Opposition

We are continue our deep dive into a Life of worship. We continue to learn how we can glorify and honor God in every sphere of of our life.

Last week we said that our life is like a song. And our actions, our attutude is like the melody that we sing.

We glorify God when we chose to rely on His wisdom and guidance rather then our own. Otherwise we glorify ourselves and this worldly system.

Living by the wisdom of our own can take us places we don’t want to be in. That’s why our Father gave us an insite. He provides instructions, secret code. Cheetsheet if you will. That helps us to avoide struggles. Avoid mistakes.

Syco story

I have previously mention that I grew up in a small town. It’s a nice place surrounded by forest. You cannot really tell now. But, back in the day, original idea was to build a town in such a way that if you look from above, all building would form a word. USSR. But then, soviet union fell and those plans came to an end. Leaving us only with USS but no R.

When I was growing up our town still preserved a bit of that nostalgic, post soviet, slightly depressing atmosphere. Especially in the Autumn. Grey sky, grey buildings, grey roads, grey everything. In the Autemn it get’s dark pretty early. And even during the day you are not gonna see too much sun. So, even a daylight is kinda grey.

On the one of such day. At the evening. When sun was long gone. And darkness swollen the streets me and my friend were walking around. Talking about life. We were teenagers. I guess that’s why night time was so attractive. Half of the street lights were broken, the other half was pretty dim and very yellow. Creating this post apocalyptic vibe. Most of the people were inside, enjoin their evening, getting ready for bad. Because, our town is not like Batumi. You have to get up very early to go to work. And that’s why there are almost no people on the streets after dark.

So, me and my boddy going down the empty street. Talking about some teenage stuff. We can see some guys from school a bit furthur away. We know some of them well, less so some other ounces. But anyway we should go and say hello to them.

We came closer. Shake hands. Start chatting. And as we having a small talk I look around. It’s dark, it’s quite. I’m slightly cold. Yellow light above the building entrance about 20 miters away trying it’s best to light up the night. Not achieving very much to be honest. Some guy walking home by himself. Puffed up jacket makes him look like MMA fighter.

I’m kinda wondering in my thought. Thinking that dim light makes him look huge. And somewhere at the back of my mind I hear one of the boys saying:

  • Hey, that’s Syco.

Everything that fallowed have happened very quickly. Fractions of the second.

First I thought to myself “Syco”? I’ve heard about syco from boys. They were telling that they teething a guy. And he gets very mad very quckly. When he gets really mad, he chases them. And they run away. It is dump thing to do, that’s what I always though. But, I imagined that they talk about harmless, maybe slightly odd, elderly man. But this guy… Man… This guys look like a killing machine! You would not want to mess around with him.

As I’m thinking that someone from our crowd shouts:

  • Hey Syco, we’re here!!!

My heart stopped. At that very moment, the guy — a beast of a man, a total unit — turned around and charged at us without a word.

All the other guys broke into a run — they were ready, they knew what was coming. They’d done this many times before. But me? I froze. Blacked out for a split second.

First thought to reach my mind, was the confident version of me saying: “Don’t run. You are not with them. You did nothing wrong therefore you are safe”.

Then reason kicked in with a counter-argument: “You think he cares? He’s not about talk — he’s about violence.”

That argument was strong enough. I ran. As fast as I could… The guy was fast, scary fast. But hey, I didn’t need to outrun him. Just the slowest guy in our crowd.

No choise

And you know today. We can judge yang Viktar. Maybe we can say he could do better. He shuldn’t have been there in the first place. And probobly that is true.

But that night I didn’t get to chose. I was pulled into a struggle against my will. It did not metter that I don’t want to be part of this. That I was there by acident. That I’m sorry. The guy would choew me up and spit me out. Before I would even say a word.

I could not escape the situation. I had to decide what I’m going to do…

This world

Why am I telling you this story? Because so often, life is the same way. We get pulled into struggles against our will. We wish things like that would never happen to us. I know how that feels — I’ve had my own battles, and I know some of yours. They’re real. We wish things were different.

But, that’s not an option. We can’t control that. But we can control how do we go about it! We always have two choises.

  1. We can utilize the wisdom of this wold. And worship this worldly system.

Or

  1. We can use God’s wisdom. And glorify Him with the choices we make.

Not easy

Unfortunately, it’s not all that easy. Often times you not gonna be understood. You not gonna be supported and accepted by the people of this world. If you will rely on God’s wisdom.

His wisdom can look foolish and counter intuitive at least. Sometimes it even feels offensive to this world! People expect you to act just like them. And they ca get upset and angry if you don’t.

Sometimes God wisdoms feels hard even to us, those who is in the church right now. We can feel upset. We can feel liek we disagree with God’s wisdom!

If you don’t believe me. Let’s read our scripture for today than!

Romans 13:1-14

¹Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.²Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,⁴for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.⁵Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.⁶For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.⁷ Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

⁸ Owe no one anything, except to love each other…

What do you think now?

I think that that’s a tough scripture. I’m afraid I might actually get cancelled tonight. For many of us, one of the major reasons why we are here in Batumi, is because of our governing authorities.

And talking about this scripture, we will keep it close to the ground. Practical and relevant. We not gonna try to reflect on every single theoretically possible situation of every christian ever.

Better let’s aks ourselves what does it mean for me today? How does it impact my life here in Batumi, Georia?

Trobulation

I got pulled into a struggle as a teenage. Agains my will. I had to decide what to do in my situation.

We didn’t get to choice when and were we were born. Often times we didn’t even get to choice what kind of authorities we are under. Maybe the are good, maybe they are bad. Sometimes they fulfill resposibility and function God assigned them to. Sometimes they care about themselves only.

And When this kind of situations rise up, it is no brainier what the world, what sosiety expects from me. - TO REBEL

Rebel

Rebel became our standard reaction to express our protest. When we disagree. When we have enough of it. When we want something we don’t have, but as we think we deserve. We rebel.

As well look at the bible rebel is everywhere. People of Israel rebell again God all the time. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Even rebelled against God. But first to rebel was a Satan. He rebelled against God. Rebel - is his invention. It is his way of doing things.

Alternative

We don’t want to go down the path of Satan don’t we? We need an alternative. Our scripture for today suggests a different pattern. Something quite opposite to rebel - SUBJECTION. It has a few bold statements that rub us the wrong way.

“there is no authority except from God…”

“whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed…”

“authorities are God’s servants…”

WHAT? Paul, are you out of your mind?

Authority is not inherantly bad. The institute of authorities itself is great tool. Designed by God. With a function and a perpose. It’s a tool that God uses.

So the problem is not the authority. The ultimate problem is sin. Corrupted hearts.

Paul

Paul was not biased writing this lines. He himself experienced fare amount of persecution from the authorities during his lifetime. Roman government was not a fan of Christians by any stretch of the imagination. And yet, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Paul still writes this lines. “be in subjection”… “pay taxes”… Obey, Honor, Respect. Fulfill your duties and obligations as a citizent.

This is what God wants from you! Do this as an act of obedience to God. Act of worship.

Law breakers

As I already mentioned God instituted authorities. They have function and responsibility before God. To serve people. To Protect them from wrongdoers. Punish the crime and etc. But even if they do not fulfill their function well. Even when THEY don’t do their part. God still want us to glorify Him, by fulfillin our part. By staying in subjection.

When governing authorities does not fulfill their function well. It does not give us a license to become law breakers. God wants us to follow the laws of the country we’re in. With an asterisk.

Asterisk

Which is that we believe in superiority of Gods law. If state forces us to break the law of God, we are free to refuse to do that. In fact we should refuse to do that. We place the law of God above evey other law.

And His law is LOVE.

Exodus 1:15–21

  • Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill all newborn Hebrew boys.
  • The midwives disobeyed the king’s order because they feared God more than man.

Exodus 1:17

¹⁷But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.

As a result God blessed them for their obedience to His law rather than Pharaoh’s decree.

  • Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
  • Daniel
  • Mordecai
  • John the Baptist
  • Peter and the Apostles

It was not easy for any of them. They all had to live under ocupation by the nation. All faced this challenge how do I go about it? What do I do?.

And bible is clear: as much as possible we should obey both. State law and God’s commands. But in those rare cases when they contradict one another we should follow the law of God.

GOD BLESSES OBEDIENCE

Rebel is not God’s way. Obedience is. God does not want us to suffer unnecessary persecution. God wants us to be free. Free to do His will. Free to work for His kingdom. Free to serve the lost. To take care of poor. Orphans, widows. Free to go and spread the Gospel.

God bless obedience. Obiedience as an act of worship!

Does not make wrong right

Our obedience does not mean that all authorities are good. That we agree with all they do. No. It does’t justify their bad conduct. We should be in subjection not because governing authorities are great, but because we love God.

It is the act of worship.

Sometimes I forgive - as an act of worship. Because I love God. Sometimes I keep my mouth shut. And don’t reply to rudeness - as an act of worship. Because I love God. Same with subjection to authorities. I do that - as an act of worship. Because I love God.

So, today I want you to consider. How well you adhere to this scripture. Do you subject? Do you pay taxes? Do you render everything that is due?

It doesn’t mean that we should close our eyes, numb our hearts and ignore injustice. And blindly support everything authorities deside to do. No.

But when that happenes, our place is not on the streets fist fighting the police. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil. Our weapon is not a steel rod and broken beer bottle, but the prayer and love.

Even when the world around you suddenly turn full on Syco. And this beast charges at you. Like it was in my little story. God’s will for you is to avoid unnesesery persecusion.

To Love your enemy. To Bless your enemy.

To Render to everyone what is due to them.

God’s will for you is to Live your life as an act of worship to the Lord.