Welcome to the Plenteous Redemption podcast, where the cross and the culture are on a collision course for discussion. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign Now, here's your host, Thomas Ervin. All right, well, this is going to be odd this morning. It's going to be a little different than the norm. We'll start in Galatians chapter 6. Your Bibles probably fell open to Romans 3 on accident. It used to be that Christians had major influence in our country, in England, in Germany, all across the world. Christians have forfeited that influence. Rather than leading, they now follow. Rather than trying to influence the world, they are influenced by the world. Rather than convincing intellectuals with biblical arguments, we are now led around like cattle by the intellectuals. And it's sad. I hate to see that things have gone that direction, but that's where things are. Furthermore, the pulpit used to have major sway in elections. Men used to stand in the pulpit and not give you a political argument about who to vote for, but express to you the spiritual implications of your vote, and it does have major spiritual implications. The choices before us are not a matter of political preference. If it is, if you're a Christian and that's how you're making your decision, well, you're carnal. That's the problem. Well, who's going to give me more money? Who's going to give me more stuff? That's ultimately what it boils down to. Now, as Christians, we live in a society that is supposed to, supposed to be a republic. When you hear somebody talking about democracy, you've got a problem. We're not supposed to be a democracy. Democracy is mob rule, but slightly more civilized. Under a democracy, if you have a right defined in that society, if they can get enough people together, they can vote away your individual right. In a republic, your individual rights are protected and cannot be taken away, or they're not supposed to be able to be taken away. That's a massive difference. The example that I can give you is we used to go preaching in downtown Deland, Florida, and I've told you multiple times that people would get up in arms. It's a very liberal town. They don't like people being out on the street corner talking about Jesus. They despise Jesus Christ in that town. It's a little liberal utopia, and the Bible Baptist Church in that town ruins their liberal utopia. You know, they hate it. And so they gather people in town together every so often. It seems to happen about every 10 years. And they try and convince the mayor and the city council to remove our church off the streets. Now, it always ends up coming to a vote before the mayor and the city council every time. And praise the Lord, every single time, the city council and the mayor, though many of them despise what we do, a few of them appreciate what we do, most of them despise it, they recognize that as a church, as individuals, we have a constitutional right to be there. And though they don't like you and don't like what you're saying, they recognize that they can't just tell you, you can't be downtown doing that. If they're going to take away our church's signs downtown, they're going to take away everybody's signs downtown. You can't single out a group of people and say, we're taking away your right to do that. That's not how things are supposed to work in our country. Now that is going away rapidly, and it's going away rapidly for several reasons. Number one, nobody exercises their rights anymore. Who cares about the First Amendment except a few, just a few people? Who here this week went out publicly, in the public, and exercised your First Amendment right? Not many. How many Christians across the country have gone outside the church walls and exercised their First Amendment right by preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Not many. Nobody really cares anymore. And because nobody really cares anymore, your rights are eroding. The reason they can be taken away from you is because, first of all, people don't even understand what their rights are. They think they have the right not to pay taxes. That's not a right. that you're way off track. You have the right to open your mouth and to speak up for Jesus Christ. And then you have the right to defend yourself when people cross the line in trying to stop you from opening your mouth and speak up for Jesus Christ. You have numerous rights outlined and defined by your constitution that you should cling to, not because we want to be political actors, but because those rights give you a lot of liberty and freedom as an American to serve and worship Jesus Christ. And if you let those rights erode, you're going to be told how to worship Jesus Christ. The Lord said for you to go into all the world and preach the gospel, try doing that in North Korea. Try going into Iran and preaching the gospel. Try going into Iraq and preaching the gospel. Try going in downtown Russia and preach the gospel. Many countries in Europe, if you go, my wife and I had seriously prayed about going to Portugal, more specifically the Azores, or just Portugal in general, to be missionaries. And I talked to a few missionaries there, and I told them that we believe in public ministry, and we would like to go out publicly and preach the gospel. And he said, you can't do that. You do not have the right to do that. We can do it here all day long. You can stand out on that street corner to your heart is content and nobody's going to come and say anything to you. But that's not the case in many places around the world. Our country is unbelievably unique in its structure. Rights have been given to you. If you go to Uganda, if you go to Saudi Arabia, I've lived in both of those countries. And if I did something in those countries, if someone did something to me in those countries, I'm guilty. It doesn't matter. But it wasn't your fault. It doesn't matter. You're not from there. You're guilty because you're not from there. That's just how it is. But let's say you did do something wrong and you had to be brought before their legal system. You will not be treated as a citizen of that country and given legal rights that protect you and that are very careful in how you're handled through the justice system. They'll just do whatever they want to you. Here, let a Ugandan or someone from Saudi Arabia come here and violate the law, they're going to be treated with the same respect you would be treated with as an American. Now, they'll probably be given even more respect. But if we're assuming that the proper application of the law that is of the land, that is for us, assuming that it's applied the way it's supposed to, Those people will come here legally, assuming, violate the law, and they'll be treated like a United States citizen and given every legal respect available to them. That doesn't exist hardly anywhere else in the world. There's nothing else like it. To a large extent, it's leaving. It's disappearing. It's going away. The things that are happening right now on a large scale in our country in certain places, it's going to spread. The positive is not going to spread. That's unlikely. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse. The negative is going to spread. And so if we don't consider the political choices in front of us from a biblical perspective and then help make decisions accordingly while we have the chance to participate then you're going to completely lose the freedoms and the liberties that have allowed us to thrive as Christians in this country for so long. Now, that should mean something to you, but it doesn't mean anything to most. You know why you know that? How many people live in George County? What is it, like 20-something thousand? How many of them are in church today? They're sitting at home doing absolutely nothing. They're out on the lake fishing. They're drinking beer. They're watching football. They're watching basketball. They're doing all sorts of things that have absolutely no meaning in life whatsoever. Their country is on the verge of collapse and moving in a dangerous direction. People's lives spiritually are completely destructive. There's so much that needs to be done, and all Americans can do is watch Dancing with the Stars, drink beer, and turn on the football game. This lazy, complacent mentality is not conducive to a society that has freedom and liberty. With freedom and liberty come responsibility. And if you're not gonna take up the responsibility, you're not gonna have the freedom and the liberty. All right, now, this might seem like an odd place to start, but it's not. It fits perfectly, because what I'm about to present to you is not a political sermon. It's gonna be a little different than you're used to, than you're accustomed to. We're gonna talk about the history of some of the choices before you, politically. But this is, don't let someone confuse you into thinking this is not a spiritual battle. It absolutely is. It may be a political choice, but it has spiritual implications. And if you don't make the right choice, you're setting yourself up spiritually for a life of severe difficulty. If the right people are not in power who are going to look at you and say, leave them alone and let them do what they need to do in order to worship Jesus Christ, then you're going to help elect people who will look at you and say, lock them up. If they won't listen to what we say, if they won't shut the church down, if they won't keep it in the church and stop trying to tell people about Jesus outside the church, put them in prison. And if you don't think it can happen here, it's already happening in many places in America. There are lots of pastors in jail right now for preaching against homosexuality, abortion, any number of things, depending on the state they live in, the city they live in. We're in serious trouble. And everybody's just acting like, It's all good. And the reason they act that way is because we're so comfortable. They assume you can be complacent and lazy and careless and that the comforts will just stay. Well, those comforts came from somewhere. And if you don't help maintain the people who are competent, who are honest, who are upright in positions of power, That comfort turns very destructive very fast. It becomes a tool of manipulation rather than the fruit of proper management. And you don't want that. Now, Galatians chapter six, we're gonna read verses one through 10, and we're gonna look at this, and then I got a lot of notes to read to you. Should be nice and boring. Verse 1, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself. Now, wouldn't that be a good thing to do? It's exactly what we talked about this morning at Sunday school. If you want mercy, then be merciful. If you want grace, then be gracious. Now, when you get into some sort of negative interaction with somebody, before you try and hold that person accountable to the 10th degree, and you want their hands cut off and their legs cut off because of what they did, maybe think about what might happen to you if you, if the situation were reversed, and then proceed accordingly. Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. You should never get the idea that this can't happen to you or that you wouldn't do this. You should strive to never let it happen to you and to never do whatever it is, whatever the fault is, whatever the problem is, but never assume, oh, I would never. Isn't that what people say? They catch someone in murder, have it on video, and what they say is, oh, I would never kill anybody. I've got you on video. That's not me. That's my cousin. We look alike. You should never think that whatever tempted somebody else and caused them to fall could not cause you to fall. Guard yourself, be very careful. Verse two, bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. People are hurting, not only in the church, but out of the church. People are desperate, they're looking for hope, they're looking for answers, and they have no idea where to turn. And if Christians won't step up and bear the burdens of other people, they're gonna go to somebody else. And we don't do that. We think we go to church and then we go home. Man, we are faithful servants of God. That's not how this works. You've gotta be willing to bear one another's burdens. Verse three, for if a man think himself to be something, isn't that amazing the way that's worded? If a man think himself to be something, Not think highly, not think great. If a man think himself to be something, whatever it is you think you are, you're probably making a mistake. If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. Now again, God is not big on the self-esteem movement. God wants you to know, God thinks it's better for you to know you're nothing. It's hard to fail from nothing, right? It's all upward bound from nothing. But if you think so highly of yourself, when in reality you're absolutely nothing, man, that crash is going to hurt. Those false hopes, that false pretense, that facade eventually is going to come crashing down and the reality of what you are is going to be destructive and harmful and painful. Don't deceive yourself. Just understand you're nothing. You need God. You need each other. Verse four, but let every man prove his own work. Now doesn't that suggest then that you should have some work to be doing? Every man. God said, let every man prove his own work. Get out of everybody else's business and stop criticizing, complaining what everybody else is doing and go prove your own work. Everybody's got an opinion about what everybody else is doing. You know, one of the things that I've been thinking about a lot lately, I have a lot of friends who they'll suggest a book by this pastor or a sermon by that pastor. And they say, man, this is a great sermon. You should listen to this. And then the next word's out of their mouth, no, I don't agree with everything he says. It's like, because you're the arbiter of truth? If he doesn't agree with everything you say, which one of you should I agree with? Of course, this man's gonna say, well, me, of course, and that man's gonna say, me, of course. It's a ridiculous idea. Why can't you just encourage somebody and say, that's a great sermon, go listen to that sermon? If there's something they need to be warned about, then fine, warn them, but why is it that you can't even suggest a brother in Christ to somebody else without prefacing it that you don't agree with the way they live, what they say, what they teach, what they do, where they go, whatever the case may be? Let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone. You wanna rejoice in yourself? Then go work. Do something. I've told you before, my stepdad used to, he used to make me so mad, I would swell up and get in his face, hoping he wouldn't do anything, because he could fight really well. But I had to keep up the facade, and he would say, why are you so proud? You've never done anything. You talk about ripping the ego out of somebody, but at 18 years old, 16 years old, 17 years old, what have I done? Why are we so prideful and so proud having accomplished nothing, having done nothing, having gone nowhere, with no evidence that you should be proud of yourself, why are you so prideful? God said, if you want to boast and rejoice in yourself, then go do something. Go do something worthwhile. Work. Accomplish something. Then you might have something worth looking at. And not in another. Verse five, for every man shall bear his own burden. This is interesting. He just said, we are to bear the burdens of each other. and also don't assume somebody else is gonna bear your burden. Now, both are true, and I meet Christians sometimes who say, well, I just think Christians should bear one another's burdens, and they're just not doing it. Well, God said you should, and also he said you shouldn't be complaining about Christians not bearing one another's burdens, because you should bear your own. So the expectation should be is, with God's help, I'm going to do this. I don't care. I say it here all the time. Nobody's coming to save us. Nobody else is coming to build this church. Either myself and you sitting here are going to build this church with God's help, or it's not going to be done at all. Nobody else is going to show up here and say, I am here to build your church for you. It's up to us. So the mentality should be, I'm going to do this, God helping me, and then praise the Lord when somebody does come along who says, I'd like to work along beside you and help bear this burden. But if they don't come along, you bear the burden. You can't give up, you can't quit. If you quit, what happens? Where do you go? What do you do? The Lord said something in John 6, Chapter 6, verse 66, John 6, 6, 6. In that chapter and verse, his disciples turned away and left him. They abandoned him. And he turned to the ones who stayed and said, will you also leave? And Peter said, where will we go? You have the words of eternal life. Who would we go to? If you quit maintaining your responsibilities, who's going to pick them up? Nobody. Nobody. Your family, your children, your work, your church, the people in your life who depend upon you to be responsible, if you don't show up and do what you're supposed to do, it just stops being done. Nobody's gonna take that over. It'd be rare that somebody's gonna take that over. Now, what you should do is maintain your responsibility, work as hard as you can, do the best you can, and then let God send somebody along beside you to help you eventually. eventually. But if your idea is, how come nobody helps me? Well, who are you? Why do you think that someone should stop what they're doing, stop their responsibilities, and come take care of yours? You say, that's the problem. I'm teaching a biblical principle. Now, take that same idea and apply it to society from a political perspective. You should pay me reparations. I need welfare. I need food stamps. I need the government to pay my electric bill. I need the government to pay my water bill. How come you have a nice car and I don't? That is the way our society thinks. You should give me a free phone. You should bring in millions of immigrants and then pay millions of dollars to put them in fancy hotels with veterans sleeping on the streets. Now, veterans sleeping on the streets, that's a whole other problem. Nobody forced them to be there. They chose to be there. You understand what I'm saying. The problem is that people have a mentality that somebody else needs to come take care of my responsibilities for me. And when you do that, nobody, the government does not come and take care of your responsibilities for you without expecting something. I'll be happy to take care of this for you, but you're gonna have to sign away that freedom. You're gonna have to give away that liberty. Income tax, income tax is, it's friendly robbery. Who voluntarily gives up their income tax? Anybody in here? Anybody sign up for that? but don't give it away and see what happens. Men with guns show up. Now, when thugs do that in the streets, they call that illegal. When the government does it, it's, you know, patriotic. So nobody's coming to save you. Nobody's coming to take up your responsibilities for you. And if you start thinking in this world that I am actually better than what you actually are, then you're gonna begin to become entitled. And you're gonna think, well, that politician is promising to give me this and promising to give me that, and, well, I mean, that sounds nice. Why not vote for that person? Are there any spiritual reasons why that'd be a problem? Does that person plan to implement anything else that would be spiritually detrimental to your service to Jesus Christ? Or was that a thought in your mind at all? If the idea is, they're gonna give this to elders, they're gonna give that to immigrants, they're gonna give this to women, and they're gonna give that to men, then, man, I think I should vote for that person so I can get, get, get. You're carnal. And you're entitled. And that makes it very hard for you to make proper decisions because you don't have your own responsibility in mind. Verse six. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. This is a problem all across our country. Men stand in pulpits and what they are teaching is not the Bible. And because people are not biblically minded, they struggle to make proper decisions when they go out into the world. They go out into the world, they're influenced by the world, they come in the church, they get a little bit of the world and a little bit of Jesus kind of mingled together, and it's this kind of half-hearted attempt at something called a sermon, and so they really got nothing at all. And then they leave and they go back out and they make carnal decisions because their heart is carnal, because it's never been challenged by the word of God, because they don't have a pastor who's been taught in the word who will confront them with that word. And so then when you teach certain ideas from a biblical perspective, people lose their mind. I can't believe that pastor said that. I can't believe he believes that. Well, Jesus believes it. You claim to belong to Jesus. What's the problem with it? Well, I just don't know anybody else that thinks that way. There's a reason for that. There's a reason for that. Verse seven, be not deceived. Here's a second time the Lord has brought up deception in this chapter. And by the way, this is a command. Be not deceived. Do not allow yourself to fall into a place of deception. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. However you live, the way you act, the way you talk, where you go, what you apply yourself to, what you fail to apply yourself to, You're planting a seed, and you're planting a seed, and you're planting a seed, and eventually that seed is going to grow. And when that seed grows, it's going to produce fruit. Will it be righteousness? Will you be reaping in righteousness, or will you be reaping in unrighteousness? Well, it depends on how you acted. Depends on what you said. Depends on where you went. Depends on the decision you made. Regardless, do not deceive yourself into thinking, look, Many of you in here grow plants of various sorts. You have gardens. Miss Phyllis has every flower in the world and can tell you about all the other ones. And so every one of you knows you plant a seed, and then how long does it take before you start seeing something come out of the ground? It could be days. It could be weeks. It could be months sometimes. So this is what we do, we make the decision, we say the thing, we go to the place, we do the thing, and then we look around and we're like, I mean, nothing bad happened. So does that mean God's gonna let me keep doing something I shouldn't be doing and saying something I shouldn't be saying? I mean, I did it, I said it, it happened, and nothing came of it, must be okay. You just dropped that seed in the ground. It's germinating. And eventually it's going to be growing. And you're going to come back to that place and you're going to say, where'd this tree come from? How'd this get here? And now you've got to contend with it. Now you've got to deal with it. It may not come immediately. But don't deceive yourself into thinking that the end result of you sowing that seed means that God is not going to do something about it. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap. And the Bible very clearly says, if you sow unto righteousness, you will reap in righteousness. If you sow unto unrighteousness, you will reap unrighteousness, and it will not go well for you. Well, that ultimately defines our political responsibilities in this country. Do you have a clue who you're voting for? What's happening? What's going on? Not do you have a fanfare and have a predetermined attachment to a party. Do you know what these people stand for and what they intend to do? In light of the Word of God, not your pocketbook. What if you had a man who was going to come along and was going to tax you double but would maintain all your freedoms? Would you be okay with that? He was not going to interfere with you worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ, but it might cost you more money. Now, it just so happens, it tends to be the people who want to remove your taxes also tend to be the people who want to maintain your freedom to worship God. It's just interesting how those seem to align. It's rare that you have someone who's constitutionally minded show up as president or vice president and say, yeah, I think we're going to raise your taxes. It just doesn't tend to happen. Verse 8, for he that soweth to his flesh, and see here's the problem, shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Your political choice is a spiritual choice. Are you voting for your flesh? Or are you voting based on spiritual principles from the Word of God? Or are you voting at all? Lots of Christians have said they're going to sit this election out. And I understand why they're upset. You have a complete moron on one hand, and you have a reprobate on the other. Those are not great choices. What are we supposed to do? Well, one of them is going to be president. They are going to be president. And if you don't participate, you are ensuring The one that hates you is going to be president. And you should not make that mistake. You should not make decisions based on your flesh. You should not make political decisions based on your flesh. Which one of them is going to help maintain your freedom and liberty to serve and worship Jesus Christ? One of them will, and the other one will not. In this election, it is as definitive as it has ever been. One of them is going to help maintain your freedom to worship Jesus Christ. The other one is going to intrude on your freedom to worship Jesus Christ. You better choose wisely. And too many Christians are just, well, I don't like him. I don't either. But he has proven that we have the unbelievably unique situation in this election, and that both of these people have been in the highest positions of power. And you can see what they will do. As a matter of fact, you can see what they have done. One is very intrusive and incompetent. The other has a loud mouth, he's bombastic, he's not exactly likable by Christians, but he did an excellent job of staying out of your business, out of your way, and produce a thriving economy. Now, those are just the facts. It's just how it is. Now, you may not like the choices you have, but those are the choices, and one of those two people is going to be your president. Don't let it be the wrong one. Not that you've got to like either one of them. Name the last president you actually liked. For most people, it's probably going to be Ronald Reagan. Maybe a few people actually liked Bill Clinton because he was so slick and charismatic. But then once they got behind the scenes, they found out that slick, charismatic attitude was very deceptive. We're just in a weird spot in our country right now. Verse 9, and let us not be weary in well-doing. I'm tired. Well, keep going. I'm worn out. Keep going. Let us not be weary. And again, this is a command. This is not the Lord providing some supernatural strength for you to do it. The Lord's telling you, don't be weary in well-doing. The moment you quit, the moment you give up, the moment you stop participating, you ensure the people that hate you and want to remove your ability to worship Jesus Christ get the opportunity to do that. Don't make that mistake. And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." A time for reaping, a time for rest, that is all coming. But it's not right now. Right now is the time for work. It's time for labor. It's time for just pushing as hard as you can in the name of Jesus Christ. That means you have responsibilities as a Christian, and you also have responsibilities as an American. But your responsibilities as a Christian should inform your responsibilities as an American, not the other way around. People get all American patriotic and let that tell them how to be a Christian, and that's confusion. Verse 10, as we have therefore opportunity, opportunity, isn't that an interesting word? So it's not predetermined, it's not foreordained, it's not I'm tired, I don't feel like it. Do you have an opportunity on November the 5th? You do. you do." What's the Lord going to say? As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good. unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. You see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand, and as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer." And then he goes into other doctrinal issues outside of that. passage is verses 1 through 10. What I want you to see from this is this is a time for work. This is a time for an attitude of understanding that you don't deserve anything. You are nothing. It's just time for you to bear your burdens and the burdens of others and to take every opportunity to do good unto all men and especially to them of the household of faith. An election is part of that. It's one tiny step in all of that. This country, based on whoever is leading it, is going to move in a certain direction. And if you don't participate in the direction, then you're just along for the ride, and it might take a terrible turn. You should not just leave these things up for chance. If you have the opportunity, you should participate. We do have the opportunity, and everyone needs to get involved and to participate and to do everything they can to try and help our country move in the best direction possible for Christians to have the freedom and liberty to do what we're supposed to do. Now, we'll talk about it when I get into these notes, but if you don't intend to do anything, then why have the freedom and liberty? If you're not going to stand up for Jesus Christ, you're not going to open your mouth and tell people what Jesus did on the cross, then why do you need a First Amendment? What's the point? You don't. Now, our country has had these ups and downs where it has been thriving, and then we have the downturns where we're in a depression, or at least a recession of some sort, and it's struggling, we're having a hard time, we've been attacked, we've had all sorts of things happen in this country. If in the times when the country is thriving, you don't do anything for Jesus Christ, why would the Lord be concerned about our country thriving? What's the point? It doesn't seem to me that God just blesses our country for no reason at all. It appears to me there are some reasons for it. Millions of dollars go to missions. Millions of dollars go to scripture. Billions of dollars go to Israel for their protection. These are spiritual issues. These are not political issues. All right, now, we're gonna pray together, and then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take you through a very brief history of one of the choices you have before you. and why it matters. And I hope it will help you understand. We're not going to go through abortion and gay rights and all that type stuff. Those are political. Those are spiritual issues, not political. But that's not. There is a fundamental ideology. that helps people who think like Kamala Harris think the way they do. And there's a fundamental ideology that they encourage people like Donald Trump to think the way he does, at least generally speaking. And I want you to know what those are. And then that should hopefully help you make a decision. So let's pray together. Father, we sure thank you for being so good to us. Lord, we thank you for this church. We thank you for our country, the freedoms that we've had, the incredible lives that we have. Lord, it is an objective fact that the world around us could not understand the wonderful lives that we have in this country. Many of them desire it and risk their own lives just to be here and to live here and to experience such blessing. But Lord, it appears that blessing may have brought in far too much complacency We pray, Lord, that you would help us stir our hearts, help us to have minds that understand, and, Lord, that we'd be willing to participate and do all that is necessary, not just voting. That is part of it, a very important part of it. But, Lord, that we would spend our days living and telling people about living for Jesus Christ and telling people what he did on the cross. that we'd not just desire to have these freedoms and liberties, but we would exercise these freedoms and liberties in such a way that we bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ. We pray that you'd help us and guide us and lead us, and we'll sure thank you and praise you for it. In Christ's name I pray, amen. Now, our choices in this election are much deeper than the shallow realm of politics. This is not just a political matter. Now, you're going to have pastors all across the country who say, well, I don't get involved in politics. What do you mean by that? That's a political statement. I'm not trying to encourage you to be politically minded. I am trying to encourage you to participate in the system that has been made available to you for the betterment of your ability to serve Jesus Christ. not for your tax dollars, not for whatever your carnal issue is that one of the candidates has spoken on, I could care less about that. I am looking for the person who's gonna leave us alone and help us along. As Christians, we make one of two general mistakes in the political arena. First, we make far too much of politics and therefore of politicians that it becomes borderline idolatrous. We somehow convince ourselves that a political agenda or figure is the Savior. I hate to tell you that Donald Trump is not the Savior. Now, I believe with Donald Trump in power that as Christians we might have a little bit of reprieve, we might have a little bit of grace and time with freedoms and liberties to serve Jesus Christ, but he is not the Savior. The moral decay in this country is not going to change under Donald Trump. In fact, to some extent, it'll be worsened. Now, second, we esteem ourselves so pious that we ignore politics altogether. In this instance, our tendency to be self-righteous encourages us to pretend that politics has no consequences in our daily lives. Both perspectives are incorrect. For you to say, well, I'm a Christian. I don't care about politics. I beg to differ, because when I hear you cry about paying your taxes, and when I hear you cry about the political changes that take place, then you wish you had participated. Maybe your vote would have helped. Maybe it wouldn't have. But while you have the opportunity, you should participate and do everything you can to help direct this country in a goodly direction. The Bible says to pray for the good of your country. And then, but don't just sit and pray for it and hope it happens. Go out and do something. Now, from a Christian perspective, the thing to do would be to preach the gospel and get the Word of God into people's hands. The thing to do is not go hold a Trump sign and, you know, I don't care about that. You're going to go vote, then vote. But between the elections, that gives you four more years with whoever's in power to actually live as though you care about Jesus. or not. Don't show up on election day and say, well, I hope they don't shut down the churches. You hadn't been, so what does it matter? You don't participate in any way, so what does it matter? Well, I just don't think it's right. Well, if you thought it was right, you'd be there. And you're not there. Most politics is downstream from culture, and culture is downstream from spirituality. Our political problems, most notably domestic social issues, are spiritual problems with biblical answers. All of them. Every one of them. So when they're debating, well, you know, when does the life of a child start? There's no debate on that. God spoke very clearly about that. I knew you from the moment of conception. I knew every hair on your head from the moment of conception." Then that means you don't have any opportunity to destroy that child in the womb because your convenience might be interrupted. What a dirty way to live. Ideas regarding marriage, children, abortion, sexual orientation. You're telling me God said nothing about sexual orientation and that this is a political discussion? God was very clear that a man should be a man, a man should dress like a man, a man should act like a man, and a woman should be a woman, whatever that is. Nobody knows what that is anymore. Well, God does. It's very clear in the Bible. She should dress like a woman, act like a woman, be ladylike, be modest, be kind, be godly. All these things that God laid out in the Bible that should be true of a woman are unbelievably clear. That's not a political discussion. That is a spiritual discussion. So if somebody asked me, oh, Brother Thomas, what do you think about, you know, the LGBTQ community? I think it's sin. Well, I mean, don't you think they're born that way? Born that way or not, it's sin, right? I am born a man, and what is inherent in me as a man is the desire to have women, right? So I'm just going to go run around town like a dirty dog, and when somebody gets mad at me, I say, well, I was born that way. What's the problem? It's a very serious problem. It's an ungodly problem. It's sin. And you're supposed to repent of sin, not tell people, well, I was born in sin, therefore it must be perfectly fine for me to live sinfully. That's a spiritual problem. It's not a political problem. Ideas regarding these things have to be addressed biblically. They're all addressed very clearly in God's Word. Therefore, we're not fighting political battles. We are fighting spiritual battles, and Christian participation, or lack thereof, have grave consequences. So when tens of thousands of Christians say, well, I'm not voting, OK, but be ready for the consequences. And you're going to be directly responsible because of your lack of participation. Now, I used to not think this way. I thought elections were a joke until I studied American elections and figured out and learned how unbelievably difficult it is to cheat in a U.S. election. You know, in order to cheat in a U.S. election, you have to coordinate with every county in your state. and hope that you don't get caught, or at least the majority of counties in your state. You can't just win a state by cheating in an election. You've got to convince every individual county to cheat with you for a particular candidate and not get caught, and then do that in enough states that you win the election. The people who framed our Constitution knew what they were doing. It's very difficult to cheat in an American election. Now, the way they cheated last time was with mail-in ballots and the media. The American legacy media is so corrupt and so in the bag of a particular party that you can't trust anything that they say. And they misled people. They lied to people. Now they're having to openly admit they lied to people. But it's too late. The election has already passed. It already happened. Now I plan to spend my time this morning painting a picture of what has been growing in America. and in the West, for that matter, since at least the 60s. It can go further back than that, but it really began to take off in the 60s. It was in the 60s when the various revolutions in the Marxist sense came to our country. The word revolution became very popular at that time, but since then, specific ideas that seemed fringe and unrealistic have become mainstream and almost mandatory if you intend to participate in society. You tell me that you 15, 20 years ago, just 15, 20 years ago, that you'd have men on television dressed as women shaming you for not calling them a woman. Nobody would have believed that. You tell me 20 years ago that a man dressed as a, who just declared himself to be a woman could show up in a lady's locker room naked and nobody had a problem with it. That man would have been escorted out of that locker room in a painful fashion. But see, now everybody's on edge. Well, I don't know what to do. What do we do with him? What do you mean, what do you do with him? There's a naked man in the ladies' room with young girls in there. You don't know what to do with that? What happened to your brain? You've lost your mind. This is not a political discussion. This is a very serious spiritual problem. It speaks to the overall decay and corruption of your society. And if nobody's going to go and speak up and tell people about Jesus Christ, and win souls to Christ, and teach them the Word of God, how is it going to change? It's not going to change from a political vantage point. So I hope the picture I paint will help you recognize the danger ahead. As long as we can play some small role in shaping the political direction of our country, we should do so. Everybody should. Well, everybody that agrees with me should. If you don't agree with me, stay home. If you disagree, go watch Dancing with the Stars. I'll pay for it for you. The modern state church. You might not know that there are one of those, but there is. There is. The modern state church still exists, but does so in a form we fail to recognize. It has its doctrines and even its inquisitions. I'm telling you, we're not fighting a political battle. We're fighting a spiritual battle. And you have to make this distinction in your mind, and failure in this area is causing Christians to be swept away by silly ideas or become complacent. Most are complacent. Numerous Christians are being swept away by these political ideas. in an ungodly direction and bringing it into the church. Instead of the church going into the world and convincing the world, the world is coming into the church with an invitation from Christians and changing the church, and we're not going. It's not welcome here. Currently our country is split politically just about 50-50. 50% of your country wants what Kamala Harris has to offer and 50% of your country wants what Donald Trump has to offer. We are literally split and stuck somewhere right in the middle. That's a scary place to be. That 50% of 300 plus million people want communism, want socialism, want gender confusion. They want those things and are willing to fight for them. That's not a good place to be. We have arrived at a stalemate in deciding its future direction. Half the country wants to hold fast to some form of our constitutional republic. The other half is either mildly influenced by Marxism through ignorance or wholly given over to it. The constitutionally minded groups in our country focus on religion, liberty, and individual rights. Our country's various levels of Marxists want equality, equity, and social justice. All of these sound great until you dive into the details of what they mean, and we're going to talk about that in a moment or two. The Marxists believe they are working toward utopia, and that the full implementation of their religious doctrine would essentially create heaven on earth. In reality, when their doctrine is implemented anywhere in the world, at any time, we get totalitarian control, gulags, and death on a large scale. Every time the tenets of socialism and Marxism are implemented in a society, tens of millions of people die. Every single time. You can go to Hitler, who was head of the Nazi party, which was the nationalist socialist party. Six million Jews are killed in gas chambers, not to mention the people that, we don't even count the other people that Hitler imprisoned and put to death. We just talk about the Jews, and for good reason. But that's small scale. Stalin is reported to have killed between 40 and 60 million people in his own country with the implementation of communism. Mao is also reported to have killed around 40 to 60 million people, just with their policies. And you want that? Every time it's implemented, everywhere it goes, that's what it does every single time, without fail. Today Marxist ideas are repackaged in various ways and sold to the public. One such package is that of progress. We're progressives. I bet you are. Most modern forms of Marxism and totalitarianism have been packaged and sold as progress. Modern politicians call themselves progressives. And surely you're not against something so wonderful as progress, right? That's the ploy. Marxists are excellent propagandists. And they pick terms that, you're not against women's right to choose, are you? Well, choose what? Well, choose what to do with their body. Well, I feel like they had a choice. They had a choice to keep their clothes on. They had a choice not to have that physical interaction. They had a lot of choices before they got to the choice to murder the baby in their womb. But they chose to reject all the other choices and jump straight to, well, this little inconvenience has got to go. It's unacceptable. They carefully choose terms that make anyone against them appear, on the surface, to be bigoted and hateful. Terms of this sort are powerful tools used to frame the public conversation in a propagandistic manner. These ideas form the basis of the modern state church. They have devotees, they have doctrine, and they hold high government positions. Now, they want control over your institutions. And they have control over many of them. The last standing one is the Supreme Court. If they ever get control of the Supreme Court again, then we're done. It's over. The only thing stopping them from doing whatever they want right now is that it has to go through the Supreme Court and there are too many people sitting on the Supreme Court who are going to judge their laws constitutionally right now. If that ever changes, you're in serious trouble. Modern leftist foundational ideology, also known as doctrine, is that of progress. Progressivism will finally lead us to utopia, a replacement for the promised land. Any ideas, religious or political, that stand against progress deserve to be destroyed at all costs. That's why they feel perfectly justified in doing what they're doing to Donald Trump right now. using the legal system against him. It's very destructive. It's crooked. But if he's actually Hitler, isn't that the question of people? If you could go back to when Hitler was born, would you kill the baby? Well, everybody says yes, because they believe that that baby is going to bring about such terrible death and destruction. Well, if you believe Donald Trump is Hitler, then it's OK for you to to physically harm him, right? That's what they think, that's the goal. Anyone who refuses to bow their knee to the doctrine of progress is a danger to society. Their families and themselves progress as the doctrine of the state church, it knows no boundaries. It consumes the Democrats and Republicans. Many Republicans have bought into this. And they may not be as far gone as Democrats, but they are. They're completely given over to many of these ideas. And that is also unacceptable. The people that we depend upon to save us from this, the Republicans, have to be the weakest, most spineless crowd I have ever encountered. Even in the great state of Mississippi, Did you know that Mississippi was the subject of a Supreme Court ruling this week? Mississippi somehow decided it is acceptable for you to mail in ballots up to five days after election day, which was struck down by the Supreme Court and they said, you can't do that. Either your ballot makes it on election day or you don't get a choice. Why would the conservative state of Mississippi implement something so foolish and so weak? They did. Even Christians are buying into this stuff and bringing it into churches. There is nowhere to go. Either you're gonna stand and bear these burdens and do what's right in the face of all this, or nobody's going to. The tenets of progress have consumed entire Christian organizations. One example is the Southern Baptist Convention. Many of its top leaders are wholly given to social justice and critical race theory. Two examples, J.D. Vance, not J.D. Vance, that's the vice president. What's his name? J.D. Greer. And David Platt. David Platt is a very well-known, popular Southern Baptist pastor who wrote a series of books, which were decent books. They're a series of books called the Radical Series, to be a radical Christian. Well, now he's teaching his church they need to decolonize themselves and that the white people in the church need to apologize for their white privilege. That they need a social gospel. A massive documentary was just put out on him alone. What he did to take over his current church was so dirty and so crooked, and it was facilitated and orchestrated by the Southern Baptist Convention. With his help. It's completely gone. If you go to the Southern Baptist Convention now, you're either going to get Calvinism or Critical Race Theory. Those are your only choices. Churches that want to be biblical, who are Southern Baptists, are abandoning the Southern Baptist Convention as quick as they can. But it's not easy when you're part of that type of organization. The American idea of individual freedom, responsibility, and liberties is replaced with equality of outcome for specified groups. A limited government with limited intervention in your life is replaced with a massive controlling state. The American Republic, coupled with free market capitalism, has produced one of the freest and most powerful countries the world has known. The primary reason for this success is that our country was founded on biblical principles. It is a fact that righteousness exalteth a nation. And the more your nation legislates what is right, the better things will be. But sin is a reproach to any people. And as long as your country freely embraces sin in the name of progress, our society will fail. Now, there was a time when we tried to do, we generally tried to do, America was never a Christian nation, but it was heavily influenced by biblical principle and generally tried to move things in that direction, give or take a few. Well now, half our country, half our government is literally a progressive Marxist. Any attempt at progress separated from God and His Word will inevitably be declined, disguised as success. Without the fear of judgment and wrath from God, progress and utopia are dark concepts. The doctrine of progress replaces faith in God and His Word for faith in man. Technology and science, man becomes God, technology facilitates the comfort necessary for the delusion, and science becomes the authoritative source of knowledge. That's why you are expected to believe a doctor when he says that men can have babies. He's the source of knowledge. He is the high priest of knowledge and information. He will tell you what is acceptable to believe. And if you don't believe him, you're a danger. The various levels of progressives believe that ending any form of difficulty and suffering for man is the most significant end goal. Christians have bought into this idea. They think God Himself exists for man's happiness and prosperity. Since God failed to end man's suffering the way they imagined He would, they turn to science as the great hope. As science advances, it will save us from God and His mean words. As science progresses, morality will surely progress alongside it. Never mind science created the atomic bomb which was dropped on people in large-scale at war. Science is going to save us until it's used against you. Thus the state church is established, progress is the doctrine, and utopia is the end goal. But before utopia, there must first be a revolution that will set men free from God. The Puritans came to the Americas hoping to establish a nation that valued freedom to worship God per one's conscience. In our day, most Americans no longer attend any church of any sort. The idea of freedom to worship is no longer a priority for Americans. They can always worship at the altar of technology. Television, smartphones, and computers offer endless access to worship services. Football, basketball, TV shows, politics, et cetera. Why come to church? I can sit at home and watch whatever I want. I can sit anywhere now and watch whatever I want. Who cares? The Puritan ideas that set America in motion were founded in scripture and encouraged liberty to live godly. Now, the doctrine of progress. First of all, these people believe in power. Progressives view everything through the lens of power. Power is only acceptable when they have it. If they don't have the power, power is not acceptable. Progressives demand that society be reorganized and that power be redistributed based on their hierarchy of the oppressed. You're either an oppressor or you're the oppressed, and society has to be arranged accordingly. Number two, the next doctrine is, what is truth? They don't believe in truth. Progressives refuse to submit to the idea that truth of any form exists. If you belong to certain oppressed groups, they can have their lived experience, and that becomes their truth. I've met people that, there was a guy in Florida, when I worked in Florida, this guy, he said, well, no, there's no such thing as truth, but there is my truth. And I said, well, I have a question. What if my truth says your truth is not true? And he's just looking at me like, I don't know, I never thought of that. You didn't think at all. What an idiotic idea. Look, he said to me, there is no truth. To which I would ask, is that true? It's a flawed, problematic premise from the very start, but it's not meant to be true. It's meant to be propaganda. It's meant to manipulate. That's the entire purpose. Generally speaking, truth does not exist for them. Any argument against this is nothing more than a rationalization for keeping power and remaining in a position as the oppressor. There is truth. Oh, you're bigoted. That's the mentality. Next, the next doctrine is identity politics. Anyone who thinks identity politics is a good idea should read A Thousand Hills by Stephen Kinzer. It's about the Rwandan genocide in which people were divided by identity and it led to the death of one million people in about 30 days. You're not like me, I'm not like you. The government of Rwanda in 1994 began broadcasting over the radio, this was a battle between the Hutu and the Tutsis, the Hutu government began broadcasting over the radio that the Tutsis were cockroaches that needed to be stamped out. Then they tried to do it. Today, the progressives are sure that straight white male Christians are the oppressors. The oppressed are the radical minorities, gender confused, and women. As long as you're not white. Sorry ladies, you don't count. Now if you are a man who declares, if you're a white male who declares himself to be a woman, well then you're in. You're okay. Isn't that amazing? Woman of the year is some man in a dress. That's where we are. Greatest female swimmer is a man. Greatest female weightlifter, a man. Welcome to America 2024. Next is intersectionality. This idea is akin to identity politics, but it ultimately determines your level of oppression. For example, the current press secretary for Joe Biden is a gay black female. So she intersects all these areas of oppression. Gay people are considered oppressed, black people are considered oppressed, and women are considered oppressed. So if you have more of those that you can add to your title, then according to the doctrine of intersectionality, it's amazing. She's the press secretary for the President of the United States, and she's oppressed. Makes perfect sense, right? Absolutely. Social justice. The term was taken from Catholicism. Isn't that interesting? The Jesuits used to use the term social justice. Now that all that does is link this idea again to its religious nature. You're not fighting a political battle. This is a religion. It's a deeply seated religion. This new religious form of social justice works hard to divorce itself from any attachment to God. The Catholicism they stole the term from is seen as an enemy of social justice. Under the doctrines of social justice, bigotry is seen as righteousness. They can be as bigoted, hateful, and evil as necessary as long as it furthers their cause for their form of social justice. This is a dangerous idea. Christians approach justice from God's perspective. That's it. There's no other form of justice. Understanding that all men are sinful and only God is righteous. Progressives believe that particular intersectional groups are righteous and that anyone outside that particular identity is likely sinful and evil. That means you're sinful and evil. Not because God said so, but because you're straight and white. Now, no one should be in political power that thinks that way. But it's up to you to not help someone who thinks that way get into political power. America has never been Christian, but Americans, whether they know it or not, have lived their lives under the overarching principles founded in the Judeo-Christian context. Currently, they are trying their best to redefine that context while maintaining the benefits that come from living under Christians and its principles. That's like saying, man, I love apples, but can we get rid of these apple trees? Well, you don't get the apples without the apple trees. You don't get the prosperity that comes from Christianity without Christianity. Here's the problem for us. Cotton Mather said that Christianity gave birth to prosperity, and the daughter hath devoured the mother. You get rich, and you just kick your feet up, and you just get comfortable. and you forget that in order to have what you have right now, it takes work, it takes labor, it takes faithfulness. You can't sit around and do nothing and expect something. That's called welfare. That's what we're trying to get away from. Welfare comes with the heavy hand of the government dominating you. There's no other way around it. In the context of modern political discussions, Bible-believing Christians are at no time part of the conversation. You listen to these political conversations, and they're going to talk about Islam, Catholicism. They're never going to talk about an independent Baptist church in Lewisdale, Mississippi, and the people who attend that church. Bible-believing Christians are not part of the conversation. It'll be evangelicals. It'll be prosperity churches that have thousands of people who go there. That's who they're worried about. A small group like this, they don't care about us. They could care less about us. We don't even exist. All right, now, what do we do? Number one, you maintain your responsibilities as a Christian. Whether we're prosperous or not, that is the first thing that should be on your agenda all day, every day, for the rest of your life. There should not be a day that you live without maintaining in some form your responsibility as a Christian. That's to adhere to the Word of God. That's to tell people about Jesus Christ. Those are our main responsibilities. Ultimately, regardless of the direction of this election or any of them, that's what you're supposed to do. But wouldn't it be nice to be able to do that with a decent economy? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do that with the freedom to do so, rather than being under the threat of persecution and imprisonment and other problems because you spoke openly about Jesus Christ? Now, what good does it do for God to give us liberty and prosperity in our country, and then we get lazy, comfortable, and complacent? You've got to maintain your responsibilities as a Christian. Our first responsibility is to live according to God's word, regardless of the political climate. That's it. Now, secondarily, maintain your responsibilities as an American. You are both. Now, you should not tell people you're an American Christian. You're either a Christian or you're not. But if you are a Christian who lives in America, you are subject to the laws of this land. And if you can have a voice in directing the laws of this land in your favor as a Christian, why wouldn't you do that? Why would you fail to participate in that? You shouldn't, in my opinion. This comes as a lower second to number one, but it is part of our responsibilities. You have the opportunity to vote in an election that will help determine religious freedom, the lives of unborn children, the definition of marriage, gas prices, egg prices, milk prices, all that is packaged into it. But if you're voting for the gas prices and not the unborn children, I'd say you've got a bit of a carnal issue at hand. I want better gas prices. I would also not like to not see a bunch of fornicating women going in and out of an abortion mill and slaughtering their children. But these are spiritual problems. You serve God regardless of the statutes or the status of the economy. But it is better to have a thriving economy rather than not. I hear Christians say, well, I just think persecution needs to come. You don't know what you're talking about. You need to be very careful inviting something like that. You yourself are not ready for that. The people, oh, I just, you know, I just, you know, I think we probably need Kamala because we just, Christians need to wake up and they're not going to wake up unless there's persecution. Okay, that might be, but can you wait till after my myself and my children pass off the scene? Why not just live for the Lord now? Why not get out and do something to encourage other Christians to live for the Lord now, rather than sitting around talking about how you think that persecution should come and that we should have to live under some sort of strong arm? Do something about it. It makes no sense to me. When it comes to selecting a leader of any sort, we want three things, generally speaking, as best as possible. We're not going to get all three, or we might get all three in varying forms, but number one, we would like that person to be as godly as possible. Again, based on the choices. Every election, they take two monkeys and stick them in front of you and tell you to choose one. You have hardly any say in who ends up being the candidate for president. But the country does. The country chooses these people. Out of the people who decide to run, they end up choosing one out of their party to be the final candidate. This is who we have. And so you're not looking for a God-fearing pastor to be your president because there's not one running for president. But you do look at the two and you say, which of those is going to help keep me closer to the Lord Jesus Christ? One will and one will not. And I would suggest you pick the one that will, obviously. Number two, we want them to preserve our freedoms to serve God as we see fit. I love the Second Amendment. I think it's great. But is it really necessary for you to worship Jesus Christ? It's not. Now, the First Amendment is absolutely necessary. The Second Amendment helps protect the First Amendment, but ultimately you need people to leave you alone and let you serve the Lord. And if you speak more loudly for your right to bear arms than you do for your right to open your mouth, you're carnal, you're confused. If the idea is I want a bunch of guns, how come you don't want a bunch of converted souls? Why don't you go out and tell people about Jesus Christ? Why won't you exercise your First Amendment? Why are you so focused on the Second Amendment? Now, it is easy to make the argument that the Second Amendment helps us to protect the First Amendment, and that's great. But at some point, they're going to take both. And what are you going to do? Form a militia and go fight them? Said the Bible never? It's just not there. You're subject to the government that God puts over you, so why not, while you have the opportunity to help participate in the direction of that government, why not participate? Number three, we want them to be competent in handling the direction of our country. Competence is not asking too much. Everybody has experienced incompetence. It's one of the most frustrating things to have to deal with. To have someone in a position somewhere who is absolutely horrible at their job is a frustrating experience. But then you go somewhere where people are in charge who are competent. Man, what a joy it is. It's wonderful. Why would you put someone who is absolutely, I'm not asking you if you like the choices you have. I'm asking you to look at the choices you have and say which one would be competent at handling the economy, and handling the military, and handling our foreign affairs, and all these things that we have going on, and one has proven to be competent, the other is unbelievably incompetent at absolutely everything she touches. It's horrendous. Why would you put somebody like that? Look, when I call her a retard, I'm not being mean. I think it's a perfect descriptor. She is unbelievably incompetent at everything that she does. That is an objective fact that can be traced all the way back to her days with Willie Brown. Willie Brown is the man she was sleeping with that helped put her into political power. the married man she was sleeping with. Yeah, those are your choices. And look, I understand Christians are in a hard spot here. You have the man who paid a porn star to not tell on what he did with her while his wife was pregnant. And you have the woman who slept with Willie Brown to get into San Francisco political power. Not This is descriptive of the absolute scum of our society. This is how bad things have gotten. Unfortunately, those are the choices. The one who slept with the porn star is very, very competent. He's a thriving businessman. He ran the country once before and did a great job. I didn't think he would. I didn't think he'd be elected. I was certain that the American people would never elect that man. Looks like I was wrong. Then he became president and I thought, we're going to get, this is going to be ridiculous. And it turns out he did an excellent job. Aside from all the Twitter garbage and running his mouth all the time, all the legal battles, the Russia garbage, all that stuff apart, when it came to the economy, when it came to dealing with our foreign affairs, he did a good job. He is competent enough not to do it, but to hire the people who know how to do it. That's one of the things he's good at. When I was like 18, I read his book, The Art of the Deal. And the thing that stands out to me in that book that I see in him today is he says in that book, you don't need to know how to do everything. You need to know how to hire the people who know how to do it. And that's what he's good at. Now, on the other hand, you have the woman who slept her way into political power and then has been basically, she has failed upward every step of the way. She is incompetent. She left San Francisco in a mess, and now she's leaving the vice presidency with our country in a mess. And you want to give her the highest position in the country? Even Democrats can't stand that woman. Do you know why Joe Biden picked her as his running mate? Because they knew he could be on life support, and they would not take him out of the presidency and put that woman in. It was security. When Joe Biden failed in that debate, they had a four-, five-, six-hour meeting about the idea of replacing Joe Biden with Kamala Harris, and they left the meeting undecided. That's bad. You're so incompetent, without the excuse of being an old man who's lost his mind to dementia or whatever's going on with that man's mind, that they thought, well, maybe we should wait on this. And then eventually they had to do something, and here we are. So, first of all, Kamala Harris is the progressive that we've been talking about. Everything we've been talking about when it comes to intersectionality, identity politics, the LGBTQ community, all these things that we as Christians see as eroding and destroying our society, that's what she stands for. She is representative of the 50% of the country that want abortion till a week after your child is born. I can't vote for that. I don't like Donald Trump, I'm not a fan. And also, he took a bullet for you, and then stood up and said he didn't care, he was gonna keep fighting for the country. There are plenty of problems with Donald Trump, there are also some unbelievably positives regarding Donald Trump. He's competent, he clearly loves this country, Why would you not turn the country, if you had two choices between an incompetent woman who hates your country and thinks that you're a bunch of bigots that should be imprisoned versus a man who took a bullet for this country and has proven himself to be competent enough to run it in a proper way. Those are our choices. They're not great choices, but between the two, one stands out far more than the other. And I don't think Christians should give up their responsibility to participate in elections, especially this one. If you want to complain about elections, do it next time, not this time. You don't want to participate in elections because you're so pious and you're so perfect? Okay, wait till next time. This time, everybody needs to go and vote. And in my opinion, you do what you want. I'm not telling you who to vote for. I'm telling you that as a Christian, based on the two choices that we have, Donald Trump is the person who needs to be in charge of this country the next four years. After that, let's pray that we can get some better choices. But right now, these are the choices. And you need to pray for your country. You need to pray for the direction of your country. And after two assassination attempts, you need to pray for that man. and that he will get in and continue to do the right thing with Israel and continue to preserve your freedoms and enshrine the constitution that has done so well to protect our freedoms for so long. Amen. Now, if you'd like to come to the altar after that and repent of your desire to vote for Kamala Harris, then I'll leave the altar open. Otherwise, we'll just pray and go have lunch. But, This is a very important election. Every election they say it's very important. This one, we are, our country is on the verge of breaking in one direction or the other. It can't go 50-50 like this and continue in this way. Something has to break. We want someone in charge who believes you have a constitution and believes they should operate in accord with that constitution when it breaks, not someone who could care less about your constitution or you when it breaks. It's very important. So go vote. Amen. I know that's very exciting. Let's pray. Father, we sure thank you for being so good to us. Lord, I've had the privilege of traveling all over the world and seeing various countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and I am certain there is no country like the United States of America. The freedoms we have, the liberties we have, the comforts we have, the way you've blessed us, It truly is phenomenal. There's nothing else like it, Lord, and it's all because of your blessing, your goodness. And Lord, we want to do our part to help not preserve the comforts and the prosperity, but to preserve the freedom to worship you. That really is the heart of the matter. That really is the ultimate issue, Lord. We sure need We sure desire, I guess we don't need it. You've had servants all throughout history that served you in the worst of political climates and who died serving you. Lord, it sure is nice to have the freedom to do so. And we pray, Lord, that you'd help us do what we can to not just preserve that freedom, but to take full advantage of it, to use it, to apply it. What good is a First Amendment if we won't open our mouths, What good is freedom and liberty if we won't use it for your honor and your glory in this country? We pray for your help, we pray for wisdom, pray for understanding, pray for our country. Bless it, help guide it, move it in the right direction, in a direction that would please you. In Christ's name we pray, amen. We hope you enjoyed this podcast. 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