How The World Sees The Church

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central, Ladies and gentlemen. It is twenty eight days, seven hours, forty three minutes and fifty one seconds until the twenty twenty four presidential election. Let me say that again. It is twenty eight days, seven hours, forty three minutes and now thirty seven seconds until the twenty twenty four presidential election. Now you may say I don't care, I don't vote, I don't care to vote, I don't care about politics, and I completely understand because I hate politics and I don't vote. I can't stand anything about the entire process. But here's the question.

0:56 With the election being twenty eight days, seven hours, forty three minutes and now eight seconds away, here's the question. Politics, the coming election, the consequences after the election, everything about the presidential election, everything about politics. Has it dramatically impacted how the world sees the church. That's what we're going to talk about right after this. Good afternoon everyone. It is Monday, October seventh, twenty twenty four. It is currently five seventeen pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio. Located right here in Albilene, Texas. And please let me state that again.

1:45 I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio, not Republican you know headquarters, not the Democratic headquarters. Not from any political party, no political affiliation, no political allegiance I have. I have no allegiance to any political party. I can't stand any of it. I despise all of it. And you know what I despise the most is when politics finds its way into the church. I can't stand it. I despise it. I feel it's I feel it's just wrong in every way, shape or form. I can't stand when church is just not five minutes from my house, five minutes. If I was to get in my car, drive out of my neighborhood, get to the stop sun at the end of the street, turn right, maybe two minutes a minute up the road. If that on the left hand side, there is a very very very very very large church. I mean it's it's I mean hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of people probably maybe even a thousand people could probably fit inside the building. It's gigantic, right, and guess what is outside? All over its property, all of these signs to vote Republican, vote for Trump, vote for Ted Cruz, vote vote, vote vote. It's just it looks like a I don't know, like the Republican Party.

3:07 Back to truck up and put nine hundred signs right there on the church property. And I'm like the church. When people drive by, they don't see a church, they don't see Christ. They see a political party. And if I go down about another five minutes down the road, there's another very large church that has a campus on this side of town and on the other side of town. And guess what they have in front of their church, all these signs again from the Republican Party, the Republican Party, the Republican Party. So if anyone was to drive down this street, they would drive past two very large churches, and you know what, they would see politics. They wouldn't see a church that preaches Christ. They see a church preaching political affiliation, political identity. I am sick of that.

3:57 How does the world see the church? That is what we're going to talk about, because we're now twenty eight days, seven hours, forty minutes and one second until the twenty twenty four presidential election, and I wish, I wish I could say, hey, once the election happens, this will all be over, ladies and gentlemen. It'll be over. The political division will be over, the everyone finding their identity and a political party will be over. All of the misinformation disinformation will be over. The church will just go back to the church being a church. I wish I could say that. I can't say any of that. I can't say any of that because I know it's not true.

4:42 I think what we're going to see moving forward is the church is going to become more political, more political, and more political, and it's going to drive more and more people away from the Cross because they are sick and tired of the politics. That is my feeling. You may disagree, but that's what we're going to talk about. And the way and the reason we're going to talk about this is kind of actually kind of interesting. So today I was like, okay, I wasn't able to record at the time. I didn't feel like I could do a live broadcast or anything. So I'm like, well, I need to I need to listen to something. I mean, it's the twenty twenty four you know, Sermon's two point oh sermon Challenge, So I need to listen to a sermon today, and I started looking and I saw one entitled How's your Heart? How's your Heart? And I'm like, oh, okay, wait a minute. We just did a long broadcast a couple of days ago talking about the heart the nature. Okay, well this is going to talk about how's your heart?

5:45 Maybe this will add some kind of discussion about is the heart the same thing as the nature? Is it separate? Is it different? Do we have a new heart, old heart? All of those types of questions. And I'm like, okay, let me start listening. And I kind of like, well, he's kind of I'm saying I think maybe. And it was kind of getting frustrated because it's getting right back into all of the just confusion and how confounding that subject really is when you start listening to sermons. So I was like, Okay, this is not really going anywhere. Oh okay, I'm just gonna stay with it. I'm gonna stay with it and see where this goes. And then all of a sudden, about twenty minutes into the sermon, maybe twenty five minutes into the sermon, he ends up in He ends up in First Samuel, and then he reads a phrase in first Samuel, and I'm like, oh, oh wow, that's what's happened. That describes the church today, that describes the church. This is awesome. So then I, even though that may not have been his obviously was not his major major thesis, It wasn't his major point, I was like, well, let me grab the audio. So I grabbed the audio, and I'm like, I'm just gonna play this short section and then I'm gonna use is to talk about how does the world see the church, especially in light of politics, especially in light of well twenty eight days, seven hours, thirty six minutes, and fifty

7:15 four seconds away from the twenty twenty four presidential election. How does that fact impact how the world sees the church? So again, this sermon is not about that that I'm getting ready to play this clip from. But he's gonna make a point now to me, I wish he would have just made this his entire sermon, but he makes the point. He's going somewhere else. But we're just gonna take this one point and I'm really really going to dig into it, and we're gonna have hopefully an interesting conversation about it. So are you ready? All right? He's talking about David, he's talking about Saul, he's talking about heart. So you're gonna hear a little bit of that, but just listen carefully because he's going to describe how the people quote unquote the people of God, how they're being described by their enemy. Listen, here we go.

8:10 The refused heart can be concealed. Number two, The refused heart is cowardly. Go to chapter seventeen with me, please, Now what has happened. Sau has put his battle in array. We're gonna put King Sau in the armies of Israel for the sake of the object lesson tonight. We're gonna put them in the choir loft. The Philistines, their hated enemies, have put their battle in array, and we're gonna put them in that balcony back there where the PA is not picking on the PA guy, but most people think that the PA guys are Philistines anyway. All right now, my MIC's gonna go mute here in just a second. He's gonna get me bad. We're gonna put him back there, just for the object Lesson. In between is the Valley of Ela, and there is a brook there. They're ready to go into battle, and all of a sudden, before they can go into battle, and you've heard this story all your life, outcomes a giant of a man by the name of Goliath.

9:01 He is of the region of goth He. Walks down in the valley and he begins number one, to blaspheing God. Number two, he begins to challenge the children of Israel, choose you a. Man that we may fight together. If I defeat him and kill him, then shall you be our servants. But if he defeat me and kill me, then we shall we be your servants. He says, let's go ahead and have a fight, right now, send me down someone to fight me. First observation about his speech, and we'll read it here in just a moment. The first observation about his speech is, when did the children of Israel get together and have a vote and make Goliath the commander in chief of the armies of Israel? Siper the harper? What are you trying to say? Well, you have to understand a little bit about me. When I was young, I was what some of lovingly and graciously called a smart elek. All right, are you familiar with that? Some of you have probably described some of your kids and grandkids.

9:56 That way, I was a smart elec. At least that's what I was told. I found if you ever asked an adult a question they couldn't answer, there was going to be a meeting with your parents because you were a smart elec. So oftentimes, by the way, I will tell anybody in the auditorium that you're if you're right now being called a smart elek, wait till you turn about forty five, because then you're just satirical and sarcastic. So I had this question. Every time I would hear this passage of scripture taught on or approached on, I would want to ask the question. I would want to bring it up, but I was always afraid that my parents would be called in and I would face the wrath of my mom or dad when I got home because I asked a smart elec question.

10:36 When did the child of Israel vote for Goliath to be the leader of the armies of Israel. I'm going to starport right here. I somewhat understand this because I think some people think I'm a smart elec. I think some people think I'm the same way because I will ask these kinds of questions to me, We've got to get rid of this idea that you're being a smart alec if you ask difficult questions. I think in many cases, the Church and Christians don't like difficult questions. When you're reading a text and you're like, well, wait a minute, who made Goliath leader over Israel? And he said, well, why would you ask that question? Read the text? The text makes no sense, and there's plenty of te I could ask this question about you. Just name the passage of scripture. There's almost inevitable that I could be like, wait a minute, this makes no sense. You're not supposed to say that in church. You're not supposed to ask that.

11:34 All of the conversations we've been having recently about sin and how does this work? And a new heart or not a new heart? And well you can keep the law, well you can't keep the law, but you can't, but you can't all of the things Christians say that I ask difficult questions. People are like, oh, you're just being a jerk, You're just being a smart Like, no, these are questions that should be asked when you read the Bible. You should ask these kinds of questions. And sometimes so I do believe it's young people in the church who they learn quickly. You're not supposed to ask these questions. You're supposed to just accept whichever narrative they feed you. You're just supposed to go, well, that's the way they know. It's people can feed you a narrative that's more tradition than it is actually text based. Pastors can preach things about the text and you're just sitting there, going, what in the world are you talking about? There has nothing to do. No, but you're not supposed to say that.

12:32 You're just supposed to go along, just go along, go along. So I think we need to get rid of this idea that asking tough questions about the text makes one a smart elec. I think what we have to be willing to do is sometimes we have to look at the text and go, man, this makes no sense. This is just crazy. And I think he raises a good point here in this story about Goliath who voted him in charge of Israel. What does he mean by that? Well, let's listen. This is where we'll get to the part that I want to get to. So stay with me. But let's at least see I thought this was interesting, so what do. You mean, brother Harper. Goliath comes down in that valley and he says, you send me one man, and the child of Israel said, oh, we can only send one.

13:22 Why didn't Saul send three thousand guys down there at that moment and chop Goliath into little tiny pieces. Yes, he might kill a few of them, he's not gonna kill them all. Why did he put two thousand archers on either side and send arrows into Goliath so he looked like a pincushion by the time they were done. Why was it that the children of Israel immediately said, well, we've got to do what Goliath said? Who put him in charge? By the way, Christian, let me point something out. Goliath wasn't in charge of the nation of Israel, and Goliath isn't in charge of the Church today. Goliath acts like he's in charge the war, act like they can tell us what to do. The simple truth of the matter is we march in the same army, and our Savior, Jesus Christ is our captain. We don't have a commander in chief. If you will over us, that isn't him.

14:15 I think that's a reasonable question to ask. The text, why would Israel just be like, oh, wait, he's calling one person out. Why Why do you have to send one person out? Why? Now I think it's a good one. Now I'm not saying that there's not an answer, right, but it's a good question to ask. What I want you to take from this is this, when you read the text, ask the questions. Ask the questions. Sometimes Christians will get irritated with you. Sometimes Christians will get bothered because a lot of times it's because, well, they don't have a good answer, right. Sometimes it can just get very frustrated because sometimes there's not a good answer. But it's better to get frustrated. It's better for everyone to get irritated. But we're all forced to go, well, I don't really know now. I think there may be an answer.

15:05 There may be an answer here. I could throw out some possible answers. But when you read the text, that's how read it and think and ask questions and struggle with it and try to figure it out and try to understand it. It's perfectly okay, all right, Now, let's see where this is going to go. Notice the second thing, over and over, you've heard that story about Goliath, about all those things. That he did. And they always say one thing that just isn't found in scripture. Do you know they'll tell you every time you hear this passage preached on that Goliath blaspheme God.

15:46 You know, Goliath didn't say a single word in recorded scripture about God. Notice what it says. Let's just read it, because I know you're looking at me, funny, and you're saying, well, all the Bible story books say that he blasphemed, and all the sermons I've heard said he's blaspeaming. I'm not concerned about what Bible's storybooks say or what sermons say. I just want to know what the Bible says. So let's look at chapter seventeen. Start with me. In verse four, and there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the way to the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greams of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders, and the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, And when bearing a shield, went before him, and he stood and cried under the armies of Israel and said to them, why are you come out to set your battle in array?

16:39 Am not I a philistine? And ye servants to God? Oh? That's not what it says, is it. By the way, can I tell you something scary about this passage of scripture? The scariest thing about this entire story is that sometimes God gives us exactly what we think we want. The children of Israel wanted a king go before them and to judge them and to fight their battle. The children of Israel rejected God's leadership for a king's leadership. And now all of a sudden, they're no longer known. By the philip by the Philistines as the servants of God. Now they're the servants of Saul. He goes on, I'm sure I shopped too early that the next part is the.

17:23 Now. As soon as he said that I was booked, I was blown away. Okay, as soon as he said that, I was like, oh, wow, that is so good. Now he immediately moves on. He immediately moves on. But I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, back up, back up. That is awesome. So a couple of things. First, he is absolutely right that so many times we hear things in a book or we hear things in a sermon where they say this happened in the text, or this person did this, or they interpret it this way, and it has nothing to do with what the Bible says. So many times people say, well, well Goliath said this or Goliath, and you're like, well, where is that in the text. And I completely agree that we should not care about what sermons say or what books say, We should care about what the text says. I completely agree.

18:07 But he makes a point here that he goes by two quick. So let me read it again. First Samuel, chapter seventeen, verse eight. First Samuel, chapter seventeen, verse eight. And he stood, this is speaking of Goliath. He stood and cried unto the armies of Israel. And he said, unto them, why are you come out to set your battle in array? Am not i of Philistine, And ye servants to Saul, Am not I of Philistine, and ye servants to Saul. He did not see them as servants of God. He saw them servants of Saul. And I'm like, that is that's such a valid point. The enemy does not perceive them as the people of God or the servants of God. He sees them, at least at this particular verse, he sees them as the servants of Saul.

18:54 And why are they seen as the servants of Saul? Because the people had a desire. They wanted something. If you go back to first Samuel chapter eight, go back to first Samuel chapter eight, the people wanted something, right, they wanted something. And look at what they say that here are if you look at first Samuel chapter eight, verse one. And it came to pass when Samuel was old, that he made his son's judges over Israel right. And if you look there in the verse three, his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after Lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and they come to Samuel.

19:35 I look at verse five, and they said into him, behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy way. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. And then but this thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord said into Samuel, hearken into the voice of the people. And all that they say unto THEE. For they have not rejected THEE, but they have rejected me. That I should not reign over them. The people of God and a sense reject God. And they want a political leader. They want a civil leader. They want a governmental official, one whom they can see. That's what they want. They want that they want that person to lead us so we can be like all the other nations. And I will argue that what has happened in the American Church over the last I don't it feels like ten years. Slowly, but surely, the Church has said, we need a leader, we need a man, We need a political party so that we can win these earthly battles with political power, with political influence, by passing laws and passing bills. We're going to make this work. And so we have rejected God for the sake of political for political political expediency.

21:03 And guess what we've gained from that. The world now When they see the church, they don't say servants of God. They see servants of Trump. They see servants of the Republican Party. They see people committed to politics to trying to fight culture wars through political force. They don't see the Cross. They don't see Christ. They don't see salvation. They don't see the Gospel. They see what we believe about cultural issues, what we think about this, and what we think about that. They no longer hear the word of God. They see political ideology. They see a commitment to political power. That is the look. I know many who love politics and get all into politics and wants to talk politics. They say, they're trying to stand for righteousness.

21:56 But you have in your supposed a tip to stand for righteousness, which again, when we can get into who you're supporting for, if you're going for the Republicans, I I it's well, we can get into a whole discussion there. But your supposed stance for righteousness, Guess what people see. They don't see the righteousness of your stance. They see the political party which you have pledged your allegiance to. They don't see Christ. They don't see the Cross, they don't see the law of God. They don't see the Gospel. They see you are Trump this, Trump this, Trump this, America, America, America, make America great, make America great, and all the other political slogans. The same thing can happen with people on the left, but typically conservative churches go for the Republicans.

22:44 So that's what we're going to focus on, because we're not gonna we can get into a whole discussion about the liberal churches. But in many cases, those liberal churches have already abandoned biblical theology. So we're talking to conservative churches that pay lip service to to biblical theology while they slowly but surely become nothing more and they do nothing more than prostitute themselves to a political party. And many Christians are all over social media and running all around, and all people know about them is they're a Trump supporter. They're maga. That's all that's because that's all and all you do is argue politics, politics, and then and then the worst part of it is when you get into a political argument, then you'll start trying to rip scriptures out of context and throw scriptures in there as if God is on your political side. But people don't see God they see your politics. They don't see you as servants of God. They see you servants of Trump. They see you are, in this case, servants of Saul. Go back to that First Samuel chapter seventeen, and he stood and cried into the armies of Israel and said, unto them, why are you come out to set your your battle in array? Am I am not I a philistine? And ye's servants to Saul. Not servants to God, but servants to Saul. Now, as soon as he said that, I was like, wow. Now I know when I first came back in, I tried to say wow, and I couldn't say wow because I don't know. I was about to start coughing. But I get all excited even thinking about it,

24:17 because I was like, what a brilliant point. I would have never considered that. I would have never even thought about that. I know that's not the point of his sermon, but I was like, man, this makes the whole sermon worth listening to. So I did a little bit of work and I said, Okay, what can I do? How can we expand this? Am I thinking about this? Right? Am I going so hit? My perspective? Is this the reference to the Israelites as a servant of Saul and one Samuel seventeen eight. I believe this can be seen as significant and light of the earlier rejection of God's kingship in first Samuel chapter eight, by demanding a human king to lead them like all the other nations. For Samuel eighteen five, which we've read, or for Samuel eight five, not eighteen five. For Samuel eight five, I apologize. Israel shifted its identity. Now this is very important. Israel shifted its identity from being God's chosen people to being a nation led by a fallible human ruler. The Church, has my estimation, has shifted its identity from being those who are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and his imputed righteousness to those who now want to be identified by a very very very very very very very very very very fallible and flawed human leader by the name

25:47 of Donald Trump. And there's been books and articles written about I just don't understand what's happened to the Evangelical Church. They used to say character matters, they used to say morality matters. They have abandoned character, They've abandoned morality, they've abandoned truth, all for political expediency. Goliath's words may reflect how this shift was perceived even by their enemies. They were no longer seen as directly aligned with God, but rather withsaw, their human king. Do you want to be identified as a follower of Christ or as a follower of Trump? Now, personally, these churches that are about, you know, five minutes from my house. If I was a member of any of those churches, and I would have pulled up and saw those political signs on the church property, I would have walked in asked the pastor why are those there? Are we going to remove those? And he says no, I wanted them there. I would be like, remove my membership. I am never coming back to this place.

26:57 Under this place, just put Ichabod. The glory has departed. This has become not the house of God, but this has become a prostituted building for political purposes. And I'm not going to have anything to do with it. And I would never go back under any circumstances. And if politics have made it into the pulpit as far as about a political party, Now, if you're talking about issues that are related to politics, but you're doing so from a philological perspective. Okay, but when it comes about voting and politics and oh man, no, no, no, that's when the church has been corrupted. The identification with a human leader instead of God carries strong implications. It suggests that when God's people put their trust in human institutions or leaders, even their enemies begin to recognize them more for their political alignment than for their spiritual identiy as God's people.

28:01 I'm going to read that to you again. That's not even my words. These are words from a different source. Listen to this carefully. This identification with a human leader and carries strong implications. I've been trying to say this. This says it better than I've ever said it. Are you ready? It suggests that when God's people put their trust in human institutions or leaders, even their enemies begin to recognize them more for their political alignment than for their spiritual identity as God's people. And I've seen this in news article after news article where there's comments underneath it, and it just it basically links Christianity with Trump supporters, and it's like no, no, no no, And it's hard to fight it because it's like, you know, I'm just I'm like one lone voice in the wilderness, going no, no, no, no, no, no, no no. Do not attach me in any way, shape or form to Trump to the Republicans. Do not. I'm a follower of Christ. This is not my world. I'm an alien and a stranger here. I am just passing through. No, I do not connect me with any political party because I am not connected to it in any way, shape or form. But the Church is so far down this road that now that's what the church is identified as, and every Christian should be fighting against that and yelling and screaming, going no, do not connect us with that, do not. We are about Christ and him crucified. We are about salvation through grace alone, through faith alone, because

29:33 of Christ alone. We are about the imputed righteousness of Christ. We are about the Word of God. We are about discipleship. We are about baptism, the Lord's Supper. We are about praise. We're about prayer. We are not about politics. But you watch, you look at a lot of Christians, you know, and what they're doing on social media. It's all stinking politics. And they put politics before the cross. Therefore they now blind people from seeing the cross, and they don't see Christ follower, a Christ worshiper. They don't see a Christ learner. They see a well a political person committed to a political ideology. Even their enemies begin to recognize them more for their political alignment than for their spiritual identity as God's people and Goliath's taunt Israel's identity is bound to their king, not their God, reinforcing the consequences of their request for a monarchy. This indeed serves as a warning for the Church today. If the Church becomes overly politicized or too closely aligned with a political party or agenda, those outside the church may begin to identify it more with that political movement than with God. The danger is that the church's witness becomes clouded, and it is no longer seen primarily as a body of believers representing Christ in his kingdom, but rather as a group associated with a particularolitical stance. This hinders the church's ability to fulfill its spiritual mission, and it compromises the identity as God's people.

31:16 Now this has happened in twenty twenty four. The Church has lost its spiritual identity and it has taken upon itself a political one. How does this happen. Here's some examples. Well, let's start with alignment with political parties. Many churches in Christians and communities have, particularly in countries like the United States, have become closely aligned with specific political parties. For instance, some segments of the church are often strongly associated with a Republican party and its policies. This has led to the perception those outside the church that Christianity, at least certain denominations is primarily concerned with promoting a conservative political agenda rather than spiritual or moral principles. And the problem is Christians won't realize this and acknowledge this. Christians need to repent of this alignment with political parties. They'll say, no, no, no, no, I'm just standing for righteousness. I'm just standing for morality.

32:17 You do understand how foolish that sounds? If I mean, do we need to go into everything with Donald Trump? Do we need to really rehash everything? Do we? The point is, whether you think Trump is basically sinless or whether you think is you three seconds away from being satan? You don't want to be aligned with any political party in any way, shape or form. You want to just be saying we call you to faith in Christ. We don't call you to a political party, and we're not going to use politics to try to force Christianity upon you. Christianity is to be preached to you, not forced upon you.

33:07 So alignment with political parties that's where the problems begin. Number two, Political endorsements from the pulpit. In some cases, pastors and church leaders use their platforms to endorse political candidates or parties, often framing political issues as moral imperatives. While there are legitimate moral issues and politics, this can blur the line between church and state, causing the church to be viewed more as a political lobbying group than a community of faith. This can alienate members of the congregation who hold different political views and shift the focus from spiritual growth to political advocacy. And so what happens you will hear from the pulpit, And this has happened now countless time. If you are a Christian, you cannot vote for this party, or you're not a child of God.

33:54 As if now my salvation is determined by who I vote for, and not my faith in Christ. This destroys the Gospel, It destroys Christianity. And now you have political endorsements happening from the pulpit, and that the pulpit is to preach the word of God, not to preach the Republican Party's talking points. So number one, when we align ourselves with political parties. Number two, when political endorsement starts happening from the pulpit. Number three, church as voting blocks. In some countries, political parties openly court churches and Christian communities as voting blocks. This reduces the church to a tool for political power and reinforces the idea that Christians are primarily voters who can be swayed by appealing to their values. At a superficial level, this political mobilization of religious groups can lead to transactional relationship where the church's influence is reduced to its ability to deliver votes rather than acting as a prophetic voice for justice and righteousness.

35:02 And this is what happens. The church is just seen as okay, we have to superficially seem like we agree with these people. We may not like these people, we may think they're stupid, but we will see we will appear to go along with them, so we get political power. We just manipulate them and use them. We don't see We're not seen as having a prophetic voice where we are speaking truth. We're seen as just people to be manipulated so that we will vote, so they get the power and they get the position. They don't stink and care about you, and you should stop selling the church out for stinking political advancement. We're just used. We're looked at, Oh, look there's a group of people. If we can convince those people to vote for us, well that's good. Okay, we what do we have to say? What do we have to say? What do they need to hear? What do we need to what do they what do they need to hear? And so they say it, and then we just like okay, okay, okay, we're gonna turn to them.

36:06 We're gonna, I said, of saying, We'll wait a minute, whit you know, keep your politics keep just leave us alone, all right. What we need to do is be a prophetic voice, preach and teach, and we need to engage in things from a spiritual perspective, a thiological perspective, and politics we don't get you're not no, just go away, leave us alone, all right. So number one alignment with political parties. Number two political endorsement from the pulpit. Number three churches as voting blocks Number four. Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism is another example where the identity of the Church becomes intertwined with national political identity, and this view to be a Christian is equated with being a patriot, and Christianity becomes a way to promote a nationalistic goal rather than God's kingdom. This conflation of faith with national identity can lead the church to support policies or behaviors that contradict the teachings of Jesus, such as promoting exclusion or violence in the name of nationalism. Christian nationalism often involves invoking Christian language or symbols to justify political agendas, which may lead the church's mission to be compromised. The result is that the outsider sees the church as a force of cultural or political dominance rather than a community of dedicated to love, service and the message of the Gospel.

37:25 And that's what they see, Oh, you want to dominate my life with your political agenda that you are calling a religious one. Well, the religious one would be like, here's what the Word of God says. It says that is a sin, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and follow him. We're not coming after you politically, we're not going to come after you. Culturally, We're going to preach the Word of God to you. But Christian nationalism is another example of what has happened to the church. Number five, moral issues are reduced to political sound bites. Complex moral issues like abortion, immigration, racial justice, and poverty often get reduced to political sound bites in the Church, depending on which political ideology it aligns with. Instead of having nuanced, biblically informed discussion on these topics, churches sometimes adopt the language of political parties, thereby allowing their positions to be dictated more by political platforms than by biblical teaching. And I have seen this happen time you listen to Christian's talk and you'll be like, you sound like you. All you do is watch Fox News. You don't sound like Matthew, Mark Luke or John you sound like Sean Hannity. Stop it.

38:45 And I've talked about how Christian men I don't know how many times in the past. There'll be some complex issue going on in the Middle East, something going on, and we could have a long, lengthy discussion about you know, you think you should be able to have a nuanced discussion in depth about America and foreign policy and how we did this and this led to this, and how should we approach this, and should we be involved, should we not be involved? How should we handle this? What should we do? And you'll get Christian men. I'll say something, we just need to turn that place into a parking lot. I'm like, so you want so what you're saying is you want to drop what some kind of nuclear weapon and just turn that entire country into a parking lot. You do realize there's human beings who live there. I don't know. You do realize that there's people creating the image of God there, and you just want them all to die because you watch Fox News and you think you're all big and bad talking about blowing up people.

39:34 How about you just shut up and stop talking because you don't sound like a Christian and it's usually Christian men who do that nonsense. And I started noting this all. I started noticing this happening in the church going all the way back to the nineteen nineties, and I was speaking out against it then because at that point, Rush Limbaugh was dominating radio every afternoon and Christian men on their lunch hours were listening to Rush Limbaugh, and then when they would come to church and have any talk about any political issue they were they sounded like Rush Limball, they didn't sound like the Bible, they didn't sound like Christians. And then Fox News or whatever, and it's like no, no, no, no, no, no scripture. But the one what they'll do is they'll grab a couple of scriptures, rip them so far out of context that you know that they wouldn't know the context have ever got put back in its context because it's been so removed, and then try to connect it to their political talking points. We got to stop reducing things to political sound bites. The politicians should not dictate the way we talk about moral issues, the policy, the Fox News, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, none of those people should be dictating to the church how we should be speaking about issues. The church is not to be influenced by the world. That means liberal world, Hollywood world, music world, video game world, and political world. Coming from the right.

41:07 It's funny, like you know, Pastor to be up there. I'm so sick and tired of these young people being influenced by TikTok and Netflix and rock and roll and rap, and oh, what's wrong with you young people? You need to put your face in the Word of God. And then five seconds later, oh, oh, this about Hillary or this about the vice president or this about Biden. Well wait a minute, wait a minute. It sounds like you being influenced by Fox News. I would rather the kids to be influenced by Netflix, TikTok, and I don't care name the secular artist, then I would Fox News. The point is all influence that removes our worldview from a biblical worldview to any other type of worldview liberal conservative, That is us being influenced by the world. The world is just not the music you don't like. The world is just not the movies that you don't like. The world can be the conservatives that you so love and adore that you allow them to dictate how you speak about moral issues, not the Word of God. What does this all lead to. It leads to the perception that the church is just another political player pushing an agenda, rather than a spiritual body offering hope and truth. Number six, the polarization and division within the church, The politicizing of the church leads to internal division where members are split

42:41 along political lines. Instead of focusing on unity in Christ, Division based on political ideology can create a fractured body, with some churches becoming echo chambers of of a particular political viewpoint. This diminishes the church's ability to model reconciliation, peace and unity to a wider world. Makes it appear that a polarize that we are just as polarized as the culture around it. And that is exactly what has happened. The church has become polarized. What really, I don't I think in some case, I don't think it has become polarized. I take that back. I think what has happened is the church has just driven out anyone who doesn't buy into their political part their political agenda. You either buy into their political agenda or the church is not for you, because what will happen if you don't buy into their political agenda. You're not a Christian. That's exactly what has happened.

43:34 Political affiliation now becomes a test of one's allegiance to Christ. And that's complete and utter nonsense. That's polarization and division within the church. How about social media and political activism. Many Christians and churches use social media to engage in political activism, often semplifying partisan messages. This can cause the church to be perceived as more focused on winning political battles than proclaiming the gospel. The loudest voices in Christian circles are often those who are politically motivated, and this can drown out the message of grace and redemption that the church is called to share outsiders and look in.

44:18 Outsiders looking in may only see the church as a partisan community, not as a place of refuge, healing, or spiritual transformation. Well this leads to public perception of the church. Because of those ties between many churches and political movements, the public often perceives churches as hypocritical or compromise. For instance, when churches align with politicians who behave in ways that are contrary to Christian ethics, such as engaging in corruption or promoting and moral behavior, it damages the church's witness. People outside the church may see it as inconsistent, inconsistent, and more interest in political power than in sharing biblical values.

45:00 Sequences of this political entanglement can be far reaching. The church's primary identity as the body of Christ called to represent God's kingdom, which transcends any earthly political system. When the church becomes too political, at risks losing its distinctiveness and the ability to speak prophetically to the culture. Instead of being a place where people of all political persuasions can find grace, truth, and transformation, it becomes just another faction in the political landscape. This can serve as a warning for churches today to ensure that they remain focused on their mission of making disciples, preaching the Gospel, and living out God's love in this world, rather than being co opted by political ideology that can ultimately distort the church's identity. Now, if we go back First Samuel chapter seventeen eight, Goliath, the enemy of God's people. He stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said, unto them, why are you come out to set your battle in array?

46:13 Am not I a philistine? And ye servants to Saul? How did Israel become known as servants of Saul and not the servants of God? Go back to First Samuel chapter eight fir Samuel chapter eight, verse four. All the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel and said unto him, behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all nations. When all we care about is who we're going to vote for and who's going to win the election, we become completely identified with that political focus, that political desire, and the world no longer sees us as servants of Christ. They see a servants of You name the political party, you name the political candidate. And that's a problem. We are twenty eight days, six hours, fifty six minutes, and thirty one seconds away from the twenty twenty four presidential election. I

47:47 don't care who wins. I don't care as far as this is concerned. Oh, I have my concerns. I guess I should say I have some cares, right, But for the this what I'm trying to emphasize is I care less about who wins. Let me state it that way. I care less about who wins, and I care more about how all of this political preoccupation is slowly but surely eating away at the Church. And it's leading our very enemies to say servants of Trump, servants of Republican Party, not servants of God. We have enough trouble being seen as servants of God for our own sin, our own failure, and our own hypocrisy. We don't need to add our political idolatry to the mix to only blind and confuse and hide the Cross from a world who doesn't need a Republican. They don't need a democrat. The Cross and the substitutionary sacrifice work of Jesus Christ because without his substitutionary atonement, without his imputed righteousness, we believe in a place called hell. That's what we're supposed to be concerned about.

49:18 But somehow we become more concerned about an earthly kingdom, earthly power, and earthly control. May God forgive us thanks for listening. Everyone, have a great evening. God bless