Submitting To Authority

Introduction

We have sung some wonderful thoughts today about the Word of God and how we should respond to it. And this morning I preached about how to understand biblical authority. And so tonight I think a natural outgrowth of those thoughts is to talk about a proper response to the Word of God once we understand its message to us and our fundamental response to God, as we’ll be seeing in our study in Isaiah, as we’ve already studied this morning about the lowly and contrite heart. Humility, a low estimate of ourselves, a proper estimate of ourselves in relation to God is critical to a right response to Him. Coupled with that idea of humility is submission. Submitting ourselves to God’s will for us. And that’s what God has always desired in this Old Testament text.

Micah is writing to people who had not failed to be religious. People who were still about the business of acts of worship, a heart of worship. Now that’s something else. But he says to them in Micah chapter 6, with what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings and with yearling calves? And certainly the Lord wanted those things. But the point that Micah is making is that God wants more. His message to us and our submission to it encompasses more than just in the old covenant time with Israel, more than just animal sacrifices. Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams in 10,000 rivers of oil? Now that would be quite a sacrifice.

That would be quite an expression toward God, wouldn’t it? 10,000 rivers of oil? How about presenting my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? I mean, we’re talking about the most extreme of sacrifices. But, he says, He has told you, O man, what is good. And I want you to underscore that word in your mind. He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice? Proper and fair treatment of other people, having regard for others that would cause such a treatment of justice, to love kindness. How do we interact with other people? To love kindness and to walk humbly, that’s the idea of a relationship. It’s an idea of a relationship where God is leading us, and we’re going to sing in a minute where he leads.

I’ll follow. And if we can truly get that sentiment in the heart of everyone present tonight, we will have been successful in our teaching today. To cultivate that mindset to walk humbly with your God.

First, in verse 5, all of us are instructed that God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So that station of humility, a proper regard for ourselves, a proper understanding of who we are in relation to God, that’s important because that’s who God gives grace to, and we saw that in Isaiah 55 this morning. He says, God is opposed to the proud. Remember one of the things that is in the world that is not the will of the Father. What are they? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Oh, good. Answer. Boastful pride of life, the New American Standard says. And so God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Part of the problem is people don’t appreciate God’s mighty hand. They don’t appreciate the presence of God, period. Much less the mighty hand that he has in contrast to our weaker, far weaker and flimsy hands, the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time. So many are concerned about exalting themselves to occupy a position or a place or their advancement. Look, we need to be concerned about serving God and submitting to him, and he’ll take care of the exaltation. I’ll tell you, it’ll be far more than you could ever do in the exaltation of yourself. And that’s why the scriptures say he who exalts himself shall be humble. But he who humbles himself shall be exalted.

1. Submission or Rebellion: The Choice Is Yours

So we need to get this right in terms of our submission to God’s authority, and really you have two choices. And the choice is yours. As we’ve seen in our study of Isaiah, as Isaiah is continually making his appeal, and I have this verse later in my outline, but I don’t go ahead and throw it in now. Come now and let us reason together. He says in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 18, though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. And we see over and again in Isaiah, here’s God’s promise. Here’s God’s offer. Here’s hope for the future. Things are bad, really, right now. People aren’t listening. They’re unfaithful. God’s going to judge people. He’s going to judge the nations. And then he comes back to the message of hope.

And then it’s the message of judgment again. And really, what all of that is telling us is you’ve got to choose. First point tonight submission or rebellion. The choice is yours. It’s the mark of wisdom to know that men make pitifully poor gods. As they would say later, Jeremiah would say later than the time we’ve been studying in Isaiah a hundred years later. Jeremiah says, My people, or God speaking through Jeremiah says, My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they have hewn themselves out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. And so the rebellion leads to those kinds of decisions. Wisdom leads one to look to guidance outside of ourselves. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your steps. And that kind of response, submission to him, is refreshment. It’s wealth to the body and refreshment to the bones. The wise writer says in Proverbs chapter 3. It’s either submission or rebellion, and there’s no in between. What gets us into trouble is that we start comparing ourselves to other people, and we come up with ideas like, well, you know, I’m a pretty good guy. Or I’m a pretty good gal compared to other folks. And that may well be so. There may be a lot more goodness that marks our lives than the lives of others, and we refrain from things that we know that are immoral and lascivious things. But what we have to remember about goodness, he has told you, old man, what is good, that this message is the standard.

Remember we talked this morning about goodness? This message is the standard of goodness because it emanates from a God who is completely good. And remember what Jesus said when the rich young ruler came to him? Good teacher, what good things shall I shall I do that I might inherit eternal life? And he said, Why do you call me good? There is none who is good except God alone. And God is perfect in goodness. We are imperfect at that, and we cannot be good without him. He has told you, O man, what is good. And I think perhaps the classic example of this is King Saul in 1 Samuel chapter 15, when he is instructed to go and utterly destroy the Amalekites, and he comes back to Samuel the prophet and says, What?

The first thing. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I wonder if deep down King Saul knew that he had not done completely what he was instructed to do. He was supposed to obliterate everything and everyone. But he brought back King Agag. God had devoted him to destruction. He was supposed to be killed. He was not supposed to survive. And that’s why you remember young people. What ultimately happened to King Agag? Well, he was killed. But guess who had to do it? Samuel the prophet. Hacked him into pieces, it says. Well, you talk about a gruesome scene. But that was necessary because Saul and those around him needed to see the significance of God’s instruction. And then there was the bleeding of sheep. Samuel, well, if you’ve obeyed the voice of the Lord, what about these animals that you brought?

Oh, but what was his justification? What did Saul say? We have brought them back to sacrifice to the Lord your God. Boy, that’s more telling than anything. It’s Samuel’s God that we’re, I mean, no relationship yourself. It’s Samuel’s God. What about your God, Saul? We’re going to sacrifice, we’re going to give these to worship. Now, isn’t that what Mike is talking about? Is that what God wants? Burnt offerings and sacrifices, 10,000 rivers of oil. Perhaps he picked up a few thousand rivers worth of oil while he destroyed the Amalekites. I don’t know. But is that what God wants? God instructed you what to do, and you in your rebellion rejected that instruction. And that’s what Samuel tells him in 1 Samuel chapter 15, when he informs Saul in verse 22, has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord.

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination. And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. How many biblical examples besides Saul could we bring forth as people who were not outright atheists? Who did not respond to the ultimate authority with submission? Let me just throw one at you here. This might surprise you. Look over in the book of Jude, the tiny little book of Jude before the book of Revelation at verse 6. Even spiritual beings created for spiritual service in the presence of God. Angels who did not keep their own domain, verse 6, but abandoned their proper abode.

He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. You know some things I don’t understand about some things I read in the Bible. One of the things that I struggle to comprehend is how this could even happen. How angels seeing God. One of the problems that we have is we serve a God that we have not seen and cannot see. They have seen God, operated in his presence. They understand the greatness and unrivaled power and his awesome perfection. How? Why would they do this? I think sometimes we want to think of the rebellious. That category, the people that are the rebellious people are the dregs of society. Those who have totally given themselves over to their own lusts. They don’t worship God, they don’t darken the doors of the church building.

Or if they do, they are just simply casual denominationalists who have embraced error. And we look at ourselves and we’ve made so many better decisions in our lives. And again, we’re good people in comparison. We care more about the Word of God. I mean, here we are on Sunday night at 5 o’clock. How many people would turn out for a second service on the Lord’s Day? And some of our people struggle with that. More on that in another sermon. And so we start comparing ourselves to others. Those rebellious people, they’re the ones that have atheists and agnostics. But in the Bible, a lot of times, the rebellious are covenant people. They’re not people who have quit worshiping. You know, when by the time somebody gets to the point that they are quitting worship, they’re done, assembling with the saints and worshiping God, they have already cultivated a severe heart of rebellion against God.

2. We Have to Start With Why

That’s just the evidence that we see that heart exists. Sometimes people in rebellion to God sit in assemblies and offer spiritual sacrifices of worship, which really aren’t spiritual. They are going through the motions, they are the routine of what God wants, but they are not heart invested in those things. More about that in a minute. But before I go any further with this, I think we need to start with why. Heard a sermon on that not very long ago. In fact, I preached it last week. We have to have a good reason for doing something. It makes it easier to do. And appeal after appeal is made in Scripture. We have good reason for doing this. As God said to the people in the law in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 24, these things written are for our good always and for our survival.

And we come to the New Testament and we see such things that God commended his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Well, that ought to be some motivation for us, that we might escape the wrath of God through him in 2 Corinthians 8, when Paul is making his appeal to the church at Corinth, in 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 8, he says, Look, I’m not speaking this by way of commandment, this business of giving for the poor saints, more on them in a minute, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.

I’ve always thought about this verse. This is the gospel in summary in one verse.

3. Surrender Is a Sign of Strength and Courage

What is the grace of God all about? Jesus was rich. He willingly gave it up, became poor. Ultimate poverty. To the extent that he was rejected and put upon a cross, even though he was not guilty. That you through his poverty might become rich. Come by milk and wine and water without cost. As we read in Isaiah 55 and verse 1 this morning. We have ample reason and motivation to surrender to God. Now, let’s get to the nuts and bolts of this, building on what we talked about this morning. There are two main areas. Well, first of all, let me not forget this. This surrender is not a sign of weakness. It is instead a sign of strength and courage. If we’re going to submit properly to God in our lives, we are going to have to develop some inner strength.

When we add to our faith all of those virtues of 2 Peter chapter 1, one of them that must be added to our faith and increasing, it says, is the quality of self control. You talk about an attribute that requires strength. Tried any dieting lately? Sherry and I have been talking about this. I want to tell you, it’s just not a lot of fun. They built a new McDonald’s at the end of our street. I have wanted to go there so bad. I couldn’t believe it was open as quickly as it was. And there I’m driving by almost every day, and there’s people there. And I said, Sherry, we’ve not been to our McDonald’s yet. It’s our McDonald’s. It’s right by our house. And I, and I on the way here, I was thinking, one of those meals, French fries.

But it’s not consistent with what we need to do for our diet, she says. Having not gone to McDonald’s this weekend, I think it’s tremendous self-control on my part. It’s difficult. It is a sign of strength to exercise self-control in any area. And we have to exercise this quality in our response to God. It is a sign of strength, this surrender and humility and submission that I’m talking about. And you’re going to have to be courageous about it. We define courage in a lot of different ways, but I’ll tell you, submitting to God, period. And even small things. That’s real courage. And let me talk about two important areas quickly tonight where the authority of God’s word, understanding its generic and specific elements that we talked about this morning, two important areas where we have to submit.

4. Corporately: The Organization and Work of the Local Church

And one of those areas is what we do together as a group. The word corporate sums it up in one word. But what I’m talking about when I use the word corporate, what does it mean to be the Decker Prairie Church of Christ and to operate as a group? There is an area of submission involved in what we do together corporately, obviously, there is an area of surrender and humility and submission in regard to what I do in relation to God as an individual. And I want to talk about those very briefly and I’ll be done tonight. First, in regard to what we do corporately, we must submit to God’s authority in regard to the organization and work of the local church. God has not organized the church universal, that is, all saints throughout the world to operate corporately or collectively.

By the example and the instruction of the New Testament, as we talked about the importance of those things and establishing authority this morning, he has placed upon us corporately the matter of forming local churches and that local church functioning in an autonomous way. That is, other congregations of the Lord’s people govern themselves, and we govern ourselves, and we have as our leaders in the local church, elders and deacons, but we must first and foremost submit to Christ as our head. Ephesians chapter 1, 22 and 23. And so in a local church, when Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, he talked to his elder, the elders and deacons of that congregation in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 1. Another thing we see in regard to the organization and work of the local church has to do with meeting the material needs of saints.

There was poverty in the first century, and the brethren all across the world at that time were admonished, like in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, to meet this need of the saints. It’s not that one church sent their money to another church and another church sent their money to that same church, and then the church did that work of benevolence by sending it over to Jerusalem. What happened is Paul and his companions, remember? Titus and the brother of fame, mentioned in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, whoever he was, they were the messengers of the churches. And the church at Corinth gave them the funds, just like the churches of Macedonia had done. And they brought those funds over to Judea, and they were disseminated to these poor saints in Judea.

And what is interesting in that collection is that it was not for needy non saints. We emphasize this in our study of 2 Corinthians. The ministry to the saints is mentioned over and over and over again, and there is no evidence that money that was collected from churches ever extended beyond saints. That’s significant. I want to ask you, do you think there were other poor people in the region of Judea? Do you think only Christians were suffering poverty? Do you think there might have been some poor people that could have been helped in Corinth? If one of those people was your neighbor, do you think you could close your heart to that person if you could assist and help them? Absolutely not. James addresses that. But that’s different, you see, what an individual can do and what the church is instructed to do in this matter of benevolence.

And the issue is, are we going to submit or not? Let me give you an important passage. I want you to mark this one. If you haven’t already marked it, if you don’t automatically know this verse, in your discussions with others in Christ who practice these kinds of things not in accordance with the teaching of the New Testament. You need to know this verse. 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5, and some of you could probably fill in the blank on the verse at this point. 1 Timothy 5 and verse 16. Paul is discussing to Timothy what to do with widows in the local church. Widows that might have financial and material needs.

Okay, somebody in your family who is a widow, let her assist them. So if I have a widow in my family, or Sherry has a widow in her family, so this is addressed from the her standpoint, then she should try to assist them. And then this, underscore this in your Bible. And let the church be burdened. Let not the corporate group be burdened with this responsibility. Now, what if she doesn’t take care or the person is not able to assist? Then the church becomes burdened with this financial need. But he says, let not the church be burdened so that it may assist those who are widows indeed. There’s no one else to look out for them. And we read about the church doing that in Acts chapter 6, when those seven men were selected, including Stephen and Philip, to take care of the needs of the widows while the apostles devoted themselves to the ministry of the word and to prayer.

This verse is important. Let not the church be burdened. First of all, if we’re going to extend assistance beyond saints, we’re talking about a minority of people already. But if you’re going to extend assistance beyond saints, what kind of a burden is that? And the scriptures don’t even talk about that. But even those who are saints who have material needs, he says, let families step up first before anything corporate occurs. Now, why does God have these rules? Again, look at how many we are in relation to the work that needs to be done in the preaching and teaching of the gospel.

And hey, once you have fed someone a meal, let’s say we disperse all of the funds that we collect in the local church to provide meals for those that are hungry in the world. First of all, we couldn’t do that. But let’s say we attempted to do that. Who’s going to teach the gospel? Who’s going to preach the message of salvation? Who’s going to provide the instruction that people need, not just for the satisfying of their hunger for a moment, but to satisfy the hunger for their souls eternally? If we don’t do that, who’s going to do that? And so he says, let not the church be burdened. But we could talk about that more, but we have to carry out our own work. Again, there’s no example in the New Testament of Corinth getting together with Philippi and Philippi getting together with Thessalonica and all of them pooling their resources and doing some great big work in evangelism?

You might say, well, they didn’t have radio and they didn’t have television. And so maybe there’s an opportunity in our time to do something on a grander scale in evangelism. And men have attempted that. They’ve tried that. But without a biblical pattern? To substantiate delving into such a practice? Look, this is an important verse too in Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 5, which shows how God feels about our submission to his instruction. As Moses was told in regard to the erection of the tabernacle, he says that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. When we look at God’s instruction and we start to say, well, I know God hasn’t given us any specific or generic authority in this area.

And we say, but I think it’ll be okay. How many other areas can we do that? What is the end to that kind of thinking in relation to the Word of God? And so what we see in the New Testament is a limited use of the treasury for the preaching of the gospel, the functioning of the local church, and needy saints. But not today. In many places, the treasury is used for social and recreational purposes. I don’t read anything about that in the New Testament. Nothing about that being the emphasis of the early church. And yet we get flyers like this all the time, and I just I just save this. This is the Cyprus Fellowship. And come join us. You missed it, by the way.

October 20th. Activities will include rock climbing wall. That sounds like fun. You guys like try a rock climbing wall? Blue choo-choo. Victory slide. Well, that’s better than the defeat slide. Victory slide, slam dunk, playland. Food and fun for all ages. The little free will fellowship that’s right outside our little community as we head toward the McDonald’s. The free will fellowship. I’ve noticed that. Very small building. You know, it doesn’t look like there’s any room for Bible classes. It’s just a small one room building, it appears. Not very large. I noticed out there yesterday. Well, it’s a carnival. I mean, we’ve got the blow up thing that kids can get in and jump in, and all the things you would have at some kind of carnival or fair.

Those are the kinds of trappings and attractions that people are often today associating with church. You don’t read anything like that in the New Testament. That social and recreational emphasis, our purpose as a group is the salvation of souls and the nurturing of souls by the instruction of God’s word. And then we can talk about worship. And how that we must not stray from the biblical pattern in regard to worship. We talked about singing this morning from Colossians chapter 3, Ephesians chapter 5. Doesn’t mention play. We’ve got to honor God’s instruction. And so these are some of the areas corporately where we need to submit to God’s authority. Now, having said all of that’s the short course on that, by the way. That’s the easy stuff.

Oh no, I know some people struggle in regard to that. And I’ll tell you, sometimes we’re a lot more comfortable talking about how people have deviated from God’s plan in those areas. And yes, it’s a problem for some of our brethren. And we can talk about false doctrines in these corporate groups, things that are taught that’ll cause souls to be lost, people that don’t teach the truth about God’s plan of salvation. And I’ll tell you, there are so many errors out there. If I wanted to do an error every Sunday night, I could do that perpetually. Some error that people believe that’ll cause you to be lost. May deal with one of those next Sunday morning inadvertently, but I mean, I could do that every Sunday night.

And I’ll tell you, there’s some churches where folks would like that. To show that what we’re teaching is right and what others are teaching are wrong, and that makes us feel good. We’re standing for the truth. And we do need to stand for the truth corporately and do what God says that we should do as a group.

5. Submission as Individuals to God

But I want to tell you, that’s the easier part. Where it gets a little sticky, and it gets a little more challenging and a little less enjoyable, is when we start talking about submission as individuals to God. We must submit to God in both areas, corporate and individual. And when we’re talking about corporate things, you know, that doesn’t come too close to home. And again, we’re as a group, we’re listening to what God said and doing what God said to do. What we’ve executed, unleavened bread, fruit of the vine. We’ve listened to specific authority, and that excludes substitution. No McDonald’s French fries on the Lord’s Supper. Well, I’ve been talking about McDonald’s a lot. There’s going to be a problem getting through this tonight. But no substitution.

Unleavened bread fruit of the vine. That’s what’s specified. Now we can do that any time of the first day of the week. That’s generic authority. We talked about that this morning. And so sometimes we want to hear about errors people have made in regard to worship. Perhaps they’re not observing the Lord’s Supper by the example of the first day of the week and the frequency of the first day of the week, and they’ve decided to take it only on Tuesdays, or maybe once a month, or once a year. And we can talk about people who don’t understand the instruction of Scripture in that regard. Or they have instrumental music, which is not spoken of in the New Testament. Somebody wants to defend instrumental music. One thing that I like to mention about that, you know, 200 years ago in this country, most religious groups, even those that taught error, were against instrumental music.

Boy, things have changed. Now instrumental music is the norm in religious groups. Maybe people’s understanding and respect of the Bible has decreased in that time. What do you think? The simple preaching of the Word of God? And so we’ll talk about worship, but what about when it comes to my submission on a personal basis? This is really the essence of it all. Bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 5. Molding my character. Actually doing some work. You know, it involves some work to practice corporately what God has instructed and not deviate from his plan. But it’s going to require a great deal more work to mold our thinking and character into the image of Christ.

Such as sexual lust, fornication, even homosexuality in our time. Or lasciviousness of various kinds, drinking and becoming inebriated. We talk about those kinds of things. And we know we need to refrain from that, but that’s what all Christianity is. It has to do with me striving to imitate the love of Christ in all of my relationships. That’s a plateful right there. To be a servant of others, even to my own hurt, as the Lord was. To be sacrificial, a living sacrifice, Paul says in Romans chapter 12 and verse 1. To think about things the way the Lord thinks about things, to hate sin the way that he does. And to recover from sin. Because he left us an example that we should do no sin. And yet sometimes we succumb.

6. The Enduring Faithfulness of Service

And thankfully, he has shown us the way to return to him. The enduring faithfulness of service. And perhaps the most challenging thing of all in our personal submission to God is that it’s not just about a day or a week or a year. It’s the long haul.

She passed away this week, and the funeral was Thursday. It’s surprising to me that she did not obey the gospel until her midlife. Because her mother, who was named Erdie May, that everyone in the family called Gigi, was a faithful saint and a faithful soul for many years. But Mary did not obey the gospel until her midlife. But you see, she lived till she was 90. So she still served the Lord for four decades plus. Four decades. Some of you have not even been close to being alive that long. I’m barely there. But as a servant of the Lord, I’ve not reached it yet. Four decades. Now, Bill knows what I’m talking about. Enduring faithful service. That is, remember I said at the very beginning, you have to choose submission or rebellion.

That is choosing submission. Day after day after day after day. And the problem is we have this baggage of rebellion back there. That old baggage that keeps wanting to come alive. And the devil is wanting to kindle it again over and over again. And we’ve got to fight the good fight of faith. That’s what those passages are about. Enduring faithfulness of service, continuing to set our affections on things above, to develop the character of Christ, to think more like him. Look, I’ve been at this a long time. I’ve been preaching a long time. I’ve been scouring the Word of God a long time, and I have a pretty good understanding of what the mind of Christ is. That doesn’t come overnight. You’re going to have to delve into the Word of God, examining the precepts, looking at the life of Jesus, to understand really what it means to have the mind of Christ.

Now, once you discover it and understand it by applying the proper principles in our approach to the Bible that we talked about this morning, once you get it, understanding it, to living it, that can be a huge step. It is so easy to nod our heads, amen, to what we hear that is truth. And we know it’s truth. When I talk about baptism being necessary to salvation, I know I’m getting a lot of nods of the head in the yes direction. That’s what the Bible teaches. When I talk about some of these things that we read about in regard to the local church and its work and our worship, and even in regard to these areas of individual holiness to God, we’re shaking our heads yes, and that’s a start.

We need to be there, but we have to go further. Humility and submission. And ongoing humility and submission. I have to admit, I’m more than a little frustrated. I try to, and I’m I’m going off the notes here. I try to look on the bright side of things. And I try to look at God’s people who are being positively affected by the preaching and teaching that I do. But I get discouraged when I talk about attitudes toward brethren in particular. And the whole church, and I’m not talking about us, okay, but the whole church nods amen like this, but at the first upset. It’s almost like I never said any of those things. That we had never talked about how to love each other and how to encourage each other and how to serve each other.

Conclusion

All bets are off. People divide up by families and friends. And that tells me something. That tells me that this business of character has not been adequately pursued. You see, what happens is we’ll nod amen to these things and say it ought to be that way. But what are we doing in the area of personal submission in regard to the development of these qualities in our hearts? And what does that mean about my behavior in my home and my behavior Monday through Saturday when I’m not in association with the Lord’s people most of the time? Sacrifice and surrender is the call of the gospel. That’s where it all starts. We only consider ourselves in one area. This is it. Saving my soul. That’s where the Lord wants me to have a preoccupation with myself.

To do whatever it takes to make sure my soul is saved, that I’m in a right relationship with God. After that, one thinks only of God and how awesome he is and what is owed him and what he instructs and how I am to respond to the needs of others. What shall I render to the Lord for all of his benefits? What have you rendered to him? Have you rendered to him what he desires? And are you saying in your heart of hearts, where he leads, I will follow? Let’s stand and sing.