Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - December 14, 2020


Ep 338 | Waging Quiet Resistance Through Bold Obedience


Episode Stats


Length

39 minutes

Words per minute

177.47147

Word count

7,030

Sentence count

362

Harmful content

Hate speech

14

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I talk about what our role is as Christians in the midst of all of this, and why it's important to remember that we're not just a bunch of bones that need to be fed and cared for. We need a worldview.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey, guys, welcome to Relatable.
00:00:11.300 Happy Monday.
00:00:12.100 Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.
00:00:14.860 If you have not listened to Friday's episode with Sagar and Jetty, make sure that you go
00:00:19.420 do that.
00:00:19.880 We talked about a wide variety of things, but we talked about populism as a political
00:00:24.320 and even cultural perspective.
00:00:25.840 We talked about the threat of China.
00:00:27.460 These are not always things that we talk about specifically and in detail on this podcast,
00:00:33.160 but we did get into a good bit of detail.
00:00:35.540 And I think that his perspective on things and where we are as a country is very refreshing.
00:00:42.200 Now, if you ended that episode, if you did listen to that episode, if you didn't go listen
00:00:46.100 to it, but if you did listen to that episode or watch that episode and you're thinking,
00:00:49.460 oh, my gosh, like it, you know, we're living in such a dire time and you're worried about
00:00:56.180 a perspective Biden presidency and you're worried about where the country is going, you're worried
00:01:00.580 about a China takeover, you're worried about irreconcilable differences between the right
00:01:05.680 and the left, that's an understandable concern.
00:01:09.380 But today we're not going to talk about the political aspects of it.
00:01:12.320 I want to talk about what our role is as Christians in the midst of all of this.
00:01:17.080 I want to take a break from the nitty gritty of the politics, because for the last couple
00:01:21.540 episodes, we did talk about political things.
00:01:24.460 But I have heard feedback from you guys that sometimes you just want to break from that.
00:01:29.040 Like you want to talk about bigger picture issues.
00:01:31.040 You want to talk about deeper issues than what's going on on the surface.
00:01:34.240 And look, I believe that what's going on on the surface, I obviously believe that politics
00:01:38.580 and these cultural issues and the headlines and still the election litigation that's going
00:01:43.820 on right now, all of those things very much matter.
00:01:46.960 And there are worldview implications of all of those.
00:01:49.760 And we talked about on Wednesday, when we talked about the coronavirus lockdowns, the
00:01:53.600 arbitrary lockdowns, the unscientific shutdowns of schools, that all of that actually comes
00:01:58.800 from a worldview, that that comes from a materialist, secularist worldview that denies real holistic
00:02:06.000 human nature, that we actually have emotional needs.
00:02:09.020 We have spiritual needs that are met by fellowship, that are met by in-person interactions.
00:02:13.820 That are met by being able to provide for ourselves and for our families.
00:02:17.420 Like we're not just bags of bones that are only threatened by a virus.
00:02:22.740 We are also threatened by tyranny.
00:02:25.660 Like we are also threatened by being isolated in our homes.
00:02:28.820 We are also threatened by a lack of education.
00:02:31.440 We are threatened with a whole host of things that are unfortunately being imposed on us by
00:02:37.700 politicians who care much more about power than protecting us from a virus.
00:02:42.020 And so we always try to take the things that are going on and link them to the deeper reality
00:02:50.080 that we as Christians abide by.
00:02:51.940 I know I don't always do that perfectly, but that's my goal in most episodes.
00:02:57.220 So obviously, I think that the things that are going on matter.
00:03:00.260 But sometimes we just have to take a break from the headlines for a second and the weeds
00:03:05.600 of what's going on and just remind ourselves big picture of what our role is in the midst
00:03:11.520 of this.
00:03:12.280 We on Instagram talked a little bit about eschatology.
00:03:17.580 So that means the end times.
00:03:18.800 And I've talked about that several times on my podcast before.
00:03:21.380 You can go back to an episode over a year ago now.
00:03:25.700 I think it was summer of 2019 that it came out where I talked about my view of what is
00:03:33.260 going to happen in the end times according to Scripture.
00:03:36.380 This is not a gospel or salvation issue in that there are lots of sincere Christians who 1.00
00:03:43.180 disagree on what the end times will actually look like.
00:03:46.400 We are all believing in the sufficiency and inerrancy of Scripture.
00:03:49.620 But because these are complex and difficult subjects to analyze and to approach, there are
00:03:56.520 disagreements between faithful Christians on these things.
00:03:59.280 And we kind of all understand that it's okay that we disagree.
00:04:03.160 So I am a post-tribulation, a pre-millennialist.
00:04:08.840 And so I do not believe that believers will be raptured before the tribulation, but that
00:04:14.660 we will, if we're alive at that time, endure the tribulation.
00:04:17.420 And then Jesus will come back.
00:04:20.900 He will catch up believers at that time.
00:04:22.980 And I won't get into all of it, but I actually posted the timeline of what people like me,
00:04:28.140 which is just classic, traditional pre-millennialism, believe about the end times.
00:04:33.040 And then you've got someone like John MacArthur who believes in pre-tribulation, pre-millennialist.
00:04:39.460 And so he actually believes that believers who are alive at the beginning of the tribulation 0.87
00:04:43.440 will be raptured up, that they won't have to endure the tribulation.
00:04:48.120 Then you've got post-millennialism.
00:04:49.680 You've got a millennialism.
00:04:51.060 And I had Jeff Durbin, a post-millennialist on my podcast, do a two-part series with me
00:04:56.460 that was very popular.
00:04:58.000 And we kind of went back and forth, mostly him just talking, but a little bit back and
00:05:02.400 forth about the biblical support for pre-millennialism versus post-millennialism.
00:05:07.300 Vody Bauckham, who I've had on this podcast, who is an amazing teacher that I very much respect.
00:05:11.720 He's an amillennialist.
00:05:13.560 And if you're curious about what all of this is, you can go back and you can listen to my
00:05:17.340 end times podcast that I did over a year ago.
00:05:20.320 You can also go to gotquestions.org, gives a lot of great resources on this.
00:05:24.480 My big systematic theology book by Wayne Grudem that is just a staple, I think, in learning
00:05:29.900 biblical theology.
00:05:31.180 I've also had Wayne Grudem on this podcast.
00:05:33.280 It gives a great explanation and depictions of what that means.
00:05:36.160 But so all of that said, all of that said, we have disagreements, obviously, on eschatology
00:05:41.940 and in times within Christianity.
00:05:44.420 But the point is, is that we all believe that one day Christ will rule in perfect peace.
00:05:51.440 Like we already believe that he is the king of kings, that he is the ruler of all, that
00:05:56.140 nothing happens outside of his sovereign will.
00:05:59.080 But that one day he will destroy his enemies forever, that there will be no war, that there
00:06:07.560 will be no sorrow, there will be no sin, there will be no evil, there will be no partisanship,
00:06:12.700 there will be no political parties, there will be no factions, that there will be no dissonance,
00:06:21.160 there will be no dissent from the king of kings, that he will rule in totality in perfect peace.
00:06:28.280 That's what all Christians believe in.
00:06:30.840 And we are all working to live in such a way that speaks to that hope, that looks forward
00:06:37.880 to that hope, that looks forward to that assurance.
00:06:40.600 Now, we disagree on what that means as far as political involvement, as far as cultural
00:06:47.800 involvement.
00:06:48.880 Obviously, I believe that we should care about culture and politics, like I said.
00:06:53.360 But the point of all of our lives, those of us who hope in Christ, is to glorify God and
00:06:59.980 to make him known and to make his will done on earth as it is in heaven, as the Lord's
00:07:04.720 prayer tells us to do.
00:07:07.260 So no matter how involved you are in politics, no matter how much that you are going to make
00:07:11.400 yourself care about the threat of China, for example, the question is, how do we, in light
00:07:15.860 of whatever our eschatological views are, down to the details, but in light of the forever
00:07:22.440 reign of Christ and the full authority of Christ, how do we live our lives in a way that resists
00:07:27.780 evil?
00:07:28.240 We are told in the Bible to cling to what is good and to resist evil with everything that
00:07:34.760 we have.
00:07:35.380 A lot of people ask me, like, how do I push back against liberal indoctrination?
00:07:41.120 How do I push back against liberal policies?
00:07:43.580 How do I push back against the things that I know aren't good for my kids, aren't good
00:07:47.040 for my family, aren't good for my community and neighborhood?
00:07:50.020 And of course, we talk about those things.
00:07:51.940 Voting is important.
00:07:53.140 Talking to your representatives, your city council, your school board, making sure that
00:07:57.620 your kids are protected as much as possible from secular ideology and raising them up in
00:08:03.220 the way that they should go, discipling them closely, being intimately involved in the details
00:08:07.700 of your kids' lives and making sure they know who made them, why they were made, what
00:08:12.960 they were for, who has the authority over the heavens and the earth.
00:08:16.720 All of these things are ways to push back against what we think are harmful policies and what
00:08:25.340 we think are harmful and anti-God ideologies in our life.
00:08:30.980 But I want to comfort you in the fact that it's not always in the form of a political revolution.
00:08:35.480 Like, you do not have to be the person who is constantly posting on social media.
00:08:40.720 You don't have to be a person with a podcast.
00:08:42.660 You don't have to be a blogger.
00:08:43.840 You don't have to be a journalist.
00:08:45.380 You don't have to be a speaker.
00:08:46.840 You don't have to write a book in order to have influence and in order to push back against
00:08:51.680 evil because you living as though you know, you know exactly who is the ruler over all,
00:08:59.660 who you ultimately submit to, who is the king of kings.
00:09:03.040 That in itself is defiance of tyranny.
00:09:06.820 That in itself is defiance of evil.
00:09:09.600 You living in a way that you are subscribing to the tenets of Christianity, the commands 0.89
00:09:18.820 of the Bible and the dictates of scripture over any earthly authority is a form of resistance.
00:09:31.400 It is a form of protest, Protestants. 1.00
00:09:34.000 And I am, as you guys know who have been listening to this podcast, a reformed Protestant.
00:09:39.800 The Reformation, the reason why we were called Protestants is because we were protesting against 0.88
00:09:45.920 what was at the time corruption and unbiblical doctrines within the Catholic Church.
00:09:51.860 And Protestants have continued to push back against what we feel is corruption and what
00:09:57.620 we feel is bad leadership and what we feel like is anti-God.
00:10:00.880 That has not always been in the form of us overthrowing kings or resisting, you know, for
00:10:06.780 example, within the Catholic Church, the papacy.
00:10:09.340 It means that we abide by the word of God, even when it's unpopular, even when we're castigated
00:10:15.940 for it, even when we're chastised, even when we're persecuted.
00:10:19.940 And I think we in America, we see resistance only as being able to, you know, speak out
00:10:26.640 about things or protest or like take on some movement, which is all great.
00:10:30.800 Like we have the freedom to do that.
00:10:32.040 Obviously, I have a podcast because I think these things matter.
00:10:34.660 But throughout the world, the way that people are resisting like dictatorships in different
00:10:38.720 countries that don't allow religious liberty is by worshiping together, like by sharing the
00:10:44.960 gospel, by reading their Bible, like these are acts of resistance that are powerful in
00:10:50.480 the kingdom of God.
00:10:51.640 They have spiritual implications.
00:10:53.580 They have eternal implications.
00:10:55.960 Like, don't you think that Satan is also afraid?
00:10:59.500 Satan is also trembling, like when the person in a country that does not have religious liberty 0.99
00:11:05.180 is reading his Bible or is sharing the gospel or is worshiping with fellow believers.
00:11:11.160 So I am encouraging you that if you ever feel like you are helpless or hopeless, like you
00:11:16.500 don't know what to do to make change, like how do you make everyone aware of this particular
00:11:20.240 issue?
00:11:20.740 God might be calling you to speak out.
00:11:23.420 He might be calling you to have a platform.
00:11:25.120 He might be calling you to lead some kind of movement or to start some kind of organization
00:11:29.340 or to start some kind of ministry.
00:11:31.600 He may absolutely be calling you to do that.
00:11:34.120 Or he could be calling you to be radical in your daily obedience.
00:11:38.680 He could be calling you to take advantage of the liberties that you have by also reading
00:11:44.120 your Bible, by caring for your neighbor, by being hospitable in a time that we're told
00:11:48.080 that we can't be hospitable, by being generous in a time that we're being told to hoard
00:11:51.900 everything that we have, by sharing the gospel in a time that we are being told that imposing
00:11:57.060 your values on another person is actually hateful and it's bigotry.
00:12:01.380 Standing for the truth of God's word when it comes to controversial issues like marriage
00:12:06.080 and gender and sexuality and defense of life inside the womb, even just in conversations
00:12:13.060 with your friends and teaching your kids the truth about God's word, the truth about who
00:12:17.260 created the heavens and the earth and therefore who has the authority over all of it.
00:12:20.720 Maybe that's your radical resistance.
00:12:23.140 Like maybe that's how you make the biggest changes.
00:12:25.940 By being a faithful, godly wife, by being a good and a loving and a caring mother, by
00:12:35.760 being a loyal friend in an era that tells you that you have to cut off people that are not
00:12:41.740 serving your interests right away, that there's actually nothing virtuous about being a faithful
00:12:47.180 friend.
00:12:48.180 There's nothing virtuous about speaking truth.
00:12:50.060 There's nothing virtuous about standing up for the things that you know are true.
00:12:54.000 Basically, we're encouraged to be these morally relativistic, selfish noodles of people,
00:12:59.280 whereas the Bible is telling us to absolutely stand firm.
00:13:03.520 And so maybe you being radical is standing on the word of God and submitting to Christ and
00:13:07.920 all that you think, say, and do, and not borrowing the language from the culture even a little
00:13:12.740 bit, not borrowing ideas from the culture even a little bit, not going along on the mainstream
00:13:17.560 from culture even a little bit, ignoring the bullies who tell you that you have to think
00:13:22.600 a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way, parent a certain way, live a certain way
00:13:28.040 in order to fit in with the cultural powers that be, like, maybe your resistance, maybe
00:13:35.760 your revolution.
00:13:36.800 It's just submission to Christ.
00:13:38.280 Maybe that's all of our revolution.
00:13:41.280 And I think it looks differently for everyone.
00:13:44.340 It does.
00:13:44.840 Like, God uses our particular talents, as the Bible tells us, in different ways to serve the
00:13:49.660 body of Christ.
00:13:51.660 And I think we just have to make sure that we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, that
00:13:56.600 we're praying for sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to convict us on where to go and what
00:14:00.700 to do.
00:14:01.080 So take a deep breath and realize that you might not be called to start a movement or
00:14:05.840 to even start a podcast or to have a platform.
00:14:09.500 And you don't need those things.
00:14:11.160 You don't have to be an influencer to have influence, not in the kingdom of God.
00:14:14.860 One of my favorite passages is 1 Corinthians 1, and I'm just going to pull that up so I
00:14:21.320 don't botch it.
00:14:23.360 But I just love the counterintuitive nature of God in his kingdom.
00:14:29.300 So this is God through Paul speaking in 1 Corinthians 1, starting in verse, let's see.
00:14:38.080 Okay, starting in verse 18.
00:14:40.140 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18.
00:15:10.140 I know this is a long passage, and I didn't realize how long it was going to be when I
00:15:27.300 started reading, but I got to keep going because the meat of it is still coming.
00:15:32.620 For consider your calling, brothers.
00:15:35.600 Not many of you were wise, according to worldly standards.
00:15:38.220 Not many of you were powerful.
00:15:40.140 Not many of you were of noble birth.
00:15:42.000 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
00:15:45.080 God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
00:15:47.580 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring
00:15:51.120 to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
00:15:55.440 And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness
00:15:59.960 and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast
00:16:04.520 in the Lord.
00:16:05.100 So God does not need your ability to gain an audience.
00:16:09.340 He doesn't need your ability to articulate ideas well.
00:16:12.480 He doesn't need your particular talents.
00:16:18.620 He doesn't need whatever we believe that we are good at, even the gifts that he gave us.
00:16:24.780 He is going to use people as he sees fit.
00:16:26.860 And yes, he does very often use our talents and our gifts to advance his will and to bring
00:16:31.440 him glory, to advance his kingdom.
00:16:33.120 Absolutely.
00:16:34.200 But God is not looking throughout the world and trying to pick the most powerful people,
00:16:39.380 the most influential people, the most beautiful people, the people that are in the most powerful
00:16:45.920 positions in the world.
00:16:46.980 That's not who he is picking.
00:16:48.200 He has chosen us before the foundation of the world, as Ephesians 1, 5 says, in love
00:16:56.180 that he might do in us the work that he wants to do.
00:17:00.800 And so, and this passage says the reason that he does this, like he picks the people that
00:17:05.800 the world would not pick.
00:17:07.600 He picks the people that the world does not regard as important so that he can shame the
00:17:12.180 people who fancy themselves important so that, this passage says, no one might boast, no
00:17:19.820 one might boast before the Lord.
00:17:21.620 That we don't have our own things, our own qualifications, our own competence to boast
00:17:27.300 in, but we get to boast in God.
00:17:29.120 This is what he does.
00:17:30.020 So the pressure is off of us.
00:17:31.960 I just feel that a lot of us feel a lot of pressure to be something, to make something
00:17:36.660 of ourselves, to make our voices known, and I know I'm saying this as someone, with a
00:17:41.600 podcast.
00:17:42.900 Who knows how long this podcast is going to last?
00:17:45.000 Like, I don't know how long the season of my life is going to last.
00:17:48.320 I'm probably not going to be called to do a podcast or have a platform forever.
00:17:51.660 There's going to be a time where other people have a platform, and I don't, and I'm behind
00:17:56.520 the scenes, and I'm not doing this anymore, and there are different seasons of our life.
00:18:00.220 But the fact of the matter is, is that the pressure is off of us.
00:18:03.180 All we are called to do is to submit to God, who is going to do with us what he wants to
00:18:08.260 do with us, no matter what the world says, and no matter how the world defines success
00:18:13.500 and influence.
00:18:14.640 And the quiet revolution of submission to Christ is exactly what God is calling his humble
00:18:19.460 servants to do.
00:18:20.720 I also want to read to you Ephesians 2.
00:18:24.420 This is all just like kind of coming into my head.
00:18:26.560 If you haven't noticed, I actually kind of had a different plan for this episode today.
00:18:30.540 Um, but I also want to read you part of Ephesians 2, which if you've listened to this podcast,
00:18:37.320 you know how often I cite this passage, which is one of my favorite passages in the Bible,
00:18:43.740 because Ephesians is really, it's my, it's one of my favorite books of the Bible.
00:18:49.020 Ephesians and Genesis are two of my favorite books of the Bible.
00:18:52.160 Genesis, I just think is amazing storytelling.
00:18:54.180 And I'm not talking about, uh, like fairytale storytelling, just the narrative of how God
00:18:59.800 created the world and then his people in the early days. 0.98
00:19:03.080 It's just fascinating to me.
00:19:04.640 And I love it.
00:19:05.220 Like Genesis, there are moments that make me laugh.
00:19:07.500 There are moments that I'm like, I can't believe that happened.
00:19:09.240 That's crazy.
00:19:09.880 I love the book of Genesis and I love the book of Ephesians because I think it speaks so
00:19:14.020 perfectly to what the gospel is.
00:19:15.700 Like it explains so well in Ephesians 2, who we were before Christ and then what Christ
00:19:21.160 does in us.
00:19:22.520 And then what is the result of that salvation that we did not, uh, that we did not earn.
00:19:27.560 So talking about in first Corinthians one, and I actually didn't even mean to make this
00:19:31.200 connection, but it works really well.
00:19:32.820 And first Corinthians one saying, Hey, look, God chose you.
00:19:35.820 He chose what is weak in the world.
00:19:37.500 He chose what is small in the world.
00:19:39.040 He chose what is insignificant and unwise to the world.
00:19:41.800 And he is going to shame the self-importance and the self-righteousness and the self-empowerment
00:19:48.200 of the world.
00:19:49.540 And he is going to show his power through what the world considers weak vessels so that no
00:19:55.680 one can boast and everyone has to glorify God for the things that he has done through
00:20:00.420 these people.
00:20:01.820 Uh, this idea that he chose us is reiterated also in Ephesians and also the result of that,
00:20:10.180 what that means is glorifying God in us, obeying him.
00:20:14.000 So Ephesians two, eight through 10, for by grace, you have been saved through faith.
00:20:18.500 And this is not your own doing.
00:20:20.200 So again, you can't boast.
00:20:21.520 It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship
00:20:28.860 created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in
00:20:35.220 them.
00:20:35.360 And I just want to do an aside, I wasn't going to do, I wasn't going to do this, uh, faith
00:20:40.220 versus works, uh, argument right here, but I just love to emphasize in this particular
00:20:46.400 passage, how, how much, how many pains are taken in these few verses to explain that it
00:20:56.100 is God who saves us, that our works cannot save us, that our words cannot save us, that
00:21:01.800 it is God alone so that we can not boast.
00:21:05.860 We didn't, the only thing that we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary
00:21:10.020 as the saying goes.
00:21:11.260 And I did not come up with that.
00:21:13.120 It is God who saves us.
00:21:14.480 It is God as Ephesians one, five says, who chose us.
00:21:17.820 Romans nine also, uh, makes this very clear.
00:21:21.040 And people say, well, faith without works is dead.
00:21:23.480 What about that?
00:21:24.360 Yes, that's true.
00:21:25.100 But this Ephesians two 10 actually answers exactly what that means for we are his workmanship
00:21:30.800 created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk
00:21:38.120 in them.
00:21:38.720 And so even the good works that we do that are not, um, they are products of our faith.
00:21:44.560 Like they do not create our salvation, but they are results of our salvation.
00:21:49.700 Even those, we can't take credit for it.
00:21:51.520 Even those, uh, are, are God's workmanship, which he prepared beforehand.
00:21:56.980 Uh, and the works that he prepared beforehand for us to do are the ones that we are going
00:22:01.920 to accomplish.
00:22:02.660 So again, I'm just trying to reiterate one that it's faith by grace through faith that
00:22:08.200 saves us.
00:22:08.640 It's not your own doing, but really the larger point that I've been trying to make is that
00:22:12.420 the pressure is off.
00:22:13.220 Like the pressure is off of you to, uh, to try to come up with your own significance,
00:22:21.540 to try to be what the world says is important or influential, even in the realm of Christianity.
00:22:28.380 Obviously there's nothing wrong with doing what seems like big things, but doing the good
00:22:34.320 works that God prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in them is exactly the quiet
00:22:40.400 resistance and the quiet revolution that changes nations.
00:22:44.780 I mean, it changes lives.
00:22:46.300 It'll change your kid's life.
00:22:48.200 It'll change your family's life.
00:22:49.540 It'll change your own life.
00:22:50.860 It'll, it has an effect on your neighborhood.
00:22:52.980 It has an effect then on your community has an effect on your church.
00:22:56.040 It has an effect on your state.
00:22:57.460 And then it has an effect on your country and the world.
00:22:59.520 And that doesn't mean that necessarily the world is going to start grunting towards the
00:23:04.220 cross right now, but it does mean that that's ultimately, uh, that every knee will bow and
00:23:10.200 every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
00:23:12.420 And that God has chosen by his sovereign will to use our obedience and our good works that
00:23:17.940 he prepared beforehand as the channel through which his kingdom is advancing here on earth.
00:23:24.600 That is revolutionary.
00:23:26.740 That's huge.
00:23:28.080 There's nothing bigger than that.
00:23:29.580 So if you ever feel mom, if you ever feel student, if you ever feel employee, like you're
00:23:35.420 not doing enough by being a Christian, like you just gotta, you gotta do something else. 0.85
00:23:41.760 You gotta, you gotta start something.
00:23:43.500 You gotta start a movement, start an organization.
00:23:45.060 Maybe, maybe so.
00:23:46.980 Maybe the Lord is calling you to that.
00:23:48.760 He has given you the specific opportunity, the connections, the leadership abilities to be
00:23:53.280 able to, to do that, to start a podcast, to start a movement, to start an organization.
00:23:58.320 Um, all of those things are great and wonderful things.
00:24:00.840 And if he is calling you to those things, he will equip you to do those things.
00:24:04.460 But if you are a mom, for example, who feels like you're, uh, the mundane moments throughout
00:24:11.480 your day are not doing anything, that the changing of the diapers is not doing anything.
00:24:17.000 That the, uh, washing the dishes, that the cleaning of the house, that the making the dinner,
00:24:22.280 that the getting together with your friends, that it's not doing enough, maybe, maybe, and
00:24:30.060 I would say the probably, definitely, although I can't tell you what the Holy Spirit is doing
00:24:35.940 in your heart and mind.
00:24:37.000 Like this is the radical revolution that God is calling you to by carrying out the good
00:24:43.520 and excellent works that he prepared for us beforehand.
00:24:47.440 And maybe you'll have a season of your life where things will look different, where you
00:24:51.440 will be called to something, you know, some kind of thing in, in, in addition, maybe so.
00:24:57.400 But let's not take for granted the season in which God has placed us.
00:25:01.840 There are a lot of opportunities, like I said, at the beginning of this episode to, to be radical,
00:25:07.520 um, and to be different because we're being told that we have to be isolated and that we
00:25:13.600 can't, that we're not allowed to worship together in some places, that we're not allowed to be
00:25:18.540 hospitable in some ways, um, that we should be scared of our neighbor, that we should be
00:25:23.940 distrusting of our neighbor and that, uh, we should be angry at our neighbor for not agreeing
00:25:29.460 with us.
00:25:29.960 There are a lot of ways to push back against that.
00:25:31.940 And I'm not advocating for recklessness with the coronavirus guys.
00:25:35.240 I've said that a hundred million times, but people still need love right now.
00:25:40.500 Like the good works that God has prepared for us to do haven't been suspended.
00:25:44.400 God's will hasn't been suspended.
00:25:45.920 The timeline, the grand timeline of redemption, um, hasn't been suspended.
00:25:51.500 It hasn't been altered.
00:25:52.540 It hasn't been thwarted in some way.
00:25:53.980 Like we're not taking like some, some pause in the span of eternity, just because we have
00:25:58.780 bureaucrats trying to lock down society.
00:26:01.440 Like Jesus is still coming back at the time that the father has planned that he is going
00:26:06.340 to come back.
00:26:07.060 That's still happening.
00:26:07.940 And so our obedience is not less important now.
00:26:11.740 Like we are not, uh, we are not, um, excused for lack of a better term because we are in,
00:26:20.200 you know, a public health crisis and, uh, in economic and a government crisis right now.
00:26:25.620 Now, this is the time that the church thrives.
00:26:27.720 And that's another piece of encouragement that I want to get, uh, that I want to give you that
00:26:31.420 I'll get to in just one second.
00:26:32.720 But first I have to take a quick ad break.
00:26:37.940 So the reality is, is that these times are actually when the church thrives.
00:26:49.680 Like this is when the church steps up.
00:26:53.040 I heard a pastor, uh, a few years ago that unfortunately, uh, I no longer align with in,
00:27:00.740 in, in, in some ways, but he has a lot of good stuff and, and something that he said was that
00:27:06.320 the church thrives on the margins.
00:27:08.540 And so while I obviously think the fight for things like religious liberty are so important,
00:27:14.200 um, and I want this to be a country where Christians and people of all faiths can worship
00:27:19.540 freely and can speak freely, uh, can gather freely.
00:27:22.720 I, uh, also realize that when the church is pushed to the margins of society, when we're
00:27:28.300 no longer mainstream, when it's no longer popular or safe or lucrative, uh, to be a
00:27:35.260 Christian, that is, it's not where the church is destroyed.
00:27:38.620 That is where the, the church, uh, steps up to the plate, the true church.
00:27:43.580 Yes.
00:27:44.240 There are people who have lived their lives as cultural Christians, as comfortable Christians,
00:27:48.260 as nominal Christians who then walk away and they say, you know what?
00:27:52.240 This is too costly for me, uh, but those who left us were never with us as, as scripture
00:27:57.260 says, and those people may have been Christians while it was comfortable, but, you know, they 1.00
00:28:02.320 were like the seed thrown on the, the bad soil.
00:28:05.500 And once things became difficult, once things became thorny, they said, you know, I'm out.
00:28:10.940 I'm not going to do this anymore.
00:28:12.440 I'm just going to join the culture.
00:28:14.420 I think that we've probably seen that a lot recently.
00:28:17.320 Um, and so as the church has pushed to the margins, yes, their numbers,
00:28:22.000 make it fewer because it gets more difficult and people who have not counted the cost as
00:28:26.940 Jesus tells us to, to count, uh, to count it before we become his disciples are going
00:28:33.300 to decide, yeah, it's just way too costly.
00:28:35.560 It's way too expensive.
00:28:36.980 It's way too unsafe.
00:28:38.420 It's way too uncomfortable for me.
00:28:39.940 And so there will be people who decide that they're going to walk away from Christianity
00:28:43.800 altogether.
00:28:44.580 There are going to be people who try to maintain some semblance of Christianity while mimicking
00:28:49.120 the world's talking points on every single issue.
00:28:53.260 And obviously those people, unfortunately, haven't submitted to the authority of Christ.
00:28:57.780 And I'm not just talking about people who, oh, they disagree with me on politics or they
00:29:01.500 disagree with me on these theological issues.
00:29:03.300 So that means they're not really Christians. 0.83
00:29:04.580 That's not what I'm saying.
00:29:05.400 We all know who I'm talking about.
00:29:06.780 The people really on the right and the left side of the political aisle who say, who use
00:29:12.900 Jesus as a mascot for, uh, their views that have nothing to do with scripture.
00:29:18.140 So those people might try to maintain some kind of semblance of Christianity, even as
00:29:22.620 Christianity gets pushed to the margins of society. 0.94
00:29:25.400 Um, but those people will even be few because again, it won't be popular or even necessary
00:29:29.960 to say that you have any kind of spirituality or allegiance, uh, to Christianity.
00:29:35.000 And so the true Christians will be on the margins of society, um, in America at, at some 1.00
00:29:41.040 point right now, we have a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny taste of what persecution, uh, looks
00:29:48.540 like, but in the rest of the world.
00:29:50.720 And for most of history, as we've talked about before, Christians have been very severely 1.00
00:29:55.160 persecuted against.
00:29:56.340 They have been tortured.
00:29:57.460 They have been arbitrarily detained.
00:29:59.220 Uh, they have had their organs harvested.
00:30:01.160 They have been, uh, martyred.
00:30:03.900 And so we don't, thankfully in America, we have had, you know, a few century long respites
00:30:10.480 for Christianity.
00:30:11.700 Um, well, really in the West, there has been a reprieve from heavy persecution, that kind
00:30:18.860 of persecution of people of faith.
00:30:21.020 Um, and in particular, since we're talking from a Christian perspective of Christians,
00:30:24.700 uh, because of the Western rule of law and this idea of, uh, of individual liberty and
00:30:32.980 individual rights, but we don't know how much longer that's going to last.
00:30:36.840 And yes, I think it's okay to be fearful in some sense.
00:30:41.240 Certainly we're fearful for our kids.
00:30:43.060 We don't want our kids to grow up in a world to where they can't speak freely of Jesus.
00:30:46.540 We don't want them to be punished, uh, for saying that they're Christians.
00:30:49.700 Of course, no parent wants that, but we can also look throughout history and see that the
00:30:54.420 church has not just survived through those eras and they have been eras, but that they
00:30:58.960 have thrived in those eras.
00:31:00.320 That the church has never once been destroyed by that persecution, that the church is not
00:31:05.280 destroyed, uh, by fire, but it's refined by fire.
00:31:08.660 Um, and, uh, I don't want to say sadly, but I guess fearfully in some ways, uh, that is,
00:31:17.240 uh, a way that is employed to refine the church, um, and to separate the, and to separate the
00:31:27.840 true believers from those who were nominal believers, trials and tribulations and persecution
00:31:34.220 are used in that way.
00:31:36.360 So even if that is what we face in America, which I, I don't know, um, the political tides
00:31:42.520 change very quickly, but even if that is what Christians face in America in 10 years, in 20
00:31:48.760 years, uh, in 50 or a hundred years, yes, I think that we can do everything possible to
00:31:56.220 exercise our constitutional rights, to ensure that people are free to worship how they're
00:32:02.380 able to worship, but it's going to come at some point.
00:32:05.520 Like that try, those trials and tribulation are going to come in some point.
00:32:09.200 I don't think American Christians are exempt from that, nor should we expect or even necessarily
00:32:13.580 want to be exempt from that forever because again, the church thrives on the margins when
00:32:19.260 we are pushed against the wall, when we are pressured, uh, when, uh, you know, our rights
00:32:25.260 are being threatened, that is when the church, um, shines the brightest when it is the darkest.
00:32:31.180 And so there is actually some anticipation.
00:32:33.800 There's actually some encouragement and yes, even joy knowing that the gospel, uh, is not going
00:32:42.320 to die when the first amendment dies.
00:32:46.100 Like Christians and the church are not going to be destroyed when our second amendment rights
00:32:50.940 are taken away.
00:32:52.060 Like the, the, the word of God, the kingdom of God is not predicated on the first and second
00:32:57.780 amendment.
00:32:58.600 It's not predicated on religious liberty.
00:33:00.600 These are wonderful gifts that I think that we should fight for, that we should vote for
00:33:03.500 people who also fight for them.
00:33:05.420 Absolutely.
00:33:06.540 But the Lord doesn't actually need those things in order to do his will.
00:33:11.740 In order to maintain his kingdom, the Bible says that the word is not going to return
00:33:16.060 void.
00:33:16.780 He is not going to allow anything according to Job 42 to, uh, to thwart his will.
00:33:22.420 It's just not going to happen.
00:33:24.000 And I do think it's important to explain the difference between sovereign will and moral
00:33:28.020 will.
00:33:28.680 Nothing happens outside of God's sovereign will.
00:33:31.180 Absolutely nothing happens outside of God's sovereign will.
00:33:33.800 He is in control of the entire universe.
00:33:36.140 There are no, as R.C.
00:33:37.400 Sproul says, maverick molecules.
00:33:39.160 There's nothing that is outside of God's will.
00:33:41.540 Jesus says that not even a sparrow falls from the sky outside of the will of the father.
00:33:46.860 And a sparrow is sold for, for too many or for two pennies.
00:33:51.540 And so if we know that he has that under his sovereign will, then we can trust that he has
00:33:55.820 everything else under his sovereign will too.
00:33:57.760 But a lot of things do happen against his moral will.
00:34:01.180 And so we can read in scripture what God calls evil and what God calls good.
00:34:05.200 Things happen every millisecond against his, uh, against his moral will, and those things
00:34:12.120 will be punished.
00:34:13.680 Those things will be paid for.
00:34:15.720 He is not just allowing them to happen.
00:34:17.560 He's not just apathetic or complacent, um, about evil.
00:34:22.200 He will pay it back.
00:34:23.880 Justice will be served.
00:34:26.120 Um, and so we trust in that.
00:34:29.040 That is where our hope and our assurance and even, yes, our joy is as we are looking to
00:34:34.120 the future of the country who is so bogged down in moral confusion and emptiness and hollowness
00:34:40.860 and these contradictory trains of thought that represent the most grotesque cognitive and
00:34:48.420 moral dissonance that we could ever have imagined.
00:34:52.600 Um, and we can still trust in the fact that nothing happens outside of God's sovereign will,
00:34:58.180 that he has got his church, that he cares about his church and his believers more than we do,
00:35:03.680 that he has not suspended his plan of redemption, that the timeline hasn't been thrown off, that
00:35:09.800 he is not off his throne, that he is not worried about what's to come, that his plan has not been
00:35:16.620 changed, has not been thwarted just a little bit, that God hasn't been shut down, that he
00:35:21.260 hasn't been locked down, that he is not under the jurisdiction of the American government or
00:35:26.720 Governor Cuomo or Mayor Lightfoot or any of the tiny tyrants that we have or any of the
00:35:32.200 totalitarian regimes that we have throughout the world.
00:35:35.480 He is not subject to them and he is not subject to their edicts or their regulations.
00:35:40.140 Thankfully, the word of God and God himself and the kingdom of God are unbound.
00:35:45.040 And he is the king of kings.
00:35:47.480 And that is a political statement, by the way.
00:35:51.100 That is why, as I've said so many times, Christians have been a thorn in the side of tyrants since
00:35:56.340 our beginning, because we are beholden to the king of kings, even when we are pushed, especially
00:36:02.820 when we are pushed to the margins of society.
00:36:06.040 And so we have hope when we look towards that.
00:36:09.220 Like we have hope when we look towards the promises of God that have never gone unfulfilled
00:36:13.820 and will never go unfulfilled.
00:36:15.760 We have hope when we look to the faithfulness of God, which promises to never fail and the
00:36:19.900 new mercies that he promises to give us every morning.
00:36:23.760 And so we continue to lead this quiet revolution with our lives, which is nothing more than submission
00:36:28.900 to Christ and submission to his word that we don't suspend just because of certain regulations.
00:36:38.960 Yes, as Romans 13 says, we do everything that we can to submit to our earthly authorities,
00:36:43.480 as long as it is not causing us to sin.
00:36:46.060 But we still have to abide by the word of God and we still have to submit to Christ.
00:36:50.400 That is the quiet resistance and the quiet revolution that many of us are called to.
00:36:55.480 Some of you, like I've said, are called to having a public voice.
00:37:00.160 Absolutely.
00:37:01.480 But do not think the things that you are doing at home, the things that you are doing as
00:37:05.300 a hard worker in your work, working with excellence and integrity, being a good student that is
00:37:11.700 taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity that you have to learn and to glorify Christ with
00:37:16.820 the knowledge that he has allowed you to have.
00:37:18.960 Do not think that you, that your work as a mom, that you're changing of diapers with joy,
00:37:24.960 that you're disciplining your children with joy, that you're cleaning the kitchen with joy
00:37:29.660 is, it doesn't mean anything.
00:37:32.200 These are the good works that God has prepared for us beforehand.
00:37:35.780 Don't think the kindness that you showed to your neighbor that no one may never know about
00:37:39.800 besides you and your neighbor.
00:37:41.060 Don't think that that doesn't matter.
00:37:43.220 All of this is preparing for us, the trials that we're going through, the struggles that
00:37:47.740 we're going through, the scripture says is preparing for us a far greater glory that is going
00:37:51.560 to outweigh all of this.
00:37:53.400 That's revolutionary.
00:37:55.040 That's radical.
00:37:56.240 Being a Christian who submits to Christ as if there were any other kind of Christian, but 0.95
00:38:00.760 nowadays people think that there is, is the most radical thing that you can do.
00:38:06.120 So take comfort in that, that if you are a believer who is abiding in Christ, that the
00:38:11.700 God of the universe is on your side.
00:38:13.660 God's not going to let evil go on forever.
00:38:15.900 There will be a day where there are no corrupt politicians.
00:38:18.420 There's no deceit.
00:38:19.840 There's no manipulation.
00:38:21.060 There's no hidden agenda.
00:38:22.760 There's no secret plan going on that we need to know about.
00:38:26.860 There's no divisive ideologies that are infecting universities, that are infecting the minds of
00:38:33.560 our children.
00:38:34.680 There is no, there's no persecution anymore in that kingdom.
00:38:40.200 That's what we have to look forward to.
00:38:41.420 And we have every reason to be confident now to pursue Christ with our whole hearts and with
00:38:45.540 boldness.
00:38:46.060 That is enough.
00:38:47.060 That is enough.
00:38:48.340 In this self-empowerment, self-sufficiency culture in which we live that is actually devoid
00:38:54.740 of any power and any sufficiency at all, the most radical thing that we can do is to depend
00:39:00.560 on Christ for our purpose and for our strength and for the assurance that the radical revolution,
00:39:05.900 the quiet radical revolution that we are living with our lives by submitting to Him and everything
00:39:10.600 we think, say, or do, that that is actually what real empowerment really looks like.
00:39:16.820 That's what real change making really looks like.
00:39:19.060 That's what really pursuing your dreams really looks like is submission to Christ.
00:39:24.000 And that's it.
00:39:24.560 So take comfort in that and take comfort in the fact that God is in control, even when
00:39:28.120 things are chaotic, even when things are crazy.
00:39:30.500 Okay, that's all that I have for today.
00:39:33.320 We will be back here on Wednesday.