More | Week 4

did a sermon. Fast forward a little bit. I did a sermon last year right before the right before the election.

And and I just saw how everyone was getting so fearful. Like, this person gets elected, you know, the world's gonna explode. And then everyone else sing about the other person and all of that. And and that was just my kids arguing. And

and I was like, people seem to be so filled with fear and frustration. So I did a sermon that was more on fear. It wasn't really a political talk, but in it, I did say something. I didn't didn't try to make any political points, but I made a few points about politics.

And one of them I said is, you know, Jesus isn't a Republican, and he's not a Democrat. He's King of the universe.

And and and if you it doesn't matter who's president if you know who's king. That that's as far as it went. And I talked about fear. So then I I walk out into the lobby afterwards and a person comes up to me and says that was amazing. And I'm like, stop. Stop. You know. No. No. Just kidding. But they were they they said it was really cool. They learned so much and they go, every person on the planet should hear that message. And especially every Christian better hear that message. Because then they would know beyond a shadow of a doubt how obvious it is that everyone needs to vote for and then said a name of one of the candidates.

And in my in my head, I thought, that's not what I said. Matter of fact, I I thought to myself, that's the opposite of what I said. It couldn't have been further away. So I look at this person, I say, so you you were in there? And they go, yeah. And I go, okay. The whole time. Yes. You heard the whole message.

I did. And I'm like, really? And I just locked up. I go, I don't even know what to say. So then I found myself going, bless your heart. I thought I would never use that phrase, but it got used. Only time I ever said it, so if I said it to you, you were the person.

Sorry. But but you know what? It hit up against one of my biggest fears, being a communicator. There's always a risk of of of whenever you try to speak, someone can can can they can hear what you're not saying.

They can hear what something you're not saying. And sometimes the reason is because we have an incredible ability to hear what we wanna hear sometimes. And so that's always the paranoia for me when I get up and talk, is that people will hear what I'm not saying. And certain topics

make me a little bit more scared about that. A little bit more scared like, you know, don't care about my grammar, forget about that. But hear what I don't hear what I'm not saying because there like to be liked. I don't like to be unliked and I really hate to be unliked for something I didn't actually say.

But I I I get really paranoid about it, but on some topics, but you know, I'm still gonna say it because courage and and all and it's my calling. But today's topic, where we're gonna be at in our series, is one of the ones that it is gonna be so easy for you to hear what I'm not saying. And it and it kinda scares me.

So so I just wanna pray before we get into it. Father God, it's simple. May we hear you and not me today, so then people can blame you and not me. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. There you go. Let's keep it simple.

We're in this series called More. We've been going through this book called Ecclesiastes. It's kind of an autobiographical journey of a guy named Solomon,

who was one of the kings of Israel. He was the wealthiest man who ever lived and the smartest man who ever lived. And what he took that wealth and power and and intelligence, and what he decided to do is go on a journey through life and and try to find out the meaning of life. What what things can I pour my life into that'll provide satisfaction and meaning?

And it's interesting, this was written almost three thousand years ago, the things he went after are the same list of things that we constantly still go after today to try to find meaning. And what he discovered was it doesn't matter how much you get of it, Doesn't matter how much more fun you have, how much more work you do, how much more pleasure you have, how much more of anything,

more ends up being less when it comes to satisfaction. Now this list is not all right versus wrong. This list is filled with things that are gifts of God. They're like, you know,

having money is a gift from God. Working is a gift from God. What we're gonna talk about today, a gift from God. And he's not saying that these are necessarily wrong. It's just that when you try to replace God with them, when you try to go after significance and real meaning in life with these things, what we end up doing is we get dysfunctional

and we go after more and more and more and that gets us less of God and really less satisfaction. That's the summary of the whole series so far. That's what we've been looking at. And we've been looking at these different things and they're the same usual suspects. Well, today we're in chapter four

and I'm just gonna tell you right now, he goes after politics. He goes after political activism. Meaning I'm going to find meaning through a political agenda and changing things through leadership in my community and all that. But here's the first point. See somebody like, what's going on? Don't hear what I'm not saying.

I'm not gonna make give you one political opinion of mine today, which might make you mad. Some of you might be mad that I want a pastor that'll be political. Because it's not my job to give you my opinion. It's my job to give you Jesus. Okay? And so just know that when we look at this, understand

I am not gonna say that being politically involved is wrong. I'm not gonna say that political activism is bad. It's like everything else we looked at. Having a job. It's a gift from God, especially in our culture. We live in a country where we are invited and actually encouraged to be good citizens.

And God has given the gift to say where we can be politically involved in our communities and have a say and really change things. Did I am I gonna say that that being involved in voting and and and having an agenda is bad? No, it could be good. I think we're called to do that. Don't hear what I'm not saying.

What I what we're going to see here is if you are trying to find your security, your stability, and your satisfaction from public programs and leadership and votes and laws and regulations and all that, It's not going to work. What we're about to see is is this. It's Jesus' actions, not our activism,

that really is the source of our stability, our security, and our satisfaction. Okay. Did you hear that? Good. Let's open up to Ecclesiastes chapter four. It's a simple little story, but it says a lot. Ecclesiastes chapter four, Solomon goes after another thing. He's calls it the futility of political power.

In verse 13, he says this, it's better to be a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who refuses all advice. Such a youth could rise from poverty and succeed. He might even become king though he has been in prison. So what basically he's telling a story. We don't know if this is actually autobiographies.

He's referencing a real person or not, but most likely he's telling a story. He's trying to prove a point, and he's he's laying aside. He's putting down two different characters that end up with political power, that end up in leadership.

And and he says that you're the old wise king, the old king that's become foolish, and this guy is kind of king that's been wealthy, is always wealthy,

kind of like, you know, kind of the, you know, that some of those families that they just always have, you know, like the Kennedy family or, you know, they're just they have the money, they have the power, they're they're always in there. And this guy gets the power and he's king, but now he's older. He's not really listening to too much. And and and now you have a younger guy that comes along with ideas that he comes from poverty. He comes from the other side of the tribe. I didn't grow up like you. I grew up over here. And so he has ideas that are very different. A matter of fact, it kind of implies that he might have been imprisoned

by the other king because he has ideas that are different. And he says, but he might rise up and now culture has changed and everyone's like, you know, we don't like your ideas anymore. You we want you out. We want him in. That's what he's saying.

Okay, does that make sense? You with me? Nod if you're with me. Okay, good, good. Because if I lost you right there, we're in a world of hurt for the rest of this sermon. He goes, but then everyone rushes to the side of yet another youth who replaces him. That guy didn't last long. Endless crowds stand around him,

but then another generation grows up and rejects him too. So it's all meaningless like chasing the wind. Do you realize what he just said? He just said that if you think real satisfaction of long lasting of any kind of eternal change, and not even just eternal, if it's just gonna last for very long,

if you put all of your eggs in that basket, you're going to be disappointed

because what he's saying is, what's the popular? Everybody knows this is what we need. This is our savior politically. This is the leadership we need and then like all of sudden another generation comes on and this guy that can be completely different with different ideas, now everyone's behind him. He's like, this is the answer. And then guess what happens? Here comes another guy and it changes again.

He's saying you're gonna we're gonna be really frustrated if you think having a political agenda is really gonna enact. If you think our political activism and and what we do, you know, as governmentally and as a people is going to really solve our problems at the deepest core level and really answer our longings,

you're gonna be really really disappointed. Because values and leadership is fickle and it changes all the time. I challenge you, man. You know, I I minored in history.

Go back and if I could have put it up here for you and just said here is what the Republican and Democratic Party stood for in the eighteen sixties. And if I didn't put the name on the top for each, you would be shocked to find out that in the eighteen sixties, they're exactly opposite of what they are today.

They have flip flopped

what the Republican Party stood for in the eighteen sixties and what the Democratic Party stands for today and vice versa. Then going into the early nineteen hundreds, they became the same thing. They actually, if you look at what they stood for, it's like, why is there even two parties? They're like, they're pretty solidly in the same but then what happened when they're the same? Apparently, the Democrats had the better looking people that can communicate better. So, they started winning more of the elections. So, right around the time

Roosevelt became president and brings in the new deal, they decided we gotta gain some traction, so we're gonna reject that. And they started going the other way. You didn't know that, did you? Because what Solomon said is true. We're in Groundhog Day, and we're a current generation. No, no, no, That's just lame. We need to go this way. When thirty years ago, it was exactly the opposite.

And if you think politics is the answer, you're gonna get really disappointed. I mean, I've learned this. My my I don't know if you heard there's a new Marvel movie out right now.

I don't know how I missed that. Did they market that? I I don't know. But but you know those Avengers, I I really like them. My favorite character is Captain America. I I like them. And what's interesting about his character is he grew up, know, born 1917,

went off to World War II. He had all these values that this is what our people believe, and he was just a good guy. And matter of fact, the comic book guy who invented him said he is an act Christian. He's a Christian with these values. And the story goes, he gets frozen in 1945,

wakes up seventy years later. And I love in one of the the first Avengers movies, he get he goes when he wakes up, he goes, hey, when I woke up, they told me we won the war, but they didn't tell me all the things we lost.

And he's called a man out of time. Not that he ran out of time, but he just feels he's really wrestling with how I believe in these values, but

I wake up seventy years later and it's nothing like what I value. Everything I fought for is completely different. You realize you don't have to get frozen in ice. If you live long enough, you saw this happen. My dad was a perfect example. That's why I think I like Captain America. He reminds me of my dad.

My my my dad was like a super soldier. You know, he he grew up in the same era. He had all these values. We skipped a generation in my house. So so, you know, I grew up with a dad that says, I walked uphill too, both ways to school in the snow, and we were in the depression and all these things

and he fought World War two and Korea and Vietnam and as he got older, he started to say, what is wrong with people? He added a lot more colorful language in there but I can't put it in church.

He even described, it's like, you could tell how our values changed by the way they treated me every war I came home from. First one, parades. His entire train ride home from across the country didn't pay for a hotel room or a meal. Second one, free meals. No hotel rooms. No parade. Third one, when he retired to Vietnam,

he had people yelling at him that he's a baby killer. And he's like, I fought three wars for this.

If he didn't know Jesus and he knew this is not where his eternal significance and identity comes from, my dad could have been a very bitter Captain America.

But you know what? He knew what he did, and he was proud of what he was proud of. And he knew the things he did accomplish something in the moment. I saved lives.

He he did some things, but if his plan was this was gonna be an eternal change, something we won the battle and it's over with, now look what we did, we changed the world.

He was gonna be a extremely bitter older man. But he wasn't because he knew it was Jesus' actions and not his activism that the world really gets security. It really gets stability and it really gets satisfaction.

You see, that's what Solomon is saying. If you put all your eggs in that basket, it's gonna get really sad when everything you battled for, all of a sudden, all of culture goes the other direction on you. And then the second thing is what I already said was,

it will never fulfill the longing for what you're trying to find in it.

Many people we get so active politically because we think that's where I'm gonna get my satisfaction. That's where I'm gonna get this. That's where I'm gonna be safe. And a lot of us, that's where I get my identity. That's where I get that. And a of us have wrongly connected our political agenda. We we our our our politics is our theology.

And as Christians, we're supposed to let our theology inform our politics, but not the other way around.

And and and so he's saying that that you can get so much and then you go after more and more and more thinking we're gonna solve all the problems, we're gonna get there, we're gonna do that, and boom, and then you're gonna be depressed because there was no meaning in that in the end. But once again, don't hear what I'm not saying. Did I just say, as Christians, we should not be politically active, we shouldn't have an agenda, we shouldn't be pro something. We we shouldn't speak out for things. No. We should. We we we should. Especially because what the scripture say, I'm not gonna read all. You can go to the New Testament. Romans 13 is is a good passage. There's all these passages that talk about god calls us to be good citizens,

to honor the authority. And we happen to have the gift of being in a country where we are encouraged to be informed and active in our political process. We have political power in our culture. And Jesus calls us to use that,

to steward that, to be involved. So I'm not saying don't be involved. It's not the what, it's the how and the why. Why are you so involved and how do you go about doing it? In other words, do I spend more time arguing and talking to my friends about the political savior we need to back

than I talk about the personal savior that everybody needs? How much time do you spend studying about political saviors? How much time do you spend with your personal savior?

How much how many conversations do you have with people that are broken and separated from the eternal God, but you want to win them over to your political agenda instead of pointing them to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. Paul actually said this to Timothy when he said, hey, to stay on mission as a follower of Jesus.

Stay on mission, which is to share the gospel with a hurt and dying world because that is the answer. And and and he said, be like a good soldier. A good soldier does not get sidetracked by civilian affairs.

Doesn't get distracted. You have to deal with him, but you don't get distracted by him. And what he was saying, the same thing to you and I as Christians is the political power base, that's a civilian affair, and we have to deal with it. But that's not the end game. Don't let that sidetrack our primary mission, which is to point people to Jesus.

But some of us, do we spend more time and get more frustrated listening to a news anchor? We react to that more than we react to reading the word of God?

If any of those describe you, you might have a problem with putting too much emphasis on what you think politics will actually accomplish. It can accomplish a lot of things. God created government and he gave us the gift of being in a country where we are invited to be active in that government and we should be. But

the problem is, do you think active in our government is the answer for all the problems in the world and the focus of all your time? If you do, there's a problem. Because it's Jesus' actions, not our activism, that's gonna keep us safe, secure, and stable, and satisfied. It doesn't matter what's happening around us.

And then the real thing I want to say to to to the church here too is what what I think Psalm is hinting at and what you get into the New Testament, if we're really followers of Jesus, it does say they will know we are Christians by our love, not by our legislation.

I'll just leave that there. Think about it. Jesus is the rock that the church is to be built on. He's not the rock that we're supposed to throw at everybody else. And the problem is when we put political activism ahead,

and if we have the wrong view of it, if we do what every other week I talked about, especially with work last week, I can get totally involved. But if if I try to make it work for what it was never meant to work for, that won't work. Same thing with this. Same thing with this. And when I get overly involved,

I get really emotional. And I've seen so many believers like we fight and what's your attitude? When you have when you are involved and you are active in the political process and and you're talking to people and you're on social media and all that stuff, go look at the way you present yourself.

We should present our political view, but they need to see Jesus. So when you present your political view, does who you're presenting your political view ever see Jesus? Or do they see a very frustrated arguing person that makes them go, this is the problem with Christianity.

All they are is the conservative subset of the Republican Party. Is that what we're doing? Or do they need to see Jesus?

Your politics that you care about, I don't care what they are, but what what what you think is important. If you are a Christian, have you ever connected the dot of how is that pointing people to Jesus? Because if not, you might have a problem. You you might have gotten off mission. And a lot of your frustration

might be coming from you're putting your hopes in something that it can't ever

give you. And problem is when we go after more, like Solomon said, it gets very frustrating. And what happens when we we get more and more involved, more and more involved, and then I see so many discussions politically when we lean in and said, it's filled with fear? Because fear is is is the definite fuel in politics.

Mean, think about it. That's why there's so many negative ads. You could say a bajillion positive things, but if you can prove one negative thing, got so much further because it's fear based. We have to do this or else we're gonna lose everything. We have to do that or what does it go? It's all fear based. It's what did Jesus say if you have faith? What does faith cast out? Fear.

So if you are so fearful in your politics, guess what ain't in your politics? Faith. And and and so fear gets involved. And when fear gets involved, we get frustrated

because like what's happening? If this goes this way, I'm in trouble. It's gonna, and then we get fixated on that and we're worried about our security and then we get argumentative and then we get angry and then a guy gets up and preaches to me and says I shouldn't be doing that and now I'm mad at that guy.

Because what does he know?

That's what Solomon that's that's kinda so here's what I wanna do to kinda kinda help us turn this around and get to a a good place on what I'm really trying to say. Here's what I'm trying to say.

Let's turn to to to a New Testament passage. It's gonna seem a little different, but exactly what I think needs to happen. It's in Matthew chapter 16.

And it's happening just after, Jesus had fed 4,000 again, and they, you know, they collect leftovers, and then the leaders come and say, okay. Okay. Okay. You did that. You you you're the Messiah. Okay. Great. If you really are Messiah, if you're really God and a bod that's come to save us, they give us some more miraculous signs.

Give us more proof. Give us more. Give us more. Give us more. And the reality is a lot of these Jews, they wouldn't accept them because what they wanted more signs of is you realize why so many Jews missed Jesus. Matter of fact, when he started, he got huge crowds because he was healing people and feeding him, and they came and they wanted to make him his king. The problem is they wanted to make him the burger king. They're like free food, free he's solving our problem. So they started following him. But then when he started talking about death and sacrifice and taking up your cross and all these things and he says my kingdom's not of this world. And they started going, woah, This does not sound like a guy that's gonna start the rebellion that's gonna get rid of Rome.

They thought Jesus was gonna be a political savior. And when he made it really clear, that's not my agenda, that's not my agenda. He did a lot of social justice, but his agenda was not that.

His agenda was the problem with the whole world, the brokenness and the sin. And when they realized he's not gonna get rid of the old and bring in the new, people left him in droves and then questioned him because they were looking for the wrong thing.

Some of us are still looking for political saviors. We say we believe in Jesus, but then we argue and fret and worry and and we go, if we don't get this president, if we don't get this way, our values, we're losing our Christian values. We gotta get these laws passed or this guys, guys, you don't legislate people to Jesus. You

realize when your laws change, that's because your values change. And the laws don't change so long after the values change. We lost the values of this society sixty, seventy years ago easily.

And we're not gonna get it back by getting our people and our laws enacted all the time. That's not and then arguing and getting mad and throwing rocks at the culture. We're not at war with the people out there. We're at war with the brokenness that's out there.

The only way you change it back if you want long term political, any kind of changes, you get people's values to change. Once the values change, laws change. And the only way you get people to change values to biblical values is they need to know Jesus. And the only way you can show them Jesus is through love.

And so here's what's happened. They're arguing. They want more signs and all that. And then all of a sudden in verse five, it says, later after they crossed to the other side of the lake, the disciples discovered they had forgotten to bring any bread.

Watch out, Jesus warned them. Beware of the yeast to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So he's given them a spiritually. He's like, hey, you're talking about bread, you gotta watch out for these false teachings. These guys want a political savior. These guys are legalistic.

These guys are about themselves. These guys are not about what I'm about. They don't get it. You gotta watch out for that. But guess what guess what they do? Verse seven. At this, they began to argue with each other because they hadn't brought any bread. Does that not sound like every road trip you do with kids? Hey,

guys. Remember, it's this. Okay. They go right back. And he says, Jesus knew what they were saying. So he said, you have so little faith.

Why are you arguing with each other about having no bread? Don't you understand even yet? Don't you remember the 5,000 I fed with loaves, the baskets of leftovers you picked up, or the 4,000 I fed with the seven loaves, the baskets of leftovers you picked up? Why can't you understand that I'm not talking about bread?

Basically, he's like, why do you keep hearing what I'm not saying? So I'm in good company. Jesus even had it happen.

And and he says, so again, I say, beware the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They said they finally get it. Well, just to make sure they get it, these things are all connected. Jesus takes them someplace next.

And it says, when Jesus came, they came to the region of Caesarea Philippi. So now they travel on. They go from this argument. They just don't get it. They're about the everyday problems, the bread. And we want bread. He's like, don't you know I'm king of the universe? If you need bread, you'll have bread. What is your problem? I'm where the satisfaction comes. Why are you arguing with each other now about the lack of bread? Isn't that exactly what we do as Christians?

Whenever we hate the political agenda that's going on, and then one of us has a little bit of a different political idea, which in this room, you'd be shocked at how far apart some of our political ideas are. And I love that in this church. You know why? Because you don't need to be on the same political agenda to have the same personal savior to know who Jesus is. And that's why I preach it that way. But what's funny is we wanna argue with each other over that because there's not enough bread. And we need more bread. And we gotta have bread. And we gotta have this. And then Jesus said, guys, I'm right here in the boat.

And remember all the stuff I can do? Does that make sense now? That's what he's saying. So he takes him to Caesarea Philippi. I've been there. Anyone else been to Caesarea Philippi? Been there a couple times. And and and and and I I wanna show you a picture here.

There's my son and I in the middle. I am obviously the better looking person, but can't see our biceps. Mine are much bigger. Make sure you tell him that. He jokes with me all the time. Just kidding. But here is this this region. It's it's near the Sea Of Galilee. It's in in Israel, but it is a Roman city. It was.

And and it had a very interesting setup. Over here, you walk around there and you'll see all these things. These are these shrines. And they have all these shrines and some of them little seating areas in front of them and and the more important gods have bigger areas. And and these are the gods they worship and and and they bring and it's all over the the hillside. Like and and if you look back there as you're walking around the steps, little people over there, they're walking around. The biggest god, the biggest shrine there that they worshiped at this time was was Pan.

And Pan was was the god of of sex and partying. Basically, he was the god of of sex, drugs, rock and roll. And you think, they're so stupid. They worshiped a god of that.

The only difference between them and our culture now is they were honest. They just said, we're worshiping it, so we're just gonna call it a god. We worship it, we just won't call it our god, but we do and and and so they had these these gods they worship and this is a very paganistic

city in the middle of it's in Israel. So, imagine Jesus taking these disciples, these fishermen and business guys from the Galilee region and a couple of his disciples are zealous. They hate Rome. They hate all these they want them gone.

And he pulls them into this city and sits down in the middle of it, would have been down below where my son and I are there, he's

gonna have a conversation with them. And also what's interesting is that cave over there, which here's a picture of it when you look into it, it was filled up with water, but you look further down. If you look in this cave, it kinda drops off. They believe that that was the gate to hell.

Not just mystically, they honestly believed that was the gate to hell, which is interesting because it's so beautiful there. Whenever you hear someone say a gate to hell, you're thinking some horrid looking place, it's beautiful. But doesn't that make sense? Wouldn't a gate to hell really be pretty?

And and and so that's the gate to hell. So Jesus is sitting down below that, he brings all of his Jewish disciples

who hate Rome, and a couple of them are like, I'm only following Jesus because I want him to start a war. And and and there we gotta get changed because we're we're overwhelmed by Rome. We don't like Rome. This is an oppressive governmental system and and we can need to get back to our values. We need our country back.

None of that sounds familiar to anyone that says those things today, right? They would have been in this situation. He takes them there, and he sits them amongst this. All these pagan people walking around, and look what he says. He says, who do people say that the son of man is? Who are people saying I am?

And look at their answer. It's interesting. Well, they replied, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. Do you notice something about all those answers? Those are all Jewish answers. I guarantee 90%

of the people walking around the streets right there around them would not have given any one of those answers. Their answer would have been that troublemaker from the Galilee region, that idiot,

You know that guy that's running independent? He either is never gonna win. You waste your vote on him. Know that's kind of what it would have been. And they would have said who is that guy? But he gives all of these these Jewish some I personally, I think they're given what they might think he is.

Well, some of us think and some like, wonder which one it is, you know, because they they weren't quite sure exactly who Jesus was.

So then he asked him, well, but who do you say I am? And Simon Peter answered, you're the Messiah, the son of the living God. He goes, you're the king of kings. You're the lord.

And and Jesus says, you're right. You're blessed Simon, son of John, because my father in heaven revealed this to you. You didn't learn this from any human being, especially none of them walking around the city. So right in the middle of the one of the most the most pagan city they have in their region,

with the gates of hell right behind them. He says, you're right. I am the king of all kings. I'm the lord of lords. And Peter, you were right, and God revealed that to you. And and you got it right, and he wanted them to hear that in the midst of everything around him. Said to a Jew, are you really?

Because it seems like everything's going bad for us. Seems like if you were God, you'd get rid of all of them. You you you would just wipe it out, but he didn't understand what his kingdom was.

So he says, you were right. You were right Simon Peter. And look what he says, and now I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock.

And then he says, and upon this rock, which is one of the most some of you grew up in a tradition church that says he was talking about Peter again, but that doesn't work in the grammatical structure of the Greek here. It it says, you are Peter, which your name means rock, but it's upon this rock, your statement, the appointment of your statement,

which means me. So Jesus, your name is rock, but I am the rock

that this church is gonna be built on. He goes, and I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. All the powers of hell. Other translations which I think is the one time I like other translations because the word it literally uses is gates and so he says, Peter, you're right.

You're right. You're rock but I'm the rock and I will build my kingdom. I will build my church. Did he say a political base? Did he say a party? Did he say a movement? Did he say, I'm gonna build a church, a body, a group of people, and I'm gonna build that. And guess what? The gates of hell, which he was pointing at right there. There goes comes up. He he was standing right behind it, and he says, the gates of hell will not prevail in a pagan city in a in his country that's being dominated by another foreign power where they have no power, no political assets,

nothing. And he says, it doesn't matter. And guess who's still here and guess who's gone? What are you leaning into more than Jesus that's gonna be gone? Because you think it's the answer. It's one of the ways. It's a gift of God we should use. We should do good. We should be involved.

We are commanded to be good citizens. And a good citizen in our culture is you should be informed and engaged. If you just vote but you're not informed, you're not being a very good citizen. You should be informed and engaged. But as you're informed and you're engaged, people need to see Jesus.

Not just a political argument. Because we're called to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. Because Jesus says, I came to build a church, a body, a family, a people who are broken that need me. And he's gonna build that. Ironically, all the answers they give about Jesus was Jewish.

They didn't take into consideration anything these pagans would say. Some of them were frustrated and couldn't understand Jesus because they wanted Israel back. And Jesus says, I didn't come to give Israel back to Israel. I came to give the purpose of Israel to the whole world, which was me.

And your job is to take that and to spread that.

Which gospel do you spread more? The gospel of a political view or the gospel of the love of Jesus Christ?

Because Jesus said that's what I came to build. And I'm inviting you to come with me is what he said. That's what we're called to do. So don't hear what I'm not saying. We should get very involved. But you know how we should get involved?

Is as we get personally involved as a people, we need to be a people that always show love. Always show love. Matter of fact, one of my favorite leadership developing guru guys, he was a pastor, awesome pastor, was named John Maxwell.

And one of my favorite illustrations he said is, everyone carries two buckets with them as they walk through life and you come across an issue, a problem, an injustice, something a little fire. You come across little fires beginning, like a little issue. And every one of us has two buckets. One has water, one has gasoline.

And you have to decide which bucket you're gonna throw on that fire. Now some of us know people that have just two buckets of gasoline. And if you don't know who that is in your group of friends, it's you. But but we are called to throw water. The water of life.

Bring Jesus. Don't get involved. Don't hear what I'm not saying. But how I get involved and as I'm involved, I need to bring that calming love of the life of of of the living water of Jesus into the situation. I don't need to just bring more hostility, more arguments, more complaints,

more fights, more battles, because that just throws the gasoline. And Jesus gets mist in it. And and and the only way I can close, and I'm gonna pray that so you can just think about what God's saying to you on this, is this. It's interesting that this this series was planned six months ago.

And I this topic was six months ago. And some of you are getting a four day weekend. And and and that's why the attendance is down because I think Arizonans are are really adaptable. So I'm like, well, I guess if kids are gonna be out of school, let's hook up the boat and head to the lake.

But but we've had a pretty divisive kind of a political thing happening. And and and and I think we should engage. And and and but you know what? As the church, I was so proud of Rock Point. Because you know what? We just loved people. We love our teachers. We want them taken care of. We love the administrators.

We love the parents that are caught in the middle of everything. We we just said, what can we do that pours water on it? What can we choose to do that brings water to the system? It says we love the community. And our youth team and our kids team, the the staff and the volunteers,

they on a dime turned and got an idea. And usually a church this big, you can't do things this fast, but we can because we are Rock Point.

And we do stuff quicker, and maybe it's because we're stupid, and we just don't know any better, and we're like, oh, let's just do it. You know, it's like, no, no, a church isn't. You gotta have this, and what about that, policies, and structure. They'll catch up. And so we just go.

And I don't know if you saw, but we put a video out. They've made it in like, you know, ten minutes as Chloe went out there and said, what Rock Point's gonna do for this walk is we're gonna provide relief to our community. If you don't have a place to send your kids and you need something, just bring them here. You know what? Teachers love that. It supports them. It doesn't make them look like the bad guy. The the the the administrators love it. The parents love it. The community loves it. You know why? In all of our history, we're a large church. We've done some videos that have been some powerful things that have gotten spread out and been seen six, seven, eight, nine thousand times throughout the world. This thing in less than twenty four hours, 15,000

views. It went global in many ways. We have people from other parts of the world say, I'm not even a Christian, but that's a church I would go to. That's what I'm talking about. If you're gonna get engaged and if you're gonna get involved, just make sure the way you're doing it points them to Jesus.

That doesn't you don't make Jesus a pointy spear to stab people with.

We need to love as I scream. Love people, will you? Maybe that's why people hear what I'm not saying sometimes. I'm mad. I'm trying to encourage us. 15,000 people. Most people don't even come here. Now, tons of people didn't need the help, but thousands of people needed to see that this church cares.

Because guess what they'll do when they think they need help for something. They'll show up here. And I'm gonna tell them about Jesus. How about you? Father God, I thank you Lord. I thank you that you do love us so much. And Lord, I just just pray that that we did hear from you, not from me.

And Lord, I I I just I pray that this this made sense. Lord, I I just felt like your word says that we need to spend more time saying, who are you? And if we know who you are, let's put that into our lives. Let's center our lives around it. Even our political agendas around it.

So Lord, enable us to be a people that goes into a culture that's becoming more and more like this first century culture? It is. But if Jesus can sit there in a situation that is way less freedom, way less hope than what we have now,

and say, don't worry, the gates of hell will not prevail against what I'm doing, then we should be no less filled with faith than they were. So Lord, may we be boldly and lovingly going into our world and and not be afraid to be active, not afraid to to be good citizens. But just be afraid

that people would just see our agenda and not see you. Enable me, enable all of us to just be willing to be on mission with you. May we all be committed to everything we do, that we're pointing people to you by loving them like you. I thank you for that, Lord. And I pray it all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.