Ep 1088 ｜ 'Demonic Death Cult'： Viral Pastor Speaks Truth About Democrats ｜ Guest： Jonny Ardavanis
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
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Summary
Pastor Johnny Ardovanis went viral last week for his comments in a sermon about the Democratic Party. Pastor Johnny is here with us today to help us think through this election. Why do we need to vote as Christians and who should we vote for? Also, we discuss his incredible book, Consider the Lilies: Finding Perfect Peace in the Character of God.
Transcript
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Pastor Johnny Ardovanis went viral last week for his comments in a sermon about the Democrat
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I'm a preacher of the Bible, but certain things politically are more theological than they
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The Democratic Party is a demonic death cult under the power and influence of Satan.
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To vote for the Democrats is to vote for a platform that is building their platform upon
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The mutilation of bodies, the annihilation of babies in the womb, and the sexualization
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They have abortion facilities outside of the Democratic Convention.
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It's the most radical party in our country's history.
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So, I don't see how you could be a Christian and vote for a party who promotes everything
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Pastor Johnny is here with us today to help us think through this election.
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Why do we need to vote as Christians, and who should we vote for?
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Also, we are going to discuss his incredible book, Consider the Lilies, Finding Perfect Peace
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You're going to be so edified by this conversation.
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This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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Go to goodranchers.com, code Allie at checkout.
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Johnny, thanks so much for taking the time to join us.
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We played it last week and at the beginning of this episode.
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But could you just tell everyone, for context, who you are and what you do?
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I have a wife, Katie, two girls, Lily Jean, Scotty Joan, one more baby girl on the way.
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I'm the lead pastor of Stonebridge Bible Church in Franklin, Tennessee.
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Really grateful for the people that God has entrusted me to help shepherd along with the
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team of elders I serve with, do some resources online, and really grateful to ultimately just
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You know, I thought being a pastor was the last thing on earth I'd ever, ever be.
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You know, my dad was a pastor, so growing up, I wanted to be anything but that.
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But ultimately, I was working at a student ministry camp in Central California, ministering
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I studied accounting and finance because I thought I wanted to be, maybe one day I would
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But I ended up, long story short, I got involved in juvenile hall ministry, started preaching
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in juvenile hall because that was the only way they would let me in.
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Because there was a student there I wanted to go see, and they would only let you in as
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And kind of from there, I got connected with this camp called Hume Lake, and I was there
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And over time, after being in this evangelistic setting for so many years, I had a hunger and
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And it was at that point I got connected, reconnected with John MacArthur and went to work
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as the dean of student life at the Master's University.
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And then he allowed me to go back up to Hume Lake in the summers and said, hey, I want
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you to still have that connection with the evangelistic entity.
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So I went to Master's, and after a few years at Master's and still my involvement in Hume
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Lake, I was like, man, I have a burden for evangelism and discipleship.
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And I think just in God's providence, the only place in the world where you can focus on
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both of those things in a God-given fashion is the local church.
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And so I think the Lord just kind of, that's the burden He's put on my heart specifically.
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And I had started preaching at this church in Tennessee while I was working at Master's
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And over time, they had started really kind of around COVID.
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And that's an interesting time to become a pastor.
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Well, that's when they started and they had no pastor really on staff.
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And I was, they had a guy that was teaching kind of, you know, predominantly, but then
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I became their first full-time pastor about a year and a half ago.
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And it's been really cool to see how the Lord has blessed our church and kind of a growing
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And we've loved the area and they've been really kind to us.
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This is an interesting time to navigate as a pastor.
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Maybe all eras are interesting times to navigate, but certainly, as you have argued, our politics
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And so pastors now have this responsibility to speak up about these issues that are considered
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culture war issues, but are really creation issues for the Christian.
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You kind of went viral a couple of weeks ago for the comments that you made in your sermon
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It's a theological issue and not a political one.
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I grew up, I would say, with godly men in my life.
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I'm the product of many godly men that still speak into my life.
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I would say it's kind of been seen, it's kind of been perceived as something you stay out
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And I think, you know, I was listening to your book on the way here.
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You talk about even 25 years ago, you have Clinton signing the Defense of Marriage Act.
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And so even those types of realities 25 years ago, I mean, when you're looking at political
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parties, you're talking about economic plans and things like that.
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It's not the aggressive and relentless shoving in your face of things that Jesus came to die
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And obviously, when I'm talking to my church, I would say that differently than if I was talking
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to and have talked to 15-year-old girls that have had three abortions, the tone of that would be
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And so I think, and I can, we can talk about that more, but ultimately I was burdened and
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people in my church were looking for legitimate answers, you know.
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And so I want to be able to navigate that with them from a biblical worldview.
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And Peter says that God has given us his word and given us everything we need pertaining
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And so there's really, it wasn't really difficult.
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And I said that in the clip, like, hey, this isn't hard for me to say, because I was so
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surprised that people wanted to hear me say anything on it.
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And obviously the virality of the clip was shocking to me because I had no idea just calling
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a spade a spade from a scripture was like so bold, you know, people said, well, thank
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I had no idea I'm being bold where the scripture is clear.
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And so obviously when you're, you're preaching against, you know, the context of our cultural
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moment, most of the compromise is obviously within the church because we're either ambiguous
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about these things or silent about these things.
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And so, yeah, I just mentioned what the Bible says just briefly.
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It was like a five minute clip in a sermon I was preaching in John chapter seven or John
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I'm going verse by verse through the gospel of John.
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I'm 10 months in and I'm through chapter seven.
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But there's different moments within the gospel of John that I try to punctuate what's happening
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But yeah, if you were just to get to your question, what's it been like?
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I would say it's been surprising and saddening and burdening.
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Um, because now there's a weight of responsibility and a desire to provide clarity where there's
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confusion and to live with conviction where there's cowardice.
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And I don't really see any need to equivocate where the Bible is crystal clear.
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Um, you responded to a post that we've talked about too by Ray Ortlund who said, never Trump
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Um, I don't know how common of a stance this is among Christians, but Ray Ortlund, from what
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He probably aligns with us on a variety of theological issues.
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Um, and yet this is, uh, this is a position that I see at least some evangelicals hold voting
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for Kamala Harris because Trump is just so uniquely bad.
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Well, I think you have to look at things from, you have to get, gather some perspective.
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Um, my friend Harry always says that the only gift you can't give yourself is perspective.
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Meaning you have to kind of zoom out from the way that you're initially perceiving things
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and you have to look at things through the eyes and lenses of scripture.
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So he's saying that to your point, because he doesn't like Trump.
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And to be honest, I think that there's probably certain things you could hone in about his
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life where you, and you've touched on this, I believe just to go like, yeah, I'm not saying
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he's my best friend, nor do I want him to be my pastor.
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Um, I might not, I'm not flying banners off my truck necessarily.
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Uh, you don't have to be that type of an individual, but you have to look at the policies, um, in a way
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And you also have to understand that the president is ultimately the leading figure of a coalition
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of 5,000 people that they'll elect into governmental positions.
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And so I don't know how you arrive at that position, honestly, uh, when you're thinking
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with the mind of Christ, um, you know, you mentioned, Hey, I don't know if Ray is totally
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Um, but I, I don't know how you arrive there when you just look at the, uh,
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full term abortions, the onslaught of sexuality, the absolute dismantling of the nuclear family
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You have to, if it was, if it's me, you really have to choose to push past your conscience
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to be able to say, Hey, I'm, I'm voting for Kamala Harris when she is totally opposed to
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you, you, you put it in regards to the creation narrative.
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She is opposed to the biblical worldview, like no one else in our country's history.
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And I don't even, obviously, I'm not even sure if it's just her, it's, she's representing,
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she's the figurehead of really people that are probably even more so against the God of
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And we live in a country that's reaping the worldview we've sown.
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Um, because the church has compromised even on that creation element, you know, there's
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I think three or three to five Christian colleges in America that still adhere to a biblical
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So sometimes we look at the news and we go, man, what happened?
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It's not just the culture is always going to be the culture.
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The world is always going to be the world, but the church is compromised on the ABCs of
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what it means to be a Christian or to follow the Lord.
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And now we've kind of dislodged the fulcrum upon which every Christian's worldview should
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And if you don't believe the first sentence of the Bible, I don't know where else you're
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So to answer your question about Ray, I don't know how we got there.
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But I think it is, and I said it, a foolish thing to say and malstewardship to say, hey,
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go vote for a person that is hellbent on slaughtering babies.
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Now, there are Christians who won't vote for Kamala Harris, but they see voting for Trump
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as compromise because of some of the things that he has said about abortion, even saying
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that he's going to make sure that we have taxpayer-funded IVF.
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And, of course, within that industry, we see destruction of innocent life as well.
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And so I have heard, and this is not the position that I take, and I've articulated my own position
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several times, and I've already voted for Trump.
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But I understand where some of my sincere godly friends are coming from when they say,
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look, if I vote for him, this is just rewarding that compromise.
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And if the Republican Party realizes that they can take God and marriage out of their platform,
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they can present someone who is functionally socially liberal, and we keep voting for them,
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They have no incentive to listen to us as evangelicals.
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And what would your response be to something like that?
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You know, I would say, first of all, I think from a political perspective,
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you would be far more informed than I would be.
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I'm a common-sense Christian that looks at the news, reads articles, listens to the briefing, you know?
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I would say, first of all, Trump has already displayed his malleability.
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He already elected two Supreme Court justices or put them in positions to be able to overturn
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But then I would say, hey, if you ever watch a Democratic commercial,
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What they're touting about Trump is his strict, radical position on abortion.
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He's going to take away your reproductive freedom, your rights.
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He's going to, you know, he's not going to be, you're not going to be able to have an abortion.
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But they're saying his position is so radical that that's the reason they have to keep him out of office.
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So then I would say, yeah, you, he's not a pastor.
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And I referenced that in to my church, just saying, hey, this man is a sinner.
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But to vote for someone, I referenced it, is the Latin word votum, which means to make a choice.
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And I am totally OK with saying I am punching a ticket against Kamala Harris by voting for Trump,
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because I'm going to do everything I can do to get Kamala or keep Kamala out of office.
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Even the language of to make a decision, decidere in Latin means to cut off.
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That's the one of the largest points of feedback is I say her name wrong.
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So I would, I think in regards to compromise, you know, I wouldn't encourage someone to violate
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their conscience, but I, as a pastor, want to inform their conscience through the lens
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of scripture saying, hey, we're choosing between two ungodly people.
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But I've seen Trump's responsiveness to different Christians.
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And we may not know what Trump will do when he's in office.
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I know exactly what Kamala Harris is going to do.
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And just real quick on the abortion thing, because people, this was a huge thing in the
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Well, first of all, no, I'm not a single issue voter necessarily.
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I'm a imago Dei voter, which means and includes morality, sexuality, authority of scripture, truth,
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All of those things are wrapped up into what we see as, and the product of that is abortion.
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But if I had to make a stance on a single issue, I'm totally fine saying the murder of
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So even, even amongst Christians saying, oh, you're just a single issue voter.
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I'm just like, well, I think that's a pretty important issue because it's revelatory of
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I, you know, I hear a lot of people saying, well, I'm holistically pro-life or I'm pro-life
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Which I think really dilutes what the anti-abortion position is.
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It's like suddenly our immigration policy is just as important as whether a baby has a
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right to not be murdered, which of course is not, um, not the same thing.
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And, and by the way, cause I hear that a lot too, single issue.
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And I'm like, well, abortion is the single issue for Democrats.
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Actually, when I see people like Steph Curry or other people who say that they are going
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to vote for Kamala Harris and the reason they give every single person, whether it's Taylor
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Swift or Ben Stiller or whoever it is, every single person has said reproductive rights,
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women's healthcare, which are euphemisms for abortion.
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So if it's their number one issue, the pagans, why can't it be our number one issue in the
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And we just, I think as Christians, we, we do have a responsibility to uphold righteousness
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in the land and to prevent, you know, Jesus says, uh, you're the salt of the earth, not
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And one of the main things that salt does is prevent corruption.
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And one of the chief hallmarks of the corruption in our culture is that even many within the
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church have been lulled and doled, uh, into the acceptability of abortion just as, yeah,
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And I think the more that I kind of think and pray through it, God loves babies.
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And so obviously I want my tone as a pastor to reflect, um, a staunch conviction.
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And that's where even when I said, and I think necessarily to circle back to say, if
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I'm talking with a 15 year old, that's debating having one, I'm saying, listen, God loves your
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It says in Psalm 119, 74, I, that God forms and fashions us in the womb.
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So it is a, it is a sad and tragic indictment on our world and in our culture, 200,000 babies
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Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, but he delegates his authority
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And we can talk about this more as the conversation progresses.
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I am, uh, totally believe that God is sovereign, which means that he rules and he reigns.
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But I think sometimes on a quest to elevate God's sovereignty, we can limit our responsibility
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You know, um, that would be like Esther saying, okay, Ahasuerus is going to murder the Jews
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Let's just entrust herself to the sovereignty of Yahweh.
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There's not even the mention of God in the book of Esther, but you have Mordecai pleading
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And we all know the line and we like the story, but there is a passivity that I think culture,
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um, Christians think is godly, but there's nothing godly about being passive, especially
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I think too, there's a misunderstanding of precedent.
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Sometimes we get this idea that this is what Christians have done for, you know, thousands
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But if you look at Zwingli, if you look at Calvin, if you look at Jonathan Edwards, his,
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you know, his ministry to get the Native Americans blankets and to, you know, there, those are,
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I'm picking three big reformed figures saying that there was always this push to be able
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to, to care for other people and to address moral issues.
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And that's the, the responsibility of the church.
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And I think in my clip, I mentioned, Hey, listen, yeah, he is already King.
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Um, but we have the freedom also to be able to, uh, try to sway, uh, things in a way that,
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And, and I said in the clip that the establishment of the church, Jesus building his church, the
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The continuation of the church is not going to be deterred by a political party with that
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being said, there's a massive difference in the church in North and South Korea.
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And so, and Christians in America, we get $400 billion away to charity every year because
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So I, I trust that Jesus is going to continue to build his church, but I'm also thankful and,
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uh, try to, and want to recognize that part of the reason why God has used the church
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And so I don't want to lose those because the Lord has used them.
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And we see that the government is instituted by God to reward good and punish evil.
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When I look at Kamala Harris, I see that throughout her career, she has punished good and rewarded
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I mean, the Harris Biden administration has put pro-lifers, peaceful pro-life protesters in
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federal prison, a 74 year old for three years because of her peaceful demonstration in front
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of an abortion clinic, even while rewarding Planned Parenthood.
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And I look at Donald Trump and I think, well, Donald Trump's probably going to pardon those
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And so that's rewarding good and hopefully punishing evil by defunding Planned Parenthood.
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So even just looking at the basic function of the government, Donald Trump seems to be
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more of the candidate of order than Kamala Harris.
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And I love how you put it in your, you just in that clip, you said, we have a responsibility
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And I think part of it is just going along with what I said regarding salt being a preservative,
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It's also a purifier because it is disseminated into the pollutants.
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And so when I say stem the tide of evil, we are called as Christians to shine bright in
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That's first Peter that God has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light so
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that we can declare that light to the lost world around us.
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With that being said, even going along with what you said, mentioning Romans 13, that's
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the function of the government is to punish evildoers and protect those who do good.
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And when government does the antithesis of that, we need to address that because that's
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So I, yeah, just in regards to stemming the tide of evil, even for non-believers, we have
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a responsibility not just to share Christ, but for the morality and the authority of scripture
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That doesn't mean we're, you know, extreme Christian nationalists and you address even
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No, we want to usher in a world that closely resembles the worldview of scripture.
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And I think that's why for the last 250 years, God has blessed our country to be the greatest
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civilization in human history because we adhered in a way close to that.
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And if we believe that God is love, the best way to love him is to agree with him.
00:24:47.520
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This is from a writer at The Gospel Coalition, and he posted, it's okay if you're a Christian
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It's okay if you're a Christian and you don't vote for Trump.
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It's okay if you're a Christian and you vote for Harris.
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It's okay if you're a Christian and you don't vote for Harris.
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And this is kind of where I see a lot of pastors leave it, and they feel like this is giving
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clarity to their congregation, that basically we're above politics, we transcend politics,
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I see their congregants looking to podcasts and TikTok and Instagram to tell them, okay,
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but what am I supposed to think, which I'm just not sure is a healthy place for them
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So that's even why, and you, you know, I mentioned that there were pitfalls on either
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side, for sure, but I did say one on the left is the Grand Canyon, meaning like, yeah, if
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you want to be perceived as balanced, and more and more, honestly, Allie, I just hate the
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word balanced, because it feels like you're trying to show that you kind of get, you know,
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I understand that there are pitfalls here, so you never really make an argument.
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Part of what a pastor does, you know, I remember my dad telling me when I was 12,
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You're proving something from the text, and obviously, when the text of Scripture intersects
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with the political and moral world, I'm not trying to make suggestions.
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I'm trying to make an argument, and I think typically, in the past, it has been acceptable
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to be able to say, hey, I want you to think through this with discernment.
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You're called, Matthew 10, to be shrewd as serpents, innocent as doves, 1 Chronicles 12,
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the sons of Issachar, were people that understood the times.
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And so there was, hopefully, an informed worldview where you could assume that people were making
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But, yeah, and I've seen recently other pastors that have said, you know, this party's bad,
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but this party, you know, the Republicans are just as bad.
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So in response to the Gospel Coalition writer, I don't know him individually or personally,
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I would just say that's, no, if you're a Christian, and if you're at my church, I would plead and
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I would say, no, no, it's a sin to vote for sin.
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And obviously, then the rebuttal would be like, what about Trump or whatever?
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I would just say, well, no, that's a less aggressive stance on what the left or radical
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secularism wants to do in dismantling the nuclear family, demolishing the authority of Scripture.
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And so, yeah, I wouldn't subscribe to that mentality.
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Because you can't read the Scripture and come to the conclusion.
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I think Ray, Ortlund, and I are going to be in glory together.
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I don't know his heart, you know, but I have a hard time with what he said.
00:29:39.900
And it was, for me, confusing why no one else was saying anything about it.
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And I wanted to at least try to do that as best I can.
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I think some people confuse moral relativism and impartiality.
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They think they're being impartial, which, of course, God calls us to do.
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But really, they're just being confusing or, as you said, cowardly.
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And I think it's different, too, because I've heard different older men that I really respect say, I've never endorsed a political candidate.
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And I would say what I did wasn't even, I wasn't making an endorsement, hey, Trump's the man.
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And so you have to try to keep her out of office, which is different than me saying, putting my arm around Trump's shoulder and saying, vote, vote, vote, vote.
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You know, fist bumping him and taking photos, which I think he's a funny guy, but compromising those different things.
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So that would be different in my mind than making an endorsement of this individual.
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Obviously, there always has been because we see Jesus's refrain.
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But today, I think all of us are worried, no matter who wins, what kind of country we'll have for our kids and for our grandkids.
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Will they have the same protections and freedoms that we have?
00:31:22.180
And you've written a book about anxiety called Consider the Lilies.
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Tell me before we talk about what's in it, what inspired you to write it?
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No, I was really thankful for the opportunity to write.
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The inspiration behind writing was when I was working at that student camp, you know, there are a thousand new high school students that would come every week.
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They would leave on Saturday, and then on Sunday, another thousand would get bussed in.
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And within like three weeks of working there, I became accustomed to terms like panic attack, anxiety attack, self-harm, depression.
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2016, 17 through 22, really, was my involvement there.
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And I still go up there to preach in the summers.
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And so that was just a unique world for me to navigate and was talking with 15-year-olds that were anxious.
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That could have been over AP U.S. history, or it could have been, I've had three abortions.
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And then I found that the counselors and pastors that came alongside those students, if they weren't struggling with anxiety themselves, were at least wondering how to minister to those that were assigned to their care.
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And I started doing an optional seminar in the afternoons entitled, What Does the Bible Say About My Anxiety?
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And it was during free time activities like paddleboarding and, you know, volleyball and flirting or whatever it may have been.
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But the students were coming, really, the large percentage of them because they were so crippled by it.
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You know, at night, at camp, we have to distribute the meds for students.
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And just over the last few years that I was there, that amount of medications that was being dispensed just for the students that were anxious grew exponentially.
00:33:12.000
Then I went from, you know, you could say, okay, those are students.
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Some of them just were coming to a Christian camp for the week because that was their opportunity to get away.
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Then I went from there to a Christian university where students attended Bible classes, Bible chapels, and went to Bible churches.
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And I just began to really think through, like, how does God respond to the anxious?
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And then obviously now I'm a lead pastor of a church.
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And the composition of struggles, there's a level of variance there.
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But whether someone is 16 or 73, there is that looming element of anxiety.
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And you see so many responses to our anxiety in the scripture that it's not a new issue.
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Obviously, Solomon says that there's nothing new under the sun.
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And so this has plagued the people of God for years and years and years.
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And there are other good resources that I have read, but not one with the predominant thesis that I wanted to pursue.
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So in regards to just mainly what the book is about, you know, I just begin to trace how does God respond to the anxious in his word?
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You know, and I think it's probably worth mentioning that sometimes people feel condemned just for feeling anxious.
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But you have all these different figures in God's word, like David, who is a warrior and the man after God's own heart.
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At one point, he's going to pray in the Psalms.
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Every single night, I make my bed swim with tears.
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You have Moses, who is the leader of two million people, the giver of the law.
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And then you have Elijah, who's the prophet of faithfulness.
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He's going to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jesus Christ and Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration.
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And at one point, after he defeats 850 false prophets, slaughters them, he's going to crawl into a cave and ask God to take his life.
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Then you have Job, who is the most blameless man on earth.
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At one point, he's saying every single night, my life is tuned to the sound of mourning.
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And I mentioned those figures just to show you that those are four of the godliest characters in the Old Testament.
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And they deeply struggled with anxiety and despair.
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But the way that God responds to them is not by telling them, let me tell you why this is happening.
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But by telling and responding them, let me tell you who I am.
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And when God responds to Job, he doesn't say, okay, Job, let me tell you about the conversation that I had with Satan.
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And here's why the Sabaeans and Chaldeans and wind and fire attacked everything you had.
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I'm going to give you an understanding of my character.
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And for four chapters, God goes on and reveals his character.
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And at the end of the book, Job says, my ears have always heard, but now my eyes see.
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And when God responds to Elijah, it's the same thing.
00:36:00.380
Gives him a nap and a snack, and then he proclaims his character.
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When David says, why are you downcast on my soul?
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And when Moses says, I can't talk well, send someone else.
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God responds to Moses and says, who made man's mouth?
00:36:19.400
And sometimes people would say, well, how does Jesus respond in the new?
00:36:22.400
And I would just say, well, based on the reality that God never changes,
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neither does the prescription he provides as the great physician.
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And so when Jesus is on the mount, the sermon, giving the sermon on the mount,
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And I think sometimes, Allie, we think, oh, their struggles were so different than our own.
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You know, our struggles today, our anxieties today.
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But we have to remember that the Jewish people that Jesus was addressing
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They used to crucify men, women, and children for 40 miles, leading to a city
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It was literally the Roman Tetrarch Herod who chopped off the head of John the Baptist
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and his relative that killed all the babies in Luke and Matthew.
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And Jesus says to them, you know, don't be anxious about what you're going to eat,
00:37:15.060
what you're going to drink, what you're going to wear for clothing.
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And I think sometimes that's an important reminder that he doesn't just provide a prohibition.
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And he says, hey, look at those lilies over there.
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And obviously, the name of my book is Consider the Lilies
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because that's the way Jesus beckons his anxious followers to think
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because psychologists think that anxiety is the product of thinking too much.
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Jesus says anxiety is the fruit of thinking too little about the character of God.
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And so he just says, hey, I want you to consider the lilies over there.
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And all of his glory was provided for like one of them.
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Do the birds elect captains of food acquisition?
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No, two of them are sold for a single cent, it says in Matthew 11.
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And Jesus argues from the lesser than to the greater than and says,
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hey, if I care for the larks and I care for the lilies,
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how much more am I going to provide for those who are made in my image
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And so he gets us to look to the character of God.
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And I think sometimes we pray, God, take away my anxiety,
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but our life has a very shallow rooting in the depth of God's character.
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And when God is responding to all these individuals in his word,
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He wants them to know something deeper about who he is.
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Obviously, the size of our faith is always in proportion to the size of our God in our mind.
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And so that's the focal point of the book is on the attributes of God that buoy the anxious,
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provide us with comfort, provide us with encouragement.
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And I think, Ali, sometimes we look at the attributes of God,
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which would be his love, his wisdom, his sovereignty, which means he's in control.
00:39:03.220
The fact that he's omniscient, which means he's all-knowing.
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Sometimes we look at those attributes like pieces of the pie that is God.
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But God has all of his attributes all of the time in full measure.
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So let's pretend you're going through something difficult.
00:39:21.520
I remember when my friend's mom died in college,
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I watched the guy come up and slap him on the back and say,
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But God's sovereignty can never be divorced from his love nor his wisdom.
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And so all of these attributes have to be looked at comprehensively
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because God's not just the king of the universe.
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and divorce that from the reality that he is the king
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then his love as a father is just sentimentality.
00:40:00.180
Ecclesiastes 9, my entire life is in the palm of his hands.
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because we have a deficient at times commitment to his word.
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but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
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will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
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Okay, I've got my own box now with good ranchers.
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That's goodranchers.com slash Allie code Allie.