There is no such thing as an American Christian

Maybe not preach as much as I want to share with you some things from my heart. These things are, we've spoken about these things at different times over the last year or more, and yet I believe they are absolutely important for us to affirm in our hearts. Those who are new with us, welcome, and I pray that you would receive what we have to share this evening. So I want to begin by reading in Daniel chapter 2, Daniel chapter 2, and it's not that hard to find. It's the end of the major prophets, so you have Isaiah, Jeremiah, and then Ezekiel and Daniel. And Daniel chapter 2, and I'm going to read 36 through 45. So Nebuchadnezzar had received a vision. We've gone through the book of Daniel, and the recordings are available for those who want. He sees this great image with a head of gold and a chest of silver, and a belly of bronze, and legs of iron, and then feet of a mixture of iron and clay. And Daniel gives the interpretation. I'm not going to read the rest, but I'm going to read the interpretation. So Daniel chapter 2, verse 36. This is the dream. Now we tell the interpretation of it before the king. You are a king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, and the birds of heaven, he has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold, but after you shall arise another kingdom, inferior to yours. Then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule all over the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, in as much as an iron breaks in pieces, and shatters everything. And like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces, and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and the toes, partly of potter's clay, and partly of iron. The kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. But as the toes of the feet were partly of iron, and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with a seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces, and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and the interpretation is sure. And so the image shows the major kingdoms from the Babylonian kingdom right up to the return of the Lord Jesus. The head of gold is Babylon. He gives the interpretation. He says you are Babylon is the head of gold. The kingdom that would come after that would be silver, would be Medo-Persia. Then came the Greek empire under Alexander the Great, and then the Roman empire. And then he says that at the end, at the time when Jesus comes back, the empire will be of iron mixed with clay. So it is a loose affiliation, but it is weak in essence. And we're not going to speak about these. We've dealt with that on the video. The important part of the vision is not the head of gold or the belly of bronze. The most important part of the vision is the little stone that comes down and smashes the image and destroys all of the image, in other words, all of the kingdoms. Now it's important to notice that he says that in verse in the days of these kings, the day of the 10 toes, and we find that number 10, 10 horns again in the book of Revelation, in the days of these kings that God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever. And so the kingdom of God, because that's what he's speaking about, the kingdom of God will consume all the other kingdoms. The other kingdoms disappear and cease to exist. In fact, if you go to verse 35 in the actual vision, it says the iron, the clay, the bronze and the silver and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floor. The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. So when he comes, he does not convert any of the kingdoms of this world into his kingdom. These kingdoms are all destroyed. And the bad news is that one of those kingdoms that will be destroyed is the American kingdom. England will not be anymore. Germany will not be anymore. There will be none of the empires, none of the kingdoms that we see today. They will be gone and they will be totally smashed and be blown away. And his kingdom will surpass them all. Now, I'll explain the reason why this is important in a moment. But on Sunday or Saturday night, we're going to speak from Luke chapter 8. And in Luke chapter 8, the first verse says, it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him. So we see Daniel introduce this idea of this kingdom. The message that Jesus preaches is the kingdom of God. He does not preach the message of the kingdom of Israel. And that was one of the reasons why they crucified him. Because they had hoped that he would be a political savior. But in the end, he refuses to make Israel great again. He refuses to restore Israel to its former glory. And he refuses to take the throne. Because his understanding is that he is building a new and a better kingdom. And so in John chapter 18, a verse that we have quoted at least three times in the last six months. Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. This is a clear statement. I don't need to interpret it for you. Jesus is saying my kingdom is not a political kingdom. If it was a political kingdom, my servants would fight. But my kingdom is not from here. My kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. It's in the hearts of men. Obviously that kingdom will come and become a political kingdom during the millennium. He'll set up his reign as we've seen in Daniel. That there will be a physical literal kingdom. And he will rule and reign. And David will be on the throne. And Israel will be there with him. And the church will be with him. As we rule the world through that period of a thousand years. And even then that is destroyed. And we see a new heaven and a new earth. And so what is the problem then? The problem is that we're living in a time in America where churches have aligned themselves with the kingdoms of this world. Churches have aligned themselves with the kingdoms of this world. And the church has become politicized. Everything is political today. Whether you wear a mask or don't wear a mask is a political statement. That you can do nothing anymore without it being interpreted in a political way, in a political sense. And so this spirit of the world has come into the church. And we feel the need to defend our particular brand of politics. Whether it is conservative or liberal. Whether it is republican or democrat. This has now permeated to such an extent that every one of us is, and if it is not, will be affected by it in the next few days, in the next few months, and at least in the next six months. One of our neighboring churches has decided to defy the order of the governor and remain open. Last Sunday they packed the sanctuary with over 3,000 people, cheek to cheek, touching. No masks, no distancing, no sanitizing, nothing. And the basis of that statement, and I've watched the statement of the pastor very, very carefully. I've watched video after video that he has made. He has been on just about every television station recently. And his statement is a political statement. The reason why he is doing this is because of the first amendment. Now please understand I'm not against the first amendment. I enjoy the privileges and the blessings that come from the constitution. But the thing on which we make our decisions as a church and as individuals is the word of God. We do not make our decisions based on the first amendment, or on the constitution, or on our political party's manifesto. We make our decisions based on the word of God. And if the word of God tells you to close down, you close down. And if the word of God tells you to stay open, you stay open. Now I'm not going to deal with all of that again, because we've dealt with it as we spoke about the obeying the government. And let me just make it clear, the government has not closed the churches. The government has said we cannot meet inside for health reasons. The government has not discriminated against the church. Now if we were in Las Vegas, if we were in what's the state, Nevada, it would be an entirely different matter. But here is the thing is the church is not judging righteously. We're making decisions or generally people are making decisions based on political agendas instead of judging righteously. The situation in Nevada is different, because in Nevada they have made one set of rules for the casinos, and they've made a different set of rules for the churches. They have discriminated against the churches. It is very clear, it went right up to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court decided for the casinos against the church. Now that is an order we would have to disobey. Because the order is discriminatory. The order is destructive and is against the church. But in California, the orders have not been against the church. And here's the problem, and I've written an article which we'll hand out afterwards for those who haven't read it on the internet yet, is that in order for people to forward their political agenda, they resort to lies. And I'm horrified by the fact that pastors will lie in order to forward a political agenda and say, well we're supporting the Word of God, we're supporting the gospel. You cannot support the gospel through lies. And the church has not been closed. One of the other lies is that the Episcopalian or Anglican church has gotten a better deal from Newsom, and that they're able to stay open, and other churches cannot. It's a lie. It's not true. The churches have not been closed. The buildings are closed. As we've said a few weeks ago, this is not the church. This is the church. And there is no legislation that forbids us from meeting together, from preaching the gospel publicly as we are now. The whole street can hear the gospel, and can hear the Word as we're preaching it. And so we must be righteous in our judgment. And we must make our decisions based on what the Word of God says, not on what my political agenda is saying. And so I want for us then to look quickly at some of the situations in the New Testament. And the first thing that I think that we must emphasize here is that is that America is not the kingdom of God. You can love America. That's fine. I'm grateful to be an American, not to be in South Africa anymore right now. Because you think things are tough here. You want to see what happens out there. It's almost impossible for churches to meet together in South Africa right now. The same in Zimbabwe. So we have privileges here that we don't have there. But America is not the kingdom of God. It never was. It never will be. And I'm not going to get into the debate as to whether it's a Christian nation or not. That's a whole other can of worms. But the fact is that Jesus is very clearly illustrating that there are two parallel systems. The kingdoms of the world and the kingdoms of God. And the two never cross over. The two are totally separate and independent. And that's the essence of Peter that we've been studying for the last year and a half. And I've reminded you and I'm going to remind you again that Peter begins and he says to the strangers, to the pilgrims, we are strangers and pilgrims. And I'm going to support my statement in a moment. But I know that this is a statement that is inflammatory. But folks, there is no such thing as an American Christian. There is no such thing as an American Christian. We may be Americans and we may be Christians. But the moment we come through that gate, we cease to be American, South African, Mexican, whatever. We are simply believers. We are simply Christians. And so you say, well, you know, is this in the New Testament? It was very much part of the New Testament. If you think that our situation is politicized today, then you wanted to live at the time of Jesus, a highly politicized environment. You had on the one hand, the Jews who were under Roman domination. They were God's people. If any, the only nation who could ever claim to be chosen by God is Israel. And yet they're under Roman control. And within Israel, there are fights and arguments. There are different political parties. And here's the parallel between then and today. All of those political parties were both political and religious. I made a reference to this in this last week. So you had the Pharisees. They had a particular political position. They were to the right of the spectrum. I think we all understand what we mean about the right and the left of the spectrum. So you have liberal on the left, you have conservative on the right, and you have somewhere in the middle. And so the Pharisees were on the right of the spectrum. They were not on the far right. You had the Sadducees. They were on the middle left of the spectrum. They had entered into an alliance with Rome. Rome had given the Sadducees the privilege to govern the temple, and to collect the taxes, and to rule Israel, and the high priesthood was appointed by Rome out of the Sadducees. So they're on the left. Then you have on the extreme left, you have the tax collectors. The tax collectors were Jews who had sold themselves out to Rome. And then on the far right, you had the Zealots. These were, I guess you would call them new Nazis. Not exactly apparel, but they would be in that category. They would kill a tax collector if they could, and they did, because they were traitors. They would take up arms to fight against those who had sold out to Rome. They would take up arms against Rome. And we know how that ended out in AD 69. It was the Zealots who rose in insurrection against Rome, and Rome came down and crushed Israel, and Israel never recovered even to this day. So that was the spectrum. In that spectrum were all of the Jews, whether you were in the center or whether you were on the right, all of the Jews were looking and waiting for their Messiah, and we've spoken about this so many times, that they sought to be a political Messiah, who would deliver them from the Romans, who would make Israel great again, who would set up the throne of David again, who would give them back all of their territory from the Euphrates all the way down to Egypt, and so on and so forth. This was something they all had in common. And so Jesus comes in the middle of all of this. And what position, and this is the question we must ask, what position did Jesus take? Who did he align himself with? Who did he align himself with? And I think you know the answer. He didn't align himself with any. He didn't align himself with the Zealots. He didn't align himself with the Pharisees. He didn't align himself with the Sadducees. He didn't align himself with the Romans, because really the Romans were on the other extreme. And I'm going to come back to this idea of the Romans. Jesus spoke against all of them. Woe to you Pharisees! Woe to you Pharisees! Now if Jesus had, and this is interesting, if Jesus had anything in common with any of those groups, it would have been with the Pharisees. From a human point of view, if you looked at Jesus, you would have said he's a Pharisee. His doctrine concerning the resurrection, concerning angels, concerning holiness, and all of those things, was on the side of the Pharisees. It's interesting that as far as I know, no Sadducees ever became members of the church. But many Pharisees, or some Pharisees did. And yet Jesus never identifies as a Pharisee. And in fact, he purposely avoids association with them. And as we'll see on Sunday morning, when it comes to the parables, he speaks to them in parables. And they say, why do you speak to them in parables? He says, because they don't have a clue. They don't understand. I'm not going to waste my time explaining anything to them. They're blind. They're blind leaders of the blind. So Jesus does not associate himself with any. So let me see where we're going. Acts chapter 1 and verse 13. This is the upper room. And when they'd entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas the son of James. Not Judas Iscariot, but Judas the son of James. Now don't worry, I'm not going to preach to you all 12 of them, or 11. But I'm going to highlight two of these characters. There is Matthew. Who was Matthew? A tax collector. On what part of the spectrum was he? On the extreme left. And there is Simon the zealot. On what side of the spectrum is he? On the far right. Do you see anywhere in the Gospels a debate or an argument between Matthew and Simon about politics? No. They join together in one common cause. And the cause is not Israel. The cause is Jesus Christ. If they had gathered around the cause of Israel, they would have killed each other. Because Matthew said, we must compromise with Rome in order to survive. And Simon is saying, no, we don't have anything to do with Rome. We kill them when we find them. And outside of becoming disciples and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, Simon would have killed Matthew if he had half a chance. But when Jesus called them and changed them, they became new creatures. What they had been before was gone. The only reason he is called Simon the zealot is not because he was still a zealot, but simply to identify him as different from Simon Peter. That's the only reason. And we still refer to Matthew as a tax collector, but he wasn't a tax collector. He was the apostle and the follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Simon was no longer the zealot. Simon was an apostle and a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And folk, I cannot see anywhere in the New Testament where Jesus stands on a political platform. Now here's the problem when we stand on a political platform. And this is the problem with the church in America today. The moment you stand on a political platform, it becomes us and them. The church has aligned itself with one political party in America. Do you think the church can now preach the gospel to the Democrats or to the liberals? No. In fact, the horrifying thing is that I had a comment on one of my Facebook things the other day where this guy scoffed at the idea of witnessing to Democrats. How far, how low has the church become that we will only witness to Republicans, we will not witness to Democrats? That only those who are on the right of the political spectrum are worth saving. Those on the left are not worth saving. God, help us. Jesus didn't die for Republicans. He died for all. And folk, I'm not bashing Republicans. The problem is that they are the ones who've aligned, taken a political position. And I've said this, I think I've said this before, but if I haven't, here it is. You ask any unbeliever in the street today, what is an evangelical? What is an evangelical? And they'll tell you they're pro-Trump, they're anti-abortion, they're for gun rights. Is that right? Yep, that's the way it is. What has happened to the church? What has happened to the gospel? What has happened to Jesus Christ? What has happened to the cross? When we are no longer recognized as those who are men and women of the cross, who are followers of Jesus, who preach the gospel. But we're recognized by a political agenda. God, help us. And folk, this is serious, because it's a struggle for the souls of men and women. And I know the internet doesn't want me to preach this message, but I have to preach the message. Because there's a struggle in your heart, and you're going to be confronted, and you're going to be demeaned, and you're going to have to, you're going to be attacked in the next months. Folk, here's the problem. When it came to Jesus being crucified, the famous argument, who crucified Jesus? The Jews and the Romans, both collaborated to kill Jesus. The far right and the far left joined together in their hatred of the gospel and of Jesus Christ. Now you go through the life of Paul, and I'm not going to go through that, because we're not going to have the time. But you go through the book of Acts, and you see how that everywhere where Paul went, the Jews turned against him. And then they get the Romans involved, and the Romans chase him out of town, or beat him up, or imprison him, or whatever they chose to do. And folk, here's the problem. Here's where the tire hits the tar. The true Christians in the next coming years will be persecuted equally by the left, those that are burning Bibles up in Portland, and by the right. I know of what I speak. In the last two weeks, including the last few days, I have had the most vicious, vicious attacks from those on the right, because I will not support that agenda. I have one agenda to support, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And at the same time, we're being attacked by the liberals, who are burning the Bibles, and who deny the gospel, and deny creation, and deny the existence of God, and the list goes on, and on, and on. The attacker came against Jesus from both sides, because he would not align himself with either. Because he said, my kingdom is not of this world. I have a different kingdom. And folk, we're in exactly the same position today. Our kingdom is not here. It is in heaven, and it's going to come down. We are committed, and we are married, and we are faithful to Jesus Christ. And both sides will attack us. Both sides are attacking me in a very, very real way. This morning, I had a phone call from a nationally known pastor. And the purpose of his phone call was to rebuke me, for the article that I'll give you a copy of. These are men that we're supposed to stand with, arm in arm, preaching the gospel, defending the faith. But while some of us are defending the faith, others are defending the Constitution. I'm not against the Constitution, but as a preacher of the gospel, I have no mandate to defend the Constitution of America, or of South Africa, or of any other country. My only mandate is to preach Christ and Him crucified. And incidentally, for those who may have noticed, there's no flag in the front of this church. There's a cross. That is what we preach. That is what gives us authority. That is what we stand by. Everything else is by the way. Acts 15 5. I need to move on. In Acts 15, this is the church in Jerusalem. Paul is out there. He's preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. This is a problem. How can you preach the gospel to Democrats? Paul, how can you preach the gospel to Gentiles, and then bring them into the church? No, you can't do that. They have to become Jews first, and then they can get saved. And folks, people are saying the same thing today. You need to change your political alliance first, then you can get saved. And so Paul comes to Jerusalem, and they summon him because there's a big division. There's a big argument right across the churches, just as there is today. And in Jerusalem, it says that some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up. This is in the church now. This is not in the council in Jerusalem. This is in the church. Some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. In plain language, they need to become Jews first. This is in the church. Now, I'm not going to get into more of that, but what is the conclusion? Because this is the council of Jerusalem, or as commonly referred to as the council of Jerusalem. It is a pivotal point in the history of the church. A decision is made by all of the apostles, by the twelve, and Paul, and Barnabas, and others who had come from all over the world. And this is the first time the church makes a united decision that holds on everyone. And the decision is, and I'm just paraphrasing, Gentiles do not need to become Jews to be saved, because they're saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. End of the story. End of the story. And folk, that is still the gospel today. If there was any basis of separating, based on ethnicity, or based on nationality, then this would have been the time. But they did not separate on nationality. They separated simply on whether you are born again. So Galatians chapter 6 verse 14. God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. The world is dead to me, and I'm dead to the world. Now folk, normally this is preached concerning immorality, worldliness, carnality, fleshly stuff. And that's true. But I want you to see the context as we move along. Because the context becomes ethnic, becomes nationalistic, becomes cultural. He says, when I got saved, I killed the world. I crucified the world. The world crucified me. It's dead. I have no association. Folk, the day we come to Jesus Christ, whatever the world represents, whether it is sin, or whether it is nationalism, or whether it is political affiliation, that dies. And we become new creatures. Now let me just interject here, that we have a responsibility to vote. That is our civil responsibility. When I became a citizen, I was told that I have certain responsibilities in exchange for the privilege of becoming an American citizen. And one of those responsibilities is to vote. And as I said a few weeks ago, we obey the government. If the government says you vote, you vote. And we better vote. If you have the vote, if you're a citizen, you better get out there and vote. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. You vote. You need to pray over this. This is not a decision you can make simply because my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, they always voted this way. I'm going to vote this way. Or everybody else in my family. You need to hear from God whether you vote for Trump or Biden. And I know some people who are watching the video are horrified that Biden is even an option. Of course he's an option. You need to ask God. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. And I'm not going to tell you who I vote for. But we have a responsibility to vote. I'm not saying we withdraw from the world in that sense. But we don't get involved. This is the problem. Christians have been swallowed up by this stuff. They've become emotionally involved. They can't talk about these things without getting angry. They can't talk about these things in an objective way. It's all become personal. And if you can't watch the news, then don't watch it. If you can't watch it without getting angry, then stop watching the news. And I'm going to come back to that idea by the time we close. For in Christ Jesus, this is the same passage, so we're in Galatians 6.14, now verse 15, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. In other words, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, avails anything but a new creation. In other words, in the context of the church, your ethnicity makes no difference whatsoever. The only thing that matters is if you and whether you are indeed a new creature, born again by the Spirit of God. That is our status in the church. Now I'm going to ask you that as we get to this election, which is another hundred days away or whatever it is, please don't wear your, what do you call the thing? Your button. You can wear your button out there, but don't wear it in here. Because we're not, we're not Democrats and we're not Republicans in here. We're new creatures in Christ Jesus. Folks, this, this, and you say, well, you know, because most of you have been hearing me for a long time on this. And you say, well, you know, what, what you're getting so uptight about? I'm getting uptight about it because this is real, folk. This is real. Within a year of my coming to this church 17 years ago, and some of you will remember this, there was a lady who used to sing in the church. And she came to me one Sunday and I'll remember it very clearly. It was outside the Spanish chapel in the old building. And she said, pastor, I enjoy your preaching, but I cannot receive from you because you're not an American. Not long after that, a number of families left us because I would not sing the battle hymn of the Republic. And I'm not going to get into that. A partisan song, which is a song that goes back to the, to the, to the civil war. God's truth marching on in that song is not the truth of God's word. God's truth marching on is the Northern army killing and conquering their brothers. It's the most despicable song that you can imagine. And yet it is sung in every church in America. And in fact, the breaking point for that, where that family, that group of families was when they found out, when I said that there are Democrats at the Lord's table in our church, you cannot, we cannot have communion with Democrats. God help us. God help us. When we come around the Lord's table, we are not South African or Mexican or American. We're not Democrat or Republican or libertarian or communist. We're blood washed saints of the and born again in the blood of Jesus Christ. And we receive one another on the same basis that he received us. Not on the basis of our righteousness or on our nationality, but on the basis of the work, the finished work of the cross of Calvary. Colossians chapter three, verse nine, do not lie to one another since you've put off the old man with its deeds. Notice the same ideas in Galatians. You've put off the old man and you've put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. So we are made new creatures. That's basically what he's saying. Now, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. There is no such thing amongst us. There is no such thing as an American Christian. There is no such thing as a Mexican Christian. We are either Christians or we're not. And when we come together, we come together as those who are blood-bought and washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only Christ that matters. Nothing else matters. Isaiah chapter 26, verse three, and this is where I want to leave you with this verse. This has been very much on my heart in the last couple of weeks. You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. If you're going to be watching Fox News or CNN, you will have no peace. You will get angry. You will be frustrated. And the closer we get to the election, the worse it's going to become. The worse it's going to become. We see in the world an aggressiveness. People are fighting over masks. People are fighting over the most, the smallest little thing, just set people off. And Christians have become the same way because they've allowed the world to get to them. They've allowed the nonsense on Facebook to get to them. But if we have our mind stayed, fixed. In South Africa, when you went camping, you pitched a tent and the tent was held up by what we call stays. There are ropes that hold the thing together. If you are tied, if you're staked down to the things in heaven, you will have peace. And the only way we will get through this with our hearts and our minds and our emotions intact, while Christians fight and destroy one another. And please don't feel you have to fight on my behalf. I will speak the truth. I don't fight back. And I don't want you to get involved in my fights. I have a job and a calling from God and I will exercise that calling by God's grace. But you keep your mind fixed in heaven. When this whole thing began, when I came back from Australia in March, I preached about the fact that we have an anchor in heaven itself, firm and steadfast. And when the storms come, we will stand if our anchor is in heaven. But keep your eyes on what's happening in the politics. Keep your eyes on what's happening in the church and you will become discouraged. You will become frustrated. You will become bitter. You will become angry. But he will keep us and he'll keep us in peace if we just keep our eyes on him. How many times have I spoken about Peter in the last six months in this year? As long as his eyes were on Jesus, he was able to walk on the water. The moment he took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink. That's just a New Testament illustration of this passage from the book of Isaiah. Folks, let's get our eyes on Jesus. Let's get our eyes on the things of God. And you'll see in the article I'm calling on you. Don't forward or repost or whatever you call it political stories, conspiracy theories, things that you cannot prove to be true. Let the world have Facebook from that point of view. But if you're on Facebook or on Twitter or any of these things, preach the word. Speak about Jesus. Speak about the hope that we have in heaven. Because the world needs peace. The world needs what we have. The world does not need Biden right now. The world does not need Trump right now. The world needs Jesus. And we have him. Let's let our light so shine that men will see it and glorify God. Father, we pray that you'd make this real for us. Lord, these things are so real in the world in which we're living. They're right around us. They're right down on every church around us. I pray, Lord, that we may be people of the Lord Jesus. That the only thing that identifies us is that we are Christians because we follow Christ. That the only thing that identifies us is that we are people of the book because we stand on the word of God and the word of God alone. And so, Lord, I pray that you'd help us. Lord, we're being pressurized by the world. We're being pressurized by the advertising campaigns. And we're being pressurized by other Christians to buy into whatever it is that they're selling. But Lord, I pray that you'd help us to only be moved by you, to only be led by you, to only follow you. I pray, Lord, above all things that you would bring peace and allow peace to reign. I thank you for the peace we do have amongst us, Lord. And even though we have different ethnicities and different political parties, I thank you, Lord, that there is peace. But I pray, Lord, that you would help us to preserve that peace. And Lord, that we would do everything on our side to respect one another because we've been born again. Lord, I pray that you'd help us. We need your help, Lord. We live in desperate, desperate times. And Lord, we pray for your presence amongst us as a church and in our families and in our homes and in our own hearts and lives. I ask this in Jesus' name.