Speaker 1: 1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado, will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week Church family?
Speaker 1: We've been walking through the I Am Statements of John and it's been a great series and we've got three more to go.
Speaker 1: But today we're going to go a little bit different a direction.
Speaker 1: We're going to step away from that series just for one week and every once in a while, in the life of the church and the life of maybe what's going on around us, it is important to look at God's word and what it maybe has to say about current events, about what's going on around us and I don't know if you know this or if you own a television, but apparently there's an election on Tuesday and there's been a little talk about it.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of conversation along the way and I just want to just speak this morning briefly.
Speaker 1: Not talk politics, but talk the Lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: I want to read Isaiah 6, verses 1 through 8.
Speaker 1: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Speaker 1: Above him stood the seraphim.
Speaker 1: Each had six wings.
Speaker 1: With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet and with two he flew, and one called to another and said Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
Speaker 1: The whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke and I said woe is me, for I am lost and I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.
Speaker 1: Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal and he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said behold, this has touched your lips.
Speaker 1: Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.
Speaker 1: And I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us?
Speaker 1: Then I said here I am, send me, let's pray together.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are exalted over all.
Speaker 1: As we have already sung and will continue to do so.
Speaker 1: You are the exalted one, you are the glorified one, you are on the throne and you are sovereign overall, and we can find encouragement in that.
Speaker 1: Lord, this morning, would you speak to each of our hearts.
Speaker 1: Please let your words be clear from your word.
Speaker 1: We ask this in Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 1: You may have certain dates in your life, if I set a certain date, that they would be to you more than just a timestamp, more than a date on the calendar.
Speaker 1: But if I set a certain date, they'd give you more than a day on the calendar.
Speaker 1: They'd really give you a feeling If I told you maybe the date of birth of your children For me, march 14th of 2020, december 27th of 2023.
Speaker 1: If I maybe gave you your anniversary, august 1st of 2014,.
Speaker 1: You fill in the blanks with whatever that date might be for you, but those dates fill you with more than just again a thought of a day on a calendar.
Speaker 1: You have feelings associated with that.
Speaker 1: There's dates that bring you feelings of great joy and there's dates that you probably know well that bring you sorrow and bring you continued grief.
Speaker 1: If I said this morning, this date we'd probably collectively share September 11th 2001.
Speaker 1: That's more than a calendared date.
Speaker 1: There's feelings that come to mind.
Speaker 1: You remember waking up that morning and maybe someone told you to run to the television, or somebody just told you what was going on.
Speaker 1: If you're around my age.
Speaker 1: You remember getting to school and all lesson plans were kind of out the window that day and the TV went on and that was kind of our agenda today to figure out what was going on.
Speaker 1: Maybe you remember the feeling of heading to a church that evening to pray for our nation.
Speaker 1: So we have some dates that are more than just a date on the calendar.
Speaker 1: They bring emotion, they bring feeling, they bring highs and lows.
Speaker 1: When Isaiah here is speaking, they bring highs and lows.
Speaker 1: When Isaiah here is speaking, he begins with this in the year that King Uzziah died.
Speaker 1: If you were the original reader of Isaiah, you would hear those words and you wouldn't think Isaiah were just putting something on the calendar.
Speaker 1: You would realize that he's giving you a feeling, an emotion.
Speaker 1: There is so much behind this phrase that sets the scene for everything that's about to unfold.
Speaker 1: So to figure this out, we naturally have to figure out who King Uzziah is Now.
Speaker 1: To do this, I can turn briefly to 2 Chronicles 26.
Speaker 1: Now in the life of Israel and Judah, first Israel, we had three kings.
Speaker 1: We had Saul, we had David, we had Solomon, and then things kind of fell apart.
Speaker 1: Quite literally, there was division.
Speaker 1: You had Israel in the north of 10 tribes.
Speaker 1: You had Judah in the south of these two tribes and things were not going great.
Speaker 1: And if you read 1 and 2 Kings, you see the names of a lot of kings and for about 95% of them it'll give the king's name and then it will say and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Things were not looking too good for Israel and Judah.
Speaker 1: And yet in 2 Chronicles 26, we see in verse 3, uzziah was 16 years old when he began to reign.
Speaker 1: So let's start there.
Speaker 1: A 16-year-old has come to the throne and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem, a long reign, beginning at 16 years old.
Speaker 1: His mother's name was Jechaliah of Jerusalem, verse 4.
Speaker 1: And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father, amaziah, had done.
Speaker 1: And verse 5 ends with this little phrase God made him prosper.
Speaker 1: He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
Speaker 1: This 52-year reign of Uzziah was a time of great prosperity for Judah, great prosperity.
Speaker 1: If you go on in this text, in 2 Chronicles 26, and you read verses 6 through 15, what you will see is really the story of prosperity.
Speaker 1: You will see that the people of Judah under Uzziah's leadership really under the God who made Uzziah prosper they had an unbelievable time.
Speaker 1: They were a prosperous nation.
Speaker 1: They had a very strong army.
Speaker 1: The military was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: It was also at a time when Assyria to the north was as weak as it had been in some time.
Speaker 1: So you have a prosperous Judah under a king who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
Speaker 1: The main enemy, assyria, is weak in this moment.
Speaker 1: What could possibly go wrong?
Speaker 1: This is an unbelievable time to be part of the people of God.
Speaker 1: Verse 16,.
Speaker 1: But when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction.
Speaker 1: Now, surely we don't know anything about that.
Speaker 1: When he grew strong, he grew proud to his destruction.
Speaker 1: How often are we tempted to see all that the Lord has done and the way he has prospered us in so many ways?
Speaker 1: And if we're not careful, we'll look back and we'll say look what I have done.
Speaker 1: Look what I have done to provide for my family, look what I have done in my career, look what I have done in the community, all these things.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, it is God that is literally placing breath in my lungs.
Speaker 1: Yet look what I have done.
Speaker 1: We grow proud and it was to his destruction, for he was unfaithful to the Lord, his God.
Speaker 1: He entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
Speaker 1: What happened is Uzziah grew proud and he forgot he was king.
Speaker 1: He tried to be priest as well.
Speaker 1: God punished him.
Speaker 1: You read on in 26,.
Speaker 1: He received leprosy and eventually he died.
Speaker 1: The judgment of God was upon him for his pride.
Speaker 1: So we had a prosperous time in Judah.
Speaker 1: Uzziah grew proud.
Speaker 1: He died At the same time.
Speaker 1: We read in Isaiah 1 through 5 how both Judah and Israel, their sins arising and God's judgment is coming At the same time.
Speaker 1: All of this has happened and Uzziah is receiving leprosy and dying.
Speaker 1: We also have Assyria growing as strong as they've ever been under a brand new king.
Speaker 1: Wait for this Tiglath-Pileser III, tiglath-pileser III, which implies that before that was Tiglath-Pileser and Tiglath-Pileser Jr, and now we've got the third Funny name.
Speaker 1: But the reality is he meant business and he is marching towards Israel and Judah.
Speaker 1: You can almost hear the footsteps.
Speaker 1: And now what was a prosperous place to live?
Speaker 1: We look up and we don't have a king, or our great king has died.
Speaker 1: Our enemies are strong and it's a time of anxiety and it's a time of uncertainty.
Speaker 1: And so you return to the text of Isaiah 6, and if it begins with these words in the year that King Uzziah died, what Isaiah wants us to know is in a season of anxiety and uncertainty.
Speaker 1: This is what happened.
Speaker 1: Now I want us to think about something for a second, because the reality is this when we come to the text, we come to the text.
Speaker 1: We don't read into the text.
Speaker 1: We let the text read us.
Speaker 1: We want to see what the text means for the original audience and we want to draw the theological gold from that and apply it to our lives, but we don't import ourselves into the text, we don't read ourselves in.
Speaker 1: We let the text speak for itself.
Speaker 1: And so I want to be clear america's not in this text.
Speaker 1: We, we don't have a king uzziah lord willing.
Speaker 1: We don't have a tiglath pleaser or junior or the third.
Speaker 1: We don't have them.
Speaker 1: Them Now.
Speaker 1: With that said, I wonder what we can learn from this, because I wonder, as we look at the week ahead, as we look at another election, as we look at a country, that, if we're just being honest, when we turn on the television or we look at social media, we read the paper.
Speaker 1: Wherever individuals land on certain issues.
Speaker 1: You look at a nation right now that in so many ways, is so divided.
Speaker 1: I think we would agree with that A divided country.
Speaker 1: I think we look around us and wherever you land politically, you look around and you see a country that's divided.
Speaker 1: And, in one sense, we head into a week like this and, if we're very honest with ourselves, there is a bit of anxiety and uncertainty.
Speaker 1: And you may be in the room this morning and you say I'm excited about this week and I've got my candidate, I'm ready to cast my vote, or I've already cast my vote and praise God, I'm excited about this week and I've got my candidate, I'm ready to cast my vote, or I've already cast my vote and, praise God, I'm thrilled for you.
Speaker 1: But even you might say that there's still, as I look around, some anxiety, some uncertainty.
Speaker 1: You may look at Tuesday and you say I don't even know where I land, I don't even know what candidate or any candidate or I, just everything's swirling around, and for you there may be even more anxiety and uncertainty.
Speaker 1: And you look at these moments and it just feels a little confusing and think about this.
Speaker 1: A word came out, or really was refreshed in 2020, the word unprecedented.
Speaker 1: You remember that Suddenly, in 2020, everything was unprecedented.
Speaker 1: I think four years later, I think we've done all the things now.
Speaker 1: So I think everything now has a precedent.
Speaker 1: But you look at this election and in so many ways it is either fully unprecedented or largely unprecedented.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking politics, let me just tell the facts.
Speaker 1: Right now We've got a former president who's been out of office for a few years and now is running again.
Speaker 1: That hasn't happened, been attempted since Herbert Hoover in 1940.
Speaker 1: Hasn't been successfully done since Grover Cleveland in 1892.
Speaker 1: So there's number one.
Speaker 1: Number two we have a sitting president who has chosen not to run or seek a second term, and that's something that hasn't happened since Lyndon Johnson in 1968, largely unprecedented.
Speaker 1: And also all that you know.
Speaker 1: He decided that in July, which is obviously very late in the cycle, and then in that moment in July, we have a vice president that was looking to be the vice president on the upcoming ticket, now kind of thrust into the seat of the presidential nominee.
Speaker 1: Now, all that's well and good, all that's fine, but if one of those things would have happened, we probably would have had swirling headlines and wondering like if this country's moving fast and we had three of those things happen at the same time and if you turn on the TV or the paper or social media, you kind of look around right now and things are moving fast and there's some anxiety and there's just some, and there's just some confusion and there's some uncertainty and again, things are moving very quickly.
Speaker 1: So what do we do?
Speaker 1: What do we do in these kind of moments?
Speaker 1: I think we do what Isaiah has done here In the year that King Uzziah died.
Speaker 1: Remember, in a time of uncertainty and anxiety, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.
Speaker 1: In the time of uncertainty and anxiety.
Speaker 1: Where does Isaiah look?
Speaker 1: He looks upward and he says this I saw the Lord sitting on the throne.
Speaker 1: I don't have a clue.
Speaker 1: What's going to happen Tuesday?
Speaker 1: Not a clue.
Speaker 1: The people doing the polls don't have a clue.
Speaker 1: The news channels don't have a clue, but not just on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: In every area of my life I really don't have a clue.
Speaker 1: The news channels don't have a clue, but not just on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: In every area of my life I really don't have a clue.
Speaker 1: You have areas of your life forget politics for a moment that you don't have a clue about.
Speaker 1: A diagnosis has come, a family situation has come your way you weren't prepared for.
Speaker 1: The prodigal child you've been praying for has not come home yet.
Speaker 1: The career move you thought would be a blessing, you're starting to wonder if it was a curse.
Speaker 1: There's so many areas in your life that you don't know what is next.
Speaker 1: But for every single one of those, if you take Isaiah's words here, when you look up what you see, even in the midst of the swirling of life, you see a Lord that is sitting on the throne, that is sovereignly reigning.
Speaker 1: Above all that nothing in this world politically, nothing in this world economically, nothing in this world socially or anything, nothing takes him by surprise.
Speaker 1: He doesn't turn on the news and something shocks him.
Speaker 1: There's no such thing as breaking news to the Lord.
Speaker 1: He is sovereign overall and he is sovereignly on the throne and he is sovereignly in control.
Speaker 1: Now I want to look deeper at this God on the throne.
Speaker 1: It says this.
Speaker 1: Verse 6 continues he is high and lifted up, up and the train of his robe filled the temple and above him stood the seraphim.
Speaker 1: Now, these seraphim, these angelic beings.
Speaker 1: This week I started kind of writing the script for our Children's Nativity Sunday, december 22nd.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about that, where the kids will kind of act out the Christmas story and I can't wait for that and I would imagine I'm not certain I certainly hope that there's going to be some sweet little angels that walk into the room.
Speaker 1: They're going to have sweet little wings and they're going to, you know, do and say sweet little things and I love that little picture of angels.
Speaker 1: But I got to tell you, sometimes we go to scripture and we see some pictures of angels that aren't those little sweet pictures.
Speaker 1: You go to Revelation and you see some very different pictures of angels that quite honestly, I hope are not in our Christmas program that picture of the angel you might be running out of here if that's the case.
Speaker 1: And here we have a little bit different picture of this heavenly being.
Speaker 1: Each had six wings.
Speaker 1: With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet and with two he flew.
Speaker 1: What is the trajectory of the angels?
Speaker 1: What do they feel when they come before the throne of God?
Speaker 1: They feel like I'm not even worthy to gaze upon the throne, god.
Speaker 1: They feel like I'm not even worthy to gaze upon the throne.
Speaker 1: In humility, they cover themselves so that they won't even gaze upon the throne and look what happens next.
Speaker 1: Verse 3, and one called to another and said holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
Speaker 1: The whole earth is full of his glory.
Speaker 1: Holy, holy, holy.
Speaker 1: If scripture ever says something three times in a row, listen up.
Speaker 1: God is holy, this complete term.
Speaker 1: For his holiness.
Speaker 1: There is no flaw, there is no blemish, there is certainly no sin on him or in his presence.
Speaker 1: He is the pure, righteous, holy one on the throne, and these angelic beings know this.
Speaker 1: Verse four and the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke.
Speaker 1: So think about this Before the throne, the ground is starting to shake.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because there is a voice calling out, but the ground is shaking, not at the voice of the one on the throne.
Speaker 1: The ground is shaking at the voice of the seraphim calling out holy, holy, holy.
Speaker 1: Now think about this If you're before the throne of God and the ground is shaking because the worshiper is speaking, what in the world would happen if the one on the throne actually opens his mouth?
Speaker 1: If the one on the throne actually opens his mouth, if the ground shakes at the voice of the worshiper.
Speaker 1: How mighty is the one on the throne?
Speaker 1: And that's the picture we have of the God who is sitting on the throne.
Speaker 1: He is the Holy One.
Speaker 1: And the next question is he's the holy one, so who am I?
Speaker 1: I think sometimes we're tempted to make holiness certainly our own holiness relative, aren't we?
Speaker 1: We might say something like you know, as I think, about my own holiness.
Speaker 1: Maybe you say this that you know maybe I'm not where I need to be or supposed to be, maybe I'm not as holy as maybe I should be, but I'm doing a little better than you know.
Speaker 1: That individual I'm.
Speaker 1: You know I'm not sinning in the same way that person's sinning, or I'm not sinning in the same way that group is sinning.
Speaker 1: We make our holiness a little relative.
Speaker 1: I told this to our Wednesday night group a few weeks ago, so forgive me for hearing it again.
Speaker 1: But imagine if I came to you this morning and just talked to you just on and on about you know how good I was at basketball, and you're probably laughing at that because you know I'm not best shape of my life.
Speaker 1: You don't quite look like a basketball player, but I just went on and on.
Speaker 1: I'm just so unbelievable at the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: You say, well, I mean, tell me more about it.
Speaker 1: Did you play in high school?
Speaker 1: Did you play in college?
Speaker 1: Tell me more about this.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this.
Speaker 1: I said I have played my son, my four-year-old James, countless times and I'm undefeated and I've not lost one time.
Speaker 1: That's how I know how good I am at basketball.
Speaker 1: But then you say this okay, let's go to the gym and let's say, play one-on-one against El Dorado's own Daniel Gafford, who now plays for the Dallas Mavericks, and play one-on-one and let's just see how good you are.
Speaker 1: We know how that would go.
Speaker 1: But in that moment my skill has not changed.
Speaker 1: What changed the standard?
Speaker 1: My skill didn't change, the standard changed.
Speaker 1: So here's what we want to do so often.
Speaker 1: Aren't I holy?
Speaker 1: I'm at least not sinning like them.
Speaker 1: I'm doing better than him or her or this group over here.
Speaker 1: Yet in the reality, the standard of holiness is not quote, unquote them.
Speaker 1: The standard of holiness is the God on the throne, who the angels say holy, holy, holy.
Speaker 1: And when they say that, the ground shakes, the flawless one, the holy one.
Speaker 1: That's the standard.
Speaker 1: That's why Jesus says be holy as I am holy.
Speaker 1: Well, who can do that.
Speaker 1: And Isaiah knows that, because look at verse 5 and he said woe is me, for I am lost.
Speaker 1: I'm a of unclean lips.
Speaker 1: I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
Speaker 1: My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been somewhere?
Speaker 1: You realize in a moment you are not supposed to be?
Speaker 1: I don't mean somewhere sinful, I just mean you walk in the room and you say this is above my pay grade, or I'm underdressed, I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt and they're wearing black tie.
Speaker 1: I'm not supposed to be here.
Speaker 1: Isaiah comes in this room and instantly he realized this is so above my pay grade.
Speaker 1: This is a holy place and I am a sinful person.
Speaker 1: And everything Isaiah says in verse five is absolutely correct he is a man of unclean lips.
Speaker 1: He does dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
Speaker 1: He has seen the king, so what in the world does he do?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 1: Verse 6,.
Speaker 1: Then one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said no-transcript, the unclean one who lives among an unclean people able to come before the holy throne of God.
Speaker 1: It's how any of us come before the holy throne of God, because God has provided atonement.
Speaker 1: These tongs were used to pick the coal, to touch the lift this symbolic picture and this vision of Isaiah, to take away the sin, to atone for sin, and Isaiah can now stand in the presence of a holy God.
Speaker 1: I want you to know that Isaiah's story is your story, that you can come before the throne of God in the same way, because your sins have been atoned for, because he became sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, that this holy God on the throne sent his son, god himself, jesus Christ, the righteous one, to atone for sin.
Speaker 1: And that's what has happened on the cross and through the resurrection, where sin has been defeated.
Speaker 1: And now you, and if we know Christ Jesus, can come before a holy God and, as we talked about, even in the midst of the swirling moments of life, when anxiety and uncertainty surround us, we can come before the God of the universe and we are welcomed into the throne room of God to see and to remember that he is the one who is high and lifted up.
Speaker 1: That's what our God has done for us.
Speaker 1: But Isaiah 6 continues, verse 8, and I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us?
Speaker 1: And then I said here am I send me?
Speaker 1: So now you do have God speak.
Speaker 1: So now you do have God speak, who am I going to send?
Speaker 1: He says these words who will go for us?
Speaker 1: How do we take that God saying who will go for us?
Speaker 1: Quickly, one of two ways, I think you can take it as God in the community of Trinity, we know we serve one God in three persons father, son, spirit.
Speaker 1: So as God speaking in the community of himself, he very well could be, he could also take this as this us being the idea of God speaking in the company of these angelic beings who will go for us?
Speaker 1: A collective question, however you take it.
Speaker 1: I think you're doing all right by taking it that way.
Speaker 1: But then Isaiah responds here I am, send me, I will be your messenger.
Speaker 1: Now we see specifically in Isaiah, this message is one of judgment, this message is one of the hardening of hearts.
Speaker 1: But we see in Isaiah who's ready to be a messenger of God.
Speaker 1: But how in the world could this be?
Speaker 1: Because three verses before he was unworthy to even stand in the presence of God and now God can use him to be a messenger of God.
Speaker 1: But that's the story of all of us.
Speaker 1: That's the story of all of Scripture.
Speaker 1: Think about a guy like Paul.
Speaker 1: He wanted to destroy the church.
Speaker 1: God got a hold of him.
Speaker 1: He became the greatest missionary of the church, a guy like Peter.
Speaker 1: The night Jesus was arrested he was nowhere to be found.
Speaker 1: Three times he told folks that I don't know the guy and a few days later he's restored in Acts, chapter one, really, through chapters eight and beyond, what we see from Peter is he's a leader in the local church and he is preaching and thousands are being saved, because God can use broken, unworthy people and, through his forgiveness and atonement, raise them up, to send them out, to tell a lost and broken world that there is a better way and there is a better king upon the throne.
Speaker 1: And so, as we live our lives in uncertainty and anxiety, as we go into weeks like this again if you think about an election or anything you've got going on in your life and it seems overwhelming we have a message to give to ourselves, really, but also give to a lost and broken world that again there's a better way and there's a better king.
Speaker 1: And I wonder if this week and beyond, maybe we do see some of that division within our nation.
Speaker 1: I hope not, I pray not, but maybe some of it does rise a little bit.
Speaker 1: Maybe we do see division.
Speaker 1: But wouldn't it be nice if there were just some believers in our nation that could be some light in darkness, that could show our world that there's a better way, that could show them that even in the midst of maybe some uncertainty, I know there's a God upon the throne?
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this I love this country deeply.
Speaker 1: I really do.
Speaker 1: I think it's the best country in the world.
Speaker 1: I love it deeply.
Speaker 1: I'm thankful for our leaders.
Speaker 1: I love our leaders.
Speaker 1: I love learning about the history of this country.
Speaker 1: I love the people who founded this country and built this country.
Speaker 1: I love this country so much.
Speaker 1: I honor our leaders.
Speaker 1: I respect our leaders and honor their leadership, and I do.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day and this does not lessen my love for our leaders in this country but at the end of the day, of course, I, you know, I pledge allegiance to the flag in our country and I don't mind doing that, but I do pledge my allegiance deeper still to a greater king, that there is one king and he doesn't serve.
Speaker 1: Every four years.
Speaker 1: We don't vote him in for another four.
Speaker 1: We don't vote them in for another four.
Speaker 1: There's one king that doesn't have an expiration date.
Speaker 1: He'll never be impeached.
Speaker 1: You can't vote him out.
Speaker 1: There's one king who is on the throne for all eternity, and so I love this country and I love its leaders, but greater than they, I love King Jesus, and he is the one, even in the midst of uncertainty and anxiety, is sitting on the throne.
Speaker 1: I want to end just in this way.
Speaker 1: We'll say it like this, with my time that may already be passed, but sermon complete.
Speaker 1: Now I want to end with just three things, three little practical points for us as we head into election week.
Speaker 1: That's very exciting, but as we look towards that and far beyond, I want to think about just three things briefly, truly briefly, as individuals and as a church, three things we're going to be.
Speaker 1: We're going to be individuals in a church that we are going to pray for our leaders.
Speaker 1: First, timothy, chapter two, verse one and two Paul reminds us and really commands us to pray for those who are in authority, kings, and all those in leadership positions.
Speaker 1: So we are gonna pray for our leaders, our local leaders, our state leaders, our governor, our national leaders, our president and vice president.
Speaker 1: We're gonna pray for our leaders.
Speaker 1: We don't pray for the ones that we voted for only.
Speaker 1: We don't only pray for the ones we agree with.
Speaker 1: We pray for our leaders because we're commanded to do it, and so, even now, we pray for President Biden.
Speaker 1: For the next four years, we'll pray for our leaders because we're commanded to do it, and so, even now, we pray for President Biden.
Speaker 1: For the next four years, we'll pray for one of two candidates that are running this week, and we will pray for our leaders.
Speaker 1: That's number one.
Speaker 1: Number two is this we're going to be individuals in a church that honor our leaders.
Speaker 1: Romans, chapter 13, paul talks about how God is sovereign above all.
Speaker 1: 13.
Speaker 1: Paul talks about how God is sovereign above all, sovereign above all leaders, that God puts those leaders in place and and that God is in control over it and that our government is in place for the sake of.
Speaker 1: Romans 13 says for the, the, the punishment of the evildoer, and so when they honor their, their God-given authority, that's a very good thing.
Speaker 1: And so we're going to honor our leaders and we're going to honor our government and what they ask of us as citizens.
Speaker 1: Now, one caveat if, at any point, any leader, any government, says anything that goes against this word, when we have a choice that we can go with this word or a leader, we're going to say leader, I'm going this way, we're going to go with the word of God.
Speaker 1: But until then, as Romans 13 calls, we honor our leaders.
Speaker 1: So we're going to pray for our leaders, we're going to honor our leaders.
Speaker 1: And number three is just really what we've talked about all morning.
Speaker 1: We are going to, above all, exalt the King of Kings.
Speaker 1: We're going to be people that remember that even government and politics and insert anything else, all of this is temporary, but the Lord reigns eternally.
Speaker 1: So I hope you will walk into a week like this and everything ahead with just a God-given peace that God's on the throne and that won't change.
Speaker 1: And that's good news for the church, that's good news for you and I.
Speaker 1: Let's pray together and in a moment we'll sing again and I'll be down front for an invitation.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to come down and chat with me, I'd love to pray with you.
Speaker 1: Maybe you want to talk with me about Jesus.
Speaker 1: I'd love to introduce you to him.
Speaker 1: Maybe you want to join our faith family.
Speaker 1: Please come.
Speaker 1: I'll be down front, but right now I want us to all pray and again, if we're going to be a church that prays for our nation, prays for our government, let's start right now, right where you're at.
Speaker 1: Would you pray for our leaders, as scripture instructs us to do?
Speaker 1: Would you pray for our president?
Speaker 1: Would you pray for our governor?
Speaker 1: Would you pray for all local and state leaders and officials?
Speaker 1: Would you pray for these and that, in all things, they would honor the Lord with their leadership and lead in a way that brings honor to God?
Speaker 1: Would you pray for our national election on Tuesday?
Speaker 1: Pray for former President Trump and Vice President Harris.
Speaker 1: Pray for a country that would honor the Lord, that wouldn't be divided.
Speaker 1: Pray for just God's sovereign hand over us, as it's an exciting week, but certainly, as we've discussed, maybe a week that does bring some uncertainty.
Speaker 1: We'd say, what's next?
Speaker 1: Just pray for the Lord's hand over this week and over these days ahead, amen.
Speaker 1: Now would you just pray for your own heart?
Speaker 1: It may be this week, it may be a million other things that you're walking through right now.
Speaker 1: But if there is any cause for anxiety and uncertainty in your life, would you just pray to the Lord.
Speaker 1: Thank Him that he is the God on the throne.
Speaker 1: Thank him that he reigns above it all, that he is good, that, as Romans 8, 28 says, that he works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 1: Thank the Lord that he reigns on the throne.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, we just thank you for who you are.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the reminder from your word today that you are in control, you are sovereign, you are sitting on the throne and you will never be removed from that throne.
Speaker 1: That gives us encouragement, that gives us hope.
Speaker 1: That gives us encouragement.
Speaker 1: That gives us hope, that gives us strength.
Speaker 1: So I do pray for all that is ahead for each individual in this room, for whatever they walk through that brings them anxiety and uncertainty.
Speaker 1: God, would we remember that you reign above it all, that you are on the throne and that you are good Lord?
Speaker 1: We lay all things at your feet, trusting you, trusting your care and provision.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the encouragement that you provide.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the love of Jesus Christ, who has saved us and redeemed us and given us life.
Speaker 1: We pray this now in Christ's name Amen.
Speaker 1: Would you stand now as we worship?
Speaker 1: I'll be down front if you'd like to come.