Let's take our Bibles to the book of First Samuel as we continue to study the life of David. First Samuel chapter 24. We've called this simply Salute the Rank. and that will become clearer as we go on. If I had to ask you today to tell me your favorite word, I have a feeling that submission would not be a popular choice, would not be the favorite word chosen. In Adam, we don't naturally like submission. We recoil against it. We don't want to submit. Doug Wilson uses an amusing example of when he was a 10-year-old boy, one day on a Saturday morning, he was feeling in a particularly good mood. He said, I was just feeling good about myself, the human race, and the world in general. As I was lying on the living room floor, reading the comics, and filled with nothing but the milk of human kindness, I soon found myself thinking, when I'm done with the comics, I'm going to surprise my mom by cleaning up the basement. But just when I was pondering this and feeling really good about myself, my mother walked in and said, Doug, I'd like you to go downstairs and clean the basement. And just like that, she had wrecked everything. The milk of human kindness miraculously drained away, and in its place was a little black rain cloud of rebellious mutterings. Now think about this for a moment. Why did her command wreck my day? I was going to clean the basement anyway, so she was not interrupting any special plans I'd made. What was the big deal? Just this. If I had done it by myself, I would not have been under any authority, and I would have gotten all sorts of brownie points for doing it. But now, after she had told me to do it, I would merely be obedient by doing it. And it was no fun being obedient. I wanted to be a volunteer. And I was kicking against the very fact of being under authority. And that little story can probably be repeated multiple times every day in many people's lives. In families, in businesses, in churches. The person who says, you know, I was going to go ahead and clean that up or bring him that meal, but after he said I needed to, I don't think I will anymore. I was going to come to the Lord's Supper, but then as soon as they said, you have to be here as a member, I won't. I come to the Lord's Supper because I want to, not because someone tells me to. So I will show everyone how much I love the Lord by staying at home. or in business. I was going to do that report anyway, but then when he came to me and got in my face and told me there was a deadline, I don't think I'll do it, or I think I'll just drag my feet. This is a very common experience. We think we're submitting, but really what's going on in our lives is the authority is not asserting its authority. The authority is letting us do what we want to do. It's going in the same direction we're going. But when that authority comes and gives us a command, Or worse, when they tell us to do something that we weren't planning on doing, suddenly we find out we really weren't submitting. We were just coasting without interference. Submission begins at the point of disagreement or even at the point of command. And that struggle gets multiplied tenfold when the authority in question is unkind, insensitive, selfish, or downright wicked. And now those impulses, which don't want to submit even at the best of times, suddenly find ammunition and justification in how ungodly this authority is. See how he said it. See that attitude. And we begin to tell ourselves that we're actually being righteous by defying this ungodly authority. We're just refusing to cooperate with this evil. But David's life shows us something very different. He shows us the importance of submitting even to ungodly people. No, not to ungodliness in the sense of cooperating with sin, but David shows us there's a way we submit to authority even when that authority is being evil, unfair, or unkind to us. And in that, David shows us what it's like to be like Jesus. Because Christ did exactly the same thing. Everyone in this room, I'm sure at some point, is going to be in the position of having to submit to an ungodly person. If you're in that place now, or if you have been, you feel a kind of despair, a sort of hopelessness because of the injustice of it. Why must I do this? Why won't God just remove this person? This text gives enormous hope and comfort. It shows us that believers can deepen their trust in God and find peace by acting like Christ under difficult, unreasonable, or even ungodly authority. So, we can split this narrative up into three moments for David. David had a temptation to rebel. Then David had a conviction to obey. And then we'll see David made a decision to submit. So let's look at the temptation, firstly, what we all face every day from within and without. Let's look firstly at David's temptation to rebel. Look at the first few verses of 1 Samuel 24. Verse 29 of the previous chapter ends by saying, David went up from there and dwelt in the strongholds at En Gedi. Verse 1, Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Take note, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats." You might remember last week David had a close shave with death. Saul's army was after him. The pincer effect was closing in on him. And at the last moment God providentially allows him to escape and Saul is called away to fight Philistines. So with that near miss, David and his men decide to really get out of there. They head to the east to En Gedi. En Gedi is by the Dead Sea. It was about 25 kilometers from where they were. It was about a day's journey. And to get there, you have to pass through some very rugged and deserted terrain. We've passed through it, and there's not a blade of grass. So when they arrived at En Gedi, It was a true oasis. We were there two years ago, and I can tell you it truly is a little paradise. It's beautiful. There are rock pools and waterfalls and lush vegetation and plenty of caves. And when you've come from this desert heat and this desert environment, there's this place just filled with rivers, places to swim. You can drink the water. It would have been a real oasis. It also sits at a height. So David's men at that height would have been able to see all around and see anyone approaching from a distance. They would have had a protected position, enough water, plenty of caves to hide in if push came to shove. So, once again Saul's spies that are throughout Israel tell him David is hiding in En-Gedi. We don't know if Saul had much success against those Philistines, but apparently he's done, and now out of that army he had, he gets to select 3,000 elite troops. He's going to take the best of that army and go down to En-Gedi and put an end to David once and for all. 3,000 men against 600? No contest. Short and swift battle. So from the elevation of Ein Gedi, David's men would undoubtedly have seen this approaching army of 3,000 from some distance and would have gotten ready and hidden themselves. Apparently they found a very large cave, and there are caves this large, deep enough for them to all fit into and be hidden. Saul arrives and he begins the search. Look at verse 3. So he, that's Saul, came to the sheepfolds by the road where there was a cave, and Saul went in to attend to his needs. David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave. In the law of Moses, there were very strict rules regarding sanitation. In Deuteronomy 23, God commanded that if a soldier needed to relieve himself, he needed to get away from the camp, far away from the army, get some distance. He had to carry a spade amongst his weapons and make sure any waste was properly disposed of. Very, very sanitary. So Saul is doing just that. He's getting away from the main body of the army. He's found a cave. But of course this means he's vulnerable. His bodyguards are not with him. So he goes into the cave and takes aside and lays aside his outer robe. Now these caves are as dark as midnight if you're standing outside in the blinding sun. You can't see more than five paces within. And if you've been in that sun for some time, it'll take a good few moments once you're inside to adjust to anything inside the cave. So Saul goes in, he can't see the hundreds of eyes that are on him from the recesses of the cave. On the other hand, if you've been inside the cave for some time and look towards the entrance, you can see with perfect distinctness anything that takes place in that direction. And you can just imagine the whispered excitement of David's men. Maybe in Hebrew, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Verse 4, Then the men of David said to him, This is the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you. And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul's robe. It's really interesting here to see these men being a mirror of Saul in the previous chapter. You might remember in that previous chapter when David went into Calah, what did Saul say? God has delivered him into my hand. He's inside a city. Well, now David's men are seeing a situation and they're saying, look, David, God has delivered Saul into your hand. All depends on perspective, doesn't it? And we don't know of any promise that the Lord gave David like this, to deliver his enemy into his hand, to do to him as it seems good to you. This is probably purely apocryphal, the men exaggerating and distorting what God had actually said. God just promised to vindicate David. But from their point of view, it's absolutely obvious what to do next, right? God has providentially separated Saul from his army. He's put him in a cave with all of David's men. They're all armed. I mean, it's obvious. One stroke of the sword, Saul won't even see it coming. It will be the end of all of David's troubles. One stroke of the sword, and this apostate king who's destroying Israel will be off the throne. Godly King David can bring the nation back to God. Of course, it's what you must do. It all depends on your point of view, doesn't it? Charles Wendell said, if you want to ever test the carnality, in other words, the fleshliness, the selfishness, immaturity of a person, ask him or her what you should do when your enemy is vulnerable. Unless they are men or women of God, they'll tell you to strike every time. See, from the point of view of David's men, this is the moment for revenge. It's practical. It's simple. Circumstances seem to have provided what we would call an open door. It's obvious. Think of how tempting it was for Jesus to also rebel. As He stood there also in a deserted place, and Satan said to Him, just give up this ruse of submitting to your Father through fasting. Make yourself some bread. Give up this whole thing of going to the cross. You don't need to go to the cross. Jump off the temple. You'll be caught by angels. They'll recognize you as Messiah. It will be instant. You don't have to keep preaching and eventually suffer. And if you really are the Mashiach, the Anointed One, to whom the Lord gives the inheritance of the nations, listen, I've already got them. I'll give them to you right now. You can have them. Just make me your father. What's the difference? Exchange fathers. Tempting to rebel. Just like David's situation. But from David's point of view, this is an opportunity to prove that his heart is pure. We read about a week ago Psalm 54 verse 1, which said, Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your strength. See, for David, this is the moment God is giving him not to vault himself onto the throne, but to prove his innocence to the one who is on the throne. So David creeps up to Saul's discarded robe, cuts off a piece, and then crawls back. And I can just barely imagine the wide eyes and frantic silent gesturing when he got back. Is that it? Is that it? Are you kidding? What are you doing? And even though that's all that he did, he still feels smitten in conscience. So look secondly at David's conviction to obey. He had a temptation to rebel, but now look at his conviction to obey. Verse 5. Now it happened afterward that David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe. And he said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. So David restrained his servants with these words and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way." It's amazing. David has not harmed Saul. David's men wanted him to do much more to Saul, but David feels convicted that he's done too much to Saul. But why? What's the big deal about cutting off some cloth from the robe of the man who's tried to kill you? I mean, Saul's done a lot worse. You see, when you walk with God, your conscience becomes aware of small details. You're bothered by little things, which others tell you, ah, just forget about it, it's no big deal. But you know you've done wrong, and you know you must make it right. So, what was wrong with cutting off a little part of Saul's robe? Well, firstly, I think we can all understand it was an act of insolent disrespect. You know, if you walked up to a man in this church today who was wearing a tie and took a pair of scissors and cut him in half and walked off, we'd all understand your feeling towards that man, right? It's rude. But secondly, it was an act of insubordination. Remember, the robe represented the throne, the title, the position, the office. When Saul had torn Samuel's robe, do you remember Samuel said, and the Lord has torn the kingdom from you. When Jonathan and David made that covenant, Jonathan gives him his robes to say, you are the true prince, you're going to take my place. When kings were in dismay and despair, they would tear their robes. And so to cut off a part of Saul's robe was really David saying, the throne has gone from Saul to me. It was a little bit of an act of defiance. And immediately David is smitten in conscience and he regrets doing this. And look what he says to his men in verse 6. The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. Notice the words that David is using of Saul, my master. Yahweh's anointed, the anointed of Yahweh. The word anointed is literally Mashiach, Messiah, chosen one. David is calling Saul for all his wickedness, the man God has chosen as king. He's God's choice by God's anointing. And for David to act against Saul would be to break God's chain of command, which is to rebel against God. You see, in the military, there's a saying, we salute the rank, not the man. And by that they mean, we respect the chain of command. Why do you think that saying would have arisen in the military? It would have arisen because people quite naturally would have said, I'm not saluting him. You know what kind of man he is. You know what he's like. You know how he treats people. I'm not saluting him. So the military would have said, no, you don't salute him, but you do salute a captain. No, you don't have to salute him, but you always salute a colonel. You salute a brigadier. You salute a general. You salute the rank, not the man. You salute the uniform, even though some of the men in that uniform or holding that rank are not worthy. They're not worthy men themselves, but we're not saluting the man, we're recognizing the office. You know what David is saying to his men? He's saying, this man is in the office of Israel's king, the greatest nation on earth, the chosen people. This is Yahweh's chosen man. God has installed him. Until God removes him, he's still my king, and he's still your king. And I will honor God by honoring the office of the king. I will salute the rank, not the man. The Bible says only with these words did David restrain his men. I can imagine them just about wanting to push him out the way, falling over him to get over to Saul and put an end to the life of the man who'd ruined their lives. I mean, it seems so obvious, so simple, so practical. David, why be so theological about it? Do you always have to be so spiritual? David says to them, this is not God's way. We don't rebel against the offices of authority God puts in place. After all, think about it. Who else is the Lord's anointed in that cave? David. He's also the Lord's anointed. And what will happen to him if his future subjects dishonor him and reject his authority and say, you know what, David, you're not acting very kingly today, so we won't obey you. You see, the rebel fails to understand that rebellion will come back to bite him. The rebel who's overthrowing the government teaches a generation of freedom fighters to throw off all authority. But once they get him into government, he wants those same freedom fighters to now become obedient taxpayers and finds that they don't. They still want to be freedom fighters and free from authority. Often the wife who's married to a man she doesn't respect and just feels like it's coming to him for her to be disrespectful and to dishonor him and speak to him insolently, suddenly she finds that her children are copying that to her. Where did they learn that? Well, she endorsed that rebellion with her own actions. The man whose intent on splitting a church soon finds that his little faction splits again, and again, and again, and again. Why? Because those who cannot submit cannot lead. The safest man to follow is the one who is himself following good authority. The man who doesn't understand this principle of submission doesn't understand leadership, and indeed, he really doesn't understand the world itself. According to the Bible, the universe is hierarchical. It's not a democracy. It's ruled by the triune God. Our world's ruler is the God-Man, Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. And under Him, under the King, are, according to the Bible in the invisible realm, orders of authority, thrones, principalities, powers, dominions, princes, archangels, rulers. And in the visible realm, from the very first, from day one, God put authority in place in the garden. He gave the man certain authority. He gave fathers and mothers authority. He then established human government with the right for human government to use force to punish evil and evildoers. He established authority in the church. giving under shepherds the right to lead the congregation as it corporately makes decisions under Christ. It's everywhere, folks. And people who don't understand this order really don't understand the DNA of the cosmos. Jesus himself, the one that we follow as Lord, was really the most submitted one of all. He said in John 12 49, I've not spoken of my own authority, but the father who sent me gave a command and what I should say and what I should speak. Two chapters later, he says, the words that I speak, I don't speak on my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does the works. In the famous passage in Philippians 2, he says, Jesus, being in the form of God, which means being very God, did not regard that equality with God a thing to be seized or held on to a grasp, but instead emptied himself. And later it says, being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became, listen, submissive to the point of death. Even the death of the cross. That's why I follow him. Because he was and is the follower of his father. And so we can trust him. David had a conviction to obey. There was the temptation to rebel, but he understood the order of the world and said, no, no, no, no, no. Even this cutting of the robe is too far. A conviction to obey. Well, Saul has left the cave. He doesn't realize what's happened. He doesn't even notice what's happened to his robe. And once Saul is a safe distance away, but not yet fully rejoined to his army, David hurries out the cave with the piece of robe in his hand. So look thirdly now at David's decision to submit. David's decision to submit. Thirdly, look at verse 8. David also arose afterward, went out of the cave, and called out to Saul, saying, My Lord, the king! And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed down. And David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Indeed, David seeks your harm? Someone look this day your eyes have seen that the Lord delivered you today into my hand in the cave and someone urged me to kill you But my I spared you and I said I will not stretch out my hand against the Lord for he is the Lord's Anointed moreover my father see yes the corner of your robe in my hand when that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you No, and see that there's neither evil nor rebellion in my hand. I've not sinned against you yet You hunt my life to take it Do you notice all the ways David expresses respect for the office of king, even though this man is wicked? He physically bows down, which puts him in a somewhat defenseless position if Saul decided to run back towards him. He calls Saul, my lord, which means my master, my Adonai. He calls him my father, which is a term of endearing respect. But in David's case, it was literally true. Because he was the king's son-in-law. And again, he calls him the Lord's anointed, Yahweh's Mashiach. And David here says, why are you listening to certain men in your kingdom who's saying that I'm a rebel? And then he says, you know what? If I'd been listening to my men, you'd be dead right now. Because my men told me to kill you like you have men telling you to kill me. But I didn't listen to them. You could have also chosen not to listen to your men. And then as he holds up the robe as a piece of material evidence, he says, if I'm really a rebel, a traitor, a usurper of the throne, what possible reason would I have for having spared you in the cave? David says, I'm innocent, and yet you're hunting me. And now look at verse 12. David calls on Yahweh to judge. He says, let the Lord judge between you and me. Let the Lord avenge me on you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients said, wickedness proceeds from the wicked, but my hand shall not be against you. David quotes this proverb which says, wickedness comes from wicked people. And in this way, what David's really saying is, what's coming out of my heart today? Mercy. Forgiveness. What's coming out of your heart today, he's implying, Saul? Evil. And he says, Lord, judge between us. Bring justice, bring deliverance. But very importantly, David says, my hand will not be against you. You know what David is submitting to? It's that principle. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. In other words, David will not. He is not going to take revenge. And then David goes on in verse 14. After whom is the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? Therefore let the Lord be judge and judge between you and me and see and plead my case and deliver me out of your hand." In Israel, a term dead dog was really the idea of what is utterly worthless. And the only thing that's worth less than a dead dog is a flea on a dead dog. So David is humbling himself. He's saying, I'm less than a flea on a dead dog. And by this he means, I'm no threat to you. I don't have pretensions to the throne, to power, to greatness. I don't think I deserve the throne. I'm not trying to persuade people to follow me. And then one more plea to Yahweh, to be judged, to deliver, to vindicate. Brothers, sisters, what is David doing? He is saluting the rank, not the man. He understands this is a position God sets up and it's not David's place to strip the man of his rank. That's God's job, it's not his. David respects the office of King, though he knows the man currently occupying that office is evil. He, in fact, as you see, points that out several times. He's under no illusions. He doesn't have this idea of absolute submission to everyone all the time under all circumstances. He's not saying that. He knows the man is wicked. He knows this man is listening to lies. He's hunting an innocent man. He's pursuing someone who's no threat to him. He knows Saul is being wicked. But he never says this. Because you are wicked, I will not follow or submit or salute. That's the natural escape for our sinful natures, isn't it? If the person in authority is evil, I don't have to follow. If the authority mistreats me, I don't have to follow. If the authority is acting unworthily of the office, I get to say, you're unworthy. I don't have to follow. But is that what you see here, friends? Is that what is in the text? That's not what we see. David is following, though the man is evil, mistreating him and abusing his position. Beloved, the ability to salute the uniform, though you deeply disapprove of the man in it, is one of the most important lessons you can learn in God's universe. It is accepting God's order. It is accepting God's chain of command, while understanding with your eyes wide open, it's a fallen world, fallen people, sinful people in those uniforms. You see, David's submission to this evil man is not absolute. It's not such that Saul says to him, right, my son, now come back to Gebeah so we can chop your head off. David's not going to go, oh sure, okay, no problem, my lord the king. No, he's fleeing to save his life, right? He's not going to hand himself over to Saul. And if the king commands something overtly sinful, he's not going to do it. But barring saving his life and joining in sin, David submits to a very ungodly authority. He salutes the rank. David understands in God's universe the default posture of a believer is not I won't submit until you prove that you're worthy of my submission. That's not the default posture of a believer. The default posture of a believer is, I will submit until you force me to do evil or threaten my life. Otherwise, I'll submit. And those, friends, are the limited ways in which believers can refuse lawful authority in the home, in the church, in civil life. When the authority is endangering our lives, we can flee. When the authority commands us to do evil or forbids us from doing good, we can respectfully disobey. Even now under COVID-19, the church has been wrestling with this question. It's difficult when the authorities tell the church how she must worship within her doors. They're overstepping a sphere of authority, and the church may reluctantly disobey. But can I emphasize that term? Reluctant disobedience. See, wherever we can, we salute the uniform. Why? Because God made the uniforms and the ranks. Do you ever think of how much the Lord Jesus saluted the uniform? The uniform of Mary and Joseph as his parents, even though they knew less than he did about the Father's will? How Shabbat after Shabbat he would go to synagogue in Nazareth and there salute the uniform of the teachers, even though they didn't know the word like he knew the word, but he submitted it to them? Or thrice yearly as he went down to Jerusalem, he'd salute the rank of the priests presenting the sacrifices, though he knew many of them were apostate, and that he himself was the Lamb of God? Or how often he would salute the rank of Roman soldiers, though he knew they were oppressors and violating Israel itself? How he saluted the rank of the high priest when the high priest said, I place you under oath. Tell me who you are. He submitted. When Pontius Pilate, a weak-willed, cowardly, corrupt man interrogated him, he was willing to salute the rank. Why? Because Jesus understood this is God's order. We can do that without sinning. This was David's decision to submit. And now let's read the response by Saul, which shows just how unbalanced the man was. Verse 16. So it was, when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. Then he said to David, You are more righteous than I, for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil. And you've shown this day how you've dealt well with me, for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore may the Lord reward you with good for what you've done to me this day. And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Therefore swear now to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father's house. So David swore to Saul, and Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. You know, there are three possible levels of life. There's the human level, where you return good for good and evil for evil. There's the demonic level, where you return evil for good. And there's the divine level, where you return good for evil. Well, right now Saul is operating at the demonic level. He's returning evil to David, though David's done nothing but good to him. David's men want David to operate at the human level. They basically say, you need to return evil for evil. He treated you bad. You treat them bad. Treat him bad. But David is actually operating at the divine level. He's returning good for evil. And because of that, for a few brief moments, even Saul can see that David is the true king of Israel, a worthier man than he. And while he's seeing clearly, he asks a fairly selfish request. He says, look, please don't hunt down my descendants once your king, as is customary for kings to do. David vows he won't do so, and in fact he fulfills that vow. Saul's descendants die by their own hand. They die in battle, they die in a civil war later, and they die as a penalty for killing the Gibeonites. But David doesn't hunt them down. In fact, he protects Mephibosheth. One of the best signs that you are in Christ, that you're a believer, that you're truly His, is your attitude towards authority. Oh, you might struggle with it. You might wrestle with it. We all do. We all still have the flesh. But do you recognize authority as a good thing? As part of God's good order? A person in Christ is not looking for reasons not to submit. but finding ways to receive and welcome authority when it's present. Because authority, even the flawed and ungodly kind, is still the opposite of anarchy, and anarchy is what hell is. It's Satan's playground. It's a demonic paradise. What authorities in your life right now are you tempted to throw off or reject because the people in those offices of authority are acting foolishly or unreasonably, maybe wickedly. To be like Christ is to salute the rank. Children, you need to salute the rank of parent. Wives, salute that uniform of husbands, even though we husbands very often fail to live up to that uniform. Church members, salute the uniform of elders. Citizens, salute the uniform of government. Only when these and they command us to do evil will we, in postures of respect, say, we cannot obey, we must obey God rather than man. Only when they endanger our lives will we flee. And when we act this way, as David did, as Christ did, Peter says we will put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, yet not using our liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bond servants of God, in submission to Him. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank You above all for Your Son, the Lord Jesus. who submitted to all, and for that reason He is highly exalted and has been given a name above every name, that at His name every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Such humility and such submission brings that kind of exaltation. So help us to learn the lesson, even now, to yield to authority. And only in those true moments of conscience questions can we reluctantly disobey. Teach us, Father, to trust in Your chain of authority, to trust in You, and help us then as we salute the rank to have hope and remember that this is what You've done, Lord Jesus. We thank You for Your Word. Shape us through it. We pray for anyone here who has not submitted himself or herself to the authority of Jesus Christ and still lives under the banner and flag of this world of self, of Satan. I pray that you'd save and draw that person to repentance and open their eyes. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's take a few moments at this time to think about our lives and think about our domains of authority that we need to submit to. It's easy to just let a message like this wash over us and sing and then it all kind of drains away. But let's take a minute to think, what authorities in my life right now am I chafing against? Where is there obviously a struggle? Do I trust the authorities God has given? Am I being like Christ? Maybe today you would say, I don't submit to any authority. It doesn't even make sense to me. Well, I don't even know why you would want to do that. And I would encourage you to consider where you stand before God, because He is the authority. And to know Him is to be in submission to Him, to receive Him as Lord and Savior.