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Morning, guys. Welcome back to another episode of Preaching the Choir. I hope you're having a good week, a good day so far. I started Preaching the Choir about a year ago. If you're tuning in for the first time, it's the Sunday edition of the Mike Force podcast, my typical podcast that I do every week. And the intent is and was to talk about things that are going on in my personal life, be a little bit more vulnerable, but also talk about the connection with my faith. Tomorrow's podcast with Andy Stumpf on the Cleared Hot podcast. Haven't done his podcast in about a year. I talk about this. I don't think I've done a very good job at including my faith in my life. Many people, for example, are seeing the nature of politics in our lives. People's entire Personas, all their messaging to their friends and family, is their political position. They're outcasting friends and family who don't agree with them politically. And they're being captured, being captured by the propaganda. They buy into it because often what I've seen is it gives them purpose. I have political friends, and some of those friends are pretty hardcore, but it doesn't change the nature of who they are. What I'm concerned about is when politics become religion. Friends who once talked about faith and family and their work and what was going on in their life exclusively now talk about politics. And that's very difficult to contend with because it's not a casual interest, it's not a hobby, it's not healthy civic involvement. They're not doing it because they want to change something locally in their communities. It's total consumption. It's like a quiet conversation happened and nobody announced it. The cable channel became their church, the social media feed became their scripture, and now they're preaching from a pulpit. Now these candidates are becoming people's saviors, like they're a God. Matthew 6:24 says, no one can serve two masters because Scripture warns us about exactly this kind of misplaced allegiance. We say God is first, but we let elections determine our mood. News headlines determine our peace. And as Christians, it seems like the political arguments determine our relationships. And that's not engagement, that's captivity. When your emotional state rises and falls with the latest outrage cycle, you're not a participant in political dialogue. You're being discipled by politics. And the fruit of that discipleship is obvious. It's anger, it's division, it's suspicion, it's fear, it's anxiety. James reminds us, the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. It's in James 1:20. But I see people so outraged, people I used to respect on social media that I used to follow because I enjoyed their message. Family of God. Now all their message has to do with politics. And it can't give you identity. It's not going to give you peace, and it's for sure ultimately not going to give you purpose. I think in the short term though, that's what it gives. Politics was never designed to carry the weight of your soul. Only Christ can do that. Paul gives us proper perspective when he says, set your minds on things above and not on earthly things. Not on earthly things. The danger isn't caring about politics. The danger is letting politics care more about you than God does. It's you waking up and the only thing that you invest your time in is capturing the next headline so you could speak from your social media pulpit. I've watched people who used to be joyful now become bitter. People who used to be gracious become suspicious. People who used to see neighbors, not only see enemies. The moment your political identity teaches you to hate someone made in the image of God, you've crossed a line your faith never gave you permission to cross. And I see it all the time. Especially those that virtue signal their faith to everyone around them. They're the first to pop off about how significant their faith is as a Christian, but they're also the first to judge, to cast stones. Look, our kids don't need parents addicted to outrage, our communities don't lead louder arguments and our hearts don't need another false God competing for the throne. So the question isn't about should we care about the world around us. Of course we should. I do. I think the question more aligned is are we being shaped by Christ or by the culture war, by the propaganda? So because one leads to peace and the other leads to constant turmoil and we get to choose every single day which master we're actually serving. Well, you know my answer. Three actionable things that you could do this week that I encourage you to do. One fast from political content for seven days. A seven day, no politics fast. I'm not asking you to do it forever. I'm not asking you to do it for an extended period of time. I'm asking you to do it for one week. One week. No cable news, no political podcast, no doom scrolling headlines. One week. Replace that time with scripture, prayer, conversation with your family or getting your health and wellness in order. If the idea of stepping away for a week makes you anxious, well, even more so you have the answer, exactly what you need to do. That's a sign that something has too much power over you, by the way, so take your mind back. Number two, rebuild a relationship across a political line. Pick one person, just one that you've emotionally written off because of politics. That person who you heard their perspective or their view. You saw their posts on social media. You didn't unfollow them because you're afraid. You just stopped interacting with them. I want you to call them, text them, invite them to coffee. Not to debate, just to reconnect as a human being. Refuse to let a voting booth destroy a relationship Jesus told you to protect. Lastly, do something tangible for your local community. Tomorrow I have a meeting with a senator over veteran issues in the state that's addressing issues with tangible solutions. So I want you to volunteer. Help a neighbor, serve a church, coach a kid's team, fix something broken. Trade online outrage for real world impact. Tangible impact. It's amazing how small politics feels when you're actually helping real people in real life. If we did just those three things, most of the tension in our lives would drop nearly overnight. I promise you. Stay informed, vote your conscious and stand for truth. Politics makes a terrible God and we were meant for something higher. Appreciate you guys. I hope you have a good day. Hope you have a good week. Till next time, peace.