Post Election Reflection

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Well, Awakening Church, it's been a week, and I just want to sit and have a just a what I'm calling a post-election reflection.

Um, I don't know about you, but uh last weekend to Monday and Tuesday, it just felt like a hurricane was off the shores of our country, and we're kind of waiting for it to touch ground and not exactly sure what's gonna happen.

And we're responding and hoping and waiting and worried and anxious and holding our breath about uh what the election's gonna mean for us.

I mean, we're asking questions like this: who is going to be our next president?

And at the taping of this, we don't know who's gonna be the president.

We haven't found those results out yet.

We're asking questions like will there be a peaceful transition of power, or if there's needed a peaceful transition of power?

Like, like, what does this mean for our country?

And what does this say about our country?

And there's so much fear, there's so much worry, there's so much angst, and and I think there's a lot of important questions we're asking, but I believe there's an incredibly important question that I'm not seeing us ask, that I want us to ask.

I I think it might be a better question for us to ask as believers.

In fact, I think it has more impact in our country if we answered this question well, uh, in how we live and how we experience um unity and uh compassion and seeing justice and equity take place in our country if we answered this question well.

And here it is.

How are Jesus followers to respond regardless of who's president?

How are we, as Jesus followers, think about this, uh, to live, to be, and to do, regardless of who's in the Oval Office, regardless if it's Trump, Biden, or Kanye, you know, how are we to respond?

You know, I was uh checking this out, and um uh this guy named uh John Huckins had this great uh just post on Instagram.

He said, every day is political.

And he began to break down uh the root of the word politics, it comes from the Greek polis, which means you know the ordering of society.

And we order society in a couple different ways.

Uh, and one way that we in America, we get to order society by our voting, and we partook in that this last week.

And yet, what's often missed is we get to order society by our lives and how we live.

And that's the invitation for us as Jesus followers, as lights in a dark world, to begin to engage and respond.

And so I want to talk about that and answer it well and actually go to what I'm calling royal wisdom.

But before I go to that, I want to set up who we are.

Not who we are as Americans, but who you are as a Jesus follower.

See, who you are informs what you do, who you are informs how you go about your life and how you respond.

And so uh I want to take you first to 1 Peter chapter two, verse nine.

Now, last year at this time, we were teaching the book of First Peter, and it was in a series called Exiles.

I would highly encourage you to go back and listen to that series.

You can podcast it, you can go to our YouTube at awakening SV, but it speaks so powerfully to this moment because God's word's true yesterday, today, and forever.

And first Peter, he's Peter's writing to a people who are exiled, a people who are undergoing incredible persecution and who are living in an unjust society out their faith.

And here's what he says to them he looks at them and he says, But you are a chosen people.

Like God chose you, God loves you, you're a royal priesthood, you're royalty, you're a daughter and son of the King Most High.

And a priest is one who stood between and, you know, brought God to humanity and humanity to God.

He says, You're royalty and a holy nation.

He's not talking about America, he's talking about Jesus followers, God's special possession.

Why?

That you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

See, this is who you are.

Man, Jesus follower first, daughter, son of the King Most High first.

Your royalty.

And out of that we live and express the King of Kings love, the King of Kings justice, the King of Kings hope to a hurting and broken world, regardless of who's in the oval office.

And so that's who you are.

I I want to then begin to say and give you some wisdom on how to live that out.

It's royal wisdom, really, if you're royalty, royalty of God.

This is royal wisdom from a queen to a young son king.

It's in Proverbs chapter 31, and most of you are familiar with that passage because in it it's the wife of noble or the woman of noble character.

Proverbs 31 · chapter mention

And it's just this whole passage where this queen talks about this amazing, powerful, strong woman of integrity and character.

And yet at the beginning of it, she addresses some things with a young king of here's some wisdom about how to go about life.

And this wisdom, written 3,000 years ago, is more needed today than ever.

Royal wisdom.

How are we as followers of Jesus to respond, regardless of who's present?

What we're first gonna learn is we have to listen to wise counsel.

We have to listen to wise counsel.

I mean, James, the brother of Jesus, would say it this way: be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

For the anger of man does not uh produce the righteous life that God desires.

We gotta be quick to listen to counsel.

This is how the queen would say it to her son.

This and the son is writing this, the sayings of King Lemuel, which Lemuel means belonging or devoted to God.

And I just want you to hear this, and I know it kind of is writing to a king or to a son, but this is for all of us.

Belong or belonging and devoted to God, follower of Jesus, this is for you.

An inspired utterance, his mother taught him.

I love that.

Listen, my son.

Listen, son of my womb, listen, son, answer uh to my prayers.

In fact, that word listen is like, oh, oh son.

In fact, he's been heading down a path that that isn't that great.

And you can translate it a little bit more like, what are you doing?

Watch out.

What are you doing?

Listen up.

And royal wisdom today, and what's needed for us as followers of Jesus to navigate this well is we have to become listeners of wise counsel.

We've said it in our previous series that we are living in a world where people are shouting at one another and nobody's listening, and tragically, the church isn't looking any different.

Well, here's why this isn't so important.

Who you're listening to is shaping how you're living your life.

It's the inputs or the streams that you're allowing in that you're pouring out.

That's why the Proverbs would say, above all else, guard your heart, for from it flows the springs of life.

Guard the inputs.

Be aware of what you're allowing in.

Are you allowing wise counsel or are you just allowing the barrage of media and and the social media just to just consume you?

Well, who are you listening to?

Let me give you uh maybe some direction on who to listen to.

Would you first get into God's word?

Like his word says his word is a lamp into our feet, a guide that's living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, that it that it that it actually is profitable for us in every good deed.

Like, would you get into God's word and say, God, how are you seeing and understanding?

Would you speak to me and may your word shape how I see and understand around me?

I mean, we we were constantly checking this thing.

What if we were constantly checking this thing?

I mean, are are you on this more or on this more?

And Jesus Fowler, we got to get into his word and let his word get into us and shape us.

Would you get around older godly people?

I mean, get around older and godly people.

Why do you say older?

Because older people have a perspective that younger people do not.

Like, yeah, but I don't agree with them.

Yeah, guess what?

Counsel is different than consensus.

We're in our world, we want to get around people who we all have the same consensus about things who agree with us, and it's easier, but it's not best.

Are you choosing the easy route?

Yeah, everyone's saying the same things that I believe, or are you getting around people that have wisdom, have lived life, and given counsel?

I remember I was talking with my mentor, uh Phil Comer uh a little while ago, and I loved it as I was just sharing.

Man, I'm overwhelmed.

This season's hard, and I just don't know what to do.

And it just is, and he's he began to share his stories of you know being in college in the 60s.

By the way, the 60s were crazy.

If you want to study history, go study that.

And you think about the civil rights movement, you think about the Vietnam War, you think about uh what was happening on all the college campuses across the nation?

I mean, just go study that.

And and it just brought such perspective.

Would you get around older, godly people?

Who are you listening to?

Would you get into God's word?

Would you seek those that are ahead of you five, 10, 15, 20 years to give perspective, to give counsel, not just consensus?

And then would you get off social media and the news feed?

Yeah, I said it.

Um there's a thing uh it's called doom surfing.

Do you know about this?

You've heard about this?

Death death surfing.

It's where you're at night and you just keep scrolling, keep scrolling, keep scrolling.

Uh the Twitter feed, the Instagram feed, you're just on it, on it, on it, on it, and you just get consumed with it and you're in it.

Um we are shaped by what we put in our hearts and our minds.

Jesus would say it this way: as a person thinks, so they become.

Would you listen to wise counsel and would you begin to discern what you're allowing in?

I I just want to give you this challenge, okay?

And please, would you would you have the guts to take it?

Um would you get off social media and the news feed for one week?

I know you just thought, like, there's no way I can do that.

I think it would be so good for you.

I mean, countless studies have shown just the rise of anxiety and depression and all this going on just with social media and alone.

And if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling depressed, if you're feeling anxious, one of the best things you can do is just shut off that valve.

Would you get off social media and then get into God's word?

I'm telling you, your soul will start to become refreshed.

I mean, you can go on here and see how much time you spend on your Instagram or your Twitter or your Facebook.

And I this is radical, so only a few of you would do this.

What if you spent as much time in God's word as you spent on there?

I mean, try it.

Try it, and you'll see that God will begin to transform you and give you vision where before only fear invaded in.

Royal wisdom first says, the queen says, listen to wise counsel.

The second thing is resist unhealthy coping.

Resist unhealthy coping.

Now, this has been a year, hasn't it?

2020 just feels like one wave after another has hit us.

And I here's what true confession, I have been coping and I have engaged in unhealthy coping patterns, whether it's uh, you know, too much media, whether it's, you know, engaging, you know, eating too much or some of these other things that just comfort my soul but are not healthy or good for me.

And the truth is, all of us are doing this.

We've all done something to just try to get through this season, and we kind of say, well, it's 2020, might as well have a drink.

It's 2020, just is what it is.

Listen to what the queen says to her son.

She says, Do not spend your strength on women, your vigor on those who ruin kings.

Now, she's not anti-women.

She's gonna go talk about just this amazing what you should look for in a woman, and that that together you're gonna be agents of bringing life and hope and justice and peace.

Uh, he says, It's not for kings, Lemuel.

Uh don't numb out.

It's not for kings to drink wine, nor for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.

Then she goes on, let let those uh beer be for those who are perishing, wine for those who are in anguish, let them drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.

Would you resist the unhealthy coping?

I I recognize this season, this week alone has been emotionally disorienting.

It's been soul sucking, and it feels like we're untethered in the middle of an ocean being tossed to and fro.

And so we just grab the thing, it might be this, it might be that, that just provides a little bit of comfort to get us through, but it is not healthy or nourishing to our soul.

See, I think maybe the question for you is what are you using to be okay?

Like, what are you using right now that that you're just I'm using this, I'm using whatever it is just to be okay.

And begin to be aware with that.

See, I think we often cope in one of two ways.

We either numb the pain or we try to have control.

We either are numbing out or or we're or we're trying to control.

When everything feels out of control, we try to have the control.

Well, how are we numbing the pain?

Well, maybe it's Netflix, maybe it's um, you know, benzene or TV or alcohol or substance abuse, maybe it's porn or sex or pleasure, maybe it's food or shopping, online shopping, and you're just like going, like, I ordered that, I ordered that, and your credit card bill has gone crazy over COVID just to numb the pain.

Or maybe you're seeking control, uh obsessing over getting all the information with the pandemic or the racial uh inequity and injustice or the election, this constant social media surfing.

And and here's what we think we think we can think our way out of uncertainty, we can think our way out of anxiety, and it only compounds it.

And we just think if we get enough information, if we get more information, then I'll have clarity, and the anxiety or the depression or the uncertainty will go away, and it only makes it worse.

You know, we seek to have control.

Maybe it's with your diet, maybe it's with exercise, and you've gotten really in the and some of those are good, but they can get obsessive, can't they?

Uh maybe it's with you're trying to control your spouse or your kids.

Maybe you're trying to control your friends.

Okay, I just gotta give you a warning.

This one's gonna be hurt a little hard.

I think we try to have control when we're trying to control other people's opinions.

We're trying to control, you know, their how they vote, what they think, how they quarantine, and then we have this social media shaming that's just going on.

Instead of just going, you know what, I I we can agree to disagree on this.

Would you resist unhealthy coping?

Well, the question is, okay, if I'm resisting that, then what do I do?

Okay, you know, if I'm not, you know, going to these things, at least they're numbing out the pain a little bit.

At least it gives me a little semblance that I have a little bit of control in this out-of-control world.

What do I do?

I'm so glad you asked.

The queen goes on and says, Would you actively bring hope?

You're like, wait a second, I'm just trying to cope.

And you're saying, actively bring this hope.

Like that that means involving getting outside of myself, and I'm just trying to make it through this year.

I'm just Ryan, I have small kids at home.

It's been chaos.

Um, I'm working full time, I'm trying to be their teacher.

Um, the the level of weight that I feel with the the issues and struggle that's going on in our country, I'm just having a hard time getting out of bed.

And you're saying actively bring hope?

Yeah.

Here's what's amazing.

God's word, written, you know, 3,000 years ago today, is is only confirmed by our current research uh in our modern era.

In fact, the Harvard Business Review posted um uh um uh uh article saying, Anxious about what's next, here's how to cope.

And one of the big applications was turn outward, not inward.

If you want to cope, unhealthy coping is inward.

It's all about me and satiating and and just numbing out.

And it says, turn outward, it is powerful.

I'm telling you, I'm not telling you this to add something to your plate, I'm telling you because it's gonna help you.

I'm telling you this because the path that you're on is only going to suck your soul even further down, a darker place.

And if you get outside of yourself, if you begin to serve others, if you begin to love others, it will bring life to your soul.

In fact, the authors of this article said it's ironic that what's likely to get us through these difficult times are the complete opposite of what our default uh psychology is pushing us to do.

We need to understand ourselves rather than overthink the situation, and we need to consider the needs of others above our own.

Wouldn't it be amazing?

Doesn't that sound a little bit like Jesus?

To consider the needs of others above our own is the most Powerful way to cope in this uncertain time.

The queen would say it this way: speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.

Speak up and judge fairly.

Defend the rights of the poor and the needy.

Royal wisdom.

Royal wisdom.

Listen to wise counsel.

Resist unhealthy coping.

And then actively bring hope.

Well, how do I actively bring hope?

Let me just give you four areas within awakening that we're doing this, that you can engage, that you can get outside of yourself.

The first area is foster the bay, and I'm actually going to spend the most time on that because we're launching our partnership with them today, officially publicly.

But I'll get back to that.

The second area is we have a racial justice and reconciliation team that is an incredible way to partner and bring hope.

The ways that we serve Del Mar, uh, I mean, just we can partner, and you're going to hear more about that to bring hope.

Our homeless outreach team is all organized around speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Getting outside of ourselves, looking to the needs of those who actually have it worse off than us.

So you have an option, you have a choice.

We can look at what's happening in the world right now, and we can go internal, and we we wouldn't say it this way, but what happens is unintentionally, we just start to have this kind of pity party.

Man, this is so sad.

I'm I'm this and it's okay to be sad, but would you turn that emotion into action?

I'm not talking about a post, and that's okay.

I'm saying let's get our hands dirty and loving the least of these.

What does that look like?

Well, let's talk about foster the bay.

What is foster the bay?

Foster the Bay is a coalition of churches committed to providing a loving home for every child in the foster care system.

It's a church for every child.

This is something that is deeply on Jenny and I's heart.

It's been something that we've literally, over COVID, just have sat around our table and just thinking about kids who don't have a home, kids who are being abused, kids who like like our hearts just break and are going, okay, what can we do?

How can we be a part of that?

You know, as a church, we've given financially.

It's it's awesome.

We've given, you know, even$50,000 in the last like few months to foster debate.

But it's time for us to give our lives.

It's time for us not to just go, wow, I'm a part of a church that gives over here.

It's time to go, I'm in.

I'm in.

Are you in?

I'm in.

Well, why engage in the foster care system?

Engaging in the foster care system surrounds vulnerable children with care by providing loving, supportive homes for abused and neglected children.

What the pandemic has done, and uh New York Times and Washington Post both all have written on this.

Uh New York Times said the coronavirus has shattered the system that protects children.

Because kids are no longer in school, the teachers who are predominantly the ones who uh are the first ones to notice abuse and neglect and who are reporting are not seeing kids.

And so kids who the safest place for them to be was at school are now at the most horrific place, their home.

And in fact, they they wrote that there's an unseen epidemic of abuse.

And even uh Foster the Bay and many other agencies are preparing for an increased influx into the foster care system when the pandemic begins to ease and kids go back to school.

Friends, if we're gonna speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of the destitute, defend the poor and the needy, we have to engage here.

And so.

So, how can you be a part of foster the bad?

Actually, I want to go back.

I want to give you some stats because I want this to become real to you.

For those in the foster care system, fewer than 3% earn a college degree.

70% of girls who are age out of foster care will become pregnant by age 21.

50% of children born to mothers in foster care will also enter the system before their second birthday, 25% within the first week of life, one in four will be involved in the justice system within two years of aging out.

51% are unemployed by age 22.

50% of children uh of the child sex trafficking victims recovered were children from foster care.

33% of youth who age out of foster care become homeless.

Rates of post-traumatic stress disorder among foster care alumni are up twice the rate of the U.S.

war veterans who face comment.

Guys, if we want to make a sustainable impact when you're thinking about racial equality, when you're thinking about homelessness, when we're thinking about the sex trafficking, it begins here.

It's gotta be an imperative for the church.

It's gotta be an imperative for us.

Where we say, Yeah, we're in.

Regardless of who's president, we can do this.

So, how can you be a part?

They have three ways.

One for some as I'm talking, God is pricking your heart and it's uncomfortable, but you're like, maybe I could be a foster family.

We already have a couple people in our church that are going down that road, and even Jenny and I are looking about how we can partner in that way.

And for others, you go, wow, that's intense.

I don't know that I could do that, or I'm a young professional, I'm a college student, I'm a high schooler.

I don't know, but what can I do?

Well, then they have support friends.

See, it takes a community and it takes a church to come around.

Support friends provide babysitting and meals and housekeeping and prayer and encouragement.

We can all do that.

Every single one of us.

Why wouldn't we do that?

And then the final one is a church advocate.

And we actually have some church advocates.

Uh and uh Andrew and Bianca and Robbie and Layla, they are the ones heading this up for us.

And so here's what I'm gonna ask you to do.

I'll be on it, and I hope to see every single one of you on it.

On Tuesday, November 10th at 8 p.m., they have a foster the bay informational meeting.

You can go to fostertebay.org forward slash RSVP, and I'm gonna ask that we as the church we actively bring hope.

We actively bring hope.

You are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people of God's own possession, a holy nation.

Why?

That you may declare the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his glorious light.

Church.

It is time for us to be what Jesus called us to be.

A city set on a hill, the light of the world, actively bringing hope and help to the least of these.

This will transform one person's life, many people's life, a city, and the ripple effect.

If we just take that seriously, it will transform a nation.

Heavenly Father.

Right now I know there is a complexity of emotions for us as we wrestle with the state of our country.

And I ask, as our church is navigating that, would you give them the vision that you gave your first flowers?

To love the least of these.

To be carriers of good news in a world filled with bad news.

That we would have been a people who are carriers and bringers of hope.

For your name's sake.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.