Latest / 4-Freedom Podcast / 163. Freedom from Identity Politics

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163. Freedom from Identity Politics · 4-Freedom Podcast

0:10
I found my freedom in you. I found a toy I can't lose, and
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thank God it's true. You wrapped your arms around me
0:24
and heaven broke through. From the moment she found me.
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I found. Welcome to the Four Freedom.
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Podcast This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel
0:38
for everyday Christians with everyday issues.
0:42
Now here are your hosts, James Seyfried and Brett Marks.
0:48
Welcome back to the Four Freedom podcast.
0:50
What an awesome time it has been these last couple of weeks.
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Brett is back with us in the hot seat.
0:57
He has had some health issues and Lord been gracious and
1:01
working out some of those things and had a great two interviews
1:04
with John two weeks ago and Joe this last week.
1:08
And looking forward to getting back into this series of
1:12
wokeness and how that affects the church and looking forward
1:15
to what we've got coming up in the future.
1:17
But Brett Mann, life has been busy for me in ministry these
1:21
last couple of weeks. We had a new baby was born this
1:24
past week in the church and I was at the hospital and one of
1:27
the, the, the lady that had gave birth, her mom looked at me and
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said, because the lady was asking me about different people
1:35
in the church. And she said, how often have you
1:37
been in the hospital the last couple weeks?
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And I said, well, this week I had this person have a surgery
1:41
this. And it looked, it basically came
1:43
down to like the last three weeks, a different lady in the
1:47
church has had some type of surgery, hip replacement,
1:50
shoulder replacement, pacemaker put in birth that was been
1:53
given. And they're like, oh, I guess
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you've got something planned for next week too, like joking
1:58
about. I was like, well, actually,
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yeah, next week I've got a lady that's going to be in the
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hospital on Tuesday having a heart ablation.
2:04
So it's like four or five weeks in a row just back-to-back to
2:08
back. Something's going on.
2:10
But yeah, it's been great. How?
2:12
How was things with you my friend?
2:14
Man, things are going going great with me.
2:17
I have been out for a couple weeks, but you know, my, my, my,
2:20
my, my cat's been scanned and then my Mr. has been I and so,
2:25
you know, things are looking good.
2:27
The doctor said for, you know, did everything came back clean.
2:30
Turns out just tension headaches on add on top of that, I've got
2:36
a lower back issue that is right now kind of preventing me from
2:40
standing for too long. Although I will say I've been
2:43
getting better. I've been preaching and not
2:47
having a couple weeks. I had to sit down while I was
2:50
while I was preaching, but now I'm, I've been able to stand the
2:55
whole time I've been preaching and things are seems like
2:59
they're getting better. And I think it all just stems
3:01
from just being too busy. You know, between the podcast
3:06
and taking my master's and church work and writing sermons
3:11
and, and I took a full load of classes this year, which that
3:16
was dumb. I'll never do that again.
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I'll just have to, you know, get done when I get done.
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But I just think it just took on too much.
3:24
I had three papers I had to write.
3:27
They were all due the same week. I had probably a dozen books
3:31
that I had to read for class. And then add on top of that all
3:36
the stuff you got to do for ministry.
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And I just think I was letting you know, my, I was writing
3:42
checks that my body couldn't cash.
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And so I just kind of had a little crash out there.
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But things are, are better things you're looking up.
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I've got some good reports. The doctors got me on some, some
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medicine that seems to be working.
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I've got some doctor's visits down the road to help with my,
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my back issue. And so things look, they're
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going good in that regard. But you know, other than that,
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life's been good. The Lord's blessed.
4:08
We're got, we're in Easter, Easter season is coming up.
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So I got a box full of tracks, a box full of door hangers, and
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we're about to go out and do some soul with it.
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Amen. Some door knocking and we're
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going to go out and meet some people.
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And you know, we want people to come for Easter.
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And so that's what we're working toward now.
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We're also working toward our crusade here in the county.
4:33
We've got Alex McFarlane coming in from American Family Radio
4:38
going to try and get him on the podcast when he comes.
4:41
He might even come in in a month or two before we break for the
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summer, which would mean we could get him on the podcast a
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little early. I'd love to interview him, get
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him on here, talk to him about some wokeness.
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And. But yeah, other than that,
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things have been, things have been going good, man.
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Just excited about what we got coming down the Pike.
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Yeah, that's awesome. I've got, you know, we can get
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in those areas of fatigue, those areas of not taking care of our
5:07
bodies. And that's a good reminder for
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us to always be vigilant of our surroundings and be taking
5:13
notice. You know, I tell people often in
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there's a book that I read and I give the pastors often called
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Reset. It's a book that deals with
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pastors and sabbaticals and taking care of our body.
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And he does it as he calls them bays and he talks about how our
5:30
our vehicles, they were told, you know, every 3000 miles or
5:34
three months change rule. Every so often you change your
5:38
windshield wipers, change your spark plugs at this many miles
5:40
and go in and get a transmission service.
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And so he sort of takes this concept of a vehicle and applies
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it to our human bodies and says, you know, as pastors, we need to
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be making sure that every week we're taking the time for
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ourselves. We're having our own rest every
5:55
month. We're taking a weekend getaway
5:57
every couple of months. We're doing something with our
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family. You just re energize, I'm sorry,
6:04
re energizing our bodies, re energizing our life and sort of
6:08
hitting that reset Bay so that when that time comes for a
6:12
vacation, we're actually able to vacation instead of rest.
6:16
And Even so we rest, but we're able to actually get away and
6:20
detach when that vacation time comes to to restore our souls.
6:25
So resets named that by by Murray.
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His wife does one for the pastor's wife as well.
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That's a great one that I hand out every once in a while.
6:35
But those are some great things and some things we need to be
6:38
aware of as we go through life. Speaking of vacation, Brett,
6:43
we've got some things coming up in the future.
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I mentioned it this past week on the episode as I get a short
6:48
intro, but we're going to be in Dallas for the Southern Baptist
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Convention here in just a couple of weeks, the second week of
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June. And I'm going to be actually
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going out there a week early to spend some time with my sister
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and spend some time with them. And then that second week we'll
7:04
be there. We've rented a house like we
7:07
talked about. And I think we, we we got the
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house rented, right? Yeah.
7:12
Yeah, we did. Yeah.
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Yeah, that's exactly right. I forgot about it for a minute.
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Yeah, we rented a house. And I don't pay my money, so I
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hope so. That's right.
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We got a house rented there in Dallas and me and Brett are
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going to hang out and get together and hang out with our
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families. It's always a great time to do
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that. But if you're in the area or you
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are going to be at the convention, let us know, but
7:33
direct message us. We get together for some lunch
7:35
or dinner and get together for some great time of refreshing
7:40
there in Dallas. Amen, Amen.
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And also we can we can go ahead and confidently give you the
7:51
dates for our new Israel trip. And we've got people who are who
7:56
paid to go last time they paid most of it or they paid half of
8:01
it. And that's just going to roll
8:03
over into this new trip. And we are dates for our Israel
8:08
trip. The four four freedom in the
8:10
Holy Land is going to be January 30th through February 7th of
8:15
2026. So that's that's a little less
8:19
than a year away. Plenty of time to put back,
8:21
plenty of time to save. We're going to put the website
8:25
in the show notes and give you the password and we want you to
8:28
get on there. We want you to read about it.
8:29
We want you to see where, where, where we're going to go, where
8:33
we're going to stay, what we're going to do.
8:34
I promise you, you will. You will never regret going to
8:38
the Holy Land. If you've ever wanted to go, now
8:41
is the time to go. If you're a pastor and you want
8:45
to go, drop us a message. We might can work some things
8:49
out with your church, but you know, if, if you want to go it,
8:53
it's time. And like even our Israel Rep
8:57
hurry when when we were talking to her and she said this is some
9:01
of the the next four years are going to be some of the safest
9:05
times to go to Israel. And so if you want to go, now is
9:09
the time to go. The the wonderful thing about
9:13
that is, even though we've pushed it, the cost of our trip
9:16
has stayed the exact same. They've worked really well with
9:20
still $5000 a person that's everything you all your meals,
9:24
everything taken care of that's, that's giving you money in your
9:28
pocket for able to have some souvenir money and your lunch is
9:32
there that you pay for yourself. But that's what the cost is all
9:35
together. So, you know, we haven't went up
9:38
even though you know, the cost of eggs and, and everything else
9:41
has went up astronomically. They've worked really well with
9:44
us to keep this cost very down, very affordable and it's going
9:48
to be a great time. So, so hopefully you will.
9:51
There's a reason why we choose the time of year that we do
9:55
because the crowds are are are low and, you know, you have
10:00
plenty of room there, plenty of space and just just just enjoy
10:06
it while you're there. Yeah.
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What was that? I said the weather is great too
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during that time, too. Absolutely, absolutely cold.
10:15
Yeah, it's there like springtime, even though it's
10:17
January for us. It's their spring.
10:19
Yeah, yeah, swimming in the Dead Sea is very refreshing.
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Oh. Yeah.
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Oh yeah. Some of that mud bath on your
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skin? Exfoliate.
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Absolutely, Yeah, gotcha. Well, and we hope you also go
10:31
and check out our cigar line. We are super close to getting
10:35
our our sweet cigar in and our we're looking at adding the
10:40
fourth line as well. So have 4 brands of the four
10:43
Freedom cigar line. Great, great opportunities
10:47
there, great opportunity to have a good time of fellowship and
10:51
hopefully you'll go and support us in that endeavor.
10:53
And we don't make a whole lot off of it, but it's just
10:56
something that that helps the show go continue to go well and
11:00
I continue to create good quality content.
11:02
You know, this is our time that we give for this.
11:05
And so there are some some time expense in that of just editing
11:09
and doing some other things. And so hopefully you will go and
11:15
do that. We cannot truly worship God
11:30
while we stay silent on injustice in all kinds of areas.
11:34
And I know as a white pastor I have blind spots, so I am part
11:38
of the problem. James.
11:43
Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith.
11:46
From their Jewish scriptures. And my friends, we must as well.
11:56
White people fear black men. That's not.
12:00
Fair, but it's true. Jesus repents of his racism and
12:07
extends healing to this woman's daughter.
12:09
I love this story because it's a reminder that Jesus is human.
12:12
He had prejudices and bias and when confronted with it, he was
12:16
willing to do his work. I believe in the non binary God
12:23
whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their
12:28
child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads and saw
12:34
everyone as a sibling child of God.
12:37
I believe in the rainbow spirit who shatters our image of 1
12:42
white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity.
12:49
I believe in the Church of everyday Saints as numerous,
12:53
creative and resilient as catches on the 8th quilt, whose
12:58
feet are grounded in mud and whose eyes gaze at the stars in
13:03
wonder. I believe in the calling to each
13:07
of us that love is love is love. So beloved, let us love.
13:14
I believe glorious God help my unbelief.
13:18
Amen. This woke self loathing and we
13:29
will never let the woke left take it away.
13:32
It's because they're putting woke ideology to a woke mob that
13:37
can't even tell you what a woman is.
13:46
In this season of the Full Freedom Podcast, we want to
13:49
bring to you some enlightening topics that deal with the
13:52
wokeness of the church. We want to bring to light some
13:55
issues that are often overlooked and.
13:58
We hope that it'll be a blessing.
13:59
To you in your. Listening experience.
14:01
Wait. Hi.
14:06
Hi, everybody. OK.
14:34
It started with a vote, a decision handed down from a
14:36
church leadership at the highest level.
14:39
Some called it progress, others called it compromise.
14:43
But no matter what side you were on, one thing was certain.
14:46
This decision would change everything.
14:50
At first, the conversations were quiet.
14:53
Pastors and church leaders met behind closed doors and living
14:57
rooms and sanctuaries, debating what to do next.
15:02
Should they embrace the new policies or reject them?
15:05
Should they stay with the denomination, or should they
15:07
separate? The discussions were tense, but
15:11
they were civil, at least for a while.
15:15
But something changed. The longer the debate went on,
15:19
the less it would be about what Scripture said, the more it
15:21
would be about whose voice mattered.
15:25
Lines were drawn, sides were chosen.
15:27
And before long, it wasn't just theological differences.
15:31
It was personal. And then one day, the tension
15:34
exploded. The church in Nigeria, once a
15:37
beacon of unity in its community, became the center of
15:42
a tragic and violent conflict. It started with words,
15:46
accusations, frustrations boiling over.
15:51
Then shouting turned to pushing. Pushing turned to fist.
15:55
And before anyone realized what was happening, violence erupted.
15:59
Houses were set on fire, families were torn apart, a
16:02
church member lost his life and two young children innocent
16:07
bystanders to a battle they never chose or caught in the
16:11
chaos and killed. Pause for a moment and think for
16:21
just a second. A church.
16:24
A place meant to be a refuge. A place where Christ is lifted
16:28
high and sinners are welcomed in grace had become a battleground.
16:34
And for what? A fight over identity?
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A fight over power? A fight that had stopped being
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about the gospel and started being about control.
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This is what happens when I doubt identity politics takes
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over in a church. It takes our eyes off Christ and
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fixes them on ourselves. It replaces truth with
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tribalism, love with loyalty to calls, unity with division.
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And before we know it, the body of Christ is fractured beyond
17:05
recognition. And it's not just happening in
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Nigeria. It's happening here in our
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churches, in our conversations, in the way we see each other not
17:16
as brothers and sisters in Christ, but as members of
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different groups, different factors, different teams.
17:22
Today, that's what we're going to talk about, how identity
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politics is creeping into the church, how it's dividing the
17:29
body of Christ, and what the Bible actually says about our
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true. Identity.
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Well, today we're taking a deep dive into identity politics,
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what it is, how it aligns and clashes biblical truth, and what
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we as Christians should do in response.
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You know, Brett, we've talked about some some big copics over
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the last couple of weeks and months of this series of
18:05
wokeness. This is a big one.
18:07
Identity politics, it's something that is everywhere.
18:11
It shapes the conversation that we have on race, gender and
18:14
power. And as we've done every week,
18:17
and I think it's good to do, It's good to define what we're
18:19
talking about and to talk about having a good working definition
18:23
and talk through what identity politics actually is.
18:27
Right. You know, somebody might hear
18:29
that term identity politics and really not be able to nail down
18:34
exactly what it is that we're talking about.
18:37
And when when we say identity politics, identity identity
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politics is an approach to politics that focuses on one's
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group identity. OK, so instead of seeing
18:50
individuals as unique people made in the image of God, it
18:54
divides them into categories like race, gender, sexuality,
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and that it just causes a lot of division.
19:03
Yeah, this, this division is ultimately based on the world
19:06
view that measures life in term of power, right.
19:10
How much power do you have? And that is therefore your
19:13
determining of who you are really to break it down is who
19:17
is the oppressor and who is the oppressed.
19:20
And so when we, if you historically belong to a
19:24
privileged group, then automatically you're seen as
19:27
part of the problem. If you're part of your your mom
19:30
and dad were were a certain diplomat or a certain level of
19:35
of government or a president or whatever, you automatically are
19:40
lumped in with this identity of who you were ancestors are.
19:46
Right. And it, it's all based on what
19:48
somebody did in the past that you've never done, you're not
19:52
guilty of. But another thing that it does
19:55
is it it sees truth as socially constructed, meaning there's no
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ultimate truth, just different perspectives shaped by
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oppression or privilege. Yeah.
20:08
This Brett, was something that has that that came out, I would
20:14
say really popularity in in my world where we were at probably
20:20
8 or 10 years ago. We had recently moved back to
20:23
North Carolina and this relative truth began to come out right.
20:27
Whatever you decide that the the sky is going to be is truth.
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If if the grass is actually purple and you believe it's
20:34
purple, then it's purple because your truth is, is truth.
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And what happens is it departs from what we call biblical
20:42
truth. Biblical truth.
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Jesus says that I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.
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No one comes to the Father except through me.
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And so truth isn't relative. Truth isn't what you decide it's
20:54
going to be. Ultimately, we as Christians,
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and we as the Full Freedom Podcast believe that truth is
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founded and rooted in God's character and in God's Word.
21:05
Exactly. You know I identity politics.
21:08
It encourages collective action to fight perceived oppression.
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And This is why we see the protest, the cancel culture, the
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sense the censorship becoming dominant in our cultures.
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Like everything we've talked about so far is kind of, this is
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like kind of the root of it. This is where it stems from.
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And this is the idea that that God doesn't give us our
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identity. We decide what our identity is.
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And if it's not the identity we were born with, we can change
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that according to our whim and every.
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So I think that everything we've we've been through so far in
21:47
this series is kind of rooted and come from this line of
21:51
thinking, yeah. Absolutely.
21:53
And and what we're going to do now is we're going to transition
21:55
for just a moment and talk about some real world examples, some
22:00
sometimes where people in this world have have been hurt or or
22:05
hindered from identity politics and how it shapes our society.
22:08
So, Brett, won't you give us this first illustration?
22:11
So first, let's talk about the Harvard admissions lawsuit.
22:15
So here's the deal. Harvard was sued for allegedly
22:20
discriminating against Asian American applicants in favor of
22:24
other minority groups through affirmative action policies.
22:28
The Supreme Court ruled against Harvard, saying race based
22:33
admissions violated the Constitution.
22:36
Yeah, this shows how identity politics shapes the education
22:40
policies. This actually went so far,
22:42
Brett, as if you were Asian or if you were white or of even
22:50
Asian Americans, They they were, they were discriminated against
22:54
them because they were scoring too high on their SA T's and so
22:58
and Lsat's. And so this was some crazy stuff
23:01
that was going on. And the Supreme Court ruled
23:03
against this. But some see affirmative action
23:06
as correcting past just injustices.
23:09
Right. The world has been done wrong.
23:12
My my family's been done wrong. Something has happened in our
23:16
life. And so we're just helping
23:18
correct. Others argue that it creates a
23:21
new injustice by treating applicants based on race instead
23:25
of individual merit. And so do I believe there should
23:30
be some recourse on some things. You know, there there was some
23:34
things with I'm, I'm just thinking off top by head of of
23:39
World War 2, when the German doesn't start the the Japan
23:45
attacked Pearl Harbor, right? There were some Japanese
23:48
American families that were Japanese of descendants that
23:53
were living in Montana, Idaho, some of those areas, even in
23:58
Hawaii. And the American government,
24:01
they said, hey, out of your protection, we're going to put
24:03
you into sort of an isolation camp so that no one can hurt you
24:07
because your, your people just bombed our country and you're
24:11
going to look like someone who could do that.
24:15
And So what they did was they did that to help them.
24:18
Well, later on, it looks like it actually was like some type of
24:21
concentration camps, though we put them in.
24:23
And so there were some reparation actions that we help
24:26
them because we, we probably should have done that.
24:28
We we started out as good intentions.
24:30
But what does our good uncle RM Aristotle say the the good
24:36
intentions or hell is always paved the path of good
24:39
intentions. It was good intentions to begin
24:41
with, and then it turned in something bad.
24:43
So there's this concept of using identity in a way of protection,
24:48
but there's also hurt that goes along with it.
24:50
Brett, what's the Bible say about favoritism?
24:52
Well, before we get to the Bible, let's talk about
24:54
Hollywood. The I, I don't want to make
24:58
light of that situation you just brought up because it is
25:01
something serious and happens, but you want to know where I
25:04
first learned about that. I have no idea where.
25:08
Karate Kid man, that happened to Mr. Miyagi's family.
25:10
He was out fighting in the war. His family got put in one of
25:14
those camps and they got killed. And and so that's obviously a
25:18
fictional story, but it's a fictional story about something
25:21
that happened in real world. So I learned about that from The
25:24
Karate Kid. But I will say that the that
25:28
this story, I just heard of a story last week.
25:32
I saw it on TikTok of this, this this Asian kid who scored so
25:39
high, you know, his GPA. No, it's like a the Max like a
25:43
four point O and his was over 4 point O with all the extra
25:46
credit that he done and he had scored so high on all of his
25:52
like his, his AC TS and stuff like that.
25:55
His his scores were just out of sight high.
25:59
And no, every Ivy League school would accept him.
26:04
Most state schools wouldn't accept him.
26:08
They all rejected him and now he's suing all of them because
26:12
of that. So this this is something that
26:14
happens. I think what that's what happens
26:16
when you when, when you go down this road, you but I you asked
26:22
about the Bible. Well, the Bible actually warns
26:25
against favoritism. James, 29, says that if you show
26:29
partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law
26:34
as transgressors. Yeah, So we we know we're rude
26:39
in Scripture. And the Bible says that
26:41
favoritism, this identity favoritism is against what God's
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word would say. Another example is a recent
26:48
example is JK Rowling. You may know her as the famous
26:52
Harry Potter author who repeatedly has been canceled for
26:55
her views on gender. She argues that biological sex
26:59
matters, but activists accuse her of being transphobic and
27:03
they're trying to silence her. Exactly.
27:06
You know, identity politics often frames disagreement as
27:11
oppression. OK, So if you don't conform to
27:14
the dominant narrative, if you don't conform to the idea
27:18
police, you face social and professional consequences for
27:24
that. Yeah.
27:25
You lose your career. You can lose everything, you
27:27
know, And I see you bookshelf back there.
27:29
You've got all the Harry Potter's lined up.
27:31
I do, you know, get a lot of your.
27:33
Sermon material from that. I did use a Harry Potter example
27:37
in our for the second gospel of the last conference, and you've
27:41
never been able to hear it because we're still waiting on
27:43
JC to get me that recording. But you know, he's a wonderful,
27:47
wonderful guy that's always on top of things.
27:49
And so eventually we'll get that maybe in a couple of years, and
27:52
we'll share that recording with you.
27:54
But Jesus, because this also re warns us about some things in
27:57
life. John 1518.
27:59
Listen to what the words of Jesus says.
28:01
If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated
28:05
you. Standing for truth often brings
28:08
push back. There are times where we'll
28:10
stand up for what is right. We'll stand up for what is true.
28:13
And the world doesn't like that and the world pushes back.
28:16
Does that mean you're wrong? No, it means you're standing for
28:19
what is right. Exactly.
28:22
You know, there's another example of this is there's been
28:26
a rise of race based dorms and race based graduation ceremonies
28:32
and universities. You know, these, these
28:35
initiatives claim to create a sense of belonging for minority
28:39
students, but they also reintroduce segregation,
28:44
something that, you know, we, we, you know, had a victory over
28:48
long ago when we desegregated things and now we're trying to
28:52
segregate things again. But it's only certain people,
28:55
they can do that because if white people tried to do that,
28:58
that would, that would cause a big issue, a big stink.
29:03
And, you know, so it's even, in my opinion, worse than before,
29:08
because you've got some races that can do stuff like this and
29:10
some races that couldn't. And and the issue it that can't
29:14
and the. But I think the issue is that
29:16
shouldn't be allowed at all. Yeah, there's a there's a
29:20
university just right down the road from where I live at that
29:23
had talked about this last year doing a black only dorms so that
29:28
they had a safe space for African Americans and blacks.
29:32
And I thought, hold on, didn't we fight this war like the whole
29:36
Civil War about this or have like down this road before?
29:41
Yeah. Colored.
29:43
Yeah, and I'm just one of the one of the young people that was
29:46
at college was like, Pastor James, you're not going to
29:48
believe this. And I said, listen, there's a
29:50
lot of things I've heard. I'm I think I could probably
29:52
believe it. I'm like, actually, you know, I
29:54
can't believe that. I cannot believe we're actually
29:56
talking about that in our colleges just right down the
29:58
road from us. So instead of striving for
30:02
unity, identity politics often pushes separation, right?
30:06
Acts 1726 says And he made from one man every nation of mankind
30:13
to live on all the face of the earth God designed.
30:17
God has the design and is designed as unity.
30:20
It's not division. As I've been preaching to the
30:22
book of Acts, anytime a great move happened before that was a
30:26
proceeding of unity and prayer, of one mind and one heart, and
30:31
God did a great thing. Exactly.
30:34
And then, of course, you've got the Black Lives Matter protests
30:38
of 2020, all that stuff with George Floyd.
30:43
While some protests or few of them will say we're peaceful,
30:47
most of them led to riots, led to destruction, you know,
30:53
burning down buildings of people that were actually for the
30:56
movement. They were indiscriminate,
30:58
burning down stuff. But of course, what January 6th
31:02
did was worse. But we won't go there.
31:04
I digress. The movement called for
31:07
systematic change, but it also labeled entire groups as
31:12
oppressors based on race. Yeah, this really highlights the
31:17
real issue of injustice. Identity politics often rejects
31:22
reconciliation in favor of retribution.
31:25
Instead of reconciling things, it's how can I get back at you?
31:29
How can I take over and, and instead of using the words of
31:33
Jesus and turning the other cheek and trying to reconcile
31:37
something, it's how can I avenge and how can I get back and how
31:41
can I retaliate on what has been done?
31:44
Romans 12 says like this and 12/19 beloved, never avenge
31:48
yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God.
31:50
The Bible calls for justice but warns against vengeance.
31:54
It is never our place to take vengeance and action to get
31:58
someone else. It is up to the Lord and allow
32:01
him to take care of what has happened.
32:04
Exactly. And the worst, I'll tell you the
32:06
worst part about this identity politic thinking is it has
32:12
worked his way into the church and and we're going to talk
32:16
about now how identity politics affects the church.
32:20
This is where James now this hits even closer to home.
32:24
This is where things get even more serious, because now this
32:29
identity politics has began to affect the church, it's begin to
32:33
affect the the gospel. And what we're going to look at,
32:38
Brett, is ultimately 5 things that we're going to look at in
32:41
the Church of how the church has responded or not responded.
32:46
The 1st is this about identity politics divides believers.
32:49
As we just mentioned, unity always precedes the work of God,
32:54
and instead of unity in Christ, we see divisions based on race,
32:59
gender, and political ideology. And when that happens, we
33:03
distance ourselves from God. We are distancing ourselves from
33:07
what God has called us to do. Galatians 328 says there's
33:11
neither Jew nor Greek, nor slave, nor free.
33:14
Free. There's no male or female, for
33:16
you all are one in Christ Jesus. God has called us to be unified
33:23
of one mind, of one heart, of 1 Spirit coming together for the
33:27
sake of the gospel, ultimately for the gospel to be spread
33:30
through the world through our unity.
33:33
And we are divisive and we are divisive among one another.
33:37
The unity of Christ will never be spread.
33:41
Exactly and and secondly, it distorts our view of justice.
33:45
So identity politics often seeks justice through power struggles,
33:51
but the Bible calls for reconciliation and forgiveness.
33:56
The Micah 6-8 tells us do justice and to love kindness and
34:01
walk homely with your God. You know, there is no, there is
34:05
no forgiveness with this. If you're, and if you're an
34:07
oppressor, a part of this oppressor group, you'll always
34:11
be an oppressor. If you're part of the oppressed,
34:14
no matter what happens, no matter what's given, you'll
34:17
always be oppressed no matter what.
34:21
It's an automatic and there is no, oh, you know, I think
34:24
they've paid enough. I think that, you know, no,
34:26
there isn't. It's just forever.
34:28
There is no redemption. There is no forgiveness.
34:31
There is no reconciliation. There's no hope that we can ever
34:34
be unified again. That's just the way it is and it
34:38
will never change. And that is so toxic.
34:41
People don't know or understand how toxic that really is.
34:46
Yeah. I think this next one, Brett, is
34:48
probably of the five. We're going to talk about one,
34:51
if not the most important of the five, because what happens is,
34:57
and then the politics begins to redefine words.
35:00
The words have meaning. That's why it's very important
35:02
that we define them and we locate what they are.
35:05
Because when you begin to change the words and the meaning of the
35:08
words, then all of a sudden the words that we once knew are now
35:14
null and void and they have no meaning whatsoever, right.
35:16
The new terminology for the kids, Skippity toilet and all
35:19
these weird things that they're saying, They, they, they're
35:22
saying a word that in our mind, okay, well, this means you know
35:27
this. And in their mind it's something
35:29
completely different. And so it is trying to figure
35:32
out what words mean. And what happens with identity
35:35
politics is it redefines 2 main words, the the tenants of
35:39
salvation, which is sin and salvation instead of sin.
35:44
It's now a, instead of sin been rebellion against God, right?
35:47
God said don't do these things in the garden and we did it and
35:51
sin entered into humanity. It becomes instead of sin as a
35:55
rebellion against God, it begins to be I'm oppressed by a
35:59
dominant group. There's somewhere else that's
36:01
out there that's oppressing me. And so I am the victim of this
36:05
situation. Instead of salvation been by
36:08
grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone, it becomes all
36:12
about an activism and idolatry ideology of purity.
36:16
How well can I be? What can I do for this world
36:20
where if we really look at it, Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8-9
36:24
reminds us, For by grace you have been saved through faith,
36:27
not of works of righteousness. It is only through the gift of
36:32
Christ that we have salvation. And so when we begin to change
36:35
these words, they begin to change our ideology in a
36:39
massive, massive way. I mean, our culture is already
36:44
changing right before our eyes. I mean, we have, you know, a
36:47
post, I mean, a host on the four freedom podcast saying Skippity
36:51
toilet on the on the podcast. And we just go right along like
36:55
it's like it's just life like it's you know, as it's normal,
36:59
you know, it's in lexicon now. It's part of it.
37:01
That's right. We're going to our 4th 1 here.
37:04
It it it pressures churches to compromise biblical truth.
37:08
OK, some churches in trying to be inclusive except ideologies
37:14
that contradict Scripture. And we we see this so much and
37:21
you know, especially with this stuff with David Platt and that
37:25
church over in Washington and saying, you know, if you get a
37:28
chance, watch that documentary. That's eye opening.
37:31
But you know, we have this going on right now.
37:34
And then, you know, we look at the Bible, we look at Second
37:36
Timothy, chapter 4, verses 3 through 4, and it warns us that
37:41
people will turn away from truth to follow what suits their
37:46
desires. And that's what's that's what's
37:49
going on today. We've got people, you know,
37:51
compromise. You know, our job as pastors is
37:54
to stand up in the church and preach Christ crucified.
37:58
And, you know, it's not supposed to be a platform for this social
38:03
justice. You know, if you preach the
38:05
gospel, then true social justice will come from that.
38:12
But it it should that it is not the gospel message in and of
38:15
itself. Absolutely.
38:18
And did you talk about the final one, Brett?
38:21
I did not. OK, so finally was we begin to
38:24
talk through this, what happens is when we allow identity
38:28
politics to incorporate into our churches, we begin to see a
38:33
shift of the church's focus. What is the focus of the church?
38:36
It is to share the gospel with every single person out there.
38:40
It is to tell others about the faith redemption work of Jesus
38:45
Christ, death, burial, resurrection of Him dying for
38:48
our sins, Christ crucified on the cross.
38:51
And. What happens is we allow
38:53
identity politics to come in. The church begins to shift its
38:56
focus to social activism as you just mentioned with the McLean
39:02
Bible Church. It begins to be this activism in
39:05
the culture, this activism in the world.
39:08
Instead of getting up and saying what Paul said in Romans 116
39:13
from not ashamed of the gospel for is the power of salvation.
39:16
The gospel, not politics, is what changes hearts.
39:20
Exactly. You know what, real quick, I
39:21
heard somebody tell me the other day, that's all up on the social
39:25
high horse. Oh, Christians, they walk around
39:28
with a torture device around their neck talking about the
39:31
cross. And I responded, look, the cross
39:34
is we don't worship the cross, but the cross.
39:39
What's God's plan from the beginning of time?
39:42
I mean, before he created this world, he had the cross in mind.
39:47
Jesus's work on the cross is what makes us Christian in the
39:52
first place. And and so we just need to
39:55
remember and keep that at the center of our theology, keep the
39:58
cross at the center of our mission, keep the cross at the
40:01
center of our preaching. And when it the the cross stops
40:05
being the center of what we do, then they were no longer
40:11
Christian. Yeah, one of the things as we
40:13
begin to study this outlook through it was an unexpected
40:17
ally of identity politics, right?
40:19
Not everything has negative connotation to it.
40:21
But here's something interesting.
40:23
Identity politics, for all of its problems, actually reminds
40:26
us of some key biblical truths. So, so get this, Brett, let's
40:30
let's jump in the first one here.
40:31
OK, yeah, like, like the pervasiveness of sin.
40:35
OK, identity politics acknowledges that injustice
40:40
exists. And look, we're not saying that
40:44
there's no injustice out there. We're not saying that racism
40:50
doesn't exist. We're not saying that there's
40:54
some people out there that are racial profiling when they
40:57
shouldn't. We're not saying that that that
41:00
there is no prejudice because because you know, as Christians,
41:04
we know this is true. I mean, the, the first step of
41:08
our salvation is, is realizing, as Romans 323 says, for all if
41:14
sinned and come short of the glory of God, there is none
41:17
righteous. No, not one.
41:19
So. So sin is a real thing and we we
41:23
freely and openly admit that we have some problems out there.
41:27
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's not only personal, since
41:31
not just personal, but it's systematic, right?
41:33
The Bible talks over and over again of unjust kings and
41:36
corrupt judges and nations that oppress their people.
41:40
Sin infects entire societies, not just individuals.
41:45
Everyone is affected by sin because of our common ancestor,
41:49
Adam and Eve who sinned in the garden the very first time.
41:53
And everyone from their own out now has this sin problem.
41:56
And when we ignore sin, when we ignore those things, then we're
42:01
no different than someone who is ignoring things based on
42:04
identity politics. Exactly.
42:07
And and that means that repentance isn't just about
42:11
personal sins. It's about acknowledging broader
42:15
injustice. But here's the key to this.
42:19
This is where identity politics goes wrong.
42:23
It goes wrong and how it defines injustice and how it seeks to
42:29
fix it. Yeah, this is where identity
42:31
politics becomes part of what we like to call the counterfeit
42:34
gospel. It offers a doctrine of creation
42:37
center, redemption, but all of them are twisted versions of
42:41
biblical truth. One guy that I like to listen
42:45
to, he said that Hollywood is just a cheap knock off of the
42:48
gospel, right? You can't take a superhero
42:50
story. Does he pick any superhero out
42:53
there, right? And they are going to have this
42:56
wonderful power that's endowed upon them.
42:58
Let's just take Superman, for example.
43:00
He comes from another planet and he he lives this life of justice
43:05
and truth in the American way. And then he gets to the point
43:08
where he has to make a ultimate death defying sacrifice.
43:12
He has to sacrifice our fights for the sake of those that he
43:14
loves. And then when Superman dies in
43:18
the movie ends, all of a sudden there's the sequel of Superman
43:22
Returns and he comes back to life and he is stronger than
43:26
before and he redeems all of humanity because of this
43:30
wonderful story. What what is that story?
43:32
It's the gospel, right? It's Jesus is a cheap knock off
43:36
of Jesus, and identity politics is the same way.
43:40
It's a cheap, counterfeit gospel of what true religion truly is.
43:45
Exactly. In fact, you're you're the you
43:49
just brought up Superman. It reminds me of an interview I
43:53
saw one time with Bryan Singer. Bryan Singer was a director of
43:58
the 2006 Superman movie Superman Returns.
44:03
And there's one. There's one scene in that movie
44:08
where Superman comes up. Brandon Ruth, who plays
44:11
Superman, comes up in the air to like, absorb the sun, and he's
44:17
in the air with his arms spread out like he's on a cross.
44:21
And even Bryan Singer said the reason why he did that shot
44:26
because he was motivated by, get this, the myth of Christ.
44:31
And I'll never forget that what he said about the myth of Christ
44:36
when, you know, we all know that, that, you know,
44:39
objectively speaking, Christ really did live.
44:43
He really what did die on a cross.
44:45
You know, secular people can can see that and admit that.
44:50
But yeah, that's what it all stems from.
44:52
It all stems from all this stuff.
44:54
It all stems from it's just a from Jesus getting back to what
44:59
we're talking about. So let's start with this
45:01
doctrine of creation. OK, identity politics treats
45:05
both group and individuals as God.
45:10
OK? I heard someone say the other
45:13
day that that a human makes a great mate but a human makes a
45:17
horrible God. OK, you your identity is self
45:22
determined and your group defines what's right and wrong.
45:28
So this eliminates any real basis for human unity or
45:34
dignity. Yeah.
45:36
In contrast, what does Genesis 127 tell us?
45:39
So God created male and female in his own image, in the image
45:42
of God. He created he them, male and
45:44
female. He created them.
45:46
Our dignity comes from God, not from our identity groups.
45:51
Exactly. And then there's the doctrine of
45:54
sin. OK, instead of defining sin as
45:58
rebellion against God, identity politics divine sins as
46:04
oppression by dominant groups. And this leads to injustices
46:09
like cancel culture and force ideological conformity.
46:15
OK, so that's real sin. But what the Bible says is sin,
46:20
that's not sin anymore. OK, Do we live in a different
46:23
time, a different culture? This is socially acceptable.
46:27
Of course, if it's socially acceptable, it's not sin
46:30
anymore. So then the the social, so our
46:33
social identity becomes the the author of sin.
46:38
And the Bible says what the Bible says sin is.
46:41
That's not really sin anymore. Yeah, and the the most
46:45
importantly, the doctrine of redemption be turns into
46:49
something that is completely wrong.
46:51
Identity politics teaches that salvation comes to activism and
46:55
retribution. And again, we're going to quote
46:58
again Ephesians 289 that you quoted earlier.
47:00
For by grace, have you been saved through faith.
47:03
It's not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not of
47:06
any works, of results of works, so that no one may boast, no
47:12
one's going to be able to boast on what they did.
47:14
At the day of redemption. We stand before the Christ of
47:17
our living Savior who we get to stand before God.
47:20
We get to say it's nothing that I have done, but it's all
47:23
because of Christ. And that is the opposite of what
47:26
this identity politics movement is.
47:28
It's what have you done, what retribution have you done, what
47:31
vengeance have you done in order to receive this salvation?
47:35
And it is completely opposite of what Christ has done.
47:38
Right. The the identity politics gospel
47:42
demands moral purity, but it absolutely, positively has no
47:47
grace. If you disagree, if you have a
47:51
different way of thinking, if you go against the movement in
47:54
any way, you're exiled. You're cancelled, you're shamed,
47:59
you're put on the shelf, you can't work anymore.
48:01
You lose your house, you lose your income.
48:04
They don't care. If you go out on the street and
48:06
there's nothing you can do to repent, there's nothing you can
48:09
do to get back. Once you're cancelled, you're
48:12
cancelled forever. And if it's final?
48:15
Yeah. One of the questions that gets
48:18
asked often in this debate and this conversation is, is
48:21
identity politics to blame for the divisions that we see in our
48:25
culture today? I would answer that question yes
48:28
and no. It certainly has fueled
48:31
division, but it is also a symptom of a deeper, older sin
48:37
in our culture. Exactly.
48:40
Yeah, Our society has a history of racism, and we don't need to
48:46
pretend that it doesn't. OK.
48:48
That does nobody any good. You know, we need to know about
48:52
it. You know, it doesn't do any good
48:54
to sweep it under the rug. We have a history of injustice.
48:58
We have broken systems. We're not saying that we don't.
49:02
But instead of offering forgiveness and instead of
49:06
offering healing, identity politics demands endless
49:11
retribution. It can't offer the
49:14
reconciliation. That only Christ brings.
49:19
Yeah. I love how 2nd Corinthians 518
49:21
and 19 says it says all this is from God, who through Christ
49:27
reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of
49:32
retribution. No, the ministry of
49:35
reconciliation. Our world needs this more now
49:39
than ever. Our world needs to hear the
49:41
ministry of reconciliation now more than any other common
49:45
cultural history because we are so divided and divisive on so
49:49
many things that we need people to stand up and say, let us
49:53
reconcile one another back to Christ so that we can have these
49:56
conversations in a real manner and be able to talk through some
50:00
of these things. You know, this reminds me of
50:02
something that John said in y'all's episode that I loved, by
50:07
the way, is that Christians don't need to be ashamed to tell
50:11
people that the answer is Christ.
50:14
You know, we don't need to. And then I thought, man, that
50:16
stuck with me. That was so good.
50:18
You know, a lot of times we, you know, we're all for, you know,
50:22
counseling and we're all for looking for practical ways to
50:27
help people and, and, and things like that.
50:30
But Chris, Christians, we don't need to shy away from the fact
50:33
that we have the answer. The answer is Jesus.
50:38
The answer is Christ and you know, psychology and psychiatry,
50:43
it's all good and, and we need it, but we need to remember that
50:47
the ultimate fix is Jesus, which kind of brings us into kind of
50:53
the the final question is, OK, all this is on the table.
50:58
Where do we go from here? What's the Christian response?
51:04
How? How do we correctly navigate
51:08
this cultural moment and movement that is taking over our
51:12
society? Yeah, I think first and foremost
51:15
we must get back to preaching the power of justification by
51:19
faith alone. That is the foundation of the
51:22
Church's spiritual and political unity.
51:26
It is the primary identity that is in Christ Jesus, not in our
51:31
racial or social groups that you know, we have this common bond
51:37
of Christ and what Christ has done that transcends all
51:41
divisions, right. When I when we get to heaven one
51:44
day, it's not going to be these different groups of people
51:46
worship in a different areas. It's going to be all what does
51:49
the Bible say in Revelation, All tribes of all tongues of all
51:53
nation groups. They're going to stand before
51:55
Christ and worship him and sing holy, holy, Holy is the Lord God
52:00
Almighty because we get to worship the being forever, not
52:05
based on what we look like or what identity we have, but based
52:09
on Christ and what He did for us, and we get back to preaching
52:13
the power of Christ. I believe we'll see this changes
52:16
that happened in our culture. Exactly.
52:19
And you know you, you've already read this verse once, but I want
52:23
to read it again. Galatians 328 says there is
52:26
neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free.
52:31
There is no male and female. You are all one in Christ Jesus.
52:38
That is real unity, not the shallow unity of political
52:45
alliances. Like you said, every nation,
52:48
every tongue come together worshipping the Lamb.
52:52
That's heaven, you know, And, and that's what we have to look
52:55
forward to. Yeah, I think secondly, we can
52:58
point to the church as the hope for all the nations, right?
53:02
The the people want justice and reconciliation and they won't
53:06
find it. In activism alone.
53:08
The gospel is the only true foundation for peace.
53:12
Christ died for the Church. He died for the bride of Christ.
53:16
And that's what the bride is, is the church.
53:18
And so we need to point people to the church, this this body of
53:22
believers that is there to encourage one another when times
53:25
are tough, when difficult happens, when when tragedy
53:29
strikes in the world or in your nation or in your your simple
53:32
life that you have. The church is there to build you
53:36
back up and to edify one another and to grow in the grace and the
53:40
knowledge of Jesus Christ as we grow together in what we see
53:44
Christ doing. Exactly.
53:48
And, you know, there's this movement out there of people in
53:51
this social realm, social justice realm, identity
53:54
politics, they want to, you know, call themselves Christian.
53:58
And So what they want to do in the Bible, and I've had some
54:01
experience with people like this, is they want to throw Paul
54:04
away and just read the words in red.
54:07
Just read the words of Jesus. He taught us how to live and,
54:11
and, and that, you know, we he gave it.
54:12
He laid out a way for us to live our lives.
54:15
Well, even it looked Jesus was was pretty tough.
54:19
You know, if you actually read the words of Jesus, you'd be
54:21
thankful for Paul because Jesus, Jesus was pretty hard on that
54:26
religious Jewish crowd. Which brings us to our next
54:30
point. We need to preach the whole
54:33
Bible, OK, not just the parts about grace and love and
54:38
kindness and mercy, but we need to preach on sin and we need to
54:44
preach on justice and we need to preach on repentance.
54:48
The Bible has the answers that identity politics distorts.
54:52
We don't need to fill the Astrodome 3 times on a Sunday
54:55
and stand up and say this is my Bible, I can do what it says I
55:01
can do and I am what it says I am.
55:04
You know, you know, you know. Put that in your tailpipe and
55:07
smoke it, Joel. Right.
55:08
Well, Brett, if I if I preach sin and if I preach repentance
55:12
and justice, my crowds may not be big.
55:15
Oh. No, we can't do that.
55:17
Yeah. Come on now.
55:19
I think finally though there needs to be a balance of love
55:22
and truth and grace and mercy and sin and retribution.
55:26
There must be a balance in what we say and everything we do.
55:30
Jesus got up and said profoundly, I'm here to speak
55:34
grace and truth. I'm here to speak truth, but
55:37
also to power. I'm here to begin this balance
55:41
of life and identity. Politics thrives on outrage and
55:44
self righteousness and Christians, we must be
55:47
different. We must be bold in our truth and
55:50
full of grace. We know also we need to do James
55:55
is. We need to engage in real
55:57
relationships. No, social media debates won't
56:01
change hearts. Keyboard warriors really don't
56:05
make a difference, but personal conversations might.
56:10
If we truly care about justice, we should be listening,
56:13
learning, and pointing to people, to Christ.
56:16
I had a devotion with my church last night.
56:20
We preached on Matthew 5, verses 13 through 16.
56:23
We talked about we are the salt and we are the light.
56:28
But what good is assault if it stays in the shaker?
56:31
What good is a light if it stays under the basket?
56:35
We've got to get where the lost people are.
56:37
I said listen, we go to our Christian schools and we pick up
56:42
our Christian kids and get in our cars and list the Christian
56:45
radio stations. We drive and have Christian
56:48
lunch with our Christian friends and then we, we eat down and
56:51
have dinner with our Christian families and then go to the
56:54
Christian fellowship. And we never see and we never
56:57
get around lost people, you know, saying, oh, aren't we
57:00
supposed to be separated from the world?
57:02
We're supposed to be separated from the sin of the world.
57:05
We're not supposed to be separated from the people of the
57:08
world. Even Jesus said I, I, you know,
57:11
he said, I, I, I don't pray that you take them out of the world.
57:14
They got to be in the world. I just pray that you keep them
57:16
from the evil 1. Just as you sent me into the
57:20
world, I sent them into the world.
57:22
So us as Christians, you know, we've got to get off of
57:25
Facebook. We got to get off of kick top.
57:27
We got to get off of the gram and get off YouTube and we got
57:30
to go where the lost people are because how are they going to
57:33
see our light and how are they going to our saltiness?
57:37
Make them first for God. If we just stay around each
57:40
other and we never get where the lost people are.
57:43
Oh, we'll, we'll comment on a Facebook post, but we won't
57:47
actually go where they are and share the gospel with.
57:51
Them, absolutely. And I think the last thing we
57:53
can do is we can pray for our culture, the divisions that we
57:57
see. Brett, they're not going to be
57:59
healed by policies that our president signs as an executive
58:03
order or our legislative branch puts in the wall.
58:07
The protests alone are not going to heal the nation of what we
58:11
have seen in distress, but our prayers for one another and our
58:15
prayers for our culture will begin to see that hearts and
58:19
lives can be transformed through the Gospel and we can begin to
58:23
unite people through this truth and love.
58:26
We can begin to heal our nation and heal our world if we will
58:31
just simply pray and tell others about Christ.
58:35
Exactly. I think that's a great note to
58:37
end on. I'm going to give you my final
58:39
thought, then I'll throw it over to you for your final thought.
58:43
But you know, I just think that that just like, you know, a call
58:46
back once again to what John said, Christ is the answer.
58:49
The gospel is the answer. The the cross is the answer.
58:53
It's not about racial identity or sexual orientation In the
58:59
Gospel, you know, none of that matters.
59:01
We're colorblind. We're all the same.
59:04
We're one people, we're God's people, and that's why what's
59:10
laid out in the New Testament for society will work every
59:15
time. We've seen it time and time and
59:17
time again. The Christians, they, they last,
59:21
I'm not saying they're perfect. We're still sinners.
59:24
We're we're still going to going to mess up, but you put
59:27
Christians in government who are doing right and and living by
59:32
the word of God and that society is going to flourish.
59:36
And a society that doesn't have biblical truth as its foundation
59:43
is just going to turn into horrible, horrible thing, a
59:49
horrible government that oppresses its people.
59:52
The answer is always Jesus and we just need to continue to
59:57
preach Christ. That's right, Point people to
1:00:00
Christ should be our message, pointing people to the
1:00:03
redemption of salvation through Christ, where that resurrection
1:00:06
should be our goal in life. Thank you for joining us today.
1:00:10
It's been a blessing to be able to record on this.
1:00:12
Looking forward to next week as we talk through cultural
1:00:16
relativism and what that means. And how we identify with that.
1:00:20
And we hope you've enjoyed this series.
1:00:22
As always, if you ever have a thought or comment, please feel
1:00:25
free to reach out to us, give us a message a like a review that
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1:00:32
Until next time, to God be the glory.
1:00:35
Great things he hath done. Found my new name, found that
1:00:41
good grace, found that healing. And the tears fell down my face
1:00:46
when I found my beginning. It has no ending.
1:00:49
I found that second chance, found my best friend, Found my
1:00:51
forgiveness, found my happiness. I've been singing ever since.
1:01:09
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