Faith and Politics: A Biblical Perspective

1. "So as Christians, if you're a Christian in this room, how are we to understand rightly politics? And hopefully what I'm going to do today is lay out a framework. Here's what would be really easy for me to do is to say, hey, spoon feed you, go vote this way, go vote this way, go vote this way. I think that is unproductive. And the reason why is politics is not going away. This is one election cycle, and guess what? You're going to have another election cycle and another election cycle. What would be actually helpful is for me to provide a framework for us to think biblically and critically about the subject of politics." [04:25] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Today is all about perspective. How should I view government next week? Come back. When should I submit to government, and when should I not submit to government? So if you want to be arrested, come back next week. But our hope is in all of this is that, again, you just have a biblical understanding of politics. Now, if you are a non-Christian, we're so grateful that you're here. We know that it can be really confusing understanding what Christians believe because, again, the spectrum is there. And so hopefully the words of Jesus will lay a foundation for you to understand, oh, this is how Christians should think about politics." [05:25] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "So if we render to Caesar what is Caesar's, we know that his ownership, power, and authority actually falls under God's ownership, power, and authority. It's not separated from, but Caesar is submissive to the Lord. It all falls under him. Now, let me give you a really tangible example to make sense of this. How many of you have ever hired out a babysitter? Go ahead, raise your hand if you've ever hired out a babysitter. So you know this with a babysitter. It's the job of the parent to teach the values, obedience, and love. But you bring in this babysitter to take care of your kids for an appointed time, right? And they do things like feed your kids as the parents go off. They feed the kids. They make sure that they're not going to get into big fights. They put them down for bed. They make sure that they're safe. And then the parents come back. So they are entrusted with a level of authority for a certain time period. They submit to the parents." [16:23] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "In so many ways, this is exactly how government is to operate. You have the authority and the kingship of God, and under that umbrella, you have politics. You have Caesar. He is essentially the babysitter, if you will, for God for an appointed time. So what this does is this is going to radically change our perspective of government. Jesus' answer. And the first thing we'll see is government is not God but under God. Here's what I mean by this. Leaders are to submit to the God of the Bible. This is a great calling that all leaders in reigning places who have authority, they are to submit themselves to the God of the Bible. All governments everywhere." [17:11] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "There is a growing number of nuns. What is nuns? Those are people that don't identify with any particular faith. That demographic is one of the fastest growing demographics in the U.S. So what happens when they're not identifying with any longing or identifying with any faith, but they still have these longings inside of them. Longings for peace and the flourishing of the world. Here's what happens. They begin to map their desires for God onto politics. And you see that all over this political cycle. It's how people are mapping their deepest desires onto politics or a politician. They're hoping in some ways that this politician can finally bring what they've been hoping for. The peace that they've been hoping for. The salvation that they've been hoping for." [19:08] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "Do you have a crippling fear or anxiety about the next election? What that does is if you have this, it's revealing of your heart. That you have put ultimate trust on this candidate, on this platform to rule and reign and bring you some of the deepest desires in your heart. See, even if the worst candidate is elected and no matter, by the way, the Romans were, this was not a good government that Jesus is talking about. They would ultimately brutally kill thousands and thousands of Christians in the coming years. And yet, Jesus understood his rule and reign is eternal. This is temporal. So do you have crippling anxiety?" [21:27] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "Can you have civility in your discussions of politics? When politics is in its proper place in our life, you and I can engage in discussions with others who may disagree with us. But because it's not the ultimate thing in our life, we can actually do that with civility. And if there should be a mark of a believer is we can talk about temporal matters and not let it get us too worked up. Too anxious because we ultimately know what our eternal hope is. How about this? What is stirred in you if the other candidate wins? Is it fear, anxiety? Well, that will reveal to you and to me how much we've put our trust in the next prince, the next ruler, the next authority." [22:33] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "Government should bring peace, order, and flourishing. Genesis 1.28. This was the original command to our parents long before the fall ever came in. So long before sin entered into the world and marred things, this is the commandment of God. And God blessed them. Adam and Eve. And said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on earth. So have dominion, have authority over the world. Multiply. Flourish. What happens as they begin to have babies and then they begin to have babies and humanity began to spread out throughout the entire world? Well, you would begin to have structure needed. Order needed. Authority. People would need to rise up and bring order, peace, and flourishing to certain people groups." [24:50] (59 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "Justice is caring for and protecting life. So when we look to government, we know that there needs to be an order to our society, to our nation that allows us to grow and flourish. But we also know that justice must reign in this. And that means that the government and those that are in leadership care for and protect life all the way from womb to tomb. All of life. And it doesn't matter what political platform you are currently standing on. That is for all platforms. That God cares for all people from womb to tomb. So in our context, this is how it should look. The legislator should pass just laws. The president should administer just laws and just ways. And the supreme court and judges should defend just laws and overturn unjust laws. That's the role of government." [25:39] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "There is a king that is perfectly just and righteous. And he stands above Republicans. He stands above Democrats. He stands above Independents. And he has been perfectly righteous in every way. And yet, here's what's really fascinating. All of his subjects have chosen to go their own way. To rebel against the perfect king. To say, hey, thanks but no thanks. And attempt to live life outside of him. So what is the king to do? Is the king to reject them? It's fully within his right to reject them and cast them out of the kingdom forever. But not this king. The righteous and good king then chases his rebellious subjects down. And he does that by sending his one and only son into their kingdom. To live amongst them. To experience pains and temptations just like they experience. And to teach them a new way. And not just that. At the end of his son's life, he dies in their place for their sins. Every rebellion. Every ounce of shame. That they have experienced. These subjects. He took all that on the cross. Paid the full and complete price. And then three days later rose from the dead. And now there's an invitation to leave the kingdom of darkness. And go into the kingdom of light. To leave the kingdom of man. And come into the kingdom of God." [32:32] (100 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)