Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 338 ｜ Waging Quiet Resistance Through Bold Obedience

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.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - December 14, 2020

Ep 338 ｜ Waging Quiet Resistance Through Bold Obedience

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