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Amen. Let's keep your place there in Colossians chapter 4. We will get there in just a moment. So a few years ago, I did a sermon on the second law of thermodynamics. And this morning, I think the law this morning I'm going to look at from the Bible is Newton's third law of motion. So let me explain to you what that is first. Jacob said we're not having enough object lessons in the church, so I've got a basketball here. Newton's third law of motion says this. I'm just going to give you an introduction to the sermon this morning, but I'm going to show you how Newton's third law of motion is actually in the Bible, just like the second law of thermodynamics applies to the Bible. Newton's third law of motion says this. It says whenever one object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first object. So an example of this is just bouncing a basketball. So here I have a basketball that probably weighs, I don't know, probably about a pound, I would guess. And by throwing this basketball down on the ground, it bounces back up into my hand. And what actually happens is more complicated than you would actually think. What's actually happened is if I take a 10-pound force from my arm and throw this into the ground at 10 pounds, when the ball hits the ground, the ground itself is exerting 10 pounds back up towards the ball. That's what this third law of motion is saying. You're like, that sounds really confusing. Well, just look at it this way. If I hold this ball in my hand, you say the ball's not moving right now. Say the ball weighs a pound. What's actually happening is my hand is actually exerting a force upwards on the ball of one pound. And since the ball weighs a pound and it's exerting a force downward on my hand that's exerting the exact same force upwards, the ball is not moving because those two forces balance each other out. So what I'm trying to show you is that this law of motion says that when one object exerts a force, the other object exerts a force back upon it. And I want to show you that concept in the Bible this morning. Who can I give the ball to? I'm just going to roll the ball over that way. So I want to show you that from the Bible this morning in the concept of what the Bible teaches about power, about masters and servants. And I want to show you that this morning. Now, the Bible teaches a lot about masters and servants. And I want to show you this morning that, look, authority structures, and I've preached this extensively before, authority structures are real in our lives and the Bible teaches that they are real and that they should be honored in our lives. You have authorities in your life, they should be honored. That's what the Bible means by masters and servants. The Bible is saying that in your life you are going to have masters in your life and you are going to be servants. Look, everybody's a master and everybody's a servant depending on the different situations that they're in. But these authority structures are real. They're to be respected. Look, they're real in everyday life. Your work life has authority structures. If you don't think that your work life has authority structures, you're not going to have a very good work life. You're not going to be able to function in this world. You're not going to be able to have employment. Your family life, the Bible teaches very clearly, has an authority structure. And even if people don't like to hear this today, the family is defined in the Bible as having an authority structure. The husband is the head of the household and he is even the head of his wife. Then the wife has an authority structure over the children in the home. It is all very biblical. We ought to respect authority as God places it in our lives. I've preached extensively about this. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 26. Look, now while I've preached extensively on this, you may not always like the way an authority in your life does something. And authorities in your life may actually do things that are not correct. And the Bible's very clear that if that goes outside, you know, the Bible or what God commands you to do, you are always to respect the higher power as Romans 13 says and always respect God. It's a very simple concept. But outside of that, you are supposed to just respect authorities even though it just may not be the way you want to do things. I don't really think that the speed limit should be 65. I think it should be 75. But I should respect authorities that are put in place. Nobody thinks it should be 65 in California apparently. But anyway, I'm making a simple example. But look, David, let me give you an example. David was very good at this. David was very good at just respecting authority structures in his life. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 26 and verse number 7. All this is introduction. 1 Samuel chapter 26. Look at verse number 7. So here Saul is doing the, you know, he's just going crazy trying to hunt David down. Look at verse 8. They had now snuck up on Saul when he's trying to hunt David down and kill him. And they have the advantage over Saul. Then Abishai verse 8 said to David, God hath delivered that enemy into thine hand this day. Now therefore let me smite him I pray thee with the spear even to the earth at once and I will not smite him the second time. They come upon Saul sleeping in his camp and David's, you know, servant, his mighty man Abishai, brother of Joab says, let me just kill him right here for you. I'll just drive the spear right through him. I'll stake him right to the ground. And then we'll be done with this whole thing, this guy, you know, trying to hunt you down. But look at what David says in verse number 9. This is the second time actually David spared the life of Saul. And David said unto Abishai, destroy him not. For who could stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? He's like, no, no, no. God put him in power. God put that authority there. Who am I to go against what God ordained? All right, so the point is this, just because the boss is mean, just because the boss does things, you know, that the way that you wouldn't do, that has no effect on the fact that he is the authority in the situation. All right, doesn't mean you can just overrule the authority as long as it doesn't go against the Lord. If you're asked to do something illegal, you know, somebody tells you you can't go to church, even a husband telling his wife you can't go to church, look, that's against the Lord. That is not a command that needs to be obeyed by whatever servant in the situation. A good example in the Bible is Daniel being asked to, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being asked to worship idols, being asked to stop worshiping the Lord, stop praying, you know, worship this image. And in that case, no, because my higher power is always the Lord. All right, look at, in Romans 13 one, I'll just read it for you. The Bible says, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. So God is the highest power, but God ordains authority. God doesn't want there to just be no authority anywhere, just chaos. He doesn't want that in the family, that's why he makes a very specific family structure. And look, he doesn't want that in the world. He doesn't want that in the world. That's why with the government, with the government that we have, we're to obey whatever, you know, we're not to just like, I don't like taxes, so I'm not going to pay my taxes, you know, all these different things. As long as it doesn't go against the Lord, and the Lord is very clear that on things like taxes, just give them their money. It's saying, look, we have a sign in front of the church now, just because there was a law that changed in 2024, and it's not against the Lord that put a sign in front of the church, so we put a sign there so we can just be within the law. We always want to be within the law because God ordained authority, unless it tells us we can't do something that God commands us that we should do. This is not a complicated concept. In the church, in the church is the same thing. There's authority in the church, there's a program in this church, get on the program. I mean, that's all you have to do. There's real God-ordained authority in a church, get on that program, everything's going to be great, but the sermon this morning is not about any of this. The sermon this morning is for leaders. I've preached on obeying authority, I've preached on God's ordaining authority, I've preached on the higher powers. This morning is for leaders. The Bible talks a lot about taking advantage of leadership. The Bible talks a lot about ruling in a bad or unjust way, and that's what I want to talk about this morning. Look down at Colossians chapter 4 and look at verse number 1, or it's the verse of the week. Look down at verse number 1 in your bulletin or in Colossians chapter 4. The Bible says masters, so now the Bible, God here is giving commands to masters in this verse. Masters, this is someone, anyone who has authority in any situation. It says, masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. So the Bible here is saying is that the perfect master, the perfect boss, the perfect authority figure will be just and equal. The perfect authority figure, we all have the example of the perfect authority figure, which is God, all of our masters. So you say, is everyone a servant? Absolutely. Everyone is a servant, at least to God. Even the most powerful man on planet earth that has ever lived is or should be, should put himself in servitude to the Lord Jesus Christ, even though that maybe was not the case with especially powerful people. But the title of the sermon this morning, that was all introduction, the title of the sermon this morning is to give you, is to give this warning to masters. And I titled the sermon this morning, The Pendulum of Power. The Pendulum of Power. Now the Bible, the Bible tells us how to be masters, but the Bible also gives us plan B. The Bible also tells us the pragmatic reactions that will happen if we are not good leaders and we are not good masters. And then the Bible also, I mean the Bible has everything covered. When powers are abused or taken advantage of, I'm going to show you this from the Bible, it provokes a reaction. It provokes a reaction in what? The equal and opposite direction. You'll see this in the world, but you will also see this in your Christian life. It's just a reality. It's just a reality. Now look, examples of this. Let me give you examples of this. Examples of this is like, here's worldly examples, like labor unions are a good worldly example of this. All right, you have, you know, what was the origin of labor unions? You had masters or you had employers, bosses, and maybe it was in the Industrial Revolution, I believe it started in the United States anyway, that were just, they were putting employees, they were putting people in, you know, they were kind of driving a dictatorship and they were kind of putting people, what it really drove it was putting people in unsafe conditions and unsafe situations. And you know, it's hard for us to kind of wrap our head around that today in the environment in the United States, but sending people into construction zones, into mines, into factories, where just many people died. It was just a regular thing for people to get maimed and killed and all these different things. So here comes labor unions. So that kind of swings that pendulum of power in the other direction. Now I've actually seen this pendulum in my life actually go the other way. I've actually seen, I worked at a company years and years ago that had labor unions in the company, and it was driven because that management in that company was doing things that were very, you know, they were not thinking about the safety and well-being of the employees. I mean, I'm talking about decades ago in the 60s and 70s, and then the labor unions formed, but then in the 80s and the 90s, many of the employees, because of the shift in management, management shifted the way they did things into a better way of doing things. I'm going to show you what that better way is this morning, and people chose to not be part of the union anymore. So the pendulum swing the other way. So all that to say this, I'm not talking about, you know, my opinion of unions good or bad or whatever. I'm just saying the pendulum, you know, the force of bad leadership causes a reaction in the other direction. You could argue that feminism is kind of driven from the same thing. Maybe there was, look, I know feminism is evil. I get that, but I believe many people, many women that jumped on board with feminism probably had some bad male leadership in their life, and so what they did was they took the table, and they just flipped the table over, and they're like, all right, let's just redo everything, and that's not the right way to do things, but the point being bad leadership provokes an equal and opposite reaction, and the Bible teaches this. People leading in a bad way can cause people to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. I'm not saying these reactions are right. The Bible teaches against the reactions in many ways as well, but the Bible warns us about this. The Bible warns us about abuses of power, and it tries to stop the pendulum effect. Let me give you the most dramatic and damaging area where the power of pendulum will destroy everything, and that is in the family or in a marriage. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Let's look at the pendulum effect in a marriage and how the Bible, how God gives us direction to stop that pendulum from swinging, because you don't in a marriage between a husband and a wife and with children, you don't want the pendulum to swing at all. You want the pendulum to be sitting right where God wants it to be where the Bible defines that it should be, but look, we're not all. I mean, I'm not without sin, and neither are you, and neither is your wife, and neither is the husbands in the room, and so the Bible tries to stop that pendulum from moving back and forth. Look at Ephesians chapter 5 and verse number 22. Verse number 22, Ephesians chapter 5, kind of really details the relationship between a husband and wife, but Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22 kind of wraps it up for sake of time here. It says, Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. So the wife here is supposed to reverence her husband, and the husband is supposed to love his wife as himself, and we see up in verses before that that the love that a husband is to have towards his wife, it's not like, Oh, I love you, honey. It's like the same type of love that Christ had for us, meaning that self-sacrificial love. So this is a very serious type of command given to the leader of his home. It's like you are literally expected to sacrifice for your wife and your family, the same way, if necessary, that Christ sacrificed for the church. How did Christ do that? Well, he gave everything, including his last breath, and he died. So, I mean, if you just take this and wrap it up in this statement, a man, a man that is, think about it this way, a man that is unwilling to die for anything outside of himself should remain single. I mean, that is a pretty dramatic command. It's a pretty tall order for a husband given in Ephesians chapter 5. The woman is to reverence. She is supposed to submit to the leadership of her husband, but the husband is supposed to be self-sacrificial to the point of giving everything for his wife and his family. So the question is, what if one fails? What if the husband fails at his duty or the wife fails at her duty? Because I hate to break it to you, but every single husband in this room and every single wife in this room is going to fail from time to time at these duties. A husband may not be as loving and as sacrificial as he should be at every given moment in his life. And again, a wife, she just might not be as respectful as she should be as a wife. They will guaranteed fall short. But the Bible teaches that if these commands fall short in the long term, there will be consequences to this. Turn to Proverbs chapter 21. Let me give you some examples of how the Bible teaches that there will be long-term consequences. So look, every husband may not say everything in the exact way he should say things. Every wife may not be as respectful as she should be and as submissive as she should be at every given moment in time. But if these things become who they are, if I just become this selfish jerk of a husband and my wife becomes this just this this angry wife who's not respectful and just is upset and everything all the time, the Bible says there will be consequences to that. Look at Proverbs 21 in verse number 9. So here's the wife fail consequences and then I'll give you the the husband fail consequences next and I'm going to just kind of show you like basically how they're both the same. Look at Proverbs 21 in verse number 9. The Bible says it is better to dwell in the corner of a housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house. Look at verse 19. It is better to dwell in the wilderness than a contentious and an angry... than with a contentious and angry woman. So the Bible is saying this here is an example of a wife who is not fulfilling her Ephesians 5 22 duty. She's just being contentious. She's not reverencing her husband. She's being angry and it's just saying like her husband will not want to be around her. What does that mean? It means that his heart will leave her. He will not want to be there. Even if he is still doing his duties as a husband, he will just not have the desire to be near his wife. Look at Ephesians chapter 6 and look at verse number 4. If we see the husband or the father, the head of the household fail, the Bible teaches that a very similar type of thing will happen. Look at Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 4. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 4. The Bible says in ye fathers. Notice why it points out the fathers here. Because the father is the one who is in charge of the household. It says provoke not your children to wrath. The verses before this talked about the children obeying their parents. It talked about the children obeying but it says here, it gives a warning to the leader and it says provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The Bible here is saying that if a husband rules in an unjust way in a, you know, in a dictator type style that is not kind, that is not a loving, sacrificial way, the heart will leave the follower. The heart will leave the follower. There are consequences. There are consequences. Now turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. The point is this. There are consequences to leading in the wrong way. It damages people's heart. That is the main issue. Now look, God puts protection for marriage in particular in place. He puts protection in particular in place in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. We're going to look at verse number 14 where we're going to see that God talks about a husband who is not saved and a husband who is, you know, probably not doing things exactly how God wants him to do things if he's not saved and the Bible puts protections in place to try to get that pendulum to not swing. God doesn't want the pendulum to swing. Look at verse 14 of 1 Corinthians chapter 7. The Bible says for the unbelieving husband, it's talking about how a wife should stay with a husband that's unbelieving. Say two unbelievers get married and then obviously we should not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. No saved person should ever marry somebody that is not saved. Perfect world. But guess what? Saved people marry unsaved people. Or you have two unsaved people and one of them gets saved and the other one is still not saved. And maybe the other one does not want to get saved. Maybe the other one is not willing to accept the Lord Jesus Christ. So now you have somebody that's saved and somebody that's not saved and they're married. And the Bible says they should stay married. The Bible says like, oh, you know, my husband's unsaved. Don't leave him, is what Paul is explaining in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. It says, why? Because the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife. The best chance he has of getting saved is by his wife being a godly wife. And the unbelieving wife, and he flips it around the other way, is sanctified by the husband. Else were your children unclean, but now they are holy. Again, for the children's sake as well. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother and sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God had called us to peace. For what knowest thou, O wife? Now back to the unbelieving husband scenario. Whether thou shalt save thy husband. Or knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife. So it's saying, if the husband gets saved or the wife gets saved, stay married. That is not I should just now throw my marriage away. It's saying, stay married, stay doing your part. Stay. Do your part. Don't swing the pendulum the other way. That is the beauty of a marriage and the protection of a marriage is if you read Ephesians chapter 5 through the whole thing, the duty of the wife is not dependent on whether or not the husband is doing his part. And the duty of the husband is not dependent on whether or not the wife is doing her part. But our flesh will want to retaliate and the Bible is saying, do not do that. Follow what the Bible says. Follow the higher powers no matter what. But guess what? The heart will still leave. This is what leaders need to understand. It is exactly like Colossians chapter 4 in verse number 1 comparing our leadership saying, remember, masters, you have a master in heaven. This is why God gave us free will. God gave us free will. He didn't just make us a bunch of robots that just like automatically follow God. He gave us a conscience so we can seek the Lord. But God wants us to follow Him out of His own, out of our own free will. And let me tell you something. I want my wife following me out of her own free will. I don't want to be the type of husband where every single thing that I say or decision I make in my family, my wife has to just go to the Bible and be like, oh, wives, reverence your husband. She just has to like remind herself over and over, follow the Lord, follow the Lord, follow the Lord. I want really, it comes down to this, proper leadership comes down to gaining the trust of those who you are leading. I want my wife to trust that I have her best interest in mind, that I have the best interest of her and the family in mind. But if I go out and I'm just making decisions that just benefit me, I'm not being a servant leader, I'm going to lose that trust even though she should still be doing her part according to the Bible. I'm going to lose her trust. I'm going to lose her heart. I want her heart, as the Bible says over and over again, I want her heart knit to mine. I want her heart knit. I want her soul knit to mine. You know, Jonathan's soul was knit to David. They trusted each other. You know, the Bible talks about leadership is successful when it's just and equal and everyone's doing their part. We're all going to fall short at times. So if my wife falls short, I'm still going to stick to my God-given duties. And when I fall short, my wife should still stick to her God-given duties. But ultimately, if in the long term, you are a selfish and unjust leader, you will lose the trust, you will lose the heart of those that are following you, even if they're still doing what God tells them they should do. I mean, if every dollar I spend in my family, think about the decisions that you make from day to day in your family life. Every single dollar that I spent in my family was just me. Some things that I wanted, things that I needed. You know, leadership is when there's five people and four apples. True, loving, sacrificial leadership is you are the one that doesn't get an apple, is you are the one that goes without. And that is what will knit the hearts of your family with you. And Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 4, while 1 Corinthians 7 is saying, look, don't leave your husband if he's unbelieving, if he's not leading in the right way, still do your part. The Bible teaches this very clearly. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 4 is warning us something very specific about our children. Because guess what? Your children are going to leave one day. Your children are going to get married, and they are going to leave your home one day. And the Bible is warning that if you are this selfish leader who never had their interests in mind, they will never come back. That's what the Bible is telling you. The Bible is telling you, lead in what? In nurture. Nurture means caring. Nurture means I'm being that self sacrificial leader. I am concerned about the well-being of my family over the well-being of myself. And the Bible says if I nurture my children, guess what? Their hearts will stay knit to mine. Look at something you have to break. The trust of your wife and the trust of your children, that's something you have to break. Hopefully if you get married, your wife wanted to marry you. You started with that bond in place. You have to break it. You have to try to pull it apart. But you can do it over time by being a selfish leader, by being someone that doesn't have the interests of anyone except yourself in mind. Even if the people in your family are doing what God tells them to do. You'll lose their hearts. You'll lose their trust. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 5. Religion can be the same thing. So many people have had, you know, the authority or leadership in religion abuse them in their life. Look at 1 Peter chapter 5 in verse number 2. And I said religion in, you know, the loosest terms here. 1 Peter 5 chapter or verse number 2, the Bible says, feed the flock of God which is among you, talking to a pastor here, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind. This is why right here. So the pastor is supposed to, you know, have the oversight of the flock of God not by constraint. Not like you do what I tell you because or else. Or else enter anything here. But this is why workspace salvation is such a popular thing for false prophets. Because workspace, I mean, because honestly, honestly, other than gaining your trust, how do I, what's the best way to gain your trust? The best way to gain your trust is to scream at you and tell you to read the Bible. Read the Bible, read the Bible, read the Bible. Tell you to read the Bible as God says you should read the Bible and then preach to you the Bible and then you hear the things preached and you're like that matches the Bible. I trust what this guy's saying. That's the best way that a pastor can gain the trust of the people, not by constraint. But guess what? If I was some Pentecostal works-based, you know, preacher up here, you know how I, you know how I can take, you know, you know how I can control the flock? I can take over by constraint. I can say if you don't do what I say, if you commit this sin, you're going to go to hell. I can control salvation and health. Obviously, no man can control salvation or hell but this is why they teach false doctrine. So they can take constraint. You wonder where did infant baptism come from? Where did this idea of infant baptism come from in the third century? Control, constraint. That's it. 1 Peter 5 and verse number 2. You want your kids to go to heaven? They better come to church here. You want your kids to go to heaven? You want them to not go to purgatory or hell or whatever else, other doctrine I just made up five minutes ago? You better bring them through these doors because I control that. This organization controls that. This is why works-based salvation is so popular amongst men. It's so popular amongst people that want to grow churches. Why? For filthy lucre sink. So it's a perfect, it's a perfect combination of false, you know, damning doctrine and a greedy man that wants to take constraint over people. And Pentecostal churches, I know I'm really hard on Pentecostal churches but I've seen some Pentecostal churches that are really, they're very constraining. People are afraid of going to hell every day that are Pentecostal. And the limits of what it takes to get you to hell is different from church to church. It's different from false prophet to false prophet. And you know, the pastor will get up, if you don't like this sermon, you're going to go to hell. If you don't like this sermon, you're not even saved. If you don't like what I'm saying, if you don't do what I say, you're going to hell. Look, I have, the Bible teaches very clearly, I have no power over your salvation at all. That is between you and the Lord. I have nothing to do with that. All I can do is preach the word of God to people that are unsaved. All you can do is preach the word of God to people that are unsaved. If they don't want to accept it, that's not on you. You can't control it one way or the other. My wife read a book back on this pendulum of power. My wife was reading a book. She got it in like this antique store. I know it's this really old book and I'd never even heard of it before. But she was reading me this story of this man who was just very anti-religion. And you will meet these people that you try to give them the gospel. And I think it's the saddest thing ever. People that have been abused by religion, been abused by false prophets that were holding salvation or holding, you know, just pushing legalism upon them. And just this ultra-authoritarian rule. And he grew up where he saw these pastors and he, she told me a story about how, yeah, I remember the first time I met this young pastor of this church, he came up to me and he asked me if I had Jesus in my heart and then he kicked my dog in the face. And he's just like, religion was a joke to him. Like Christianity was just a joke to him. And then he went off to just tell stories about how just authoritarian and how hypocritical all these leaders of this, whatever, I don't even know what religion, what version of Christianity it was. But this guy, his heart was totally against. If somebody could walk up to him with the gospel, he'd have been like, get out of here with that stuff. Look, you'll find people like that at the door. You'll find people like that at the door. They're like, no, no, no, I grew up in that. I grew up and I don't want nothing to do with the Bible and religion. I know all about it. Because they had some authoritarian person in their life driving legalism down their throat, being just, what, taking constraint over them. But the Bible says it's not by constraint. It damages people. And what happens is people's heart, people's heart leaves. People's heart gets scarred towards just the idea of the Bible, the idea of God. So when you show them the Bible and you show them how you want to show them what God has for them, they don't want to have anything to do with it because they've been damaged. The pendulum has swung way out, outside of where it should be. Worldly authority. Worldly authority is the same way. I've kind of given you some examples of that already. With a job, it's a little bit easier because people can just quit a job if someone becomes some kind of tyrant at work or something like that, especially in America. It's not like you can't get another job. But I mean, even governments, people, governments throughout history have just been tyrannical and just overbearing over the people. And the pendulum can swing the other way. The best example I can possibly think about this is the French Revolution. The French Revolution. The French Revolution happened after the American Revolution from 1789 to like, I think almost up to 1800, but the late 1790s. But basically what you had happen in the French Revolution, it was nothing near the American Revolution. But the French Revolution, and this is a long conversation, we can have this later. But the French Revolution was basically, you had 98% of the people that were in the middle, and then you had this 2% ruling aristocracy that was just vetoing everything and just crushing the society. They were in poverty. People didn't have food. And they rebelled against the aristocracy. They rebelled against the monarchy. And then the aristocracy being all the noblemen and the 2% that had authority over the 98% of people, and they rebelled like they just slaughtered everybody. So you had this situation where, you know, one person, you know, they rebelled against maybe what was a just thing to rebel against, but then they swung the pendulum way over here, and they got in power, and they started slaughtering, and they went back and forth a few times. Like, then another group got in power and started slaughtering all the people that they didn't agree with. It was not really anything like the American Revolution at all. And then what did they end up with? Like in the late 1790s, you know what they ended up with? You know, like the Constitution and like a republic? No, they ended up with Napoleon, who was a military dictator. So it was kind of like the pendulum just like, whoa. I mean, they're chopping people's heads off by the thousands just out of retaliation. I mean, just an unchecked pendulum of power just swinging back and forth like crazy. Turn to Proverbs chapter 18. Friendships. Friendships can work the same way. If you're a friend that's an overbearing friend that just likes to boss all his timid friends around all the time, look down to Proverbs chapter 18 and verse 24. This is a popular verse that I've read before. But the Bible says, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. And there's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Look, a friend that just thinks he can just boss everybody around and just rule his friends like a tyrant just won't have any friends. He'll be by all his, the hearts of his friends will leave him and he'll be by himself. So be a good master and you'll have strong relationships is what the Bible is teaching. Let's close it up here with Matthew chapter 18. Turn to Matthew chapter 18. Look at verse number 23. This is a great story in the Bible demonstrating how masters should rule and how they shouldn't rule. Here we see a servant. We see a servant here that's a servant to one man, but then he's a master to another man. So he's kind of a good representation about how we all are. Because look, I don't care. You're like, I can't wait to be the boss at work. I don't care. There's always another boss. You're never going to be the boss. Even if you own your own company, you're not the boss. You're working for the customers. You know, you're working for the people that you serve and the people that you produce things for. There's always another boss. Look at Matthew 18 verse 23. The Bible says, therefore, therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. So this king has a lot of servants. And he'd begun to reckon one was brought unto him, one servant, which owed him 10,000 talents. For as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and his children and all the head and payment to be made. The servant there fell down and worshiped him saying, Lord, we have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt. So that's a nice thing. This man legitimately owed this master a bunch of money, which is, assumingly, why he was in servitude to the man, because he owed him all this money. And he was going to have him sold into more servitude to work it off and have his family sold and everybody was going to, he was just, he ruined his whole family from debt. And then the master just felt sorry for him, had mercy on him and just forgave him all the debt. Look at verse 28. But the same servant went out, now he's free, and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him 100 pence. So why was this person a fellow servant? This person, so he was in debt for like $100,000 and he went out and he found somebody that owed him 20 bucks, is basically the comparison here. So he finds somebody that owed him $20 from, you know, high school or whatever and he goes and look what he does. His fellow servant fell down on his feet and besought him saying, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. So he's just, this guy's begging me just like, hey, just let me give me time and I'll pay you back the $20. And he would not, but he went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servant saw what he had done, they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. So they go and they tell the original king, then his Lord, after they had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou desireth me. Thou shouldst not have had compassion, shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee. And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father also do unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses. And obviously that's put on to forgiving our brother and that was the context of the story being told in the first place. But this also applies directly back to Colossians chapter 4 in verse number 1, meaning the type of masters that we are, our perfect master is watching us. Our perfect master, who has literally given everything to us when we deserve nothing, is watching how we lead where he has given us authority to lead. So rule with mercy is what the Bible is saying. Rule with self-sacrificing love and mercy. Or you won't be given any more. That's for sure. And people won't want to freely follow you. I mean I don't know. I want my heart, my wife's heart with me. I want her to trust me. I want to, you know, and look, if your wife doesn't trust you in certain areas, maybe that's a check that you should make on yourself as a leader and be like, okay, why is that? I'm having, you say, I'm having trouble leading my wife in this area. Why is that? Why isn't that trust there? You need to start asking yourself those self-reflecting questions. But God puts these protections in place and he tells us how to rule. I mean, look, we should do the best to execute any authority God has given us in a merciful, loving, and sacrificial way. And even the boss who's a tyrant is going to end up alone. Especially the boss that's a tyrant is going to end up alone. As a matter of fact, one of my first official jobs, other than just working on the farm with my uncles, was I worked for a steel building company when I was like 16 years old. I got this summer job. And it was the steel building company and I was the lowest man on the totem pole at this company. And I remember the boss of the company telling me, we're putting you to work all summer with this carpenter. And there was this one carpenter that nobody could stand to work with. And he put, he attached me to that carpenter all summer long. And the reason that that guy was by himself is because he was a tyrant. Like, he was a psychopath. I mean, he would just scream at every, look, I didn't really, I didn't know anything. I was this, I was a grunt. I knew nothing. I didn't know how to do anything. And this guy would scream at me from 7 o'clock in the morning until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Do this. Do that. You did this wrong. Many times I did do it wrong. I remember we were working in this, remodeling this drugstore. And half the drugstore was like plastic-ed off. And there was all these ladies on the other side that actually worked in the drugstore. And they would constantly, they were like, whenever he would go on break or go somewhere to get something, they'd come over and give me a soda. Like, we're so sorry. We're so sorry. I'm like, they all just felt sorry for me. Because I'm just getting screamed at by this guy like every single day, all day long. But what was the result of the way that he did things? Look, I had no choice. I had to be there. And like, whatever. I mean, it was, you know, I was kind of used to that type of thing. But the point is, like, he was by himself. Nobody's heart was with him. Nobody went to work, including mine. I remember he went to my church. The guy that I worked with that summer went to the same church that I did. And like, I'd see him in church. I'm just like, how could you even be in church? But my heart was like nowhere near that guy's heart. Even though I did everything that he told me to do to the best of my ability. I remember I wrapped these extension cords up wrong. And it was my fault. Because he told me, like, wrap them up this way. I didn't know how to do it. And I didn't really see how he was doing it. So I just wrapped them up my own way. And then at the end of the day, saw that I just wrapped them up, like, around my elbow. And I didn't braid them like he showed me in five seconds to do. And he just got up in the truck and just like a crazy person just threw all these, just extension cords flying everywhere. And I had to go and just like redo all these extension cords. All the ladies in the drugstore are just like, I'm like, it's fine. But the point is this. You still, I still obeyed. But like, my heart was nowhere near that guy. Like, when I was done that summer, and I was done working with that guy, I was like, you know, if I never saw him again in my life, it was like, whoa, thank goodness. And he didn't even go to church that much, you know, because how could you? Just kidding. I'm just kidding. But what, that is the last thing you want for a marriage. For a marriage, you want that just total trust in a marriage. And look, it's never going to be complete and perfect. Because I'm never going to be a perfect husband. And I'm never going to say everything in exactly the right way that I should say. And when I say things the wrong way, or I get excited about something that I shouldn't have got excited about, I make those things right. I apologize. I get those things right. And I try to be a better leader the next day. But we need to keep our lives hearts knit to us. Because look, there's nothing like, I don't want to just be married. I don't want to just be married and be like, yeah, I'm still married. You know, I've been married for 60 years, you know, and she can't stand me. I mean, I don't want that. I want to have a great relationship with my wife. I believe that it's one of the biggest blessings that God gives us on this earth is a relationship with a wife and a relationship with a husband and just having a marriage. But look, we don't want that pendulum swinging around in our marriage. So let's remember that God is the perfect master. He's the perfect self-sacrificing master. While we were yet sinners, God commended his love toward us and Christ died for us. I mean, a man can destroy his relationship with his children. They are not going to be, we've got a lot of little kids in this room, but they're not going to be with you forever. And at some point if their hearts, when they do leave, their hearts are not still knit to yours, that was your fault that that happened. You can drive people away, I guess, is the takeaway for this sermon. The Bible is very clear about it. Lead and follow according to the Bible. We're all servants and we're all masters at different places in our lives. And look, we will all fall short of this on both sides, but where you fall short, get it right. You're the kind of person that can't apologize for something in your life, you're going to have a hard time with relationships. When you fall short, you're like, I'm the leader, I'm the leader of my family, so if I got something wrong, I can never admit it. No. No. Even with your children. You're like, what? You've made mistakes with your children? Yes, and I apologize. I've apologized to my children many, many times. When I got something wrong or I felt like maybe I got too excited about something or maybe I just had the situation wrong. But you need to make sure that you get those things right because then you're a just leader. Then you're being an equal leader, even though we're going to be imperfect. We're not going to be God. We can be just and equal by just getting things right and keeping that heart relationship with the people that are following us together. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.