Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / July 28, 2024 | The 4 Problems with Politics

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July 28, 2024 | The 4 Problems with Politics · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Glad you're here.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to be with you.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: We've got something a little bit different on tap this morning.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're kind of in-between series.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: We finished our summer in the Psalms series last week.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Went through Psalms 1 through 8.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And next week we'll be starting a series called The Good Life, which I'm excited to get into.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: But this morning we're going to talk about something a little bit different.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you think about, I mean, I brought this stand up here and I'm like way too out of breath for what that just entailed.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: That should not have been, gosh.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Anyhow.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, anytime as Christians we have the opportunity to walk through difficulty, it gives us, again, the opportunity to be able to use that for the sake of proclaiming the gospel as witnesses.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing that's really difficult when we walk through times of uncertainty or controversy, even, is that those are those are often the most difficult times to then try and live out the tenets of the gospel to be true witnesses for it, because those are the times when we most often want to kind of revert back into ourselves, be the turtle in the shell, if you will.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to think about what it means for us to use all of these opportunities to share the gospel.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, what happens when we rely on something for our hope other than the gospel?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be done through either our our just genuine belief, which is problematic, but also there's a possibility for us to have our belief in order, our priorities in the right order, but yet in the way that we act and behave, that uh it can become muddled.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And those around us, which when we're talking about witnessing for the gospel, is the audience, those around us, they can have a misunderstanding of our priorities as well.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, I want to talk about what happens when we get our priorities mixed.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And in particular, I want to talk about what happens when we get the gospel of Jesus Christ out of order with the politics that are in our country.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um and there are really four things that happen when those priorities get out of order.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: When we uh look to politics as the source of our, I'm not going to say salvation, but I'm going to say hope instead of the gospel, or at least more than the gospel.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is that we begin to practice idolatry.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: The second one is that we grow in hostility towards our leaders that we are called to respect.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Three is that we practice disunity instead of unity in our churches, and four is that we then bruise our witness, our ability to share the gospel with those around us because of these.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so, um, again, my focus this morning, and really the the bullseye that I'm trying to hit is what happens when our priorities do get out of order.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not that having politics as a personal priority is by any means bad.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there are many of you who have done wonderful work in that arena, and I have a lot of respect for your opinions.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but nevertheless, when we're Christians, we have a new identity, and that new identity, as new creations in Christ, is supposed to supersede like every other thing that we could use as our identity.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is this is certainly not about who you should vote for, I promise.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is about what happens when our priorities get out of order.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: First is that we can begin to practice idolatry.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: The idols of the nations are of silver and gold, made by human hands.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see, they have ears but cannot hear, indeed, there is no breath in their mouths.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Those who make them are just like them, as are all who trust in them.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: The term idol is actually kind of a generic one because there are a lot of things that can become idols.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Billy Graham once said, an idol is any object that people worship, but idols can also be things, they can be ideas.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And when we talk about worship, when we talk about praise, I can praise many good things, right?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I can praise a beautiful sunset, my loving wife, the athletes at the Olympics, right, who are swimming in very dirty water.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um I can do all of those things.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yet when it comes time to worship, uh the territory that God occupies, that idols then begin to tread into, is where do I place my hope for deliverance, right?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think any of those things that I mentioned are actually going to save me.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um but when we begin to worship things as the truth, um, as the good solution to the world, again, over and above what the gospel provides, uh, which is not just an eternal solution, but also a solution for our world currently, that is when we sort of head into this category.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think it's important to recognize that you can hold these things in context with each other.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like there are many good things in this world that we recognize.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is just that there is nothing better than the gospel for both the obviously the eternal transformation, but also temporal, the current transformation of our world.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: That that is the solution as Christians that we are supposed to be behind, is that this world currently can be transformed by the gospel.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we do this, you say, well, how can politics step into that?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: When we take our world's problems and the solutions offered by political candidates before the solutions given by God, um that is when it becomes idolatry.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it's a matter of belief and degree.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: We believe in it more, not that we stop believing in the gospel.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um there are many, this is not the fault, in fact, of many of the political candidates.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: There are many good people who run for office, there are many people who have wise plans, and in fact, Romans tells us that government is something that God has given to us as an extension of his power and will.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so the idea that we would care is biblical.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: But we can care too much.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And when we care too much about some of these things in relation to the gospel, it can be as if we are worshiping it.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so the first reminder this morning, each one of these points has a reminder, is that we need to remember that only Jesus can save us.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you go, well, that sounds kind of trite.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um well, whether you have a sign in your yard or you're just kind of watching the news, this is a good question to ask yourself.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Which one do you think is going to make a bigger difference in our world?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: If your uh preferred president wins in November, or if people come to faith in Christ?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really good question to ask yourself because it's it's something that kind of cuts through not just your belief, because hopefully as Christians, many of us are like, gospel, number one priority.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: But this is where I say that it is also comes through in our actions.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because let me tell you what I see, and this is just me, little me, um, typically on Facebook, but um what I see is people that I know and love who um have talked about their reticence, their fear of sharing the gospel because of social stigma or persecution or rejection, um, who want classes and to read books on what it means to share the gospel of Christ, um, who are just really unable in their own minds to kind of take that next step of telling somebody where salvation lies.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then I see them uh spewing the most vile comments about a particular political candidate, and what it reveals to me is that social stigma, persecution, rejection is something that we're willing to overcome or at least endure if we believe that what we are saying is good and truthful.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, if we struggle to share the gospel but have no problem sharing oftentimes divisive political opinions, um, which is just sort of the nature of the beast right now, um, that what it really means is that we don't actually think the gospel is as good and truthful as those other things that we're saying.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's a little judgy on my part.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I recognize that, but frankly, I that's kind of how I'm sort of reading the tea leaves here, is I think that there is something being said through our actions that actually digs down deeper into our hearts.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we get our priorities out of order, I think this happens.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is that we can, when we mix our priorities, it leads to our increased hostility of leaders.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, then I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is good, and it pleases God our Savior to do it, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul is writing to a young Timothy, who is living in Ephesus at the time.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's a church leader, and all all these pastoral epistles, which is what we'd call them, Timothy and Titus, um, they are kind of instructing them on how what it looks like to live in a church and oftentimes just handle problems within the church.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And um and as he's doing that, one of the things that Paul instructs Timothy to do, in fact, the very beginning of a list of items that he presents, is that everyone is supposed to be praying for their leaders.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, if the first thing that comes to your mind is there's no way that I could be praying for somebody as immoral or vile or disreputable, whatever words, adjectives we want to use for blank, um, then this is a really good time to remind you that Emperor Nero was the king during this time, the king, during this time in Rome, who made it his particular habit to kill Christians.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so the idea here was that Christians would have an identity, again, in times of turmoil, I mean they're being like killed for their faith, but that Christians would have an identity and a willingness to sort of go above and beyond the call of duty that we might expect for the world, which would be to return kind for kind and good for good, and then evil for evil, and instead that they would be people who became known as these blameless lambs praying for their leaders.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the prayer for, in this case, Nero, is that he might come to a saving faith in Christ.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that saving faith in Christ does two things.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: One, it saves Nero eternally, which is significant, but secondly, it is that there is an added benefit for the people who are under his care, his rule, which is that if somebody has a genuine faith in Christ, and then as we're praying, lives that out, that the entire nation will benefit from it.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so there is both selfless and selfish reasons to have these kinds of prayers.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing that is very hard to do, and I and I say this with kind of um understanding, is that it is very hard to both have a prayer where you are desiring for somebody to know and understand Christ in a genuine way, and to then um in the same way, this would be, I'm reminded of like James 4 about the spring of water that has both fresh and salt water coming out of it and how it's no good for anything, um, to in the same way then despise and ridicule and mock and tear down those same leaders.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And what the Bible says over and over again, and in fact, with a host of leaders who are exceedingly corrupt, is that there's something about the office that they occupy that is worthy of respect in and of itself because of the power that it has to change the world.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that is particularly true when we consider, like, the most important job in the world, which would be the president of the United States.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so our responsibility as Christians then to lift them up in prayer is not just something that we are doing because we like them in any given year, but it's because we have a responsibility and a command to do it, both for their sake, which we should care about, and also for our sake, which we obviously care about.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so the second reminder here is that we need to pray for our leaders to know Jesus.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um and this prayer extends, you know, it is that God's Spirit would move and be revealed, for we would pray for wisdom and discernment, we would pray and all such things that the decisions they make in office would be honoring to God.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my kind of clarifying mark here, though, is that you're not supposed to turn a blind eye to sin, right?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to bend your morality to meet the political system, okay?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be very challenging even to go that low, um, in that some of the tactics that are used in politics themselves can be so hard to see.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And even separated from the good and honorable people who are, many of them are in those systems, not just at the top, but all the way down the ticket, right?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: That we need to understand and separate what it looks like to sort of go, hey, there is a love for those who are doing good work in the political realm, for those who are creating policy and doing things that is honoring to God, that that is a praiseworthy job, um, and that is something that we should be praying for, but also for those that we go, man, I don't feel like they deserve the office that they're holding, that they are needing that prayer as well.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um so the last point here that I would bring out is simply that doing this well is something that not only everybody can do, but it does require great discipline.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, kind of like I mentioned at the beginning, the times of greatest difficulty, when the opportunity for witnesses of Christ to be seen most clearly is often the time of struggle or controversy, right?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: When we have the opportunity to act the most differently and distinctively from the world around us.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so, in fact, it is when you are actually the most opposed to the person in office or the most opposed to a leader, that you are acting the most deeply with your Christian belief system by praying for them.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, doing it in quiet and care for them is far different than what takes really no discipline at all, which is saying something terrible about them because those the you know friends that we have are going to like like it and heart it and do all sorts of things.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have a responsibility that's higher than that.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Third, uh now we shift here.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's a bit of a phase shift.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: The first two have been about us internally, right?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Idolatry, um, hostility.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: The second two now begin to affect other people.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: The first two do as well, but the second are much more external.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that is that uh we create disunity in our churches when we begin to prioritize politics over the gospel.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: But reject foolish and ignorant disputes, because you know that they breed quarrels.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord's servant must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach and patient, instructing his opponents with gentleness.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps God will grant them repentance, leading them to the knowledge of the truth, then they may come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So let me make it very clear.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: The point of this passage is not that those who disagree with you are in the trap of the devil, necessarily.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um that is not what this text is to be used for.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um but instead, what again, Paul, you'll notice here, this is in 2 Timothy, so this is another letter to Timothy while he's in Ephesus.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what Paul is saying is that actually the nature of the disputes that were happening within the church.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so this is not the next point, is what happens to those outside the church, but actually this one is within the church.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the nature of the disputes that they were having, they had two main problems.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um were not um care, they were not representative of the grace and peace and love and faith and righteousness of God, that they the way that they were treating one another was not representative of people who are brothers and sisters in Christ.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um but secondly, it is that uh the nature of these disputes uh was leading to bitterness instead of resolution as a matter of habit.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like they were debating things that either were not um necessary or they might have been necessary, but where people landed on them, where people landed on them uh was not ultimately a requirement for being a part of the church.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so where this comes in here is we go, okay, well, particularly in this climate, we might say talking about politics, talking about, you know, what we believe, talking about how we should vote, that is not a foolish dispute.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd say it is if, it is a foolish dispute if we are one, unable to have those conversations without the grace and mercy and love and patience and righteousness of God.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: If those are absent in the conversations, and or the nature of those conversations consistently leads to bitterness and hurt relationships, right?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because within the church, we have this responsibility, and this is not just something that we think like is good generally, but that God calls us to, um, that it is the great unifier of the gospel to be able to bring people from different backgrounds and belief systems and opinions together because our main identity is as Christians who have trusted in the cross of Jesus Christ for salvation.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so, whether it is Jew or Greek or slaves or free or Republicans or Democrats, we must be able to overcome these different uh divisions with one another.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so, hear me, like I'm not saying that talking about politics is bad in and of itself.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: What I am saying is if you can't seem to do it in a way that is loving and patient and kind, and the person across for you is also engaged in a loving and patient and kind way, like you're not just talking at somebody because you want them to understand something, but rather they are engaged.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: If those things are unable to happen, then we are talking about foolish disputes.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: We are talking about these things.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so we go circle back around to the text itself, and we say, well, it's not the opponents that are in the trap of the devil, but what Paul is saying rather in this passage is that it is the disunity and the strife that was present in the Ephesian church.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: That was what Satan was planning.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: That was what he rejoiced in.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to see us sort of separate from each other and not be able to get along.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so obviously, Paul is instructing them to avoid these things.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but to our own suffering, we often undervalue what unity represents in the church, right?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we think, um, and and I understand this, right?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because oftentimes it's easier to be around people, make friends with people who have like your exact belief system and I don't know, your exact opinions about everything outside of Christ, right?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's easier to make friends in that way.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: But we undervalue unity because we think that what is best for the church is to become a monoculture, uh, to have everybody look and sound and act the exact same.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: In reality, the the fullest expression of the gospel to the nations is that we are a people from every background and every opinion that comes together over the primary things, which is that Jesus Christ is our Savior.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but then to our shame, what ends up happening, we undervalue unity, but then to our shame, what ends up happening is we pursue this sort of monoculture, this idea that we would all be, you know, a certain type of like a Republican, a democratic church, or something of that sort.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then what ends up happening is that we perhaps unknowingly, I don't really understand always the thinking behind it, but we only then attract people who are then a part of that identity as well.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we further clarify who should be coming to our church outside of those who want to know Christ, then what we're doing is we are limiting the pool of people who might be able to come and hear the gospel and know Jesus.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a really big deal.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: We should not be doing that.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so the third point here is that we need to pursue and practice unity in Jesus.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: The transforming power of the gospel is that it takes people from every background.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so there is, though it seems significant, particularly right now, to be on the opposite political aisle from somebody else, it is not as big of a deal as it was to be Jew and Greek in the early church or to be a slave worshiping with your master, right?
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so if the gospel is able to overcome those barriers, then we need to be able to see the gospel overcoming these barriers today.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth and finally is that it hurts our witness for Christ.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty again?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: You are the light of the world.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: From the beginning of the Bible with creation through Moses and Israel and the kings and the prophets and the exile, and then into the New Testament, there has always been an expectation that God's kingdom would advance through the witness of his followers.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is in part why when we're walking through the Old Testament together as a church, and we're this is more a couple years ago when we were going through like Leviticus and things like that.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: But even with numbers in Deuteronomy, you're like, why all the rules?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Why all of the restrictions?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why all of the and part of that answer, it's a big answer, but part of that answer is because there were things that God instituted for Israel simply for the sake that she would be different from the nations around her.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that there would be something when people looked at Israel and the success of Israel and the sort of growth of Israel and the way that the world worked at the time, sort of truly believing and understanding at how there were like gods just representing different nations, as they would look at what Israel was doing, they would see that they were different and distinct from the world around them, and they would then want to follow that God.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this has been true in various different forms all the way through the Bible.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we get to the New Testament, Jesus uses language like this to impress upon the exact same idea, right?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: We are salt of the earth, we are lights of the world, we are cities on a hill, we are lamps, uh, we are witnesses for his gospel, we are a new creation, we are uh immigrants in a faraway land, we are so many different things that Jesus is using as symbols to represent our ability to shine or project the beauty, the glory of God to the world around us, shockingly through our broken lives, right?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something we know that we're only empowered to do because of the Holy Spirit, but there is an aspect, like a central aspect, to sharing the gospel with the world, that the way that we behave and the way that we in fact are distinct from the world around us and the areas where God has called us to abide with Him, right, where those things separate, that our ability to do that well and to contextualize the gospel to meet the world around us is part of evangelism.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: So to say that in a different way, what I mean is when you look at Paul, and he is somebody who acts differently than the people around him, but then also understands that he needs to speak in such a way that his unique audience hears the words that he's saying.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: He never undermines, he never changes the nature of the gospel, but there are times where he emphasizes different points.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: As he says in Corinthians, I've been all things to all people.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so we need to think about our primary role as witnesses.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in Corinthians, Paul says we are ambassadors for Christ because God is making his appeal to the world through us.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: We need to consider sort of that image, not in the way that we go, well, I need to care what people think about me in sort of that vain sense, but rather we should care what people think about the gospel that we say that we are proclaiming and how our actions affect that.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: So you go, okay, well, why does this have to do with priorities?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because apparently it is possible for the salt to lose its saltiness and for the light of the lamp to be hidden under a basket, right?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so the question becomes, how does that happen?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it happens really in two ways.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um this isn't a generalization, but it happens in two ways.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the first way is that we genuinely don't hold the gospel to its number one priority that it should have in our lives.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's an easy thing for people to pick up on because we are, you know, I would see this a lot when Hannah and I live down in Texas and we're kind of just in the Bible belt, and you've got a lot of people who are just cultural Christians, where there's nothing transformative about their life except the fact that they say they know Jesus, but if you had any conversation or spent a week with them, like you would never be able to tell, okay?
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: People like that exist in Kansas too.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: I live like that sometimes in my own life.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, there is a way in which our belief system that the gospel is not number one weakens our witness, obviously.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the second way is that we don't act like the gospel is our number one priority, even though we believe it.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to understand that this is part of the witnessing aspect, the evangelistic appeal, like reaching people for life in Christ, involves us both believing and acting like the gospel is the number one thing.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh when somebody meets you or hears you or sees your social media posts, what do they perceive your identity to be?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, if they know that you believe the gospel is number one, is the way that you are sharing your opinions about other matters reflective of that gospel as well?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um if they do not see Christ first, then your sharing of the gospel and its power to transform lives and eternities is clouded because of the watching world, they perceive someone who either doesn't really trust in the gospel message they are sharing or isn't acting like the gospel message they are sharing.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so point number four is that you would give priority to sharing and living out the gospel of Jesus first.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know what's funny is all of these points, like pretty much anybody could come up with them.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they are not, I did not, you know, have to rack my brain for a real long time to get to give priority to sharing and living out the gospel of Jesus.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: What is so hard is that it is hard, right?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is hard for me, it is hard for everybody else, um, because it is challenging both to always believe that the gospel really is the primary way that the world has changed.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: It is challenging to hold that belief at times because often we see other things potentially moving faster or what we think might be more effective, and we don't always trust in what is sort of the gospel has promised to do in the lives of people, both now and in eternity.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: But tied into that, and these things, they just they're like a smoothie, they go together, right?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um they're bananas and strawberries, is that the actions oftentimes of us struggling in belief are the same things which are making the gospel seem less effective because we aren't sharing the gospel.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so, therefore, we don't see the transforming power of it because it's not happening.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so, in the same way that we have so many convictions about sharing opinions on other things will change hearts and minds for the good of the nation, we need to have this same belief when it comes to Jesus.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Being salt of the earth and light on a hill means that we care more about our influence for Jesus than we do about our influence for a political party.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so, one more time I would say this message is not to say that you should not care about politics, but rather it's to say that however much you care about it, you should care about the gospel even more.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, a final question that I have for us as we sort of conclude here is one that I asked at the beginning, but I think is relevant for everybody.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do we care more about election results or people coming to faith in Christ?
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I say that with the utmost respect for those who are particularly involved in this process, right?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: It is not the nature of politics to be evil in and of itself by any means.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is a tool that God has given us to be able to run the world that we have.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it is something where we are, again, this is all in Romans, it's a whole nother sermon, but um the government is carrying out the will of God, the government carries the sword, the government, we're supposed to respect its rulers as if they were appointed by God because they are, right?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is there's a whole identity around how Christians should relate to government.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's really interesting when you get to the New Testament and recognize that the government was terrible.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were killing people who are Christians, and yet Paul was still calling them deeper into these things.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so the question here is relevant, um, but my disclaimer is that uh I'm not saying that you should be uninvolved, and I hope that you do exercise your freedom to vote and that you vote for the person who wisely will lead our country.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that your convictions about who to vote for are based upon your Christian beliefs.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: But having said that, um, on a broad spectrum, I do not believe that anybody who is elected in November is going to completely and totally fix or irreparably break our nation.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: And instead, what I think is going to happen is we are going to elect another person in four years, and the world is going to keep spinning, and people are going to keep sinning, and they're going to keep needing a savior, and that savior is not somebody who is currently on a political trail, right?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what I want you to instead imagine, as I recognize there might be some animosity here, is what it would just look like if we had a world where as Christians we held these two things in concert with each other in just a way that was appropriate.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: That we could still care deeply and with great conviction about our politics and who to vote for, and yet even more so have a greater conviction and care about the gospel.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: That instead of practicing idolatry, rather that we would be people where it is obvious that Jesus is the only thing that saves us, and we would tell people about it.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: That instead of sort of breeding and living in hostility and constant anger, that we would give up some of these things, knowing that God is truly the one in authority, and that we would pray for our leaders, you know, from the top of the ticket all the way down for uh their faith, for their wisdom, as many of them do know God, um, that we would pray for them to act in such a way that was good for them to trust in Christ, but also good for us.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: The word used in that passage that we looked at earlier was it's two sides of the same coin.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's peace and tranquility.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: It means to live in quiet.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: I like living in quiet, right?
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Number three is that we would, instead of even trying to just avoid disunity or actively contribute to it, we would seek out and practice unity.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: We would understand that part of our role as Christians, with a new identity, as a new creation, is that when we find somebody who has an opinion that we disagree with, unless it's like of the highest priority and it is false teaching of the gospel, okay?
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: We'll fight about that.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: But unless we sort of arrive at that place and point, we should be able to sit next to and worship next to somebody who voted for either Biden or Trump four years ago.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have a problem with that, then that means your priorities are out of order, right?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: And fourth and finally, that we have to understand that our ability to share the gospel, the thing that we believe the most, is tied to our reputation with the watching world.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: And though that often means that we look different than it and can experience persecution or separation or any of those things, we have always been called to be a people who live in the world yet are not of it.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: That is not unique to our time right now.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is not like a new thing.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: That has always been the case.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's actually through that distinctiveness, rather than playing into the attitudes of our culture, that people go, man, there's something different about them.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know them.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: When it was ancient Israel, it was like, why do they not eat pork?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is pork not amazing?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they go, there must be something.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it's a little bit different.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: We can eat bacon, but we need to be distinctive in other ways.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: So my charge to you is simply that um I think you probably know me enough by now to know that um I'm not huge into talking about politics from this perspective that I have right now.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um that I have individual beliefs that are very important to me, and I think I'm pretty well informed.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but my primary role is to talk about um what God has called us to do, and ultimately that is to not just lead people to life in Christ, as obviously that is important.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the reason that we are doing it is because that is the message of the gospel.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is not just like a directive that we've received, it is supposed to be the cycle of worship that we have for our true God, is He has saved us, and therefore we want to tell other people so that they may be saved.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is a process that we're working through.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes kinks get thrown into that cycle.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is an ongoing process of sanctification.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: And for some people, this message really applied to you.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: For some of you, you took one point out of these four, and for others of you, it is like a cautionary tale of what happens when priorities get mixed.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: But for all of us, there is often something that is vying for that top position instead of the gospel, and we need to recognize that because it has a chance to weaken our faith and weaken our ability to share that faith with other people.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, um the gospel is our number one priority.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: We can't let anything change that or affect it, even though we feel very strongly about it, because we should feel even more strongly about Christ.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go ahead and pray.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, I come before you today as a uh a people, a church who have said that uh we love Jesus Christ and that He has transformed and changed our lives.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I know that that is true, and I know that so many of us believe that in the deepest part of our souls.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I ask that you would help us by your Spirit to walk in this world in all of its difficulties in a way that reflects that reality first, that we know and love you.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you for those in government who are advocates for candidates in government, for God, the way that they are working within your will to carry it out and to do what is honorable to you.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you for those who are in those positions that love and know Jesus Christ, whether locally or nationally.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I thank you for their dedication to serving you.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that as witnesses and advocates for the political system, that you would help us to handle it in such a way that is glorifying to you.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: And God, particularly as our nation right now seems to, you know, be really struggling with how to do this in a loving manner.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: God, that we could be people who love and show grace and righteousness even through our passion.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and God, that nothing that we do, nothing that we do would ever harm the witness or muddy the waters of the gospel for the people around us.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for these things.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the opportunity to carry out your will in such a time as this, and frankly, Lord, for the role that you have given us as ambassadors for your kingdom.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: What a task! Um, Lord, I'm thankful that your spirit is the one that enables us to do everything that you ask us to do.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we say all these things in Jesus' name.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for being here.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: Love you.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: See you next week.