March 9, 2025 • 42 mins
Finances, Politics and Religion
Text: Philippians 2:9-11
- Finances = Poor or Financially Illiterate
- Politics - Uninformed = Easier to Manipulate (Gaslight)
- Religion - Morally Weak = Not Connected to God
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PHSA Church (Potter's House, Salmon Arm)
#201 231 Trans Canada Hwy.
Salmon Arm, BC, Canada
604-997-8446
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located in
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beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship Ministries
with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism, discipleship
and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church and other sermons
from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bigford and I will be your host for this
podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing to you and
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bring you closer to God. Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. My name
is David Bigford and I'm the pastor here in Salmon Arm for the Potter's House. We're a new
church plant so we're still building out a community here so if you want to be a part of
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that please come on out. We meet right above the BMO Bank of Montreal and Downtown Salmon Arm at
Sundays 1030. I apologize that it's been so long since we've had one of these podcasts. I've been
trying some different technology out and I kind of got sidetracked through the holidays but we've
got some new tech so we're hopefully going to be able to do this and I have started live streaming
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services on YouTube so I was doing it on Instagram but YouTube's a little bit of a better
platform nicer for that and so things will you'll start seeing stuff over there. There's a couple
populated already but you'll be seeing a lot more. So again my name is David Bigford and I'm the
pastor here and today's message I put together is finances, politics, and religion. The three don'ts.
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Excuse me. You might see you hear a little more coughing and sneezing and you know stuff that
happens while I put these these messages together now because as we're going to be putting them
on YouTube it's a little bit harder to edit that stuff out you know because it's just it's just me
doing a lot of it and I you know want to be able to get the you know content out there for you guys
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to be able to hear the sermons, hear the word of God, hear what's on that you know what I'm getting
as far as the mind of God for our church and I don't want to have to be editing things endlessly
and create another gap in the messages so please forgive me. So money judgment and
redemption denied. I found this illustration when I was putting this message together.
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It's about a man named George Wilson and he lived in the 1800s so in 1829 a man named George Wilson
was arrested for robbery and murder in a U.S. mail heist. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced
to death by hanging. Some friends intervened on his behalf and were able to obtain a pardon from
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President Andrew Jackson but when told of this Wilson refused it saying he wanted to die.
Well the sheriff didn't know what to do. How do you execute a man officially pardoned? So an appeal
was made to the president who perplexed turned the matter over to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Chief Justice John Marshall gave this ruling. A pardon is a piece of paper the value of which
depends on the acceptance by the person implicated. Anyone under the sentence of death would hardly be
expected to refuse a pardon but if it is refused it's no pardon. The person who was pardoned was
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refused it's no pardon. Thus George Wilson was executed while his signed pardon lay on the
sheriff's desk. So in the same way you know God has offered his gift of divine purity to every person.
A gift that not only provides a pardon for maternal condemnation but offers much much more.
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However this gift of Christ must be personally appropriated, accepted in order to be personally
beneficial. So we come to this idea that you know God has this gift of grace in salvation through
faith in him. It is right there in front of every human being on the planet but if we do not accept
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it then we are already under the condemnation of our sinful lives. So if you're going to follow
along in our text today we have Philippians 2 9 through 11 that we'll be using as a jumping off point
and so you can go ahead and if you're following along with your Bible you can turn there.
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But I want to also bring this idea to you. Avoid avoid avoid. Our whole lives we are taught
that we should avoid these three topics like the plague. They should not be discussed at work
or anywhere in public. Sometimes these subjects are excluded in church or school altogether.
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We're supposed to leave so much of this unsaid, untaught and un dealt with.
Untaught and un dealt with. We're at risk of becoming a very poor,
financially illiterate and uninformed or enslaved society both morally and spiritually weak
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because we avoid things that are important for us to understand. This last one is of the greatest
risk because when we are morally and spiritually weak we are left disconnected from God and our
very souls are at risk. Now you might be guessing based off the title of this message what those
things are. They are finances, politics and religion. So much of our time is spent trying
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to avoid these topics even at the cost of our own understanding and wisdom. So let's look at our text
in Philippians 2 9 through 11. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth
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and under earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Amen. Dear Lord God I pray that this message will impact lives wherever it is heard that it'll go
that it'll go far and wide through the internet through you know podcasting through YouTube. I
pray that this message will find the right audience that it will find the people who need to hear this
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word of God your word of God Lord at this time and that it will impact their lives and that they will
turn to you and accept salvation through grace. Amen. So there are three topics that we're told to
avoid as I've mentioned and we're told to avoid these at all costs. It's people will say things
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like this is not appropriate for work or this is not appropriate for polite conversation.
So much of it is is pushing us to ignore the horrendous realities of the lives that we live
or even more simply things that we need to know if we are going to be wise according to the word of
God. So we'll first look at finances. Are we going to be poor or financially illiterate?
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In Genesis 13 2 it says now Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold. He wasn't poor
he had understood the wisdom of wealth he understood the wisdom of godly wealth
and we see this at the very beginning of the word of God in Proverbs 22 6 through 7 it says
train up a child train up a child in the way that he should go even when he is old he will not depart
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from it the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
Seems like we have a lot of people today that are slaves to lenders. It's very challenging
in our societies today to not be bound by a lender or some sort of debt. The term mortgage stands for
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you know death grip. When you are mortgaged to the debt like your house if you're lucky enough to
have one then you are in a death grip. So it's important for us to understand and to train up
all those around us in the way that they should go and part of that is to understand the appropriate
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place for money. In a survey ING direct learned that many parents are uncomfortable talking to
their children about money. In fact 39 percent of parents are more prepared to talk about alcohol
and drugs with their children than about money and finances. 29 would rather talk about dating and
sex perhaps most surprisingly is that 95 percent believe financial education should be taught in
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school. If parents want Christians worldwide for their children or if parents want a Christian
worldwide view for their children where money is concerned they need to be sure they teach it to
them at home. Christian finance should be part of all the things we teach young believers.
Wealth in the Old Testament. There was a covenant relationship that God established with Israel
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that provides the framework within which we can understand Old Testament attitudes towards wealth.
God committed himself to bless Israel if they would continue to live by this covenant.
The blessing promised seemed all-inclusive.
An increase in numbers, an increase in wealth and freedom from and freedom from childlessness or
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disease. We get this from Deuteronomy 7 12 through 15. The basic commitment is often repeated in
Deuteronomy 28. The enemies who rise up against you will be defeated. The Lord will send a blessing
on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns
and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit
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of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of the ground. There was also the understanding
of an individual understanding of wealth. This commitment to Israel was particularized in the
individual. Who could expect the blessing as he or she walked in the path of God?
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The psalmist says in Psalm 112 1 through 6, praise the Lord blessed is the man who fears the Lord who
finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land. Each generation
of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures
forever. Even in darkness, light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and the compassionate
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and the righteous man. Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his
affairs with justice. Surely he will never be shaken. A righteous man will be remembered forever.
These are important messages that we're getting from the Old Testament. The more you read the
Old Testament, the more you understand the connection to wealth and the ability to serve
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God in a greater capacity. The psalmist says in Psalm 112 1 through 6, praise the Lord
blessed is the man who fears the Lord who finds great delight in his commands.
We're not supposed to seek wealth for wealth's sake, but we're supposed to be willing to be
vessels of wealth so that we can use it for God's sake. So that's an interesting thing that you
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should think about. Are you a vessel for God's wealth? Does wealth come into your hands so that
you can bless others for the sake of the gospel? Or does God hesitate from giving you wealth
something that we all have to ask ourselves, we all have to challenge ourselves with.
And that's why we have these warnings against pride in the Bible. Along with the riches are
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the Lord's blessings for the righteous theme. We get this idea that God is going to bless the
righteous, but Deuteronomy warns us of a time when Israel's heart might become proud. When the days
of riches come, Moses says, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the love
of the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 8 14, he goes on to say, you may say to yourself, my power and
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strength in my hand have produced this wealth for me, but remember the Lord your God for it is he
who gives you the ability to produce wealth and so confirms his covenant. Verses 17 and 18.
So wealth is a blessing from God, but it is wealth can also pose a danger. It can rob a person of
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humility and sensitivity to the Lord. Oftentimes we'll be working and you may be a windfall of
money will come into our hands or maybe, you know, we get a promotion that we've been fighting for
and then we forget we neglect our God. We neglect those of our family that are in need, desperate
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need, and that rather than lending a hand into someone else's times of trouble, we are puffed
up in our own pride. So it's clear then that the Old Testament has no naive view of wealth. Wealth
is neither an unmixed blessing nor guaranteed prospect for, you know, people to be godly.
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In the framework of the covenant, God's people can expect blessing, but then this will often take,
you know, the form of riches, but for the believer, riches are never to be the end themselves. So even
though we pray that God bring finances into our lives, and I even pray, you know, regularly for
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God to bring finances into our church here, it is for the expectation that we are a vessel where the
money passes through so that we can bless others, so that we can witness more, so that we can bring
in impact teams into town to be able to testify and play bands and do different things to reach
out to the community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because it's true we need money to be able
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to do these things, but we need the right spirit to be able to utilize it appropriately. In the New
Testament, we see the attitude that is required of the believer when it comes to wealth or riches
or finances. Jesus taught about wealth frequently. His primary focus was on the attitude. If the
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believer trusts God as a loving father, he is freed from the pagan's desperate focus on the
necessities of life. We have to be able to put our trust in God, and we have to be able to leave that
with him and know that he's going to care for us so we do not need to seek unceasingly for riches
in our life. Because wealth is fleeting. The rich man who died found that his wealth had blinded him
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to the spiritual realities that are all around us. He suffered in torment while a beggar that he had
scorned was seen in paradise with Abraham. We get that from Luke 16, 19 through 31.
We see Lazarus in heaven, and we see the rich man looking up to him crying out for a reprieve that's
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not going to come. That's because finances and wealth can be very distracting. The treasures
people store up on earth rust and corrode, and they distract us from concentrating all we should,
which is God and his righteousness. This is something critical for every believer to understand.
Are you searching? Are you seeking riches for your own sake? Because that's what the world does.
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They seek riches for their own sake. But what's interesting is the most powerful thing
is to allow yourself to be just the vessel of those riches for God's sake. Nobody likes the
preachers, the churches that hoard their money for their own sake so they can live in gilded
palaces of their own. But nobody denies the benevolence of like even a mother Teresa who
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had finances that were able to flow through her hands to help those less fortunate.
This brings us to the epistles. The epistles speak less of wealth than the gospels. James
points out that the rich oppress the poor in James 5, 1 through 6. And the poor and oppressed,
there are some warnings about the love of money in Timothy and in Hebrews and in Peter.
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Paul's statements on the subject of Christian giving is an exhortation of those who are rich
in this world should use their wealth for their own sake. And the epistles speak less
of wealth generously to supply the needs of the saints. So there you go. Again, that's a perfect
example. As a pastor, as a missionary, some people who are overseas within our churches,
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the idea is that when you are giving your all in the service of Christ in the ministry,
the reason why God will bring wealthy people into your church is if he knows that he's going to be
able to use those people to help fund the mission. And everybody is a part of the mission. It's the
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great commission of Jesus Christ to spread the gospel to every soul. And so the funneling of
wealth for that purpose is the key point in the New Testament and what we get from Paul.
The general attitude of the epistles seems to suggest that riches are irrelevant to the true
life, but that one who is rich should take advantage of his condition to serve the saints.
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So wealth and riches are blessings from God if they are gained and used in harmony with God's
values. But wealth can war against the soul, distracting us from the really significant
issues of life and drawing us away from reliance on God alone. We can thank God if he chooses to
give us riches, and then we can use our money in his service. But if he does not choose to enrich
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us, we need not be concerned. It is godliness with contentment that is the believer's true gain.
In Matthew 28, 20 it says, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,
and behold I am with you always to the end of the ages. And then Job 42, 10, 17 says,
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and the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends.
And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Then came to him all of his brothers and sisters and all who had been before him and ate bread with
him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comfort and comforted him for all the evil that
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the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep,
6,000 camels, 1,000 yokebox, and 1,000 female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters,
and he called the name of his first daughter Jemima, and the name of his second, Kazia,
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and the name of the third, Karen Hapuk. And all in the land there were no women so beautiful as
Job's daughters, and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this,
Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his sons' sons for four generations. And then Job died,
an old man full of days. So it's clear from the story of Job that it's not the riches,
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it's not the wealth, but it's the attitude and the usefulness of those funds for God's purpose.
Job went through a horrible ordeal, having lost everything and being judged very harshly by his
friends. But in the end, God knew that he could trust Job with more riches than he had had before,
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because he was faithful to God. So then we come to the next, you know, there's three topics,
and they're all considered third rails in society, which the third rail references,
you know, the third rail of a subway line, which is the electrified line, and that the one that if
you touch, you're going to die. And so the second of these third rails is politics. Now the Greek
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word, or where we get the word idiot from, is from the Greek, and it means to be unintelligent
or unknowledgeable of things of politics. That's a roughly paraphrased translation. It's someone who
is in the Greek world an idiot is someone who doesn't know anything about politics.
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And why that was important for the Greeks is because they were a true straight democracy,
and everybody had to be informed and everybody had to understand what was going on, because to be
able to vote and not know anything about your society is why they would say, or use that word
idiot. And we use it today as a very harsh word. It is a harsh word. Nobody wants to be called that,
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but when you are uninformed, it is a lot easier for you to be manipulated. And the term we like
to use for that today is gaslight. If someone is gaslighting you, they're trying to manipulate
your perception based off of oftentimes the, your uninformed nature about a topic.
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That's something that's very prevalent today with everything that's going on in the world.
When I originally wrote this message, it was quite a while ago, but even today we're dealing with
so much in regards to gaslighting from different parts of different governments, everything that's
happening between the U.S. and Canada with tariffs. And if I'm going to offend anybody, I promise I
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want to offend you for Jesus. But the reality is that there's a mix of opinions out there right now,
but if you want to say that tariffs are bad, then you have to admit the tariffs you're holding are
bad and vice versa. If you want to be a judge of one side's politics, you have to then therefore
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make sure your side isn't doing the same thing, because that's what we find a lot in society today,
is the pot calling the kettle black. So Brian Wicker wrote in January 4th, the 1968 issue of
the Manchester Guardian Weekly, an article on selling arms to South Africa entitled,
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Morality and Politics. All issues of any importance, he wrote, are both political and moral,
for the morality is simple and is the simple side, and the politics the outside.
Morality is the simple inside and politics the outside.
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This is a very interesting quote, and then it really does highlight that everybody wants to say
keep your religion, we'll get to that to yourself, because that would be where you draw your morality
from, which is inside you. But the way you express that morality becomes your politics.
And that's what comes out of you. So whatever you hold in your heart is your truth, your guiding
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light, is what you're going to espouse should be done or forced onto others. In Romans 13, 1-5,
it says, let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority
except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by God, therefore whoever reaches
the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who will resist will incur judgment.
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For rulers are not a tear to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in
authority, then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is for he is God's
servant for your good. But if you do wrong, God will punish you, and you will be punished.
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But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of
God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection,
not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
So I found this too from Bruce Riley Ashford, Every Square Inch, an Introduction to Cultural
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Engagement for Christians. As a Christian citizen of the United States, I get the distinct sense
that I am living in an increasingly post-Christian country. I think we can all feel that, both in
Canada, the United States, Western Europe. The majority of Americans no longer consider traditional
Christian doctrine, for example the doctrine of sin or traditional Christian ethics, for example
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biblical sexual morality, to be plausible in the modern world. Christians who do not abandon these
beliefs are labeled intolerant and even hateful. I think we can all resonate with this. Christians
who are given the fact that the United States is a democratic republic, the beliefs of the majority
affect the lives of the minority socially, culturally, and politically. And Canada is a
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representative democracy as well, and it's even more straight-line democracy than the Republic of
the United States, so it definitely affects us up here in Canada. This reality makes it increasingly
important for Christians to figure out the best way to voice their Christian convictions and enact
Christian love in the public square. I use the phrase public square to refer to our public life,
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the places where we speak, act, debate, dialogue, exchange, ideas about the best ways to organize
our community, cities, states, and nations. Certain people, such as politicians, lawyers, and journalists
find that their jobs are inherently oriented to the public square. However, those persons are not
the only ones who have the opportunity to participate in the public square. Each of us
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can be actively involved in shaping public life. As Christians, the question that arises immediately
concerns the relationship between our religious, personal religious beliefs, and our shared public
life. Should we bring our Christianity with us to the public square, or should we leave it at home?
It's an interesting question, and I think we all have our own opinions on this, but we do live in
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a fallen world, and because of that there is a need for a governing authority. The fall that occurred
in the garden, it caused God's creation to be corrupted. It caused a predisposition for man
to reject God, the entry of sin into the earth. So in the West, we are mostly governed by some form
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of democracy. This means that we the people have a real say in our government, but still sin persists,
and it is difficult to find consensus. We battle with consensus
in all of our countries, and it sometimes feels like we're being blown from one extreme to the
other. But in the end, we're seeking redemption. We find ourselves back in the public square
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calling for the redemption of our fellow citizens, our fellow countrymen, through the redemption of
sin in Christ. So in the States, there's this term that's bandied around a lot about separation
of church and state. And it's just so you're aware, that's in none of the founding documents,
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that was in a secondary letter, like a tertiary letter from Jefferson to a leader in a church,
and it had more to do about keeping the government of the United States from enacting one
faith to follow, like a statewide church, if you will, only Anglicans, or only Protestantism,
or Lutheranism, or whatever. That's really what it had to do with. But it talks about in the
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article that we're reading from, a naked public square. One of the foremost American political
thinkers of the late 20th century was John Rawls, who taught at Harvard University.
His most influential book, A Theory of Justice, addresses many of the questions we're asking
about in this chapter. Rawls argues the American citizens should engage in vigorous public
discussions about important political issues, but should leave their religious beliefs out of it.
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He suggests that we hide behind a veil of ignorance. We should pretend to be ignorant
of our own religious convictions and of other things that could prejudice us, such as our race
or socioeconomic class. Rawls thinks that his views will help citizens achieve a just outcome.
Rawls' vision of naked public square is both impossible and unhelpful. All people are religious,
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and their religions radiate outward into every part of their lives. Rawls' religion was political
liberalism, and it deeply influenced his public square reactions. Our religion is Christianity.
Our religion is Christianity, and it will and it should influence our interactions in the public
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square. As believers, we affirm our Christian convictions as the very things that should help
us to create a good and just society. We should employ those convictions appropriately as we seek
to contribute to the common good. So this is where we get the idea of a convictional public square,
where we acknowledge our predisposition. So if you're an atheist, then you're going to have to
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come to an understanding of your morality and how that morality is going to influence society,
whereas the same is going to have to happen for a Buddhist or a Hindu or anybody else,
because we'll never be able to come to a working governance if everybody is hiding behind a veil
of ignorance. What a crazy idea is to put on ignorance to try to govern. So a convictional
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religion is a religious religion. So a core biblical teaching is that all humans are worshipers,
either of God or of idols. Our worship is located in the heart and it radiates outward in all that
we do. People who are not Christians are still worshipers, and whatever or whoever they worship
radiates out into everything that they do as well, including their interactions with society. As
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God of Jesus Christ, because He is the creator and the Lord of all that exists, we seem to bring all
our lives, including all of our lives, into the public square and how we interact with our brothers
and sisters. Into submission, we're trying to submit to our Lord in everything we do as it says
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to do in the Word of God. So the question remains, how exactly do we bring our public interactions
in line with our Lordship, which is through Christ? Because as Christians, we believe that
Jesus Christ is our King, our Lord, and our Sovereign. How will we bring that in to our
interactions in the real world? There's three things we can do as we move forward. We could avoid
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coercive, actually four things. We could avoid coercive relationships. We could promote the
common good, and we can use discernment to articulate our beliefs in public. We could be
civil, and we could be realistic. That's where I touched on the idea of tariffs. Well, the realistic
thing is that it appears nobody has a problem tariffing when it's their side, and everybody
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has a problem to tariff when it's the other person's side. So either you have to come to a conclusion
that tariffs are either inherently good or inherently bad, and then both sides have to decide together
should they drop tariffs altogether or should they allow tariffs altogether?
Because that's what would be civil and that's what would be realistic. It's not realistic
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to be yelling at one party who's trying to do what another party is doing while telling the other
party it's wrong for them to do what the one party is doing. Pretty circular logic, right?
And the reason why we bring this into a church setting again is like I'm not trying to be a
politician. I don't ever want to be involved with anything like that, but the gospel does become
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inherently political because we declare that Jesus Christ is our Lord. Not Caesar, not a president,
not a prime minister, only Jesus as king. You can't get much more political than claiming your
sovereignty belongs first and foremost to Jesus Christ. We are political in that we provide a
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contrast to our communities. We say that the way the western world is moving is not the right way
to live. We say that the abortion of millions of children is a horrendous thing. We say that God's
way of living according to the word of God is the appropriate way to live. It's going to bring the
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most joy for the most people. Politics is part of our cultural witness, but only a small part.
This is something I have to keep in check in my own life, but our witness should transcend the
political. It should transcend the earthly because we do preach about a God that is above all
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and a savior who died for all of us. In 1st Peter 2 verses 13 and 14 it says,
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as
supreme or to the governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who
do good. For this is the will of God, and that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance
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of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil,
but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.
This brings me to my final point, which is religion. Morally weak equals not connected to God.
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In John 3, 16-17 we read a very familiar scripture, For God so loved the world that he gave his only
son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his
son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
The truth of the gospel is very succinct. Christ is the Son of God, the fulfillment of all the
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Old Testament prophecies and promises. He came to earth to be a sacrifice that we needed,
so we could have atonement for all of our sins. He died, he rose from the grave, so that those who
believe in him will be saved. And I might add, he was seen by the disciples and he was seen by
hundreds of other eyewitnesses in his resurrected state. No other character in history has so much
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evidence for his even existence as Jesus Christ. In Philippians 2, 9-11, God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should
bow in heaven, on earth, and under earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the
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glory of God the Father. That's our text tonight, and it is a powerful text. It allows us to stand
firmly on the Word of God, and so that anybody talks to us about leaders and kings and presidents
and prime ministers, we can say, I bow my knee only to one God, only to one king, and his name is
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Jesus. Jesus is our king. Jesus died and rose again so that all might be saved. So it looks, in
closing, I pulled up the Nicene Creed. This is one of the earliest of the Church Fathers' creeds,
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and one of my favorites. So I'm going to read this real quick so that you get a better understanding
of what we believe as Christians, but not only that, how inherently political this is, and how
relevant it is to us that we're serving the King of Kings, the God of all, the Giver of wealth,
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but the Contenter of all who are saved by grace. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God, begotten from the fathers before all the ages, God from God, light from
light, true God from true God, begotten not made. Of the same essence of the Father through him,
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all things were made for us and for our salvation. He came down from heaven,
he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made human. He was crucified
for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered, he was buried. The third day he rose according to
the scriptures, he ascended into heaven and is seated on the right hand of the Father.
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He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end,
and we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life. He proceeds from the Father
and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He spoke through the
prophets, we believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. We affirm one vast baptism for
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the forgiveness of sins. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and to the life in the
world to come. Amen. We are emissaries with the mission, so in that creed you heard,
we believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. That term, when it was written,
Catholic is not the Catholic church we had visioned today, it just means the universal
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church of the apostles. So even as Protestants we believe in the universal church of the apostles.
That's why we read and we hold such reverence for the epistles of those apostles.
And it proves to us that we are emissaries with a mission. Now I close with Matthew 28, 16 through
20, the Great Commission. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain
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to which Jesus had directed them, and when they were there, they were called to the mountain.
And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
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teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end
of the age. So let's bow our heads real quick wherever you are. I just want to give a quick
imitation, as I always do. I want to say that if you're not right with God but you want to get your
heart right, you can signify that with an uplifted hand right now. I can't see it but God can.
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And with that I just want you to repeat a prayer after me. Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner,
but I know that you sent your Son Jesus Christ and that he died for me. I repent of my sins
and I accept Jesus as my Lord, my Savior, my Sovereign. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer and you meant it, and I know you did, then God has granted you his grace
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and your salvation. I want you to take the next steps, which is to get a Bible,
to start reading your Bible. I want you to lock into a church. Again, if you're in the Salmon Arm
area, come to church. We're building a community. We're small, but we are on fire for God here.
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And then also pray. Just cry out to Him. Lean on Him. His yoke is light. So I want to thank
you again for listening to this podcast, this YouTube video, or watching if you're on YouTube.
And I just want to thank you again. And I hope that this message has impacted you.
And I can't wait for you to come back next time. God bless.
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Amen.
Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located in
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beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship Ministries
with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism, discipleship
and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church and other sermons
from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bigford and I will be your host for this
podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing to you and
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bring you closer to God. Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. My name
is David Bigford and I'm the pastor here in Salmon Arm for the Potter's House. We're a new
church plant so we're still building out a community here so if you want to be a part of
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that please come on out. We meet right above the BMO Bank of Montreal and Downtown Salmon Arm at
Sundays 1030. I apologize that it's been so long since we've had one of these podcasts. I've been
trying some different technology out and I kind of got sidetracked through the holidays but we've
got some new tech so we're hopefully going to be able to do this and I have started live streaming
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services on YouTube so I was doing it on Instagram but YouTube's a little bit of a better
platform nicer for that and so things will you'll start seeing stuff over there. There's a couple
populated already but you'll be seeing a lot more. So again my name is David Bigford and I'm the
pastor here and today's message I put together is finances, politics, and religion. The three don'ts.
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Excuse me. You might see you hear a little more coughing and sneezing and you know stuff that
happens while I put these these messages together now because as we're going to be putting them
on YouTube it's a little bit harder to edit that stuff out you know because it's just it's just me
doing a lot of it and I you know want to be able to get the you know content out there for you guys
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to be able to hear the sermons, hear the word of God, hear what's on that you know what I'm getting
as far as the mind of God for our church and I don't want to have to be editing things endlessly
and create another gap in the messages so please forgive me. So money judgment and
redemption denied. I found this illustration when I was putting this message together.
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It's about a man named George Wilson and he lived in the 1800s so in 1829 a man named George Wilson
was arrested for robbery and murder in a U.S. mail heist. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced
to death by hanging. Some friends intervened on his behalf and were able to obtain a pardon from
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President Andrew Jackson but when told of this Wilson refused it saying he wanted to die.
Well the sheriff didn't know what to do. How do you execute a man officially pardoned? So an appeal
was made to the president who perplexed turned the matter over to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Chief Justice John Marshall gave this ruling. A pardon is a piece of paper the value of which
depends on the acceptance by the person implicated. Anyone under the sentence of death would hardly be
expected to refuse a pardon but if it is refused it's no pardon. The person who was pardoned was
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refused it's no pardon. Thus George Wilson was executed while his signed pardon lay on the
sheriff's desk. So in the same way you know God has offered his gift of divine purity to every person.
A gift that not only provides a pardon for maternal condemnation but offers much much more.
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However this gift of Christ must be personally appropriated, accepted in order to be personally
beneficial. So we come to this idea that you know God has this gift of grace in salvation through
faith in him. It is right there in front of every human being on the planet but if we do not accept
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it then we are already under the condemnation of our sinful lives. So if you're going to follow
along in our text today we have Philippians 2 9 through 11 that we'll be using as a jumping off point
and so you can go ahead and if you're following along with your Bible you can turn there.
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But I want to also bring this idea to you. Avoid avoid avoid. Our whole lives we are taught
that we should avoid these three topics like the plague. They should not be discussed at work
or anywhere in public. Sometimes these subjects are excluded in church or school altogether.
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We're supposed to leave so much of this unsaid, untaught and un dealt with.
Untaught and un dealt with. We're at risk of becoming a very poor,
financially illiterate and uninformed or enslaved society both morally and spiritually weak
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because we avoid things that are important for us to understand. This last one is of the greatest
risk because when we are morally and spiritually weak we are left disconnected from God and our
very souls are at risk. Now you might be guessing based off the title of this message what those
things are. They are finances, politics and religion. So much of our time is spent trying
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to avoid these topics even at the cost of our own understanding and wisdom. So let's look at our text
in Philippians 2 9 through 11. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth
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and under earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Amen. Dear Lord God I pray that this message will impact lives wherever it is heard that it'll go
that it'll go far and wide through the internet through you know podcasting through YouTube. I
pray that this message will find the right audience that it will find the people who need to hear this
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word of God your word of God Lord at this time and that it will impact their lives and that they will
turn to you and accept salvation through grace. Amen. So there are three topics that we're told to
avoid as I've mentioned and we're told to avoid these at all costs. It's people will say things
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like this is not appropriate for work or this is not appropriate for polite conversation.
So much of it is is pushing us to ignore the horrendous realities of the lives that we live
or even more simply things that we need to know if we are going to be wise according to the word of
God. So we'll first look at finances. Are we going to be poor or financially illiterate?
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In Genesis 13 2 it says now Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold. He wasn't poor
he had understood the wisdom of wealth he understood the wisdom of godly wealth
and we see this at the very beginning of the word of God in Proverbs 22 6 through 7 it says
train up a child train up a child in the way that he should go even when he is old he will not depart
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from it the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
Seems like we have a lot of people today that are slaves to lenders. It's very challenging
in our societies today to not be bound by a lender or some sort of debt. The term mortgage stands for
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you know death grip. When you are mortgaged to the debt like your house if you're lucky enough to
have one then you are in a death grip. So it's important for us to understand and to train up
all those around us in the way that they should go and part of that is to understand the appropriate
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place for money. In a survey ING direct learned that many parents are uncomfortable talking to
their children about money. In fact 39 percent of parents are more prepared to talk about alcohol
and drugs with their children than about money and finances. 29 would rather talk about dating and
sex perhaps most surprisingly is that 95 percent believe financial education should be taught in
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school. If parents want Christians worldwide for their children or if parents want a Christian
worldwide view for their children where money is concerned they need to be sure they teach it to
them at home. Christian finance should be part of all the things we teach young believers.
Wealth in the Old Testament. There was a covenant relationship that God established with Israel
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that provides the framework within which we can understand Old Testament attitudes towards wealth.
God committed himself to bless Israel if they would continue to live by this covenant.
The blessing promised seemed all-inclusive.
An increase in numbers, an increase in wealth and freedom from and freedom from childlessness or
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disease. We get this from Deuteronomy 7 12 through 15. The basic commitment is often repeated in
Deuteronomy 28. The enemies who rise up against you will be defeated. The Lord will send a blessing
on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns
and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit
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of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of the ground. There was also the understanding
of an individual understanding of wealth. This commitment to Israel was particularized in the
individual. Who could expect the blessing as he or she walked in the path of God?
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The psalmist says in Psalm 112 1 through 6, praise the Lord blessed is the man who fears the Lord who
finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land. Each generation
of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures
forever. Even in darkness, light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and the compassionate
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and the righteous man. Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his
affairs with justice. Surely he will never be shaken. A righteous man will be remembered forever.
These are important messages that we're getting from the Old Testament. The more you read the
Old Testament, the more you understand the connection to wealth and the ability to serve
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God in a greater capacity. The psalmist says in Psalm 112 1 through 6, praise the Lord
blessed is the man who fears the Lord who finds great delight in his commands.
We're not supposed to seek wealth for wealth's sake, but we're supposed to be willing to be
vessels of wealth so that we can use it for God's sake. So that's an interesting thing that you
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should think about. Are you a vessel for God's wealth? Does wealth come into your hands so that
you can bless others for the sake of the gospel? Or does God hesitate from giving you wealth
something that we all have to ask ourselves, we all have to challenge ourselves with.
And that's why we have these warnings against pride in the Bible. Along with the riches are
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the Lord's blessings for the righteous theme. We get this idea that God is going to bless the
righteous, but Deuteronomy warns us of a time when Israel's heart might become proud. When the days
of riches come, Moses says, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the love
of the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 8 14, he goes on to say, you may say to yourself, my power and
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strength in my hand have produced this wealth for me, but remember the Lord your God for it is he
who gives you the ability to produce wealth and so confirms his covenant. Verses 17 and 18.
So wealth is a blessing from God, but it is wealth can also pose a danger. It can rob a person of
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humility and sensitivity to the Lord. Oftentimes we'll be working and you may be a windfall of
money will come into our hands or maybe, you know, we get a promotion that we've been fighting for
and then we forget we neglect our God. We neglect those of our family that are in need, desperate
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need, and that rather than lending a hand into someone else's times of trouble, we are puffed
up in our own pride. So it's clear then that the Old Testament has no naive view of wealth. Wealth
is neither an unmixed blessing nor guaranteed prospect for, you know, people to be godly.
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In the framework of the covenant, God's people can expect blessing, but then this will often take,
you know, the form of riches, but for the believer, riches are never to be the end themselves. So even
though we pray that God bring finances into our lives, and I even pray, you know, regularly for
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God to bring finances into our church here, it is for the expectation that we are a vessel where the
money passes through so that we can bless others, so that we can witness more, so that we can bring
in impact teams into town to be able to testify and play bands and do different things to reach
out to the community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because it's true we need money to be able
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to do these things, but we need the right spirit to be able to utilize it appropriately. In the New
Testament, we see the attitude that is required of the believer when it comes to wealth or riches
or finances. Jesus taught about wealth frequently. His primary focus was on the attitude. If the
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believer trusts God as a loving father, he is freed from the pagan's desperate focus on the
necessities of life. We have to be able to put our trust in God, and we have to be able to leave that
with him and know that he's going to care for us so we do not need to seek unceasingly for riches
in our life. Because wealth is fleeting. The rich man who died found that his wealth had blinded him
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to the spiritual realities that are all around us. He suffered in torment while a beggar that he had
scorned was seen in paradise with Abraham. We get that from Luke 16, 19 through 31.
We see Lazarus in heaven, and we see the rich man looking up to him crying out for a reprieve that's
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not going to come. That's because finances and wealth can be very distracting. The treasures
people store up on earth rust and corrode, and they distract us from concentrating all we should,
which is God and his righteousness. This is something critical for every believer to understand.
Are you searching? Are you seeking riches for your own sake? Because that's what the world does.
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They seek riches for their own sake. But what's interesting is the most powerful thing
is to allow yourself to be just the vessel of those riches for God's sake. Nobody likes the
preachers, the churches that hoard their money for their own sake so they can live in gilded
palaces of their own. But nobody denies the benevolence of like even a mother Teresa who
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had finances that were able to flow through her hands to help those less fortunate.
This brings us to the epistles. The epistles speak less of wealth than the gospels. James
points out that the rich oppress the poor in James 5, 1 through 6. And the poor and oppressed,
there are some warnings about the love of money in Timothy and in Hebrews and in Peter.
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Paul's statements on the subject of Christian giving is an exhortation of those who are rich
in this world should use their wealth for their own sake. And the epistles speak less
of wealth generously to supply the needs of the saints. So there you go. Again, that's a perfect
example. As a pastor, as a missionary, some people who are overseas within our churches,
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the idea is that when you are giving your all in the service of Christ in the ministry,
the reason why God will bring wealthy people into your church is if he knows that he's going to be
able to use those people to help fund the mission. And everybody is a part of the mission. It's the
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great commission of Jesus Christ to spread the gospel to every soul. And so the funneling of
wealth for that purpose is the key point in the New Testament and what we get from Paul.
The general attitude of the epistles seems to suggest that riches are irrelevant to the true
life, but that one who is rich should take advantage of his condition to serve the saints.
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So wealth and riches are blessings from God if they are gained and used in harmony with God's
values. But wealth can war against the soul, distracting us from the really significant
issues of life and drawing us away from reliance on God alone. We can thank God if he chooses to
give us riches, and then we can use our money in his service. But if he does not choose to enrich
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us, we need not be concerned. It is godliness with contentment that is the believer's true gain.
In Matthew 28, 20 it says, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,
and behold I am with you always to the end of the ages. And then Job 42, 10, 17 says,
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and the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends.
And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Then came to him all of his brothers and sisters and all who had been before him and ate bread with
him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comfort and comforted him for all the evil that
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the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep,
6,000 camels, 1,000 yokebox, and 1,000 female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters,
and he called the name of his first daughter Jemima, and the name of his second, Kazia,
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and the name of the third, Karen Hapuk. And all in the land there were no women so beautiful as
Job's daughters, and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this,
Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his sons' sons for four generations. And then Job died,
an old man full of days. So it's clear from the story of Job that it's not the riches,
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it's not the wealth, but it's the attitude and the usefulness of those funds for God's purpose.
Job went through a horrible ordeal, having lost everything and being judged very harshly by his
friends. But in the end, God knew that he could trust Job with more riches than he had had before,
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because he was faithful to God. So then we come to the next, you know, there's three topics,
and they're all considered third rails in society, which the third rail references,
you know, the third rail of a subway line, which is the electrified line, and that the one that if
you touch, you're going to die. And so the second of these third rails is politics. Now the Greek
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word, or where we get the word idiot from, is from the Greek, and it means to be unintelligent
or unknowledgeable of things of politics. That's a roughly paraphrased translation. It's someone who
is in the Greek world an idiot is someone who doesn't know anything about politics.
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And why that was important for the Greeks is because they were a true straight democracy,
and everybody had to be informed and everybody had to understand what was going on, because to be
able to vote and not know anything about your society is why they would say, or use that word
idiot. And we use it today as a very harsh word. It is a harsh word. Nobody wants to be called that,
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but when you are uninformed, it is a lot easier for you to be manipulated. And the term we like
to use for that today is gaslight. If someone is gaslighting you, they're trying to manipulate
your perception based off of oftentimes the, your uninformed nature about a topic.
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That's something that's very prevalent today with everything that's going on in the world.
When I originally wrote this message, it was quite a while ago, but even today we're dealing with
so much in regards to gaslighting from different parts of different governments, everything that's
happening between the U.S. and Canada with tariffs. And if I'm going to offend anybody, I promise I
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want to offend you for Jesus. But the reality is that there's a mix of opinions out there right now,
but if you want to say that tariffs are bad, then you have to admit the tariffs you're holding are
bad and vice versa. If you want to be a judge of one side's politics, you have to then therefore
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make sure your side isn't doing the same thing, because that's what we find a lot in society today,
is the pot calling the kettle black. So Brian Wicker wrote in January 4th, the 1968 issue of
the Manchester Guardian Weekly, an article on selling arms to South Africa entitled,
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Morality and Politics. All issues of any importance, he wrote, are both political and moral,
for the morality is simple and is the simple side, and the politics the outside.
Morality is the simple inside and politics the outside.
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This is a very interesting quote, and then it really does highlight that everybody wants to say
keep your religion, we'll get to that to yourself, because that would be where you draw your morality
from, which is inside you. But the way you express that morality becomes your politics.
And that's what comes out of you. So whatever you hold in your heart is your truth, your guiding
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light, is what you're going to espouse should be done or forced onto others. In Romans 13, 1-5,
it says, let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority
except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by God, therefore whoever reaches
the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who will resist will incur judgment.
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For rulers are not a tear to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in
authority, then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is for he is God's
servant for your good. But if you do wrong, God will punish you, and you will be punished.
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But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of
God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection,
not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
So I found this too from Bruce Riley Ashford, Every Square Inch, an Introduction to Cultural
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Engagement for Christians. As a Christian citizen of the United States, I get the distinct sense
that I am living in an increasingly post-Christian country. I think we can all feel that, both in
Canada, the United States, Western Europe. The majority of Americans no longer consider traditional
Christian doctrine, for example the doctrine of sin or traditional Christian ethics, for example
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biblical sexual morality, to be plausible in the modern world. Christians who do not abandon these
beliefs are labeled intolerant and even hateful. I think we can all resonate with this. Christians
who are given the fact that the United States is a democratic republic, the beliefs of the majority
affect the lives of the minority socially, culturally, and politically. And Canada is a
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representative democracy as well, and it's even more straight-line democracy than the Republic of
the United States, so it definitely affects us up here in Canada. This reality makes it increasingly
important for Christians to figure out the best way to voice their Christian convictions and enact
Christian love in the public square. I use the phrase public square to refer to our public life,
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the places where we speak, act, debate, dialogue, exchange, ideas about the best ways to organize
our community, cities, states, and nations. Certain people, such as politicians, lawyers, and journalists
find that their jobs are inherently oriented to the public square. However, those persons are not
the only ones who have the opportunity to participate in the public square. Each of us
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can be actively involved in shaping public life. As Christians, the question that arises immediately
concerns the relationship between our religious, personal religious beliefs, and our shared public
life. Should we bring our Christianity with us to the public square, or should we leave it at home?
It's an interesting question, and I think we all have our own opinions on this, but we do live in
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a fallen world, and because of that there is a need for a governing authority. The fall that occurred
in the garden, it caused God's creation to be corrupted. It caused a predisposition for man
to reject God, the entry of sin into the earth. So in the West, we are mostly governed by some form
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of democracy. This means that we the people have a real say in our government, but still sin persists,
and it is difficult to find consensus. We battle with consensus
in all of our countries, and it sometimes feels like we're being blown from one extreme to the
other. But in the end, we're seeking redemption. We find ourselves back in the public square
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calling for the redemption of our fellow citizens, our fellow countrymen, through the redemption of
sin in Christ. So in the States, there's this term that's bandied around a lot about separation
of church and state. And it's just so you're aware, that's in none of the founding documents,
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that was in a secondary letter, like a tertiary letter from Jefferson to a leader in a church,
and it had more to do about keeping the government of the United States from enacting one
faith to follow, like a statewide church, if you will, only Anglicans, or only Protestantism,
or Lutheranism, or whatever. That's really what it had to do with. But it talks about in the
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article that we're reading from, a naked public square. One of the foremost American political
thinkers of the late 20th century was John Rawls, who taught at Harvard University.
His most influential book, A Theory of Justice, addresses many of the questions we're asking
about in this chapter. Rawls argues the American citizens should engage in vigorous public
discussions about important political issues, but should leave their religious beliefs out of it.
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He suggests that we hide behind a veil of ignorance. We should pretend to be ignorant
of our own religious convictions and of other things that could prejudice us, such as our race
or socioeconomic class. Rawls thinks that his views will help citizens achieve a just outcome.
Rawls' vision of naked public square is both impossible and unhelpful. All people are religious,
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and their religions radiate outward into every part of their lives. Rawls' religion was political
liberalism, and it deeply influenced his public square reactions. Our religion is Christianity.
Our religion is Christianity, and it will and it should influence our interactions in the public
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square. As believers, we affirm our Christian convictions as the very things that should help
us to create a good and just society. We should employ those convictions appropriately as we seek
to contribute to the common good. So this is where we get the idea of a convictional public square,
where we acknowledge our predisposition. So if you're an atheist, then you're going to have to
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come to an understanding of your morality and how that morality is going to influence society,
whereas the same is going to have to happen for a Buddhist or a Hindu or anybody else,
because we'll never be able to come to a working governance if everybody is hiding behind a veil
of ignorance. What a crazy idea is to put on ignorance to try to govern. So a convictional
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religion is a religious religion. So a core biblical teaching is that all humans are worshipers,
either of God or of idols. Our worship is located in the heart and it radiates outward in all that
we do. People who are not Christians are still worshipers, and whatever or whoever they worship
radiates out into everything that they do as well, including their interactions with society. As
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God of Jesus Christ, because He is the creator and the Lord of all that exists, we seem to bring all
our lives, including all of our lives, into the public square and how we interact with our brothers
and sisters. Into submission, we're trying to submit to our Lord in everything we do as it says
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to do in the Word of God. So the question remains, how exactly do we bring our public interactions
in line with our Lordship, which is through Christ? Because as Christians, we believe that
Jesus Christ is our King, our Lord, and our Sovereign. How will we bring that in to our
interactions in the real world? There's three things we can do as we move forward. We could avoid
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coercive, actually four things. We could avoid coercive relationships. We could promote the
common good, and we can use discernment to articulate our beliefs in public. We could be
civil, and we could be realistic. That's where I touched on the idea of tariffs. Well, the realistic
thing is that it appears nobody has a problem tariffing when it's their side, and everybody
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has a problem to tariff when it's the other person's side. So either you have to come to a conclusion
that tariffs are either inherently good or inherently bad, and then both sides have to decide together
should they drop tariffs altogether or should they allow tariffs altogether?
Because that's what would be civil and that's what would be realistic. It's not realistic
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to be yelling at one party who's trying to do what another party is doing while telling the other
party it's wrong for them to do what the one party is doing. Pretty circular logic, right?
And the reason why we bring this into a church setting again is like I'm not trying to be a
politician. I don't ever want to be involved with anything like that, but the gospel does become
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inherently political because we declare that Jesus Christ is our Lord. Not Caesar, not a president,
not a prime minister, only Jesus as king. You can't get much more political than claiming your
sovereignty belongs first and foremost to Jesus Christ. We are political in that we provide a
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contrast to our communities. We say that the way the western world is moving is not the right way
to live. We say that the abortion of millions of children is a horrendous thing. We say that God's
way of living according to the word of God is the appropriate way to live. It's going to bring the
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most joy for the most people. Politics is part of our cultural witness, but only a small part.
This is something I have to keep in check in my own life, but our witness should transcend the
political. It should transcend the earthly because we do preach about a God that is above all
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and a savior who died for all of us. In 1st Peter 2 verses 13 and 14 it says,
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as
supreme or to the governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who
do good. For this is the will of God, and that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance
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of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil,
but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.
This brings me to my final point, which is religion. Morally weak equals not connected to God.
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In John 3, 16-17 we read a very familiar scripture, For God so loved the world that he gave his only
son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his
son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
The truth of the gospel is very succinct. Christ is the Son of God, the fulfillment of all the
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Old Testament prophecies and promises. He came to earth to be a sacrifice that we needed,
so we could have atonement for all of our sins. He died, he rose from the grave, so that those who
believe in him will be saved. And I might add, he was seen by the disciples and he was seen by
hundreds of other eyewitnesses in his resurrected state. No other character in history has so much
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evidence for his even existence as Jesus Christ. In Philippians 2, 9-11, God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should
bow in heaven, on earth, and under earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the
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glory of God the Father. That's our text tonight, and it is a powerful text. It allows us to stand
firmly on the Word of God, and so that anybody talks to us about leaders and kings and presidents
and prime ministers, we can say, I bow my knee only to one God, only to one king, and his name is
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Jesus. Jesus is our king. Jesus died and rose again so that all might be saved. So it looks, in
closing, I pulled up the Nicene Creed. This is one of the earliest of the Church Fathers' creeds,
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and one of my favorites. So I'm going to read this real quick so that you get a better understanding
of what we believe as Christians, but not only that, how inherently political this is, and how
relevant it is to us that we're serving the King of Kings, the God of all, the Giver of wealth,
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but the Contenter of all who are saved by grace. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God, begotten from the fathers before all the ages, God from God, light from
light, true God from true God, begotten not made. Of the same essence of the Father through him,
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all things were made for us and for our salvation. He came down from heaven,
he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made human. He was crucified
for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered, he was buried. The third day he rose according to
the scriptures, he ascended into heaven and is seated on the right hand of the Father.
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He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end,
and we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life. He proceeds from the Father
and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He spoke through the
prophets, we believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. We affirm one vast baptism for
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the forgiveness of sins. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and to the life in the
world to come. Amen. We are emissaries with the mission, so in that creed you heard,
we believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. That term, when it was written,
Catholic is not the Catholic church we had visioned today, it just means the universal
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church of the apostles. So even as Protestants we believe in the universal church of the apostles.
That's why we read and we hold such reverence for the epistles of those apostles.
And it proves to us that we are emissaries with a mission. Now I close with Matthew 28, 16 through
20, the Great Commission. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain
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to which Jesus had directed them, and when they were there, they were called to the mountain.
And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
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teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end
of the age. So let's bow our heads real quick wherever you are. I just want to give a quick
imitation, as I always do. I want to say that if you're not right with God but you want to get your
heart right, you can signify that with an uplifted hand right now. I can't see it but God can.
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And with that I just want you to repeat a prayer after me. Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner,
but I know that you sent your Son Jesus Christ and that he died for me. I repent of my sins
and I accept Jesus as my Lord, my Savior, my Sovereign. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer and you meant it, and I know you did, then God has granted you his grace
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and your salvation. I want you to take the next steps, which is to get a Bible,
to start reading your Bible. I want you to lock into a church. Again, if you're in the Salmon Arm
area, come to church. We're building a community. We're small, but we are on fire for God here.
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And then also pray. Just cry out to Him. Lean on Him. His yoke is light. So I want to thank
you again for listening to this podcast, this YouTube video, or watching if you're on YouTube.
And I just want to thank you again. And I hope that this message has impacted you.
And I can't wait for you to come back next time. God bless.
(42:06):
Amen.
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