We Don’t Have To Keep Putting The Worst People In The World Into Power: Proverbs

This was election week, which probably means that about half of you had an awesome week and the other half had a terrible week.

Some of you were really gung ho for the red candidate, so you’ve spent this week celebrating, some of you were really gung ho for the blue candidate so you’re mourning in sackcloth and ashes, some of you didn’t like either of them so you begrudgingly voted for one or the other and then droves straight to bar to pound 17 shots afterward to dull the pain, and some among you said, “Enough is enough, I’m not voting for either of these people” so you wrote in a third party candidate, or something like that.

But whether you are mourning or celebrating the result of week’s election the one thing we all have in common is that we have a problem.

Left or right, red or blue, we have a common problem.

We are in a common crisis.

It’s a crisis that transcends party lines or political preferences.

And it’s a crisis that cannot be solved by any one election or any one candidate.

And that is that we live out our lives in the midst of a radically broken political system.

Remember this from last week?

We are a people living in a time of profound chaos and profound brokenness.

We have been watching our political system come unglued and collapse around us for decades leading up to this moment.

And because that is true, we desperately need God’s wisdom for government.

We need God’s wisdom for how to govern wisely.

God’s wisdom for how to govern responsibly.

We need God’s wisdom for what government is, and what government is for, and who belongs in government, and how government should work.

And more than anything, we need God’s wisdom for how to live wisely in a world filled with imperfect and broken and chaotic and sometimes even wicked governmental systems like our own.

And so we are picking it back up this week in our Proverbs series, and we are following up with the second half of our exploration of God’s wisdom for government that we began last week.

Last week, we talked about the fact that God gives clear commands to the people who govern.

Remember them from last week?

He says, “Rulers must be righteous instead of wicked.”

You must be wise instead of foolish.

You must be truth seeking instead of being a dishonest propagandist.

You must be sober minded instead of hysterical or unstable.

And you must surround yourselves with wise and godly incompetent advisors instead of yes men who just prop you up and do whatever you say.

Those are God’s clear commands to those who govern.

But this week, we are pushing even deeper into this deeply important issue, because we are moving beyond just God’s wisdom for the government—and we’re moving on into God’s wisdom for the governed.

And we’re going to dive deep into those principles that He gives us together this morning.

Just like last week, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time, so I’m just gonna dive straight in.

Sound good?

Are you ready?

Here we go.

We Must Not Be Ungovernable

Number one: We have to remember—even amidst all the chaos and brokenness and imperfection and even wickedness of our fallen human political systems—that it is impossible to govern a nation of ungovernable people.

Know what I’m talking about?

God has called us, as citizens of our earthly kingdoms, not to be an ungovernable people.

So number one among God’s wisdom for the governed is that you must not be ungovernable.

Listen to what Proverbs 24 says. It says:

“My son, fear Yahweh and the king. Don’t join those who are rebellious, for their calamity will rise suddenly. The destruction from them will be a surprise to both.”
—Proverbs 24:21–22, WEB

What’s he saying here?

He’s saying that if you fear the Lord, you will honor authority.

If you fear the Lord, you will respect the authority structure God has placed in the world.

If you fear the Lord, you will allow yourself to be governed by the people God has placed in those positions of government.

The rest of God’s word backs this up.

Paul says in Romans 13:

“Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are ordained by God. Therefore he who resists the authority withstands the ordinance of God; and those who withstand will receive to themselves judgment.”
—Romans 13:1–2, WEB

And Peter says in 1 Peter 2:

“Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme; or to governors, as sent by him.”
—1 Peter 2:13–14, WEB

And Paul once again in 1 Timothy chapter 2:

“I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for all men: for kings and all who are in high places; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.”
—1 Timothy 2:1–3, WEB

And when they say that, they’re not just talking about good kings or righteous kings.

When the New Testament was written, they were living under the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire.

Now, I’m just going to paint a picture of the Roman Empire and the Roman government for you real quick.

The Roman emperors demanded that their subjects worship them.

The Roman emperors demanded that their subjects make sacrifices to them.

The Roman government held government sponsored orgies in veneration of their pagan gods.

The Roman government forced Roman subjects to perform obligatory acts of worship to false gods and demons.

So just to be clear: The Roman government was literally demonic.

At the same time: There were more slaves at one time in the ancient Roman Empire than there ever were in all of American history combined.

Here’s another one: Citizens in the Roman Empire were often taxed as much as 80 to 90% of their income when you added everything together.

Here’s another one: Christians were often kidnapped off the streets, tortured in unimaginable ways, and then fed to lions in the Coliseum matches as a form of entertainment to the pagan masses.

That’s just the greatest hits reel of the atrocities of the Roman government during the time of the New Testament.

But I say all that so that you understand that that is the government Paul and Peter are talking about.

The people hearing these commands from Paul and Peter would often have literally watched their closest friends be murdered by the government just days or weeks or months earlier.

Nevertheless, as followers of Jesus, they say we are still called to honor the authority of our pagan and wicked rulers, just like we would honor a wise and godly and righteous leader.

He says, “We honor the Lord by being good, faithful citizens of our broken and chaotic and imperfect and even wicked nations.”

We should not be ungovernable.

Two Important Caveats

Now, everything I just said is true, but I also have to make another important point.

Because if I leave it right there, you are going to misunderstand what I said, and you’re gonna come up to me after the service, and you’re gonna say, “What about this? What about this? What about this?”

And so it’s really important to point out right here and now that, even as we honor and respect the broken and wicked governments of our world, we also need to do two other things.

There are two really important caveats to all of this, and we’re going to talk about them right now.

Sound good?

Are you ready?

Here we go.

Caveat #1: Sometimes We Must Protest or Disobey Extremely Unjust Orders

Know what I’m talking about?

We sometimes have to protest or disobey extremely unjust orders.

Respecting and honoring and submitting to the government does not mean that you do whatever the government says, because sometimes they tell us to sin.

Sometimes they try to make you propagate injustice or evil.

Sometimes you may have to disobey government orders.

What kind of government orders?

God’s Word gives us some pretty clear and simple examples.

Here’s one: In the book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar builds a giant false God, and He commands everyone in Babylon to worship it. Shadrach Meshach and Abednego say, “No.” They refuse. They rightly disobey the government by refusing to worship a false god.

Here’s another one: In Exodus chapter one, the Egyptian government gives a command to drown every baby boy born in the Jewish part of town. They say, “Every time a Jewish mother has a baby boy, go drown them in the river.” But there’s a group of Hebrew midwives who say, “No.” They hide the babies and then get them somewhere safe. They rightly disobey the government by refusing to drown a bunch of babies.

Here’s another one: In Matthew chapter two, King Herod gives an order to assassinate Baby Jesus because he’s worried that if people hear that the true King of Israel has come, he will be removed from his false throne. But the wise men refuse to tell King Herod where Baby Jesus is so that he can’t send any assassins to go kill him. They rightly disobey the government.

Here’s another one: In Acts chapter five, the government tells Peter that he needs to stop preaching and teaching about Jesus. But Peter says this famous line. He says, “I must obey God rather than men.” He says, “I cannot stop preaching and teaching about what I have seen and heard.” Peter rightly disobeys the government.

And that same thing is going to be true for you and me as Christians living here in our chaotic and broken and often wicked political system.

Sometimes we’re going to have to protest or disobey extremely unjust orders.

Caveat #2: Sometimes We Need to Reform the Government

Know what I’m talking about?

Sometimes the government needs to be reformed.

Honoring and submitting and respecting the government does not mean that you can never change anything about the government or the system.

Like, take 10 seconds and think about American political history.

The abolition of slavery was a good reform.

The women’s suffrage movement that made it legal for women to vote alongside men was a good reform.

The Civil Rights Movement was a good reform.

Striking down Roe versus Wade was a good reform.

When the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage, that was a good reform. I’m especially partial to that one since Elyse is half-Japanese. I couldn’t have married Elyse in most states in 1966.

Brown versus the Board of Education was a good reform.

And on and on and on.

Sometimes the government needs to be reformed.

And so as we honor and respect and submit to the earthly governments God has placed over us, we are also called to play our part in pushing for good government reforms that make people’s lives better.

When wickedness is baked into the system, honoring the governing authority involves working to reform it.

But all of these things take place under this broad umbrella of allowing ourselves to be governed.

God has placed a calling on us as His people: Do not be ungovernable.

That is number one.

We Should Attempt to Influence the Government in a Positive Direction

But at exactly the same time, God’s word places a call on us that may shock you even more.

This is the most important point I am going to make this entire service.

The things that we are about to talk about are the beating heart of this sermon.

Everything leading up to this has been prologue.

Everything leading up to this has been the appetizer. This is the main course.

So I really need you to zero in right here and now, because this is the absolute most important point I am going to make today.

Do I have your attention now?

All right.

Here we go: God’s word tells us that we should attempt to influence the government in a positive direction.

Are you following me?

God’s wisdom for the governed is that we should attempt to influence the government in a positive direction.

As people living in a chaotic and broken and even wicked political system, we should use the resources we have to attempt to influence our government in a positive direction.

I love Proverbs 25. It is one of my favorite verses in all of Scripture. It says:

“By patience a ruler is persuaded. A soft tongue breaks the bone.”
—Proverbs 25:15, WEB

What is this talking about?

It’s talking about the fact that if you gain the ear of a ruler, you have the power to influence them.

If you gain the ear of a governing authority, you have the power to influence them.

It says, “If you use your audience with your rulers wisely, you can have a profound influence over the way they rule.”

How do you do that?

Through patience, through gentleness.

It says “A ruler may be persuaded through patience,” through persistence.

It says “a gentle tongue” or “a gentle word” can “break a bone.”

This was guidance on how to become a royal advisor.

Remember that the proverbs are written for a very large array of people from different walks of life in ancient Israel.

And so, you would teach this proverb to your children if you were trying to teach them how to become a royal advisor to the king or the judge or some other government official or authority.

They would say, “If you patiently provide your counsel to the ruler, eventually he may start to listen to you.”

“If you are persistent in gently putting good counsel in his ear again and again and again, eventually he may start to listen to you.”

It’s saying that you have the power to influence your government in a positive direction.

And that is actually even truer today than it was when Proverbs 25 was written.

Why is that?

It’s because Proverbs 25 was written during a time of absolute monarchy—but we live in a country that functions democratically.

We’re a constitutional republic that functions democratically.

And that means that you have greater power and influence over the political process today than citizens ever would have during the days of ancient Israel.

And that means that our situation is more ripe than ever for us to influence the government in a positive direction.

We just have to start actually doing it.

We just have to stop passively lining up behind the wicked candidates the world gives us, and start actively working to shape the future of our country ourselves.

And with all of that in mind, there are basically three ways to do that.

We are gonna talk about those three ways, and then close out and head to our community groups.

Sound good?

Are you ready?

Here we go.

1. Build Relationships with Government Leaders and Be a Good Influence

I’m gonna start back over with number one.

How do we influence our government in a positive way?

Number one: We can build relationships with government leaders and try to be a good influence on them.

Know what I’m talking about?

You can build relationships with government leaders and try to be a good influence on them.

Again and again and again throughout the story that the Bible tells, we see God placing his people in positions that enabled them to positively influence the pagan leaders of their countries.

Know what I’m talking about?

When Joseph was exiled from the promised land and trapped in Egypt, God placed Joseph in a position where he was able to influence Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. God actually placed Joseph in a position where he was the second most powerful man in all of Egypt. He gave Joseph favor with Pharaoh so that he could be a good influence on Pharaoh. And as a result, he ended up averting a terrible famine and saving millions of people in the process.

At the same time, in the book of Daniel, God placed the prophet Daniel in a position where he was able to influence the pagan kings of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar and Darius. Daniel was exiled from the promised land, and he was trapped in Babylon, but God worked it in such a way that he gave Daniel favor with Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, and as a result he was able to influence both of them for the better.

In the same way, God placed Esther in a position where she was able to influence the Persian king Xerxes. He providentially gave her favor with King Xerxes, and actually caused him to fall in love with her and marry her, so that she had the ear of King Xerxes for years after that, and then she was able to use that for the benefit of her people and the country overall. Xerxes gained a wise advisor in Esther.

In the same way, God placed Nehemiah in a position where he was able to influence King Artaxerxes, one of the descendants of Xerxes. And through that, he was able to put it into the mind of Artaxerxes to start sending the Jewish people back to their homeland and allowing them to rebuild the protective walls around their cities and the temples that had been destroyed. God enabled and empowered them to build relationships with government leaders and then try to be a good influence on them.

And just like I said before, that is actually easier to do today than it ever has been in the past.

It is easier to contact your council members and commissioners and judges and elected leaders and other officials than it has ever been in the past.

If you go out in town, you’ll see them at the Mexican restaurant you go to, you’ll see them at the bar, you’ll see them at the coffee shop.

You can say, “Hey judge, how you doing.”

You can say, “Hey Commissioner, how’s your daughter doing?”

You can invite them to your barbecue.

You can wish them a happy birthday when it comes up.

Our government leaders are more accessible than ever—and they’re actual humans.

You can literally know them.

You can meet them.

You might become friends with some of them.

You can talk to them about things.

The relationship doesn’t have to be adversarial.

You can build a real relationship with your government leaders and then try to be a good influence on them.

That’s number one.

2. Run for Office and Seek to Govern Well

I don’t know if you’re prepared for number two.

But here it comes:

We can influence government in a positive way by running for office and seeking to govern well.

I’m going to say that again: You can influence your government in a positive way by running for office and seeking to govern well.

Look, if you run for President today, it’s not going to happen, right?

That is not accessible to you in your current position.

But you can absolutely run for school board, you can absolutely run for Commissioner, you can absolutely run for town council.

You can absolutely run for so many of the local positions that come up for grabs in the next election cycle.

You can absolutely apply for some of the open government positions that are pathways to power.

You can absolutely volunteer yourself to take up these sacred duties.

So often we complain about the government as if it’s some foreign body populated by space aliens that dropped out of the sky that we have absolutely no control over, but that’s not the case at all.

You don’t just have to be at the mercy of these people and their whims—you can become one of these people.

You can run for these positions.

One year ago, there was a race for town council, and only 400 people cast a vote.

Louisburg is a town of roughly 3500 people, and 400 of us chose who was going to rule us in the coming year.

Now, not all of you live in Louisburg town limits.

Some of you live in Spring Hope, some of you live in Wake Forest, some of you live in Franklinton, and so forth.

But there’s similar situations there.

These positions are remarkably attainable.

God has placed you in a place in time where you, as an average citizen, can run for local offices and actually have a shot at getting it.

And you should.

Because you may not have all of the know how that you think an elected leader should have, but you can learn as you’re going.

You may not have been groomed for politics for years the way that many of our elected leaders have been, but that doesn’t make you any less capable.

And although you are bound to make mistakes sometimes, and you are bound to have some missteps, and you’re bound to drop the ball in some situations, you also have the opportunity to make a genuine difference.

You can run for office and then seek to govern with wisdom, with truthfulness, with sober mindedness, with righteousness, and with a team of wise counselors and advisors surrounding you to help you see the path ahead clearly.

You can do that.

And so, I’m gonna be as blunt as I can possibly be: I think that some of you should run for office.

Not all of you.

But some of you should run for office.

You could be step one in our search to find genuinely wise and righteous and truth seeking and sober minded leaders for the coming generation.

That’s number two: You can influence the government in a positive way by running for office and seeking to govern well.

3. Have Children and Raise Them Deeply in the Faith

And that leads us to number three.

But number three might throw you for loop.

Number three is the most obvious way to change our world, and it’s the most effective way to change our world, but it’s also the most ignored.

And that is: Have children and raise them deeply in the faith.

You can influence our government in a positive direction by having children and raising them deeply in the faith.

What am I talking about?

Here’s what I’m talking about.

Jeremiah 29, the Israelites have just been exiled out of their land and forcibly taken off into a strange pagan country called Babylon.

They are in a country that worships false gods, propagates horrific injustice, has no respect for the rule of law, and persecutes God’s people.

And so the Israelites start praying and saying, “God, overthrow this pagan nation that is oppressing us!”

“Overthrow this pagan nation that we’ve been exiled to!”

But God responds to them and says, “No. I’m not gonna do any of that right now.”

I’m going to read to you what he says.

He says:

“This is what Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and father sons and daughters… Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to Yahweh for it; for in its peace you will have peace.’”
—Jeremiah 29:4–7, WEB

Listen to that.

He says, “I am not overthrowing this wicked government that you are exiled to—and I don’t want you to try to topple them. I want you to try to help them.”

He says, “I want you to contribute to their prosperity. I want you to contribute to their peace. I want you to work hard to contribute to the wicked pagan nation that is holding you captive.”

He says, “Seek the good of the land I’ve exiled you to.”

And that applies just as much to us today in our modern Babylon, doesn’t it?

As Christians living here in captivity to the American Babylon, we are called to seek the peace and prosperity of America.

But at exactly the same time, God also gives us a road map to changing America—from the bottom up, not just the top down.

Because just like in Babylon, he says, “Marry and have sons and daughters, increase in number here, do not decrease.”

What does this have to do with our political system?

Everything.

And you’ll see why in just a moment.

But the place we have to start is by understanding that we as Christians have a responsibility to raise up faithful families within our broken and rebellious culture.

You know what I’m talking about when I say that?

We have a God given responsibility to raise up faithful families within our broken and rebellious culture.

Ephesians 6 says:

“You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
—Ephesians 6:4, WEB

We have a mandate to bring up our children in the training of the Lord and the instruction of the Lord.

We’ve been called as parents to train up our children in the ways of the Lord and instruct our children in the ways of God and the will of God.

But there’s a major problem, isn’t there?

And that is that for at least 50 years, we really haven’t been doing that.

We don’t train and instruct our children in the ways of the Lord at home, and we don’t even bother to bring them to church most of the time, right?

We teach our children just to skip out on worshiping him with the rest of the body every time the lake is calling or the mountains are calling.

We teach our children to skip out on worshiping with the rest of God’s people every time there’s a sports ball game on the weekend.

We teach them to skip out on worshiping with the rest of the body every time we accidentally stay up just a little bit too late on Saturday night.

We teach them to skip out on worshiping with the body every time there’s something kind of fun we want to do that’s only happening at 1pm on a Sunday.

We’ve spent about 50 years teaching our children that the ways of God and the will of God are only actually important if there is literally nothing else we could be doing instead.

Know what I’m talking about?

And yet, that is such a far cry from the call to parenthood that God’s word has placed on us.

Just listen to the way God puts this through Moses in Deuteronomy, chapter six. He says:

“Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.”
—Deuteronomy 6:4–9, WEB

He’s saying, “Make the training and instruction of the Lord an all-encompassing lifestyle for your family and your children.”

“Make the training and instruction of the Lord an ever present aspect in your children’s lives.”

Raising up your children in the faith and discipling them in the ways of the Lord and passing your faith on to them in a deep and rich and reasoned way should be the core of your life together as a family.

We have this God given vocation as parents to have children and raise them deeply in the faith.

And when we do that, something really remarkable happens.

Listen to what the celebrated sociologist Christian Smith says. He says:

“The good news is that, among all possible influences, parents exert far and away the greatest influence on their children’s religious outcomes… In almost every case, no other institution or program comes close to shaping youth religiously as their parents do—not religious congregations, youth groups, faith-based schools, missions and service trips, summer camps, Sunday school, youth ministers, or anything else. Those influences can reinforce the influence of parents, but almost never do they surpass or override it. What makes every other influence pale into virtual insignificance is the importance (or not) of the religious beliefs and practices of American parents in their ordinary lives—not only on holy days but every day, throughout weeks and years.” —Christian Smith, sociologist

What is he saying?

He’s saying that if you pour yourself into passing your faith on to your children in a deep and rich and reasoned way, the result is that you create a new generation of mature Christians to take your place in the world.

And because that is true, we actually have a really profound opportunity.

Because I don’t know if you’ve heard the news, but Americans have stopped having children.

Have you heard about that?

Americans have basically stopped having children.

Once upon a time, the norm was for families to have three to five children.

That was the average.

Some people had more.

There were Cheaper by the Dozen families.

Some people had less.

Some people struggled with infertility, things like that.

But generally speaking, for a very long time, the norm was that most families had between about three and five children.

But in the modern era, our birth rate has fallen to roughly 1.6 births per family.

Now what does that mean?

That means it is below what’s called replacement level.

That means that we are literally not maintaining our population and instead we are literally shrinking with each new generation.

We aren’t having enough children to replace the previous generation.

Old people are dying faster than new people are being born.

And that means something very important for us: Whoever has the most children will basically determine the future of the country.

I’m gonna give you a second with that one.

Whichever religious or philosophical or ideological group has the most children today will have a significant influence over the future of the country tomorrow.

If the current birthrate is 1.6 children on average, then that means that if Christians have on average just two or three or four children, and then we pour ourselves into raising them up with a deep and rich and reasoned faith, then we will be the largest demographic group in the country by far within about two generations.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

If we commit ourselves to having children and then raising them deeply in the faith, then within about 70 years we could be such a massive force within the country that the only way for any politician to get elected is by winning our vote.

And if we stop compromising for wicked, unqualified, “lesser of two evils” leaders and instead stick to our guns and demand Biblically qualified rulers, then the only way for anyone to win our vote would be by proving themselves to be righteous and wise and truth seeking and sober minded and eager for wise and godly and competent counsel.

Do you understand what I’m saying?

We can literally transform our country in less than a century if we will commit to having a normal number of kids and then seriously discipling them.

That’s it.

We need to grasp the gravity of that.

This is not wishful thinking.

This is actually attainable.

It’s so easy to become discouraged, and it’s so easy to feel like there is no hope, like there is no way out of this dark season of wicked and foolish and ungodly rulers, but that’s not actually true.

There’s a way out.

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

God has given us a road map for how we can influence our governments in a positive direction.

And the problem is that we’ve been ignoring that roadmap for years—but we don’t have to anymore.

We can have godly government again.

We can have a nation that honors the Lord again.

We don’t have to wait for some cult-like leader to come and save us.

That never works out in scripture, and it will never work out for us.

But the Lord can use us to heal our political system—if we will faithfully step out and start taking the steps He’s given us to put the pieces back together now.