Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Phil McKay: Every U.S. State Needs The Influence Of True Believers

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Phil McKay: Every U.S. State Needs The Influence Of True Believers · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

• 0:03
  Welcome to Worldview Matters.
• 0:05
  Discussing controversial issues.
• 0:07
  Discerning current events.
• 0:10
  Defending biblical Christianity.
• 0:13
  No topic.
• 0:14
  Off limits.
• 0:16
  And now, here's your host, David Fiorazzo.
• 0:20
  Friends, family in Christ, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode.
• 0:23
  I'm going to introduce to you a new guest, and I love this man of God.
• 0:27
  I connected with him via Brianna Clausen at Harbinger's Daily.
• 0:32
  He is on their trusted ministries list.
• 0:35
  He's a great pastor out of the—well, I was going to say great state of Nevada, but I don't know that I want to put that in there.
• 0:41
  But I just love getting to know new people, new pastors.
• 0:46
  Phil McKay is the lead pastor of Calvary Chapel, Reno, Sparks in Nevada.
• 0:53
  And I think it's our only guest that we have from Nevada, I think, if I remember right.
• 0:57
  But, brother, thank you so much for your time today.
• 0:59
  We're looking forward to getting to know you a little bit.
• 1:01
  Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02
  Thank you so much, David, for having me on.
• 1:04
  And yeah, I don't know if I'd call it the great state of Nevada either, but it's a state and it's in a state of need, a state of need from the Lord's help.
• 1:14
  So yeah, but I appreciate you having me on.
• 1:17
  It's a great opportunity.
• 1:18
  I listen to your show all the time.
• 1:20
  Very grateful for it.
• 1:21
  It always encourages me to see the guests that you have on, and especially when I get to see other pastors that are also running with the torch and doing the right thing.
• 1:30
  So it's a very encouraging show.
• 1:32
  Thank you.
• 1:33
  I appreciate that, brother.
• 1:34
  Praise God.
• 1:35
  Isn't it interesting that I think, yeah, every state in the country at some point, you know, we all need God.
• 1:40
  Some are doing better than others when it comes to the biblical worldview, and maybe churches, there is a remnant.
• 1:46
  But my goodness, with the decline of the biblical worldview, we're in a lot of trouble in America if we don't have an awakening, a revival, a repentance.
• 1:53
  We can talk a little bit about that, but I want to ask you about your church, first of all.
• 1:58
  We'll get back to that, but...
• 1:59
  So Reno and Sparks, are they two different cities?
• 2:04
  I know Reno is a city.
• 2:05
  Yeah, they're two different cities that are basically merged together.
• 2:08
  And, you know, for all practical purposes, it's one city kind of just merged together into about 500 to 600,000 people that are a part of the Washoe Valley.
• 2:21
  And so our church kind of sits right on the border of Reno and Sparks.
• 2:25
  So that's why the church name is Calvary Chapel Reno Sparks.
• 2:28
  I actually live in Sparks, but a lot of our members live in Reno and Sparks.
• 2:33
  So that's where that comes from.
• 2:35
  Okay, and I do want to mention people can find Phil's information and his sermons.
• 2:40
  If you go to harbingersdaily.com, he's got a page there you click on.
• 2:45
  We all come up in the left-hand column there.
• 2:47
  We're blessed to be among the trusted ministries, and your sermons come up, and that's No Other Foundation with Pastor Phil McKay.
• 2:56
  So how far are you from Las Vegas then?
• 3:00
  We're about eight hours to the north of Las Vegas.
• 3:02
  So a lot of people don't realize, yeah, that Nevada has basically got two major population centers, one being Las Vegas.
• 3:10
  That one heavily outweighs Reno, Nevada.
• 3:13
  There's over a million and a half people there in the Las Vegas area.
• 3:18
  And unfortunately, they vote Democrat.
• 3:20
  And, you know, they kind of tip us towards the liberal progressive side of things.
• 3:24
  But up here in Reno, you know, about five, five hundred, six hundred thousand people.
• 3:30
  And there is a strong conservative presence.
• 3:33
  But we are seeing, you know, there's always a battle going on, you know.
• 3:38
  So on your website, it's calvaryreno.org, calvaryreno.org, the church website.
• 3:45
  I just looked under ministries, and I just kind of get a feel for people before they come on the show, and my eyes immediately went down to community impact.
• 3:53
  So, yes, I click because a lot of churches, you know, we've lost the concepts of being salt and light getting outside of church walls Monday through Saturday.
• 4:03
  And there's a Web site about community impact.
• 4:06
  And I know that's for people primarily in Nevada or your area.
• 4:10
  I mean, a lot of churches don't have this connection or this mindset that we need to impact our community and our culture, hopefully our state.
• 4:17
  Tell us about that briefly.
• 4:20
  Yes.
• 4:20
  So, and yeah, this is great that you're bringing this up.
• 4:24
  I actually just taught a little bit about this on my previous Sunday sermon.
• 4:28
  I was addressing the new apostolic reformation and the difference between their dominionism and kingdom now theology and our dominionism.
• 4:37
  really our calling to be the salt and light in our community.
• 4:41
  And the community impact team at our church was born out of that desire to fulfill that biblical calling that Jesus has given to the church to be the salt and the light that permeates and preserves and shines light in the darkness in the communities where God has placed us to be.
• 4:58
  And so the community impact team at our church
• 5:07
  years ago, about five years ago now, after all of the COVID restrictions were going on and it was out of control, I met with a group of people in our church that were just concerned about the government overreach.
• 5:23
  And so I got them together and I said, let's start a ministry, guys, that will help inform the body of Christ here
• 5:30
  and educate the body of Christ to get out and to vote our values and to do our research on political candidates on the down ballot in our community.
• 5:39
  You know, there's that saying that all politics is local.
• 5:43
  And it's very true, you know, when a church gets involved in their local elections,
• 5:48
  and gets to know the candidates and starts to ask them questions.
• 5:51
  Hey, what do you believe about God?
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  What do you believe about the sacredness of life?
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  What do you believe about family, marriage, all of these biblical issues, these moral issues of our day?
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  It's amazing the information you can get back.
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  And now once we started that group, David, it was amazing just to see how many people in our church were gung ho about
• 6:12
  getting involved, and it was as if we had woken up just a whole group of people in our church that recognized there was a need to have a ministry like this in our church.
• 6:25
  So it was really encouraging to see that happen.
• 6:27
  So I'm looking at Nevada, and it seems to me when I see election results, didn't Nevada used to be a red state?
• 6:38
  Is it still kind of red, or is it split?
• 6:40
  What's the demographic like?
• 6:43
  Yeah, so it used to be a red state, and then it became a blue state, and it's been a blue state for a while.
• 6:51
  But with President Donald Trump, that was the first time the presidential elections has been for a Republican in quite a while here for the state of Nevada.
• 7:03
  So there is a good strong coalition forming here in Northern Nevada especially, but also in Las Vegas.
• 7:11
  But we've really seen believers stepping up.
• 7:15
  And that's actually one of the things that's so awesome about our Community Impact Team, what they've done.
• 7:20
  They've actually started a grassroots movement here in Northern Nevada, in which they were able to coordinate with a whole bunch of other groups outside of our church that also have conservative values.
• 7:34
  and Christian values, and they were able to kind of get this coalition together.
• 7:39
  It's now called the Northern Nevada United, and it's a whole bunch of groups, and they come and they meet here at our church every other week and strategize just about how to affect elections for good here in our county and in our state.
• 7:58
  That's awesome, brother.
• 7:59
  I really appreciate you and your vision there and getting the church and community involved.
• 8:04
  I want to get back to your story, your testimony, and your background in a minute, but you brought up something I got to tackle first.
• 8:11
  And because we've had Holly Pivick and other people on talking about the NAR.
• 8:15
  And so you recently talked about this, exposing prophets to...
• 8:19
  Not sent by God.
• 8:20
  And I think, Phil, we've got to put prophets in air quotes when you talk about NAR.
• 8:25
  Can you please give us a few bullet points and why it was important enough for you to address on a Sunday morning?
• 8:31
  Yeah, so we're studying through the book of 2 Chronicles right now, and we go chapter by chapter, verse by verse.
• 8:38
  And we came to chapter 18, which is the chapter where you've got King Jehoshaphat and King Ahab, and they're kind of colluding together.
• 8:49
  And Jehoshaphat is kind of making an alliance with King Ahab and promises to go to battle with him.
• 8:54
  And before they go, they decide they'd like to hear from the Lord.
• 8:58
  You know, is there any word that God would want to shed on this?
• 9:00
  And so they get the prophets together.
• 9:02
  Of course, Ahab, he's got 400 paid prophets on his payroll.
• 9:06
  That's how big of an eagle he has.
• 9:08
  You know, he has to pay 400 yes men to come in and kind of, you know,
• 9:12
  prop him up.
• 9:13
  But, you know, as Jehoshaphat's listening to that, he kind of gets suspicious and goes, hey, is there anybody that's not on your payroll, Ahab?
• 9:21
  You know, is there any just prophet of the Lord that we can hear from that would speak the word of God to us?
• 9:26
  And of course, Ahab goes, well, I've got this one guy, you know, and of course, I hate him because he never says anything good about me, which, you know, you'd think Ahab would get a clue that, you know,
• 9:36
  Maybe he's not on the right side of God's, you know, maybe he's not on God's side if he's constantly hearing negative from God's man.
• 9:43
  But with that being said, that study just prompted me to realize that, you know, how are we discerning God?
• 9:51
  whether or not a prophet is sent by God or not, you know?
• 9:54
  And the Lord just used that study to lead me to have a heart and a desire to teach our church body, our church congregation, just to prepare them, just to heighten their level of discernment.
• 10:07
  Because the New Apostolic Reformation, obviously we have Bethel Church just a couple of hours away from us here in Reno, Nevada.
• 10:13
  Yeah.
• 10:14
  And their influence is strong in Reno.
• 10:18
  And we're seeing a lot of that influence in churches around us.
• 10:22
  And it's always tricky when you're trying to get involved in your community for the greater good.
• 10:28
  It's always tricky when you're trying to partner with different churches.
• 10:32
  A lot of those churches will partner with us, but we have to be careful that we don't adhere to the same doctrine that they're following.
• 10:40
  And so that was really my heart behind that message was to, you know, just to edify and equip our church to be able to heighten their level of discernment with the NAR.
• 10:50
  So, Phil, talk to us a little bit more about that, what you just said about partnering.
• 10:57
  I had this conversation, I don't remember which guest it was, but when a guest or when a speaker or a pastor is invited to go somewhere to an event and speak, sometimes not every single speaker aligns with the biblical worldview, but yet sometimes it's not an issue that you would break fellowship over.
• 11:20
  is the new apostolic reformation is that one of those issues and i'm the first thing i think of turning point and some of the wonderful work they're doing with the youth but i also think about some of their connections and who they might be locking arms with and locking arms might not be the right wording but what are your thoughts on that as far as a pastor or church and just trying to do god's work but there are different views on things yeah
• 11:45
  Yeah, that's a tough one, David, because the NAR doctrine can be very nuanced.
• 11:52
  For example, they'll use a lot of terminology that I've used in the past, but they mean something totally different.
• 11:59
  So you have to kind of just start to educate yourself on what those terms are, what they mean, and how the Bible means them, or how a biblically thinking Christian would use those terms.
• 12:10
  I would say that, you know, you've got to pray, you've got to be led by the Holy Spirit in that sometimes you've got to be careful that you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, right?
• 12:19
  And just become so hypercritical that you don't get involved in anything.
• 12:25
  But, you know, I would say a definite line I would draw is, you know, if it's a church that doesn't share the,
• 12:32
  the primary doctrines of Orthodox Christianity, then I would not partner with them.
• 12:38
  But if we differ on say secondary doctrines, such as some of the gifts of the spirit, or maybe some other things like that,
• 12:49
  And that's where I would say, well, you know what, we can agree to disagree on these secondary things.
• 12:54
  As long as you've got the primary things in place, I can work with you.
• 12:58
  And maybe God will use, you know, that as a witness for good.
• 13:03
  Yeah, some of my pastor friends and people I interview say, you know, I'm going to preach the gospel, I'm going to talk about the whole counsel of God and stand on the biblical worldview, and hopefully maybe we'll have conversations with others in the green room, or maybe we'll have some more of those conversations.
• 13:18
  So let's—I know it's going by quick.
• 13:20
  Let's get back to your background, and how did you end up pastoring a church in Nevada?
• 13:25
  Are you from Nevada?
• 13:27
  Tell us about your testimony, how you came to the Lord, and then how you end up being a pastor.
• 13:31
  Yeah.
• 13:32
  Yeah, well, thank you for the opportunity to share my testimony.
• 13:35
  It's always great to share about what God has done.
• 13:38
  I'm so thankful for the grace of Jesus Christ.
• 13:40
  Without that, I wouldn't be where I am.
• 13:42
  And so all glory to Him.
• 13:44
  But yeah, I was born in Las Vegas, Sin City, and raised in northern Nevada.
• 13:50
  So I grew up around here, actually graduated from high school, not too far from Reno here, just outside of Reno.
• 13:57
  And then so going back, though, to when I got saved, I was saved in a small church in Urington, Nevada at the age of four years old.
• 14:06
  I remember the sermon.
• 14:08
  I remember the pastor.
• 14:09
  He gave an altar call and he said, anybody that wants to receive Jesus Christ, come down to the front.
• 14:16
  I remember I just walked out of the aisle and went right down.
• 14:19
  I walked out of the pew, went right down to the front.
• 14:21
  I looked back at my parents, and I just walked up to the front.
• 14:23
  And I was the only one that responded.
• 14:26
  The pastor got down on his knees with me in the front of the church, and I prayed to receive Jesus.
• 14:31
  And after that, got baptized in the same church.
• 14:35
  And then when I was nine years old, David, God actually gave me a vision.
• 14:40
  And it's the only vision I could say that I've clearly received from the Lord like this, where the Lord gave me a word that I saw in my mind.
• 14:52
  I felt the word written across my belly, and it was on fire.
• 14:58
  The letters were on fire, and I saw the flames in my mind and read the word across my belly.
• 15:03
  It was the word preacher.
• 15:04
  Yeah.
• 15:05
  And yeah, that was when I was nine years old.
• 15:08
  It was actually at a home fellowship where we were singing hymns about Jesus.
• 15:13
  And the words of the hymns were touching my heart.
• 15:17
  And I was crying.
• 15:19
  And so I kept getting up and going to the bathroom.
• 15:21
  My mom got suspicious that I was trying to get out of the Bible study, you know, or the...
• 15:25
  get out of the worship.
• 15:27
  So she followed me into the bathroom.
• 15:28
  She said, what are you doing?
• 15:29
  And I said, mom, I don't know why I can't stop crying.
• 15:33
  These words from these hymns are just touching me.
• 15:35
  And she said, I think the Lord might be trying to speak to you.
• 15:37
  And so we actually, she actually got, she said, I think you need to get down on your knees and pray.
• 15:43
  So I got down on my knees at the bathroom.
• 15:45
  Looked over at the toilet and I thought, this is really weird, you know.
• 15:48
  But as soon as I closed my eyes and sought the Lord, it was immediate.
• 15:54
  The vision was immediate.
• 15:55
  I saw the word preacher.
• 15:56
  It felt it across my belly.
• 15:58
  And I knew that was God calling me.
• 15:59
  I shared that with my mom.
• 16:00
  And she just kind of she just said, I think that's what the Lord's calling you to do with your life.
• 16:05
  So that's how it all got started for me.
• 16:07
  That's amazing.
• 16:09
  Yeah, and you'd think I would have just gone to seminary and become a pastor through that means, but that wasn't the road that God had for me.
• 16:18
  I actually ended up joining the Marine Corps, which took me to Southern California, where I was introduced for the very first time to a Calvary Chapel ministry there, Calvary Chapel Vista in Southern California, right near the Marine Corps base there.
• 16:32
  And I started studying the Bible for the first time in my life.
• 16:37
  You know, it's sad to say I went to church my whole life, but we were never really taught the Word of God in a chapter by chapter, verse by verse manner until I went to this Calvary Chapel.
• 16:46
  And the Word of God just started coming alive to me.
• 16:49
  And it was there where I really got serious about my walk with the Lord.
• 16:55
  I started reading the Bible on a daily basis and started being a witness in the Marine Corps there where I was at, you know.
• 17:03
  And then from there, I was at church all the time.
• 17:05
  And so when I was—
• 17:07
  Getting out of the Marine Corps, the pastor had a position that opened up on staff, and he offered that to me.
• 17:13
  And so I went ahead and prayed about it, felt like the Lord was leading me to take that position, and that's kind of how it all got started.
• 17:20
  Wow.
• 17:21
  So was that position in Southern California?
• 17:24
  Yes, it was at the church I was attending, Calvary Chapel Vista.
• 17:28
  And so they had a position as an assistant youth worker there.
• 17:33
  And so that was kind of how I got started.
• 17:35
  But they had me doing multiple things.
• 17:37
  I mean, for the first three weeks, all I did was paint the outside of the building, you know.
• 17:42
  So they were just teaching me about how a minister is just a servant.
• 17:48
  And they were teaching me about being a servant, you know, and serving in any way I could, including painting the outside of the building.
• 17:54
  And so that's kind of how I got started.
• 17:57
  And there was a lot of discipleship that took place over the next four or five years there at that church.
• 18:03
  And I went from the high school ministry to kind of leading the college and career ministry.
• 18:10
  And our church was taking mission trips to Costa Rica.
• 18:14
  And it was on one of those mission trips to Costa Rica where God called my wife and I to Costa Rica.
• 18:22
  And the Lord just said simply, you know, Costa Rica, go.
• 18:27
  And we were already praying about where the Lord wanted to send us.
• 18:31
  But that was the moment that God just just confirmed.
• 18:34
  So we I thought to myself, well, this is ironic.
• 18:37
  You know, God has a sense of humor.
• 18:39
  Here I am.
• 18:39
  I'm the whitest guy you can imagine.
• 18:42
  My hair has no pigmentation at all.
• 18:44
  I don't speak Spanish.
• 18:46
  Why would God call me to a Latin American country?
• 18:48
  But, you know, God's ways are not our ways.
• 18:51
  His thoughts are not our ways.
• 18:52
  our thoughts and the way he does things.
• 18:54
  He has a plan and a purpose for us that's way better than our own.
• 18:57
  And it was so.
• 18:59
  So my wife and I ended up we were on the mission field for about nine years there in Costa Rica.
• 19:04
  We were able by the grace of God to start a small Calvary Chapel down there.
• 19:08
  It's still there.
• 19:09
  Calvary Chapel Villarreal.
• 19:11
  near Tamarindo, Costa Rica.
• 19:13
  And yeah, the pastor was one of our elders, and he kind of was discipled with us.
• 19:20
  And when we left, he took over the church.
• 19:24
  The Lord had put it on his heart to take over the church.
• 19:27
  And so he's still pastoring that church to this day.
• 19:30
  We go down there on mission trips and visit him.
• 19:33
  And yeah, we help out with a pastor's conference in Central America.
• 19:37
  So it's just a huge, it's a huge blessing.
• 19:39
  But yeah,
• 19:40
  From there, came back to the United States and was in Texas for five years at a Calvary Chapel there.
• 19:46
  And then at a pastor's conference, the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel, Reno Sparks, his name is Tom Lutweiler.
• 19:54
  He had been pastoring the church here for 28 years faithfully, but felt like...
• 20:00
  He had no more vision for the church and was praying about who to turn it over to.
• 20:05
  And we had a relationship because my parents went to this church and their church, Calvary Chapel Reno Sparks, had sent down several missions teams to Costa Rica.
• 20:15
  They were influential in helping us buy our property there and build a church.
• 20:19
  And so it was just a God thing.
• 20:21
  But he asked me to pray about it.
• 20:23
  He said, hey, I want you to pray about coming to Calvary Chapel, Reno Sparks and taking over for me because I'm going to be retiring soon.
• 20:30
  And I actually laughed at that moment.
• 20:33
  And I said, well, Pastor Tom, we're right where we think God wants us to be.
• 20:38
  And he said, well, will you at least pray about it?
• 20:41
  And I said, OK, Pastor Tom, I'll pray about it.
• 20:44
  And, you know, that's the magic word right there.
• 20:47
  I mean, when you pray and you seek the Lord, if the Lord's will is in it, He's going to show you.
• 20:53
  And, of course, that's exactly what happened.
• 20:54
  That's how we ended up here.
• 20:56
  Wow.
• 20:56
  So, brother, you do not look old enough to have done everything that you've done and spent years, you know, in Southern California and then going down to Costa Rica, then in Texas.
• 21:07
  Oh, my goodness.
• 21:08
  I appreciate that.
• 21:10
  Yeah, but what a great— You're my new best friend.
• 21:13
  All right.
• 21:13
  That sounds good.
• 21:14
  Well, um, what a great background and story and testimony and one follow-up question real quick.
• 21:20
  And I want to talk to you about the salt and light concept and, uh, pastors unnecessarily self-censoring from the pulpit when it comes to political issues.
• 21:30
  And we're going to talk about the Johnson amendment in a minute.
• 21:34
  Um, you suggested that and I've got some background with that.
• 21:37
  Um, but the, the, the pastor, uh,
• 21:39
  that when you came forward and you were four years old, I'm sure you had a follow-up conversation with him or a relationship with him.
• 21:47
  Did he...
• 21:49
  just watch your growth or did how did that look yes yeah um yeah so that's an interesting that's really uh interesting that you brought that up because the pastor who baptized me is actually now on staff at a church here in reno and uh i've been able to connect with him and it's really neat to see i didn't have a a close relationship with him just because we moved away from that town um and went to some other places but coming back to reno
• 22:18
  And getting to connect with him was really special for me, yeah.
• 22:23
  That's neat.
• 22:24
  Okay, well, we're down to five minutes already, Phil, and we wanted to talk about how pastors need to, as Ephesians 4 talks about, equip the saints for ministry.
• 22:35
  And that means, I think, was it in this conversation?
• 22:39
  I'm sorry, I do a lot of different podcasts, but we talked about politics and the affairs of the city and being faithful.
• 22:45
  you know, influential outside of church walls.
• 22:47
  Can you talk about why you brought that up?
• 22:48
  Because I wrote an article on this about, was it 11 years ago?
• 22:52
  And Jeff, I don't know if you can bring that up, but the Johnson Amendment and the agenda to silence Christians.
• 22:58
  Now, this was in the 1950s.
• 23:01
  And I'll just turn it over to you.
• 23:03
  We can talk a little bit about, you know, my thoughts, but I want to hear what's on your heart.
• 23:07
  where this is involved.
• 23:08
  David, I read through your article, too, and thought it was really insightful.
• 23:12
  You did a great job on that.
• 23:13
  Recommend that to anybody to read that article that you wrote.
• 23:17
  But yes, for me, this all got started you know, with with all the stuff that went on during COVID and just the government overreach that we saw and that the absurdity of some of the things that we're getting, you know, that were being pushed on us during that time.
• 23:34
  And I'll never forget, Charlie Kirk actually came to our church, and I got to meet him and sit down and talk to him.
• 23:39
  But he talked to me and to our church about the fact that, obviously, the number one mission of the church is to preach Christ and Him crucified.
• 23:49
  But if we also don't take care of being the salt and light in our community, then that freedom to preach the gospel that we have in America could be taken away from us.
• 24:00
  And so we need to take care of that by being salt and light and permeating our community.
• 24:05
  And so our church produced a voter guide.
• 24:08
  Yeah.
• 24:10
  for which we were lambasted by a, you know, a liberal publication, publication here in Reno, Nevada.
• 24:18
  And, and, and in that it kind of stirred up some feelings within people within the community.
• 24:24
  And we were kind of denounced as a church that had broken the, the Johnson or that violated the Johnson amendment.
• 24:30
  And so that was my journey of getting started and doing some research on the Johnson amendment.
• 24:35
  And, um,
• 24:36
  Of course, it was back in 1953 or 1954 that the Johnson Amendment was enacted.
• 24:41
  It wasn't until 2007 that the IRS provided clarity on it.
• 24:46
  And then it was in 2017 that President Trump passed an executive order that basically
• 24:54
  told the Treasury Department to exercise maximum discretion when they in enforcing the Johnson Amendment.
• 25:00
  And then in 2025, I don't know if you saw that, but the IRS announced a new interpretation of it, which was then challenged by a court that rejected the IRS position.
• 25:11
  And so it's been a rollercoaster ride with this and knowing, hey, what can we do?
• 25:16
  But the bottom line is,
• 25:18
  The law remains in place, the Johnson Amendment, as part of the tax code for 501c3s.
• 25:24
  And basically, it doesn't change the fact, though, for pastors that we're still called to preach biblical truth.
• 25:33
  And, you know, we can speak about the moral issues of our day.
• 25:38
  and the biblical issues of our day.
• 25:40
  And even when they involve candidates, we can call that out, we can talk about that.
• 25:47
  And I think it's just a matter of time until this whole thing appears in court and finally gets addressed by the constitutionality of it.
• 26:01
  And I'm waiting for that day.
• 26:03
  Well, thank you, Phil.
• 26:04
  We could do a whole other podcast on this topic because I wrote on this.
• 26:10
  It was in my book, The Cost of Our Silence.
• 26:13
  And I think too many people in America grew up believing that it's illegal for their pastor to talk about politics when political issues are moral issues, friends, biblical worldviews.
• 26:27
  God, creation, gender, marriage, socialism, capital, all these different things.
• 26:34
  Anyway, I know I'm preaching to the choir, Phil, but I'll end by quoting Charles Finney, who said, "...God will bless or curse America depending on the course Christians take in politics.
• 26:44
  They must vote for honest men and take consistent ground."
• 26:49
  Well, how do you know they're honest men?
• 26:50
  How do you know what they stand for?
• 26:51
  You've got to do the research, and you've got to get other believers involved.
• 26:56
  Phil, just close us in 30 seconds and just share whatever's on your heart.
• 27:02
  Yeah, just encourage any pastors listening, you know, I hear all the time, you know, in different podcasts I'm listening to that pastors are not doing what they're supposed to do.
• 27:12
  But I'm always encouraged by this show, David, because you bring a lot of guys on that are doing what they're supposed to be doing.
• 27:18
  And pastors, your people, there are people in your congregations that want to join this fight.
• 27:23
  They want to get involved.
• 27:25
  And if you just find them and let them form a ministry within your church, you'll be amazed at how amazing of a job they'll do of just taking that fight into the community and being the salt and light.
• 27:38
  Praise God, Brother Phil McKay, pastor of Calvary Chapel, Reno, Sparks.
• 27:42
  We will do this again, Lord willing.
• 27:44
  It's great to have you on, and thanks for your time.
• 27:47
  Thank you, David.
• 27:49
  Friends, God bless you.
• 27:50
  Share this one.
• 27:51
  And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.