ELECTION UNREST
October
19-21, 2024
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
1 Peter 2:9-12 (EHV)
1.
Center
yourself on Christ.
2. Live for the glory of God.
It’s time to stop the insanity. If
your ears are sensitive to words that have been previously used to describe
people with mental health issues let me put you at ease. Mental health is a
real thing. Emotional disorders are real. Mental illness is real. When I say
it’s time to stop the insanity I am using that word in its popular usage:
extreme foolishness, like when people do those hot pepper challenges or
blackout challenges and you see them and you say correctly, “That’s
insane!”—extremely foolish.
When a pastor pops out a sermon theme
of “It’s time to stop the insanity” and a national election is right around the
corner one’s mind naturally goes, “Finally! Let’s talk about what is going on
in Washington, and Madison and the news. Let’s talk about the insanity of the
news reporter in hushed and sympathetic tones reporting on the tragedy of the
death of a mother and her unborn child in a needless car accident followed in
the very next segment by vilifying politicians trying to take away a mother’s
ability to kill an unborn child. That’s insane! Or politicians pointing to all
the problems caused by illegal immigration but doing nothing to change laws to
make for safe and seamless legal immigration to a country whose citizen
birthrate is not enough to replace current population. That’s insane. Or
politicians promoting fiscal responsibility but on both sides of the aisle
continuing to spend more than we take in. That’s insane. So, yes, go get ‘em
pastor. It’s time to stop the insanity.”
So I will, go get ‘em that is. Only
the ‘em is us. It’s time for us to stop the insanity, the extreme foolishness
of being Christians who talk and act or think like the fate of Christ’s Church
depends on the upcoming election. It does not. Jesus lives. And He lives and
rules all things, including our country, for the good of His Church. Believers.
You. So, let’s stop the insanity. I have heard people talk like America is
God’s chosen nation and it is the job of the church to make it look Christian.
That’s insane. Only one physical nation was chosen by God. Old Testament
Israel. It existed as a nation only by God’s grace and until its job was done.
And so shortly after Jesus finished His work on earth, that nation ceased to
exist and modern-day Israel is not the same as Old Testament Israel. Our
country is not even close! I have heard us talk as though the outcome of the
upcoming election will either bring about the Biblical apocalypse or hold it
off. That’s insane. The United States is tiny drop in the ocean of world
population and even tinier in New Testament history. Christ does not take His
cues from Washington DC. I have heard it insinuated that God wants one
candidate or another to win. That’s insane. Who of you here knows the mind of
God and the plans He is working on? For me personally in our presidential
election I feel like my mom has announced it’s time for dessert and I’m getting
excited then she says I get to choose from 3 day old leftover cooked broccoli that
someone forgot to put in the fridge or cold leftover cooked spinach. I want to
choose neither and yet I have to choose, so I will make my choice based on what
I think will be best for the country. But I won’t be able to choose whom God
wants because He hasn’t told me. Nor has He told you. It is insane, extremely
foolish, to talk that way.
There is a better way, a way that will
allow you to have peace, keep a smile on your face and be nice up to and after
the election. Center yourself on Christ. Listen to what God says about you! “But
you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the people who are
God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 At
one time you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. At one time
you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy.” We are not
the only Christians who have experienced less than savory government. When God
had Peter write this letter, he addressed Christians as “strangers in this
world.” You don’t belong. Most likely their ruler was Roman Emperor Nero, not a
nice guy and mostly likely insane in the old use of the word. And yet look at the
source of their comfort and confidence. It centered on who they were in Christ.
A holy nation. God’s own possession. The people of God. Recipients of mercy.
Do you want to stop your own insanity?
Do you want to be able to be happy and confident these last few weeks leading
up to the election and no matter how any of the elections turns out? Center
yourself on Christ first, foremost and only. In Christ you are neither liberal
nor conservative, Republican nor Democrat, nor even American. You are
Christian. A holy citizen of a holy nation ruled by Christ the King who is
perfect in every way, who will never disappoint you, who is the reason God will
continue to shower you with mercy and who rules all things for the good of His
Church which means you. Each day you wake up, it is not poll data or elections
results that define you. Jesus does, so center yourself daily on Him. Yes, it
is OK to care and be concerned about this temporary country we are living in.
It is not OK to worry about election results or to think, act and speak like a
puny human being ultimately controls you. That insults your Lord Jesus. The
only election that really matters has already taken place. Jesus chose you! He
chose me!
And that is why we can deliberately
seek to live for the glory of God. Hear again the voice of your God. “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and
temporary residents in the world, to abstain from the desires of the sinful
flesh, which war against your soul. 12 Live an
honorable life among the Gentiles so that even though they slander you as
evildoers, when they observe your noble deeds, they may glorify God on the day
he visits us.” Do you think that maybe one of the reasons the anti-Christian
sentiment in our country is growing is because the only Christians most
Americans know, work with, hear on the news and whose posts they read are
shallow Christians? Christians who care more about how other people live
morally than that their souls be saved eternally? If so, it’s time to stop the
insanity and let them see what authentic Christianity looks like. People who
put truth and love together. People who realize everything here is temporary so
in the end only faith in Jesus matters. It’s time to let them see you, in
action. Let’s abstain from the desires of our sinful natures that want to fight
mean with mean, nasty posts with nasty posts. All that does is start a sinful
nature/Christian nature war in your soul. Let’s stop that extreme foolishness
and instead seek to live such honorable lives among our fellow Americans that
even though they say mean thing about us now, they will have to give glory to
God on the day He comes. And He will come. On the day He decides, not decided
by one election, in this teeny tiny part of today’s world.
Peace, brothers and sisters! It’s time
to stop our insanity. Our lives are bound up in Christ and we live for the
glory of God. And look at how that changes our hearts and minds before, during
and after a national election. Instead of getting so caught up in whom I want
to win, or you want to win we can be at peace and pray for whoever wins.
Pastor Martin Luther told an interesting
story in his time that applies to our time. A widow living in a country ruled by a
tyrannical king prayed long and hard for the tyrant who oppressed her. The
tyrant heard about it and was amazed because he knew that he had done her much
harm. When he called her in and asked her about it the woman replied,
"When your grandfather was king I had ten cows. He took two of them. I
prayed that God would get rid of him. He did and your father became king. He
took 3 more of my cows. I prayed against him and he died. Now you are king and
have taken four more of my cows and now I only have one. So I am praying for
you because whoever follows might take all that I have left." Some things, no, most things, no, all things
are better left in the hands of God. You, you are in the hands of God, so
peace! Amen.
