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Voddie Baucham - Living Faithfully in Babylon · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: You know, not growing up in church and not knowing
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  Speaker 1: all of the rules that.
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  Speaker 2: It has some disadvantages. One of the disadvantages that I
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  Speaker 2: remember distinctly is being in church and certain songs would
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  Speaker 2: be sung and people would just sing them, like everybody.
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  Speaker 2: I felt like I was the only one in the
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  Speaker 2: room that didn't know the songs, right? Yeah, certain amazing
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  Speaker 2: grace or something like that. People would just get to
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  Speaker 2: wailing on that song and I'm just sitting there like,
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  Speaker 2: Everybody knows this, right? I don't. So I started trying
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  Speaker 2: to learn hymns. Another thing that I remember distinctly is
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  Speaker 2: people would share their testimony and people would ask me
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  Speaker 2: to share my testimony sometimes. I didn't know what that meant,
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  Speaker 2: so I paid attention. And I would watch people share
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  Speaker 2: their testimony. I just noticed that almost everybody, when they
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  Speaker 2: shared their testimony, would share a verse, right? like a
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  Speaker 2: life verse. And I'm just like, I don't have one
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  Speaker 2: of those, right? And I knew I didn't have one
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  Speaker 2: of those, but I knew there was one that I
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  Speaker 2: didn't want to pick as my life verse because everybody
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  Speaker 2: else picked that one. I didn't mind knowing the songs
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  Speaker 2: that everybody else knew, but I didn't want the life
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  Speaker 2: verse that everybody else chose. So I was trying to
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  Speaker 2: find me another life verse because everybody, not just everybody,
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  Speaker 2: everybody would get up and quote Jeremiah 29, 11. And
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  Speaker 2: how you quote it is determined by which Bible translation
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  Speaker 2: you were reading at the time that you memorized it, right?
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  Speaker 2: If we were to start it, there'd be several different
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  Speaker 2: endings based on what Bible translation people were reading when
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  Speaker 2: they memorized Jeremiah 29, 11. I'll read it here from
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  Speaker 2: the ESV. For I know the plans I have for you,
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  Speaker 2: declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil,
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  Speaker 2: to give you a future and a hope. Amen, hallelujah,
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  Speaker 2: praise the Lord. That's just good, right? But as I
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  Speaker 2: pondered this verse, I decided to go and look And
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  Speaker 2: the verses around it. And I came to a conclusion.
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  Speaker 2: I had a princess bride moment. You keep on using
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  Speaker 2: this verse. I do not think it means what you
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  Speaker 2: think it means. Because we take that verse and to
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  Speaker 2: mean that God promises good things to us and never
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  Speaker 2: bad things. We take that verse to mean that if
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  Speaker 2: we're living our lives the way God intends for us
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  Speaker 2: to live our lives, that we will always and only
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  Speaker 2: have welfare and not evil and a future and hope.
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  Speaker 2: And that forces us to do some kind of mental gymnastics, right?
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  Speaker 2: Because that's the wrong kind of optimism. It's the kind
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  Speaker 2: of optimism that forces us to do mental gymnastics. So now,
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  Speaker 2: if I go to the doctor and I get a
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  Speaker 2: bad report, let's say hypothetically, he's going to have to
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  Speaker 2: cut my chest open and stop my heart and fix
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  Speaker 2: it and start it back again. Just hypothetically, right? Right? Well,
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  Speaker 2: that's harm. Amen? So now I have to do some gymnastics.
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  Speaker 2: I either have to say that God failed me, and
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  Speaker 2: some people do come to that point. Some people, when
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  Speaker 2: harm comes to them, when evil comes their way, their
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  Speaker 2: response is, God failed me. This Christianity stuff doesn't work.
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  Speaker 2: Or I'm going to have to say I failed God, right?
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  Speaker 2: This was absolutely God's intention. However, I got in the way.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't have enough faith. And I just exercised enough
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  Speaker 2: faith then I wouldn't be in this predicament, in this situation.
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  Speaker 2: Or God's not the only player in the game. So
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  Speaker 2: God's plans for me are welfare and not evil or
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  Speaker 2: not harm. God's plan for me is to give me
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  Speaker 2: a future and a hope. There's another player in the
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  Speaker 2: game who plans the opposite. Sometimes God wins. Sometimes He wins.
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  Speaker 2: These are just some of the mental gymnastics that we
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  Speaker 2: have to do in order to hold on to the
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  Speaker 2: kind of reading of this that many wish to hold
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  Speaker 2: on to. And it just doesn't work. Amen? It just
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  Speaker 2: doesn't work. Number one, my God is God. He doesn't fail.
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  Speaker 2: He's never failed me. He can't fail me. Amen. Well,
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  Speaker 2: the problem with the second one, I failed God. You
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  Speaker 2: know what the problem with that is? The problem with
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  Speaker 2: that is not that, you know, I didn't fail God.
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  Speaker 2: The problem with that is I always fail God. Amen.
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  Speaker 2: The problem with that is that there's sometimes if you
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  Speaker 2: believe that, if you believe that this particular thing happened
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  Speaker 2: because in this instance, I failed God. What's wrong with
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  Speaker 2: you is that you believe there are other instances where
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  Speaker 2: you didn't. Can't say amen, you ought to say ouch.
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  Speaker 2: I've never earned anything from the hand of God. I've
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  Speaker 2: never been good enough, smart enough, right enough, righteous. I've never, ever, ever.
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  Speaker 2: It's all of grace. Amen? And the problem with the
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  Speaker 2: last one, right, there's another player in the game. The
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  Speaker 2: problem with that one is that it presents a God
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  Speaker 2: in heaven who just says, I really, really was hoping
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  Speaker 2: that that one worked out for you, but the devil's
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  Speaker 2: just so mean and he just got to help you
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  Speaker 2: if that's your God. No, those are right. So what is?
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  Speaker 2: Right back to Princess Bride theology. You keep on using
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  Speaker 2: that verse. I do not think it means what you
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  Speaker 2: think it means. And it doesn't. And in order to
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  Speaker 2: understand what it does mean, by the way, it is optimistic.
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  Speaker 2: Just not in that way. Amen? It's incredibly optimistic. Optimistic.
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  Speaker 2: And we need to view it as optimistic. We need
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  Speaker 2: to view this whole episode as optimistic, especially because I
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  Speaker 2: believe that this is one of the best pictures of
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  Speaker 2: the outworking of an optimistic eschatology. What does it really mean?
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  Speaker 2: Think about that for a moment. What does it really
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  Speaker 2: mean to have an optimistic eschatology? Does it mean you
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  Speaker 2: just sleep better at night because you're not scared? It
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  Speaker 2: has to mean something more than that. And it does.
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  Speaker 2: And we see that here in this text. So first,
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  Speaker 2: what I want to do is I want to demonstrate
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  Speaker 2: why this text doesn't mean what many think it means.
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  Speaker 2: And don't get mad at me. This is your life verse.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just going to take it away for a minute.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to give it back, all right? I promise
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to give it back. But you're going to
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  Speaker 2: have to let it go for just a bit, right?
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  Speaker 2: For just a bit. It's kind of like the child
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  Speaker 2: with their favorite little plush toy, and the plush toy
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  Speaker 2: is dirty and torn up, and the stuffing is falling out,
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  Speaker 2: and you just want to fix it for them. They
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  Speaker 2: don't want to let it go, right? You're like, okay,
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  Speaker 2: just let me have it. I'm going to give it back.
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  Speaker 2: And it's going to be better. Amen? So, the first
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  Speaker 2: thing we have to do is we have to put
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  Speaker 2: this in context. And as we put this in context...
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  Speaker 2: I want to share with you a theological principle. And
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  Speaker 2: this is a theological principle that you would use if
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  Speaker 2: you're trying to teach a hermeneutical principle. If you were
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  Speaker 2: trying to teach hermeneutics to a child, and I've got
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  Speaker 2: nine of them. So I've done this before, time or two, right?
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  Speaker 2: Here's the principle. We always teach them about the principle
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  Speaker 2: of context, right? That's important. But then there's another principle.
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  Speaker 2: A text can't mean what it never meant. Amen? A
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  Speaker 2: text can't mean what it never meant. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: you can't go to Jeremiah 29, 11, And have Jeremiah
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  Speaker 2: 29 11 in its context. And in its context means
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  Speaker 2: something completely different than the way that you use it
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  Speaker 2: and still come away saying my use is legitimate because
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  Speaker 2: that's what it means altogether to me. I could not
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  Speaker 2: care less what this verse means to you. Amen? How
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  Speaker 2: it applies to you, we can talk about that. But
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  Speaker 2: what it means to you, could not care less. What
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  Speaker 2: it means to me, completely and utterly irrelevant. The only
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  Speaker 2: point is, what does it mean? Full stop. Amen? So
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  Speaker 2: when we look at the context, we go back to
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  Speaker 2: verse 1. The context takes us to a very familiar place.
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  Speaker 2: to the place where we were last night. These are
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  Speaker 2: the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent
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  Speaker 2: from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles and
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  Speaker 2: to the priests, the prophets, all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar
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  Speaker 2: had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. That's what
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  Speaker 2: we read about in Daniel. Remember that? So Jeremiah is
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  Speaker 2: writing a letter to folks like Daniel, who had been
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  Speaker 2: taken into exile after 597 by Nebuchadnezzar. This was after
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  Speaker 2: King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of
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  Speaker 2: Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the metal workers had
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  Speaker 2: departed from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand
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  Speaker 2: of Elasa, the son of Shaphan, and Gamariah, the son
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  Speaker 2: of Hilkiah. whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon,
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  Speaker 2: to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. So contextually, Jeremiah 29, 11
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  Speaker 2: is part of a letter. Amen? It's part of a letter.
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  Speaker 2: It's part of a letter that was written to a
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  Speaker 2: specific group of people in a specific place under specific circumstances.
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  Speaker 2: during a specific time. Amen? A specific group of people.
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  Speaker 2: These are people from Judah who've been taken into exile.
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  Speaker 2: Specific place, they're in exile in Babylon. Specific time, sometime
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  Speaker 2: after 597, but before the complete fall of Judah. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, if this is written in a letter... to
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  Speaker 2: a specific group of people in a specific place, in
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  Speaker 2: a specific time, under specific circumstances, and you are not
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  Speaker 2: part of that specific group of people. This is not
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  Speaker 2: that specific place. This is not that specific time. And
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  Speaker 2: these are not those specific circumstances. It was not written
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  Speaker 2: to you. Amen, somebody. It was not written to you.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't say it doesn't apply to you. But it
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  Speaker 2: was not written to you. And there is a difference.
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  Speaker 2: There's a difference between something that was written to you
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  Speaker 2: directly and the way that you just sort of take that, right,
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  Speaker 2: and bring that in and apply that immediately and something
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  Speaker 2: that was written to somebody else that requires you to
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  Speaker 2: take a step before the application. For example, 2 Timothy 3.12,
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  Speaker 2: that one was written to you, no steps needed to
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  Speaker 2: apply it. All those who desire to live a godly
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  Speaker 2: life in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted. You can claim
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  Speaker 2: that in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. No steps needed. Just
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  Speaker 2: go grab that one. No interpretation, no nothing. Just go
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  Speaker 2: and just get it. It's yours. Amen? This one, however,
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  Speaker 2: requires some steps because we have to understand what it
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  Speaker 2: meant to those who received it in that particular context
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  Speaker 2: and then extrapolate from that. what the nuggets are, the
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  Speaker 2: principles that would then apply to us later. After we
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  Speaker 2: get this context, then we get to the whole, a
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  Speaker 2: text can't mean what it never meant, right? And one
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  Speaker 2: of the ways that we read Jeremiah 29, 11 is
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  Speaker 2: that this text means that God only and always intends
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  Speaker 2: these wonderful things for us. And if something other than
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  Speaker 2: that comes to us, then there's another source of it.
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  Speaker 2: Because God just doesn't operate like that. Verse 4. Remember,
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  Speaker 2: this was the letter that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, it said,
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  Speaker 2: at the end of verse 3, it said, Thus says
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  Speaker 2: the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all
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  Speaker 2: the exiles whom the devil has cast. Yours didn't say that.
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  Speaker 2: Mine either. To all the exiles whom I have sent
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  Speaker 2: into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. In other words, the
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  Speaker 2: boot of the oppressor is on your neck and I
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  Speaker 2: put it there. How then could verse 11 mean that
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  Speaker 2: God would never do something like this? if he did
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  Speaker 2: it in verse 4? He can't. He can't. So we
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  Speaker 2: must not read it that way. By the way, there's
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  Speaker 2: some warnings here that point that out to us. For example,
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  Speaker 2: look down in verse 8. I know we're skipping over 5, 6,
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  Speaker 2: and 7. Trust me, we're going to come back to
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  Speaker 2: that because that's the point. 5, 6, and 7, that's
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  Speaker 2: the point. But we got to understand the point. So
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  Speaker 2: go to verse 8. For thus says the Lord of hosts,
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  Speaker 2: the God of Israel, do not let your prophets and
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  Speaker 2: your diviners who are among you deceive you. And do
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  Speaker 2: not listen to the dreams that they dream. For it
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  Speaker 2: is a lie that they are prophesying to you in
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  Speaker 2: my name. I did not send them, declares the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: Don't listen to your lying prophets. What were the lying
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  Speaker 2: prophets saying? The lying prophets were saying, two years, tops,
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  Speaker 2: and we're going home. Two years, tops, and we're going home.
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  Speaker 2: One of them, Hananiah, he comes and, you know, Jeremiah
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  Speaker 2: has the yoke bars on his neck symbolizing this yoke
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  Speaker 2: of Nebuchadnezzar that they are now under. Hananiah comes, he prophesies,
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  Speaker 2: a couple of years, it's all over, and we'll be gone.
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  Speaker 2: And he breaks the yoke bars. He breaks the yoke.
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  Speaker 2: Jeremiah doesn't confront him. He waits. And then he hears
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  Speaker 2: from the Lord. Verse... 14 of chapter 28. For thus
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  Speaker 2: says the Lord our host, the God of Israel, I
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  Speaker 2: will put upon the neck of all these nations an
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  Speaker 2: iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and they
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  Speaker 2: shall serve him. For I have given to him even
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  Speaker 2: the beast of the field. Jeremiah the prophet said to
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  Speaker 2: the prophet Hananiah, listen Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you,
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  Speaker 2: and you have made this people trust in a lie.
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  Speaker 2: Now today, Christians would say that he's a big meanie
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  Speaker 2: and that it was not godly to confront the liar
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  Speaker 2: like that or even call him a liar. And you
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  Speaker 2: know I'm right. You know I'm right. It was just unkind.
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  Speaker 2: Here's what they would say. Here's what they would say.
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  Speaker 2: It's not the content of the confrontation. It was the tone. Therefore,
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  Speaker 2: thus says the Lord, behold, I will remove you from
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  Speaker 2: the face of the earth. Thank God for the new
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  Speaker 2: covenant and excommunication. Amen. I will remove you from the
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  Speaker 2: face of the earth. This year, you shall die because
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  Speaker 2: you have uttered rebellion against the Lord. In that same year,
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  Speaker 2: in the seventh month, the prophet... Hananiah died. That's how
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  Speaker 2: serious this is. There's the warning against the wrong kind
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  Speaker 2: of optimism. An optimism that lies on God. An optimism
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  Speaker 2: that's just wishful thinking. We're not called to an optimism
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  Speaker 2: that's just wishful thinking And that's not what Jeremiah 29,
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  Speaker 2: 11 was about. So what was it about? First, let's
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  Speaker 2: look at how we understand it rightly and then the
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  Speaker 2: impact that it has. We're going to go back to
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  Speaker 2: those verses, I promise. But look beginning at Jeremiah 29, 10.
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  Speaker 2: For thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed
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  Speaker 2: for Babylon. The lie is a couple of years, we're
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  Speaker 2: out of here. God says, that's a lie. Don't listen
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  Speaker 2: to it. And then he says, for thus says the Lord,
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  Speaker 2: when 70 years are completed for Babylon. That just gets
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  Speaker 2: us to the edict of King Cyrus. They're still not
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  Speaker 2: back yet. Well over 100 years before this happens. What
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  Speaker 2: does that mean? That means that the promise made in
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  Speaker 2: Jeremiah 29, 11 says, It's not a right here, right now,
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  Speaker 2: today for you promise. It never was. It never was.
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  Speaker 2: It is a multi-generational promise. Because the generation that is
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  Speaker 2: alive when this letter is written is not the generation
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  Speaker 2: that's going to go back into the land of promise.
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  Speaker 2: So there's our first mistake. Right? There's our first mistake.
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  Speaker 2: If we just rip this kicking and screaming out of
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  Speaker 2: its context, then we take what is meant to point
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  Speaker 2: us to God's multi-generational faithfulness and manipulate it into some
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  Speaker 2: kind of guarantee of God's right here, right now obligation
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  Speaker 2: to do what best pleases me. And it's not that.
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  Speaker 2: It's not that. Not only is this multi-generational, but it's
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  Speaker 2: also corporate and not individual. This is not an individual promise. Now,
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  Speaker 2: you don't really get this here in the text as
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  Speaker 2: well as you could if we had a better translation.
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  Speaker 2: For example, if we had the Texas Standard Version Because
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  Speaker 2: the Texas Standard Version would make the second person plural
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  Speaker 2: much more clear than the English Standard Version. The English
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  Speaker 2: Standard Version just says, I will visit you and I
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  Speaker 2: will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back
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  Speaker 2: to this place. For I know the plans that I
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  Speaker 2: have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, not
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  Speaker 2: for evil, to give you a future and to hope,
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  Speaker 2: on and on and on and on and on. If
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  Speaker 2: we had the Texas Version, You'd know what he's talking
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  Speaker 2: about because the Texas version would say, I will visit y'all.
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  Speaker 2: And I will fulfill to y'all my promise. And I'll
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  Speaker 2: bring y'all back to this place. For I know the
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  Speaker 2: plans I have for y'all, declares the Lord. This is
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  Speaker 2: not individual. And if you doubt that, if you question that,
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  Speaker 2: Just look at verse 12. Then you, y'all, will call
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  Speaker 2: upon me and come and pray to me and I
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  Speaker 2: will hear you. You will seek me and find me
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  Speaker 2: when you seek me with all your heart. I will
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  Speaker 2: be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will
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  Speaker 2: restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations
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  Speaker 2: and all the places where I have driven you, declares
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  Speaker 2: the Lord, and I will bring you back to the
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  Speaker 2: place from which I sent you into exile. All the places. Now,
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  Speaker 2: unless you've been cut into pieces, this is not an individual.
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  Speaker 2: This is the covenant community. This is the people of God.
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  Speaker 2: This is God's faithfulness throughout the generations to the people
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  Speaker 2: he calls his own Amen? That's the optimism that Jeremiah 29,
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  Speaker 2: 11 is intended to bring. And now with that in mind,
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  Speaker 2: let's look at what that does. What does that do?
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  Speaker 2: When you live in the midst of exile, when you
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  Speaker 2: live in the place where your hope is not yet realized,
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  Speaker 2: when you live in a place where there is turmoil
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  Speaker 2: and confusion and opposition and tribulation. How do you live
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  Speaker 2: if you have an optimistic outlook within that context? I'm
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  Speaker 2: so glad you asked. Now look at verses 5, 6,
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  Speaker 2: and 7. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens,
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  Speaker 2: eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters.
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  Speaker 2: Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in
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  Speaker 2: marriage that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there
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  Speaker 2: and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: city where I have sent you into exile and pray
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare,
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: you will find your welfare. That's what optimism does. Three things.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: First of all, optimism lays down roots. Optimism lays down roots.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: their produce. In other words, we are here We are
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: remaining here. We are not living as though we're not
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: staying here. We're laying down roots because even though this
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: is not the place that we ultimately desire to be,
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: this is the place where the Lord has us right
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: here and right now. So we will live as though
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: we recognize that God in his sovereignty has placed us here.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: We lay down roots. We lay down roots. It's interesting,
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: my family and I for the last eight and a
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: half years have lived in Zambia, have lived and served
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: in Zambia. And two years ago, we built a home there.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: It was really interesting when that happened because both from
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: people over here and from people over there, the response
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: was the same but different. The response was the same
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: in that whether it's here or there, people said, wow,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: that's kind of permanent. Amen? That's kind of permanent. People
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: over here whom we know and love said, wow, that's
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: kind of permanent. Don't know if we like that. People
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: over there, that's kind of permanent. Praise the Lord. The same,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: but different, right? Because laying down roots says something. And
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: it says something optimistic. Connected to that, not only do
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: we lay down roots, but we live multi-generationally. We make plans.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: We build for the future. So build houses and live
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: in them, plant gardens and eat their produce That's me
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: and my family in the right here and the right now.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Then there's take wives and have sons and daughters. Take
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: and do not decrease. Multiply there and do not decrease.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Optimistic people get married and have kids. Amen, somebody. Optimistic
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: people get married and have kids. And if we ever
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: needed optimism before, we need optimism now. I don't know
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: how many of you have young people in your lives
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: or around you or how many of you have counseled
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: young people before. who are considering marriage and considering the future,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: but they are among the least optimistic people in history.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: They want to get married, right? Because, you know, they
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: want the benefits of marriage. I'm talking about even Christian
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: young people. They want to get married because they don't
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: want to live in sin, right? They want to get married.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: What about children? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. At best, they're what
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: I call yachts, right? Not like the yacht, the boat
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: you ride in, but yacht, Y-O-T. You're going to have kids? Maybe.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Perhaps in a year or two. Why? Well, we just
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: feel like we need to wait so that we can
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: get to know each other. I've said it before, I'll
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: say it again. You really want to know somebody? Have
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: a baby with them. Amen. You learn something about yourself
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: and your spouse. The baby's screaming at 2, 3 o'clock
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: in the morning. There are times when you say, I
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: thought she loved me. Or other times, as a husband,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: get up, try to get up quickly before she is
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: awakened by the screaming. She's going to wake up anyway.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: But this way she wakes up, she looks out of
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: the corner of her eye, and she sees you. And
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: then she goes, she really does love me. Until the
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: next time when you die, Don't get up. But the
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: point is... The point is that this is optimism. Young
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: people today say things like, I'm not sure I want
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: to bring a child into this world. That is the
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: exact opposite of optimism. Optimism says, times may be bad,
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: but God is good. And optimism God uses his people
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: and he uses them multi-generationally. Let's have some kids, pour
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: the gospel into them and pray that God would use
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: them in generations to come. That's optimism. But it's not,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: it's not here. There's a generation of young Christians that
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: are growing up with little to no optimism whatsoever. And
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: they're waiting later and later and later to get married.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: And when they get married, it's a coin toss as
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: to whether or not they even want to have kids.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: This has tremendous implications. There's a news story a couple
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: of weeks ago about South Korea. Some of you may
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: have heard it. You know, replacement rate is 2.1 children
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: per women. Don't ask me about the 0.1. 2.1 children
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: per women. That's a culture that is replacing people who
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: are dying. It's not necessarily a growing culture, but it's
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: a culture that's at least at replacement rate, 2.1. The
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: danger zone, kind of the point of no return demographically,
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: is if you get below 1.5. If your birth rate
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: is 1.4 or lower, your culture's going to die. And
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: countries that get there, you know, actually, they get nervous
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: and they start trying to do things in order to
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: boost the birth rate. And it never works. Never. There
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: are financial incentives and other things But low birth rates
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: are not about finances. We're wealthier than previous generations who
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: had far more children than us. Low birth rates are
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: not about finances. Well, in South Korea, they're losing their
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: minds right now because they broke their own record and
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: their birth rate is now 0.72%. That's a lack of optimism.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: Birth rates in this country are below replacement rate. It's
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: a lack of optimism. It's amazing. In the developed world,
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: we have more than we've ever had before. And yet,
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: we lack hope. And if you doubt me, just look
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: at birth rates. Because they speak to our hope or
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: lack thereof. There's a third thing. And this one seems counterintuitive.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: But seek the welfare of the city where I have
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: sent you into exile. And pray to the Lord on
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: its behalf. For in its welfare, you will find your welfare. Now,
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: mind you, this is Babylon. The boot of the oppressor
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: is on your neck and I put it there. Lord,
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: please make it stop. Nope. You're going to stay here.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: By the way, pray for the oppressor. Wait, the one
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: with their boot on my neck? Yep. That is incredibly
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: counterintuitive unless you are a person who lays down roots
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: and and thinks multi-generationally. Because then you say, this is
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: where the Lord has us. Amen? And if this is
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: where the Lord has us, let us pray that the
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Lord blesses us. And if he's going to bless us,
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: he's going to have to bless them. This may sound controversial,
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: and I don't mean it in this way. Not that
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: I'm a person who's afraid of controversy. But in all
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: of this talk about Christian nationalism, there's a couple of
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: things that keep ringing in my mind, right? One thing
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: that keeps ringing in my mind is I currently live
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: in a country that is a constitutionally Christian republic. In
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: the preamble of the Constitution of Zambia, they identify themselves
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: as a Christian nation. What's so funny about that is
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: the whole name of the ideology that's supposed to scare
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: us all to death is not Christian nationalism, it's white
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: Christian nationalism. Yeah. So I live in an openly, overtly
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: Christian nationalist country. That's black. So that always rings in
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: my mind. The other thing that always rings in my
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: mind is this. If you listen to people, and recently
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: a host on a mainstream television news program identified the
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: primary characteristic of Christian nationalists which, by the way, she said,
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: is not Christian. Christian nationalism is not Christian. And this
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: main characteristic that she identified was that Christian nationalists do
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: not believe that their rights come from the government. They
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: believe that their rights come from God. I usually don't
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: go around wearing the label. Now, I don't mind wearing labels.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: I really don't. I don't mind wearing labels. I'm a
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Reformed Baptist. I'm a Calvinist. I don't mind going around.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: I don't mind wearing labels unless people are playing fast
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: and loose with labels and using them as wedges, right?
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: And Christian nationalism is currently being used as a wedge.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: And so I'm really careful. Somebody says Christian nationalist, what
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: do you mean by that? If this lady asks if
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: I'm a Christian nationalist, I'm like, not only am I
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: a Christian nationalist, but everybody who's got a passing grade
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: in civics is a Christian nationalist, right? Anybody who has
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: read and agrees with the Declaration of Independence would then be,
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: by her definition, a Christian nationalist. But why am I
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: bringing this up? I'm bringing this up because The reason
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: that this is being used as a cudgel, the reason
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: that this is being used to bash Christians is because
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: it's communicating the idea that if I want my faith
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: and my morality to have sway and influence in the
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: broader culture, then I'm dangerous. But verse seven says, seek
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: the welfare of the city where I have sent you
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: for in its welfare, you will find your welfare. The
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: only way that I could not advocate for my morality
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: in the broader culture, for my religion in the broader
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: culture is if I don't believe that my religion and
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: its morality would bring welfare. Again, this is not about
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: the labels that we carry. This is not about the
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: broader debate over Christian nationalism, how you define it. I'm
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: talking at just the most basic level. Here's the other problem.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: The people who use this against us don't believe it.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: They don't believe it. Listen to this. This is from
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: a book on the homosexual revolution. 2004, California. Gloria Allred
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: is arguing for same-sex marriage. And listen to what the
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: writer says. This is a pro-homosexual writer who's talking about
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: the history of the homosexual revolution in the United States.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, also thought it was
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: time same-sex couples could do in his state what they
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: were doing in Massachusetts. A few hours after Gloria Allred
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: had announced that her clients would be suing for the
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: right to marry in Los Angeles. Newsom issued a marriage
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: license to a same-sex couple in San Francisco. The California
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, he said, gave them the right
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: to marry. Newsom, heterosexual, married, Irish Catholic, and a political centrist,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: except when it comes to social issues, yes, she wrote that,
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: had made the decision to act after having been in
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: office only 12 days. He'd heard President George W. Bush
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: say in his State of the Union address on January
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: 20th that he wanted to amend the U.S. Constitution to
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: protect marriage. The 37-year-old mayor was disgusted and outraged. He
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: and his chief of staff called the executive director of
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, tell me,
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: who should be the first same-sex couple to get married
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: in California? Newsom not only gave those licenses, but he
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: officiated over the ceremonies. I want you to note something here.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: The writer points out that Newsom is a heterosexual married
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: Irish Catholic. Why? Don't miss this. They do not care
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: if religion holds sway in the public sphere. They are
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: not afraid of people bringing their sincerely held religious views
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: to bear in political life. It is only those religious
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: views that contradict theirs. Don't believe for a minute that
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: these people have a problem with theology in politics. All
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: of our politics is born out of our theology. All
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: of the hoopla about Christian nationalism is not about whether
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: a person's religion or whether people's faith writ large has
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: any place in the public square. If you are a
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: Christian who believes in abortion, bring your religion to the
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: public square. If you are a Christian who believes in
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: same-sex marriage, bring your religion to the public square. If
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: you are a Christian who believes in transitioning children, bring
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: your beliefs to the public square. Not only that, but
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: watch this. George W. Bush made a statement that he
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: wanted to see the Constitution amended. That takes a super
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: majority of the states. Amen? He wanted to go through
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: the legal process. and allow Americans to speak and amend
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: the Constitution of the United States to protect marriage. Gavin Newsom,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: 12 days on the job, says, I'm doing this single-handedly
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: because what I believe needs to be enacted. Bush they
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: call a fascist. Newsom they call a hero. Please don't
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: miss the game that's being played More importantly, don't allow
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: the game that's being played to cause you to not
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: live optimistically in that it causes you to shrink back
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: from desiring the truth of God's word to infiltrate our
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: culture so that our culture can be blessed. Blessed is
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: the nation whose God is the Lord. Amen? This is
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: what optimism looks like in the everyday lives of optimistic believers.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: May it be true of us. Let's pray. Father again
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: we thank you and we praise you for your kindness
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: toward us. Thank you for reminding us of the hope
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: that we have Thank you for reminding us of your
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: multi-generational faithfulness. And for reminding us that regardless of our
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: individual circumstances, you are a God who saves your people.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: You are a God who redeems your people, who restores
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: your people. Grant by your grace that we might hope
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: in that. For we pray it in Christ's name and
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: for his sake.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: We hope you were helped by this session from the
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: annual conference of Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. CBTS relies on
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the generous gifts of supporting churches and individuals. If you
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: would like to invest in the next generation of gospel ministers,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: visit us at cbtseminary.org. Thank you for listening.