The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. ...isn't taken from any one particular text. I want to consider a bigger topic with you. And in order to lead into that, I want to begin by reading... I want to read you a passage of Scripture. It's one that you know exceptionally well. So I'm going to ask you to not even turn to it. I just want you to sit, listen, and try to hear with fresh ears truths that you've heard a thousand times, but I want you to hear them afresh again tonight. The word of God says, to whom then will you liken God? Or to what likeness would you compare with him? In idle, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts its silver chains. He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses wood that will not rot and seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idle that will not move. Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you even from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in, who brings princes to nothing. Makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness Scarcely are they planted scarcely are they sown? Scarcely as their stem taken root in the earth when he blows on them They wither and the tempest carries them off like stubble To whom then will you compare me that I should be like him says the Holy One Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these. He who brings out their hosts by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not even one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God? Have you not known? And have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint. To him who has no might, He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with eagles' wings. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and they will not grow faint. I want to consider the topic with you tonight from kind of an overview perspective. I want to consider the sovereignty of God, but I want to do it from kind of a particular angle, or I guess I want to apply the sovereignty of God to a very particular area in our lives tonight. I was, I'm in the process, those of you who know me well know that when it comes to technological skills, I'm somewhere between a, I'm below kindergarten level, I'll just say that. And so I'm still trying to mesh my files from King's Cross to the things I'm doing here, and my desktop is just a total mess. And it was in the mindless sorting of those things that I came across an old sermon that I'd forgotten that I'd preached, and I happened to look at the date on it, and it said November 6th, 2016. You might say, So what? That was a very particular day. If you can go back, I know it's pre-COVID, so all the cobwebs have to get dusted off, but that was the day that our country was casting their votes, if memory serves me, between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton. I thought, oh, I remember that. And then as I was looking it over, I thought, you know what, nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. And something struck me as I've been kind of, I guess alongside all of us, living through this political season right alongside the rest of you. I thought it odd that I chose to preach that sermon on election day, because I happen to fall on a Sunday by God's providence. And it was at the end of months and months and months of nonsense. And so I thought, you know what might be helpful? To hear that way up front. I know we're not at the beginning of it, but we're near-ish to the beginning of it and entering back into the oddness of the season. So I want to consider the sovereignty of God early in our life here on this cycle, hoping that we can navigate it with Well, eyes that see in a way that only Christians can see. One author says that in 1902, a young English boy came down to breakfast and he found his father reading this archaic thing called a newspaper, which spoke of the preparations for the first coronation in Britain in over 64 years. In the middle of breakfast, the father turned to his wife, and he said, oh, I'm sorry to see them word it like this. And she said, well, what did they say? He said, why, here is a proclamation that on a certain date, Prince Edward will be crowned king at Westminster, and there is no Deo Valente, no God willing. If you ever see someone write DV at the end of something, it means Deo Valente, God willing. The word stuck in the boy's mind for the very reason that on that appointed date, the future King Edward VII was ill with appendicitis and the coronation had to be postponed. Just a small little reminder that Man might think he knows what he's doing, and man might think he directs all of his steps, but ultimately, it's the will of God that guides and directs everything. And just like we did eight years ago, our country is getting ready to elect another president, and over all of it, we should put a big DV, Deo Valente, God willing. This election, now this is what I wrote for the last one, but I guess it's just lost its potency because you could say it of any election since then. I wrote back then, this election, more than any other presidential election in recent memory, has been so divisive to our country, and not just to our country, but to our church. It's highlighted the moral bankruptcy of its candidates and has been a source of fear as well as anxiety. I wish that I could say that it was only that one election that was fraught with anxiety and moral bankruptcy and difficult, but it just seems to be that's the world that we live in. And underlying those things, is a presupposition that goes something like this. I guess if you were to say maybe in our more unguarded moments of thinking, reasoning, feeling, emoting, you could say that we fall into the trap of thinking something like this. If the right person gets the job, then we will have cause for hope. And if the wrong person gets the job, then we have much cause for fear. And I want to say, while there's certainly candidates I want more than others or less than others, depending on which direction you look at it, I fundamentally disagree with that presupposition because that presupposition doesn't factor in, I can't say a massive thing because it reduces God to a thing. It doesn't take into account the sovereign workings and plan of God. That's the way the world views things. And if you are looking at the propaganda of both sides, that's exactly the way that they're reasoning through it. But I want to suggest that Christians should reason, think, live, feel very differently than the world. We should be different than the world in all avenues, including that we don't put our hope in princes, the Psalms say. So when we consider that and we consider the days in which we live, I think a fresh look at the sovereignty of God or a refreshing look at the sovereignty of God might be helpful. And then I guess one more thing before we actually get into it here. Mr. John Bunyan, who himself lived in very tumultuous times, said this, the best of Christians live in the worst of times. I want that to marinate for just a second. The very best of Christians live in the worst of times. And while I'm grieved by things I see around us, we should be hoping, praying, and expecting by faith that God would be at powerful work in his church. So I want to consider this idea kind of under three headings with you tonight. The first is this, what does the sovereignty of God mean? Sovereignty is one of those words that we use it in Christian vernacular, and it's in our vocabulary, and it's something that you hear somewhat often. And we use it, but if someone were to ask you, you keep saying God is sovereign, what does that mean? And maybe after thinking for a moment, and maybe you would kind of channel your inner word nerd, which all of us have, whether we admit it or not, you would say, well, it has the word reign or rule and sov, which is together, so it means to rule all things together. But maybe you'd go and do a brief little word search, and you'd find, well, Mr. Jerry Bridges defined it like this. What does God's sovereignty mean? It means God is in control. He's sovereign. He does whatever pleases him and determines whether we can do what we have planned. This is the essence of God's sovereignty, his absolute independence to do as he pleases. and his absolute control over the actions of his creatures. No creature, person, or empire can either thwart his will or act outside the boundaries of his will. So that's how Jerry Bridges, just a wonderful author, says, if you want to speak of sovereignty, it's simply this. God does whatever he pleases, and he's the only one in the entire universe who does that. freely, perfectly, fully. You could add to that A.W. Pink who said of the sovereignty of God, what does it mean, the sovereignty of God? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the very Godhood of God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that he is the most high, doing according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay his hand or say unto him, what are you doing? To say that God is sovereign is to declare that he is the almighty, the professor of all power in heaven and on earth, so that none can defeat his counsel, thwart his purpose, resist his will to say that God is sovereign is to declare that he is the governor among the nations setting up kingdoms overthrowing empires determining the counts or the course of dynasties as pleases him best to say that God is sovereign is to declare that he is the only potentate, the king of kings, and the lord of lords. I find it very troubling when Christians kind of balk at or push back against the sovereignty of God, because I couldn't agree with A.W. Pink on this point more fully. To say that he's sovereign is to say he's God. It's, You cannot have God and not have him be sovereign. And the prophets speak of this in lots of different ways. The phrase that comes up in the Psalms and in the prophets, the idea, it's a little bit outdated in the way that we would usually speak of it. It says, none can stay his hand. You might say, well, what do you mean, stay his hand? Well, if you've parented little kids, or if you haven't parented them, but you're an older sibling, and have served in that function in different ways, you've experienced this. You've seen a little kid, an infant or a toddler, reaching for something that they should not reach for, and what does the loving parent who's perceived by the little one as a tyrant do? Well, he whacks the hand and says, no. The psalmist and the prophet say, yeah, no one does that to God. Man might think he does that to God. Man might think that he tells God, No, you can't mess with this part of my life. Or no, you can't interfere in human affairs like this. Or no, you can't do this, that, or the other thing. No, actually, he does that to man. Man does not do that to him. And so if we were to say, well, okay, well, that's a great big theological idea, the godness of God, the godhood of God, that he exercises control. Well, where would a Christian point to if I was speaking to another brother or sister in Christ who was wondering at the extensions of God's sovereignty, or even myself, if I was asking, well, where in the Bible would I see this played out? Well, the answer is everywhere. Don't try to turn to all of these. Don't try to write them all down. If you just want them, just email me and I'll send you all of the references that I want to read by. I want to pile them up one on the other and for you to be a little bit of like, okay, we've really driven that into the ground because I think our hearts need it. I think we need to be overwhelmed with a sense that God is God and we are not. and that the world, though it looks like it's not under sovereign control, is, and is perfectly so. Job 42 verse 2, Job says, I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose, not one, of yours can be thwarted. Psalm 2910, the Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord sits enthroned as king forever. Psalm 47, for God is the king of all the earth. He reigns over all of the nations, not just the ones who say that on their money. That's a different translation, by the way. And he sits on his holy throne. Psalm 93, the Lord reigns and he's robed in majesty. The Lord is robed, he's put on strength as his belt. Psalm 96, say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established and shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity or justice. Psalm 103, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom is over all. Proverbs 16, the lot, or the dice, are cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord. I can remember on that one in particular having an argument with a, well, someone that I thought was a brother, but ended up being a semi-Pelagian. And his argument against Calvinism was, he said, God is not a micromanager. And I said, well, what do you make of Proverbs 16? Every decision comes from him. He said, well, okay. He apparently helps the dice land where it wants to, but he doesn't manage everything like that. Which obviously, hopefully you'd recognize as being ridiculous. Ecclesiastes 7, consider the work of God. Who can make straight what God has made crooked? Isaiah 14, for the Lord of armies has purposed, who will annul it? His hand is stretched out. Who will turn it back? Lamentations 3. Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? I mean, often you might see that framed in someone's kitchen. I mean, it's like one of those, in the kitchen or the living room or dining room, right? If God says it, it happens, whether good or bad. Did you catch which book it came from? Lamentations. As Jeremiah watched his city burn, he said, has not God said and done it? Does good befall a city or bad and he's not done it? It's one thing to say that when you find like five bucks in your pocket. That's a good day. It's another thing when you're watching your nation crumble around you and you say, good and bad come from God. Last one, Psalm 115. Why should the nation say, where is your God? Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. And we could go on and on and on and on tonight looking at text after text after text that God and God only is the sovereign ruler over all the affairs of men. Both the things that we like as well as the things that we don't like. I do not like it when Christians say, When something turns out well, like, wow, that was a God thing. You're like, yeah, so was the bummer thing that happened right before all of that. And all the other things that happened in your life. So when it comes to God, when it comes to his kingship, when it comes to his rulership, there's no such thing as a balance of powers. There's no such thing as checks and balances. God cannot be filibustered. His laws can't be vetoed. He doesn't answer to higher courts. His term in office is eternal. And everything that he promises to do, guess what? He does. So you couldn't ask for a further, well, I guess a more different ruler than the one that we have with God when compared to those that we have, well, in our day and in our time. The second thing I want to then ask is, well, if that's what it means when we say God is sovereign, how does that sovereignty impact human rulers? Now, some would say God's sovereign in the fact like he's sort of like a, kind of like a tired parent, a tired mom, a tired dad, relaxing on the couch, and there's kind of this dull roar of chaos around them. And so long as that chaos doesn't exceed a certain decibel or intensity, he allows the freedom of the rabble to just kind of continue on in the living room. And then if he needs to, steps in. God doesn't rule like that. God doesn't rule the way that I parent when I'm tired or wore out. God doesn't parent where he says, well, I'm gonna give you all this, all of this freedom, and yeah, you know, within degrees, I hope it goes well, but if it doesn't, I'm always there to help out. That's not the way that God interacts with human history. Again, even that's a low-level way of putting it. He decrees all things that have happened. So if you were to say, God is sovereign, and then you were to ask a follow-up question. Well, does that mean he's sovereign over rulers? What would your necessary answer have to be? Without question. Without any question. Proverbs 21, verse one. The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wills. You might say, well, that says king, not president, or king, not congressman. Yeah, well, you actually extend all of them. Every ruler is like water in the hand of God, and he can turn it anywhere he wants. He doesn't have to work within the confines of that king's political party's platform. He can do whatever he wants to do. this point one of my just the more I read of them the more admiration I have for mr. John Newton he said the kings of the earth are continually disturbing the world with their schemes of ambition They expect to carry everything before them, and seldom any higher end is in view than the gratification of their own passions. Does that sound like anything familiar with what we're looking at today? Yes. Newton goes on. But in all that they do, they are but servants of this great king and lord, and they fulfill his purposes. As the instruments he employs to inflict This is where we get uncomfortable. Prescribed punishment upon transgressors against him, or to open a way for the spread of the gospel. They had one thing in view. He had another. So Newton says, if you just look at the political landscape, you find a bunch of people who, while they're called public servants. They kind of only serve, well, themselves and what they want to do, and it looks like that's...they don't think anything beyond that. He says that's interesting, because that's how human eyes would look at it. But as Christians, we know that God's accomplishing everything that he wants. either in punishing sinful wayward nations or he's using them to open the doors for the gospel and the flourishing of the church. And if you were to say, well, Okay, I understand, maybe that in theory, but where in the Bible would we turn and see, like, how and where would we see pagan godless kings that help, you know, that work to God's ends or do God's bidding? I mean, if you look at David in the Bible, you can look at David and be like, I sort of get how that works. And maybe even Solomon early on, you can look at that and be like, okay, I also get that. But how about the Ahabs and the Rehoboams and the Jeroboams? Well, we could supply our current candidates' names, or we could say, how about the Nebuchadnezzars of the world? You see, Daniel was someone who lived in exile under a king that was a pagan. And he had this to say about the way that God's sovereignty interacted with kings. This is Daniel chapter 2. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. This is the night that the king that he's under said, I'm going to tear your arms and legs off. It's that kind of king, just set context. Daniel says, blessed be God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and he sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. I mean, that's a tough thing to say if you're Daniel. Daniel saw the Davidic king of Israel removed and the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar come to power. And while he might have had a good health plan and maybe there was solid dental in place, I would not have wanted to live under Nebuchadnezzar. Very often in the book of Daniel, if you just add up the things that the king says to people, he has various and sundry ways of killing people in terrible ways if they don't do exactly what he wants from them. So, Daniel lived in a difficult world, under a difficult ruler, and you know what he said is? God's sovereign. Not even here. Especially here. It's not the only occasion. You could turn to the book of Jonah as another illustration. Jonah is called to go to what's seen as like the most wicked city in the world at that time. He's called to go to Nineveh. And he goes in, and he's not the most eager, zealous of evangelists, right? He goes one day into a three-day city. That's not great. His message, the recorded sermon that he preaches, is five whole Hebrew words. And God uses that for mighty ends. Jonah 3, the word reads, the king of Nineveh, not by Jonah, by the way, but it reads the king of Nineveh. And he arose from his throne and he removed his robe and he covered himself with sackcloth and he sat in ashes and he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hand. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish." Now, because we're so familiar with the book of Jonah, and because we know, like, okay, it's a story about the, well, the confused prophet, the big fish, and the city, and, like, the plant and the worm at the end. we lose a little bit of the push. And so if you'd allow a little sanctified, hopefully, imagination, if I could bring the story into modern terms, imagine if tomorrow morning you wake up, you open whatever news browser you browse the news on, and as morning coffee is sinking in, you see a headline from MSNBC, which would usually give you pause to not read it. But you read on, and it says, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the state of California, calling on all citizens of San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Jose, and San Diego to not eat or drink, but to call on God to forgive them for the heinous sins of California. and even to not allow their little dogs that they carry in strollers to eat. It would even extend to them. You would think something had fallen into your coffee, like rat poison or something, that you were not gripping reality with a firm grasp. That is a small comparison to what the king of Nineveh was like. As bad as our neighbors to the west are, they didn't fillet their enemies like the Ninevites did. It would be like reading that. And then as a Christian, you would know the king's heart or governor's heart truly is like water in the hand of God. And at any moment he could say, repent at any moment, he could say that. You can see why I think one of our applications is if we can call on the name of one who can do that, well, that should be the church's response, right? rather than just, well, being frustrated with some of these things, we should pray and ask God to work. The last illustration of this, again, is Nebuchadnezzar. He's the most proud, arrogant human being that is existing as he's ruling over the world. He's warned to humble himself. He ignores it. He is made to live like a cow for seven years. And at the end, I mean, so God takes his sanity, which some would say, well, God would never violate human will like that. Oh, yeah, he would. And then he gave him a little bit back, and with the first glimmers of sanity coming back into the king's mind, Daniel chapter four, at the end of these days, I, he's writing from the first person, might be the only section of the Bible written by a pagan king, by the way. Well, used to be pagan. I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High. I praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All of the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And he does according to all his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. None can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? He sounds like the psalmist at this point. I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, for all his works are right. The guy who just had his sanity taken for seven years said every decision that God does is right. Wow. Every one of his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble. Oh, we do well to listen to the words of Nebuchadnezzar and to the king of Nineveh, as they considered with a very clear mind God rules over all things. That doesn't mean that everything works out with sunshine, rainbows, unicorns, and cupcakes, but it does mean that the world as we see it is working to the ends that God has. You might say, well, there's rulers who do bad things. God is working there. He's working now. He's worked in the past. He'll work in the future. It's one of the reasons why I think the book of Revelation is so desperately important. Not because I think it tells future prophecies for us to be like really intent on looking for in the newspaper. I think the book of Revelation is really important because it looks at life from two different vantage points. From one vantage point, the beast and the harlot of Babylon and the dragon, I mean, the raging and people, there's sections in the book of Revelation that you're watching going, this is not good. This is chaos. And then there's a whole nother perspective of the very same season in human history. It looks at things from God's perspective and where is he? He's seated on a throne, and he's ruling and reigning perfectly. It actually gives us, I think, a way of understanding, down here, it looks one way. But if we could see with eyes of faith what the sovereign God is doing, we would see it from a very different vantage point. And so while I won't even dignify the things we're seeing by using them as examples, but it's, I think it's safe to say that if you consider the current situations that we're sitting here looking at in America, I would just, chaos is, that's a good word for it. It's just chaotic. It's not, I can't believe the things we're reading. I just can't. And is that outside the rule and reign of God? It's not. Is He using these things for His own purposes and ends? He is. Will we always like those purposes and ends? Not in one sense. But maybe if we had eyes of faith and hearts of faith, we would say, like Jesus taught us to pray, not our will, but His be done. So I want to consider thirdly, How should we as Christians live in chaotic times knowing that God is ultimately sovereign? Right, that's a big question. How do I respond? How do I not just live as a person? How do I guide my family? How do I engage in church life, work life, society life, Facebook life? No, that's not real life. Anyway, how do I engage in all of those realms Knowing these two things, the world is a sinful, chaotic, seemingly chaotic place, and God rules and reigns perfectly on his throne. How would I do that? Well, I wanna give at least two things that we shouldn't be. Now, some of you might resonate more with one than the other, and one or two of these might just not be, I might say it and you might think in your heart, yeah, I'm not tempted to do that. The first is we shouldn't be, with regards to human government, overly optimistic. You might say, I am not tempted to be overly optimistic. Well, there's, be careful. Our hopes rise and fall when certain candidates lead or fall behind. I think we're subject to it more than we think we are. But there are those who think if one candidate wins, all good things flourish. If the other candidate wins, all good things come to an eternal, abysmal end. I wouldn't put all my eggs in a candidate's basket there. Alexander Carson, a really convicting thing he said is, as God can protect people under the greatest despotism, so the utmost civil liberty is no safer to them without the intermediate protection of his almighty arm. I fear that Christians in this country have too great a confidence in political institutions, rather than in the government of God. Really want to be careful on this part, brothers and sisters. And I hear, and even in my own heart, I feel the fear of, oh my, where are we going? I want off this ride, please. Keep in mind, the church grew. Think of, well, the end of Paul's life. Who was ruling the world when the church was exploding in a good way? You can say his name. Which Caesar? Nero. Would you vote for Nero? I wouldn't. I don't know who the other guy would be, but he'd probably be better. And yet, what did God do? He spread the church across the known world. And so, the church can endure and thrive under tyrannical despots. Carson's also careful to say sometimes the church gets comfortable thinking she's safe. when in fact she is not. So we need to actually not pick one or the other. I think we actually need to hold on to both. God cares for his church no matter who's in power. And we shouldn't be overly afraid if it's the wrong person or overly comfortable if it's the right person. We should trust in God's government. I don't care who's in office. Like I do care who doesn't to some degree, but with regards to the way that we rest securely, I shouldn't rest easier or less easy. I'm always under the kingship of Christ. Now one might be harder to deal with, but ultimately we're in God's hands. Psalm 20 warns against this. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. that needs to continue to be the cry of God's people. Now, all that to say, so again, I don't want to nuance this to death because I'm not a fan of that, should we pray, plead, and strive for rulers that will rule righteously and justly? Absolutely we should, right? Like that's part of what we should be longing for is that God would raise up godly men to rule and that God's laws would run through the land in all aspects. But when that doesn't happen, that does not mean God's plans are thwarted. So let's not be overly optimistic with regards to the merits of a human government. The second, and maybe this is the ditch that we drive in, Don't be overly pessimistic. This would be kind of the retreat hide in your bunker, or if your friend has a bunker. Remember how Revelation sees God. Seated on the throne. Remember in Isaiah chapter six when a really good king dies. And Isaiah kind of knows the guy who's going to take over for him is not the brightest light bulb in the store. Who is seated on the throne, high and exalted? Well, God is. So on the earth, monarchs coming and going. In heaven, no movement, no change, no swapping of offices whatsoever. So let's not be overly pessimistic. So if the, I don't even like saying this, but if the person you don't want to get it gets it, that doesn't mean we give way to complaining. That doesn't mean we give way to gossip or slander. That doesn't mean that we have bitterness towards others. What would it mean? Well, not to be melodramatic, but it would feel in some ways like exile. And so maybe what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 27 would just be particularly important for us. Remember, Jeremiah is speaking to the exiles, and if you were writing to friends and family that lived in Babylon and Assyria, not great places. We might not choose to write what Jeremiah wrote, but he wrote it in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He says, seek the welfare of the city where I've sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare. Jeremiah, speaking from God's perspective, writes to an exiled Israel and says, even in exile, work towards the good of your city, because your good and their good, it's kind of bound up together in a lot of ways. So the response of God's people would be, well, I guess a couple fold. Continuing to be good citizens and seeking the good of the place where God's planted us, and then the greatest thing that we can do I know what you're thinking, it's like Facebook groups. No, that's not the greatest thing you can do. Those are terrible. Pray to the one who has the hearts of kings in his hands like water. We should pray. And this is what 1 Timothy says when Paul is writing to Timothy, the young pastor that's serving in Ephesus, not a very godly city at all. He says, first off then pray, or I've urged that supplications and prayers and intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people. The idea is all kinds of people. And then, in case maybe he knows pastorally our tendencies, for kings and all who are in high positions. So he says, pray for everybody. And you can see the church being like, okay. He's like, even senators and presidents. Even them too, okay. But he gives the church a reason or a why that might take us a little bit by surprise. He says, that, or in order that, we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. So we should be praying as a church ardently for God to raise up righteous rulers. We really should be praying for that. We should pray for it, not because of the other side's policies annoy us, not for all the weird reasons that we could get into for praying for this or that or the other thing. Paul gives a really good reason. Pray for them so that you could lead a peaceful, quiet life devoted to godliness. I would say that Paul seems to keep the main thing the main thing. The main thing is that we are able to serve the Lord wholeheartedly with clear conscience, unimpeded. That should be the longing of the church, that she could pursue Christ her King in a peaceful, quiet way. Mr. Bridges adds to this. I mean, he doesn't add to the scripture, but he goes along with this same idea. The fact that the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord is meant to be a stimulus to prayer, not a stimulus to fatalistic attitudes. So it's not like, well, God'll do whatever he wants, just, I guess what'll be will be. No. I mean, on the one hand, yes, but in the response of, he doesn't tell us, hey, the king's heart is like water in the hand of God, so whatever, he's gonna do whatever. The reason he tells the church that is that we would pray, that we would storm the mercy seat in these ways. You have, as the church, the ear of that one. And I'll just confess, I do not pray for our leaders like I should. I desperately need to change that. We need to be praying that we would have rulers of such quality that we'd have peaceful, quiet lives, not just for our generation, but for our children, too. I should be praying more for the world our kids inherit as well. We also need to remember, lastly, that our citizenship is in heaven. Philippians 3 says our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything even unto himself Hebrews chapter 12 so again remembering who we are as the church therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken He's not talking about the USA, he's talking about the kingdom that Christ rules over. And then, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Colossians chapter one. God has delivered us from the domain or the kingdom of darkness, and he's transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the very forgiveness of our sins. And lastly, Philippians chapter four. Don't be anxious for anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Brothers and sisters, we've been moved from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's Son. Our citizenship is in heaven. King is in heaven. We live in this brief, temporary, vaporous life. It's short in duration, while it might feel long, it's short in duration and inevitably coming over I mean, just over the horizon, this is one of the things I think is so beautiful about the Song of Songs, right? It anticipates this greatly. We have a country that we will inherit, a new heaven and a new earth, and Christ as the eternal King will rule and reign perfectly there. That's that's our that I mean it sounds weird to say like that's our destiny. That's that is where every Believing man every believing woman every believing child will eternally dwell Keeping that in mind is of utmost importance So do we live faithfully here and now? Yes is our treasure here upon the earth and No, it's in heaven, kept for us, imperishable, where neither moth nor rust can destroy. Our hopes are not wrapped up on this, so regardless of however things go in the next bit of stretch of time, that reality isn't changed a lick. It's held there by Christ for his people. And no one can take that from you. Therefore, we should live differently. The world that you're seeing rage around you, they're raging because their idols are being threatened. And their heaven is this earth. What a depressing thing to even say. This earth is the best they will ever endure. For the Christian, the opposite's true. This is the worst we will endure. And heaven awaits us. Live lives circumspectly with that in our minds. Our hopes, hearts, are there. Living faithfully, yes, in this brief life, but recognizing He's given us a few brief fleeting days on a bit of dirt flinging through the universe. Live faithfully for Him there, recognizing that one day, the last day will dawn, and we'll be with Him eternally. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that You would indeed give us eyes to see that Christ rules perfectly from his throne. Lord, help us to live not as the world lives, but as the church should live. Help us not to be in anxious people. Help us not to have our treasures here upon the earth, but help us to be a heavenly minded and a heavenly hearted people. whose treasure, the Lord Jesus Christ, is in heaven waiting for us. Lord, in the few days that you give us to live, we pray that because this place is not our home, we would be willing to spend and be spent for you. That we'd be willing to not build our own little kingdoms, but we'd be willing to be used in the building of yours. We pray for all those who counted not their lives as precious and willing to go that Christ would be worshipped in foreign lands. With that on our hearts and our minds, we do pray for our sister Megan as she prepares to go back to Poland, Lord. Thank you that she desires the kingdom of Christ more than the kingdoms of this world. And while to degrees we all long for that Lord, we confess at the same time we do not long for the kingdom of Christ like we should. So help us long for him all the more. Make us faithful in tough days, we pray. Amen. We hope that you were edified by this message. For additional sermons as well as information on giving to the ministry of Grace Community Church, please visit us online at gracenevada.com. That's gracenevada.com.