Andy Stanley - Talking Points Part 1:- What Is Jesus Take On Politics

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So today we begin this three part series designed to
make you uncomfortable and hopefully better. It's entitled Talking Points,
and I came up with the subtitle myself the Perfect
the perfect blend of politics and religion. We'll see how
perfect it is. That will be up to you now.
I have found it very difficult to stay away from

(00:21):
the topic of religion in church, but I found it
very easy to stay away from the topic of politics
in church. But whenever something Jesus says specifically intersects something
that we're wrestling with in culture or wrestling with it
specifically at a time like this in the life of
our nation, I have to talk about it. Or I

(00:41):
shouldn't say I have to talk about it. I get
to talk about it. I look forward to talking about
it because the words of Jesus are so relevant, and
they are so extraordinarily relevant with everything that's happening in
our nation right now, and the division that's new news
right the division in the church created by our current
political context and climate intersects directly or intersects directly with

(01:02):
something that Jesus taught. So we're going to look at it.
And since we are a large and more and more
diverse and geographically dispersed group of network churches in the
Atlanta area and now more and more all around the country.
It's even more important for me to talk about this
because we are set up to be divided because of
what we're about to experience in the next few months. Now.

(01:24):
I became I don't know, I don't want to say
painfully aware. I became extraordinarily aware of the diversity of
political views in our churches. Actually, the Sunday following the
twenty sixteen election. So here's what happened. So if you
can go back in time, Okay, it's the Sunday after
the twenty sixteen election, which meant churches and you know,
primarily Republican counties, they sang so loud on that particular Sunday, right,

(01:49):
I mean they were just singing, right, And churches that
were filled with primarily non Republicans they probably didn't even
have music that Sunday, I don't know, I mean it
was Remember, it was so emotional. Everybody was in shock
and awe on both you know, going both ways, and
so you know, we plan our services way ahead and
so we kind of, you know, we got to Sunday
and we just kind of did our regular thing. That's

(02:10):
what we do. We just rarely interfaced with what's going
on and culture unless it's, you know, something big and
dramatic and we just you know, with the program. So anyway,
after the service, I'm sitting in my truck at one
of our more suburbian campuses. And for those of you
who are watching from all over the country, we have
like nine or ten churches all over the Atlanta area,
so serve out on the outskirts and I'm sitting there
in the traffic in park just say, you know, with

(02:32):
my phone scrolling through Twitter. And the cool thing about
Twitter when you preach with one of these is you
find out if people are paying attention to your main points.
It's like it's so good, so like yep, yep, yep. Anyway,
so I get a mention from an African American woman
who attended our church that's more toward town, and this
is essentially what her tech said. She said this, She said,

(02:53):
I came to church this morning looking for reassurance. I'm
scared and no one even meant in the election. I
feel abandoned by my church, and of course as a pastor,
really as her pastor, I felt terrible. But you know,
the Republicans who would read this, if you're a Republican,
you would read this and you would say, and this

(03:14):
isn't I'm not you know, this is going to be uncomfortable.
So let's go ahead and be uncomfortable together. You're like,
scared of what we won, scared of what now if
the Democrats had won the election, now, that would have
been something to be afraid of. That's what you know.
You're a Republican, that's what you're thinking, right, But she's
thinking something entirely different. She has experienced this in a

(03:34):
completely different way, right, Because nothing divides like politics, because
nothing divides like fear. And as you know, because you've
been a victim of this, or maybe you've been a
part of this, you can raise a lot of money
peddling fear. You can't raise as much money if you're

(03:55):
not peddling fear. Right, I mean, the Republicans are going
to take away your opportunity to vote. The Democrats are
going to take away your guns, you know for twenty
five dollars or fifty dollars or if you check one
hundred dollars, you know, you know, if the president is
re elected, you know, the end of the world. If
a socialist democrat is elected, you know, it's the end
of the world. For twenty five dollars or fifty dollars
or one hundred dollars, right, I mean, you pedal enough fear,

(04:15):
you can raise a lot of money. I'm not trying
to give you any ideas. I'm just telling you it works.
But here's the question, what exactly, just within the context
of you know, the United States of America, what exactly
do we fear? And I tell you I know the
answer because the answer is the same for all of us.
You know, at the macro level, it's this, it's loss.

(04:35):
We fear something's going to be taken away. We fear loss.
We feel the loss of control, the loss of opportunity,
the loss of the future of our children, the loss
of our culture, the loss of our freedom, the loss
of our progress because we've made progress in some areas.
You know, White people we fear what might happen. Brown

(04:55):
and black people fear what has already happened. For for them,
it's not you know, theory, for them or for you,
it's history and it wasn't that long ago. So there's
fear for all of us. And it's the fear of
the unknown. And you can't raise very much money if
you don't peddle in fear. And so we're in this culture,
we're in this season and in the life of our

(05:16):
nation where everybody's peddling in fear, and if we're not careful,
we'll be we will be victims of that. And not
only will we be victims, we will be this is
what we're gonna talk about. We will be divided. So
back to my story. So I see this text and like, oh, no,
you know, is there something we could have done or
should have done? It was a you know, different one
of our churches, but still, you know. So the traffic

(05:36):
starts moving, So I put my I'm gonna pick up
my pickup truck. I put my truck in gear, and
I'm behind another pickup truck and I look and on
the back window of the pickup truck on the left
is an NRA sticker and on the right side is
a very unflattering bumper sticker that has to do with
Hillary Clinton. We'll just leave it like that. And I
thought to myself, this is all those years ago. Here

(05:57):
we are, here, we are we we have the complete
pretty much you know, political spectrum in our churches, and
I got to tell you, I love that. In fact,
I would say this, and maybe this is I don't
want to say this too strongly, but if you're looking
for a church where everybody's the same, you're in the
wrong church. Okay, let me just tell you. And if
you're looking for a group of churches where everybody agrees politically,

(06:20):
you're in the wrong church. And I hope you never
ever ever attend a church like that. Is we're going
to see you in just a minute, because what this
means for us, because we're big and we're influential. Thanks
to what you've done all over the country and really
all over the world, we have an unprecedented opportunity. We
have an unprecedented, unprecedented opportunity to model for our community

(06:42):
and maybe our nation, what it looks like to disagree politically,
because we are going to continue to disagree politically and
love unconditionally. Now here's the question. I don't want you
to answer out loud. I don't want you to say amen,
I don't want you to say hmmm. I don't want
you to do anything. I don't want you to throw anything,

(07:03):
unless you're at one of the other churches and you
throw stuff at the screen. I just keep on preaching. Okay,
So this is for you, and I really want you
because here's the thing, what we're gonna talk about today.
I understand, I'm in the audience with you. What we're
gonna talk about today. You think you've got it. I
know you do. That's why we're gonna spend three weekends
talking about this. You think you're fine, like I think
I'm fine. But I want us to really dig down

(07:24):
and maybe face some things we've never faced before. And
they're gonna little be a little bit scary, a little
bit terrifying. I'm not gonna ask you to change political parties.
I just want you to think a little bit differently
as a Christian. And the question I want to ask
you is do you don't answer out loud? Do you
want to do this? And do you think you can

(07:46):
do this? To which on the surface like, oh yeah,
I can do this, I do it all the time.
And just hang with me. And I don't mean tolerate
people from other parties and other persuasions, even those that
kind of out on the you know, the fringes and
are super extreme, not tolerate, not just be nice to
with an eye roll you know me, Let me ask
you a different way. And this is more pointed, and

(08:07):
I think this goes through the heart of it. Are
you willing to evaluate your politics through the filter of
our historical collective Christian faith? Are you willing to evaluate
your politics through the filter of your faith rather than
create a version of faith that supports your politics, which
is what most Christians do. As we're going to talk

(08:30):
about next week, everybody wants a piece of Jesus, right.
I mean, in the United States of America, Jesus is
part of every political party. He is in lockst up
no matter what your thing is, if you are a
Christian at all, or any kind of a version of Christianity,
it's like, oh yeah, and again we're gonna see next week.
He can get anywhere in the Bible. You can find
something Jesus said or somebody in the Bible said to
support your political view. The real issue is are you

(08:53):
willing and am I willing to put our political filter
behind instead of in front of our faith filter? Are
we willing to evaluate and reevaluate our politics in light
of what specifically Jesus has taught or let me to
say it a different way. Are you and can you be?

(09:14):
But are you willing to follow Jesus? I mean, that's
the mission of our church, just to inspire people to
follow Jesus. Are you willing to follow Jesus? When following Jesus,
create space between you and your political party, your party's platform,
and your party's candidate. And I'm just telling you, most

(09:36):
Christians are not able to do that, especially in the
climate that we're in now and in the months that
we have ahead, because it's so easy to be divided,
and it is so easy to rush through the corner,
and it's so easy to just assume that God and
Jesus are in lockstep with us. Now, any questions so far? Good? Okay? Now, Jesus,

(09:58):
this is what's so amazing. This is why I've to
talk about it. Apparently Jesus saw this coming, not the election,
not that part. What Jesus saw coming was the division.
In fact, this is this is extraordinary. After Jesus had
his final passover meal with the disciples, he prais a
prayer and John Matthew Mark Luke John actually records this prayer.

(10:21):
Sometimes it's called the high priestly prayer. And in this prayer,
this is two interesting things. Number One, he prays for us.
We're gonna look at that in just a minute. But
number two, Jesus has a prayer request. Now, if you
grew up in church, you know what a prayer request is.
You're sitting in a circle, You're about to finish your
Sunday school class or your small group. Anybody have a
prayer request. Somebody raise their hand, you share a prayer request.
Imagine sitting in a circle with Jesus. Anybody have a

(10:43):
prayer request. Jesus says, I have a quot request. It's like, really, yeah,
Jesus had a prayer request. And in this passage that
John records for us, we discover what Jesus asked the
Father for. Now, wouldn't you like to know what Jesus
prayed for? When Jesus pray, we know what we pray for.
You know, thank you for this day, you know, get
us to school, helping you, help my kids, you know
all this stuff. What did Jesus pray for? And so

(11:03):
this is cool. He's at the very end. In a
few hours, he's going to be arrested and tried and crucified,
and everything moves really quick after that. So he's praying
here at the end, and he asks something of his
heavenly Father. And what he asked of this heavenly Father
has everything in the world to do with any of you,
any of us who consider ourselves Jesus followers. This is remarkable.
Here's what he prays, Father, The hour has come. Here

(11:27):
we are, you know, three three and a half years
walking around with these guys, trying to explain what you're
like and explaining what the Kingdom of God is like.
But here we are at the end. The hour has come.
Glorify your son. He's about to be arrested and crucified.
And again it moves really quick. Glorify your son, in
other words, light me up in such a way that
people recognize who I am. That your son may light

(11:49):
you up, so that people recognize we're connected. And the
interesting thing is the hour when Jesus was crucified that
he's referring to here, the hour in which God was
most glorified. We would have been most horrified. We would
have looked away. And God never looked better because he

(12:11):
sent his son to redeem mankind, and Jesus like, okay,
we're at that hour. But before all those events kick off,
there's something I've got to ask you to do. Over
Heavenly Father. Here's what he says. He goes on verse eleven.
He says, I will remain in the world no longer,
but they, the disciples, are still in the world, and

(12:31):
I'm coming to you. I'm leaving him and He's told
him I'm leaving. I'm leaving, I'm leaving, and Peter kept
saying where are you going, Where are you going? Where
you're going? Jesus like, well, I'm going, but you can't go.
Peter's like I'm going with you everywhere, and Jesus like, no,
you're not. Okay, but what comes next is amazing. And
I think this is just my opinion. I think what
comes next most Christians don't know. So you're gonna be
an overly educated Christian after today. Now it's been in
the Gospel of John this whole time. You know, It's

(12:53):
like Dorothy, It's like that movie should have lasted what
twenty minutes. I've got the ruby red slippers. I'm back
in Kansas right So this has been here the whole time.
Here is Jesus' prayer request to the Father at the
very end, here's what he says, Holy Father, protect them,
these twelve guys, by the power of your name, the

(13:13):
name that you gave me, so that in other words,
here is the purpose of the protection. Here's specifically how
I want you to protect them. Now. The interesting thing
is he's already given them some bad news. Okay, guys,
here's the future. Here's what your future looks like. You're
gonna be arrested, flogged and beaten. Some of you are
gonna be killed. That's your future. Oh great, wish you'd
told us that early on. I know I kind of

(13:35):
held back because then you wouldn't follow me. But anyway,
that's your future. But now they're in right. But here
he is praying that God would protect them, and he's
not praying for their physical protection. He's praying for something
he thinks is more important than their physical protection, that
they may be here. It is, Holy Father, protect them
by the power of your name, the name you gave me,

(13:56):
so that they may be This is his one prayer request.
Here is what he wanted protected more than anything else,
that they may be one as we are one. At
the very end, the thing that Jesus was most concerned
about was their unity and their oneness. Because here's what

(14:19):
he knew, and here's what he's going to say in
the next few verses. He knew that as long as
they were in lockstep together and lockstep with his heavenly Father,
the world would change. But if they ever got divided
and splintered, things would stall out. Then in verse twenty,
he skipping down. If you're following along, he prays for you,
and he prays for me, and he prays for us.
This is amazing. My prayer, he says, is not for

(14:40):
them alone, not just these twelve guys. I pray also.
I pray also for those who will believe in me
through their message. In other words, that next generation of
Christians and the next generation of Christians, and the next
generation of Christians leading all the way up to us.
And what do you think he prays for us. And
the answer is is not what we pray for us.

(15:03):
In fact, here's something that's really sad. I mean, he's
convicting to me. My hunch is, virtually none of us
who consider ourselves Jesus followers, virtually none of us have
ever asked God for what Jesus asked God for. Virtually
none of us have ever prayed the prayer that Jesus prayed,
even though he modeled it, and clearly this was so

(15:25):
close to his heart and so important to him in
those final hours. Which may be the problem, because, as
we're going to discover, maybe if the church, maybe if
people like me have been begging God for this, leading
toward this, pleading toward this, the world would be a
different and better place. My prayer is not for them alone.

(15:48):
I pray also for those who will believe in me
through their message. That all of them, all of them.
In the first century, that meant jew and gentile, and
rich and poor, and slaves and freemen, and military leaders
and soldiers and tax gatherers and those from whom the
taxes were gathered, and the educated and the uneducated, everybody.

(16:10):
In the twenty first century, it means Republicans and democrats,
the privilege, the not so privileged, the independent, the indecisive,
the libertarians, the librarians, you know, the black and brown
and white and beige, privileged marriage single. In other words,
all of us, that all of the people who call
me Lord, no matter where they're from, what they've experienced are,
how good life has treated them, are, how poorly life

(16:33):
has treated them, Connected, disconnected. I pray that all of them,
in this vast array, the extraordinary dispersion of people with
different experiences, I pray that somehow all of them this
is amazing. May be one which sounds impossible, but Jesus

(16:56):
was convinced we're about to see this because he says it.
Jesus was convinced is as impossible as that may sound,
it was mission critical, which meant, even though it seemed impossible,
it was absolutely imperative. This was not an add on.
This was not I wouldn't it be nice if they
just all got along, which means we should become intentional

(17:16):
about ensuring that there is unity in local churches and
unity in the church, because this is what Jesus prayed for.
And it doesn't come naturally, does it. And the reason
it doesn't come naturally is because, well, we only know
what we know, and we were raised by who we
were raised in, and we've experienced what we've experienced, and
we tend to run to our little corners politically and
relationally and every kind of way right and Jesus is like, Oh,

(17:39):
my church is gonna be so diverse, and my church
is gonna be so international, and my church is gonna
have so many different languages and so many different colors
and so many different cultures. If there was any way
they could remain one. Then he continues his prayer, Father, Father,
just as you are in me and I am in you,

(18:02):
may they also be in us. Sow that another purpose clause.
Do you know why he prayed for oneness? This is
the shocker. The reason he prayed for oneness really doesn't
even have anything to do with us. He prayed for
oneness because of what he wanted to do through us.
And there can be a lack of unity in a
local church and the church will survive. But if there's

(18:23):
a lack of unity in a local church or in
the church, the will of God will not be accomplished
with the church. Look at what he says, The reason
I want them to be one is so that the world,
not the people in the church, so the people outside
the church, the people outside the faith, the people that
roll their eyes and drive on by, so that when

(18:43):
they see the unity in spite of the diversity, when
they see the unity in spite of the diversity within
the church and between churches, they may actually come to
the conclusion they may believe that is, they might be
convinced that you have me. Jesus Is, Look, this isn't
an add on. This is mission critical. The way the

(19:05):
world is gonna sit up and take notice of this beautiful,
diverse thing we call the local church is when the
church works together and is unified, even though we disagree
and agree to disagree, even though we've been raised in
such different ways that we will never see the world
the same way politically, in other ways. And yet at
the same time, there's this beautiful, magical, unusual unity. And

(19:26):
Jesus Is, I'm telling you this is the way forward.
This is what will eventually get the attention of the empire.
This is what will eventually get the attention of the
pagan world. There's never been anything like it. And you
can't sacrifice your unity for anything. You know what he
was doing. He was actually asking his heavenly Father to

(19:49):
come along later and nudge us, and you know, nudge
that that generation of Christians and the next generation of
Christians to nudge us toward what he had just come
demanded us to do a few minutes earlier when he
was in having pass over a meal with his disciples,
because in that conversation with his disciples, he said, look,
I'm about to leave, Peter, you're not going. I'm about

(20:10):
to leave. And here's one thing I don't want you
to forget. I'm going to give you a new command.
We talk about this all the time. I'm going to
give you a new command. I'm going to establish a
new covenant. And the new command's going to replace all
the other commands. And it's very simple. Nobody even needs
to write this down, he would say. He could have said,
because it's so simple, and my new command is this,
You're to love one another right as you're to love
one another, to which they would have said that that's

(20:31):
not really new. And Jesus would have said, I'm not through.
You're to love one another as I have look at this,
as I have loved you. This you don't get to
make this up. I've modeled this for you as I
have loved you. You're to love one another. And this
was a new command, it was not a new suggestion.
These were our marching orders. Again, it's not even about us,
because look what he says, and the reason I want
you to love each other is it's just so you'll

(20:52):
get along because by this, by this kind of unique
love for one another, even though you're not like one another,
because of this unique kind of love for each other,
the world will know that you're my disciples if you
love one another as I have loved you. So now Jesus,

(21:13):
after he's given them given us this command, he's going, Father,
please help them to get this right. Please help them
as this thing expands and grows and goes from Judea
to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the words. Please
help them to love each other as different as they're
gonna be in so many ways. Back to John seventeen

(21:33):
his prayer, he says, I have given them the glory
that you gave me, that they may be one as
weird one. There it is again, and I and them,
and you and me, so that they may be brought
to come look at this to complete unity, not political unity,
unity of purpose, unity of a worldview, that they would

(21:55):
see each other the way I see each of them,
that they would see me the way I'm to be.
This suddenly, this worldview that includes a God that loves
them and a savior that dies for them, that would
be so encapsulating that it would define and redefine everything
for them. And then look what he says. Then here
is again, it's not about you, it's not about me,
it's not even about us. Then the world will know

(22:17):
with certainty that you sent me and have loved them
even as you have loved me, he was saying, Heavenly Father,
you and I know everything rides on their unity, not
around their politics, not around their culture, not around their language,

(22:37):
not around bits and pieces of their worldview, not around
how they do baptism, communion, or not around how they
sing or when they sing, or what time of the
day they meet. We know there is a core that
they must be unified around. And if they are the
world's gonna change. And here's the cool thing. After the
Resurrection of Jesus, it happened, I mean, after the Resurrection

(22:59):
of Jesus, the apostles went into the streets of Jerusalem,
and clearly they went with one purpose. Their purpose was
to make disciples of all nations, and they went with
one message. The message was that Jesus is the Messiah.
Jesus is the king that has come to reverse the
order of things. He's come to bring the Kingdom of
God to earth. And then he laid down his life

(23:20):
unlike any other king, he laid down his life for
his subjects to create an on ramp to the Father.
And they went to the streets of Jerusalem with this
one single command to love each other the way they
had seen Jesus love them. So here's the thing. I mean,
you're all very intelligent, smart people, so you know this.
Let me just say it anyway, Okay, your candidate, your

(23:45):
political candidate for president or for everything. Your political candidate,
your candidates will win or lose based on how American
citizens vote on a Tuesday in November. But the church
will win or lose based on our behavior every single
day between now and then. Let me say this again.

(24:07):
Your political candidate, and I hope everybody votes, will win
or lose based on how the citizens of the United
States vote on a single Tuesday November. But the church
winds are loses, the community winds are loses in some way,
our nation winds are loses based on how we treat
each other and love each other and love our world
every single day between now and then. That's why. And

(24:31):
I say it strong because Jesus was so clear, we
must not it's not an add on, it's not a
nice to have. We must not allow anything to divide us,
and we must not allow any one to divide us.
Remember this. We're gonna talk about this in the third
week in particular. Remember this, this is so important. It

(24:52):
was Christianity. It was Christianity. It was these unique, upside
down doctrines of Christianity that shaped Western civilization. Almost no
one disagrees with that. Even staunch atheists will agree that
it was the message of Christianity that shaped Western civilization.

(25:13):
It wasn't American politics, it wasn't Republicans or Democrats. It
was Christianity that shaped Western civilization. It was the teaching
of Jesus, not our political parties, that laid the groundwork
for our modern sense of justice and fairness and the
dignity of every single individual. And we've not gotten that

(25:34):
right all the time, and we continued to get it
wrong in some quarters. But the Hope is not the
perfect political party. The Hope is the message in teaching
of Jesus. Because it was Jesus, then it was the
church that introduced these values in these ways in the beginning,
and so why in the world, why in the world
would we opt for something less than that, And why

(25:56):
in the world would we allow ourselves to be divided
over that. Listen throughout our very short you know this,
throughout our very short history as a nation, and it
is oh so short. Both political parties, both of our
current political parties, have gotten it wrong. Right, during our
oh so short history as a nation, both of our
current political parties and their leaders have gotten it wrong.
They failed us morally, they failed us in terms of

(26:17):
their leadership. We've had some great leaders, We've had some
not so great leaders. And then there's this, you know
we forget during our oh so short history as a nation,
several parties turned out the lights because their party was over.
Are there any whigs? Are there still any whigs around
your federalist? Any federalists in the room? See, here's what
we forget. We're so short sighted. Come on, there were

(26:40):
entire political parties and our short history is a nation
that were so adamant about certain things and they just
kind of went away. So here's the question. Why would we,
as followers of an eternal king, allow ourselves to be
divided by temporary political systems and temporary political leaders and

(27:06):
temporary political platforms. Why would we allow ourselves to be
divided by lesser kings? And here's the most embarrassing thing
to me, why would we allow ourselves to be divided
by fear? Jesus' most oft repeated command was fear not,

(27:26):
fear not, fear not. And you know what, so many
of us are so afraid of a potential something out
there in the future to be afraid of. Let's just
pause for a moment and think about the context in
which Jesus said fear not. You got the Temple on
one side that can't wait to have you arrested, and
you have the Empire on the other side that that's

(27:47):
going to perform the execution. And in the middle of
those colossal forces, Jesus says to his apostles and smiles
and says, guys, ignore them, fear not. A king has come.
And when the king's people rally around the message of
the king, we know extraordinary things can happen, because something

(28:10):
extraordinary did happen in history. Why come on, why would
we allow any political view, a view that you might outgrow,
a view that you might abandon isn't it true that
every ten years or so, or every fifteen years or so,

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your views, your political views have changed and adjusted in
things that you are all adamant about. It's kind of like, well,
maybe I don't know. I mean, don't your views change?
Why would we run the risk? Why would we allow
any strongly held or not so strongly held political view
divide us from a living, breathing you. Why would we
do that when Jesus single command is, look, believe what

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you want to believe, vote for who you want to
vote for. But don't you dare miss treat someone made
in my image? Why would we allow a political view
to divide us from an actual, living, breathing you that
Jesus died for, the you besides you, the you that
lives next door to you, the you that works you know,
next cube, next office over from you, or worse of all,

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the you that's related to you. Why come on, this
is common sense. Why would we not fight for, struggle for,
and sacrifice for the unity our king prayed for? It
was the unity of the church that got the attention
of a pagan world and eventually the empire responsible for

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crucifying Jesus embraced him. So don't answer out loud, just
in your heart. Do you want to do this? Do
you want to do this? Let me just say this.
I don't say this about much, but I can say
it with confidence. This is God's will for you. This

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is God's will for us, and this is God's will
for every church because this is what Jesus prayed for.
So I want to make two suggestions as we start
off this journey together. Two things. Would you pray like
Jesus pray because most of us have never prayed a
prayer like this before. Would you pray for oneness. I'm
going to give you a little prayer and it's kind

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of you know, it's not the best prayer in the world,
but it's short. You may want to take a picture.
I'm just going to have us all pray it out
loud because this is God's will for us. Heavenly Father,
make us one so we can influence many. This is
not about church growth. This isn't about getting more people
in a building. This is about the universal Church. He said, Hey,
if they'll stay one, the world's gonna know what I'm
up to. If they'll be one, the world will pay attention.

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And look up. So we should pray, and I want
you to pray this for your local church wherever you
attend church. Heavenly Father, make us one so we can
influence many. This was the prayer of our Savior, who
hours later died. This is what he wanted protected even
more than the lives of his closest first century followers.

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So let's just get started. Let's just pray this together.
I'd even just say this together all together. Heavenly Father,
make us one so we can influence many. Yeah, one
more time, Heavenly Father, make us one so we can influence.
Second thing I want you to do, and for some
of you this will be like, yeah, I do this
all the time. Okay, you could do this all the time,
but I just want to kind of push you a

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little bit. I want you to look for an opportunity,
because you're gonna have to look for an opportunity. I
want you to look for an opportunity to love unconditionally
someone with whom you disagree politically. You're like, well, I
don't even know anybody I disagree with politically. That's a problem. Okay,
that right there. She kind of gets you started. Right.
Let me just can I push a little bit. That's
why you haven't learned anything in fifteen years. Woo, that's

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why you're so convinced you're right and you just can't
understand talks. I've told you this, I can't understand how
anybody could believe that. Well, you just made a confession.
There's something you don't understand. I don't know how anybody
can behave that way. You just made a confession. There's
something you don't know. So Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father. But
I pray for one is that we can influence many.

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And then I want you to look for an opportunity
to love and conditionally someone with whom you disagree politically.
And that may be harder than it normally is because
we're more divided than we've ever been. And when you
find somebody that you can serve and love unconditionally, your
light's gonna shine a little bit brighter because we're so divided. Now,
let me close with this. I know what some of
you are thinking, and I understand this, I really do.

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This isn't a criticism. I get this. Some of you
are thinking, Andy, okay, cool, sermon, great, you know, appreciate that,
But come on, Andy, you have to say things like
this here to the bridger. I mean, this is your job, right,
You're just doing your job. You know Jesus said this.
You're you gonna tell us what Jesus said, and you
wrapped into political rapper. And that's a good I become
on and Andy, aren't you being a little bit naive,

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to which I would say to you, No, let me
give you an example of something that's really not Let
me tell you what naive is naive? Is this a
first century rabbi from nowhere is far away from the
epicenter of activity as he could be, way way way
up north, standing out in that hot Syrian sun, surrounded

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by twelve guys who were younger than him, and they
got no political clout, They don't have anything going for them.
And right out there in the blazing hot sun, this
first century rabbi says this, guys, I'm gonna build my church,
my movement, my assembly, my congregation, which by the way,

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was illegal. I'm gonna build my church, and the gates
of Hades will not overcome it. Now that is naive.
They look around like us, You're gonna do what I'm
gonna start a movement and guys, you're gonna be part
of it. In Neither Rome, nor the Temple, nor any

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culture nor any nation will ever stop it. Now that's naive.
But he did, and it didn't, and we are part
of it, and our unique sacrificial oneness is the key

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to fueling it in our generation. So disagree politically, love unconditionally,
and pray for oneness. Disagree politically, love unconditionally, pray for oneness.
Disagree politically, but love unconditionally and pray for unity. And

(34:42):
most importantly, don't miss part two of talking points. Assass