Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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Political Corrections, not Political Correctness

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening

Well, Lawrence, good to see you. I thought you were going hunting. I didn’t do. Oh. I was thinking about you this morning. I’m thinking, man, he’s out hunting and I got to go to church. I’d rather be here. Oh, amen.

Good to see you. Yeah, I appreciate what Mike Dean shared. My old pastor had a saying that he used a lot. He said, you know, if you can trust Jesus with your soul, you can trust Jesus to get your hamburger. I mean, right? What’s more important? soul or a dollar bill, right? So if we can trust them with our soul, we can trust them with our money. And that’s when you, once you understand a very simple principle, you can give to the Lord liberally. And it’s amazing what you see God do as he provides, amen? This morning I’m a little conflicted about talking about politics. Because, see his reaction is like, there’s such a bad taste in everybody’s mouth that every time I see the news I say to my wife, I can’t wait until this is over. Because it’s just, it’s everywhere, you know. and a lot of it’s distasteful and it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s hid. Now, historically it’s not hid the historic low. I mean, there have been other elections in our history that have been pretty bad, but it’s one of the worst. So at least on a presidential level, and I’m going to make a further point about presidential versus other offices a little bit later. Now a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a- have done this really until recently actually R. D [audio unclear] declared the whole counsel of God. So [audio unclear] fundamental mistakes that Christians make in regard to the political realm. They just act like it isn’t there. So I’d be setting a terrible example. So I’ll be, I believe that by talking about this, I’m doing what I ought to do simply as a witness. Now before you all walk out, let me say something else. I am not endorsing a candidate. I’ve never publicly endorsed the candidate, especially from the pulpit. You can ask me up to church who I’m voting for, and I’ll give you all the same answer. There’s a reason the voting booth is private. I never tell people who I vote for. I don’t endorse candidates. Because whatever little influence I have as a minister of the gospel, I don’t want to use it that way. So I’m not going to be mentioning names in the sense of trying to get you to vote for any particular candidate or a particular party. I know some people are like, yeah, we’ll see about that. You’re going to try to trick me into voting a certain way. I remember when, I mean, this is like a long time ago, I think Bush ran against Clinton the first time. I mean, this is way back, right? And after the sermon, I didn’t mention anybody’s name. I got a very, very angry phone call from this lady. You told everybody to vote for Bush. I simply did not say that. I didn’t say that, but she heard that. So you might hear things today. So what I encourage you to do is after you get really mad at me and leave, get the podcasts and listen to it again and make sure you really heard what you think you heard. OK? Now, so, you know, I don’t have like a political agenda. I don’t have a goal in that regard. I think to be totally silent would be an abdication of my duty though. And I think for Christians to be totally uninvolved is an abdication of duty. That’s my opinion and I’m gonna argue why in a moment. But I wanted to put out that disclaimer before I say anything else.

So really, I think, and here’s the other thing that happened this week. Wednesday night, so here I’m thinking about, you know, I don’t want to talk about anything remotely political, but I feel like I have a duty to not ignore it, because that’s a bad example. And Wednesday night, I go to my father-in-law’s house, and he’s elderly. He recently had a fall. Thank the Lord it didn’t the didn’t get harmed. But he’s getting to the age when you have to start thinking about the fact that he’s going to pass away. So we go to his home, my wife and I, and we actually planned his funeral. So that happens Wednesday. And then last night, I get a text from Dave Wilson that his father passed away. And when you put that in perspective to this, right, it pales, right? And it really does pale. So it’s like, what’s really important, you know, is the souls of men. That they come to Jesus Christ, they’re eternally saved. Thankfully, Dave’s father knew the Lord and he demonstrated that in his life. His father has made a profession of faith his entire life. So, you know, there’s consolation and all that, but it sets things in perspective. And I want you to understand that I have that perspective. Okay, I understand that there’s a prioritization of things that takes place in scripture and should take place in our Christian thinking, it’s just that every four years, our nation has this corporate conniption fit, as my mother used to say. You know, whenever there’s a presidential election, people just start acting like they’ve been smoking funny stuff in their pipe. I mean, they just go crazy. I mean, they go crazy. I have seen friendships, 30 year friendships destroyed because of this election. Christian brothers and sisters divided. It’s terrible. So you know, I understand that what the elements represent far outweigh some of the issues that are involved in the political, our current political situation. So that’s another disclaimer. I think if I were to title this sermon anything, it would be political corrections, not political correctness. And what I mean by that is, is I’m just gonna talk about a few things and there are many, many, many, many, many things could be addressed, but I want to make a few observations on a lot of the rhetoric that we hear, even coming out of the church, which I think is misleading or un-giblical. You know, we Christians today, and maybe it’s always been this way, I don’t know, but we have a knack for thinking, our thinking is like these little boxes in our head that don’t really connect. You know what I’m saying? We ever thinking, thinking about politics, we’re thinking about economics, we’re thinking about education, or thinking about church, or thinking about family. And it’s like, when you sit, if you actually take the time to sit back and look at what’s in those boxes, you find that what you have in box A doesn’t really agree with box B and it doesn’t agree with box C. You know, we hold all of these disparate, not desperate, disparate separate things in our heads because we haven’t taken the time and you know, I don’t expect everybody to be a political philosopher or anything, but the point is we’re supposed to be renewing our minds according to the word. Okay, that means thinking. I mean thinking is really a moral duty. Thinking is a Christian obligation. We, in America, we have this thing like, everybody’s got a right to their own opinion, right? Hey, say what you want, you know? So then you get the internet, ah! White noise, man. I mean, it’s just like, wow. So you know, we, now between now and the election, you know, you’re not going to go out and read 10 books. But my point is, is that it’s an ongoing process of renewing the mind and really thinking through these things. And one of the things that drives me crazy, And it’s not just politics. It’s any area. I really don’t like slogans. Do you know what I mean? Slogans. Make America great again. That’s a slogan. What does it mean? I don’t know, but it’s going to be great. It’s sloganeering. Stronger together. What’s stronger mean? I don’t know, but it’s going to be strong. I mean, you know, it’s bumper sticker politics. We have bumper sticker theology, you know. And, you know, we have to go way beyond slogans. Way beyond slogans in our thinking about stuff. And so, you hear a lot of these kind of slogans also coming out of the church. You hear various slogans that are just, they’re either not true or they’re partly true or they’re true but then they’re misapplied. See, and that to me is the most subtle form of error because you’re wrapping an error inside of a truth. So you’re saying what’s true but your deduction is false. So, you know, two plus two is what? is what? Now if I say two plus two is five, I’m saying two, there [audio unclear] stickers. We don’t take a verse, we take part of a verse. Right? I told you the story before probably because I’m old now, I repeat myself all the time. I was visiting somebody for dinner, this is many years ago, so it wasn’t your house, don’t worry. And I went and used the restroom, went in the restroom, this plaque with a nature scene. And of course, you know, we Christians have to improve nature, right? We have to tell God that it’s not good enough, so we have to slap a verse on to make it Christian. So if God makes it, it’s not Christian, but if we put a verse on it, now it’s Christian. Okay, so think about that one. So it’s a nature scene, running water, you know, idyllic. And the verse is something like, my thoughts for you or for whatever, a positive affirming thing. Out of Leviticus. Well, like, I know Leviticus. Now Leviticus is not where you go for comfort. Now if you’re down you don’t read Leviticus. So I’m thinking okay I want so I’m suspicious. I’m gonna go home and I’m gonna read it and I wish I had written it I remember now I should go try to dig up where it is. Point is I went back and read it and it’s like the second part of the versus I’m coming down on you, you know. It was like, oh my gosh. So they not only did, they just yanked a verse out of its text, context, they took part of the verse that sounded good and left the rest of the verse out. That’s like Christian’s sloganeering to at its best, right? And so that’s what we do, we hear a lot of slogans. And so, wow, makes my head explode, really does.

And the stuff, some of it is funny, Some of it’s really silly, but some of it has implications that are very, very important for how we. we live our lives, whether or not we glorify God in our lives, whether the choices we make are pleasing to God or not. Amen.

Political Corrections

So just a few observations, and I might call them corrections.

The first thing, and I probably won’t get through them all, it would be a long day. But the first thing I wanna say is, is we have to understand what we even mean by the word politics., okay. Now this one is really fundamental, right? If we’re gonna talk about politics, what are we talking about? It’d be like, if you’re having a conversation with somebody about baseball, but they’re really thinking football, because they think football is called baseball, well, you’re gonna have a really confusing conversation. So politics, the word politics comes from the Greek word polis, which is in scripture and in Greek writing, and polis simply means what? It means city. It means city. And then the derivative of that would be a citizen, okay. And in Greek thinking, the polis was a literal city and you You had city dwell [audio unclear] Yes or no? Yes. Okay. So God created three spheres, the family, the church, and the state, right? Yes. What we call the state is the civic realm, okay? So when many people think about politics today, they think about of something that’s actually very narrow, and they think of simply what politicians do in Washington or in just Xavier or their state capital. Now here’s the funny thing about the word politics, is that it’s a word that expands or contracts depending on your environment. Let me explain what I mean. The education of your children, is that political or not?

You’re thinking this is a trick question. Okay, you’re right, this is a trick. I’m tricking you. Because your gut’s telling you no. But you know this is a trick. Because the education of your children shouldn’t be political, it should be family. Right? Because when you look at the family church and state, each sphere has various responsibilities and duties. Whose duty is it to educate the children? Is it the state? Is it the church? Is it the family? Bingo. But guess what? We have a federal department of education. We have a state department of education. We have a local department of education. Is education political or not? It is. Now you can say it shouldn’t be, but it is. So this is important because many evangelicals, contrary to the tradition of Christian thinkers, want to separate politics from their life. Now they want to say politics is yucky and dirty and whatever. Politicians are all bad people and they just go boom. It’s not going to affect my life. It is affecting your life. It affects the lives of your children. It’s inescapable in the current situation. Would anybody have thought 50 years ago that the government would redefine marriage? Well, they have. Would anybody have thought a generation ago that the government would essentially be taking over your healthcare. Now I believe that I should have the right to pick whatever doctor I want. I believe I should have the right to not have a doctor. I think if I want to go out in the field and die like a dog, that should be my choice. I mean it. I’m supposed to live in a free society. I’m supposed to be a free man in America, okay? But I’m not because the government forces me into various systems that are contrary to my convictions. So things that in scripture, now I can prove, we don’t have time, but I can demonstrate to you if we spent literally, we’d have to spend a week and a week, many, many, many weeks going through scripture showing the responsibilities of each sphere and healthcare is not under the government sphere. It’s primarily under the church, believe it or not. Surprise, surprise. and welfare is under the church. Now, so my point is that the attempt to avoid the political is futile. You can avoid direct involvement in the sense that you’re conscious of being involved, but you can’t avoid involvement. So those of us that live, you know, we Missourians, we’re fortunate because we have a very, compared to other, we have a lot of freedom in the educational realm. I’ve pointed this out before that I’ve spoken at different homeschool, conventions in California. You can’t homeschool without the state’s permission. school without the state’s permission. Okay? So the way that politics has expanded, even if you wanted to not be involved, you’re involved. I. I mean, you cannot be uninvolved. And this touches the most sacred parts of your life. I mean, what is more important to you than your children? Probably nothing. Now, it should be the Lord, but those two are like this sometimes. [audio unclear] many, many, many, many other things of this nature. So the political is expanding, what we traditionally would define as a political is expanding and expanding and it is overtaking. And this has been happening really for probably over a hundred years and it’s been a very gradual thing. If you want to read one of the best books on this, read Christopher Loesch’s book, He gives a great analysis of how the federal or how civil government has basically, one by one, taken over the functions of the family. And it’s been a process going on for over 100 years. So the political is unavoidable. We have to get this in our heads. That means opting out isn’t an option. You can’t opt out. You are in the arms of the octopus. You are. Now you can use your faith as an opiate to dull the reality. You can sing about heaven say heaven is my home and. This place is just you know a dung he. So I don’t care. it’s never gonna happen. [audio unclear] I could, I could, I mean if I need to prove it, I mean I’ll do so, I’ll bring you the stories and read them to you about all the homeschool kids that have been taken away from their parents because the government doesn’t like the way they’re raising them. In America! Okay? So why am I, why am I hammering this point? Because one of the things that is happening currently, and it’s happened in the past, but it’s being highlighted now because the two presidential candidates are in the opinion of many people so slimy. I didn’t say that was my opinion. I said in the opinion of many. The rhetoric is so based, the attacks and everything, the corruption, all of it, that Christians wanna just wash their hands. Like this is so dirty, I can’t touch it. Okay. But my point is, is that you’re in the arms of the octopus.

And doing this doesn’t free you from the octopus.

It just might change which octopus is holding on to you. But it doesn’t free you. So we need to realize that there’s a price, there’s a result.

I use the word result. That’s a less charged word. Are you still with me? You’re like really all mad at me now. Honey maybe you’re going to get a couple dozen eggs for the people and they want to throw them while I’m talking. Don’t. He’s hungry. Go get the eggs, but bring some fried eggs for Josh. And I really lost my point. Shoot. Oh. The act was? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. OK. So here’s what I see happen. Is we look at the situation and goes, man, we go, man, that’s really slimy. Politics is a mess, these people corrupt, this, that, And so that’s our justification for not being involved.

Salt and Light

Right? But how’d it get slimy? Because we weren’t involved. What halts the corruption? The corruption? What halts the corruption Jesus said? The salt. What stops the darkness? The darkness? No, the light does. So, you know, I want righteous politicians, but then I don’t do anything to see that that happens. Or I want godly laws, but then I don’t do anything to see that those laws get implemented. Guess what? As Dabney said, nature does not revolutionize nature. Man’s nature is such that he doesn’t fix himself. He doesn’t have the power to do it. And so when you leave an area, whether it’s what we call politics, but that’s the way we use it, I think, is the misnomer.

When you think of education, you think of media, you think of entertainment. And when you say that is an area that Christians should not touch, don’t be surprised when it gets really bad.

If you take the light out of a room, does the room get brighter? No, it gets dark. If you take the salt away, then the corruption spreads.

We can’t have it both ways. This is the sloganeering idea, we’re gonna be pure, but then we’re gonna complain about how bad things are. Well, my thinking is that we’re supposed to be the same solution. Now, if you don’t want to be involved, I’m not saying you have to be involved in the sense of you got to vote for a person. But what I see is I see Christians saying we shouldn’t be involved and those same Christians complaining about how bad things are. You can’t hate your cake and eat it too a Okay. Jesus, Jesus people, we’re supposed to be victors. You know what that means?

Victors means people who are winning, who are conquering, who are transforming, who are changing.

You Cannot Not Legislate Morality

Not people who are whining and complaining. Give me a lot of Amen’s. But man, I tell you, you read the Christian press, you listen to Christians talk, they whine, they whine, they whine, they whine about how bad this is, how bad the this, how bad that person is, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, what if you didn’t change it? Nothing, but they’re bad. Oh really? You see it all the time. Jesus told us that the light is not supposed to be under the bushel. He said the salt has to be applied And he’s talking about good works, right? Being involved, and if we’re not doing good, then we’re allowing evil to spread. That’s why Edmund Burke said, he was a professing Christian, by the way, great British politician, all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. You don’t have to do evil to see it spread, you just have to sit there and do nothing. Because evil is nature’s way. We live in a fallen world. Good doesn’t grow the way evil grows. Now I’m not saying there’s nothing good in nature. My point is, is that evil spreads and power, which is a big part of the politics proper, power tends to corrupt. And so if there’s not counteractive influence of the Christian voice, the Christian presence, [audio unclear] worse and worse. And one of the reasons is because the salt has lost its savor and the light has been hiding under a bushel. This has been proven by historians of every stripe that evangelicals beginning in the 1920s and even a little bit before dropped out of government and they dropped out of what we call the civic realm. They began to withdraw. And so we saw we’ve seen this ongoing corruption, redefinition of good and evil, redefinition of marriage, redefinition of all sorts of values like tolerance and all this stuff. These things don’t just happen by impersonal forces. They happen because people who believe in ideals implement their ideals, okay? Which leads me to another point, I know I’m kinda rambling. So that point is, first point is we have to understand what we mean about politics, second point is we can’t do nothing, and third point is you hear people say you can’t legislate morality. I’ve heard this my whole Christian life. Now, it’s true, but again, think about your deduction. Because in one sense it’s true, another sense is false, depending on what you mean by it, or it’s true, but you make a false deduction. Now, if we mean by that, you can’t reform people’s hearts by laws, well that’s emphatically true. The Bible says that men need to be born again. They need to be born again. Not only to see the kingdom of God, but to really reach their fullest potential and to really do what is civically righteous. Now, there’s a thing called common grace. Fallen men have common grace. And even fallen men can understand certain principles of justice. So it’s not as if we’re talking about total bad versus good. It’s not like that. God’s grace operates in the natural realm, even amongst those who are fallen. That’s where told in Romans 13, to submit to the government, he says all authorities are appointed by God or being by God, and we’re exhorted to submit to them, to pay our taxes, et cetera, because they’re God’s servants, and he’s not talking about Christians there. He’s talking about pagans, who are God’s servants, the word is deacon, they’re God’s deacons doing his work. So you can’t legislate morality in the sense that law itself doesn’t transform people, this is true. But here’s the important deduction, you can’t have civil society without morality. There isn’t a value-free zone, out there. Okay, so the question becomes whose morality is going to be implemented. That’s really the question. So if Christians decide that politics, as they understand it, is just a bad dirty thing they don’t like, and they have no involvement, Well, are you gonna see Christian morality implemented? No. Of course not. Now, if you live in, let’s say, let’s say we had, don’t take this wrong, this is not an anti-immigration comment because I’m not, I’m not for, no, I’m not even going there, okay. Let’s say, let’s say, we live in O’Fallon, right? How many, 70,000 approximately? Let’s say by government fiat, 100,000 Muslims moved into O’Fallon. So we, the people living here at the time would be a minority. The Christians, who’s only part of the 70,000, we’d be a minority. So what if those Muslims voted as a block? What if they decided they were all gonna run for city hall? What if they decided they’re gonna implement laws regarding freedom of worship for churches and other things? I would say if you really believe in democracy, that’s exactly what they should do. But you’re gonna say, oh no, we don’t want them to do that. Well then you better get on board yourself. I mean, that’s how it works, folks. If we believe in the process, I believe we’re a republic and not a democracy in this trick sense, but the point is, if you believe in the process, then the process by definition means whoever wins implements their views. Call it morality, maybe you don’t want to call it morality, call it their political agenda, call it whatever you want to call, it comes down to the same thing. has a morality, everybody has a worldview, everybody has values as we call them, and when people in authority have the ability to implement values, they’re not going to implement mine, they’re going to implement theirs. That’s common sense. I mean, this is common sense.

How do we come up with this slogan, you can’t legislate morality, and this is a slogan that’s used to tell Christians, no, don’t be involved in politics because can’t let them out of morality. In other words, let the pagans make decisions, make laws, which are going to adversely affect you because you can’t let them out of morality, while they’re legislating their morality. I mean, this is common sense. So, law of itself doesn’t change hearts, but it conditions hearts. When the government tells people, through its enactments, that a certain behavior is okay, that encourages those people to violate the remnants of their conscience. It conditions people to do things that are, unscriptural. It is a form of permission and endorsement. And it does have an effect on how people live. We see this in the case of abortion. If abortion was not legal, yes, there would be, abortion is illegal, there’s no question. but not at the rate that they’re getting them legally. America’s a funny place to live. I’m really rambling now, okay? But here’s what we do. Here’s what we do in America. Something has been understood socially as wrong. Divorce, homosexuality, abortion. I might say it’s been understood for generations, hundreds of years, just in America, to mention the history of the world. So what we do in America is we decide well we’re just going to rename it. We’re going to call it something else and say it’s good. And that’s what we do. We just rename things and say it’s good. I could give you another name for abortion. It’s not so pleasant. But we just give it a clinical word and give it a pass. If I use the word sodomy, people get offended. So I have to say gay. Because that’s a happy word. So we just change words. Even though we’re talking about saying, we just call it good. You know what Isaiah said about that, right? those call good evil and evil good. Woe to those. We do not define reality. No individual, no court, no government, no UN. Man does not define reality. God does.

And if God says something is evil, it is evil. If God says it is good, it is good. Amen. Amen. So everybody has a morality and when people have power they will implement their morality as they ought. So we need to beware. Wow, I’ve really been Okay,

Kuyper, and the Lordship of Christ

let me just say one more thing about someone to say something about Jesus. You all like Jesus, right? Okay, now Jesus. Is Jesus Lord? Are you sure about that? Still will be after the election. Oh, he might take a vacation after this election. So you know the the lordship of Jesus, have you guys read Abraham Kuyper’s story his life? Not really. You should read Abraham Kuyper’s life. He was the prime minister of the Netherlands back in the 1800s, probably mid-1870s. He was a prime minister of the Netherlands. He started a university there, which is still in existence. He started a Christian newspaper, which I think may still be in existence. And he’s this astounding scholar, statesman, journalist, writer, editor, just an amazing person. His life, I won’t say life verse, but his life concept was the lordship of Jesus Christ. And because he believed Jesus Christ was Lord, that it was legitimate for him to run for political office. Because Jesus was Lord, it was legitimate for him to start a university. Because Jesus was Lord, it was legitimate for him to start a newspaper. Why? Because Jesus is Lord over politics. Jesus is Lord over education. Jesus is Lord over the press. Jesus is Lord over entertainment. Jesus is Lord over economics. Jesus is Lord, should I go on? You get any idea? Okay, great.

We say this while at the same time we say things which contradict us. Okay? And one of the ways we do it, and this is another one of the slogans, and this, some of you are going to get mad at me on this one, but the slogan is, because Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, therefore, and it’s in the therefore, we shouldn’t care about What happened to the point around now. Now, when Jesus was talking to Pilate, I encourage you to go back and read that and meditate on it. It is true that Jesus’ kingdom is not of the world in the sense that his kingdom is not established the way human kingdoms are established. We’re not having a vote on whether or not Jesus is gonna be Lord. Guess what folks? He is Lord whether you vote for him or not. Sorry. This is not a democracy. Jesus is Lord. Okay? So when he’s talking to Pilate, Pilate is saying, hey, do you get who I am? I’m like Pilate. I’m the embodiment of Roman authority. And Jesus says, okay, cool. But my kingdom isn’t of this world. What was he doing? Saying, Jesus was asserting the superiority of his kingdom over Pilate. The kingdom of God is not this little bubble in [audio unclear] your heart. It’s not even a church. The church is not the kingdom of God. That’s actually a Catholic doctrine, believe it or not. If you study more, you’ll find out. The kingdom of God is God’s rule over all of the universe. Look at Colossians 1. I was meditating the other day and not even in light of the sermon and I was reading Colossians and my Greek New Testament just really struck me. Look at Colossians. Paul talking about Jesus. He says he talks about how we should be thankful in verse 12 of Colossians 1, to the Father who’s qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness, he conveyed us or translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption, [audio unclear] over all creation. You want to say it with me? Over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or power. Visible would mean thrones and dominions like the US Supreme Court, the presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives. The invisible would be demonic thrones, if you will, are powers or authorities that we can’t see, but they exist. He’s Lord over the visible, and He’s Lord over the invisible. He’s Lord over all powers.

All things were created through Him and for Him, for Him. And He is before all things, And in Him all things consist or hold together. Jesus is holding it all together, man. And I tell you, if He wasn’t, it’d all be falling apart. Okay? I mean, we know it’s falling apart in different places. The Civil War in the Middle East, I mean, it’s just falling apart. But I mean, whew. If Christ was not reigning and holding the world In his providential care and his preservation power, the world would have ended a long time ago because man would have destroyed himself. That’s why I don’t … Okay, I gotta tell you this footnote real quick. There’s a new alien movie out here. It’s not called Alien.

Okay? Because I don’t like the idea that people are being conditioned to be open to visitors. You know what I’m saying? Weird visitors who want to instruct them in peace and unity and love.

Okay. So I like bad aliens. Did you ever see the Alien movie?

The first one? Yes. I came up with a theater that night, I laid on the floor, I was eyes wide open all night. I thought, man, an alien is going to pop out of my belly. Freak me out, man. Freak me out. He’s the aliens. He’s holding all things together, right? Verse 18, He is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, listen, listen to me, that in all things He, Jesus, may have the preeminence. He Jesus would have the preeminence.

How can we read that text and say Jesus Christ is Lord, thus I am just going to be uninvolved?

Kuyper said this. He says, there’s not one square inch of the domain where Jesus does not say, that is mine. So when Jesus looks at politics, that is mine. Education, that is mine. Family, that is mine. Entertainment, that is mine. Economics, that is mine. That is mine. That is mine. That is mine. That is mine because I am Lord and I am preeminent. His His kingdom does not come. Through arms and through voting, His kingdom comes through the exercise of its own sovereign power. And Jesus Christ is now on the throne of God. Now today. And He taught us to pray, thy will be done. as it is in heaven. It’s not okay to live like Jesus, Christ, is not the Lord when he is. And if we say he’s the Lord, then we don’t mean just the Lord of, of our soul, we mean the Lord of the universe, because that’s what scripture says. He’s holding all things together. And God sent Jesus to redeem and to save and to transform so that the reason is that we would recognize his Lordship and his preeminence and that he would be glorified in every area of our lives, every area. Let’s stand.

The Kingdom, and Closing Prayer

Lord I I thank you that you are Lord, and whether we see it or feel it, whether men defy you or not, it is true that you are reigning Jesus. And I thank you that your kingdom does not come through voting or armies. I thank you that you establish your kingdom through your sovereign work, your sovereign grace, your sovereign grace, your [audio unclear] I ask Lord that in these times which for many are very troubling, you would remind us of this truth, this most fundamental truth that you are Lord and you are the Lord of lords and the King of kings.

And we may not understand why you allow things to happen, why you allow people in power, why you allow various things to happen. But I pray Lord that we would not confuse what you are allowing and what we are allowing.

You have called us to live in a way that demonstrates our faith in your Lordship. That we are to be light in every dark place. We are to be salt in every corrupt place. And I pray, Lord, that we would not blame you when we abdicate. We would not say, God, why did you let this happen when we really let it happen? Father, we pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Manifest the reality of your kingdom in our homes first, God, in our church, in our society.

And we pray this, Lord, not for our comfort or benefit. We pray it because we love Jesus. We want to see Jesus honored and glorified in the eyes of men. to make it so Lord for the glory of your son who you have made the king who sits on his holy hill and we pray in his name amen