November 25, 2024 • 34 mins
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How does faith shape the way we engage in a post election culture? On this episode of Living Reconciled, Austin, Neddie, and Brian unpack what it means for Christians to stay true to their identity in Christ while navigating the political sphere. Grounded in scripture like 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Peter 2:16-17, they explore how praying for leaders, embodying godliness, and living with ultimate commitment to love God and neighbor can transform our approach. Reflecting on God’s sovereignty, this episode challenges us to prioritize compassion over partisanship and to pursue a life of peaceful worship and neighborly love—regardless of electoral outcomes.
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Mississippi College, Anderson United Methodist Church, Grace Temple Church, Mississippi State University, Real Christian Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated
to giving our communitiespractical evidence of the gospel
message by helping Christianslearn how to live in the
reconciliation that Jesus hasalready secured for us by living
with grace across racial lines.
Hey, thanks so much for joiningus on this episode of Living
(00:33):
Reconciled.
I'm your host, brian Crawford,and I am with my good friends
and co-hosts Austin Hoyle,nettie Winters.
Gentlemen, how are you doing?
Oh, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I'm good.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
doing, doing wonderful.
How about you, nettie?
I'm good.
How are you doing?
Doing wonderful.
How about you, man?
I'm doing great.
Thank you, excellent, excellent.
So we are going to dive into avery interesting subject, which
is what do Christians dopost-election?
After all of the dust hassettled, after all of the
campaign speeches, after all theballots have been cast, what
(01:03):
now?
What do Christians do?
I'm really excited about thisdiscussion that I'm having with
my brothers, but before we divetoo deeply into that, we want to
give a quick shout out to someof our sponsors and friends,
folks like Mississippi Collegeand Anderson United Methodist
Church, grace Temple Church,mississippi State Real Christian
Foundation, nissan, stDominic's Hospital, atmos Energy
, regis Foundation, brownMissionary Baptist Christian
(01:25):
Life Church, ms Doris Powell, mrRobert Ward, ms Ann Winters.
Thank you so much foreverything that you do.
It's because of what you dothat we're able to do exactly
what we do, and today, what weare doing is talking about the
Christian life post-election.
Nettie, if I was to ask you onething that the Christian needs
to do post-election, what wouldyou say?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
that one thing would be One thing would be to pray
for our leadership.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Why, why should we?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
pray for our leadership, because, as a
Christian, I am commanded anddirected by the Apostle Paul and
by Jesus Christ to pray forthose who have leadership
authority over us.
We should pray for them so thatwe can lead peaceful and
tranquil lives.
You'll find it in Timothy.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Amen, amen.
I appreciate you raising thecall to pray for them, and I
appreciate you raising not justthe call to pray for them, but
the why to pray for them.
Pray for them so that we maylead peaceful and tranquil lives
.
I mean, ultimately, we shoulddesire to live in spaces where
(02:30):
we can worship God, we can loveour neighbor and we can share
the love of Christ and the goodnews of Jesus Christ.
Where we live, work and play,where we live, work and play.
And so, ultimately, what we'relooking for is not the seed of
(02:51):
power or the levers of power.
What we're looking for is spaceand opportunity to glorify God
with our whole being, and so Ilove that.
I love that quote.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I really would like to.
Just to read that.
Can I read that First?
Timothy 2 says I urge you firstof all to pray for all people.
You know I could just stopthere, but I won't.
You know I can stop there andtake a bit.
Ask God to help them, intercedeon their behalf and give thanks
for them.
Pray this way for king and allwho are in authority, so that we
(03:29):
can live a peaceful and quietlife marked by godliness and
dignity.
This is good and pleases God,our Savior, who wants everyone
to be saved and to understandthe truth.
For there is one God, onemediator who can reconcile God
and humanity the man, JesusChrist.
He gave his life to purchasefreedom for everyone.
(03:50):
This is the message God gavethe world at just the right time
, and I have been chosen as apreacher and apostle to teach
the Gentiles this message aboutfaith and truth.
I'm not exaggerating, I'mtelling the truth.
Faith and truth.
I'm not exaggerating, I'mtelling the truth.
In every place of worship.
I want men, human beings, boysand girls, men and women to pray
(04:11):
with holy hand lifted to God,free from anger and controversy,
Free from what Nettie, Freefrom anger and controversy.
I can't be anger, I can't becontroversy, free from that,
free from that.
So the first thing we ought todo is, you know, even as part of
(04:34):
this podcast, brian, I wouldsuggest that we, even now, the
three of us, just pray for unityand for obedience, for
Christians just to do just this,as well as for our leaders,
that they can lead in the rightway.
So I believe, if the Christiancommunity can live out the
(04:55):
admonishments that God has givenus in our lifestyle with one
another, the leaders can get apicture of how they ought to
live out their lives with oneanother in the House and Senate
and the congressional delegateall of that.
They can get an example from ushow they ought to live.
(05:16):
Since in many quarters, peopleare saying they're not living as
they ought to live, then whydon't we show them how that's
done by doing that?
And so I would suggest that wepray now as part of the podcast.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, absolutely, nettie.
Father, we love you and we thankyou for the hope that we have
in Christ Jesus and Lord, we arenot under any delusions.
You rule, you reign over allthings, including our politics,
including the leaders in whichare appointed in our country.
(05:50):
And so, lord, we ask for yourhand to be at work to lead,
guide, steer and direct.
But, lord, most importantly, weask that your hand be at work
in your local church, in yourchurch, lord God, in the local
churches that make and compriseyour church.
Lord, we pray and we ask thatyou would empower us by your
(06:11):
spirit to live in godliness andlive with dignity, so that the
watching world may see us andgive glory to you.
And so, lord, we ask that youwould do it for your glory and
we ask that you would do it forthe joy and good of your people,
in Christ's name, amen, amen,amen.
Austin, when we talk about onething that we can do
(06:35):
post-election as Christians,nettie highlighted, very
importantly, the call to prayRight.
Give me one thing that youthink that we can do
post-election as Christians.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, I think the number one thing we can do is
actually the entire purpose ofMission Mississippi, which is to
have dialogue over debate.
You know, in our currentclimate, conversations around
race and politics it just oftenfeels like battles to be won.
We see that so much.
But Mission Mississippi, wechallenge this, but we create
the space so that people canlisten to one another without
(07:09):
judgment, to have theseconversations that prioritize
understanding over agreement,authenticity over people all
thinking the same way.
I'm looking back at, forexample I think that it is 1
Corinthians 1.10, where Paul,he's appealing to church to
(07:33):
agree, to be united with thesame mind and judgment.
Now, this doesn't mean that weall think the same way, but it
does mean that we are called toprioritize our shared faith over
our differences.
Not that we don't havedifferences, we will have
differences.
It's just that unity is notabout uniformity.
It's about a deep commitment toour love, to our humility, to
(07:56):
our mutual respect with oneanother.
Agree, especially when wedisagree about worldly matters
that we live into this unity,that we reflect the heart of
Christ in this very, very, verydivided world.
So this approach reflects theheart of the gospel, in my
(08:17):
opinion.
It's why we as an organizationstarted.
It's the reason why we as apodcast started, because Christ
is calling us to this ministryof reconciliation.
He's calling all Christians tothe ministry of reconciliation.
He's calling all of us to amendthe broken relationships to
seek unity within his body.
So we focus on relationships,we focus on active listening, we
(08:41):
focus on our shared values.
That demonstrates and thatleads to transformative powers
within people's lives.
I mean, if the number one thingwe as Christians can do besides
praying for one another is thatfocus on dialogue over debate,
(09:03):
you know, focusing on the workthat we do to build bridges
across all of the dividing line.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, as you speak, austin, I'm reminded about James
119.
We talked a little bit about itin our pre-conversation before
the podcast, but James says thatthe couple of things that we
should be committed to doing isbeing quick to listen or quick
to hear.
Able to do that, james says, asbeloved brothers and sisters,
(09:47):
and as beloved brothers andsisters, the way we do that is
by being quick to listen, quickto hear, slow to speak, slow to
anger, and so that's the onlyway you get to a place where you
could actually begin to buildunderstanding and begin to build
clarity is to have the kind ofhumility and the kind of posture
that, um, that walks into aconversation saying, yeah, I
(10:11):
might've cast my ballot this way, but it doesn't mean I know
everything.
And so let me open my heart andopen my ears to, uh, a brother
that I know loves Jesus, or asister that I know loves Jesus
as well, a brother that I knowloves Jesus or a sister that I
know loves Jesus as well, andallow them to speak and allow
them to articulate theirthoughts, their opinions and,
(10:31):
like you said, maybe we don'tcome to agreement, but we
certainly can come to deeperunderstanding.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Nettie, you leaned in Talk to me about what you're
thinking.
I don't know.
I think Austin is 100% on thisthing of dialogue.
You know, when we look at thescript, you know these
scriptures that we can refer to,whether we go to Romans 13 or
you know 2 Corinthians 5, we goto these scriptures.
In actuality, what we're sayingis that what we should be doing
(10:59):
ordinarily.
Can I put it that way?
Can I put it that way?
I believe if we were hearing asChristians, if we were hearing
to what we know to do from abiblical perspective, we
probably wouldn't be in thedivisive and detrimental
position in these dilemmas wefind ourselves in.
It's the lack of ourapplication and practice of
(11:21):
obedience and doing those thingswe know to do.
I think that to navigatethrough this, do what we know to
do.
Can I say that?
Do what the Bible says to do,and I think the more we do that,
the less likely we're going tohave these contentious
relationships and things thatget us in these predicaments.
(11:44):
To begin with, I'm going togive you an opportunity to jump
in.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I think one of the most significant things that I
heard from you, what you weresaying, was that our importance
of our relationships are sosignificant, our reputation also
.
We're representing God in everysphere of our lives,
particularly in the publicsphere, and when Christians
don't handle these conversationsvery well, when we're either
(12:10):
sore losers or boastful,arrogant winners, that never
works out in our favor, thatnever works out in us being able
to offer a good, authentictestimony and witness of the
power of the gospel.
You know, I'm thinking one ofthe verses that we talked about
in preparation for this podcastwas Proverbs 22.1,.
(12:32):
A good name over riches.
You know it reads a good nameis to be chosen rather than
great riches, and favor isbetter than silver or gold.
You know, this really highlightsthe importance that we have
with integrity, with ourcharacter, with our reputation
as Christians, because, nettie,everything you're talking about
it has.
I mean, you're talking aboutthe nuts and bolts of how
(12:52):
relationships work, how dialogueworks, but also I think it
really ties into the missionthat God is calling us to do,
especially in the critical timesin which we find ourselves,
with the political tension youknow, in an age where political
allegiances can often overshadowany of our moral character.
(13:12):
We need to remember that ourwitness is really tied to the
way in which we conductourselves.
So, after an incrediblydivisive election, I mean no,
that should not be controversialto say that this election was
divisive you know it's reallyeasy to want to go scorched
(13:36):
earth.
In fact, all of the media thatwe listen to, whether it's left
wing, right wing, whether it'slegacy media or the advent of
the of these, of, I guess, thepodcast media, which is now
going to probably be the majorplayer in political opinions in
our, in our country, in ourcountry, you know, in spite of
(13:59):
all of that, you know they'retelling us to go scorched earth
on our relationships.
They're telling us not to be indialogue with one another.
They're telling us it's okay tocompletely avoid the
conversation because it mightmake us hurt, might make us feel
bad.
You know, and they're.
(14:19):
You know they're demonized.
You know the Thanksgiving'scoming up, so you make us feel
bad.
You know, and they're they.
You know they're demonized.
You know the thanksgiving'scoming up, so you can only
imagine.
You know that whole, the whole,the whole scheme, which I don't
I don't know if you guys haveheard it very much, but when you
have your uh, you know yourcrazy uncle richard, you know
stuff like that which I don'tactually have an.
Actually I do have an unclerichard, but never mind, he's
crazy's crazy, but he's not thecrazy one, that Uncle Richard.
(14:41):
I just threw out a random nameand I realized, oh, I do have an
Uncle, richard.
No, but I'm not talking abouthim.
It's the hypothetical of how themedia tells us to even look at
our own family.
I mean barring our Christiancommunity.
Yeah, media is telling us totear each other apart in our
Christian communities oftentimes, but it's also telling us
(15:03):
asking us to tear apart ourfamilial relationships as well.
This is horrible for ourChristian reputation, both
individually and collectively asa church, when we adopt those
particular practices.
So what I think we should do iswhat Nettie's asking us to do
act with integrity.
(15:23):
Ensure that our actions, ensurethat our words align with the
gospel.
Have an understanding that howwe vote is another passage that
we looked at.
Romans 13, 1 through 5,.
You know submission to thegoverning authorities.
You know it reads to be subjectto the governing authorities,
(15:45):
for there is no authority exceptfrom God and those that exist
have been instituted by God.
So this is pretty much sayingthat there's two different
realms that we as Christiansoccupy we're in the world but
not of the world.
That we as Christians occupy,we're in the world but not of
the world.
And part of being in the worldis the political sphere is in
the world, no matter how hard wetry to or, you know, with our
(16:08):
particular rhetoric at times wetry to converge the two.
So I think that, for the sakeof our witness as Christians, we
need to have that understandingthat just because we choose at
times to navigate certaincomplexities and certain
(16:29):
controversies in the real worldwith how we vote, with the
beliefs that we have, with thevalues that we have, we have to
understand that variousdifferent people come to those
values, come to those beliefs,come to those opinions through
such a wide variety of means,such a wide variety of
(16:53):
intentions, such a wide varietyof past experiences, of past
experiences, you know, to thepoint where no political party
at all has monopoly on moralityor ethics, and so that is
(17:21):
significant, I think, to thereputation that we have as
Christians and really just ourcapacity to be able to bind
together, to be in communionwith one another.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
One of the things that she said that really just
has stuck with me since shespoke it was this idea that we
cannot be either sore losers orgloating winners in terms of
there's an example that we'resupposed to set at all times.
Nettie highlighted it, in fact,in 1 Timothy 2, talking about
praying for our leaders andpraying for our kings.
(17:47):
And what's interesting aboutpraying for those leaders and
praying for those kings is thatyou pray for them so that you
might have room to displaygodliness, which is such an
interesting way to look at thatright.
So we're asking for the Lord tomove amongst the leaders in our
(18:08):
land, not so that we might haveseats of power, positions of
power, places of power, not sothat we can gloat and say, you
know, aha, we win, our group won, our side won, or not, so that
we can weep with hopelessnessand despair.
But we are praying for theleaders of countries and nations
(18:30):
so that we might have room todisplay godliness, to display
love, to display compassion, todisplay mercy, to display unity,
to display patience and calmeven in the midst of fierce
storms, because we recognizewhere our hope truly rests and
(18:53):
where our hope truly lies.
And so this is a season and anopportunity not for us to kind
of, we fall on either side ofwhere the political winds might
want to take us, but this is aseason and opportunity for us to
rise up and to present a newaroma that smells distinctly
different than anything that the, that partisanship might be
(19:17):
trying to offer.
Important point that we canlose in the midst of all of this
, which is that the world has anopportunity to see something
different in us.
And are we going to offer thatnew aroma?
(19:37):
Are we going to offer that newvision, that brighter vision,
that more hopeful vision throughChrist, by, as you mentioned,
by reflecting dialogue in favorof debate, by reflecting love
and compassion in favor ofgloating or even sulking, right,
(19:58):
what are we going to do in theface of this?
And I want to be careful I don'twant to undermine the reality
that politics matter, right,that leadership matters and that
these decisions that we, thatwe go to the ballot box to make,
but at the same time, I do wantto put it in proper perspective
for the church, in the sensethat this is not the end.
(20:21):
Right, we've been holdingscripture all morning since you,
and since you, I and Eddie goton the call.
But you know, even scripture,proverbs 21, the king's heart is
a stream of water in the handof the Lord.
He turns wherever he wills, andso the Lord is still in control
.
The Lord is still at work, evenin the midst of decisions,
(20:43):
political decisions andpolitical appointments.
Even in the midst of decisions,political decisions and
political appointments, the Lordis still at work.
You know, a couple of weeks ago, as we were preparing for the
election, our church is workingthrough the gospel of Luke, and
so, and so we happen to be inLuke, chapter three.
God's sovereignty, obviously atwork here, but we happen to be
walking through Luke, chapterthree.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
And it really resonated with me Right at that
right time right.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Because the very beginning,before you get to John's passage
about repent and baptism untorepentance and his call for
people to come and repent and bebaptized, and then his appeal
that, hey, the baptism I baptizewith is of water, but the one
who's coming after me, he'sgoing to baptize with the spirit
(21:29):
of fire, before you get to allof that, you get to Luke
grounding everything in thishistorical narrative.
And what Luke says in the verybeginning of Luke, chapter three
.
He says in the 15th year of thereign of Tiberius Caesar,
pontius Pilate being governor ofJudea, herod being tetrarch of
Galilee and his brother Philip,tetrarch of the region of Ateria
(21:53):
and Trachonitis, and Lysanias,tetrarch of Abilene, during the
high priesthood of Annas andCaiaphas, the word of God came
to John, the son of Zechariah,in the wilderness.
And it blows me away when I readthat, because Luke gives us all
of these high powers, all ofthese political powers.
(22:14):
He starts at the very top, withRome, then he moves down from
Rome to Herod and Judea, orPontius Pilate in Judea, herod
and Galilee.
All of these different powers,even religious powers, because
he gives us high priests.
And then he says, after he saysall of that, the word of God
came to a guy in the wildernesseating locust and wild honey,
(22:40):
and it blows me away.
It's just like, hey, you wantto see where God is.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It just started at the White House.
It just started at the Capitol.
It didn't start at the WhiteHouse, it didn't start at the.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Right, right, not in the halls of Rome, the Roman
forums.
Right, not in the palace ofHerod.
It starts in the wilderness.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Not even in the synagogue, man, not even in the
temple.
Indeed, indeed.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Not even in the temple, but it starts with a guy
in locusts and honey andwearing camel hair on his back.
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
You think some of our people might have missed it
doing that Terrence, Because itstarted in the woods.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
People miss that incredibly, I mean but they had
no reason to the.
Old Testament tells us veryclearly what they would have
been expecting.
They just didn't listen to whatthey were told.
You know, and Brian, I have onefollow-up idea, pretty much
from what you're talking about.
You're talking about how is thechurch going to respond and are
we going to respond well?
(23:34):
Well, I mean, yeah, there aregoing to be pockets of the
church that are going to respondincredibly well.
There are also going to bepockets of the church that are
going to respond absolutelyhorrendously.
They're going to respondhorrendously regardless of
they're going to respondabsolutely horrendously.
They're going to respondhorrendously regardless of their
coming from a left perspectiveor a right perspective, not
right as in correct, but as inthe political sphere.
(23:56):
And one of the things I thinkthat we as individual Christians
should do is, if you're talkingabout being that good witness,
we need to make sure that weourselves, as individual
Christians, are doing that, thatwe're encouraging the
Christians that we're in deepconnection with to do that,
because we need to understandthat there are going to be bad
(24:20):
witnesses coming from sectors ofthe church, and I really think
the only options that really theonly power that we as
individual Christians have inthat is to influence the
particular sector, theparticular little division,
little corner of the kingdomthat we occupy, to make sure
(24:42):
that, first and foremost, weourselves as individuals, and if
you're leaders, to work withthe rest of the Christians in
your sphere, to also have acorrect response.
Because the correct responseisn't contingent upon who you
voted for, it's not contingenton what your political values
(25:03):
are.
It's contingent upon whether ornot you're authentically
responding to the work of theHoly Spirit that is tugging upon
your heart.
Because if you are, then ifyou're a Trump voter, you're
going to love a Harris voter.
If you're a Harris voter,you're going to love a Trump
voter.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You have something that is far, far greater than
that.
I'm going to just close on thereading of the last kind of
passage that we talked about inpreparation.
It was 1 Peter, 2, 16 and 17.
It said, where Paul is urging or, I'm sorry, peter is urging
Christians to live as a peoplewho are free, not using your
(25:44):
freedom as a cover up for evil,but living as servants of God.
Honor everyone, love thebrotherhood, fear God, honor the
emperor.
Right has given us, but it's afreedom that comes with
(26:05):
responsibility to reflect God'scharacter in all that we do, in
every sphere that we occupy,especially the political.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Amen, amen, nettie your final words.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Share what you got, brother.
I know I've been sitting herepraying and muscling up all the
energy and enthusiasm I can toremain sound and listen.
What came to my mind was thatpassage of scripture you read in
James 119, because you saidsomething and Austin said
(26:42):
something.
I really wanted to jump in whenAustin was talking about Romans
13 and you were talking aboutin the wilderness, I really
wanted to jump in two centsworth, if I can say it that way.
And so people can take notice,the audience, the Christian
(27:18):
community can take notice.
This is my capture of what we'redoing.
Is that they can take notice ofwhat we're doing?
Is that can take notice of whatwe're doing?
We're methodically andpurposely walking through this
in a way that gives each one ofus an opportunity to express
(27:39):
some ideas, some thoughts, butalso some of our emotions and
some of our transparency andvulnerability here.
The challenge for us asChristians to navigate through
this.
Okay, god being sovereign.
Then the election resultsdidn't catch him off guard or by
surprise.
Either he did it or allowed it.
Whatever the case, this isNettie Winters' final capture on
(28:00):
this thing.
Whatever, not final, but forthis segment.
Whatever the case, it's for mygood and for God's glory.
The best I can do, and we cando as the body of Christ, is
join God in what he's doing inthis.
How can I become an instrumentto God in all of this so he can
(28:24):
use me that we all win in thissituation and not be adversarial
in this situation?
Doesn't matter what you votedfor.
You've exercised your rightunder the Constitution.
You've exercised your right asa Christian, a free will to do.
I am supposed to love you inspite of all of that, which
really I'm not even supposed toknow.
(28:45):
How you exercise your rightsand your free will.
And so, with that being said,sometimes we talk too much about
where we stand when we ought tobe standing with God in unity
with one another.
And if we're standing with Godin unity with one another I
didn't see you know you talkabout Luke and we read the whole
(29:08):
book of Acts I don't see himgiving a litmus test anywhere to
become part of standingtogether in unity.
If there is a litmus test, thelitmus test is that, since we
have been called one in Christand we have been we now are
brothers and sisters in Christ,the limited.
(29:29):
Am I going to love you as abrother.
And it's not about the race,ethnicity, it's not about your
political stand.
It's not even about how youwear your grab, you know, or
what football team you support,or what candidate you support,
(29:50):
or what kind of car you drive,or what kind of church you
attend, what your denominationis.
All of those things aresecondary to us walking together
as one with Christ Jesus, amen.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, I appreciate all the thoughts you guys have
articulated.
It's been an incredible timeI'll put a bowl of my thoughts
in this way.
I'm reminded of a couple ofthings as we've been talking
about this the whole time.
One is Joshua 5, where theservant of the Lord appears and
(30:20):
they're like hey, this is great.
Whose side are you on right?
Are you on our side or on theenemy's side?
And he said I'm on neither, I'mon the enemy's side, and it's
an invitation.
It's an invitation to hey, ifyou are really serious about the
Lord, then come join the Lord'sside, not being concerned about
(30:43):
whether or not the Lord is onyour side.
Come and join his side right.
And I think about that oftenwhen we're in the political
sphere, how everybody wants toclaim, you know, the Lord as
their own.
And so everybody, whetherthey're left or right, they want
to claim the Lord as their own.
And the Lord is his own.
And we have the opportunity, asas ambassadors of of of his, to
(31:08):
actually join him in his work.
And sometimes his worktranscends these partisan lines
and sometimes his work does notland neatly in left and right
boxes, but we have anopportunity to join him in that
work, and so that that that is athat's something that's been on
my mind as I've been thinkingabout this political process and
(31:29):
this cycle.
But then the other thing that'sbeen really on my mind as I've
been thinking about thispolitical process and this cycle
is the call of Jesus in Matthew22 to render unto Caesar what
is Caesar's and render untoGod's what is God's, and render
unto gods, what is God's and?
I think there are times Nettieand Austin where we render unto
(31:51):
Caesar that which is God's.
We render our allegiance, werender our worship, we render
our hearts and our hope and werender them to Caesar so that
when the political winds blowand they blow either in our
favor or out of our favor, itshows up in our countenance, it
(32:12):
shows up in our behavior and ourconduct and our affect, it
shows up in our address and ourand our our treatment of one
another, because we have givento Caesar what belongs to the
Lord.
And so my challenge to myself,and really genuinely to myself,
and my challenge to ourlisteners, our brothers and
(32:32):
sisters, is to render untoCaesar what is Caesar, which is
a vote, a ballot Sure cast it,and it's an important thing to
do.
It's a necessary act that we'vebeen granted and it's important
that we should treat it withimportance, but never let it
rise to the importance where ittakes from God what is God's,
which is our heart, which is ourallegiance, which is our
(32:55):
worship and which is our hope.
Make sure that that is alwaysgrounded with the Lord, with the
King and his King.
It's been a great podcast, guys.
We've enjoyed the conversation.
Please feel free to subscribeLiving Reconciled.
You can search on any podcastapp and you can not only listen
to these great episodes andthese great conversations, but
(33:17):
you can also share them withfriends.
So please like, share andsubscribe Living Reconciled
Mission, mississippi.
Again, brian Crawford, austinHoyle, nettie Winters, signing
off saying God bless, god bless.
Thanks for joining LivingReconciled.
If you would like moreinformation on how you can be a
(33:37):
part of the ongoing work ofhelping Christians learn how to
live in the reconciliation thatJesus has already secured,
please visit us online atmissionmississippiorg or call us
at 601-353-6477.
Thanks again for listening.
This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated
to giving our communitiespractical evidence of the gospel
message by helping Christianslearn how to live in the
reconciliation that Jesus hasalready secured for us by living
with grace across racial lines.
Hey, thanks so much for joiningus on this episode of Living
(00:33):
Reconciled.
I'm your host, brian Crawford,and I am with my good friends
and co-hosts Austin Hoyle,nettie Winters.
Gentlemen, how are you doing?
Oh, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I'm good.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
doing, doing wonderful.
How about you, nettie?
I'm good.
How are you doing?
Doing wonderful.
How about you, man?
I'm doing great.
Thank you, excellent, excellent.
So we are going to dive into avery interesting subject, which
is what do Christians dopost-election?
After all of the dust hassettled, after all of the
campaign speeches, after all theballots have been cast, what
(01:03):
now?
What do Christians do?
I'm really excited about thisdiscussion that I'm having with
my brothers, but before we divetoo deeply into that, we want to
give a quick shout out to someof our sponsors and friends,
folks like Mississippi Collegeand Anderson United Methodist
Church, grace Temple Church,mississippi State Real Christian
Foundation, nissan, stDominic's Hospital, atmos Energy
, regis Foundation, brownMissionary Baptist Christian
(01:25):
Life Church, ms Doris Powell, mrRobert Ward, ms Ann Winters.
Thank you so much foreverything that you do.
It's because of what you dothat we're able to do exactly
what we do, and today, what weare doing is talking about the
Christian life post-election.
Nettie, if I was to ask you onething that the Christian needs
to do post-election, what wouldyou say?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
that one thing would be One thing would be to pray
for our leadership.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Why, why should we?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
pray for our leadership, because, as a
Christian, I am commanded anddirected by the Apostle Paul and
by Jesus Christ to pray forthose who have leadership
authority over us.
We should pray for them so thatwe can lead peaceful and
tranquil lives.
You'll find it in Timothy.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Amen, amen.
I appreciate you raising thecall to pray for them, and I
appreciate you raising not justthe call to pray for them, but
the why to pray for them.
Pray for them so that we maylead peaceful and tranquil lives
.
I mean, ultimately, we shoulddesire to live in spaces where
(02:30):
we can worship God, we can loveour neighbor and we can share
the love of Christ and the goodnews of Jesus Christ.
Where we live, work and play,where we live, work and play.
And so, ultimately, what we'relooking for is not the seed of
(02:51):
power or the levers of power.
What we're looking for is spaceand opportunity to glorify God
with our whole being, and so Ilove that.
I love that quote.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I really would like to.
Just to read that.
Can I read that First?
Timothy 2 says I urge you firstof all to pray for all people.
You know I could just stopthere, but I won't.
You know I can stop there andtake a bit.
Ask God to help them, intercedeon their behalf and give thanks
for them.
Pray this way for king and allwho are in authority, so that we
(03:29):
can live a peaceful and quietlife marked by godliness and
dignity.
This is good and pleases God,our Savior, who wants everyone
to be saved and to understandthe truth.
For there is one God, onemediator who can reconcile God
and humanity the man, JesusChrist.
He gave his life to purchasefreedom for everyone.
(03:50):
This is the message God gavethe world at just the right time
, and I have been chosen as apreacher and apostle to teach
the Gentiles this message aboutfaith and truth.
I'm not exaggerating, I'mtelling the truth.
Faith and truth.
I'm not exaggerating, I'mtelling the truth.
In every place of worship.
I want men, human beings, boysand girls, men and women to pray
(04:11):
with holy hand lifted to God,free from anger and controversy,
Free from what Nettie, Freefrom anger and controversy.
I can't be anger, I can't becontroversy, free from that,
free from that.
So the first thing we ought todo is, you know, even as part of
(04:34):
this podcast, brian, I wouldsuggest that we, even now, the
three of us, just pray for unityand for obedience, for
Christians just to do just this,as well as for our leaders,
that they can lead in the rightway.
So I believe, if the Christiancommunity can live out the
(04:55):
admonishments that God has givenus in our lifestyle with one
another, the leaders can get apicture of how they ought to
live out their lives with oneanother in the House and Senate
and the congressional delegateall of that.
They can get an example from ushow they ought to live.
(05:16):
Since in many quarters, peopleare saying they're not living as
they ought to live, then whydon't we show them how that's
done by doing that?
And so I would suggest that wepray now as part of the podcast.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, absolutely, nettie.
Father, we love you and we thankyou for the hope that we have
in Christ Jesus and Lord, we arenot under any delusions.
You rule, you reign over allthings, including our politics,
including the leaders in whichare appointed in our country.
(05:50):
And so, lord, we ask for yourhand to be at work to lead,
guide, steer and direct.
But, lord, most importantly, weask that your hand be at work
in your local church, in yourchurch, lord God, in the local
churches that make and compriseyour church.
Lord, we pray and we ask thatyou would empower us by your
(06:11):
spirit to live in godliness andlive with dignity, so that the
watching world may see us andgive glory to you.
And so, lord, we ask that youwould do it for your glory and
we ask that you would do it forthe joy and good of your people,
in Christ's name, amen, amen,amen.
Austin, when we talk about onething that we can do
(06:35):
post-election as Christians,nettie highlighted, very
importantly, the call to prayRight.
Give me one thing that youthink that we can do
post-election as Christians.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, I think the number one thing we can do is
actually the entire purpose ofMission Mississippi, which is to
have dialogue over debate.
You know, in our currentclimate, conversations around
race and politics it just oftenfeels like battles to be won.
We see that so much.
But Mission Mississippi, wechallenge this, but we create
the space so that people canlisten to one another without
(07:09):
judgment, to have theseconversations that prioritize
understanding over agreement,authenticity over people all
thinking the same way.
I'm looking back at, forexample I think that it is 1
Corinthians 1.10, where Paul,he's appealing to church to
(07:33):
agree, to be united with thesame mind and judgment.
Now, this doesn't mean that weall think the same way, but it
does mean that we are called toprioritize our shared faith over
our differences.
Not that we don't havedifferences, we will have
differences.
It's just that unity is notabout uniformity.
It's about a deep commitment toour love, to our humility, to
(07:56):
our mutual respect with oneanother.
Agree, especially when wedisagree about worldly matters
that we live into this unity,that we reflect the heart of
Christ in this very, very, verydivided world.
So this approach reflects theheart of the gospel, in my
(08:17):
opinion.
It's why we as an organizationstarted.
It's the reason why we as apodcast started, because Christ
is calling us to this ministryof reconciliation.
He's calling all Christians tothe ministry of reconciliation.
He's calling all of us to amendthe broken relationships to
seek unity within his body.
So we focus on relationships,we focus on active listening, we
(08:41):
focus on our shared values.
That demonstrates and thatleads to transformative powers
within people's lives.
I mean, if the number one thingwe as Christians can do besides
praying for one another is thatfocus on dialogue over debate,
(09:03):
you know, focusing on the workthat we do to build bridges
across all of the dividing line.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, as you speak, austin, I'm reminded about James
119.
We talked a little bit about itin our pre-conversation before
the podcast, but James says thatthe couple of things that we
should be committed to doing isbeing quick to listen or quick
to hear.
Able to do that, james says, asbeloved brothers and sisters,
(09:47):
and as beloved brothers andsisters, the way we do that is
by being quick to listen, quickto hear, slow to speak, slow to
anger, and so that's the onlyway you get to a place where you
could actually begin to buildunderstanding and begin to build
clarity is to have the kind ofhumility and the kind of posture
that, um, that walks into aconversation saying, yeah, I
(10:11):
might've cast my ballot this way, but it doesn't mean I know
everything.
And so let me open my heart andopen my ears to, uh, a brother
that I know loves Jesus, or asister that I know loves Jesus
as well, a brother that I knowloves Jesus or a sister that I
know loves Jesus as well, andallow them to speak and allow
them to articulate theirthoughts, their opinions and,
(10:31):
like you said, maybe we don'tcome to agreement, but we
certainly can come to deeperunderstanding.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Nettie, you leaned in Talk to me about what you're
thinking.
I don't know.
I think Austin is 100% on thisthing of dialogue.
You know, when we look at thescript, you know these
scriptures that we can refer to,whether we go to Romans 13 or
you know 2 Corinthians 5, we goto these scriptures.
In actuality, what we're sayingis that what we should be doing
(10:59):
ordinarily.
Can I put it that way?
Can I put it that way?
I believe if we were hearing asChristians, if we were hearing
to what we know to do from abiblical perspective, we
probably wouldn't be in thedivisive and detrimental
position in these dilemmas wefind ourselves in.
It's the lack of ourapplication and practice of
(11:21):
obedience and doing those thingswe know to do.
I think that to navigatethrough this, do what we know to
do.
Can I say that?
Do what the Bible says to do,and I think the more we do that,
the less likely we're going tohave these contentious
relationships and things thatget us in these predicaments.
(11:44):
To begin with, I'm going togive you an opportunity to jump
in.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I think one of the most significant things that I
heard from you, what you weresaying, was that our importance
of our relationships are sosignificant, our reputation also
.
We're representing God in everysphere of our lives,
particularly in the publicsphere, and when Christians
don't handle these conversationsvery well, when we're either
(12:10):
sore losers or boastful,arrogant winners, that never
works out in our favor, thatnever works out in us being able
to offer a good, authentictestimony and witness of the
power of the gospel.
You know, I'm thinking one ofthe verses that we talked about
in preparation for this podcastwas Proverbs 22.1,.
(12:32):
A good name over riches.
You know it reads a good nameis to be chosen rather than
great riches, and favor isbetter than silver or gold.
You know, this really highlightsthe importance that we have
with integrity, with ourcharacter, with our reputation
as Christians, because, nettie,everything you're talking about
it has.
I mean, you're talking aboutthe nuts and bolts of how
(12:52):
relationships work, how dialogueworks, but also I think it
really ties into the missionthat God is calling us to do,
especially in the critical timesin which we find ourselves,
with the political tension youknow, in an age where political
allegiances can often overshadowany of our moral character.
(13:12):
We need to remember that ourwitness is really tied to the
way in which we conductourselves.
So, after an incrediblydivisive election, I mean no,
that should not be controversialto say that this election was
divisive you know it's reallyeasy to want to go scorched
(13:36):
earth.
In fact, all of the media thatwe listen to, whether it's left
wing, right wing, whether it'slegacy media or the advent of
the of these, of, I guess, thepodcast media, which is now
going to probably be the majorplayer in political opinions in
our, in our country, in ourcountry, you know, in spite of
(13:59):
all of that, you know they'retelling us to go scorched earth
on our relationships.
They're telling us not to be indialogue with one another.
They're telling us it's okay tocompletely avoid the
conversation because it mightmake us hurt, might make us feel
bad.
You know, and they're.
(14:19):
You know they're demonized.
You know the Thanksgiving'scoming up, so you make us feel
bad.
You know, and they're they.
You know they're demonized.
You know the thanksgiving'scoming up, so you can only
imagine.
You know that whole, the whole,the whole scheme, which I don't
I don't know if you guys haveheard it very much, but when you
have your uh, you know yourcrazy uncle richard, you know
stuff like that which I don'tactually have an.
Actually I do have an unclerichard, but never mind, he's
crazy's crazy, but he's not thecrazy one, that Uncle Richard.
(14:41):
I just threw out a random nameand I realized, oh, I do have an
Uncle, richard.
No, but I'm not talking abouthim.
It's the hypothetical of how themedia tells us to even look at
our own family.
I mean barring our Christiancommunity.
Yeah, media is telling us totear each other apart in our
Christian communities oftentimes, but it's also telling us
(15:03):
asking us to tear apart ourfamilial relationships as well.
This is horrible for ourChristian reputation, both
individually and collectively asa church, when we adopt those
particular practices.
So what I think we should do iswhat Nettie's asking us to do
act with integrity.
(15:23):
Ensure that our actions, ensurethat our words align with the
gospel.
Have an understanding that howwe vote is another passage that
we looked at.
Romans 13, 1 through 5,.
You know submission to thegoverning authorities.
You know it reads to be subjectto the governing authorities,
(15:45):
for there is no authority exceptfrom God and those that exist
have been instituted by God.
So this is pretty much sayingthat there's two different
realms that we as Christiansoccupy we're in the world but
not of the world.
That we as Christians occupy,we're in the world but not of
the world.
And part of being in the worldis the political sphere is in
the world, no matter how hard wetry to or, you know, with our
(16:08):
particular rhetoric at times wetry to converge the two.
So I think that, for the sakeof our witness as Christians, we
need to have that understandingthat just because we choose at
times to navigate certaincomplexities and certain
(16:29):
controversies in the real worldwith how we vote, with the
beliefs that we have, with thevalues that we have, we have to
understand that variousdifferent people come to those
values, come to those beliefs,come to those opinions through
such a wide variety of means,such a wide variety of
(16:53):
intentions, such a wide varietyof past experiences, of past
experiences, you know, to thepoint where no political party
at all has monopoly on moralityor ethics, and so that is
(17:21):
significant, I think, to thereputation that we have as
Christians and really just ourcapacity to be able to bind
together, to be in communionwith one another.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
One of the things that she said that really just
has stuck with me since shespoke it was this idea that we
cannot be either sore losers orgloating winners in terms of
there's an example that we'resupposed to set at all times.
Nettie highlighted it, in fact,in 1 Timothy 2, talking about
praying for our leaders andpraying for our kings.
(17:47):
And what's interesting aboutpraying for those leaders and
praying for those kings is thatyou pray for them so that you
might have room to displaygodliness, which is such an
interesting way to look at thatright.
So we're asking for the Lord tomove amongst the leaders in our
(18:08):
land, not so that we might haveseats of power, positions of
power, places of power, not sothat we can gloat and say, you
know, aha, we win, our group won, our side won, or not, so that
we can weep with hopelessnessand despair.
But we are praying for theleaders of countries and nations
(18:30):
so that we might have room todisplay godliness, to display
love, to display compassion, todisplay mercy, to display unity,
to display patience and calmeven in the midst of fierce
storms, because we recognizewhere our hope truly rests and
(18:53):
where our hope truly lies.
And so this is a season and anopportunity not for us to kind
of, we fall on either side ofwhere the political winds might
want to take us, but this is aseason and opportunity for us to
rise up and to present a newaroma that smells distinctly
different than anything that the, that partisanship might be
(19:17):
trying to offer.
Important point that we canlose in the midst of all of this
, which is that the world has anopportunity to see something
different in us.
And are we going to offer thatnew aroma?
(19:37):
Are we going to offer that newvision, that brighter vision,
that more hopeful vision throughChrist, by, as you mentioned,
by reflecting dialogue in favorof debate, by reflecting love
and compassion in favor ofgloating or even sulking, right,
(19:58):
what are we going to do in theface of this?
And I want to be careful I don'twant to undermine the reality
that politics matter, right,that leadership matters and that
these decisions that we, thatwe go to the ballot box to make,
but at the same time, I do wantto put it in proper perspective
for the church, in the sensethat this is not the end.
(20:21):
Right, we've been holdingscripture all morning since you,
and since you, I and Eddie goton the call.
But you know, even scripture,proverbs 21, the king's heart is
a stream of water in the handof the Lord.
He turns wherever he wills, andso the Lord is still in control
.
The Lord is still at work, evenin the midst of decisions,
(20:43):
political decisions andpolitical appointments.
Even in the midst of decisions,political decisions and
political appointments, the Lordis still at work.
You know, a couple of weeks ago, as we were preparing for the
election, our church is workingthrough the gospel of Luke, and
so, and so we happen to be inLuke, chapter three.
God's sovereignty, obviously atwork here, but we happen to be
walking through Luke, chapterthree.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
And it really resonated with me Right at that
right time right.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Because the very beginning,before you get to John's passage
about repent and baptism untorepentance and his call for
people to come and repent and bebaptized, and then his appeal
that, hey, the baptism I baptizewith is of water, but the one
who's coming after me, he'sgoing to baptize with the spirit
(21:29):
of fire, before you get to allof that, you get to Luke
grounding everything in thishistorical narrative.
And what Luke says in the verybeginning of Luke, chapter three
.
He says in the 15th year of thereign of Tiberius Caesar,
pontius Pilate being governor ofJudea, herod being tetrarch of
Galilee and his brother Philip,tetrarch of the region of Ateria
(21:53):
and Trachonitis, and Lysanias,tetrarch of Abilene, during the
high priesthood of Annas andCaiaphas, the word of God came
to John, the son of Zechariah,in the wilderness.
And it blows me away when I readthat, because Luke gives us all
of these high powers, all ofthese political powers.
(22:14):
He starts at the very top, withRome, then he moves down from
Rome to Herod and Judea, orPontius Pilate in Judea, herod
and Galilee.
All of these different powers,even religious powers, because
he gives us high priests.
And then he says, after he saysall of that, the word of God
came to a guy in the wildernesseating locust and wild honey,
(22:40):
and it blows me away.
It's just like, hey, you wantto see where God is.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It just started at the White House.
It just started at the Capitol.
It didn't start at the WhiteHouse, it didn't start at the.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Right, right, not in the halls of Rome, the Roman
forums.
Right, not in the palace ofHerod.
It starts in the wilderness.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Not even in the synagogue, man, not even in the
temple.
Indeed, indeed.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Not even in the temple, but it starts with a guy
in locusts and honey andwearing camel hair on his back.
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
You think some of our people might have missed it
doing that Terrence, Because itstarted in the woods.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
People miss that incredibly, I mean but they had
no reason to the.
Old Testament tells us veryclearly what they would have
been expecting.
They just didn't listen to whatthey were told.
You know, and Brian, I have onefollow-up idea, pretty much
from what you're talking about.
You're talking about how is thechurch going to respond and are
we going to respond well?
(23:34):
Well, I mean, yeah, there aregoing to be pockets of the
church that are going to respondincredibly well.
There are also going to bepockets of the church that are
going to respond absolutelyhorrendously.
They're going to respondhorrendously regardless of
they're going to respondabsolutely horrendously.
They're going to respondhorrendously regardless of their
coming from a left perspectiveor a right perspective, not
right as in correct, but as inthe political sphere.
(23:56):
And one of the things I thinkthat we as individual Christians
should do is, if you're talkingabout being that good witness,
we need to make sure that weourselves, as individual
Christians, are doing that, thatwe're encouraging the
Christians that we're in deepconnection with to do that,
because we need to understandthat there are going to be bad
(24:20):
witnesses coming from sectors ofthe church, and I really think
the only options that really theonly power that we as
individual Christians have inthat is to influence the
particular sector, theparticular little division,
little corner of the kingdomthat we occupy, to make sure
(24:42):
that, first and foremost, weourselves as individuals, and if
you're leaders, to work withthe rest of the Christians in
your sphere, to also have acorrect response.
Because the correct responseisn't contingent upon who you
voted for, it's not contingenton what your political values
(25:03):
are.
It's contingent upon whether ornot you're authentically
responding to the work of theHoly Spirit that is tugging upon
your heart.
Because if you are, then ifyou're a Trump voter, you're
going to love a Harris voter.
If you're a Harris voter,you're going to love a Trump
voter.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You have something that is far, far greater than
that.
I'm going to just close on thereading of the last kind of
passage that we talked about inpreparation.
It was 1 Peter, 2, 16 and 17.
It said, where Paul is urging or, I'm sorry, peter is urging
Christians to live as a peoplewho are free, not using your
(25:44):
freedom as a cover up for evil,but living as servants of God.
Honor everyone, love thebrotherhood, fear God, honor the
emperor.
Right has given us, but it's afreedom that comes with
(26:05):
responsibility to reflect God'scharacter in all that we do, in
every sphere that we occupy,especially the political.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Amen, amen, nettie your final words.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Share what you got, brother.
I know I've been sitting herepraying and muscling up all the
energy and enthusiasm I can toremain sound and listen.
What came to my mind was thatpassage of scripture you read in
James 119, because you saidsomething and Austin said
(26:42):
something.
I really wanted to jump in whenAustin was talking about Romans
13 and you were talking aboutin the wilderness, I really
wanted to jump in two centsworth, if I can say it that way.
And so people can take notice,the audience, the Christian
(27:18):
community can take notice.
This is my capture of what we'redoing.
Is that they can take notice ofwhat we're doing?
Is that can take notice of whatwe're doing?
We're methodically andpurposely walking through this
in a way that gives each one ofus an opportunity to express
(27:39):
some ideas, some thoughts, butalso some of our emotions and
some of our transparency andvulnerability here.
The challenge for us asChristians to navigate through
this.
Okay, god being sovereign.
Then the election resultsdidn't catch him off guard or by
surprise.
Either he did it or allowed it.
Whatever the case, this isNettie Winters' final capture on
(28:00):
this thing.
Whatever, not final, but forthis segment.
Whatever the case, it's for mygood and for God's glory.
The best I can do, and we cando as the body of Christ, is
join God in what he's doing inthis.
How can I become an instrumentto God in all of this so he can
(28:24):
use me that we all win in thissituation and not be adversarial
in this situation?
Doesn't matter what you votedfor.
You've exercised your rightunder the Constitution.
You've exercised your right asa Christian, a free will to do.
I am supposed to love you inspite of all of that, which
really I'm not even supposed toknow.
(28:45):
How you exercise your rightsand your free will.
And so, with that being said,sometimes we talk too much about
where we stand when we ought tobe standing with God in unity
with one another.
And if we're standing with Godin unity with one another I
didn't see you know you talkabout Luke and we read the whole
(29:08):
book of Acts I don't see himgiving a litmus test anywhere to
become part of standingtogether in unity.
If there is a litmus test, thelitmus test is that, since we
have been called one in Christand we have been we now are
brothers and sisters in Christ,the limited.
(29:29):
Am I going to love you as abrother.
And it's not about the race,ethnicity, it's not about your
political stand.
It's not even about how youwear your grab, you know, or
what football team you support,or what candidate you support,
(29:50):
or what kind of car you drive,or what kind of church you
attend, what your denominationis.
All of those things aresecondary to us walking together
as one with Christ Jesus, amen.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, I appreciate all the thoughts you guys have
articulated.
It's been an incredible timeI'll put a bowl of my thoughts
in this way.
I'm reminded of a couple ofthings as we've been talking
about this the whole time.
One is Joshua 5, where theservant of the Lord appears and
(30:20):
they're like hey, this is great.
Whose side are you on right?
Are you on our side or on theenemy's side?
And he said I'm on neither, I'mon the enemy's side, and it's
an invitation.
It's an invitation to hey, ifyou are really serious about the
Lord, then come join the Lord'sside, not being concerned about
(30:43):
whether or not the Lord is onyour side.
Come and join his side right.
And I think about that oftenwhen we're in the political
sphere, how everybody wants toclaim, you know, the Lord as
their own.
And so everybody, whetherthey're left or right, they want
to claim the Lord as their own.
And the Lord is his own.
And we have the opportunity, asas ambassadors of of of his, to
(31:08):
actually join him in his work.
And sometimes his worktranscends these partisan lines
and sometimes his work does notland neatly in left and right
boxes, but we have anopportunity to join him in that
work, and so that that that is athat's something that's been on
my mind as I've been thinkingabout this political process and
(31:29):
this cycle.
But then the other thing that'sbeen really on my mind as I've
been thinking about thispolitical process and this cycle
is the call of Jesus in Matthew22 to render unto Caesar what
is Caesar's and render untoGod's what is God's, and render
unto gods, what is God's and?
I think there are times Nettieand Austin where we render unto
(31:51):
Caesar that which is God's.
We render our allegiance, werender our worship, we render
our hearts and our hope and werender them to Caesar so that
when the political winds blowand they blow either in our
favor or out of our favor, itshows up in our countenance, it
(32:12):
shows up in our behavior and ourconduct and our affect, it
shows up in our address and ourand our our treatment of one
another, because we have givento Caesar what belongs to the
Lord.
And so my challenge to myself,and really genuinely to myself,
and my challenge to ourlisteners, our brothers and
(32:32):
sisters, is to render untoCaesar what is Caesar, which is
a vote, a ballot Sure cast it,and it's an important thing to
do.
It's a necessary act that we'vebeen granted and it's important
that we should treat it withimportance, but never let it
rise to the importance where ittakes from God what is God's,
which is our heart, which is ourallegiance, which is our
(32:55):
worship and which is our hope.
Make sure that that is alwaysgrounded with the Lord, with the
King and his King.
It's been a great podcast, guys.
We've enjoyed the conversation.
Please feel free to subscribeLiving Reconciled.
You can search on any podcastapp and you can not only listen
to these great episodes andthese great conversations, but
(33:17):
you can also share them withfriends.
So please like, share andsubscribe Living Reconciled
Mission, mississippi.
Again, brian Crawford, austinHoyle, nettie Winters, signing
off saying God bless, god bless.
Thanks for joining LivingReconciled.
If you would like moreinformation on how you can be a
(33:37):
part of the ongoing work ofhelping Christians learn how to
live in the reconciliation thatJesus has already secured,
please visit us online atmissionmississippiorg or call us
at 601-353-6477.
Thanks again for listening.
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