Back to Basics: The Kingdom of God vs. Christian Nationalism

The line between loving your country and worshiping it can be dangerously thin. While patriotism involves gratitude and service to your nation, Christian nationalism confuses God's kingdom with earthly power. Jesus rejected political dominance when Satan offered Him all worldly kingdoms, declaring instead that His kingdom is not of this world. Christian nationalism replaces Jesus with political leaders, distorts the gospel message, and damages the church's witness. God's kingdom includes people from every nation, tribe, and language - it's not owned by any political party or country. Christians should love their country without worshiping it, remembering that our true citizenship is in heaven and choosing kingdom-shaped love over political identity.

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Transcript

All right, church. So this morning's sermon might step on some toes, and for that, I'm only a little bit sorry. So here's the deal. We're going to start out this morning in the book of First Samuel, chapter eight, and we're going to read verses one through 21. If you don't have your Bibles with you this morning, you can follow along on the screen.

But if you have your Bibles, it's a perfect opportunity to highlight, underline, and to just make notes in your Scriptures. Hear now the word of the Lord for us today. When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel's leaders. The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second was Abijah. And they served at Beersheba.

But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, you are old. Great way to start a conversation.

And your sons do not follow your ways. Now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have. But when they said, give us a king to lead us, this displeased Samuel. So he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord told him, listen to all that the people are saying to you. It is not you they have rejected.

But they have rejected me as their king, as they have done from the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods. So they are doing to you. Now listen to them, but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights. Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, this is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights.

He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses and and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of 50s, and others to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants, your male and female servants, and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.

He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen. But the Lord will not answer you in that day. But the people refused to listen to Samuel. No.

They said, we want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and. And to go out before us to fight our battles. When Samuel heard, all the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. The Lord answered, listen to them and give them a king.

Then Samuel said to the Israelites, everyone, go back to your own town.

Gonna ask a question this morning. So have any of you ever served on church committees before? Let's say outside of this church. Right. Have you served on a committee at a different church before?

A few of you. Very good. For those of you who have served on church boards or committees, have you ever seen any of those backroom fights that sometimes church people get in?

Now, since I have served for the entirety of my adult life in the United Methodist church, I've been privy to some of the best church fights ever. And I've heard the church fight over about how to build out spaces, what color to paint walls, how much to charge people when they want to use the sanctuary for weddings, and even what changes they'd like to propose for the book of discipline. But out of all these church fights, one of these backroom battles sticks out most to me because of the content of the debate that was had. So at the time, I was serving as an associate pastor at what was one of the large United Methodist churches in downtown. We were in a meeting with a group of church leaders who basically served as kind of like a.

Like an advisory board for the lead pastor of the church. So this group met once a month for lunch, and over lunch in the parlor, they talked about things like what the attendance looks like, kind of the trends of the day. Are we trending down in numbers? Are we growing? What things can we do to adjust that?

They began to talk about issues that were facing the church. And as a church planter for this other church, my role was super unclear. In a lot of these meetings I was made to attend, I was forced to be there, but I didn't really have a purpose in being there. So I just got to listen. I was like the guy in the back with popcorn who would like, just kind of listen to all what was going on.

It was interesting. So I kind of enjoyed it because you get to catch up on the back end, the backside of the Gossip in the church. I got a free lunch, which is always a bonus.

But this particular day we were talking about something on the agenda that really needed to be urgently discussed. It was the July 4th patriotic service that this church does. So the patriotic service was a worship service where instead of singing traditional hymns of the faith that you might recognize as United Methodist hymns, there would be kind of an orchestra like a full on band that was hired to play along with the regular worship team. And instead of playing hymns, they would play songs like God Bless America, My country tis of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, like all the great patriotic songs that we sing together. But in church and as a part of this service, there was a parade of people in the sanctuary carrying different military branch flags with others throughout the sanctuary waving kind of handheld American flags.

It really turned the sanctuary into something that looked like patriotic event.

During the service, all people who were invited or all people who served in military branches were invited to stand as their military song was played. And all around the church that day, there were active duty and retired military personnel in their full regalia. They wore all their medals and hats and their. It was a beautiful thing to see all these people who have served our country as a part of the service. There was always a pledge of allegiance, the singing of the national anthem.

Before worship began. There were emotional readings about all the very important different military moments in history, along with vignettes that described sacrifices that were made for our country. The service happened every single year for decades at this church and it still continues today. So in this meeting, as people are beginning to discuss the upcoming service and any potential changes to format, any additions or subtractions that they'd like to make, one of the members of the committee mumbled under his breath, I really hate this service and wish we didn't do this at all. And you would have thought that he said, I hate America.

We should leave the country. It was the most disruptive phrase ever said in this meeting. And there was a moment of panicked silence before every voice in the room began to fight about, what in the world are you talking about? There were voices that were retorted things like, I love this service so much that we should only do this service that day, right? And so there began to be this debate in the whole room.

Somebody from the far side of the table started calling the people on the other side traitors and communists. Those labeled traitors and communists started responding by calling other folks on the other side zealots and nationalists. It was really ugly and it got that way super fast.

And a Few tense moments later, as calm finally began to resume and people just red in the face just stopped talking and just sat in their anger. The pastor pointed out that apparently there were a lot of feelings surrounding this particular service. And she was questioning everybody. Why in the world did this get so heated so fast?

Another good friend of mine was associate pastor at this church also. There were a very large church, a number of associates. And he responded by saying, many people in this room feel that the focus of worship shifts from God to the worship and veneration of our country when we do this service. He continued with one sentence that still feels a little bit like a bit of a stab to me. He said, some people in this room feel like this kind of performance of worship is idolatry.

And then the room just got quiet and there I was, no dog in the fight at all. I'm not even gonna be there that Sunday for worship. And my eyes were as wide as dinner plates, for sure. The unspoken problem that a number of people were thinking was finally laid out on the table. And a number of United Methodists realized that afternoon, sitting right there among the super dry chicken and the dirty plates, that for many churchgoers, loving our country is good.

But we have to know where to draw the line between loving our country and worshiping our country. So, church, hear me when I say this. Patriotism is beautiful, but confusing the kingdom of God with an earthly nation is spiritually dangerous. The experience of that meeting has stayed with me. It reminded me that the center of our worship should always and only be on God alone.

And here we are in 2026. It's getting later. I mean, again, I don't feel like it's almost March, but here we are. And I still feel like the church fight that I sat through all those years ago is just as relevant today as it was then. So this morning I want to talk about the nationalistic movement that the American church has taken and is still taking.

And I would like us to get back to the basic place where we worship God and God alone. So we're going to address what happens when we put anything else before God in our worship. I want us to be able to recognize when Christian worship becomes clouded with anything that would pull our attention away from our Savior. And we're going to address this moment in our church history where the American church is beginning to be corrupted by power in a way that it's not been before. So there has been a temptation that has followed God's people from the very beginning of their religious history right It's a temptation to trace the kingdom of God.

Trade the kingdom of God for kingdoms of the world. We just read about it, right? It's a temptation to confuse God's mission with a national identity. It's a temptation for political power instead of praise cultural dominance rather than giving up our free will for God. This temptation shows up in scripture over and over and over again.

It shows up when Israel asks for a king instead of judges that we just read about. It shows up when dominating empires demand allegiance from the empire. Sorry, from the Israelites. So the Babylonians want it, the Assyrians want it, the Greeks want it. Everybody wants worship of them, veneration of them.

It shows up when the devil takes Jesus to a high mountain and offers him all the kingdoms of all the world. We see it in Matthew chapter 4 as Jesus is being tempted in the wilderness. The devil offers Jesus three different, very distinct temperatures, temptations. The first one was what? To turn what into bread.

Stone into bread. We know you're hungry, Jesus. All you've got to do is just fulfill your hunger needs, right? Fill your belly. You being the son of God, just change this stone into bread.

Then all your worries will be over, right? The second temptation was an attempt to test God. Jesus, I'm going to take you up to the top of the temple. All you got to do, throw yourself off. It'll prove to the whole wide world who you are.

God will send his angels and they will protect you from dying. And Jesus responds with scripture, it's not okay for us to test God. That's not what we're supposed to be doing. Then we HEAR in verses 4 through 8, in Matthew chapter 4, it says this. Then again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

All of this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, away from me, Satan. For it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him and angels came and attended him.

As we've talked about this particular story a number of times in church, the Gospel tells us that the devil showed Jesus every single nation in all of the world and says, I will give all of this to you. It's under my authority, right? To be clear, church, when Satan was cast out of heaven, he wasn't sent to hell, right? He was sent to the earth. This is where evil reigns, right?

And if we're not careful, we forget that. And so he says all of this. It's under my authority. And I'll give it to you. All you have to do.

Jesus, bow down to me. Worship me. I will give you all the power in all the world. And Jesus refused. He didn't just refuse Satan, he refused political power.

He refuses dominance over the nations of the world. He refused the shortcut of control and the offer to rule on the world's terms. And if Jesus refuses that path, the church has to refuse that path too. Putting the love of one's country above the love and service of God is an inversion of the faith that we say we profess. What is called Christian nationalism may not be too much love for one's country.

It may be a sign of too little love for God.

Christian nationalism, if you don't know, is a belief that a specific country is God's chosen nation. Right? This is something that the Israelites have said from day one. And it's something that now we in America have inherited this ideology that we are God's chosen nation.

For us here in the United States, Christian nationalism looks like the belief that the United States and is God's uniquely chosen nation. It's a belief that the church should be fused together with the state. And we've seen that try to take place over the last few years, haven't we? Telling everybody, you have to read the Ten Commandments. You have to say the Pledge of Allegiance in churches.

You have to put the Ten Commandments up in law buildings, right? We've seen this kind of fusion of church and state.

Christian nationalism treats the nation as the center of God's work in the world. And it expects the government to advance Christian beliefs by law, by culture and by force. It is the belief that to be a good Christian, you have to be a good American. And to be a good American is to be a very specific type of Christian. And I want to be clear with you this morning.

Christian nationalism is not the same thing as loving your country. It's not. Patriotism is gratitude and service to the country that you love. Christian nationalism is the belief that our country and the kingdom of God are the same thing and that following Jesus requires political dominance.

Christian nationalism, I do not believe, is Christianity. It's the counterfeit gospel as was mentioned in that meeting. I believe it is fully idolatry. Christian nationalism replaces discipleship with power, replaces the cross with a flag, and replaces the universal kingdom of God that is open to all people in all nations with a narrow national identity. If you look like us, if you speak the same language of us, then you are us, friends I have been taught since I was a child that our country is the melting pot of the world.

Right?

I don't know why we're so afraid of the country that we've become.

When we practice Christian nationalism instead of Christianity, it damages the witness of the church.

Loving your country is good. Gratitude for the country that you live in. The freedoms that we enjoy is wonderful. Service to our country is good. Praying for our political leaders is a wonderful thing.

Scripture encourages all of those things, every one of them. But confusing the love of country with the love of God is not a good thing. Confusing discipleship with political identity is not a good thing. And I hope that you guys can see the difference between nationalism and Christianity. I hope that you can see the difference between nationalism and patriotism.

Right? Patriotism is gratitude. Nationalism is supremacy. Patriotism looks like loving our neighbors. Nationalism is fear of our neighbors.

Patriotism is literally defined as vigorous support. Nationalism is the idea of dominance over others. And we have to know the difference and make sure that we never cross the line between patriotism and nationalism. The good news that the scripture gives us a consistent message, and it shows us that God's kingdom is not tied to any nation or a flag or any political system. It's not owned or controlled by one political party or another.

And it does this by first Jesus setting the example for us. Jesus rejects political power. We saw it earlier in Matthew, chapter 4, verses 8 through 10. In the story we all know very, very well, Jesus refuses to take that political power that he's been offered. When Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, he's given the chance to rule every nation.

And instead of doing that, he says no. In the time that Jesus was alive, Rome was broadening its control over every chunk of Europe and Asia and Africa that it could find for anybody else facing that same temptation in the life of Jesus. At that same time, if God shows up and says, hey, I'll give you all the control over all the countries and all the world. I guarantee you there'd be thousands upon thousands of people that would say, yes, absolutely. Give me control, give me power.

I get all the wealth, all the riches I want. I get servants who, you know, fan me with palm leaves and feed me grapes. Like, that's a great promise of life. In the midst of the average age of life, being 40 years old, and then you die, right? That's the average age.

Very few people made it out of their 40s.

To have that kind of comfort would be amazing. And Jesus says, I know that that offers a life of comfort and Joy and fullness. And he still says no.

This is the first clue to us in the gospels that Jesus was drastically different from those of his time. It is a huge deal that Jesus says no to this agreement. Next, Jesus declares himself for himself that his kingdom is not of this world. In the book of John, as Jesus is arrested and he's brought before Pilate on the way to the cross, he gives us some great insight into what it means to be called a king. In John, chapter 18, verses 28 through 40, it says this.

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the place of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanliness, they did not enter the palace because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, what charges are you bringing against this man? If he were not a criminal, they replied, we would not have handed him over to you. They couldn't even come up with what they wanted to charge him with.

Pilate said, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. But we have no right to execute anyone. They objective this took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. Pilate then went back inside the palace. He summoned Jesus and asked him, are you the king of the Jews?

Is that your own idea? Jesus asked. Or did others talk to you about me? Am I a Jew? Pilate replied, your own people and chief priests handed you over to me.

What is it you have done? Jesus says, hear this. My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.

You are a king then, said Pilate. Jesus answered, you say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into this world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. What is truth?

Retorted Pilate. With this, he went out again to the Jews gathered there and he said, I find no basis to charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release the King of the Jews? They shouted back, no, not him.

Give us Barabbas now. Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.

Chapter 18, verse 36. Standing before Pilate, Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. That means Jesus kingdom is not from Rome. It's not from ancient Jewish Palestine, it's not from America, not from any other earthly power. Jesus temple Jesus power, Jesus authority comes from somewhere else.

When we equate Jesus with any other kingdom than God's mysterious holy kingdom, we are shrinking Jesus. We are making him smaller than he is. We diminish his power. We make Jesus look like us and speak like us in our own voices. We give him our own skin color.

Have you ever seen a picture of black Jesus?

Have you ever seen a picture of Jesus that doesn't look like us? Does it scare you?

In our Scriptures, even the Apostle Paul, who held one of the greatest privileges of his day, he was a citizen of Rome, he says that our true citizenship as believers in Jesus is in heaven. It's not even here. Philippians, chapter 3, verse 20. Paul tells those who believe in Jesus chapter that their primary citizenship isn't in Rome either. It says this, but our citizenship, friends, is in heaven.

And when we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so they will be like his glorious body. And the message that Paul is talking about is still true to us today, no matter how much we want our wonderful country to be our permanent home. I love America. I am comfortable here. Someday our life in this world will be over and we will be brought to our true heavenly home.

So I want to be clear here we are invited and encouraged to invest in our world, to seek the betterment of all mankind. We are called as believers in Jesus to bring about God's kingdom here and now, to work towards creating the kind of life that Jesus, Jesus showed us was possible. But even in the midst of that work, we can't take our eyes off our heavenly home. Even in the book of Revelation it gives us a vision of what God's true multi ethnic kingdom looks like. In Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 through 10, it says this.

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count. From every nation tried people and language. Standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

Here in the book of Revelation, John sees this incredible multitude. Multitude of tons of people from every corner of the world. Not one nation elevated above another, not one culture at the center. Not one flag flying other, you know, higher than the others church. The kingdom of God is not strictly American.

The kingdom of God doesn't look just like white people. It is a beautiful rainbow of Color. It is filled with people from Africa and Asia and every place in the world except Antarctica. I mean, there are people there too, right now, but, like, I don't know that there's a native population from Antarctica.

The Kingdom of God is not tied to either the Republican or Democratic parties. It's not tied to America or North America or just our continent. The Kingdom of God is bigger than we're trying to make it.

We can never turn Jesus into a national mascot because our Jesus is the savior of the whole world.

Christian nationalism is not just incorrect. It can also be spiritually destructive. It confuses people because Jesus says, follow me. Christian nationalism says, follow our country's leaders. And there's a difference.

We have the perfect example in Jesus, who we believe is the Son of God. But far too often, we look past Jesus and to our political leaders for where we should put our faith, for what we should trust in, for what we should believe, for what we should hope for. This is why the Christian church is in trouble all around the world. Because it's not just happening here, it's happening in other countries too. Friends, if you ever hear a pastor endorsing a political leader from the pulpit, you are in the wrong church.

If you ever hear a pastor telling you what party to vote for, you are in the wrong church. No pastor behind a pulpit should ever tell you how to vote. Ever.

Jesus is bigger than our politics, and so we as a church had better start acting that way. Nationalism also distorts the gospel. The gospel of Jesus is about grace, mercy, justice, and love. Christian nationalism is about power, control, fear, and sometimes exclusion. It is literally contrary to who Jesus was.

How do we get to think that what we think is right Christian nationalism harms our neighbors? Christian nationalism has been used to justify things like racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti Semitism and violence. When we wrap a white Jesus in the American flag, we miss the fact that God's word tells us that Jesus resisted the empire. The reason that Jesus was crucified was because he stood up and told the powers of his time that they were wrong and the abuse of their people is wrong. Church.

We have to be that prophetic voice for our world today when our leaders are treating any of not just our citizens, but the people who come into our country as less than we are doing our faith injustice.

Christian nationalism damages the witness of the church because when the church becomes too political, it loses the prophetic voice that God has called us to. Have we, the church, become political when we align ourselves with political power? What Those powers do reflect upon the Church. When we say we support this man or woman for president or this man and woman for governor, what those people do reflect back on us as a church and friends. They're all wrong.

They're all corrupt. Right.

Faith should not be coerced. Discipleship should not be legislated. Our love of our neighbors should not be mandated or manipulated by the state. Every time the Church reaches for political power to enforce Christian behavior, we are confusing that we no longer trust or we are confessing that we no longer trust the Holy Spirit to do the work that the Holy Spirit is good at doing.

Jesus never forced anyone to pray. Jesus never demanded that Rome adopt his teachings. Jesus invited, he welcomed, he taught, he healed. He loved and he trusted that the Holy Spirit would continue his work. When we try to use the government to accomplish what only grace can accomplish, we are not protecting Christianity.

We're replacing it with control. And control doesn't produce disciples. It produces compliance. And compliance is not the same thing as conversion. So Church, we have to remember that the Gospel grows through witness, not through force.

And that's why we have to look always to Jesus, the one who refused coercion, the one who chose slow, beautiful work of love instead of power.

The kingdom of God does not arrive through dominance. It arrives through the love of our neighbors. A few years ago, I sat with a veteran who had served multiple tours overseas. He loved his country deeply. He sacrificed for it.

He had lost a lot of friends for it. He saw war close up. He told me, matt, I love my country, but I don't worship it. I fought for freedom, not for religious supremacy. I fought so that people could live in peace, not so the church could become a political weapon.

Then he said something I'm never going to forget, ever. Jesus is Lord of my life because that is the only allegiance that can hold my life together.

He loved his country, but he loved his Christ more.

That's the difference that we have to learn. It is okay to love our country, but we should separate our country from our love of God. Jesus doesn't ask for our vote. He asks for our whole lives. He doesn't ask for our commitment to our leaders.

Jesus asked for our discipleship to and for Him. Jesus doesn't ask us to defend our worldly leaders. Jesus asks us to love our neighbors.

Jesus doesn't ask us to win. He asks us to be faithful. So the question for us today is probably going to be a tough one. Who is our Lord? Is it Jesus or the American flag?

Is it the Lamb? Of God or the USA is the kingdom of God or is the kingdoms of the world?

Because Scripture is very clear, we can't serve both. Church if the kingdom of God that Jesus taught us about reveals God's heart, then what does that kingdom reveal about our hearts? Where do we need to loosen our grip on our political identities? Where do we need to repent of religion that looks less like Jesus and more like nationalism? Where do we need to love our neighbor more than our political ideologies?

Where do we need to give up battling about who's right and who's wrong and instead just learn to get along and have conversations again?

The kingdom of God is not only the shape of God's love for us, it should also be the shape of our love for the world. The world doesn't need a nationalistic church. The world needs a Christ shaped church. So this week friends find one way to practice kingdom shaped love that costs you something. Choose one practice that this week that will help you love your country without worshiping it, and one practice that helps you love your neighbor without conditions.

We have to be the church that lets our daily choices reflect the kingdom of God at work in our lives. This might look like intentionally building relationships with people outside of our comfort zone. This might look like showing up to a mosque on a Sunday afternoon to have very interesting food, which we did last week. It was great. It might look like practicing kingdom speech instead of the kind of speech that divides us.

It might look less like name calling and more like loving.

So friends, fixing our religious landscape looks like praying for leaders without worshiping them, loving our country without confusing it with our faith in God. So this week and always let us be the church that lets our lives reflect the shape of God's kingdom. Let's pray.