What Would Jesus Say About Politics Today?

00:01:56

Use your phone to take a picture of yourself.

00:01:58

Really.

00:02:31

Take a look at your picture.

00:02:33

In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, it says:

00:02:43

That means your picture is a reflection

00:02:46

of a perfect God who doesn't make mistakes.

00:02:49

You are beautiful.

00:02:52

What if all of creation was made for you

00:02:54

to enjoy and fill you with wonder?

00:02:56

But you were made for God to enjoy

00:02:59

and reflect His beauty.

00:05:53

- Hey, everyone, welcome to Crossroads.

00:05:55

My name is Eric. - My name is Justin.

00:05:57

And we're so glad you're joining with us today online.

00:06:00

Crossroads is one church with many locations.

00:06:03

We meet physically and digitally all over the world

00:06:05

because we believe this is a church

00:06:07

you can fully belong to no matter where you live.

00:06:10

- That's right. Church isn't about physical locations.

00:06:13

It started with a bunch of people

00:06:15

who were literally following Jesus around,

00:06:17

eating together and learning to do what He did.

00:06:20

It's way more accessible than we realize.

00:06:23

- That's right. If you're a part of

00:06:24

our Crossroads Anywhere community

00:06:26

and you consider Crossroads your church,

00:06:28

then I want you to consider volunteering

00:06:31

specifically as a part of

00:06:32

this Crossroads Anywhere community.

00:06:34

And one area we want to highlight for you

00:06:36

is what's called a regional leader.

00:06:38

And why I love our regional leaders

00:06:40

is because right now this year,

00:06:42

I've got friends who have sent their kids away

00:06:44

to college, or even friends of mine

00:06:45

who have moved for jobs.

00:06:47

And I love being able to tell them,

00:06:48

"Hey, our church meets all over the world,

00:06:51

and in one of those cities we've got

00:06:53

a regional leader that you should connect to."

00:06:55

- Yeah. And a regional leader simply becomes

00:06:57

the primary contact for Crossroads Anywhere

00:07:00

in your physical area.

00:07:01

So you'll regularly meet with and invite new people

00:07:05

and care for your Crossroads community,

00:07:07

even where there isn't a Crossroads building around.

00:07:10

- Yeah, you might be thinking, I know,

00:07:12

"I don't think there's anyone else

00:07:14

that goes to Crossroads around me."

00:07:16

Well, great, then this might be

00:07:19

the perfect opportunity for you to start

00:07:21

a Crossroads community around you.

00:07:23

- Yeah, and maybe it sounds intimidating to you,

00:07:26

but this is for normal, regular people

00:07:29

who are following Jesus and who can care for others

00:07:31

and get them connected to a church community.

00:07:34

You can find out more about becoming

00:07:36

a regional leader at Crossroads.net/anywhere.

00:07:39

All right. Now, Justin, I got a real question for you.

00:07:42

- All right.

00:07:44

- What are you grateful for right now today?

00:07:48

Well, immediately I go to family.

00:07:50

So I have four kids and this morning or this day

00:07:53

is picture day at our school.

00:07:55

And so I'm grateful for my four kids,

00:07:59

but I'm grateful for the teachers at school.

00:08:00

I don't know if we got any teachers out there

00:08:02

watching with us part of our community right now.

00:08:04

Thank you. Thank you for the work that you do

00:08:07

for our kids. My four kids love their teachers.

00:08:09

They're amazing.

00:08:10

So thanks for all that you pour into them

00:08:13

and taking them off our hands for some hours a day.

00:08:15

It's awesome. Thanks for all you do.

00:08:17

I'm also thankful for this past weekend was Labor Day.

00:08:21

I'm grateful for a new grill and some steaks.

00:08:24

- Oh nice. - I got to grill up yesterday

00:08:26

and shared with our family and enjoyed the day.

00:08:29

All right, so how about you? What are you grateful for?

00:08:31

- That's pretty good. You know what?

00:08:33

I'm grateful that my wife is one of those teachers

00:08:35

that you're talking about taking care of kiddos.

00:08:37

So double shout out to all the teachers.

00:08:39

I got two healthy kiddos right now,

00:08:42

so I'm super grateful about that.

00:08:44

And I'm grateful for the back to school deals

00:08:47

that I was able to find. Come on.

00:08:49

- That's real. - It's the best.

00:08:51

And I know that all of this came from God.

00:08:54

In James 1:17, it says every good

00:08:57

and perfect gift comes from above.

00:09:00

And everything good that I have is God's,

00:09:03

and I give it back to Him,

00:09:05

specifically with my money.

00:09:07

I give a portion of it back to our church.

00:09:09

- Yeah, we do too, every single month

00:09:11

we set aside a portion of our income,

00:09:13

and we do that at Crossroads.net/give.

00:09:16

And you can do that if you want

00:09:17

to jump into that with us, too.

00:09:18

And while you're there, check out

00:09:20

what we believe about giving

00:09:21

and what kind of impact you're having

00:09:23

through your giving across the world.

00:09:24

- Yeah, that's right. Thanks so much for joining us today.

00:09:27

And right now we're going to hear from

00:09:29

our Senior Pastor Brian Tome, as we continue

00:09:32

in our current series Thirsty.

00:09:35

- 3, 2, 1, ignition sequence start.

00:10:33

- It's one small step for man,

00:10:36

one giant leap for mankind.

00:10:43

- Oh, my gosh, you have no idea what

00:10:44

that's even about yet, but you should be excited.

00:10:47

I am. I'm very excited about the 10X Push

00:10:50

that's going to come.

00:10:52

I'm going to refer to that a little bit today.

00:10:54

But today is a very interesting day.

00:10:57

Today is the last day you ever have to struggle

00:11:02

finding a parking space at Crossroads,

00:11:05

at least for a few months, because

00:11:06

today we're going to talk politics.

00:11:11

Yep, yep, yep, yep, we're going to do it.

00:11:14

And I know all anyone ever wants to hear

00:11:16

as it comes to politics, all I want to hear

00:11:18

is what I believe is right.

00:11:20

And today you might get pushed on.

00:11:24

I'm going to push on you.

00:11:25

I've given talks before about Daniel, the prophet in the Old Testament

00:11:28

that lived in a culture and he decided to go

00:11:30

the opposite direction and do different things.

00:11:32

And people were coming down on him.

00:11:33

And Jesus, who obviously, and His disciples

00:11:35

who went a different way than the crowd,

00:11:37

and they ended up getting crucified.

00:11:38

And I try to encourage you in your day to day life

00:11:40

to realize that sometimes you're going

00:11:42

to take unpopular stands and you're going to

00:11:44

not be liked and you're not going to be wanted.

00:11:46

You might even be persecuted.

00:11:47

And now today, I have to give myself that message,

00:11:52

because I'm going to say some things that I know

00:11:54

a high percentage of us are not going to like.

00:11:58

I'm going to tell you this because

00:12:01

I know that we're thirsty, and I know that

00:12:05

the political process, the political system,

00:12:07

American culture as it is right now

00:12:09

is just sucking all the spiritual hydration out of us.

00:12:13

It's not giving us life.

00:12:15

And I want to redirect us to the way of Jesus

00:12:19

and try to bring a little bit of a help

00:12:21

and a little bit of hydration.

00:12:23

So let's pray before I go any further.

00:12:24

God, I'm thankful that You do give messages

00:12:28

that are different and difficult

00:12:30

and the right thing at the right time.

00:12:32

And I'm asking that this talk today

00:12:35

would be that thing.

00:12:37

That You would help us shut off the toxicity

00:12:41

that may be coming to our minds.

00:12:42

Help us shut off the attitudes that we've had that haven't been right.

00:12:46

Help us shut off anything, at least for a moment here this morning,

00:12:50

that isn't of you.

00:12:52

God, these people are here because they want something that

00:12:54

we're not going to get someplace else.

00:12:56

We're not going to get on TV or anyplace else.

00:12:58

I pray that You would use me to do that.

00:13:00

And God, thank You for enabling me to speak

00:13:02

into Your transcendent truth.

00:13:04

I pray these things according to the character

00:13:06

and identity of Jesus. Amen.

00:13:12

Culture has changed a lot in the last 28-9 years,

00:13:16

as long as I've been a Crossroads.

00:13:18

Crossroads has changed a lot over that time.

00:13:21

It used to be way, way back when

00:13:24

we used to ballyhoo ourselves

00:13:26

as a political free zone.

00:13:28

We were apolitical and everybody was good with that.

00:13:31

Everybody was good on the right, on the left,

00:13:34

young, old, like, "Yeah, great, great.

00:13:36

Let's not bring politics in here."

00:13:38

Then some time ago, things started to change.

00:13:40

We had younger people at Crossroads who seemed

00:13:44

to be saying so out of an earnest desire

00:13:46

to understand, like, "What was my church believe?

00:13:49

I'm not sure what to believe about these things.

00:13:51

What, what -- where is the Bible on this?"

00:13:54

And so we started speaking into some things

00:13:56

that are more hot in the political realm.

00:13:58

And then that was unusual.

00:14:00

Like, younger people had never, ever, ever,

00:14:02

ever like wanted that and all of a sudden they do.

00:14:04

And then we had older people behaving differently too.

00:14:07

We had older people who in a previous generation,

00:14:10

if something was said, something was said

00:14:12

from stage that they may not agree with,

00:14:15

it didn't line up with their politics,

00:14:17

that older generation would say, "That's okay.

00:14:20

I choose my church over my politics."

00:14:23

That's not the way it is anymore.

00:14:25

Now we had older people just like, "Wait,

00:14:27

is he saying that? I think he's saying that.

00:14:29

We're out of here.

00:14:30

Now wait a minute, he didn't say -- we're out of here."

00:14:33

It's just different. Very different.

00:14:36

And it's not working for us.

00:14:37

So I'm going to tell you today is not the official Crossroads position.

00:14:41

I'm going to tell you my position.

00:14:44

It may not even be agree with by other people

00:14:46

who teach here at Crossroads.

00:14:47

I don't know, but I'm going to tell you.

00:14:49

I'm going to tell you today who to vote for.

00:14:52

How do you like that? Never done that before.

00:14:56

I'll tell you why this is so difficult.

00:14:58

Here's why it's so difficult.

00:15:00

Here's why it's so hard.

00:15:02

It's that we are in times that

00:15:05

the Christian church has really not been in before.

00:15:09

We're dividing ourselves in culture.

00:15:12

And all of us, everyone's just trying

00:15:14

to figure everybody out.

00:15:16

So we are in a large church, predominantly white,

00:15:21

unless you come to the 11:45 service,

00:15:23

then if you're white like me,

00:15:24

you're in the minority. It's pretty awesome.

00:15:26

11:45 Service at Oakley.

00:15:28

And I get asked by people out in the community,

00:15:31

wherever, they assume, "Hey, are you --

00:15:33

You are you an evangelical?

00:15:34

Are you an evangelical church?"

00:15:35

And I always have to say, like, describe what that is.

00:15:40

I said by evangelical, I would say I look at

00:15:44

the Bible as my ultimate standard of truth,

00:15:47

and I believe I should tell people about Jesus.

00:15:50

That's evangelism.

00:15:51

So if that's evangelical, then yes.

00:15:54

Now, if you're asking about this and that

00:15:56

and all this, this and that, you have to ask them

00:15:58

to me one by one.

00:16:00

It's really sad, this group of people

00:16:04

I used to identify with, the evangelicals

00:16:06

become to America nothing more than a voting bloc.

00:16:08

Jesus didn't come to start a voting bloc.

00:16:11

Jesus didn't come to start a group of people

00:16:14

who politicians would pander to to get their votes.

00:16:18

It's really odd. We just don't fit in.

00:16:22

I don't fit in.

00:16:23

The church of the first century

00:16:25

was way left of the evangelical church

00:16:30

and way rights of many other churches in our culture.

00:16:34

This is just basic history.

00:16:37

Basic 101 of the church after Jesus left.

00:16:39

They were very, very into the poor,

00:16:42

and they were very, very into racial justice.

00:16:47

They would be viewed as being way left

00:16:50

right now because of that.

00:16:52

And at the same time,

00:16:53

they absolutely were pro-life,

00:16:56

and they absolutely understood that sexuality

00:16:59

was defined by God in Genesis 1, period.

00:17:02

So they would say therefore you're way to the right.

00:17:05

So with someone like me who holds to all of those groups,

00:17:09

where do I fit in in American politics?

00:17:13

I don't. I don't.

00:17:15

In fact, anybody who takes Jesus seriously

00:17:18

is not going to fit into American politics.

00:17:22

So what happens on Election Day?

00:17:25

You can do one of one or a few things.

00:17:26

You can vote for the person who has the greatest character.

00:17:31

You can vote for the person

00:17:33

who has the most positions you think

00:17:36

are in line with the Bible,

00:17:37

if you're a person of faith.

00:17:38

And many of us are not in here.

00:17:39

You're trying to figure out

00:17:41

if you're going to become a person of faith.

00:17:43

You can vote for the candidate who agrees with you

00:17:46

on your singular most important issue.

00:17:49

Or you can just not vote.

00:17:53

I know it really bothers some of you.

00:17:56

Like, "Well, it's your Christian duty?

00:17:57

It's your Christian duty."

00:17:59

No, it is not my Christian duty to vote.

00:18:01

There's not a single thing in the Bible

00:18:03

that ever says I have to vote.

00:18:04

Nobody in all of biblical history ever voted

00:18:07

for anything unless you were the apostles

00:18:10

after Judas had killed himself,

00:18:12

after Jesus had died on the Cross.

00:18:13

And then they decided to have an election

00:18:15

to elect the 12th Apostle,

00:18:17

even though God never said to do that.

00:18:18

They said, "Let's do this. Fine, this is a good idea."

00:18:21

No, no people of God anywhere in biblical history

00:18:24

ever participated in a democracy when they would vote for anybody.

00:18:27

I like this. I like democracies.

00:18:28

I'm glad to be in a democracy.

00:18:30

I'm glad to have the ability to vote,

00:18:32

but there's no mandate to vote.

00:18:33

I can sit out and God can be very, very happy for that.

00:18:37

What do we do?

00:18:38

What do we do in this situation?

00:18:40

Very confusing.

00:18:41

Let's vote for the candidate.

00:18:43

Vote for the most, the highest character candidate.

00:18:47

If that's the case, not sure

00:18:48

how you vote for Donald Trump.

00:18:50

He can't keep a marriage together.

00:18:54

He lies and slanders as just a normal course of action.

00:18:59

He's a convicted felon.

00:19:00

And that's just the thing

00:19:01

his supporters should all agree on. All agree on.

00:19:05

Kamala Harris, not sure if you want to vote

00:19:08

for the person who has the most views

00:19:10

in line with the Bible,

00:19:11

I don't know how you vote for her.

00:19:13

Don't even know what her views are.

00:19:15

She's not talking about it.

00:19:16

She's like, she knows she's ahead.

00:19:18

She's not talking about it.

00:19:19

And some of the ones she has talked about

00:19:21

are completely different from what she said

00:19:22

not too long ago.

00:19:24

You want to write in a third party candidate?

00:19:26

Like who? We don't have a third party candidate.

00:19:28

I don't even know if that's even available anymore.

00:19:30

Not vote?

00:19:32

And here's where I'm going.

00:19:33

Watch, I'm going to tell you, Imma tell you how to vote.

00:19:35

Here's how it is.

00:19:36

You can elect to have Donald Trump

00:19:40

as your President for any of those reasons.

00:19:42

You can elect to have Kamala Harris as your President,

00:19:45

or you can elect to have Jesus as your ruler.

00:19:51

You can elect to have Jesus as your ruler.

00:19:52

Now, I know this sounds like a cop out.

00:19:54

"You're just doing like this."

00:19:56

No, no, no, no, no it's not, just, just, just wait.

00:19:59

Wait on me here. Let's listen to this whole thing.

00:20:04

What happens is, when you're a follower of Jesus

00:20:08

it means you follow Him. Okay?

00:20:10

And that means you do what He does.

00:20:15

That means you also know that

00:20:17

someday you're going to go before Him

00:20:20

and you're going to answer for every single thing

00:20:24

you've ever done in your life.

00:20:26

Everything.

00:20:27

The Bible says in the book of Romans that

00:20:29

there is therefore now no condemnation

00:20:30

for those who are in Christ,

00:20:32

which means Jesus will never spank us.

00:20:33

We go to God, we never get condemnation.

00:20:35

Condemnation already came when Jesus was on the Cross.

00:20:38

Jesus got condemned so you and I will never get condemned.

00:20:42

That's why it's called the Good News.

00:20:44

Is anybody happy about that? That's some Good News.

00:20:46

You might not be happy about

00:20:47

anything else I've said today so far,

00:20:48

but you should be happy about that.

00:20:51

And, and even though there's no condemnation,

00:20:54

the Bible also makes it very clear

00:20:55

you and I will give an account

00:20:57

for every word we've ever uttered.

00:21:01

We will have to go before the judgment seat

00:21:03

and give an account for our life.

00:21:06

So you're going to have to go before Jesus

00:21:09

and give an account of why you voted for who you voted,

00:21:12

or why you didn't vote for who you voted.

00:21:14

And you need to make that decision with that in mind,

00:21:18

not what makes your life more comfortable,

00:21:20

not what your parents told you was right,

00:21:23

not what all the cool kids are voting, not with --

00:21:26

You have to go and you have to defend yourself before Him.

00:21:29

Now here's the crazy thing because --

00:21:32

Because democracy isn't in the Bible and because God doesn't say,

00:21:35

"Thou shalt voted for this person

00:21:36

or shalt voted for another person,"

00:21:38

the Democrats would love you to believe

00:21:40

that's the case, Republicans would love

00:21:41

you to believe that case. You know what's possible?

00:21:43

What's possible is you get into a church

00:21:46

where you have donkey bumper stickers

00:21:49

and elephant bumper stickers.

00:21:52

You get into a church like ours

00:21:54

where people are all over the place,

00:21:56

and you get into a place where you realize,

00:21:59

"Hey, hey, somebody else thinks they're going

00:22:03

to have to go before Jesus and give an account,

00:22:06

and they think they have a good answer for that.

00:22:09

I think I have a good answer for that."

00:22:13

What do we do with it?

00:22:14

Well, we learn to live in harmony with one another.

00:22:16

We're going to get into that in just a moment.

00:22:18

First, let's get the ground rules

00:22:20

of where are this foundation all comes from.

00:22:22

The book of Mark chapter 12.

00:22:23

There's so much in here, but we're just going to start here.

00:22:26

Book of Mark 12:13, here's what Jesus says.

00:22:30

And they sent to Him some of the Pharisees

00:22:34

and some of the Herodians to trap Him in His talk.

00:22:37

And they came and said to Him, "Teacher,

00:22:39

we know that You are true

00:22:41

and do not care about anyone's opinion,

00:22:43

for you are not swayed by appearances,

00:22:46

but truly teach the way of God.

00:22:50

Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?

00:22:54

Should we pay them or should we not?"

00:23:00

You know, we know Jesus as the greatest teacher

00:23:02

in the history of the world.

00:23:04

We know Jesus is the greatest miracle worker

00:23:06

in the history of the world.

00:23:07

Anybody would agree with that on

00:23:09

any corner of the globe, in any time zone,

00:23:12

in any era of any religion, nationality.

00:23:14

We date time after Him for a reason.

00:23:16

Yeah, He's moral, amazing morals, miracle worker,

00:23:19

great teacher, but you know, what we don't

00:23:21

give Him enough due process on is that Jesus

00:23:24

is always the smartest person in the room.

00:23:28

They just can't trap Him.

00:23:30

They come to Him and this is all for --

00:23:32

This is a political discussion here.

00:23:34

These are people who are coming to have their way.

00:23:38

You had these three kind of political ruling classes.

00:23:42

Two of them are represented right here.

00:23:44

You got the Herodians.

00:23:46

Herod Antipas was a monarch, descended from

00:23:50

a royal family who ruled Galilee.

00:23:52

So you got kind of His followers.

00:23:55

You've got the military governor who is Rome,

00:23:59

like, Pontius Pilate, who sentenced Jesus to death,

00:24:02

who represents a dictatorship of Rome.

00:24:04

And then you've got the Pharisees,

00:24:06

who are these factions that served as basically

00:24:09

an oligarchy for all of the religious leaders,

00:24:13

and they were always jockeying to get their way.

00:24:16

So this is a showdown where they're trying to see

00:24:18

who Jesus supports. Do you support us?

00:24:22

Do you want us? Which is, by the way,

00:24:24

what every politician always wants from the church.

00:24:26

Every politician wants the church's support.

00:24:28

Every politician wants it. Will you support us?

00:24:31

Will you throw your weight behind us

00:24:33

and you come support us?

00:24:35

Early days of Crossroads, every time

00:24:37

it was an election, I found out, like, "Wait,

00:24:39

why is -- who are these new people sitting beside me?"

00:24:41

I always sit when I preach, basically

00:24:43

the same side, same side at the front.

00:24:45

And I was like, "Why are all these people

00:24:47

I've never met always sitting around me?"

00:24:49

All of a sudden I realized, "Oh, these are

00:24:51

all the politicians who want to be seen with me."

00:24:54

They were just like city council members,

00:24:56

congressmen, whatever.

00:24:57

And they thought and they were thinking that

00:24:59

I was going to say something,

00:25:01

"Oh, we want to welcome so-and-so."

00:25:03

They thought, no, no, no, I never do it,

00:25:05

Tome-y, don't play that game.

00:25:06

No, no, no, we're not going to do that, try and support.

00:25:09

At least they're going like, "I'm going to sit

00:25:10

around the guy so if someone looks he thinks he's my friend."

00:25:14

And a lot of them are, some of them I have been their friends.

00:25:18

It doesn't mean I'm going to endorse them.

00:25:23

This is what politics is like, it's just, you know,

00:25:25

and they're all trying to make their way.

00:25:27

And so Jesus, He skirts the issue

00:25:30

as they try to enlist Him and also try to trap Him

00:25:33

in his own words, like, if he says the wrong thing,

00:25:35

it's like, "Ah-ha, see? See, we got you."

00:25:38

Let's keep going here.

00:25:39

But knowing their hypocrisy. Jesus knows this.

00:25:42

He's always the smartest person in the room.

00:25:43

Verse 13, He said to them, "Why put me to the test?

00:25:46

Bring me a denarius and let Me look at it."

00:25:49

And they brought one.

00:25:51

And He said to them, "Whose likeness

00:25:53

and inscription is this?"

00:25:55

And they said to Him, "Caesar's."

00:25:56

And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar

00:25:59

the things that are Caesar's,

00:26:00

and to God the things that are God's."

00:26:02

And they marveled at Him.

00:26:05

How did -- what -- what did He just do?

00:26:10

Say this is the coin? Coin's got Caesar on it.

00:26:12

Kind of like today if I could say,

00:26:14

"Give me a quarter. A quarter. Who's the inscription's on that?"

00:26:17

George Washington, arguably the father of America

00:26:20

if any singular person was.

00:26:22

And I could say, "Hey, man, that means

00:26:24

this is of the US Treasury.

00:26:26

And that means you shouldn't get all that upset

00:26:29

about what taxes are."

00:26:31

You shouldn't. I do. I don't like taxes.

00:26:33

By the way, I have my very --I have very strong

00:26:37

personal political convictions. I do.

00:26:40

But they don't come close to the strong conviction

00:26:43

that Jesus is my ruler and so long as

00:26:45

He's good with me, then I'm good.

00:26:47

But for some of us, like, man, your emotions

00:26:51

and your sense of joy is way too dictated

00:26:54

by politics, way too dictated by who's in power

00:26:57

and who isn't in power.

00:26:59

And Jesus says, it doesn't matter what the taxes are,

00:27:02

it doesn't matter. It's got Caesar's.

00:27:04

It's got Caesars inscription on it.

00:27:06

So just give it give to Caesar what's Caesar's."

00:27:08

Now He's saying this with people who understood

00:27:11

the most core basic teaching of the Bible

00:27:13

in Genesis 1 that says human beings,

00:27:16

men and women, are created in the image of God.

00:27:20

He has stamped His image on us, the same way

00:27:22

that George Washington is stamped on a quarter,

00:27:25

God has stamped His image on you. You are His.

00:27:30

Jesus is saying, "I'm not going to get

00:27:32

all upset about taxes.

00:27:33

What I'm upset about is I want people

00:27:35

to give their whole life to Jesus,

00:27:37

their whole life to God."

00:27:39

If you come to a place where you've given

00:27:42

your entire life to God, I'll tell you what,

00:27:46

the less true that is, is the more upset

00:27:49

you're going to be with today.

00:27:51

The more you've given your entire life to Jesus,

00:27:54

the less upset you'll come about,

00:27:56

you'll have about any political discussion,

00:27:58

the less upset you'll be about anybody

00:28:00

who gets in office.

00:28:01

There's better choices than other choices,

00:28:03

and for sure.

00:28:05

But if your entire heart, your entire mind,

00:28:09

your entire life is about God, you recognize

00:28:12

that He has His imprint on you, therefore He owns you.

00:28:15

He owns you and the country in which you dwell,

00:28:18

and therefore you can have a peace

00:28:21

that passes all understanding.

00:28:22

Here's what electing to have Jesus means.

00:28:24

It means three things.

00:28:25

When you elect to have Jesus, you are, one,

00:28:28

you are ushering in the Kingdom of God.

00:28:31

There is the Kingdom of America and then there's the Kingdom of God.

00:28:34

Just like the Kingdom of Spain, Kingdom of capitalism, Kingdom,

00:28:37

all kind of kingdoms, right?

00:28:38

But the Kingdom of God is this dome in which God is king.

00:28:42

It's a preferred realm of reality

00:28:46

where God is having His way, and some people a

00:28:49

re trying to bring God's way to bear

00:28:51

in the here and now, so that it mimics heaven.

00:28:56

So we can usher in the Kingdom of God,

00:28:59

which is not the same as

00:29:01

ushering in the America that you want, especially

00:29:05

if you haven't given your whole self to God.

00:29:07

When you're ushering the Kingdom of God,

00:29:09

you've elected you ushering in the Kingdom of God,

00:29:11

it means that we have a hope

00:29:12

that passes all understanding.

00:29:14

It means when the world starts pushing us,

00:29:16

because the world is always pushing on us,

00:29:18

trying to bend to its agenda.

00:29:20

And that's why we are the way we are in politics.

00:29:23

We're all being pushed on by Democrats or Republicans.

00:29:26

I'll just review some things.

00:29:28

I don't know if you've understood this or not.

00:29:30

Republicans and Democrats

00:29:32

are for profit corporations, I understand it.

00:29:37

They are for profit corporations, both of them.

00:29:41

How do they make money?

00:29:43

How do they amass a following?

00:29:46

By getting more of us on their side.

00:29:48

How do they get us on their side?

00:29:50

By pointing out how bad the other people are.

00:29:54

It's not by accident that their platforms

00:29:58

are entirely different, because they're carving out

00:30:00

space and power to amass power for themselves

00:30:04

and attract you and I to their thing,

00:30:06

which means we have to be divided against

00:30:09

each other because the other people have to be bad,

00:30:12

the other people have to be evil.

00:30:14

And this is why and where we are right now.

00:30:16

This is what the world does, it pushes on us.

00:30:18

And I'll tell you what, this fall, we're going to push back on the world.

00:30:22

We're going to have a push. It's called 10X.

00:30:24

You saw a video of it earlier.

00:30:25

We're going to make a huge force to see if we can

00:30:29

bring a spiritual awakening to our regions.

00:30:31

A huge push to see if we can do some things

00:30:36

that will reach hearts in a 10X way,

00:30:39

have a massive impact because the Kingdom of God

00:30:42

is an aggressive movement.

00:30:43

It doesn't just take it, it pushes

00:30:46

and we're going to push in the spiritual realm this fall.

00:30:49

I can't wait.

00:30:50

It's going to be phenomenal. Get ready.

00:30:51

It's the most important -- It's going to be

00:30:53

the most important six weeks

00:30:55

we've ever had at Crossroads.

00:30:56

It's the most important thing I've ever done

00:30:58

with my life, other than get married.

00:31:00

But that was one day, and giving my life to Christ.

00:31:04

That was one day, too. There you go.

00:31:05

There you go. Let's contrast campaign --

00:31:08

A campaign versus the Kingdom.

00:31:11

Campaigns have a candidate. A kingdom has Christ.

00:31:16

A campaign is all about fear.

00:31:18

Oh, no. Don't let those people get in.

00:31:21

If they get in, it's going to be really bad.

00:31:22

Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, no.

00:31:24

And a kingdom is about faith,

00:31:27

trusting that God's going to have His way,

00:31:30

trusting that God's going to make a way.

00:31:33

Campaigns are all about nationality.

00:31:36

Kingdoms are about Kingdom identity.

00:31:40

What is my identity?

00:31:41

When I watched the Olympics this summer,

00:31:43

I loved it, it was great.

00:31:44

I'm always for the American, unless I knew

00:31:48

that one of the competitors from France

00:31:49

or whatever, unless they were a believer.

00:31:52

Then I would go like, "I just connect

00:31:54

with that person. Like, I'm of the same identity

00:31:56

with them and I'm rooting for them."

00:31:58

Why am I doing this?

00:31:59

It's because I have a Kingdom identity,

00:32:02

a connection with people who have given

00:32:03

their life to Jesus, a connection with people

00:32:05

who have made God the number one thing

00:32:08

that will always transcend national identity.

00:32:12

But that's what campaigns keep doing.

00:32:13

And therefore this is what you do to become

00:32:15

the best American is this picture of America

00:32:17

or this picture of America.

00:32:19

I'm not interested as much in pictures of America

00:32:22

as I am in the picture of the Kingdom of God,

00:32:25

of having people know their Heavenly Father

00:32:27

who loves them and sent His Son to die for us.

00:32:31

Campaigns are about divisiveness.

00:32:35

As I just mentioned, Kingdom,

00:32:36

the Kingdom of God is about unity.

00:32:39

That's part of what's special about Crossroads,

00:32:41

we don't have a we don't have

00:32:44

a mono political, cultural church.

00:32:47

We have people who are all over the place,

00:32:50

and we learn to like each other

00:32:52

and play nice with each other.

00:32:54

And a lot of people don't, that's why they leave.

00:32:56

That's why some of you are going to leave today,

00:32:58

which I'm pretty impressive.

00:32:59

I'm preaching right now in Oakley,

00:33:01

I haven't seen anybody get up and leave yet.

00:33:03

God bless you people. Wonderful.

00:33:06

I'm ready for it. I'm ready for it.

00:33:07

It's going to be happening.

00:33:09

Maybe the service I'm in right now is the most coherent.

00:33:12

I don't know, or maybe you're just still asleep.

00:33:14

I don't know.

00:33:16

Campaigns. Campaigns are about personal interest.

00:33:21

Parties are like, "Hey, you 'll keep America

00:33:23

the way you want it, to have the way it is right here."

00:33:26

The early founders of the country said

00:33:28

our country will devolve as soon as people realize

00:33:32

they can vote themselves money.

00:33:34

And so that's what politicians do.

00:33:36

This program to help you financially, this program to help you.

00:33:39

And if you don't need any help, we're going

00:33:41

to lock it down and we're not going to tax the rich anymore.

00:33:43

No, we're not doing anything different on capital gains.

00:33:46

No, we're not going to do any alternative minimum tax.

00:33:48

No, we're not going to do anything on.

00:33:51

You know, no, we're going to make sure

00:33:52

your heirs can keep all your money. No, no.

00:33:54

So it's just another form of using money to get power.

00:33:59

Can you see this? Can you see?

00:34:01

And they both do it. They both do it.

00:34:04

They just do it under the banners

00:34:05

of different philosophies, personal interest.

00:34:08

Where the Kingdom is about communal interest.

00:34:11

You know, that's kind of why God calls

00:34:15

people to the Kingdom of God to tithe as a baseline starting point.

00:34:18

Because when we do that,

00:34:19

I'm putting money into the community.

00:34:21

I'm putting money into the Kingdom of God,

00:34:23

I'm not just keeping it to myself.

00:34:25

And that's why people who aren't into the Kingdom

00:34:28

never move that way.

00:34:29

They always have reasons not to.

00:34:31

It's a system of this world.

00:34:35

I have two good friends.

00:34:38

One friend was telling me --

00:34:39

I have a bunch of good friends.

00:34:40

Actually, some of you, you're like

00:34:42

jealous when I said two. You're like, "You have two?"

00:34:44

Yeah, I've got a bunch, actually.

00:34:47

And one of my friends, one of these two friends

00:34:51

came to me several months ago, and he was just really bothered.

00:34:55

I said, "What's going on?"

00:34:56

He said, "I was talking with so-and-so.

00:34:59

And we disagreed over who is going to become President.

00:35:06

And he said to me, he said, "What are you, an idiot?"

00:35:11

He said, "Are you an idiot? Are you stupid?"

00:35:14

And my friend is no idiot, he's not stupid.

00:35:16

Neither one of these guys are. Highly educated, very.

00:35:19

Neither one of these guys.

00:35:20

And he was really hurt. And I thought, "Gosh,

00:35:22

that's what the world comes to, like,

00:35:24

good friends can now think the other is an idiot

00:35:27

because of a different choice on who to vote for

00:35:31

and who might be right and who might be wrong."

00:35:33

That's not the kingdom of God, friends.

00:35:35

That may be normal out there, but we have to be different.

00:35:39

You have to be different if you want

00:35:40

a heart that's aligned right, if you want a spirit

00:35:43

that's lush and vibrant instead of sucked dry

00:35:47

you have to be different.

00:35:48

Not just to be different,

00:35:50

but because life doesn't work that way.

00:35:52

Relationships don't work that way.

00:35:53

The Kingdom of God doesn't work the way.

00:35:55

Jesus did work that way.

00:35:58

People are always telling me, "Man,

00:36:00

you got to take a stand. You gotta take a stand."

00:36:03

I'll take a stand, the problem is

00:36:04

you don't want the stand I'm going to take.

00:36:06

You just want me to take your stand.

00:36:08

It's a huge difference. You got to take a stand.

00:36:10

Everyone says that because they assume I'm going to agree with you.

00:36:13

Can't tell you the number of people go, "We have to have voting, a voter."

00:36:16

I've lost friends. One friendship I lost

00:36:18

because they wanted to have a voter drive,

00:36:19

voter registration.

00:36:20

They work for a specific party

00:36:22

and they wanted to have a voter registration thing.

00:36:24

I said, "No, we're not doing voter registration."

00:36:26

They were all upset about it.

00:36:27

They're like, "We're just registering."

00:36:29

I was like, "No, you think a high percentage

00:36:32

of people coming to Crossroads

00:36:34

are going to vote the way you think

00:36:35

and so you want that in the atrium.

00:36:38

And no, Jesus gets upset when stuff was like that.

00:36:41

That's the one time He got pissed off.

00:36:43

He's overturning tables one time because

00:36:45

people are doing things in a worship setting

00:36:47

they shouldn't be doing.

00:36:51

All things that everybody else should see things

00:36:54

the way I see them.

00:36:56

And very few people actually attempt to see things

00:36:58

the way Jesus sees them, to elect to have Him

00:37:02

as our ruler, even if we don't like it.

00:37:07

John 6:15.

00:37:08

Perceiving then that they were about to come

00:37:10

and take Him by force to make Him king,

00:37:13

Jesus withdrew by a mountain by Himself.

00:37:16

They came to take Jesus and make Him a king,

00:37:20

a political king. And he said, "No, I'm not,

00:37:21

I'm not. I'm not going to do that.

00:37:23

I'm not going to be your political king."

00:37:25

And we are in this sort of convulsion right now,

00:37:27

this cultural convulsion

00:37:30

that America hasn't seen for a while.

00:37:32

We've seen it before, way back in the '60s

00:37:34

we had a cultural convulsion.

00:37:36

We're having it right now.

00:37:38

1968. By 1968, JFK had been killed.

00:37:42

And in 1968, you had Robert F. Kennedy is killed,

00:37:47

Martin Luther King, Jr., is killed.

00:37:48

You have, you have -- Oh, I just forgot his name.

00:37:52

Oh, Kennedy's replacements. Lyndon Johnson.

00:37:56

Lyndon Johnson, he bows out of the race.

00:37:59

You have the Vietnam War that is raging and people are divided about that.

00:38:06

You've got the spaceship, which is pretty awesome

00:38:10

to us right now, back then it was hyper controversial.

00:38:13

Every American, every American being taxed

00:38:15

an extra $0.50 every single week for that thing.

00:38:19

It was pandemonium, and now we're in it right now again.

00:38:22

Everyone's throwing stuff at one another,

00:38:24

and many of us have just forgotten American history.

00:38:26

Let me show you a little bit of American history.

00:38:29

Anybody brings up something about racial,

00:38:32

racial equality or racial equity,

00:38:34

they get immediately accused of being woke

00:38:36

or being this or being that.

00:38:38

Hey, let me tell you, racial equity, racial value

00:38:42

of people who have different skin tones

00:38:44

isn't a new idea in America.

00:38:47

1950 Superman. Superman came out 1950.

00:38:52

Let me read you his, like, a bastion of America.

00:38:54

Here it is, "And remember, boys and girls,

00:38:57

your school, like our country, is made up

00:38:58

of Americans of many different races,

00:39:00

religions and national origin.

00:39:01

So, if you hear anybody talk against a schoolmate

00:39:04

or anyone else because of his religion,

00:39:06

race or national origin, don't wait.

00:39:08

Tell them that kind of talk is un-American."

00:39:12

1950, and that wasn't a big deal in 1950.

00:39:17

But crazily, for some Americans today it's a big deal.

00:39:20

Really weird.

00:39:23

We think, "Oh, man, it's never been more caustic

00:39:25

than it is right now. Never been."

00:39:27

No. Yeah, it has been very -- It's way --

00:39:29

It's actually been way, way, way more caustic.

00:39:31

I'll show you another little cartoon.

00:39:33

This cartoon is from 1798.

00:39:38

And this is a cartoon depicting a fight

00:39:43

over the Alien and Sedition Acts,

00:39:46

where people in Congress picking up a cane going,

00:39:50

and that guy picks up the fire poker

00:39:52

that's been used in the fire to keep the room warm,

00:39:55

and they go after each other.

00:39:56

And you know why they go after each other?

00:39:58

They're going after each other on immigration.

00:40:02

On immigration.

00:40:03

These are two white guys fighting each other

00:40:07

over whether or not we're going to let other white people in from France

00:40:11

who are going to affect our elections.

00:40:13

This wasn't a race thing.

00:40:14

It was like, "Let's keep the purity of the election here," thing.

00:40:17

And that was horrible.

00:40:19

And we've been arguing immigration

00:40:21

for a long, long, long

00:40:22

and it's a very, very complicated issue.

00:40:24

It's complicated.

00:40:25

If you don't think it's complicated, then you don't know much.

00:40:29

It's very complicated and it's not a new thing.

00:40:33

It's not a new thing.

00:40:34

White people have been fighting white people

00:40:36

over white people coming in in a violent way.

00:40:40

It's not always a race thing.

00:40:42

The second thing I'll mention,

00:40:44

if you elect Jesus as your ruler,

00:40:46

is that you don't need to win.

00:40:50

You don't need to win.

00:40:51

Come to a place where you become a better loser.

00:40:55

You just get used to losing.

00:40:57

By the way, if you decide to give your whole life to Christ

00:40:59

and vote to make Him your ruler,

00:41:01

get used to losing on Election Day because

00:41:04

your value is going to be different

00:41:06

than the average American's,

00:41:07

and you're just not going to vote for a lot of people to win.

00:41:09

So sorry, sorry. Join the club of losers.

00:41:12

Every one I vote for, they lose.

00:41:14

They lose because my morality, my views are formed

00:41:17

by the scriptures and I'm in the minority.

00:41:21

That's why Jesus says that people like me

00:41:24

are on the narrow path.

00:41:26

And when you get upset, like all of culture

00:41:28

is against me, I feel like I'm in the minority.

00:41:30

Yeah, it's called following Jesus.

00:41:33

It's called being on the narrow path.

00:41:37

All right. Matthew 16. Let me read this.

00:41:40

Then Jesus said to the disciples,

00:41:41

if anyone would come after Me,

00:41:43

let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

00:41:45

For whoever would save his life will lose it.

00:41:48

But whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

00:41:51

For what will it profit a man if

00:41:52

he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

00:41:55

Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

00:42:00

Jesus talks about losing.

00:42:06

But we want to win at all costs

00:42:09

and kowtow to people and things that just aren't --

00:42:11

Just aren't right.

00:42:13

When you're with the Kingdom of God,

00:42:15

you have a value of you lose.

00:42:17

You get nailed to a cross.

00:42:19

People don't like you.

00:42:20

You get persecuted. You're in the minority.

00:42:24

And you also do this other stuff that people

00:42:26

don't understand and deciding not to win,

00:42:30

you decide to make as many friends as possible

00:42:33

and actually be all things to all people.

00:42:37

Now that sounds really weird,

00:42:39

but that's an exact Bible quote:

00:42:42

Be all things to all people.

00:42:44

The apostle Paul says, "Look, when I'm around

00:42:47

Jewish people, I want to accentuate my Jewishness.

00:42:49

When I'm around Gentile people, he says,

00:42:51

I want to emphasize that I don't have to eat kosher,

00:42:54

and I eat pig and bacon. It's wonderful.

00:42:56

When I'm around strong people

00:42:58

I emphasize my strong parts.

00:42:59

When I'm around weak people, he says,

00:43:01

I do all this so as to win some to Christ,

00:43:05

so as to bring them into a relationship with Christ.

00:43:07

So when I don't need to win, that also means

00:43:11

I don't need to convince and woo people over to my side.

00:43:15

I don't need to get people over on the losing side.

00:43:17

Come join the losers.

00:43:18

Come on over here with me, politically speaking.

00:43:20

I don't need to do that.

00:43:21

I want to be a spiritual winner.

00:43:23

I don't need to woo people onto my political side.

00:43:25

So therefore, when I meet somebody who is way left,

00:43:31

like, way left, don't tell anybody this,

00:43:35

there's a couple of things I believe that are way left.

00:43:40

I could say, "Oh, yeah."

00:43:42

When I meet somebody who's way right, like way right.

00:43:46

Don't tell anybody this, but there's some things

00:43:50

I believe that are way right.

00:43:54

And why do I want to identify with them?

00:43:57

Because the biggest struggle is the politics

00:44:00

and the election, the biggest struggle is

00:44:02

will they give their life to Jesus someday?

00:44:04

I want them to like me. I want them to like me

00:44:08

so maybe someday they'll like Jesus.

00:44:11

Now this is like, wow, wow, whoa.

00:44:14

This is basic Bible things.

00:44:17

This is basic kingdom of heaven things.

00:44:19

This is basic what you do when Jesus is your ruler.

00:44:23

I think a lot of us

00:44:25

aren't really into Him being our ruler.

00:44:27

We want Him to be our mascot.

00:44:29

We want Him to be the guy who we just check the box

00:44:32

and we identify with Him more than we do Buddha.

00:44:36

This is big. It's really big.

00:44:40

Matthew 20:25 says: You know that the rulers

00:44:42

of the Gentiles lord it over them,

00:44:44

and their great ones exercise authority over them.

00:44:47

It shall not be so among you.

00:44:48

That's what Jesus would say to us, "It shouldn't be."

00:44:50

This is the way people are.

00:44:51

Not with you, trying to get power,

00:44:54

trying to be divisive, lording it over,

00:44:56

gloating when someone wins an election,

00:44:58

if it was a person that you voted for.

00:45:00

It shouldn't be so with you. You should be different.

00:45:03

We're being discipled by our media

00:45:06

more than we're being discipled by Jesus.

00:45:09

We're more interested in fitting into

00:45:11

whatever cultural narrative we have aligned with

00:45:13

than fitting in with the Kingdom of God narrative.

00:45:18

Where do we get our information?

00:45:20

What's our hearts? What's our desire?

00:45:24

Third thing, last thing about

00:45:26

if you elect Jesus to be your ruler

00:45:27

and push forward the Kingdom is that you are

00:45:31

for a person that you have an actual relationship with.

00:45:35

Like, you actually know them.

00:45:37

Anthropologists tell us that until

00:45:41

the last hundred or so years, people lived,

00:45:43

or 200 years somewhere in there, all people lived

00:45:46

in communities of 200 people or less.

00:45:50

And when you're in a community of 200 people,

00:45:52

there's always people who are different than you

00:45:54

and think different than you.

00:45:55

And you learn you have to get along.

00:45:58

You have to learn to get along because

00:45:59

you're in that community of 200 people.

00:46:01

Well, now all we've done is we've just found

00:46:03

200 people who think exactly like us,

00:46:06

and we just think like them.

00:46:08

And they all say they all think this is our candidate.

00:46:12

So let's go be with this candidate.

00:46:14

And here's the -- All right.

00:46:15

I'm going to push on you a little bit here.

00:46:17

I'm going to push on you here.

00:46:18

Some of you may do this, maybe do this,

00:46:20

but I'm going to be one voice.

00:46:23

And you may disagree with my application,

00:46:25

but I just want to give you a value assessment here.

00:46:29

Why would I be so excited about

00:46:31

a specific candidate who I've never met

00:46:34

and I don't know? What?

00:46:38

Why? Why would I ever put a sign of somebody

00:46:43

in my yard who I've never met and I've never known?

00:46:48

Have you ever put a sign of Jesus in your yard?

00:46:52

I know, I know, I, by the way,

00:46:54

I wouldn't do that for a bunch of reasons.

00:46:56

I think it's cheesy, but whatever.

00:46:58

But it's not as cheesy as putting

00:47:00

somebody else's name in your yard who you don't know.

00:47:04

I've never talked to Donald Trump.

00:47:06

I've never talked to Kamala Harris.

00:47:09

I talked to Jesus this morning, though.

00:47:11

I talk to Him every morning. I know Him.

00:47:14

I know Him really well. He's ministered to me.

00:47:17

He's given me peace. He's given me forgiveness.

00:47:20

He's given me a -- He's given me capacities

00:47:25

and powers and opportunities that only came from Him.

00:47:29

Didn't come from me. It came from Him. I know Him.

00:47:35

And the more of us who can actually come

00:47:37

to know Him and come under His rule,

00:47:40

the better shape our country will be in.

00:47:49

All right, last, last last verse. Last verse.

00:47:52

1 Timothy 2:1: First of all, then I urge

00:47:54

that supplications, prayers, intercessions,

00:47:55

thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings,

00:47:59

and all who are in high positions,

00:48:00

that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life,

00:48:02

godly and dignified in every way.

00:48:04

We should all want to live a peaceful and godly life.

00:48:06

That means we've got --

00:48:07

We all want our politicians to take care of us.

00:48:10

And so whoever gets in, you should be praying for them.

00:48:13

Yes, you should be praying for them.

00:48:16

You realize the best ruler Jesus's followers had,

00:48:19

the best one was worse than our worst ruler.

00:48:24

Take wherever you think your worst politician is,

00:48:26

their best was worse than our worst.

00:48:30

If they could pray for theirs, we can pray for ours.

00:48:32

This is good and pleasing in the sight of God

00:48:34

our Savior, who desires all people to be saved

00:48:37

and to come to knowledge of the truth.

00:48:39

All people. That's right.

00:48:40

All people on the left. All people on the right.

00:48:42

All people don't even have any convictions.

00:48:44

All people. We need to pray about this.

00:48:49

Now, if something's getting revived in you,

00:48:51

there's a different thing, a different deal,

00:48:53

a reality I'm pointing to you.

00:48:55

That's why we have coming up one of the things

00:48:57

I've been looking forward to years and years

00:48:59

and years, for years and years and years, I said,

00:49:01

"Man, we got to get people on our land,

00:49:02

whether married or single, male, female,

00:49:04

old, young, whatever, and just have

00:49:06

some sort of camp or to borrow an old school term,

00:49:09

an old school revival.

00:49:13

Because our spirits need revived,

00:49:15

we need a redirect, we need to sense God.

00:49:17

We need to feel God.

00:49:19

I'm telling you, coming up, October 11-12

00:49:22

is going to be unbelievable.

00:49:23

Two days, 24 hours.

00:49:26

Come and sleep over Friday night.

00:49:27

Come and leave if you want.

00:49:28

There's gonna be a prayer experience,

00:49:31

solitude time, time for kids,

00:49:32

smash mouth preaching, unbelievable worship.

00:49:35

I'm telling you right now, there is --

00:49:36

I am convinced there is no place you could get to

00:49:39

where you have a higher likelihood

00:49:41

of having a powerful, transcendent encounter

00:49:44

with the Holy Spirit.

00:49:45

I am trusting, and I am expecting that God

00:49:48

is going to do something significant

00:49:50

and profound in that.

00:49:51

And I encourage you to make every effort to be there.

00:49:54

It's going to be phenomenal. It's going to be great.

00:50:06

All right. That's it. That's it.

00:50:08

I got one more thing and we'll lead into a time of worship.

00:50:13

I wanted to respond.

00:50:14

I wanted to have a time to worship

00:50:16

at the end of this instead of at the beginning.

00:50:18

So we'll do that right now.

00:50:19

But let me tell you what one of the moments where things clicked for me.

00:50:22

Somebody said Crossroads a lot different now

00:50:24

than than it used to be. It is.

00:50:26

Crossroads is very different for a lot of reasons.

00:50:28

There's a lot, there's like there was moments

00:50:30

over the last five years that happened

00:50:32

that I went like, eh, hmm.

00:50:37

One of them was about five years, eight years,

00:50:39

nine, whatever, whatever it is.

00:50:41

One of them is, you know,

00:50:43

last two presidential elections have been very contested.

00:50:46

Half of America always say, "Not my president,

00:50:48

not my president."

00:50:50

By the way, whoever wins, they'll be my President

00:50:52

because my Bible says to be in subjection

00:50:55

to rulers and authorities.

00:50:56

Even if I disagree with them, they will be my President.

00:50:59

No part of the kingdom, no citizen of the Kingdom

00:51:01

ever has a bad attitude towards a President.

00:51:03

In fact, if you have a bad attitude

00:51:05

towards the President, you need to repent

00:51:07

and ask God to forgive you for having

00:51:09

a bad attitude and not praying for Joe Biden.

00:51:12

And those of you before you should do

00:51:13

the same thing when Donald Trump was in office.

00:51:17

After one of those contentious elections

00:51:20

I just mentioned so-and-so is our President Elect.

00:51:24

And I'll never forget it was a guy, a guy stood up.

00:51:27

A guy stood up and he was going like this.

00:51:31

And like he was the only one in the room

00:51:32

who was doing it.

00:51:34

And I thought, "Okay, dude,

00:51:35

did you think that everybody believes like you?

00:51:37

And so when I said that so there would be applause?

00:51:40

And when you stood up, you assumed

00:51:42

everyone was going to stand up?

00:51:44

Or did you do that because you knew that you were you were kind of standing

00:51:48

against the grain and you were like, you know?"

00:51:53

But what really broke my heart is, like,

00:51:55

I've seen a guy for for years and years,

00:51:58

and he may have been around our church maybe for 20 years. So a long time.

00:52:02

And I thought, "Man, that's the most excited

00:52:07

I've ever seen you in this room.

00:52:10

You have the ability to worship a genuine king,

00:52:14

and I've never seen you raise your hands.

00:52:16

I've never seen you.

00:52:18

But you're going to raise your hands and clap

00:52:20

because the person you wanted to win

00:52:21

won an election? "I went," Oh, my gosh,

00:52:24

what kind of people are we creating

00:52:25

here at Crossroads? Seriously, what is going on?"

00:52:28

Tome-y, don't play that game.

00:52:33

Friends, there's going to be some happy people.

00:52:36

There's gonna be some sad people

00:52:37

next day of the election in here. That's okay.

00:52:41

But when we come in here, we're trying

00:52:43

to get all of us to become elect,

00:52:47

to elect to have Jesus as our ruler.

00:52:51

And if you're not there yet,

00:52:53

we're excited that you're here.

00:52:56

We're excited that you take your time

00:52:58

figuring out if that's something you want to do,

00:52:59

but recognize that's the direction we're going.

00:53:02

We're going towards Him.

00:53:04

Why don't we stand

00:53:05

and give Him some accolades right now.

00:53:11

- We'll sing this together.

00:53:13

We're not waiting until November.

00:53:15

You can cast your vote right now. Okay? Sing this.

01:01:00

- Well, maybe you say --

01:01:01

Maybe you're saying yes to Jesus

01:01:03

for the first time or the thousandth time.

01:01:05

This is what we're saying yes to.

01:01:08

This is the Kingdom of God.

01:05:32

- You know, it just crossed my mind,

01:05:34

we've talked about coming under,

01:05:36

electing to be under the rule of Jesus.

01:05:38

You can elect to do that right now, by the way.

01:05:40

You can step into the voting booth

01:05:43

of your own spirit, your own soul right now,

01:05:46

and elect Him and say to Him, "I want You.

01:05:49

I want Your forgiveness.

01:05:51

I want Your kingship in my life.

01:05:54

And I'll serve You the best I can," just like this.

01:05:56

Just bow your head right now, say, "Jesus,

01:05:57

I want You, I elect You. Rule my heart.

01:06:02

Forgive me. Fill me with Your Spirit.

01:06:06

And I want to know you personally. Amen."

01:06:12

- Hey, as we wrap up our series Thirsty,

01:06:14

we want to remind you that throughout this series

01:06:16

we've got a number of resources available just for you.

01:06:20

So if you text "resources" to 301301

01:06:23

or head over to Crossroads.net/resources,

01:06:26

you're going to find podcasts, articles,

01:06:28

book recommendations and more,

01:06:30

all written by our people and our church,

01:06:32

all specifically related to

01:06:33

what we've been talking about in this series

01:06:35

and all created to help you.

01:06:36

- Yeah, and we'd love to talk and connect with you.

01:06:39

We actually mean it when we say that

01:06:42

you can fully belong to our church,

01:06:44

no matter where you are.

01:06:45

So email us at anywhere@crossroads.net

01:06:49

so that we can get to know you, know who you are

01:06:52

and help you find the next steps here at Crossroads.

01:06:55

- Yeah, thanks for joining us.

01:06:56

We'll see you back here, same time, same place next week.

Recent Series