When Religion Meets Politics • Part 1 | "Nothing Divides Like Politics"

well hey everybody welcome to your move where we help you make better decisions and live with fewer regrets i'm andy stanley and i'll be your guide and i have a question for you do you think it's possible do you think it's possible to disagree with someone politically and yet love them unconditionally is it possible to disagree politically and love unconditionally i think so and today i will tell you why right here on your move [Music] now i have found it very difficult to stay away from 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 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 no news new news right the division in the church created by our current political context and climate intersects directly or intersects directly with something that jesus taught because nothing divides like politics because nothing divides like fear 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 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 25 or 50 if you check 100 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 25 or 50 or 100 right i mean you pedal enough here 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 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 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 and black people fear what has already happened 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 nation where everybody's peddling in fear and if we're not careful we'll we will be victims of that and not only will we be victims we will be this is what we're going to talk about we will be divided we have an unprecedented opportunity we have an unprecedented unprecedented opportunity to model for our community 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 do you don't answer out loud do you want to do this and do you think you can 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 right on the you know the fringes and are super extreme not tolerate not just be nice to with an eye roll you know let me let me ask you a different way and this is more pointed and i think this goes to 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 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 lockstep no matter what your thing is if you're if you're a christian at all or any kind of version of christianity it's like oh yeah and again we're going to see next week anywhere in the bible you can find something jesus said or somebody in the bible says to support your political view the real issue is are you 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 re-evaluate our politics in light of what specifically jesus has taught let me say it a different way are you willing to follow jesus when following jesus creates space between you and your political party your party's platform and your party's candidate and i'm just telling you most 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 to 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 this is what's so amazing this is why i have 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 um he prays a prayer and john matthew mark luke john actually records this prayer sometimes it's called the high priestly prayer and and in this prayer this is two interesting things number one he prays for us we're going to look at that in just a minute but number two jesus has a prayer request now imagine sitting in a circle with jesus anybody have a prayer request jesus says i i have a request i was 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 prayed we know what we pray for you know thank you for this day you know get us to school help you know help my kids you know all this stuff what did jesus pray for and so here he is 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 we are you know three three and a half years of walking around with these guys trying to explain what you're like and explain 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 you up so that people recognize we're connected and the interesting thing is the hour when jesus was crucified that he was 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 sent his son to redeem mankind and jesus is 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 11. he says i will remain in the world no longer but they the disciples are still in the world and i'm coming to you i'm leaving them 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 are you going jesus is like well i'm going but you can't go peter's like i'm going with you everywhere and jesus is 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 now it's been in the gospel of john this whole time you know it's like dorothy it's like that movie should have lasted what 20 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 12 guys by the power of your name the 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 him now the interesting thing is he's already given him some bad news okay guys here's the future here's what your future looks like you're going to be arrested flogged and beaten some of you are going to be killed that's your future oh great wish you told us that early on i know i kind of held back so you wouldn't follow me but anyway that's 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 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 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 in lockstep with his heavenly father the world would change but if they ever got divided and splintered things would stall out then in verse 20 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 them alone not just these 12 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 not what we pray for us in fact here's something that's really sad i mean it'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 close to his heart and so important to him in those final hours which may be the problem because 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 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 in the 21st 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 married 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 or how good life has treated them or how poorly life has treated them connected disconnected i pray that all of them in this vast array this 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 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 a wouldn't it be nice if they just all got along which means we should become intentional 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 my church is going to be so diverse and my church is going to be so international and my church is going to 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 may they also be in us so 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 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 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 sent me jesus says look this isn't an add-on this is mission critical the way the world is going to sit up and take notice of this beautiful diverse thing we call a 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 jesus says 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 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 commanded us to do a few minutes earlier when he was in having passover 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 to leave and here's the 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 is 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 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 just so you'll 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 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 world please help them to love each other as different as they're going to be in so many ways back to john 17 his prayer he says i have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one there it is again and i in 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 world view that they would see each other the way i see each of them that they would see me the way i'm to be seen that suddenly this world view 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 it is again it's not about you it's not about me it's not even about us then the world will know 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 right on their unity not around their politics not around their culture not around their language not around bits and pieces of their world view we know there is a core that they must be unified around and if they are the world's going to change and here's the cool thing after the resurrection of jesus it happened i mean after the resurrection of jesus the apostles went to 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 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 political candidate for president or for what everything your political candidate your candidates will win or lose based on how american citizens vote on a tuesday in november but the church wins or loses the community wins or loses in some way our nation wins or 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 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 anyone to divide us remember this we're going to talk about this in the third week in particular remember this is so important it 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 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 right all the time and we continue to get it wrong in some quarters but the hope is not the perfect political party the hope is the message and teaching of jesus because it was jesus and 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 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 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 wigs are there still any wigs around your federalists any federalists in the room see here's what we forget we're so short-sighted come on there were entire political parties in our short history as 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 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 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've got the temple on one side that can't wait to have you arrested and you have the empire on the other side that it's gonna ex that's gonna 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 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 10 years or so or every 15 years or so your views your political views have changed and adjusted and things that you were 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 you want to believe vote for who you want to vote for but don't you dare mistreat 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 worst of all 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 so i want to make two suggestions as we start off this journey together two things would you pray like jesus prayed because most of us have never prayed a prayer like this before would you pray for oneness 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 the 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 can do this all the time but i just want to kind of push you a little bit i want you to look for an opportunity because you're going to 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 should kind of get you started right let me just can i push a little bit that's why you haven't learned anything in 15 years that's why you're so convinced you're right and you just can't understand 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 i pray for oneness that we can influence many and then i want you look for an opportunity to love unconditionally 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 going to 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 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's the preacher i mean this is your job right you're just doing your job you know jesus said this you're gonna tell us what jesus said and you wrapped it in a political rapper and that's a good idea but come on in andy aren't you being a little bit naive to which i would say to you no let me give you an example of something that's really naive let me tell you what naive is naive is this a first century rabbi from nowhere as far away from the epicenter of activity as he could be way way way up north standing out in that hot syrian son surrounded by 12 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 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 going to do what i'm going to start a movement and guys you're going to be part of it and neither rome nor the temple nor any 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 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 [Music] you

Channel: Your Move with Andy Stanley

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Keywords: Andy Stanley, Your Move with Andy Stanley, Your Move, better decisions, fewer regrets, how to, how to be better at life, depression, depressed, self help, how to be happier, how to have a good life, how to make better choices, choices, decisions, regret, motivation, inspiration

Id: oe3IcRSwmrw

Length: 28min 26sec (1706 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020