For children's church, Selena, that's you today. Alright. You would take your Bibles, turn to first Peter chapter two. First Peter chapter two. We will get into the message this morning.

We'll start reading in a moment from verse 13. However, we're going to recap up here for just a moment. Keeping yourself humble in 2024. Why should we keep ourselves humble? Is that a responsibility that we have as God's children?

Well, the answer to that is, well, yes, it is. It's not something we can do without the power of God and the grace of God in our lives directing us, leading us, and in the likeness of Jesus Christ but nonetheless, it is a responsibility we do have. James four ten says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. In first Peter five, five, and six, it says, likewise, you younger submit yourselves under the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility.

For God resisted the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. That is God's command. Therefore, yes, it is a responsibility we have to keep ourselves humble. If we want to see the grace and blessings of God abounding in our lives, our homes, and in our churches, we must learn to humble ourselves.

The opposite of putting ourselves, our ambitions, and our wants on a pedestal. So how does one humble himself or herself as we are commanded to do in first Peter and in James? Well, first of all, again, it's not something you can do in the power of the what? The flesh. Therefore, you need whose help?

You need God's help. So if you need God's help with something, what should you do? You should pray. Right. So the first thing we always ought to do, we need God's help because, well, our old nature is proud and it it's not natural for it to want to be humble.

Therefore, we need God's help and we need to pray. If we lack wisdom, ask of who? Ask of God. And he gives wisdom and he works in our heart and changes us more into the image of Jesus. So pray for it.

Number two, routinely confess your sin to who? First of all, to God. Confess your sins to God. What will keep you humble is daily confessing and admitting that you haven't arrived yet, that there's things you're still struggling with. You need God's forgiveness.

You need God's help in defeating those things, those weaknesses of the flesh. Routinely confess your sin to God. It will keep you humble. Thirdly, acknowledge your sins to others. Okay?

You say, well, I acknowledged it to God. Don't need need to tell anybody else about it. Well, that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, confess your faults, what? One to another.

Why? So that you might, what? Pray for one another. Effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Acknowledging your sins to others, not necessarily to everybody.

You don't have to come forward in church and announce every sin to the whole church that you've committed, but it is good for us to have somebody that we are willing to be open with and to admit that we still have work to do. And not only does it keep us humble, but it also lets others join us in prayer to help strengthen us. It helps to keep us accountable to somebody we can look at. That's why God has given us one another as a church. And he said, don't forsake the assembling together of yourselves as the manner of some is, but exhorting, encouraging, helping one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching, and we can see the day approaching, can we not?

The day of Christ's return, I believe, is coming soon, and we're gonna need God's strength and strength that also comes from one another in that. So don't be afraid to open up to your brother and sister in Christ. Then it takes humility though. It does. But that isn't a what?

That isn't a bad thing. That's a good thing. Number three, take wrong patiently. It's a fact of life. You're going to be wronged.

You're going to be mistreated at times. Sometimes even by your Christian brethren because they are human yet too. And sometimes our mouth gets the better of us. Sometimes we say things to somebody's face we shouldn't say. Sometimes we say it behind their what?

Behind their back that we shouldn't say. Yes, that's wrong. It's a it's a sin that we need to what? Confess. That's right.

But the fact of the matter is you will be mistreated. You will be wronged, particularly in the world and sometimes by your own family members or your brothers and sisters in Christ. You stay humble by learning to take wrongs patiently and not fly off with the handle and not allow anger to get the best of you and not to think, oh, I am so important. I should never be treated this way. I deserve better.

I'm gonna get back at them. It's not it's not the way of who? It's not the way of Christ who went as a lamb to the slaughter. He opened not his mouth for you and for me. The Bible says, vengeance is mine.

I will repay, saith who? Saith the Lord. In the meantime, we are to live peaceably with the people we like. No. We're living peaceably with what?

All men. Okay? Even the ones who don't treat us kindly, we keep ourselves humble by reminding ourselves there's a bigger picture here than just me. Number four this morning, graciously submitting to what? Authority.

Graciously submitting to authority even when they are undeserving. First Peter chapter two verse 13. Submit yourselves therefore to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or the governors or under them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, the praise of them that do well. So is the will of God that with well doing, you 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. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only for the good and gentle, but also to the fervent. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more.

Dear heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word, for your example, the opportunity to exalt you today. Lord, I pray that you'd open up our hearts to receive your message, that we might be conformed more to the image of our savior Jesus Christ, that we may be clothed in the humility of Christ today, that we might not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, that we learn to might learn to think more highly of others and of our savior today. May you be glorified. May you draw men unto yourself. We do pray in Jesus name.

Amen. So a few things from this passage and some others this morning. We think of submitting to authority. What's what's the first authority that pops into your head? God's authority.

Okay? God's authority. Of course, we should submit ourselves to the authority of God. There is no argument over our need to submit ourselves to our loving and righteous and almighty Lord in heaven. This is implied in Romans ten nine where it says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, that is Jesus as your what?

Your Lord, Meaning, your your master and your supreme authority. When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, we come to him as our Lord. Yes, he was a man and in that way he is our equal, but he is far more than just that. He is the son of God. He is the second person of the trinity.

He is our Lord. And Lord implies submission in the very statement of our faith. If we wish to fulfill the command to be humble, it begins with a growing attitude of submission and obedience to our Lord. A child of God who is not submitting to their Lord is not practicing humility but pride and stubbornness. If you were blessed to have children, you know a little bit about pride and stubbornness.

If you were a child, you know a little bit about pride and stubbornness. Okay? And children sometimes, by the words of their mouth, say one thing, but by their actions, they do what? They imply another. Okay?

That their humility and and love and all of this is oftentimes outdone by their pride and selfishness and stubbornness. And we as children of God sometimes act in the same manner, do we not? And it is one thing to think ourselves to be humble and to love God with all our heart. And yet, when God says, want you to do this for us to stubbornly say, I you know, maybe later. Maybe later.

Or, no, not now. Or, not not that way. Or, are you sure that's what that says? And we oftentimes do that. Now, we have acknowledged by faith Jesus as our Lord, but that doesn't mean we always sadly do where what he says and go where he leads.

And that needs to be changing in our life. We have one authority in this life who is always fair. He is always righteous, always loving, and that is our God who deserves our obedience and our love always. As Jesus submitted himself to the will of his father, Philippians chapter two, took upon the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of man, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. As he submitted himself to the will of his father humbly, we are to exhibit the same love and humility in our obedience to the Lord also.

As we call ourselves Christians and children of God, it is implied, my sheep hear my voice and they what? They follow me. And we need to learn to follow. And to follow means to submit our will to what? To his will.

That doesn't mean your will vanishes, but that means your will comes after whose will? His will. His will comes first. He knows what he's doing. We need not fear submitting our will to his because he only wants what is best and you can always trust him.

It is our place and our privilege to be the servants of God. So first off, obviously, we need to submit ourselves to the will of our father, which is in heaven. That Paul clearly says in Romans twelve one, I beseech you therefore, brethren, mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. But also to God ordained, other God ordained authorities. And this is when sometimes we struggle more with this than we do with the other.

Okay? I know I'm supposed to obey God. That's a given. But I have to submit myself to them? To to those?

To that? That doesn't make any sense. Why should I have to submit myself to that law or to to those people? Well, again, there's just a little bit of what popping up in your mind when that's going through. It's called pride.

Yeah. Why should I have to do that? Well, you should do that because God says so. Because God has ordained other authorities for our what? For our good.

Are children giving given parents to make them miserable? Or are they giving parents to make is that for their good? Well, it's for their good. Now sometimes kids think that their parents are there to make them miserable, but that's not the case. And good parents, in particular, are always there for the good of their children.

And they try their best to be authorities that lead them in the way that is right so that one day, when they leave the home, they will train up a child the way he should go, and when he is old, he will what? Not depart from it. They will choose to continue on that path. Submitting to the Lord also means submitting to other authorities in life he has ordained or established for us. And refusing to submit to them, we are by definition refusing to submit to him.

Even though they are not always honorable, not always just, not always considered or kind because they, unlike God, are human and flawed as we, and sometimes maybe more so. Yet, in honoring them, we honor him. Demonstrate our humility and love and allegiance to who? To Christ. Few verses here.

Romans thirteen one, it was in the bulletin. We could read all first six or seven verses. It's on the very same topic that we read here in first Peter two. Paul having written that, Peter having written this, but all led by the Holy Spirit. Romans thirteen one, let every soul be subject under the higher powers for there's no power but of God.

The powers that be are, what, ordained of God. So governmental powers, powers in the home, they are ordained of God. Therefore, if they are established and ordained by God, we must honor them. That is our responsibility. First Peter two, I already read these verses, but I'll I'll put them up here to help make the point.

Verse 13 says, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the what? For the Lord's sake. Not for their sake alone, but for the Lord's sake. First Peter two fifteen, for this is the will of God. What's what's the will of God?

That you submit yourselves to the ordinance of men, that with well doing, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. If we rebel against human authorities, if we're always chomping at the bit and other people see that, if we're stretching the justification for disobeying laws, then we do not lift up the Lord Jesus and strengthen his testimony before the world. Instead, we diminish it. It is God's will that we thus submit ourselves to the authorities that God has placed in our life. He goes on, Ephesians six one, children, obey your parents in the Lord in the, what?

Lord, for this is right. Who in here had perfect parents? I had good parents, loving parents, godly parents, but by no means perfect. I have a perfect God in heaven who gave me the wonderful parents he did. It was my job as a child to obey them, to submit to their authority in the Lord for this is right, even when they were imperfect.

Ephesians five twenty two, wives, submit yourselves under your own husbands as what? Under the Lord. Not because your husband always deserves it, because no husband always deserves it, but God always deserves it. And therefore, again, not popular in our society, wives are to submit to the leadership of their husbands. As unto who?

As unto the Lord. Who does deserve it? Now it goes on in the passage to say that husbands are to love their wives as what? Christ loved the church. So it's not one-sided here, folks.

Okay? But we're dealing with the issue of submission. Ephesians six five through eight, servants, be obedient to them that your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto who? As unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. What what is God's will?

That you obey those of authority over you with goodwill doing service as to who? As to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free. Now, in the economy back in Christ's day, you had free men and you had servants and there were a lot of people that weren't free that were enslaved. And yet God said, do your best in that condition, position, a state from which, you are not freed presently to submit yourselves. Today, praise the Lord, we're in a different economy where we don't have free men and bond or slaves, but all are free in our society.

Praise the Lord. But we do have employers and we do have what? Employees. And there is a similar chain of authority between employer and employee. And so it would make sense that this applies to that.

And, of course, employers are always have your best interest at heart, and employers always make the right decisions. Obviously, that isn't true. But yet, we are told to submit to those who have authority over us for whose sake? For the Lord's sake because he deserves it. And the authorities in the home, at work, in government are ordained by God for our good, for our society to function, to help protect us.

Those are ordained of God. We need to submit ourselves to God's authority, to other authorities which he has ordained, following the example of those who have gone before us, particularly of the disciples and of Jesus Christ. If you want to be humble like unto Jesus, your savior, you need to learn to submit willingly to these authorities also, not only when they are right and considerate, but also when they are wrong and unkind, not popular in our culture today. That tends to be a a rebel culture. I did it my way.

Yeah. The culture of our day praises and encourages individualism. Is individualism entirely bad? The answer to that is no. In its proper place, individual is good and healthy.

God doesn't want us to be cookie cutter Christians or people. He doesn't want us all to be the same. He doesn't want us to live by a long list of dos and don'ts. By God's grace, we've been freed from the long list of dos and don'ts to be more like Jesus. He is our due.

We follow him. Nonetheless, when individualism revolts against God and ordained authority, it becomes ugly rebellion and reeks of pride rather than humility. Verse 15 again, if you're in first Peter two, For this is the will of God, that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free, as we are free in Christ, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, for an excuse to do bad, evil, rebellious, stubborn, hurtful, vengeful things. Not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor all men.

Love the brethren. Fear God. Honor the king. As a Christian, you've been set free in Christ from the dictates and the condemnation of the law. And yet the proper use of liberty in Christ is to what?

What is the proper use of liberty in Christ? To love one another. Christ said, John wrote, I give you a new law, a new commandment, that ye what? That ye love one another. The gospels has recorded Christ saying that in these two commandments, love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself is contained all of the law and the prophets.

Because if you'll just focus on using the liberty and grace and power and freedom that God has given you to love the Lord your God, to love one another, that that'll take care of the rest. Rather than just focusing on all the dos and don'ts and being restricted, we are not restricted. We are freed and empowered in Christ to love one another. God has set us free from the law of Moses to serve a higher law, the law of Christ, to love one another including our God. Ephesians five thirteen, Paul writes, for brethren, ye have been called on the liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

We do this by voluntarily and humbly choosing to bow to God's authority in our lives and to the authorities he has given us for our good. The world champions the cause of the rebel. It cheers when the stuffy authority gets what's coming to him. But this is not the way of Christ nor the way of humility and love. It's not the attitude that Christ gave us or expects of us, But rather, a humble person who ex who accepts their place and purpose in God's will submits to his will and his authority.

But rather a humble person who willingly submits to the imperfect authorities God has given them. And they are imperfect. I know. But yet they are our authorities. And it is our responsibility to do our best to honor and to submit to them.

And to look at a bigger picture than just my rights, my rights, my rights. I should be able to do this and I should never be treated that way. That by doing good, respecting authority, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, that you might strengthen the testimony of the gospel and reveal to others the love and righteousness of Jesus Christ. If you can, take your Bibles and hold your place in Peter, but turn over to first Corinthians nine. First Corinthians nine.

First Corinthians nine and verse 19. We'll read a few verses there. The apostle Paul wrote, first Corinthians nine nineteen. He writes, for though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. Under the Jews, I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews.

To them that are under the law is under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without laws without law, be not without law to God, but under the law of Christ, then I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake that I might be partaker thereof with you.

Paul says, yes, I am free in Christ. I'm free from the law, the old covenant. I have but one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But that doesn't mean that I'm free from all authority. It doesn't mean I can just do whatever I want.

No. There's a bigger picture here. The salvation of lost souls, the glory of my God that's in heaven. And Paul says, I choose by choice to place myself under the authority of those that God has put in my life. Giving up at time liberty that is clearly mine, that I might win one more soul to Jesus Christ.

That's more important, Paul says. When Paul was with the Jews, he didn't disdain their keeping of the law, their customs and manners. He didn't bring pork into the house to eat with them. He respected them. When he was in a city, he did his best to respect the the authorities and the laws of the land where he was.

Those sometimes conflicted with the commandment of God. We'll come back to that in a minute. But he did his very best to show himself to be humble and to be willing to submit to the authority of others who got their authority from God. Likewise, Jesus Christ, in Luke two fifty one, it says, and he went down with them, that is with his mother and his father, with Mary and Joseph, and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them, but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. As Jesus grew into a young man, he went with his parents to Jerusalem, went with a caravan, and when they went to leave, they thought Jesus was somewhere in the caravan.

They didn't realize that he was still back in Jerusalem at the temple talking with the rabbis. And when they found figured out he wasn't there, they went back for him. And when they came to him and said, what what are you doing? He said, you didn't know I would be about my father's business in my father's house? But but he left with them and he submitted himself to them.

Yet as being the son of God, he submitted to the authority of his what? Of his earthly parents. In Matthew 17, he paid the temple tax. He didn't have to pay the temple tax in a way because, well, the temple tax was really going to who? It was going to him.

But yet, he submitted himself and he paid the temple tax. He paid the Roman tax. When some came to him, Mark chapter 12, and said, should I give this coin unto Caesar? Should I pay taxes to Rome? Jesus said, give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and give unto God the things that are God's.

Pay your taxes. You say, well, but my some of my taxes, they go to stuff I don't support. I don't want them being used for that. So you think Caesar was using the taxes he got for all good things? I don't think so.

But yet, Jesus said, given to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Respect the authority. Honor the priests. Jesus did that. Even when they sent a mob of people to come arrest him in the Garden Of Gethsemane, he didn't have to go with them, but he did.

When Peter pulled out his sword and cut the high priest servant's ear off, Jesus told him to put it away and he took the ear and he peeled it. That was the attitude of our savior towards wicked human authorities. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the what? Cross and obeying his Lord, his father in heaven also meant obeying and submitting himself to wicked hands who nailed him to a cross as he died there to pay for the sins of the world. Although Paul and his Paul and his disciples didn't didn't make it known that God's revealed will trumped human authority, we must obey God rather than men.

They also did their very best to minister and work within the confines of local authorities whenever they could. And so should we. Whether they be government authority or family authority, church authority or school authority, I like this verse, Hebrews thirteen seventeen. It's it's a hard one to follow sometimes, but it's a good verse. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account that they may do with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you.

Now, that also bites the other way because if you're somebody in authority, you are going to give an account to who? God. So if you're the pastor of the church, guess who you're going to give an account to. If you're the husband in the home, if you're the parent in the home, if you're the employer at work, if you're the official state, God who ordained those authorities is gonna hold you, what? Accountable.

That's right. But we should do our best, whether it be government or school or workplace or others, to reveal Christ to others by bowing to their authorities whenever possible, sometimes to our own what? To our own hurt. Maybe without a little less maybe with a little less whining sometimes than what we do. Oh, yes.

I'll obey, but I'm I am sure gonna grumble about it. I'm gonna try to keep my car under that speed limit or close to it, but, hey, I'm really not gonna be happy with that person in front of me that's gonna go 35 when it says 35. If these official authority should demand we do something contrary to our faith or the commands of Christ, we must choose the what? The the higher authority indeed. We must obey God rather than men.

Christ healed on the Sabbath when the authorities told him he couldn't, he did anyway. Why? Because he had a mandate from his father in heaven. Daniel prayed. His three friends wouldn't bow.

Moses came before Pharaoh. The midwives in Egypt didn't kill the Hebrew babies as they were commanded. Obadiah protected a 100 prophets and hid them from Ahab. He was part of Ahab's administration. He submitted his self in large degree to his king, a wicked king, a vile king.

But when it came to exposing prophets who would be killed for their faith, he hid them. Why? Because he was a rebel at heart? No. Because protecting those lives was the right thing to do before who?

Before God, and there was a higher authority. To protect innocent life indeed is a high standard that we are expected to keep sometimes to go against the other authorities to do so. However, whenever possible, Paul attempted to follow the laws of the place where he was ministering, short of keeping his mouth shut about Christ or bowing to the idols of men, as did Elijah and Obadiah during the reign of king Ahab. Even as David refused to do harm to king Saul, as we've studied about on Sunday nights, He refused to do harm to sing king Saul when given the opportunity time and time again. Why?

Because king Saul was the Lord's what? How did David put it? The Lord's anointed. The Lord's anointed what? King and authority over David.

Now if Saul said, why don't you stay here, David, so I can throw a javelin through you? He didn't do that. He didn't have to obey that command, but he wasn't gonna take up the javelin and put it through Saul. Why? Because he was God's ordained, anointed authority.

We need to obey our authorities. Just a side note very quickly. In The United States Of America, we have the privilege of choosing many of those authorities. And I believe all my heart that is a privilege that we are granted not just by the constitution of The United States, but by the God of heaven that we need to take advantage of. Because I think we, as being governing ourselves, will also be held what?

Accountable. So if you haven't registered to vote, you might ought to do so. And you might ought inform yourself so you make a wise decision. And you might remember when you go into a voting booth or send in a ballot that you're not representing a political party. You are representing the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, the king of heaven, and we are to be salt and light on this earth.

One way we can do that is to vote. You can't complain about what you get if you don't take the opportunity and privilege God has given you wonderfully in this place to have a vote. Oftentimes, I hear Christians complain and some of them don't vote. So alright. Sign.

And finally, we need not only obey and submit ourselves in our heart, but also in our deeds. Our actions should reflect the attitude of our what? Of our heart. So pay your taxes. Obey every ordinance and law that does not require you to contradict your faith to the commands of your Lord.

Submit to law enforcement, judges, and state officials. Why? Because he deserves it. Because they're ordained of God. Yes, they're imperfect, but they are there for our what?

For our good. Submit. Obey your parents' children. If you go to school somewhere, obey your teachers. I went to a school called Bob Jones University in South Carolina.

I had a friend in high school that said, why in the world do you want to go there? We both went to Christian schools and she was excited. She was going to go to a school where there was no rules and she could do whatever she wanted. Well, that's not true. There were still rules, but sadly, she did more of what she wanted and it went the wrong way.

I went to Bob Jones and I got there and guess what? I found out there were even more rules than I thought there were. And for the first year, I grumbled and I griped and I complained. And then it occurred to me, guess what? I chose to go here.

This this was my what? My choice and so I need, therefore, to submit to the rules and quit what? And we're griping because in that case, I could just leave. Let us strive by God's grace to put on the humility of Christ, submit to the authorities in our lives both to the good and to the general, to the unjust and the just, but most of all to our father in heaven. To come to him as he has prescribed.

How has God prescribed for us to come to him? Through faith in who? Jesus Christ. The greatest rebellion of all is rejecting the way that God has provided to receive forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ who died for you and rose again from the dead. God said, Jesus said, John fourteen six, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the father but by me. You must start by choosing Jesus as your Lord and by recognizing he is the only way and trusting your eternal soul to him. And then to submit ourselves daily to the authority of God more and more, not content with how we did things last year or the year before or last month, but submitting to him today and submitting to the authorities he has placed over us humbly without grumbling and complaining that we might that others might see our, what, our good works and glorify our father, which is in heaven. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your word today, the example of our savior and others who have gone before us.

Lord, I pray that we would choose to obey you in all things and, Lord, to respect and honor the authorities you placed in our life even when that is difficult. Lord, to submit ourselves daily into our father in heaven, and if there's one here today that has yet to accept Jesus as the Lord and savior of their life, I pray as we give this hymn of invitation that they would come. And I pray that they might be saved today. And I pray, Lord, for all of us, Lord, to whom you have spoken this morning. You put your finger on some area of our life and our heart in which we are rebelling or grumbling, I pray, Lord, that we might take a moment to talk with you about it.

In Jesus' precious name, we do pray. Amen.