Good Citizens

Well, good morning everybody. Great to see you, whether you're here at the Crosspoint campus or you're at any one of our other locations or you are possibly watching us online, so glad to be with you this morning. I don't know if you realize this or not, but I actually have experience running for elected office. Some of you are going, "Really? I had no idea." Yep, I do. Not to brag, but I was elected the president of the student body of Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Georgia, back in 1987, 1986, '87 school year. And I don't wanna brag, but you're probably thinking to yourself, well, what was your platform? If you were the elected president of the student body of Sprayberry High School, what exact platform were you running on? Well, I spoke to my constituents, and here's what I came up with. First of all, we want a longer lunch period. Secondly, we want vending machines in the lunchroom. Thirdly, we would like to expand the lunch menu to not just be eating five-day-old chicken nuggets. I won the election. That was the platform that I ran on. I had basically, entirely, a lunch agenda as the president. And let me ask you this, how many of these issues that I brought do you think I delivered on? Zero, I delivered on nothing that I ran on. All of my platform, absolutely nothing. But I learned something as a senior in high school about politics in that moment. I learned that to get elected, you really need to be more of a thermometer rather than a thermostat. A thermometer just tells the temperature of the place that it's in, right? And so I found out, what do people want? Oh, we want this about lunch, this about lunch, this about lunch. That's what I ran on. I couldn't do any of those things, but I ran on it, instead of being a thermostat, which actually sets the temperature in the place where you are. Sometimes when you are a convictional person and you're setting the temperature in the place that you are, people don't want that. But otherwise, if we can get elected, we do it by just kind of feeling out what the temperature of the room is and saying that's what we want to do. So I learned some things about politics, and Sprayberry High School got exactly what they deserved: an unserious president of the student body who, when he spoke at pep rallies and whatnot, was pretty funny. That's pretty much what they got, but nonetheless. Obviously, the process that we went through in the election process in our high school was based around, kind of, a US model of what we do. There was voting and all of those types of things, right? Great, but we're conditioned to that kind of electoral process, but that's not the way it is everywhere. In fact, if you went to the UK, if you're in Great Britain, there's a monarchy, in case you didn't know that. There's a monarchy there. And you say, well, there's also a prime minister who gets voted upon and gets elected, yes. But formally, according to what they do in the UK, the Monarch at the time is who actually invites the prime minister to be the prime minister, even though the prime minister was voted on, it still has to be an invitation by the monarch, the king or the queen. Now, I don't know if you it, but in I think it was May of 2023, did you see the coronation of King Charles in England? Did anybody see any of that? Yeah, some of you enjoy that kind of stuff and all the pomp and circumstance surrounding it. You probably realize that he was in a very historic church where the coronation occurred, which was Westminster Abbey. Some of you may have traveled there before and seen that. But within Westminster Abbey, I found it interesting because you couldn't see this exactly on TV. You might've seen what they call the High Altar. It looks like this. This is the High Altar at Westminster Abbey. What you couldn't see, though, on the High Altar is the inscription that is written over the High Altar. And it's an inscription out of Revelation 11 that simply says, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. There's something kind of ironic, isn't there, that there, where the King of England was being coronated, he was doing so under an inscription that says, "The kingdoms of this world are become," this was the King James language, "are become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ." It's almost as if we see two different kingdoms that are set in relief against one another in that exact moment. Now, I think that we could ask the question, what does the Bible actually generally say about the kingdoms of the world, and what does Revelation specifically say? And I think that we can find some things that will be of interest to us and help to us in this moment, in this time. In a moment, we're gonna be in Revelation 11 if you wanna find your place there. Revelation, if you're not kind of familiar with the Bible or how the Bible works, just turn to the last book. You can get that maybe in a pew Bible or a Bible that's around you. Or if you've got it on your phone, you can certainly find it that way. It's the very last book that we have in our New Testament. So you can go, in other words, turn to the end and start backing up. That's how you'll do it. Revelation 11 is where we'll be in a moment. Now, revelation as a book is really unique in the New Testament itself. It's the only book in the New Testament that's written in an apocalyptic format. Now, by apocalyptic, I don't mean scary and frightening. What I mean is the word, kind of, apocalypse means a revealing. That's what the word revelation, kind of, the apocalypse means. It means that there's a revealing that is happening. And apocalyptic literature was very unique in the way that it was written. It wasn't written like we normally read letters. We normally read letters, people write to us, they say what they mean, they mean what they say. Revelation is actually written kind of surrounding the idea of sign and symbol because that's the nature of apocalyptic writing. You see it actually in the very beginning when you begin to read chapter number one. You see these signs and symbols that are given. And many times, the definition of those signs or symbols is given, and sometimes they're not. Because remember, John was writing this as a vision, and he was writing it and obviously writing it as an exile on the island of Patmos. And in so doing, he was speaking in somewhat muted or coded or apocalyptic language that his readers would begin to understand the significance of some of the signs and the symbols. Revelation's also not a book that's written specifically in chronological order. It's not written as a timeline. In other words, sometimes you're viewing what's happening on Earth. Sometimes you're viewing what's happening in Heaven. Sometimes you're viewing the past, according to John. Sometimes you're viewing the present in John's present. Sometimes you're viewing the future that is to come. So you can't really always be sure. You have to kind of walk carefully and tread carefully when you're dealing with what's called apocalyptic literature, because it's meant to be read a certain way, not the same way we would read everything else. But generally speaking, the book of Revelation, if you were summarizing it, it's about how witnesses follow the lamb wherever the lamb goes, even unto death, but yet will be vindicated because there is a kingdom that the lamb will establish in overcoming evil and setting things right. And so we can know that even in the midst of whatever crazy we're in, whatever persecution we face, that we're going to be vindicated. The lamb is going to win. He's going to make all things new. He's going to judge the enemies of God, and everything works out okay in the end. That's what the book of Revelation is about. Sometimes we get really confused and scared and freaked out. The Book of Revelation is not meant to be read as something that scares you and freaks you out. The book of Revelation is a book of hope, a hope that the lamb has overcome, the lion, who is the lamb, has overcome, and that everything is going to be made new, and He is going to set everything right eventually. Evil will be destroyed and dealt with and judged properly. And God is going to rule, and we will be with Him, and He will be with us. This is the great hope that we have in the Book of Revelation. Now, can this book speak to the present circumstance we find ourselves in in America? Does this book have anything to say about America? Well, in specific terms, no. It was written just a couple days before America was even a nation, right? So it's not talking specifically about the United States anywhere in here, but principally, can some of the present circumstances we face be things that we can learn from in the Book of Revelation? Can it speak to what it means for us to be good citizens in this kingdom? Well, I believe it can. In fact, I know it can. And I want us to turn our attention to the book of Revelation 11 so that we can see that, so we can learn it, so we can understand it. And I really wanna just point out two primary truths that I'll pull from this text in Revelation 11. And as I do that, I want you just to kind of dial in with me as I pull those truths together for us, and here's the first: A good citizen knows where their citizenship resides. This is the first truth I want us to see in Revelation 11. A good citizen knows where their citizenship resides. I want you to look with me beginning in verse number 15, which is, again, what we would've seen over the High Altar at Westminster Abbey. It says, "The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will reign forever and ever. And the 24 elders who were seated on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, 'We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was because you have taken your great power and you begun to reign. And the nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time has come for judging the dead and for rewarding your servants, the prophets, and your people who revere your name, both great and small, and for destroying those who destroy the earth.'" Now, this is a really remarkable piece of scripture that we're reading about, and what we learned last week when we were in chapter number four and chapter number five, we kind of saw the the centering vision of the Book of Revelation where we saw the the one who reigns, the one who rules the lamb, who is on the throne. And we saw the lamb, who is the lion, was the only one that was worthy, remember this, was the only one worthy to open the scroll. And so he would open the seals of the scroll, and each seal of the scroll, each of the seven seals had an accompanying sign or judgment that was with it. And you see those seals being opened as we progress through the Book of Revelation, particularly in chapter nine, you see those seals opening, and then you see the accompanying sign or judgment. But here in Revelation 11, we get to the seventh seal, and the seventh seal is opened. And what we see the seventh seal opened is that now the seventh seal opens up to seven angels with seven trumpets. And those seven angels with seven trumpets, which are really chronicled more in chapter nine, I was saying that about the seals, that was earlier, in the trumpets in chapter number nine. And you see each one has its own corresponding sign or judgment. And here in chapter 11, we see the seventh trumpet. And the seventh trumpet announces the victory over all the nations of the kingdom of Christ, all of the nations that have raged against the kingdom of God have now been dealt with, and now we see this as a shout of victory. And here's what we learn real quickly, listen, that there are two kingdoms, if we could speak in these general terms, the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. That's what we see here in Revelation 11, the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. You see, John, he's writing this from being exiled to an island called Patmos, not far from Greece, right? It's in that same spot, right? A Grecian island. And he's set in this place, and he's seen this vision. And with this vision, he's there being encouraged by this vision. But why is he there in the first place? Because what John has been preaching has been flying in the face of the empire, and the empire doesn't like it. And so now John has been cast away to the Isle of Patmos, and he realizes the people who will receive this letter, believers who are also being persecuted for their faith, will need words of encouragement and words of reminder that there is a kingdom that is greater than the kingdom that they're facing. Imagine being somebody who is under the tyranny of the Roman Empire. You don't have a voice or a vote in anything. You just are a part of that empire. And John is writing to be able to encourage, by the Holy Spirit, the reminder to all of these people that earthly empires do not have the final say in everything that occurs because there is an enduring kingdom that will reign, and we are citizens of that kingdom. You see what what good citizens know is that though we have a citizenship in an earthly kingdom, our citizenship really and truly resides in a different kingdom, in a heavenly kingdom, in an eternal kingdom. The Apostle Paul knew this really well. And in fact, when he was writing, he wrote some prison epistles, they called them, things like Philippians, Ephesians, right? He was writing these from prison because the gospel that he was preaching got him in loads of trouble with the empire in which he lived. And when he was writing in Philippians, he said this in chapter three, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." He knew where citizenship resided. And in fact, when he was writing one of his other prison epistles, he was writing Ephesians, listen to how he asked them to pray. He said, "Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." Isn't this an interesting reminder? You see, here's what Paul knew. Paul knew that we're all a part of an earthly kingdom. All of us fall under the realm of the governments that we live in. We all have passports in the country of where we reside, right, those of us who are citizens of the United States. Okay, fair enough. But he says, because we have a citizenship in the eternal kingdom, because we are now a part of the family of God, a kingdom that is not going to die away or diminish or be conquered, because of that, we are, listen to this, our primary citizenship is in this kingdom, and we are ambassadors to this earthly kingdom. You see, sometimes we get really confused, don't we? We get confused that we really have our citizenship in just this earthly kingdom, and so we clinging to everything in this earthly kingdom because we think that that's what's gonna be our salvation. Paul and John are reminding us that we are citizens of an eternal kingdom, a kingdom that will not fade or spoil or break or be conquered. And as a result, that means this: We are now ambassadors from that kingdom to this earthly kingdom. That's what we are, ambassadors to this kingdom. See, a good citizen, friends, a good citizen knows their priority citizenship. In other words, we could say it this way, the agenda of a kingdom citizen is kingdom first. That's the agenda of a kingdom citizen, kingdom first. Jesus taught us that, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you as well." Kingdom first is the agenda of a good citizen who knows where their citizenship resides. But let me show you a second truth, and it's this: A good citizen cares more about prophetic witness than political power. I'm gonna let you sit with that for just a second 'cause I know some of you're writers and you write it down. The others of you think that you've memorized it, and you haven't, 'cause I could ask you outside in the atrium afterwards, and you would have no idea what I'm talking about. A good citizen cares more about prophetic witness than political power. Now I want you to back up in Revelation 11, and let's go into verse one and see what happened prior to this announcement with this seventh trumpet. It says, "I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, 'Go and measure the temple of God and the altar with its worshipers. But exclude the outer court. Do not measure it because it's been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months, and I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth.' They are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands, and they stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying, and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want." Now, some of you're going, okay, now we've really gotten into the book of Revelation. Well, we have, because the imagery of Revelation is on full display in the beginning of chapter number 11. We've got temples and numbers and olive trees and lamp stands and fire and witnesses. What are all of these? Well, my goal today is not actually to unpack everything there is to know in all of these details. I'm getting at a bigger truth that we are talking about, and that truth is that good citizens care more about prophetic witness than they do about political power. But I will tell you that these symbols that we have in here are, in large part, allusions to Old Testament stories or prophecies. For instance, the temple and the olive trees and the lamp stands. This is right out of Zechariah 4, and you can go back and look at that. The numbers that are given to us there, 1,260 days, this is coming right out of Daniel 7 and chapter number 12 that we have there. What about the two witnesses? What is that talking about specifically? Well, what we know about the two witnesses is that they minister in the spirit and the power of Moses and Elijah. We do know that because we see the plagues that are talking about, like in the time of Moses. We see the shutting up of the heavens so that it won't rain, like in the time of Elijah. What is this trying to remind us of? Well, there are those who try to define who the two witnesses are. Well, I think they're Moses and Elijah, some might say, or you know, I think that there are others, some might say, and that's perfectly fine. Here's what I think that's being talked about here. I think the two witnesses are a picture, a symbol of the witnessing life of the church. That's what I think the two witnesses are. Now, it's possible you could have some spokesman for the witnessing life of the church when that time comes, but I think it's really trying to show us the witnessing life of the church, just like the 144,000 in the Book of Revelation is showing this picture of the witnessing life of the church. Oftentimes, symbols are just trying to give us a picture of something broader. Well, why in the world are there two of them? Well, that's pretty simple, because the Old Testament gives us a standard by which the testimony of people is validated. In Deuteronomy 19, it says, "one witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." So what the reminder is here is that, first of all, John calls these witnesses lamp stands. And do you know what we know from chapter one? I'm not gonna go back there. Do you know what we know from chapter one? Is that Jesus made it really clear that these lamp stands in this vision was the church. He already defined that for us in chapter one. So here, when John calls these two witnesses lamp stands, we're kind of going, wait a minute, Jesus already defined that for us early on in Revelation. So we can kind of get this picture that he's talking about the witnessing life of the church and a witnessing life that impacts the nations as a result. Their message is a message of repentance. You see that in two pictures. One, they're clothed in sackcloth. That was a reminder of repentance, and the message they speak is fire. In other words, you know, they're not like human dragons that are breathing out fire. That's not the picture here. The picture is actually the message that they are proclaiming about repentance and about the power of God and Jesus being Lord and the truth of the gospel. This is what's being pictured. You see Jesus, in chapter one of the Book of Revelation, is pictured as the faithful witness. In chapter 10, John is called to be a faithful witness in eating the scroll and prophesying as a prophetic witness about what he's supposed to do. And now in chapter 11, watch this, in chapter 11, the church is pictured like Moses, who was a prophetic witness to Egypt and Pharaoh and is pictured like Elijah, who was a prophetic witness to King Ahab and all those who built pagan alters. Now the church of Jesus Christ is called to be a prophetic witness in the world that we live in that testifies to the kingdom above all things, that's not trying to acquire all of the political power, but is more concerned with being a prophetic witness. But I'll tell you two things quickly about this witness. First of all, it's a costly witness. It is a costly witness. Look with me in verse number seven. "Now, when they," the two witnesses or the witnessing church, "have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will attack them and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days, some from every people, tribe, language, and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth." See, it's a costly witness because the witnessing life of the church is breathing a message that rages against the kingdoms of this world. It says that Jesus is Lord and that everyone must submit to Jesus because only He has the power to save. But you know the world that we live in strives and tries to do everything they can to say, no, no, no, no, I'm the boss of myself. I pick myself up by my bootstraps. I do what I want. Or maybe is infused by the power of Satan himself to think that someone other than Jesus is capable of saving them, and it's costly. They're killed, and they're celebrated in their death. Thankfully, we don't have to listen to these people anymore. Just imagine if a pagan world was rid of anybody preaching the gospel to them, and they could say, "Finally, we can do what we want." And now it's like a new Christmas time. They send each other gifts. These people are dead. It was undignified too. They wouldn't even bury them. They're just dead. It is a costly witness. And in our day and age, friends, listen carefully, we may not be in that moment right now in the United States, but that may be a moment that we see before the end of our lifetime that our witness to Jesus Christ might be costly for us. It was costly for John. It was costly for the people John was writing to. Their witness could cost them their lives. And in some nations of the world right now, it is the same. Might it be in our nation at some point. Maybe it possibly could be before our lives are over. I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that we need to be faithful witnesses and be more concerned with our prophetic witness than with political power. Because what these witnesses weren't doing was trying to overthrow Caesar. These witnesses were trying to proclaim that Caesar is not Lord, Jesus is. And they weren't concerned with having political power because they had prophetic witness. But let me show you something else. It's not just a costly witness. It's a vindicated witness. It's a vindicated witness. Here's what I mean by that. Look with me in verses 11 through 14. "But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered those witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. And then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here.' And they went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies looked on. And at that very hour, there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven." I know there's a ton, a ton of information in just those few lines right there. But here's what I wanna remind you of: God actually partners His judgments with the faithful witness of His people. Even death does not silence the witness of the church any more than Jesus' death silenced the witness of the kingdom of God. You see now, Jesus' life in us can allow us to be a people whose deaths even have an opportunity to speak. We will be a people who will be vindicated, and God pairs our witness with His judgments, here's why, watch this, because judgments alone don't bring people to repentance. And if you think that I'm just making that up out of nowhere, I'm not. Because after all of these various seals are opened and the trumpets and the judgments are all happening in the Book of Revelation, chapter 9, watch what Revelation 9:20 and 21 says. "The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, idols that cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality, or their thefts." So even with these judgments, they did not repent. But now watch this. With the prophetic witness of the church and now with these judgments, watch what happens in verse number 13 of chapter 11. "At that very hour there was severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. 7,000 people were killed." Pause right here. I don't want to turn this. Here's what's happening. Listen. John is making an allusion to what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah, where remember, if I can only find 10 righteous people, that's what he's making a reference to, and he's also making a reference to Mount Carmel where Elijah ministered because there were only 7,000 that had not bowed the knee. Those are the references that he's making right here. So he says 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. You see, it's an interesting thing that when we have a combination of both our faithful prophetic witness and the judgment of God, then all of a sudden, people begin to see the truth of the glory of God. You see, what I'm trying to remind us of here without going into monster detail with every detail that I could go into and I don't have time for, is this: Our prophetic witness matters, friends, it matters. It's used as a cleansing agent in the world that we live in, it actually operates as salt in the world, as light in the darkness. That is what our prophetic witness is all about. And we need to make sure that as a good citizen of a kingdom where we know where our citizenship resides, that we now realize we care more about prophetic witness than we do about political power. Now, so let me ask this question more straightforward. How practically can we, in this day and age, demonstrate our prophetic witness in the world? How do we do that? If that's what we're being called to in Revelation 11, how do we do that? I'm gonna give you four quick truths. They're gonna be pretty quick. You ready? Here's the first one. Vote. Vote, that's a way to be a prophetic witness. Now, before I talk about some of the nuances of this, let me say this: Nowhere in the New Testament are we mandated to vote as Christians. You know why? 'Cause they were writing to people in the New Testament who didn't vote on anything. There was no system such as this. So we don't have a command in the New Testament that we are to vote, nor are we mandated to vote for one of two parties. It's the lie that we've bought as kingdom citizens somehow in the particular political climate that we're in that you only have two options in terms of your voting. You do not. You have more options than that. And if you're like, "Well, you really don't because," because why? Because you want political power more than you want prophetic witness? I'm just here to step in it today. I live in Atlanta. You can't egg my house. But as a general rule, listen carefully, even though we're not mandated to vote, and some people may want to use their prophetic witness by saying, I'm withholding my vote because I do not approve of what is happening here. I think it's fair to be able to do that. But generally speaking, I think it's important that we use the stewardship of our vote. Generally speaking, I think it's important. Here's why. Because God actually deemed that His rule on earth would be through people. And we have a chance to participate in that in the system that we are in right now. But I would remind you of something, don't ascribe to your vote more than it is. We use our vote, listen to this, we use our vote as stewards, not as sovereigns. Hear what I'm saying. Your vote is a stewardship, but you are not a sovereign as you vote. The reason I bring that up is because what we are supposed to do is we're supposed to, as best we can, vote consistent with what we believe the Word of God teaches. And we look at the people. Yes, character matters. Stop justifying that it doesn't. We have a prophetic witness. Character matters. Policies matter 'cause they affect real people. But we use our votes as a stewardship, and we wanna vote as consistent with the Word of God as we can and what we believe would be best for our neighbor. That's what Christians do. We're not just about ourselves. We're also about our neighbors. But don't view your vote as sovereign. View it as stewards. The reason that I wanna remind you of that is because you don't know ultimately what the mysterious will of God is for your nation. You don't know. God is sovereign. We are not. God, in the mystery of His will, sometimes will will to act in ways that we think are bad and we wouldn't vote for so that He can accomplish His purposes in the world. I'll give you an illustration. I'll give you a few. I'll give you three, in fact, if you want, three, while we're talking. God put it into the heart of Assyria to take Israel and exile Israel as an act of judgment. Would anyone in Israel have voted for Assyria to take them over? Of course they wouldn't. And they would've said, "We can't possibly do that. We're the people of God." But God put it in Assyria's heart to do it. Now, watch this. But you can read in Isaiah 10, but God also judged Assyria for the way in which they did it because of their arrogance. You're going to be held accountable for the heart with which you vote. You'll be held accountable for what you actually do. But God is the one that is working circumstances for His glory and for our good, and we don't always know what they look like. If you were one of the disciples, would you have voted for Judas to betray Jesus? You wouldn't have, would you? Of course you wouldn't have. And that would've been the right thing for you to do because your heart would've been, no, I don't wanna see that, but it was God's will. It was the will of Almighty God. It's hard to imagine, isn't it? God is sovereign, is what I'm trying to tell you. You are not. I am not. Our votes are, it's a stewardship. We're not sovereigns. In fact, if you went further into the Book of Revelation, I wanna show you something. In Revelation 17:17, it says this. "God put it into the hearts of the kings to accomplish His purpose by agreeing to hand over to the beast their royal authority until God's words are fulfilled." Can you imagine that? God, in His sovereignty, put it into the hearts of rulers and kings to hand over their royal authority to the beast. We would never vote for that, and rightly so. But God is working all things. God is, in His mysterious will, working all things in accordance with His own plan. So what we have to remember is that when we keep getting bombarded with statements and being overwhelmed by stuff, we've gotta remember what the proverb writer said in Proverb 21:1. "A king's heart is like streams of water in the Lord's hand. He directs it wherever He chooses." God is sovereign. Jesus is on the throne. And all of these political aspirations that people have, they matter. We should be involved, we should vote, we should work, we should do all of those things because it matters to people. But they will come, and they will go. They will be here, then they will not. But Jesus remains. Jesus remains. So we should vote. And I know we get overwhelmed because people tell us this is the most consequential election in the history of our lives. Listen carefully. Maybe, maybe not. What do you think you know? How sovereign do you think you are? Maybe it is. Maybe it's not. But what if God's purposes involve your candidate losing? You're still accountable for your vote and the heart behind it. But what if God's ultimate purposes involve your candidate losing? How are you gonna deal with that? Huh. So that's the first thing that we can be a prophetic witness in, is we vote. Let me give you a second, that we stand for Jesus inside your own political tribe. This is how you can be a prophetic witness. Stand for Jesus in your own political tribe. What our prophetic witness means is that our allegiance is to king Jesus above party, above party. To test that, all you have to do is ask yourself this question: Do I critique my own party through the lens of King Jesus and His kingdom? Do I do that? Or am I too busy trying to justify all the wrong things because I don't want to speak about them 'cause I'm afraid it'll make somebody vote different than me? Because at that point, your heart is just political power over prophetic witness. That's not what Revelation 11's teaching us. It's teaching us we need to have a prophetic witness above political power and above political tribe. While I'm stepping into it all, let me just remind you what this would look like. If you are somebody who, generally speaking, votes Republican, great. Listen carefully, you then ought to be the first one in your political tribe that is speaking loudly about the fact that former President Trump is leading the Republican party in a wrong direction when it comes to the issue of life. Don't think I'm wrong about this. I'm right about it. He's okay with being pro-choice. He's made it clear. He's watered down the language of the Republican party platform and taken things out that formerly were in about the guardianship of life from conception to natural death. You should be speaking about that if that's your tribe. If you tend to vote Democrat, great, but you should be a prophetic witness in that context. And you should speak loudly against the grave evil of transing our kids, sometimes without, listen, moving in the direction, moving in the direction of wanting to do so without parental consent. That's not on the books as yet, but I promise you that's the direction that it's headed. These are grave evils we're talking about, and they exist in both parties. And I'm not trying to both sides here. What I'm trying to say is this, is that regardless of what political tribe that you're in, your responsibility is as a prophetic witness because your allegiance is to King Jesus. That's what your responsibility is. Let me give you a third truth real fast. Choose your kingdom family over your political tribe. Choose your kingdom family over your political tribe. In other words, here's what I'm saying: Love for God and for others in the body of Christ is more important than political victories. Your political tribe will not last, but your kingdom family will last forever. So be a prophetic witness to the world in this way, that even if you have people alongside of you who, for whatever reason, some of which could be very nuanced, have chosen to vote differently than you have, they voted for this party or that party or a different party or wrote someone in or didn't vote, whatever that looks like, that we come together around, united in Jesus Christ and we affirm our allegiance for King Jesus, and we can start from that place because it testifies to the world when we are not fractured, by the way the world wants to fracture us, but are unified around King Jesus and His work on the cross and through His resurrection on our behalf. Let me give you a fourth. Live like the kingdom of God isn't subject to political contests. This is how you can be a prophetic witness. Live like the kingdom of God is not subject to political contest. Sometimes we have so conflated the two kingdoms, the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, that we don't know what to do when our political party loses because we think somehow it's affecting the kingdom of God. It's not, I promise. The kingdom of God is not subject to the outcomes of political contests. Listen to this. Jesus may not be on the ballot, but He is most certainly on the throne. That's what we have to remember. So if you haven't put your faith in Jesus, I'm calling on you to repent, to turn from sin and put your faith in Jesus because He loves you and He died for your sin. He's your only hope of being reconciled to a holy God who will judge sin, who is coming to vindicate His people. Maybe you're here and you have put your faith in Jesus, but you may need to repent of where the kingdom of this world has taken some ownership in your own life. And you need to reorient your mind and your heart around the kingdom of God. Live as an ambassador here, friends, a prophetic witness because that's a part of God's plan for the redemption of the world, is the prophetic witness of His people. And here's what I'd like for us to do. I want you to take out the elements that you have, that you received when you came in on all of our campuses. We're doing this together as a church family all at once. If you don't have them, you can maybe look around and see if there's an usher that can help you get those into your hand. Just put your hand up in the air so that they could see you and they can help you do that. I know we're doing that at other campuses as well. It takes a little longer here at our Crosspoint campus. And if you would, if you just take off the top portion, just open it up, take it out, hold it in your hand. This is the bread. The bread is a picture of the body of Christ. Bread is a picture of the body of Christ. So just pull it up, take the bread out, and I want every one of our campuses, as you take that out, I want you just to hold it up alongside me. Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, broke it, and gave thanks and said, "This is my body. Whenever you eat, do this in remembrance of me." Take and eat. If you'd open the cup, on the same night, Jesus took the cup and said, "This is the cup of the new covenant, my blood. Whenever you do this, do this in remembrance of me." 'Cause remember, friends, the reason that we are unified in this place is because of what King Jesus has done in His body and His blood, dying in our place so that we could, by faith, be reconciled in Him through His death and resurrection, now reconciled to our Father. Take and drink. Father, how we thank you for your kindness, your mercy to us. We thank you that we are reminded, Lord Jesus, that you are the sovereign above all. You are the king. We saw that in the centering vision of Revelation 4 and 5. And now in Revelation 11, we see the one where the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. May we live in light of that as kingdom citizens, and may we turn our attention to you even in circumstances and election seasons and be reminded of who we are and where our citizenship actually resides and that we would be ambassadors, we would be prophetic witnesses in all ways for the glory of Christ. Because what you're doing in the world, we don't always understand, but what we know is, according to Romans, what you are doing is you're doing this for your glory and for our good. And so I pray that we would vote faithfully. I pray that we would engage the process faithfully. I pray that we would show the love of Jesus liberally. I pray that we would demonstrate grace often, but that we would show the world who you are so that you may be glorified. We ask this now in Jesus' name, amen.