Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - REPLAY： Waging Quiet Resistance Through Bold Obedience

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable.

00:00:11.400 Happy Monday.

00:00:12.200 Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

00:00:14.760 We on Instagram talked a little bit about eschatology.

00:00:20.120 So that means the end times.

00:00:21.340 And I've talked about that several times on my podcast before.

00:00:23.960 You can go back to an episode over a year ago now.

00:00:28.240 I think it was summer of 2019 that it came out where I talked about my view of what is

00:00:35.820 going to happen in the end times according to scripture.

00:00:38.920 This is not a gospel or salvation issue in that there are lots of sincere Christians 1.00

00:00:45.220 who disagree on what the end times will actually look like.

00:00:48.960 We are all believing in the sufficiency and inerrancy of scripture.

00:00:52.180 Um, but because these are complex and difficult subjects to analyze and to approach, there

00:00:58.860 are disagreements between faithful Christians on these things.

00:01:01.740 And we kind of all understand that, um, it's okay that we disagree.

00:01:05.580 So I am a post-tribulation, a pre-millennialist.

00:01:11.320 And so I do not believe that believers will be raptured before the tribulation, but that

00:01:17.220 we will, if we're alive at that time, endure the tribulation and then, uh, Jesus will come

00:01:23.000 back.

00:01:23.440 He will catch up believers at that time.

00:01:25.400 And I won't get into all of it.

00:01:27.300 Um, but I actually posted the timeline of what people like me, which is just classic traditional

00:01:32.920 pre-millennialism believe about the end times.

00:01:35.360 And then you've got someone like John MacArthur who believes in pre-tribulation, uh, pre-millennialist.

00:01:41.960 And so he actually believes that believers who are alive at the beginning of the tribulation 0.87

00:01:45.980 will be raptured up, that they won't have to endure the tribulation.

00:01:50.680 And you've got post-millennialism, you've got a millennialism.

00:01:53.620 And I had Jeff Durbin, a post-millennialist on my podcast, do a two-part series with me

00:01:59.020 that was very popular.

00:02:00.560 And we kind of went back and forth, mostly him just talking, but a little bit back and

00:02:04.960 forth, uh, about the biblical support for pre-millennialism versus post-millennialism.

00:02:09.520 Votie Bauckham, who I've had on this podcast, who is an amazing teacher that I very much

00:02:13.940 respect.

00:02:14.400 He's an a-millennialist.

00:02:16.120 And if you're curious about what all of this is, you can go back and you can listen to my

00:02:19.900 end times podcast that I did over a year ago.

00:02:22.860 Uh, you can also go to gotquestions.org gives a lot of great resources on this.

00:02:26.800 My big systematic theology book by Wayne Grudem.

00:02:30.160 That is just a staple, I think, in learning biblical theology.

00:02:33.740 I've also had Wayne Grudem on this podcast.

00:02:35.640 It gives a great explanation and depictions of what that means, but

00:02:39.040 so all of that said, all of that said, we have disagreements, obviously on eschatology

00:02:44.480 and the, in times within Christianity.

00:02:46.460 But, uh, the point is, is that we all believe that one day Christ will rule in perfect peace.

00:02:53.980 Like we already believe that he is the King of Kings, that he is the ruler of all, that

00:02:58.680 nothing happens outside of his sovereign will.

00:03:01.620 Uh, but that one day he will, he will destroy his enemies forever, that there will be no war,

00:03:09.800 that there will be no sorrow.

00:03:11.200 There will be no sin.

00:03:12.620 There will be no evil.

00:03:13.860 There will be no partisanship.

00:03:15.240 There will be no political parties.

00:03:16.740 There will be no factions, uh, that there will be no, uh, there will be no dissonance.

00:03:23.000 There will be, uh, no dissent from the, the King of Kings that he will rule in totality

00:03:29.560 in perfect peace.

00:03:30.840 That's what all, uh, Christians believe in.

00:03:33.280 And we are all working to live in such a way, um, that speaks to that hope that looks

00:03:40.140 forward to that hope that looks forward to that assurance.

00:03:42.900 Now we disagree on, uh, what that means as far as political involvement, as far as culture

00:03:49.560 and cultural involvement, obviously, I believe that we should care about culture and politics.

00:03:54.640 Uh, like I said, but the point, uh, of all of our lives, those of us who hope in Christ

00:04:00.660 is to glorify God and to make him known and to make his will done on earth as it is in

00:04:05.740 heaven, as the Lord's prayer tells us to, it tells us to do.

00:04:09.700 So no matter how involved you are in politics, no matter how much that you are going to make

00:04:13.940 yourself care about the threat of China, for example, the question is, how do we, in light

00:04:18.400 of whatever our eschatological views are down to the details, but in light of the, the,

00:04:23.980 the forever reign of Christ and the full authority of Christ, how do we live our lives in a way

00:04:29.640 that resists evil?

00:04:30.700 We are told in the Bible to, uh, cling to what is good and to, uh, resist evil with everything

00:04:37.000 that we have.

00:04:37.800 A lot of people ask me, like, how do I, how do I push back against liberal indoctrination?

00:04:43.880 How do I push back against liberal policies?

00:04:45.760 How do I push back against the things that I know aren't good for my kids, aren't good

00:04:49.580 for my family, aren't good for my community and neighborhood.

00:04:52.580 And of course we talk about those things.

00:04:54.480 Voting is important.

00:04:55.700 Talking to your representatives, your city council, your school board, and making sure that your

00:05:00.320 kids are protected as much as possible from secular ideology and raising them up in the

00:05:05.860 way that they should go.

00:05:07.060 Discipling them closely, being intimately involved in the details of your kids' lives and making

00:05:11.940 sure they know who made them, uh, why they were made, what they were for, who has the

00:05:17.200 authority over, uh, the heavens and the earth.

00:05:19.200 All of these things, um, are, are ways to push back against what we think are, are, uh, harmful

00:05:26.540 policies and what we think are, uh, harmful and anti-God ideologies, uh, in our life.

00:05:33.480 But I want to comfort you in the fact that it's not always in the form of a political

00:05:37.400 revolution.

00:05:38.280 Like you do not have to be the person who is constantly posting on social media.

00:05:43.300 You don't have to be a person with a podcast.

00:05:45.200 You don't have to be a blogger.

00:05:46.380 You don't have to be a journalist.

00:05:47.740 Uh, you don't have to be a speaker.

00:05:49.400 You don't have to write a book in order to have influence and in order to push back against

00:05:54.240 evil because you living, uh, as though, you know, you know exactly who is the ruler over

00:06:01.460 all, who you ultimately submit to, who is the King of Kings.

00:06:05.600 That in itself is defiance of tyranny.

00:06:08.900 That in itself is defiance of evil.

00:06:11.720 You living in a way, uh, that you are subscribing to, uh, the, the tenants of Christianity, the commands

00:06:21.360 of the Bible and the, the dictates of scripture, uh, over any earthly authority is a form of

00:06:33.540 resistance.

00:06:33.940 It is a form of protest Protestants. 0.89

00:06:36.560 And I am, as you guys know, who have been listening to this podcast, uh, a reformed Protestant,

00:06:41.800 uh, the reformation, the reason why we were called Protestants is because we were protesting

00:06:48.040 against what was at the time corruption and unbiblical doctrines within the Catholic church

00:06:54.040 and Protestants have continued to push back against what we feel is corruption and what

00:07:00.160 we feel is bad leadership and what we feel like is anti-God that has not always been in

00:07:05.300 the form of us overthrowing Kings or resisting, you know, for example, within the Catholic

00:07:10.580 church, the papacy.

00:07:11.660 It means that we abide by the word of God, even when it's unpopular, even when we're, uh,

00:07:17.820 castigated for it, even when we're chastised, even when we're persecuted.

00:07:22.500 And I think we, in America, uh, we see resistance only as being able to, you know, speak out about

00:07:29.500 things or protest or like take on some movement, which is all great.

00:07:33.260 Like we have the freedom to do that.

00:07:34.580 Obviously I have a podcast because I think these things matter, but throughout the world,

00:07:38.400 the way that people are resisting like dictatorships in different countries that don't allow religious 0.95

00:07:42.680 liberty is by worshiping together, like by, uh, sharing the gospel, by reading their Bible.

00:07:49.580 Like these are acts of resistance that are powerful in the kingdom of God.

00:07:53.900 They have spiritual implications.

00:07:55.960 They have eternal implications.

00:07:58.200 Like, don't you think that Satan is also afraid?

00:08:02.040 Satan is also trembling.

00:08:03.180 Like when, uh, the person in a country that does not have religious liberty is, is reading 0.84

00:08:09.140 his Bible or is sharing the gospel or is worshiping with fellow believers.

00:08:13.960 So I am encouraging you that if you ever feel like you are helpless or hopeless, like you

00:08:19.040 don't know what to do to make change.

00:08:20.440 Like, how do you make everyone aware of this particular issue?

00:08:23.300 God might be calling you to speak out.

00:08:25.980 He might be calling you to have a platform.

00:08:27.400 He might be calling you to lead some kind of movement or to start some kind of organization

00:08:31.900 or to start some kind of ministry.

00:08:34.160 He may absolutely be calling you to do that.

00:08:36.720 Or he could be calling you to be radical in your daily obedience.

00:08:41.740 He could be calling you to take advantage of the liberties that you have by, uh, also

00:08:46.320 reading your Bible, by caring for your neighbor, by being hospitable in a time that we're told

00:08:50.620 that we can't be hospitable by being generous in a time that we're being told to hoard everything

00:08:54.780 that we have, uh, by sharing the gospel in a time that we are being told that imposing

00:08:59.620 your values on another person is actually hateful and it's bigotry, uh, standing for

00:09:04.660 the truth of God's word.

00:09:05.640 When it comes to controversial issues like marriage and, and gender and sexuality and

00:09:11.780 defense of life and inside the womb, even just in conversations with your friends and teaching

00:09:16.740 your kids the truth about God's word, the truth about who created the heavens and the

00:09:20.720 earth, and therefore who has the authority over all of it.

00:09:23.300 Maybe that's your radical resistance.

00:09:24.840 Like maybe that's how you make the biggest changes by being, um, by being, uh, a faithful

00:09:32.060 godly wife, by being, uh, a good and a, uh, a loving and a caring mother, by being a loyal

00:09:39.220 friend in an era that tells you that you have to cut off people that are not serving your

00:09:45.080 interests right away.

00:09:46.620 That's that there's actually nothing virtuous about being a faithful friend.

00:09:50.480 There's nothing virtuous about speaking truth.

00:09:52.520 There's nothing virtuous about standing up, uh, for the things that you know are true.

00:09:56.660 Basically we're encouraged to be these morally relativistic, selfish noodles of people.

00:10:01.920 Whereas the Bible is telling us to absolutely stand firm.

00:10:06.100 And so maybe you being radical is standing on the word of God and submitting to Christ and

00:10:10.480 all that you think, say, and do, and not borrowing the language from the culture, even a little

00:10:15.300 bit, not borrowing ideas from the culture, even a little bit, not going along on the mainstream

00:10:20.100 from culture, even a little bit, ignoring the bullies who tell you that, uh, you have

00:10:24.840 to think a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way, parent a certain way, um,

00:10:29.500 live a certain way in order to fit in with the cultural powers that be like, maybe, maybe

00:10:36.660 your resistance, maybe your revolution.

00:10:39.340 It's just submission to Christ.

00:10:40.820 Maybe that's all of our, uh, revolution.

00:10:43.320 And I think it looks differently for, for everyone.

00:10:46.920 It does like God uses our particular talents as the Bible tells us in different ways to

00:10:51.820 serve the body of Christ.

00:10:54.060 Um, and I think we just have to make sure that we are a sensitive to the Holy spirit, that

00:10:59.140 we're praying for sensitivity to the Holy spirit to convict us and where to go and what

00:11:03.260 to do.

00:11:03.720 So take a deep breath and realize that you might not be called to start a movement or to even

00:11:08.800 start a podcast or to have a platform.

00:11:12.040 And you don't need those things.

00:11:13.700 You don't have to be an influencer to have influence, not in the kingdom of God.

00:11:17.400 Uh, one of my favorite passages is first Corinthians one, and I'm just going to pull that up.

00:11:23.580 So I don't botch it, but I just love the counterintuitive nature of God in his kingdom.

00:11:31.340 Um, so this is God through Paul speaking in first Corinthians one, starting in, uh, verse

00:11:38.440 let's see.

00:11:40.460 Okay.

00:11:40.920 Starting in verse 18 for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to

00:11:46.560 us who are being saved, it is the power of God for it is written.

00:11:50.100 I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning.

00:11:53.280 I will thwart.

00:11:54.280 Where's the one who is wise.

00:11:55.820 Where's the scribe. 0.98

00:11:56.940 Where's the debater of this age has not God made foolish.

00:12:00.060 The wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through

00:12:04.360 wisdom and pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who

00:12:08.260 believe for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a 0.58

00:12:14.240 stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. 1.00

00:12:16.800 But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom 0.99

00:12:20.960 of God for the foolishness of God is wiser than men.

00:12:24.180 And the weakness of God is stronger than men.

00:12:26.460 I know this is a long passage and I didn't realize how long it was going to be when I started

00:12:30.080 reading, but I got to keep going because the, the, the meat of it is still coming, uh, for

00:12:35.540 consider your calling brothers.

00:12:38.240 Not many of you were wise.

00:12:39.580 According to worldly standards, not many of you were powerful. 0.52

00:12:42.480 Not many of you were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame

00:12:46.780 the wise.

00:12:47.540 God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

00:12:50.180 God chose what is low and despised in the world.

00:12:52.280 Even things that are not to bring to nothing, things that are so that no human being might

00:12:56.280 boast in the presence of God.

00:12:57.780 And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness

00:13:02.500 and sanctification and redemption.

00:13:03.860 So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

00:13:07.660 So God does not need your ability to gain an audience.

00:13:11.720 He doesn't need your ability to articulate ideas well.

00:13:14.800 He doesn't need, uh, your particular, uh, he doesn't need your particular talents.

00:13:21.220 He doesn't need whatever we believe that, uh, we are good at.

00:13:25.060 Even the gifts that he gave us, he is going to use people as he sees fit.

00:13:29.400 And yes, he does very often use our talents and our gifts to advance his will and to bring

00:13:34.000 him glory, to advance his kingdom.

00:13:35.680 Absolutely.

00:13:36.720 But God is not looking throughout the world and trying to pick the most powerful people,

00:13:41.920 the most influential people, the most beautiful people, uh, the people that are in the most,

00:13:47.180 uh, you know, powerful positions in the world.

00:13:49.540 That's not who he is picking.

00:13:50.880 He is, uh, he has chosen us before the foundation of the world.

00:13:54.360 As Ephesians 1, 5 says, uh, in love that he might do in us the work that he wants to do.

00:14:02.900 Uh, and so, and this passage says the reason that he does this, like he picks the people

00:14:08.180 that the world would not pick.

00:14:10.060 He picks the people that the world does not regard as important so that he can shame the

00:14:14.720 people who fancy themselves important so that this passage says no one might boast.

00:14:21.960 No one might boast before the Lord that we don't have our own things, our own qualifications,

00:14:27.140 our own competence, uh, to boast in, but we get to boast in God.

00:14:31.680 This is what he does.

00:14:32.580 So the pressure is off of us.

00:14:34.280 I just feel that a lot of us feel a lot of pressure to be something, to make something

00:14:39.220 of ourselves, to make our voices known.

00:14:41.000 And I know I'm saying this as someone, uh, with, with a podcast, who knows how long this

00:14:46.380 podcast is going to last?

00:14:47.440 Like, I don't know how long the season of my life is going to last.

00:14:50.780 I'm probably not going to be called to do a podcast or have a platform forever.

00:14:54.220 There's going to be a time where other people have a platform and I don't, and I'm behind

00:14:59.080 the scenes and I'm not doing this anymore.

00:15:01.100 And there are different seasons of our life.

00:15:02.780 But the fact of the matter is, is that the pressure is off of us.

00:15:05.740 All we are called to do is to submit to God who is going to do with us, what he wants

00:15:10.660 to do with us, no matter what the world says, and no matter how the world defines success

00:15:16.060 and influence.

00:15:16.980 And the quiet revolution of submission to Christ is exactly what God is calling his humble

00:15:22.000 servants to do.

00:15:23.280 I also want to read to you Ephesians two.

00:15:27.000 This is all just like kind of coming into my head.

00:15:29.120 If you haven't noticed, I actually kind of had a different plan for this episode today.

00:15:33.100 Um, but I also want to read you part of Ephesians two, which if you've listened to this podcast,

00:15:39.880 you know how often I cite this passage, which is one of my favorite passages in the Bible

00:15:46.300 because Ephesians is really, it's my, it's one of my favorite books of the Bible.

00:15:51.560 Ephesians and Genesis are two of my favorite books of the Bible.

00:15:54.720 Genesis, I just think is amazing storytelling.

00:15:56.740 And I'm not talking about, uh, like fairytale storytelling, just the narrative of how God

00:16:02.360 created the world and then his people in the early days. 0.98

00:16:05.620 It's just fascinating to me.

00:16:07.180 And I love it.

00:16:07.760 Like Genesis, there are moments that make me laugh.

00:16:10.040 There are moments that I'm like, I can't believe that happened.

00:16:11.780 That's crazy.

00:16:12.420 I love the book of Genesis and I love the book of Ephesians because I think it speaks

00:16:16.320 so perfectly to what the gospel is.

00:16:18.260 Like it explains so well in Ephesians two, who we were before Christ and then what Christ

00:16:23.720 does in us.

00:16:25.060 And then what is the result of that salvation that we did not, uh, that we did not earn.

00:16:30.120 So talking about in first Corinthians one, and I actually didn't even mean to make this

00:16:33.740 connection, but it works really well.

00:16:35.320 And first Corinthians one saying, Hey, look, God chose you.

00:16:38.380 He chose what is weak in the world.

00:16:40.040 He chose what is small in the world.

00:16:41.600 He chose what is insignificant and unwise to the world.

00:16:44.360 And he is going to shame the self-importance and the self-righteousness and the self-empowerment

00:16:50.740 of the world.

00:16:52.080 And he is going to show his power through what the world considers weak vessels so that no

00:16:58.240 one can boast and everyone has to glorify God for the things that he has done through

00:17:02.960 these people.

00:17:04.380 Uh, this idea that he chose us is reiterated also in Ephesians and also the result of that,

00:17:12.740 what that means is glorifying God in us obeying him.

00:17:16.540 So Ephesians two, eight through 10 for by grace, you have been saved through faith.

00:17:21.060 And this is not your own doing.

00:17:22.760 So again, you can't boast.

00:17:24.080 It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship

00:17:31.420 created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in

00:17:37.760 them.

00:17:37.900 And I just want to do an aside I wasn't going to do, I wasn't going to do this, uh, faith

00:17:42.760 versus works, uh, argument right here, but I just love to emphasize in this particular

00:17:48.960 passage, how, how much, how many pains are taken in these few verses to explain that it

00:17:58.640 is God who saves us, that our works cannot save us, that our words cannot save us, that

00:18:04.340 it is God alone so that we can not boast.

00:18:08.060 We didn't, the only thing that we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary

00:18:12.580 as the saying goes.

00:18:13.800 And I did not come up with that.

00:18:15.300 It is God who saves us.

00:18:17.020 It is God as Ephesians one, five says, who chose us.

00:18:20.180 Romans nine also, uh, makes this very clear.

00:18:23.560 And people say, well, faith without works is dead.

00:18:26.020 What about that?

00:18:26.900 Yes, that's true.

00:18:27.660 But this Ephesians two 10 actually answers exactly what that means for we are his workmanship

00:18:33.340 created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk

00:18:40.660 in them.

00:18:41.180 And so even the good works that we do that are not, um, they are products of our faith.

00:18:47.100 Like they do not create our salvation, but they are results of our salvation.

00:18:52.100 Even those we can't take credit for it.

00:18:54.040 Even those, uh, are, are God's workmanship, which he prepared beforehand.

00:18:59.460 Uh, and the works that he prepared beforehand for us to do are the ones that we are going

00:19:04.460 to accomplish.

00:19:05.080 So again, I'm just trying to reiterate one that it's faith by grace through faith that

00:19:10.760 saves us.

00:19:11.220 It's not your own doing, but really the larger point that I've been trying to make is that

00:19:14.960 the pressure is off.

00:19:15.780 Like the pressure is off of you to, uh, to try to come up with your own significance,

00:19:24.100 to try to be what the world says is important or influential, even in the realm of Christianity.

00:19:30.920 Obviously there's nothing wrong with doing what seems like big things, but doing the good

00:19:36.860 works that God prepared for us beforehand, that we should walk in them is exactly the quiet

00:19:42.940 resistance and the quiet revolution that changes nations.

00:19:47.180 I mean, it changes lives.

00:19:48.840 It'll change your kid's life.

00:19:50.680 It'll change your family's life.

00:19:52.060 It'll change your own life.

00:19:53.400 It'll, it has an effect on your neighborhood.

00:19:55.520 It has an effect then on your community has an effect on your church.

00:19:58.580 It has an effect on your state.

00:20:00.000 And then it has an effect on your country and the world.

00:20:02.000 And that doesn't mean that necessarily the world is going to start grunting towards the

00:20:06.760 cross right now, but it does mean that that's ultimately, uh, that every knee will bow and

00:20:12.760 every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

00:20:14.960 And that God has chosen by his sovereign will to use our obedience and our good works that

00:20:20.480 he prepared beforehand as the channel through which his kingdom is advancing here on earth.

00:20:27.100 That is revolutionary.

00:20:28.580 That's huge.

00:20:30.620 There's nothing bigger than that.

00:20:32.120 So if you ever feel mom, if you ever feel student, if you ever feel employee, like you're

00:20:37.980 not doing enough by being a Christian, like you just gotta, you gotta do something else. 0.85

00:20:44.320 You gotta, you gotta start something.

00:20:46.040 You gotta start a movement, start an organization.

00:20:47.600 Maybe, maybe so.

00:20:49.540 Maybe the Lord is calling you to that.

00:20:51.320 He has given you the specific opportunity, the connections, the leadership abilities to be

00:20:55.820 able to, to do that, to start a podcast, to start a movement, to start an organization.

00:21:00.880 Um, all of those things are great and wonderful things.

00:21:03.400 And if he has calling you to those things, he will equip you to do those things.

00:21:07.000 But if you are a mom, for example, who feels like you're, uh, the mundane moments throughout

00:21:14.020 your day are not doing anything, that the changing of the diapers is not doing anything.

00:21:19.540 That the, uh, washing the dishes, that the cleaning of the house, that the making the dinner,

00:21:24.840 that the getting together with your friends, that it's not doing enough.

00:21:30.240 Maybe, maybe, and I would say the probably definitely, although I can't tell you what

00:21:37.420 the Holy Spirit is doing in your heart and mind.

00:21:39.540 Like this is the radical revolution that God is calling you to by carrying out the good

00:21:46.080 and excellent works that he prepared for us beforehand.

00:21:49.980 And maybe you'll have a season of your life where things will look different, where you

00:21:54.000 will be called to something, you know, some kind of thing in, in, in addition, maybe so,

00:21:59.920 but let's not take for granted the season in which God has placed us.

00:22:04.380 There are a lot of opportunities.

00:22:05.840 Like I said, at the beginning of this episode.

00:22:07.820 To, to be radical, um, and to be different because we're being told that we have to be

00:22:14.340 isolated and that we can't, that we're not allowed to worship together in some places,

00:22:19.400 that we're not allowed to be hospitable in some ways, um, that we should be scared of

00:22:25.500 our neighbor, that we should be distrusting of our neighbor and that, uh, we should be angry

00:22:30.340 at our neighbor for not agreeing with us.

00:22:32.480 There are a lot of ways to push back against that.

00:22:34.440 And I'm not advocating for recklessness with the coronavirus guys.

00:22:37.800 I've said that a hundred million times, but people still need love right now.

00:22:43.120 Like the good works that God has prepared for us to do haven't been suspended.

00:22:46.940 God's will hasn't been suspended.

00:22:48.440 The timeline, the grand timeline of redemption, um, hasn't been suspended.

00:22:54.040 It hasn't been altered.

00:22:55.060 It hasn't been thwarted in some way.

00:22:56.480 Like we're not taking like some, some pause in the span of eternity, just because we have

00:23:01.320 bureaucrats trying to lock down society.

00:23:04.360 Like Jesus is still coming back at the time that the father has planned that he is going

00:23:08.900 to come back.

00:23:09.620 That's still happening.

00:23:10.620 And so our obedience is not less important now.

00:23:14.480 Like we are not, uh, we are not, um, excused for lack of a better term because we are in,

00:23:22.680 you know, a public health crisis and, uh, an economic and a government crisis right now.

00:23:28.100 No, this is the time that the church thrives.

00:23:30.320 And that's another piece of encouragement that I want to get, uh, that I want to give

00:23:33.740 you that I'll get to in just one second.

00:23:35.260 So the reality is, is that these times are actually when the church thrives.

00:23:41.620 Like this is when the church steps up.

00:23:44.980 I heard a pastor, uh, a few years ago that unfortunately, uh, I no longer align with in,

00:23:52.840 in, in some ways, but he has a lot of good stuff.

00:23:56.020 And, and something that he said was that the church thrives on the margins.

00:24:00.480 And so while I obviously think the fight for things like religious liberty are so important,

00:24:06.120 um, and I want this to be a country where Christians and people of all faiths can worship

00:24:11.480 freely and can speak freely, uh, can gather freely.

00:24:14.660 I, uh, also realize that when the church is pushed to the margins of society, when we're

00:24:20.240 no longer mainstream, when it's no longer popular or safe or lucrative, uh, to be a

00:24:27.200 Christian, that is, it's not where the church is destroyed.

00:24:30.560 That is where the, the church, uh, steps up to the plate, the true church.

00:24:35.480 Yes.

00:24:36.140 There are people who have lived their lives as cultural Christians, as comfortable Christians,

00:24:40.200 as nominal Christians who then walk away.

00:24:43.520 And they say, you know what?

00:24:44.180 This is too costly for me, uh, but those who left us were never with us as, as scripture

00:24:49.200 says, and those people may have been Christians while it was comfortable, but you know, they 0.96

00:24:54.260 were like the seed thrown on the, the bad soil.

00:24:57.440 And once things became difficult, once things became thorny, they said, you know, I'm out,

00:25:02.860 I'm not going to do this anymore.

00:25:04.380 I'm just going to join the culture.

00:25:06.360 I think that we've probably seen that a lot recently.

00:25:08.640 Um, and so as the church is pushed to the margins, yes, their numbers may get fewer because

00:25:15.060 it gets more difficult.

00:25:16.260 And people who have not counted the cost is Jesus tells us to, to count, uh, to count it

00:25:22.860 before we become his disciples are going to decide, yeah, it's just way too costly.

00:25:27.500 It's way too expensive.

00:25:28.920 It's way too unsafe.

00:25:30.340 It's way too uncomfortable for me.

00:25:31.900 And so there will be people who decide that they're going to walk away from Christianity

00:25:35.740 altogether.

00:25:36.340 There are going to be people who try to maintain some semblance of Christianity while mimicking

00:25:41.060 the world's talking points on every single issue.

00:25:45.560 And obviously those people, unfortunately, haven't submitted to the authority of Christ.

00:25:49.720 And I'm not just talking about people who, oh, they disagree with me on politics or they

00:25:53.440 disagree with me on these theological issues.

00:25:55.240 So that means they're not really Christians. 0.83

00:25:56.540 That's not what I'm saying.

00:25:57.340 We all know who I'm talking about.

00:25:58.700 The people really on the right and the left side of the political aisle who say, who used

00:26:04.840 Jesus as a mascot for, uh, their views that have nothing to do with scripture.

00:26:09.880 So those people might try to maintain some kind of semblance of Christianity, even as

00:26:14.560 Christianity gets pushed to the margins of society. 0.94

00:26:17.340 Um, but those people will even be few because again, it won't be popular or even necessary to

00:26:22.220 say that you have any kind of spirituality or allegiance, uh, to Christianity.

00:26:26.940 And so the true Christians will be on the margins of society, um, in America at, at some point 1.00

00:26:33.280 right now, we have a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny taste of what persecution, uh, looks like,

00:26:40.860 but in the rest of the world.

00:26:42.660 And for most of history, as we've talked about before, Christians have been very severely 1.00

00:26:47.100 persecuted against.

00:26:48.260 They have been tortured.

00:26:49.380 They have been arbitrarily detained.

00:26:51.160 Uh, they have had their organs harvested.

00:26:52.940 They have been, uh, martyred.

00:26:55.760 And so we don't, thankfully in America, we have had, you know, a few century long respites

00:27:02.420 for Christianity.

00:27:03.640 Um, while really in the West, there has been a reprieve from heavy persecution, that kind

00:27:10.800 of persecution of people of faith.

00:27:12.840 Um, and in particular, since we're talking from a Christian perspective of Christians, uh,

00:27:17.200 because of the Western rule of law and this idea of, uh, of individual liberty and individual

00:27:25.440 rights, but we don't know how much longer that's going to last.

00:27:29.280 And yes, I think it's okay to be fearful in some sense.

00:27:33.160 Certainly we're fearful for our kids.

00:27:34.980 We don't want our kids to grow up in a world to where they can't speak freely of Jesus.

00:27:38.340 We don't want them to be punished, uh, for saying that they're Christians.

00:27:41.560 Of course, no parent wants that, but we can also look throughout history and see that the

00:27:46.360 church has not just survived through those eras and they have been eras, but that they

00:27:50.900 have thrived in those eras, that the church has never once been destroyed by that persecution,

00:27:56.440 that the church is not destroyed, uh, by fire, but it's refined by fire.

00:28:00.780 Um, and, uh, I don't want to say sadly, but I guess fearfully in some ways, uh, that is,

00:28:09.180 uh, a way that is employed to refine the church.

00:28:15.380 Um, and to separate the, and to separate the true believers from those who were nominal 0.73

00:28:22.560 believers, trials and tribulations and persecution are used in that way.

00:28:28.180 So even if that is what we face in America, which I, I don't know, um, the political tides

00:28:34.460 change very quickly, but even if that is what Christians face in America in 10 years, in 20

00:28:40.700 years, uh, in 50 or a hundred years, yes, I think that we can do everything possible to

00:28:48.160 exercise our constitutional rights, to ensure that people are free to worship how they're

00:28:54.320 able to worship, but it's going to come at some point.

00:28:57.460 Like that try, those trials and tribulation are going to come in some point.

00:29:01.120 I don't think American Christians are exempt from that, nor should we expect, or even necessarily

00:29:05.500 want to be exempt from that forever, because again, the church thrives on the margins.

00:29:10.760 When we are pushed against the wall, when we are pressured, uh, when, uh, you know, our

00:29:16.920 rights are being threatened, that is when the church, um, shines the brightest when it is

00:29:22.600 the darkest.

00:29:23.120 And so there is actually some anticipation.

00:29:25.740 There's actually some encouragement and yes, even joy knowing that the gospel, uh, is not

00:29:33.820 going to die when the first amendment dies, like Christians and the church are not going 1.00

00:29:40.800 to be destroyed when our second amendment rights are taken away.

00:29:43.940 Like the, the, the word of God, the kingdom of God is not predicated on the first and second

00:29:49.740 amendment.

00:29:50.480 It's not predicated on religious liberty.

00:29:52.440 These are wonderful gifts that I think that we should fight for, that we should vote for

00:29:55.440 people who also fight for them.

00:29:57.400 Absolutely.

00:29:58.500 But the Lord doesn't actually need those things in order to do his will, in order to maintain

00:30:04.960 his kingdom.

00:30:05.680 The Bible says that the word is not going to return void.

00:30:08.720 He is not going to allow anything according to Job 42, to, uh, to thwart his will.

00:30:14.360 It's just not going to happen.

00:30:15.800 And I do think it's important to explain the difference between sovereign will and moral will.

00:30:20.260 Nothing happens outside of God's sovereign will.

00:30:23.100 Absolutely nothing happens outside of God's sovereign will.

00:30:25.760 He is in control of the entire universe.

00:30:28.100 There are no, as R.C.

00:30:29.340 Sproul says, maverick molecules.

00:30:31.100 There's nothing that is outside of God's will.

00:30:33.660 Jesus says that not even a sparrow falls from the sky outside of the will of the father.

00:30:38.800 And a sparrow is sold for, for too many or for two pennies.

00:30:43.400 Um, and so if we know that he has that under his sovereign will, then we can trust that he

00:30:47.660 has everything else under his sovereign will too.

00:30:49.700 But a lot of things do happen against his moral will.

00:30:52.780 And so we can read in scripture what God calls evil and what God calls good.

00:30:57.240 Things happen every millisecond against his, uh, against his moral will.

00:31:03.120 And those things will be punished.

00:31:05.620 Those things will be paid for.

00:31:07.660 He is not just allowing them to happen.

00:31:09.500 He's not just apathetic or complacent, um, about evil.

00:31:14.040 He will pay it back.

00:31:15.840 Justice will be served.

00:31:18.600 Um, and so we trust in that.

00:31:21.000 That is where our hope and our assurance and even yes, our joy is as we are looking to the

00:31:26.180 future of the country who is so bogged down in moral confusion and emptiness and hollowness

00:31:32.800 and these contradictory trains of thought that represent the most grotesque, cognitive and

00:31:40.360 moral dissonance that we could ever have imagined.

00:31:45.020 Um, and we can still trust in the fact that nothing happens outside of God's sovereign will,

00:31:50.120 that he has got his church, that he cares about his church and his believers more than we do,

00:31:55.600 that he has not suspended his plan of redemption, that the timeline hasn't been thrown off,

00:32:01.620 that he is not off his throne, that he is not worried about what's to come, that his plan

00:32:07.760 has not been changed, has not been thwarted just a little bit, that God hasn't been shut

00:32:12.460 down, that he hasn't been locked down, that he is not under the jurisdiction of the American

00:32:17.680 government or Governor Cuomo or Mayor Lightfoot or any of the tiny tyrants that we have or any

00:32:23.400 of the totalitarian regimes that we have throughout the world.

00:32:26.980 He is not subject to them and he is not subject to their edicts or their regulations.

00:32:32.080 Thankfully, the word of God and God himself and the kingdom of God are unbound and he is

00:32:38.380 the king of kings.

00:32:39.420 And that is a political statement, by the way.

00:32:43.060 That is why, as I've said so many times, Christians have been a thorn in the side of tyrants

00:32:47.620 since our beginning, because we are beholden to the king of kings, even when we are pushed,

00:32:54.320 especially when we are pushed to the margins of society.

00:32:57.780 And so we have hope when we look towards that, like we have hope when we look towards the

00:33:03.480 promises of God that have never gone unfulfilled and will never go unfulfilled.

00:33:07.540 We have hope when we look to the faithfulness of God, which promises to never fail and the

00:33:11.840 new mercies that he promises to give us every morning.

00:33:15.680 And so we continue to lead this quiet revolution with our lives, which is nothing more than

00:33:20.540 submission to Christ and submission to his word that we don't suspend just because of

00:33:26.500 certain regulations.

00:33:30.900 Yes, as Romans 13 says, we do everything that we can to submit to our earthly authorities as

00:33:35.640 long as it is not causing us to sin.

00:33:37.840 But we still have to abide by the word of God, and we still have to submit to Christ.

00:33:42.620 That is the quiet resistance and the quiet revolution that many of us are called to.

00:33:47.600 Some of you, like I've said, are called to having a public voice.

00:33:52.100 Absolutely.

00:33:53.360 But do not think the things that you are doing at home, the things that you are doing as a

00:33:57.360 hard worker in your work, working with excellence and integrity, being a good student that is

00:34:03.640 taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity that you have to learn and to glorify Christ

00:34:08.580 with the knowledge that he has allowed you to have.

00:34:10.920 Do not think that you, that your work as a mom, that you're changing of diapers with joy,

00:34:17.000 that you're disciplining your children with joy, that you're cleaning the kitchen with joy

00:34:21.600 is, it doesn't mean anything.

00:34:24.140 These are the good works that God has prepared for us beforehand.

00:34:27.720 Don't think that the kindness that you showed to your neighbor, that no one may never know about

00:34:31.740 besides you and your neighbor.

00:34:33.000 Don't think that that doesn't matter.

00:34:35.180 All of this is preparing for us, the trials that we're going through, the struggles that

00:34:39.680 we're going through, the scripture says is preparing for us a far greater glory that is

00:34:43.340 going to outweigh all of this.

00:34:45.340 That's revolutionary.

00:34:46.980 That's radical.

00:34:48.180 Being a Christian who submits to Christ as if there were any other kind of Christian, but 0.95

00:34:52.700 nowadays people think that there is, is the most radical thing that you can do.

00:34:57.920 So take comfort in that, that, uh, if you are a believer who is abiding in Christ, that

00:35:03.420 the God of the universe is on your side.

00:35:05.600 God's not going to let evil go on forever.

00:35:07.620 There will be a day where there are no corrupt politicians.

00:35:10.360 There's no deceit.

00:35:11.560 There's no manipulation.

00:35:12.960 There's no hidden agenda.

00:35:14.580 There's no, um, secret plan going on that we need to know about.

00:35:18.600 Uh, there's no divisive ideologies that are infecting, uh, universities that are infecting

00:35:24.800 the minds of our children.

00:35:26.260 There is, uh, no, there's no persecution anymore in that kingdom.

00:35:32.160 That's what we have to look forward to.

00:35:33.360 And we have every reason to be confident now to pursue Christ with our whole hearts and

00:35:37.320 with boldness.

00:35:37.980 That is enough.

00:35:39.360 That is enough.

00:35:40.300 And this self-empowerment, self-sufficiency culture in which we, in which we live, that

00:35:45.820 is actually devoid of any power and any sufficiency at all.

00:35:49.720 And the most radical thing that we can do is to depend on Christ for our purpose and for

00:35:54.120 our strength and for the assurance that the radical revolution, the quiet radical revolution

00:35:59.300 that we are living with our lives by submitting to him and everything we think, say, or do

00:36:04.180 that, uh, that is actually what real empowerment really looks like.

00:36:08.680 That's what real change-making really looks like.

00:36:11.000 That's what really pursuing your, your dreams really looks like is submission to Christ.

00:36:15.780 And that's it.

00:36:16.500 So take comfort in that and take comfort in the fact that God is in control, even when

00:36:20.060 things are chaotic, even when things are crazy.

00:36:22.460 Um, okay.

00:36:23.760 That's all that I have for today.

00:36:25.280 We will be back here on Wednesday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - October 10, 2022

REPLAY： Waging Quiet Resistance Through Bold Obedience

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