Matthew 6, verses 31 through 33, let us now hear the word of God. Therefore do not worry saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word this afternoon. We ask, as we did this morning, that you would guide our thoughts and guide my words. Lord, help us to think rightly about what your word says and how it applies to our lives today. And we ask, Lord, to collectively that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart would be acceptable to you this afternoon. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we began to think about political matters this morning, and hopefully you realized it was really about spiritual matters. What I was really trying to exhort you concerning was to be faithful to the scriptures and how you think, how you speak, and how you respond to the things you see going on in our world in the political arena in particular. And so let's continue that this afternoon. And let's come to reason or truth number five, that I want to exhort you concerning as it relates to the area of politics. Number five, we must keep spiritual matters as the priority. We must keep spiritual matters as the priority. It's easy for us to get sidetracked and think that politics is where it's at. Now, maybe that's not your problem. Maybe you're skeptical like me, and you're not all that excited about politics, and you don't put your hope and trust in that sort of thing. But maybe that is a temptation for you to get sidetracked and to think, well, if we just get a new leader, if we just get a new party, if we just get a new movement, then we can turn this thing around. And sometimes we get focused on the wrong things, and our priorities get out of whack. What is it that we really need? What we really need is more gospel, more saved souls, more transformed hearts, and changed lives. The kingdoms of men will not change until the hearts of men change. Where is the true power found? The true power is not found in the political, it's found in the spiritual. What is the gospel according to the Apostle Paul? It is the power of God for salvation, for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Our most important problems are spiritual problems. not political issues. And thus, they require spiritual solutions. They require spiritual solutions that we find in the Word of God. This means that we must prioritize those things that the Bible calls upon us to prioritize. So let me just remind you of things that are very basic, that you know already, that we just need reminders about from time to time. The things of God are to be your focus. Prayer, Scripture, loving your family, living in obedience to the commandments of God, and so on and so forth. All those spiritual realities, all those things that we are called to do in the word of God, those things are to be our focus. Now, I'm not saying that we cannot and should not be involved in the political. I do believe we ought to do that. Am I going to vote? Yes, I'm going to vote. Am I willing to go to city council meetings and speak on behalf of righteousness, on behalf of certain policies and laws and legislation? Yes, I believe we need to be involved in that. I'm not arguing for, let's completely isolate ourselves and separate ourselves from the political. That we don't wanna sully our hands, we don't wanna dirty our hands, and so we just wanna have anything to do with any of it. That's not what I'm arguing for. I'm not exhorting you to isolate yourself and withdraw completely from the political realm. There are some people who need to be politicians. You say, you're always talking bad about politicians. I know because we got a bunch of bad ones. We need some good ones. And there have been good ones. And hopefully we'll have more good ones in the future. And we need to pray for that. But that means that not everybody's called to be a pastor. Not everybody's called to be a missionary. There are some people that God wants them to go into politics and stand up for righteousness. And we need people like that. So please don't misunderstand me to say today that we're just kind of disconnecting ourselves. from the political area. No, I believe we need to be involved, but we need to be careful that we don't get our priorities out of order. And that now we invest all our time and energy and effort and money and all of that into political solutions. Now, again, I think we need to be involved in political things, but that is never to be the priority. You say, amen, Pastor Nick. I agree with that. I hope you do. Verse 33 here of the Sermon on the Mount, you know, Jesus is exhorting the people, particularly his disciples, not to worry. Not to be afraid and fearful and worried about where are we going to get clothes to wear? Where are we going to get food to eat? How are we going to be taken care of? What does Jesus want them to focus on? Look at it again. Verse 33. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. There's the priority. There's the focus for every Christian. It is the kingdom of God. It is all the spiritual things that are involved in the kingdom of God. Prayer, worship, Bible reading, evangelism, discipleship, being involved in the church, all of those things. That's what we're to be seeking. We're to be seeking to follow the Lord and his commandments and his righteousness. And God's going to take care of those other things. He's going to take care of your food and your clothing and your needs. And all these things shall be added to you. Now, I realize that Jesus is not so much talking about the political here, but I believe the principle applies of being focused and prioritizing the spiritual and not the earthly. If there ever is a conflict between the spiritual and the political, guess who must win that contest? With your priorities, your time, your money, your efforts, it must always be the spiritual. Let me give you a few examples. If I have a choice to invest a portion of my time in politics that takes me away regularly and substantially from the corporate worship of God, from my Bible, and from seeking God's face in prayer, my priorities are out of order. I have now lost focus on those things that are most important. The person who has time to attend to political rallies, legislation meetings, and all of that, but doesn't have any time for the church, has their priorities out of line. has misprioritized where they're supposed to be. Now notice I did not say have nothing to do with the political, but if there is a conflict between the two, guess where my priority is. My priority is with what scripture commands me to do in relation to the spiritual. The person who spends 20 hours a week watching the latest political developments, but five minutes reading their Bible has their priorities out of line. The person who can tell you all kinds of details about Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, or the latest political candidate, but they couldn't recite the 10 commandments if their life depended on it, has got things out of whack. Am I right? If the spiritual is the focus and the priority, that is where our time and effort, the majority of our time and effort should be invested. Number six. Don't believe everything you hear on the news or read on the internet. Now turn with me from Matthew 6 to Exodus 20. Exodus 20. Exodus 20. Hopefully you know the ninth commandment. But let's lay eyes on it again. Exodus chapter 20 and verse 16, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. This commandment is a prohibition, a forbidding of all things dishonest, of those things that are contrary to the truth. What does that have to do with not believing everything you hear on the news or read on the internet? Well, unfortunately we live in a an age characterized by lies, by dishonesty. We were just talking about it the other day. Who do you believe? Who do you trust? What news source do you go to that you can trust to be objective and to really deal rightly and fairly with both sides and with what's really going on? Now, I know that there are news sources that are better than others, But it can be very hard at times because you're trying to figure out who's telling the truth and what the truth is in any particular situation. So you must use caution before you conclude what is true in any given situation. Why? Number one, it often takes time for the truth to come out. Unfortunately, in our country, What you heard on the news yesterday, you may not have gotten the full story on it. You may not have gotten the full picture. And it may be 40 years before you do when everybody's moved on and nobody cares anymore. Unfortunately, that is characteristic of our society. Now, what practically should that mean for you and me? It's, I wait before I rush to judgment. I wait before I reach a conclusion. There are many times when I hear things, and you know what my response to it is? Hmm. You say, is that all you do? Pretty much, because I don't know whether they're telling the truth or not. I don't know whether what happened occurred the way they said it did, or the motivations of the person involved were what they said they were, or what have you. We need to give it time. You know the proverb, Proverbs 18, 17, the first one to plead his cause seems right until his neighbor comes and examines him. You ever heard that? You've heard something on the news or read something on the internet. You say, yeah, yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, I believe that. And then two weeks later, you're like, no, that was dead wrong. That was completely false. It made sense at the time, but you needed to give it time for the neighbor to come and examine what had been given or stated. Now, why am I bringing this up? Because I see a tendency among us. And yes, I'm talking about us, and I'm talking about conservative Christians in general. I see a tendency among us to quickly accept whatever comes from conservative sources. Now, we don't have a problem taking the liberals with a grain of salt or just rejecting what they say out of hand. But when it comes to conservatives, sometimes we are less discerning and we just swallow it because of where it's coming from or because it makes them look bad. And so we think, well, that must be true because it sure makes the liberals look as bad as I thought they were. So should you take conservative news with a grain of salt? Yes, you should. It doesn't mean they're always wrong, but it doesn't mean they're always right either. So you need to think about it and you need to do what we look at next. 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 21. What do we do with what we hear? We test it. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 21. Paul writes, test all things. Hold fast what is good. Not just test what comes from MSNBC, but test what comes from Fox News as well. Or whatever source it may be. You've got to be discerning. You've got to test it. Don't just swallow it because it comes from a particular source or because it seems to confirm what you thought you already knew. Say, yeah, I thought I knew about that person or that movement or what have you, and that person just confirmed it for me. And sometimes we take it on very little evidence. Why? Because it just seems to go along with what we already believe and what we already accept. Just because the viewpoint comes from someone who generally agrees with you on political matters does not mean that it is accurate. You need to take everything you hear in political discourse with a grain of salt. And that applies to conservative news sources as well. Why? Because Christians are people of the truth. That's what we care about, right? That's our priority. Our priority is what is the truth? In any given situation, on any given matter, we wanna know what the truth is, and we want to stick to that. We want to adhere to that. It's not who's the liberal, who's the conservative. I'll just go with whoever is the conservative here. It's what's the truth concerning this particular matter. Why is this important? One of the reasons why this is important is because our reputation and credibility is at stake. If you are in the habit of constantly spreading news about things that turn out to be false, do you think that will have a negative effect on how people view you? It will. So if I take the latest thing I heard in the news, even if it's from a conservative news source, I assume it to be true, and I spread and broadcast that amongst everybody that I know or everybody I can tell about it, and that turns out to be false, time and time and time again, guess what's happened to your credibility? It's getting chipped away at. And guess what? People are gonna stop listening to us. Because we took whatever thing just came on the internet. Well, that must be true. We ran with it. We spread it. We told other people about it. It turned out to be false. And now our credibility has been lowered. We say, why should we care about that? Because you want to share the gospel with people, right? You want to spread the good news of salvation. You want to share the word of God with people. And do you think they want to listen to you after you told them 15 conservative things that ended up being false? No, they won't, because they'll know you as the conspiracy theory guy. Now, not everything that is deemed a conspiracy theory is in fact a conspiracy theory, okay? But sometimes there is such a thing as a conspiracy theory, and I hear and see conservatives doing it too. I need to start writing it down. I'll give you a couple of examples here, but I need to start writing it down. When so-and-so says, this is gonna happen in November, you need to start writing that down. You say, well, I do. And then November rolls around and it didn't happen. Well, guess what? You need to quit saying such and such is gonna happen in November with such conviction and gravitas. What should you reserve your absolute confidence for? This. This is the only thing you can bank on 100%, completely and fully. Now, some of those things that you heard in conservative sources, they may be right, they may be accurate, but again, sometimes you need to give it time. You need to give it time and see whether it pans out or not. So for example, let me step on our toes here. Can I do that? You see, you already did it and I'm a little mad at you. Okay, just remember, I'm your pastor and I love you and I care about you. After Joe Biden, I was gonna say won the White House. After Joe Biden entered the White House, more than one of us, more than one of us said, You know what's gonna happen, don't you? All this was was a ploy to get Kamala Harris in there. They'll kill Joe, they'll kick Joe out, and they'll get Kamala Harris in there. You just watch. Give it a month. I heard that from more than one person. You said, well, that sounds right. Sounds accurate. But guess what? It wasn't true. We had four years, roughly, of Joe Biden presidency. It wasn't true. So we have to be careful about things like that. If you're gonna be confident, don't be confident in tidbits of news that you heard about this, that, and the other thing. Be confident in the scriptures. Or to give another example, the assassination attempt with Donald Trump the other day. Do you know what the motivations of that young man were? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. I don't know. But I don't know that it's safe for us to make a conclusion 24 hours after seeing it happen. That we know exactly who this young man was and what it was that motivated him and all of that. I don't know that we do. And we may get it right, but you might get it wrong too. So don't believe everything you hear or read. Believe the scriptures. Take these other things with a grain of salt. All right, number seven. Number seven, let us keep careful watch over our tongues when it comes to talking about politicians and politics. I think that we have a tendency to demonstrate a lack of Christian virtue when it comes to speaking about politicians. There are many times when Christians are displaying a serious lack of the fruit of the spirit when they speak about political matters. For instance, some of us get very angry and speak in a hateful and vindictive manner about those we oppose in the realm of politics. And sometimes we excuse it because we think it's justified. And I just warn you, brothers and sisters, I just warn you. I do believe there is such a thing as righteous anger, but many times we confuse righteous anger with sinful anger. And the scriptures say, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice." Those things are not to be characteristic of you. And it's not that, well, politics is different, Pastor Nick. I can get fired up and angry and spit fire, and it's okay. No, it's not okay. Now, I'm not saying you can't be passionate about these things, and you can't speak firmly and forcefully. And I'm not saying you shouldn't denounce sin. We should denounce sin. And we should denounce those men and women who perpetrate it as wicked. But there's a fine line, is there not? There's a really fine line when we have crossed over into personal animus toward people, and we are way out in left field and nowhere close to loving our enemies. The scriptures require us to speak respectfully. when it comes to people who are in authority. Let's look at that now. First, Titus chapter three. Titus chapter three. Titus chapter three. Paul writes, Titus chapter three, verse one, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. My question for you and for me is, are we practicing that when it comes to political speech? When we talk about politicians and politics, are we doing this? That's in the Bible just as much as any other text we looked at today. We're required to be obedient, to be subject to rulers and authorities. Now, there is a place for disobedience. I don't have time to talk about that today. When the ruler or the governing authority calls upon me to disobey God's word in some way, shape, or form, then I disobey the ruler. But in other matters, I obey and submit myself, even if I didn't vote for them. It doesn't mean we go against our conscience and do what is sinful or wrong, but it does mean we are to be subject to those who are in positions of governmental authority. And then notice the top of verse two, to speak evil of no one. Now in the context that would include rulers and authorities, would it not? I believe it does. All right, let's see one more example of this, 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 and verse 17. Similar passage here from the Apostle Peter. 1 Peter 2, beginning of verse 13. Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king or supreme, or to governors as to those who were sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good." Now, there's a certain group of people professing Christians. That's not their favorite Bible verse. They like those about rise up against wickedness. No, both things are true. Everything that Scripture teaches When scripture calls upon us to denounce sin and wickedness and oppose it, we must do that. And when scripture calls upon us to obey the governing authorities, we must do that as well. Now, I realize there are all sorts of laws that we disagree with. There are all sorts of laws that we disagree with, politicians that we disagree with, that we dislike because of their sin or their compromise or what have you. And sometimes we say, well, I get to disobey. And I get to be disobedient toward the government because of that. But you must be careful, brothers and sisters. We are called to be obedient in every way that we can to those in authority. We're to submit ourselves to every ordinance of man, for whose sake? Not for the man, not for the person in office, but for whose sake? For the Lord's sake. We do it for God, for Christ. Okay, drop down to verse 17. honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Is that in the Bible? Yeah, that's in the Bible too. You see what it said? Honor all people, honor the king. Give respect to whom it is due. I believe you heard that in scripture reading as well, right? Romans chapter 13. But what do some Christians do? Some Christians say, well, they're not respectable, so I don't respect them. I don't have to give them an ounce of respect because they're not a respectable person. My question, brethren, to you is, if that's your position on the matter, how do you square that with this? Do you think the rulers in the first century were the greatest, most righteous rulers Known to man at that time. Nope, they sure weren't. Peter didn't make a mistake. He said it, honor the king. And that's what we have to do. You say, well, I don't know about that interpretation, Pastor Nick. I just ask you to consider the plain text. and what it says. And I think this is one of our problems as conservatives, is we don't like texts like this. And we dance around them and we excuse ourselves and we seek to justify our disobedience to this text. But you can't do that, brothers and sisters, because that's the same thing the others are doing with other texts. And we can't do that. We have to be faithful to everything the Word of God teaches us, to the whole counsel of God, no matter what it is. So let's apply that, okay? Let's apply that, honor the king. Now, the person who says to me, well, that's got nothing to do with the president because he's not a king. Okay, honor the king would involve any in that level of governmental authority, whether you call them king, president, potentate, I don't care who it is. The principle is still the same, that we give respect to that person. So I do not laugh at and mock Joe Biden, particularly concerning his declining mental and physical abilities. Do you know why I don't do that? 1 Peter 2, 17. That's why. You say, but Pastor Nick, he's evil. He's wicked. He's doing all these wicked things. Surely that means that we can mock him and insult him and berate him. I don't think it does, brother. I think we are under obligation to speak respectfully of the man and if he showed up here to speak respectfully to him. Now don't confuse that with agreement. Somebody will be quick to say, oh, that's because you're a closet liberal, aren't you? No, it's because I'm a Bible person. And the same scripture that I read when it said, To denounce sin and wickedness and not be a hypocrite also says honor the king. And so I seek to do that. Is there a way to speak respectfully about President Biden? Yes, I believe so. Are you required to do it? According to the Bible you are. Does that mean you have to agree with him? Does that mean you don't denounce the wickedness of the man and his policies? No, it doesn't mean that. But it does mean that I don't engage in mockery over something that is not in his control. His declining physical and mental abilities. Would you mock your grandfather if he was going through that? No, you'd be angry at somebody mocking your grandfather. I don't believe that's the route to go. Honor the king. In conclusion, let's make a couple of final observations here, now that I've got you all fired up. Number one, when it comes to politics, your goal is not to be a conservative, but a Christian. Your goal is not to be an American conservative, but a biblical Christian. You are not to seek to follow and emulate all the latest political conservatives. They are not your model. Jesus is. What they think and what they say is not the standard the Bible is. Now, let me be clear. I believe that scripture leads us to conservative political positions. I believe that. I make no apology for that. Things like limited government, so-called traditional values, et cetera. However, it is not always the case that people who carry the title conservative actually hold to biblical positions on things. People who are identified as political conservatives today may be opposed to what scripture teaches in any number of areas. So it's not my goal to be like them. Now I'm happy to agree with them where I can, And I seek to align myself with the conservative position, if you will, on a host of things. But here's where the difference comes. The difference comes when I hear the conservative or the conservative position, and it's contrary to the biblical position. Now we've got a problem. We've got a problem, and I'm not trying to go with you. I'm trying to go with this. This is the standard. This is my guide, the scriptures, and I'm going to follow that. That's what we ought to be seeking to do. Let me give you an example. What do I do with the conservative who is opposed to abortion, opposed to the LGBTQ or STUV movement, but who wants to send women into combat? Who wants to take young women in our country and send them into harm's way in combat? I oppose them on that. I think that's wrong and unbiblical and not what God has called a woman to. I don't care if it's the conservative position nowadays. Well, we've got to have a draft and we've got to have equality and it's got to be men and women, wrong. So you see there, I'm not trying to be a conservative, I'm trying to be a Christian in the way I think and respond to things like that. Number two, what do we do at the voting booth? That's what you wanna know, right? Well, first of all, I'm not gonna tell you how to vote. Sort of. And let me preface what I say here as a portion of this is my opinion, okay? Portion of this is my opinion, and this is just what I think at this particular time, and you can take it or leave it. Okay, so that's my disclaimer. This is Pastor Smiley's opinion, okay? You say, Pastor, the way you talk today sounds like we can't vote for any of these people. That's the way you make it sound. Like the whole lot of them is rotten. And don't you dare vote for any of them. That's not exactly what I'm saying. So let's take a few examples here. Let's say we've got a candidate who wants to kill babies and take your money to fund it. and a candidate who refuses to do that and is opposed to that. Which one of those two do I vote for? Right? Let's say you got a candidate who is all things LGBT plus and a candidate who thinks very clearly on that and opposes that as wicked. Which one of those two should I vote for? This one? Not that one. Now what do you do when they're both in the wrong place? Well, there are other issues involved that we do need to think about. We do need to think through. And for my part, I'm going to vote for the one who is going to get the closest to this because I don't want to put either directly by my vote or indirectly by my lack of vote the person who will enter power and seek to persecute Christians, keep you from having a job because you don't agree with all things LGBT+, or do all they can to open the floodgates for abortion. I don't want that person in power. I don't want that person in authority. Me personally, I'm willing to vote for this person over here who does not follow all that scripture teaches because that's all I've got in this particular situation. Now, I should be praying for God to raise up someone that I can really vote for in a much better conscience than this individual. Now, I realize that there are people who don't like that. I understand that. Maybe you're here and maybe you say, Pastor Nick, that's a compromise. Either way you go. So if you do go that route of voting for the lesser of two evils, then you need to make it very clear to yourself, your family, and others that the vote for that person is not a vote approving everything they think and every policy or position they hold. Because we obviously can't do that. With that being said, I increasingly respect those who say, I can't vote for either one of those people. And you may think that's wrong. And again, this is just my opinion. I may get to the point where I stop going to the polls because I can't in good conscience vote for either one of the people. However, it seems that at this point in time, we still have a chance to have someone who will put a restraint to some extent on sin and wickedness. That doesn't mean I agree with that person or that candidate in every respect. I don't. But I do wanna see wickedness restrained. I don't wanna see it unleashed as I believe it would be under the rule of certain people. All right, enough of my opinion. Again, in closing, let's ensure that our focus and priority is on Christ and his kingdom. The kingdoms of this world will all pass away in time and be replaced by the kingdom of heaven. Glory to God. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Do you see why that's where our focus must be? You say, where can I find a perfect ruler? Where can I find a righteous king? Where can I find someone who is sinless and spotless? There's only one place, and he's at the right hand of the Father. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's His kingdom that is my focus. It's His kingdom that is my priority. Even America won't last forever. For that reason and many others, we must give our all to the kingdom of God, rather than the politics of fallen men. May the Lord help us, no matter what happens in the realm of American politics, to be faithful citizens of heaven. Philippians 3.20, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word today. We thank you for how it guides us and how to think and respond to those things going on in our world. We pray, Father, that you would help us to practice what we preach today, to renew our minds, to immerse ourselves in the Bible, to ensure that the kingdom of heaven is our priority and our focus, help us to be people of worship, people of prayer, people of evangelism, people of the book, the Bible. Guide us and give us wisdom, Lord, in the days ahead, in terms of how we interact with the political realm, how we vote, and how we deal with these things. We need your help. And so we ask that you would be with us. We know we may come to different conclusions on some of these things. And we pray for humility of heart to listen to one another, but most of all, to listen to your word, to hear what you tell us, and to seek to apply those truths that we know to how we conduct ourselves, how we look at the rulers of men and the kingdoms of men. We ask that you would be with us. Lord, we thank you for this day that you've given us. We thank you for your word. We ask that you would plant it in our hearts, in good ground, that it may bring forth fruit in the days ahead. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. As you leave today, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.