The Failing of the West

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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All right, let's pray we'll get started Lord Jesus again as we open up your word

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We ask you to open our hearts and our minds send your spirit so that we might properly understand what you have revealed

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So that we may know what your standard is trust in your mercy because of how fall far we've fallen short

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But also through faith bearing fruit and keeping with repentance strive to do the good works that you've called us to do

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We ask in Jesus name. Amen All right, we've been working our way through the book of Exodus and we are almost done with Exodus chapter 22 and Again, a big reminder.

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This whole section is super heavy law We're looking at the civil law portion of the

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Mosaic Covenant. A lot of these commandments are specifically dealing with civil law issues

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And you can see then how the Ten Commandments Hook in to how the civil government worked in Israel So Exodus chapter 22 verse 28.

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Hope you're sitting down if you're not Brace yourself. Here's the command

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You shall not revile God or curse a ruler of your people Like America's favorite pastime after baseball, you know is tearing down politicians

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Marilyn you go right ahead. I Get I I've been known to post a

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Bible verse or two If you follow me on social media Then you will know that the pirate really is in control of my social media.

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Not the pastor so I do have a tendency to Send out messages specifically designed to say the opposite of what popular culture is saying

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But one of the things I have noticed going back to the election cycle 20 you know that the whole last presidential election it was awful and Because I have like 15 ,000 followers on Facebook.

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I get to see people's Facebook posts from like both sides of the spectrum and Was it was it the was it

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Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet a pox on both your houses? Yeah, because it's really fascinating you read right -wing social media and Wow, it's vitriolic you read left -wing social media and wow it's vitriolic and The funny thing is is that as a pastor

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I have to pastor Anybody regardless of what their voter registration says

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So it's like I find myself in some of the most awkward Situations and so, you know,

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I'll give you an example that you know, so with our Aletheia outreach You know, we have people that were serving in different parts of the world some of our

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Aussies are Socialists and They're and they they make no

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Apologies for it. They think that that's just the moral thing to do. That's what they are

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And when they talked to me when I was in Australia last year, they just assumed

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I'm right on board with him And I'm sitting there going don't say anything

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Bite your tongue, you know thinking I need to learn a lesson from my Norwegians You know, so I ended up asking a lot of questions a lot of questions, you know and and what and so what's very

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Fascinating is just so when we travel and we meet with Aletheians that are outside of the country I mean over and again they sit there and go why do all of you

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Americans have guns? It just seems so ridiculous, you know, and in you know, why do you not pay for everyone's health care?

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We do that and and you know, it's like I don't want to talk about You know, but you know, it's very fascinating so, you know, so the idea then is as a pastor

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I have to I it It's almost like being a referee in football

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You know, I my job is to like blow the whistle when people aren't playing nice so, you know, and it's not that I don't vote it's just that I You I you rarely will you see me express my political views?

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but the thing that cured me of politics was being this treasurer for the

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Republican Central Committee in California for the 44th and 45th Congressional districts in Southern California.

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I was the treasurer for the Republican Central Committee did that for you know, almost four years and Seeing where all the money was going and what they were doing that just cured me right up because I got to the point where I couldn't maintain a conscience as a

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Christian and Participate in that in any sense. So and I'll just say that Politics is there's a lot of temptations to corruption

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So it just cured me right up. That's all I got to say. So used to be a time I was very politically active and now

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I'm Religiously active. I I'm doing Kingdom work technically that I guess that counts as politics on some level.

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But yeah I didn't realize

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I didn't have to do that. Okay to show up and vote Okay So you can vote without registering for a got it, okay.

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All right, so In one of these days, I think I'm just gonna say, you know same claim some really weird exotic fringe

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Political group is my home, you know and see what it does. But anyway Yeah Are we supposed to as a as a church body refrain from endorsements

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Yes Yes Here's the thing a church can do whatever it wants it could you can engage in political speech it can endorse candidates

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But it may not be able to do all of that without losing tax -exempt status For the privilege of not having to pay taxes on the donations the paltry donations that we get in our congregation we've traded that for Let's just say lessened political speech

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When it comes to things like that, I don't I personally do not think that churches should be endorsing candidates

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Church my job as a pastor is to preach the word and to pray for the religious leaders who are an authority over us

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I don't think I've said it quite this way but being a pastor is a really strange job and the reason why it's a strange job is because I Literally have no power

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It's and I'm not talking about like Church Council the here's what my job is to do. Are you ready to preach the word?

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pray Give you guys the Lord's Supper baptize Rinse wash repeat and God the

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Holy Spirit. It's his job To convict you of sin and unbelief and it's through the word then that your political opinions are going to be formed

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And you're gonna note the political opinions and political ideas and thoughts Always will come up, you know at the time

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So, I don't know who's running for president of the United States, you know a couple years from now

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I have no clue, you know, maybe Trump will run again. I don't know and But my job is not to sell you vote for that guy or register with this party

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Because the one thing I've watched over my lifetime is is that parties drift? their platforms change

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You know, it might literally get to the point where ten years from now I would vote for a person who 20 years ago would have been unthinkable just because of what their party platform is

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But that things change in these in this so the idea then is is that my job is not to tell you who to vote for my job is to tell you what

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God's Word says what God's law isn't what God's standard is and Then you look at the candidates and sit there and go this person gets it

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And if they're elected they would govern according properly to a right understanding of what their job is

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As opposed to this person wouldn't and so, you know, that's kind of how you have to boil it down.

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Yeah God Jesus and let us make up our minds.

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Yeah, you pointed out right and wrong And then let us make up our minds.

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Yeah passage, you know that you're doing to us. So yes, you do

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Well, thank you, ultimately I just have a big mouth, you know

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I Was putting the best construction Yeah, it it doesn't doesn't prohibit it but the thing is is that it just really seems like a wrong vocation

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Because again we come back down to what Scripture reveals that God has created two institutions and they have different charters

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So the government's charter we see in Romans 13 the purpose of the government is to punish the evildoer and so we are to then pray for all of our political leaders and my job is not to get on social media and tear down that person from the other party or anything like that and The one thing

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I've noticed is that Every politician out there. They're all screwed up, you know, even the best of them, you know, they clearly are

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People where it's a mixed bag, you know I I miss Reagan because he at least had just he had like a visible compass

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You can tell how his decisions were being made One of the things I loathe about politicians from both parties today is

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I'm not sure what they believe Which makes it difficult for me, but I think that's the way things are operating right now where politicians kind of want to hold their values close to their chest because they might feel like they need to make a decision or a

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Compromise and that's the other thing the United States government operates at its best when when people are compromising

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Yeah, and so the and it's at its worst when everyone's rigid and no one's talking to each other

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So that the whole system is kind of funky if you ask me so my job is to pray for and so, you know

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You know, it was fascinating. So when I was installed I prayed for Obama by name

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Now I pray for Trump by name I don't know who I'm gonna be praying for in two years or four years or six years

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You see but the reality is is regardless who's in power who's an authority scripture actually explicitly

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Commands me to pray for them. Let's take a look at some of these texts and you'll kind of get it So the idea then is you don't curse a ruler or your people which would then kind of make it so that Christians we must set a

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Good example regarding civil discourse when it comes to political Discussions and debates so first Timothy chapter 2 verse 1 first of all, then

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I urge that supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgivings Be made for all people for kings and all who are in high positions

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That we may lead a peaceful and quiet life godly and dignified in every way

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This is good And it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth fascinating text so Remember the context that this is written

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First Timothy and second Timothy are prison letters Paul's writing these from a

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Roman prison, which is not known for their great hygienic

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Facilities He's writing this from a prison he's

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Going to be going to his death for confessing Christ shortly after penning second

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Timothy He is saying to pray notice there's not one ounce of acrimony or Political snide comments directed at this at the

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Caesar or the Emperor or any of these tinpenny corrupt magistrates or the corrupt tax system or anything like this instead

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Doesn't matter how wicked your government is Because I'm pretty sure

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Rome was about as bad as it gets Doesn't matter how corrupt they are

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You were to pray for them and this is pleasing in the sight of God what you want me to what

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Yeah There are some years. This is easier than others

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There are some presidents this is way easier for than others But it doesn't matter who's in office

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This is what Christ would have us do and This is also for the sake of the gospel because by God answering these prayers leading a peaceful quiet life you're gonna note the implication is is that it gives a free reign to the preaching of the gospel and God desires that all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

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There's one God There's one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus between and who gave himself as a ransom for all

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Which is the testimony given at the proper time for this was for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle

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I'm telling the truth I'm not lying a teacher of the Gentiles and the faith and of the truth Isn't it fascinating how

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Paul somehow can hook everything back to the gospel? You know the reason why we pray for rulers and leaders because Jesus died for us

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I Okay, all right so rather than taking to the interwebs and Tearing down our leaders we pray for them and then our discourse should be civil when it comes to ideas

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And so I find that that's kind of the thing that's missing today in today's political discourse everything is about trying to uncover

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Dirt in somebody's life. It's like look I found dirt I'm gonna throw this out onto the airwaves and that means that guy's an evil

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Terrible whatever or that woman is a what you get the idea, right? breaking the

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Eighth Commandment left and right That seems to be the the entire thing of political discourse right now

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When was the last time we as a nation had a really good? honest debate about Tax policy

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How our money is being spent how the budget should be chopped up properly?

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It's been a while it's been 1776 Yeah, so it was the Brits say so you guys you know didn't like taxation without representation

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How do you like it now that you have it? You know? Well, we have representation.

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Oh and a lot of taxation, too So, I mean, what was the last time we actually had a legitimate the nation was looking at a particular piece of legislation and it can go one way or another and there's thought and discourse and Discussion around the implications of this decision or that decision we didn't even have that when when the

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House and Senate voted on Obamacare. I remember the senator from not senator

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What was that congresswoman's name she basically said well we have to approve it so we can find out what's inside the bill

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Nancy Pelosi, it's like that's not how this is done You know

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Yeah, and exactly the Republicans do it, too So it's it's almost as if all of this nonsense

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That we're fighting about which is nothing. It's causing us to miss the important dialogue

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You know as Christians you know Where should our tax dollars be going?

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You know for a society that recognizes that the job of the government is actually to punish evildoers

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How then should our budgets? You know, we don't have these conversations anymore. The question is, you know,

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Russia Well, did they do this or not do that and the FBI this and the FBI all this is I had a boss of mine

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Particularly like but he had a pretty interesting saying he says you're sitting there stepping on ants while elephants are walking by I Don't know where that came from But it's like oh makes a lot of sense

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You're kind of focused in on this nonsense over here and this ginormous elephants just walking by you But that that's it's like almost as if everything is designed to keep us

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Distracted so that we don't actually put any thought into what's going on But as Christians we should be engaged in the actual things that matter

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Regarding our own Republic and it doesn't matter to me whether or not

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Trump paid this person that or all this other nonsense because all this stuff is just All these charges end up coming up bogus anyway

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Then everybody spends all of this time all of this emotional energy and all of this.

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Yeah on nothing Nobody goes to jail.

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I think a legitimate conversation that this country needs to have right now is What is causing so many?

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young men To want to go into these schools and gun down their classmates.

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I can tell you this Guns don't motivate people to do that There's something else going wrong in this society

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Something way wrong going on in the society One of the things I thought fascinating is is that the

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Texas shooting and then the one in Florida not too long ago Both those kids were bullied

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Terribly What are we doing to our youth? Why are we not protecting our youth and making it so that their education is something that helps them rather than destroys them

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What is going on in our society that these kids are snapping and becoming mass murderers

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Yeah Yeah Yeah, but see the thing is the bullying that we see going on in the schools that's going on in spades in social media

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You know Because I'm a public figure on the internet. I receive that same vomitous

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Garbage directed at me now. I'm almost 50 so I don't care You know some 18 year old wants to vomit on me and bully me.

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It's like that's nice. That's so cute It's like your kid brother. You just hold him by his head while they're swinging, you know, nothing ever lands, but for other people, you know

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Younger and less mature. That's the kind of stuff that cuts and tears down But we're not having that conversation

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We're not having that conversation. What are we talking about? So, yeah

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I think You know, what's fascinating is is that they our government made a conscious decision to remove

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God from the schools It looks to me like the devil came into the vacuum Since 1950 98 % of school of mass shootings have taken place inside of gun -free zones.

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Yeah Yeah So we

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There's some real problems in our Republic that we need to address but I think we are as distracted as they come it's like tabloid politics has taken over and I Don't see how you can get the work of this nation accomplished with tabloid politics.

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I Just don't see it. You're gonna say something Yeah And that's the other thing we had better start thinking for ourselves and stop letting the networks think for us and I don't care if the network that you're watching is as You know claims to be as conservative as they get

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Ultimately, you have to own these arguments you have to own Your understanding of these things you think think of it this way we understand this within Christianity Alright, is anybody born a

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Christian? nobody There are no grandkids in the kingdom of God.

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There are only kids and If somebody doesn't own their faith, are they a

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Christian? No, we get this. So Maryland, you don't get to believe for mark.

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You can't I know you want to But you can't and mark you can't believe for your wife

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In Maryland, you can't believe for Christina. You just can't do it and I can't believe for you

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Each and every one of us is an individual citizen within the kingdom of God and collectively we are a congregation but the reality of the situation is is that my big critique of what's going on in this nation, there are kids who are

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Given the privilege to vote who have no clue what it means to actually be an American and they went to school in America They weren't taught

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The same way I was taught the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and Taught about the

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Revolutionary War and what sparked it and what are the primary value systems in political theory that make us different?

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Than all of the other nations on the planet you know when I was growing up there was a real sense in which our

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Republic was a shining light. I loved the way Reagan would twist the scriptures where he would make the

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United States the city shining on the hill, right? He was a little slippery that way

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But the idea was if you think of it if you've seen the movie gladiator, you know, you got

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Maximus He would talk about he talked about the Roman Empire as you know as Rome is the light

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I've seen the other I've seen the other nations of the world in their darkness and you think of it as screwed up as this country is

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Do some traveling Leave this area and travel to a third world nation

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We wear our wealth on our properties Those people wear their poverty on their property where we have well manicured

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Wonderful buildings with with new roofs and paved roads and all this kind you might complain about the potholes in the spring

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But travel to a third world nation They would die to trade places with you

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Because you have running water You have paved roads And they don't have any of that At the walk four miles to the closest fresh water spring where the water isn't polluted

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And they have to carry their water back to where they live so as messed up as our system is

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It's still one of the best systems that humans have put together And the whole concept behind what makes this country great is a complete distrust of the government

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Which is kind of fascinating if you think about it you read to Tocqueville Have you read it Alexis to Tocqueville's democracy in America?

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The brilliance of the American system is it's taken all the power and so widely diffused it

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It's impossible for one human being to change anything on their own They have to build consensus, and they got to get a whole bunch of buy -in from The president to the

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Congress all the way down to governors and even postal workers So in order to in order to actually steer this ship of ours it would take somebody coming up and say

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I Have a great idea as a nation Let's do this, and if we come together, and we do this thing then these will be the benefits and People want to get behind that well right now.

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We're not talking about any grand vision or ideas or Solutions we're talking about how evil and wicked that guy is or that woman is or how stupid that person is and it's over and over And over again no real political discourse, and you want to get blocked by somebody on social media.

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Just say something that makes sense The danger we face, however, is that in the post -modernism of our society where there is no truth is also leading us into a post -constitutional era

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Yes This is not

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Bible study at this point. This is political philosophy. Let's talk about this for a second, okay? Post -modernity

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I know all right. It's something I've studied post -modernity is

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Anti -institutional at its core go back to the

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The 20th century Germany between World War one and World War two the philosophy that Overran Germany and Italy in that era

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Was the philosophical precursor to post -modernity? It's not exactly post -modernity.

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It's it was a little bit less Mature than post -modernity is now, but the basic theory behind it is is that there is no such thing as an actual objective truth and They get the idea from Hegel.

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Have you ever heard of the Hegelian dialectic? There will be a quiz on this next week.

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So you have to take notes so the way the Hegelian dialectic works Hey Hegel was a

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He was a Philosopher in Germany and he worked with this idea

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He was part of this irrational philosophy that comes out of Rousseau and Kant and his basic idea had to do with truth theory at least at this portion of his work and that He saw that where there was dualities that that somehow was a bad thing and So when he would see in political discourse or in a society

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Where there were dualities of good and evil this party versus that party and things like that His theory was is that truth really never?

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Ever went beyond the boundaries of a group so We as a nation as the

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United States We have a truth that we collectively buy into and our truth is our truth.

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Whatever is going on in Germany Who cares? I mean we're Americans, right? And so whatever is truth for us.

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It's actually synthetic It's not objective and it would the reason we are here at this point where the current duality is between Republicans and Democrats the way they are is

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Because of a bunch of other dualities that eventually synthesized So the way it works is is that you have a thesis and whenever there is a thesis put forward organically an antithesis will arise and They will stay in constant struggle

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Until at one point they synthesize they come together the duality ceases to exist and at which point a new thesis arises and then immediately a new antithesis comes and So the

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Hegelian dialectic then would in their way of thinking this is behind Marxist thought by the way

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All of the all of the Marxists and socialists of the 20th century

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This is their primary view on truth So there's no objective truth This morphs then when you get into Nietzsche's nihilistic concepts and then

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Meld it with Heidegger's concepts this morphs into this powerful cocktail

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Where basically the there's nothing meaningful in the world There is no such thing as an objective truth

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So then the question is is where do I as an individual find meaning for my

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Existence in this life if there's no such thing as an objective truth What I'm experiencing is just where our society has come to the natural then

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Outcropping of that is is that I can only find my meaning within a group

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This is where fascism comes from But as part of this then because they do not believe in anything that is truly that anything actually truly being an objective truth

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Institutions are built off the idea As a primary assumption that there is objective truth

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The church is built off of that and even the government because the government says Killing somebody is murder and we execute murderers

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Somebody who buys into this worldview would see a government that behaves in that way and somehow towing the line to An invisible objective truth is actually a threat to the group.

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And so they attack Institutions the government as an institution has to be torn down in post -modernity

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The church as an institution has to be torn down in post -modernity Anybody who believes in an objective truth is an actual threat because Where there is no objective truth, then we are all just to be free to be whatever we are

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Within our group you see it. This is why

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Transgenderism is like all the rage right now and all these 52 new genders that we've all discovered

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Yeah, because the people are just living out their truth I've said this before, and we'll run this into more simplistic terms

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Is that cut to the chase on it

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There is what we call a conscience that we have And that conscience is guided by the input that's been put into us from the previous learning

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And then we have So from baby on up we have learned what right is wrong

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What is the difference between right and wrong But it has gotten to the point pastor that What we think is right other people are saying is wrong and vice versa

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And there's a bible passage and it's been floated around Facebook here a little bit It's highlighted and I think

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Peter said something about it or whatever And I can't find it because I've just buried myself

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I was still listening to you but I was trying to find it here That it is prophesied that we're going to get to the point where What is right is going to be deemed wrong and what is wrong is going to be deemed right

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And maybe it's the beginning of the end or whatever But that's another story

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But saying that groups of people follow other groups of people

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That's the sheep scenario That's why we are considered The bible had it right

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We are the sheep We'll follow somebody that we think is right off a cliff

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However And then you can go back to following Fox News or CNN or whoever else is preaching this stuff to you

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You know we gotta be individuals Otherwise we will be led off that cliff

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Okay we can't be following the school playground groups

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All the time because just to keep us from being bullied You know some of these people that are being bullied

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Probably ask for it because they're kind of going off on their own way Alright and they're trying to be individuals no fault of their own

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And then you get back to persecution of Christians What's that? That's being bullied by people who don't believe in Christianity Okay I'm confused

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Now if you can unravel everything you said And put it in a sentence But that might take another hour

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And I respect that So the basic idea then Is that this is a world view that believes there is no such thing as an absolute truth

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Although that's a self -defeating proposition And you who believe in absolute truth

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You're an actual threat to society In their eyes

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And institutions therefore must be torn down So if you think of it this way

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Is that for the last 20 years There's been an outright overt movement within the homosexual community

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And where have they focused their attention? Two places Church and the state

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And there are a whole group of churches That have totally capitulated

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Totally And there's a whole group of politicians that have totally capitulated Now I want you to think about this

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So that's a bandwagon that they've jumped on Yeah but that's actually just part of the agenda They keep winning by the way

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Because now we're to the point where You Their goal is to make it so that There's no law in place

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But if you deny that there are 56 genders You're going to lose your job

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Now I want you to think about this for a second Do any of you just Your first gut reaction when you hear somebody say there's 56 genders

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And that we can't use pronouns like he and she We have to start using za and meh and bleh and bleh

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You know, whatever, right? How many of you just think your initial reaction This is the dumbest thing

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I've ever heard in my life Good, get it out of your system Because that's the dumbest thing you've ever heard in your life

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But I want you to think about this for a second That dumb Wants to run this government

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And as soon as they get power What are they going to do to you? Take your guns and kill us

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Okay, because We're talking about insane people at this point

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And it's totally irrational It's wickedly emotive

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Extremely aggressive And what you think right now Is just stupid

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You're not going to think it's stupid When they've rounded you up And put you in a concentration camp

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Because it's this kind of stupid That Germany was engaging in Before Hitler took power

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It matters that God made us male and female And as Christians And people who actually have a sound mind

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We have to literally say No We will not bend the knee to your stupid 56 gender theory

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You people are out of your minds And we will not let you take power Because when they take power

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This place becomes a totalitarian state That's what's at stake

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You see all of these little things along the way They keep winning all of these little things

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Bundle them all together And tell me if this country makes more sense today

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Than it did 20 years ago It's a constant erosion There is only one

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I'll tell you this Look at the church of entertainment within America These are the things that people are being raised up on I grew up really bad

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When it came to the type of movies that were coming out Regardless of the messages Who were you told to follow? Are you told to follow your heart?

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Well excuse me My heart is a sinful pile of junk And basically following that thing

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Will only send you down the path to hell itself That's what a lot of these people that are growing up That we deem the social justice warriors

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Or the up and coming people who are around my age Who have decided to completely buy that ideology whole hog

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And decided to tear down every institution Or any form of institution that would say otherwise

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Well that's why you get the Find your truth What is your heart telling you individually

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Is true for you Which might not be true for somebody else Now coming back to one of the points she made

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Or the questions we were discussing And I'll frame it this way then The question is As a pastor should

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I endorse a candidate? No But the day is coming When we risk losing our tax exempt status

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When the pastor of Kongsvinger says There are only two genders That's not political speech

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That's what scripture says But the way we're heading To say that publicly

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What scripture says Will be deemed political speech Because they're politicizing it already now

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You see what I'm saying? But where do you find hate from non -hate speech? Would you please give me a clear definition of what hate speech is?

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I don't know I don't know either Okay Hate speech is in the eye of the beholder

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It used to be that I could come up to somebody And I could tell them my opinion And if they had any gumption at all

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They would exchange theirs with me Yeah Okay And in a fight

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I mean in a marriage there's where the fight is But in a common discourse You know you hear each other out

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Okay We used to be able to do that Alright But now if I go tell somebody My true feelings on a situation

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And on being tactful But yet firm with them Oh my god

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You're being a bully And you know what? It happens in the workplace I've been told

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I have to be careful Because we're going to lose people this way Yeah But I'm kind of one of these guys that's right and wrong

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If you can't do it right Then you may as well find another job So One of the hallmarks of the

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Nazi administration Is that nobody could understand the laws that they were passing A totalitarian government on purpose

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Passes laws that make no sense And these laws that you're experiencing

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That are not written Because right now society is enforcing them They will eventually be codified

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And if you can't make any sense of them now That should be a warning sign to you The reason why you can't make any sense of them

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Is because you're not supposed to The goal of these kinds of laws

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Is to create fear inside of you And these are societally enforced presently

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They will be government enforced If we don't do something to stop it The whole purpose of this is for you to sit there and go

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I don't know what I can or cannot say So to save my bacon

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I'm going to say nothing Because you're going to note The only thing that I can figure out what hate speech is

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Hate speech is any speech That I could potentially give That would hurt the feelings of some immature millennial

44:20

Could be a baby boomer too Or a boomer, yeah You know, Pastor, since we met you and I We've heard each other's feelings on a

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Not daily, but a monthly You know, we have discourse Yes, yes But at the end of the day

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If nothing else got accomplished We've agreed to disagree

44:43

Exactly See, the thing is that the way human beings grow The way we grow

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I am not a god As much as my wife thinks I am She doesn't

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I'm not a deity I'm a finite human being with a set of experiences

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And expertise in a particular chosen field The way

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I grow Is through interaction with other people Which sometimes will require me to shut up and listen

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And other times will require me to ask questions And at other times May actually require me to sit there and go

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Wait a second How do you do that and that if this is happening over here

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And actually kind of have Hash these things out But all of the things that are happening in our society

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Are all designed to stop discourse To stop learning

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To stop thinking And when that happens

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Who's running this place? You So you're gonna know

45:54

When I work through the scriptures You guys have open Bibles You're following along with me when

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I'm preaching And when I'm teaching And you're asking questions And no questions off limits Because ultimately my job

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Is to make it so that by working together Through these texts You now own them

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And this is all part of your thinking And so the point I'm making in all of this

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Is as Christians what God's word says It requires you to understand

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Not only your faith But also your responsibility in your two citizenships

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You are a citizen of the kingdom of God And you are citizens of the United States And God's word admonishes you to be really good citizens

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Which will require you to think To engage in discourse And this is where the second institution comes into play then

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When the government goes evil And refuses to do what it's supposed to do

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Romans 13 To punish the evildoer And instead they punish those who are doing good

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The job of the church Is to say to the state You need to repent

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And you sit there and say But if we do that we'll be martyred

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Yeah, so? Yeah And that's the job

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And in the midst of all of this No matter how wicked it is We pray for our government leaders

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And while you're at it Although we live far from California Pray for that state It requires you to understand what's going on To be engaged

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And stop being distracted by tabloid politics Because God's word in Exodus 22

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Actually says that stuff's a sin So avoid it like the plague

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Don't let your advertising dollars be used to support it Engage in political discourse

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As Christians Informed by the word of God What is good and what is evil And if necessary Run for government