Why Christians MUST Be Involved in the Political Process
Various Scriptures
October 22, 2006
Introduction
Well, you can tell from the title that I’m going to discuss politics again.
And as much as you may not want to hear about stuff like this, it’s not nearly as much as I would rather not talk about stuff like this.
So why do I do it? Because, as we’ll see later, to not take these issues seriously and become involved is to allow immorality and death to claim a victory.
This is a momentous time in the history of our state and in our country.
I’m sure you understand by now that the entire world is watching what happens in South Dakota on November 7, particularly in terms of the abortion ban.
A number of other states are waiting to enact their own bans similar to ours, if it succeeds at the election.
And Christians in South Dakota have an unprecedented opportunity to have world-wide influence for life and the sanctity of marriage as God defines it.
Which brings me once again to the fact that these are not political issues – they’re moral issues, and we need to have our voices heard and lend whatever influence we can.
But Brian, you’re beating this drum over, and over and over and over. When are you going to stop?
When I feel that I’ve said everything I can say to convince you that we simply cannot roll over and play dead in an election that can have tremendous impact for good or evil based on the involvement of people who claim to love God and follow Jesus.
So in light of all that, I want us to look at three facts that we need to keep in mind as we look at why Christians must be involved.
And I need to say that I don’t use the word “must” lightly here. I wish you could have been at the rally at First Baptist last Tuesday. And I wish that I could somehow impart not just what was said, but the spirit behind it.
I’m convinced that if you were a follower of Jesus, you could not have left there unconvinced not only of the need to get involved, but also of the tremendous weight of what’s at stake if we sit on the sidelines.
But before we dive into these, let me just read one quote from the ancient philosopher Plato:
“The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.” (SermonCentral.com Contributed by: Tim Najpaver)
Let’s jump into three reasons why Christians need to be involved in the political process.
1. We are to be the influencers, not the influenced.
Let me ask you something: do you really want to be part of a society in which politicians, the media, and vocal special interest groups do all the influencing?
We’re dangerously close to that right now. TV, radio, and the internet are being used powerfully by those who wish to influence our society to greater ungodliness. And you can’t deny it.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I refuse to let politicians do my thinking for me. I refuse to let the media do my thinking for me. I refuse to let vocal special interest groups do my thinking for me.
And let me add something here for you that I’ve also said before: don’t let me do your thinking for you. Don’t take my word for any of this. Check it out against Scripture and come to your own conclusions based on the Word of God and prayer.
The fact of the matter is that we’re supposed to do the influencing. We’re not supposed to be the ones being influenced.
Matthew 5:14-16 –
14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Three things I want to point out here that we need to grasp if we want to be influencers…
> We cannot hide. (v. 14-15)
Jesus says you don’t hide a light! What good is a light that’s hidden? It’s no good at all.
If we want to be people who have a godly and Christ-like influence, then we cannot live in the shadows.
Followers of Jesus are supposed to be light and live in the light. And where light is, shadows cannot be.
If we want to be influencers, we cannot hide. Second…
> We need to contribute in a positive manner.
One of my drumbeats in all this is that it’s easy to scream about the darkness. But it’s another thing altogether to actually shine light into the darkness.
If we want to be influencers, we need to be the light not the bowl! Bowls cover light and bring darkness. Bowls don’t add to the light.
One way I think we can avoid being a bowl is to adopt a commitment to not be a whiner in life – point to positive solutions.
Every Christian should have pasted to their mirror that circle with a slash, with the word “whining” in it.
This is one of the reasons I’m bringing these messages. I can scream all day about how bad it is.
My intention is to tell you that something can be done about it, by the involvement of God’s people!
When we confront evil, we need to do it with the good news of Jesus, not just complain about the evil.
Contribute in a positive manner. Take whatever action you can. Vote. Call. Write letters to the editor. And please pray! These are positive things we can do for the betterment of our great nation.
Here’s a third action we need to take in order to be influencers, and that is…
> We need to point people to the Father.
How do people see God? Primarily it’s through US.
The Scripture gives people the truth about God, but if we are lousy representations of God, they won’t bother with the Scriptures!
Our good deeds should be done in such a way that God is seen, not us.
Our involvement in the political arena needs to be dripping with the love of God, seeking bring people to a love and allegiance to Him above all else.
But we can’t do that if, first of all, we choose to not become involved at all; and second, if all we’re doing is screaming and not acting to bring the light of God’s truth in a positive way.
Folks, we are called to be the influencers. God help us if we shirk that duty.
Here’s the second reason that Christians must become involved in the political process:
2. We carry a dual citizenship.
Philippians 3:20 –
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…
(Explanation of context for Acts 16, then following passage)
Acts 16:37-38 –
37 But Paul said to the officers: "They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out."
38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed.
We are citizens of both heaven and earth. And while our heavenly citizenship should hold our greatest allegiance, we should not just throw away our earthly citizenship and let others govern by default.
Two principles to keep in mind:
> Christians should not be politically ignorant.
Paul knew his rights. He was a Roman citizen and that meant that he was to be treated differently than those who weren’t citizens.
And rather than roll over when the city leaders tried to cover up their wrong-doing toward him and Silas, he demanded his rights as a citizen.
Know what your rights are and exercise them. This brings us to the second principle in this section and that is that…
> Christians have the same rights as other citizens.
We have rights. Both God-given rights and those embodied in the constitution of the U.S.
These rights include the right to influence and participate in how our society is governed.
Those rights don’t end at the church door, and they certainly don’t end at the ballot box.
3. Refusal to participate allows evil to win.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)
Why was Hitler so successful? Because the church rolled over and let him.
Germany had been beaten to the ground and humiliated after World War I. The Treaty of Versailles put such demands on Germany that it looked like it would never dig itself out. Its economy took a nosedive, and the ruling parties were ineffective.
Hitler wormed his way into the government and came to a point where he could rule as a dictator, promising the people that he would lead Germany out of disgrace and back into prominence.
But we all know what that meant for certain parts of the German and European populations. Systematic genocide.
Millions were killed for their religion.
And what did the church do? It rolled over, and not only let Hitler do it, in a number of cases, it promoted Hitler’s programs.
National pride and allegiance to Hitler overshadowed any allegiance to Christ and His church.
It was in the midst of this that a pastor named Martin Niemoller came to the attention of the Nazis.
Neimoller had been a German sailor during WWI, and to be quite frank, sympathized with the Nazis in the beginning, speaking against the Jews as having killed Jesus.
But in the mid to late 1930’s he saw the danger in how churches were being “nazified” and became part of a movement committed to keeping the church committed to Christ above all. This movement included Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who later died in a German prison camp for taking part in a plot to kill Hitler.
Neimoller survived the prison camps, and in 1945 gave the world this poem:
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Powerful words, folks. It’s been said that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. That’s because we don’t learn the lessons from it.
Folks, the church cannot allow itself to simply roll over and let evil win as it did in Germany. We simply cannot.
Let me bring this to a very practical level.
If you want the abortion industry (and I choose that term very deliberately) to triumph and continue the slaughter of innocent children, don’t bother going to the polls.
Because if you’re not voting, then what you are doing by default is voting for the abortion industry. Don’t do anything – and the abortion industry wins.
If you want God’s definition of marriage to be destroyed, then stay home on November 7. Because if you’re not voting, then by default you are voting for an immoral definition of marriage.
There is no middle ground here, folks. You’re either voting for life and God’s definition of marriage or you’re voting against them, whether you actually mark your ballot that way or you refuse to vote.
Are you ready to stand before God and give an account of yourself for that?
I am – because I’m making my voice heard, especially in the ballot box.
But keep this important principle in mind:
Society is not changed through government. Society is changed through changed lives.
The goal is not perfect government. The goal is for people to become disciples of Jesus.
Dr. Tony Evans, a pastor in the Dallas area and popular author and speaker, spoke at a Promise Keepers conference I went to a number of years ago.
I won’t be able to quote this exactly, but here’s basically what he said:
“A messed-up man contributes to a messed-up family, which contributes to a messed-up church, which contributes to a messed-up neighborhood, which contributes to a messed-up city, which contributes to a messed-up county, which contributes to a messed-up state, which contributes to a messed-up country, which contributes to a messed-up world.
So if you want to change the world, you’ve got to change the messed up country, but before you can do that you’ve got to change the messed up state; but before you can do that you’ve got to change the messed up county; and before you can do that you’ve got to change the messed up city, and before you do that you’ve got to change the messed up neighborhood, but before you do that you’ve got to change the messed up church, and before you can do that you’ve got to change the messed up family, but before you can do that you’ve got to change the messed up man.”
You see? It all begins with you. You living for Jesus 24/7. You loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You loving your neighbor as yourself.
We do what we can in the political process, but we trust God for the results, even when they’re not what we want.
And no matter the result, we need to be people who live for Jesus, seeking to influence one more person for Him.
Conclusion
Folks, I simply can’t stress this enough. We need to be involved. We risk way too much to be complacent, especially in this election year.
Carla Powell gives an interesting story:
“A couple weeks ago, I attended a lecture at the University of Michigan law school sponsored by Lord of Light Lutheran Church in Ann Arbor.
The speaker was Paul Simon, formerly a senator from Illinois. He indicated that the word "idiot" comes from Latin words that mean ’someone who does not get involved in civic life’.
He suggested that we need less "idiots" in the U.S. today - as in people who don’t get involved in any part of the political process. He challenged people from every walk of life to find entry points
into the political system - whether through letter writing to governmental officials or through keeping ourselves more informed on issues of global politics.” (SermonCentral.com. Contributed by: Carla Powell)
So what about you? Will you pledge to God that you will do what you can to help righteousness win the day at the polls this year?
Will you have the guts to speak up for the unborn and God’s definition of marriage, or will you cave in, either by voting against these or not voting at all?
I hope you’ll take a stand for righteousness. For the sake of our children and our families, take a stand. For the sake of the glory of God and His kingdom, take a stand.
Let’s pray.
