WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.359 Well, I hope you had a good extra hour's sleep last night. 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:05.440 So I know you're gonna be ready for this sermon. 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:08.240 You're gonna be so excited, and I hope you had a good Halloween. 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:14.160 The best costume I saw last night was a friend of ours that dressed up as year 2020. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:26.719 She was in all black, she had a black eye, her teeth were all messed up, her hair had grayed, she had a hunchback, she had a broken foot, she had a crutch, uh, she had looked like she had just walked through hell, which is what this year has sort of felt like. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:29.920 Um, has it felt like the most wonderful year, right? 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:33.280 It has felt like can like can we get through the pandemic? 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:35.920 Um, can we get through the election? 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:40.159 Uh right, that's Tuesday, by the way, in case you forgot that, if that's not on your mind. 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:44.719 Uh, this was actually a very official news report after the first presidential debate. 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:50.159 Very official news report, old man yells at old man, which is what it sort of felt like. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:54.960 If you're watching that, even if you love one of them, it is kind of what it felt like to all of us. 00:00:55.359 --> 00:01:07.040 Now that I've offended a few of you, we will look at what the Bible has to say about how we as Christians relate with political leaders and politics. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:10.560 So, 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:26.480 First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving 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. 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:36.239 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:42.799 Point number one is this we are called to pray for all of our leaders. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:50.400 The context here is Paul is writing to a young pastor Timothy, and their context is a pagan government. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:57.680 It's the Roman Empire, it's emperors who claim to be divine and they did horrific things. 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:11.199 And yet Paul says, even while the church stands in resistance to emperor worship and emperor bad character and bad behavior and bad policies, even then pray for that leader. 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:13.680 There's no qualifications given. 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:16.080 If they are a leader, we pray for them. 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:23.599 We are called to pray for all leaders, no matter their character or their policies or their behavior or their rhetoric. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:31.439 The question this morning for us to ponder, by the way, this sermon I can calm you down right now, is not like me trying to get you to vote a certain way. 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:34.159 All right, I don't believe that's my pastoral role. 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:48.240 Uh the question this morning in contemplation for us is how does a church, or even a family or a group of friends, but how does a church live in unity and love while holding different opinions? 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:52.000 Psychiatrist and author Scott Peck, Dr. 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:58.560 Peck, he's written a few different books and he wrote four stages of forming community. 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:01.599 Stage number one is this pseudo-community. 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:05.520 In pseudo-community, the essential dynamic is conflict avoidance. 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:09.759 So this is very common in the neighborhood, in the country club, at work. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:12.080 Sadly, in families, this is common. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:17.520 And this is people acting to avoid hurting feelings. 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:18.000 Right? 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:21.039 So differences are minimized in this situation. 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:28.800 And the group appears to function smoothly, but they're functioning smoothly because there's no honesty or intimacy. 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:34.479 So honesty and intimacy are crushed, and there's no real community. 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:38.639 For community to happen, we must move into the next stage. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:40.639 And stage two is chaos. 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:48.639 Chaos occurs because people approach the differences, but they're approaching the differences adds to change the other person. 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:49.840 Right? 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:56.479 This is why your uncle or your cousin or your sister sent you 17 articles about who to vote for. 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:09.360 This is why you're already maybe a little nervous about the Thanksgiving table coming up, right? 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:18.959 Because you just know there's gonna be some chaos there because there'll be differences, but the differences are there as one person is trying to convert another person. 00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:19.839 Right? 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:24.959 So the drive in chaos is a drive of control, it's a drive to rid the differences. 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:28.240 And that's why we argue as to convert. 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:38.240 And the falsehood is that we think that community is found by majority dominance and conversion of the other opinion to my opinion. 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:46.720 And true community is found by something else, and that is an emptying of the self, a death of the self. 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:48.800 So stage three is emptiness. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:55.439 And this means people in the community they empty themselves of barriers causing the conflict. 00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:03.199 Now, it doesn't mean you don't have an opinion, it doesn't mean you don't have a conviction, and it doesn't mean you don't have the right to communicate it. 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:11.040 It does mean that you empty yourself of the need to fix someone else or convert them to your opinion. 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:20.959 It means that you can understand their opinion even while you don't hold it. 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:25.600 You can understand their view even while you don't hold their view. 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:34.399 This is a humbling, it's an emptying of the self to share in the thing that we actually do have in common. 00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:36.480 And that's our brokenness. 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:44.079 In order to be in community, we have to have something in common, and the thing that we all have in common is our brokenness. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:51.920 Our mistakes, our shame, our loneliness, our loss, our heartache, our anxiety, our fear. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:54.959 And this is what we can hold together. 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:59.120 And this is where we enter stage four, true community. 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:07.040 True community comes when people know they don't have it all together, even in their opinions and convictions. 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:12.160 And this is this emotional humility that we get equipped with in the gospel. 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:12.720 Dr. 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:20.160 Peck's point of view is that true community doesn't come by not having differences or ignoring our differences. 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:29.680 His insight is that community comes by millions of small deaths in ourselves as we have differences. 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:32.959 And see, once here in true community, we can just call it church. 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:34.240 Let's just call it church. 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:36.399 This is what church should look like. 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:49.920 We can share our deepest selves, our deepest opinions, our deepest convictions, our political opinions, our child rearing opinions, our Netflix opinions, we can share all of these, right? 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:52.079 And we can listen to each other. 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:53.759 We can be in community. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:57.040 This is what the gospel church has to offer. 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:04.560 People holding different opinions while united in Jesus. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:15.759 If we jump back to 1 Timothy chapter 2, Paul calls us to pray for our leaders, and then midway through verse 2, he jumps into why we might be praying for this. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:21.759 He says, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:31.040 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:35.120 Point number two is this we pray for leaders, right? 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:35.920 That's point one. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:42.639 We pray for leaders in the goal of peaceful and quiet lives and salvation for others. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:08:18.240 Maybe you've been out on a lake on a Saturday, like a really busy lake on a Saturday, and you're on a pontoon or a small little ski boat, and boats are zipping in front of you and behind you, and it's loud, and there's huge waves, and you're rocking, and then you're hearing them rock to their music and everybody else's music, and it's just sort of chaos, and then it's the end of the day, and you got to go back and pull into that harbor marina, and it's always tucked in in the cove, kind of back behind a little peninsula, and you round the corner of the chaos, and you turn into that harbor, and as soon as you pull in, it's calm waters. 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:22.319 And it's just this sort of like feeling of relief. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:24.560 The chaos is gone. 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:40.240 That's this image here of a peaceful and quiet life that we should be living in Jesus, even while it roars out there, that we can live a peaceful and quiet life in the harbor of Jesus for us. 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:44.399 I had a moment this week in the midst of a chaos life, right? 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:53.360 I was in my office and I was just prayerfully sitting and I was listening to this new song by Sandra McCracken, and the name of the song is Patient Kingdom. 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:57.919 When's the last time you felt steady in the chaos? 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:02.320 Hear the sound when the seed falls to earth? 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:05.919 Is it time to give up your destination? 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:12.320 Slow me down, let love do its work, let my soul rise up to meet you. 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:15.679 Let that patient kingdom come. 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:26.720 See, we pray and hope for leaders who will create a peaceful society for its citizens. 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:42.639 So that we can move more in the pace of grace, slow and peaceful, quiet, godly, and dignified, so the gospel might go forth and people might hear about Jesus. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:45.840 As for life application, what a gift we have here, right? 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:50.320 Because what this means is it means you don't have to be busy to be important. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:50.879 Right? 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:52.399 Like in our culture, it's like, how are you? 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:52.879 How's it? 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:55.279 Oh, you know, I'm so busy, I've been so busy, lots of busy. 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:58.639 You know, it's like that's the means by which you you feel value or importance. 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:04.399 Like, no, we get the gift in the gospel to say, I, you know what, like really wonderfully slow week. 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:05.840 Man, it's been so slow. 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:07.200 I've had nothing going on. 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:07.600 Right? 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:14.399 Like this this is this gift of going, like, no, I am actually trying to form a peaceful and quiet life. 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:18.720 And we get that trend. 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:26.080 We get to set that trend of slowing down for the people around us to live contemplative lives with our hearts filled with the peace of God. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:36.240 Point number three is this the gospel is not subservient to any leader, any politics, or any form of government. 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:41.840 Yet we pray for leaders and policies that create a peaceful society. 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:43.120 That was a lot. 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:44.159 Let me read it again. 00:10:44.320 --> 00:10:54.000 The gospel is not subservient to any leader, any politics, or any form of government, yet we pray for leaders and policies that create a peaceful society. 00:10:55.440 --> 00:11:03.039 There's no mistake, Jim's here this morning, and he shares about how the gospel is going forth in a government that is not democratic. 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:06.799 The gospel is still moving. 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:11.759 Paul and Timothy lived in more persecution than probably any of us will. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.399 And yet the gospel was being propelled. 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:22.639 And then even within that society, when there was progress in society and stuff like roads are being built, the gospel is propelled through that progress. 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:34.240 So the peace of society serves the gospel, and then in the New Testament, even when Paul is imprisoned and beaten and arrested, he writes that this too is propelling the gospel. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:38.799 Now, one's harder for us, right? 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:43.759 The gospel of being propelled by persecution is much harder for us. 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:53.039 So we pray and we plan against that, but the Christian faith in the church will never go away. 00:11:54.159 --> 00:12:05.600 No leader, no party, no policies, no government that can stop the good news of Jesus and the church. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:07.200 You don't have to worry about that. 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:09.840 We are not under threat. 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:17.600 We transcend leaders and parties and policies and government. 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:20.240 Point number four. 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:29.600 Our identity and heart's satisfaction is in Christ alone, not politics or leaders. 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:41.440 Verse 3 has this name proclaimed as a reminder to us in the midst of praying for our leaders, our king or president, and then it says, God our savior. 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:55.360 It's a reminder while talking about kings and leaders, where our saving is, who our savior is, that we are defined by something greater than who holds power or sets policies in our country. 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:13.200 Last week I listened to a wonderful sermon about politics by my friend, pastor down in Atlanta, Walter Hinneger, and is speaking about the danger of polarization and identity entrenching in political positions. 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:20.639 He quoted University of Virginia's sociological professor, James Davidson Hunter, from his book To Change the World. 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:22.240 Hunter argues this. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:34.559 He says, one of the key features of the modern age is the politicalization of everything, which ends up reducing our very identities down to a political position. 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:36.320 That's a reduction of identity. 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:38.080 It's a belittling of us. 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:41.120 It's not true of identity. 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:48.639 And it creates polarization against somebody else and it erodes peace. 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:55.679 And both parties are bombarding us with messages to see ourselves this way. 00:13:55.759 --> 00:14:03.279 And I'll take a little pastoral privilege here, not to tell you to vote for, but pastoral privilege has said this stand in resistance to that. 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:09.200 You are defined by God our Savior. 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:11.679 Period. 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:21.919 And then sent into issues, policies, politics, not defined by them. 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:32.240 Pastor and author David Platt, in his book, Before You Vote, released a book about a month ago, said this God's image is stamped on every human heart. 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:38.720 In other words, though Caesar may be worthy of a coin, God is worthy of our hearts. 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:42.159 It made me think about that woman at the well in John chapter 4. 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:44.000 Remember, she's there. 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:58.720 And Jesus says to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:04.480 But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:11.279 The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:12.960 Let's pray together. 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:23.200 Father, forgive us of our careless words and our ignorance when it comes to defending our positions without listening to somebody else. 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:30.320 Forgive us for our lack of prayer for our leaders and our lack of compassion to our friends and our lack of compassion to our enemies. 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:31.039 Forgive us. 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:31.840 Forgive me. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:38.080 Forgive me for my tone, my apathy toward those who hold a different opinion. 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:44.159 Forgive us for claiming creature comforts and fallible gods as saviors. 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:49.759 Forgive us for our arrogance when we should listen. 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:54.080 Thank you, God, that you listen to us while we are sinners. 00:15:54.320 --> 00:16:00.000 Thank you for the cross where you handled our sin and our guilt and you give to us your righteousness. 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:10.000 Create in us by the work of your spirit a compassionate, wise heart that can hold conviction and compassion. 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:16.159 May we be more astonished by your love for us than anything else around us. 00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:25.600 And remind us this morning heading into this week that you are the king of kings. 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:29.919 In the powerful name of Jesus we pray. 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:30.559 Amen.