things we thank you for being such a gracious merciful wonderful God help us Lord to live for thee in Jesus name Amen all right we're in Romans chapter 12 I thought I might finish it this morning I did not so Romans chapter 12 verse 17 and let's look what the Bible says recompense to no man Evil for evil that means don't pay him back if they do you evil don't do evil back Provide things honest in the sight of all men And you know the Bible says vengeance is mine. I will repay saith the Lord but the verse 18 is a crucial verse if it be possible as Much as lieth any live peaceably with all men dearly abloved Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals to fire in his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." What a tremendous section in the Bible. It starts off with, you know, pay somebody back evil for evil, you know, the world says just the opposite. Most movies, you know, the bad person, you have a tendency if you watch a show to start cheering for the bad guy, that he gets his vengeance on the other bad guy that's worse than he is bad. Then it says, provide things honest in the sight of all men, good advice. But that next verse, verse 18, is a mind blower. Exodus 21-23 says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but really the context of that is almost abortion. In other words, it talks about You know, if a woman loses a child in Exodus 21, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, hand for a hand. But then in Matthew 5.39, the Bible says, turn the cheek. And you know, you'll have people that come up to you, especially me as a preacher, and they'll say, well, you know, the Bible says turn the cheek. And I just look at them and say, well, sometimes it's not possible. What? And I quote him this, if it be possible, as much as lieth in thee, live peaceably with all men. Sometimes not possible for us to live peaceably with other people because of the abuse that they're doing. Doesn't mean you render evil for evil or you take things into your own hands, but I will tell you that there's a line drawn with family. You know, you don't hurt my wife. You say, well, we can say what we want to say to anybody we want to say it to. Well, no, you can't. There's a short distance between your nose and my fist. Just kidding. I haven't punched anybody for, let's see, how long? A day and a half. A day and a half. My brother and I got in a fight one time. I came back from the cab and I was working with my dad. And he did something, so I threw his shoes in the pool, too. And they were suede shoes. You know what happens when you throw suede shoes in the pool? It's not like throwing my sneaker in the pool. Anyway, he and I went at it, and he's like 6'1". I didn't win. But he kept telling me to stay down. I said, no. I kept getting up until he walked away. But I did not win by getting up. Because I went down one time less than I came up, just so you know. Or no, I guess they'd be equal, wouldn't they? Went down, up. Yeah, one for one. Yeah, it was equal. But I did not stay down. That's the key. But I want you to turn to Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25. I don't know if you remember, but that's how I told you I knew my brother got saved. You know, I have two brothers, but the one got saved about the same time I did. He was up in Minot, North Dakota. And so he called me up and apologized for all the bad things he did to me when we were young. That was true salvation right there. We became closer after that, but I was always the one responsible, witnessing to the family and trying to witness to his family and all that stuff. So I want to give you this verse. I'm sure that I have given it to you before, but I want you to take this home with you because it is why God cannot judge people today. Proverbs 25, 21. If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee. That is not the one. That is actually just repeating the New Testament. the New Testament truth. I was looking for the one that says that you don't rejoice not when thine enemy stumbleth. That's the one I thought I was taking you to. Let me just look and see if I see it real quick. I do not. So if you see that rejoice not when. But that's just what we just saw there in Proverbs 25 21 is the 2417. I've got three people giving me that answer. 2417. Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth. Let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth. So you see, you know, somebody that does you wrong, you start rejoicing when God gets them. Lest the Lord see it and it displease Him and He turn away His wrath from Him. And again, you know, A principle is this, you get it or you don't get it. The reason God cannot judge this world and people that do you wrong is because of how you and I handle it. If we rejoice when God judges, God looks at it and says, well, me judging them is doing you good, no good, bad, and he turns his wrath away. You've got to give place on the wrath and that's, what was that verse again? I got it written right here, Proverbs 24, 17, with a big highlighted red. I was going to write it down because I really thought that was an appropriate verse, and guess what? It is, and that's why I had it written in here. Look at Genesis chapter 50. It's the last chapter in Genesis, and if you'll remember, the brothers come to Joseph, and they're so concerned because their father has now died. They thought, well, man, he's going to take things into his own hand, we're in trouble now. In Genesis 50, verse 15, when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will perventure hate us, will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. He's going to pay us back. Verse 19 Joseph said of them fear not for am I in the place of God? But as for you he thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive Now therefore fear not I will nourish you and your little ones and he comforted them and spake kindly unto them You know that is very hard to do Think about Joseph. There he was, a young man. His father loved him. He was sold into slavery. He works his way up to the top position. Woman lies about him, and he's back down at the bottom again. He helps out the butler and the baker, and he, you know, interprets their dreams. Don't forget me. They forget him. He stays in jail longer. But then God finally, in the right time, in the right place, in the right circumstances, brings Joseph out of prison. I don't believe Joseph was ready until he was ready. And sometimes that's the way you and I are. I mean, you think about it, I didn't start, you know, 19 years we were in evangelism, and then I didn't start pastoring until I was 60 years old again. That's a lot of people retirement age. But what God does is he prepares you and prepares you. And you might say, well, you're not the best pastor around. I'm like, OK, I got that. But I do believe in God's timing. I don't believe that God, and there were a lot of other instances where I could have. And I was a younger man back then. And there were instances where there was a whole staff of people. When you come in with a staff of people and you take over, just like I did in businesses, I would take over with a staff and you can delegate. And they have a responsibility to do what you delegate to them and they're professionals and they do it same way in a church. You got a staff of people and you say, hey, I need you to go do this. I need you to figure out. Kathy was asking me, what's our phrase for next year? And she asked me twice cuz she's smart. She knows if she doesn't stay on me, I won't give it to her. And I prayed about it the first time she asked this time, and it's charity never faileth. That's our motto for next year. And then I'll probably teach through First Corinthians. And, but you know, you can look and like, I'd like to have banners. You know, so you'd have a banner. We don't have any more walls left anymore, though. But when we did have walls, I would like to have had banners, like they do in a lot of churches. And you would have that on there on both sides of the church. You can put it back there now. You can put it out in the other foyer. So you'd say to somebody, hey, I need you to do this. And you just give it to them. And you have people. And there are people that can do some of those things. It's just sort of, I don't like to impose upon people that aren't in a position to be able to say no. And you say, well, we can all say no. Yeah, but it doesn't always happen that way. But you have a staff of people. And it makes life a lot easier. The pastor was here before me had a staff. His family was staff. You know, and you look at Judy and say, just put it all on Judy. And I don't like to do that either. I really like to keep my wife a little separated from things. Just because, you know, sometimes a woman can, and not in this church at all, but I've watched and they don't always come after the pastor, they come after the pastor's wife. That would be a real problem for me because as much as life in they live peaceably with all men That's where the lines drawn and I'm not we've not had one ounce of a problem in five years that I've been here So now Judy, it's time you've aged. Well, I Need you to run the nursery I need you to handle the Sunday school. I need you just to come up and get my sermons ready for me and No, I appreciate what she does, and you'd be surprised what all she does. She keeps me out of trouble, I can tell you that. You may not see her behind the scenes, but she is behind the scenes. Just not the way that a lot of others use their wife. I try not to use mine that way. Look at, go on back and look at this thing about the enemy in verse 20. Therefore if thine enemy, and by the way, will you have enemies? Remember when I got saved I thought man. I don't want to have any enemies It is so easy to make enemies today all you got to say is one wrong thing and people become your enemy It is cooled off nicely in here has it not I? Don't know why one degree is like 50 degrees it seems I'll turn it back up now the air is on Judy So turn down don't turn up no turn up don't turn down Turn it up 75 tonight When it talks about the enemy, look at Exodus chapter 23. Exodus chapter 23, talking about enemies. And again, I don't think you have to search for enemies. I think they'll come to you naturally in life. Sometimes it can I mean sometimes you can do the simplest thing and make people mad at you X is 23 for if if thou meet thine enemies ox or his ass going astray thou shalt surely Bring it back to him again if thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden and and what is forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him. Thou shalt not rest the judgment of thy poor in this cause." So, again, talking about the enemies, it's just the opposite of what the world tells you to do. They tell you to hate your enemies, do bad to them, seek out vengeance. If you look back at the movies that you've ever seen, almost all of them revolve around creating in you a feeling or an emotion, and that is to hate the antagonist. And then by hating the antagonist, when they get their due, it's almost like you're cheering. They got what they deserve. And it is actually anti-biblical. But that's Hollywood. Hollywood and the devil want to create in you that which God does not want. So look at 1 Corinthians 6 for really part of the solution of the whole thing. And I've told you this time and time and time again. 1 Corinthians 6. Verse 7. To me, this was life-changing, as I've told you. Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. It doesn't mean you can't take somebody to court. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? So, in other words, your first reaction ought to be to take wrong, suffer yourself or allow yourself to be defrauded, But it may not be possible to live peaceably with everybody. People know their Bible, and they go, well, you're a Christian. You need to live like this, and I need to treat you like dirt. And you look at them and say, well, you don't know all the Bible, because there's a Bible verse in there that says, if I can't live peaceably, I can go ahead and draw the line and say, no, you're not going to abuse me. You're not going to have the cause of Christ drug through the dirt by treating all Christians that way. I have to stand up to you, because if you think you can do with me, what about the next person, the next person, and the next person? However, the greatest thing you can do is learn to turn the cheek. First response ought to not be, well, let me take that verse. It's not possible for me to live peacefully with anybody. That's not what the Bible is saying. Turn the cheek is a natural reaction. I mean, make it more natural. But at some point, you've got to say enough's enough. An angry countenance turneth away a backbiting tongue. It's okay to be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. It's okay to be angry sometimes. And when you get angry, the problem is if your anger goes into sin, that's where it's wrong. But you can't get angry, you just have to draw that line to where you're doing it really in control. If you can control your anger, It's okay to be angry sometimes. When I look at what's going on with children and the trans and, you know, the way that, I mean, just, I can't even fathom it. Well, you know, trans people have rights. Hey, okay, treat everybody with love. But don't make me accept them. Don't make me accept you abusing children and saying that somehow we need gender affirming care. We need to be for that. And it's a good thing because these children think they're the opposite sex. And therefore, we need to go ahead and give them operations and hormone treatment to make them the opposite sex. Number one, you're not making them the opposite sex. You're just making it worse. Does that make me angry? You better believe it. Am I going to sit back and go, well, I don't want anybody to be upset with me. And the way that society is going, or was going, it's switched back some. The LGBT wants to get rid of the T because they realize, look, the lesbians, and the gays, and the homosexuals, and all of that stuff they pushed, When you get to the trans, now all of a sudden people are looking at it saying, that's just wrong to do that to children. And then Budweiser sort of learned their lesson, trying to come back. Others are learning that you can't push this stuff down people's throats. And if you want to have business in a society that is predicated upon having a good product with a good name, you don't come out there and take your customer base, which I don't belong in that customer base. But you don't take that customer base and spit in their face. Because guess what? Money talks. Money walks. And the money talked and walked, and they learned their lesson, I hope. But look, don't, you know, in other words, there's a line. And you've got to figure out where it is. What I would like to see us all do is learn how to take wrong better. Learn how to suffer yourselves to be defrauded better. Don't go, well, you know, be angry. That's your first reaction to blow up. It can't be. If that's your first reaction, that's not of God. Now, going back to... Well, look at 1 Samuel 24. It's Samuel and David. If you remember that story... I'm sorry, Saul and David. Saul is... chasing after David and trying to kill him, acting like he's not. Look at 1 Samuel 24 17, And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded the evil. And thou hast showed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me, forasmuch as when the Lord had delivered me into thine hand, thou killest me not. Now watch what that's saying there. Here's Saul, he's trying to kill David. The Bible says that God delivered Saul into David's hand, and it was up to David what to do with it. If you are natural, hey, God delivered him into my hand, it must be the will of God for me to take care of it. And that's why you have to be real careful, just because a circumstance happens, doesn't mean that you're going to make the right decision based on the circumstance. You go, well, God made the circumstance happen, but it may be that He's trying to bring out of you that which is good, which is what He is trying to do. When Saul was delivered into David's hand, God was trying to bring out of David that which is good, the right decision not to seek vengeance upon Saul. But if you just look at the circumstances, you go, well, God delivered him to my hand. Why wouldn't God want me to kill him and to relieve this pressure? Because that's not the way God works. Now, let's go over to Romans chapter 13, talking about the government. We've dealt with this quite a bit here, but I want to go ahead in the context of what we're doing now. You know, the government is to be an agent of justice. That's how you know between good and bad government, righteous and unrighteous government, an agent of justice. Verse 1 of Romans 13. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. And people stop right there. The powers that be are ordained of God, and therefore all government is God's government. But the context shows otherwise. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. So you can't resist the government is what people say. For rulers, here's the context, are not a terror to good works. That changes the whole thing. But to the evil wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise the same. Is that true of the government all the time? No. But good government, it is true. Bad government, it is not true. For he, government, is the minister of God to thee for good. What happens whenever he's the minister of the devil for bad? He's not God's government anymore. Well, what about verse 1? The higher powers, for they are no power but of God. Listen, God allows the powers to come. God allowed Pharaoh to come into power. God allowed Nazi Germany to be taken over by Adolf Hitler. But it doesn't mean that somebody shouldn't have taken a gun and shot him. It doesn't mean that just because somebody's in power that they're of God and that you don't have a right to rebel. America's maid came into being because we rebelled against a sovereign that was not to thee for good. And that's what you have to understand. So go on to verse 4 further. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. That's why the death penalty is a righteous judgment of God. However, it doesn't mean I would stand up here and tell you that the death penalty is good. Why would I say both? Because man has corrupted it. Because what happens is, let's say, you know, there's a corrupt police officer who needs to close a case, and he falsifies the evidence, or if there's a lawyer not doing his job, or there's a judge that's been paid off. You see, when we're talking about this, we're talking about a system where they follow God. That's the way Israel was supposed to be. They took people and stoned people for doing certain things. Why? They caught them in the act, and that's the way that the law was written. You think I'd trust people today with my life? Just put yourselves in the shoes of what we've seen. whether it's called Russian collusion, or whether it's called a laptop Russian disinformation, or whether it's called going back and making up laws in order to convict somebody of so many felonies, and then say he's a convicted felon because he's your political adversary. You see, we live in a system that's corrupt because of man. So when you say the death penalty, I say I'm all for the death penalty, but, The problem is man. There are people that were on death row when they did the DNA test. They came off death row, were released, and paid millions of dollars. Why? Because they falsified the information. Now, they're not all corrupt, but it only takes 1% for 1% to be bad. It only takes 1% to get you on death row, convicted falsely for it to be a bad thing. So again, the death penalty is scriptural. But that doesn't mean we can just say, yay for the death penalty. Yes, I'm for the death penalty. You got to realize there are corrupt people in the world that will do anything to stay in power, will do anything to stay out of trouble. They will hurt you and destroy you and hurt those you love and hurt those you hate in order to get their way. So you have to have balance here. Am I pro death penalty? Yes. But everything I just gave you right there. So look at Exodus chapter 18. I don't think I've ever given you this verse in this context, so I will definitely give you this one. So what we're looking at is the people that were chosen Look at verse 21, Exodus 18, 21. Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people, number one, able men, two, such as fear God, number three, men of truth, number four, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of ten, and let them judge the people at all seasons. You know what a judge is supposed to be? Those things right there. Able men, fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. You realize that if they had just one of those things, they hated covetousness, they would probably fall in line with everything else. The love of money is the root of all evil. Root, and it's love. Love of money is the root of all evil. The problem is people love money more than they love souls. People love money more than they love righteousness. People will do anything to accumulate. And it's a shame because that's what perverts judgment most times. Yes, they love power too. Second perverter. They love popularity. Oh, look at you. I don't even know how, I mean, Judge Maney's a good friend of mine, and I don't know how. to be a judge. He's a good man, though. I'm telling you, I really have been around him a lot and listened to him. In my article on the Boy Scout thing, if you read it, he got the Eagle Scout Award. He was an Eagle Scout, and then a very low percentage of them get this award. I mention in there that he is one of my mentors. He took me under his wing when I came here. Took me a couple places, introduced me to people, the Crispy Warriors, why I ended up going over there on Thursday morning for a breakfast. But boy, the more I listen to him, the more I see a man that invests in other people. Then when I went to the award, the Boy Scout award, I listened to the people speak of him, including the state attorney, Ginger Bowden Madden. And she got up there and she said, He invested in me. I am where I am today because He encouraged me to run for the position. He mentored me. That's a judge. And we just don't have that much. He's the one that started Veterans Court. He started the whole system. He's now a legislator for us, the representative, and he goes to Tallahassee and he just gets things done. Because why? Because he cares. We have other legislators there that I know skip meetings, skip budget hearings, don't do the job, and now want higher office. I'll tell you about that later when we get closer to election. It's disgusting. So when you're looking at this and you're looking at what God says, God does not give a blanket endorsement of all of those in authority, but He does say this, He does say in 1 Timothy 2, pray for all those that are in authority that you may lead a quiet and peaceful life. I'd like to use a quiet and peaceful life. I'd love to live that way. And then in Psalm 17, God uses the wicked as a sword to judge. But then when you look at it, you go, well, why would God use the Syrians? Why would God use the Iranians? Why would God use these groups of people that hate Him? And He uses it sometimes to bring us in line. And you may look at your own life and say, well, there's a person that I really don't like that seems like they get away with anything. Well, what should you do? Pray for them? What if you see them falter or stumble? Pray for them more. Don't rejoice. Do everything you have within your ability to pray for them and say, Lord, I know what they've done to me, but Lord, I just want you to bless them and use them, help them to see the error of their ways, help them to straighten it out, whatever it is. And that's how you treat it. But listen, it better be from your heart. Don't think, well, I'll just say that, but I really won't mean it. Doesn't work that way with God. Works that way with man. It doesn't work that way with God. You've got to mean it. Look at 1 Peter 2, verse 13. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors, unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well." There it is again. Why are they in position? For the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. So does our government praise those that do well all the time? Do they punish evildoers? Look at BLM. I mean, black lives matter. No doubt about it. Black lives matter. So do white lives, so do Asian lives. Black lives matter. Sounds really good. Because to say that you are against black lives matter means that you don't care. You're a racist because you're against saying black lives don't matter. It's a catch-22. So black lives matter. But the organization itself is corrupt from the very beginning. So when you look at it, you say, well, when they were burning down the cities across America, what should have happened? Well, the government should have come in and punished the evildoers. What did they do on January 6th? Well, it sounded like they had undercover people there saying, hey, come on in the building. They had an opportunity to stop the whole thing at the beginning by bringing in the National Guard, and they chose not to do that because they wanted an uprising that they could use as an example to squelch all those that would ever think of standing up against a government that's corrupt. By the way, I'm not feeling well, so I need to calm it down a little bit. But when you look at this thing, let's get back to the Scripture. He says, verse 15 of 1 Peter 2, For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King. When you look at those things about authority, and that they are to punish the evildoers, praise them that do well, that's the government that I am going to submit to. Now, I'm not looking for an uprising. I do believe in the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is not for me to necessarily kill a burglar that comes in my house because statistically that's a whole lot less than if the government turns bad, The people are armed in such a way that we're not like China. China, you can't do a thing. They have billions of cameras everywhere. They encourage people to turn other people in, just like they do now because of 9-11. You know, if you see something, say something. What does that mean? Turn people in. Well, yeah, you should. You see them walking around, you hear Can they look like a bomber? Oh, but you can't look at them and judge based on their outward appearance. But if they have a long gray beard, turn them in. Just kidding, that's solid. Just so you know, that was one of my church members. He's not a bomber. I'm not racist. Right. But listen, that's what government is for. But Acts 5.29 says we are better to obey God, we should obey God rather than men. When they told Peter and the other apostles not to preach, you know what they did? They preached. You know what will happen if they tell me not to preach? So long as I have my right mind. Today, if they told me I can't preach today, I'd preach. Yesterday, I'd preach. Next week, I don't know. I cannot promise you. that what I say is what I will do because you don't know it until you're faced with it. I will tell you today, right now, they would never shut me down. You know, you put me in prison, I'm going to write. I'm not saying I can actually get it out of there, but probably can. I mean, you just go to one of the federal prisons and it's just like a, you know, Hollywood spa in some places. I'd sit there in front of a computer and just write and write and write and study the law and study anything I could get my hands on. I'd work out more than I do now. Hadn't worked out for a couple days because I'm not feeling well. But when you look at this thing on government, we'll go ahead and stop there. No, no, no. Go on to verse 5 of Romans chapter 13. Wherefore, ye must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also, for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor." was designed by God to thee for good. What is the problem with government? Man. Man's the problem. People get in power and they don't want to lose power. I mean, we have professional, you know, that's why I like so much of the current system. You have a businessman who's not a politician that is in office, will be in office again. You're gonna run the biggest economy in the world and you've never run a shoe store you're a professional politician and How do you spend 1.5 billion dollars and you want to run the economy and when you can't handle $1.5 billion and you're $20 million in debt, and we're going to let you have the reins of the government? Man, what a dodged bullet we have. And listen, it's happened in two different arenas. Florida dodged the bullet many years ago by less than half of 1%. I don't know what would happen if we didn't have our governor in there that stood up to the Fauciism And I remember very clearly when he was there and then Trump called him to the White House and said, hey, this is Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida. And he opened up the beaches and they're all saying, here it is and he's killing all the people and what a travesty. And then you look later on, you go, look at the numbers here, look at the numbers with all the lockdowns, the numbers with the lockdowns were equal to the numbers in Florida. And yet we didn't destroy our economy because we had a governor that understood business. You better pray for all those in authority that you may lead a quiet and peaceful life if that's what you want. That's what I want. You know what this church needs to do? You need to pray for all those in authority. You need to pray for your city people, county, state, federal. Pray God will open up their eyes, God will lead them, and they'll be obedient to his leadership. Let's all stand together. Lord, we do thank you for your many blessings, guide, lead, and direct in all things. Just pray, Lord, that you would help us to pray for all those in authority. Help us to pray for those that have a need here, that they will, when I think of Jan and her surgery coming up, just pray, Lord, that you would give her some relief. Lord, she really needs it. And pray for Patty, who's just had surgery, and so many others. Debbie, who fell down, broke her nose. We just pray that, you know, you would help her. She's gone through so much. We pray this in Jesus' name. With your head bowed and eyes closed.