God And Politics Series

ILLUST> I was reading an article in Relevant Magazine a few years back that suggested that political conversation in Christian circles seems to be the Las Vegas of Christianity, in other words the environment where anything goes, hate is winked at, fear is welcomed, and conflict is applauded. Go wild Christian, your words have no consequences here. Jesus doesn’t live in Vegas. So slander gets explained away as righteous anger, winning arguments have higher value than truthful ones, and those who stir up dissension are given a platform. In one way or another I think we have all experienced that. So, the question that comes to mind in all of that is this. Where is God in all of that? That’s a great question. Should we have political opinions? Yes. Should we care about our country? You better believe it. Should we vote? Absolutely. Should we run of for office? Why not? The answer is not for us to disengage, but we really do need some clarity on where God is on all the political stuff that swirls around in the world that we live in today and even in this thing we do called church. That’s what I want us to talk about in the time that we have left together today.

But before we jump back in and do that we want to say hey there and welcome to this place that we call DCC. It is so good to have you with us today, that’s always true but especially true if you are brand new. If that is you, first off, we know that walking into any church for the first time can be a scary thing so thanks for giving us a shot and taking a chance on us. We really do hope that you have already felt and experienced this but we want you to know that all of your story is safe here regardless of how it reads, you belong with us regardless of what you believe, and you really are in a room today full of people just like you. So special shout out and welcome to you if you are brand new. We really do hope that you feel safe in this place.

If you haven’t been here before we are in the second week of a series that we are calling Distortion talking about this distorted image that we all tend to have of God and trying our best to clear up a lot of the confusion. Last week we kicked off the journey with two verses from Isaiah chapter 55 that tell us that there are some things about God that our human minds are never really going to be completely clear about or understand. That’s good for us to know, but it is not a reason for us to settle for what we already know. So, last week we talked about how God is not the angry punisher ready to zap us whenever we screw up and this week I want to shift gears and talk about and talk through this, God is not a republican, he’s not a democrat, he’s not political.

A part of our problem and challenge is this. Most of us don’t see any real conflict between our faith and our politics, they are one and the same. Some of us are like God is always right, Jesus was always right, that’s why I am a republican, clearly what is right is to be on the right. Besides that Matthew was a tax collector another Bible word for that is publican and that’s close to republican. That’s some of us. The democrats in the room are like are you freaking kidding me. Jesus was a heath care dispensing machine. Everywhere he went he dispensed health care and every single time that he did it, it was free. He got on rich people and said something about them not going to heaven because they stuck a needle in their eye or something like that. He gave away food all the time. That’s why I am a democrat. Libertarians and independents and everyone else can make an argument too. There are lots of arguments to be made, but where is God in all of this political stuff? Let’s jump into this and talk about that.

If you brought a Bible we are going to be in Romans chapter 13 today. If you would like a Bible to follow along in but don’t have one, they are on the back tables. Or you can just hit our app, the YouVersion app, or you can just read along with me off of the screens. Okay, so here we go, Romans chapter 13 starting with verse 1…

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.