Sermon Recap:

• Pastor Suzanne talked about what to do with this passage in Romans 13 that tells us to be subject to governing authorities. She explained that the temptation in reading this passage is either to: 
  • Take these words literally and insist that there are no exceptions 
  • Or ignore this passage and try to explain it away. 
• The problem is we want to use this passage when the person we like is in power but ignore it when we don’t like the person in power. 
• The order government brings is set up by God, but that does not mean that every authority is endorsed by God. 
• Suzanne explained that there are times in scripture when faithfulness means submitting to government, and sometimes where faithfulness means nonviolently resisting government to worship God or love our neighbor well. 

Sermon Discussion Questions:

• This back over your lifetime. Was there a time where resisting the decisions of the government seemed like a faithful response to you? Why? Was there a time where you longed for the people around you to submit to the decisions of the government? Why?
• How have you seen government bring order to chaos?
• Spend a few moments praying for our leaders and asking the Spirit to show you if there are ways you are invited to submit to authority in this season, or if there are ways the Spirit is inviting you to nonviolently resist authority in this season.