Latest / Journey Elgin / Sunday Message 10/4/26- How Do Christians Navigate the Current Political Environment?
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: So we're going to dive off a little bit into how as Christians, especially ⁓ since we're kind of ⁓ I I believe we're kind of in the end game now, right? Like things have changed. We we need to make sure we're paying attention to what's going on. So, how do we engage ⁓ in this ridiculous political environment? And it is ridiculous. And if you feel good about it, You don't know enough about it, right? It's it's a mess. It's ugly. It's horrible. And there's going to be Christians that are on both sides of all of this debate. And there's a couple of things that have been ingrained in us that that make this ⁓ challenging. ⁓ one, how many have ever heard ⁓ never talk about what? Religion or politics, right? Now, there's reasons for that because people get passionate about it and people have different opinions, right? ⁓ however, what are the two things that impact your life the most? Religion. And politics. Now we've we don't think of it that way here in America because we tried to create a system that actually let the people be free, right? And because we didn't think about it a whole lot, we're not near as free as we think we are. For example, we're not able to buy some land because the government has said that there's a little trickle stream that may or may not be there. Right? Are we free? No. I'm not bitter by the way, not at all. But we we we have not grown up in what normal political systems are throughout history. Normal political systems throughout history were oppressive and were authoritarian and they ruled your life. Now you could just make terms with that and you could you can live within that structure, any of us you can, but it is not it is not freedom. Right. And ⁓ and so politics and religion, religion basically solidifies where are you going to spend eternity, right? And if you if you don't believe that, then you're fine anyway, right? That's what you believe. But I believe that it actually makes a difference, right? That there are going to be people either eternally separated from God or eternally in the presence of God. So if I believe that. You know, probably I should at least talk a little bit about religion with my friends, right? But we've kind of been conditioned. Hey, just don't have you know, and and frankly, the reason we did that with politics is because we our politics weren't that different for a long time. We shared some basic foundational understandings of how things work. That has changed and you can look at polling, you can look at at all kinds of the stuff that has drastically changed, right? And ⁓ and so so it's tough in the church, it's like why are we talking about this? We're not supposed to be talking about this, right? And then on the other hand, it's hard to talk about it because we have viewed politics for so long now as like our favorite NFL team. So you're either Republican or you're Democrat for the most part, right? Or you're kind of you say you're in the middle, like I say that I'm not either one. However, I vote Republican nearly all the time. But I hate the Republicans, right? So so so it's we're all in this weird thing, but there's really only two camps to go to. Right? And here's the problem: most of us treat it like our we treat fans. I've used this example before. I'm a Dallas Cowboy fan. I hate that I'm a Dallas Cowboy fan, but I am a Dallas Cowboy fan. And ⁓ and so therefore I hate like the Philadelphia Eagles. I can't stand the Philadelphia Eagles. I remember when Terrell Owens went to the Philadelphia Eagles, and he's the one who, you know. stood on the star of the the ⁓ cowboys and mocked the cowboys right well none of this even matters it's not even important but man i just wanted him drilled i hated that guy right and so so he then so then he goes to the the eagles and i'm like that's right that's what you get you get all of it and i said what kind of an organization would take that kind of person right this is ridiculous and then he was with the eagles and then and then all of a sudden the headline cowboys Get Terrell Owens, sign Terrell Owens in the offseason. I'm like, you know, he's not that bad of a guy. It's it's really, it's just passion. Yeah, he was playing for the other team. It was just his passion. So you know what? It it's gonna be okay. He's gonna help us out, right? That's how you fandoms because fan is short for what? Fanatic. It's it's it's dumb. It's ridiculous. Here's the it's fine to do that with our NFL teams. We've done it with politics. So if you if you started off as a Democrat, you're a fan of the Democrats. If you started off as a Republican, you're typically a fan of Republicans. That's I'm talking in generalities here. But unfortunately, we view it as fandom. And so when when the Democrats do something that's immoral, right? Whenever ⁓ Bill Clinton is, you know, has a ⁓ a 19-year-old intern doing wonderful things in the Oval Office that shouldn't be spoken about, all Republicans go, ⁓ you horrible. Horrible Democrats. Look, no morals whatsoever. And then when the Republicans nominate a guy who is known for having multiple affairs and has had sexual known sexual escapades and has said things that are horrible, we're like, hey, no, listen, you gotta understand the context. Everyone is flawed, right? Okay. And and by the way, I didn't do this caveat. There's no way I I just decided not to worry about it. There's no way to do this sermon where you don't take. So if you walk away from this, not being kind of like, ooh, at least once, I probably haven't done my job. All right. So this makes it very hard, right? Because we are typically blinded by to the teams, ⁓ the to the team that we are a fan of. We're blinded to actually what they're doing. Right? And a perfect example of this, Molly's granddad was a blue dog Democrat, right? And ⁓ voted Democrat his whole life. And by the end, you try to have some conversations and and you'd ask him things, well, what do you believe about this issue and this issue and this issue? And they would all be completely opposite of what the Democrat platform was, right? And he believed everything opposite. And you try to say, So so you're gonna vote Republican? Nope, I'm a Democrat. All right, right? Well, that's where we are, because we thought that it hasn't mattered that much. It matters. We're seeing some evil ideologies. And guess what? We're seeing them within both parties. Okay? So please don't ever hear this as saying one party we can find redemption in and the other we can't. No, both are headed the same direction. We need massive revival. We need people to come to Christ legitimately, not give lip service to it. And that's what we pray for, and that's what we hope. But while we're in this world, we have to figure out well, what do we do now? One way some have done is they just said, I'm not going to pay attention to it. I'm out. Right? Okay. That's what the Amish do. Right? The Amish, they don't want to be part of the real world. So they they picked a line and they said, We're going no further. Right? There's been in times ⁓ Catholic priests that would create monasteries and and Monks would go off and they'd completely separate themselves from the world. Okay? That's one thing. I don't think that's what scripture tells us to do. In fact, whenever Jesus said to go into all of the world, I don't think you can do that by just creating your own little protected bubble. And so we have a couple scriptures I want to look at. First is Romans 13. Verses one through seven, let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that can those that exist have been ⁓ dang. Yeah. Your fault. I had to answer so many of those bells this week and ruin my eyesight. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resist what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good, but if you do wrong, be faith be afraid, for he do he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you will also pay taxes for the authorities or ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect. To whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed. All right, so some read that, especially that first thing says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, means that we just listen to everything the government has to say, right? And ⁓ and some will read this as well, is God saying that all governments are godly? No, that's not what's being said here. That's not what Paul is saying here. What Paul is saying is that you should be good citizens, that governments as a whole. Are instituted by God. God instituted that there would be structure to this world, right? And He instituted the family, He instituted the church, He instituted governments. It doesn't mean that that government's going to be godly. That government has to choose to be godly. But as Christians, ideally, how do we want to live within a society? Well, under the authority of that society. Right. And that's what we strive to do as much as humanly possible. And I I love it. There's ⁓ John MacArthur is a very ⁓ famous pastor. ⁓ he ⁓ I mean he preached that the ⁓ Revolutionary War was ungodly. He he was against ⁓ all of that. So we just follow the ⁓ follow what the government says as Christians. ⁓ and it was really interesting because ⁓ his church was in California and when COVID came and they tried to shut down his church, ⁓ he changed really quickly. And ⁓ I mean in fact he he'd like even apologized for his thirty years of telling Christians not to engage in politics. A little late, John. But ⁓ but I'm glad he did. I'm glad he did. Because here's the thing. If we were supposed to submit to everything the government says. If Paul lived by that, would he have been executed by Rome? No. Paul was executed by Rome. So clearly, he didn't take this as completely literal that I'm going to follow everything, right? No, this is a general guideline of how Christians should strive to live. And they he lived under a dictatorship, under Caesar. Also, it tells us what governments are supposed to be. They are supposed To defend good and punish evil. So Paul had no way of changing the ⁓ the Roman system of government, right? Even though what the gospel message that he was proclaiming actually did change that government. But he had no way. How many people voted for Caesar? Zero. It was a different system. Right? We have lived and we don't realize how unique our system of government has been. We live in a place where, as people, we actually have a foundational ⁓ place in our government. And if Christians don't take advantage of that, you are missing everything about what it means to live out your faith. Man, we're The government has so much influence on so many things, and the government can either punish good or punish evil. And many times governments will punish the things that are good. Well, we have a way to try to push back against that. So we should at least engage. But we also need to understand kind of where we are. That we have moved over the years. We are much more authoritarian as a government. than we ever were supposed to be. Right? And and I believe that we are basically a culture under God's wrath because we have abandoned him and the natural consequences are now coming. And we're kind of doing exactly what another group of people who who were called to be self-governing under God were kind of doing what they did. In first Samuel chapter 8, verses 19 and 20. So Samuel is talking to the people of Israel. ⁓ the and ⁓ he just goes through, hey, here are all the things the people are asking for a king, right? And Samuel gets says, Okay, if you want a king, here are the things you're gonna get. He's gonna tax you, he's gonna make you go to war, he's gonna do all of these things for you, you will not be free. And ⁓ and ⁓ then the people ref Respond. But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like the other nations, and that our king may judge us, may judge us, and go out before us and fight our battles. They were completely turning their back on. What God desired. And the reason they did it is because they wanted to be like everyone else. They wanted to fit in. They wanted the king to fight their battles for us. Hey, you just take care of all this stuff. Just let me Netflix and chill. You just pay for everything. Even though Samuel said that's not how it's gonna work. No, we want the king to fight our battles. But listen to what it also says: we want the king to judge us. So what is now replacing God? Government. They're wanting the government to start acting like a God. I believe we are 100% in that place. And and again, both parties are subject to this. And it's it we we're in a very difficult, challenging time. So How do we approach this? And I want to just kind of how I am approaching, because the reality is, is most of the political talking points, listen, it's not as crazy as what it feels. Like, you know, people say that again, I've said Trump is the most irrationally hated and irrationally loved person ever. None of it makes sense of how anyone approaches him. His policies, if you look at his policies, there is nothing Outlandish about them. There is it's outlandish how he speaks, it's outlandish how he ⁓ negotiates out in the open, it's outlandish how some of the language he uses. I hate all of that. But just when you look at his his actual policies, there is nothing radically different than what we've seen historically. Even his his tariffs are the most radical, and who cares about tariffs right now from an economic, none of us know what that even really means. But here's the deal. He does have a very different view on tariffs, which goes against what the Republicans traditionally do. However, it matches what this country did up until the like 1913, 1915. Is tariffs were our main source of revenue. So even though it feels like, what's this guy doing? And I disagree with him on a lot of this. What's this guy doing? ⁓ well, he's actually kind of proposing we do something that we did 120 years ago. Right? And people are like, ⁓ that's radical. We've never seen anything like that, right? And it A lot of this is his own fault. He talks about Canada being a 51st state. He throws out we're gonna put troops and invade Greenland. He does all of this stuff. That's part of his negotiation style. I hate it. I think you should let your yes be yes and your no be no. And I think you should be wise about how you're doing things. He is not. But we have been bought a bill of goods that he's just this unique evil that we've never seen before. No, not really. So All of that plays now into how we're looking at our political ⁓ game that is being played. I have made the case that there are two ideological evils that are anti the things of God. I believe that from a scriptural standpoint, and I believe that from a historical standpoint. And ⁓ and and you may disagree with where those ideologies will move from here. But I am 100% in my understanding if I'm looking back at history. This is how these ideologies have worked. We talked one about Islam, and then the other we started last week talking about Marxism, socialism, communism. Those two worldviews, those two ideologies, everywhere they have gone, they have destroyed Christians and they have killed millions of innocent people. That's what those ideologies do if they get a hold of the government. In total. Right? And so I look at candidates now, and this is dangerous, but we're in the end game now. I look at candidates, who is going to be more likely to stand up against those two ideologies? Right? Okay. We don't always have that answer because the scary answer is you could vote for someone who wants to be an authoritarian by destroying those two ideologies. We're in a mess. Right? So I but I think about who is it the who is obvious that will will at least have a chance to stand up to this. Right? I believe that the the Senate race in Texas is a perfect example of the spiritual mess that we are in and how ugly all of this is. We have one candidate, the Democrat candidate, who is ⁓ called James Tallerico. I'm gonna go into some things ⁓ about about him. Seems like a really nice guy. We don't know of really any skeletons in the closet. Pretty run-of-the-mill guy. granddad is a Baptist pastor. We don't know any of the character issues. It is important to know that there are character issues. Why? Because we're all fallen. Right? Some people will say, well, I have to vote for the lesser of two evils. You're always voting for the lesser of two evils because you're Jesus is never on the ballot. So you're having to vote for a person, right? And and and so how do we how do we do this? Because you have this guy who I I'm gonna make the case is is is really hard to justify voting for ⁓ from a biblical foundation. He's against a guy who seems to be an A plus jerk, right? Who seems to be doesn't has no charisma. He he throws around God. You know, he throws just like many people do in politics, it's on a very surface level. But does his life reflect that? No. Right now, this is so crazy, it's so perfect for a spiritual battle. Right now, he is separated but not fully divorced from his wife, and he's shacked up with his mistress. All right? What is happening? Right? But here, this is the system that we live in. You vote for one of these two people. All right? And as Christians, this is why I understand why people are like, I'm out. Right? You know, Mazletov, we're done. Right? All right. I get it. But I actually think God has called us to pick up our cross, to go into the darkness, and to try to bring Good in the midst of this world. Right? And ultimately, no, that's through Jesus Christ. But you know what? We have to engage in the other ways as well. So you're asked to vote between these two people. And policy-wise, there's going to be differences, stuff like that. I want to one, just kind of look a little bit more at the socialism aspect. Of course, the the attacks are coming that, ⁓ James Talerico is just a socialist. Okay. Well, there is evidence of that. All right. However, he has also rejected that. But I I want us to talk about because it's really hard to narrow down and define exactly what socialism is. And there's a lot of people that believe 80% of what traditional socialism is. Does that mean they're not socialists? I don't know if you believe 80% of it, you're probably pretty close, right? Because not everyone agrees. We have to look at people as individuals. Different people have different beliefs. All right. There is right now, this is what's happening with this ideology. Right now, you can go to the DSA, the Democrat Socialist of America. All right. You can look on their website, and ⁓ and I just wrote some of the things. The these are, by the way, actual. This party are Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Talib, ⁓ Maumdani, who is the mayor of New York. These are all people that are will actually say they're members of this group. All right. And ⁓ and so it says this: it starts off, it says, Imagine taking a day off work in a future without capitalism. You work as much as you are able and no more than needed, and you would control your own labor and see it going to good use. It's not just a job to pay the bills. Speaking of bills. You don't really have them anymore. You have no debt. You don't need health insurance. You don't pay a mortgage or have a landlord because comfortable housing is a human right. Your retirement is publicly funded. Food, education, energy, medicine, transportation aren't for-profit businesses. They are common goods and utilities. All right. Then it goes on. It's talking about this is what their goal is, right? Says the DSA has written this program for ending capitalist oligarchy. And creating a real democracy. Some of these demands may be won under our current system. All right, so what are they saying? So some of these things can be done under the system as it is now. Right? We can get a Mamdani in, we can get an AOC in. Says, but we know complete victory will require building a new society from the ground up. ⁓ okay. We push these demands to their furthest extent today so we can fight for their fullest realization in a socialist future. Join us. Okay, so that's their pitch. Sounds awesome. No bills, utopia of life, right? This is the exact same thing that Lenin said when he went into Soviet Russia and ⁓ tens of millions of people died. It's exactly the ⁓ the principle that Mao brought into China, where 50 to 60 million people die and are still dying. All right, sounds wonderful. When you hear things like healthcare is a human right, it's coming from this this ⁓ viewpoint. When you hear things like housing is a human right, it's coming from this type of viewpoint. All right, we need to understand that. Then it goes on and it says, here are just things, these are bullet points that I and I I copied all of these word for word, ⁓ and ⁓ just different things that they want to do to to receive this socialist future, right? Demilitize ⁓ police departments, disempower police units, redirect funding to public services, ⁓ all of that. ⁓ okay, well, let's talk about that. but redirect funding to public services as steps toward fully abolishing the police and prison system. Fully abolishing, because it protects the rich and jails the poor. ⁓ also treat drug addiction and mental illness as health issues, not crimes. So if you're mentally ill and strangle three of your children, it's not a crime. It's just because you had mental health. Yeah, because you got mugged by that guy who needed to support his drug habit, he didn't commit a crime when he stole your stuff and beat you in the head. He's just drug addicted. I'm not making any of this up. This is the natural dots that you must connect. And sadly, we haven't. Defund the Department of War, end all foreign wars, close overseas military bases. Great. I hope everybody else defunds their departments of wars, and I'm all in. For the working class to govern, we need a new political system. Abolish the Electoral College, replace the president and the Supreme Court. With an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to the Congress. Then replace the two-party system with a multi-party democracy. Right? We hate the two parties. Right? We need more. Right? Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and rank choice voting in all elections, not getting into that, but and abolish the Senate. You know, they seem to really love our system of government. Wow, these people are true Americans. Establish public ownership. Listen, establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people. All right. That is straight Marxism Marxism. All right. The DSA, you may say, well, wait, it's just this tiny, it's not even a political group. You're right. It's it's a political organization. They are not a party. However, they have chosen to work within the Democrat Party. Looking at a little bit of history, going back, we've always had a socialist issue here in America. Early 1900s, Eugene Debs, Socialist Party. Did you know he ran for ⁓ got close to a million votes for being president? In 1912 and in 1920. He was an open socialist. From that, that stayed around. You have a guy named Michael Harrington. And ⁓ he in 1973 he created the Democrat Socialist Organizing Committee. In March of 1982, that merged with another Marxist group and they created the DSA. That starting size was about 6,000 members. All right, so not very big. By the way. All political organizations don't have huge numbers of members because a lot of people are they never actually sign their name as part of that, right? ⁓ so so these numbers are gonna sound small, but understand they're very influential. So it's 6,000 members in 1982. ⁓ the core strategy was realignment. Listen to this, this is their core strategy. Do not build a third party, but push the Democratic Party left from the inside. Right? So this is strategies that you can see written down that they started back in the 70s and 80s. That was their strategy to use the current Democrat Party and push it left. No one can deny that the current Democrat Party has moved to the left. Right? Anyone that denies that, they are not living in reality. You may be fine with that. You may love that the Democrats are moving left. That's fine. But no one can argue. That they have moved significantly. So then we just real quick ⁓ through the 80s and all the way up to 2014. This is crazy. So from the 80s to 2014, the DSA basically kept roughly 6,000 to 8,000 members, right? They mainly advocated for unions and single-payer health care, things like that. By 2014, the membership was still about 6,500. So 2014 It was 6,500, 100. Then Bernie Sanders runs in ⁓ 2016. He is not a DSA member, but he uses the term democratic socialist. And all of a sudden, membership begins to jump. Then in 2018, Alexandria Casio-Cortez, who very likely will be running for our president in 2028, and another lady named Rashida Talib. If you don't know these names, ⁓ them it's because you don't pay attention at all to politics. These are well known names for anyone who pays attention. Right? They they were they are our DSA members in 2018. So then all of a sudden that ⁓ this group reaches 55,000 members by the end of 2008. It peaks around 90,000 in 2021. Then it kind of falls back down during ⁓ between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty four. But by late twenty four The surge again after the Trump's victory in 2024 and the Mamdani New York Mail campaign. By mid to late 2026, it is reported to be more than 120,000 members. 97% joined after 2016. So the trajectory is doing what? It is moving. We now have hundreds of candidates in local, state, and federal office that are members of this group. They all run as Democrats. Are all Democrats? Do all Democrats believe the things that I read just a minute ago? No. However, everyone that believes those things is a Democrat. Does that make sense? All right. This is what they're trying to do. This is a spiritual thing going on. And so it op it is now the largest US social organization on record. ⁓ it's not as party of its own. But it is clearly growing. All right. So that's that's happening rapidly. And so we need candidates who are going to push against that. All right. On a political level, James Tallerico believes what traditional Democrats do for today. He is he is pro a lot of the gender stuff. He's tried to walk a lot of that stuff back, but and try to moderate it a little bit. But no, he believes what the modern Democrat Party ⁓ believes. I started looking. Has he ever said anything about the DSA? No, he's never said anything. He has been attacked as being a socialist. So he's at he was asked, Are you a socialist? This is just a few months ago. He said, I'm a capitalist. I believe in free enterprise. I believe in competition. I believe in free markets and growth. Okay, great. That means you can't believe what the DSA does, so can you at least say you don't you're not for those principles? So far, he has not said that. ⁓ he did praise Mamdani's campaign as exciting, and he said this could be a template for Democrats moving forward. Now, Mamdani is a member of the DSA. So, okay, well, what what do you mean by that? These are questions I have. Because I want people who are going to stand up to this ideology. And then you go back to 2020 and you see a ⁓ a quote that he says, he says, I'm so thankful that you asked this question and also thankful that young activists have already drawn the link between climate change and white supremacy and capitalism in our country. And I think only ending the ways that all three of these oppressive systems work together are we going to be able to begin the process of dismantling them. So in 2020, he said he wants to dismantle capitalism. Earlier this year, he said he is a strong, proud capitalist. He's also praised Mamdani, ⁓ you know, the DSA member. So here's the thing: I don't technically know where he stands. Right? But I'm fairly confident he's not going to stand up to this ideology. Right? And on the other side of the aisle, We have an adulterer, a guy who I don't want my son looking up to as how to live his life. And a guy who I don't know if he holds all of my political values either, but I know doesn't want what the DSA wants. Now let's get from the Christian side. Man, I hate I I hate to do that. I because I I don't like this. I don't like talking about this guy. I don't know this guy. And he's created in the image of God. And I want him to be saved, both of these candidates. And yet, what they are doing, one on a moral level, one on an ideological level, is evil and it's destructive. And what Talarico is trying to do is something a little bit new. In general, the Democrat Party moved away from overt faith in politics. They moved away from that. For a long time, they've moved away from that. You would not hear many deep Democrats talking about. Their personal faith. In fact, many, when asked about things like abortion, and would say, Hey, how are you a Christian? And like, for example, our previous president is Catholic. What is the Catholic doctrine on abortion? You don't do it, right? So it's like, wait, how can you be call yourself a good Catholic and then promote ⁓ ideologies and possibl ⁓ policies that support abortion? Their answer is, well, in my personal faith, I am against abortion. However, I don't think the government has the right to do it. Okay, we can have those debates, right? But so Democrats have typically over the last 30, 40 years, have tried to keep faith out of politics overtly. What Talerico is doing is new, and we're seeing it with a couple of candidates. The governor in Iowa is doing the same thing. They are from evangelical Christian groups. That's where they're they're basis of they are active in church and they are using Christianity, Christian principles to push their political ideas. So we need to know are those actually Christian principles or not? So this is this shows how talented Talerico is. So this first first clip. fifty years the religious rite equipment They convinced a lot of can you restart it? That the most just click click on it again. Well, for fifty years, the religious right in political movement has a the a perfect description for it. They convinced a lot of our fellow Christians that the most important issues were abortion and gay marriage. Two issues that aren't mentioned in the Bible, two issues that Jesus never talked about. I've said, I've said before, don't tell me what you believe. Show me how you treat other people and I'll tell you what you believe. And and I think in our in our faith, we've got to get back to those fundamentals. My granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas. And when I was little, he told me that Christianity is a simple religion. Not an easy religion, he would always clarify, but a simple religion because Jesus gave us two commandments. Love God and love neighbor. And there was no exception to that second commandment. Love thy neighbor regardless of race or gender or sexual orientation or immigration status or religious affiliation. And it's why I have fought so hard for the separation of church and state in the state capitol in Texas, because Okay, now there's things in there that we can have some debate on. All right? There's things that I kind of agree with on that. Did you hear what he said? How God judges us? He judges us based on Matthew 25, how we treat our neighbor. Okay. I promise you, when you get up to the pearly gates, Peter, going with the old joke, is not gonna say, All right, show me how many people you helped. And you know, you start going, ⁓ well, all right. Man, I worked at the food pantry. I did this. I gave this person, you know, something on the side of the road. You know, I went to the prison. I did this. And once that list gets long enough, Peter goes, okay, I've heard enough. You can come in. But if you stop just short, Peter's like, man, you really should have helped that last homeless guy. Too bad. You're out. Right? That's not how it's gonna work. This is really really smooth language. That basically, if you believe it, you don't see the need for the name of Jesus Christ. Right? And here's the thing, and I know this because people on the other side hate this message that I'm giving. But if I am right, then all those who listen to that and believe that are going to be separated from the Lord forever. If he is right, then you don't have anything to worry about, and I'm just causing problems here and wasting my time and stressing over how to say this and you know, trying to navigate this world, stressing about that. I'm just wasting my time. All right? So if you agree with him, you don't have anything to worry about. You shouldn't even get mad. I get a little irritated because I believe that message leads people straight to hell. Especially when used as this is what Christianity is. Right? Next video, he's talking about abortion, how the Bible is pro-choice. He uses this example. But I say all this in terms of the context of abortion because before God ⁓ comes over Mary and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary's consent. Which is remarkable. I mean, go back and read this in Luke. I mean, the the angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do. And she says, if it is God's will, let it be done. Let it be let it happen. So to me, that is a an affirmation and one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent. You cannot force someone to create. Creation is one of the most sacred acts that that ⁓ we engage in as human beings, but that has to be done with consent, it has to be done with freedom. And and to me that is absolutely consistent with the ministry and life and death of Jesus. And so that's why I that's how I come down that side of the issue. Okay, so a lot of that is just gobbledygook. I have no idea. But ⁓ he actually used the example to justify no regulations on abortion. Okay, that's what this is was going at. Again, we can have all of these conversations. He's using Mary saying, Your will, not mine, is that she was giving consent. Okay. She she was. He connects that with we give consent to create. So, in order to create a baby, you have to give consent to it. So, if we put abortion regulations, you're not allowing the woman to consent. All right, that's one way of looking at it. Here's another way of looking at it. All right. When a man and a woman have no clothes on and they plan to get together, all right. There's consent that needs to be involved. Both of them choose. Are we going to do this? Right? God has parameters of when you should say yes and when you should say no. No one likes God's parameters. No one likes them. We don't want to listen to them. But God gave these parameters because He also said, you know, it's fun to do what you're wanting to do, but there's also consequences to it. Right? So if you choose and consent. To take your clothes off and intermingle with the opposite sex, you have consented to the possibility of creating a new life. There's the choice. This is garbage. And we can have conversations about abortion, okay? But don't pull scripture and try to say that it justifies it. I'm not excited. All right. Last one when I get invited. All right, the the last last video. Always so so thrilled when I get invited, you know, to the Kwali Festival. I think I've gone two years in a row now. and you know, also ⁓ have gotten a chance to speak at some of our local mosques and I find such wisdom and comfort and inspiration from faith traditions all over the world. and I find that they're all kind of a equal pathways to truth. You know, that's how I think you I I always think of all of the world state traditions as like a circle with, you know, that that divine mystery of the universe in the middle. And we all have different names for that mystery, right? Whether it's God or Yahweh or Allah or ⁓ Nirvana, ⁓ the great spirit, whatever you call it, ⁓ this is all, you know, different pathways to to the same kind of fundamental truth of of of reality. So yeah, it's it's something I I I'm it's it's It's how I how I try to stay grounded and stay rooted. Okay, you're you're rooted in something that is not scriptural at all. Now you may believe that. I I'm not condemning that people believe this, but don't call yourself a Christian. This is deception. This is intentionally trying to people pull people away from God. And you may believe that Buddha and Allah and all of these things are exactly the same. That's fine. We don't believe that here. And you're not going to be real comfortable here if you are passionate about that belief. Okay? But you have every right to believe that. And again, that's great for you because you have nothing to worry about. But if the Bible is right. Then Allah and Buddha and all of those people aren't real. They're deceptions. And if you bet your future on them, it's not going to turn out well. So how dare someone try to use Christianity in their political platform that is actually going to push people away from the cause of Christ. Now, the other guy, his actions are pushing people away from the cause of Christ. But everyone's actions, if we look at them, will push people away from the cause of Christ. That's what people say, ⁓ he's such a hypocrite. Yeah, we're all hypocrites. Okay? Now what he's done is inexcusable. And how we can't find better people to run, I don't know. But that's where we are. You know, I looked through the website of Talo Rico's Church, it's in Austin. ⁓ it is as secular as you can possibly imagine. ⁓ every stereotype, I mean, they, you know, the their social pastor is a is an open ⁓ assistant pastor is an open lesbian, ⁓ and very, very proud of that. I went through the whole ⁓ website. There was not one word or mention on sin, repentance, confession of sin, forgiveness, salvation, or atonement. Not one thing mentioned. This is a spiritual battle. And it's scary. It is scary what we're dealing with. And it is important that we recognize the times that we are in, know that God has called us to engage in them. And right now, your vote is not going to stop any of it. But I start viewing who's going to stand up to these Marxist ideologies. Who's going to stand up to the danger of Islam? We can debate on how, but we should at least acknowledge: hey, there's a problem here. There's not, I promise you, Palo Rico has no problem with Islam. He believes that all past he has specifically said Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worship the same God. He has specifically said that. So do we just throw up our hands and say we're done? Sometimes I vote for that. Build a bunker. Tom, set the perimeter. Right? ⁓ but you know what? God called us to take up our cross, engage the culture, push back where we can, also understand. The consequences of turning away from God are what we are experiencing now. All right? Understand that's where we are. And it's time to quit mourning that and start living where we are and engage and try to start making a difference. And then to remember that a thousand generations falling down in worship, sing the song of ages, to who? To the Lamb. To Jesus Christ. Talerico also says, nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus ever say that we should worship him. Well, you're gonna have fun later. And all who've gone before us and all who will believe will sing the song of ages to the Lamb. This is what we we move forward with. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. Stands above Talo Rico, stands above Paxton, stands above Trump, stands above Republicans, stands above Democrats. Living life in Christ forever, ⁓ impacting his kingdom and loving the Lord. With every breath thy spirit sing to him be glory, praise everything.