Pastor Mark Mikels
August 27, 2006
“MY COMMITMENT AS AN AMERICAN –
Part One”
“My Relationship To My Government”
Church Under Construction – Behavioral Phase #5
Intro … Our theme these past few months has been “Church Under
Construction” for we have seen that even as we are engaged in building
a church structure on the corner of Apple Valley and Ottawa Roads, so
the Lord Jesus is engaged in building the church congregation that will
assemble within it. You and I are the raw materials the Lord is using
to build that special congregation – He is shaping us and refining us
and then arranging us into a spiritual structure that will suit His
Purpose in this little corner of His Kingdom.
We have seen that this construction project will proceed through four
distinct phases … the doctrinal phase where we come to understand the
key teachings of the Christian Faith, the behavioral phase where we
will we exposed to key practices of the Christian Life, the relational
phase where we will explore key inter-actions within the Body of Christ
and finally the evangelistic phase where we will discuss our outreach
to the world. So far we have completed the doctrinal phase and we are
currently right in the midst of the behavioral phase.
During the doctrinal phase we carefully examined the statements
contained in our Sonlife Statement of Beliefs and now in the behavioral
phase we are proceeding statement by statement through our Sonlife
Covenant of Behavior. Here are the statements we have covered so far
…
The Behavioral Phase of Construction
I will seek to worship God in spirit and in truth as a continuous
practice of my life and I will commit myself to a regular study of
God’s Word so my mind might be renewed and my life transformed by its
truths.
I will make my time, energy, and personal resources available for God’s
use knowing that all I am and have is simply a trust from Him and I
will invest my finances cheerfully and sacrificially in the work of the
Lord, taking the Biblical “tithe” as my guideline for giving.
I will endeavor to give positive witness of my relationship to Jesus
Christ by word and deed in every circumstance in which I am placed and
I will refrain from any activity or practice of life that might
discredit the name of Jesus, harm the temple of the Holy Spirit (my
body), hinder a fellow believer, or cause my personal testimony to be
compromised.
(John 4:23-24; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; 2 Timothy 3:15; Romans 12:1-2)
(Psalm 24:1; Matthew 25:14-18; 1 Corinthians 4:1; Malachi 3:10; Matthew
6:19-20;
1 Corinthians 4:7) (Acts 1:8; Colossians 3:17; 1 Peter 2:15) (Romans
2:24; 1 Corinthians 6:19-10; 8:9; 1 Timothy 4:12b, 15-16; Proverbs
23:29-35)
That’s quite a list of commitments … that’s quite a blueprint that
the Lord is following as He seeks to form us into a spiritual structure
that will honestly bear His Name and accurately reflect His Cause.
Today we examine the next commitment that’s on the List …
Here’s how it reads: I will fulfill my responsibilities as a citizen of
this land by: respectfully submitting myself to the authorities that
God has placed over me, carefully informing myself on public issues of
moral concern, and prayerfully involving myself in the political
process through which leaders are chosen so that reasonable,
God-fearing men and women might be placed in all levels of government.
(Romans 13:1-7; 1Timothy 2:1-3)
You see … we as members of Sonlife Community Church and as followers
of Jesus Christ have certain Biblically based responsibilities as
citizens of this great nation in which we live. We cannot be a true
Church of Jesus Christ unless we take those responsibilities
seriously. Jesus Himself would build us into a congregation of
committed Christian Americans.
So what does it mean to be a “Committed Christian American” – What
specifically are my responsibilities as a Christian American to my
government?
Our Sonlife Covenant identifies three. We call them this morning …
THE ACTIONS OF A COMMITTED CHRISTIAN AMERICAN:
1. I Will Respectfully Submit Myself … Be OBEDIENT
“I will fulfill my responsibilities as a citizen of this land by …
respectfully submitting myself to the authorities that God has placed
over me”
That action arises directly from Scripture … Romans 13:1-5
“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there
is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities
that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels
against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and
those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no
terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want
to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and
he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you
do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is
God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.
Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only
because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.”
This is ground that we have covered before … Followers of Jesus
Christ have no option but to submit themselves to those who rule over
them as long as those who rule over them are not requiring them to do
something that is morally or biblically wrong. Generally speaking,
Christ would have his followers obey the laws of the land and
respectfully submit themselves to the governors of the land. Generally
speaking, government officials should see the churches of their
community as their allies not their enemies.
But there’s more that makes up our citizen commitment …
2. I Will Carefully Inform Myself … Be AWARE
“I will fulfill my responsibilities as a citizen of this land by …
carefully informing myself on public issues of moral concern.”
Now here’s something that the Apostle Paul could not have imagined. In
this great land, to some degree every citizen is part of the ruling
body. Any law-abiding citizen can run for office and can share in
determining who in fact gets elected to office. To some degree every
citizen is accountable to God for the moral condition of the country.
It is the responsibility of a Christian American to become informed
regarding the state of affairs in the nation and in the part of the
nation in which they live because our American Constitution gives every
law-abiding citizen a say in what happens. Our Constitution is build
upon solid moral principles – principles that have allowed this nation
to prosper. I believe that a careful study of the Constitution will
uncover grounds for a rigorous defense of things that are morally
right.
As I’ve said before … the challenge for any Christian in government
(especially in national government) is to find “Constitutional Reasons
to do what is Biblically right”.
A government official in this country can never and must never defend
his decisions by saying “The Bible Says” … he must defend his
decisions by saying “The Constitution Says …” On local levels the
appeal might be “the contract says” or “the ED code says” …
And so it is imperative that we, as the most junior members of the
governing structure, carefully inform ourselves on public matters of
moral concern so we know what and where the issues are that our leaders
need to address. In our next message (“My Responsibility To My Society)
we will focus on several of those very issues but for today we
recognize the commitment to “carefully inform ourselves” …
And now there’s one more action that our Covenant says a Committed
Christian American and we as members of Sonlife Community Church
will take and that is …
3. I Will Prayerfully Involve Myself … Be ENGAGED
“I will fulfill my responsibilities as a citizen of this land by …
prayerfully involving myself in the political process through which
leaders are chosen.
Here’s the Scripture that suggests such a commitment … 1 Tim. 2:1-4
“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and
thanksgiving be made for everyone– for kings and all those in
authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness
and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all
men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
Surely if we are to pray for those who are in office it follows that in
this country we would prayerfully concern ourselves with the process by
which men and women are put into office. In a certain sense a church
should pray as much for the Lord’s leading when facing an election as
it does when it faces the calling of a pastor. In both cases they are
asking God to fill one of the positions of authority that He has
established in the world of men.
So what does it mean to “prayerfully involve myself in the political
process” …
Certainly it means “voting intelligently” … it might mean “actively
supporting a candidate” … it might even mean “running for office”
yourself!
And to what end are these “Actions of a Committed Christian American”
taken? Consider now …
THE ASPIRATION OF A COMMITTED CHRISTIAN AMERICAN:
That REASONABLE, God-fearing Men and Women be PLACED In all LEVELS of
Government!
“I will fulfill my responsibilities as a citizen of this land … so
that reasonable, God-fearing men and women might be placed in all
levels of government.”
That’s what we desire … that’s what God desires … that reasonable,
God-Fearing Men and Women be placed in all levels of government – Men
and women who will uphold and reward that which is right and good and
who will stand against and punish that which is wrong and harmful.
May God stimulate our hearts to take up the call to truly function as
Committed Christian Americans! May Christ successfully build us into
just such a church body – a body of believers who function absolutely
biblically in relationship to the government under which they exist.
To that end I would share with you this …
Final Thot …
GODLY leaders leading well bring BLESSING to the people they GOVERN! So
SEEK them out – put them in OFFICE and PRAY for them once they are
there!