Mark Medley: Can we talk about politics?
Mark Medley: You should see your faces right now.
Mark Medley: That's funny.
Mark Medley: Some of you are like, oh no, we have to, and some of you are like, yeah, it's about time.
Mark Medley: And you're wanting me to say what you want said.
Mark Medley: I know you are, but it's a very serious subject.
Mark Medley: It's very serious to God, so I'm going to treat it as a serious subject.
Mark Medley: I'm not going to give you any of the trit little humor that goes along with politics, like I'm not going to say things like politics.
Mark Medley: The word comes from two words poly, meaning many, and tics, meaning bloodsucking parasites.
Mark Medley: I'm not going to say that.
Mark Medley: I'm not going to say it so, and I'm not going to tell you that the only accurate statistic on the last several presidential elections has been this one 100% of Americans think that 50% of Americans have completely lost their mind.
Mark Medley: That is accurate.
Mark Medley: But I'm not going to say that because this is a serious subject but sometimes, honestly, it leaves a bad taste in our mouth.
Mark Medley: Right, for some reason, we see it argued on the media.
Mark Medley: But it's very important to God.
Mark Medley: But politics is just simply the actions that are connected to the governing of a nation or of nations together, between countries, especially involving debates and compromise.
Mark Medley: That's what it actually is, and so it's really the art of getting along and moving forward Doesn't feel that way, does it?
Mark Medley: But that's what it is Getting along and moving forward.
Mark Medley: But how are we supposed to think about it?
Mark Medley: You really can't think about how we are to approach the subject unless you see yourself in the middle of bigger stories.
Mark Medley: And as Christians, christ followers and as Americans, we find ourselves right in the middle of two big stories.
Mark Medley: One story is a bigger story.
Mark Medley: It's a grand story.
Mark Medley: It's the story of the kingdom of God, and there is a king in that kingdom and he is Lord of all, as we've already heard this morning that the reign that he has will have no end.
Mark Medley: It's a capital K kingdom, and then there's a lowercase K kingdom.
Mark Medley: That's our political context that we live in right now.
Mark Medley: But we find ourselves right in the middle of both of these stories.
Mark Medley: So how do we think, like Jesus, in the middle of both of these stories?
Mark Medley: Glad you asked that question.
Mark Medley: Turn to Matthew, chapter 22.
Mark Medley: We'll find out, because we have Jesus' words on the topic here.
Mark Medley: Ok, matthew 22,.
Mark Medley: We'll start at verse 15.
Mark Medley: Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him, jesus, in his words.
Mark Medley: Ok, we see the motive immediately, right, ok, and they sent their disciples.
Mark Medley: They didn't even go themselves, they sent their disciples along with the Herodians, saying teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not assuade by appearances.
Mark Medley: Tell us then what you think.
Mark Medley: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?
Mark Medley: I can't kind of hear them voice change right there, or not?
Mark Medley: The Jesus, aware of their malice, said why put me to the test, you hypocrites?
Mark Medley: Show me the coin for the tax.
Mark Medley: And they brought him into an area and Jesus said to them who's likeness and inscription is this?
Mark Medley: They said Caesars.
Mark Medley: Then he said to them, therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God's.
Mark Medley: And when they heard it, they marveled and they left him and they went away.
Mark Medley: Mic drop, beautiful Jesus.
Mark Medley: Mic drop moment.
Mark Medley: I love those things.
Mark Medley: They're great.
Mark Medley: Observations.
Mark Medley: Number one it was a plot to entangle Jesus in his words.
Mark Medley: These people had evil motives and they were just trying to argue and they were pitting themselves against Jesus, us against them.
Mark Medley: That kind of feels like the political conversation these days right.
Mark Medley: It's us versus them, and us is 100% right and they are the devil.
Mark Medley: It's a mixture of bad religious people and bad political people going together to Jesus here.
Mark Medley: That's what's going on, because the Herodians were the sect of Hellenistic Jews and their hero was Herod, and they wanted somebody from Herod's family, this dynasty of Herod, to be on the throne of Judea.
Mark Medley: That's what they wanted.
Mark Medley: Now the Pharisees wanted the Messiah, whoever that was going to be the son of David, to sit on the throne of David.
Mark Medley: Both were against Jesus, both were trying desperately to cling to what power they thought they had, and Jesus had a message for both of them, the political people and the religious people.
Mark Medley: He had a message Some things belong to Caesar, some things belong to God, and you need to figure that out, mic drop.
Mark Medley: That's it.
Mark Medley: So we kind of think sometimes our political environment is our.
Mark Medley: The climate here is just like the worst, right?
Mark Medley: Everything is so terrible and there's so much division.
Mark Medley: It's just this.
Mark Medley: You know it's never been worse than it is now, but I'm just telling you that's not true, because in Jesus's day, in first century Palestine, it was just as bad, probably worse than it is now.
Mark Medley: Right, because you did have the Pharisees and you did have the Herodians, but that's not all.
Mark Medley: You had the Sadducees, ok, so the Sadducees were these political compromisers and they were disguised as temple priests.
Mark Medley: Basically, they were the landlords, or you could say the holders, the keepers of the temple.
Mark Medley: But they were aligned with the Roman government.
Mark Medley: They were aligned with the worldly system.
Mark Medley: Ok, so there was this mixture.
Mark Medley: It's a terrible mixture, right, and their hope was in a political system.
Mark Medley: And I see them as woke church leaders that are in bed with this world's perversions.
Mark Medley: That's what I see Church people who are aligning with woke policies.
Mark Medley: That's what I see, the Sadducees.
Mark Medley: And you understand, when you align yourself with politics and political sides, truth gets pushed down or gets redefined or gets undiscoverable.
Mark Medley: Right, truth can be smothered or it can even be extinguished when you align with political sides.
Mark Medley: But we're not like the Sadducees, we're different.
Mark Medley: Our hope is not in alignment with a political system.
Mark Medley: Our hope is in an unshakable kingdom.
Mark Medley: It's in the capital K kingdom.
Mark Medley: Ok, this is where our hope is, not in the small K.
Mark Medley: Then there were the Essians.
Mark Medley: The Essians were sort of like Pharisees, but they were like Pharisees on steroids.
Mark Medley: They were like the Pharisees that actually thought the Pharisees were lukewarm.
Mark Medley: The Essians were serious.
Mark Medley: They actually completely removed themselves from the culture and they lived in caves.
Mark Medley: That's where the Dead Sea Scrolls came from.
Mark Medley: They were ridden by Essians, and these Essians were like separatists.
Mark Medley: Their hope was in this cataclysmic ending, that God was going to come back somehow and right every wrong, and we're going to stay away from society until that happens.
Mark Medley: So they were preppers, that's it.
Mark Medley: They were just preppers, preppers waiting for a cataclysmic end.
Mark Medley: They were preppers waiting for the rapture.
Mark Medley: Let's put it that way.
Mark Medley: But we're not like Essians.
Mark Medley: That's not us.
Mark Medley: We do not separate ourselves from this world and wait for judgment of God.
Mark Medley: We rather we shine.
Mark Medley: We bring hope into this world.
Mark Medley: We offer hope to those around us.
Mark Medley: Hoping for tomorrow is not a bad thing, but hoping for tomorrow doesn't mean you quit living today, because we're here right now and we're light right now.
Mark Medley: And then you have the zealots.
Mark Medley: They're even more radical, but they were on the political side of radicalism.
Mark Medley: They're radical extremists.
Mark Medley: They're going to bring the kingdom by force.
Mark Medley: So they're not just prepping.
Mark Medley: They're prepping in a different way.
Mark Medley: They're buying ammunition and they believe if they fought Roman occupation and tyranny then God would bring his kingdom in, but they're going to do it through the power of their arm.
Mark Medley: They're going to do it through this military might.
Mark Medley: So that's their hope.
Mark Medley: Their idea of a messiah was a military messiah.
Mark Medley: Ok, we're not like zealots.
Mark Medley: Ok, that's not who that's.
Mark Medley: We don't hope in our own strength.
Mark Medley: We don't look for some political figure who's going to right all of our societal wrongs.
Mark Medley: I don't know.
Mark Medley: Some of us are old enough to understand that ain't going to happen.
Mark Medley: We've been through enough election cycles and heard enough promises to realize our hope isn't coming through a man, right, it's simply not going to happen.
Mark Medley: Our hope isn't God himself.
Mark Medley: So we have all this mess of a political climate there in first century Palestine and then.
Mark Medley: But if you put all those people together, it might be maybe 5%, maybe 7% of the total population.
Mark Medley: You have the other 90% to 95% of people who are just common people.
Mark Medley: So historians gave them a name Amha Aritz.
Mark Medley: Amha Aritz means people of the land, people of the ground.
Mark Medley: They're just common people.
Mark Medley: They're just trying to live.
Mark Medley: I mean menial jobs, trying to survive, trying to eat the next day, right, and the Essins condemned them and the zealots tried to recruit them and the Sadducees hardly even noticed them, but those were the ones that flocked to Jesus.
Mark Medley: They flocked to His message of hope.
Mark Medley: In fact, jesus himself was one of them.
Mark Medley: He wasn't one of those other political party.
Mark Medley: Interestingly, he chose people from some of those political parties to be in his 12.
Mark Medley: There's a lesson.
Mark Medley: But he wasn't one of them.
Mark Medley: He was one of the common people.
Mark Medley: And these are the ones who flocked to His message of hope.
Mark Medley: And His hope was in the good news that he was preaching of another kingdom that was coming into this kingdom.
Mark Medley: So I don't have to be separated from God by a system of laws or traditions of man.
Mark Medley: That's good news.
Mark Medley: Acceptance and restoration and even relationship with God is available, and God is setting up a new kingdom through the work of His Son, a new covenant by which we can approach Him and know Him, not through our own works but through the work of His very Son.
Mark Medley: This is good news.
Mark Medley: This is the hope that they found.
Mark Medley: So if we could summarize this render to Caesar and render to God thing, I would say it this way we cannot put our trust fully in the form of government that we live under, thinking that deliverance is going to come from government deliverance for our social or economic or spiritual problems is going to come solely from government.
Mark Medley: We can't set government up as our idol.
Mark Medley: We have to render unto God, but we cannot neglect being salt and light and allowing the influence of the greater kingdom to break into this lesser kingdom that we're a part of as well.
Mark Medley: We cannot abdicate our God-given responsibility to be active in the context to which we replaced.
Mark Medley: We were born at this time, in this country, under this political system.
Mark Medley: Here we are, here we are.
Mark Medley: We have to steward both responsibilities to God and to Caesar, and we need to be salt and light in every layer of society.
Mark Medley: We need to represent Jesus, we need to speak for righteousness and justice and love everywhere.
Mark Medley: We have to render to Caesar.
Mark Medley: We have to do both.
Mark Medley: So what I'm saying is there is an earthly kingdom and we are participants in this kingdom, but there's a greater kingdom, the kingdom of God, to which our greater allegiance goes.
Mark Medley: But part of being true to that greater kingdom is full participation in this lesser kingdom.
Mark Medley: You see, this is part of it.
Mark Medley: So what does it mean to render unto Caesar?
Mark Medley: That's really what we're talking about today In the context of the big kingdom.
Mark Medley: How do we render to Caesar.
Mark Medley: How do we perform our civic duty?
Mark Medley: So let's talk about politics, and we've been talking about some hard issues the last few weeks, and so we've been approaching it three different ways.
Mark Medley: What does culture say?
Mark Medley: What does God say, and how should we speak about it?
Mark Medley: So let's think about what culture says about politics.
Mark Medley: Well, culture often tells us that we need to choose a side, and then we see all the other opposing parties as the enemy.
Mark Medley: That's what our media culture it's really like.
Mark Medley: It seems like that's what we're talking about.
Mark Medley: That's the function of media right now.
Mark Medley: Whatever side you're on doesn't matter if you're left or right, I don't care.
Mark Medley: We don't debate anymore.
Mark Medley: There is such thing as conversation, guys, you know where we actually talk and we actually work toward things, but we don't debate anymore.
Mark Medley: We just demonize, we just call people names or at least our media does, let's say it that way.
Mark Medley: And we have leaders in our political system and in the media that are contentious, and both sides are involved in this contentiousness.
Mark Medley: They are polarizing, both sides have polarizing people, and the thing is there's a danger of that spirit.
Mark Medley: I think it's a demonic spirit of division in our country, but the problem is, if we're not careful, that demonic spirit that filters into our hearts and suddenly we find ourselves being the dividers not the peacemakers, but the dividers.
Mark Medley: And while we hold to truth, we do hold to truth.
Mark Medley: There is a time to hate what God hates and love what God loves.
Mark Medley: It doesn't matter if majority of the country believes abortion is right.
Mark Medley: It's not, and we're going to stand for righteousness.
Mark Medley: That's the way it is.
Mark Medley: Okay, we're going to do that.
Mark Medley: We hold this truth, but we have to hold this truth in the spirit of Jesus.
Mark Medley: We have to resist that divisiveness, right?
Mark Medley: I mean, jesus rode on a donkey once, but that was not a political statement.
Mark Medley: Okay, the kingdom of God does not ride on the backs of donkeys or elephants.
Mark Medley: Okay, he doesn't need it.
Mark Medley: That's not necessary, okay.
Mark Medley: So the non-Christian culture often uses politics for selfish gain and for control and for power, and we all understand that.
Mark Medley: Right, we see it.
Mark Medley: Not everybody is like that.
Mark Medley: Not everybody in politics is that way, but often it's that way.
Mark Medley: The Christian culture has kind of two views.
Mark Medley: Either let's use politics for the advancement of an agenda or let's just stay out of it all together, it's a mess.
Mark Medley: Let's be Essians, right, let's hide in the caves?
Mark Medley: Okay, all right, but what does God say?
Mark Medley: What does God say?
Mark Medley: God says we have a duty both to the greater kingdom of God and to the political context in which we live.
Mark Medley: So are you guys good with scripture?
Mark Medley: You like scripture a lot?
Mark Medley: Because we're going to have scripture Quite a few scriptures here and we're going to go through them kind of quickly.
Mark Medley: Okay, because we want to look at the New Testament to see what is our position in this greater kingdom and is our position in the lesser kingdom.
Mark Medley: So we'll start at 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 1, paul writing to his spiritual son, timothy Paul, who was in prison many times under his own government, under Roman occupation.
Mark Medley: Paul wrote this.
Mark Medley: Okay, first of all, first of all, circle it, underline it, put it in bold letters.
Mark Medley: First of all, how do we, how should we approach politics?
Mark Medley: First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
Mark Medley: First of all, pray and be thankful.
Mark Medley: Oh, but Paul didn't live today.
Mark Medley: Oh, but Paul lived in his day and you didn't.
Mark Medley: You you're not living in his day either.
Mark Medley: You should be very thankful of that.
Mark Medley: What does this imply?
Mark Medley: This?
Mark Medley: To me, this implies that we're to be engaged, number one and that we're to be compassionate number two.
Mark Medley: Okay, engaged means we have an opportunity to bring the power and the hope of this greater kingdom to bear on this lesser kingdom.
Mark Medley: That's a privilege, and we do it through prayer.
Mark Medley: And compassionate means we have to be empathetic about leaders, even leaders that we don't agree with, even leaders, even people who agree with those leaders that we don't agree with.
Mark Medley: We have to be empathetic, we have to be Christ-like.
Mark Medley: So, and it implies that our prayers make a difference.
Mark Medley: If you pray, there's a peaceful and godly way of living that can happen if we pray.
Mark Medley: If we pray, things can change, okay.
Mark Medley: So we're encouraged to be engaged and to be compassionate.
Mark Medley: And number two, I would say we should talk to God about politicians before you talk to God to others about politics.
Mark Medley: Talk to God about politicians before you talk to others about politics.
Mark Medley: Well, I don't.
Mark Medley: There's a few things I like for you to take home with you today.
Mark Medley: This is one of them Talk to God first about the people, and I have to tell you that this has been a real conviction in my heart this week because I realize I have failed in this.
Mark Medley: I failed, I haven't been doing it the way I should be doing it.
Mark Medley: I haven't been doing this.
Mark Medley: First of all, I sometimes can become one of the name-callers because my heart's not right.
Mark Medley: So I've had to allow the Holy Spirit to change some things in me.
Mark Medley: This week I want to just tell you a story back in the 1980s.
Mark Medley: This is a story about how our prayers make difference.
Mark Medley: But in the 1980s, if you're alive in the 80s, you understand the way things used to be.
Mark Medley: It was a real dichotomy between two superpowers, right, or at least what we understood as superpowers.
Mark Medley: And so it was United States, it was a Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union was godless atheism, it was communist it was, it was oppressive.
Mark Medley: We have some people who lived under that regime here with us here and felt that very oppression.
Mark Medley: Right, you know, in the 1980s, starting in 1983, there's an organization called Open Doors with Brother Andrew and they started a prayer campaign.
Mark Medley: It was a seven-year prayer campaign to bring down the, the iron curtain, to bring down communism, so that the gospel could come into these atheistic lands, oppressed lands, and that was, that was like, almost like the prospect of that seemed absolutely impossible.
Mark Medley: It was such a stronghold.
Mark Medley: How could this even happen?
Mark Medley: But there's a seven-year prayer campaign and so I got my little email, my little snail males.
Mark Medley: I didn't have any.
Mark Medley: There wasn't any email at the point.
Mark Medley: It's like I got my little snail males, opened it up and and every month they would send out prayer points.
Mark Medley: And it was a methodical and it was strategic.
Mark Medley: It's how to pray for, it's who to pray for, it's how we are praying for the kingdom of God to come, for the walls to fall down, for the gospel to go forth.
Mark Medley: And we prayed.
Mark Medley: Maybe some of you were part of that campaign, I don't know, but we prayed and I prayed.
Mark Medley: It was a seven-year campaign, starting in 1983.
Mark Medley: Do you know what happened before the end of the decade?
Mark Medley: The absolute unthinkable happened.
Mark Medley: I mean a land of atheism, a land of banned Bibles, a land of political and religious prisons.
Mark Medley: The gospel broke into that.
Mark Medley: The wall came down.
Mark Medley: God moved little.
Mark Medley: His little players you know there was little players that he put in position to make all this happen.
Mark Medley: But I'm just saying our prayers make a difference.
Mark Medley: Church, first of all, I urge you that prayers and supplications and thanksgivings would be made for all men, especially the kings, especially those who are in positions.
Mark Medley: We can pray.
Mark Medley: So I want to tell you, I want to encourage you to pray, and I want to tell you in in my best pastoral and prophetic voice if you're not praying for your leaders, shut your mouth in the name of the Lord, in the fear of God.
Mark Medley: Shut your mouth because you do not have the right to criticize those you don't even pray for and you're not acting in love.
Mark Medley: And that goes for leaders that you disagree with as well and the people who support those people.
Mark Medley: Because there's this, there's this weird dissonance in our walk and the way people look to us.
Mark Medley: So people in the world look at the Christians and they see this strange thing happening.
Mark Medley: We talk all about love, but we act all about hate, in this area at least, and we're like building walls and we're making enemies and we're plotting against where.
Mark Medley: I mean we're being ferrisciak herodians.
Mark Medley: You know what our heart has to change.
Mark Medley: It's not right, okay?
Mark Medley: So John 18 let's see what Jesus is.
Mark Medley: The words of Jesus standing before Pilate a few hours before his crucifixion.
Mark Medley: Jesus answered to Pilate and said my kingdom is not of this world.
Mark Medley: If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.
Mark Medley: But my kingdom is not of this world.
Mark Medley: There's a capital K kingdom right.
Mark Medley: Colossians 1, verse 13.
Mark Medley: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Mark Medley: There's a kingdom.
Mark Medley: He's the king of it.
Mark Medley: We're brought into it.
Mark Medley: Philippians 3 20.
Mark Medley: Our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mark Medley: Okay, we have a greater kingdom that we're a part of.
Mark Medley: So how should we live if we're part of a greater kingdom in this context of our nation?
Mark Medley: Well, it's really interesting.
Mark Medley: First of all, it's interesting that Matthew the tax collector is the one that tells us about tax collectors, and he tells it twice.
Mark Medley: There's one in Matthew 22.
Mark Medley: There's also one in Matthew 17, when the guys were in Capernaum and the tax collector came to Peter and said does your teacher not pay the tax?
Mark Medley: And Peter said yeah, yeah, he plays a tax.
Mark Medley: And went to Jesus and said what do we do?
Mark Medley: And Jesus said go catch a fish.
Mark Medley: And I just found out that in one of the?
Mark Medley: Is it toddler to class, three-year-old class or something there?
Mark Medley: The lesson today is about the fish in the mouth of the fish who had the coin in the mouth.
Mark Medley: That's really cool, so that's nice.
Mark Medley: So so, did your teacher not pay the tax?
Mark Medley: Yes, and so Jesus tells him to go catch the fish.
Mark Medley: Interesting, interestingly, in this chapter 17, jesus transfigures in his heavenly glory in front of them, he heals a boy by casting out a demon and he pays his taxes.
Mark Medley: That's the three things that happen in Matthew's gospel in chapter 17.
Mark Medley: Okay, go catch a fish.
Mark Medley: So Peter, who took the fish and took the coin out of the fish's mouth and paid the tax for both him and Jesus, wrote these words first, peter 2, verse 11 through 17 beloved, I urge you he's urging to just like Paul urged.
Mark Medley: I urge you, as sojourners and exiles what are we so, sojourners and exiles?
Mark Medley: To abstain from the passions of flesh which war against your soul.
Mark Medley: Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Mark Medley: Be subject, for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor, a supreme, or to governors, as sent by him, to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
Mark Medley: For this is the will of God that by doing good, you should put the silence, the ignorance, of foolish people.
Mark Medley: Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Mark Medley: Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.
Mark Medley: This is Peter who, who also was imprisoned at times.
Mark Medley: Observations here our, our essential identity is as citizens of heaven.
Mark Medley: That's who we are.
Mark Medley: We're citizens of heaven, which means number two we are sojourners, we are exiles.
Mark Medley: We are not nationalists, we are resident aliens.
Mark Medley: Resident aliens.
Mark Medley: We're in both places.
Mark Medley: We're citizens of heaven, but we live here and we should be subject to every institution.
Mark Medley: Pay your taxes and stop at the stop sign and drive the speed limit.
Mark Medley: We should do that and we do this.
Mark Medley: Oh, we need to have an altar call right now.
Mark Medley: Is this what I'm?
Mark Medley: Wow?
Mark Medley: And he says we do this, unto God, for the Lord's sake, we do this.
Mark Medley: Oh, there's a higher king that we submit to.
Mark Medley: Hmm, there's a true, real authority that we submit to, and Paul said something very like it in in Romans, chapter 13 as well, that every subject, be, every person, be subject to the higher powers.
Mark Medley: There's no powers except the ones God ordains.
Mark Medley: Okay, so Paul says it, peter says it.
Mark Medley: So which is it?
Mark Medley: Are we, are we citizens of heaven or are we to participate in the form of government that we find ourselves in?
Mark Medley: Which one?
Mark Medley: Yes, yes, the answer is yes, we do both right, but I think it's more than then the speed limit and stop sign and paying taxes.
Mark Medley: Okay, because because we have been given more in this country, we have been given a greater privilege because of our form of government, and I believe being subject to the institutions doesn't mean merely obeying the laws, but being subject to the governing authorities means participating in the political context that we were sovereignly born into.
Mark Medley: We're, we're to be subject to the powers that be, and the powers that be in our nation is our constitution.
Mark Medley: It's not whoever is president man we're.
Mark Medley: We're stuck in this fight down in the mud, when the truth is, we have something so much greater in our constitution.
Mark Medley: So we're not subject to a party or to an individual ruler, like a king, like Paul and Peter were, but to the form of government.
Mark Medley: So can we talk about the form of government that God blessed us with.
Mark Medley: For a minute, can we do that and our active part in it?
Mark Medley: So, as Christians, we have a founding document.
Mark Medley: It's the word of God, right?
Mark Medley: And as Americans, we have a founding document two of them.
Mark Medley: You could say it's our declaration of independence, it's our bill, it's our Constitution, right, all of that.
Mark Medley: So our in our national context, we submit to these two things.
Mark Medley: So I'll give you a little history lesson, because it's what I do, right, and just to remind you, because of abuses from England, the colonies in America, english colonies in America created a new form of government self-government.
Mark Medley: Self-government rare self-government based on the fact that we've been given rights by God.
Mark Medley: It literally says by nature and the laws of nature and nature's God.
Mark Medley: This is where our rights come from.
Mark Medley: So new form of government where God gives rights to all men and women, where the purpose of government, according to our Constitution, is securing those rights and ensuring those rights.
Mark Medley: The government gets its power from the consent of those who are being governed.
Mark Medley: I have a say so in the laws that govern me.
Mark Medley: I'm responsible to God.
Mark Medley: The elected government is responsible to me.
Mark Medley: Well, to us, not to me.
Mark Medley: It would be pretty cool if it was just me, but it's not, it's all of us.
Mark Medley: Do you understand, though, how rare this is in all of history.
Mark Medley: What a incredible blessing and privilege it is to have an empowered citizenship.
Mark Medley: It's so rare.
Mark Medley: The treasure of what we have in our Constitution is precious.
Mark Medley: It has created a peace and a prosperity that has never been seen before, but it will not stand if we don't defend it vigorously.
Mark Medley: We who are the governed have to defend the Constitution.
Mark Medley: We have to, we can.
Mark Medley: The freedom can only continue to exist if we take our responsibility to steward that that freedom, to whom much is given.
Mark Medley: Much is required, and we've been given a lot.
Mark Medley: It's not just obey the laws, it's participate in this form of government God has given us.
Mark Medley: It's beautiful.
Mark Medley: Why were you born here today?
Mark Medley: I don't know.
Mark Medley: God knows why we were born here today, but here we are, right here in this context, and the first settlers that came to America seeking religious freedom covenanted that this would be a special place unto God where we can be engaged in the arena where decisions are made.
Mark Medley: So the purpose of government is to secure man's rights.
Mark Medley: The purpose of government is not to fix every situation I'm talking about from our Constitution.
Mark Medley: This is not a political side.
Mark Medley: Our Constitution says this is what the government's purpose is to secure man's inalienable rights given from God, rights that come ultimately from God.
Mark Medley: Rights don't come from the government, they come from God.
Mark Medley: This is a brilliance of our founding fathers.
Mark Medley: The people rule through representatives.
Mark Medley: Experts don't rule, bureaucracies don't rule.
Mark Medley: Non-elected institutions don't rule, as they shouldn't.
Mark Medley: According to the Constitution, it's the people who rule through our representatives.
Mark Medley: Our Constitution was created to limit the power of government, and it did this by creating separate branches, led, executive, legislative and judicial branches.
Mark Medley: And actually God, the nature of God himself and also Christ himself, is reflected in these things.
Mark Medley: I just want to read this to you from Isaiah 33, verse 22, for the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king.
Mark Medley: He will save us.
Mark Medley: That's judicial, it's legislative, that's executive.
Mark Medley: The Lord is our king.
Mark Medley: This is the pattern our government was built on, and you see the brilliance of checked power, so that no man or no system is all powerful.
Mark Medley: Not only do you see that in our Constitution and our declaration, you see that there's a transcendent power above all of it, from which these rights come.
Mark Medley: Man, we've been given a treasure, absolute treasure, guys, and our founding fathers pledged, they coveted it themselves and all they had to this cause of freedom.
Mark Medley: And it's our civic duty, the duty that we owe our country, our citizenship, is to be involved.
Mark Medley: It's a little bit sad that we were once willing to fight to defend these freedoms and we would give our lives for this, and now we're not even hardly willing to engage in them Generally, across the board.
Mark Medley: As Americans, it is very ironic that we live in the volunteer state and we're known for being willing to cross country and cross oceans to fight for liberty than many of us won't even cross the street to vote.
Mark Medley: And why did they set up a separation of powers?
Mark Medley: They did it because they understood the depravity of man.
Mark Medley: They understood that we needed, because of our sinful and fallen and fickle nature, we need a Savior.
Mark Medley: Christ is a Savior, not government.
Mark Medley: But they knew that we had to have these powers in check because any one of these powers out of balance, or if you give all power to any of these, it's tyranny.
Mark Medley: So it's brilliant, it's what we have, is brilliant church.
Mark Medley: We have to steward this and the Holy Spirit through the church, the righteous ones, the saints made righteous through Jesus, the Holy Spirit, through the church, is the constraining factor in our nation.
Mark Medley: Holding back evil, righteousness exalts a nation's sin as a reproach to every people, and if we don't do what we're supposed to do, then evil is going to be victorious.
Mark Medley: We have to occupy, and we have to be, the immune system of this body and we have to take every possible approach to uphold righteousness.
Mark Medley: So what do we do?
Mark Medley: How can I get involved?
Mark Medley: I got a long list here.
Mark Medley: You're probably going to have to watch this video again online.
Mark Medley: Okay, there's so many things.
Mark Medley: How can you get involved?
Mark Medley: Okay, here you go.
Mark Medley: Educate yourself, educate yourself, and that means you may have to go beyond the mainstream media to get your news.
Mark Medley: Start local, get involved in local politics, local government, run for elected positions, attend school board meetings.
Mark Medley: This is so important.
Mark Medley: What's going on at this level, this grassroots level, is where real change happens, where real government happens.
Mark Medley: So get involved in grassroots political organizations.
Mark Medley: Pay attention to where you spend your money, because economics and politics are deeply connected.
Mark Medley: Share news about upcoming legislation that you know, talk about it, protest darkness.
Mark Medley: Put pressure on local law enforcement to enforce the laws that are already on our books.
Mark Medley: Here's one Be a godly husband or wife.
Mark Medley: Embrace traditional biblical roles for the family.
Mark Medley: Here's another one Parents are children.
Mark Medley: Be the main disciples of your children.
Mark Medley: Be masculine men and feminine women.
Mark Medley: Live the way God made us to be.
Mark Medley: Your neighbor needs help.
Mark Medley: Step up and help him so he doesn't have to look to the government to do.
Mark Medley: It Should be in our own hearts.
Mark Medley: Right, pay your taxes, but study where your tax money goes.
Mark Medley: Hold your representatives accountable and don't give up hope.
Mark Medley: Don't stop living your life, don't stop being light, but most of all, we have to pay attention to the state of our heart, and that's what I want to end on is talking about the state of our heart.
Mark Medley: You know, if this rings a bell inside you, if this resonates and you feel something from this message, we're going to be starting a community group in January.
Mark Medley: That's all about this how to be involved, how to be salt and light in our political situation.
Mark Medley: So we'll keep you posted about that, okay, so what does culture say about it?
Mark Medley: What does God say about it?
Mark Medley: Now, last of all, how do we talk about it?
Mark Medley: How should we talk?
Mark Medley: And I just want to say that different political ideologies doesn't necessarily mean we have to be enemies Because people think differently from us.
Mark Medley: It doesn't mean we have to consider them the devil or our enemy, or, like I, can never learn anything from this person, or we build walls and we divide.
Mark Medley: This is the way it is Okay, and it's not the spirit of Christ.
Mark Medley: Standing for righteousness is the spirit of Christ, so we do stand for righteousness.
Mark Medley: I have to keep saying that.
Mark Medley: Right, we stand for righteousness, but we also have to have an attitude of our heart.
Mark Medley: That's different.
Mark Medley: Okay, if we can cleanse our own hearts of the hate culture that's around us, the sarcasm, the name calling, the disrespect of authority and the hatred that's in our media, especially If we could not be baited into those things, if we can walk contrary to that, then we can make a difference.
Mark Medley: And so I want to ask you a question who are you listening to and I'm talking politically now and some of you don't listen to anybody.
Mark Medley: That's probably fine, I don't know.
Mark Medley: Some of you are listening, though, and who are you listening to and what are they saying and how are they saying it?
Mark Medley: Because I just want to tell you and this is my opinion, this is not the opinion of the management.
Mark Medley: Okay, this is Mark talking here.
Mark Medley: There are podcasters and there are radio hosts that I probably agree with 85 or 90% of what they say.
Mark Medley: I'm with them on the subject, but I can't listen to them because they're full of pride and they're dripping with hubris.
Mark Medley: They're dripping with this divisiveness, you know, and it all just boils down into this name calling and it's not even debate.
Mark Medley: It's not even really talking about the issues.
Mark Medley: It's talking about how bad the other people are and I mean I agree with them and I can't listen to them.
Mark Medley: I don't want that spirit to get into me.
Mark Medley: Okay, how do we talk about politics that we love?
Mark Medley: Love is our great commandment.
Mark Medley: Do we sometimes hate?
Mark Medley: Yeah, we hate what's wrong.
Mark Medley: The fear of a Lord is to hate what is evil.
Mark Medley: That's part of the fear of a Lord, but we don't transfer that into flesh and blood.
Mark Medley: We war against spiritual principalities, right and powers, not flesh and blood.
Mark Medley: Flesh and blood we love and this is our great commandment, right?
Mark Medley: So, more than our political opinions, people need hope.
Mark Medley: They need to see us living with kindness and love to everyone around us.
Mark Medley: How are we going to be seen or known as different than just everybody else?
Mark Medley: Here's how.
Mark Medley: The spirit of Christ inside of us, the fruit of the spirit inside of us love and joy and peace inside of us, gentleness, this is a fruit of the spirit, guys.
Mark Medley: Self-control is a fruit of the spirit.
Mark Medley: This is the spirit we have, not the spirit of the age, and this is what will appeal to those around us who are really hungry and needing hope.
Mark Medley: And the last thing is to pay attention to our own hearts, to repent from bad attitudes, bad motives, bad actions.
Mark Medley: Man, we've talked about some hard things the last few weeks and some of the things are, I would say some of us would probably say, especially the sexual issues, identity issues we've been talking about.
Mark Medley: Many of us would say, yeah, I recognize that as sin.
Mark Medley: Yeah, that doesn't represent God.
Mark Medley: Yeah, that's wrong and we see that, but we don't see that we're operating in a similar spirit and we're operating in a similar spirit as the world in the area of politics.
Mark Medley: It's sin just as much.
Mark Medley: It's sin just as much and some of us who don't struggle with those sexual sins are just as guilty as walking in the flesh, of walking without love, of misrepresenting God.
Mark Medley: We need to have soft and teachable hearts.
Mark Medley: We do because the heart is the issue.
Mark Medley: The heart is the issue.
Mark Medley: Even our founding fathers understood this.
Mark Medley: James Madison said if men were angels, no government would be necessary.
Mark Medley: But we're not, are we?
Mark Medley: And Blaise Pascal said man is the glory and the scum of the earth.
Mark Medley: And we get it, don't we?
Mark Medley: There are some glorious things and there's some scummy things.
Mark Medley: It's true, we're the rose and we are the thorn.
Mark Medley: Churchill famously said many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe.
Mark Medley: No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise.
Mark Medley: Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of those other forms that have been tried from time to time, and it's true.
Mark Medley: It's true that some forms of government have been infinitely better in terms of serving people, and some forms of government have been horribly worse.
Mark Medley: It's true.
Mark Medley: But it really doesn't matter the form of government if the heart is bad.
Mark Medley: You can have a great form of government and a bad heart, and the result is wrong it's bad, it's bad.
Mark Medley: So we thank God for our form of government, we steward what we have, but if our hearts aren't changed, nothing's going to change.
Mark Medley: And it starts with us.
Mark Medley: It starts with us.
Mark Medley: Alexander Sotsenitsyn was a Russian who was caught up in the oppression and the problem.
Mark Medley: He was actually in a gulag for his beliefs.
Mark Medley: He had some real insight.
Mark Medley: He actually came to America.
Mark Medley: He escaped Communism, came to America.
Mark Medley: He had some real wisdom.
Mark Medley: And he said this the line between good and evil runs not through states that means countries nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart.
Mark Medley: The line between good and evil goes right down the middle of my heart, right down the middle of your heart.
Mark Medley: That's why, in the middle, we read it this week, if you're reading the plan this week in Ezekiel, the Bible plan that we're reading as a church.
Mark Medley: That's why, even though there's all of this prophecy against the wickedness of Israel and political things are going, all this stuff is happening.
Mark Medley: Still Ezekiel says but here's what the Lord is going to do I will give you a new covenant.
Mark Medley: I will take away your heart of stone and I will put in you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit inside of you.
Mark Medley: I will cause you to follow after me.
Mark Medley: Because that's where the difference is made in the heart.
Mark Medley: There's a reason every promised utopia ends in terror it's bad hearts.
Mark Medley: There's a reason why revolutions that are promised never succeed.
Mark Medley: And there's a reason that oppressions never end and promised futures never come.
Mark Medley: This causes of bad hearts.
Mark Medley: And so this morning, as we were worshiping, I was reminded of what God said to his people in 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14.
Mark Medley: And he says if my people who were called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Mark Medley: So this tells us right there the onus is on us.
Mark Medley: The onus is on us.
Mark Medley: That's pretty clever.
Mark Medley: I didn't even know that.
Mark Medley: It's us.
Mark Medley: It's his people, right, it's our job.
Mark Medley: It's not the party, it's not the party.
Mark Medley: This is why we have to bring or be a part of what God is doing in bringing the hope and the power of that greater kingdom to bear on this lesser kingdom.
Mark Medley: That's what we're called to do.
Mark Medley: There's a boy that seems right to man but it ends in death.
Mark Medley: Right, if there is a man who is the way, and he is the truth and he is the life, and his name is Jesus and he's the king of this kingdom.
Mark Medley: And there will be a day when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever.
Mark Medley: And that's partially happening today, though not in its fullness.
Mark Medley: It's happening today and we're part of allowing that to come into our context, our world, right now.
Mark Medley: So we have to occupy, we have to be faithful to our responsibility and we have to be those who render to Caesar and to God.
Mark Medley: So I want to pray for us, because this is not easy thing.
Mark Medley: Right, let's stand up and let's pray together.
Mark Medley: I want to pray for God to give us grace.
Mark Medley: First, we thank you, for we thank you so much that you've called us out of darkness, lord, into the kingdom of your dear son.
Mark Medley: First, we thank you that we're in that kingdom, god.
Mark Medley: And if there are those here who haven't surrendered to you, jesus, they don't.
Mark Medley: They don't know the freedom that you give and they don't know the forgiveness of sins, they don't know the lifting of the burden of their guilt, they don't understand the freedom that you've given through your blood, lord Jesus, I pray that you would open their eyes and you would draw them to you.
Mark Medley: I pray this would be a day where they take, step a step, into that freedom.
Mark Medley: God, thank you for that, that kingdom, lord.
Mark Medley: But we also thank you that we were born into this country and though there's so many things we could say negatively about what's going on around us, still, lord, this is such a precious treasure you've given us, lord, that we can be a part of changing things in the spirit, through prayer, and in our action.
Mark Medley: Lord, in the small K kingdom as well, lord, we want to be faithful.
Mark Medley: We want to stand before you someday and say this is what we did with this beautiful and rare gift of empowered citizenship that you gave to us.
Mark Medley: We did something with it, we participated in it.
Mark Medley: Jesus, we tell you that our hope is in you and our trust is in your righteousness that you give.
Mark Medley: We ask you to cleanse our hearts, lord.
Mark Medley: We ask you to make us agents of change.
Mark Medley: We pray that you would give us grace to spread this kingdom through the love of Jesus, to those who are around us, with sincere love, lord, and I pray for your grace and your peace to reign and the reign of this King to be evident in the families that are represented here.
Mark Medley: God Bless them, lord.
Mark Medley: Bless the lives of every person in these families, lord.
Mark Medley: We pray that prayer this morning, we humble ourselves, we don't point the finger anymore.
Mark Medley: This morning, lord, we put our fingers down, we put our accusations away, god, and we humble ourselves and we pray.
Mark Medley: And, god, we want to see your face and we turn from wickedness, god, and we're asking you to hear from heaven and heal this land, not because we deserve it, lord, but because you're gracious.
Mark Medley: Heal our land, god.
Mark Medley: Turn us back to you.
Mark Medley: Let righteousness and praise spring forth in this nation, lord.
Mark Medley: Let the knowledge of the Lord cover the earth and cover our nation, god, even as the water covers the seas.
Mark Medley: And, lord, I just pray that you would teach us how to act on this, you would bother us the ways we need bothering, lord, and that you would comfort us in the ways we need comforting, and we thank you for that, in the name of Jesus, amen.