Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, November 5. Election Day and the REST of the Gospel.
Good Morning, Good Morning my brothers and my sisters. It is election day 2024 and thus a great time to talk about inner peace and what is really important.
today we talk about the political parties, the past, the future, and especially the peace that Christians should feel regardless of outcome. No, its not full of empty platitudes, you know me better than that – It is full of scripture and encouragement.
may God bless you and keep you and may you find YOUR SANCTUARY in the midst of this insanity.
Keep your eyes up.
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Good morning, good morning, good morning, my brothers and my sisters. Welcome to the Church Town Church of God, Tuesday, November 5, Election Day 2024. Got a lot to talk about this morning. You are looking at the sanctuary from the back left corner, a sanctuary that was constructed in 1849. The rest of the church was added on later, but the sanctuary was constructed in 1849. In the 1940s, early 50s, they built on those rooms and they used old, I mean, handcrafted wooden garage doors. They’re amazing and they also added those handcrafted, those walls that you see there, they roll up. They’re wooden and there’s some sort of tongue and groove and they roll up into the ceiling. Amazing stuff. They added that on and then they added on a little bit upstairs and then to the basement as well later on. Good morning everybody. There’s our beautiful church. There’s the beautiful stained glass that I talk about all the time. There has been twice now, I’ll tell you a little secret here of mine behind the curtain, right? There has been twice now that I have preached through every message on the stained glass in my nearly 13 years and I keep saying, I would say something like the series that we were preaching is all around you. Do you know what I am preaching? That sort of thing. Nobody’s ever gotten it. Nobody’s ever gotten it. Well, that’s not true. The very first time through, even when my daughter was a teenager, she got it because she reads the stained glass. Let me give you an example. Up here we have the message of no cross, no crown, right? You don’t get into the kingdom of God. Good morning. No cross, no crown. You’ve got to bear your cross if you want to be in the kingdom, the lamb of God, et cetera, et cetera. So there’s a little secret of mine that I’ve had that I just shared, just made public. Our beautiful instruments, oh, I’ve got to close this down. We had somebody here practicing yesterday. Let me close down the Yamaha and we’ll go get set up here for you. Jesus at Gethsemane facing east, the eastern gate and all of that stuff. It’s really neat when the sun shines through there. So good morning. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Oh my goodness. Hold on a second. There we go. Now you’re ready to see my ugly mug. There you are. There you go. We are situated in ready to go. Be anxious in nothing, in all things through prayer and Thanksgiving. Give yourself to God. Do not worry about today. Do not worry about tomorrow. For today has troubles of its own. Do not worry about what you will eat or drink or worry about all of the things of the world that everybody else worries about. You are a son or a daughter of the most high God in the kingdom of God. I’ve been saying this forever as this election tension has risen and I have remained peaceful. I know that regardless of what happens, I know who I am. I know who I belong to. I don’t think so. I had, okay, thank you, Rosie. Rosie trying to score some brownie points this morning on turning on the lights and we need to understand that, but we not just understand it here. Folks, this is where I’ve grown and I’m not patting myself on the back or anything, but I’ve truly have grown in my security. I have experienced craziness in my life. I have experienced extreme tragedy and death and things going on and there was a turning point in my life when my sister died of a heart attack on a Sunday morning and the coroner came to the church because she was listening to my sermon and they put two and two together. Jeanette Warner, Brian Warner, pastor, church town, church of God in the corner came to the church at the end of the service to deliver the message. My dad was sitting here and I got it and I said, we need to go stop pop from leaving the church. And so whoever was left gathered round and I shared the news and I remember this was a turning point in my life because he had lost his wife. His son-in-law was dead. Now he just lost his daughter and he looked at me, looked at everyone and he said, we either believe what you preach or we don’t. That was a turning point in my life that I needed to do what Jesus commands. Answer the question that Jesus answers. Who do you say I am? Do you believe this? I am the resurrection. I am the truth and the life. Do you believe this? My answer was yes. And since that moment where it went from here to here, I have been a peaceful human being inside. I see everything that’s going on and through my education and my study of history and all of those different things, I understand a lot of what’s going on. Good morning, Dan. I understand that Joe Biden didn’t step down from running. I understand the cabal that’s behind all of this. It’s a form of government throughout history. It’s an oligarchy behind the scenes that controls power, controls money, controls media, controls information. My feeling from the very beginning is that when the Democrat nominee was simply chosen by this cabal, that it was over. They chose the next president. I hope that I’m wrong. I’m going to go do my duty as I’ve always preached, but there’s just too much precedent set. We’re not talking about just Democrat. We’re talking about the uni-party. They don’t want a disruptor. They want a figurehead. This has gone on throughout history. So yeah, I see that and that very well may be the case. I think about my children and my grandchildren and the children yet to come and what this country will look like and be like. I want all of the individual liberties, I want that sort of thing, but what I want is irrelevant compared to the plan of God for the history of humanity. And so whatever the circumstances, I will live in the kingdom of God and I will be peaceful. And you should be too. If things become very unpeaceful for the Christian church, we know that that is a thing also. That is why so much of the Christian church has already jettisoned Christian teaching. You don’t want to get busted in this day and age preaching Orthodox Christian truth. So you get scared and you begin to compromise either out of just sort of a willingness, excuse me, or out of sheer fear. You’re already afraid or you’re just want the Christian umbrella, but you want Christianity to be what you think it should look like, whatever the case may be, or even those who use the name of Christ for even more nefarious means. I can use the name of Christ and open up this so-called church and we can rake in a lot of money. Whatever the reason may be, as we see in this post-Christian anti-Christian culture, a lot of individuals, good morning, under the Christian umbrella have already jettisoned Christian teaching. Because the information that Jesus teaches that we should not worry if we are indwelled by the power of God, that there will always be tension between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world, that the age to come will be ushered in through the discernment of good and evil. And we will see what that looks like on this planet before Jesus comes. But in all things we pray. Good morning, Mama Dee. I pray for you. I pray for your health and well-being in Jesus’ name. Right through prayer and supplication we give thanks. So again, there has been a great conservative wave sweeping over the globe. Is there an opportunity here in the United States for a conservative wave to sweep over? There is if there are free and fair elections, which I don’t know. And I think that that is, I read this morning from one of my more liberal Christian friends, you know, about bigotry and hatred and homophobia and all of those different things. Right? Parties are not on the ballot. Your morality is on the ballot. You’re missing the larger picture and that is the Marxist infiltration of our government and of our church. The Christian church creates those divides, those divides, those groups have been intentionally created and set upon one another. So there can be chaos. We’re missing the larger picture. We need to open our history books, which we don’t because you couldn’t do these things in America if American students were well-educated, American youth were well-educated. They’re not about these things. So the larger teaching is that this group, that group, this group, that group, this group, that group, and we’re all supposed to hate one another. And now you have a common enemy, right? We’ve got this potential dictator over here who’s going to hate everybody, but then we have the great unifying force of government that will make sure that everybody’s okay. That’s right out step by step of the playbook. So again, do people recognize these things? Not a lot of people recognize these things. Even a lot of well-educated, well-meaning Christians, your morality is on the ballot. Okay. How are we going to ever get back to a culture and a society in which the individual is responsible for themselves? Can we? Are we too far gone? The cabal has more power, more money, more control, more influence over every facet of culture. From the information streams on the media streams to the government piggy bank and everything in between. I know what I want. I know how I would like my children and my grandchildren and children yet unborn. I know how I would like to see them raised. I would like for them to experience individual Liberty. I would like for them to experience unbounded personal growth as they grow and who they are as children of God primarily, but they are so free to do so. I want them to learn personal responsibility. I want them to feel the weight of being a good man, a good husband. I want them to feel the weight of being a good woman, a good wife, a good father, a good mother. I want them to feel that weight because that weight, that responsibility molds and shapes and forms the individual to be the best image bearer of God on earth that they can be. We’re taking that away. Go to a government website and look up fatherhood.org like who’s your daddy? It’s pretty obvious. Wickedness is not hiding anymore. Marxism is not hiding in the shadows anymore. All of the things. And like I said, when they went behind closed doors and they told Joe that he’s not running and they chose Kamala, I believe they chose the next president, the next figurehead of their party. But we’ll see today. Who knows? We need the vote one way or the other. We need the vote. We need the vote to get out of this and at least stave it off. Or the Marxists need the vote to legitimize this. That’s the old saying, right? You vote your way into it, you got to shoot your way out of it. We’ll see. I don’t know. But my bottom line is for you today to be encouraged. Because as all of human history swirls around you, you, my dear brother or sister, are a child of God. And there isn’t anything that has happened, anything that is going to happen that God is not aware of. And there are going to be amazing things that he either causes or allows to happen. And there are going to be terrible things that he either causes or allows to happen. But the kingdom of God will not be shaken. In fact, we are told that the kingdom of God will assault the gates of hell, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. That’s encouraging. That’s encouraging. Kings and kingdoms will all pass away. But there’s something about that name. Indeed. And like I said, when I went and I shared that testimony earlier, and that’s what moved this teaching, that’s what moved this biblical truth from my head to my heart. When my father said, “We either believe this or we don’t.” And it wasn’t somebody else saying it far away, it wasn’t even in Scripture where I can just read it. It was real life application. What was this man, and what was I going to do next? We either believe the gospel or we don’t. And it moves it from your head to your heart, which many say is the longest distance in the universe, from your head to your heart. And since that day, I’ve been growing in this peace. And since that day, a lot more has happened. A lot more. And as a human being, I feel it, and sometimes it gets to me emotionally or spiritually. Yeah, sure. But ultimately my grounding is in the peace of the gospel. There’s a great book out there, I can’t remember the author, The Rest of the Gospel. And it has nothing to do with adding on to the good news. It is the rest that you feel in the good news. The rest of the gospel. So I’m going to tell you, I’m going to challenge everybody that’s listening to this, everybody that’s watching now, everybody who hears it, whether it is today, tomorrow, or a year from now on a podcast or whatever. Do you believe? Do you have peace in the gospel? We know as Christians what we want. Great. That is insignificant compared to God’s vision of human history. Are you okay with that? Are you okay having your living in the remnant of the Orthodox Christian church while the rest of the world is experiencing the wrath of God as they turn their backs and walk away? Like we said before, and I said it again on Sunday, this is called a sanctuary for a reason. When churches get away from calling their church spaces, churches, first of all, gathering places for those who believe, for the brethren, and get away from calling those buildings sanctuaries, it takes something away. It takes something away from our understanding of the gospel, and that is that it itself is sanctuary. It is spiritual and emotional sanctuary for the child of God. I hope that you take that. I hope that that encourages you. I hope that that encourages you to think and to read and to, and there is so much that Jesus has to say about belief, faith, eyes on him, eyes up waiting for him, his coming. There’s so much to say about finding rest and peace and fulfillment in the good news that he died for our sin and was bodily resurrected, defeating sin and the power of death or sin and the power of sin, death and the power of death in our lives. If that does not set you free, there is nothing that will set you free. Those are the chains that bind human beings and he broke them all so that we may have peace on earth. We may have peace on earth. In Luke 21, there’s just this little passage after he talks about, after he talks about the woes of what is coming and what things will look like and sound like and that there will be not just dissension, but there will be tragedy. There will be violence. There will be terrible things that will initiate the coming of the kingdom of God. And you say, “Why? Why?” As I mentioned before earlier in this live stream, it is so all will be able to discern good from evil. Believer, non-believer alike will watch man turn against man in various ways. We will watch how man treats their fellow man in natural disasters or through all kinds of circumstances. And even the non-believer will say, “What are you doing? That’s wicked.” And they’ll have an opportunity to turn to Christ because the church will be saying, “We know that that is wicked. We are coming against that.” You know what I’m saying? There will be a clear line of delineation as the pressure is put on humankind to choose evil or to choose good. And the only good in the universe is God, the creator of the universe. So these things will need to pass so that all will have an opportunity to witness good and evil and choose. And the church should be the Orthodox Christian church, the church that teaches the word of God should be that shining beacon of light that attracts non-believers at that time. That’s why we are taught time and time and time again as his bride to be ready for the banquet. “So that we may be,” listen to me, “sanctuary in a torn world.” And he talks about these things and then he says this little blurb at the end, “Be careful or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life. And that day will close on you suddenly like a trap, for it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” It’s a message that we hear throughout the Gospels and throughout the epistles. Be ready. Don’t fall into laziness, carousing, drunkenness, things of this world. Do not let your heart be weighed down by the troubles of this world, which is what this broadcast is all about. Do not let your heart be weighed down by the troubles of this world. Be ready to stand before the Son of Man. You will find peace in that turmoil. You will find light in that darkness in the sanctuary of the Gospel. And hopefully you have a place like this where the beloved can gather and find sanctuary. We’ll read that again. It’s not a stupid question at all. And maybe I’ll address that at the end. “Be careful for your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap, for it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen in your sanctuary. You will be able to find sanctuary and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man. You will remain blameless and spotless. His bride, we as a congregation, will remain blameless and spotless. We will be able to enter the banquet of the bridegroom before the door locks.” Remember that parable? So these things are happening. Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill. He called the Mount of Olives and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple. He was teaching and teaching and teaching and teaching. And that is what his bride, his church needs to be doing today. Teaching, teaching deeply, deeply, teaching his word so that it may be able to move from the head to the heart. And his children will be at peace regardless of their circumstances. There’s your message for today. Rosie, what I say is religion and politics intersect when politics become very theological. What do I mean by that? It means that, for example, in the Democrat platform, it is written that there should be nationwide abortion up to the time or even beyond the time of birth. It’s written there. That is a theological issue for a Christian, not for a Jew, not for a non-believer. Before a Christian, when we understand that our savior was created in the womb of a woman and we understand that there was never not a time that Jesus was not fully human and fully divine, we know that life begins at conception. That’s a theological issue. Now you have that written in your political platform. It doesn’t matter what you may say up here. You’re representing that party. You need to stand on that platform. When the Democrat platform says it’s okay if a preteen or a teenager before the age of adulthood knows that they’re in the wrong body and wants to transition from male to female, female to male, and the parents are saying, “No, it’s okay for government to step in, take that child and give them what they want,” when that’s written in your political platform, that’s a theological issue because you’re saying, “It’s good. It is not only right, it is good, and we should have the power to destroy the image bearers of the most high.” Regardless of what you may be saying out here, you’re standing on a platform that seeks to destroy from the inside out or from the outside in the image bearers of God. That’s where politics and religion intersect. And again, when we look at the various range of political ideologies, there’s always going to be overlap and intersection, and the Christian is always going to have to do their diligence in researching where candidates and where political parties stand on certain things. And as I teach the congregation, and as I said again last Sunday, Jesus Christ is not on the ballot. Don’t give me that garbage that voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil. It would not matter what human being you’re voting for, you’re voting for evil. Political systems are evil. Systems of man are evil. They are wicked. They are corruptible by nature. All we can do is the best that we can do. Research, know, and vote. Society is in decay. Read Luke 21. Society is in decay. It’s a matter of are we going to vote to accelerate that decay or to try to retard that decay? That’s what we’re voting for. Only in creation did everything go from disorder to order. Ever since God did that, things naturally go from order to disorder. Things are breaking apart. Culture, society is decaying. Are we going to vote to accelerate that or are we going to vote to retard that as long as we can? But 41% of Christians don’t vote because they don’t see the point where I’m a citizen of the kingdom of God. I get that. I just preach that to you. But we also ought to do our diligence and try to help create the best secular culture that we can. Surgically mutilate and drug. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Surgically mutilate children by order of the state. When you, that is part of your political platform that you’re standing on. Nope. Can’t get behind that. There may be conservatives that have no issue with that. That’s where you got to do your diligence. Who am I going to vote for? I’ll tell you what, I’m voting more for JD Vance than I am for anybody else. Talk about the next generation. Everybody’s talking about the next generation. You got two 80 year olds, a 70 year old, a 60 year old, and then you’ve got him. Everybody ever listen to him speak. Father, we pray that peace will come upon our nation. We pray that your will will be done and that every Christian who professes faith and submission to you will have peace. For we are in the kingdom of God now and inheritors of the kingdom of God on earth to come. We are sons and daughters of the most high. In Jesus name, we pray for the joy, the peace, the love that surpasses all human understanding to invade the Christian heart, to invade your true Christian church, and to be the shining city on the hill that we are to be, that will be attractive because we stand on your truth. That we are your image bearers. We are your special part of creation and we represent you. Lord, let it be so in Jesus name. Amen. Good Lord willing in the river don’t rise. We’ll see you Thursday morning for turning on the lights.
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