WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.480
Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth,

2
00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:09.320
equip the saints, and impact our culture.

3
00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:15.600
I think it's very clear in archaeology, sociology, just psychology, and of course theology

4
00:00:15.600 --> 00:00:21.360
that all men, I say that men and women, mankind believe in something.

5
00:00:21.360 --> 00:00:25.960
There is no true atheism, it's impossible.

6
00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:27.520
Everyone believes in something.

7
00:00:27.520 --> 00:00:30.880
Many of them might pride themselves tonight in saying why you can silly little Christians,

8
00:00:30.880 --> 00:00:36.680
I'm an atheist, that's your religion, everyone's got a religion, and you're going to live

9
00:00:36.680 --> 00:00:41.800
it out if you really believe it.

10
00:00:41.800 --> 00:00:48.040
You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast.

11
00:00:48.040 --> 00:00:54.240
Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ,

12
00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:57.480
then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings.

13
00:00:57.480 --> 00:01:04.080
To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen.

14
00:01:04.080 --> 00:01:10.600
Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you, here is Jack Hibbs.

15
00:01:10.600 --> 00:01:13.600
So Eric, if somebody's watching right now or somebody's here right now, they're thinking

16
00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:17.160
you graduated from Yale, you should know that there's a separation of church and state.

17
00:01:17.160 --> 00:01:20.720
What would you say to somebody who would say the church needs to stay in its box?

18
00:01:20.720 --> 00:01:21.720
Right.

19
00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:22.720
We got to be real clear.

20
00:01:22.720 --> 00:01:26.680
The idea of the separation of church and state was put in place by the founders of this

21
00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:34.240
nation to keep the government, to keep the state out of the church's business.

22
00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:37.520
Now that's not your opinion.

23
00:01:37.520 --> 00:01:39.000
It's not my opinion.

24
00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:45.240
This is what every single one of the founders understood that you cannot have real freedom.

25
00:01:45.240 --> 00:01:51.880
You cannot have a people who govern themselves unless they are free to believe as they like

26
00:01:51.880 --> 00:01:55.440
whether they like, if you want to be an atheist, you want to be a Buddhist, you want to

27
00:01:55.440 --> 00:02:02.080
be Christian, whatever, the government has zero right to bother you about that.

28
00:02:02.080 --> 00:02:08.000
Any more than they can tell you what car you need to drive or whatever it was, the government

29
00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:13.240
has, according to our founding documents, according to the founding vision of this nation,

30
00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:19.880
it must keep away from those issues and allow the people themselves to decide.

31
00:02:19.880 --> 00:02:26.480
So every other country that we had fled from Europe, they had no separation church in

32
00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:27.480
state.

33
00:02:27.480 --> 00:02:34.640
If you go to that, if you're part of that country or whatever, everybody goes to that church

34
00:02:34.640 --> 00:02:39.600
or everybody goes to that church or you see this or everybody goes to is Muslim or everybody

35
00:02:39.600 --> 00:02:44.960
is atheist if you're North Korea or everybody, America, they said we're going to have religious

36
00:02:45.040 --> 00:02:50.320
liberty and they understood that that undergirds all of our liberties.

37
00:02:50.320 --> 00:02:51.320
They knew this.

38
00:02:51.320 --> 00:02:52.320
This is like math.

39
00:02:52.320 --> 00:02:53.320
This is not opinions, folks.

40
00:02:53.320 --> 00:02:54.320
This is the key.

41
00:02:54.320 --> 00:03:00.000
You cannot have American-style liberty and self-government unless you have actual liberty

42
00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.880
particularly with regard to religious liberty.

43
00:03:02.880 --> 00:03:07.000
The government cannot tell you what to think, cannot tell you what to believe and it definitely

44
00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:11.920
cannot get involved in whether you go to church or how you go to church or where you go

45
00:03:11.920 --> 00:03:12.920
to church.

46
00:03:12.920 --> 00:03:15.880
Like this is utterly, utterly foundational.

47
00:03:15.880 --> 00:03:22.480
But at the same time, all of the founders understood if most people don't have some religious

48
00:03:22.480 --> 00:03:25.280
faith, we can't force it.

49
00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:30.000
But if they don't have it, we're not going to have virtue, we're not going to have people

50
00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:31.000
who can govern themselves.

51
00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:40.440
So there's like a conundrum at the heart of the founders said, religious freedom is sacred.

52
00:03:40.440 --> 00:03:41.440
We're going to have religious freedom.

53
00:03:41.440 --> 00:03:44.040
We're not going to tell people they need to believe in God.

54
00:03:44.040 --> 00:03:45.880
We're not going to tell people they need to go to church.

55
00:03:45.880 --> 00:03:47.560
We have no business doing that.

56
00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:53.840
But if they don't do it on their own, our liberties will evaporate.

57
00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:59.160
So this was this risk that's at the heart of all liberty.

58
00:03:59.160 --> 00:04:01.400
We always knew that as a people.

59
00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:06.040
We knew that as Americans that nobody's going to force you to go to church but we believe

60
00:04:06.040 --> 00:04:07.040
in God.

61
00:04:07.040 --> 00:04:08.040
We respect God.

62
00:04:08.040 --> 00:04:12.560
Presidents like theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln and every single president they understood.

63
00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:14.920
This is the foundation.

64
00:04:14.920 --> 00:04:19.200
We can't force it on anybody but without this we're not America.

65
00:04:19.200 --> 00:04:21.240
This is what makes us free.

66
00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:29.120
So that kind of shifted in the 60s and you get a lot of people misunderstanding this like

67
00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:31.120
willfully basically.

68
00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:35.240
And basically say, oh, separation of church and state, that means we've got to remove

69
00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:39.680
any religious stuff out of the culture.

70
00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:42.040
And it doesn't say separation of church and culture.

71
00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:46.080
It's essentially in a church and state and that is the government cannot officially establish

72
00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:47.080
a religion.

73
00:04:47.080 --> 00:04:49.560
You all need to go to this church or everybody in this state needs to go to that church

74
00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:50.560
or whatever.

75
00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:55.600
But somehow Richard John Newhouse wrote a book in 1984 called The Naked Public Square.

76
00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:00.160
Talking about that we're trying to strip the public square of any trappings of religion

77
00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:02.880
which is the opposite of what the founders wanted.

78
00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:07.240
The founders knew that if we don't have a lot of religious people in this country we're

79
00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:08.240
not going to have freedom.

80
00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:14.000
So all of the founders understood this but roughly since the 60s a lot of our cultural

81
00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:21.240
elites have turned it around and made it sound as though we've got to take God out

82
00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:24.240
and they are undeniably wrong.

83
00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:30.480
These ideas have come into the church where people in the church think, well, I can have

84
00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:35.460
my private faith or I can have my faith in my church and we need to understand like

85
00:05:35.460 --> 00:05:38.360
no, no, no, no, no.

86
00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:43.160
That's not what the Bible says and that's not what our founding documents say.

87
00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:51.040
Our founding documents say if you have a faith you can exercise it freely, you cannot

88
00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:55.640
be prohibited from exercising your faith anywhere you go.

89
00:05:55.640 --> 00:06:00.880
And by the way, God gave you your faith to take it with you out of the church building

90
00:06:00.880 --> 00:06:03.520
and into every sphere in the culture.

91
00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:08.440
That's the point of you're going to church is you learn stuff and you take it out and

92
00:06:08.440 --> 00:06:10.120
you apply it out there.

93
00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:16.320
I think it's very clear in archaeology, sociology, just psychology and of course theology

94
00:06:16.320 --> 00:06:22.520
that's all men, I say that men and women, mankind believe in something.

95
00:06:22.520 --> 00:06:26.120
There is no true atheism.

96
00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:28.120
It's impossible.

97
00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:29.440
Everyone believes in something.

98
00:06:29.440 --> 00:06:32.760
Somebody might pride themselves tonight and saying, well, you can silly little Christians,

99
00:06:32.760 --> 00:06:36.280
I'm an atheist, that's your religion.

100
00:06:36.280 --> 00:06:40.440
Everyone's got a religion and you're going to live it out if you really believe it.

101
00:06:40.440 --> 00:06:46.760
So we look around the world right now and the world is doing tonight today what it is

102
00:06:46.760 --> 00:06:52.440
supposed to do when it believes what it believes apart from God.

103
00:06:52.440 --> 00:06:55.760
They are very committed evangelists, are they not?

104
00:06:55.760 --> 00:06:59.320
They're evangelizing your children right now in school.

105
00:06:59.320 --> 00:07:04.440
They're evangelizing you through the LA Dodgers, they're evangelizing you through target.

106
00:07:04.440 --> 00:07:11.160
They're evangelizing you through coals, the media, commercials, constantly the pulpit

107
00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:19.480
of their belief system is bold and it's vibrant and it's in the words of, again, Gavin Newsom.

108
00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:21.880
It's coming if you like it or not.

109
00:07:21.880 --> 00:07:27.160
Well, imagine if we stood up and said, here's the gospel.

110
00:07:27.160 --> 00:07:30.400
What's amazing to me is our gospel invites you.

111
00:07:30.400 --> 00:07:35.440
The gospel of God, I shouldn't say our gospel is that we follow His gospel, which invites

112
00:07:35.440 --> 00:07:40.040
you to experience forgiveness, invite you to have your sins forgiven and invite you to

113
00:07:40.040 --> 00:07:41.040
have eternal life.

114
00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:45.240
It's an invitation, it's not tyrannical.

115
00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:52.480
Right now if you say something about gender, to government, to Biden, to Trump, to whatever

116
00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:57.520
it might be, whatever the thing is, fireworks go off.

117
00:07:57.520 --> 00:08:00.280
Christianity invites you to know God.

118
00:08:00.280 --> 00:08:03.440
Our founding fathers, Eric Point of this out, it's brilliant.

119
00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:07.880
When you study these guys and read their own mail, I really recommend, get books that

120
00:08:07.880 --> 00:08:09.000
have been written by them.

121
00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:10.760
You can do that.

122
00:08:10.760 --> 00:08:12.000
Do it.

123
00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.920
Why not just go straight to their mailbox and read it.

124
00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:19.640
When you read what they believed and even those that we would say, well, we don't know

125
00:08:19.640 --> 00:08:21.760
if they're evangelicals.

126
00:08:21.760 --> 00:08:29.040
Listen, even those who we would say are not our flavor still said that the best thing

127
00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:32.040
for America is for people to obey God.

128
00:08:32.040 --> 00:08:33.040
Every single one of them.

129
00:08:33.040 --> 00:08:34.320
This is incredible.

130
00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:39.440
The ones that we think of as somehow, you know, enlightenment rationalist, like ungodly

131
00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:44.440
whatever, total baloney, every single one of them, Benjamin Franklin at the top of the

132
00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:52.520
list, knew that if people believe in the God of the Bible, they are going to be able to

133
00:08:52.520 --> 00:08:54.360
govern themselves and have liberty.

134
00:08:54.360 --> 00:09:00.120
They knew, like it's math, there's no way you can get real liberty, real freedom, real

135
00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:05.000
self-government unless people have faith.

136
00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:11.760
Every one of them didn't just believe it, but encouraged it, Franklin encouraged it.

137
00:09:11.760 --> 00:09:16.440
So this is part of the warping wolf of what it is to be American, whether you like it

138
00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:17.840
or not.

139
00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:24.000
Now again, you can't force people and our laws are never supposed to force, you can't

140
00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:26.120
force people to believe.

141
00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:30.480
But the fact of the matter is that the founders understood that without this, you can't have

142
00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:31.480
America.

143
00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:36.240
And so the reason we have drifted to where we are now, this is apart from the church's

144
00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:37.240
silence, okay?

145
00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:43.800
But I'm saying the reason we've drifted is because as you take God out, what is replaced

146
00:09:43.800 --> 00:09:45.200
is satanic.

147
00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:46.520
There's no neutral.

148
00:09:46.520 --> 00:09:49.960
We've been fooled in the thinking, well, neutral, secular is neutral.

149
00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:53.000
But if you really look at it, you cannot be neutral.

150
00:09:53.040 --> 00:09:57.440
Listen, if you don't believe in the Bible, let's say you just say, I just believe in science,

151
00:09:57.440 --> 00:09:59.760
I just believe in evolution, okay?

152
00:09:59.760 --> 00:10:06.160
Then you tell me why is racism wrong based on science.

153
00:10:06.160 --> 00:10:07.480
Now people go, what do you mean?

154
00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:08.480
What do you mean?

155
00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:09.480
Of course it's wrong.

156
00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:10.800
Yes, it's wrong.

157
00:10:10.800 --> 00:10:12.720
Tell me why.

158
00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:18.440
If you are a Bible-believing Christian, you know it's wrong because everywhere in the

159
00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:21.520
Bible it says God's no respect or persons, he loves us equally.

160
00:10:21.520 --> 00:10:24.840
It's a biblical idea that we're all equal.

161
00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:28.280
But science tells us what we've evolved.

162
00:10:28.280 --> 00:10:31.160
Some people might be more evolved than others.

163
00:10:31.160 --> 00:10:38.240
And the Eugenics movement in this country, which the Nazis borrowed from Margaret to kill

164
00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:44.400
Jews, they borrowed it, Margaret saying, the Eugenics movement, they said, this is science.

165
00:10:44.400 --> 00:10:48.760
Science says that some groups are more evolved than others.

166
00:10:48.760 --> 00:10:54.560
So when you take God out, you can't even say racism is wrong.

167
00:10:54.560 --> 00:10:58.120
But notice that people aren't talking about that, they kind of act like, what are you talking

168
00:10:58.120 --> 00:10:59.120
about?

169
00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:00.120
Critical race theory.

170
00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:03.080
Critical race theory is founded, it's cultural Marxism.

171
00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:04.080
It's absolutely.

172
00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:07.080
And it's total gobbledygook and it's ultimately racist.

173
00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:10.160
It has no basis even on which to say race is wrong.

174
00:11:10.160 --> 00:11:16.360
So we're living in a time where we need to know what we believe and we need to live out

175
00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:17.680
our faith.

176
00:11:17.680 --> 00:11:22.680
And we need to tell people the truth that apart from the God of the Bible, we don't have

177
00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:24.400
the possibility of freedom.

178
00:11:24.400 --> 00:11:29.520
We don't have the possibility of eradicating racism or any bad thing.

179
00:11:29.520 --> 00:11:36.640
And so the church, rather than be bold, we've kind of, as I say, we've retreated and retreated.

180
00:11:36.640 --> 00:11:40.600
And we've been silent in the face of evil because we bought the lie.

181
00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:41.600
And you think, what is that?

182
00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:42.920
That's not even a biblical idea.

183
00:11:42.920 --> 00:11:44.200
What are you talking about?

184
00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:47.360
Your slavery is on the docket and you're voting.

185
00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:50.640
Would you say, well, I don't want to take a, for my pulpit, I don't want to lose my

186
00:11:50.640 --> 00:11:51.640
501c3 status.

187
00:11:51.640 --> 00:11:54.800
So I'm not going to take a position on slavery.

188
00:11:54.800 --> 00:11:58.960
If you don't take a position on slavery, you're a pig.

189
00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:03.680
What kind of Christian would you be if you would not say that is evil from the pit of hell?

190
00:12:03.680 --> 00:12:04.680
Right.

191
00:12:04.680 --> 00:12:09.640
And it was Christians who led the battle for abolition of the slave trade, who led the

192
00:12:09.640 --> 00:12:11.200
battle of abolition of slavery.

193
00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:16.240
It was Christians who led all those battles because they knew from the word of God this

194
00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:18.240
is wrong.

195
00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:21.600
And we're living in a time when people don't want to talk about that.

196
00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:24.960
And they want to say, well, we don't think you should be political in churches.

197
00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:30.600
Listen, folks, if we don't live out our faith in every sphere, including the political,

198
00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:32.920
satanic values replace it.

199
00:12:32.920 --> 00:12:34.560
And that is what is happening now.

200
00:12:34.560 --> 00:12:39.880
It is only when the church lives out its faith and understands that it is our duty before

201
00:12:39.880 --> 00:12:46.720
God to live out our faith in every single sphere and to push back hard against the evil that

202
00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:49.400
is all around us, against the bad ideas that are all around us.

203
00:12:49.400 --> 00:12:50.560
Why do we push back?

204
00:12:50.560 --> 00:12:54.800
We push back because God commands us to love our neighbor.

205
00:12:54.800 --> 00:12:58.400
And if you love your neighbor, you will advocate for the truth.

206
00:12:58.400 --> 00:13:02.440
You will speak out against the transgender madness because lives are being destroyed and

207
00:13:02.440 --> 00:13:04.720
God holds you responsible as the church.

208
00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:06.480
You need to speak up against that.

209
00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:09.280
They're parents that they don't know what to think, they don't know what to do.

210
00:13:09.280 --> 00:13:11.280
The church needs to be a strong voice.

211
00:13:11.280 --> 00:13:18.680
I mean, I thought of this earlier this morning, what could be possibly clearer than he made

212
00:13:18.680 --> 00:13:23.720
us male and female in his image?

213
00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:25.280
We're the image bearers of God.

214
00:13:25.280 --> 00:13:29.320
The Bible tells us that God has stamped His placed eternity in your hearts.

215
00:13:29.320 --> 00:13:32.200
That's why atheists struggle at night when they lay their head down at night.

216
00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:35.400
Look, Christian, you lay your head down at night and you fall asleep.

217
00:13:35.400 --> 00:13:39.240
And atheists lays down at night and says, man, I hope God's not real.

218
00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:43.360
I hope He's not real because listen, he's going up against the witness of the Holy Spirit

219
00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:44.360
for one thing.

220
00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:49.400
He's knocking on his head, saying, I'm here, I can hear you.

221
00:13:49.400 --> 00:13:55.320
But that's a tough way to live, but the fact of the matter is that we who believe in God,

222
00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:56.320
that's funny.

223
00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:02.360
What drives us, I guess, to be such a problem to an unbelieving culture now is that we actually

224
00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:03.360
love them.

225
00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:05.400
We love the people that hate us, which is a miracle.

226
00:14:05.400 --> 00:14:07.280
Come on, let's be honest.

227
00:14:07.280 --> 00:14:08.280
We weren't always Christians.

228
00:14:08.280 --> 00:14:14.840
Do you remember when I was in a Christian, I hurt people that hated me, it seems normal

229
00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:16.840
to me.

230
00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:22.000
Then I became a Christian and the bit shocked to me was, I started loving people that I

231
00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.120
couldn't stand.

232
00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:26.600
And it's like, what is going on here?

233
00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:29.840
And this is God taking over your life.

234
00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:32.920
Something or someone's going to take over your life.

235
00:14:32.920 --> 00:14:40.040
And we will risk our own safety for our enemy to hear the gospel, not to bend their arm

236
00:14:40.040 --> 00:14:41.040
into heaven.

237
00:14:41.040 --> 00:14:43.360
Thus there's no state church.

238
00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.040
Thus there's no mandatory belief.

239
00:14:46.040 --> 00:14:47.840
This is not Islam.

240
00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:49.640
Believer your head comes off.

241
00:14:49.640 --> 00:14:51.720
What kind of a deal is that?

242
00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:56.680
God is so amazing, the God of the Bible, that he invites you to make a willful decision

243
00:14:56.680 --> 00:15:00.120
to love him because he's a real personality.

244
00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:04.800
If somebody puts a gun to your head and says, we're going to have sex right now because

245
00:15:04.800 --> 00:15:10.520
I've got a gun to your head, that's not love.

246
00:15:10.520 --> 00:15:16.520
Or if somebody says, I'm going to control you for my gratification.

247
00:15:16.520 --> 00:15:22.320
It's not love, that's animalistic tyranny.

248
00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:24.040
God invites you.

249
00:15:24.040 --> 00:15:25.760
And here we are in a culture right now.

250
00:15:25.760 --> 00:15:31.320
They hate us like it was said of George Whitfield.

251
00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:36.040
It said that he loved the world that hated him.

252
00:15:36.040 --> 00:15:40.720
And George Whitfield's greatest passion was that people would be saved.

253
00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:45.400
And so we want to announce to the world the gospel.

254
00:15:45.400 --> 00:15:48.560
Satan doesn't want that to be said.

255
00:15:48.560 --> 00:15:52.920
And so the silent scene, the canceling and all these kinds of things going on.

256
00:15:52.920 --> 00:15:55.760
But Eric, what would you say to this?

257
00:15:55.760 --> 00:16:01.960
I thought when I was reading Roosevelt there that I could just see if this was like a Facebook

258
00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:07.160
post and people are commenting, oh my goodness, there they go, Nash, what's it called?

259
00:16:07.160 --> 00:16:12.160
Christian nationalism, Christian nationalism, you know, it's so, because people are saying

260
00:16:12.160 --> 00:16:14.960
like a parrot and they don't even know what they're talking about.

261
00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:19.360
First of all, anytime anybody uses the Fried Christian nationalism, like laugh in their

262
00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:21.560
face and walk away quick.

263
00:16:21.560 --> 00:16:26.360
Because it's like somebody says, I think you're racist or I think they're using a term

264
00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:28.760
designed specifically to shut you up.

265
00:16:28.760 --> 00:16:31.600
They're not interested in what you have to say.

266
00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:35.280
So they're using this as a cudgel just to beat you into silence.

267
00:16:35.280 --> 00:16:40.840
And you need to, Christians, you know, it says be wise as serpents.

268
00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:43.000
It doesn't say be wise as doves.

269
00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:45.240
Did you know that?

270
00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:52.640
But we sometimes allow the enemies of God to play games with us.

271
00:16:52.640 --> 00:16:57.040
And we answer fools, according to their folly, we cast our pearls before swine.

272
00:16:57.040 --> 00:17:00.800
Our time and our energy is God's time and energy.

273
00:17:00.800 --> 00:17:05.120
And you should never argue with somebody who is not interested in the truth.

274
00:17:05.120 --> 00:17:11.600
Walk away because that, pray for them, but don't argue with somebody who simply wants

275
00:17:11.600 --> 00:17:12.600
to shut you up.

276
00:17:12.600 --> 00:17:16.920
And right now, a lot of Christians think that like there's one Christian value, it's

277
00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:18.600
being nice.

278
00:17:18.600 --> 00:17:22.080
And I have to tell you that that's not a biblical value, folks.

279
00:17:22.080 --> 00:17:26.560
Sometimes speaking the truth is what God is calling us to do.

280
00:17:26.560 --> 00:17:32.360
And when we don't do it, when lies are being promoted in the culture and we are silent,

281
00:17:32.360 --> 00:17:37.280
the Lord is holding us accountable because we are to be a voice for the voiceless.

282
00:17:37.280 --> 00:17:41.360
So whatever you're talking about, whatever issue there is, when we say, I don't want to

283
00:17:41.360 --> 00:17:47.400
be divisive, folks, God does not call us not to be divisive.

284
00:17:47.400 --> 00:17:50.920
Now he doesn't call us to be divisive, but the point is it shouldn't be whether you're

285
00:17:50.920 --> 00:17:52.880
divisive or not divisive.

286
00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:57.080
There are people outside this building, there are people out in the world who don't know

287
00:17:57.080 --> 00:18:05.360
God, who are depending on those of us who know the truth, to advocate for the truth,

288
00:18:05.360 --> 00:18:11.640
to advocate for the truth in the public square, to make noise when people are lying, when

289
00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:12.640
there is corruption.

290
00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:14.800
I don't care what the issue is.

291
00:18:14.800 --> 00:18:20.800
You pick the most controversial issue, election fraud, vaccine mandates, and others that

292
00:18:20.800 --> 00:18:22.600
it doesn't even matter what you think about that.

293
00:18:22.600 --> 00:18:26.880
The point is when somebody tells you you can't talk about that, you say, excuse me, excuse

294
00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:27.880
me.

295
00:18:27.880 --> 00:18:28.880
I'm a Christian.

296
00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:34.880
I can talk about anything I want because I don't even fear death, number one.

297
00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:40.880
Now a lot in the church are being shamed by non-Christians who are saying, I can say whatever

298
00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:46.400
I want because I'm an American, patriots died so that I can talk about whatever I want.

299
00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:50.960
I don't need anybody's permission because I'm an American.

300
00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:56.560
These things are enshrined in her founding documents, but the church has been complicit

301
00:18:56.560 --> 00:19:00.360
in its own silencing and its own marginalization.

302
00:19:00.360 --> 00:19:06.040
Right now today, we have people in church life who will say, Eric, Jack, just come down

303
00:19:06.040 --> 00:19:13.120
because God is sovereign and you know, I'm just going to trust in the Lord.

304
00:19:13.120 --> 00:19:18.600
Listen, when you, of course, God is sovereign, but you shouldn't say that the way that you

305
00:19:18.600 --> 00:19:20.280
mean it, because it's actually here.

306
00:19:20.280 --> 00:19:24.480
Well, it's actually, it's a call to inaction, right?

307
00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:25.480
Yeah.

308
00:19:25.480 --> 00:19:28.000
You do nothing because God is sovereign.

309
00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:29.320
You can wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

310
00:19:29.320 --> 00:19:34.600
Like, I mean, you know, George Washington, when he was fighting, kind of knew in the

311
00:19:34.600 --> 00:19:42.920
natural that they would not succeed in the natural, but if the Lord was with them, that

312
00:19:42.920 --> 00:19:50.760
if they really thought they might have the victory, so they fought because they thought

313
00:19:50.760 --> 00:19:54.720
if God wants us to win, we will fight and the Lord will do what the Lord is going to

314
00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:55.720
do.

315
00:19:55.720 --> 00:20:00.800
To counsel someone like God is sovereign, therefore George Washington, sit down.

316
00:20:00.800 --> 00:20:02.760
We would never have this nation.

317
00:20:02.760 --> 00:20:09.240
And there are many voices in the church today saying, just don't do anything, or you know

318
00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:12.680
what, it's already lost, so just don't do anything.

319
00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:19.680
Don't bother, don't, but if you don't bother, you're helping it be lost.

320
00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:43.920
That calls us to fight until he decides when the battle is over.