Living When the World Is Watching | 1 Peter 2:11–17

All right, good to see you all this morning. It's going to be a warm day outside, but we'll get right into God's Word here. In case you don't know who I am, I'm Dr. Jim Coakley. I teach at Moody Bible Institute. That's my day job. We just had graduation yesterday, so finished 27 years of teaching at Moody Bible Institute. Yeah. Yeah. but I'm also one of the elders here at 180 Chicago, and it's a joy that I have to be able to share and open God's word and unpack it for you this morning. So of course, our series is on 1 Peter. We're calling it Strangers Far From Home, and so it's on 1 Peter. And so this morning, we're going to be looking at living when the world is watching. We know we live in a fallen world and they're always have their eyes on us. So that's a lot of pressure. But how can we live when the world is watching? But I want us to just think for a moment when we think about what do some people groups, why do some people groups thrive and others face immense headwinds? And again, we have to be careful with sociology. Studying people can be messy. But what they have found is that there's some traits that tend to be dominant in some people groups and in some affinity groups. And I'll explain what I mean by that. If these traits are present, they tend to thrive as compared to not thriving. And we all want to thrive. And so what are these traits that sociologists have found that are present in groups that tend to kind of thrive under pressures? Number one, this sounds a little strange, they tend to have a little bit of a superiority complex. They think that they are special. Now, whether this is your ethnic group, or if this is your sports team that you favor, or if this is some type of skill or whatever, you have a little bit of that. Now, of course, we have to temper that, but the idea is you have a little bit of idea that you're special, you are exceptional. You have to have that, because if you don't, what? You're just gonna be drifting around in this world, in this culture. But number two, it seems kind of opposite. Not only do you have a little bit of a superiority complex, your specialness, you also though have a healthy insecurity. You feel even though your group is exceptional, you still have to prove something. And I think what we think about what's going on here is, I think we had a good example of that this last year. We have not had a lot to cheer with our national football team, the Chicago Bears, here in the Chicago area. Last year, we finally won our division after so long. Yep, yep. And if you watch the news after every game, you saw the coach in the locker room, and what were they doing? They had a motto, a cheer. What is it? Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Till your good gets better and your better gets best, right? You've heard that, right? So it's a little bit, even though they were the Chicago Bears, even though they have a long storied history in the Chicago area, they still have to what? Prove something every week. So even though you can say we are the whatever superior team or ethnic group or whatever, you still have to prove it. You have to let people see that you are exceptional and you have to have something every week to prove it. But then lastly, this is important. You have to have impulse control. That is, you have to have the long game in play. You know, we think about the way in which for retirement, if you're going to have a successful retirement, you need to make little sacrifices now and not buy everything that you maybe want in order that you have some funds for later. Again, it's the proverbial study the ant who stores up in the summer what he needs in the winter. And so the idea here is they really understand that they have to do some sacrifices for the better good long term. And so they're willing to go through rough times in the present in order to secure a more definitive future. And so we'll come back to these traits because I think we'll see these evident as Peter unpacks them in 1 Peter. But when we want to think about when the world is watching us as believers, these traits I think will also be present. But let's do a little review of where we're at in 1 Peter. 1 Peter is talking about a lot of things, and I love Peter because he's so practical. Remember, he was a fisherman. He's not, wasn't like Paul, trained in Gamaliel's school. You know, he was trained on the rough waters of the Sea of Galilee with people, blue-collar type people, and he just unpacks things in very simplistic form. Now, he gets into trouble oftentimes. Again, we call him the apostle with the foot-shaped mouth. He opens his mouth and inserts foot all the time. But here, this is at the end of his ministry, he's now writing to believers. And we read from the first couple verses that these are believers scattered throughout modern-day Turkey. And so he's writing to encourage them because they're no longer in their little bubble in Israel. They're scattered about through the Roman Empire. So they have these little enclaves of Christ followers scattered about and it's rough because they're not the majority, they're the minority. And so he's writing to them to encourage them. But he kind of peppers throughout, but then he gets to the very end and he lets it be known, hey, this is the goal for the whole book. So in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 12, we read this verse. Now again, Peter's writing through a secretary, an amanuensis we call it. And so it's by Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you. exhorting and declaring that what? This is the true grace of God. Stand in it. So, in spite of what we're going to get into later this morning about what do we do when the world is watching, we are to stand in grace. And that really is a good way to segment the entire book of 1 Peter. And so if we look at 1 Peter in terms of a structure, we can see there's three major units and they all have to deal with God's grace. Unit number one, and this is now why it's important for us to review, because up until this point, we've looked at God's grace and salvation. We've talked about we are born again. And so he's been talking about God's grace or what we call saving grace. And for those of you who have named the name of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you know what that saving grace is. And if you haven't experienced that, you can this morning by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. That's God's grace in salvation. And we sang this morning about amazing grace. This is amazing grace. It is amazing. But it's not just saving grace. There's another type of grace now that Peter is gonna transition to, and that's God's grace, and yes, it's not gonna be an easy message, God's grace in submission. And really, we can talk about this, this is what? Sustaining grace. This is the grace that we need day by day. We don't need to be saved anymore, because we are born again of incorruptible seed. We are destined for heaven. But in the meanwhile, before a watching world, we need what? Sustaining grace. Because we have to, and this is not a word we don't like to think about much, we need to submit. And so that's God's grace in submission. But I love the way Peter does this because he talks about the good grace, the saving grace. beginning of the book then he transitions to say okay this is going to be a little bit harder now now that you're born again here's the type of grace you also need to live before a watching world but that it's going to get even harder so stay tuned peter is going to stage this so that you are prepped for the harder one at the end of the book god's grace in suffering We might call that the martyr's grace. Because for Peter's recipients, oftentimes they had to pay the ultimate price to name the name of Jesus. To say Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. And they needed to be reminded of that what? Grace to undergo suffering. We even sang that in the song. If we suffer with him, we will rise again with him. So this is the way in which Peter is segmenting out this book. We start out with the good saving grace, then we go to sustaining grace, and then we go to really what we might say the martyr's grace to handle suffering. So now we're in the middle section. We're now beginning the middle section. And so the big question for us this morning then is, how are we to live as believers when the hostile world around us is watching us? So, and this is our goal, the reason why we undergo all this, so that we might attract them to the gospel. Because that's why we're here. so if you have your bibles turn to first peter chapter 2 and we'll begin reading at verse 11. and we'll have the verses up on the screen this is first peter chapter 2 beginning at verse 11. beloved i urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good, you should put the silence, the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. And he concludes, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Father, I pray that as we look at these words this morning, that we will recognize your sustaining grace to be able to live out this very hard thing to do, which is to submit. Father, we stiffen our backs against anyone telling us anything what to do, but we trust that as we see what your word says and how we are to live before the world before us as watching us, it's hostile even towards us at times. Pray that we'll take to heart what Peter said back long ago and take to practice and learn from these things for us today. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. So when we think about what this is going on here, he's going to give us four metaphors. The four metaphors are, first of all, number one, live as an alien immigrant. He says, I urge you as sojourners and exiles. What is he saying? He's saying we are not built for this world. Remember we sang this morning. We are what? Made for more. We are made to live in heaven with him. So in the meanwhile, we have some things we have to work out. And so what that means is that we have to live as though we're just a passing through. We have to live as though we are just temporary residents, alien immigrants. We don't like the word alien, but it just means somebody whose home is not this land. And so even though, yes, he's going to talk about being good citizens later on, ultimately, that's not our identity. Our identity is as resident aliens, immigrants. And so we are just pilgrims of passing through. And so this acknowledges that this world is not all there is. That we're living for something more. And so I have the illustration of some tent pegs here. We are, again, even the Bible talks about these bodies are tents and they're going to fall. We're going to leave these tents. That's a physical body. But also I think the analogy of Abraham living in a tent everywhere he goes, temporarily living around the land of promise, is a good metaphor for us to keep in mind. Sometimes we live as though this world is all there is. And we put our tent pegs really deep, our foundations deep into this world. And what we need to do is we need to have this idea, hey, we can up and go anytime, anywhere for his sake. How deep are the tent pegs you have put into this world? And I'll send these around so you can hold this and you can be thinking about it as you contemplate how deep are your tent pegs in this world? And can you, in a moment's notice, uproot from this world, so to speak, because he calls you to, because we're just pilgrims. We are just a passing through. And there's the old song. Again, I was pastor in St. Louis for nine years, and they loved this country southern gospel. And so we sang this song quite a lot. This world is not my home. But I love the lyrics of this. It goes like this. This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door and I what? Can't feel at home in this world anymore. Folks, this world is not our home. We are just pilgrims. We are resident aliens. We're just temporarily living here on this world. So don't put your tent pegs too deep into this world. Number two, he gives another metaphor. He says what? Abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. He says fight like a soldier. Live like a resident alien, but fight like a soldier. Because what? We're living in a war zone. We cannot live with a peacetime mentality. And so he gives two fronts, the passion of the flesh, and this is not just sexual lust. These are the things that just preoccupy us, that our passions, sometimes they're good passions, but they're inordinate or they're too much. And so we have to fight even in the little moments, all of the passions of the flesh, not just even the sexual ones. but also inordinate desires. These are desires that are not in line with us living as resident pilgrims in this world, where we're putting our affections on things below, not on things above. And so these then function as replacement gods. Are there replacement gods that you are, again, bowing down to? So we are to live, number one, as resident aliens, pilgrims, just to pass them through. Number two, we are to fight like soldiers. We are to resist the fleshly desires. And that's what makes it hard, because the world is watching, and we have these desires. What are we going to do with them? We have to control them. Again, that's that self-control aspect. We have to be able to reign them in. to realize that the world, the flesh, and the devil are after us, and we need to resist those things. We need to live in light of the long view and put away those temporary things, as good as they even might be, or as evil as they might be, and we know that they are evil. We need to wage war against those things, those desires. Number three, we need to behave like an ambassador. It says in verse 12, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. I love the way he starts that. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles. Because sometimes we as believers have a tendency to do what? Separate. We have a tendency to be doomsday preppers and go off to who knows where and kind of... Disconnect from the world around us. No, Peter is reminding Peter, hey, you live among the Gentiles. You are living among them. Don't stop living among them. But what? Be honorable while you live among them. So when they speak against you as evildoers, and they will, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Now I have a good personal example of this. I think I've mentioned this before. I think most people like me. I think I'm a likable guy. And on my block, I have lots of good relationships with our neighbors. Most of them. I have one that lives next door to us. And for 15 years now, maybe even more, it's been rough. And I think, what am I doing? I'm lovable. But it's a good reminder to me that even though I tried to live honorable, some people malign you. Now, just again, longstanding history. We've had all sorts of issues. She's called the police on us and we've had to justify ourselves. It's property issues with water. She thinks that our water from our gutters is going into her basement. And so she has just maligned us over and over and over again. And we've done everything. We've made all sorts of mitigations to try to alleviate even more water, but water goes downhill, not uphill towards her basement. But That being what it is, again, it's that kind of thing is you can't argue because in her mind, that's the problem, okay? So again, you can't rationalize this, but this is then the challenge. Just about two weeks ago, I was walking in the neighborhood. She just happened to be driving by. She rolled down her window, called me a cuss word, and a pervert. Now, the police have told us because there's been some issues, hey, put a security camera on your property line just to make sure you can document anything that's going on. Well, because we did that, she thinks that that security camera now is peering into her bedroom window. Okay, so this is now, I mean, but some of you, you're laughing. Some of you, you're laughing because you've had similar type of experiences with people. You can't please everyone. And they're going to malign you, even call you nasty swear words and perverts. Now, do you think I'm a pervert? Thank you for the laughter, by the way. Why? Because when you hear that charge, you should think, that doesn't stick. That doesn't work. And I have another analogy here. I have a handle. You know, that handle doesn't stick. I'm not a pervert. And so when people hear that, they say, no, that's not a handle you can pull against him. Now, are there other traits I have that might be handles? Okay, I have to be honest, there might be other traits. You can just ask my wife what some of those traits might be. But the idea is, before a watching world, before the Gentiles, you can't have handles on you that they can yank and say, oh yeah, he's like this, she's like this, and they're able to pull you down to them. We need to live such a life there's no handles on us. Because the world is watching. Now, they may get it all wrong. You can't really change the way they think. But what you can do is live your life in such a way that those charges don't stick. That's what Peter is talking about. And so we have to realize that we are on call constantly. Believe it or not, you are all gospel ministers. Once they know you are a believer, once they know you are a Christian, a Christ follower, they're watching you. And of course, that's a lot of pressure for sure. But that can also then be a reason why we're left here, is to be that witness before a watching world. And so we have to live as though any accusation does not stick. Peter was writing to a church that was undergoing lots of this kind of pressure. Now in the second century, we actually have a letter written to Diogenes and he talks about what the testimony was like of these early believers. So these are our brothers and sisters from the second century AD. And listen to how they are described in this letter. And so somebody's describing what the early believers are like. What are their traits? What are their ways that they live out? It says they dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. Peter's point. As citizens, they share in all things with each other and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land to them is their native country, and every land at their birth as a land of strangers. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They are poor, yet make many rich. They are in lack of all things, yet abound in all. They are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonored, they are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified. They are reviled and blessed. They are insulted and repay the insult with honor. They do good, yet are punished as evildoers. Those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. Nothing new, folks. This is what our brothers and sisters had to deal with almost 2,000 years ago. Same charges, same issues. So what Peter is writing to the churches scattered throughout modern-day Turkey is just as appropriate for us today. And these are the metaphors that we are to live out. And so when we think about this, this is then one of the last points that you're going to make, and that's number four, submit Like a citizen. Again, let's review what Peter says. Be subject. Again, we don't like that word. Be subject. And again, notice who we're doing it for. For the Lord's sake. He is asking us to be subject to every human institution. Whether it be the emperor or supreme. Again, we have to remember who was the emperor at the time Peter was writing this. Most likely, Nero. And if you know anything about Roman emperors, Nero is not one of the good ones. And so for Peter to say, yes, what? Be subject to every human institution, even Emperor Nero, that is saying a whole lot. Now, I get it, and again, please don't buy the lie that the way to change this world is political, social, and economic. Now, we are called to influence those areas, but that's not the way to change the world. Jesus has lots of instructions about how we are to live in those areas, but that's not the way that we try to improve this citizenship, this culture, this country. I get it. We are citizens. We have certain rights and privileges, and we need to use and avail ourselves of those rights and privileges, but there's ways that we can go about it. And sadly, we get into the power game or the control game. But again, the idea here is Peter's writing people have very little of it. And even if we think we have it for a moment, it's easily lost. And so we have to be very careful where we put all of our focus, our energy. And so what Peter's reminding us is that we are to be subject to every human institution, even the faulty ones. And to make it even harder, he says, this is the will of God. This is not, well, if you like the guy that's in office, you like the governor, go ahead, be subject to him. But if you don't, go ahead and make his life miserable. No, this is the will of God. We'd be subject to every human institution, regardless of political party, regardless of their form of government. We are to be good citizens because remember, we're not citizens of this world ultimately, we are what? Citizens of heaven. And so this is the will of God that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. That's the reason because we are living before a watching world for the sake of the gospel. And so we are then to what? Remind ourselves of these four points. We are to live like an alien immigrant. We are to fight against those inner desires, those passions. Fight like a soldier. We are to behave like an ambassador because we're always on call. We're never off duty as a believer. And we are to submit like a citizen. And so when that submitting like a citizen, we look at what he says in verse 16 as a reminder. He says, live as people who are free. Not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil. Don't use your liberty. And again, these are biblical concepts. We follow the law of liberty. Well, that makes no sense. If you're free, you are free from the law. But no, we follow the law of liberty. And he uses the same oxymoron today where we are free servants. We're servants, but we're free. No, a servant is a person who is owned by somebody else. But how can you be then truly free? So this is the conundrum. This is the strangeness of the paradox that you and I live. We are free, but we're servants. But that's our calling. And so we are to live as free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. And so the idea here is freedom then used rightly is the idea of 1 Peter 2.16. It says, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. So using your Christian freedom as a way to avoid accountability is not freedom. It's just simply a cover for your passions, which Peter instructed you earlier to what? Curb, to wage war against them. And so we're using this freedom in a right way. We're not using it as a cover for our own passions, because we have those curbed. We have those under control, but we're using it to live before a watching world for the sake of the gospel. And he concludes with four responses as citizens, and I love this. Again, this is a beautiful way that he kind of ends this paragraph. gives these four injunctions, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. So notice he begins and ends with honor. He gets to the two important ones, really, in the middle. But he says, first of all, honor everyone. That's important because as Christ followers in this world, not only are we made in God's image, but so is what? Everyone else around us. So they bear God's image in them. Even if they're flawed, even if they're broken, even if they're not, we want them to come to the Lord as broken, flawed people. That's one of our mottos. Come as you are. Because you can then come into the presence of Christ and be changed. You can experience that saving grace, but then you can also experience sustaining grace to help you live out this life. And it's a hard life. Because the world is watching and ready to knock you down, to malign you, ready to ridicule you, ready to throw you in prison even if they can. But you are to live your lives as honorable as you can among the world. And so we are to honor everyone. This is the widest circle. But then he says this, love the brotherhood. This is within the body of Christ. You are to love your fellow brothers and sisters because we are family. And they receive something deeper than honor. Honor, we can just honor everyone because they're made in the image of God. But love is a higher calling. And this is one of the great hallmarks of 180 Chicago is that we truly love one another. Keep it up, please. But then, notice, we fear God. don't fear everyone we don't fear the brothers and sisters we we fear god that is our ultimate authority reverence belongs to him alone that's the center of our lives but then he comes back to honor the emperor it's almost a quiet little diss He does it, again, I love this. This is counter-cultural. This is revolutionary, but in a subtle way. Remember, he starts out, honor everyone. That should include who? The emperor. And so he says, oh yeah, by the way, these big guys that puff themselves up, bigger than all get out, yeah, honor them. But notice, it's not fear the emperor. You are only to fear God. It's love the brothers and sisters, honor everyone, including the emperor. Those are our priority commitments. So it's the same word as he mentioned earlier, but it's not fear and it's not love to our political leaders, even though we are subject to them, even though we are to obey them. Let's go back to those three traits that we said allow for a people group or affinity group to thrive. They first of all have a superiority complex. They know they're exceptional. They're special. What did Peter say just before this section? You are a royal priesthood. We are special. We are little believers in Christ. We are little Christians. We are children of God. And we can go through all of the things that we have as that special relationship. We are truly special. We are a chosen people. We are exceptional. But we also have to have that healthy insecurity. We have to know that this world is not our home. That gives us an actual edge. Because whatever the world wants to entice us with to call them to conform to, we don't have to. So we have this idea that we can prove that this world is not all there is. Our treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. We don't have to live like they do, trying to get all that they can out of this world. Because what? We have loose tent pegs. And then we have what? Self-control. We're able to abstain from those passions, those desires that fight for our soul, that beckon us to yield to them. So those are the traits that all good groups have to thrive in the world today. But I want to think about this too. Let's look at our Lord Jesus Christ quickly and see how we lived out these exact same traits of being an alien immigrant, fighting like a soldier, being an ambassador and being a good citizen. Number one, Remember Matthew chapter 8? What does it say about Jesus? Foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Jesus, as far as we know, owned no home in this world. He was just a passing through. He lived temporarily in this world. He did not put any foundation or stakes or tent pegs deep into this world. He relied on the hospitality of others. So he lived, as he now beckons us through, through Peter's words, to live like a pilgrim. This world is not your home. He also fought like a soldier. At the beginning of his public ministry, after he's baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, he's thrust into the Judean wilderness for 40 days and nights to be tempted by the evil one. And what does he do? He's tempted with some good things. Turn these stones of bread, you're hungry, aren't you, Jesus? But what does Jesus do? He curbs those passions and he fights like a soldier. He quotes from the book of Deuteronomy to resist the wiles of the devil. He fought like a soldier. He gave his life to conquer sin. And he also lived in his ambassador. Listen to what he said in John chapter 14. He said, anyone who has seen me has what? Seen the Father. So he lived his life in such a way that when they looked at him, they saw the father. He was the image, spitting image of his father. And we are our father's children, so hopefully we live our lives as spitting images like he did of his father. And then lastly, he knew how to live as a citizen even in a corrupt pagan system. Remember when the Pharisees tried to trip him up? And again, this is what the world does when they're watching you. They want to knock you down a peg or two. And they tried to trick him into choosing a side that was going to make him look bad in either one of the camps that they were trying to divide him to. And so they said, hey, is it lawful for a Jew to pay taxes? And so if he said yes, they would Knock him. If they said no, then they would report him to the Roman government. It was a win-win for the Pharisees, or so they thought. But what did Jesus do? He held up a coin. He said, whose image is on this coin? And it was that of Caesar. And he said, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, unto God that which is God's. Masterful answer. But he paid his tax, even to a system that was corrupt. So even though we don't like to pay taxes to corrupt systems, our Lord tells us, be subject, be good citizens. You are not responsible. I'm going to hold them accountable. That's not your job. You live in such a way that you attract people because you're different. So the question then we come back to, how are we to live as believers to a hostile world that's watching us for the sake of the gospel? Quickly, we live like an alien immigrant. We don't have tent pegs deep in this world. We just are pilgrims passing through. Number two, we fight like soldiers against those passions that pull us away from pursuing God with all of our hearts. We behave like an ambassador before watching world knowing that we are spitting images of Jesus and we're representing him and we are to submit like citizen. But now we come to the why in the road. We think about how we can take what Peter has been teaching us this morning and put it into practice in our own ways. And there's lots of different touch points that we can now think about. We already talked about the tent pegs. What are the tent pegs that you need to pull up from this world? Because you've been acting as though this world is all there is. You've been putting all of your eggs in this world and not in storing up treasures of heaven. Do you live as though you're just a pilgrim in this world? And number two, what activities and impulses do you need to abstain from where you need to wage war against them? Even good passions. For sure, the evil ones. But what battle are you facing right now where the Lord can give you the strength, the sustaining grace to fight those battles? You can't do it in your own flesh, your own power. But that's the amazing thing about the grace that Peter's talking about in this book. It can help you to live like any of these. And let's be honest, is there something right now that people can point to that makes them attracted to the gospel? Or are you a grouch? Are you a pessimist? Are you not easy to handle, be around? You're not loving. You're critical. Are there ways in which you are living your life as a believer that are allowing people to see Christ in you. And as tough as it is, where do you find it the hardest to submit to authority? What does it reveal about your heart? So just take one of these four and you just take a few moments And think about which of these four specifically, maybe more, that you can put into practice right here, right now. Tent pegs. Desires, passions that are not healthy. What is the way that you're living your life right now? Is it attractive to the gospel or is it so veiled that people have to really dig to find something that would attract them to the message of salvation? And what is it where we stiffen our backs way more than we should to bow to authority? Christ knew what it was like to submit and we have the grace to do so So Father, I pray that as we think in these moments, any of these areas where we can now allow you to work. Father, may you just draw deep on our minds and our hearts. And Father, maybe right now in front of us, we're building a little altar. And we're laying some stuff down on that little altar. Whether it's the way that we live in this world as though this is our home, that we need to give up. Maybe it's some type of desire, even a good desire, that we need to yield. Maybe we've not been living the life that's attractive to others, to a watching world. Maybe there's an area that we can lay on this little altar in front of us and yield that to you so that we can be people that point others to Jesus. And then, as citizens, even as we live in a flawed, broken world with leaders with all sorts of undesirable traits, Father, you tell this to submit. And that's hard. But help us to do so not for our sake, but for your sake. This is the will of God that we do so. So help us to yield to your will this morning. So as the worship team sings over us, would you please lay one of these things down on a little altar in front of you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.