Talking Points
Heavenly Father, this morning, I pray that you would reveal yourself. That amidst, the sermon today that we would know who you are, and who you have made us to be. Lord, I pray that you would bless the preparation that pastor Cameron has put into this message, that your word would come through clearly, and that you would be proclaimed as supreme and sovereign in all things. Lord, we ask that you would be working in our hearts through your holy spirit and to make us tender to the reception of your word this morning. In Jesus' name we pray.
Pastor Luke:Amen.
Pastor Cameron:Amen. Thank you, Pastor Luke. Good morning, Conduit. How are you? Good.
Pastor Cameron:Good. My name is Cameron. I'm one of the pastors here. Have a new series to start, this morning and, you know, we we I will tell you that I think I've mentioned this before, but we we plan sermons and sermon series for the most part almost a year in advance. So last October we we kind of planned to preach a sermon series.
Pastor Cameron:We didn't really have a name for it yet, but we wanted to talk about we wanted to have a sermon series that dealt with topics regarding the integration of our Christian faith and our life in Jesus with, politics. Right? 22 of the most 22 of the things that you like when you sit down to get your hair done or something like that. Those are the 2 things that you wanna talk to your hairdresser about. Right?
Pastor Cameron:Talk to him about Jesus, and talk to him about your political beliefs. Right? The reality is though, as the as an election year and it seems like, in in my short life, my 42 years of life, the the election year has become more like the election 3 years, or like election 4 years. Right? Or time frame between when the next person or the next election comes up.
Pastor Cameron:And and in those in that 4 year period or in that year long period or whatever it is, it seems almost impossible to escape the conversation. And some may say not even a conversation, but more of like the polarization and rhetoric that exists around political discourse and, and around like the whole political process. So back in October, we planned this series for around this time because we were like, you know, right around July, at least from like, at least personal experiences, I'm about I'm about done hearing about politics. Right? I want a little bit of a break from it.
Pastor Cameron:But my heart is also recognized in my own life that my heart gets a little anxious. My mind gets a little chaotic. My spirit feels a little unsettled. With the continual, continual like, argumentativeness, the toxicity, the polarization, the demonization of people who are different from me. Right?
Pastor Cameron:So you have people on that far side of the of a political spectrum, and you'll have people on that far side of a political political political spectrum. And you have people all the way down the line and in the spectrum somewhere everyone kinda finds themselves. And I don't I know at this point, I'm I'm like, I just feel icky about the whole thing. Just being honest. I just feel like I need a shower with it.
Pastor Cameron:Right? Just being honest. And then, of course, with, what we saw in what we saw happen last night with it seems like the violence of political rhetoric hits, like, the front page of the paper and is on all of our screens. It seems all the more appropriate that we take a few moments. And by a few moments, I mean, a few weeks, even into a month, for this series to say, all right, what if we all kind of took a collective deep breath here for a second, and ask the Lord to speak to us once again about the condition and nature of our own hearts as it pertains to or in relation to the political process and an election.
Pastor Cameron:And where do my loyalties Where do my loyalties lie? Where am I a citizen of? What does that mean for my life? What does that mean for my values and for my beliefs? Who am I really as a child of God?
Pastor Cameron:So we're, gonna be talking, the the series is called Talking Points. And there'll be several talking points over the next 3, or 4 weeks. And, because I you know, I'm like I said, I'm 42. The first election that I have, like, memory of 1st presidential election that I have significant memory of is, the 1st year that, Bill Clinton was elected president. I know when I was alive for the Reagan, the Reagan era.
Pastor Cameron:Don't remember it. But, I would say in my memory, maybe some of you who have we'll just say, have longer memories and have more experience and wisdom. You remember more you remember more elections than I do. Maybe you would disagree with me, but I would say in my experience that it seems as though political polarization is at an all time high. Don't really remember it ever being, more polarizing than it is right now.
Pastor Cameron:And, unfortunately, that polarization has not spared the church. That polarization, exists in faith communities and Christian communities as well. People of different political, persuasions and beliefs and perspectives, feeling like they can't worship in the same space or have meaningful conversations or share their own opinions or perspectives for fear of what someone else in their own church would think or say or do or whatever. Church would think or say or do or whatever. And, and so I wanted to maybe address some of those things.
Pastor Cameron:I want to tell you what this series is not about. Okay? Just so you're aware right at the beginning. This series is not about getting you to believe, a certain way, about a certain candidate, or about a certain political side, or about a certain perspective. I I won't be preaching my own personal political ideology, nor should you ever walk away from anything in this series saying something like, well, what we learned today is that conduit believes this political thing Or in this political direction.
Pastor Cameron:Or this certain political perspective or policy. We do not have political policies here. Because political policies often, as we have seen en masse, have done almost nothing but divide and create camps out of people, meant to keep us separate from one another in our own silos or camps of belief. We'll tell you what this series is about. This series, is about reminding you, reminding us, that as followers of Jesus Christ, all of your opinions, all of your sides, all of your perspectives, all of your policies, both political and personal, should be formed by the word of God.
Pastor Cameron:That everything that we hold, every opinion that we hold, every policy that we believe in, every perspective that we have should not be formed by a talking head or the most recent podcast or news article or by our Facebook feeds, but it should be formed by our understanding of and fidelity to God's word. And if it doesn't, then our political ideologies are bordering on idolatry rather than just helpful things for living. Something that can often happen as people living in a very polarizing world is that we become what some have termed, we become enmeshed. Enmeshment is this idea that, is that when we get when we get so tied up into a certain identity, whether this is in our case for what we're talking about this morning, when we get so tied up in our political identity, I am a conservative. I am, liberal.
Pastor Cameron:I am a progressive. I am a libertarian. I am a republican. I am a democrat. I am this.
Pastor Cameron:I am that. When we get so tied up into our political identity, that for someone to push back on that idea, feels like inside of you that they're attacking you at the very core of who you are. That they're attacking your very identity. That you're attacking that they're attacking the the person whom god has created you to be. They're not just they're not just, coming into conflict with an idea that you have.
Pastor Cameron:They're coming into conflict with with who you are as a person. Enmeshment is when it becomes impossible for us to separate the ideas that we have or the perspectives that we hold from who we truly are and prevents us from seeing other people apart from their ideas as image bearers of God himself. As a man or as a woman made in the image of God worthy of our love, worthy of our respect, and worthy of our service. How does things how does this happen? This guy Rufus Miles has this quote.
Pastor Cameron:It goes something like this. He says, where you stand depends largely on where you sat. Where you stand in the world depends largely on where you sat. Now, what does that mean? Well, how how do we make sense of that?
Pastor Cameron:Where you stand is, on an issue depends upon where you sat. Where I sat in my life is the kind of the cultural context in which I was born, raised, grew up in. The values that my family, taught me or gave to me. Kind of like the maybe you could say like the economic status of my family. What my social circles were?
Pastor Cameron:How was I brought up? What were the values of my parents? What was my what is my gender? Right? What was my ethnicity?
Pastor Cameron:What is my ethnicity? What is my race? What is the culture that I was brought up in? What was my the economic life that I was brought in? All of these things.
Pastor Cameron:Right? All of these factors, they form who I am. They form what I believe. They form the perspectives and opinions that I have. They inform the way that I see the world and others around me.
Pastor Cameron:Where I sat determines now where I stand or what my beliefs are. Right? How I see the world. What I think is important to me. How, the things that I'm gonna focus on.
Pastor Cameron:The the perspectives that I hold, the opinions and preferences that I have, what I believe even down in, like, very deeply believe in my life. Now, why would we have a conversation like this? It is important for us, especially in relationship with one another, as we're considering the vast spectrum of political beliefs, it is important for us to understand that your beliefs were not created in a vacuum. Meaning that your beliefs are not value neutral. They were create you believe what you believe.
Pastor Cameron:You are who you are. You you have opinions and preferences and perspectives that you have in some ways, large or small, because of where you sat in your life, because of what you experienced, because of who your family was, because of where you grew up, because of where your the values of your family, because of the values that you have now as a family or as an individual. It's important for you to understand those things. It's also important for you, for us, to understand that through the power of the gospel, through the transformation transformative power of the gospel, that I am that I am not resigned to adopt fully and carry with me the rest of my life. Right?
Pastor Cameron:The the the values for which sought to form me as a young man. Right? That the gospel changes people. Right? That's what I'm saying.
Pastor Cameron:And so maybe the perspectives or opinions, or positions that I had before the gospel are now being transformed through the Holy Spirit. And I no longer hold those beliefs. I no longer hold those things. I no longer think these things over here because the because through the power of the gospel, Jesus is transforming me. Right?
Pastor Cameron:So it's not a universal principle to say that, hey, well, hey, however I was raised, that's just how I'm going to be. Right? Not that's that's not what, that's not what the gospel preaches, right? That that there's power that we're transformed. But at the same time, it's important for us to understand that we were not formed in a vacuum.
Pastor Cameron:That we had influences in our lives. Why is that cogent to this conversation at all? Well, because most of us, most of us live in a place of seeing absolutely, like, absolutely zero conflict between our faith and our political beliefs and positions. We see 0 conflict in them. Right?
Pastor Cameron:The majority of us wouldn't say, yeah. You know, I believe in Jesus. He is my lord and savior. I follow his word. I I follow his word fully.
Pastor Cameron:But I have these political beliefs that are kind of like unchristian. Don't follow the kingdom of Jesus. Are not really in line with scripture. Most of us don't have that much self awareness even about our own about our own perspectives and beliefs to say that, yeah, I'm really kind of inconsistent between my following of Jesus and my political beliefs. Most of us are be like, no.
Pastor Cameron:I mean, everyone should believe exactly how I believe because it is the right way to believe, Obviously. And so then we come to someone with a difference of opinion who at the same time is saying, well, everyone should obviously believe how I believe perfect because it's perfectly clear how true it is. And it's their perspectives where they sat determines where they stand. Remember? It's their perspectives that convince them that there is zero conflict between their faith in Jesus Christ and their political beliefs.
Pastor Cameron:And so, at some point, we must have the conversation about what is actually going on in our heart. When we submit our lives to the policies and politics of the world rather than the policies and politics of the kingdom. And be honest with ourselves long enough to say, yeah. I recognize that I have been formed and my beliefs have been formed in the midst of a world that is broken and dark, but I am not of this world. I am a child of God, and I belong as a citizen of heaven.
Pastor Cameron:That is where the series is going. Okay? A few things here to begin with. It's important to recognize we said this in some ways already. Important to recognize.
Pastor Cameron:Maybe not even I I don't even know if important to recognize is the right way of saying this. I would just say, this is a truth that must be proclaimed and written on our hearts every day, all day, for all time. Right? All of our beliefs. Absolutely all of our beliefs, whether they be political, spiritual, social, economic, cultural, anything.
Pastor Cameron:As followers of Jesus Christ, absolutely every single one of our beliefs must bow to the lordship of Jesus. We cannot we cannot set up any belief system, whether it be political, economic, cultural, anything. We cannot set up any belief system that is contrary to the word of God. And as followers of Jesus, remain unchallenged by the spirit of God. By the word of God.
Pastor Cameron:Right? If we insist to say, this is what we must believe, We must be prepared to take that belief and submit it before the lordship of Jesus Christ. And in the submission of that belief to the lordship of Jesus Christ, we must be willing to let go of it as something that he declares contrary to his word and contrary to his spirit. But it is often in that moment where where we see the the stranglehold of fear, make us white knuckle beliefs, and and twist them somehow into into, like, biblical accuracy so that we're not forced to say the very things that I have held for so long. All of my life that have formed me throughout all of my life are something that I must let go of because of my submission to Jesus.
Pastor Cameron:Additionally, we cannot treat one another. We cannot treat one another or not just one another, but our neighbors as Jesus puts them. We cannot treat our neighbors with disdain, hatred, or apathy because they believe differently from us. This is a lie and deceit of the enemy That tells us that those who disagree with us politically have lost the right to be loved by us unconditionally. The question here is, can we disagree politically even amongst ourselves and still love unconditionally?
Pastor Cameron:If we if you don't feel like you can, if you don't feel like you have the the ability within yourself to love unconditionally in the midst of disagreeing politically, Know and be warned from the word of God. Right? That you have become enmeshed. There's that word again. To the point that you have lost your Christ like identity.
Pastor Cameron:Because when we elevate our political beliefs and enmesh them with our religious beliefs, then it becomes, as we have seen so clearly in mainstream, in the mainstream media and life, that it is so easy to vilify those who don't hold our political beliefs and perspectives as evil. The truth of god's word communicates this to us, is that as the world becomes increasingly and increasingly and increasingly more polarized, We must become more unified. Those who those who proclaim faith in Jesus Christ, those who submit to his lordship, Those who hold in their lives the authority of Jesus and the authority of his word in our lives. That as the world increasingly seeks to separate and divide and break apart and polarize and demonize that we must understand the charge of Jesus to increase in unity, in unification with one another. Because it is in our unity with one another, even in the midst of our political disagreements amongst ourselves.
Pastor Cameron:It's in the unity of the body of Jesus that the world knows the truth of God's love. Jesus said this in a few places. In John chapter 17, before Jesus went to the cross, we have this account of Jesus praying for several different groups of people. He first prays for his for himself. Then he prays for his disciples.
Pastor Cameron:And then in John chapter 17, right around verse 20 ish or so, he prays for another group of people. You know who that group of people is? Who is it? He prays for us. It prays for you.
Pastor Cameron:You know that Jesus prayed for you, and we have an account of Jesus praying for you. Not just not just that he's in heaven interceding for you now, which he is. But we have an account actually of Jesus praying for us in his ministry. And if there's anything that Jesus could have prayed prayed for for you, what is the thing that you would ask him to pray for? This is that's an interesting kind of, like, rhetorical question.
Pastor Cameron:Think about that. If we were to ask him as a church, like, hey, Lord. Conduit here. Could you please say a prayer? Could you pray for us in this way?
Pastor Cameron:What would we pray? What would we ask him to pray for us? Jesus, I think that whatever Jesus chooses to pray for us is probably, like, the most significant thing that he could probably pray for us. Right? He probably made Jesus made the right decision and what he prayed for all the time.
Pastor Cameron:Right? Yes? No? Right? Yeah.
Pastor Cameron:Like, you're kinda like, oh, yeah. Don't like it, but yeah. Uh-uh. Right? So what did Jesus pray for for us?
Pastor Cameron:Starting at verse 20 of John chapter 17. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. That's you. That's me.
Pastor Cameron:That all of them may be 1. Just as you are in me and I am in you, May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be 1 as we are 1. I in them and you and me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Pastor Cameron:Earlier in John's gospel, John chapter 13 verse 35, Jesus says, by this he's talking to his disciples. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples. If you love one another. The quality of Christian unity that Jesus prays for here is extraordinary. It is not the quality of Christian unity that is similar or unity that is similar to if you like join the lions club.
Pastor Cameron:And you all have kinda like you're all in the lions club together. So it's like, hey, cool. We're in the lions club together. Isn't that awesome? We all do the same things and show up at the same places and, do the same work.
Pastor Cameron:And it's like, it's good until it's not. Right? And it's like, no big deal. It's just the lions club. Just go to another club or the Kiwanis or whatever groups you're, you know, a part of.
Pastor Cameron:It's civic organizations, these things that do well and bring people together maybe for a common purpose. But in the end of the day, you generally have a an affinity for one another and a general affinity that brings you together. Like, yeah. We're unified. Just like the church, we're unified until we're not.
Pastor Cameron:Right? But the quality of unity that Jesus prays for here is so significant a quality of unity that we don't we we have a difficulty conceptualizing how we could be so significantly unified with one another in the way that Jesus describes here. Because how does he describe it? He prays that the unity of believers, the unity of the church would be the same as that of the unity between himself and his heavenly father. In the state like, distinct from one another, but eternally coexistent with one another.
Pastor Cameron:Like, deeply, deeply, deeply tied together. See, Christian unity is and should be a should be culturally disruptive and weird, because it it sends the message that that Jesus in all things in him supersedes and rises above everything that the world uses to polarize and separate us. The weirdness of Christian unity that even Jesus, prays for here, it begs one particular question for us that we need to consider as we consider our own political beliefs and perspectives. The question really is this, who who are we really? Who are we?
Pastor Cameron:We might answer that question a bunch of different ways. You might say, I'm a man. You might say, I'm a woman. You might say, I'm an American. Or you might say, I'm an American with, a Latino heritage.
Pastor Cameron:Or, you might say, who are you really? Oh, I'm a republican. Or you might say someone might ask you who you are. Oh, I'm a teacher. Or I work in sales.
Pastor Cameron:The question here is, how do we, 1, as individuals and then 2, as a group of people, how is our identity formed? Who do we consider ourselves to be? Because you can't answer the question of, like, whose kingdom are you serving if you don't know who you are? Couple months ago, we walked to the book of Ephesians. And I it would be, it would be, it would be saying it lightly to say that Paul answers the question, who are you?
Pastor Cameron:Who are we? Because that's really the whole, like, thesis of his letter to the Ephesians is about telling them who they are in Jesus Christ. Pretty much in the whole first chapter, he just is hammering home this one idea. In Jesus Christ, by faith in Jesus Christ, when you believe by faith in Jesus Christ, you are adopted now. As a son, as a daughter, as a child of God.
Pastor Cameron:He has taken you from being an orphan in the world to now being in his family. You have a father. He is yours and you are his. You've been adopted. And then he goes on to say, you have not just been adopted, you have also been redeemed.
Pastor Cameron:Redemption is yours, that god has brought in Jesus Christ, that god has brought you out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. That through the power of his blood and the raising of his body, that your sins have been forgiven, that the chains of darkness have been broken, and that you are now redeemed to new creation in him. You have been redeemed, but you haven't just been adopted. You haven't just been redeemed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Light.
Pastor Cameron:You have also been marked and sealed with the holy spirit that god has given to you his holy spirit, placed his holy spirit inside of you. And it is the holy spirit is like a mark or a seal upon you, guaranteeing the inheritance that is due you as a child of God coming in the future. You went from having nothing with no hope, with no future, an orphan living in the darkness of your own sin. And through Jesus Christ, you have been adopted as a son and daughter. You have been redeemed and set free from the power and penalty of the sin.
Pastor Cameron:And you have been given a hope and a future in the promised holy spirit. You are as new as you could possibly ever be. You cannot even so you it's like it's like it's it's not even like a new person. It's like the old person is dead and gone. And the new person has come.
Pastor Cameron:A new creation with a new identity, a new purpose, a new vision, a new perspective. Our identity takes a dramatic shift from orphan to child, from living in darkness to living redeemed, to living without a hope and a future, to now being set on a path to eternity. You are no longer of this world. And so in Jesus Christ, you do not live as the world lives. You do not share the priorities that the world has.
Pastor Cameron:You do not believe the things that the world believes. You do not walk in the direction that the world walks. You do not speak in the way that the world speaks. You do not think in the way that the world thinks. You are different.
Pastor Cameron:So different that the bible, both old and new testament, speaks about the people of God as foreigners and aliens in a world that is not theirs. Has anyone ever been to a foreign country and a part of a foreign country that is not, like, full of tourism. Like, the real part of the country. Right? Not the marketable type of the country, but the like the part of the country where ain't no one speaking English to you.
Pastor Cameron:Right? The culture is like fully that culture's own distinct and beautiful and complex and all of its beauty and all of its culture that it is. Because sometimes, like, we you can go to foreign places. And as an American, well, you can kind of you can kind of get along. Right?
Pastor Cameron:Because, like, I mean, you speak English, and we expect that everyone in all the world has to speak English whenever we go there. And, and when we, you know, you might go to a touristy part of a country, and you can kind of like muddle your way through interactions and restaurants and, you know, finding attractions to go to and ordering something to eat or drink or whatever. Maybe talking to someone once in a while, use a few words and you can kind of like, you can kind of almost fake it that you belong there. Right? But then there's parts of that country where if you go to it, it's like you couldn't possibly fake it if you ever tried.
Pastor Cameron:Right? You you could not it does not matter what you do. You stick out like a sore thumb. You are a foreigner. You are an alien.
Pastor Cameron:You it's like you have been exiled from your own country, and you are standing in the midst of uncommon ground. In a few weeks, I'm going to show you how in scripture this is exactly how scripture describes the reality of the people of God living in the world. Foreigners. Aliens. Exiles in a land that is not their own, sticking out like a sore thumb in such a significant way that it is impossible to fit in.
Pastor Cameron:This is who we are. This is our identity in Jesus Christ. This is who we should be. We are citizens of the kingdom of heaven first. First.
Pastor Cameron:We have been adopted, redeemed, and sealed by the Holy Spirit. And when that happens, the location where our heart lives changes. Well, what does that mean? What do I mean when I say that the location when you are when you are redeemed, adopted, scripture uses the, like, the description of heart, what we're gonna do is we're gonna scripture uses the, like, the description of heart, what we mean is like our passions change. When we are adopted and redeemed and sealed with the Holy Spirit by faith in Jesus Christ, our our passions, they change.
Pastor Cameron:Our affections, they change. The things that we love, they change. The things that are important to us, it changes. The things that motivate us, it should change. The things that we pursue in life, they change.
Pastor Cameron:Our vision changes. Our hopes change. Our future changes. Why? Because our identity has changed.
Pastor Cameron:We are no we no longer associate with the kingdom we used to live with live in, because now we we live and reside in our citizen of a different kingdom. And in that kingdom, right, everything changes who we are. All of it. Paul said in Ephesians chapter 5, he said, you were once in darkness, but now you are in the light of the Lord. Right?
Pastor Cameron:When we we when we were in our old identity, we were living in darkness. But now that we have been adopted and redeemed and sealed, we now live in the light. There is nothing more polar opposite from one another than darkness and light. They could not be more different. And what the word says is that when we come into relationship with Jesus Christ in a life changing way, we could not be more different.
Pastor Cameron:It means that we renounce the ways of darkness. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul describes this type of change by using the language of citizenship. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is possible in this world to have dual citizenship. Right?
Pastor Cameron:You can be a citizen of 2 countries at the same time. Have dual citizenship. Right? This is a worldly principle, not a spiritual principle. You cannot be both a citizen of the kingdom of God and a citizen of the kingdom of the world.
Pastor Cameron:You are 1 or the other. And being adopted into 1 is the renunciation of the other. When we come into the citizenship of heaven, we renounce all other citizenship. All other passions, all other affections, all other motivations, all other pursuits, they get done away with because we are now citizens of another kingdom. We're gonna come back to this idea in just a second.
Pastor Cameron:But it's important for us to understand what exactly this kingdom that we are now a part of is like. The kingdom of heaven of where we hold our citizenship by faith in Jesus Christ is ruled by Jesus, not by man. A kingdom is ruled by a king. Heaven is not a democracy. It is not a constitutional republic.
Pastor Cameron:Heaven is a kingdom and is ruled by a king, and there is only one of them. When Jesus was questioned by Pilate prior to his crucifixion, he was not shy to declare that he is the king of the true kingdom that exists. In John chapter 18 verses 36 and 37, saw this interaction with him and Pilate goes. It says Jesus says, my kingdom my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.
Pastor Cameron:But now my kingdom is from another place. Oh, you so you are a king then? Pilate said. Jesus answered, you are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this very reason I was born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth.
Pastor Cameron:Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. Now Jesus here, in answering Pilate's questions, uses a word play that he often uses in the gospel. When he says, my kingdom is not of this world. We think of that and we think, okay. What Jesus is saying there is that his kingdom is in heaven.
Pastor Cameron:We see language like that all the time. Paul, for instance, Philippians chapter 3, our citizenship is in heaven. Right? We understand that that even now Jesus is in heaven, in his heavenly kingdom, ruling there, sitting at the right hand of God on the throne. Right?
Pastor Cameron:So it's a perfectly, like, it is a beautiful, truth that we see in scripture. We hold that over here as being true. But there is another way in which Jesus often used the description of the world. When he says things like this, my kingdom is not of this world. He wasn't just talking about like this physical world.
Pastor Cameron:It was it's it would be the same thing as if Jesus kind of like if we were to rephrase it, Jesus would be saying, like, my kingdom is not worldly. My kingdom is not the same type of kingdom that exists within the darkness and brokenness of the world. My kingdom is different. This is why, we see often in scripture, in the gospels, I should say. Jesus talking about his kingdom, and talking about how the kingdom of God has, what, come.
Pastor Cameron:The kingdom of God is in your midst, Jesus says. In Mark chapter 1, I think it's verse 15. Jesus says, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.
Pastor Cameron:Both Jesus' purpose and Paul's proclamation in Philippians chapter 3 was not so much that you and I, as citizens of heaven, need to look up to the sky and pine for the moment that we get to escape this country that we're living in now to go to the real place of our destination, As much as we must understand that Jesus in the coming of Jesus, he has brought the kingdom with him. The kingdom is at hand, Jesus says. The kingdom is present. The kingdom is here. Citizens of the heavenly kingdom follow the example of their king, Jesus.
Pastor Cameron:We do not seek and pine to escape the world that we are in, off to another idyllic kingdom in the sky. But we bring listen. We, as citizens of another kingdom, we bring the heart, and life and principles of the kingdom that exists there in heaven to the places where we live now in the here and now. In the actual world in which we live in. We're not escaping the brokenness of our world to go to the greatness of his kingdom.
Pastor Cameron:We're receiving through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit the kingdom as it was brought to us by Jesus, and then living in the midst of the kingdom in the place where we're at now. We don't escape our worldly kingdom to be rescued by a heavenly one. Pastor, author, scholar Eugene Peterson had this, this tremendous quote. He says that the church, the believers of Jesus Christ, that the church is the colony of heaven in the world of darkness. That that we exist as a colony of redemption and adoption and Holy Spirit and love and Jesus and gentleness and and kindness and the fruit, all of the fruit of the spirit.
Pastor Cameron:We exist as the colony of heaven in the world of darkness. And this echoes exactly what Jesus taught his disciples to pray in Matthew chapter 6. Right? Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come and your will be done where?
Pastor Cameron:On earth as it is in heaven. That that we become a colony of heaven in a kingdom of darkness because we understand that we are not citizens of a worldly kingdom. We are citizens of a heavenly kingdom, and Jesus has brought that heavenly kingdom down when he came. And now we are colonizing a dark and broken world with the hope of the gospel. This means this means that our life here should be marked and defined by our stance on Jesus' kingdom priorities, not American centered priorities.
Pastor Cameron:That every every bit of our focus, our passion, our motivation, our desire, our pursuit, our heart, every word that proceeds from our mouth, every thought that we think should be motivated with the heart of the kingdom of God within us. Because we are not of this world. We are not worldly. We are heavenly. We exist as citizens of the kingdom of God.
Pastor Cameron:I mean, like, well, pastor, like, what do you mean? I don't get, like, what the difference is. Jesus' kingdom priorities versus American centered priorities. Like, listen. I'm not picking I don't wanna I'm not picking on anyone here in this moment, but I heard another pastor, saw another pastor as I was, listening to another sermon on this topic do something similar.
Pastor Cameron:And it even struck my own heart as indicative of the way in which, like, modern American political identity has sought to drown out a kid Jesus kingdom oriented identity in us. How many people here? Be brave. K. Ready to be brave, folks?
Pastor Cameron:Be strong and courageous for the lord is with you. Right? How many people here would say that with a fair level of confidence, if I asked you to tell me, you know, not perfectly, but you know you would be able to tell me what the second amendment is, What it says in general. 2nd amendment of the constitution of the United States. The bill of rights.
Pastor Cameron:Right? You know what the second amendment is? Yes. K. Yes.
Pastor Cameron:K. Alright. Same show of hands. Who knows what the second commandment is? It's got to do with, like, god and stuff.
Pastor Cameron:Right? I mean, The reality is the vast majority of us will be like, oh, yeah. Second commitment. That's the right to keep and bear arms. Yeah.
Pastor Cameron:Duh. 2nd command oh, okay. What's the second commandment? It's like, Sunday school. Older lady was like, phanograph, stone tablets.
Pastor Cameron:It was like, graven image Idols. Something like that. I don't not exactly sure. Listen. It's funny.
Pastor Cameron:It's also not. Actually, it's not funny. It's really not. Because it does display for us and communicate how, a political identity so fully saturates our mind, our hearts, and our spirits That we can, by virtue of what we believe and stand in and the policies of our life and the things that we uphold is true and noble and right, that we can, like, we can but when it comes to god's law, when it comes to god's heart, when it comes to the things that god has said is important, we're like, yeah. Not sure.
Pastor Cameron:Not sure. Not sure about it. What kingdom do we live in? What king are we following? So our last couple points for tonight or this morning.
Pastor Cameron:It's important for us understanding our relationship with one another and how we can disagree politically, but love unconditionally, and move forward as citizens of the kingdom of heaven to understand that the kingdom of heaven is diverse in its population and united in its purpose. John, in the, in the vision of Revelation chapter 7 verses 9 through 10, says this about the reality of the kingdom of heaven. He has a vision of the throne room of heaven. Right? And and, apart from it being like, oh, yeah.
Pastor Cameron:I mean, like, obviously, if they're all in heaven, they all look the same, believe the same, talk the same, think the same, do the same, all the same, same, same, same, same, same, same all the way across the border. Because that's what heaven is like. All the people that look like me. All the people that believe like me. All the people that grew up like me.
Pastor Cameron:All the people that came from where I came from. Me. Me. Me. Me.
Pastor Cameron:Right? The scripture describes a much more a much different, description of the throne room of heaven. In Revelation chapter 7:9 and 10, it says this. After this, I looked up and behold a great multitude that no one could number. From every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.' See, the kingdom of heaven is diverse in its population and united in its purpose of singing holiness to the lamb that is on the throne.
Pastor Cameron:What I think is particularly poignant is understanding even who Jesus chose to be his disciples. These are the 12 young men who would be the first, the first messengers of the gospel. When Jesus chose his disciples, one of the first people that he chose was a guy named Simon, but he had a title on the end of his name. Simon the what? Anyone know?
Pastor Cameron:You're not allowed to answer for your first service. Simon the zealot. Remember this description from Matthew chapter 1? Simon the zealot. Well, is is Zealot just like a fancy last name or something like that?
Pastor Cameron:No. Zealot was a political term in the, in the Roman colony and in, Jewish belief. Right? It was actually a political party. The zealots were a group of Jewish people who were, who zealously and violently pursued independence from Roman occupation for the Jewish people.
Pastor Cameron:And so they would often, create political and military uprisings to try by force to overthrow Roman occupation. They often carried swords or sicari. Right? You ever you ever wonder who the what what idiot disciple cut off the guy's ear in the garden of Gethsemane? It was very likely Simon the Zealot who always had a sword with him.
Pastor Cameron:Because the way that he was about to go and enforce the kingdom of Jesus was by force to overthrow the Romans. So Simon the zealot was on team Jesus, one of the 12 disciples. He also had a guy named Matthew, who was a anyone know? A tax collector who worked for who are the taxes for? The Roman government.
Pastor Cameron:Right? So you had Simon the Zealot, who was there getting ready to stab people in the Roman government. And then you had Matthew the tax collector, which is the guy he's most likely to stab. And they were both on this they were both disciples of Jesus. They could not be further away on the political spectrum of their day.
Pastor Cameron:I'm certain that this led to a lot of interesting dinner time conversations. But what's the point? What is implicit in the point here? Jesus was building something that went beyond political loyalty and ideology. Jesus built something bigger.
Pastor Cameron:He built something greater. He built something higher and deeper. Jesus was building an eternal kingdom, one marked by the principles of heaven, not earth. What may not be a well known or popular idea, but one that according to the witness of scripture and the what will be the crowd of heaven, this truth remains. As followers of Jesus Christ, you have more ultimately in common with a Christian that lives in Iraq than you do with a non believer who lives in Jamestown.
Pastor Cameron:You have more in common with a Chinese Christian living in the middle of Beijing than you do with someone living in the kingdom of darkness here in Jamestown. Because we belong to a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one. Over the next few weeks, some of the things that we're gonna be talking about. Later in this series, we're gonna we'll talk about some of the ways that Jesus interacted and Paul interacted with the political systems of his day. Exactly how did g if we exactly how did Jesus interact with the Roman government and the Jewish, the Jewish government that was around him and he lived in in the day, How did he go about doing that?
Pastor Cameron:What were those interactions like? We'll also look at some of the ways that we can engage with the political system. And that how we can also guard our heart against enmeshment and idolatry, and solidify fully our allegiance to the kingdom of heaven, ruled by our king Jesus, while also living in a world of darkness. But if we know that we're citizens of a kingdom the kingdom of heaven, and we know that Jesus is the king of that kingdom, And the question that is probably most important that we'll deal with next week is this one. What is important in the kingdom of Jesus?
Pastor Cameron:If that's the kingdom that we are citizens of and Jesus is the king of that kingdom, we live in submission to him, then it's probably pretty important that we understand what is important in the kingdom of Jesus. What are the policies? What are the perspectives? What are the opinions in the kingdom of Jesus? Because that's what we live for.
Pastor Cameron:That's who we are. There should be no other question that we ask regarding our like loyalty to a kingdom. And the great news is is that we have we have more information about that in the gospels than we have just about anything. Even if you have a concordance in the back of your bible and you go and you look up the word kingdom, Just look at the references to the word kingdom that Jesus himself uses in the gospel of Matthew. The kingdom of heaven is like.
Pastor Cameron:The kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of heaven is like over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven more in the gospels than he talks about anything else.
Pastor Cameron:And so it should not be difficult for us to read with eyes as eyes of citizens of heaven what is important in the kingdom in which we live, because Jesus talked about it nonstop. So we wanna know what political stances to take, what sides we're on, what policies are important. Look to the king and what he says is important in his kingdom of which we are a part. So we're gonna go next week. Let's take a moment and pray.
Pastor Cameron:Heavenly father, it is in your name that we live and move and have our being. And lord, we ask that you would align our hearts, lord, with your word that we would show and be we would show our loyalty to your kingdom, not our own, not the kingdom of the world. In Jesus' name. Now to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his god and father. To him be glory and power forever and ever.
Pastor Cameron:Amen. Amen. Conduit, you are loved. Have a great week. We will see you next time.
