Polemics - Discernment - Christianity & Politics: A Marriage Made in Heaven?
Randy Peterman · Dec 27, 2015
Defense of the Faith, No. 50
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926524463579

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

I would pretty much rather not teach this particular lesson ever. The topic is Christianity and Politics, and I have spent more time thinking about this handout and what I wanted to say than anything prior. I have had several conversations with my dad, I've had conversations with other people, and I still don't like it. It's not that it's a bad lesson or a bad topic, it's just mostly that it's very divisive, and I really don't like that. That being said, I wanted to say that Christianity in politics and what politics can cover is a really, really, really broad thing that's way too large to focus in a 45-minute segment. So what we'll do is we'll focus on what does the Bible say about the Christians' involvement and politics throughout the Old and New Testament.

It's just like the principle of how do you identify a counterfeit? Well, you study the original, right? So that you can find the difference. And so we'll try to study the original in this case. What does the scripture say? Because if we look for all the variations, we'll come up short. There's way too many errors to follow.

A decade ago when we taught this class, I had actually mentioned a group called Christian Exodus, and they seemed to be not functioning at all like they used to function. Christian Exodus wanted all the Christians to move to South Carolina. so that they could change the state and make it basically able to secede. They no longer function that way and actually they have a location here in Colorado and South Carolina and Texas. I think they have five locations now that they have for Christians to choose from. So they've changed their strategy which is kind of a strange thing. The idea being that Christians will go make little Christian pockets where we can have our little havens of safety.

So, we should ask, first of all, what is politics? And politics is generally defined as the governance over a group of people. I know that's a very generic statement, but everything that we talk about after this, we need to have the same working definition of politics. There are a million and one political jokes. I won't start with any of those. But what we want to try to address is the confusion that's so often surrounding politics and why that ties in with Christianity. Why is that happening?

The Old Testament folks focused on self-governance until the theocracy of Israel. Israel was governed by God for a while. And then the people got cranky and said, no, no, no, no. We'd like to have a king like the rest of the nations, right? And that worked out well, right? We saw that. They moved from that to wrestling with the carnal leadership of kings. How many of the kings were awesome kings? It's a short list, quite frankly. Even David, man after God's own heart, was a perverse murderer, right? That's a really great attribute to having a king.

We've seen that more recently in the United States, depending on which president you're talking about, right? Sorry, I'll try not to be too political, right? But there's a theme throughout the scriptures, and I want to hit on this. There's the last sentence in the paragraph on Old Testament there in the first section. When people did what was right in their own eyes, wickedness won and sin wreaked havoc. So when we talk about doing what is right in our own eyes, of our own conscience, sin bears its fruit, right? So we have a pattern of the flesh.

New Testament theology is not generally concerned with secular governance. It's strange, to a certain degree, that there's not a lot of speech about government and how the church should interact with government in the New Testament. Why is that? Why do we get more focus on other things in the New Testament? Does anyone want to take a stab? And it's not because Paul was already a Republican. What was the purpose of the New Testament? What were they trying to establish? The church. And that was the focus. So the politics was quite secondary.

And I've got in italics here this question, what does a unified, abiding, mature body of believers across a nation mean in a democracy like the United States? And that is the question that we need to ask ourselves. Not that we can answer it practically in our day-to-day lives, right? Because we're in what I would probably describe as a post-Christian nation now, right?

There's a lot of people who hate Christianity. that are in authority and are influencing the next generation. But that would be a really different political climate, but it's also one that's focused on eternity and not just here on the earth. So let's talk about the history of politics in the Bible. We'll start from Genesis chapter 3 and move our way up into the New Testament.

So the fall happens. Adam and Eve enjoy some of their vegetarian delights, and serpents suggest that they eat the one that they're not supposed to have. And they fall, and division happens immediately. It separates who from whom? It separates God from man, because of sin, right? And had God provided everything that man needed in the garden prior to the fall?

There was no sense of property. There was no sense of evil. There was no sense of death. So all of the things that we wrestle with today as a nation, as people in different groups, all of those things that are often hot topics in politics, didn't exist.

Let's do what God wants to do. Okay. God would come and walk with them in the garden. That's pretty cool. But the politics wasn't there until the fall came, and then man needed to govern himself. And man needed to provide for himself. Remember the consequence of the fall? Labor pain for the woman, having to do gardening and agriculture and work for the man. God speaks specifically to them on those things. And that's when property mattered. Everybody could share in the garden. It turned out everybody was only Adam and Eve at first. But property and possession, none of that mattered. But after the fall, those things became problematic. When Adam and Eve are leaving the garden, and prior to that, God speaks that vegetation or vegetables and the fruits of the trees are the only things that they're supposed to eat. So that's a general rule, and they need to believe God for salvation from sin as a general rule, and that's it. That's the rules. You're going to have to fend for yourself, and you should eat vegetation, and you believe God for salvation from sin.

When you go between Genesis chapter 3 and Genesis chapter 6, when it lists off the genealogies of people, it calls a few people hunters. And those people were, we don't think of it this way because of our modern context normally, but those people were disobeying God's source of food rules. And so that was wickedness. It's recorded there, we don't think of it that way, but it was a disobedience to the very simple rules that God established. The self-governing had only a few limitations from God, but that was one of them. After that, we get to the Flood.

In Genesis 6, verse 5, we find that man does evil continually, which is exciting, because God had made it really simple. They had a knowledge of good and evil, and they still violated their consciences, and they still violated the simple rules God had set up. And so they were doing sin continually.

So how many of you have done very much studying of the covenant that God made with Noah when he got off the ark in Genesis 9. Anybody do a lot of Genesis 9 studying? Because it's really, really kind of cool to see what God establishes there. But one of the things that God says that they can do is they can eat cooked animals for food, and they must have capital punishment for animals and mankind because that is just But that's it.

Again, there's not 613 laws. It's just this very direct statement of what is right and wrong. And biology changes. Animals are finally afraid of mankind. Hunting would have been a lot easier before the fall. That's partially why it's considered wicked. So then we come to Abraham and the establishment of the chosen people Israel. This is where things get interesting. So God is initially the ruler over Israel. What's the problem of God ruling over Israel for the nation of Israel?

Is man made in God's image? But can you go over and talk to God? Can you plead to God and have a face-to-face conversation with Him? No. Can God be persuaded with slick manipulation and can you send money to Jerusalem and Have the lobbyists persuade God Is God fickle like all of the things that are wrong with mankind God doesn't have those attributes and so the nation of Israel is formed God is in charge and then God sets the law in front of them and The law is to set them aside and sanctify them. The law has provisions for inviting Gentiles in to commune with God through the law and being grafted into the nation of Israel.

And God would rule the nation and bless the nation for obedience and punish them for disobedience. But God was in charge and God was impartial and just and righteous. And so the nation of Israel woofed out. They got real wimpy and they said, we would like a king like everybody else.

And what did kings bring into Israel compared to God? Carnality? How many wives and concubines did Solomon have? thousands, too many, non-zero. One wife would be good, but Solomon used marriage and relationships politically, which was disobedient to the law.

So when politics enters Israel, Israel becomes divided. The spiritual shepherds of the nation of Israel walk away and start pursuing legalism so that when we get to the time of Christ, there's two court systems, there's totally liberal and totally conservative perspectives on how you should apply the law, and there becomes this complex dichotomy that is not biblical. not provided for by God's revelation through Moses. And the nation of Israel, just like Adam and Eve, just like the descendants of Noah, still needs salvation. So when we get to Christ, instantly, Christ's life is under attack. He's born, and within a short period of time, the wise men come, and Herod wants Christ killed within two years of his life.

And where does God send Joseph? He sends him to Egypt. Alright, so he gets political asylum. Jesus Christ, the recipient of political asylum, which is something that we don't spend a lot of time talking about, but is an interesting little fact of the life of Christ.

Rome had, I have it in quotes here, unified the Mediterranean, but the unrest was massive and Israel awaited a Messiah that would come in with power and free them from Rome. They had the prophecy from Daniel that the Messiah was going to come, and they said, all right, we're going to have this awesome military Messiah.

And Christ didn't live up to that for them, so they were bummed out, right? But what did Jesus do instead? What was the purpose of Christ? Yeah, he saved us and freed Israel from the law. And the thing that I think is important in recognizing that is what Christ did was above politics. Politics is a consequence of what? Sin and the flesh. Yeah, so Christ said we have to step outside of that. This won't fix itself. This won't get better. Maybe I think it says something else.

Should there be church politics? No, we're going to get into that next. So yeah, church politics is, as it turns out, not a thing either. So when we when we look at the top of page three here, we see it says the church. When we arrive at the church, They're still politically oppressed, and almost all of the writings establish church eldership and deaconship, but no political behavior is expected within the church, except for two things. I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. No political things is expected within the church.

If we look at 1 Corinthians 1.10, Paul says there's division amongst you, and he's shocked by it. He's not okay with just the politics within the church. So the division within the church shouldn't be a thing.

And a very little beyond obedience, as Titus 3.1 says, and prayers, as 1 Timothy 2.1-2 says, is expected for interactions with government outside of the church.

So let's quickly turn to Timothy 2.1-6 and let's take a look at that.

First of all then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Why does he want political peace?

So we can be godly examples. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. So here's political division in the world He prays for peace in that political division so that there can be spiritual division reconciled through the gospel, through salvation. So politics isn't the first concern, it's the gospel. Because the gospel will bring resolution with God. And when there's resolution in God, there can be resolution among men.

I know that's not a very popular opinion. We should probably listen to Rush Limbaugh more or something like that. Morgan? Church politics. Well, let's see here. There's a lot of examples. Let me think of one that's maybe... Recently when we talked about music, I mentioned drums. from the Psalms and some people would leave a church over that and some people would come to a church over that and so that is an example of church politics where it's like we're going to take a stand on a musical instrument like there should only be an organ or you should have no instruments at all some churches believe so that's church politics would be where there's a division within the body based on one particular doctrine, or many doctrines, depending on which church you're talking about. In fact, most of this class has been about division within the church and church politics.

So this is kind of the culmination, I guess, of that discussion. But in 1 Corinthians we're told that we shouldn't have division, and in 1 Timothy chapter 2 we see that the resolution of that division is ultimately in Christ. both for the body and for the world.

That's not shocking for anybody, is it? That Christ is the bringer of peace? No. But the fundamental result of all of this is that the gospel is our weapon against politics inside of and outside of the church. What kind of a weapon is the gospel, right? It's not a military weapon, but it's an eternal weapon.

So as a result of the church being formed, all who believe are to abide. They're to walk in the Spirit and grow in the Lord. And believers are to look after one another. That's an important element, especially when we look at the issues of welfare. and uh... were to be prepared to preach the gospel and a whole bunch of other things obviously the whole point of the new testament is to equip us for those things so it's much deeper than that list any questions on that very fast overview and trajectory of politics within the church before we move on I don't want to move past that. Roy? I'm just wondering, I didn't get to the beginning of the class. Sure. Were you talking about politics in relation to human wisdom? Well, politics are in context.

So first, our definition is a very broad one. Politics is generally defined as the governance over a group of people. We're going to focus on governance inside the church. and governance in the United States for this class, just because our 45-minute window means that we have to ignore a bunch of things to just cover the topic as a principle and look at applications there where it's familiar. We could probably spend months on this, if not years on this.

I don't know about each one of you, It seems like most days don't go by when I'm not confronted by a political issue, whether it's here in the United States or I keep up with news in Uganda where Hassan is at. There's all kinds of things going on over there. And of course, Roy, you've been a missionary with your family, so you've seen politics internationally yourself that has impacted you. You've told me stories of traveling across foreign boundaries with radio equipment and things like that, where the politics and the national agendas of the leadership have impacted the spreading of the gospel. I'm trying to keep it isolated just for the sake of time, but go ahead.

In other words, if you look at Solomon, and I've always wondered, God gave him wisdom. And he used that wisdom, adopted the wisdom of the world, through governance, using the word there, of Israel, so that they would be at peace with other nations, hearing all these lies. That wasn't God's wisdom. And so I'm looking at that, only to use the word politic. And the second half of the lesson I want to focus in on addressing carnal approaches to politics versus what the scripture says about spiritual guidance. So that's a good question and it's a good segue if you'll allow me to move into the next section.

There is a general pattern today that that says that human beings can behave as neutral parties that we are not impacted by our worldview and we talked about this in the earlier part of the of this class back at the beginning of the year and How many of you have have had if you've been selected to go in and be part of a jury? You've been gotten a jury summons. All right, so jury summons comes in and and if you're like me You have sat through at least one of the presentations, maybe you got let out early and you didn't have to hear the presentation, but a judge came into the group of invitees and told us that it was their job to be neutral parties of the law, and that they were supposed to be neutral. How neutral can we be with a worldview and with a sin nature? There's this agenda of neutrality, but we hear it all the time. Instead, we're created in God's image.

We have a sense of ought, and we have a sense of justice. That's always part of that. We want righteousness in others' actions, but we expect our own intentions to justify when we fall short in our own actions. And I think that's an interesting observation. I'm always righteous in my own eyes most of the time, or I can justify to you how good I am. But I'm really neutral most of the time, kind of, sort of.

So we have that playing as a common theme, and it leads into the next section here, which is the rise of humanism. So this nation in the United States was founded While I would be wrong to say entirely by Christians, there was a very strong Christian influence in the beginning of the founding of this nation. But over time we've walked away from biblical truth and humanism has grown in influence. Outcomes of political works are seen as critical along with victory for various man-made approaches to problem-solving. And this is a really important thing for us to observe in politics today. When we talk about the abortion issue, can that issue be neutral? No, right? That's not a neutral issue. And is the problem only a man problem? Is the solution only a man problem?

That it's just earthly? Well, we have a worldview that keeps us from being neutral. We're made in God's image. We have a solution that is only based on biblical truth. So is humanism going to embrace us and the abortion issue? Probably not. But humanism is very confident in the ability for man to solve the problem long-term and that we will evolve into a utopian nation-state eventually. We'll get there. We're getting better and better, right? We'll free ourselves from religion. We'll free ourselves from the trappings of history and we'll get better and better and better. How long do you think that's going to take? How long will the evolution take?

But humanism is focused on a godless perspective and it's growing in popularity and is the most common theme in universities today for addressing a lot of these issues. So a believer is going to have a hard time reconciling humanism with the spiritual truth that's there. But don't worry, people are working on it.

So we have the neutralism and the humanism, and then that leads right into the next section, separation of church and state. So in more recent years, humanism and strong anti-religious sentiments in this country have driven a wedge between the original intent of the founding fathers of the United States and the First Amendment, which states that Congress shall not or shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." So I put the whole thing in there even though we're concerned about the first part. We find that the government may not establish a national religion and it may not prevent citizens from practicing their religion as well as other rights of speech, press, and being able to come to the government for justice.

The more modern interpretation embraces the idea of neutrality and humanism and reinterprets freedom of religion to be freedom from religion. This denies the establishment, which the amendment states, and the practice, which the amendment does not state. And I think that's an important distinguishing element.

What does a Christian look like that is not practicing their faith because they're neutral? What does that look like? What does a Christian look like who's not practicing their faith because they're neutral? They look like what? Corinthians. Yeah, it's a political maneuver and that's a good point. Can we do that in the Spirit? Can the Spirit lead us to neutrality?

And I think the answer is a resounding no. the situation with Kim Davis that happened this year, right? The Supreme Court says, okay, gay marriage is okay, and we've got this gal, Kim Davis, claiming Christ. Was that a political issue or was it a spiritual issue? Well, it's both. It's a trick question, right? But the thing is that Kim Davis is being raised up as a Christian as a figurehead in this political discussion, but let's ask this important question.

Does the state own the principle of marriage? So she was talking about marriage with a bunch of assumptions based on earthly institutions. And then when something went against her religious belief, the earthly institution was still being tied into her angle of things and it was still an earthly problem. Does the Bible define marriage the same way that the government defines marriage? The answer to that is no. The Bible doesn't define marriage as just a simple contract. It's not just a legal contract. There's a spiritual unifying element. We go back to Genesis chapter 2 and we see, okay, the man and wife will become one flesh. Does the same government that Kim Davis works for issue certificates of divorce? There's other issues that come into account where marriage is treated different ways, but this was the place where she became a figurehead because of earthly politics.

So, let's talk about the next thing which I think leads importantly into where we are today in the United States, and that's the issue of winning. How many of you want to have your politician win when you go to the polls next year in 2016? Right? We're told all the time that we should vote for so-and-so, because if we vote for this third party, you will let the other person win, right? Because winning matters. So, I haven't put a link to it here, but there's an interesting chart system that's on the internet that actually shows the political voting spectrum of the conservative and the liberal parties throughout the different senatorial election windows.

And what's funny is after World War II, they're like this. For those of you listening on the internet, my fingers are pretty closely overlapping and intertwined. And the closer we get to 1995, the further and further away the political voting gets. And you look at now and it's very far split apart. And what happened is there was a shift in our culture, and you can go back and I I did a bunch of research on this, you'll forgive me, on Google, but they have this tool where you can start looking for words and see where words start showing up in print and where they start to escalate. And it's not until the mid-60s that the term swing state starts showing up anywhere in print.

And then it's on a massive rise because we have to win. Gotta win. It's all about winning. And so if it's all about winning, how does the church fit in that? Well, you've got to get the church under your platform so that you can win, because you've got a minority group within the populace that will help you win. And so you start saying things like Christian right and Christian left, and you start using words and vocabulary to try to capture mindshare.

Does Paul talk about winning? He does, doesn't he? Does it have anything to do with politics? No, no it does not. Winning the good race has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats or Libertarians or the Constitutional Party or whichever party you affiliate yourself with. But winning is, in our modern context, a very important part of politics, even though it may not be an accurate description of American politics historically. particularly after wars, there seems to be a lot more unity.

So let's talk about the believer functioning, and this is what Roy was getting at. So now that we've hit some secular influences on Christianity, let's talk about what the scripture says, because this is by far the more important of the topics. So the pattern set forth in the New Testament establishes the Holy Spirit as initiator for motive, the Holy Spirit as the empowerer of steps, and the believer as individuals abiding so that the health of the body is so strong that the community outside is impacted. If you look at Romans chapter 12, you can see that Paul starts in chapter 12-1, and it's the Holy Spirit. And then we're proving out the will of the Holy Spirit as individuals.

And then we're taking care of the body. And then at the end, we're trying to be lights to the world. And in 13, he finally gets to government. So the circle expands. But all of those is focused in on the abiding believer as the beginning of the whole sequence of looking at how the believer interacts with the world around us.

So abiding. Everybody comfortable with the word abiding? Do we need to go into that in further detail? Okay, I want to make sure that we're not using words that people are not comfortable with. But abiding is the crux of the issue for the believer because the gospel brings unity. So abiding, if you're not saved, you can't be abiding and there can't be unity. So that's a critical issue.

So we're going to take a brief look at two common misrepresentations of Christianity, and I've seen this over and over again, neither of which is abiding. But they are common scarecrow arguments. So the first one is that Christians should be selflessly generous all the time, and always being generous with their material and their services to the secular world. so that maybe we can preach the gospel. How many of you are familiar with this?

I worked downtown, I walked downtown, and I ran into a couple one time that said, hey, excuse me. And I knew what was coming next, because I'd walked downtown enough to have been proposed to by these people. They don't want money. They just want me to buy them a meal. Now, the thing is that if I had an infinite supply of money, I would kindly buy them a meal, and it would be kind of me to do that, and then maybe I could sit and talk with them. But as it turns out, I have a finite supply of money, and I have a stewardship. We talked about that last week, right? I have a stewardship to my family.

And so I told them I would gladly share the gospel with them and talk to them about Jesus, but I could not buy them lunch. And the guy got really angry and he said, if you love Jesus, you would buy us food because Jesus loved people. He loved his fellow man. And I was sad because I didn't have time for his garbage. So I told him I'm sorry, I'd like to talk to him about it more, but since I told him I wasn't going to buy him lunch, he left and was angry at me. And I was sad for him because I would have loved to have shared the gospel, but I don't have an infinite supply of money.

So that was a personal experience where I was sad because someone had heard this view of Christianity, that we should just be infinitely generous with all of our material goods and not be good stewards with it, because then we can love our fellow man.

Or then there's the other argument that goes the polar opposite, and this tends to be kind of a separatist approach, and that is that God is sovereign and he will provide them with all the food and the clothing and the shelter that they need. and it's not the church's responsibility at all.

Now, if we look at Acts and we look at what's established in the scriptures, the church looks where first? Inside the church first. It doesn't mean that there's nothing that's an outreach outside of the church, but the focus is on the body first. Why do deacons get established?

Because the elders, or the apostles, cannot deal with the teaching of God's Word and feed everybody who needs resources and people who need resources. When we look at Acts 242-47, let's take a quick look at that just because it's one of my favorite passages. Let's ask ourselves, what do we see as far as care for the body is concerned.

Acts 2.42-47 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." Were they giving their resources away to just anybody?

No. They were taking care of the church first. But they were doing that, and what was the consequence? the Lord was adding to their number, because they were abiding, they were unified, and they were caring for one another, and they were loving in such a shocking way that the secular world couldn't believe it. And what happens when you're saved and you get to learn about abiding? Well, you get to be part of that same process, and it's cyclical in a good way, and it grows, and the church grows, and the provision takes place.

But it's internal, not just purely external. But we have to ask this important question. Is it sinful for the believer to give material resources outside the church? I've got some head-shaking no, and some stronger than others, but it's definitely no, it's not sinful. But it's one of those things where, how will you know if it's the right thing for you to do?

You'll be abiding, and the Holy Spirit will move in you, and you will feel the unction in the direction of the Lord, and you'll know, that's what I need to do. And sometimes the Holy Spirit will say no, and that's okay as well, because he's got a plan for the resources and the needs that are inside of the body.

So when we look at abiding and we look at what goes down, what we come back to is the preaching of the gospel, is the critical movement of the Spirit. Who does the Holy Spirit draw attention to? Christ. And Christ draws attention to the Father. And so, here's the Holy Spirit moving in the body, and the gospel gets preached. Not shockingly. We're not surprised in Acts that that takes place. Is it political? It's not political. Does it have a political impact? Absolutely. but the impact is not politically focused, it's secondary. It happens outside of those things.

So we preach Christ crucified, then we teach, we edify, we look after, and we care for one another so that the gospel may be our focus, not worldly possessions, which will be destroyed. But we do have a stewardship over. The Church rejects human solutions to human problems brought about by human sin, and we look for the eternal solution. So I've got a list here which is the priorities we have as believers.

We've been over this in multiple classes, but I think it's worth noting in this context because we have a responsibility in our relationship to the Lord first. If that's not healthy, nothing outside of that is going to be operating in a healthy way as well. So after our relationship with the Lord, we have a relationship with our family, and that includes related stewardship. I used to make a longer list of priorities, and my dad, I don't know how many years ago it was, brought attention to me the fact that actually my job is part of my stewardship to my family, because I have to provide for them materially and I need to take care of them. But if I just make my job the priority, then I might abdicate my responsibility for finances or education or raising my children and teaching them spiritual truth. So it's complicated, but that's kind of one big glob of stewardship and responsibility as a priority. and then our relationship with the body of Christ, and then our relationship with those in the world.

And that's an important list of priorities, because when people come for you for your political resources, and they come for you for your spiritual resources, and your intellectual resources, and your material resources, you need to know where it fits in this list. And you need to know that you've taken care of all of the other items on the list, so that you can actually address with an answer that takes into consideration what is the most important thing. If I look at my daughters and I think of them as not as important, we would all identify, Randy, you're probably making a bad parenting decision. But if I look at my time and how I'm spending it, I might be making bad parenting decisions even though I think they're important. the decisions will come in. Hey, Randy, do you have time to get together for coffee for me? I love to say yes to that every time.

So if anybody wants to go to coffee or lunch or whatever, let me know. I'm game, okay? Wayne, you live down the street. Call me. But the thing is that if I ignore the other elements of my stewardship and I don't have time in God's Word, that's the first problem. I've got to start there.

Then I can look to my family, and then after I've made sure that I've got appropriate time for my family, then I can start to look and say, hey, somebody asked if I could go to coffee. Jessica's probably got hundreds of times where I've texted her, is it okay if I go do something with so-and-so? Can I do that? Because, as it turns out, she's part of my pulse on my family, and she's part of my family, so I have to look after her with a stewardship. Randy?

Yes. We think about, you're talking about your responsibility. Yeah. And your stewardship. Yeah. There's another side to that. The wife also has a stewardship. Absolutely. It's very similar, but there's one thing that comes to my mind often. There's a verse that says, thy desire shall be satisfied. And I'm kind of, what does that really mean? I'm not sure that I've figured out. But it seems like a woman always, she's insatiable in the sense that she always wants her husband's attention.

Yeah, that's very true. If she has that, it seems like then maybe some of the material stuff isn't quite so important. That's very true. And then that can work the other way. If material stuff is all she has, then she's still unskissful. She can't do much of anything.

And so as a man looks over his stewardship with his wife, maybe we need to help each other understand, especially young people getting married, that you're not going to satisfy your wife. Yeah, it's not ignoring that unity that's there. And with that, as a woman, in the Lord, my first priority is the Lord Jesus Christ. If I was a woman and my husband was working, yes, he gets to be with me. But that doesn't mean, in the Lord, and as a woman, my focus needs to be spot on the Lord Jesus Christ to be taken care of in every requirement and need that I may have.

Sure. Well, and that's... Well, just because my scholarship is to my husband, to God, to my husband and to my family. Yeah. If you fail with your scholarship, then that is what you should be on. Yeah. And so, you know, for a woman, I mean, the controlling part of my life is... Yeah.

Well, and that's where we as husband and wives draw our focus to Christ, right? And our marriage becomes focused on Him, and then we draw our children in. Abigail, I don't know how many times has had to deal with me Jesus-juking her and bringing things to Christ again and again. then our relationship in the body and all those things. But when those things are addressed and properly aligned, then the political arena that comes around us and is in the world that we face has a context that we see it as lower priority.

I was telling my parents actually at Christmas dinner, our dinner had just finished, that I remember as a teenager going home and on television would be Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh would, it was his job, really, I mean that's why he's getting paid, to get me worked up. Right? I'd turn on Rush Limbaugh and he'd tell me how I should be angry at somebody who had a D after their political affiliation, right? So that I could know they were a Democrat and they were from Satan. He never used that term. Well, maybe he did.

The point for me is I had probably, in my immaturity, a lack of understanding of what my priorities were and this thing that was on the television passionately got me all riled up and I'd go to work and I'd talk to my conservative co-workers and we would be angry together and it was fantastic because we had a common enemy but it wasn't spiritually aligned with what the stewardship that God had established for me as a believer and it took me quite some time to figure that out fortunately I did figure that out but It's very easy to turn on the radio or the television or read the news and see the political stuff that's clawing for our attention and asking us to re-prioritize with our feet, with our wallets, with our voices, with our Facebook accounts, all those things. But they're not spiritually directed.

The last The last two sentences of this section, before it says, there are no Democrats or Republicans or Libertarians in eternity, is that liberty should lead to permission to share the gospel. We have the liberty to share the gospel in this country, still. But oppression should equally lead to the sharing of the liberty of the gospel. The lost person needs the gospel. In the Middle East, the gospel is a secret, right? It's not. The gospel is preached over the airwaves. There's Christians that are being oppressed, but what they do is they end up losing their lives because they shared the gospel, because it's that important. So the last section here, and that was the last bell, Fundamentally, the eternal perspective that the believer is to have is one that recognizes God's plan. God is sovereign. God has an eternal plan.

He's going to wipe out this earth, isn't he? There will be no sin. The fall of Adam will be entirely erased, and I'm good with that. Even as cool as it is to have the Rocky Mountains at our disposal. We're not to walk in the flesh, we're to walk in the spirit, and in the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no carnal nature. And that's a powerful thing. All of this political realm will be done away with, and it has some earthly impact, but it has no eternal value.

And I think that's the thing that, as I was looking at this, and looking at the nature of politics, we're told all the time how we should make politics a priority. But that is not what the scripture lays out. The gospel, our abiding in Christ, those are the priorities. Any other thoughts and questions, including that I'm entirely wrong and I should never have said any of those things? We could have a political discussion about it. I've got Wayne and Morgan.

I was thinking that you brought up this jury thing. I noticed when they were questioning those of the protective jury, the prosecution would deal in, these are the facts, and they would ask people about what they thought about the facts. But the defense attorneys got up there and they're leaning more towards feelings. How do you feel about this guy if he's a business, you know? And it's true even With the belief that these are the facts, and all the rest, politics and all that, are feelings and opinions. And as long as we deal in the facts of the scripture, we're not going to have to worry about opinions.

Alright, well there's folks, that's the second bell and we should close. Thank you everybody who's been coming faithfully to this class. It's been really cool to participate as a teacher and as a student. So, thank you. We'll close. Heavenly Father, thank you for your provision in these things and for drawing us back to the critical issue of abiding and the critical issue is believers being directed by your Spirit, whether it's for political purpose or anything else. We thank you for this time and the truth of your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.