WEBVTT 00:00:13.295 --> 00:00:39.935 Good morning. I wanna start by saying thank you to the elders and to you as a congregation for the weeks off from preaching that you gave me. Very helpful and refreshing to me, and I'm very thankful for that. And I want to say thank you to Jason and to Mike and to David Abouzzara, who's not here, but thank him anyway, for, filling in for us. Didn't they do great? 00:00:39.935 --> 00:01:05.220 Weren't we well fed by those men? Man. I and I was just it was wonderful to be able to come with you, and to sit among you, and to be fed with you from these from their hands. It was just wonderful. One of the things that I did with my time off is I paid a lot more attention than I normally do to what's going on in the world, to, in politics and culture and what people are saying on Twitter, stuff like that. 00:01:05.665 --> 00:01:44.190 And, what an interesting time to be alive. There is a lot going on around us as in our nation, culturally, politically, theologically. There's just a lot that is forced upon our minds as believers today that we have to grapple with. And, it's hard to know who to listen to and who to trust as we seek to grapple with these things, isn't it? And so I want to put a plug in for our men's discipleship program called David's Mighty Men, which meets on Saturday mornings at 8 AM for about a little over an hour here in the building. 00:01:45.050 --> 00:02:29.315 I went a couple of Saturdays ago and was so encouraged by what I heard and experienced. The the teaching was good, the discussions were good, the room for questioning and grappling with these things. This is the hub in our church of where these discussions are being had, where we try to calibrate together as a body about what is going on, what to make of it in light of God's Word. And so even if you've been through that program before, Minh, I would encourage you to reallocate in about an hour of your week, and that you spend in listening and reading and watching, to coming in to this program and joining with us in this discussion. It's very helpful, and you'll be strengthened by it. 00:02:29.315 --> 00:02:52.610 And bring friends, if even if they're not part of this church. There's a lot of good things happening at that time. Well, normally, we preach through books of the Bible, and we've been going through the gospel of John, this this year. We'll be in the gospel of John for a couple of years. Sometimes we take a step aside in order to address certain topics, and that's what we're going to do today. 00:02:53.175 --> 00:03:21.080 God's word, has a lot to say to all of life, and it has a lot to say to political life and to circumstances like what we are in right now. It has a lot to say, and far more than we can cover in 1 sermon. But I wanted to say something this morning that would focus all of our hearts and minds together, on God that comes from his word. So we've we've chosen for our text this morning First Timothy, chapter 2, verses 1 to 8. You'll turn with me there. 00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:53.145 We're gonna read this together. First Timothy 2 1 through 8. This is God's Word, and it is eternally true. The Apostle Paul writes, first of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings, and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good. 00:03:53.625 --> 00:04:20.340 And it is pleasing in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm telling the truth. I'm not lying. 00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:53.345 A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. This is the word of the Lord. Well, I have 4 points that I want to try to draw out of this passage for our prophet this morning. They've been helpful to me in making sense of all of the things I've taken in, and helping me think according to God's Word. 00:04:53.645 --> 00:05:12.210 And I hope it'll be helpful to you. These four points are that the government is under God's control. The government of this world is under God's control. Let me see what's point 2. That we are to pray for all who are in authority over us, whether they be good or bad. 00:05:12.990 --> 00:05:33.770 And thirdly, that the reason why we should pray is that government is actually very important. How we're governed matters a lot, affects our lives a great deal, the lives of our neighbors. And yet, fourthly, even still, politics, government is not where we put our hope. Those are the four points. Government is under God's control. 00:05:33.770 --> 00:06:00.655 That is a principle that undergirds this passage. For Paul to say we should pray for anybody or pray for our rulers in particular, that makes no sense unless God is in control. That has implications for us. It's implicit here, but it's affirmed many places in scripture. In Romans chapter 13, Paul says, There is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 00:06:02.010 --> 00:06:24.235 Daniel, chapter 2 21 says, He removes kings and sets up kings. He does. And Proverbs 21:1 says, The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wishes. So these these statements are no less true in a democracy than they are in any other governmental system. 00:06:24.235 --> 00:06:42.490 We have not wrested control, sovereign authority from the Lord just because we go to the ballot box and express our will as a people. God is in control. Jesus Christ is Lord of all things. He is Lord of the vote on Tuesday. Nobody knows what Tuesday is going to bring. 00:06:42.490 --> 00:06:57.765 Isn't that interesting? Nobody knows, nor what's gonna come after. Are you feeling anxious about it? Why do we feel anxious about it? We know that God is in control. 00:06:58.385 --> 00:07:12.080 But it is difficult to trust God with these things, particularly at this moment. I find it difficult. And I've been thinking a lot about why it's difficult. I think there's a lot of reasons. I've been talking to a lot of you about why we find it difficult. 00:07:12.220 --> 00:08:03.650 And I think one of the reasons here at this moment it's hard to trust God with his sovereign control over this election and overall things is that either way it goes, it's hard to read it as anything other than a judgment from God. I am not trying to imply in any way that the two options before us are morally equivalent. They aren't. By most measures of Christian judgment, the MAGA movement that's what I call the Republican Party anymore the MAGA movement in its current expression at least, is better and more hospitable to Christian faith and witness than its duplicitous, oppressive, totalitarian, bloodthirsty, smiling alternative. Okay? 00:08:04.590 --> 00:08:47.565 I don't make any apologies about saying that. But it is really hard for a Christian to get fully, wholeheartedly behind the MAGA people. It's its own kind of volatile whirlwind, as all reactionary movements are. And it's championed and led by materialistic, irreligious pragmatists, serial womanizers and vulgar people. One of the things I've been really astonished by is the normalization of vulgarity in the course of just the last couple of years. 00:08:48.185 --> 00:09:17.825 Amazing. So there you have it. That's sort of how I feel. I think there's one that's better than the other, and it's really hard to get behind the one. Can God use a vulgar, profane champion to bless and defend and deliver his people from oppression? 00:09:18.420 --> 00:09:54.630 He's done it many times before. I've been thinking a lot about Cyrus, King Cyrus, a profane man that God used to bless his people and to give them freedom and to reestablish them in their homeland. But MAGA is not something that we can give our unqualified support to. So full disclosure, I voted, early voted, for Donald Trump. And if he wins on Tuesday, or whenever somebody has declared the victor, I will breathe a sigh of relief. 00:09:54.930 --> 00:10:16.860 But it will be a highly qualified sigh of relief, as I know it will be for many of you. It can't truly be a happy day for us because it says in God's word that happy are the people whose God is the Lord. That's what happiness where it springs from. That's where it comes from. That's its source. 00:10:17.800 --> 00:10:45.440 And we are very far from that reality. That's one of the things that this election just makes unavoidable. Have you noticed the absence of religion in the in the political talk and political discourse? There's been articles in the mainstream media noting this absence of religion. It's not been totally absent, but noticeably absent from the debates and the discourse this time. 00:10:45.440 --> 00:11:33.825 And in a sense, that's relieving, because we've had a tendency for far too long to baptize our champion, our leader, who pandered to our need for a Christian deliverer as as a church, as the church. And that's been mostly hypocrisy. It's been a long time since we've had a godly administration working out and leading us in a thoroughly godly philosophy of politics. It's been a long time since In God We Trust makes any sense being on our money. It's been a long time since our money submits to the boundaries and the rules that God has established for it in the world. 00:11:34.285 --> 00:12:04.665 And the litany goes on and on and on. So there's a way in which it's relieving to not be able to pretend that there is a godly champion here before us. Both sides just kind of ignore religion in their talk. Not entirely, but mostly, and that's been something of a relief, something of a more honest approach to our politics. But in another sense, it's very sobering, isn't it? 00:12:04.885 --> 00:12:21.010 Very sobering. It's the death of a dream, the death of civil religion, the death of something we were just barely able to still cling to, and it just seems like it's gone. I read a statistic. I know statistics. They're, they're funny business. 00:12:22.265 --> 00:12:57.655 But it said that only 6% of Americans hold to a biblical worldview. There's lots more that claim Christianity as their religion, but only 6% of Americans claim or hold to what we would consider a thoroughly biblical worldview. That passes the smell test, I think. Any way you slice it, this election reveals that Christianity is no longer the political force that it once was. And it's never been more clear than what's being played out before us. 00:12:57.875 --> 00:13:16.690 And it's hard to watch the effects of that. Painful, discouraging, demoralizing. When a highly qualified sigh of relief is the best you can hope for in the outcome of an election? That's not a fun place to be. And that is not assured. 00:13:17.975 --> 00:13:31.115 Far from assured on Tuesday. Who knows what Tuesday is gonna bring? MAGA might lose. MAGA might win. And who knows what that means? 00:13:32.615 --> 00:13:52.615 Yikes. Are we left with? We're left with this God is in control. He's on his throne. Jesus Christ is Lord of this vote. 00:13:54.675 --> 00:14:25.785 And like it or not, we're under his hand submitted to him. It may be a heavy hand. And if so, God would have us as his children, except what he brings upon us. He wants us to be ready to declare with the psalmist David that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. To respond with Job, who is remember Job's wife saying, curse God and die. 00:14:25.785 --> 00:14:40.830 How dare he bring this on you? You should just curse him and get it over with and die. And he said, you're speaking like a foolish woman. Remember what he said? Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? 00:14:41.450 --> 00:14:54.345 Blessed be the name of the Lord. We just don't like to suffer. We don't like to be weak. We don't like to be in a marginal position. It's not nice. 00:14:56.485 --> 00:15:15.285 But this is what we signed up for, folks. It should not surprise us. All who want to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. We're to take up our cross daily and follow him. That is to accept a cross of suffering as part of the curriculum for our lives. 00:15:15.505 --> 00:15:35.540 God uses and ordains suffering for our good as a good father. It's his discipline in our life. And so if he has discipline for us as his people and for this as a country, oh, man. Do we deserve it? We deserve a lot worse. 00:15:41.295 --> 00:16:27.520 If America as we know it, if the end of freedom as we know it comes, the end of our seat at the political table is done, if that's what comes or worse, This is not the end of God's commitment to his people. It's far from that. Remember what Paul said, under much worse circumstances than ours? I'm sure, he says, that neither death or life or angels or rulers or things present or things to come nor powers nor height or depth or anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Our religion is not this compartment, this box that we retreat to in some spiritual part of ourselves. 00:16:28.060 --> 00:16:58.940 Our whole life is governed by the Lord, and we affirm these things. No neither sword or death or power or political party or result of any reelection will separate us from the love of God. We're under God's rule, the rule of Jesus Christ. You have that steady confidence in your heart before God right now, in this moment. Whatever comes in the wake of Tuesday's election, we can have faith and hope in God. 00:17:00.280 --> 00:17:25.390 And yet, this passage is wonderful, because it tells us we should ask God for good things, not just in this moment, but at all times. 2nd point is we should pray for our rulers, whether they be good or bad. That's the clear teaching of this passage. Paul's putting a lot of weight on it as he puts it before us. He says, first of all, then. 00:17:25.450 --> 00:17:49.710 So whatever you put first in a sequence of exhortations has a kind of priority and an importance to it. But he adds the word then, which brings into the scope of this exhortation everything he's been saying before. It points us back and it pulls us pulls all the weight of whatever he said before into this exhortation. Based on what I've said, what has he been saying? He's been talking about his own calling from God as an apostle. 00:17:49.850 --> 00:18:27.285 How he established Paul, the worst of sinners, to be a preacher of the gospel to the Gentiles. And then he reminds Timothy, Timothy, my son, in accordance with everything about myself and that you yourself have heard and received, in accordance with the prophecies that have been spoken over you to be a minister with me of these things. I want you to fight a good fight and be a good faithful soldier for the Lord. And he warns him of men who have made shipwreck of their faith and have fallen away from God. He names them specifically, some of them specifically. 00:18:27.665 --> 00:19:07.740 This is weighty stuff that he's invoking here. In light of all of these things, Timothy, I want, first of all, for the Church of Jesus Christ, over which you are a minister, to offer supplications and prayers and intercessions and thanksgivings for all men, for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions. Paul wants God's people to pray for their civil leaders. And he wants us to pray all kinds of prayers. This is why he mentions these types of prayers, supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings. 00:19:08.040 --> 00:19:25.820 Those aren't redundant terms. They have their individual subtle differences. But Paul's point is to say he wants all kinds of prayers to be offered continually for those who are in civil government over us. Not for the brethren. Isn't that surprising? 00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:36.780 That's actually surprising. It would be surprising to their ears. It would not be surprising for Paul to say, Pray for all the churches. Pray for me as I minister to the brothers. Remember all the churches in all of the world. 00:19:37.975 --> 00:19:58.990 It wouldn't be surprising for the for Paul to say, Remember Mike Pence. He's not saying that. He's saying all people, all rulers, all who are in any place of authority, pray for them. Those who are outside of us, pray for them, particularly the civil leaders. Now, here's what Calvin says about this. 00:19:58.990 --> 00:20:24.640 This is very interesting. He says, Paul mentions kings and other magistrates expressly because the Christians might have had cause to hate them more than others. Do you resemble that implication? Do our do our civil leaders resemble that implication? Let me read it again. 00:20:24.640 --> 00:21:02.905 Paul mentions kings and magistrates explicitly in this passage, calls us to pray for them, because Christians might have had cause to hate them more than all others. And why? He says, all the magistrates of that time, all of them, were sworn enemies of Christ. So that they might have concluded, the Christians, that they ought not to pray for people who were devoting all of their power and wealth to opposing Christ's reign. Now, can you enter into them, can you enter into yourself and realize that this is how we tend to think and feel and act? 00:21:03.845 --> 00:21:39.725 How could I wish any good for somebody who's devoting their whole empire, their whole bank account, their whole life, all of their friends, every every bit of power and energy that they have to opposing the way of Jesus Christ in this world. How could I possibly do that? Calvin goes on. He says that the apostle meets this difficulty that we find and he expressed by expressly commanding that prayers should be offered for them. And here's the principle that he says is at stake. 00:21:40.710 --> 00:22:01.275 Human depravity is no reason for not cherishing something instituted by God. Now what is he saying? What's instituted by God? Civil government, rule authority. Remember what Paul says in Romans 13? 00:22:02.295 --> 00:22:40.880 There is no authority which does not come from God. When we oppose authority, we are opposing God. It is a minister of God for our good, Romans 13. Human depravity, moral failure, even direct opposition to Jesus Christ on the part of a leader is no grounds for disobeying, hating, and not wishing well, and certainly not for praying for that leader. Calvin says, what should we pray when we have a bad leader? 00:22:40.880 --> 00:23:14.160 Well, 2 things. 1, we should pray that God would make a bad man good. And secondly, when we have a bad man, and we're being afflicted by them and by their policies and their their rule, we should remember that that's God's just penalty for our sin. So we should confess our sins, which have brought this rule and oppression upon us. Now, does anybody think and talk this way today? 00:23:15.100 --> 00:23:47.875 Woah. This is very biblical though, what Calvin's saying. That positions of authority in this world are held by bad men and women, and that fact is no justification for refusing them honor. And particularly this he's adding here, that we should actually pray for them, not pray against them, but pray for them. We should pray for them, that God would bless them, That God would help them. 00:23:48.335 --> 00:24:19.425 That God would transform their thinking and their heart to seek justice. To do mercy. To care for and uphold justice in this world, and to deliver the oppressed from the oppressor. We should pray for them. Prayer really helps us with our attitude towards those we're tempted to resent and hate. 00:24:21.565 --> 00:24:38.060 You can't hate those who you pray for. Do you pray for President Biden and Vice President Harris? For our Supreme Court Justices? All of them. For Nancy Pelosi? 00:24:38.840 --> 00:24:47.755 Mitch McConnell? What about our local officials? Our county commissioners? Our Bloomington Police Department? Sheriff's Department? 00:24:48.455 --> 00:25:08.700 Not against them, but for them. And notice this word thanksgivings. That's a punch in the gut. Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings. Do you express gratitude to God for your leaders as you pray for them? 00:25:09.400 --> 00:25:53.775 It can always get worse, And we deserve much worse than what we have. We act as if we deserve liberty, wealth, preeminence. We have so much as Americans, and it is undeserved. We have squandered what we have. Just the sin in this room, in validates the blessings of God on America. 00:26:00.370 --> 00:26:22.065 Do we give thanks for what we have? There is something worse than a bad government, no government at all. Civil government and rule and authority has been given by God for our good. And there is always something to be thankful for in it. So we should pray. 00:26:25.770 --> 00:26:56.640 Your pastors, me, us, we have not done a good job of leading you in this area. From time to time, we vote or we pray for civil leaders in our services, in our pastoral prayers, but not consistently. Nothing like what Paul seems to be laying out here with urgency, comprehensiveness. We're actually working on a system to try to bring by category, and by name, and by office these men and women into our service and remembering them in prayer. Bear with us as we work through that. 00:26:58.220 --> 00:27:15.225 I'm not saying we should pray instead of vote. We should vote. Voting is the distinct privilege in a democracy that we have. And Paul never hesitated to use the privileges of his citizenship as a Roman citizen when it was convenient and helpful. Vote. 00:27:15.765 --> 00:27:24.540 Use it or lose it. Maybe lose it if you use it. But it's what we have. We can vote. We're citizens. 00:27:25.160 --> 00:27:40.705 Vote. But above all and through all and after all, pray. Pray. That is the most important thing that we can do. Hudson Taylor wonderfully said one time, When we work, we work. 00:27:41.325 --> 00:27:54.030 When we pray, God works. It's very important to pray. Why is it important to pray for our leaders? Well, this passage also opens that up for us. This is the third point. 00:27:54.170 --> 00:28:16.550 We should pray for our leaders because how we're governed and how they govern us matters a lot. It matters a lot. There are good and bad, better and worse, more desirable and less desirable forms of civil government. That's affirmed here by the apostle Paul as he gives reasons for our prayers. Look at it. 00:28:16.550 --> 00:28:51.290 He says, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings, and all who are in high positions. Why? That we, the church to Christians, may lead a peaceful and a quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Why are we instructed so earnestly and continually to pray for our leaders so that we can live out our lives as Christians in peace? 00:28:54.015 --> 00:29:19.145 Very clearly for the sake of the whole world. These are the conditions in which the gospel of Jesus Christ is best spread, best testified to, to the blessing of the whole world. God desires this for us. And he desires it not just for our sakes, but for the sake of the whole world, which means that how we're governed matters. It matters. 00:29:19.205 --> 00:29:36.380 We can't ignore. We can't bury our head in the sand. We can't be indifferent to the impact of the policies and the laws enacted by our government, by our magistrates. We can't be indifferent to it. It matters a lot. 00:29:36.380 --> 00:30:11.750 It matters to us, and it matters to the whole world. Our own ability to live out our life in a godly and dignified and quiet and peaceful way, an orderly way, depends on it. And that's that's a good thing in and of itself. But ultimately, we're to pray for peaceful rule, not for our sakes alone, but for the good of all men. The same laws and policies that protect you, Christian, and the free exercise of your religion, the same liberties that protect that in your life, protect all men. 00:30:12.075 --> 00:30:56.270 And so we should pray for, and work for, desire very much those conditions which are allowing you to be free, to come here, to testify to Jesus Christ, wherever you are, to be a blessing to this world without hindrance, without threat of prosecution, reprisal. Most importantly though, these freedoms grant us as Christians the unfettered ability to advance the cause of Christ and the spreading kingdom of God. Civilly speaking, we're citizens of America, Mexico, Ireland. I don't know. Are there other citizens here? 00:30:56.890 --> 00:31:27.800 We're citizens of various countries. But as Christians, our ultimate citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a savior, says Paul in Philippians 3. Always our main goal as citizens of heaven is to be patriots of heaven, advocates for the spread of that kingdom. Calvin says in his comments on this text that that for Christians is the most desirable thing above all things, to see the kingdom of God spread. That's what everybody most needs. 00:31:28.420 --> 00:32:00.630 The peace that ensures our ability to freely testify to the grace of God is what men need. That establishes true peace in their heart before God. The peace that passes understanding. The peace that reconciles a sinner to his holy God and removes guilt from his conscience. This is the peace, the inward peace, that leads to things like the founding of America and the principles upon which our freedoms were established. 00:32:05.365 --> 00:32:23.660 And so at the ballot box, we should have our eye on the things that promote these freedoms. Which candidate or party supports conditions most conducive to the spread of God's truth? Can you think of 1? Yes. I can think of 1. 00:32:24.200 --> 00:32:47.280 I believe there's 1, even though I have to hold my nose to a great extent to check the box. Which candidate or party is most committed to upholding freedom of speech and expression? Which candidate or party is most committed to the rule of law and justice for all people? That's actually not so easy. Muddier waters. 00:32:48.300 --> 00:33:19.860 Including the unborn, and including the stranger in our midst. So how they got here is one thing. What we do with them is another. Which candidate or party's policies upholds peace for our daughters in the locker room? For our sons on the wrestling mat, for our children at the library, for us all in the public restroom. 00:33:23.405 --> 00:34:02.365 We have to weigh these things carefully, and after we weigh them we're still left with this: there's not a perfect option, not one that we can feel completely good about. The landscape of our politics is far less than ideal. But even where we don't have a perfect candidate or leader to get behind, we should and should we someday be deprived of all of our political freedoms and abilities to defend our liberties. We always have recourse to prayer. Nobody can take that away from you. 00:34:02.905 --> 00:34:47.920 They can chain your body to a wall, and they can't take away your recourse to prayer. There is a lot of good and important work to be done in this world politically, civilly civically, I guess would be the word. And I was really encouraged at the David's mighty men's meeting that I went to to hear Brian Bailey asking us as men to consider prayerfully whether God wasn't calling some of us to political office or to serve as a magistrate. We need to be thinking like that because how we're ruled matters. How men and women are ruled matters a lot. 00:34:49.385 --> 00:35:09.980 But something all of us can be doing, no matter our vocation in this world, is to pray for our leaders, both the good and the bad. That God would make them good men, good women, and that they would uphold true justice. So here's an opportunity. Tomorrow night, we have a prayer meeting at 7 pm. Encourage us all to be there if we're able. 00:35:10.360 --> 00:35:48.525 We're going to pray for these things. But even still, as we vote and as we pray, we should always remember this, the 4th point, politics and governments are not where we put our hope. Look at verse 5. There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Have you heard the messianic claims of the poli both political candidates. 00:35:48.665 --> 00:36:00.930 That's the word I was looking for. Presidential candidates, have you heard this? It's just all the time, this is what they do. They are messiahs. I'm the only one who can save America. 00:36:02.110 --> 00:36:30.160 I am the hope for America. Without me it's all going to ruin. My opponent is going to destroy America. These are messianic claims, supernatural claims, claims that belong to God alone, claimed for themselves. God, protect our leaders from pride and an over inflated sense of themselves and of their own significance and potency. 00:36:30.780 --> 00:37:09.075 That's something we should pray. May they remember that there is a King of Kings and a Lord of Lords, King Jesus. God protect us, the citizens, the voters from confusing these things and forgetting that God is in heaven. And elevating any man, any political person to his station or rank. You've heard over the years, if you've been here long, you've heard Boswell and Johnson quoted about this. 00:37:09.855 --> 00:37:32.830 Boswell, who is the biographer of Samuel Johnson, records just a lot of their conversations together. And this is one little nugget of many, many nuggets in that great book. Boswell says, so so Johnson laughs at some political proposal. And Johnson and Boswell says, so sir, you laugh at schemes of political improvement? And Johnson says, why sir? 00:37:33.175 --> 00:38:06.445 Most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things. That's a good healthy perspective. It's a very Christian perspective. Schemes of political improvement are very laughable things, especially when they're devoid of a knowledge and a sense that we live under King Jesus, and we depend on him for blessing us. There is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 00:38:06.445 --> 00:38:32.745 That's a knowledge that men need. And that's a knowledge that we, the church, have been entrusted with to proclaim that. Politics is no savior. Jesus is a tremendous savior. And so we should pray and vote, but especially pray for the circumstances most favorable for the unfettered spread of that message. 00:38:33.685 --> 00:38:49.700 That's the message of hope. Make America great again? Well, 1 nation under God. We have the message. MAGA doesn't have that message. 00:38:50.880 --> 00:39:26.075 The Church of Jesus Christ has that message. And if America is not what God wants to last, so be it. That's in his hands. But this nation can be great insofar as we submit ourselves to the truth of God's word, that we humble our hearts in repentance, that we confess with our mouths and with our laws that Jesus Christ is Lord, and submit ourselves to him. We have this message. 00:39:27.415 --> 00:40:08.240 We don't have a political message, but we don't have a not political message. We have a gospel message which transforms nations. I want to leave us with a quote from Martin Luther, who transformed the world, upset the whole world, led an incredible reformation that had far reaching impact on nations, and on laws, and on governments, and on churches. And I want you to hear his words about how that came about, and his role in it. Okay? 00:40:08.240 --> 00:40:29.185 This is amazing. It's from a sermon that he preached, on Acts 17, where Paul goes to the Areopagus in Athens. And the people there, some of them, repent. And Paul and so this is what Luther says, reflecting on that, about his own ministry. He says this, In short, I will preach the Word of God. 00:40:29.185 --> 00:40:45.450 I will teach it. I will write it. But I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the Papists, but never with force. 00:40:46.070 --> 00:41:18.425 I simply taught, preached and wrote God's word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends, Philip and Ansdorf, The word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing. The Word of God did everything. 00:41:19.365 --> 00:41:39.510 Had I desired to foment trouble, I would have brought great bloodshed upon Germany. Indeed, I could have started such a game that even the emperor would not have been safe. But what would it have been? Mere fools play. I did nothing. 00:41:39.650 --> 00:41:56.205 I let the Word do its work. What do you suppose is Satan's thought when one tries to do the thing by kicking up a row, like starting a fight? Bring a revolution through arms. What do you think Satan thinks? Says Martin Luther. 00:41:56.345 --> 00:42:37.250 Oh, what a fine game the poor fools are up to now. But when we spread the word alone, and let it alone to do the work, that distresses him. For it is almighty and takes captive the hearts. And when the hearts are captured, the work will fall of itself. The word that has been entrusted to us. 00:42:39.075 --> 00:43:28.110 What are we doing with it? In our classrooms, at our workplaces, in our homes, in our quiet times, in our friendships, what are we doing with the word in our neighborhoods? We have the greatest force for change that ever existed and can ever exist because it changes this alone changes from the inside out. Politics and laws and governments can only restrain from the outside, externally. The word of God goes inward, and it changes the man from a bad man to a good one. 00:43:36.405 --> 00:44:00.650 We should pray for God to raise up good civil leaders, and to bless the ones we have, and make them good. But very soon we're gonna be in John chapter 4. And there's a more urgent prayer even than this one. Jesus says to the disciples, the fields are white and ready for harvest. Pray that God would raise up laborers unto the harvest. 00:44:01.945 --> 00:44:30.435 And I mentioned recently to the church, I think it was at the congregational meeting, that the church is lacking ministers. The church is lacking for godly men to lead her. Lacking in champions who will give their life like Luther did to the Word and its ministry. So Brian says, consider whether you're called to be a minister of the sword. I agree. 00:44:30.655 --> 00:44:55.270 Consider it. Pray. But also pray, men, young men, whether God's not calling you to be a minister of the sword of the spirit, the word of God. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would help us as a nation to humble our hearts, to repent of our ways. 00:44:56.675 --> 00:46:02.705 Would you establish truth in this land? Truth sets people free, and I pray, Lord, that you would bring the truth to bear before us. I pray that we would, Father, elect into office who you have appointed and that we would submit ourselves to that rule quiet, dignified, and godly life, to your glory and to the end that all men might come to know you. We are thankful, Father, that you are not restrained and your word is not restrained even by persecution and hardship and suffering. But yet we trust this part of your word which calls us to ask for liberty, and freedom, and civil peace. 00:46:05.485 --> 00:46:07.905 We pray this in Jesus name, amen.