Should The Church Be Involved In Politics?

Foreign. Should the church be involved with politics? And, and I, I really designed this kind of my notes that I'm going to run through with you here today. Just to those pastors or to those Christians that think that the church should be completely separate, that they don't get involved with politics, they don't want to attach themselves to politics. And I could understand that to an extent. I actually went into ChatGPT earlier this morning and I just typed in there like, you know, why shouldn't the church be involved in politics? Or why would a pastor not want to be involved with politics? And it spit out a few things for me, and I'm gonna hit those things head on on why I believe it's completely false and inaccurate. And then I'm gonna give us kind of a charge here at the end, guys. So stick with me. I'm extremely excited to dive through this year, but the main question that I want to open up here is should the church be involved in politics? That's the question, right? We're going to cover also what I know is a complete misunderstanding of what the separation of church and state actually is. And really what I believe the Bible tells us to do, right? It tells us to seek the welfare of our nation, right? I think as followers of Jesus Christ, we are to influence culture, not be influenced upon which we see that happening the majority of the time here, right? And we are to hold our leaders accountable. That's what we're called to do. And I'm going to show you scripturally why, why we are called to do that. This isn't just a, an idea, but this is a, a command from God that He. He's given us here to actually walk out, right? The point of Christianity, in my opinion, is not salvation, right? Because Christianity means you've already been saved, right? If the point of Christianity was salvation, then what else is there to do? That's it, right? Like, God, bring me home. I got my, my ticket on the J train, baby. Like, take me out of here. But salvation, guys, salvation. This is just the beginning, right? If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to make disciples. You guys all know the Great Commission. If not, I'm going to give it to you right here, right? It's in, in Matthew 28. I just want to read this thing word for word. It says, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded to you, right? So are we Obeying. If we are solely focused on evangelizing, are we making disciples? I would argue absolutely not. We're making consumer Christians, right? We're making just what I believe is a false doctrine, right? It's. If they think that, if, if people think that they can just actually quickly say a prayer and think like they're getting to heaven, if there's not a change of heart, if there's not a, A, A repentance, right? And, and a change of heart, a transformation that takes place in that human. That, that is a sanctification process, right? It's not like, boom, everything is hunky dory. It is. Okay, I've, I've. I receive you, Jesus. I acknowledge you as Lord of my life, Savior and Lord of my life, right? And at that point, then I'm going to start this process of becoming a disciple. So here's the. The great commission is to go make disciples, not to go make fans of Jesus, not to go make converts to Jesus. We are to make disciples. And that requires discipline, especially from our leaders. And I believe they're missing the boat on this. Wholeheartedly, Wholeheartedly missing the boat. Because the point of Christianity, in my opinion, comes back to the Great. Or excuse me, not the Great Commission. The point of Christianity, in my opinion, comes back to the original commission, right? We, we're about kingdom culture, right? You guys remember the, the original commission? I hope you do. In Genesis 1:28, right? We, God told us to be fruitful, right? To, to multiply, to have dominion. That was his original intent with mankind. Now we fell and we jacked it all up. The, the reality is, though his original design has not changed, the. It has not changed. This is why when we pray what we all know as the Lord's Prayer, he's given us a template to pray from, right? And how do. First, what do we do in that prayer? We first off acknowledge our Father who art in heaven. We know, Lord, Creator, our God, hallowed be your name. Holy are you, Lord. Right? And this. Then what's next, guys? We go into. Lord, we pray your kingdom come, your will be done. Where on earth? Here as it is in heaven. This is about kingdom culture. This is about us being his ambassadors here on this earth to usher in the kingdom. That's what the point. That's what. And I'm going to say this with my opinion, but as I view this through scripture, this is what we are called to do as believers, as followers of, in of Jesus Christ, right? And this is why we, we should be involved in Politics. This is why we should talk about it from the pulpit, right? You don't have to hit yourself to a candidate if you don't want to. Right? But I, I think it's. It's. It's now more than ever, or it has been at least in the last eight years. It is so clear on the policies that each candidate would, Would. Would put into place that who you should vote for, right? So you might not want to say that person's name out loud, but I think you are weak for that, right? Because this is not about partisanship. This is not about Republican. This is not about Democrat. This is about Kingdom, Kingdom culture. And if you're not willing to tell your congregation and just leave an area open for interpretation because they don't like the individual, shame on you. Shame on you. Right? And here's the reason for that. Politics, Right? Politics. Okay, Think about this. Politics affect policies. Policies affect people. And we are called to love people. And so if you don't care about politics, if you don't care about the policies that are, that are going to affect the people of your congregation, do you. What are you doing? Right? If your point is just to spread the gospel, but you're not implementing any Kingdom culture into what you're doing, you're not doing it correctly. I'm gonna be bold with that. Some of you may disagree with me, but I cannot stand this. I absolutely cannot stand this. Here's the reason why. I have a daughter, I have a son, and they are gonna live longer than me, God willing, right? God willing. And I want to leave this earth. I want to leave this earth a better place for them. If I. If we're going to dive into the foundation of America. What. It was the intent of the original founders here, guys. But the original intent was it was they were. We were going to create a moral culture, a place for our kids to have freedom, to have liberty, which is from God, by the way. That. That is from God, right? In governments and monarchies and oligarchies. And all of those have. Have jacked it up over the, the thousands of years, the last couple thousand years, right? Of like, just like more than that even, but just of, of what's happening here. And, and the reality is if you live in America, you are. You are so stinking blessed. You are so stinking blessed. We're spoiled brats here because we have no clue. We have no clue what these people in these other countries, in these other worlds are actually dealing with. With the persecution. And if you're just taking that lightly and you're. You're not involved with politics to maintain that, then you're not doing your job. I got so many more examples that I want to run through with you guys, but this is, this is my heart behind today's episode is, first off, I want to take you guys through the arguments of what some pastors, what some church leaders of why they want to avoid politics. I've met with some because I'm so interested in this. I want to hear what they think. This is why I threw it into chat GPT to get like, what is it that they're possibly thinking and how they could think that to not be involved can be good for their flock. As a shepherd, you are to lead your flock, and if there are wolves amongst your flock, then you're not leading them appropriately. You got to warn them. You got to say, heads up. Hey, over this next bend here, there's some, some wolves. Right? Let's stay together here. Let's. Let's get back to truth. Let's get back to the Bible. Never, never, never, ever sway on teaching the Bible. That's what church is, right? But people need direction. People are idiots, right? God refers to us as sheep for a reason.