My 7/1/18AM sermon, Living Under Governing Authorities from 1 Peter 2:13-17, is now online. While there’s much I could point out, this sermon sought to unpack how we need to forsake sin and do good for an effect in the world we live.
I opened with a quote from Jonathan Leeman’s recent book, How the Nations Rage, which really captures Peter’s heart in this passage. Leeman writes:
“God’s common grace grants many a nation better than it deserves, but I have little confidence that America will long remain strong, prosperous, and free without any concept of God’s righteousness and justice somewhere in the background. That’s not because I believe in a civil prosperity gospel: obey God and the nation will be blessed as his chosen people. It’s because I believe the way of God’s righteousness and justice is the way of wisdom. And prosperity and flourishing ordinarily come to the wise. The nation can be strong apart from God’s righteousness, like a totalitarian state is strong. Or it can be “free,” in some impoverished and mangy sense of that word, like a stray dog is free. But it won’t be both. Which brings me back to healthy churches. If there is hope for the nation, it’s through the witness and work of churches. Our congregations have the opportunity to live transformed lives as a transformed culture through a transformed politics in their own fellowships right now—all for God’s glory and our neighbors’ good (p.238).”
There’s a lot of areas for growth here, but Peter’s words are stiff enough. I hope this sermon encourages you to do good in the public sphere.
