Transcript
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I like to say on my podcast that politics matter because policy matters, because people matter. God works through process, in his power. He loves order, which is the exact opposite of what we see in culture today. It's time for people to be courageous for you, to be that one person, to share courage with other people. Stand up for that which you know is good and right and true. Okay, so I crowdsourced the topic of my speech tonight. I don't know if you heard that first part. I crowdsourced the topic of my speech tonight, and I heard that you want to hear good news. There's been a lot. There's been a lot the past few months, even the past few hours. So let me just start with this really good news, that Jesus is coming back. That we already know what the end result is. We already know what the future looks like. One day Jesus will return. And he won't come as a baby as he did at that first Christmas, but he will come back as a warrior. Sometimes it feels like evil is winning, like those who do wrong are getting the last word. But we are promised that in the end, Jesus will rule in perfect peace forever and ever. And there will be no more sin. There will be no more sadness. There will be no more sickness. There will be no more assassination. There will be no more injustice. And we will rule, united in Christ with Him forever, ever and ever. And so we look forward to that day. Right now we're living in this shadow of Charlie's assassination when we are reminded more than ever that while we look forward to that day and we have hope in that day, we are not there yet. That is where our joy comes from. That is what our hope hangs on. But we're not there yet. We were placed on this tiny spot of the earth, on this small speck of eternity, by a God who does nothing by accident, who does nothing arbitrarily. Nothing surprises him. Nothing takes him aback, nothing throws him off. He's never looking down and thinking, how do I clean up this mess? But he's actually sovereign over all of it. Psalm 139 reminds us that all of our days were written out by God before any of them came to be. And that includes your life. So what is the purpose that you are here on earth to suffer and to feel pain and to struggle with sin and to go through all of these difficult things that many of us don't want to go through even amidst the beauty of our life. Our purpose, of course, is to glorify God and love our neighbor. It's really simple. Our purpose in life is to glorify God and love our neighbor. And if you listen to my show, Relatable, you've heard me say this, saying a lot, what that looks like is doing the next right thing in faith, with excellence, and for the glory of God, when we don't know what to do. That is our mantra. That is our motto. But let me tell you, as a Christian, something that a lot of people don't want to talk about, but I know everyone in this room wants to hear and agrees with. One way that Christians can glorify God, one way that Christians can love our neighbor as we await the perfect and sure victory of Jesus Christ, is through politics. It's through politics. See, politics matter because policy matters, because people matter. Politics affects policy. Policy affects people. People are made in the image of God. People matter to God, and therefore they matter to us. And so Christians don't have an option, nor should we want the option not to be political. That doesn't mean that politics is the primary way or the only way that we love our neighbor. But it is a way to love our neighbor because our most vulnerable neighbors are affected by politics which affect policy. Our unborn neighbor is affected by our politics. The child who is confused about their gender is affected by our politics. And so I know there's been a lot of talk lately, should we even care about the midterms? We've got these other things going on. Let me tell you, I care about the midterms. I care a lot about the midterms. But let me also encourage you, because I don't want to come up here and say, oh, let's just forget about our disagreements. Let's just unite and move forward so we can win the midterms and win 2028. While I do think it's important to find unity, I actually think that truth is more important than that. I think truth is more important than that. And it's important to remember this analogy. If you're discouraged by the disagreements and the division and the debates, I understand it can feel demoralizing. But let me tell you why this happens so much on the right, seemingly more than it happens on the left. It's not just because we're dumb over here. There's a reason for it. There is a difference in the nature of progressivism versus conservatism. Progressivism sets out to destroy. And if you are destroying something, destroying Western civilization, destroying the church, destroying the family, it does not matter how you do, doesn't matter what tool you hold or what material you use, as long as you are destroying whatever institution or edifice it is, that's fine. You don't really have to agree on much. But on the right, on the conservative side, we are trying to build something. And when you're building something, you have to agree on a lot. You have to agree on the materials used, the tools being used to build, and most importantly, you have to agree on a foundation. And if we cannot agree on a foundation, then it's going to be very hard to build something together. But the debates and working out what that edifice looks like of what the future of America should be, there's going to be some discomfort and division within that. Truth divides. It's not always a bad thing. But let me tell you as Christians, what we cannot waver on, what we cannot compromise on. And not everyone is going to agree with us on the right about this, but our job is to pull them over in our direction, not to compromise in their direction, even if people call us divisive for doing so.