How To Pick a President?

0:05 It's been said the quickest way to ruin a good party is to talk about faith and politics. Well, today I'm going to ruin a good party. We're going to talk about faith and politics. And what we're going to find out is you can't separate the two. I've asked this question before. I'm sure you have too. Why is the church talking? I mean, why is the church talking about politics?

0:37 Well, the question that should be asked is, why isn't the church talking about politics? I don't understand why we're not talking about it, because if we don't talk about it, there's a vacuum. And when there's a vacuum, evil will take that vacuum. and fill it. You know the word gospel, you've heard that? That has an etymology surrounding being political. Did you realize that most of the matriarchs and patriarchs of the Bible talked about political issues? Have you ever thought about the fact that the Bible was the Bible before politics, the word politics was even invented? It's really stunning when you think about it, isn't it? We have too many, though, too many churches who are silent about these topics.

1:40 In Ezekiel chapter 33, they picked someone to be a watchman. And the watchman would stand on a tower or a wall, and if he saw the enemy approaching, he would sound the alarm. And people would either obey what he was saying or they wouldn't. Today, I want to be a watchman. I want to be a civil defense siren because we are facing a hurricane of epic proportions. A hurricane like we've never seen before. And quite frankly, I've been tracking this hurricane for the last three decades. I saw it way off the coast and I said to myself, there's no way it's going to hit the U.S. of A. No way. No way. And the more and more I've tracked it. It's engulfed our culture. It's a cat five. And the storm surge is in everything, from sports to church, from education to our government. You know, storms have to be named hurricanes. We saw the devastation of Helene and Milton. But this hurricane is in another a level. And I'll label this hurricane, I'll name this hurricane, how about El Woco.

3:26 hurricanes are made up of of elements you know the moisture and the low pressure and all the different things that have to come together well well this storm el woco is made up not of elements but elements it's a satanic strategy so for a pastor or a leader not to talk about this hurricane, the biggest force we're dealing with in our culture is to be disobedient to God. But hey, I'm a pastor. I understand why we don't talk about some of these things, because I don't want to offend people. I mean, I don't. I don't want to lose followers. I don't want people to go on social media and say bad things about me.

4:27 I don't want any of that. I don't want people to leave the church. Oh, man. I want to be nice. I want to be kind. So here's what most pastors have done. God tells us to stand for the truth, to stand for life, for these issues that are before us. I mean, there's no doubt about it. yet pastors hear that from God, and they're like, okay, God, I know you want me to talk about this hurricane, but instead, I'm gonna talk about New Hampshire. New Hampshire. And pastors are talking passionately about New Hampshire when we're being hammered by a force five cat five hurricane. But we're talking about New Hampshire, how we can have a breakthrough in New Hampshire, how God wants to bless New Hampshire, how you got to get your New Hampshire on.

5:36 All of those things. But is this person really preaching the full counsel of God? No. No. The full counsel of God is the full counsel. It's not half the counsel. It's not three-quarters of the counsel. It's the full counsel of God. We have to talk about these issues biblically, compellingly, and righteously. Again, can you imagine, think about this for a second. Okay, can you imagine not saying anything about an approaching hurricane? Of course now we have technology, we have Doppler radar, we can track the storms and all of that is great because we can now warn people and tell them to board up and evacuate and all of those different things and that's great.

6:34 that's really amazing. But can you imagine facing a hurricane maybe in the 1800s? You're living on the coast somewhere and all of a sudden you are literally hammered by those winds and the rains and the storm surge and so many have lost their lives. parallel that perspective, that horizontal perspective, the 1800s perspective, to our perspective today. Today? That would never happen. Everyone knows what's going on. We track the storm way out here.

7:21 What am I talking about? I'm talking about a worldview. A worldview is a panoramic perspective. You have a worldview whether you know it or not. I have a worldview. If we don't adopt a biblical worldview, a worldview will adopt us. I have a perspective because of God, and he's given me the ability, like many of you, to see El Woco.

7:55 Others don't see it. Others with these Ivy League educations and all of these letters after their name, we look at them and go, how stupid, how ridiculous, how counterintuitive. Do you have any common sense? No wonder. Because we have to realize if Jesus is not Lord of someone's life, they have a form of insanity. El Woco. Those elements. We've got to talk about it. So what I'm doing today is not new school. What I'm talking about today.

8:48 Some people are like, wow. Doing a message? I mean, a whole series called politics? I can't believe it. That's so new. that's so edgy. It's really old school. There's a two-volume set called Political Sermons from 1730 to 1805. Just political sermons, pre- and post-Revolutionary War. Pastors talking about the issues and the people involved in the issues. There is a book by a Duke University historian that was published around the 1930s or 40s. And this historian wrote an entire book about how we got our Declaration of Independence, like the content of it.

9:53 And this historian found, you won't believe it, that the Declaration of Independence is made up of quotes from pastors. because after all, I mean, these people were smart enough to think that up themselves. It took smart people like preachers to do that. No, I'm joking. But that's true, though. That's true, isn't it? Isn't that crazy? so I don't want to I don't want to talk about this storm I want to talk about New Hampshire I'm fearful and then we'll use this excuse how about separation of church and state separation of church and state you gotta watch out that separation of church and state well let me tell you about separation of church and state 1802, President Thomas Jefferson responded to a letter from the Danbury Baptist Association about church and government.

10:59 And he talked about, in his response, separation of church and state. He explained the importance of the First Amendment to respect religious liberty. He said, in essence, the government should not put its nose in the church's business. But that doesn't mean the church should not influence government. So if you hear anything else, you are a cultural cowboy and you are cutting your teeth on El Woco, who has changed so many of our words, who've revised history, and who've hijacked term after term after term. Just read history.

11:56 Now, I've even talked to some people who are like leaders, who are like, well, if I talk about this, we might lose our tax-exempt status. Hey, I'm glad we have a tax-exempt status, but I don't bow to the government. I bow. to the kingdom of God. And shocker, that's a political phrase, the kingdom of God. You see how we've allowed the enemy to take away our vernacular and vocabulary and twist it and turn it and lie about it? What did Jesus call the devil?

12:52 You are the father of lies. And too many of us believe the lies. In 1954, talking about nonprofit, Lyndon B. Johnson, who was a complete reprobate, he was an awful person, Lyndon Johnson, serial adulterer, horrible.

13:20 He tried to jeopardize the church's nonprofit status. So Congress approved legislation to prohibit 501c3s to engage in any, I quote, political campaign activity under the threat of losing their tax-exempt status. obviously Johnson didn't like the church because I'm sure the church and things of God pointed out his drunkenness and his lust and all sorts of stuff and that's psychology 101 how we like to slam things to get up in our grill Again, I mean, if we lose our tax exempt status, we do.

14:12 And I'll tell you this, those of us who give, if you give to Fellowship Church for a tax write-off, you're bowing to the government and not the kingdom of God. I knew that wouldn't get a huge ovation. I might lose followers. I might not be as popular. They might think I'm mean.

14:42 I might lose the tax-exempt status. How about separation of church and state? All of those excuses, excuses, excuses. It's time for us to stand flat-footed and say, all right, thus saith the Lord. El Woco is upon us. So what do we do about El Woco?

15:08 I think we need to talk about the elements of the storm. Any storm has an element, and really more than one element, to make it into a storm, obviously a hurricane. If you think about this storm, I would cite maybe three elements, elements. Number one, Marxism. Marxism has never worked.

15:32 Try Castro, try Maduro, try Lenin, try Stalin. Over 150 million graves advertise the brilliance of Marxism. Karl Marx himself was a pathetic person. never held a job.

16:03 His rich friend Ingalls bankrolled him. Then he wrote the Communist Manifesto and he made a lot of money. Marx did. And he's writing about the oppressed and the oppressor. It's the height of hypocrisy. And he was such a good writer, some of his words almost sounded Christian. what did Jesus say about the devil? You're a wolf in lamb's clothing. What does Marxism say? Divide and conquer, divide and conquer. The oppressed and the oppressor, we see it everywhere in our culture, but here's the deal. Marxism didn't work to your history. So all of the cool philosophers and thinkers, they jumped off the Marxism train like rats off the Titanic, and they jumped on the Frankfurt School, critical theory.

17:01 You've heard of critical theory before. Critical theory is about critique and change. The critical theorist said, no, it's not just an economic thing like Marx said. No, no, no, it's more than that. It's a racial thing. It's the amount of melanin in our skin. It's our sexual orientation. So everyone was divided by these external marks and behavior. What?

17:34 Then to top that off, you move into postmodernism, which began really at about 1960 until today. And postmodernism is all about skepticism and relativism. There's no such thing as absolute truth. We hear it all the time. Oh, what's true for you? That's true for you. As long as you don't hurt anybody. God, that sounds cool. It's insane. what if you went to the University of Relativism? And let's say you took a multiple choice test. And what if the professor said, you know what? Just fill in the one that you feel is the right answer. I got 100.

18:33 because I felt it. You've just graduated from the University of Relativism. You see, there's subjective truth and objective truth. There's truth that is relative, right, and truth that is absolute, absolute. Think about these other people. These are some more elements in the storm. I've already talked to you about Karl Marx. He was in the 1800s. How about Friedrich Nietzsche? He's the one that said God is dead. He was about from 1844 until around 1900. Then you have Sigmund Freud. Freud was 1856 until 1939.

19:31 Freud was perverted sexually. He thought everything was sex, sex, sex. You talk about the sexualization of children, Sigmund Freud. You talk about pornography, Sigmund Freud. Freud, Freud, Freud. So really, if you take Karl Marx, you could write the term envy. Marx knew that there's always people who are envious of others, right?

19:59 Nietzsche, pride. Just write pride over his face. And Freud, lust. That sounds like the devil in the heavenlies when he tried the kingdom coup. And our pastors aren't talking about this. What? a bunch of soft-serve preachers giving soft-serve sermons to soft-serve people about how to become more soft-serve. Too many of our churches are that way, and that's a good place to clap. Sometimes I have to say, that's a good place to clap. So politics is basically a summation of our worldview.

21:00 And what is your worldview? Again, if you don't adopt a biblical one, a worldview will adopt you. It's either secular or biblical. We're facing an election. Did you know that? Our choices, a cackling hyena? Or the orange man. that was funny laugh again thank you this is great you're so kind when I tell you to clap you clap and laugh and laugh thank you for doing that here is what a worldview is I just have jotted down some some some things and I'm gonna fly through these okay this is the worldview and whether you have a secular worldview, some of you do, and hey, if you disagree with anything here, awesome, we welcome you.

22:03 It's not like I disagree and I better not come back. No, no, no, no, no, no. All right. ideas we all have ideas right the ideas are either secular or biblical all of our ideas are not holy ideas or holy thoughts we're gonna have impure thoughts it's what we do with the ideas do we put them through the lord's hvac system the bible because good hva system takes out the pollutants and the contaminants, right? Truth, all right? So I'm looking back at ideas, and I'm thinking about, all right, this election. It's interesting that secular is on the left, isn't it? And being biblical is on the right. I didn't plan that. I just saw that.

23:00 Truth, relative versus universal. Wow, I must have been on a roll when I wrote this. Emotion, primary versus secondary. I feel it, it must be real. No, no, it's gonna be real. Then you're gonna have feelings that ebb and flow. Behavior, is it about me? We're God. Consequences. Destruction versus freedom. Look at our nation today compared to four years ago. How about living? Are we glorifying self or glorifying God? Vote your worldview.

23:54 It's that simple. I already know who I'm voting for. I know. Because I've adopted a biblical worldview. What candidate best dissipates El Woco? What candidate best turns the tide, stops the storm surge? here's your homework you're gonna love this this is so complex now listen to me very very carefully i'm gonna get heady now all right here is your homework number one vote it's not just your right it's your duty it's part of my discipleship I could argue if I decide to hey I'm going to sit this one out that's being disobedient to God a new Barnett survey was really sickening 51% of people of faith will not vote next month.

25:11 You've got to be kidding me. So vote. Number two, there's only two points. Vote for the platform, not the personality. Well, Ed, now, wait a second, Ed. I'm a married woman with three kids, and the person that I'm thinking about just doesn't check all the boxes. I'm going to have to vote for someone I'm 100% behind. Hmm. this church the church where I pastor doesn't check all my boxes I'm serious.

26:10 Are you married? Look at your spouse. Does your spouse check all of the boxes? we have to see past the person to the platform. That's why this, see, this perspective, this worldview, because here's what's going to happen.

26:46 Whoever gets in is going to appoint a massive amount of judges. they're going to take hold of the border, which is out of control. I am all about people coming into the country, but you have to come in in the right way. How about Israel? Man, Israel matters. The Bible says we're just standing behind Israel, and we're going to be blessed. religious liberty. You know, if I preach this sermon in Canada, whoop, whoop, bad boy, bad boy. they would frog march me off to jail.

27:39 Now this next one is crazy. I can't believe I'm even saying it, but biological sex. One man, am I going too fast? And one woman together in marriage. That is a controversial statement in our culture. Marriage is for one man and one woman in marriage. Who would have ever thought that? Three decades ago. But see, they didn't. So many didn't see El Woco coming. Family. That's our future. Family. family, self-functioning family. So goes the family, so goes everything. Only in America can we marry Fedzilla and just kind of make enough money to live a pretty good life.

28:42 How about life? Are we protecting the lives of developing babies? So think about these issues. Judges, border, Israel, religious liberty, biological sex, family, life. Which candidate, which platform is stemming the tide of evil and bringing about the kingdom of God. Vote. vote for the platform, not the person, but in every way and in every day, vote Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for this day.

29:39 Thank you for this message. And I pray, God, that so many of us would take this and make it applicable. I pray, Lord, for this election. I pray for truth. I pray that our nation would come back to you. I pray for our leaders and our future leaders. And I pray if you are here and you've never voted for Jesus, that you make that decision today and say, Jesus, I give my life to you. Thank you, Lord, for this time. In Christ's name.