too much. And Herod, of course, caring

only about what the people think, like all wicked rulers.

What's going to be best? What do the people think?

Not, not a man of principle, right?

That's what we should be able to count on in our leaders.

I, I, or in our case, like I want to select a person because

of their principles. I don't think you and I get to

do that very often. I think we have to go.

These are both terrible. That one's definitely less

terrible. So I'm going to go with the one

I think is less terrible instead of I'm going to stick with these

principles because I can trust this person.

Herod was a wicked ruler, so he's fascinated by John.

He wants to kill John, but John is in prison finally, because

the pressure that Herodias, his wife, has put on Herod to say, I

don't like what he's saying here is like, he's fine, he's

harmless, She's going, but I don't like it.

I don't like it. I don't like it.

John was the salt for the rot and he was the light for the

darkness, and the rod didn't like that very much.

And the darkness, unfortunately, didn't like that very much

either. The point we want to make here

is we want to say something really plain that we've that

you've heard from me before. Christians should most

definitely be involved in every sphere of life.

Politics is no exception. Oh, you're getting political.

Yes, without apology, without caveat, without any kind of

explanation or justification for it.

If Christians aren't involved, involved in politics, guess who

gets more and more and more involved in politics?

There's no such thing as a neutral world.

The church has believed this for a few decades now and we've

lived as that way, which is why we're being shelved off of a

Cliff right now and, and trying to resist it.

Because the church said, well, if we just yield, and if we, if

we just stay on our side, they'll stay on their side.

Well, that was foolish because we thought we were dealing with

flesh and blood, but we never were.

We're not just dealing with people.

We love people, even our enemies.

That's what makes us unique. But Satan and his demons are

real, so they don't yield anything.

So they continued to advance. This was an opposition to what

Jesus wants us to do. Jesus wants his church to be on

offense. He said the gates of hell, those

are defensive measures. The gates of hell can't stand

against the church. They won't be able to withstand

the offensive measures that we're taking.

And we see John here on on the offensive path saying this is

good, this is right, this is wrong, this is true.

Christians should most definitely be involved in

politics. Why?

Because politics is under the realm of Jesus, just like

household, just like the church who's the head of the household,

It's not the husband, it's Jesus who's the head of the church.

It's not the pastor, it's Jesus who's the head of all

governments. It's not the president or the

king, it's Jesus. Jesus is king and ruler over

all. And now he has delegated

authority into these jurisdictions.

And he says husband's the head of his wife and obviously also

children. Therefore he says, I'll, I'll

put leadership in my church also under Jesus delegated authority.

I'll put rulers in the earth and I want you to submit to them as

they fulfill their calling and their responsibility to submit

to me. So we say, hey everybody, this

is your responsibility to obey King Jesus.

Our governing officials and our civil magistrates are under the

authority of King Jesus and they are not above the word of God.

And they might say, well, I don't believe your religion.

I understand that, I comprehend, I completely logically follow

you and I and I, that makes sense.

And yet I do believe what I believe.

Therefore I'm still going to tell you what you ought to do.

I didn't ask if you believed it. I'm just saying I've got to be

faithful to Jesus and they go, well, you can't expect me to.

I do actually, because I believe what I believe.

So I'm not going to yield on my convictions to be unfaithful to

Jesus. So that makes me a truth teller,

That makes me someone who's willing to say, hey, this is

wrong, this is true, this is false.

The assignment to the Church of Jesus Christ is to carry the

gospel and teach the whole world to obey.

The assignment to our ruling officials is to reward the

righteous and to punish the wicked.

And the Scripture says in Romans 13 that is their assignment to

carry out the wrath of God upon the wicked.

So God carries out his wrath through the civil magistrate,

through that police officer who stops the bad guy, through the

judge who who judges rightly and, and gives the appropriate,

gives the appropriate conviction for the crime.

This is part of the Lord's plan. This is part of the Lord's will.

The Christian worldview doesn't leave politicians to live or

govern in any way that they please.

Christian worldview doesn't go well, you know, they're not

Christian. So we really don't have any

jurisdiction there. Well, I don't have jurisdiction

anywhere. I'm nobody but Jesus has

jurisdiction everywhere and Jesus sends us out.

We're required to teach the world to obey everything that

Jesus commanded because the the Church of Jesus Christ is the

pillar and foundation of truth for the whole earth.

That's the responsibility of the Church of Jesus Christ.

We are the pillar of truth and someone says, well, I think this

is true. We go, well, you're not the

pillar of truth, though the the pillar of truth comes from the

church and the church just points to the Scriptures because

they are the words of God. So we say, hey, this is what God

says. This is what God says, this is

what God says. And so we seek to make

disciples. We do that through the

relationships of the people that we know, but we also speak up

and speak out. Particularly the greater the

wickedness, the more response from the church, the greater the

scandal, the more we should speak up and speak out and go,

man. This is this is particularly

vile because, you know, church, all sins are not equal.

We've said that before, right? I would much rather you slap me

in the face than you shoot me in the chest.

I think you would agree with that.

Isn't one of those words. Yeah.

Our legal system understands that one of these things is

worse than the other. All sin is damning for, for for

the slightest thing. It's still a terrible, terrible

grievance against God. And yet all these things are not

created equally. So we can't constantly.

And it is not our assignment to be the the constant Police

Department for the world and for their souls.

We are not constantly to tell everyone and and condemn every

single thing that we see. And yet nothing is off limits

for the church whenever we are to be honest and to be plain

spoken and led by the Holy Spirit in this ministry.

But I don't want you to be gas led by your enemies and the

enemies of Christ who say God does.

God has no place in politics. Says who?

Is a great response to that. Religion has no place in

politics. Says who?

I'll wait. I'll wait.

Well, the Constitution. So who exactly?

John Adams. Who exactly?

Come on, boys. Tell me, who wrote the

Constitution? Mostly Thomas Madison.

Thomas Thomas Jefferson. James Madison.

George Washington. Thank you.

Thank you. James Madison.

So the Constitution. So James Madison is the high

authority that we appeal to then, right?

Michael, do you like the Constitution?

I sure do. Favorite governing document in

the world. I pick America 10 out of 10/2.

Thumbs up. My favorite country for sure out

of all of them. And also the Constitution is

subordinate to the word of God. It's not some magical thing

that's that somehow supersedes the Scriptures.

So I don't want you to be confused, and I don't want you

to naively be led. The church has been very good at

the innocent as a dove part of this conversation, but not the

wise as a serpent. And the church just goes, oh,

well, I guess they're really upset whenever I said that.

Yeah, because of course they are.

Herodias was really upset too. Herod was really upset too.

You can't judge the response of the enemies of Christ or your

enemies or not even enemies in some cases, just people who say,

hey, I love my sin, so knock it off.

You can't judge their response. You can't allow that to be your

report card for faithfulness. Your report card for

faithfulness is given to you by Jesus, not by anyone or anything

else. And John stood alone.

John stood very alone. He was, he was already doing

things socially different, the way he dressed, the things that

he ate, and now the way he preaches.

But Christians are supposed to be involved everywhere.

John understood the assignment of being a righteous man in a

wicked generation, and he was the lighthouse that would not

yield to the waves. Times are changing, John.

Who cares? Who cares what they're doing?

Mind your own business. No, Who cares about the times

changing? Who cares about the times

changing? Because God's will hasn't

changed. God's standard hasn't changed,

and really the times are the same.

Ever since Adam sinned and we were plunged Into Darkness, the

we've been under sin and death. The only way to be free from

that is to opt out by coming under the blood of Jesus.

It's the presence and the involvement of the church in

every sphere of life that brings God's blessing, which is made

evident in the human flourishing.

That's the fruit that comes after it.

It's the church's responsibility.

It's the Word of God that influences the household.

When the Word of God influences a household more, there's more

good fruit. When the Word of God influences

the church more, there's more good fruit.

When the Word of God influences our civil magistrates more,

there's more good fruit. Which is why everywhere

Christianity is gone in the world, everything gets better.

Women are no longer treated as property.

Slavery is ended. Didn't we have slavery here?

Yep, and we also figured out how to stop it as as the pulpits

continued to preach and bring the standard of righteousness.

So history is messy. Way messier than I thought it

was as a kid, right? It's one of the things we

learned as we grow up ago. It wasn't always crystal

clarity, right? This guy was good and bad.

This person was good and bad. Oh, you know, it turns out they

were all human. And yet, whenever Christendom

shows up, when the church starts to advance, when the pulpit is

faithful and when the Christians are faithful, you see everything

change and you see good fruit come.

Our current world doesn't understand that those who don't

love, those who don't love and walk with King Jesus, they don't

understand that they are walking in and enjoying the benefits of

the beauty that Christ's Kingdom has brought them.

They don't know that. They do not want another 100

years of the trajectory that they are on.

They think we're enlightened. Thanks for your Christian stuff.

It was kind of helpful for a minute.

But we've moved past that. They would find, if they could

live that long, 200 years from now.

You don't want the trajectory that the West is on.

It's not going in the correct trajectory.

We're not in a neutral place. We're not in an ascending place.

We're in a decline as a trajectory.

You don't want that. What you would need again after

everything bottoms out is you would need the church to come

bring a revival again. And she will, because that's our

specialty. Resurrection is our specialty.

We learned it straight from Jesus.

So when something's dead, it qualifies for resurrection.

Isn't God wonderful for his grace?

Isn't he so kind that we sin? We see Israel do it over and

over and over and over and over and over.

You read the New Testament, you're like, wow, are they ever

going to get the message? And the Lord goes, yeah, you

know anybody? Does that sound familiar?

Does it remind you of anyone? Surely not me, Lord, just

ancient Israel. But so merciful, so kind of

goes. I'll bring you out of exile,

I'll bring you back home. We can rebuild.

And then sin and idolatry again. God goes.

I'll be gracious again. I'll be gracious again.

Obedience to the word of God and all three spheres of life will

always bring good fruit and blessing.

But it requires that the truth is spoken, because there can be

no progress if there is no repentance.

There can be no repentance if there is no preaching.

And if there is no conviction, then there will be no preaching.

So you need to know that we have a place, we have a voice to

speak, even though you'll be told, of course, by many that

you're not supposed to love for God and love for others makes us

speak up without apology. This is not a, a, this is not an

angry message. You might have anger in it.

It wouldn't be sinful to have anger necessarily.

You can be angry and not sin, but the heart of it is not a,

it's not an excluding message. It's a message that is a call to

repentance. I want you drawn in to Jesus.

I want you drawn in to His will and His ways.

Love for God, love for others makes us speak up without

apology. We have a bold love that won't

compromise. What won't we compromise?

I won't compromise to keep this relationship.

That's the hardest one, I think. I won't compromise to keep this

job or in John's case, I won't compromise to keep my own life.

What is my life? What does that matter?

I won't compromise to keep this relationship.

I think that's the toughest one that we face because this loved

one, this brother, this sister, this mom, this dad, this son,

this daughter. They said these are the new

terms of engagement in our relationship.

And if I love them, I will. And now they've given me these

hoops to jump through, but these hoops violate my conscience and

they violate the will of the Lord.

So the conviction to the Lord says I choose Jesus over

everybody. I choose Jesus over everybody.

I choose Jesus over everybody. And I still love them and still

pray for them. But I will use the Christian

kind of love, not the worldly kind of love that says you must

approve, you must approve, you must approve.

We must live our lives so that they're worthy of following.

And we must speak truthfully When the emperor shows off his

new clothes, but we know that he's naked.

Remember the story. The guys come into town.

We're going to weave you these fancy clothes and they weave him

nothing. But his pride won't allow him to

acknowledge that. And he goes, hey everybody, how

do I look? And they go, all of his yes

means that you look incredible. The you're the most handsome.

No one's ever seen anything like it.

So now they recommend what you should have a parade and he's

out in front of the whole city. This guy's naked, but

everybody's going. He looks awesome.

He looks great. Everybody's just playing along

with the lie. And finally one small child

says, but he has on nothing at all, which is Hudson's favorite

part of the book. When we would get to that story,

that's every kids. That's my favorite part.

Finally somebody said it. Dude's naked.

So that's that's the voice of the prophet.

That's the voice of the church and the earth.

You go hang on a second. That's naked.

Sometimes we literally need to say that these people are

parading naked in the street and this is immoral and wicked and

filthy and wrong and not good. Isn't that fascinating?

I read that book as a kid. I remember thinking that could

never happen. Now it literally does.

What else do we see in this passage?

We see in this passage the ongoing war between

righteousness and unrighteousness.

It's been happening from Cain and Abel, from Lot and Sodom,

from Israel and her enemies, from John and Herod, and still

today in our own lives, the wicked Herod and Herodias

represent the filth of sin, and John represents the holiness of

God. He's bringing the medicine that

will heal them, but they hate his aroma.

Remember how we talked about the aroma of Christ?

We all the world says you smell like Christ's sacrifice unto

God, but some say and it's wonderful and some say it stinks

like death. So they smell the fragrance of

Jesus's sacrifice to the Father, and it's not wonderful to them.

It smells like death to those who won't repent.

The holiness of John is still haunting Herod, even though

John, even though Herod had murdered him.

You see his conscience here back in, in verse one.

At that time, Herod heard about the fame of Jesus and he said to

his servants, this is John the Baptist.

He has been raised from the dead.

That's why these miraculous powers are at work in him.

He's afraid his conscience is still pricked by that guy that

he murdered. He worries that John has come

back as another man. And he realizes there are some

similarities between John and Jesus.

So his superstition kicks in and he's worried.

Scripture says the wicked flees, although no one even pursues

them. But the righteous are as bold as

a lion. It's a perfect example, perfect

representation of Herod and John.

Herod running away, although no one is even pursuing him anymore

at this point. John bold as a lion, faithful to

God until the end. But look at the power of Jesus,

even though he's not even messing with Herod, even though

he's not messing with the demons that remember the story where

they come and beg him for mercy there.

Everybody gets bent out of shape when Jesus comes around because

he has all power, because He is coming to judge the living and

the dead, because He will hold everyone accountable and no one

is getting away with anything unless they come through the

blood of the Lamb. That's good news for you and I.

We never have a prideful attitude about our

righteousness. We always have a grateful one.

Gratitude is always the appropriate response.

I'm so thankful. And I got to tell you too.

Oh, I'll say it with volume. Oh, I'll say it with conviction.

I can say it all kinds of ways, but I am excited about Jesus's

righteousness, not mine. I'm not comparing me to you.

I'm comparing me to the Word of God.

I'm comparing you to the Word of God.

The Word of God is the standard. And by the way, we all fall

short of His glory and His standard and His expectations.

This is why we've got to tell the truth and the whole truth

when we share the gospel. The whole thing is that I was

dead in my sin, in my trespasses, but God made us

alive in Christ. It's both and it's not one or

the other. People need the whole truth so

they can experience the grace of God fully.

We must come under the blood. And like Psalms two said, we

must kiss the son, let's he be angry, or like we're also told,

let's they become his footstool. But we see the battle rage on,

and it's going to continue to rage on until Jesus settles

things permanently. In John's day, people loved in

particular their sexual sin in this case, so much that they

would kill to protect it. That's exactly what Herodias

manipulated Herod to do. They did then and they do now as

well. This is obvious in the case of

abortion. Culture wants sinful

fornication, but not the good and fruitful outcome of

children, so they kill. I heard recently it was said

that abortion is the sacrament of Satanism.

We think about sacrament as communion, but it's it's the

complete opposite of what Christ says.

This is my body broken for you. Abortion says this is my body

and I'll break yours for mine. I'll keep myself myself and

I'll, I'm willing to sacrifice you.

So it's, it's the, it's an inversion of what the Lord Jesus

does for all of us, The grace and the kindness.

He says, this is my body. I'm breaking it.

I'm tearing it to pieces so that you can be spared.

That's what love does. Herodias and Herod probably said

the same things about John that we hear today.

If you don't like adultery, then don't commit adultery.

But it's none of your business. Just like you and I here, if you

don't want an abortion, don't get an abortion.

But these are the desperate attempts of lost souls who are

hungry for their sexual sin. We see vile displays of

perversion in public, celebrated with pride, protected by law.

And if we're silent, then we aren't faithful.

We must be loving enough to be bold and staying firm like Jon

Stewart as a lighthouse in the storm.

But we cannot be surprised when they ask for our heads on a

platter. Which brings us to our last

point, which is this, that we must suffer.

Well, we talked before about John.

Whenever he came, he sent his disciples to Jesus.

Remember, he was wondering, he had some doubts.

Do you remember that? John's suffering?

But what did he do with his suffering?

He took it to Jesus. That was our application from

that. Do you have struggles?

Do you have doubts? Oh, welcome to being a human,

but take those to Jesus. But as Christians, we've got to

be able to suffer well. This is an important area for us

to grow in as believers. A mark of immaturity in us as

believers is the inability to endure pain or struggle or

disappointment. But we should be able to endure

these things because our Lord endured these things and He will

equip us to do the same. Last week we talked about faith

and we looked at the importance of believing God so He can do

works of power in our lives. And I won't take back anything

that I said last week. I'm not walking it back at all.

And also, we need to be able to stand faithful when our prayers

are not answered. Yes, we need to be able to stand

and say, I'm still walking with the Lord.

Amen. I'm still walking with the Lord.

I've got struggles, I've got challenges, I've got questions.

The Word is the Word, and I'm going to stand on His promises.

But what do I do in suffering? I need to be able to suffer

well. How do I suffer well?

The only way to suffer well is to suffer with Him, to join Him

and partake in the fellowship of His sufferings.

So we have our questions too, just like John did.

We have our weaknesses just like John did, but we should take

them to Jesus. This is what it means to suffer

well. No matter what your experience,

you stay close to and trust Jesus.

I've had anybody else had moments and seasons where you

did not suffer well, where you just suffered but didn't do it

well. Somebody with two hands up over

here. I mean, there have been times

where I suffered, but my all I could think on, all I could see

was Get Me Out of this. And by the way, that is the

natural response. We're not to be condemned for

that. The word doesn't say enjoy it.

That's not the message of the Scriptures.

He never commands that of us. And yet I think there's a way to

to suffer well, where our soul is still stabilized instead of

in turmoil. Can my soul be stabilized with

the Lord? Well, it still hurts.

Yeah. Yeah, it still hurts.

I'm not talking about the pain removal.

But can your soul be stabilized in the presence of the Lord?

Is that something that you've learned to do?

Oh, yeah. And maybe you've done it well,

and then you did it poorly, and then you've done it well and

then you did it poorly. But this is something the Lord

wants to grow us in. So even in spite of things going

wrong, the world is broken, the devil is bad, people are foolish

and sinful, You add those things up, we're going to end up with

suffering in our lives. And yet it can be done well.

The Lord will stabilize us and strengthen us no matter what,

when we're praying, when we're faith, when we're facing

anything. And then you look at verse 12,

the sweetness of John's disciples and his disciples came

and they took the body and they buried it.

And then they went and told Jesus.

Just look at the faithfulness of these men as well.

They buried John's body, trusting for the future

resurrection of that body. And then they go and tell Jesus,

which is always the right response when you're suffering,

when you're weeping, when you're mourning, knowing that

eventually Jesus is going to turn it all into rejoicing.

The Christian who has the proper view of God and eternal life has

this attitude that says I don't have to survive.

I don't have to make it out of this thing.

I'm not the most important piece to this puzzle.

What is my life that it couldn't be poured out?

What is my life that it couldn't be used by the King in this way?

I don't have to survive. I'm just thankful the King let

me have any part in his Kingdom at all.

I'm just grateful because Christians, we're not afraid of

death. Well, I've felt that fear

before. Yeah, me too.

But we don't have to fear death. The closest, the closer we get

to Jesus, the more assurance we have, the more peace comes upon

us, and we just go. We have eternal life, not just

living forever, but also quality of life because we're with Him.

I don't want to live forever. There's if without Jesus anyway.

That's what hell is. It's the torment, it is the

pain, but it's without the presence of the Lord.

But what an honor for my life to serve Him.

Whatever the King wants. I always think about it when I'm

watching the big war movies, old wars, you know, when they're

just it's just the masses meeting in the field.

You know, the Braveheart kind of scenes, the gladiator kind of

scenes, Napoleonic wars, just just send everybody and whatever

happens, like man, you know, you know, those dudes in the front

row are dead. Like they got the like, send

them in Here comes the cavalry facing.

I'm like, man, dudes, dudes are goners.

It's not going to be good for them.

And yet when it comes to Christ Kingdom, like Jesus gave the

order. That's all I needed to hear.

It's my pleasure. You're only carrying a

pitchfork. I'll be fine whatever happens to

me. What a joy.

What an honor. If this is what the King wants,

if this is where the king would send me, then everything's going

to be OK. Well, they might kill you.

Oh, yeah. And then what are they going to

do? Jesus said don't fear man.

He can only kill your body. Oh, very comforting, Jesus.

He can only kill your body. After that, he can't do anything

else to you. Fear God, who can kill your body

and throw your soul into hell. Is that supposed to comfort me,

Jesus? Absolutely.

Because when you know the nature and character of your God and

your Father and your Savior, what a peace, what a relief.

You can go anywhere, any dungeon that you face, any message that

you need to say, any relationship that you need to

speak truth into. The Lord will equip you to

handle what comes next. I'm not giving you a script.

I'm not telling you that you need to go drop a nuclear bomb

in that relationship today. But I'm telling you, you need to

be open to the direction of the Holy Spirit, whatever the Holy

Spirit would say, whatever the Holy Spirit would want.

And we have to, we have to make sure that we're not kidding

ourselves on keeping the peace. Is there really peace?

Is the question? Is that actually peace or have

you just submitted? We should be agreeable folks in

every area that we can be, in every area that we can be.

We should be agreeable people. We should seek.

We should, as far as our part is concerned, do all that we can to

get along well with everyone. We should be the most wonderful

people on earth and the churches.

And there also comes a time and a place where people should say,

you're not the most wonderful person on earth.

If we have no enemies, that should bring pause.

Jesus told us to love our enemies.

That implies that we will have them right?

Implies that some people aren't going to think that we're so

great. What an honor to belong to King

Jesus. He's everything that King Herod

is not. Herod is devoted to his own

interests. Jesus is devoted to God and to

others. Herod is willing to sacrifice

others to maintain his power. Jesus is willing to sacrifice

himself to save us, to give us power over sin, to give us

victory over the devil. Jesus has overcome the world, so

we will overcome the world with him.

Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for the assurance that you

bring through your word, the encouragement you bring to us.

God, I pray that you would give us clarity, boldness, and

wisdom. Keep us innocent as doves, but

God make us wise as serpents and make us as bold as a lion.

The righteous are as bold as a lion when it comes to every

sphere of life, so that we can be the pillar of truth.

That will be a blessing. Not a rebuke for rebuke's sake,

but a rebuke for blessing's sake, a rebuke for relief's

sake, a rebuke for Love's sake. Open the eyes of our hearts so

we would see and know and understand the war that we're

in, righteousness and unrighteousness.

And first and foremost, God, help us to crucify our own flesh

to continually, continually, especially in the areas where I

think I've already grown past it.

Show me again how I can look more like you.

Thank God. We pray that you would help us

to suffer well, that we would be people of mighty faith who

believe you for mighty works, who expect you to keep your

word. And also people who, when

prayers go seemingly unanswered and when suffering is great,

that our souls will be stable in you and that we would still walk

in close fellowship with you. Keep us close and strengthen us

by your spirit in Jesus name. Now the Lord bless you and keep

you. The Lord make his face Shinedown

upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance

upon you and give you great peace in Jesus name, Amen.