Election Season with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

Well, I want to welcome you in.

If you are new with us, my name's Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here at Meta.

Today I have a message that has really been on my heart, specifically for the season we find ourselves in in our culture.

As you guys know, it is another presidential election year, which means the culture is more or less on fire.

For the first time ever, a former president and a current candidate has been convicted of multiple felonies.

The current president's son has also been convicted of multiple felonies.

Both men are either at or near 80 years old combined.

They're the oldest two leading candidates that we have ever had.

When Trump won in 2016, the narrative was that he had stolen the election with the help of Russia.

Then, four years later, when Biden won, the narrative was that he had stolen the election with the help of media and social media and the deep state.

Both men have serious allegations of corruption.

All of that added together, we are at all-time highs in society in distrust, division, and disillusionment.

I can guarantee that whoever wins, I am not a prophet, but I'm going to prophesy.

Whoever wins, the other side is going to contest the validity of this election.

It will either be that one of them was politically persecuted the whole time, if the other person wins, we already have the whole other side saying that democracy is going to die and the American experiment will be over.

People are more angry and cynical than ever before, and everyone seems to be ready for some kind of a political fight.

Now, you guys know this.

At Metachurch, we do not think that church is something that you go to to check a religious box and do your religious duty for the week.

When you look at the word church in scripture, it means the called out people of God.

That's why at Metachurch we say we meet together so we can go and move together.

Like we have a job to do, and we come to Sunday service to get inspired, get enlightened, get on the same page, and then go live out our faith and apply these truths into our life.

So, what does it look like to be the movement of Jesus during these politically fraught times?

How do we actually keep living out our faith in the midst of political turmoil?

We're gonna find that out today in my message that I'm calling election season.

Election season.

Would you pray with me?

Jesus, we love you and we thank you for loving us.

I thank you for Metachurch, a place for all people and all different parts of life, a place where people can come and belong and be loved, uh, even before they believe.

I ask that you would help us to have open minds and open hearts today, that you would speak to us.

Holy Spirit, we know that you're here, that you are wanting to challenge us, to convict us, maybe even encourage us.

And I just ask that we be open to that.

I pray, Holy Spirit, for just extra wisdom and guidance as we navigate these difficult topics.

We love you.

We pray these things in your name, Jesus.

And everyone who's ready to learn how to manage election season say, Amen.

Amen.

We're gonna be looking in the Christian scriptures.

That's the New Testament of the Bible.

You may be wondering how applicable the New Testament is to the situation that we're living in today.

The New Testament was written about 2,000 years ago.

It, of course, was in an ancient setting, and so how much actually applies?

You know, for a lot of us, we imagine biblical settings as very serene, almost pastoral pictures.

Depending on how you grew up, maybe that informs a little bit about how you think of these ancient stories.

I was a good Baptist boy, so I grew up in Sunday school, and we had something called a felt board, and had little cutouts that would stick to the felt board.

They were kind of like little cartoons for some of you.

Maybe you can't help but envision all of the Bible stories through the wisdom of veggie tales, you know, to you like all the Bible characters or some kind of fruit or vegetable or whatever.

Well, that's a much simpler version of reality than when Jesus was actually on earth.

Uh, when Jesus was on earth, the Romans had conquered almost all of Israel.

The people were living oppressed by a foreign, uncaring regime that started in 63 BC, that's before Christ, when Pompey the Great conquered Jerusalem.

The region was governed by local rulers like Herod the Great and then his sons, but it was under the authority of the Roman Empire.

And then Roman prefects, guys like Pontius Pilate, a name that you might know, also had significant administrative and military control.

In other words, the Romans had complete authority and they had many measures to keep the Jewish people in line.

They levied enormous tax burdens on the people in order to fund the expansion of the Roman Empire.

So, like, none of us like paying taxes to our own government, who supposedly it represents us, you know?

Imagine if you were paying twice or three times the amount of taxes, not to your own government, but to a foreign government who had come in and conquered the United States.

That was the situation the Israelites were living in.

The Romans also instituted policies to constantly remind the native Israelites that they were now second-class citizens in their own country.

Now, this created rifts in the public.

People didn't know exactly how to handle this.

Some people kind of moved off the grid and refused to pay taxes and lived in really rural areas or up in the mountains.

There were other people who became zealots.

That meant that from the time they were little kids, they were raised and trained to someday rise up and overthrow Rome.

There was a lot of disparaging of the leaders of Israel because many of the political and even religious leaders became friendly with Rome so that they could benefit from that relationship symbiotically.

And then there was just the normal everyday people like you and me.

They hated Rome, but they were just trying to survive day to day.

They were living under the immense burden of the taxation.

Everyone seemed to have a different way to handle this.

But almost all Israelites had one thing in common.

Every morning and every night, they would pray for the coming of the Messiah.

The Messiah was promised from the Old Testament to come and to bring peace to the world.

Now, because they had lived for a long time under military and political domination, they began to read those prophecies and understand them to say that the Messiah would come and be a political or military leader.

Now that's not what the Old Testament prophecies actually say, but they were desperate and suffering and hurting.

And maybe you understand this because sometimes we want God to show up and look how we want God to look.

We want God to get on our agenda.

It's very easy to approach the scriptures and instead of allowing God's word to speak and say whatever it wants to say, to try and project what we wanted to say into it.

And Israel was desperate.

Because Rome had occupied Israel, they believed that their nation was doomed.

And of course, for the first time really in my lifetime, if you turn on any major news network, those are the same kind of things that we're saying now.

You turn on, what do you hear?

If so-and-so gets elected, then democracy is over, America is finished, civil war is coming, even our presidential candidates are no longer talked about like we're kind of hiring a CEO, which by the way, that is what they are.

They are the chief of the executive branch of the government.

Instead, we even talk about our political candidates with messianic language.

They're going to save the soul of America.

They were sent to bring peace back to the land.

Messianic type language.

Let me say, and you know I love you with all the love in my heart, if Joe Biden or Donald Trump is your Messiah, you need a better Messiah.

That is not good enough.

And I know you're like, come on, that's not me.

I would never.

But where is your hope?

And how much of your hope for the next four years hinges on who gets elected in November?

And how much sleep are you losing over which way this election goes?

And how much anxiety are you carrying based on who our next president will be?

See, Israel had the wrong view of who the Messiah would be, and so they kept falling into this trap over and over again, where several times there would be a very popular, influential political or military leader in Israel, and once they started gaining momentum, the whispers would start.

Is this the one?

Could he be the Messiah?

And time and time again, people would get their hopes up, and that person would come and they would go and nothing would change.

And that meant that the population was on this constant roller coaster where every once in a while they would ride high, believing that a person was coming to bring true peace and prosperity, only to have those hopes dashed by reality.

Does that sound familiar?

To me, it sounds like election season.

Every four years, worry and anxiety and optimism, and pinning all of our hope for our futures on this one great political figure, and maybe they win and maybe they don't, and the roller coaster continues and continues every four years.

And surely the people of God are not meant to be on that roller coaster ride.

If we are connected to the God of the universe, then maybe our peace and passion and joy should not be placed in the hands of mostly corrupt bureaucrats running for office.

There is a better way, and Jesus laid out that better way while he was here on earth.

And I needed you to know the context that Jesus was living in, Roman occupation, everyone hated Rome, and Rome made everyone's lives hell on earth, to really understand the weight of the counter-cultural teachings of Jesus.

We're gonna look at what's called the Sermon on the Mount.

It's the most famous teaching of Jesus.

It's found in Matthew's gospel, chapters five, six, and seven.

We're gonna look at three specific parts that really get to the heart of Jesus' teaching and that have something for us as children of God today.

Now, at this point, Jesus was growing in popularity, his influence was growing, he would show up places, and sometimes thousands of people would come to listen to him.

And so, of course, in Israel, under Roman occupation, when someone became that powerful, what would happen?

The rumors would start.

Jesus of Nazareth.

Could he be the one?

Could he be the Messiah?

And they didn't want to get their hopes up because they got their hopes up before, and when they got their hopes up, it didn't work out, but they also wanted to get their hopes up because if the Messiah would come in their mind, he would raise up an army and defeat Rome, driving Rome out of Israel.

Could it be him?

No one has had as much power as Jesus has shown.

People had even heard he was doing miracles, real miracles from God.

If he can do miracles, he can surely get rid of Rome.

Thousands of people showed up for the sermon on the mount.

They were desperate for him to be the true Messiah.

Everyone was waiting for the coming out party where Jesus would get the ball rolling, gather the troops.

But that's not what happened.

We know that because that's not why Jesus came.

The true Messiah did not come to bring temporary political reprieve.

Jesus came to address eternal spiritual liberation.

I want us to look at three of his teachings from the famous Sermon on the Mount to help us navigate election season 2024.

Right off the bat, Jesus starts describing the disposition of children of God.

And every disposition is attached to a promise.

And towards the end of this list that we call the Beatitudes, he says this blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

The disposition is peacemakers.

The promise that the peacemakers will be called the sons of God.

Some of the other dispositions are like, blessed are the mourners, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the merciful, so they will be shown mercy.

And then you get to the peacemakers who will be called the sons of God.

And it makes sense because God is the God of peace, and Jesus is called the Prince of Peace.

And we are adopted into God's family by the Spirit of peace.

And so the peacemakers will be called the sons and daughters of God.

The peacemakers are blessed.

Which means that the peace breakers should really pay attention.

You see, if your hope is in this world, then already on point number one, you're thinking, like, how can I have peace right now?

Do you not own a television?

Do you not see what's going on?

How can I have peace right now?

They are throwing former presidents in jail almost.

How can I have peace right now?

At the top of the ticket, there's a convicted felon, both sides of the aisle, living completely without peace.

Remember, everyone listening to the Sermon on the Mount is hoping that Jesus gets up and makes a call to arms.

They are oppressed in a way by Rome that we in America have never been oppressed before.

But instead of starting the revolution, Jesus says, Blessed are the peacemakers.

So what does it mean to be a peacemaker?

The word itself is an adjective, but it's unique in that it describes an action on the part of a person.

See, he doesn't say, Blessed are those who live in peace.

Blessed are those who shut themselves off from society and live on top of the mountain and hang up lots of wind chimes and burn lots of incense and meditate six hours a day and shut themselves off from the world and live in some kind of relative peace.

He says, Blessed are the peacemakers.

It is active, it's making peace.

Now, parents know this, the path to peace often involves a lot of noise along the way.

Peacemakers often experience suffering in order to make peace.

The path to peace almost always involves conflict.

Now you might be in a marriage where you never, ever, ever fight.

That doesn't mean you have peace.

That means you have an explosion in the making.

That's what that means.

Every parent knows that the path to peace often gets a lot louder before it gets quiet.

When both of the kids are just at each other and they won't stop, sometimes things have to get a little bit louder before everybody gets quiet, right?

We're called to be a peacemaker, Jesus, the ultimate peacemaker.

Can I tell you what's not very peaceful?

A crucifixion.

It's about the least peaceful thing that you could ever experience.

And yet that was the path to peace with God.

Being a peacemaker does not mean you lack courage.

You see, we think in our political division that we're really courageous because we get on Facebook and we see an opinion that we don't agree with, and so we light them up and tell them how big of an idiot they are and all the reasons that they're wrong, and we know we're not gonna change their mind, but we've made our point.

Very courageous, right?

Let me tell you something.

Arguing on social media takes zero percent courage.

You're not brave, you're not courageous, you're just adding to the anger and adding to the division.

What takes courage is standing on something that is bigger than this world.

What takes courage is following the path that Jesus walked.

What takes courage is getting up in front of thousands of people who want war and saying, Blessed are the peacemakers.

For they will be called the sons of God.

What does it mean to be a peacemaker?

How do you deal with the political tension of our day?

Do you create peace or do you add to the division?

Do you foster understanding with others or do you feed anger with others?

Now, being a peacemaker does not mean you cannot have strongly held political convictions.

It doesn't mean you're a pushover or a wimp.

It means you posture yourself for peace even while holding your ideas close.

And so, yes, vote your conscience, be informed, have conversations, but first and foremost be a peacemaker.

Peacemakers will be called children of God, and not just by God.

You see, in a world that completely lacks peace, when you have the peace of God that passes understanding and you live with that peace, and you relate to others with that peace, and it is demonstrable in your life, you will be called a child of God by others.

It will be part of what sets you apart as holy unto the Lord, that in a world that lacks peace, somehow you still have it.

And they may not know that it's because you are God's child, but given enough time, they might just find out.

We're called to be a peacemaker, and the next two sections of the Sermon on the Mount that we're gonna look at will help us practically apply making peace into our life.

At the end of chapter five, Jesus taught this.

You've heard that it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

I want to say several things about this.

Number one, this is conjecture.

I always want to make it really clear when I'm when I'm just this is conjecture.

This isn't actually in the scripture.

Here's how I imagine these two lines going, okay?

Because the first line is from the Old Testament.

Now remember, when Jesus says love your enemies, like I didn't know the context of this growing up, and so I was an athlete.

I thought it meant like be a good sport, you know?

Like you're just not allowed to actively hate the team you're playing against.

Or like if you go through a breakup, don't gossip about them, you know, love your enemies.

No, no, no, no.

Who's Israel's enemy?

The Roman Empire, Caesar, they're being brutally oppressed by force.

This is the level everyone hates Rome.

The thousands of people listening to Jesus.

So this is conjecture.

Here's how how I imagine this going.

Jesus says the first line, which is Old Testament, you've heard it was said, love your neighbors and hate your enemy.

And then there was like an applause break before he could get to the next line.

Yes, Jesus, hate your enemy.

Down with Rome, down with Rome, down with Rome.

And everybody stood up like, He's gonna do it, and we're gonna start the army.

And they started picking up sticks and rocks and everything, and then Jesus just waited and let it all die out, and then was like, but I tell you, and everyone was like, Oh crap, you know, there's a butt here.

But I tell you, love your enemies.

Jesus is a peacemaker.

This line right here is courage.

He knows what everyone thinks.

Everyone thinks that he is going to be a military leader in dried out Rome, and it's not what he's gonna do.

But I tell you, love Rome.

Pray for Caesar.

You know that candidate that you hate because we're not allowed to just dislike candidates now, we have to hate them now?

You know?

And I love Metaturch because we're diverse among like every demographic, and you can go to most churches and just be pretty sure that everyone there is on the right or everyone there is on the left.

I guarantee within five feet of you right now is someone who's gonna vote different than you in November.

That candidate that you hate.

It'd be very hard to hate them if you followed what Jesus said and woke up every day and prayed for.

And it's like, well, Jesus wasn't living in 2024, he doesn't see what's going on right now, he doesn't know all the crazy.

What Jesus was living through with the oppression of Rome far out exceeds anything we're living through right here in America.

And he said, Love your enemies.

Well, how did you know he meant Rome?

Because two verses earlier he says this.

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him too.

What does that mean?

What's the context of that?

Is this like your friend has recently gotten into jogging and they're forcing you to go run a mile with him?

And he's like, No, no, no, I know you hate it, but just go two miles with him, you know?

See, we're removed from the context, but everyone there that day got it.

I told you earlier that Rome had all of these policies to help remind you as an Israelite that you were a second class citizen.

Perhaps the most infuriated.

Of all of these policies was one that said any Roman soldier, and there were Roman soldiers all over Israel keeping order that they could take off all of their equipment, probably 30 to 50 pounds of equipment, a big helmet, body armor, shin guards, a huge shield, a sword, a dagger.

They could take off all of their armor, and they could take any Israelite man at any time, pull them out of what they were doing, and make them carry all of their stuff for a mile.

Just so the Roman soldier could get a little break, a little breather, and more than anything to remind you that you are second class, that Rome runs this place.

Can you imagine anything more infuriating than the people who have taken you captive are oppressing you and taxing you to death, pulling you out of your rhythm of life, shoving all their crap in your chest and making you carry it for them one mile?

Absolutely embarrassing and infuriating.

And it didn't matter.

Didn't matter how busy you were, it didn't matter if you were watching your kids, didn't matter if you were cooking dinner, it didn't matter if you were on the job getting paid by the hour.

They could pull you out and make you walk a mile.

And Jesus says, you want to love your enemies?

If they make you walk one mile, you choose to walk two.

See, being a peacemaker is not about giving up your power.

It is about taking your power back from those who seek to cause division.

Can you imagine the look on a Roman soldier's face when you cross that mile mark and just keep going because you chose to keep going, because you're living as a peacemaker, because your God says to love your enemies, and you're actually going to do it even at cost to yourself.

Can you imagine those who are trying to stoke division against you politically if instead you saw it as an opportunity to show them the love of God?

Over the years, I've talked with my staff about the power that each of them holds.

Since the beginning of MetaCurch, I've talked to you about the inherent power that God has given you every Sunday.

I tell you, God created you on purpose.

It matters that you're here on earth, that God created you with purpose.

There is something inside of you that God wants to join with in his rescue and redemption of the world.

And it matters that you know that power so you can wield it correctly.

See, when you're secure in your God-given power, you don't have to take offense.

When you're secure in your God-given power, you don't have to live defensive against everybody else.

When you know the power that you have from God, everything can change.

The political landscape can shift, your rights can be taken away from you, your freedoms can be compromised, your candidates can lose, the laws can be passed that you despise, and they still cannot touch the power that God placed inside of you.

And being a peacemaker is not giving away all of your power and living as someone who lacks courage.

It is being courageous enough to take your power back and actively make peace because that is who God has called you to be.

See, peacemakers love without condition.

They love even their enemies, which means you love those on the other side of the political aisle from you in this election season.

For most of politics, it's been like, I like this candidate and you like this candidate.

And I kind of see your point, but we'll see who's who wins at the end, you know?

And then it got a little more animosity where it was like, I like this guy and you like that guy, and I think you're wrong.

And then, like when I was young, it was like, I like this guy and you like that guy, and you're an idiot, you know, and it just kept going.

Well, now, I mean, really pay attention because now everything's framed in terms of good and evil.

Both sides think, both sides, I like this guy and he's fighting for good, and you like that guy, and he's fighting for evil.

How can you coexist?

How can you see the other side as anything but your enemy?

And what I'm telling you is, even if you see the other side as your enemy, it doesn't matter because God said, Love your enemies.

Pray for those who persecute you.

If they make you go one mile, you choose to go to you, take your power back.

Now we get to the most crucial part of Jesus' teaching.

With the tension in our world right now, you can desire to be a peacemaker and you can desire to love your enemies, but that is much easier said than done unless you also have proper perspective.

And at the end of Matthew chapter six, Jesus offers us that perspective.

He's going through a long list of worries, all the things that people worry about.

And then he says this so don't worry, saying, What will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear?

For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them.

Jesus begins teaching about how to alleviate worry from your life.

If there's one word that describes election years, it's worry, it's anxiety.

And the closer we get to the actual election day, the more and more people's worry spikes.

Jesus goes through encouraging the crowd that their heavenly father loves them, he has a plan for them, that you can trust him.

And then Jesus says something interesting.

He says, the Gentiles.

The Gentiles worry about all these things all the time.

The Gentiles are jockeying for a cultural position all of the time.

And he is drawing a clear distinction.

So what's a Gentile?

The Gentile nations were all the nations that were not Israel.

And the distinction is that Israel knew the one true God, and the Gentile nations did not.

Jesus is clearly saying.

Yes, you're under oppression, but the way that you handle it should be markedly different than the way those who do not know God handle it.

Remember the context.

It's not like the Roman Empire only came and dominated Israel and left everyone else alone.

The Roman Empire had dominated most of that part of the world, which meant when Jesus said this, the Gentiles act this way.

Those who do not know God act this way, but not you.

You know your heavenly father, and he's got you.

They recognized that there were nations surrounding them who were in the same situation, dominated, occupied, and taxed by the Roman Empire.

And that there was very little distinction between how they were responding and how the nations who did not know God were responding.

And there should be a difference.

And I'm sure I'm not alone in how heartbreaking it has been to watch the American church choose political sides.

Bringing up presidential candidates and putting them on the pulpit and sticking their name and the name of the church behind them.

Drawing lines in the sand, ensuring that many people would never walk into that church to ever hear the most important message, which is not a message of who you should vote for, it is a message of who you should give your eternal life to.

And it's probably a good thing.

I'm not in charge of the American church.

That sounds like a big job.

Um, but I am very humbled to get to lead here at this church, at this local part of the movement.

And I'm gonna do what I can today to convince you that as followers of Jesus, we are called to be the light of the world.

And when Jesus called us the light of the world, he said almost rhetorically, no one would cover up their light.

But that's exactly what the American church has decided to do.

And it's not that we've covered it up with immorality, and it's not that we've covered it up with bad theology, and it's not that we've covered it up because of war or persecution.

We have covered it up with our politics.

And when Christians are just as anxious and just as hopeless, causing just as much dissension and just as angry as those who do not know God, there is no measurable difference to call people into the hope that we have because no one can see our hope.

So Jesus gives the solution.

Those who don't know God, of course they're gonna worry like this, of course they're not gonna have hope, of course they're gonna be despondent, of course they're gonna fight, of course they're gonna be angry.

But you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the things you're worried about will be taken care of.

Seek first the kingdom of God and you will realize that God has a plan, that God's in control, that we can trust him, that Rome does not matter.

Jesus was on earth during the time of Caesar, but Jesus didn't care about Caesar because what's a king to a God?

He was not worried about building little empires here on earth.

Jesus came every moment of every day to build God's kingdom.

And with that one saying, you wake up every day seeking first God's kingdom, Jesus showed all his cards.

He had not come for an earthly kingdom, he came for the kingdom of God.

He did not come to fight a physical war, he came to fight a spiritual battle.

Jesus, the Messiah, would not win the day through political cunning or military might.

Jesus would defeat Satan himself by allowing angry, militant, distressed, pissed off, politically divided enemies to nail him to a cross.

Jesus came and lived counter to the culture.

He said, believe in me and I'll give you eternal life.

It's a gift that no one can ever take away.

But don't just believe.

Follow me.

Believing in Jesus is the simplest thing possible.

He really did come to earth.

He really did die.

We have great reason to believe he really did rise again.

He really did start the most impactful movement in world history called the church.

Putting your faith in that Jesus is who he says he is and that he's done what he says he's done, it costs you nothing.

It costs Jesus everything.

Following Jesus.

Following Jesus takes great courage.

Following Jesus is choosing to be a peacemaker.

It's choosing to love your enemy.

It's choosing to live with a different perspective than the rest of the world who doesn't know God.

The real question this election season is: what kingdom are you fighting for?

Every empire falls, and you need to know that.

If you haven't studied history, every empire falls.

The Roman Empire, it dominated that part of the world, it fell.

The American Empire is the most significant empire in all of world history.

The entire world rides and falls on America.

It's just true.

It's true politically.

The American Empire will fall.

We don't hope for that.

We don't pray for that.

But I know that.

I've read the end of the book, and at the end, there's only one kingdom that lasts forever, and it is not the American kingdom.

What kingdom are you fighting for?

What's your priority?

And that will be determined by where your eyes are.

Are you seeking first the kingdom of God or are you seeking first your own kingdom?

And far too many Christians have decided that every election season, the kingdom of America takes far more precedent than the kingdom of heaven.

And so they will gladly sever ties with people that we are called to be witnesses to in order to fight with them about an empire that I promise you it may not be now, it may not be this decade, it may not be this century, the empire will fall and the kingdom.

The kingdom will stand forever.

What kingdom are you fighting for?

Jesus was clear.

Seek first the kingdom of God.

You need to realize this.

When everyone thought that there was a chance he was on earth to be the Messiah that would defeat Rome, they cried out, Hosanna! Welcome as he who comes in the name of the Lord! And when it became clear that he was not there to fight Rome, a few days later, they shouted, crucify him.

What kingdom are you fighting for?

None of this deterred Jesus for one simple reason.

Every moment of every day, he was seeking the kingdom of God.

I could probably very accurately predict how much angst, anxiety, and fear you're gonna carry through this election season if I just knew the answer to one question.

How much time are you spending focused on eternity?

You see, if you start living with what we at MetaCurch call a pilgrim's perspective, this is the daily recognition that this world is not your home.

You are a pilgrim passing through, and as a believer in Jesus, you have an eternal life, and your eternal life is the realest reality.

You get like 80 years here, and that 80 years is a blip on the radar of what your eternal life will be.

And if you see that, then the only thing that will make sense is investing as much of your time and energy in building the kingdom of God as possible.

Even at the expense of winning minor political battles here on earth.

You see, the early church, they knew something that we often miss.

This world is not our home.

And they knew that the darker the world gets, the brighter the light of Jesus shines.

And when you study the rise and fall of empires, you often find Christians in the midst.

And when Christians keep their eyes on eternity, as empires fall, Christianity explodes.

Because when everything everyone has put their hope in falls apart, there's a small contingency whose hope is not in this world.

Their hope is in the one who sits in eternity.

But when Christians fall into the trap of prioritizing earthly politics, then they cover up the light of the gospel and they lose the unique opportunity that they have.

We are called to be peacemakers, to love without condition, and to live for eternity.

How does a Roman oppressor shove all their gear in your chest and you gladly go twice the distance?

That only happens if you're living for something beyond this world.

How do you watch the absolute insanity of our day and not get swept away into the deep abyss of division and anxiety?

It only happens if you live with a pilgrim's perspective, knowing that this world is not your home.

Jesus was not worried about Caesar.

The early apostles, Peter, James, Paul, and John, they weren't worried about the ever-shifting political landscapes of all of the places where they were ministering, because every day they were seeking first the kingdom of God.

I have political ideas, I have stances on the issues, some very strong stances, some loose stances.

I even talk about these things, sometimes I even talk about them publicly.

But I refuse to lose sleep over this or any election.

The world is corrupt, things are not fair, we're in uncharted waters politically, socially.

For me, if I'm gonna be in the midst of uncharted waters, I want to be following the one who walks on the seas.

And I'm confident that if we, and we're just we're one church, we're one movement, but if we this election season can keep our eyes on Jesus, can live for eternity, can love without condition, that can be bold and courageous in making peace around us, that we can shine a light into our city and into our world that will draw many others who are living without the hope of Christ to us.

Would you pray with me?

Wherever you're at, if you would close your eyes and bow your head, just simply create some space for reflection.

I think broadly there are two groups I want to speak to.

The first are believers.

Maybe you've been a believer a long time, maybe you're new in the faith, you love Jesus and you want to follow Jesus, but for some reason politics often takes priority.

It's hard for you to put down the sword, it's hard for you to let down your defenses.

Any political argument that you don't engage in and you don't feel like you win, it's like you've lost something.

And maybe you've bought the lie that this is the real fight.

Political stance versus political stance.

I'm not saying none of those arguments matter.

What I am saying is we are called to a higher purpose, and who ends up in the Oval Office does not matter one fraction as much as who people have as the Lord of their life.

If you're honest, as a follower of Jesus, you haven't been making peace politically, you've been adding to the division, and today Jesus is calling us to change our minds and change our hearts, to repent, to move in a new direction, to choose a higher calling, to lay down your weapons, to be a peacemaker, to love your enemies, and to live for eternity.

For some of you in this room or watching with us online, you desire to have peace in a world full of so much turmoil, but you've never started a relationship with Jesus, and so everything you're hinging your hope on is in this world, and everything in this world, given enough time, will let you down.

Jesus is transcendent, he's bigger than big, he's the creator of this world, and yet he loves you so much that the creator got smaller than small, stepped into his creation, and made peace.

Scripture says God loved you so much that he sent Jesus so that everyone who simply believes in him will never die but will have eternal life.

Scripture says this is how you know that God loves you, and that while you were still sinners, while you were still an enemy of God, he came and he died for you, he made peace with you, he did all the work, and all he asks is for your faith.

If you're here and you've never had a moment in time where you have put your faith in Jesus, today could be your day to do that very thing.

By putting your faith in Jesus, Scripture says your sins will be forgiven, that you will be adopted as a child of God, and that you will move from spiritual death to spiritual life.

If you're here with everyone's eyes closed, and today is your day, you decide to put your faith in Jesus.

I want to ask you just to lift your hand up in the air where I can see it, know who I'm talking to, who I'm praying with.

By lifting your hand, you're saying, Today I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

For those who lifted a hand, I want you to know that Jesus sees your faith and he accepts it.

And all I want to do is help you simply acknowledge this decision with a very simple prayer.

So I'm gonna ask, if you raised a hand for you to pray this with me, and I'm gonna ask all the believers in the room to pray it as well.

Let's pray like this.

Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God, that you died for my sins, and that you rose from the grave.

I thank you for loving me and for giving my sins.

Now let me pray over you.

Jesus, I thank you for Metachurch, and I pray that we would stand out and be set apart, that we would rise above the political division.

God, that we would have our opinions, we would have our ideas, but we would never sacrifice them on the altar of peace or love or eternity.

We are your ambassadors on the earth, and I pray that we would walk that out with full faith that you are in control, regardless of the circumstance, regardless of the political reality, that you are in control, that we would submit to you and serve you, and be a shining light in a world that seems to grow darker by the day.

Heavenly Father, we rejoice for those who made the decision to put their faith in you, for the new life that you've given them.

I pray that they would find their next steps in following you and that they would do that courageously.

We love you.

And we pray all these things in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

Man, I love you guys and I hope you have a great rest of your day.