Politics

All right, a couple weeks ago, we were led by the Holy Spirit to not have a sermon, and we just kind of followed the leadership of Holy Spirit through the 230 and the 530, we canceled the message, and at the end of both services, I said, we all were delivered of the Lord because I was gonna preach on politics. And today, finally, here we are, get ready, put your seat belts on. We're talking about the 2024 elections. Now it's good.

Everybody's like, oh no, okay. How many of you know that elections and election years get crazy? The heat gets turned up. You know, there's this thing called the October Surprise.

Usually, every time there's an election year, right around October, the end of October, there's a surprise. Some type of revelation about one of the candidates that damns them in terms of their credibility and what they're like, and it's this breaking news moment. And we all know it's gonna happen, right? Some story that's never been heard about one of the candidates, it's gonna show up that week before the elections, and we know that it's gonna get crazy because even in the last month, it's gotten crazy.

We're having an assassination attempt on a former president. We're having our current president drop out of the presidential race. We've got our governor that has now become a vice presidential candidate. I mean, things are getting crazy.

Things are moving, and so we know this is gonna get warmed up or it's gonna get hotter, you know? And so as things ramp up, this message is our moment for us to go before the crazy happens. We've got to actually go, many of us didn't do 2020 very well. Election 2020 did not go the best, all right?

I don't know how you came out of 2020 election time, but you probably didn't do it well. If I'm just from the outside, and I look at your life, you probably didn't do very good. In 2020, it was like, that was a loss, but there's victories coming, right? We bounced back, okay?

So this is our bounced back year as the people of God, all right? And so we don't wanna get swept into sin. We don't wanna get swept into the way the world does politics. We don't wanna be of the world, we wanna be in the world, but not like the Babylonians, you know?

We wanna actually be of a kingdom, and we wanna carry ourselves that way. And so worry and anxiety and anger and slander, get to not be our portion. And we get to be a people that carries ourselves differently. So some of us, you know, we go into, when we talk politics, you go, well, my parents are passionate, but I'm not going there, right?

And you're gonna go to flight, and you're gonna go to freeze. You know, when stress happens, and there's different personalities that go flight or freeze, and then others that go into fight. And some of you go, I'm not even going there. I'm not gonna think about it.

I'm not gonna be aware of what's happening in the news. I don't even know the names of the candidates. I'm completely ignorant and it's bliss. And I wanna cast a vision for you today, just really briefly that that's not healthy.

And it's not actually stewarding what God's given you as a citizen of America, but also a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, okay? So if you're the voting age, I wanna encourage you, you have to take responsibility for what God has handed to you in a democracy. And you're going, what does it matter? My vote doesn't matter, it's just one vote.

No, no, no, it matters. It matters because we are part of a storyline in our, in America's history, where when we vote and we participate, maybe it's not even just voting, it's like participating locally. Maybe it's participating in different local government opportunities that we have. All that to say, what I wanna cast a vision for is when the church exits any of the spheres of society, what happens is deterioration starts to set in and wickedness prevails.

And so as the people of God, we can't just go, I'm gonna resign my responsibility to participate in this sphere of society. No, as the people of God, we have to know that there's real implications on every part of life if we exit this topic. Because in education, our education system is gonna get impacted if the church doesn't participate. We need to understand that it's like a story that I heard where there's a couple that are foster parents.

And one of the teams that was gonna enter into their care from the foster system was wanting to transition from male to female. And they said, before the Lord, we can't actually bring this child to these appointments. And so they couldn't sign on the dotted line that said that they were going to do that. And in that moment, you need to understand that our votes put them in that position or lack thereof.

And that when you look at that scenario, you're going, okay, that's just one child. But then that couple were actually removed from the whole system and couldn't actually care for any foster children. And you start realizing now the orphans of our cities and states are gonna be cared for by couples of the world, not those that love Jesus, that actually express the heart of God, that are gonna love them in spirit and in truth. And so you go, well, what does it matter?

No, it matters. It matters that we actually take responsibility and go, my vote matters and my presence matters in our society and the church has responsibility to be present, okay? So you wanna know the things that our wedding photographers in the wedding industry have to navigate, or high school locker rooms, or the borders of our nation or the presence of our, we want to have a say. We actually want to be a presence because you got the mind of Christ.

Man, what a shame if our world doesn't have all of the people being proactive that actually have the mind of God. Do you know that the world needs you? You got the mind of Christ. You know how big the problems of the world are?

We need God on the brain, getting expressed through people. All right, so you can't, just exit. You can't fight or freeze, or fight or freeze. You gotta fight.

Ah, some of you are going, okay, fight. You want us to fight. Yeah, I want you to fight. I want you to fight to be in the spirit and not operate in the political spirit.

I'm not saying fight against some political party or a political candidate or a political agenda. I'm not saying fight against that. And I don't even know what Donald meant exactly when he said fight, fight, fight. But what I'm saying is not whatever he meant, I'm not saying that.

What I'm saying is we gotta fight to be in the spirit. We've gotta fight to actually have the Holy Spirit in the driver's seat. Not the political spirit in the driver's seat, because God is the God that invented government. He's passionate about government.

He actually understands how it works and he understands how to do it with excellence. His son actually is going to be the king of a government. That's gonna be a global government for eternity. And so he understands how society and culture works and how government really can flourish.

And so when we talk politics, I wanna really simplify what is politics. So I'm talking about preaching about politics. So what are politics? And this is gonna be really simple for you to understand.

No matter where you're at in this journey, if you're like, man, I know a lot. And I watch the news all the time. And I've been really all of, I know everything. Okay, amazing.

I'm probably not gonna say enough for you today. And listen, I've resigned the, I'm okay that I'm not gonna make any of you happy today. I've decided in my heart, I know it's not gonna be enough for some of you and it's gonna be too much for others. And I know I'm okay.

I'm not a man pleaser, I'm a God pleaser. And that's just who I am, okay? So I'm okay if I don't make you happy and I make you mad, that's okay. We're all gonna be okay.

All right, what is politics? Politics is defining what is the government's role to bring justice to society's problems. Politics is basically the study of justice for society's problems and the government's role in that. Okay, so our society has problems.

Government gets to participate in bringing solutions to problems or bring justice to problems. So how does it play out? Immigration has problems. So what is justice for immigration?

What is justice for healthcare? What is justice for marriage? What is justice for gender? What is justice for education and prison reform and policing and for the unborn and for how we interact with the rest of the world and other countries?

What is justice for the poor? What is justice for business law? What is justice for economics? This is what politics is all about, okay?

Aren't you so glad? You should turn your bow. Turn your bow is Psalm 89. I wanna look at this together.

Look at Psalm 89. I'm so glad we serve a God that gets all of this stuff and knows how to navigate it. Let's look at Psalm 89. I want you to look at verse 14.

Politics is about justice. Verse 14, it says this. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

This is how God leads politically and in government, steadfast love and faithfulness go before him. God leads as a governmental leader. He leads with steadfast love and he leads with, I don't quit, I'm just steady. I'm a steady, consistent leader and I lead what you get hit with.

When you get exposed to our governmental leader, when you get hit with a steadfast love first. How many of you when you look at your life on this topic, you're like, that's what people get hit with all the time. I'm just my steadfast love in Jesus. But Jesus has a lot to say because his whole government, my dad was a general contractor and he poured foundations.

So he was the one that would like get in the loader and he'd do the excavation and then he'd bring in all of the concrete guys, they would pour the foundation. And what this passage says is that solid foundation around his kingdom is laced with justice. So who knows what to do with all of these problems in society? The God that has a government that has justice laced at the foundation of it?

Like I think he can speak into every problem that we're navigating as a nation, as a country. So that I think is really funny that a lot of times where we don't even include him in the conversation. I think it's funny that we don't even include him in the process of us figuring out who we're gonna vote for. Isn't that weird?

The authority on the topic of justice in all of these problems that all of the politicians can't even figure it out. House of Representatives, they're all trying to figure it out and they can't figure out the problems. And so they just go back and forth, back and forth. And we still have, do you know how many problems were here 12 years ago that we're still arguing about in these presidential debates?

And neither of the groups have actually brought a solution. Yeah, I want to be a person that goes, man, God must have something up his sleeve and sees the God of justice. All right, okay, let's move on. Can I just say a couple things?

One, Jesus is not Republican or Democrat. It takes the word of God to rightly divide what true justice is. And it's not what feels right to a man. It's not what we feel like.

What's your ultimate truth? We gotta lock in. What is your ultimate truth? Is it what you feel like or what your friend feels like?

Or they've had a really difficult journey. So what is their truth and what's best for them is my truth. You know, it's like the famous things like love is love. Okay, but what is your ultimate truth?

What are you basing that on? Are you basing that on and feelings, emotions, and thoughts, and ideas, and personal processes that you've gone through? Or are you basing it on an ultimate truth? So we have to just lock it down as the church.

This is your ultimate truth. There is no news outlet that is your ultimate truth. There is no social media account that is really unbiased that's your ultimate truth. This is your ultimate truth as the people of God.

And this is going to help you with politics. This is going to be a handbook for how you interact with politics, okay? Now, when we're, do you remember the story where Joshua and Joshua five, they're about ready to take over Jericho. They're about ready to attack it.

You remember the story. And then all of a sudden the angel of the Lord, AKA Jesus, the pre-incarnate Jesus, shows up. And he's a tough dude, okay? And Joshua looks at him and is like, hey, whose side are you on?

Are you on Jericho's side or are you on our side? And the Lord in the flesh in that moment, his answer is perfect. He goes, no. That was like, he was very straightforward.

He just said, no. And we are thinking, as a people, I think this is so funny. We're thinking, God, Jesus, which side are you on? Is it red or blue?

Is it Republican or Democrat? And it's so egotistical, it's crazy. Because we are a country that just started about two, 300 years ago. And then these political parties have formed and shaped over that history.

And we've changed and evolved. And we're like, but Lord, which one are you? And we want to put him in a box. And he is literally the ancient of dates.

We're like, but in this time in history, you know? In America, I mean, we are the greatest country on the planet, right? And we're trying to put him into a box of Republican or Democrat. And he's literally the ancient of days of eternity past and eternity future.

And we're going, could you just fit into this? And we are one of hundreds of countries on the planet. But we think this is the center of the entire universe, is America. And this is the center of all of human history, is what's happening in America politically in 2024.

And the Lord's like, oh, no. They are so prideful. They think they're in the middle of everything. And the Lord's like, no.

And he's so kind, probably, with his no. He's so gentle with his no, but it's strong. And it's a fatherly. It's a fatherly no.

You're not going to put me in a box. And I think we should turn to Mark 8. Some of you are already mad at me, because I just said that. Are we a people that's of the kingdom?

If he's not in the box and not willing to be put in the box, then I wonder if his people, I'm not saying you have to be an independent. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that you have to be. I just, he's not in the box.

I'm going to follow him. Whatever he says goes, whatever he thinks I'm going to align with. And so it doesn't matter how he voted last time. And it doesn't matter what everybody else says.

What matters is what he thinks. Because I'm not my own. I've been bought with a price. My whole life is his.

And every part of my life gets to be surrendered to him. Let's look at Mark 8. I believe there's a warning here for us. Actually, Mark 8.

Yeah, I was in Matthew. You were in the right spot. I wasn't. Mark 8.

This is after Jesus feeds the 4,000. And so Jesus, he's just hopped in the boat with his disciples. They're going to go again to the other side. And the disciples figure out, we literally had so much bread.

And Matthew forgot to bring a basket of bread into the boat. Can't even believe it. We only have one loaf of bread. And so that's what's playing out here in this drama of Mark 8.

So here we go in verse 14. Now they had forgotten to bring bread. And only had one loaf with them in the boat. They're pretty upset about it.

They're hungry. And he cautioned them saying, hey, watch out. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. They began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.

Yeah, yeah, Jesus. We don't have bread. Verse 17. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?

Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? As the disciples, can you imagine just the son of God being like, you're still thinking about bread. Your hearts are hardened.

I mean, eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? Do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?

And they looked at each other and they said, there's 12 baskets. Verse 20. And the seven, four, the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, seven.

And he said to them, do you not yet understand? And if I went to each one of you, and I was like, no, you get it? And you'd all be like, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. I get what he's doing.

I get what he's saying. No, none of us. Like, no, nobody knows. Right?

What's happening in this passage is Jesus is giving his disciples a warning about the leaven, which is represent sin and corruption. The leaven, the first time leaven is brought up is when the nation of Israel is in slavery and they were under fearful control of the slave drivers of Egypt. And he said, I'm going to deliver you from slavery. So I want you to have no leaven in your bread.

And I want you to escape quickly out of slavery. And so Jesus is painting a picture, and he's going, I want you to escape from enslavement, leaven, that the Pharisees and the government leader Herod are operating in. OK, so let me break it down. When he's talking about the seven, he's talking about the 12 numbers in Hebrew language represent things.

There's like alphanumeric meaning to numbers and words and letters in the Hebrew language. So when he says seven, it's actually pointing to the meaning of seven, and seven means holy or temple, like the temple. And that represents the religious leadership of that day. So that's how it relates with the leaven of the Pharisees.

And then the number 12 represents the government. So that number 12 represents government. It's a governmental number. So Jesus, we went like this.

All right, here. OK, we're back. We just took a journey. Some of us got lost on the journey.

We're OK. I'm going to break it down. Jesus is going, I want you to have a warning. And beware of the political spirit and the religious spirit because they're going to bring destruction to you.

And I am the one that will actually bring true leadership that you need that is surplus leadership. OK? We're still going there. OK?

The leaven of Herod is the political spirit. The leaven of the Pharisees is the religious spirit. Both of them use the same thing. Everybody say fear.

And fear is used to control. Fear is used to control governmentally and religiously. And that's what Herod and the Pharisees were constantly doing in a dance. OK?

So what we're talking about is politics. And what Jesus wants us as Americans in 2024, leading up to the election, we have three or four months. And he's going, I want you to beware of fear that is used to control your mindsets and how you operate within the political sphere. That's how government are you ready for the commercials in September and October?

The TV commercial, you know what I'm talking about? There's this fire in the background. This political leader. We'll destroy your children in their future.

And all it is is fear, fear, fear. Why? To manipulate and control so that they can maintain power, so that they can grab power. And the Lord is saying, hey, beware of the control that comes through fear.

And listen, some of us are under this political spirit. And let me look through a couple of reasons, or maybe some symptoms of if you might be under the political spirit. Are you ready? Listen for yourself.

Is this me? You might be operating in a political spirit. Are you ready? Some of you are like, oh, don't go there.

Don't do it. Put on your seat belts, all right. You might be operating under a political spirit. And I'm not saying you need some type of deliverance.

You need a deliverance. I'm just saying under the spirit of this age, in deception, OK? You might be operating in a political spirit. If you're more passionate about politics, then you are the kingdom of heaven.

You might be operating under a political spirit if you read the news more than you read your Bible. Oh, no. You might be under a political spirit if those that have different political beliefs than you feel unsafe to have political conversations with you because of how you handle it. You might be operating in a political spirit if you villainize all people in the other political party, and it's in us versus them.

You might be under the influence of the Levin of Herod if you're crippled in fear when it comes to the results of the election. And you know if November comes and it's not the candidate or the political party that we're believing for, I might just move. I might be out of here. I might just move to a different country.

I've heard that so many times. I'm just going to move. How many times have you heard that? You've heard that?

Like, I'm out of here. OK. You might be operating in a political spirit if you accuse government leaders more than you pray for them. When the spirit of God is in the driver's seat, he leads us to pursue relationships with the other.

The other people, the party, the enemy. When the spirit of God is in the driver's seat, he empowers us to be slow to speak and quick to listen. And then we, all of a sudden, have compassion when we talk to people. The spirit of God, when he's in the driver's seat, leads his people to love others and not control others, to not be afraid, but to actually have perfect love that gives us confidence.

When the spirit of God is in the driver's seat, he leads us to remember and study what the Bible says about true justice. So what I want to do is I want to go through, and I'm just going to breeze through a couple of things that I want us to know. And what I believe the Lord wants us to know for the next three or four months as we're in this election season. So this is, I'm going to listen out.

If you want to take notes, you can. I'm going to try to be as concise as possible. But we're going to go through a couple passages. So we're starting in Romans 13.

I'm not going to turn there, but you should know about Romans 13. Romans 13 is all about the role of government and what the government's job is, biblically. So the first truth that we need to know in 2024, in the fall, is we need to know that we're going to obey our authorities. That's just basic.

So some of us, there's a lot of unknown. There's a lot of different ways to look at political things. And I'm just saying, these are our responsibilities. This is how we carry ourselves.

And I'll just say this right up the gate. Some of you are going to be like, I know all of this. This is very elementary. And we're going to go low, humble ourselves, but I want to walk it out.

I want to be a doer of the word, not just a hero of the word. So we're OK. And I'm going to say things. And you're going to be like, I knew that.

Well, yeah. Good. I'm glad that you know that. You need to hear it again.

It's just like last week when Scott was talking about righteousness. You've got to hear it again. Number one, we know that we are going to obey the authorities. We're going to obey the laws of the land.

Number two, unless they actually go against obedience to the Holy Spirit and we obey the Lord. Right? We obey the Bible. And when there's dissonance there, we obey the Lord before we obey the authorities.

But when it's not breaking any type of obedience, the Lord will obey the authorities that got his place over us. OK? Number two, we know that we're going to pay our taxes. We know that we're not going to pay more taxes than we need to.

Somebody say, amen. All right. Now I'm just kidding. But we know we're going to pay our taxes.

OK? Hire a good CPA. We know that we can't expect our governmental leaders to be our spiritual leaders. You need to hear that.

Listen. We have so much tension right now. Because we look at our governmental candidates, and we're like, but they're not righteous. And it's kind of like, yeah, I know.

These governmental leaders are not the pastors of the body of Christ in America. These governmental leaders are going, their call, as Romans 13 says, that governmental leaders are supposed to bear the sword in order to keep order. What is the spiritual leaders of the church supposed to bear the rod and the staff as shepherds? They have completely different roles.

The government is not supposed to operate in the same way that the church operates. The only one that can do that. The only one that's cracked the code for that is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. He's the only one that can do it without manipulation, with clear leadership that's healthy.

And so governmentally, when we look at this, we can't expect our two presidential candidates to actually exemplify Christ's likeness. Because they're just not spiritual leaders. And we want them so badly. Because we want a king.

We want them so badly to be our spiritual leader and our government leader. And it's not going to work. And then we're like, but if we pray them in, we're going to pray them in the kingdom. Then.

And I'm just like, if we pray them into the kingdom, then they're going to be baby Christians. They're going to be a complete mess. OK? We just got to like acknowledge they are not going to be your spiritual leaders.

And they're always going to disappoint you. Because they're governmental leaders. So we can't put our hope in these political leaders. And so we can't put our hope in the people that are going to get into office.

So when we get to November, and we get the results, regardless of who is in office or who wins, we believe as the people of God that God's going to do his thing. That God is going to advance his kingdom. And I'm not saying that you don't need to vote, and I'm not saying that you don't even need to think about it because God's going to keep on inventing. We have a responsibility.

But I'm saying either way, guess what? When the church was under Nero, when the church was under Constantine, when the church was under Hitler, do you know what she did? She kept on growing. She kept on evolving.

She kept on bringing the kingdom of heaven. Signs and wonders kept on happening. The gospel kept on advancing. People kept on getting born again.

Discipleship kept on happening. And the kingdom of God kept on moving forward. Our hope is not in what the governmental leaders are going to. They're not the one that ride on a donkey into bringing Hosanna's salvation Savior.

They can't be that for us. There already was a Savior. There already was a deliverer. There already was the leader that we all want.

And he revealed himself, and he gets to be our leader now today in our day and age in 2024. So they are not political leaders. They are not our hope. That's number four.

Just write that down. We don't put our hope in political leaders. For A, like right underneath that, you can just write Romans 8, 28. The Lord works for the good of those who love him.

So you know, hey, when November happens and we get the election results, it's gonna be good. No matter what, some of you are like, you're just deceived. No, no, no. So the Bible says, no matter what, it's gonna work for my good.

I don't know about them, but I know that the Lord is gonna work this whole thing out for my good, because I love him. For the church, for the people of God. Okay. Okay, I'm gonna move on.

Do you know how many landmines? There are. Every word that I, who knows? Who knows how many I've already set off?

There's trappin' all everywhere, and I don't even know. Jeremiah 29, seven. Pray for your pastor. Okay.

Jeremiah 29, seven, turn there with me. What do we know? We know that we're gonna obey authorities. We're gonna pay taxes.

We can't expect our government leaders to be spiritual leaders. We know that we can't put our hope in political leaders because our hope isn't Jesus, and he works for the good of those who love him. Jeremiah 29, seven. This is number five, the thing that we need to know.

Heavenly citizens that are American citizens, seek the welfare of the United States of America. No matter how wicked America becomes. Jeremiah 29, seven. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you.

I've sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord on behalf of your city, on behalf of the nation. For in its welfare, in its flourishing, you will find flourishing in welfare. The setting of this, Jeremiah's prophesying, to the people of God that have actually had Jerusalem in their nation ransacked by the Babylonian Empire.

So many of the best and brightest kids of Israel have now been taken as exiles into Babylon. They saw their parents killed, they saw their friends murdered in the takeover that Babylon brought against Israel. And there's a prophetic message for everybody that's in Babylon, and the prophetic message for the people of God that are in exile, in an evil country, under evil leadership, under pagan leadership, under the most vile leadership that you could imagine. And God's saying, seek the flourishing of that city, and that government, and that society.

I want you, because you're there for blessing to come. Some of you work for evil people, like managers, where it's like, all they're gonna do if the business succeeds, is they're just gonna buy more cocaine. That's how they're gonna use all of the profits that they get if I make the sale. And the Lord is calling you to seek the flourishing of your manager's pocketbook.

He's going just because you're a kingdom person, you're going to seek the flourishing of the company, of the city, of the nation that you are placed in, and you are gonna be blessed as you do that. Like, but they're evil. Don't you know Nebuchadnezzar? He's an evil guy.

Brother, he's the road. Cause this feels like, well, that doesn't make sense. But blessing follows the people of God everywhere they go. And we don't come in with judgment.

We come in with steadfast love, faithfulness, and then we always operate in righteousness and justice. Now, I'm not saying be like the Babylonians. I'm not saying walk in compromise like Babylon. I'm saying have the standard of integrity and character as a citizen of a different land, and bring the blessing and the favor and the flourishing from the different kingdom into your kingdom that you live in in 2024 in your city.

So what should our city look like? What should our state look like? What should our country look like? The most flourishing nation in the world.

Because look at all these believers that have the mind of Christ, that take chaotic things and bring solutions to all the problems of the world. How many of you know that if you have God wisdom, is gonna be really good when the problem hits, that you've got solutions of a different land? Oh man, that was some good preaching. I never say that, but that's true.

All right, that's a good word. And not verse six, six thing that you need to know. This is from Matthew 22.39. It's called the Second Commandment.

Some of you probably know what that means. It means that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. So number six is we talk, participate politically with a motive to love our neighbors. Number six, we participate politically with motives to love our neighbors with how we interact.

All of these topics I talked about are multifaceted, and it really doesn't matter on these topics, whether it benefits you. So I think a lot of times when I voted in the past, just like confessing, when I voted in the past, I'm kind of like, well, what's gonna be better for me? Have you ever voted like that? None of you.

I voted like that. It's like, what's gonna be better for my pocketbook? And the Lord's going, no, no, no, you're a kingdom person. So how you vote is not how you're gonna be benefited with taxes or whatever.

How you're gonna vote is you're gonna go, what is best for my neighbor? Because I'm going to love God and I'm gonna obey Him and I'm gonna love my neighbor. Now, I'm not saying what does love look like as defined by your neighbor. I'm not saying we're gonna love our neighbor on their terms and how they best think that they should be loved.

Some of you need to hear what I'm saying, but underneath what I'm saying, you need to hear. Some of us need to understand that we don't love our neighbor based on their terms, but we love our neighbor based on God's terms of what love actually looks like. And we vote accordingly. And we participate politically accordingly.

So it's not I like that more, this makes me feel better, this is gonna be better for me, this is gonna be better for them. Loving your neighbor isn't agreeing with their anti-God deception. Loving your neighbor is believing the truth, participating politically in love. All right, number seven, you guys ready for it?

We're just gonna keep on going. You can turn to First Timothy two on this one. First Timothy two, what do we need to know? Number seven, but we're gonna start First Timothy two one.

First of all, then I urge that supplications and prayers and intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it's pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Number seven, we know we live peaceable and quiet lives. What does peaceable mean?

Shalom. So when there's chaos, we bring order and shalom, wholeness. That's the type of people that I want in our city when the heat starts rising. When the winds start blowing, when the waves start increasing in height, I want people that carry peace in their souls by the spirit that's like rivers of living water.

I want that person in my city. I want people of peace, okay? That's number seven, we know we get to live peaceable and quiet lives. Number eight, you guys ready for it?

We know we're gonna pray for the authorities. We know that the Bible doesn't tell us who to vote for, but the Bible definitely tells us who to pray for. It's not as easy, doesn't come as easy, doesn't seem as fun. It gets more fun to just consume news information.

It's more fun to just kind of be entertained by the fights. It's more fun to let my opinion be known. And the Lord's going, hey, hey, do you love the political leaders because you've been praying for it? What if, what if when your family and your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers thought of you and they thought of you on this topic?

The first thing that came to their mind was, man, all I know is that they really pray for Kamala. All I know is they really pray for Donald. All I know is they really pray for J.T. and Tim.

And they carry a burden of intercession. What if the conversation comes up? It's a political conversation and you're like, yeah, I was just praying for Tim this morning. That's funny that you're bringing him up because I was just praying for him and I was praying for his wife and his kids and his grandkids.

I was praying for them. Guys, what I'm talking about is you are aliens to this world. You are of a completely different land. You are of a different kingdom.

Some of you are getting caught on this and you're like, okay, but so you think we should then vote for him? Just because we pray, no. I'm not saying you have to agree with them. I'm not saying that you have to vote for them.

I'm not saying that you have to agree with their policies. But I am saying that Paul is living in an anti-God government and he actually is writing from prison. And actually his governmental leaders have put him in prison. And he's encouraging his disciple Timothy, hey, you should pray for governmental leaders.

Where is he from? Because this doesn't seem like he's from America than 2024 and he doesn't seem like he's operating as a Christian in an evangelical world in 2024. Because that doesn't seem like what we know as evangelicals in America. That's not what we're known for.

What I want to believe for us as a people is that we not fear the agendas of political parties, but that we have fear in the power and the glory of God that supersedes every other fear and that we're actually humbled under his leadership. And we're going, his perfect love drives out all of my political fear because I'm not gonna be enslaved to the leaven of Herod that keeps me under the control of the spirit of his age that is the political spirit that's trying to control me with fear. And instead, I'm gonna operate in a different spirit that is the Holy Spirit and he leads me into everlasting life and loving. I'm gonna be driven by steadfast love.

I'm going to be faithful and I'm going to have all of my beliefs around politics laced with biblical justice and biblical righteousness. Man, the Lord is good. Then he has so much to say on this. And we're gonna talk less.

We're gonna pray more. We're not gonna slander people. We're not gonna post anything. If it doesn't feel like Jesus would post it.

We're not gonna comment on post. Unless it was like, hey, Lord, what do you think about this comment? See, we can sit in our, behind our computers and on our phones and just kind of like send things out into the airways and not realize we're contributing to a culture that is actually promoting something that Jesus was burdened about when he was praying right before he went to the cross. He was burdened for this.

I want them to be one and we're going, what if I just kind of put out some slander? There was a, well, maybe I'll say this. Some of us are going, okay, no, but like tell me what to do. So it's like, who should I vote for?

And tell me like how to think about it and who to vote for. And what I would encourage you to do is not to submit to what I'm gonna say, but submit to what the Lord says. And I want you to read your Bible, educate yourself on policies. And I want you us to think as the people of God and go, I want to follow his leadership.

I want to vote according to the conviction of what the Bible says. And there's so many topics that are very black and white on God's heart, very black and white. And then there's others that seem gray and there's a lot of different solutions. But what I want us to do is over the next three or four months, I want you to start developing thoughts around policies and around these political leaders that we're gonna have to vote on.

And I want you to actually put in some work so that you can be confident that you're gonna have conviction around how you're going to vote. And if there's anything else that you need to participate in governmentally, okay? And I want us to be prayerful. I want us to look at the Bible and go look at this policy, look at the Bible and see if there's dissonance or see if it matches up.

And so we're gonna vote based on biblical values. And we're also gonna vote based on the leadership. And if they're qualified to be in that leadership role, because how many of you know you can vote in a Christian, but if they're not qualified to be in the leadership role, it could be a train wreck. It's like vote for Christians.

And then it's like the Christians in leadership. And all they did was like something that didn't qualify them to be in the office of leadership that they're in. We don't want that, right? But anyway, I'll have to say, we're gonna read the Bible, we're gonna look, we're gonna educate ourselves, we're gonna understand the policies, we're gonna pray.

And then you're going to hit this moment where you're gonna realize both of these candidates are the worst. They don't fit. They don't line up. And I know that's not maybe true.

But some of you will hit that. And you're gonna go, why does this fit? And do you know what that pushes inside of you? It pushes inside of you this desire to go.

Jesus, look at this, aching in your heart. See this whole political process, you know what it's gonna, the fruit that it's gonna produce in your heart? I want God to reign on the earth. And I want Jesus to come back.

He's gonna put a marinatha in you where you're like, come Lord Jesus, life is not right. Government is not right. Till you split this guy in return. We must have you back and it's to get to put an aching in your heart.

So on the other side of this, you're gonna love him more. On the other side of this, you're gonna have more conviction about what his heart is for justice. There was, as we've been praying for, what's happening in the Middle East, I'm ending with this. As we're, we've been praying for the Middle East, what's been happening in Israel.

We've kind of been special ops intercessors on Wednesday nights for what's been going on. And we're getting information that's really fueling our intercession from the ground. And one of the people that we have been praying about or praying for for the last 10 months is a leader of the terrorist organization Hamas. And we've been praying for Ismail.

And he is the leader of Hamas or was the leader of Hamas. And we've been laboring for his soul in intercession. We've been praying for this authority. We've been praying for this government leader.

And we just got the news a couple of weeks ago, many of you probably saw the news that he was assassinated in Iran. And on social media, there's many Christians around the body of Christ that were celebrating that he was killed. And we were actually surprised and we were reflecting on what hearing the news felt like to the intercessors of this house. And the standard American Christian response to Ismail being killed as the leader of Hamas was good, justice.

He's been an evil man. He's responsible for an incredible amount of human suffering. He was under demonic influence for decades and created torturous terrorist training camps. He was the object of abuse himself and he multiplied that story.

But when I heard about Ismail, the things that were moving in my mind, there was no joy when I heard about Ismail. There was only an ache to go, did he get assassinated because the people around him heard that he surrendered to Jesus? Because our prayers actually were effectual and he started giving his life to Jesus. And that's why there was betrayal that happened.

And that was what was going on. How can I get the inside scoop? I want Ismail to be sitting next to me in the new heavens, in the new earth. I want him next to me.

And I want his wife and his kids and all of them, I want them to be sitting with me. And it's a desperation to go, can I get intel on his soul? And I want us as a people, to be people of prayer. That when we think about our authorities, we go, what I'm mostly known for is that I'm an intercessor.

I'm not primarily known for my political stances, but I am known for the way that I love. And I love and prayer, even when I disagree with them, even when I can't even imagine the suffering that they've created. And I'm going, but I know little Ismail that went through the suffering that he went through. And I know a God of compassion.

And I know a God of great love that has a burning desire for him. And I want to be known for that type of aid and love as a people. I want us to be known for that. We're going to align with justice.

And it's different. There's a difference between his soul being saved and the injustice of government that he's promoting. And I realize that. And we have to sit in the tension as the people of God.

There's godless leaders. And it's not OK how they're leading our governmental systems. And we want justice. But we also want justice for their souls.

We also want eternal justice to happen. Let's all stand. I want us to linger just for a little bit, because I don't want us to leave and not actually have some next steps. Before things get crazy, before the heat gets turned up, I want us to know what our assignment is as individuals.

We all have an assignment on this topic. Some of you are more involved in local government. Some of you maybe are thought leaders and influencers. If you have a presence, even on social media, and you have a responsibility, maybe you're a teacher, maybe people look to you.

And you have some type of influence. And I want us to all understand what is our assignment over the next three or four months. Some of you don't feel like you care about government at all. And you need to be on assignment too over the next three or four months, OK?

So this is what we're going to do. We're going to invite the Holy Spirit to help give clarity for what's my assignment for this election season. OK? So that's kind of the question that we're going to back into.

What's my assignment personally? I'm not talking about my assignment. I'm not talking about Pastor Josh's assignment. I'm talking about each one of you individually.

How are you going to carry yourselves? OK? So we're going to ask Holy Spirit these questions. And what I want us to do is all grab your phone, or all grab a journal or a notepad, whatever you want to take a note on.

Because we're going to steward what the Holy Spirit says to us. OK? So take out your notes app. I'm about 100% confident that you're going to forget everything Holy Spirit says during this ministry time if you don't write it down.

OK? So that's why you have your notes out. And we're going to ask Holy Spirit these questions. Now you're going to ask these questions.

And it's usually the Holy Spirit. It's pretty responsive. And it's oftentimes the first thing that comes into your mind. If the first thing that comes in your mind aligns with the Bible.

OK? So the Bible is our true north and our boundaries. And so we're going to ask Holy Spirit questions. And we're going to believe if you surrender to Jesus, you've got Holy Spirit on the inside of you.

And you're his sheep and you know his voice. So we're going to ask these questions of the Holy Spirit. And then we're just going to go with the first thing that he says to us about these questions. OK?

Are you guys ready for the first question? We're going to ask Holy Spirit this question. After I read it, you can speak it out in your own words under your breath. You're going to direct this to the Lord.

What do you want me to know about the elections? That's the question we're asking Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. What do you want me to know about the elections?

I want you to record it right down. You feel like the Lord says, Holy Spirit, what do you want me to know about the elections? I'm going to say the next one. And I'm going to just read all four so we know what's coming.

The next one. So you can write it down. And then you can sit with it. OK?

So what do you want me to know about the elections? That's number one. Number two, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do?

Next is what do you want me not to do? Or to stop doing? What do you want me to not do or stop doing? And then the next three questions are all about media.

How we interact with media? How we intake media? How we participate in social media, news, YouTube, whatever it is? What do you want me to know about the elections?

What do you want me to do? And what do you want me not to do or stop doing? And then the final question that we're going to ask Holy Spirit is, is there anything else? Anything else I should know?

I'm going to give us time to just go through these questions with Holy Spirit. So in your own timing, we're going to take five or so minutes, five to 10 minutes. And I want you to just go and connect with Holy Spirit. Whatever you need to do, if you need to sit down, you need to stand up.

And we're going to actually take some time and engage with Holy Spirit and ask these questions and write down on his responses. Ready, set, go. You just jump in with Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord.