Has Politics Infected our Christianity Sermon

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good morning that was a nice one i like that cheerful you guys doing all right you're looking good if you're new here among us my name is gene i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor and i like to take walks i like to go out for a walk sometimes i work from home so to prevent myself from going crazy well i was not successful in that i go out for a walk and i usually like it but not on refuse day when the garbage cans are out they're all overflowing and then there's gnats why god nets why they get all in your face make you look crazy anyway i've been noticing a lot of boxes when i walk through the neighborhood empty boxes just out on the sidewalk especially flat screen tv boxes tons of them all over the place some of them are huge i live in like a middle income neighborhood so the houses aren't gigantic or anything but you have these ridiculously big tvs for these really small houses where did it get put in that house maybe the garage i can see their tv from my house huge tvs i started thinking why did everyone decide to buy tvs at the same time i remembered stimulus checks stimulus checks i remembered that come on guys you should have got that but i understand so some of you make more money and so you didn't get the stimulus check some of you needed the money so you didn't buy a tv but in my neighborhood we're like middle income people so we really didn't need it and so we just spent it on big tvs i didn't get a big tv yet some of it's in the bank so as i'm walking along something occurred to me i forgot to tithe from that check free money and i didn't even give any to the church so when i got back home i said heather we got to give some of that to the church it's important okay then it occurred to me we must have had a really good month at the church right because again some of you you didn't get it some might have needed it and that's okay so i checked i don't have anything to do with money here i just beg for it that's all i do i said i need money i want to do this crazy thing i want to buy like the neighborhood no you can't do that gene so they don't let me play with any of the money so i got to ask so i say how are we doing we must have had an amazing month no first i was pretty disappointed this is free money guys come on you know what we're trying to do here and i thought well maybe they just forgot i thought a little bit more about it i got another idea it occurred to me that a lot of christians are conservatives they're fiscally conservative so as far as i can remember hearing i don't watch the news a whole lot we'll get to that in a minute but there were no conservative members of congress who voted for this ah and conservatives have the courage of their convictions they put their money where their mouth is so i know what must have happened they sent the check back that must be it it must it's got to be it speaking of politics let me test you guys let's watch this video so okay now if you laughed i'm gonna let you off the hook just this once phil he laughs at everything we watch movies somebody died he laughed he thought that was funny so you you get a pass phil i can hear you over there he laughs at my jokes even when they're not funny that's okay but if you laughed i'm gonna give you a pass because i did too the first time i saw it yesterday until the holy spirit said what's wrong with you that's what happened to me that's not funny imagine if we were outside in the parking lot we watched as an 80 year old man tripped up the stairs not once not twice but three times and no one ran up and helped him shame on you he's a human being this is what the holy spirit said to me you know what else he said throw your message away for sunday i'm done with you and your opinions watching this stuff has eroded your humanity that's what he told me to say say that not all your fancy stuff about what you know about the bible if you're not getting it that right that right you're getting nothing right it doesn't matter what you know that's what the holy spirit said to me i'm tired of you today i believe that our politics is infecting our christianity and if it's happening a little bit to me what's happening to my flock so today i hope this brings you healing we need to heal from this amen we really do the kingdom of heaven there's no republican or democrat it doesn't matter we need to heal from this stuff it's gone too far so i threw away my message and today we're going to take a break from the program we're going to take a break from that and we're going to get into this this is all we need to know it's all right here it's not on the news and i only watch it a half hour a day just to see what's going on in the world just to kind of keep up with things so i know what you guys are talking about and if it's getting to me at a half hour a day and i'm in the word the rest of the time what's happening to you what must be happening to you you ever hear the phrase you are what you eat i learned that as kids this is what happens to our minds what we digest with our eyes and our ears it pollutes us or it enriches and enlightens us correct i'm just i've said this before i'm getting done with opinions i just really am i've been dissatisfied with everything from the news typical preaching why because let me tell you a little bit of you know maybe god's word and then everything i think all my opinions about it i don't care it's all right here it's all right here it's so funny i've caught myself doing this even on social media i've stopped posting tozer and all this other stuff we're so arrogant we're so arrogant we have god's word right here and you know what we do we say oh let me come up with a really cool line that's going to get everyone's attention that's better than what god said what so all i post now is scriptures i don't care about anything else i don't care about opinions and we see it in the news all the time we think these guys are so smart oh he's so good he's a doctor of this and that and the other thing he's so smart then what happens names the ministry after himself makes all kinds of money and we find out he's cheating on his wife with all these different women does any of his opinions matter anymore so i'm not going to give you too many opinions today i told you what god slapped me in the back of the head with yesterday and so i'm going to do my very best to be obedient this morning that's all i can do we're going to turn off the world today and open up the word we have to look at the world with the right lens this is critical it's really important so i want you to think of it this way sometimes a lot of the time christians look at the word of god through a worldly lens their ideas the lens of the world and they see this thing when it's got to be the exact opposite you have to look at the world through this lens the other way around that's how you get it right that's how you do christianity the right way and told you in the past the same thing the new in the old testament we've got to look at the old testament through the lens of the new we see this all the time hebrews we did that in the hebrew series we're in it's perfect so much you have to know the old testament so we went back there so much to understand it what it's all about very very important critical so we're going to do we're going to look at a few books of the bible and i'm going to give you the context we're not just going to grab a verse and then whatever i want it to mean no no no i'm going to tell you the reason for writing these books there's a reason that paul writes some of these things to the church i have to bear with me today because you know those big tvs was a point which i needed glasses instead of getting those glasses i just got bigger and bigger and bigger tvs and so the words in my bible are getting bigger and bigger and bigger and so it takes a little longer now to flip through all the pages bear with me again i just got hit in the back of the head with this last night so we're just gonna roll with it like bible study so romans a lot of christians are like romans is the greatest theological work ever written maybe but paul didn't sit down like we do today and say oh i'm gonna write the greatest sermon anyone's ever heard no this is what god's telling me your church needs to hear something today or tomorrow that's what the holy spirit did with paul church in rome has got some problems i've told you this in the past initially christianity is a jewish religion it's a jewish sect it's all jewish people so we learn this acts 18 paul runs into priscilla and aquila they're coming into the corinthian area there's a time when the emperor claudius around 49 a.d he expelled the jews from rome they didn't like jewish people there why well one reason is you're going to take a day off from work no we need you to work at the pub on saturday or whatever it is right so they don't like them there's a whole bunch of other reasons they expel them but then they come back in the meantime the church is forming but now by gentile believers that is non-jewish people and so when the jewish people come back they're looking at a church that doesn't look like this sect of judaism this christianity sect of the nazarenes it wasn't yet called christianity right away not until the romans started making fun of christians little baby christs these fools who followed this god who died on a cross they were mocking them anyway the jewish believers get there and they start arguing no you have to get circumcised you have to take a sabbath you can't eat the meat sacrifice the idols you have to drain the blood out of the meat it's complicated the gentiles are like whatever and so they're bickering they're fighting about it oh do we do that today are any of us more holy and righteous than somebody else in the church so what's going on right from the beginning so paul has to step in cut it out that's what romans is all about didn't even mean to run that anyway so paul starts out the gate everybody's sinned it's obvious that god exists no one has an excuse chapter two you jews ah don't get ahead of yourself you know so much teach yourself you're sinners too chapter three we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god paul levels the playing field he gets into the law by the way did you know abraham he had faith before he did any of that stuff like circumcision didn't have the law of moses yet he had faith before then it's by faith god's grace and your faith in jesus christ alone that you are saved cut it out chapters five through seven christ and adam contrasted and no in chapter seven paul is not struggling with sin it would void what he says in chapter eight it's called prosper pc probably pronounced that wrong too to make a face he's making fun he's pretending taking on the persona of adam there and then he moves to chapter eight a new life in the holy spirit this is how we do it now not by the law nine through eleven natural questions come up what about the jewish people who didn't accept jesus so paul he's agonizing for them he cares but he has hope and he gives a beautiful illustration of the wild olive tree being grafted in hey gentiles don't get too ahead of yourselves mocking these jewish people all right if they're a branch that's falling off they can easily be grafted back in more easily than you maybe gentiles and now the letter turns because of all this stuff we got all the theology and this is what it says therefore therefore brothers by the mercies of god i urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to god this is your spiritual worship did you get that what what is present your bodies as a living sacrifice living sacrificially towards other people oh i thought i could do anything i want and come here and sing a bunch of lies no i'll read it again therefore brothers by the mercies of god i urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to god this is your spiritual worship do not be conformed to this age or cnn or fox news i'll add but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good pleasing and perfect dilemma will of god let's continue for by the grace given to me i tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think instead think sensibly as god has distributed a measure of faith to each one now he gives the illustration of being a body and talks about the spiritual gifts this empowerment by the holy spirit that you get this stuff done with that's how you do it he continues love must be without hypocrisy detest evil cling to what is good show family affection to one another with brotherly love outdo one another and showing honor do not like diligence be fervent in spirit serve the lord rejoice in hope be patient in affliction be persistent in prayer share with the saints in their needs pursue hospitality bless those who persecute you bless those who persecute you you think you're being persecuted yet i don't think so you may think so but i don't think so bless and do not curse they're being persecuted by the way and this is what paul says is what god says rejoice with those who rejoice weep with those who weep be in agreement with one another do not be proud instead associate with the humble do not be wise in your own estimation do not repay anyone evil for evil do not repay anyone evil for evil who someone anyone nobody try to do what is honorable in everyone's eyes if possible on your part live at peace with everyone friends do not avenge yourselves instead leave room for his wrath for it is written vengeance belongs to me i god will repay says the lord but if your enemy is hungry feed him if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him something to drink for in doing so you will be heaping fiery coals on his head he's quoting proverbs do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good here here is what people have said to me and so i'm going to correct it well gene that's just the church that's just the people in the church really keep reading then chapter 13 everyone must submit to the governing authorities it's not about the church yes edifying one another with the spiritual gifts yes but did you hear that that's god saying not me i didn't make this up this is the word of god not my opinion not my opinion everyone who everyone must submit to the governing authorities not to me the government for there is no authority except from god for some reason god causes all of this did it to the israelites i guess so and those that exist are instituted by god so then the one who resists the authorities opposing god's command did you hear that the one who is resisting the authority is opposing god's command if you don't know this or you haven't heard this i left a bunch of bibles on the counter out there take one with you and check my work it's right here we didn't have time to do the slides and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves i don't see a but here for rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad do you want to be unafraid of the authority do what is good and you'll have its approval for government is god's servant for your good but if you do wrong be afraid because it does not carry the sword for no reason for government is god's servant an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong therefore you must submit not only because of wrath but also because of your conscience and for this reason you pay taxes talks about taxes did you know that pay your taxes since the authority are god's public servants god's public servant he doesn't delineate we'll get into it in a minute it's worse than you think god's public servants continually attending to these tasks pay your obligations to everyone taxes those who owe taxes tolls to those who owe tolls he's going through a gamut of different things here respect those you'll respect to honor those you owe honor to i want you to go home and read the rest of this because when he gets to chapter 14 he says honor those who disagree with you it's not gospel honor them or don't cause them to stumble either if they're struggling with it oh like don't get on the internet and in the comments section mock everyone who doesn't agree with you i mean like that something like that yeah but actually they did it face to face back then they weren't keyboard warriors read romans we can keep going he writes a letter to titus a couple of proteges show up in the bible timothy and titus so we'll take a look i'm not going to get to as much as i want to today but unless you guys want to stay here we have food so it should be right i might have to overview some of this so titus one of my favorite letters of the bible titus is a guy kind of like an overseer and elder so be like our overseer pastor wayne sending me to crete right in greece i would love that anyway he does that but it's probably not as fun for titus and he's supposed to go there and appoint elders in every town so he's going to set up a bunch of churches there and so it's just really an instruction manual for titus it's really like a short version of first timothy just three chapters and it moves pretty quick so he does his normal kind of opening greetings that he does with people he's writing to and he thanks god for him and it gets kind of interesting because he just talks about what titus should tell certain people groups right so he goes older men older women the younger women and in the midst of all these slaves as well obey your masters you're serving god in the midst of us he says something that always gets me so he goes through and chapter two but you must say the things that are consistent with sound teaching so he's got to be a good teacher titus older men are to be level-headed worthy of respect sensible and sound and faith love and endurance in the same way older women are to be reverent in their behavior not slanders not addicted to much wine all the obvious stuff they are to teach what is good so they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children to be self-controlled pure homemakers kind and submissive to their husbands read first peter though it goes the other way around too so that god's message this is very interesting so that god's message will not be slandered you're to behave well all the christian groups he's telling all of them in the same way encourage the young men to be self-control saying go on and on slaves everybody why so you don't slander god's message do you know what the word is there in greek some of you have been in church for a while what's the unforgivable sin blasphemy of the holy spirit right that's what it says what it says in greek is so they do not blaspheme the gospel serious this is very serious language so that by their behavior if they behave badly they might blaspheme god's gospel did you know you could do that with your behavior you don't have to do it with your mouth or maybe you do you can do it with your behavior unbelievable so he caps off this section and just listen to this for the grace of god has appeared with salvation for all people instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lust and to live in a sensible righteous and godly way in the present age while we wait while we wait while we wait for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great god and savior jesus christ a definitive statement of jesus's deity he gave himself for us so we could do whatever we want no to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession eager to do good works and check this out remind them chapter 3 skipped over 15 but 2-3 remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities there it is again imagine that remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities to obey to be ready for every good work to slander no one except democrats right we can slander them that's what it says correct no no to slander no one to avoid fighting wow and to be kind always when oh on sundays just on sundays always be kind on sundays that's it all right so this is my opinion here we're going to put that in there right be kind to all people on sundays always showing gentleness to all people just in case you don't get the joke i'm kidding always for we too were once foolish we were once a disobedient deceived enslaved by various passions pleasures living in malice and envy hateful detesting one another but when the kindness of god our savior and his love for mankind appeared he saved us not on the basis of deeds that we have done in righteousness but according to his mercy through the washing and regeneration of the holy spirit whom he poured out abundantly upon us through jesus christ our savior so that having been justified by his grace we may have the hope of eternal life that's what it's all about i've been asked the question what if they take our bibles away you mean the one you don't read you don't sound too concerned doesn't sound genuine to me well i'll propose a solution i'm working on it i'm working on it memorize it do you know it says that in there read deuteronomy 6 the beginning of joshua says it in there famous prayer the shema deuteronomy 6 4. if you run into a young jewish person they recite it every day they memorize it they memorize the word of god it said that by 13 we'd have the torah the first five books memorized back in the day the pharisees had to memorize the whole thing you can do it it's possible it says to walk along with your children in deuteronomy and as you're walking along teach them these words meditate on them continually all the time digest it constantly make it a part of you first timothy 4 it's what paul tells timothy be constantly nourished on the scriptures this is where our nourishment comes from from here up there that ruins your mind it's poisoning you this is our nourishment and the bible says it new and old testament i'm going to keep going who's going to say stop that was so manipulative i apologize like really i mean honestly something's gonna be like yeah i'm hungry pastor smell the potluck upstairs all right you can you could get away with if you're new we joke that's what we do here it gets serious for a couple minutes but then i can't do it anymore people ask the question what are we going to do if it gets worse what are we going to do if it gets worse we're going to do what god tells us to do and you know what that is some of you're not going to like it first and second peter he's writing to christians who are being persecuted that's really the bottom line there trying to give him encouragement it happens a lot they got to do that because there's persecution even among their own people at first jewish believers acts 17 thessalonica right they don't like them there chase them out of town you don't like this new sect what is this get out of here even the sadducees and the pharisees are arguing with not one another all the time but they persevere they continue in what they're doing so thessalonians first and second written to a persecuted church probably be by their own people the jewish people it's a very early letter so these letters these books of the bible are not in order so it's probably one of paul's earliest he writes them peter on the other hand probably happening a little bit later ii peter he's pretty convinced that he's he's going to die a persecuted church and now the romans are joining in a guy named nero might have heard of him he starts persecuting them so you can kind of expand this into first peter i don't know but this is the point this is the backdrop i'm trying to give you do you think you have problems nero enjoyed lighting christians on fire watching them run around until they died men women children nobody was excluded nobody it was horrible first peter 4 12. don't be surprised that literally you guys might know the fiery trials that you're experiencing it's literally the burning that you're experiencing burning them alive so they're dead it's horrible is it that bad for us i don't think so we have laws protecting us amazing they didn't have that back then it's quite different and then here's what it says first peter 2 11. dear friends i urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that wage war against you temporary residents of where rome the world we're all going to die aliens temporary residents conduct yourselves honorably among the gentiles pagans better translation so that in case of non-christians honorably among the outsiders so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil they will by observing your good works glorify god on the day of visitation when jesus comes back you see where he's going look at this right there 13 submit to every human authority again can you imagine that this keeps coming up doesn't it it must be important submit to every human authority because of the lord whether to the emperor that would be nero literally it says the king but that's who he means as the supreme authority or the governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and praise those who do what is good for it is god's will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good how do we silence them by posting in the comments section no by doing good and what does it say again let's just got to get this right submit to every human authority we'll do a little more timothy first timothy let me get in here i'll show you what we're supposed to do while we wait for the appearing of our great god and savior jesus christ he tells timothy 1st timothy 2 first of all then i urge that petitions prayers intercessions thanksgivings be made for everyone for kings and all those who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity this is good and it pleases god our savior who wants everyone to be saved someone everyone you see how paul conducted himself in acts it's remarkable acts 24. 26 as well situation here is that paul again persecuted by his own people they don't like him they get in trouble they make a big riot at the temple and so he's taken off by the roman guard and they just don't know what to do with them they don't understand it i'm like well he hasn't done anything worthy of death but whatever the people don't like him so they put him in prison first governor has taken care of him his name felix the bible tells us he's corrupt he keeps paul in prison for two years because he's waiting on a bribe he wants paul to give him some money to get him out so what's going on for two years and it tells us that paul just preaches the gospel to him paul never says this isn't fair this isn't fair by the way he's a roman citizen too he has rights he has rights he could have said this is not fair two years finally felix in history tells us he gets kicked out of that position because he's corrupt festus comes in festus doesn't know what to do with him why is this guy in here it's kind of interesting now he's friends with a couple other people king agrippa and bernice or baroness you don't get this from the bible but if you study your history they weren't people of controversy there are people who'd be on the news a lot why well they were a couple but they were brother and sister so it would have been on the news a lot of people were talking about it so festus approaches them because they're jewish kind of sort of and so they know what paul might be talking about so he has a meeting he says hey you want to listen to paul listen to this guy so he gets kind of like his chance of a hearing i would say before them and now we're in acts 26 and he doesn't get up there and say you guys are wrong no most honorable festus and agrippa emotions with his hands honorable he honors them finally he's just going at it and he says in this short time do you want me to become a christian paul he says yeah except for these chains it was an opportunity to preach the gospel not to rebuke an outsider romans 3 23 we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god so the real question we should be asking ourselves is not what are we gonna do no hope i hope you know what we should do now i could keep reading we're gonna run out of time i want to be honorable to you in your schedule we know what we should do pray wait love that's it tell people about jesus because that usually opens the door a whole lot better than arguing with people doesn't it more flies with honey is that what they say it's like that the real question we should be asking ourselves so what is jesus going to do it tells us i'll give you a little window into it i was going to read it all to you today but i'll run out of time we get to revelation and in greek it's the apocalypse of john that's what it's called the apocalypse of john in greek not revelation kind of interesting so you have these different scenes and it gets confusing later maybe we'll yeah the rest of the story we'll get into it so there's like letters to seven churches so part of it's a letter and it kind of goes in and out of time which is why people have a really hard time understanding it but as you get toward the end the word of god comes a judgment sword out of his mouth jesus comes back it's a prophecy this is true he's coming back he does the work he finished the work the first time on the cross and he's going to come back and do the judgment that's not for you to do it comes back to judge the world some interesting things happen before that in chapter six and seven we see that the fifth seal is now broken and so you have these people who are called martyrs but specifically if you know the language a little better they're the ones who got beheaded for the message for being christians and it's like this scene where they kind of wake up and they say when are we going to get our vengeance and they're given white robes they're told to wait wait nobody here has had their head cut off hold on it's coming and we get another scene with those who died in the tribulation the worshiping god oh christians are going to go through a tribulation yes there's actually nothing in there that says we won't it says we do read chapter 7 again those who died they were martyred in the tribulation then we continue and we see the first resurrection did you know there are two there's a first one don't you want to be resurrected first sounds nice get our new heavenly bodies and we get into that new heavens and the new earth where there are no more tears there's no more oppression we don't even need the sun the moon the stars because the sun will be our light doesn't sound nice don't you want to be a part of the first resurrection because the second one happens a thousand years later do you really want to wait well guess who gets to be a part of the first resurrection the ones who got beheaded that's how you get in first read it revelation 20. you want to get in first get your head cut off that's what it says blessed are those who experience the first resurrection it says blessed are you who are persecuted sound a little bit like jesus doesn't it blessed are you those who mourn that's how you get to be a part of the first resurrection what did they do what are we going to do get beheaded sounds fantastic in the end see in a thousand years dan you're just you're hangry that's your problem we got food upstairs man calm down we have to look at the world through a biblical lens i'm just trying to give you the word of god and just please check my work i'm begging you just turn off the tv all right if you want the chapters email me look at the website c3naples.org let me know i'll send them to you i'll be so glad that you're digging into the word of god to hear that you guys are being nourished by god's word it will cleanse you you will begin thinking differently about the world believe me it's brought me so much healing i know so many of you are suffering right now you've been infected you actually believe this stuff you actually believe this this is the only thing you should believe unless i'm speaking it don't believe me don't i'm nobody this is the only thing you should believe and it will heal you it's healed me so maybe you got the tv maybe you got distracted by it after you put it up on the wall maybe you forgot to give back what belongs to god or the government the real question we have to ask ourselves what programs are we going to watch what program are we going to tune into are we going to tune into the world are we going to tune into the word i'm praying for you guys and if you need prayer i want to encourage you so i'll help that connection card we pray over those things let me pray for you lord i thank you for this church for these people their devotion to come here in the first place i thank you for that that they would listen that they would honor me and lord just strengthen me so i can continue to listen to you and honor them to guide them in love and righteousness as we wait in joyful anticipation of the coming of our great god and savior jesus christ amen

Has Politics Infected Our Christianity?

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