Nathan Rambeck

[0:00] You know, I make my living in technology, trying to keep up with all this stuff, and it is not easy. Sometimes I think, maybe I should have gotten into something where it just stays the same all the time, and I wouldn't have to keep up all the time.

[0:16] But in a lot of ways, I really enjoy it. You know, there's exciting things about technology. Technology makes our lives easier, but at the same time, sometimes technology can be used for good, and for ill, and that's just because technology is used by people.

[0:37] So, anyway, I love technology, but we as Christians want to use it for, you know, promoting the gospel and doing good, and so that's why we wanted to try to kind of modernize some of the stuff that we're doing, that Pastor Marv's doing with Christianity Clarified.

[0:54] This morning, I wanted to share a message that kind of has been on my heart recently. You know, I learned a new term this week, or not this week, but in the last month, I think, or something like that.

[1:13] And it's a term, tell me if you've heard of this, called doom scrolling. Has anybody ever heard of that? Nobody? Okay. So, I'm going to give an illustration.

[1:26] This is doom scrolling. What the? Can you believe what those guys are doing now?

[1:37] It just keeps getting worse and worse. The more you scroll, it's just doom scrolling, they call it, right?

[1:48] We all have got our Facebook accounts, or Instagram, or Twitter, or whatever it is that everybody is using, that I can't keep up with the latest, you know, thing where we get our news, or just going through the news. And, you know, a lot of people have been impacted, especially lately.

[2:05] There's been a lot going on in our nation and in the world lately, and not very much of it seems good. Now, you know, I think some of that is because of the way the news cycle works.

[2:21] And, you know, we have this technology, and it's kind of geared to trying to get as many clicks and views and all this kind of thing. And so, what sells, right? What do they say in the newspaper industry?

[2:32] If it bleeds, it leads, right? And so, if you tell people all the good things going on in the world, you're not going to sell any newspapers, or you're not going to sell any ads on your social media accounts or whatever.

[2:45] And so, you know, that has something to do with it. But at the same time, there really is a lot of changes happening in our world.

[2:57] It feels to a lot of people like the world is just getting darker. And, you know, I've had some missionary experience.

[3:07] I spent some time in Nepal, some time in Vietnam, some time in Cambodia, some time in the Philippines, and got to experience what the world is like outside of, you know, the borders of the United States, but also what the church is like.

[3:26] And it's really good to have that kind of international experience, to be exposed to things outside of your own culture, because it gives you a little bit of perspective that maybe you wouldn't have otherwise.

[3:41] And so, one of the things I know is that in some places in the world, things are actually feeling a lot better than they were 20 years ago. It kind of depends on where you're at.

[3:54] But I think here, you know, in the U.S. with COVID and a lot of stuff that happened this last summer, with rioting in the streets and then, you know, things that went on with the election and all the animosity, and it seems like corruption and lying, and there's censorship going on, and it seems like nobody wants, you know, this group to say what they want, and there's covering things up and all that kind of thing.

[4:21] It can get kind of depressing. Has anybody experienced anything like that? Am I the only one, maybe? Okay. There's a few. Anyway, I think, you know, there's some wisdom in how we kind of consume the news, you know, try to be balanced, not do the doom scrolling all the time.

[4:45] At the same time, we want to keep informed, right? We want to know what's going on in the world. We also want to, you know, have a voice in what's going on and try to impact and influence the world around us towards good and away from the evil.

[5:02] And it's not just that, you know, we're seeing all these things and it's all blown out of proportion. Some of it is actually very much in proportion, and it's just not good.

[5:13] There really is a war out there between good and evil, isn't there? Amen. And we want to be on the side of good, which is the side that God's on. We want to be on his side. And we see things like families just falling apart.

[5:28] Last week or two weeks ago, when I shared a message, it was on this topic of socialism, and that's something that's really being promoted today, which we talked about is coming against our fundamental human rights that God gave us to private property.

[5:43] But that's just one battle, and it's seeming a kind of insignificant one in comparison to so many other things that are going on. Marriage is being attacked.

[5:55] One of the foundations of society and, you know, a foundation for just growing up in a healthy atmosphere, marriage.

[6:05] The idea of, and who could have thought this 20 years ago, what it means to be a man or a woman?

[6:17] Gender. It seems unbelievable that something as basic as that, something that is universally accepted, whether you are a Christian or a Muslim or anything else.

[6:30] It's something that's been accepted, and now is being questioned significantly. Of course, the sanctity of human life has been something that we have been battling here in this country, especially with the unborn child here since, well, really before the 70s, the battle started, but really came to a head with that Supreme Court decision in the 70s.

[6:56] We have relativism. There's a book written by, that I'm thinking of right now, by C.S. Lewis, and I'm trying to remember the name, where he talks about men without chests.

[7:09] Anybody know the name of that book? What is it? I can't remember. Anyway, he talks about, and this was written, it's got to be at least 50 or 60 years ago, about what was going on during his time, and he's saying, you know, we've always had this issue where people disagree about what's true and what's not true.

[7:32] You know, you believe that this, your religion, let's say, is true, and I believe that mine is true and that yours is false. And he said, what we're dealing with today is the concept of, is there truth at all?

[7:47] Not just is what I believe true and what you believe false, but is anything true? We call that relativism.

[8:01] And that kind of ideology, that kind of thinking is sweeping through academia and the universe. It's basically, relativism, is basically the standard foundation in academia in this country.

[8:17] It's crazy. Moral relativism. It's another type of relativism, not just with truth, but right and wrong. It's not just disagreeing about, well, I believe that this is right and good, and you believe that this is right and good, and we disagree.

[8:34] Now, now we have to talk about, well, is there such thing as right and wrong at all? Can we know what is right? Can we know what is good? Atheism has these evangelists.

[8:50] Richard Dawkins is one of them. And he famously said, and I'll just try to quote here. I don't know if I'll get it right, but he said, there is no good, there is no evil in this world. There's just blind, pitiless indifference in the world.

[9:03] Just molecules. There's no good. There's no evil. And there's so many battles to fight today. It can seem overwhelming.

[9:15] Which one do you choose? Seems like we can be fighting all the time with all the battles happening on, not to mention just all the immorality that happens.

[9:29] Pornography is rampant, not only in America, but across the world. All of these things that we have to deal with and fight against, and we ought to fight and we should.

[9:41] But first, I want to talk a little bit about what the Bible says we should not do when it comes to these things, as we're doom scrolling and seeing all the things that are happening in the world.

[9:52] Romans chapter 12, the last verse, Paul is talking to the people in Rome, and he's talking about all the things that are happening to them by others, and he finishes off the chapter and he says this.

[10:17] He says in verse 21, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And when he said don't be overcome by evil, his meaning was, it's easy, right, to do tit for tat.

[10:34] Somebody persecutes you, I'm going to persecute them back. And so you're going to do evil to me, I'm going to overcome that by responding in kind.

[10:46] So he said that's not how it ought to be. He says in the same scriptures, in that same section, vengeance is mine, I will repay. Don't take vengeance for yourself.

[11:00] I'm going to repay. But at the same time, when he says do not be overcome by evil, another way kind of to read that, and we'll read another verse here that says this explicitly, is we don't want to be overwhelmed by evil in the world, right?

[11:17] Is evil in the world something that's new? No. It's not very enjoyable when we come across it, when we have to deal with it, but it's not anything new in the world.

[11:28] Evil started in the very beginning with the disobedience of one man and one woman in a garden, and then ended up in the next generation with the very first murder. Came killing his own brother, Abel, and it has just continued there, from there.

[11:47] But I think there's a little bit of a, because in this nation, we've had some semblance of a Christian foundation that we've all enjoyed for so many years.

[12:02] It can be maybe a little bit more of a hit on us because there's something that we once had, some things that we once had, that we've grasped, that we've loved, and they're being taken away.

[12:18] The goodness, the righteousness that we've experienced. The other verse we'll look at, if you have a Bible, open up to Psalm chapter 37. It's just a couple of verses, the first two verses of that Psalm.

[12:37] And could one of you kids bring my Bible up? It's underneath that chair. I'm using new technology. I've got this iPad up here, but I really got to feel a little bit more secure with my black and white Bible.

[12:58] And it says this, I'm reading from the New King James, Psalm 37. Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like grass and wither as the green herb.

[13:17] It's easy to fret, whether we're experiencing something just personally in our own lives, or whether we're experiencing kind of the angst of, that a lot of people feel at a national level because of things that are going on in our culture, in our society, in our community, in our nation, in our world.

[13:34] It's easy to fret, to worry, and to fear. But we shouldn't be envious of the evildoers, and we know that ultimately it will come to an end.

[13:53] They shall soon be cut down like grass and wither as the green herb. But I also wanted to talk about, well, what can we do?

[14:05] You know, there are situations in life that are the most frustrating, the most frustrating situations in life for me are those where I feel helpless.

[14:17] You know, where I have a child who's sick, and you want to do something, but there's nothing you can do. And we have this, all of us, I think, have this thing in us if we want to try to do something to make things better.

[14:38] And that's good. We should. We ought to. And sometimes the things that we do are good, and sometimes they're counterproductive. We want to do the things that are good. And so, what do we do?

[14:53] How do we fight back? How do we push back against the evil going on in our world? And now, just a few weeks ago, or maybe more than that, I guess, months, there was some controversial stuff going on down at the Capitol.

[15:11] and there was this, what the media called, I think maybe a little, with a little bit of exaggeration, an insurrection at the Capitol.

[15:25] And I think, you know, I think it's right and proper to condemn some of the violence and things that did go on there. Though, at the same time, realizing how those kind of stories can be spun.

[15:39] do we go rioting in the streets like a lot of people were doing last summer because of the things and the disagreements that they had with those who were in authority?

[15:55] I think not. The Bible speaks clearly. In fact, in Romans chapter 13, the verses following the ones that we just read in Romans 12, 21, he talks about how we ought to honor the authorities, submit to them.

[16:16] And I won't get into that in too much detail, but just to say, you know, those kinds of things are not what we ought to do as Christians.

[16:26] But the Bible does speak to things that we can do. And some of them might seem very basic, but it's what God gave us in his word.

[16:41] In 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 4, Paul says this, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly. They're not things that you can touch.

[16:55] It's not swords and spears and shields, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

[17:12] Our warfare is with ideas, with truth, communicating the truth to a lost and dying world, communicating righteousness to the world around us.

[17:30] So, it seems sometimes that, you know, picking up weapons and sometimes, right, and nations fight against nations, those kinds of things are necessary.

[17:42] But as Christians, we are about the business of fighting not with carnal weapons, but with even stronger weapons that are mighty in God.

[17:53] In Ephesians chapter 6, Paul talks about putting on this armor because we are warriors. There's lots of scriptures. Paul tells Timothy to fight the fight of faith.

[18:05] There's a lot of warrior language. I, just the last couple of weeks, I had posted something on Facebook and a friend of mine from back in high school many years ago because I had gotten some responses and had kind of used some warrior type language that the Bible uses.

[18:31] and she sent me a message and she said, you know, this was right after the whole thing happened in D.C. with the Capitol riots and all that. And she just wanted to know what I meant by that or what somebody else meant by what they said.

[18:48] And she was concerned. She said, aren't Christians supposed to like want peace and all that kind of stuff? Somebody had said something about, you know, fighting the fight of faith or something like that.

[19:00] And so, you know, it was an opportunity because she's not a believer even though I had, we had shared some Christian friends and myself had shared the gospel with her back in high school.

[19:12] But it was another opportunity to, you know, share the scriptures and what the Bible teaches about, you know, the Christian faith and how we interact with the world around us and what our duties, Christian duties and obligations are to those around us.

[19:28] But she was concerned because she saw all this stuff happening at the Capitol and she said, is this what the Christians are doing? You know, are they going to come attack us?

[19:43] But Ephesians chapter 6 is about the armor of God and we'll just read through it here quickly. Chapter 6, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

[19:55] Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

[20:14] And we should realize, right, that the things going on around us, the things, the evil that's happening in the world, there is a kind of a master and commander.

[20:28] There is a spiritual battle going on behind the scenes that we don't necessarily always see. We just see the fruit of it. But C.S. Lewis wrote a book, mentioning him again, he's been such a blessing to the body of Christ, about two demons who write these letters to each other.

[20:52] It's called The Screwtape Letters. And it's completely fictional, obviously, but it just kind of gives an example of what it might be like in the spiritual realm with how the enemy is trying to attack individuals, trying to take captive people for himself.

[21:15] So there's a spiritual battle going on. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all, to stand.

[21:27] Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

[21:40] Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And then take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

[21:59] And then he goes on, but he gives us this spiritual armor, these spiritual battle plans for how we can fight this battle.

[22:11] Truth is one of our weapons. The truth. Righteousness. Living righteously, living righteously, declaring righteousness in a world that sometimes doesn't want to hear it, but needs to hear it.

[22:33] The gospel. The gospel of peace. Showing people how to have peace with God. That'll solve a problem or two, won't it?

[22:45] When you point somebody who's willing to have a humble heart to how to have peace with God. And then the helmet of salvation. Living in the life that God has provided to us, the salvation that God has provided.

[23:04] And then the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. That gets back to the whole truth thing. The Bible being our foundation. And so I just want to talk about a few of those.

[23:15] The Bible says pray. Back there in Ephesians, where is it?

[23:26] It says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for the saints.

[23:37] And so we ought to pray. And we ought to pray for all kinds of things. We ought to pray for ourselves. That's good.

[23:49] Sometimes we're struggling. We need prayer. We need to pray for ourselves. We need others to pray for us. We need to pray for those around us, our families, our friends, others in the body of Christ.

[24:02] We should also pray for those in leadership, the Bible says. 1 Timothy, chapter 2. Paul talks to Timothy about prayer.

[24:13] Let me open it up in here. What did I say? 1 Timothy, chapter 2. He says, therefore I exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.

[24:36] And of course, that means our families, our neighbors, other people in the body of Christ, those that we go to church with. But then he mentions a few others.

[24:48] He says, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

[25:00] prayers. And it might seem easier to pray for those who are in leadership in a nation or a state, whether it be a king, an emperor, a president, a governor, whatever it might be.

[25:18] It's easier to pray for those people when you kind of like them. Right? It's easier to pray for people that you like. It's a little more difficult, a little bit more challenging to pray for those who you don't.

[25:34] But, God tells us to pray. And specifically, one of the reasons we pray for those in leadership is because our prayers can have an impact and lead to living a quiet and peaceable life that God wants us to be able to to have.

[25:56] God wants us to have peace in our land. He wants us to have justice as well. We'd like to have both of those. The other thing, besides praying for leaders, is in Romans 13.

[26:14] Why don't you open up to that and we'll look at that real quick. So, he had just gotten finished in Romans chapter 12 saying, you know, bless those who persecute you.

[26:31] Don't respond evil for evil. Don't avenge yourselves in chapter 19. Give place to wrath. Vengeance is mine.

[26:42] I'll repay. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he's thirsty, give him a drink. Don't overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

[26:52] And then he goes on from there to talk about those people that he has put in place as his servants for vengeance.

[27:06] let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

[27:17] Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resist the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. you know, there are different interpretations of what Paul is saying here, but I believe what he's talking about is he's saying, listen, this whole idea that there should be rulers who would oversee justice in a nation, that's God's idea, right?

[27:40] It's not something that somebody made up on their own. That's something that came from God. He designed the world to work that way. It's not necessarily to say that every authority that's in that position that God placed there, though we do see examples of that in the Bible, but we shouldn't take those examples and extrapolate it to everything.

[28:08] In fact, there are plenty of examples where God resists people who are in authority. But anyway, this is talking about this whole idea of authority.

[28:20] and he gives some more detail. I'll go ahead and read it. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.

[28:31] Now, when you read that on its face, some of us might think, well, actually, sometimes they are a terror to good works, aren't they? That sometimes happens. In fact, that's a lot of reason why we get frustrated, isn't it?

[28:42] But what he's saying is this is what God created the authority to what their purpose is, not what always happens. God created these authorities to be a terror to evil works, not good works.

[28:59] Do what is good and you will have praise from the same, in general. Right? You do what is good, you'll have praise from the same. For he is a minister to you. Minister means servant.

[29:10] He is God's minister to you. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

[29:21] So if we decide that, well, they're not doing their job, we're going to take vengeance into our own hands, we're going to take that authority into our own hands, he said, listen, I gave them that job, that's their job, don't take that on yourself.

[29:35] Even if they're not doing it the right way, that's not up to you. Also, Peter says, and I'll just read this real quickly, 1 Peter 2, verse 13, he says, therefore submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors or to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.

[30:02] And then in verse 17, he says, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king. So one of the things that we can do, and this seems a little bit counterintuitive, I know, but one of the things that we can do as Christian insurrectionists to subvert the kingdom of the evil one is to honor the authority of those who are over us, even if they're doing wrong.

[30:36] And that seems counterintuitive. Why would that be true? But because the authority, as it said there, is of God. And I know for a lot of people that's really difficult.

[30:49] I mean, how could Paul possibly imagine what was the kinds of things that we have to deal with in our day? There's, I don't know if you knew this, but, you know, with the current administration.

[31:08] I'm an equal opportunity criticizer of administration, so it doesn't matter Republican or Democrat or whatever. You know, if you do evil in the eyes of the Bible, you should be called out on it.

[31:24] But we have, crazily enough, it seems insane, but there's somebody in charge of the health department, some kind assistant director or something, who is a man who thinks he's a woman, having some kind of charge over the nation's health.

[31:50] That's a little bit on the, that just, that seems really insane, kind of crazy. I got one amen over there, John.

[32:04] And that's just one small thing, right? But I did, I spent an hour or so the other day kind of just doing a little history lesson.

[32:18] Well, what were things like back when Paul was writing this to the Romans in the 50s, around 58 A.D. Some people, there's a little disagreement about exactly when, but you kind of have a general idea of who the rulers were.

[32:36] And there were three during the time of Paul when he was writing this. One guy, his name was Calugula. That's kind of a hard name to say, Calugula. There was Claudius, and then there was a dude, his name was Nero.

[32:49] Most people have heard of Nero, right? Nero was the guy who was in charge probably when Paul was writing this. And a lot of people think that Nero was probably the guy in charge when Paul was killed.

[33:02] And so I just learned a few things. During that time, most of the people that were in power, they didn't die of natural causes. Most of them were murdered, assassinated.

[33:18] Of those three guys that I mentioned, two of them were assassinated, and one of them committed suicide. died. That was Nero, I think, right? Got my history help over there.

[33:33] All of them had political rivals, and most of them, as soon as they got into power, what did they do with their political rivals? Did they try to censor them?

[33:44] No, they just killed them, right? In some cases, and let me see if I wrote down which one this was, Nero.

[33:56] Nero, he got into power, and he decided that after like a year or two, that he didn't trust any of his advisors, so he had all of them killed.

[34:07] Imagine you have the, what do we call all the advisors of the president? The cabinet, yeah, the cabinet. You just decide, secretary of defense, the secretary of state, what else is there, education, all the different secretaries of all these cabinet positions.

[34:24] Let's just get rid of all of them. Good start. And so that's what Nero did, but he didn't stop there.

[34:36] He also decided that his own mother was a threat, so he had his mother killed. And then he decided, you know, and I don't know that my wife is really trustworthy either.

[34:47] And so he had her killed as well. This is the guy who was in charge when Paul was writing Romans. Now, this guy named Calugula, I read one of the things that historians say about him was that, and this was probably before Paul wrote to the Romans, but this is something, this is probably a leader, an authority figure that Paul had in mind when he was writing this.

[35:14] one of the things that he was known to do was he would put on women's clothes and he'd walk around the palace with women's clothes on. Yeah, even back then, right?

[35:31] These things aren't new, are they? They're not new. Nero, there was a big fire that happened, there's the saying, right, Rome, or Nero fiddled while Rome burned, but he had to find somebody to blame for the fire.

[35:50] Anybody know who he blamed? It was the Christians, yeah. This new like sect of weirdos, they actually thought they were atheists, right, because they only believed in one God, and he had many Christians burned.

[36:08] God and so that is the context for Paul saying, respect those who are in authority, obey the authorities, and we know, and I don't necessarily intend to get into this, that there are things that we could talk about, or when it's appropriate, right, to resist the authorities when they're doing evil things, and I totally think that there are appropriate things, I think, in the book of Acts, there's the example, right, of the early apostles preaching the gospel, and they were told by the authorities, shut up, you're not allowed to speak in this man's name anymore, and so as Christians, we have to decide, well, is that something that I'm allowed to obey in the sight of God, and no, when it comes to preaching the gospel, speaking the word of

[37:12] God, we have to say no, but I believe when Christians live how they ought to live, giving honor to the authorities that God has set in place, that makes Christians look different from the rest of the world, right, people who their whole life is sinking sand, shifting sand, they don't have a firm foundation in their life, and they see over here in Portland, or in St.

[37:50] Paul, or Atlanta, all this rioting, and commotion, and violence going on in the streets, people resisting the authority in violent ways, and then they see Christians who are trying to be faithful, even though they're the ones being persecuted a lot of the times, they don't give tit for tat, they don't respond in kind, they don't respond in violence, and there's an attractiveness to that, right, to seeing the peace, you know, you have the justice, but also the peace that comes with the Christian life.

[38:45] I want to go through just a few more things, I see my time is getting close to an end, but other things that we can do, besides pray, besides honoring those in authority, something very subversive you can do, especially as a young person, get married.

[39:04] Yeah? Oh, boy, people get really upset when young people get married, and, you know, it's, marriage is under attack, and it's this ordinance of God that provides stability for families, and is really a threat to Satan and the devil, to Satan and his minions, and so just getting married is an act of subversion against the evil one.

[39:41] I tell my kid, well, I don't just tell my kids, but I tell young people especially, get married early before you're ready, just in general, right?

[39:55] How many of you were ready when you got married? Maybe a few. I wasn't ready. Eager, but not ready.

[40:09] But, you know, there's this thing, even for, you know, somebody are not getting married these days, right, at all, but for those who are, you know, you've got to wait until you've got all the money, you've got the career in place, you've got, you know, a house, and all these things in order, and then you can finally, you know, do all these things.

[40:29] Just get ready, or get married before you're ready. It's fine. Now, there are other things and principles of wisdom that we could get into, but we won't.

[40:40] And then, have babies. That's another thing, right? That's a way to subvert the kingdom of God. Now, the first thing you should do is what? Get married. That's what we ought to do, right?

[40:54] That's what the Bible teaches. But be fruitful and multiply. That's one of the first things that God gave as a command. Be fruitful and multiply. And that one thing in and of itself is a subversive thing against the enemy.

[41:08] Raise your children to serve Jesus. That's something that we can do. That's part of, it's a battle. It's not something that is just, you know, you cross, you know, check a few boxes, right?

[41:21] It's a battle to raise children to serve the Lord. Ephesians chapter 6, you fathers do not provoke your children in wrath, but bring them up in the training and admission of the Lord.

[41:32] Teach boys to be men. Teach young ladies to be women. Also, another one is love your neighbor.

[41:45] That's a way to subvert the kingdom of the evil one, isn't it? Love your enemy. Bless those who persecute you, Paul said in Romans 12.

[41:57] Jesus said those first two. Jesus said love your neighbor. That was actually Moses first. Some people don't realize that, but Moses said that first. Then Jesus said love your enemy. Paul said bless those who persecute you.

[42:08] Bless and do not curse. Rush Limbaugh passed away this week. One of the things I noticed, I try to keep up with all the tech stuff going on, so I'm on Twitter.

[42:19] One of the things that was trending was Rush Limbaugh. That's how I found out that Rush Limbaugh passed away. It had trending phrases with that piece of news. The two trending phrases were good riddance and rot in hell.

[42:35] Those are the two primary phrases that were with that news on Twitter from all the people that were on there. Wow. And God forbid that we would ever have that kind of attitude for anybody no matter whether we saw them as an enemy or not.

[42:51] But for so many in the world that's where they're at. But God chose us to love our enemy. It's a subversive thing. And especially in this time where we're dealing with this cultural Marxism where there is a concerted effort to try to divide people.

[43:11] To divide men against women, right? Feminism says, you know, all these men, you know, they're patriarchy and da-da-da-da-da Christian patriarchy and these men have all these things and da-da-da-da-da try to make women angry with the men.

[43:28] And then there's, well, the old school one is the rich versus the poor, right? Class warfare. That one's been going on for a long time. And then, especially today, racism, black against white especially, we've got to divide these people.

[43:45] There's all this white supremacy. They don't know why they're racist, but they are. And you have to be careful of them. And it can go both ways, right? But we need to love our enemy.

[44:00] There's a, there's a, a, a, a, what do you call it, a documentary that I saw a couple years ago. I would recommend it. I, I don't think there was anything.

[44:10] There may have been a little language in there possibly because of the nature of the documentary. But it was about a guy named Daryl Davis. The name of it was called Accidental Courtesy. Accidental Courtesy. A guy named Daryl Davis, a musician, a black guy.

[44:25] And the documentary was about one of his hobbies. One of his hobbies was to go to KKK meetings and rallies and try to develop relationships with the people that were there and develop friendships with people who were white supremacists.

[44:43] And he had so many friends who were upset with him. Why would you do that? And he, he had a different perspective than so many, right?

[44:56] There's so much, so many people against forgiveness and love and mercy, but what he wanted was he wanted for them to get to know somebody like him and to be able to try to speak into their lives because he loved and cared for them, even people that hated him.

[45:14] And there's a lot of people today that I found out, I didn't realize until after I watched the movie, some people that I worked with realized that they despised that whole idea, that somebody like him would even have that kind of love and mercy for people that hated him.

[45:29] But it's such a precious thing, that's what God did for us, isn't it? I don't know if he was a Christian or not, but it's a really, really interesting movie. Bless those who persecute you. You can change people's lives.

[45:41] One of the things they showed in the movie, and I'll try to wrap up here, is that he had a collection. You know, you have hobbies, right? You've got your coins or your baseball cards. He collected robes and hoods from KKK members.

[45:57] And he had a collection. He'd pull out and show, he had a dozen or so people who had given up their robes and then they gave it to them because they gave up their hate.

[46:10] just to wrap up, study the Bible. The truth, the whole world is on a shifting sand, and we want to be able to provide truth.

[46:24] Do Bible studies with people. Do Bible studies ourselves. Understand the Bible. And then speaking truth instead of falsehood. I'll go ahead and end with this since I'm out of time.

[46:35] There's a few verses here I want to talk, I'll just read through all of them. James 1, verse 2, says this, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

[46:49] Count it all joy. And whether it's a trial in our personal life, whether we're dealing with an illness or something like that, or something at a national level, it doesn't matter what it is, they're all trials. We should count it all joy.

[47:02] Romans 8, 18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to us. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

[47:17] While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen, those are eternal. people. Then he says a few chapters later, chapter 12, 2 Corinthians 12, 10, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities or weaknesses, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, all for Christ's sake.

[47:44] For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. And then the last thing I want to talk about is summed up here in Romans 5, the other way we can fight the battle, share the gospel.

[48:01] The gospel of the grace of God, where people can have peace with God simply by putting their faith and trust in him. Romans 5, 1 says this, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[48:18] Justified by our faith. You don't have to do anything. Just trust him. I say two things. I usually tell people two things. You have to humble yourself. That's hard for a lot of people, isn't it?

[48:30] Just humble yourself. Sometimes it seems insurmountable. But that's usually the biggest hurdle in becoming a Christian. Just humble yourself. You know what? I'm wrong.

[48:42] I've been in rebellion against God. I've been living a life that I shouldn't. And then two, just put your faith in him. He died for you. And then he says this, Through whom?

[48:57] Jesus also. We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulation. Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance.

[49:11] And perseverance, character, character, and character, hope. And so there's like purpose in all this stuff. And so we want other people to join us in this journey of knowing God.

[49:30] And, you know, there might be somebody here who doesn't know the Lord, who hasn't put their faith and trust in him. And, you know, all these things we've been talking about, there really isn't any hope without Christ.

[49:43] There's just more of the same. But we have an eternal hope in him when we put our, when we humble ourselves and put our faith and trust in him.

[49:55] And the Bible says, I forget exactly where this is at, but makes a point, I think it's in Hebrews, today is the day of salvation.

[50:05] Right? Salvation isn't something that will check off some point in the future. We want to do it now. Come to God now. Know him and have a life that is at peace with God, where we live with forgiveness and pursue a life of righteousness and hope of eternal life with him forever.

[50:30] Life can be frustrating. All the things going on around us, it's easy to fret. God, but our hope is in him. And just do, doing the regular Christian things, studying the scriptures, loving our neighbor, getting married, having kids, raising them for the Lord, all these things are ways that we can fight back against all the evil things that are going on in our world.

[50:55] And it, you know, may not be the most exciting things that we can do, but it's the most faithful and can have a tremendous impact. Amen? All right.

[51:06] Let's pray. Father, you are the Lord of all the earth. There will become a day we know that you said that you will come and you'll be the king.

[51:19] You'll subvert all the kingdoms of the world under yours, and you will be the king. You will reign with justice and righteousness and truth. We look forward to that day.

[51:30] Until then, Father, we look to you to work in us, that we would be as Christian insurrectionists, not fighting with the warfare of the world, but that we would fight the battles, we would run to the battle each and every day to fight for our marriages, to fight for our children, to fight for the truth, to fight for the righteousness in our own hearts, and that you would work in us to give us the courage, the strength each and every day in our fleshly weaknesses, to do that and to do it with joy.

[52:09] In Jesus' name, amen.