1. "What can idols do for you? Nothing but corrupt your mind, steal your joy, and ruin your life."

2. "A shepherd's job is to nurture, pursue, heal, and gather. And this evil shepherd does the opposite of all those things."

3. "A good teacher makes strange things familiar and familiar things strange. God is retelling the people's history in this disturbing symbolic form so that they will recognize it for the nightmare that it is."

4. "What price would you pay to get God off your back? What price would you pay to be able to forget his claims and ignore his demands? Is that a deal that you would make?"

5. "In earthly terms, Jesus' incarnation and his saving mission on earth was anything but powerful. It was the opposite of power, the inversion of power. The creator of the universe became a helpless infant, a rejected prophet, a crucified criminal. But the humility of God is stronger than the pride of man."

6. "A humble beast is a fit vehicle for the humble king."

7. "The only final way to take away idolatry from practice is to take it away from the heart."

8. "Every earthly home falls short of the home you long for and the home you need. We long for home because we long for warmth and familiarity and security. We long for home because we long to know and be known."

9. "God's compassion is what turns God's power into a comfort rather than a terror. God's compassion is what transforms our hearts so that we use power to protect others instead of harming and exploiting them."

10. "In His justice, God is exacting. In His mercy, God is overflowing."

Observation Questions

1. In Zechariah 10:1-3, what does the Lord say about the household gods and diviners, and what is the consequence for the people because of their leaders' reliance on these things?

2. According to Zechariah 11:15-17, what specific behaviors characterize the "foolish shepherd" that God raises up, and what judgment does God pronounce against this worthless shepherd?

3. In Zechariah 11:4-14, what are the names of the two staffs that the shepherd takes, and what happens when each staff is broken?

4. What does Zechariah 9:9-10 describe about the coming king—how does he arrive, what are his characteristics, and what will be the extent of his rule?

5. In Zechariah 10:6-10, what reasons does the Lord give for why He will bring back and gather His people, and from which lands does He promise to bring them home?

6. According to Zechariah 9:7, what does God say He will do to the Philistines, and what surprising outcome does He promise for them?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Zechariah 10:1-3 describes the people as both "afflicted for lack of a shepherd" while also pronouncing judgment on the shepherds who exist? What does this paradox reveal about what God expects from those in leadership?

2. In Zechariah 11:12-13, the shepherd is paid thirty pieces of silver to leave. How does this transaction symbolize the people's relationship with God, and why is the amount significant in light of its fulfillment in the New Testament?

3. How does the description of the coming king in Zechariah 9:9-10—humble and riding on a donkey yet ruling "from sea to sea"—challenge common assumptions about how power and authority should be exercised?

4. The sermon describes God as both exacting in justice and overflowing in mercy. How do Zechariah 9-11 hold these two attributes together, particularly in God's treatment of both unfaithful leaders and His scattered people?

5. In Zechariah 9:7, God promises to convert and incorporate the Philistines—historical enemies of Israel—into His people. What does this reveal about the ultimate scope and nature of God's salvation?

Application Questions

1. The sermon identifies idolatry as trusting in anything other than God for ultimate security and provision. What specific things in your life (career success, financial stability, relationships, reputation) are you tempted to rely on as your ultimate source of security, and what would it look like to consciously redirect that trust to God this week?

2. Zechariah condemns leaders who exploit those under their care rather than nurturing them. In what areas of your life do you have influence or authority over others (at work, in your family, in your neighborhood, at church), and how can you practically imitate the Good Shepherd's pattern of caring rather than consuming?

3. The sermon asks, "What price would you pay to get God off your back?" In what situations are you tempted to ignore God's claims on your life or silence His voice so you can do what you want? How might you instead lean into His authority this week?

4. God promises to bring His scattered people "home" and restore them because of His compassion. If your ultimate home is found in God Himself rather than any earthly place, how should that truth shape your response to current disappointments, disrupted plans, or feelings of not belonging?

5. The sermon emphasizes that God uses His power to "lift up the downcast" and serve rather than exploit. Who is someone in your life—at church, work, or in your community—who is downcast or marginalized, and what is one specific way you could use whatever influence you have to serve or encourage them this week?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Ezekiel 34:1-24 — This passage contains God's extended indictment against Israel's unfaithful shepherds and His promise to shepherd His people Himself, directly paralleling Zechariah's themes of evil shepherds and the coming Good Shepherd.

2. John 10:1-18 — Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep, explicitly fulfilling the prophecy of the righteous king who saves through humble self-sacrifice.

3. Matthew 21:1-11 — This narrative describes Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, directly fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 and demonstrating how God's Messiah exercises power through humility.

4. Matthew 27:1-10 — This passage recounts Judas's betrayal of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and explicitly quotes Zechariah 11:12-13, showing how the rejection of God's shepherd was fulfilled in Christ.

5. Psalm 23:1-6 — David's confession that "the Lord is my shepherd" provides the foundational Old Testament portrait of God's tender care for His people that Zechariah develops and that Jesus ultimately fulfills.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Modern Lens of Power: Critical Theory's Influence on Society

II. Evil Shepherds: God's Judgment Against Unfaithful Leaders (Zechariah 10:1-3; 11:15-17)

III. The Judgment They Earn: God's Accounting for Abuses of Power (Zechariah 11:1-14)

IV. The Good Shepherd: God's Solution to Evil Leadership (Zechariah 9:9-10, 16; 10:3)

V. The Salvation He Brings: Deliverance and Restoration (Zechariah 9:1-8, 11-17; 10:3-12)

VI. God's Power Expressed Through Justice and Compassion

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Today, people increasingly view all relationships and interactions through a single lens, power dynamics.

So-called truth is merely a mask that people hide behind as they strive for power. Exchanges of ideas are really struggles for or displays of the power that gives you the upper hand.

The academic name for this worldview is critical theory. In his excellent new book, the Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, historian Carl Trueman describes the central perspective of critical theory. He writes, the world is to be divided up between those who have power and those who do not.

The dominant Western narrative of truth is really an ideological construct designed to preserve the power structure of the status quo. And the goal of critical theory is therefore to destabilize this power structure by destabilizing the dominant narratives that are used to justify it.

For decades, this critical theory has seeped into the water supply of modern society. People who have never heard the term, never read any authors who advocate these points of view, still instinctively ask of anyone who's in power, what's their vested interest? Who are they out to oppress? What selfish motives is their noble rhetoric necessarily hiding?

How can those motives be unmasked and dethroned?

In short, everything is about power and power is always self-serving.

Or is it?

This morning we continue our series through the Old Testament prophetic book of Zechariah with chapters 9 through 11.

Last week in looking at chapters seven and eight, we saw that God calls his people to repent and do his will. He calls us to not be afraid because he alone will save. And he calls us to seek him because he promises permanent joy. The three chapters we will now study shuffle back and forth between warning of judgment and promising rescue. And these warnings and judgments have a lot to do to do with power.

Who has it?

How have they used it? What has come of it? And especially, how does God use his?

Since the passage shuffles between warning and promise, instead of walking through it straight in order, I'll do more of an x-ray approach, pointing out how different themes emerge across the whole passage, so we'll sort of skip and forth through the passage. Here's the main question our text answers. How does God treat those in power and how does he use his own? How does God treat those in power and how does he use his own? There are four parts to the answer that emerge throughout the passage.

Point one, Evil Shepherds. Point one, evil shepherds. Please look first with me at chapter 10, verses 1 to 3.

Chapter 10, verses 1 to 3, Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field. For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies. They tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders.

Now, there's a bit of a riddle here. In verse 2, the Lord laments that the people are afflicted because they lack a shepherd, but then in verse 3, he threatens judgment on the shepherds. What's going on? I think the basic point here is that the rulers the people have are not the ones they need. The leaders they have had over centuries and who are still in power In the present, they rely on idolatry, on household gods and diviners.

They don't rely on the Lord to provide for them, which is both faithless and foolish. Verse 1 reminds us that it is the Lord who makes the storm clouds. It is the Lord who causes food to grow. It is the Lord who lovingly condescends to provide for our every need.

What can idols do for you? Nothing but corrupt your mind, steal your joy, and ruin your life. So the Lord declares judgment against these shepherds who are not really shepherds. Instead of leading the people in God's ways, these rulers of the people of Judah leave them to wander in desert wastes of idolatry. And idolatry does not just take the form of over worship of gods represented by statues or images.

It takes the form of worshiping anything that you think will ultimately secure you and provide for your needs that stands in the place of God. Look down at chapter 11, verses 15 to 17. Then the Lord said to me, 'Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed or seek the young or heal the or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs. Woe to my worthless shepherd who deserts the flock.

May the sword strike his arm and his right eye. Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded. In this passage, God says that he will actually raise up an evil shepherd who will exploit the people.

But God's action to raise him up does not make this shepherd innocent of his crimes, nor does it make God guilty of them. Instead, God promises to judge this wicked shepherd with exacting judgment and no mercy. Make no mistake, this passage is an unstinting condemnation of the abuse of authority. A shepherd's job is to nurture, pursue, heal, and gather. And this evil shepherd does the opposite of all those things.

So how can we apply this passage today? The most direct application is to the character of those who lead God's people, the church. How does God treat the leaders of His covenant people today? Well, He is the one through His Holy Spirit who appoints them as overseers. He is the one to whom all of us elders of this local church will give account.

And He expects us to embody His own steadfast love toward His people. Human shepherds must resemble and imitate the heavenly Shepherd. So pray that we, the elders of CHBC, would be faithful to that charge. Pray for our character and integrity. Hold us accountable to embody God's loving care for all of you.

And you must refuse to sit under, support, or submit to any church leaders who are actually anti-shepherds. Point number two, the judgment they earn. Point one was evil shepherds. Point two is the judgment they earn. Look at chapter 11, verses 1 to 3.

Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. Wail, O Cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled. The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined. The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined.

These cryptic verses declare the downfall of kingdoms along Israel and Judah's northern and Western borders. The point seems to be that in regathering his people to their land who would come in along those directions, the Lord will clear out all who stand in their way. And all this language of trees and plants is a metaphor for the pride of the glory of these earthly kingdoms. So Lebanon was famous for its tall cedars. Those cedars were used in the building of royal palaces and even God's temple in Jerusalem.

God is saying to those proud, self-sufficient rulers who oppose him and his people, whatever you take pride in, I will cut down. Whatever you lift yourself up for, I will bring low. Whatever you think will protect you against me, I will strip away.

This theme of judgment continues in verses four to 14. Now, before I read the passage, let me clarify, that I think the events that this vision dramatizes are the whole history of Israel and Judah's sin, kind of condensed into one tight narrative. And that history of sin culminated in their exile. In other words, instead of pointing forward as a prediction, this vision points backward as an explanation. With that in mind, as we read verses 4 to 14, see what jumps out at you.

Chapter 11, verses 4 to 14, Thus said the Lord my God, 'Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter, those who buy them, slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich. And their own shepherds have no pity on them. For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand. So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered.

By the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union, and I tended the sheep. In one month, I destroyed the three shepherds, but I became impatient with them and they also detested me. So I said, I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die.

What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another. And I took my staff favor and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day. And the sheep traders who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord.

Then I said to them, 'If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.' and they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, 'Throw it to the potter—the lordly price at which I was priced by them.' so I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord. Then I broke my second staff, union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

In this vision, by playing the role of shepherd, Zechariah represents God himself in his relationship to his people. God is the one who made a covenant with his people and after long centuries of patience and bearing with them and warning them, God is the one who consigned his people to devastation and deportation as a punishment for their sin. God is the one who broke off his favor and thereby shattered his people's unity as a judgment on their sin. Look again at verse 10. And I took my staff favor and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples.

All the peoples here are not all nations, but all the tribes and clans that made up Israel and Judah. And Zechariah speaks in the person of God as if he were the one who had made the covenant. In verse 14, God's act of breaking his staff unity points to the division of Israel from Judah that happened under Solomon's successor, Rehoboam, centuries before. And in verse 10, again, God's act of breaking his staff favor symbolizes the judgment of exile of the people being kicked out of their land. There's another detail of this passage that points, I think, decisively to the exile.

Look at verse 9: I will not be your shepherd, what is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.

As was common in ancient warfare, During the siege of Jerusalem, the enemy armies blocked off all supply routes into the city so as to slowly starve the people to submission or death. And Lamentations 2:20 tells us that the gruesome fate that Zechariah 9:9 says did actually happen.

What is God doing in this vision as a whole? He's reminding the people of where they have been and why. This is a kind of reverse parable. The people already know what happened, but the Lord is making it fresh by presenting it in such a strange and nightmarish form.

A good teacher makes strange things familiar and familiar things strange. God is retelling the people's history in this disturbing symbolic form so that they will recognize it for the nightmare that it is.

And who is to blame for this nightmare? Certainly the leaders who exploited and oppressed them. Again, verse 5, those who buy them slaughter them and go and those who sow them say, Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich. But verses 12 and 13 remind us that the people themselves are also responsible. The transaction here in verses 12 and 13 is basically paying off the Lord's shepherd who represents the Lord himself.

In order to get him off their backs. The point of the money that the people gave Zechariah was to get rid of him as their shepherd. If you don't want me anymore, then give me my wages and I'll go.

And they did that to try to get rid of the God he speaks for. The ultimate instance of getting rid of the shepherd in order to get rid of the God he speaks for was when Judas betrayed Jesus and received this exact sum of money as payment, 30 shekels of silver, as the Gospels tell us, like in Matthew 27, which quotes this passage to show how it was fulfilled.

What price would you pay to get God off your back?

What price would you pay to be able to forget his claims and ignore his demands? Is that a deal that you would make?

If you could. This passage holds up a mirror to the ugliest parts of the people's character and history.

If you're here today and you're not a believer in Jesus, we're glad you're here. You're welcome at any of our gatherings. You might find this history of Israel and Judah to be a little bit strange and remote from your experience? I understand that. But here's a question that can help you connect the dots.

What parts of your character and history would you least want to hold up a mirror to?

What parts of your character and history are the least comfortable to sit and stare at?

And I would ask you the same questions that the Lord effectively asks his people in these verses. What have you done to cultivate that character? What are you responsible for in that history?

How does God treat those in power? He holds them to a strict and exact account. He does not turn a blind eye to oppression. He keeps close watch on those who enrich themselves at others' cost. He keeps an especially close watch on those who do that and justify it using religious language.

And he repays them precisely as their sins have earned, which is with judgment. How does God use his own power? He uses it to uphold justice, to right wrongs, to ensure that wrong receives what wrong deserves. He neither endorses nor perpetrates any miscarriage of justice. But justice and judgment are not the whole story.

Point three, the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd. Look at chapter 9, verse 16.

On that day the Lord their God will save them as the flock of his people, for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land.

And again, chapter 10, verse 3, My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders, for the Lord of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle. The Lord is the good shepherd. As David confesses in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. We are needy, weak, and wandering, and God is the one who provides for, protects, and pursues us.

God himself is the Good Shepherd. But how will he solve this problem of evil shepherds? How will he provide a shepherd for his people who lack one and are afflicted by that lack? Look at chapter 9 verses 9 and 10.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation, is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. God's solution to evil kings is a good king, a pure and perfect and peacemaking King.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who has come to us in person. As Betsy read in John 10, Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. This prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah's entry to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. He did not ride on an impressive war horse, but on a humble beast of burden.

A humble beast is a fit vehicle for the humble king.

In earthly terms, Jesus' incarnation and his saving mission on earth was anything but powerful. It was the opposite of power, the inversion of power. The creator of the universe became a helpless infant, a rejected prophet, a crucified criminal. But the humility of God is stronger than the pride of man.

And when God shows up in person, how does he use his power? Verse 9 tells us it's to save. Verse 10 tells us it's to speak peace to the nations. In the incarnate mission of Jesus, God used his power to repair and restore and rescue and redeem. He used his power to reconcile his enemies to himself, making us his family and friends.

He used his power to lift up the downcast. Just a few weeks ago in our first meeting back at the field, I preached from Psalm 72. And in an echo here of Psalm 728, verse 10 tells us that Jesus' life-giving and redeeming rule will extend to the ends of the earth. People from every nation will be gathered into the flock of the Good Shepherd. When the Good Shepherd came to us, he used his power to save.

Which brings us to our final point, point four, the salvation he brings. Point three was the Good Shepherd. Point four is the salvation he brings.

When we talk about salvation, it only makes sense if there's something we need saving from. So what does God save us from? Scan through chapter 9, verses 1 to 8. In these verses, God promises to deliver Judah from a series of cities and kingdoms that had historically threatened them. The point here is deliverance from enemies without.

But not only that, most of the cities named here belonged to the Philistines who emphatically were not part of the people of Israel and Judah. They did not worship the God of Israel and Judah. And look at verse 7. Which speaks of the Philistines. I will take away its blood from its mouth and its abominations from between its teeth.

It too shall be a remnant for our God. It shall be like a clan in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites. The Lord is saying here that he will not only judge the Philistines, he will save them. This language of blood and abominations in the mouth is referring to eating the meat of sacrifices that were sacrificed to idols. So it's about how they worship their false gods and God is saying, I will remove those false worship practices from them.

That is, they will be converted to me. I will take away their idolatry from their mouths and the only final way to take away idolatry from practice is to take it away from the heart. God is saying, I will renew and transform and reclaim those Philistines and make them my people from the heart out. God is talking about how he will incorporate other nations into his people by saving them. That's what makes them a remnant for our God.

That's what makes them like a clan in Judah. His judgment does not result in their elimination, but in their salvation and transformation. So, God not only delivers us from enemies without, which of course will only finally take place in the new creation, but he delivers us from the enemy within, which is our own sin, our own propensity to worship false gods.

Then in verses 11 to 17 of chapter 9, the Lord promises deliverance from captivity and oppression. He will complete the freeing and regathering work that He began in their restoration from exile. He will enable Judah to triumph over all who threaten them. This is a promise of ultimate and complete victory over all threat of harm. Both of these passages picture and anticipate God's work of salvation in Christ.

God sent His Son into the world to deliver us from our greatest enemy, which is sin itself. He sent his son to deliver us from the consequences of our sin, the greatest consequence being eternal condemnation. Jesus did that by dying for us on the cross, by bearing God's wrath against our sin. And God sent Jesus to deliver us from our ultimate natural enemy, which is death. Jesus did that by triumphing over the grave when he rose from the dead.

So now, If you have never turned from sin and trusted in Jesus, God both invites you and commands you to trust in him, to receive him, to get rid of any hope of being right with God by any other way but by receiving him. He commands you to turn from trying to be the master of your own destiny and to submit to his good and right and gentle and humble authority. So turn from rejecting and resisting God and receive God the Son as your Redeemer. Turn from the futile hope of false gods and trust in the Son of God who alone delivers from death.

What does God save us to? He saves us into the joy of intimate fellowship with him. That's the main point of chapter 10:3-12 with their repeated promises of regathering. Look at chapter 10:6. I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph.

I will bring them back, because I have compassion on them. And they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them. And again in verses 8 to 10. I will whistle for them, and gather them in, for I have redeemed them. And they shall be as many as they were before, though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return.

I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead, and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them.

This promise was made sometime in the late sixth century BC, maybe 518 or a few years after. And historically speaking, there never was a kind of large-scale gathering of the people in precisely these terms. I think the initial fulfillment of a promise like this came about through Pentecost. Through all nations, beginning to be regathered to the one true God, including scattered tribes of Israel. And this promise is being fulfilled progressively in this age as more and more people come to put their trust in Christ and are united to God's one people.

This promise will be fulfilled ultimately in the new creation, our true and perfect Home. Where do you call home? For many of you, it's somewhere other than D.C. We hear this in conversation, oh, I'm going home for the holidays. Home might be where you grew up. It might be where many of your family members still live.

When's the last time you went home?

Has COVID-19 kept you from home longer than you're used to?

Is the coronavirus disrupting plans you have to return home in the near future?

What God promises to save his people to in these verses is home.

That doesn't just mean a particular plot of land.

The geographical language here points to an ultimate reality that is both physical and spiritual. For all who trust in Christ, our ultimate home is the new creation. God will one day resurrect this very world and purify and renew it forever. But above all, our home is him.

To return to God, is to return home. As your creator and Lord, God is your source and destination. God is your origin and your goal. Every earthly home falls short of the home you long for and the home you need. We long for home because we long for warmth and familiarity and security.

We long for home because we long to know and be known. We long to be known, not just known, but in being known to be affirmed and enjoyed. We long for home because we long for love that does not depend on our achievement and performance.

Home is where they have to let you in. When you need it.

Where can you find that home?

Only in this God who saves by His compassion.

Look back at chapter 10 verse 6, I will bring them back because I have compassion on them. And they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them. I have compassion on them. That's our hope, that's our peace, that's our comfort, that's the surprising source of our salvation. God's compassion is what turns God's power into a comfort rather than a terror.

God's compassion is what transforms our hearts so that we use power to protect others instead of harming and exploiting them. And God's compassion is available to all who repent of sin and trust in Christ. How does God treat those in power? He holds them up to the standard of his own righteousness, and he judges those who scorn him and harm his people. How does God use His own power?

To deliver and rescue, to protect and preserve, to redeem and transform.

God uses His power to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. In his wonderful book, Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortland comments on Ephesians 2:4, which says that God is rich in mercy. Ortlund writes, Nowhere else in the Bible is God described as rich in anything. The only thing he is called rich in is mercy. What does this mean?

It means that God is something other than what we naturally believe him to be.

It means the Christian life is a lifelong shedding of tepid thoughts of the goodness of God. In His justice, God is exacting. In His mercy, God is overflowing. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we praise you both for your exacting justice and your overflowing goodness. We pray that we would submit to your righteousness and steward well all the different kinds of authority you've given us. We pray that we would trust in your compassion to rescue us and restore us from all that threatens us, especially our sin. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.