Well, on this beautiful, clear, balmy evening, walking over here, I was looking at the brightness of those stars, one of them I learned, a planet, and just thinking how merciful God is to give us such delightful weather. Two things I'd like to mention before we read the scriptures tonight. First of all, the other evening I mentioned to you that the Ministries of Emmaus have moved into access on the Internet. And it may be that you know enough about the college that you wouldn't be particularly interested in finding out details about the college and its history and whatnot, but you may be interested in getting access to the Emmaus Journal. I know we brought copies of that down. In fact, I thought I was going to bring some copies of a brand new one down, but they're not quite off the press yet. I learned today in a phone call back to the college that probably they will not be available until Monday. How is that calling it pretty close, isn't it? But if you've read the journal, you would enjoy it in that sense, why you might want to have access to the journal on the internet, or maybe even to test your mind again on a correspondence course on the journal. And if you would like to do that, if you're a computer person, I'll ask me after. I'll give you one of my cards. It has the Internet Emmaus address on it. It's too complicated, at least for most people, to give it orally here. But if you would like that Internet address, let me know and I will give you that card. Second thing I want to mention is to do with a prayer request. This semester, this second semester of this academic year, we have our first class of young people who are finishing their degree in Bible and elementary education up to this point the only major we have offered at the college is Bible but we have a need driven program here you're probably well aware that there are many many places where the Lord's people are interested in establishing Christian schools a number have been established and even in assembly circles we've been very reluctant to think of Christian schools and assembly circles but a lot of interest and a lot of need in many places for the effort, the ministry of Christian schools. And these schools not only look for Christians, but they look for Christians who are professionally trained as educators. And increasingly, Christian schools are also looking for teachers that have some formal Bible study at the college level. And a program like ours at IMEIS is very ideally suited to prepare teachers for Christian schools. and as a need-driven program we're developing a second major in elementary education make it possible for a student to get a double major degree in Bible and elementary education and our first class of teachers God willing will be graduated in May they're doing their student teaching this semester and I'd ask you to pray for these young people it's an experiment for us it's our first class of student teachers to have out in the schools Now, believe it or not, several of them in our Dubuque public schools by their request. And that's a long story, but it represents an awesome string of rather dazzling tokens of the mercies of God in the attitude that the public schools in our area have taken toward our college. They have asked if we will send them teachers in their student teaching. It's a rather remarkable thing, and we're grateful for that. And while our target primarily is to prepare young people who are going into Christian schools, we're very grateful for this kind of interaction. And pray for these young people that are doing their student teaching now. They're in the classroom as teachers under the supervision of a regular classroom teacher. This is a very crucial time. I would imagine a number of you are probably certified teachers. You've been in the classroom. And remember your days of student teaching, and you pray for these young people that God will sort of clinch in their minds and hearts, not only the professional aspects of teaching and all the wondrous dimensions of that, but teaching as a ministry, as a Christian in the setting of elementary education, with a Christian philosophy of education, with a biblical worldview. That's our target, and we'd like to see that sort of come to a climax in the life of these choice young people that are first class of graduates in elementary education along with their Bible major. Pray for them, will you? And pray that God will lead them on to fruitful lives of service in teaching children. Now this evening we're going to turn to the book of First Kings again. And tonight we're going to go to chapter twenty one. And since it's a long chapter and since it may be a while since many of you have read this We're going to read fairly extensively in the chapter, so follow along, if you will. And we're going to begin reading in First Kings chapter twenty-one at the first verse. Now it came about after these things that Nehoboth, the Jezreelite, had a vineyard which was in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. And Ahab spoke to Nehoboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it's close beside my house. that I will give you a better vineyard than it to take its place. If you like, I will give you the price of it in money. But Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers. So Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed because of the word which Naboth the Jesuit had spoken to him. For he said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he lay down on his bed and turned his face away. and ate no food. Quite a mature response to frustration, isn't it? So Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said to him, How is it that your spirit is so solemn that you are not eating food? He said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth at Jezreelite and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money or else if it pleases you, I'll give you a vineyard in its place. But he said, I will not give you my vineyard. And Jezebel, his wife, said to him, Do you now reign over Israel? Aren't you the king? Arise, eat, let your heart be joyful. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, sent letters to the elders and to the nobles who were living in Naboth in the city. Now she wrote the letters saying, Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people and seat two worthless men before him and let them testify against him saying, You cursed God and the king. Then take him out. and stone him. And as you know, that dastardly plot was carried out. Verse seventeen. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who is in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. And you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says the Lord, have you murdered and also taken possession? And you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says the Lord, in the place where the dogs lift up the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall lick up your blood, even yours. And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, O my enemy? And he answered, I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring evil upon you and will utterly sweep you away. We'll cut off from Ahab every male, both bond and free in Israel. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebad, and like the house of Basha, son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger, and because you have made Israel to sin. And Jezebel also, the Lord has spoken, saying, The dog shall eat Jezebel in the district of Jezreel. The one belonging to Ahab who dies in the city, the dog shall eat. The one who dies in the field, the birds of heaven shall eat. Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord because Jezebel his wife incited him. And he acted very abominably and following the idols according to all that the Amorites had done whom the Lord cast out before the sons of Israel. And it came about when Ahab heard these words that he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted and he lay in sackcloth and went about despondently Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but I will bring the evil upon his house in his son's days. Now over to verse thirty-four of the next chapter. A war ensued with Syria. Ahab thought he was going to pull a fast one and convinced the king of Judah who was with him to wear his kingly garments, but Ahab wore plain soldiers' garments so they would not recognize him a king. But, verse thirty-four, a certain man drew his bow at a random and struck the king of Israel in a joint of the armor so that he said to the driver of his chariot, Turn around and take me out of the fight, for I am severely wounded. The battle raged that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot in front of the Syrians and died at evening, and the blood from the wound ran into the bottom of the chariot. Then a cry passed throughout the army at the close of sunset, saying, Every man to his city, every man to his country, so the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs lifted up his blood. Now the harlots bathed themselves there. According to the word of the Lord, which he spoke, are the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did, the ivory house which he built, and all the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son became king in his place. Let's pause again to pray. Father, we're thankful tonight that as we take a difficult passage like this in hand, we can turn again for your help and seek your blessing. May we profit from reading this rather striking and tragic account. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, you've heard the old statement, power corrupts. Power corrupts. Authority corrupts. An absolute authority absolutely corrupts. And we see that tonight in this sad, sad picture of the last chapter of the life of King Ahab. I have to confess to you folks that on the way over here tonight, I was started complaining to the Lord. I would rather not preach on passages like this because it's not a positive one. And yet, as the Word of God always is, it is very, very life affirming. And as I look at a passage like this, I think, well, there are some very solemn lessons here for all of us. I think particularly for those who have the responsibility of leadership. Let's review some of the details of the narrative and then look for some of the lessons in it, for there are many, many. And probably some of the most difficult things that God asked the prophet Elijah to do were in connection with the man Ahab. We've seen him from the very beginning of the appearance of Elijah in the biblical page when he strode into the presence of Ahab and announced that the drought was coming. Right on through his life there were repeated occasions and we are not exhausting the narrative. There is much more there. In fact, one of the important things that you need to look for if you're going to reread this section is to see the widespread corruption that Jezebel and Ahab brought into the nation. Now there's a great emphasis on the fact that when Ahab married that pagan woman and brought her in as his queen, she brought Baal worship in a formal sense. Baal worship had been there informally. But under Jezebel's presence in the kingdom, Baal worship came in formally. And that was an abomination to God. We will not even bother to describe the horror, the corruption, the degradation of that religious practice, Baal worship. And you ought to also see in the pages of Scripture how that one of the ways in which Jezebel and Ahab corrupted the nation is that they put Sodomites in positions of power in the nation. And how that corrupted the nation. In fact, if you read through the book of First Kings, you find out that even the ungodly kings who followed Ahab realized with alarm the influence that putting Sodomites in positions of power in the nation had brought How that doomed the nation. And it took two generations of kings to root out the Sodomites from those prominent places in the nation. Established there by Ahab and Jezebel. They were a pair. And again and again we see in the scriptures the displeasure of God against the evil of these people in a place of leadership. Now, the chapter begins by saying that we have a king here who's covetous. But I want you to look back at verse forty-two and forty-three of the previous chapter. Because as we started reading in chapter twenty-one, verse one, we read, Now it came about after these things. So that kind of language obviously ties this event. Ahab's covetousness is pouting because he couldn't get what he wanted and so on. Ties it into what went before. What went before. Well, to make a long story short, in a very crucial situation, the Lord had spoken to this man. You see that in verse forty-two. The prophet said, when thus says the Lord, who did he say that to? To Ahab. And he delivered a rebuke to Ahab. And the response of Ahab, verse forty-three, was to go home sullen and vexed. Now I submit to you that when you react to the word of God with anger, You're in deep trouble. I don't care whether you're the king or who you are. When you react to the word of God by being angry and sullen, you have placed yourself in a very spiritually dangerous position. And out of this flows the covetousness of Ahab, the king. He wanted the vineyard of Naboth. It was close. He wanted it for a vegetable garden, and we read the narrative. A couple of important things. We'll not repeat all the details of the narrative, but remember several important things. First of all, when Naboth refused to make this trade or sell this property to Ahab, he wasn't just being stubborn. You may not have picked it up in the statement of verse three, but Naboth's refusal to either trade or sell that land to Ahab was biblical. If you go back to the Levitical Ordinance, you find that God tied his people to the land. Very interesting to see that in the Levitical Ordinance. He tied his people to the land. They were sacredly obligated to care for and to farm the land. It had to stay within the family. Only in the most adverse circumstances could land go out of the family, and even then it had to be returned in the year of Jubilee. God tied his people to the land. And when Nebuchadnezzar said, Ahab, I can't do that, God forbid. What he was really saying is, the word of God says, no, I shouldn't. And his refusal was not just stubbornness, his refusal was his own commitment to be obedient to the Levitical Scriptures. That you need to see. Now, that didn't cut any ice with Ahab or Jezebel. Obviously, they were not people who were subject to the authority of the Word of God. Ahab was already bent out of shape because God had spoken a rebuke to him already. And he went home to pout because it wouldn't happen. And Jezebel stepped into the scene, sort of mockingly asked him, well, aren't you the king? You'll wonder who was the king. Talk about petticoat government, you find it here. And so while Ahab pouted, Jezebel started her wicked works, even forged the king's signature and seal, and commanded the people in the community where this man Naboth lived to falsely accuse him in public and get him stoned, framed him, if you please, and tragically enough it worked. Why people ever cooperate like that with that kind of diabolic stuff is more than I can see. But unfortunately, the Northern Kingdom was not in good shape spiritually. And there were people there apparently who were ready to cooperate and Jezebel knew who they were. And so she got her message of judgment through to them and they succeeded. And Naboth was falsely accused and forthwith stoned. And you see, too, if you read the account that we skipped over here, that Jezebel was in ecstasy. Finally, what success? What did all work so wonderfully well? Ah, yes. But God saw it. And he said to Elijah, Elijah, I got another tough assignment for you, friend. So you've got to go back to Ahab. And it's not a good message you have to deliver. Notice some of the content. He says in verse nineteen, you shall speak to him. Thus says the Lord, have you murdered? Now, Ahab was probably a long way away from that stoning. In fact, he didn't even write the false message that led to this false accusation and the wrongful death of Naboth. But God says, Ahab, you murdered. And now you're going to steal on top of it? Ever hear the expression stealing pennies off of a dead man's eyes? As a kid, that was one of the most despicable things that a person could do. I don't know how that ever happened. I'm not sure I understand the background of that statement. But here's the expression of God as the prophet pointed to this wicked king. And he said, have you murdered? And now you're going to steal? And then he delivered his word of judgment. That the dogs would lick the blood of Ahab, the king. And not only that, the dogs would eat Jezebel's body in her death. Pretty solemn thought, isn't it? Notice verse twenty-two, because of the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger, you caused Israel to sin. You know, one of the interesting things about leadership from God's perspective is this. People in position of leadership cannot merely simply act. Because when you're in a position of leadership, what you do has profound influence on others. And thus that sphere of responsibility and that level of responsibility increases. You see, it's bad enough for a man to pout, to covet, to reject the word of God. It's bad enough for a wife to do the dastardly things that Jezebel did, but when you're in a place of leadership, It's not just your own personal dastardly deeds. God says, not only have you corrupted yourself, but you have caused Israel to sin. The influence of leadership may be for God and for good and for blessing. The influence of leadership may be degrading and defiling. And that was the problem with Ahab. The problem. Now I have to admit that the statement of verse twenty five is a rather striking one. Surely there was no one like Ahab. Boy, when I read through the record of these kings and see all of the evil they committed, and then I see a statement like this, say he topped them all, or he bottomed them all out, however you're looking at it. That's a strong statement. A strong statement. And yet, did you notice the last two verses in the chapter? I have a confession to make, folks. These, I, how shall I say it? I feel like Jonah when I read these verses about Ahab's pouting again in his fain repentance and the fact that when God saw that measure of humbling and repentance, he delayed his judgment on him. That sort of makes me angry. I wish God had just clobbered Erasco right there. See? I confess, I find myself sort of like Jonah, who was angry when God spared Nineveh because they repented. And yet in my sober moments, I'm grateful that this is the kind of God we have. Aren't you? What if God would have slapped you in hell the first sin that you committed as a child? first time you threw a temper tantrum the first time you lied to your mother the first time you failed to do an assignment for your teacher or sassed your grandmother sapho in the hell you go what if he had done that not just the first time but the second or the third or the tenth or the hundredth time you sin what if God had thrown you into hell in that moment he wouldn't be here tonight I'll guarantee you neither would I I am grateful in my sober moments that our God is a God of mercy, even to a rascal like Ahab, even to a rascal like Dan Smith. You may want to put your name there. And then we read that brief account at the end of the chapter in chapter twenty-two, the account of Ahab's death and how he thought he was well disguised They'd never target him because he was not dressed like the king. He was dressed like an ordinary soldier. Oh, he conned the king of Judah into going out to battle with his kingly robes on, so he'd draw all the fire, you know. But the scriptures say one of those soldiers in the Syrian army just drew a bow at a venture. He just took a wild shot and let her go. Didn't aim at anything. And it struck Ahab. right between an open space and his armor. Ah, he said, I wounded. Take me out of battle. And they took him to the side and propped him up in the chariot. And he bled to death there in his chariot. And when they washed it out that night in Samaria, the dogs licked up his blood. What a way to go. What a way to go. Well, you say, why in the world, preacher do you preach on stuff like this? Well, folks, it's in the book. And I think that even in a difficult passage like this, there are some important lessons to learn. Let me just point up a few. The first lesson I see reflects way back on the beginning of this narrative and say that when a person inwardly reacts against the Word of God, they set themselves up for great folly. Did that? When a person inwardly reacts against the Word of God, They set themselves up for great folly. I think of what the scriptures say in the prophetic scriptures, Second Thessalonians two, pointing our mind to the future, maybe not far from now, when a man of sin prevails and the statement is made there that they will be fixed in their unbelief because they did not receive the love of the truth. It's an interesting way to put it. They did not receive the love of the truth. Do you love the truth, fellow believer? If you do, you'd better bless God. You'd better bless God because it is not natural to us to love the truth. The truth of God can hurt. The truth of God can point the finger toward us. We talked on Tuesday morning about the convicting work of the Spirit of God. And as believers, we know what that's like, for the Spirit of God to put his finger on our heart and conscience and say, you're a sinner, you're a sinner, you're a sinner, and the soul that sins, it shall die. And while it makes us miserable for the time, it becomes the mercy of God. And if God has shown you your need, and if he has given you a love for his truth, you should bless him every day on your need. because to react against the Word of God sets an individual up for great folly. Another obvious lesson I see here is that the person who is committed to the Word of God, the person who is determined to obey God, may come under great persecution and stress. I'm looking forward to meeting Naboth someday in the glory. and just listen to him recount all that went on in those very short hours of time in which right out of the blue he was dragged out of his house into a public place, falsely accused, and forthwith stoned. Boy, when I see this and I think how long sometimes it takes us to deal with true criminals, it makes me a little bit odd. We're not talking about things dragging on for weeks and months and years and costing millions and millions and millions of dollars. This was pretty swift. And as we would say on the farm, as crooked as a barrel of snakes. Falsely accused him and literally let him right out and stoned. Someday when I talked to Naboth, I'd like to find out what was going on in his heart and mind in those hours, or minutes maybe. But people who are committed to obey the word of God may find that the world around them really, really puts it upon them. Now, that doesn't mean that we make ourselves cooks by some kind of religious fanaticism. You see, as we said, Naboth wasn't just being stubborn. He was refusing because he was consciously committed to obey the word of God. That property was to be retained by him and his family. It was not to be given or sold or bartered to Ahab. And in his obedience to the truth, he suffered and died. There is that higher law of Acts chapter five. We ought to obey God rather than men. And I remind you that there are two parts to that higher law. So many times when I talk to people who are thinking about as it were calling upon the higher law the rather than men is the important thing I remember for example a lot of young men at Emmaus relationship to Emmaus years ago and they didn't want to go and get drafted in that there were a few that had thought their way through that biblically but for the most part they were just chickens and they didn't want to leave mama or leave home or leave their stereos or their high fives or whatever But you see, the higher law is not just simply rather than men. I don't like man's laws, so I won't obey it. The primary part of the higher law is we ought to obey God. And my appeal to people who are going to challenge the authority is make sure that this is not just a matter of personal preference. Make sure this is a matter of specific and conscious obedience to a specific and clear command of God. Fair enough. But that was what Naboth did. God had spoken and he was consciously obeying. And of course, he suffered for it. So be it. God will honor him. I also ought to mention the fact that characteristically, when we call upon the higher law, it's as it was in the book of Acts, Jesus Christ said, speak in my name. The authorities say, you can't speak in his name. Now, who are you going to obey? Well, we ought to obey God rather than men. And that's what they said, and that's what they did, and they took their lumps for it. Without complaining or whimpering, by the way. Remember this, too, that that same law prevails when the authorities say, you can do something that God says you shouldn't do. Like murder your unborn baby. Then what do you do? Same truth. Let's face it. Let's be fair. We ought to obey God rather than men. Right? Let's be fair now with the scriptures. It works both ways. A third thing I see in this passage is this. That position and power really may not reflect emotional or spiritual health or stability. That may seem self-evident. But as human beings, we have a tendency to assume that that anyone who is in a prominent place must be a pretty stable and healthy person. This passage of Scripture teaches me otherwise. We have a man here who is sitting on the throne who, if the psychologists were going to go through this passage, could find a lot of things that would make them alarmed. He was not only a spiritual renegade, rebelling against God and the word of God in his own heart, but he was emotionally a mess, pouting like a child, sleeping off his frustrations. We could, oh, a lot of things here that could alarm me as a psychologist. The fact of the matter is, just because a person is in prominence and power doesn't mean that they've got it all together. And it may well be that that's one of the reasons why in the New Testament God says, pray for these people. even for kings and for people in authority because they don't always have it all together right do you do i is there any surprise that they don't another thing i see in this passage is this the ways of god are not political remember our lord jesus said to his disciples ah among the gentiles The people who achieve greatness lord it over the others. But it shall not be so among you. The kingdom of God is not a political scam. Spiritual leadership is a leadership of service. A leadership of spiritual influence. A leadership of example. not a leadership of political clout. We need to remember that. Another thing I see in this passage is that both the one who plans the evil, as well as those who cooperate, as well as those who carry it out, stand guilty before God. Remember King David's sin? He was sitting at home in his palace. When that man was killed out there in battle, Uriah, did David kill the man? The enemy did. They threw stones down from the wall and killed the man. God said, David, you murdered him. You murdered. When I see passages like this, I realize that God knows our heart. And while we may have a very difficult time discerning and exercising judgment at the human level, God knows. And he is righteous. And he is just. Another thing I see in this passage is that sometimes crime seems to pay. And I see Jezebel rejoicing. Ha! Her dastardly plot worked perfectly. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah? Sometimes crime seems to pay. And as believers in a world of sin and wrong, we need to realize that God has said, vengeance is mine. Not yours, mine. And maybe even in our lifetime, we will never see some of these wrongs righted. But God is faithful. Not only faithful in His blessing, but He is faithful in His judgment. Another thing I see in this passage is that God cannot overlook sin, even among important people. I'll get myself in trouble if I keep on there. So let's go on. Another thing I see in this passage is that God's mercy is unfailing. And when I see God being merciful to this rascal, Ahab, the scriptures quell my human anger by saying, but God is rich in mercy. And you know what the context of that statement is? You and me. Not Ahab, but you and me. God who is rich in mercy. Another thing I see here is the manipulation and control of others is a dreadful thing when it comes out of a heart of evil. Sometime you want to look through the qualifications of elders in First Timothy three and Titus chapter one. and see how many of those, do a word study and all of those qualifications of an elder, you will be surprised how many of them focus upon this issue, how this elder relates to others and whether he manipulates others with his own temperament or not. I am convinced one of the most deadly things that leadership can perpetrate among the professing people of God is for people in a place of leadership to manipulate others by temperament. any kind of temperament, whether it be pouting, whether it be shouting, whether it be negativism, or whatever it may be, to manipulate others through temperament is spiritually deadly. Deadly. Yes, leadership, government, administration are vital and necessary. But we must take care to avoid the abuse of power. As parents, as camp counselors, as elders, or wherever it is, wherever it is. Leadership is so important to God. Romans twelve says that leadership is a spiritual gift. The Bible makes a great emphasis upon God's delight in using human beings in leadership. We see outstanding illustrations of godly leadership in the scripture. We also see some outstanding illustrations of wretched and degrading and sinful leadership. And there's always that reminder of the Scripture, such in a passage like this, is that no one is ever above the law. Not every soul. That includes the president of the college, the elder of the church, or the president of the country. Let every soul be subject to governing authorities. No one is ever above the law in God's order. And we must be very careful. not to abuse power and both the failure to lead as well as the abuse of leadership are issues of great concern in the scriptures well one other thought when I see the picture here of leadership gone awry and the difficult task that God gave to this prophet to go and point his finger at a spiritually renegade king and his wife. I'm reminded of the fact that among the people of God, the kind of government that is spiritual government is a different kind than you see out into the world. It's not just a matter of degree. You say, well, the elders don't have handcuffs. They don't have a police force. They don't have jails. They don't have gallows. They don't have an electric chair. In fact, the worst thing that we can do to you in the local church is to put you out. The very worst thing we can do in the local church is to put somebody out. You see, the kind of government that is spiritual leadership is a different kind. It's not a matter of degree. It's a matter of kind. It's the same kind of government that you have in a godly home where a father who is the head of his home and the mother who is the despot and the authority within her home and their ministry to their children. It's a different kind of government, again. It's a kind of government that is effectively carried out by spiritual influence, by relationship, by leadership. by the godly savor of one's life in influencing others not the kind that dominers and demands it's a different kind of leadership and when I see in the Word of God various attempts of different people in trying to fulfill leadership and the reaction of the heart and mind of God to it it gives me a very very Should I say humble? Should I say sometimes frightened response? Because leadership is desperately needed among the people of God, always. But leadership is such an awesome responsibility. And that's why James says, don't all of you clamor to be teachers? Because they will be judged with stricter judgment. I've wept and winched over that one, folks. And well, we should. Well, we should. And yet I want to conclude by appealing to us that in a day of breakdown of government and respect for a government, in a day of radical individualism and self and humanism, Spiritual leadership becomes exceedingly difficult in this kind of a context. And so I conclude by reminding you that the scriptures teach us that we must respect our leaders. First Thessalonians five, thirteen. Our responsibility. In the church. Talk about spiritual leadership here. We must appreciate our leaders. First Thessalonians five twelve. We must obey our leaders. Hebrews thirteen, seventeen. We must pray for our leaders. First Timothy two, two. We must submit to our leaders. First Peter five, five. My prayer is That we, the people of God, in our concern about the things we see in the world around us of leadership failing and gone awry and the abuse of power and all of these other things that trouble us, that we will not let that contaminate our fellowship. And that those of us who are in place of leadership will not abuse positions of power but fulfill godly leadership. That we won't be Ahab's in Jezebel. and that all of us in the congregation will fulfill our biblical responsibility to respect and know and pray for and obey spiritual leadership and not let that which happens in the world around us contaminate the fellowship of God's people let us pray for our elders it's hard to lead in the atmosphere in which we live. Let us support them with our prayers. Father, we give you thanks tonight. Thanks that as we look at a very unsettling page of Scripture, such as this, as we see leadership, even among the professed people of God, for Ahab claimed to be an adherent of Jehovah. We see leadership gone awry. We see it corrupted. We see the abuse of power. We see people in position of leadership rejecting the word of God, reacting angrily to the word of God. And Father, we are grateful that you're a merciful God, even in the face of all of this. We think of the difficult assignment that Elijah had to Be your spokesman and say some difficult things to leadership gone awry. And all of this reminds us, Father, that we need to pray for kings and for those who are in authority, for our president, and all people in authority, nationally, statewide, locally. That's our responsibility, and we want to fulfill that. And we pray, Father, that our concern about what happens in the world around us in terms of leadership that is abused and defaulting, that it will not contaminate the fellowship of your people. And that among the fellowship of saints, we will conduct ourselves, whether leaders or whether the people in the congregation, in a biblical way, that we will not abuse positions of leadership. that we will support and pray for and appreciate and encourage and get to know those who are in places of leadership. Oh God, in a congregation like this, there are a number of ways in which your people carry responsibilities of leadership, whether elders of this assembly, whether leadership in ministries in the community and Bible studies, whether leadership in terms of their family position as parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, There are so many ways that our lives will influence and give direction to other lives. And Father, we want to discharge this in a biblical and spiritual way. And so whatever the sphere of leadership we may have, we pray that you will teach us to be the kind of leaders that reflect the spirit of Christ, not lording it over others, but a leadership of service. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. and to give his life a ransom for many. And for all of us, our Father, give us a sensitive heart to respect and pray for and respond to the spiritual leadership you place over us, all of us. And we pray that we may be people who submit to your government, your authority in our lives, and thus honor you in our submission and in our godly obedience. So help us to walk, we pray. We ask in Jesus' name.