Into The World - Rehoboth

Into The World – Rehoboth
Dr. Rob Sidwell
8/14/2024

Good evening. It’s been a nice warm day. We went out to the baseball game. I didn't get sunburned, so that was a good thing, and the team won, so that was nice, too.

We know that there are many things that are people needing prayer, all the sick and injured. We need to remember them. We talked about that last night. There is no place where God cannot be, and there's nothing too great that God cannot do it.

This evening we're talking about places in the Bible. If you say you've heard of this place, when I mention its name, I might not believe you. The place's name is Rehoboth. R-e-h-o-b-o-t-h. If you turn over to Genesis Chapter 26, we'll find out what happens at this place. You might be interested to know that there's a place called Rehoboth in southeast Ohio. It's a former mining town in the county that's next to the one I'm in—Perry County.

It's like a lot of other former mining towns down there. There's not much left of it except a little sign. It's not incorporated. It has a little green and white sign that says Rehoboth. There are two or three houses. That’s all that's left of the place.

There's a place in the Bible named Rehoboth. I don't know what was going through the heads of the people who founded Rehoboth, Ohio, but probably they named it after this place. We're coming here in the middle of an account of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the father of Jacob. The Bible tells us a lot, of course, about Abraham's life. We have more than 10 chapters that mostly revolve around Abraham and quite a bit about Jacob, and then it merges into Joseph. We don’t have as much about Isaac as an individual.

Isaac is the focus of this account, but this is one of the very few. I'm going to begin reading this and read this one from the English Standard. Let’s start in verse 6.

Genesis 26:6 (ESV): So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, (Rebekah), he said, she is my sister…

Now, where we heard that before? His parents. Abraham had said, the same thing about Sarah.

…for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

Relations between Isaac and the Philistines got off on the wrong foot. It opens with a misunderstanding. It could have had fatal consequences, but things go pretty well for him.

Verse 12, And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him, 13 and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. 14 He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. 15 (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

Relations have broken down. There's a lot of disputing in these next few verses about water wells. Now, I talked to three different people after the ball game today. I went shopping in Mentor. I talked to someone at Best Buy and someone at my own apartment complex and someone at the Jerky Store. My father loves beef jerky. They all said the same thing—were you here for that huge storm last week? It seems you had more than enough water here. We said, we're going through a severe drought, Southeast Ohio. We can't live without water.

It was and is very precious, especially if you've ever seen any films or pictures of that area of the world. Water is scarce. Was and is scarce, especially drinkable water that's not poisoned with some mineral or another. You're going to see a lot of disputing in the next few verses about wells. What's the big deal with water? You’ve got Lake Erie over here. Water was a big deal to these people.

Let's keep going here, verse 17. So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them. But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

Rehoboth means broad places, room. There's room for everyone now, and we shall dwell in the land.

Let's read a few more verses. From there he went up to Beersheba. And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.” So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well.

Water was precious. Let's put ourselves in Isaac's sandals. You've got vast herds, and they need water. Without water, your wealth won't mean much. In fact, your wealth will disappear pretty rapidly so you move from place to place to place. No matter where you go, how many times you move the Philistines say, Get out of here. They fight over every well you dig. Your servants have worked very hard digging these wells. The Philistines every single time say, This is ours.

What would you do if you worked so hard on your property and someone just showed up and said, Buzz off. Get lost. What would you do? How would you react? That's comforting. When I asked the same question in Southeast Ohio, a couple of people were making signs they're loading shotguns. Why was I frightened when they said that? Did Isaac react that way?

Turn over to Hebrews 12. And while you're turning there, consider the question, should we react literally by pumping up our shotguns or whatever? How should we react when people get pushy? When people take advantage of us? When people try to push us around? What does the world say? This is from a cartoon when I was a kid. Don't get mad, get even. That's what the world thinks. You hurt me, so I'm going to hurt you back. I'm going to hurt you back worse than you hurt me because then I'll come out on top.

Hebrews 12:14 (NKJ) says Pursue peace with nice people? No. It says, Pursue peace with all people.

The English Standard puts a little bit more emphasis on this. It says, Strive for peace with everyone. If you're striving, you put some effort into it. Strive for peace with everyone.

Let’s keep going, Holiness… Is that important? Finish the verse. …without which no one will see the Lord. Do you want to see the Lord? I trust the answer is yes, or you probably wouldn't be here. Then you need to behave the way the Bible tells you to, which is pursue holiness and also pursue peace with others.

There's a really common false teaching that's going on in 2024. It is that we can't wait for God to take vengeance on our enemies. Christians are meant to have all sorts of political power and execute vengeance. Reconcile that with Hebrews 12:14. Why are we failing to do that?

Turn over to Matthew 5:9. We can probably all quote this one. It says, blessed are the peace makers.

He doesn't say the peacekeepers. In other words, there was already peace, and you just didn't mess it up. No, blessed are the peace makers. There was fighting and quarreling in some way or other, but you've made peace. What happens if you're a peacemaker? They shall be called sons of God. That's quite an honor. Bless are those who make peace. Peace, thus, is the way God would have us live.

Go back to Isaac in Genesis. He set an example of this principle. Three times he moved on just to keep the peace. Moving all his herds and his household would require more than a little effort. Isaac did this, and we saw that eventually God did make room for him.

What do you do when somebody when somebody has been so unkind to you? Do you answer back? Look for ways to get even with them? My car still has the scars on it from when I lived at the apartment in Mentor? If you've ever been around the Mentor Mall Village Apartments, the parking spaces are tiny. My next door neighbor opened his car door into my car. You could see the scratches all down the side of my car. What do you do in a situation like that? I don't hold up myself as anything like an example of the Supreme Holiness, far from it. The point is, what do you do in a situation like that? What do people do? Get your keys out and go to work on that person's car. That's how the world works. That's the way too many people in the world work. What do you do?

Turn to Romans, chapter 12. We should strive to live at peace with those around us. What does that mean? It's possible to carry that too far. Is it possible to carry that too far? In other words, you're so desperate to make peace that you never stand up for anything, not even God's word, because somebody might get upset. Somebody might get upset if you point out that A, B, C, D, E, F, G behavior is wrong. I won't single anything out at this point, but you get the idea.

Somebody might get upset if you point out that this behavior that they're practicing is wrong. Do you just excuse and say, Oh, that's okay. It’s just the way you were born, the way you were raised, the way you were, et cetera. We've heard all the excuses. Do you say that? Or do you stand up for the truth? We should strive to live in peace with those around us as much as we can without compromising God's laws.

See what Paul writes with inspiration here in Romans 12, verse 18 (NKJ). It says, If it is possible… (not that big P word, possible), …as much as depends on you, (or so far as it depends on you, ESV), live peaceably with all men.

In other words, there will be sometimes in some instances in which not going to be possible. We see that, say in the Book of Acts, where what the apostle says, New King James, we ought to, ESV, we must obey God rather than men.

Has someone heard this one? The government's bad. The government's so bad that... The scripture spoke to that. If you will turn over to 1 Peter 2, we'll just read a couple of verses and we'll come back to this later. I've heard the argument that the government is evil, and because the government is evil, Christians aren't obligated to follow anything that it says. We shouldn't be paying your taxes. Chardon is the land of strange speed limits that happen at tops and bottoms of hills. Forget those because Christians will not have to obey speed limits because who makes those? The evil government.

The scriptures plainly speak that Christianity is not a license to disobey the government because people might be in charge of it who aren't Godly. Before I read this, just think about when this was written. What government was in charge when the New Testament was given by God? The Roman Empire. The pagans who practiced human sacrifice through its gladiatorial games. Was that a Godly government? No.

What did Peter write by inspiration here? 1 Peter 2:11 (ESV). It says, 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.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. I was in Barns and Noble today. They have a copy of the Annals of Tacitus. Tacitus was a Roman writer of the first century. He did not have nice things to say about the church. He infamously claimed that the church sacrificed babies. Of course, it didn't.

What happens every time that someone who claims to be a Christian goes out wantonly disobey the law? What does the world do? See, that's what that Christianity is all about. That Christianity is all about flaunting any rules and regulations you don't like. Some say, I'm a Christian. I don't have to obey the rules.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. In other words, do what's right to all people in all circumstances insofar as this is humanly possible. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. Don't break the law just because we serve a higher power. We were bought with a price, as Paul writes elsewhere.

We're actually going to cheat a little bit tonight because we're going to have actually three locations. We're going to link the lessons together. The second location we're going to talk about also starts with the letter R. I told you how rural Morgan County is. You might say this lesson is three R's. Instead of reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic, we're going to have three R's.

Have you ever heard of Jawbone Hill? No, in English, of course, it is not start with an R, but in Hebrew, it does. Most of us have heard of Bunker Hill. What happened on Bunker Hill? The Americans fought the British. The British took the hill and took horrific casualties in the process. That helped convince them that the Americans meant business in their revolution. Malvern Hill was a bloody Civil War battle. Hamburger Hill in Vietnam, where US troops were sacrificed in great numbers for a hill that was eventually abandoned.

Turn over to Judges for the account of Jawbone Hill. Jawbone Hill, or I'll give it's Hebrew name now, Ramath Lehi, but Jawbone Hill, shows us what happens when we don't follow the advice of our previous point. What happens when we live like the world does? In other words, what happens when we live like the world lives? What happens when you do something nasty to me? I'm going to do something nasty to you right back. Here is part of the account of Samson. Samson is probably one of the Bible figures who had the most wasted potential. With his physical strength, think of the things he could have done for God, but what did he spend most of his life using his strength for? To indulge himself, to get away with stuff.
Judges 15, beginning with verse 9 (NKJ). It says, Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi. And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” So they answered, “We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.” Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”
Notice Samson’s words. Let's translate that into language that I've heard quite a bit since I started substitute teaching. They started it. Well, that's basically what that means. As they've done to me, so I've done to them. I just did to them what they did to me. That's basically the same translation, more or less. We say, kids do that. Adults do it, too.

Keep going, though. Verse 12. But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.” So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds [b]broke loose from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it. 6 Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps,
With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!” And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.
He called the place Ramath Lehi, which means literally the hill, the jawbone. Why did Samson do what he did here? For his own reasons. Notice it doesn't say, but compare his language with David's language in two books over. In 1 Samuel, when David says, what about Goliath? This man's defying me because I'm the future king of Israel. No, he says, this man is defying the armies of the living God. David's attitude was very different from Samson's. If you look through the story, the account of Samson is always about him. Look what they did to me. Did you hear what they said to me? What they do to me? What does he say once again in verse 11?

As they did in me, so I've done to them. It was a cycle of vengeance. Remember how this started? Samson insisted on a Philistine wife. Again, paraphrasing for the sake of time, the Philistines threatened to burn his wife alive until eventually they forced her to coaxed the secret out of him. To get back at them, he tied fox's tails together and sent them burning through Philistines fields. It went back and forth. One side did something, the other side retaliated. I'm from about an hour north of West Virginia.

You know the Hatfields and the McCoys were real? A real feud that went across many decades. That one family did something to the other family, and then that family would retaliate, and then the family would retaliate back. It was a cycle of vengeance. When did Samson's cycle of vengeance end? It ended with him putting his hands on two pillars with no eyeballs left. After the Philistines had taken him and put out his eyes, the cycle of vengeance eventually was Samson saying, let me with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines.

What's he saying? Let me die with the Philistines. He killed himself and them. He killed more Philistines when he pushed the temple pillars over in the temple then he killed when he was alive. What he might have done with the rest of that life! His attitude of vengeance cost him. It cost him his life. What about us? Do people say bad things about us? Do people say bad things about us? What do we do? What do we do about it?

Hopefully, we remember what God said in both testaments. Romans 12:19. Let's read verse 19. It says, beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.

That's quoting Deuteronomy 32:35.

In the English standard, Romans 12:19 says, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. As it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

Are you angry? Ever? When we're angry, we should remember these words. We may say, somebody should do something about this. Someone will eventually. Who escapes God's judgment? Not the people buried at sea. The sea gives the dead who are in it. If you read Revelation, people are buried under tons of rock. They don't escape there either. I'm paraphrasing, but Revelation says they're calling upon the mountains, the rocks, to fall on them and hide them. It doesn't work either. Someday, we are all going to face God. In judgment, we should not react like Samson. We should react more like Isaac. We need to find a peaceful way to settle our disputes.

Our third biblical place is Rome. We tend to telescope history a little bit because we read about Rome. Rome, of course, is mentioned here and there through the four Gospels, and of course, especially in the Book of Acts, and reference is made to it from Roman through Revelation. We tend to think of Rome as the great persecutor of Christians.

Eventually, it was, but during most of the first century, it wasn't. Look at the Book of Acts. What's the usual response whenever Paul was dragged in front of a Roman official? They asked him openly at one point, Why don't you bring him in here? What's that to me? One of the officials had the attitude, it's a matter of your law, meaning Jewish law, Hebrew law, Old Testament law, you see to it. The Romans were not interested, at least not yet, in settling religious disputes involving Christ or Christianity. For the most part, Roman law was not in conflict with God's law. They had their gladiatorial games and such, but no one forced you to go to those. It was possible to live peacefully. They asked Jesus about this.

We alluded to this earlier. Here we are coming back to it. The government's evil. Should we pay for it? Let’s rephrase that question. Should we pay taxes? It says in Matthew 22 verse 15, (ESV) Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him (Jesus) in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us then what you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Either way Jesus answered this it is a trap. If Jesus said, Pay taxes to Caesar, they would have said, Caesar's a pagan. You're in favor of paganism. If Jesus had said, don’t pay taxes to Caesar, their next steps would have been towards the Pretorium as the Roman governor often headquartered himself there. That was one very quick way to get Rome's attention. Don't pay your taxes. What does Jesus? Jesus is not going to fall into this trap.

Verse 18 reads, aware of their malice, where he knew their thoughts, said, why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax. And they brought him a denarius, (which is pretty much a day's wages) and Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said Caesars. Then he said to them, Therefore, rendered a Caesar, the things that are Caesar’s, and to God, the things that are god’s. When they heard it, they marveled, and they left him and went away.

Jesus was telling you flatly, Pay your taxes. Does the government 2024 do bad things? Yes. Just about every human government throughout history has done bad things. Should you pay your taxes? Yes. Whenever anyone on the Internet or anywhere else tells you not to, that person is speaking falsehood. That person is teaching the things that are not correct.

Let's move on to a few more examples from Rome that are a little less friendly. We're coming in after Paul's famous description of the, as we often call it, the Christian armor—the sword of the spirit, the helmet of salvation, and so on. But we're coming to our point in Ephesians verse 18.

Ephesians 6:18 says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Paul had one big advantage Jesus did not. Paul was a Roman citizen. Politically speaking, as the world determines things, Paul had one big, legal advantage. Jesus was not a Roman citizen. This gives Paul certain rights that come into play over and over again in the last seven chapters of Acts. We'll summarize them in just a moment.

For one thing, it would have been extremely illegal to crucify Paul. You don't crucify Roman citizens. Paul was legally a Roman citizen. Did this give him a sense of superiority? Did he say, I'm a Roman citizen? As far as we know, Peter wasn't. Paul used that legal status to advance the cause of Christ. I could point you anywhere from Acts 20 to 28, for an example of that. Let's just turn to one small part of that—Acts 22. We see one of the times his citizenship comes into play. Paul invokes it here in Jerusalem in Acts 22. I've paraphrased for the sake of time. Paul had been arrested in the temple complex in Jerusalem for allegedly bringing Gentiles in there. That was the charge they arrested him on. He had been basically pushed up to the podium and told to make a defense for yourself to the Sanhedrin. What does he say in verse 21? He says that God tells him, 'Go, for I'll send you far away to the Gentiles.' That phrase was enough to enrage the Sanhedrin.

We're coming in verse 22. And they listened to him. They listened to him until this word, (Gentiles). And then they raised their voices and said, 'Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live.' Then as they cried out and tore off their clothes and threw dust into the air, the commander, ordered him to be brought into the barracks and said that he should be examined under scourging so that he might know why they shouted so against him.

There are only a handful of Roman soldiers in Jerusalem. During this time as far as we can tell from historical sources, there were about 500 Roman soldiers. The population of Jerusalem was many thousands. The Roman soldiers were vastly outnumbered. And so the ESV actually tells you it's the tribune who were going to be brought into the barracks. The tribune would have been the local officer in charge. There was a Roman barracks there. We know where it was. It was called the Praetorium. It was a fortress It was next to the temple complex, which was probably where Pilate had tried Jesus before. That's where Roman governors usually stayed when they were in Jerusalem. Romans didn't like it in Jerusalem because, well, for one thing, they weren't allowed to bring their eagles. Why? They were idols.

There's no gladiatorial arena there. The Romans saw the Jews as strange. There are only 500 Romans there. They're not matched, at least in the short term. That's why it's pretty wild out there. They're tearing off their clothes and throwing dust in the air. That's why the Roman official, the Tribune, tells them, Beat Paul. They examine him under scourging. That means you're beaten with a whip that has bits of nails and glass in it. That could have killed Paul.

Back to verse 25. And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion, who stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying, Take care of what you do for this man who is a Roman. Then the commander or the tribune came and said to him, tell me, are you a Roman? He said, Yes. The commander answered, With a large sum, I obtain this citizenship.

In other words, a lot of the officers and such might pay a big sum of money to get the citizenship.

And Paul said, but I was born a citizen. Then immediately, those who were about to examine him, withdrew from him. And the commander was also afraid after he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.

It was illegal to severely punish a Roman citizen without a trial. Roman citizens were a special class of people. I know there's a lot of disputes in the United States right now about citizenship. I teach politics. It's nice to say, without making a statement for anybody, US citizenship for better or worse is fairly easy to get as world citizenship goes. Israeli citizenship on the other hand, is really hard to get. I believe your grandmother's mother has to have been Jewish. I'm not talking about religion, I'm talking about race. You have to be able to prove that she was Jewish by race. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how long ago you converted to Judaism, you can't be a citizen of Israel.

How special was Roman citizenship? How hard was it to get? One of the ways was to pay a lot of money. Not many people had a lot of money. Most people who were Roman citizens were born that way. If you weren't born a Roman citizen, the most common way of becoming a Roman citizen was to join the army. When you sign up for the US Army, what's your tour? Five years, six years? When you sign up for the Roman army, you sign up for 20 years. During which point, among other things, you're forbidden to marry. Roman discipline was notoriously brutal. They invented the practice of what's called decimation. If a unit showed cowardice in battle, afterwards the unit would be forced to draw straws. If you drew the short straw, the rest of the people in your unit would be forced to beat you to death. Every 10th person, that's what decimation gave them. That was Roman discipline. You went through 20 years of that to become a citizen.

There were other things like the penalty for falling asleep at your post was death. There are things of that sort. They were also expected to attend gladiatorial events so they could watch people being horrifically tortured and killed, so they could become desensitized. Inflecting the cruelties they inflicted on Jesus would have been routine for them.

Why go through all that? Roman citizens had rights, and so did their children. Obviously, according to Rome, you got married after you survived 20 years in the army, but their sons, especially, would inherit their citizenship. Roman citizens had rights. In particular, they had the right to trial before the Emperor, before any severe punishment was inflicted.

He says, I appeal to Caesar. He had that right. He had the right to appeal to Caesar. That sounds like a really inefficient system. The Supreme Court of the United States is really backlogged, and there are nine justices. The Romans did not really improve on that system. Caesar inherited the rights of the ancient Roman Republican judges. So every Roman had the right to appeal to Caesar. Paul knew all that, and he used his Roman citizenship to help him out. He was a Roman citizen. That was pretty great. What did he write, though, about his citizenship? Turn over Philippians.

He uses that very word, citizenship in Philippians 3:17. Paul here says, Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, for which we also eagerly wait for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

As great as citizenship was with Rome, Paul was most concerned about keeping his heavenly citizenship. That's why he called himself an ambassador in chains (Eph. 6). His citizenship was truly in heaven. His highest allegiance was to his earthly city.

We read 1 Peter, if you continue from where we were, 1 Peter 2:13-17, Peter says fear God. Honor. ESV says, honor the Emperor or honor the King. Fear the government. Do what the government says, unless it contradicts what God says. Even if the government is bad, even if the government is controlled by ungodly people, we have the responsibility to live in peace with all men because our citizenship, ultimately, is not in the United States of America or any other nation on Earth. Hopefully, our citizenship is in heaven.

Turn to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 summarizes the Godly thoughts of the people of faith. It's often called the Hall of Faith Chapter.

Hebrews 11:13 says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them far off, verse 4. Abel, verse 5, Enoch, verse 7, Noah, verse 8, Abraham and Sarah, and then it continues after this verse. These people all died in faith, not having received the promises, because Jesus hadn't come yet, but having seen them far off or assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things, declare plainly that they seek a homeland, they’re strangers and exiles, ESV, on the earth.

Where's your citizenship? Is your citizenship in heaven? We have lots of privileges as American citizens, but much more important than having the privileges of an American citizen, a Canadian citizen, Israeli citizen, or picking random nation, much more important than having the privileges of any civilization or nation on Earth is having citizenship in heaven.

If we are citizens of heaven, we're all ambassadors here on Earth. What do ambassadors do? They represent. We're supposed to be representing the King of Kings, representing Jesus Christ. The question is, are you a citizen of heaven? If not, then you need to be. You become a citizen of heaven by hearing and believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and by confessing that faith in him before men and repenting of your sins and putting him on a baptism. Then you need to continue to live like a new person, like a citizen of heaven. Don't live like the world lives. Don't live like Samson did, caught in an endless cycle of living for yourself, living for revenge, living to get ahead. Live for Jesus instead of living for the world and truly live for Jesus.

If your citizenship is not in heaven, if your citizenship needs renewal, or if there's any need you have, make your way to the front as we stand and sing this song.