For the Sake of the City
When God’s people were carried off to Babylon, He told them through Jeremiah to seek the welfare of the city where He had sent them and to pray to the Lord on its behalf. Believers today live the same way, as citizens of heaven and exiles on earth who are still called to turn the world upside down for Christ. Every political issue affects the good of the community and carries a moral weight, so Christians can’t stay on the sidelines, and they’re called to vote for biblical values instead of calling evil good and good evil. Because the deepest problems in our nation are spiritual, the answer is found in God, and He promises to heal the land when His people humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and engage in the process.
(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ I believe Mary's once salvation ♪ ♪ One doorway that leads to life ♪ ♪ One redemption, one profession ♪ ♪ I believe in the name of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ I believe in the crucifixion ♪ ♪ By his blood I have been suffering ♪ ♪ I believe in resurrection ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, his life is the sweet ♪ ♪ All praise come on ♪ ♪ All praise to God the Father ♪ ♪ All praise to Christ the Son ♪ ♪ All praise to the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Our God has overcome ♪ ♪ The King who was and is the evermore will be ♪ ♪ In Jesus' mighty name I believe ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ I believe in the hope of heaven ♪ ♪ He's preparing a praise for me ♪ ♪ Bar me on land, hearts and magic ♪ ♪ He's ever in our eyes as He ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, he's got a taste for me ♪ ♪ He's returning between his pride ♪ ♪ Like the altar, he can burn it ♪ ♪ He has the rules of love ♪ ♪ All praise to God the Father ♪ ♪ All praise to Christ the Son ♪
♪ All praise to the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Our God has overcome ♪ ♪ The King who was and is the evermore will be ♪ ♪ In Jesus' mighty name I believe ♪ ♪ Oh, we believe in you ♪ ♪ Oh, no, I've ever been ashamed ♪ ♪ Of the gospel of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ How could I ever walk away ♪ ♪ For the one who saved my life ♪ ♪ Oh, no, I've never been ashamed ♪ ♪ Of the gospel of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ How could I ever walk away ♪ ♪ For the one who saved my life ♪ ♪ No, I've never been ashamed ♪ ♪ Of the gospel of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ How could I ever walk away ♪ ♪ For the one who saved my life ♪ ♪ All praise to God the Father ♪ ♪ All praise to Christ the Son ♪ ♪ All praise to the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Our God has overcome ♪ ♪ The King who was and is the evermore will be ♪ ♪ In Jesus' mighty name I believe ♪ ♪ Oh, praise to God the Father ♪ ♪ All praise to Christ the Son ♪ ♪ All praise to the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Our God has overcome ♪ ♪ The King who was and is the evermore will be ♪ ♪ In Jesus' mighty name I believe ♪ ♪ In Jesus' mighty name I believe ♪
♪ In Jesus' mighty name I believe ♪ - Come on, give him a round of applause. He's worthy of it, yeah, yeah. (applause) (gentle music) ♪ You give life ♪ ♪ You are love ♪ ♪ You bring light to the darkness ♪ ♪ You give hope ♪ ♪ You restore ♪ ♪ Every heart that has broken ♪ ♪ Great are you ♪ ♪ It meets your breath ♪ ♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise ♪ ♪ It's your breath ♪ ♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ To you, holy ♪ ♪ It's great are you Lord ♪ ♪ You give life ♪ ♪ You are love ♪ ♪ You bring light to the darkness ♪ ♪ You give hope ♪ ♪ You restore ♪ ♪ Every heart that has broken ♪ ♪ Great are you ♪ ♪ It's your breath ♪ ♪ It meets your breath ♪
♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise ♪ ♪ It's your breath ♪ ♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ To you, holy ♪ ♪ It's your breath ♪ ♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise ♪ ♪ It's your breath ♪ ♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ In our own ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout your praise ♪ ♪ Our hearts will cry ♪ ♪ And these bones will sing ♪ ♪ Great are you ♪ ♪ Lord will lift that up again ♪ ♪ And all the earth will shout your praise ♪ ♪ Our hearts will cry ♪ ♪ These bones will sing ♪ ♪ Great are you ♪ ♪ Lord, come on every voice ♪ ♪ Come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come back to the turn ♪ ♪ Put all the earth will shout your praise ♪
♪ Our hearts will cry ♪ ♪ These bones will sing ♪ ♪ Great are you ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ You hold me to breath ♪ ♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ We pour out our praise ♪ ♪ You hold me to breath ♪ ♪ In the loss ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ You hold me to breath ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ We pour you ♪ ♪ Pour you ♪ ♪ Pour you ♪ ♪ Pour you ♪ ♪ Pour you ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Hold it all that is within me ♪ ♪ Blessed is all we need ♪ ♪ For His love throws forever ♪ ♪ This mercy's new today ♪ # And fill this course with praise #
# Come on church # # Let your voices see # # Praise the Lord # # Praise the Lord # # Praise the Lord forever # # Bless His name # # Let all within me see # # Praise the Lord forever # # If your life's pleasant # # By the word of Jesus # # One, if you waited an expectation # # For a kingdom yet to come # # All your citizens and relatives # # And daughters of the King # # Come on church # # Let your voice and sing # # Praise the Lord # # Praise the Lord # # Praise the Lord forever # # Bless His name # # Let all within me see # # Praise the Lord forever # # For the one who's broken heart # # And it's hard to sing this song # # You've been walking through the valley # # And your faith is feeling small # # I pray peace and love surround you # # With God who understands # # As the family all around you # # It's your own song that you can #
# Why the creation # # With the song of every day # # Come on church # # Let your voice and sing # # Come on let the Lord # # Praise the Lord # # Praise the Lord # # Praise the Lord forever # # Let His name # # Let all within me to sing # # Praise the Lord forever # # Praise the Lord # # Praise the Lord # # Praise the Lord forever # # Bless His name # # Let all within me to sing # # Praise the Lord forever # # Praise the Lord forever # # Praise the Lord forever # (audience applauds) - Now, our question for today as we look at this topic, religion and politics, and for the sake of the city, what does God want His children to do concerning politics, concerning this upcoming election and concerning any elections? How does He want us to view that? How does He want us to engage with that? Or to disengage with that? What does God say? Well, God has a word in His word, Jeremiah chapter 29. It's a verse given, or verse is given,
to God's Old Testament people who had been taken into captivity under King Nebuchadnezzar. You know, Nebuchadnezzar was the big, bad king of Babylon. He came in and subjugated Judah, the nation of Judah. Israel was gone in 722 BC, you know, the kingdom split. You had the northern kingdom called Israel. You had the southern kingdom called Judah. The northern kingdom's headquarters was in Samaria. The southern kingdom, Judas headquarters is Jerusalem. And so we read about the idolatry taking place, and they were wiped out by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. And how the Assyrians did things, they would bring in peoples and intermingle peoples, and so your bloodline would get polluted. And so what do we read about in the New Testament? We read about Samaritans. Those are Jewish half-breeds. Those are Jews that mingled with the Gentiles, and they formed this half Jew, half Gentile, and we talk about the lost 10 tribes of Israel that comes from the Assyrians taking them over in 722 B.C. Now Babylon is 605 B.C. They're the bad boys of the ancient Near East. They toppled Assyria, and now they're the big kings on the block. They come into Jerusalem, and they subjugate Jerusalem, and they take back captives, about 3,000 captives. Of those that went back to Babylon in 605 B.C. Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, but we know those guys better by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And they came back to Babylon in 605 B.C. Well, 597 B.C., Israel is starting to get a little uppity, and Nebuchadnezzar doesn't like it, so he comes back in, and he slaps him around a little bit, and he takes back a bigger group of captives to Babylon, 597 B.C., and that's called the second deportation. First deportation is in 605, second deportation is 597, and then they mess around again, and in 586 he comes in, and he wipes Judah off the map. He tears down the temple, burns it with fire, tears down the wall, around Jerusalem. He just decimates them. Jeremiah, the prophet, he writes a whole book about it called the Book of Lamentations, and he's just weeping as he sees Jerusalem just destroyed from his perspective beyond repair. Well, here we are. The year is about 593 B.C. The second group of captives have been taken back to Babylon, and the false prophets are telling them, "Hey, at any moment God is going to break the neck of Nebuchadnezzar,
and you exiles are coming back to Jerusalem, get your bags ready because it's going to happen." And Jeremiah is hearing from the Lord. The false prophets are not, and Jeremiah said, "It ain't going to happen. You're going to be there for a long time. There's going to be 70 years before God brings you back here." Actually, from the time he told them it was going to be 55 years, so that's a long time. And so this is the word from the Lord through Jeremiah to the people, Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 1. Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exiles, the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Konei and the queen mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen in the Smiths, had departed from Jerusalem. This is after the second deportation in 597 B.C. The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah, the son of Shafan, and Gomoriah, the son of Hylkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, saying. There's a lot of names there, saying. Verse 4, "Here we get into the meat. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Yahweh, Sabeah, the Lord of angel armies, the God of Israel, to all the exiles who may have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses, and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and do not decrease." Kind of like Egypt, when they were in Egypt, they multiplied there, they did not decrease. And then he says in verse 7, "Seek the welfare of the city, where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will have welfare." For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "Do not let your prophets, who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream, for they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them," declares the Lord. For thus says the Lord, "When 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you." For I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me,
and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and then from all the places where I've driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from where I have sent you into exile. Okay, so we wanna look at the parallels between God's Old Testament people and where we are today. It was John R.W. Stott that wrote the book for preachers called Between Two Worlds. And in the book Between Two Worlds, John R.W. Stott, he makes the case, he said, guys, your job as a preacher is to take people into the biblical world, show them what is going on, explain the text, and then take them and take that biblical world and the principles into today. And to show the people how that matters today. What does that say today? The Bible is not just a book that's thousands of years old that just talks about what happened thousands of years ago, or what happened in 593 BC. Well, that does, if it doesn't apply to today, then it's just history. This does apply to today. And so I wanna share three insights, three important insights that we glean
from how God spoke to the exiles and what that means to us today. Insight number one, God wants us to understand our place in the world, our place in the world. You know, Jesus said, my kingdom, he said to Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my followers were fight, but my kingdom is not from here. And some people take that and say, well, you know, the church is not to be involved at all because our kingdom is not of this world. And so we're just gonna go sit in a cave and pray, go to a monastery and pray. We just don't get involved with the world at all. That's not what he's telling us to do. But his kingdom is not of this world. And guess what, that means we are citizens of his kingdom. We belong to him. And so our citizenship, although we live here in America, and although they lived in Babylon, they found themselves in Babylon, their hearts were back in Zion, in the city of the great king in Jerusalem, but they lived in Babylon. And they were gonna be there for 55 years, a long time from the time of the writing until they went back 538, 537, somewhere around that, BC. And so how does that correlate today? Well, Christians are citizens of heaven. The Bible makes that clear.
For our citizenship, Paul said in Philippians chapter three, verse 20, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. How did they get in there? The moment that we received Christ and trusted him as Savior and the Lord, we became citizens of heaven. And because we are citizens of heaven, then we are strangers and exiles here on earth. And the Bible makes that very clear. They were exiles. The Lord speaks to the exiles. They were exiles, living in Babylon. Babylon's a long way from Jerusalem. That's a long walk. And we are strangers and exiles here on earth. The Apostle Peter said this in first Peter chapter two, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, strangers and aliens," is the way the New American Standard puts it, but the ESV says, "sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh, from fleshly lusts which wage war against your soul." You're not part of this world, Peter is saying. You're strangers, you're exiles, you're sojourners. You are foreign to this land, but you find yourself here so abstain from the fleshly lusts that wage war against the soul. We're citizens of heaven. We're strangers and exiles on the earth just as they were citizens of Judah
but found themselves in Babylon. And just like they, God had a plan for them in Babylon, God has a plan for us here. And Christians are here on earth to make a difference. That's why we are here. Now remember this. They ain't but one kind of Christian, and that is a born-again Christian. John chapter three makes that clear. And except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, he cannot enter the kingdom of God, do not marvel Jesus, said to Nicodemus, the most religious man on the earth, do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. We are, as followers of Jesus, twice born people, living in a world of once born people. We have been saved out of this world. He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He wrote our name in the Lamb's book of life. We're citizens of heaven. He saved us out of this world, and then he sent us back to this world to be a witness in this world, to be salt and light. You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world.
Don't let the salt get contaminated, Jesus said in Matthew five. If the salt becomes contaminated, it is good for nothing. If it loses its saltiness and its savor, it's good for nothing anymore except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Don't take your light and put it under a bushel basket. Put it on the lampstand so it can light up the house. We're salt and light. We're to make a difference. Now we know you turn the light on in the dark room, it makes the difference. You put salt on food, makes the difference. You put salt in something and you know it. You put the right amount of salt and it's wonderful. You put too much salt and it's like, wow, that's all I can taste this salt. This is so salty. Salt and light make a difference. The Apostle Paul everywhere he went on his missionary journeys, everywhere he went in life, he was salt and light. And when he went on his second missionary journey, he took Silas with him. And when they went to Thessalonica, Acts chapter 17, they got upset at Paul and Silas. And it was said of Paul and Silas, these men who have upset the world have come here also. Man, what a testimony.
Wouldn't you love to have that testimony that you upset the world? How did they upset the world by being obnoxious? No, by preaching the truth, by letting everybody know that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through him. By telling people that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that the wages have sinned his death, but the free gift of God is eternal life and Christ Jesus our Lord. By letting people know Acts 4, 12, there is salvation and no one else, but there's no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. And in Acts chapter 17, the same chapter of scripture, Paul goes to Athens and he preaches on Mars Hill. And he said, you guys have all these gods and all these altars set up for all your plethora of gods and you even have an altar to an unknown God. You said we might have missed one, so we have this altar to this unknown God. Paul says, I wanna talk to you about that unknown God because the unknown God is the God I know and he's the God who created everything. And he tells them about this unknown God who's the God of the universe. And then he says this, God, this unknown God, he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed,
having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. That man is Jesus Christ. Because that was his message, he was salt and he was light and he upset the world with his preaching and with his life and with the power of the Holy Spirit residing in him and shining through him. But he understood he was a citizen of heaven. He was a stranger in exile here on this earth, but he was called to make a difference. Second insight. God wants us to seek the welfare of the city. As strangers in exiles, he says, okay, now you're here. Seek for the welfare of the city. Look at verse four again. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Bring build houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you Seek the welfare of the city. Seek the welfare of Babylon. Babylon is a pagan place. Yeah? Seek the welfare of that city. Seek the welfare of that nation. In its welfare, you will have welfare. The word seek means to ask, to care for, to inquire. It's a word that means to search. It's a word that is proactive, not reactive. It's the same word used in verse 13, where the Lord says, "If you will seek me and finally meet when you search for me with all your
heart." The word search in the New American Standard and the word seek in verse 7, the same Hebrew word. And that's a proactive word. That's not a reactive word. God says, "If you're proactive and you seek after me and search for me with all your heart, then you will find me." And so they were to do this, to seek for the welfare, the shalom. That's the Hebrew word, the shalom of the city. We know that word shalom means peace. So shalom is a broad word. It does mean peace. It does mean safety. It does mean welfare. It does mean health. It does mean prosperity. It does mean wholeness and happiness and contentment. And so God's exiles in Babylon were to seek that for Babylon. They weren't to pray for the overthrow of Babylon. They weren't to say, "God, we're going to come before you and we're going to try and undermine Nebuchadnezzar and do some things that would hurt the kingdom here." No, they weren't supposed to do that. They were supposed to seek for the welfare of this city in which the Lord had sent them. So I want you to consider, as we think about that, that's God's word to them. That's God's word to us. We're to seek for the welfare of the city, of the city in which we live in, of the state in which we live in, of the nation in which we live. So consider these truths. First of all, all political issues affect the welfare of the city. They affect the shalom of the city. We're to seek for the shalom of the city. And political issues affect the shalom of the city. Think about California. I was born in California. I'm a Californian along with Chris. He's got more of a heart for California maybe than I do because his mom lives there. And I still have some relatives that live there, distant relatives. But California was, that was home. Well, California is a great state. I mean, it's got such beauty in California. It never rains in California. The song says it rains some, right? The girls are there to warn you, something like that. Anyway, there are girls in California. They kind of go together. And California has great weather. California has beautiful beaches. California has beautiful scenes, scenery. It has mountains. You can be up in the mountains and then a few hours later down at the beach. And it's just a wonderful place. A wonderful place that is being governed, in my opinion, this is just my opinion. This isn't from Scripture, it's just my opinion, governed by idiots. They're ruining California. My friend Phil Cook had been in California for a long time. He got out of there because he said, I can't take this anymore. You know, it was Gavin Newsom that was so upset with Donald Trump because of the price of gas. And somebody posted, you know, in Nevada, gas is like 450 a gallon in California. It's like $8 a gallon. That's not on Trump. That's on California. And California has all these things
going on. Did you know in the Palisades, we had the fires in the Palisades? And who would have thought that would have been a fire? I mean, they didn't even fill up the reservoir, you know? And it's just a disaster. All these houses burned. I had 2,600 or so houses burned in the Palisades. It's been... That was in January of 2025. Less than 12 houses have been rebuilt because people have to wade through so much red tape, so much bureaucracy. Listen, all political issues affect the welfare of the city. And all political issues have a moral component to them. They do because you can't get around the morality of the people making decisions. And so they make decisions based on their morality. You think about the decisions that we talk about today that are up for grabs in our nation, that are talked about in the culture constantly, that are argued about in the culture, that are thought about in the culture. Abortion is the crown jewel of the left. I mean, they love abortion. It is sickening, but it is true. They will fight tooth and nail to maintain abortion. We have to be able to abort babies. And isn't it interesting? What do we see in the Old Testament? What do we see with the Pharaoh killed the Jewish babies in the book of Exodus? Too many Jewish boys killed them, killed those baby boys. Moses was spared. They named him Moses because I drew him out of the water. I drew him out of the Nile. But they wanted the Hebrew nursemaids to kill the baby boys. What do you see in the time of Canaan? And as God's people go into Canaan? They have the false gods of the Canaanites, Molech and Kimosh. And how would you worship that false God? You would offer your baby to the God, those false gods. And you can even go online and see with Molech that God has his hands out. And there's an open belly where they would put the fire and you would put your baby in
the fire. You can build that in Scripture, having your sons and daughters pass through the fire. And there was such an abomination to God. Don't ever do that. God dispossessed the Canaanites because of that. And the Jews did the same thing as they would worship the false gods of Kimosh and Molech. Offer their babies in the fire. What do you see in the New Testament? Herod, we come into Bethlehem. What are we going to do? Kill the babies. Kill the nun, do we kill the babies? What do we see today in one political party? Kill the babies. We want to kill the babies. Tim Walz wants to kill the babies, signs into law to take restrictions off of abortion. The governor of Massachusetts signs into law to take restrictions off abortion. You have all these people behind this person signing that into law and they're clapping, they're so happy. It is sick. It is demonic. God says that in Psalm 106, you read Psalm 106, and Lord says, "They sacrifice their sons and daughters to the demons." It is demonic. What is going on? It's the crown jewel of one party in America. Think about socialism. Well, we have a group called the Democratic Socialists of America. And socialism sounds a lot better than communism, but at the big get together for the DSA, just a few months ago, they stated, "What is our goal?"
Communism. They want communism to come to America. They don't like capitalism. They want communism because communism has proven to be such a great thing for the welfare of the masses. Sarcasm there, if you didn't catch it. Communism has killed, according to estimates, up to a hundred million people since Karl Marx, since the days of Karl Marx and all the things that he did to promote that. It's awful. Every political issue has a moral component to it. Think about immigration. Immigration has a moral component. You have legal immigration, you have illegal immigration. Gay marriage. Well, that's an oxymoron. Marriage is between a man and a woman. But the devil's crowd wants to hijack that and push for LGBTQIA+ push that agenda. Well, that's a moral agenda. The trans situation, that's a moral agenda. The way I look at it, and I'm very black and white, as you may know. And so how does the devil work? Well, I want to kill the babies and get people to kill the babies before they're born. And if I can't kill them in the womb, then I'm going to destroy them when they're eight, nine, ten years old. There was somebody on Bill Maher's program, and he was talking about an actor, and he was talking about his daughter has a number of trans friends that are in Bill Maher's house, like really how old are they, seven, eight years old. And Bill Maher, although he's liberal, and although he's an atheist, he hasn't checked his brains at the door, and he realizes he says, "What eight-year-old would know that they're trans?
us that they're trans." And he said, "Oh, yeah. Well, that, because every eight-year-old just, that's who you go to to find out information. Let me ask my eight-year-old." You know, Bill Maher went and said, "You know, when I was seven, I wanted to be a pirate." He said, "I'm thankful that my parents didn't take me to the hospital to get my leg cut off and my eye gouged out." Here, he wants to be a pirate. He thinks he's a pirate. Let's make him a pirate. That is, that has a moral component to it. Law and order, a moral component. Defund the police. Is that a good thing? Does that bring the welfare and the shalom to the city when you defund the police? Well, it brings the welfare. It brings the good news to the criminal. He's all for defunding the police because he wants to commit crime. No, that doesn't help people in general. All political issues have a moral component. And listen, immoral people have a broken moral compass. You can have people that, Robert Jefferson brought this out. He said, "You can have people, and we're all like this because we're all sinners." People who commit sin, and then they're, they're guilt ridden over it. There's feeling shame about it. And that, that's one group of people. And then another group of people that is cheerleading for sin. And they want sin. And they say sin is good. This is what we need to be doing. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 5, verses 20 through 23, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, strong drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away the rights of the ones who are in the right." You know, if you can't define the word woman, you have a broken moral compass. Something's not right in your brain, in your heart. It's, that's not a trick question. What is a woman? Wow, I didn't, I didn't think you were going to ask me that. I mean, up for the Supreme Court, you're going to ask me a question like that. Who could answer that? Maybe a biologist could answer it. I think my five-year-old grandson could answer it. He knows what a woman is, he knows the difference, he knows the difference between a boy and a girl between a man and a woman. Be careful about somebody when they can't define simple things. When people call evil good and good evil, steer clear of that person, steer clear of that party. All political issues have a moral component and all Christians must engage in the political process because
it's moral and because those issues affect the welfare of the city and we are to be proactively seeking the welfare of the city. You know, it was Sir Edmund Burke who said in 1770, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing, for good people to not engage, for good people to say, "Oh, I don't want to have any..." Jesus said, "My kingdom's not of this world. I'm not going to get involved at a friend of mine in college. My roommate in college, he said, "Jeff, I'm apolitical. I just don't have anything to do with politics." Okay, so if everybody does that, every Christian does that, I'm apolitical. I don't want to have anything to do with that. Okay? You can say that. Then who's left to make decisions on the welfare of the city? Not God's people. It would be the Devil's crowd. Well, what did Jesus say about the devil? The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. Is that going to be for the welfare of the city, the shalom of the city? We're commenced to seek that and to be proactive on seeking the welfare of the city. What is good for the masses? What is good for the masses of people in the city, in the state, in the nation? And you say, "Well, I'm going to separate myself from that." Well, then who's left to make those decisions? The Devil's crowd. And he doesn't have a biblical worldview. He comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. We have to engage in the political process. Eric Metaxas wrote the book Letter to the American Church. And you know, he wrote the book on Bonhoeffer. And it was this tremendous book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. So he knows a lot about went on in the 30s in Germany, 20s and 30s, 40s. And he said that Hitler could have been stopped early on. You know, Hitler is the man that is principally responsible for the death of 6 million Jews, 18,000 Protestant pastors in Germany when Hitler is rising to power. Hitler is trying to curry their favor. He gets 3,000 of those Protestant pastors to be for him. 3,000 say no, we're not going to be for you, because you're not going to bring about the welfare of the city in so many words. And so they were against him. They were part of the confessing church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of those. Martin Nymüller was one of those guys.
Those guys were incarcerated for their stand. And you had 12,000 pastors who did nothing. They just said, well, we're just going to zip it. We're just going to go along to get along and get along to go along, and we don't want to rock the boat. We just want to, I mean, we're just here to preach the gospel. We just don't want to rock the boat. How'd that work for you? 17 million dead because you stood on the sidelines, because you said I want to be apolitical, because you said I don't want to get involved. Bill Federer wrote a book, "Silence equals consent," and he is encouraging people, hey, take notes from the founding fathers. Those guys were all involved. You know, the founding fathers, almost 95% of them were self-described Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, almost 94.6% according to David Barton. Those guys were involved. They were active. Obviously, they shaped the Constitution. They put their lives on the line to fight Great Britain. You can't be a coward. You know, the Bible says in Revelation chapter 21, where it's talking about the eternal state, talking about the glories of heaven. We get to see the Lord's face, and then it says this, "But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and immoral persons, and sorcerers, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone," which is the second death. Isn't it interesting, in all those terrible categories, the first one mentioned are the cowardly? You know, I struggle with a lot of things in my life, but by God's grace, I'm never going to be silent and sit on the sidelines. I'm going to stand up and speak up.
I don't care what it caused me, because God has called me to speak the truth in love. And there are those that say, "Well, if you loved people, you were just the approve of what they do." No, it's because we do love people, and we know that that kind of lifestyle is going to bring judgment and the fires of hell. That's why we speak out against that. We don't want people to go to hell. We want people to come to Christ and to be born again. And if a person is going down a road that leads off a cliff, real love does not pat them on the back and say, "That's right, buddy, keep going that way. That's your way. That's your truth." Real love says, "You're going in the wrong direction." And if you keep traveling that way, you are going to die, and not just die in this life. You're going to die forever, and we have to tell them the truth. That's real love. And so we stand up, and we engage, and we vote. All Christians must vote and vote for biblical values. You know, Adrian Rogers used to say, "We hear this, vote values." Well, whose values? You vote for the values of Scripture. You vote for what God says is valuable. What are those who call evil good and good evil? We have to be able to understand and discern good from evil. And when you look at the issues that face our nation and face in our elections, who we're voting for this guy or that guy, well, you can look at the person and say, "I don't like this person very much, but what does he support? What does he stand for? Is what he supports going to bring the shalom for the city, the welfare to the city?" And if he supports things that are going to help the city to flourish versus this other
guy who's going to bring devastation to the city and to the state and to the nation, he supports things that are going to hurt. Socialism hurts the masses. Socialism brings communism, communism brings death. Ask the people in Venezuela, "Hey, how did that work for you?" When you guys went socialistic and communistic. It was disaster, it's always disaster. You don't vote for that because that's going to hurt people. That's not going to help people. And you look at those things, what does this guy stand for? Is he morally inconsistent, does he have things in his life that aren't right? Yeah, do you have things in your life that aren't right? Would you like somebody to go through your life with a fine tooth comb and see if they could find something? You know, we had one guy in Scripture, Daniel, Daniel, chapter 6, they went through his life with a fine tooth comb. They couldn't find anything about it except that he was so committed to his God. I don't think we have any Daniels that are running in politics today. You can find stuff on people. Here's the key. There's the person, is he a cheerleader for sin? Is he a cheerleader for adultery? Is he a cheerleader for transing kids? Is he a cheerleader for fornication and all these terrible things and stealing money? Is he a cheerleader for that? Or is he falling into some of those things? Getting into some of those things and recognizing that's a sin and I wish I hadn't done that is way different than being a champion for those, being a cheerleader for those things. Yes, that's right, walking at gay pride parades saying, yes, this is where we're going as a nation.
You can't say I'm following Jesus and vote for that. That is an abomination to God. And so you have to back up and say, okay, I have to vote biblical values. And I have to seek the welfare of the city, not just the welfare of me. You know, there are a lot of people vote, as Bill Clinton said, it's the economy, stupid. And so you just vote, well, what's going to help me the most? You can't vote that way. What's going to help you? You have to vote what's going to help the masses because it's not about me. It's about helping other people. And then lastly, God wants us to pray for the welfare of the city. He says, seek the welfare of the city where I've sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will have welfare. As the city does well, you do well. As the city enjoys peace and contentment, you enjoy peace and contentment. A rising tide raises all boats. We are to pray. And that word means to intercede, to intervene, to mediate. James 516 says the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Just know this, the problems in our nation, they're spiritual problems. And spiritual problems aren't solved through political means. We get involved. Do we engage? We vote. We vote according to what the Bible says. We're commanded to do how your voice, your vote is your voice. And so if you're going to make a difference in the city, you don't do it by being absent from the things that make an impact in the city, you have to engage in that. But the problem is spiritual. And so spiritual problems require a spiritual solution.
And those answers are not found in a party or in a person, they're founding the Lord. They're founding God. And so we have to come before the Lord. We have to pray. We have to seek His face. Yes, we engage, but more so than anything else. And before we do anything else, we pray. Because as the saying goes, that is so true, you can do more than pray after you pray, but you can't do more than pray before you pray. So we pray for the shalom of the city. We intercede for people. We call upon the Lord. We do what the Scripture says to do when things are disastrous. And God says, "If my people who are called by in my name, if you'll humble yourself and pray and seek my face and turn from your wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive your sin and will heal the land." But if we don't pray, it's not going to happen. We have to call upon God, engage, and pray. Let me close with this story. Erwin Lutzer, who's become a friend of mine. He was the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago for 36 years, pastor emeritus now. He tells the story from an eyewitness in Germany during the Holocaust. I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it, because we thought, "Well, what can we do to stop it?" A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance, and then the wheels coming over the tracks.
We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars. Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels, because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews in route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the train was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly, and soon we heard them no more. Then that eyewitness said to Erwin Lutzer, "Although years have passed." I still hear the train whistle. In my sleep, God forgive me. Forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, and yet did nothing to intervene. May that not be said of you, of me. May we seek the welfare of the city. May we get involved and engage, and above all, pray. Now we come to the most important question of all. Have you turned from sin and selfishness, and given your heart and life to Jesus? Listen, if not, today is the day for you. Just pray this simple prayer from your heart. Lord Jesus, I need you. I know that I'm a sinner, and I can't save myself, but I believe Jesus that you are God in the flesh. I believe you died on the cross from my sins
and rose again from the dead. And right now, I ask you to forgive me, and save me, come into my life, change me, make me the person you want me to be. I surrender my life to you, and I promise to follow you all the days I have left. Now if you pray that kind of prayer and mean it, the Lord will come in, and your life will never be the same. Listen, I would love to hear from you, so please contact me and share with me what's going on so we can pray for you. And if you are ever in the Texarkana area, we would love for you to visit us live and in person at FBC Texarkana. Listen, you really are important to God, and you're important to us, and we're here for you. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) You You
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