In the late 1700’s, the French people led a revolution against the aristocracy. The king had placed the nation in terrible debt by an extravagant lifestyle (building Versailles) and supporting the American Revolution. The King’s solution was higher taxes on the commoners and business owners (Bourgeoisie), for which the nobility and Roman Catholic Clergy were exempt. When the food crisis came through poor crops, the public revolted, storming the Bastille in 1789. The people cried for freedom from an oppressive and feckless monarchy and church power (liberty), removal of the class and legal divide between the nobility/clergy class and the commoners (equality), and the development of a national identity apart from the king (fraternity).

How does revolution fit into our passage? Paul insists that we incur God’s wrath when we resist His appointed authority. Where does the Lordship of Christ fit into our submission to authority? Well, Sunday we’ll attempt to draw some clear lines from the text as we worship the One who is sovereign over us!

Are you a Christian Nationalist? I’ve done some internet sleuthing, even some interactions with Grok (Elon Musk’s AI), and I have yet to find a consistent definition. I do have a sense of what people mean when they use the term. In short, any preferencing or imposing of Christian values in our political system is viewed as a threat to pluralism and the secular state. It is viewed as blending Christian teaching with political identity. Those who oppose Christian Nationalism view it as the “single biggest threat to American religious freedom” (Amanda Tyler, April 13,2022 Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty).

So how do Christians, followers of our Lord, Jesus Christ, interact with the state? What should we expect from our government and what should we want for Jesus? Since Paul’s letter is written to the First Presbyterian Church in Rome, the empire’s capital and a pagan state, his teaching has relevance for us today. Join us as we worship our Lord and consider our desire for our government.

On December 2, 1804, Napoleon entered the cathedral of Notre Dame and crowned himself king of France. Instead of being coronated by the Pope, he broke tradition, snatching the crown from Pope Pius VII, crowning himself king. This symbolized that state authority was superior to church authority, and a break from many of the principles of the French Revolution. He is supposed to have said, “I found a crown in the kennel; I cleansed it from its filth and placed it on my head." While he did some great things, re-writing the law and granting more rights to the people, he sought to establish a new monarchy based on the favor of the people and the right of power. While he was declared emperor he was labeled a tyrant. He was eventually ousted, twice!

 Whether France’s Napoleon, Rome’s Tiberius, or an American constitutional president, God’s people have lived under the rule of their fellow man. God is not silent about how we interact with government or its leaders. While we have a King in Jesus, and we arrange ourselves under His rule, He commands us to submit to those in authority over us. This Sunday we’ll begin our examination of Romans 13:1-7, where the Apostle teaches us how to interact with civic authority. The text provides a lot for us to consider as we worship and obey the Lord.

In an era where biblical truth is increasingly questioned in the West, with only 20% of Americans viewing the Bible as the literal word of God according to a 2022 Gallup poll—a sharp decline from 40% in the 1980s—trust in biblical accuracy is waning. This raises for us a critical question: why should we rely on the Bible to guide our lives when many are turning away from it? Can we still claim the Bible as the foundation by which truth begins? Join us this Sunday as we dive into Psalm 119:1-8 and find out more. 

I had a neighbor who made life difficult for my family. She was a Christian woman, as she liked to say, who didn’t like the noise of my children or the weeds in my grass. She was convinced that the birds were eating the seeds of my weeds and dropping them in her yard. After hurricane Ivan, she kindly (?) collected all the shingles from my roof and piled them in my yard for me. When I got back from securing my family in Atlanta, I found piles of shingles just over the property line. She expressed her displeasure with my absence and the debris in her yard. That occurred just five days after we moved into our home in Florida. I knew then that this was going to be a challenging relationship. At the beginning, I was overcome by her unkindness. Emotionally exhausted, I was ready to exclude her from my life. After all, I had enough to deal with repairing my home, starting a new job, and all with my son Matthew due in just three months. By the end of our four years, God enabled me to conquer my resentment and move into her life with grace, but it took me a while.

How do we know if we are overcoming evil with ethical kindness? What are the signs that evil has not conquered our hearts? This is especially important for the people of God in the First Presbyterian Church of Rome as the Jew and Gentile believers were pressing on each other. Additionally, it’s an important text for the Roman church which increasingly faced persecution from the Roman culture. It’s an important question for us, who experience the mercies of God despite our offenses toward Him. Join us as we consider God’s kind response to our evil and the grace available through Christ to love people who make life hard for us.

We will be looking at Peter's second letter in which he addresses the false teachers, not by directly engaging them, but by reminding his readers of the truth. He speaks to the orthopraxy of their faith, a call for holy living as they bear witness to the truth they know and are established in. Peter seeks to stir them to remember whose they are, the promises of God's word and power, and to live out who they are.

The great story of Jean Valjean, in Les Misérables, highlights the grace of our text. Inspector Javert pursues Valjean relentlessly. One time, Javert heard about a local village where the poor were constantly getting money from a generous donor in a yellow coat. Knowing that Valjean regularly supported the beggars in his community, Javert suspected that this new development was the presence of this benefactor. So, he dressed as a beggar and sat on the corner of the square in this city to catch Valjean. While he doesn’t capture him in this moment, you know that at the end of the story, Valjean saves Javert from the revolutionaries who attempted to kill him. Javert couldn’t accept this act of kindness from the man he had relentlessly pursued. Grace didn’t make sense in his worldview of law and order.

It illustrates the grace of our text where the Apostle urges the believers to overcome evil with kindness. It answers the question, how do I respond to someone who relentlessly pursues me? Join us Sunday as we consider the grace of Christ for us and how to live that with our opponents.

Have you ever run out of gas? It’s an embarrassing thing for sure. I remember driving to seminary in Detroit, and my truck ran out of gas in the area of the highway marked by signs that said, “Prison Zone; Don’t pick up hitchhikers.” Thankfully, someone took a chance on a young man in a suit.

Have you ever run out of emotional gas with someone? You’ve been engaging, loving, giving, serving, and not getting the response that you hope and desire. What do you do next? Do you take a break? Walk away? Knuckle down and try harder?

God has answers for you! Join us Sunday as we continue to engage Romans 12:9-13 and worship Christ who never tires of loving us!

As a parent with adult children, I find myself praying for them to find someone to genuinely love them. My concern is that in our culture, love is not defined as the emptying of self for the sake of another, but more like a squishy rom-com or sappy Hallmark movie. Scripture does a fabulous job explaining what sacrificial love for others looks like.

The Apostle Paul calls on the believers in the Roman church to have genuine love for each other, whether Jew or Greek. This is the immediate context of his statement, “love must be genuine,” Romans 12:9. Then he explains the difference between hypocritical love and genuine love. Join us as we consider this text and get a glimpse at God’s love for us in Christ!

The apostle Paul says, For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out (Romans 7:18). If God knows that I lack the ability to carry out His commands, then why does He continue to command? An illustration I used this past Sunday was of a parent commanding a two-year old to wheel the large 96-gallon trash can from the house to the street and then punishing the child for failing to do so. How unjust a command would that be?

Is that what God is doing when He commands us? How does He expect us to respond to His commands? Join us Sunday as we consider this question and worship our obedient Savior.