{"id":45407,"date":"2008-09-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/one-nation-under-me\/"},"modified":"2008-09-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-29T00:00:00","slug":"one-nation-under-me","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/one-nation-under-me\/","title":{"rendered":"One Nation, Under Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kevin Baugh has his own country&mdash;The Republic of Molossia&mdash;and if you don&#39;t mind, he&#39;d prefer you call him &quot;His Excellency Kevin Baugh.&quot; After all, he has an impressive khaki uniform with six big medals, a gold braid, epaulets at the shoulders, and a blue, white, and green sash. Oh&mdash;and a general&#39;s cap with a gold starburst over the bill.<\/p>\n\n<p>Never heard of The Republic of Molossia? That&#39;s understandable, because it consists of Baugh&#39;s three-bedroom house and 1.3 acre yard outside of Dayton, Nevada. According to an article in the <em>Chicago Tribune<\/em>, &quot;He has a space program (a model rocket), a currency (pegged to the value of chocolate-chip cookie dough), a railroad (model size), a national sport (broomball), and&mdash;in his landlocked desert region&mdash;a navy (an inflatable boat).&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>The newspaper goes on to say: &quot;Baugh is a micronationalist, one of a wacky band of do-it-yourself nation builders who raise flags over their front yards and declare their property to be, as Baugh puts it &#39;the kingdom of me.&#39;&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>For Baugh, it&#39;s a fun joke, but he&#39;s joking about what all humans want to do&mdash;build a &quot;kingdom of me.&quot; It is the reason we are in trouble with God&mdash;the sovereign God, Ruler of all he has created. Sin is simply living by our own laws instead of God&#39;s, of regarding ourselves in our quiet ways as &quot;His Excellency&quot; or &quot;Her Majesty.&quot; Colossians 1:13 says, &quot;For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3436,3848,4180,4191,4206,4207,4324,4326,4388,4389,4704,4909,4923,4930,4977,5227],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-45407","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-arrogance","tax_ctp_tags-ego","tax_ctp_tags-human-limitations","tax_ctp_tags-humiliation","tax_ctp_tags-idolatry","tax_ctp_tags-idols","tax_ctp_tags-kingdom","tax_ctp_tags-kingdom-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-lordship","tax_ctp_tags-lordship-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-pride","tax_ctp_tags-self-centeredness","tax_ctp_tags-self-image","tax_ctp_tags-self-righteousness","tax_ctp_tags-sin","tax_ctp_tags-vanity"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>One Nation, Under Me - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/one-nation-under-me\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"One Nation, Under Me - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kevin Baugh has his own country&mdash;The Republic of Molossia&mdash;and if you don&#039;t mind, he&#039;d prefer you call him &quot;His Excellency Kevin Baugh.&quot; After all, he has an impressive khaki uniform with six big medals, a gold braid, epaulets at the shoulders, and a blue, white, and green sash. 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