Please note these are my preaching notes from this past Sunday!
Psalm 2 is all about God’s sovereignty. It shows humankinds opposition to His Lordship—and it begs the question—what effect will humankind’s opposition have upon God’s program?
God is going forward to the accomplishment of His purpose. What humankind does will not deter Him, detour Him, or defer Him at all.
God did not read something in the morning paper or hear something on the evening news that He didn’t already know. There is absolutely nothing that surprised the Lord. He is moving and working according to His purpose—both on earth and in heaven. We see the truth of this throughout biblical history.
Everything moves forward unsurprisingly for the eventual establishment of the throne of God. We must understand, whether we can grasp it or not in our own minds, that the Lord’s plan is running on schedule and nothing with stop it.
As we are at this crucial place today—election 2024—we are living in a time when everybody wants to be heard, everybody wants to tell you what they think or how to think, and its like all are playing their own tune—and it’s a medley of discord. Everything is out of tune.
Psalm 2 invites surrender to the King of Kings and His ways.
So, what does that mean for us today?
A story is told of a great battleship and the captain seeing an obstacle on the radar directly within his course of navigation. As a result, he sends out an order to “move 20 degrees starboard.” There was an abrupt answer that came back—“You move 20 degrees starboard.” This enrage the captain that the obstacle—whoever was responding, did not heed his order. The captain ordered again, “This is a battleship. We can and will blow you out of the water. Change your position or else.” The seaman 2nd class Jones relayed back, ‘this is a lighthouse.’ (From Psalms of the Heart—George Wood writer)
That settled the matter quickly and that’s the spirit of Psalm 2. Rebellious humanity telling God to move over and God radioing back, Change course!
Now, do not think I will tell you this morning which way to vote! That is 100% your own conscience and decision as you look at the decision before you and think about biblical principles etc. as a believer.
Today I want to talk about our responsibility and response as believers no matter who sits in the White House.
We now turn to Romans 13.
Both Israel and the NT church struggled under various world empires and of course in NT times, under the yoke of Rome.
The question that comes is “how should God’s people relate to ungodly governments?”
According to our verse today, government is an institution ordained by God for human benefit…but it can be corrupted and twisted out of its proper function.
God’s desire—as is Paul in his writing anointed by the Holy Spirit—is that clearly God’s people are to be good citizens. If so, then what do we need to take away from all of this to help us with God’s view on Wednesday after the election?
Since the civil government is ordered by God and provides us with certain benefits, we are to submit to it. We are to pay taxes to support it, honor and respect it. It doesn’t mean to agree, but we show our respect—as the NT Christians did—by first and foremost praying for those in authority.
Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:1-4, First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
All sorts of prayer—for everyone!!! The purpose of these prayers is very clear—so that believers may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. But there is an even greater purpose than that—God’s heart and plan—God wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth!
This reminds us once again that prayer works! We may not always see the clear results but that is not what the Word says—it doesn’t say only pray when you see the results right away—we are to pray that God would work in people’s lives and then it is up to the working of the Holy Spirit in those lives and also the people’s response to the calling of the Spirit to turn to the Lord and serve Him.
Something that we need to remember—we are 1st and foremost citizens of heaven. That is why it is so easy sometimes to feel like outsiders in the way our culture is going. Yet, we have a wonderful opportunity to be people of influence. It is sad today that things are so toxic—people thinking that those on the other side of the isle shouldn’t even exist—there is polarizing hatred.
What are we supposed to do? We are invited to live with this tension that is presented to us. We see this tension in Acts 4 when Peter and John were arrested. They were ordered to not speak about Jesus any longer and their response in verse 19-20, Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20 for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Whenever something is repeated multiple times in the “Bible we need to pay attention and we see this very starkly in the book of Daniel. Multiple times it says this: “That the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms. He gives them to anyone He wants…”
And what about the teachings of Jesus? His teachings were clear—we are to be in the world but not of the world. We pledge allegiance to our King—Jesus! Jesus talks about loving our enemies and being a servant. We are submitted to our government but pledge allegiance to the King of Kings.
We cannot allow the spirit of this culture to polarize us! We can’t allow politics to separate us! Many express fear—but there is no fear in Christ’s love and we need to be saturated with it!
A.W. Tozer said, “While it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes there is a God who has not surrendered His authority!”
So what are we going to do the day after the election?
· Continue to walk as citizens of heaven.
· Continue to love all people and one another.
· Continue to preach the Word and be a part of a church that loves.
· Give allegiance to Jesus and sharing His light with as many as possible.
God is our Provider.
God is aware of all things that concern you.
· If God knows when a sparrow falls, will he not care for you.
· If God knows the number of hairs on your head, will he not keep you?
· If God says we are to love our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use you—will He not give you the wisdom and strength you need to do what is right?
Finally, we are people of bold and directed prayer for all! Do not let the toxicity of our culture rob you of pleasing the Lord in all that you say and do! Be living testimonies of the love of God in all your actions and words for in this God will be well pleased.
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