The Church & Politics - #012

How should Christians be involved in politics both nationwide and in their own city? 
Paul encourages us to pray for those who rule over us and give them due respect, but what if we feel a stirring in our own hearts to be more involved? 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Hello, Lake Wales. Welcome to episode number twelve of the Mayor and the Manager. This is a podcast that is created by Providence Voice, which is the media ministry of High Point Church. And we created it as a way to keep you as the citizens aware of happenings in the city of Lake Wales and give you a chance to know better the people that you elect and that you pay to run the city for you. Again, this is episode number 12, and um, we're doing something different today. I'm the only one uh in the studio for this podcast. Um, next week we'll go back to our regular format. We have the fire chief of the city of Lake Wales joining us for an interview, and we're looking forward to that. But this evening here at High Point Church, we're going to be hosting a town hall with uh Florida's current Lieutenant Governor, Jay Collins. We're excited, we're honored that the lieutenant governor has agreed to be here and spend this time with us here at the church. And we've opened the doors, obviously, to the entire Central Florida community. It's an awesome chance for our members and citizens of our state to interact with a man who is currently the second in charge of the entire state and is running to possibly be the next governor of the great state of Florida. And I think it's fascinating that a local church is able to do things like this. And it brought up a question in my mind: how did we get here? And another question is should a church be doing this? And that kind of bleeds into my own story of going from being a pastor who was mildly involved in politics and poorly informed and barely aware of anything other than national issues to now the seated mayor in my second term of the city of Lake Wales. And I have come to find out that that's unusual. It's unusual for a mayor to be engaged like that. It's unusual for a church to be as deeply involved and engaged in the political processes around them. And so the question is how and why and should we do these things? So I will tell you that my um journey into being more engaged in the political process, like I think many people, began in the year 2020, um, with the COVID outbreak and the government response to that, which was deeply flawed and deceptive, I think, on a lot of levels, um really began to cause a lot of local church leaders like me to think more deeply and prayerfully about um what happens in our country and how it affects our lives and what our responsibilities are. And I just began for the first time, uh, I hate to admit it, honestly, to prayerfully search the Word of God to get wisdom and direction on this. And so today I'm just going to share with you, if you're a believer out there and in the city of Lake Wales, the first verse that really jarred me and made me pay attention to this whole issue. The first verse that um caught my eye as I was seeking the Lord on this. Now, again, these are just first thoughts. What I'm going to share with you in the next 20, 25 minutes or so is not a deep and profound opus on political theology. Uh, although you may be surprised to know that that field of study is out there and it's robust, and there are centuries of history of great Christian thinkers and theologians who have written from a biblical perspective about our responsibilities to be engaged in the government. They exist. And if you're interested in learning more about that, I would urge you to go to the Providence Voice webpage and click on the questions. You can send them to us. I'd certainly be willing and excited to interact with you. But this is just, I'm just going to share with you this first verse and the first three or four thoughts that begin to nudge me down the road of being more engaged in the government, uh, the government of my country, of uh my state, of my county, and of my city, and why I begin to feel like it was important. And I hope that it will be helpful to you. So the verses in the New Testament book, 1 Timothy, chapter 2. First Timothy is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a young pastor in the city of Ephesus, and he was giving that young pastor directions about how to teach, what to preach, how to set up government, um, how to elect elders and select deacons and deal with um the benevolence ministries, all of the things that local church pastors all know that we have to engage in every day, all of the day-to-day typical duties and concerns that occupy our minds. But in the second chapter of 1 Timothy, this caught my attention, maybe in a new way uh for the first time. Verse 1, I urge then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and it pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This now this has now been witnessed to at the proper time. Now, when I read that verse, and I remember it was a sleepy morning, I was halfway through my first cup of coffee and doing my devotions, but this caught my mind, and the Holy Spirit gave me a kind of a laser focus, and I began to jot down the thoughts. And again, these are not extremely profound, but this was the beginning of my change. And the first thought that came to my mind is the Bible talks about politics. Not politics in general, but but specifically it talks politics to these local Christians in the city of Ephesus. And that could be a revolutionary thought for many Christians living uh in the United States of America today, who have been kind of brainwashed by a misuse of misinterpretation, a mantra of separation of church and state. We feel like that there is this huge moat that exists around the church. And it's almost like you walk across the bridge into Sunday school and worship on a Sunday morning and disconnect your heart and your mind from the real world. And then after church is over, you walk back across the moat into the real world. And basically what you've gotten at church is some, you know, some nice, warm, vague uh thoughts about how to be happier and how to retreat into your spiritual closet and find peace when the real world is overwhelming you. And uh, and while the world may be going to hell, at least if you believe the gospel, you get to go to heaven when it's all over. Now, I know that that is a clunky caricature, but I would say that it probably, when you think about it, strikes a little bit closer to home than you would like. So much of our preaching, so much of what we do as pastors is about managing personal situations, how to have better relationships with your wife, um, how to talk better to your kids, how to find peace, how to give forgiveness, how to overcome anxiety. And I think that all of those things are probably important, and certainly the scripture speaks to all of those things, but we very rarely um talk about what's happening in the world around us. And uh, so I was stunned at how um the Bible touches the real world, how politics. So, right here, here's a pastor being told to urge his people, first of all, to pray for government officials, to pray for kings and all those who are in authority, all those who are in authority. For us, that means county commissioners, uh, that means city commissioners, uh the sheriff, um, the local tax collector, everybody who has governmental authority over us. So just stop and think. As a pastor, I ask myself the question: Have I ever urged my people to pray for the county tax collector, for the governor of the state of Florida, for the mayor of the city of Lake Wales? Do they even know who that person is? Here, Paul is urging these people to pray. And so the Bible talks about it. And from there, obviously, over the last several years, I have learned how often the scripture addresses political issues. Jesus was asked questions about politics. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar? Isn't that funny that taxes always come to the forefront of the political discussion? And Romans chapter 13, the Apostle Paul writes to the church at Rome and talks about how the uh rulers are ordained by God. There is no authority over you except that which is ordained by God. The apostle Peter did the same thing in his first epistle and the second chapter, talks about how we should um show proper respect to those who are in authority. And how do we do that? And what does proper respect look like? Now, that's how far you can go. The the discussions that you can get that are critical out of those first principles that are throughout the New Testament are not endless, but they're they're deep and they're engaging and um profound. And I could cite to you many more, but again, just on that morning, I smile as I say it how stunned I was that right in the middle of a letter to a young pastor about the day-to-day operations of his church, the governance of his church, the administration of the ministries of his church, and how to conduct worship in his church, the apostle encourages him, have your people first of all pray for the folks who have authority over them. So that's the first thing that I would tell you that jarred me into being becoming more politically engaged, and why I think you, as a believer, should become more politically engaged because the Bible talks about it, and the Bible talks about it extensively. So that was principle number one. The second reason, the second thing again, on this sleepy morning that I wrote down was politics affect people's lives. We pray about those things that matter to us. And uh, and here's what Paul says I want you to pray for these kings and all those who are in authority. Why? So that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. So how government is done and who is running the government has a direct impact on our quality of life. Now, again, this came home to me with greater clarity than it ever had before when the COVID um pandemic uh broke out. And especially in the year after that, when um President Biden issued that authoritarian and unconstitutional mandate that everyone had to get the COVID vaccination. And from there, all of a sudden, um our lives were being deeply impacted by political decisions that were being made. I was getting calls constantly, uh, emails and calls and text messages from members of my congregation as to what they should do. How should I respond if my employer threatens me, uh, that I might lose my job if I don't obey this mandate? What's my responsibility when it comes to um obeying? Because the scripture tells us in Romans chapter 13 that we should submit to those who are in authority over us. And the scripture tells us in 1 Peter chapter 2 that we're supposed to render proper respect to those who are in authority over us. But but what do I do if um I feel like the person that is in authority over me is asking me to do something that's harmful to my body or that's contrary to my faith? And and you know what, as a pastor, you should be equipped to answer those questions. And as a believer, there are places that you can go to find those answers, answers to those questions. So politics affect our lives. And, you know, that's the the um COVID pandemic is a um a drastic result. I again, I think it was one that was probably necessary to shake a lot of us out of our lethargy about politics. But think about this almost every part of your life is impacted by politics, the water that you drink, uh, the size of building that you can put on a property, where they can put sidewalks, everything uh the speed limits, everything, how you can drive your car, what kind of car you can drive. Um, almost every area of your life is touched in some way by politics. And so, you know, uh, you're gonna have questions, and your people are gonna have questions. Um, one time, again, um a bunch of Pharisees came to Jesus, and not just Pharisees, but other religious leaders, and they were trying to trap Christ with a question: is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar? And the scripture says that Jesus understood their motivations. He understood that they were trying to trap him, that they were being uh duplicitous, that they weren't asking in good faith. And by the way, that's the nature of politics. Uh, politics is a dirty business a lot of time. It's it's full of all kinds of hypocrisy and it's full of all kinds of corruption and people trying to engage in gotcha activities. And I think that's the reason a lot of us who are trying to honor Christ and live Christian lives don't want to get engaged because it feels dirty and it feels compromising. Well, Jesus understood. The scripture says that he understood their intent when they asked the question, but he still answered the question. And when I reflect on that and when I've spoken on it, what I've said is Jesus answered the question not for the benefit of the people that were asking, but for the benefit of the crowd that was around him. Because I think Christ knew that there were probably uh dozens of other people in that crowd, crowd who wanted the answer to that question, who did sincerely wonder what is my responsibility to God? What is my responsibility to Caesar? And how do I honor both God and the government in the decisions that I make? And how and what's the appropriate priorities in that? So even though it was a dirty political question, even though it was a staged gotcha moment, Jesus still answered the question for the benefit of the people that were listening. And I would say that the same responsibility is incumbent upon us as pastors. We need to talk about politics and be engaged in politics because politics affects the everyday lives of the people that we pastor. So that was the second principle that came to my mind. Um the third one that I have learned is that the state is one of three institutions that God has established. So all three of them are implied in this text. He's speaking to the church, uh, first of all, that prayers would be made in the worship of the church. The church is one of the institutions that God has established in order for there to be good order and prosperity and humanity. Um the second one is implied in the text, and it is family, that we might live quiet and peaceful lives. And I think that means in our homes and in our family lives. And the third one is directly stated, it's the state. And how the state, all three of those spheres are ordained by God, the family, um, the church, and the state. And all three of them have critical roles to play in the ordering and the prosperity and the health and the harmony of a society. And when any one of them begin to break down and not do their job, it has a corrupting and corrosive effect on our lives. Uh, the most important one is the family. The family is the building block of all of God's creation. And so that's the number one. The second one I would say is the church, but all three of them uh play their role. So if the government is not functioning the way that it's supposed to function, it has a negative, awful impact on the other two. When the government is corrupt, when the government is um authoritarian, totalitarian, it has it moves into spheres it shouldn't move into. And so Paul says, pray for those who have the rule over us so that we might live quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and holiness. So let's take them one at a time. When the government moves into a sphere that it doesn't belong in, it it um has a terrible, it breaks down our ability to live quiet and peaceful lives and our ability to live in godliness and holiness. So for instance, when the government becomes totalitarian, when it begins to make decisions that it should make, like you have to take a this vaccine, or um you are not you um are not allowed to pray in this place, or you're not allowed to peacefully express your religious convictions on a sidewalk outside of a clinic, something like that. What the government is interfering with is your ability to exercise what you consider godliness and holiness. In other words, it's interfering with your ability to follow your convictions and live your faith. That's when the government breaks down, that happens. When it becomes authoritarian, when it does, when it moves into spheres that it shouldn't move into and exercises uh illegitimate authority. But also when the government does not do what it's legitimately assigned to do, um, and Paul makes it clear that the that the baseline uh responsibility of the government is to keep the peace. In Romans chapter 13, he says that the role of the government is to punish evildoers and reward those who do well. So that is about uh law and order. That's about keeping the peace and keeping structure in a society. Well, when a government doesn't do what it's assigned to do, then we can't live quiet and peaceful lives. Uh crime runs rampant when a DA won't prosecute, when a local police department won't enforce noise ordinances or um drug and public ordinances or people sleeping on the street ordinances, it begins to break down the sense of quiet and peaceful lives. So again, when a government does not do what it legitimately is assigned to do, we can't live quiet and peaceful lives. When a government does things that it's not legitimately supposed to do, it interferes with our right to live with godliness and holiness. So Paul urges us to pray for these people, pray that they'll act the way that they're supposed to act, because the state is one of the critical institutions for our health and our well-being and our quality of life. Let me stop real quickly. Well, no, I'll go on and give you the fourth thing that I wrote down. We should be involved simply because we are urged to be involved. Here, Paul doesn't say, hey, it would be a good idea if every once in a while you would pray for those who are in authority. He says, first, this is the first directive that he gives. And he says, I urge you that prayers be made for those who have authority over you. And so we are urged to be involved. And here, the specific way we're supposed to be involved is by praying. But again, from there, I've learned that we are urged to pay our taxes. Um, Paul says, this is why you pay taxes, so that you can pay those who have rule over you. And so you should be praying for those you're paying so that they would be competent and they would be moral and they would do their jobs well. Um, another thing that the scripture tells us that we should do is give proper respect to those who have authority over us. First Peter chapter two. Another thing that we learn from the New Testament um About our involvement in government is that we should speak prophetically to those who have the authority over us. The um John the Baptist did this with Herod. Um Peter and Paul did this with the Sanhedrin. Uh Paul did it um when he when he was placed in front of um uh uh the emperor. And so um we should show proper honor, but proper honor is God first, and then uh then under that is uh the other spaces, and certainly under that is the governor. So there are times when the church is charged with speaking prophetically to the government. Here's another one. Um vote. Um, one of the things, this is certainly not something I could lift from scripture, but we have a wonderful uh constitutional republic where we have an opportunity to be directly engaged in selecting those who rule over us. So you should vote. Um the baseline obligation that you have as a Christian citizen is to vote. And that's in that I will tell you that when it comes to local elections, it's even more critical. You should vote in all of them. But local elections are so often decided by 50 votes or less when it comes to municipal elections. And these are the people who have the most direct impact on your quiet and peaceful, godly and holy lives. So you should vote. And then I will give you one more. God calls people to every realm of life. Um, when we look at the different realms of life that make up our society: education, business, uh, media, the arts, the church, family, um, and government. God calls for Christian people to be engaged in leadership in every one of those aspects, not one Christian to do them all, but all Christians to do some. And I believe that the Lord places his hand on people and speaks his voice to some people who have a gift of governance and have a call in their life to govern. So one of the things that you should pray for is that the Lord would call and ordain uh born-again Christians who love Jesus and believe his word and are filled with his spirit into the political realm. And you should pray that they would carry all of those convictions full-throated into the political arena. Usually, not always, I mean, there is, of course, um incompetent and foolish and unwise born-again people, but usually um when someone has the Holy Spirit, they have the wisdom of God. So they need both of those things. We need Christian people who are well educated, well prepared, competent to do the job of governance. And if they have that additional um supernatural anointing of the Holy Spirit, who would do the job better? And that's really critical for this reason. One thing that I have learned very clearly in the five years that I've been more deeply involved in the political process is that um immorality usually breeds incompetence. Um in other words, and immoral I'm not when I say immorality, I'm not just talking about behaviors. Certainly there are individual behaviors that you can uh take that are immoral in and of themselves, but immorality is more about a way of looking at the world, it's about a worldview. And when you have a worldview, which basically says that there's no such thing as absolutes, then that's not just a philosophical problem. That bleeds into the practical issues of life. If you don't believe that there are absolute truths that govern the way things work in this world, then you will come up with crazy ideas and um fanciful solutions snatched out of thin air, and you will do crazy thought experiments on people's lives. And if you're in a position of power that has that has terrible downstream downstream impacts on education, on marriage, think about the things that have been done by our government that 60 years after the decisions were made, um, the poverty that has been bred, the dependence that has been created, uh, the brokenness in homes that have been manufactured, because these people did not have a commitment to fixed eternal laws that govern the decisions that they make. And they approach this instead with an arrogance, a subjective arrogance, and a belief that human wisdom could solve problems that only the wisdom of God can solve. So there you go. Um again, uh it's a it's a different episode today, uh, but all of those thoughts grabbed me, at least in very germinal form, on that morning in um mid-2020, and was the beginning of a process that has led to where I sit now as the current mayor of the city of Lake Wales. And I hope that it's an encouragement to you, and I hope maybe it will begin you thinking about doing some more study and prayer. Maybe some of you are out there, and uh the Lord has a call on your life to become engaged in the political process. And if that's what you feel, I would urge you to speak with me. Um, we here at High Point Church are deeply committed to being salt and light, to being God's people and to infusing God's presence and the presence of God's people into every aspect of a community's life, and that includes the governance of our local community. All right, folks, thank you. I hope this is a blessing to you. I hope you have a great day. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Mayor and the Manager. The goal of this podcast is to keep you up to date on all that is happening in the great city of Lake Wales. To that end, we would love to take questions from you and take the time to answer them. So if you have any questions, just click on submit a question in the description above this podcast.