When Religion Meets Politics • Part 2 | "Choosing Sides"

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 you know while it seems like our nation is more divided than ever because of the political climate did you know there is a way forward in fact there are three things just three things we could all do beginning today that would make a big difference stick around and we'll talk about them right here on your move [Music] now if you're a christian here's the tension and this is where we left off last time we were together and if you're not a christian you get to sit on the outside and judge us to see whether or not we do this very well in fact my hunch is this if we had done better what we're going to talk about today you may be more interested in the christian faith or you may have never abandoned the christian faith to begin with so listen carefully the tension for those of us who are jesus followers is this are we willing or are we even able i think that might be the better question are we willing to put our faith filter ahead of our political filter are we willing to be christ followers first and republicans and democrats and libertarians and whatever else you might be second are we willing to follow jesus this is the tough one are we willing to follow jesus when following jesus creates space between us and our political party space between us and our political platform spay or the platform of our political party and space between us and our political candidate now to be clear i'm not suggesting that you not be political i'm not suggesting that you not wade into politics talk about politics or run for office i think we should all lean into what's happening in our nation and for those of you who feel called to enter the fray you should step right in but what i am suggesting is that we take what jesus said that we looked at last week seriously that we not allow the political climate to divide the church any local church or the church in general because jesus if you'll remember the one thing jesus prayed for more than anything else he prayed for in fact it was the thing he prayed for before he was crucified was that his body his movement his ecclesia would not be divided that we would be one that we would figure out a way which we are to disagree politically because we always will but at the same time love unconditionally and begin to pray for unity now the interesting thing is this in the first century there was something they had in common with what happens in our culture as well in the first century when you read the gospels it's so fascinating everybody wanted jesus to be on their side that's true today both parties are convinced jesus would be on their side if he were to walk come back to earth today republicans are absolutely convinced jesus would be a republican because of their values democrats would say absolutely jesus would be a democrat because of his care his concern for people and so everybody wants a piece of jesus and the interesting thing is this um if i were given the assignment andy could you come up with a sermon that would demonstrate that in fact the republican party and the republican platform is in sync with the teaching of jesus i could do that and if somebody else were to come along and say andy would you create a sermon that shows that the democrat platform and their values is in sync with the teaching of jesus i could do that too because when you interpret the words of jesus when you interpret the words of jesus through the filter of your pull through your political filter it's amazing he's so red he's so blue it's amazing how often he agrees with you so if you start with that filter i mean there's plenty and the truth is both sides quote the bible and both sides quote jesus the really funny thing is both sides actually use the same verses so the question is this can we put our jesus following filter our faith filter ahead of our political filter and it's very very difficult to do as we're going to see today jesus came jesus came to introduce the kingdom of god to earth the kingdom of god values the upside down kingdom where those with the wealth and the power leverage their wealth and power and resources for those that have less power less resource less resource the the kingdom of god where the king laid down his life for his subjects rather than demanding his subjects lay down their lives for him the kingdom of god that was where that was so broad and inclusive that he said and everybody is invited to participate in it but the kingdom of god will always perhaps i think this is the case but this is just my opinion the kingdom of god will always in some detail and at some level conflict with the kingdoms of men and the kingdom of god will always at some level in some detail conflict with your political party and the platform of your political party and our political candidates there's always going to be attention and this is why it is absolutely foolish it is so foolish for the church to ever be divided over a candidate or over a political party because at the end of the day no political party is probably going to line up with the kingdom values of jesus although each party has a little bit of it even though that's difficult for some of us to acknowledge but again it's foolish for us to be divided because we're supposed to be kingdom people first and political people second but that's very very difficult to do so here's what i'm gonna do today i'm gonna try to give you a little template to help us all understand where does agreement in and diverse opinions especially diverse political opinions um begin so to start with um the the apostle paul who you know we talk about all the time the apostle paul steps under the pages of history as you know as somebody who hates christians um he was a pharisee he was brilliant super educated becomes a jesus follower and he had the distinction of being a roman citizen so he had all of this background all of this stuff going on and the apostle paul and two of his letters give us a phrase that i think began gives us a great starting point for putting together this template and he uses a phrase that perhaps you've never seen before because he only uses it twice in the letters that survived antiquity and the phrase is this he refers to the law of christ the law of christ now the law of christ as we're going to discover was his shorthand for jesus new covenant command that we talk about all the time when jesus gathered with his disciples for the final passover he said guys i'm giving you a new command this command is going to be a substitute for all the other commands you had 613 you had torah but i'm giving you a new command because we're establishing a new covenant and as you probably know the new command was simple it was you are to love one another with a caveat as i have loved you this isn't just a love fest you are to love one another this isn't one way this is two-way you're to love one another as i have loved you and then he said this by this by this unique brand of love by this unique brand of new covenant love everyone will know you're my disciple if you love one another so the apostle paul takes that idea and he pushes it through all of his letters as the uniting ethic for all jesus followers here's a couple of examples he writes this in his letter to christians living in corinth he says though i am free and belong to no one i have made myself a slave strong language i have made myself a slave to everyone to everyone why paul to win as many as possible paul says look i'm on a mission i don't have much time left and i did a lot of damage to the church so i'm trying to make up for lost time and i'm willing to do anything short of sin to convince gentiles that god has done something on their behalf in the world he continues to those not having the law talking about the law of moses the the torah for those not having the law that's gentiles i became like one of those not having the law in other words i became a gentile in order to reach gentiles even though i'm jewish this is the extreme to which he's willing to go but then he qualifies it he says though i am not free from the law of god to which a jewish reader would say wait a minute you just said you're not under the law you're not going to act like somebody under the law but you're not out from underneath the law of god what are you talking about so you've you've pulled out from underneath torah but somehow you're still under the law of god paul's saying yeah i'm still under god's authority i'm just not under torah and then he tells us what law he is under and here's our phrase he says but i am under the law of christ there it is so i'm no longer under the law of moses but i'm still under god's authority because i'm under the law of christ and what is the law of christ you are to love one another as i have loved you in his letter to christians living in the roman province of galatia he says this this is a little bit more descriptive he says carry each other's burdens when you see somebody who's burdened financially somebody's burdened with kids somebody's burdened with work somebody's burdened with a physical ailment or that has gotten tripped up in life you are to carry one another's and again this is then each other thing this isn't everybody's end this is the body of christ functioning like the body carry each other's burdens and if you do look at this if you'll do that you are fulfilling and here it is again the law of christ and what is the law of christ you are to love as i have loved you you are to love one another as i have loved you so if you have a concern for someone or i should say this way when the concerns of others concern you when the concerns of others concern you and you act on it you are fulfilling the law of christ you are doing what jesus told the disciples to do and again the new testament marching orders for those of us who are jesus followers so here's the thing as jesus followers all of all persuasions regardless of your political persuasion if you're a jesus followers the law of christ that is your marching orders and the law of christ should inform over time as we grow as christians our conscience that our conscience should become hardwired into the law of christ so that when we do something that is that is in contrary to loving as christ loved us it should bother us it should ding our conscience but not just our conscience personally it should being our collect our collective conscience that we should all be as a group as a body we should all be disturbed irritated or convicted by some of the same things we should all be disturbed irritated and convicted when we see injustice disturbed irritated or convicted when we accidentally disrespect someone or accidentally don't give them what they deserve or we see somebody in culture being disrespected when we see people undermining their own future undermining their health undermining their relationship with their kids undermining the integrity of their family or the integrity of society we should be moved by that we should be moved to action it should bother us it should ding our conscience whenever we see somebody expressing autonomy that undermines their family autonomy that undermines the health of a community that should bother us because according to jesus if you want to set policy what's good for people that's what's good what's best for people that's what's best so the law of christ should inform our collective conscience let me give you a couple of quick examples because as simple as that is this is a powerful powerful powerful dynamic in fact this dynamic shaped western culture you hear me say that all the time but it's absolutely true um for example um once upon a time all over the world everywhere in the world every village every town every kingdom it was self-evident that some people should be owned by and controlled by other people in fact fourth century bc aristotle a philosopher a greek philosopher and a fellow a greek philosopher was their responsibility was to make everything make sense in the world and so aristotle here's what he wrote he said for that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary it's expedient he's talking about slavery it's not only is slavery necessary it's expedient i mean there's just no way that the world would work without some people ruling over and controlling and dominating and owning other people from the hour of their birth some are marked out for subjection and others for rule i mean i mean the idea of doing away with slavery it's like that that's not even a question that's like saying the sun's not going to come up i mean it was just obvious but 4th century a.d after christianity had taken hold and begun to take hold of the roman empire saint augustine a 4th century christian bishop said no slavery is the result of sin and suddenly a brand new idea is born from this brilliant mind in a world where there's still slavery was just a permanent part of the landscape everywhere suddenly it begins to dawn on christians as early after earlier than that but you know this is augustine you know it's a famous guy saint augustine he said no slavery isn't expedient slavery isn't a part of nature slavery is the result of sin and as early as the 4th century 80 christians began having misgivings and begin to see the discrepancy between what the scriptures say about people being made in the image of god and loving as christ loved us and the the you know the horror of slavery jesus single new covenant command was so powerful it was so ahead of its time it was so modeled and baked into the crucifixion and the resurrection that it is trans-cultural and it is transgenerational it sits at the epicenter of the kingdom of god values it will never go out of date it doesn't have a shelf life we are forever and ever every generation to do for others what god through christ has done for us and so it is incumbent upon us to figure out how to be one as jesus prayed we would be one in spite of our political differences and that leads us to the third part of our template and that's this the law of christ informs our conscience and to an informed conscience we are to incorporate knowledge and wisdom and let me explain why this is important one of the great advantage advantages of the human race is we are able to collect information and pass it to the next generation but humanity because of writing writing allowed one generation to gift the next generation with everything they've learned which gifted the next generation with everything they've learned so consequently every generation is smarter than the generation before and with knowledge comes extra wisdom and extra insight and so as people of the 21st century as we think about what does it look like to live out this kingdom ethic we should add to our informed conscience the knowledge of science the knowledge of psychology and the wisdom that comes with understanding how our world works and understanding how we're made so all of this works together another way of thinking about it is this if somebody asked you where do babies come from your answer to that question is determined by the age of the person asking right when a four-year-old asks you don't lie to them but you give them an answer you accommodate to their capacity when a 15 year old asked you would say you should know by now okay so if a 12 year old in other words every every age if a 25 year old is asking this you know this question in a graduate in graduate school context in other words we don't lie but we always accommodate to the capacity of the person asking this is so fascinating your heavenly father god accommodates to the capacity of his people so when we look at genesis we see god accommodating to the capacity of an ancient ancient ancient pre-science you know pre-tylenol never took a warm shower a group of people right when jesus manifests himself he says the kingdom has come and i have come to as the king's son i've come to dwell with you he explains god but he explains god in a way that the old testament it doesn't quite explain god well people's capacity has changed things have changed and in every generation our knowledge increases our insight increases and god's ability to help us understand how he made the world and how the world works increases and as christians and this is kind of a tension point as christians we should be on the forefront we should never resist science we should never resist discovery we should be the most curious people because our faith is tethered not to an interpretation of a text our faith is tethered to an event in history the resurrection of jesus so we don't need to fear new and we don't need to fear science and every once in a while a generation comes along that kind of gets in a running gun battle or spitting match with science and it's so foolish so the knowledge and wisdom combined with an informed conscience that is what we should use and that's what we should leverage to determine which policies and platform and legislation we support so let me go through it one more time the law of christ if you're a jesus follower non-negotiable an informed conscience over time as you learn more and more and follow jesus longer your conscience is going to be shaped according to the law of christ knowledge and wisdom this is a bit intuitive okay this is why when your children get sick you don't call me you call the doctor once upon a time when the children got sick they called the priest but now you don't call the priest anymore you call the doctor not because you don't believe in the healing power of god but because we have accumulated knowledge and wisdom in terms of how the human body works and as christians we don't see any conflict between those two things and i'll pray for your child but you don't even call for prayer right for the most part because you go to the doctor doctor understands how the body works and off you go so we naturally and intuitively incorporate knowledge and wisdom into our thinking but here's the rub all that is kind of yeah i didn't you know andy i knew that i didn't think of it in those terms but no new information yet here's the rub when it comes to this when it comes to this there will always be disagreement among christians and the reason we will always disagree here and this is where we have work to do and this is where i hope that you'll be willing to move and that you'll be willing to be a little bit open-minded the reason that we will always have work to do here is this because where you stand depends upon where you sit where you stand where you take a stand depends upon where you sit this is you may have heard this before this is called miles law it was named for rufus miles who was a part of the eisenhower kennedy and the johnson administration and he this was his statement and to kind of tease it out here's here's what it means that our cultural context that's where we sit where you live who you're related to how much money you have what you know the con your cultural context where you sit determines your perspective in life it determines what you see what you experience how you see it and how you interpret it and this is true for all of us this is why if i can kind of you know push on you a little bit this is why most of you don't see any conflict between your faith and your politics none at all you are loving this series because you have some friends who need to hear it right because your political views you know this they weren't shaped in a vacuum and pausing to recognize this and pausing long enough to incorporate this into your thinking is what it means to be mature and oh my goodness do we need a little bit more maturity in the political discussion in our nation right now right okay so yeah that was a golf club i know amen don't get me going right in fact pausing to recognize this is the way forward pausing to recognize this is how the extremes if they're mature are willing to move toward the middle now understand i'm not suggesting that we all get in the middle we have a kumbaya moment and we all become some new party we all agree on anything let me say it again that fourth line that i had up here a minute ago there's always going to be disagreement when it comes to policy platform and legislation and that's okay as long as we are mature enough not to allow it to divide us and if we're mature enough not to allow it to divide us we will be better for the conversation it's a step toward political unity and it's a step toward unity in spite of i should say political diversity so political views and values you know this political views and values like all of your views and values are shaped by a variety of things most of which we had or have no control over and if we can acknowledge this and take a deep breath we all learn something and we don't change what we believe but we gain understanding in terms of why other people act the way they do and believe the way they do and we won't experience division here are the things here's some of the things that impact the way you think and believe politically right where we live how we were raised where we were educated if we were educated what we've been told what we've seen what we've experienced and what we've seen others experience these are the factors and these are just a few these are the dynamics that shape our political viewpoint perhaps the best evidence of this is if you think about your parents political viewpoints if i were to say to you why do you think your dad was republican why do you think your mom was just absolutely committed to being why you would have an answer and you would relate it not so much necessarily to their theology but to the world they grew up in and the same is true for you and the same is true for me and that doesn't mean that we have dismissed the significance of our faith not at all it's that when these two things come together we have a tendency to use one to prop up the other we all do but what if what if especially over these next few months we were able to step back and begin to view it just a little bit differently not change what you believe or who you vote for but to just see it a little bit differently again because where you stand depends on where you sit and recognizing this allows us to open our hands and open our minds and open our hearts without changing our political viewpoint but beware when you start down this road you may change some of what you think and even some of what you believe but that's not the goal that's just an unintended consequence or an unintended outcome so putting it all together here's what it looks like law of christ informed conscience knowledge and wisdom policy platform and legislation now that's not dynamic that's just kind of an is so i want to spend the next four and a half minutes making a suggestion in terms of what we do with this and what we do about this three things so simple begin to listen listen and specifically listen to people who don't experience the world the way you do listen to people who don't experience the world the way you do not just the haves and the have-nots the christians and the not christians young and old black and white gay and straight married and single new citizens old citizens people who've been in the military people who despise the military begin to listen to people who have experienced the world differently than the way you have and number two once you start listening learn something okay don't just just well i listen but i you know i'm not gonna think no learn listen come on be a student not just a critic you're you're an amazing critic without one single lesson amazing you're just an amazing critic right i mean some of you you know mute the television so you can do your own commentary to your family they love that it's like dad thank you if we know what you think could you turn the volume back up right i mean we love it but would you would you pause and would you become a student not just a critic otherwise i push at you a little bit otherwise you're going to discount every bit of information you're going to discount anything that doesn't fit perfectly in your current flawed worldview if you don't listen and you don't learn if we don't listen to each other and learn from each other we will discount anything that doesn't fit perfectly within our flawed world view and we quit learning and as long as we catch ourselves saying i don't know how anybody could believe that you've just confessed something about you not them i don't know how anybody can believe that well then andy you don't know something learn it i don't know why anybody would react that way well there's something i don't understand so why wouldn't we especially within the body of christ take time to understand because everybody's behavior makes perfect sense to them everybody's response makes perfect sense to them everybody's viewpoint everybody's politics makes perfect sense to them and when we don't understand it's because we don't understand in fact if you're a republican you need to know that democrats are really just like you and if you're a democrat you need to know the republicans are just like you they're taking a stand based upon where they sit last thing third l word love never please never ever ever burn a relational bridge over a political view never ever ever burn a relay well you say well they started the fire okay well they started the fire on their end of the bridge don't and like don't don't start a fire on you're into the bridge never burn a bridge a relational bridge because over a political view because this goes back to jesus commandment this goes back to the cross this goes back to the epicenter of what we believe as christians the you beside you is more precious to god than your potentially flawed view a view that you changed 10 years ago a view that you're going to change five years from now do not burn down or burn a relational bridge over a political view the you beside you is more precious to god than your potentially flawed view while you and the person you're burning the bridge down with while both of you were yet sinners christ died for both of you how dare i how dare i burn down a relational bridge with someone for whom christ died and how dare you do the same thing if you're jesus follower so come on let's listen learn and love and again like i said last week i know you can't help but think this andy this is so naive do you really think that's going to make any difference you just remember this once upon a time there were a handful of jesus followers crushed between an empire and the temple and they gave to caesar what was caesar's and they gave to god what was god's their lives and now the empire is no more the temple is no more rome's most famous emperor is nothing but a footnote in the story of jesus of nazareth kingdoms come kingdoms go empires rise empires fall jesus said i'm going to build my ecclesia and nothing is ever going to stop it and he did and we've been invited to be part of it and it is still the way forward and our responsibility especially in a season like this is to show our divided nation and our divided world what it looks like and that it's even possible to disagree politically to love unconditionally while we pray for unity because at calvary at calvary at the cross we lost our right to do anything less than [Music] that [Music] you

Channel: Your Move with Andy Stanley

Views: 23,625

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: Mr1f1nyekN4

Length: 28min 29sec (1709 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020