Ep 338 | Waging Quiet Resistance Through Bold Obedience
Episode Stats
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Summary
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
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If you have not listened to Friday's episode with Sagar and Jetty, make sure that you go
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We talked about a wide variety of things, but we talked about populism as a political
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These are not always things that we talk about specifically and in detail on this podcast,
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And I think that his perspective on things and where we are as a country is very refreshing.
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Now, if you ended that episode, if you did listen to that episode, if you didn't go listen
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to it, but if you did listen to that episode or watch that episode and you're thinking,
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oh, my gosh, like it, you know, we're living in such a dire time and you're worried about
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a perspective Biden presidency and you're worried about where the country is going, you're worried
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about a China takeover, you're worried about irreconcilable differences between the right
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and the left, that's an understandable concern.
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But today we're not going to talk about the political aspects of it.
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I want to talk about what our role is as Christians in the midst of all of this.
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I want to take a break from the nitty gritty of the politics, because for the last couple
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But I have heard feedback from you guys that sometimes you just want to break from that.
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Like you want to talk about bigger picture issues.
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You want to talk about deeper issues than what's going on on the surface.
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And look, I believe that what's going on on the surface, I obviously believe that politics
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and these cultural issues and the headlines and still the election litigation that's going
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on right now, all of those things very much matter.
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And there are worldview implications of all of those.
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And we talked about on Wednesday, when we talked about the coronavirus lockdowns, the
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arbitrary lockdowns, the unscientific shutdowns of schools, that all of that actually comes
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from a worldview, that that comes from a materialist, secularist worldview that denies real holistic
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human nature, that we actually have emotional needs.
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We have spiritual needs that are met by fellowship, that are met by in-person interactions.
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That are met by being able to provide for ourselves and for our families.
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Like we're not just bags of bones that are only threatened by a virus.
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Like we are also threatened by being isolated in our homes.
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We are threatened with a whole host of things that are unfortunately being imposed on us by
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politicians who care much more about power than protecting us from a virus.
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And so we always try to take the things that are going on and link them to the deeper reality
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I know I don't always do that perfectly, but that's my goal in most episodes.
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So obviously, I think that the things that are going on matter.
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But sometimes we just have to take a break from the headlines for a second and the weeds
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of what's going on and just remind ourselves big picture of what our role is in the midst
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We on Instagram talked a little bit about eschatology.
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And I've talked about that several times on my podcast before.
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You can go back to an episode over a year ago now.
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I think it was summer of 2019 that it came out where I talked about my view of what is
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going to happen in the end times according to Scripture.
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This is not a gospel or salvation issue in that there are lots of sincere Christians who
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disagree on what the end times will actually look like.
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We are all believing in the sufficiency and inerrancy of Scripture.
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But because these are complex and difficult subjects to analyze and to approach, there are
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disagreements between faithful Christians on these things.
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And we kind of all understand that it's okay that we disagree.
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So I am a post-tribulation, a pre-millennialist.
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And so I do not believe that believers will be raptured before the tribulation, but that
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we will, if we're alive at that time, endure the tribulation.
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And I won't get into all of it, but I actually posted the timeline of what people like me,
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which is just classic, traditional pre-millennialism, believe about the end times.
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And then you've got someone like John MacArthur who believes in pre-tribulation, pre-millennialist.
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And so he actually believes that believers who are alive at the beginning of the tribulation
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will be raptured up, that they won't have to endure the tribulation.
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And I had Jeff Durbin, a post-millennialist on my podcast, do a two-part series with me
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And we kind of went back and forth, mostly him just talking, but a little bit back and
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forth about the biblical support for pre-millennialism versus post-millennialism.
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Vody Bauckham, who I've had on this podcast, who is an amazing teacher that I very much respect.
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And if you're curious about what all of this is, you can go back and you can listen to my
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You can also go to gotquestions.org, gives a lot of great resources on this.
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My big systematic theology book by Wayne Grudem that is just a staple, I think, in learning
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It gives a great explanation and depictions of what that means.
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But so all of that said, all of that said, we have disagreements, obviously, on eschatology
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But the point is, is that we all believe that one day Christ will rule in perfect peace.
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Like we already believe that he is the king of kings, that he is the ruler of all, that
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But that one day he will destroy his enemies forever, that there will be no war, that there
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will be no sorrow, there will be no sin, there will be no evil, there will be no partisanship,
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there will be no political parties, there will be no factions, that there will be no dissonance,
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there will be no dissent from the king of kings, that he will rule in totality in perfect peace.
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And we are all working to live in such a way that speaks to that hope, that looks forward
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to that hope, that looks forward to that assurance.
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Now, we disagree on what that means as far as political involvement, as far as cultural
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Obviously, I believe that we should care about culture and politics, like I said.
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But the point of all of our lives, those of us who hope in Christ, is to glorify God and
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to make him known and to make his will done on earth as it is in heaven, as the Lord's
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So no matter how involved you are in politics, no matter how much that you are going to make
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yourself care about the threat of China, for example, the question is, how do we, in light
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of whatever our eschatological views are, down to the details, but in light of the forever
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reign of Christ and the full authority of Christ, how do we live our lives in a way that resists
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We are told in the Bible to cling to what is good and to resist evil with everything that
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A lot of people ask me, like, how do I push back against liberal indoctrination?
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How do I push back against the things that I know aren't good for my kids, aren't good
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for my family, aren't good for my community and neighborhood?
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Talking to your representatives, your city council, your school board, making sure that
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your kids are protected as much as possible from secular ideology and raising them up in
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the way that they should go, discipling them closely, being intimately involved in the details
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of your kids' lives and making sure they know who made them, why they were made, what
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they were for, who has the authority over the heavens and the earth.
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All of these things are ways to push back against what we think are harmful policies and what
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we think are harmful and anti-God ideologies in our life.
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But I want to comfort you in the fact that it's not always in the form of a political revolution.
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Like, you do not have to be the person who is constantly posting on social media.
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You don't have to write a book in order to have influence and in order to push back against
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evil because you living as though you know, you know exactly who is the ruler over all,
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who you ultimately submit to, who is the king of kings.
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You living in a way that you are subscribing to the tenets of Christianity, the commands
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of the Bible and the dictates of scripture over any earthly authority is a form of resistance.
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And I am, as you guys know who have been listening to this podcast, a reformed Protestant.
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The Reformation, the reason why we were called Protestants is because we were protesting against
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what was at the time corruption and unbiblical doctrines within the Catholic Church.
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And Protestants have continued to push back against what we feel is corruption and what
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we feel is bad leadership and what we feel like is anti-God.
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That has not always been in the form of us overthrowing kings or resisting, you know, for
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example, within the Catholic Church, the papacy.
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It means that we abide by the word of God, even when it's unpopular, even when we're castigated
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for it, even when we're chastised, even when we're persecuted.
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And I think we in America, we see resistance only as being able to, you know, speak out
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about things or protest or like take on some movement, which is all great.
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Obviously, I have a podcast because I think these things matter.
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But throughout the world, the way that people are resisting like dictatorships in different
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countries that don't allow religious liberty is by worshiping together, like by sharing the
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gospel, by reading their Bible, like these are acts of resistance that are powerful in
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Like, don't you think that Satan is also afraid?
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Satan is also trembling, like when the person in a country that does not have religious liberty
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is reading his Bible or is sharing the gospel or is worshiping with fellow believers.
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So I am encouraging you that if you ever feel like you are helpless or hopeless, like you
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don't know what to do to make change, like how do you make everyone aware of this particular
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He might be calling you to lead some kind of movement or to start some kind of organization
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Or he could be calling you to be radical in your daily obedience.
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He could be calling you to take advantage of the liberties that you have by also reading
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your Bible, by caring for your neighbor, by being hospitable in a time that we're told
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that we can't be hospitable, by being generous in a time that we're being told to hoard
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everything that we have, by sharing the gospel in a time that we are being told that imposing
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your values on another person is actually hateful and it's bigotry.
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Standing for the truth of God's word when it comes to controversial issues like marriage
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and gender and sexuality and defense of life inside the womb, even just in conversations
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with your friends and teaching your kids the truth about God's word, the truth about who
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created the heavens and the earth and therefore who has the authority over all of it.
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Like maybe that's how you make the biggest changes.
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By being a faithful, godly wife, by being a good and a loving and a caring mother, by
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being a loyal friend in an era that tells you that you have to cut off people that are not
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serving your interests right away, that there's actually nothing virtuous about being a faithful
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There's nothing virtuous about standing up for the things that you know are true.
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Basically, we're encouraged to be these morally relativistic, selfish noodles of people,
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whereas the Bible is telling us to absolutely stand firm.
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And so maybe you being radical is standing on the word of God and submitting to Christ and
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all that you think, say, and do, and not borrowing the language from the culture even a little
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bit, not borrowing ideas from the culture even a little bit, not going along on the mainstream
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from culture even a little bit, ignoring the bullies who tell you that you have to think
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a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way, parent a certain way, live a certain way
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in order to fit in with the cultural powers that be, like, maybe your resistance, maybe
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Like, God uses our particular talents, as the Bible tells us, in different ways to serve the
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And I think we just have to make sure that we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, that
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we're praying for sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to convict us on where to go and what
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So take a deep breath and realize that you might not be called to start a movement or
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You don't have to be an influencer to have influence, not in the kingdom of God.
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One of my favorite passages is 1 Corinthians 1, and I'm just going to pull that up so I
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But I just love the counterintuitive nature of God in his kingdom.
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So this is God through Paul speaking in 1 Corinthians 1, starting in verse, let's see.
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I know this is a long passage, and I didn't realize how long it was going to be when I
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started reading, but I got to keep going because the meat of it is still coming.
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Not many of you were wise, according to worldly standards.
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But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
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God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
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God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring
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to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
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And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness
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and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast
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So God does not need your ability to gain an audience.
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He doesn't need your ability to articulate ideas well.
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He doesn't need whatever we believe that we are good at, even the gifts that he gave us.
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And yes, he does very often use our talents and our gifts to advance his will and to bring
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But God is not looking throughout the world and trying to pick the most powerful people,
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the most influential people, the most beautiful people, the people that are in the most powerful
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He has chosen us before the foundation of the world, as Ephesians 1, 5 says, in love
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that he might do in us the work that he wants to do.
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And so, and this passage says the reason that he does this, like he picks the people that
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He picks the people that the world does not regard as important so that he can shame the
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people who fancy themselves important so that, this passage says, no one might boast, no
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That we don't have our own things, our own qualifications, our own competence to boast
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I just feel that a lot of us feel a lot of pressure to be something, to make something
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of ourselves, to make our voices known, and I know I'm saying this as someone, with a
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Who knows how long this podcast is going to last?
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Like, I don't know how long the season of my life is going to last.
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I'm probably not going to be called to do a podcast or have a platform forever.
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There's going to be a time where other people have a platform, and I don't, and I'm behind
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the scenes, and I'm not doing this anymore, and there are different seasons of our life.
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But the fact of the matter is, is that the pressure is off of us.
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All we are called to do is to submit to God, who is going to do with us what he wants to
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do with us, no matter what the world says, and no matter how the world defines success
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And the quiet revolution of submission to Christ is exactly what God is calling his humble
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This is all just like kind of coming into my head.
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If you haven't noticed, I actually kind of had a different plan for this episode today.
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Um, but I also want to read you part of Ephesians 2, which if you've listened to this podcast,
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you know how often I cite this passage, which is one of my favorite passages in the Bible,
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because Ephesians is really, it's my, it's one of my favorite books of the Bible.
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Ephesians and Genesis are two of my favorite books of the Bible.
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And I'm not talking about, uh, like fairytale storytelling, just the narrative of how God
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created the world and then his people in the early days.
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Like Genesis, there are moments that make me laugh.
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There are moments that I'm like, I can't believe that happened.
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I love the book of Genesis and I love the book of Ephesians because I think it speaks so
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Like it explains so well in Ephesians 2, who we were before Christ and then what Christ
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And then what is the result of that salvation that we did not, uh, that we did not earn.
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So talking about in first Corinthians one, and I actually didn't even mean to make this
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And first Corinthians one saying, Hey, look, God chose you.
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He chose what is insignificant and unwise to the world.
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And he is going to shame the self-importance and the self-righteousness and the self-empowerment
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And he is going to show his power through what the world considers weak vessels so that no
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one can boast and everyone has to glorify God for the things that he has done through
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Uh, this idea that he chose us is reiterated also in Ephesians and also the result of that,
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what that means is glorifying God in us, obeying him.
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So Ephesians two, eight through 10, for by grace, you have been saved through faith.
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It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship
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created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in
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And I just want to do an aside, I wasn't going to do, I wasn't going to do this, uh, faith
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versus works, uh, argument right here, but I just love to emphasize in this particular
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passage, how, how much, how many pains are taken in these few verses to explain that it
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is God who saves us, that our works cannot save us, that our words cannot save us, that
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We didn't, the only thing that we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary
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It is God as Ephesians one, five says, who chose us.
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And people say, well, faith without works is dead.
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But this Ephesians two 10 actually answers exactly what that means for we are his workmanship
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created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk
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And so even the good works that we do that are not, um, they are products of our faith.
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Like they do not create our salvation, but they are results of our salvation.
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Even those, uh, are, are God's workmanship, which he prepared beforehand.
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Uh, and the works that he prepared beforehand for us to do are the ones that we are going
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So again, I'm just trying to reiterate one that it's faith by grace through faith that
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It's not your own doing, but really the larger point that I've been trying to make is that
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Like the pressure is off of you to, uh, to try to come up with your own significance,
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to try to be what the world says is important or influential, even in the realm of Christianity.
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Obviously there's nothing wrong with doing what seems like big things, but doing the good
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works that God prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in them is exactly the quiet
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resistance and the quiet revolution that changes nations.
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It has an effect then on your community has an effect on your church.
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And then it has an effect on your country and the world.
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And that doesn't mean that necessarily the world is going to start grunting towards the
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cross right now, but it does mean that that's ultimately, uh, that every knee will bow and
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every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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And that God has chosen by his sovereign will to use our obedience and our good works that
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he prepared beforehand as the channel through which his kingdom is advancing here on earth.
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So if you ever feel mom, if you ever feel student, if you ever feel employee, like you're
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not doing enough by being a Christian, like you just gotta, you gotta do something else.
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You gotta start a movement, start an organization.
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He has given you the specific opportunity, the connections, the leadership abilities to be
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able to, to do that, to start a podcast, to start a movement, to start an organization.
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Um, all of those things are great and wonderful things.
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And if he is calling you to those things, he will equip you to do those things.
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But if you are a mom, for example, who feels like you're, uh, the mundane moments throughout
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your day are not doing anything, that the changing of the diapers is not doing anything.
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That the, uh, washing the dishes, that the cleaning of the house, that the making the dinner,
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that the getting together with your friends, that it's not doing enough, maybe, maybe, and
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I would say the probably, definitely, although I can't tell you what the Holy Spirit is doing
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Like this is the radical revolution that God is calling you to by carrying out the good
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and excellent works that he prepared for us beforehand.
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And maybe you'll have a season of your life where things will look different, where you
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will be called to something, you know, some kind of thing in, in, in addition, maybe so.
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But let's not take for granted the season in which God has placed us.
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There are a lot of opportunities, like I said, at the beginning of this episode to, to be radical,
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um, and to be different because we're being told that we have to be isolated and that we
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can't, that we're not allowed to worship together in some places, that we're not allowed to be
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hospitable in some ways, um, that we should be scared of our neighbor, that we should be
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distrusting of our neighbor and that, uh, we should be angry at our neighbor for not agreeing
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There are a lot of ways to push back against that.
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And I'm not advocating for recklessness with the coronavirus guys.
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I've said that a hundred million times, but people still need love right now.
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Like the good works that God has prepared for us to do haven't been suspended.
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The timeline, the grand timeline of redemption, um, hasn't been suspended.
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Like we're not taking like some, some pause in the span of eternity, just because we have
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Like Jesus is still coming back at the time that the father has planned that he is going
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And so our obedience is not less important now.
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Like we are not, uh, we are not, um, excused for lack of a better term because we are in,
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you know, a public health crisis and, uh, in economic and a government crisis right now.
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And that's another piece of encouragement that I want to get, uh, that I want to give you that
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So the reality is, is that these times are actually when the church thrives.
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I heard a pastor, uh, a few years ago that unfortunately, uh, I no longer align with in,
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in, in, in some ways, but he has a lot of good stuff and, and something that he said was that
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And so while I obviously think the fight for things like religious liberty are so important,
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um, and I want this to be a country where Christians and people of all faiths can worship
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freely and can speak freely, uh, can gather freely.
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I, uh, also realize that when the church is pushed to the margins of society, when we're
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no longer mainstream, when it's no longer popular or safe or lucrative, uh, to be a
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Christian, that is, it's not where the church is destroyed.
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That is where the, the church, uh, steps up to the plate, the true church.
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There are people who have lived their lives as cultural Christians, as comfortable Christians,
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as nominal Christians who then walk away and they say, you know what?
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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
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.
00:28:14.420
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
00:28:39.940
And so there will be people who decide that they're going to walk away from Christianity
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
00:29:06.780
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.
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
00:29:41.040
point right now, we have a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny taste of what persecution, uh, looks
00:29:50.720
And for most of history, as we've talked about before, Christians have been very severely
00:30:03.900
And so we don't, thankfully in America, we have had, you know, a few century long respites
00:30:11.700
Um, well, really in the West, there has been a reprieve from heavy persecution, that kind
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.
00:30:43.060
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
00:31:00.320
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
00:31:36.360
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.
00:32:33.800
There's actually some encouragement and yes, even joy knowing that the gospel, uh, is not going
00:32:46.100
Like Christians and the church are not going to be destroyed when our second amendment rights
00:32:52.060
Like the, the, the word of God, the kingdom of God is not predicated on the first and second
00:33:00.600
These are wonderful gifts that I think that we should fight for, that we should vote for
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
00:33:16.780
He is not going to allow anything according to Job 42 to, uh, to thwart his will.
00:33:24.000
And I do think it's important to explain the difference between sovereign will and moral
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.
00:33:41.540
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
00:33:57.760
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
00:34:17.560
He's not just apathetic or complacent, um, about evil.
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.
00:35:51.100
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
00:36:09.220
Like we have hope when we look towards the promises of God that have never gone 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,
00:36:46.060
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.
00:37:01.480
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
00:37:18.960
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
00:37:32.200
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
00:37:43.220
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
00:37:56.240
Being a Christian who submits to Christ as if there were any other kind of Christian, but
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
00:38:15.900
There will be a day where there are no corrupt politicians.
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
00:38:34.680
There is no, there's no persecution anymore in that kingdom.
00:38:41.420
And we have every reason to be confident now to pursue Christ with our whole hearts and with
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.
00:39:24.560
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.