Good Morning Mission Grove family and welcome to another edition of Church online, we are in week two of a series entitled tough questions where we are tackling the issues of our country through the lens of scripture, today's topic is what does jesus say about politics? You know, nothing seems to divide our country like politics and that's because nothing divides our country like fear. Well, john, what does fear have to do with politics? Well, to be honest with you everything, you see people peddle fear and promote fear to move their agenda forward. People are afraid of a lot of things, they're afraid of what might happen in the future. They're afraid of what has already happened in the past. You are led to believe that if so and so fill in the blank that if a blank gets elected, then our world is coming to an end. People fear the loss of opportunity and culture and freedoms or progress wherever you land on the political spectrum. I want to start things off by asking you this question, do you filter your politics through your faith or do you shape your faith to fit your politics? You see here in America, we are made up primarily of two parties, the democrats and republicans. What's interesting is that both parties claim hold of jesus, So depending on who you're talking to, they will use scripture and verses to back their beliefs and their platform. So for example, when you hear things about social justice or helping the poor or being good stewards of the environment. You tend to think democrats, it's not commentary on positions, it's just making you aware that when you hear these phrases, they tend to be associated with one party over the other, but in the same light, republicans grab hold of the christian faith and connect with jesus through the teachings of the sanctity of life and a traditional view of marriage. What I find interesting is that the fullness of the Kingdom of God does not fit neatly into one particular political party or another. And if it does, then I don't know if you're really filtering your politics through your faith, but really you're shaping your faith to fit your politics. And I know this to be true because Christianity existed well before republican or democrat Christianity is currently moving and working and growing in countries all over the world. Did you know that in one of the harshest government settings, Iran Christianity is growing faster in Iran than any other location in all of the world. Much of Western civilization as we know, it has been shaped by the words and life of jesus, to love your neighbor as yourself. Or christians take it even a step further and to say, to love your neighbor as jesus has loved us. The valuing of all human life of both genders of all races, the idea of freedom and opportunity. These are biblical principles that have really shaped Western civilization and then have moved themselves into politics, but when you talk about politics, you also talk about power and when you mix power and politics and religion a lot of times, the result is not biblically scripture based, but rather someone's interpretation of what they want you to believe and what they think might get your vote. But what I want to talk to you today is about a principle that should shape how we treat one another during this election. You see your candidate will win or lose the election based on the voting found on the first Tuesday of november. But I'm here to tell you that the church will win or lose based on how we treat one another between now and election day. If you're taking notes, I want you to write down this week's big idea when you disagree politically choose to love unconditionally and to pray for unity. This phrasing was coined earlier this year by pastor Andy Stanley and I find it appropriate for our church family today. Is that when not if when you disagree politically choose to love unconditionally and to pray for unity, If you have your bibles open up to John Chapter 16, starting in verse 33, jesus the night before he would be killed on the cross for your sins and for mine is having an intimate moment with his disciples and then it's going to have an intimate moment with God and praying directly to him, but he says these words, he says, I have said these things to you, talking to the disciples that in me you may have peace in the world. You have tribulation but take heart. I have overcome the world. He had informed his disciples that he was going to be levy, but that they can have peace because he has overcome the world and ultimately he would be sending the holy Spirit. So how can we have peace? How can we overcome as Jesus overcame? Well, now we get to zoom in on the high priestly prayer of jesus. John chapter 17 is the longest recorded prayer of jesus and today I want to focus in on three smaller sections of that prayer. First, john chapter 17, verses 1 to 3, I call it authority because you're gonna see that here in just a moment and when Jesus had spoken these words again, remember this idea of overcoming, he lifted his eyes up to heaven and said, Father, The hour has come to glorify your son, that the son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all fluffs to give eternal life to all whom you have given to him and this is eternal life that they know you the only true god and jesus christ whom you have sent. So in these 1st 3 verses, jesus is asking God to glorify him. This is another claim of the divinity of jesus. He was not just a rabbi, he was not just a nice man, but he in fact was the son of God and they're claiming in being the son of God full authority and full glory as he would be glorified on the cross. The idea of glory is described as fame or celebration. It could also be seen as weight or heavy reputation. Think about swimming in the pool, we have a little small kids pool in our backyard, a little pop up one, you know the above ground. And so we use that to survive quarantine and here in the Phoenix, summer the hottest on record by the way, thanks 2020 and our kids would jump in and do cannonballs. Well my little she weighs like £30.30 £40. He's a light as a feather. Four year old daughter Chloe jumps in the pool and you just hear a little blue, but when my kids were jumping in just to have fun, I yelled Cannonball and I jumped in and the wall started shaking because it's a temporary pool and wave started going everywhere. Why? Because I have just a little bit more weight than Chloe does in the same way Glory is about weight and what has weight in your life? What has the reputation or fame or celebration in your life? Do you glorify God? Well, in this setting, jesus says God, I want you to glorify me. So all authority. All power has been given to me so that I can give eternal life to all who believe. And so you see that jesus has authority to impact and to change and to save people's lives, why did I emphasize that? Because first you see authority, but next we're gonna take a dive into the passage that talks about ability here in verse nine and I am praying for them, referring to the disciples and I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me for they are yours, all mine are yours and yours are mine and I am glorified in them. So that glory that Jesus has received, he is sending down and making available for you and for me to cross references, if you are taking notes is colossians 1 27 which says that in you is the mystery of the gospel christ in you, the hope of glory And also Ephesians. Chapter one verse 18 when Paul is praying and he says that there are riches of God's inheritance found within the Saints. So this power is being put into us or into the disciples and he says, and I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I am coming to you Holy father, sign of reverence, A sign of power, A sign of respect. He says, keep them in your name which you have given me that they may be one Even as we are one. Now pause there for a moment. They may be one jesus in his last moments the night before he would be crucified, ask God and had a prayer request. Now shouldn't we take note that if jesus was going to pray for one thing that we should be willing to pray for what Jesus prayed for. I think so, and that phrase, they may be one, what was Jesus praying for? It's unity. So first we saw authority and we saw the ability to be unified and then last he continues his prayer to extend to you and me. Today, we see this application, He says, and I do not ask for these only, but also that phrase, but also means you and I are included in Jesus's prayer and the weight of his glory has rippled for the past 2000 years to now. Here we are in an election season at a country that didn't exist yet during the time that Jesus said this prayer and he is praying specifically for you and for me, these words says, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may, that they may all be one just as you father are in me and I and you. So the trinity God, the father jesus, the son, the Holy Spirit in perfect relationship is the example for you and I to follow, says that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one I and them and you and me that they may become perfectly one. So that this is why I say application here. Why is it important for us to be unified? Why is it important for the unity of the church? Is that so that the world may know that you sent me and that I loved them, even as you loved me, you have the authority of God. All authority in heaven on earth has been given to jesus. Jesus was most glorified on the cross and the night before he was killed, he prays for believers not for more power, not for more money, but for unity. And the reason is because for the next 2000 years that when a diverse and conflicted community found unity in the gospel, when it is applied into the context is found all over the world that people will know that Jesus loves them, that life transformation is real and people will get saved. Now, if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. Unity does not mean uniformity. Well, it seems as though we are very conflicted in our culture today. If you consider the context in which jesus prayed this prayer, it was even more conflicted back then, the early church movement had no book. Yes, they had the old testament and and some letters of the early apostles, but it was not canonized in the holy bible as we now know it today. The stories were being written during that time. So they had no book, they had no building, they had no budget, they had no political office, They had no power. But yet here, we are 2000 years later and Christianity is the single largest movement in the entire world. The message of jesus, this known rabbi from an unknown town in the middle of nowhere called Bethlehem doesn't hold political office, doesn't he himself write a book. His disciples wrote about him. He doesn't own property. He doesn't have physical earthly wealth. But yet through his life, through his teaching, through dying on a cross rising again, this ragtag group of scared ordinary, some educated, sometimes uneducated fishermen, Tax collectors, Doctors, man, if you think about it, paul, the writer of most of the new testament was even persecuting christians at first. And so nothing of this story makes sense for why Christianity as a movement would last except for their unity. So unity does not mean uniformity because unity requires us to look to jesus, where uniformity requires us to look exactly like each other in this context. In the early church that was started, there were jews, Samaritans, Greeks, romans, slave free, there were rulers, there were soldiers, there were tax collectors, there were educators are educated, uneducated, wealthy, poor men, women, old young, all of these people group that previously had no reason to get along and under no political persuasion came together under the message of the Gospel. That the fact that jesus rose again means that they can have eternal life forever and abundant life now and that sins can be forgiven. And that that with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, anything is possible. And that they started to love people the way that Jesus loved them and lived out the great commandment they started to make and multiply disciples, which is known as the Great Commission and it was unity of the church that overcame all politics. Why is unity important? Well, Jesus prayed for unity. Jesus also paid for unity by dying on the cross so that we could believe in him and through our belief in him, we have the ability to be unified together. Well, despite our backgrounds, despite our political differences, what is it that we can actually be unified on Paul writes in Ephesians chapter four verses 1-6, I therefore a prisoner of the Lord, brief pause here. The fact that he was a prisoner shows that he was put in prison because he was preaching the gospel. And it's also a politically loaded phrase to even from prison being oppressed for his political belief that paul is still preaching unity. And he says, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. It's not walk in a manner worthy of your political position, but walk and a man are worthy of a greater calling, a calling from the Kingdom of heaven, the Kingdom of God, something that will last for all eternity. And he says walk with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain unity. There's that word of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body, 1 spirit just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all church, let me just close by talking to you for just a few moments and I want to let you know that with my position here at the church, I'm not going to be a political activist, I'm called to be your pastor, which in scripture is described as a shepherd and so my responsibility and task is to love and to feed and to protect the local church known as the flock. So I'm not going to share with you my endorsement of one particular candidate over another. But instead through prayer is that I will repeatedly point you back to God and God's word. Now, if you are someone watching this and you're very politically minded, I want to encourage you go ahead and jump into the political arena, we need christians in every avenue within our community and in our country, but I want to caution you that when you jump into the political arena, understand that most people operate from a different set of rules, they're operating out of fear where you were called to operate out of faith, they are operating out of power where you should be operating out of service, you see, Yes, use wisdom, use knowledge, be smart about it, get involved, vote your convictions, yes, do all of that. I'm telling you, do that, be active in our community, but understand that our peace does not come from who wins this election. The future of the church is not dependent upon who is in office. Come january. You see, no matter which party holds office, our god, our king, our savior still holds the world. We are loyal to our country and I'm proud to be an american. But as christians, we don't worship our politicians, we worship our king and his cause is greater. And so why would we put our focus on something that is temporary? I say that because it was not too long ago we had a thing called the Wig Party or the Federalist Party. I don't think I have any registered wigs or Federalists in my rolodex of connections in our community, do you? Political parties are important, they build connection, but they are not the platform that will lead us to eternity and they should not be worshiped and if they should not be worshiped, then they should not divide us. Unity of the church is too important. Unity was so important that Jesus prayed for it. Don't you think if jesus had this prayer request, we should too not only did Jesus pray for it, Jesus also paid for it by dying on the cross so that we may be one every party, every economic status, both genders, every ethnicity, wealthy unwell for the all parts of the world are being called to a greater king and that is where our allegiance lies. And so if jesus prayed for it, if jesus paid for it then shouldn't we make unity a priority in our lives Church? Remember when you disagree politically and trust me you're going to do so and if you don't disagree with anybody in your circle of friends then you need to make more friends and to love outside of your bubble. I am actually excited to know that there are people in our church with differing political views. I see that because I see what you guys post each and every day. But let me encourage you with this that when you disagree politically choose to love unconditionally and to pray for unity. Love unconditionally pray for Unity. Love unconditionally pray for unity. And if we do that church, no matter who wins this election, God will be glorified and the movement of the local church and the heartbeat of Mission Grove will continue forward because when you disagree politically but you love unconditionally and you pray for unity, the world will take notice and God will continue to work in and through each other's lives. Let's pray dear heavenly Father here in this divisive time between now and the election I pray that we can show people love and respect even when we disagree and God, if you prayed for unity and you paid for unity, God, we ask that we can prioritize unity and to love one another the way that you have loved us, where we all come together with one faith, one spirit, one salvation that comes from you God and it's in your son's name. We pray amen with all the messages in this series. I know there are tension points throughout and so I want to give you an open invitation to email me directly at jay Kriegel at Mission Grove church dot com. This is not meant to end the conversation but to really start one so that we can grow as humans, as people as christians and we can grow in our faith. I encourage you to join us next week as we pick up this topic and we talk about what does Jesus say about politics? Part two. God bless. We'll see you next week