INTRODUCTION
WAKE UP!
If the church would wake up and the church would start speaking the truth and the church would start speaking the truth in love, we wouldn’t have the politicians we have and we wouldn’t have the moral decadence going on all around us. But because the church has been silent for decade (this isn’t a new thing) we’ve got economic problems, moral problems, political problems, geo-political problems…these are all physical manifestations of a spiritual battle talking place, and that’s why the church needs to wake up. When we know what the battle is, we know how to fight.
COURAGE OF ESTHER
We need to have the courage and the victory and the boldness of someone like Queen Esther in the Old Testament who put her life on the line for her nation. She was willing to die for her nation. What about Daniel? What about Joseph? They spoke to kings. What about Jesus? If we don’t speak out, if we don’t start speaking the truth in love, and being involved in the political arena, we’re not even going to have a country left for our kids.
A STRANGLEHOLD ON THE CHURCH
- The government’s plan is for the church to stay asleep.
- They don’t want the church speaking the truth, because then they can’t get away with everything they’re getting away with.
- The government has a stranglehold on the clergy of this country, saying that if you speak about politics from the pulpit, we’re going to strip you of your non-profit status. Therefore, pastors and priests around this country are afraid to speak the truth, they’re afraid to speak out on political things.Its not about a particular party, this is not a Republican versus Democrat issue. This is about speaking the truth, and speaking the truth in love.
THE FUTURE IS UP TO US
We can change the future. We can change the culture that we’re living in and we can make sure that the next generation has a better country to live in than this generation, because God’s Word never returns void.
WHY ARE WE OPERATING OUT OF FEAR WHEN THE OPPOSITE IS FAITH?
It’s time to be bold and operate in the gifts and the power that the Lord gives us. It is time for the church to become the Church. We were born for such a time as this, with all the power and authority that God gives to each and every one of us. He is breathing through us, He is speaking to us to change the culture and the world that we are living in, but we’re not doing it.PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF A SPIRITUAL BATTLE
When you look at the world around us, what do you see? Social decay. Moral decay. Economies around the globe are collapsing. Political upheaval. Geo-political upheaval. Everything is falling apart at the same time. To me, it is quite obvious what is going on. This is a physical manifestation of a spiritual battle that is taking place.
THE CYCLE OF DEMOCRACY
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” -Alexander Tytler
So let’s look at this cycle, this is important. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history is about 200 years. When did our great nation start? 1776. What year is it today? It is 2017. We’re pushing the envelope. We’re 244 years into this and the average is 200 years for a democratic civilization.
When you look at this list, where do you think we are on these 8 steps? I would say Dependence; we’re right about there. From Bondage, we fled Europe and came here because we didn’t want religious persecution. Then we fought the Revolutionary War, which was spiritual faith to great courage. That produced liberty. That liberty created so much abundance in this country that we just grew and grew, from the Industrial Revolution all the way up to the 1980s, where I would say that abundance turned into selfishness and greed. And you can name all the vices that come with that. Then what happens? When your wallet becomes thick and fat and happy, you become apathetic. Everybody does. Things are comfortable. I don’t really need to fight anymore. Once you become apathetic, what happens? You start spending way too much money. See, these cycles repeat themselves over and over again. When you spend too much money you eventually stop caring. You stop looking to the future and start living for the today. This is what happened to the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s, and even into the early 2000s. We just spent way too much money. Now we can’t even afford the debt service on our credit as a nation anymore. So now it leads back to dependence.
These cycles repeat themselves, and when we look at what’s going on it’s very spooky. Because we’re actually in the dependence stage, we’re actually saying, “Give us Social Security, Give us Medicare, Give us Medicaid, Give us a Health Plan, Give us this, Give us that.” We’ve become a nation of takers, rather than a nation of givers. And this is a sad political commentary and social commentary on where we are because we are between levels 7 and 8 on the cycle of democracy.
UNFUNDED FUTURE OBLIGATIONS
So how much debt do we actually have? And why are we right here? We have over $20 trillion worth of debt right now. This is just everything we’ve amassed in our country from 1776 until now. That’s what that number represents. What that number doesn’t represent is very scary, and that is all of the bills that have already been passed by Congress. The Medicare and Medicaid and health plans and all of the other entitlement programs. They’ve already passed them. And they’re going to pay for years and they’re going to pay into perpetuity. They’re going to pay for years and years and years. That’s what that means. When you add up all those future unfunded obligations that we’re responsible for, what is that number? The true national debt (considering passed bills) is actually about $200 trillion! Remember, it’s mathematically impossible to pay back the $20 trillion. So what does $200 trillion represent? Well, it just means that it’s really, really impossible to pay that one off. This is the problem.
HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS
THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN’S SOULS
1775. The start of the American Revolution. It was a battle and it was a war, but not everybody was on the same page. This is why in 1776, Thomas Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” See, you had the ruling elite at the time who were fat and happy and were comfortable. Even though they didn’t have as many freedoms and had too many taxes, they were voting, they were in power and were in control and they liked that and they didn’t want to give it away. Then you had everyone else who said, “Hey! We’re being taxed without representation. We’re being taxed unfairly. You’re stripping away our freedoms. We don’t want this.” So, here’s where the battle started. And is this any different than what we’re seeing today? No! It’s not.
MORAL BANKRUPTCY
We’re morally bankrupt. We’ve lost our soul. And therefore we have social problems and economic problems and political problems. All these things are coming because we have poverty of soul. And the danger is this: Our personal freedoms, our economic freedoms, our political freedoms and our religious freedoms are all tied together. They are all interconnected. If we lose one of them, we lose all of them. And this is why it is imperative that the church wakes up and fights this battle, because this is a cultural battle and we are losing it.
POVERTY OF SOUL
PSALM 106 (New King James Version of the Holy Bible)
Praise the Lord!
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!For His mercy endures forever.
2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?Who can declare all His praise?
3 Blessed are those who keep justice,And he who does[a] righteousness at all times!
4 Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people.Oh, visit me with Your salvation,
5 That I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones,That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,That I may glory with Your inheritance.
6 We have sinned with our fathers,We have committed iniquity,We have done wickedly.
7 Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders;They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies,But rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea.
8 Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake,That He might make His mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up;So He led them through
the depths,As through the wilderness.
10 He saved them from the hand of him who hated them,And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11 The waters covered their enemies;There was not one of them left.
12 Then they believed His words;They sang His praise.
13 They soon forgot His works;They did not wait for His counsel,
14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,And tested God in the desert.
15 And He gave them their request,But sent leanness into their soul.
16 When they envied Moses in the camp,And Aaron the saint of the Lord,
17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan,And covered the faction of Abiram.
18 A fire was kindled in their company;The flame burned up the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb,And worshiped the molded image.
20 Thus they changed their gloryInto the image of an ox that eats grass.
21 They forgot God their Savior,Who had done great things in Egypt,
22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham,Awesome things by the Red Sea.
23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them,Had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach,To turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.
24 Then they despised the pleasant land;They did not believe His word,
25 But complained in their tents,And did not heed the voice of the Lord.
26 Therefore He raised His hand in an oath against them,To overthrow them in the wilderness,
27 To overthrow their descendants among the nations,And to scatter them in the lands.
28 They joined themselves also to Baal of Peor,And ate sacrifices made to the dead.
29 Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds,And the plague broke out among them.
30 Then Phinehas stood up and intervened,And the plague was stopped.
31 And that was accounted to him for righteousnessTo all generations forevermore.
32 They angered Him also at the waters of strife,[b]So that it went ill with Moses on account of them;
33 Because they rebelled against His Spirit,So that he spoke rashly with his lips.
34 They did not destroy the peoples,Concerning whom the Lord had commanded them,
35 But they mingled with the GentilesAnd learned their works;
36 They served their idols,Which became a snare to them.
37 They even sacrificed their sonsAnd their daughters to demons,
38 And shed innocent blood,The blood of their sons and daughters,Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;And the land was polluted with blood.
39 Thus they were defiled by their own works,And played the harlot by their own deeds.
40 Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people,So that He abhorred His own inheritance.
41 And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles,And those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies also oppressed them,And they were brought into subjection under their hand.
43 Many times He delivered them;But they rebelled in their counsel,And were brought low for their iniquity.
44 Nevertheless He regarded their affliction,When He heard their cry;
45 And for their sake He remembered His covenant,And relented according to the multitude of His mercies.
46 He also made them to be pitiedBy all those who carried them away captive.
47 Save us, O Lord our God,And gather us from among the Gentiles,To give thanks to Your holy name,To triumph in Your praise.
48 Blessed be the Lord God of IsraelFrom everlasting to everlasting!And let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
Israel was coming out of Egypt. They had seen miracles but for some reason, they forgot His works. What was that reason? How could they forget His works? How could they become acclimated to miracles that God kept doing over and over for them? How could they forget about the parting of the Red Sea? How could they forget about the manna on the ground? How could they forget all of this stuff, and the miracles that He provided for them? You can get bored with the manna on the ground every day if your focus is wrong. The supernatural food became boring to them. And that’s a problem.
WHAT DEFINES US?
Our humility will define us, as well as our pride. Both of them do. So let’s be defined by our humility, rather than our pride. See, pride has defined our nation, and we can’t have both. Our humility will soak up God like a sponge. Our pride will repel Him.
GOD’S PLAN VS. MAN’S PLAN
•Psalm 106 tells us what happens when we live under man’s plan
•God’s plan tells us something different!
3 John 1:2: “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” This is how God wants it. God wants our soul to prosper. When we’re in control of our lives and not in complete submission to him, man’s wisdom comes in to play and that is flawed, and then we get leanness of soul. It’s different than what God has planned for all of us.
HOPE IN A HOPELESS SITUATION
ARE WE TO BLAME FOR THIS?
Are you praying? Are we as a church praying? Are we praying for our enemies? Are we praying for our political leaders? If we’re not, then we are to blame for the situation that we’re in, because we have the power, from the Holy Spirit, to pray, and prayer works. God’s Word never returns empty. This is where action needs to start with us. If we’re ever to reach our nation, if we’re ever to change this declining culture, this collapsing system that we’re living in, then we need to love our neighbors, we need to pray for our enemies. We need to love our enemies. This is what Jesus would do. And we need to do that by focusing on what we have in common, by letting the light of Jesus shine through us, speaking through us and to us, and we can pull over our enemies from the other side, people who are trying to destroy our nation. That’s the love of Jesus and that’s how we’re going to win over our culture and be world changers.
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
As believers and as the church, we need to start speaking out on the important issues of the day. The sanctity of marriage, the sanctity of life and on things that the government now classifies as hate speech, but what God classifies and calling sin for what it is.
THE COST OF SILENCE
How Do You Kill 11 Million People, by Andy Andrews was one of the most important books I’ve read in my entire life. It was the story about a church on the railroad tracks in Germany during the Holocaust and during the reign of Hitler. And this church heard stories of the Jews and how they were being exterminated, but chose not to believe them because it was just too hurtful. So, one Sunday morning as they were in church worshipping, they heard the train coming. This train would come by week after week. But this time they heard people screaming. They heard the Jews screaming on the way to their death. What did the church do? This is very telling for their time and this could have changed everything. They did nothing, except…they started worshiping God louder and louder and louder.
ACTIONS THAT REQUIRE COURAGE
What if the church would have woken up and what if the church would have had the bravery of Esther, who put her life on the line for an entire nation? She saved that nation. This is where we need to be and this is where we are not. This hurts me. When I think about what they could have done, but instead doing nothing…what a bunch of cowards. To think yourself more than other people around you, and yet this is what we’re doing in our country day after day after day. It’s time for the church to wake up. You know what? People in that church, who gave eyewitness accounts, even today they’re still paying the consequences for their in-action. One of the eyewitnesses said, “Those screams of those people being brought to their death still haunt us every single night in our dreams.” Horrible. We need to step up. We need to be brave. We need to be the Christians that Jesus is calling us to be in viewing others greater than ourselves. If we EVER want to make a difference, this is what we have to do.
DISASTER COMES AFTER WARNING
There are many examples: the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the story of Noah…but the one I want to look at is the story of Joseph. So let’s consider his story. The Pharaoh of the time had a dream. He saw in his dream seven fat cows and seven lean cows. He called Joseph in to interpret the dream and God gave Joseph the interpretation. The meaning was this: the seven fat cows meant that they were going to have seven years of plenty, and during that time they needed to store up because there were seven lean years coming, seven years of famine. And the people that heeded that warning actually survived and prospered, just like today the people that heeding the call and listening to God’s words of wisdom, they are not just going to survive but they’re going to thrive. But what happens to the people that don’t listen to God’s warning? What happens to those that don’t follow His protection and the provision that He has for them? Back in Joseph’s day, for those people that didn’t listen, first they had to give the government their money. Then they gave their livestock. Then they gave their land. Then they gave them their bodies as servants in exchange for food. How is it any different now? They’re taking, taking, taking. The government has to take higher taxes because they’re trying to fund all the conspicuous consumption lifestyles that we have in this country. These patterns in the Bible are here for us to learn from, so we don’t make the same mistakes. But just like the Israelites back in the day, we continue to make the same mistakes over and over and over again. We’re really no different.
A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
God wants us to be prosperous and successful, and to do that He gives us a blueprint. It’s in His Word. If we meditate on His Word day and night then we will have good success, this is what Joshua 1:8 says. And what does His Word say? In Malachi 3:10 for example, if we tithe (10% of our income for example) then He will open up the floodgates of Heaven so much that we will not have room enough to contain it. So when we give to the church, the church will be able to do what it’s supposed to do. Right now the church can’t do what they need to do because recent surveys have shown that only 3% of evangelicals actually tithe. This is sick and this is sad. No wonder we can’t take care of widows and orphans and the government has to. If we as believers would actually tithe, the church could do what it’s supposed to do and what they are called to do and the government wouldn’t have to do it. Then taxes could come down. But the other benefit of this is that when we give, the blessings of Heaven are poured out so much that we won’t even have room enough to contain it, we’ll be more and more successful.
WHAT DEFINES AMERICA?
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EVERYTHING IS FALLING APART AT THE SAME TIME
When everything is falling apart at exactly the same time, we can be certain that it’s not just an isolated incident, but it’s actually physical manifestations of a spiritual battle that is raging. And this has been going on for a long time. This is a battle for our souls, it really is. Left to our own devices, we will be slaves. Proverbs 22:7 says, “…And the borrower is servant to the lender.” What are we borrowing from, man’s wisdom or God’s wisdom? Because it will control you just like anything we allow. It will take root and grow and eventually overpower you. Remember: what is true for the individual is also true for the nation. So the question becomes, “What defines our nation?”
DEFINED BY DEBT
- We have lived lifestyles of conspicuous consumption as a nation
- This is the result of a morally bankrupt nation (our priorities aren’t in the right place).
- Now, debt defines us.
- We become a slave to whatever we let consume us.
- The U.S. debt is mathematically impossible to pay back.
INTEREST RATES: THE END OF A CYCLE
We’ve got the lowest interest rates in the history of our country, and interest rates were at their highest point back in 1983. If you were to buy a house back then, the interest rate on your mortgage was 15-20%. Can you imagine that today? It’s ridiculous, but that’s what it was. And sadly, cycles repeat themselves. History repeats itself. The average cycle of interest rates is 28 years from high to low and from low to high. That’s the average. Well, in 1983 we’re at our high point, and now, over 30 years later in 2017, we’re at the lowest interest rates in the history of our country. We’re pushing the edge of the envelope. So we have to ask ourselves, “Where can interest rates go from here?” Where can they go? They can’t go lower. We’re at the lowest point in the history of our country. They can really only go higher. And how long can they go higher? Well, on average, another couple of decades.
VIOLATING THE BLUEPRINT FOR A SUCCESSFUL LIFE
What this means is we have violated God’s Word, our blueprint for a successful life, by going into debt. And when interest rates start to rise, this won’t affect anyone who doesn’t have debt, but it does affect those who do. And who has debt? Consumers. Basically, across the nation, we all have debt. But so do municipal governments, State governments and the Federal government. So does corporate America! We’re all in debt up to our eyeballs. Interest rates are at their lowest point right now around 2%, and if interest rates go to 4%, that’s not a 2% increase, that is a doubling! Which means that the cost of servicing our national debt goes all the way up from $300 Billion to $600 Billion.
We are at a point where because we have printed so much money and we have so much debt, the rest of the world says, “Hey, you can’t pay it back, so we’re going to stop investing in the U.S. dollar.” So now, we have less foreign capital inflow, but we still have our debt that we need to service. We still have a national defense, we still have the interest payments, and we still have federal employees. We still have all this stuff that we need to pay for.
So what does the government do? They print money like there is no tomorrow at the Federal Reserve. This devalues our currency.WHAT IS INFLATION?Inflation is not rising prices. Inflation is an increasing money supply. Everything that we get from foreign countries as an import is basically going to have a cost that is a function of our money supply. If we keep printing and printing and printing and devaluing our currency, they’re going to want more of it. So therefore, they’re still going to sell us the TV, but it’s going to cost a lot more. They’re going to want more of our junk currency in exchange for it. That’s why rising prices are a symptom of inflation.
SPENDAHOLICS!
Our national debt has gone from $10.7 TRILLION to $20.5 TRILLION since the beginning of the Obama presidential administration in 2009. Realize, it took our county from 1776-2009 to go from $0 to $10.7 TRILLION in debt. Then in eight years that amount doubled. Our debt is now growing exponentially! This is unsustainable.
WE NEED TO CHANGE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE
We have to make a change. We have to persuade our policy-makers to implement policies of success, which are laid out in the Bible. Don’t be a slave to the lender. If the government would stop spending so much money and have a balanced budget like all of us have to, and they lower taxes rather than raise taxes, it would actually help stimulate the economy. We are a nation of conspicuous consumers. If we have more money what are we going to do? We’re going to spend it. This is a sad story, but it is reality. So if we have lower taxes, we have a bigger bottom line and we will spend. That means corporate America will become more profitable which means they’ll hire more people and it’s a domino effect in the other direction.
A RECIPE FOR FAILURE
Policy-makers now are doing it all wrong. They’re saying, “We’re going to raise taxes and we’re going to increase spending.” That’s a recipe for failure. A recipe for success would be to spend less and lower taxes. This is how the economy can be fixed. But you know what? Policy-makers aren’t hearing from people who are speaking the Truth. They’re not hearing from people who are abiding by God’s principles for a successful life. This is why it is absolutely imperative that the church wakes up.
But you know what? We’re silent. We’re silent as a church and we’re not saying what needs to be said. Therefore, we have the politicians that we have, we have the economy that we have, we have the social turmoil that we have and we have the moral decline we have in this country because the church is not speaking up.
A NATION OF TAKERS
Sadly, we have become a nation of takers instead of a nation of givers. All of Christianity is based on the example of giving. God gave us His Son. Jesus gave us His life. We’re to love our neighbors as ourselves. It’s all about giving. But yet, in our country, we have become takers and not givers. Consider this: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Women Infants & Children Programs, food stamps…all of the entitlements and the mandatory payments that the government now has to pay out now equals $2.6 Trillion. We only bring in 3.6 Trillion dollars as an economy in tax receipts. This means that 73% of everything we bring in as a nation goes out to mandatory payments. There is no way that a country can stay strong, or even maintain and exist as a country, when they only have 18% left to fund their national defense and all of the Federal workers and the infrastructure and the roads and bridges and everything else. You can’t run a country on 27% and have 73% go out to the takers.*
We have a problem. This is violating God’s laws for success. This is violating His principles and this is why we as a church need to wake up. And you know what? All of these programs are actually good programs for people who need help. But they’re meant to be temporary, they’re not meant to create a lifestyle. But it’s gone from a Band-Aid, or temporary solution to, “I expect this for the rest of my life.” And this is why we have a problem.
*These numbers are the current numbers from the Federal budget and reflect the growth in these line items since the documentary was produced.
IS IT TOO LATE FOR AMERICA?
Is it too late for our country? No! Are we in a bad spot? Yes. Is it going to get worse before it gets better? Yes, again yes. Heed the warning calls though. Where are the warnings? They’re in the Bible. Read your Bible to find Truth. Policies that we are enacting lead to the results that we’re reading about. When we think that we’re not strong enough, when we think we’re not bold enough, when we’re afraid to speak out because of the consequences that may come from that, then in our weakness He is made strong.
EMPOWERING THE ENEMY
If you’re walking around in fear, all that you are doing is empowering the enemy. That’s exactly where the enemy wants you to be, completely shackled and weary and not wanting to do good, because you’re hopeless and you think that there is nothing that you can do. That is so contrary, when Jesus the creator of the universe lives in us and His light shines through us and is working on our behalf. Wow, there is absolutely nothing that we can’t accomplish.
POWER AND INFLUENCE
We are royalty in His eyes. We are Christ’s ambassadors, as it states in 2 Corinthians 5:20. What does that mean? Well, what’s an ambassador? An Ambassador links two nations and speaks for the King or the President while living in a foreign land. Wow! Grasp that. We are Christ’s ambassadors. We work for Jesus. He planted us here on this earth, which is ruled by Satan and all of his minions. He has planted us here to act on His behalf, to speak with His authority in a foreign land. Our land is the Kingdom of Heaven. This earth is a foreign land to us. He made us ambassadors. That is just so cool. Do we act like ambassadors? Do we as Christians act like we work for the King of kings? Sadly, some of us do and some of us don’t. Most of us don’t most of the time. Ghandi said, “If all Christians acted like Christ, the whole world would be Christian.” Ghandi loved Jesus and he was a Hindu. For a big-shot Hindu guy to say that if we acted like Jesus then everyone would be a Christian…good grief that is amazing to me, but it’s so true. Who wouldn’t want to be a Christian if everybody acted like Jesus? He was our model. Ghandi also said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” He said a lot of deep things, but this one is just very true. Don’t sit back and grumble. Don’t sit back and complain. Don’t sit back and do nothing. Act! Get out of your comfort zone. Speak out politically. Speak the truth in love to your neighbors. Tithe so the church can take care of the widows and orphans and reach out to a lost and dying world. Love our neighbors as ourselves; the world would be a much different place if we all did that.
ACTION STEPS TO CHANGE OUR CULTURE
Joel C. Rosenberg in his book Implosion laid out some phenomenal steps that we can all take as believers to get politically active:
- VOTE. When you vote, vote with your conscience.
- HELP A POLITICAL CANDIDATE Help a candidate that shares your biblical values with your time, your talent and your money. You’ve got put some skin in the game. If we are to win this battle, it’s got to be a team effort. In the last election cycle I was helping a candidate, and money is always an issue. And you know what? God spoke to me clearly. This candidate was sacrificing his time, his energy, his time with his family…he hadn’t seen some of his kids in almost nine months…and the Lord spoke to me and said, “Kirk, you have got to put some skin in the game.” This has to be a team effort, if we are going to win this battle, if we are going to win this culture; it has to be a team effort. And you know what, I might not have been on the front lines, but I was very instrumental on the back end in prayer support and in financial support, and that’s what all of us can do.
- RUN FOR POLITICAL OFFICE. Now, this one might not be for everyone. You need to be specifically called to do it. If the Lord doesn’t call you, then simply don’t do it. There are many examples of God’s people who are politically active in the Bible: Joseph, Esther, Daniel, David, Solomon, Josiah, Nehemiah and countless others. This is where politics and religion meet, and this is our calling, to be politically active. There are a lot of examples to follow. We need to speak the truth in love if we are ever to reach our culture and our community, and we need to be politically active.
- PRAY AND FAST. Seek the specific will of God in your life to see if you are called to serve in the political arena. There are both priests and kings in the Bible. Each have different roles. One is not a lesser calling than the other, but whatever you are called to, you should do it with everything that is in you.
- DON’T BE ADDICTED TO PARTISANSHIP. You will destroy relationships. The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and our enemies, and this is regardless of political party. We are to speak the truth in love. If we are ever to win people from the other side and with different ideals and beliefs than us, we have to build a bridge. We have to find commonality and focus on that rather than focusing on the differences. They need to see the love of Jesus and the light of Jesus shining through us, and then what will happen is they will say, “there is something different about them, I want to be like them, I want that.” And you know what? This is how we are going to build bridges and actually win this battle for our culture. If we act with selfish indignation, with righteous indignation, with judgmentalism, then we’re just going to build up such a huge wall that they are never going to want to be like us and we are never going to win this culture. We need to be like Jesus. Then we will win this cultural battle.
THE SECRET INGREDIENTS TO WIN THE BATTLE OF OUR CULTURE
PRAY
Pray for your leaders, the ones that you love and the ones that you don’t love. Pray for all of them because they are in authority over us. Pray for the President. Pray for the Congress. Pray for those in church leadership and local leadership. Pray for everybody in leadership. Give until it hurts and just simply love people. Go out of your way to love your neighbor. This is how it begins to change the world around you. When you speak the truth in love, and not in a harsh, judgmental way, people respond to that. This is how I’m able to speak to politicians on both sides of the aisle. People on the other side are not the enemy. They’re thinking that they are doing the right thing. It’s not that they’re evil; they really think that they’re doing the right thing. I’m talking about people who are opposite politically from me. They’re not going about change in the way that I would. We both think that we’re doing good though, so therefore find the things that you have in common and focus on that, and then speak the truth in love. Really, we can change the world we live in and advance God’s Kingdom. Don’t give the Devil an inch in any area of your life because if you do, he’s going to take a mile.
Pray for courage and wisdom, and know that when the storms of life come up, sometimes Jesus calmed the storm and sometimes he was the peace in the midst of the storm. Either way, the end result is peace.
DON’T LIVE IN FEAR
Don’t live in fear. The world is a nasty place and things are falling apart. We have the politicians we have because the church has been asleep at the wheel for so long. We have poverty of soul in this nation for the same reason. What we have is what we asked for as a people. Maybe we didn’t ask for it outright, but our actions speak louder than words and we didn’t have to ask. Then we amassed debt and now that debt defines us. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Period. That’s the promise right there. There’s our answer. God’s Word doesn’t return void. What does this mean? This isn’t everybody on the planet; this is just the church that He’s talking about. “If My people who are called by My name…” are Christians. If they would humble themselves and pray and seek His face, then He will hear from Heaven and heal our land. That is our answer. That’s the answer for all of the horrible stuff, for all of the gloom and doom that we’re seeing on this earth.
THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF
We need to wake up. We are on the edge of a cliff and about to fall off. And in the church, we need to have a revival. We need to act. We need to view others and better than ourselves. We need to be politically active. We need to humble ourselves, repent and pray. Then God will heal our land, that’s a promise. Our nation is changing before our eyes, and before we know it, it is going to be too late. But rest your faith and your hope on God’s promises, that He will heal our land.
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