I often wonder what elections would be like if abortion were not on the table-for either party. Thinking about how Christians would vote if that were a non-issue.
We are really close to that as Trump removed pro life from the R platform and Vance is soft there. Kamala appealed to the middle by changing positions on 15 issues. Trump changed on 1 - the wrong one.
No, Matt! You added to God's Word when you refer to 1 Peter! It does not include "murder"!!! Murder is bad enough... in all its forms including the murder of born and unborn babies... we Christians don't need to added one word about its atrociousness that isn't included in Scripture, rather we need True faith in Scripture alone... in Jesus' Lordship... rather than believe and be carried away by a foolish unspoken philosophy that Jesus didn't anticipate 2024 and thus needs our help: insert our extra words and lies and striving to earn earthly power and eternal rest. Murder of babies is BAD (pre-born or newly born). Evil. We Christians already know THAT and pastors do no favors to this generation of "believers" by stirring up MORE emotion against the sins of worldly people and power structures rather than stirring up our hatred of our own sins, which are aplenty. How can we love a people enough to follow Jesus our Lord's command to do to them as He has done and shown to us (washing Judas's feet just moments before Judas would reveal himself as the Greatest Threat from within Of All Time) when we are constantly being emotionally amped up against them? Can anyone in today's body of believers picture themselves washing the feet of Kamala Harris? Is she lower than Judas and are we higher than Jesus? 1 Peter, written to believers of Jesus who were scattered throughout modern-day Turkey, includes "lawless idolatry" in the list of societal norms the early Christians avoided. So, instead of add "murder" to God's list, hiw about focus on the sin issue we Christians are not only committing but desperately need to hear, since our political obsessions and love of power make our stance toward the lost (people in need of our vital gospel info) nothing short of incredibly proud and lacking all humility. A sermon on the "lawless idolatry" (actually on the list) is a more profitable sermon to the 80% "Christian" supporters who voted Trump... the man who makes attacks on the American Constituation, the government and has been impeached as well as convicted of many crimes. Christians have certainly turned to idol worship in their obsessive love of their temperal rights (while Jesus, on the other hand, didn't consuder His equality with God a thing to be grasped) and their distraction from the Great Commission in favor of their political party and Barabas-like leader... a man they refuse to be honest about... a guy who looks a lot more like a representative of the qualities that mark the dragon in Revelation than the political left does. But, wow, Matt... I cannot believe you are one to pervert what Scripture says to support a differing ideology, so please explain why you are trying to force a narrative that equates to falsely making Scripture support what you want to do with your life (including with your vote, which, according to Scripture is not the big deal you make it to be in comparison to defending your hope in Christ "with gentleness and respect" ~I Peter 3:15, which is an actual biblical command... while nothing about voting is ever stated... so maybe consider a whole sermon on gentleness and RESPECT toward all, even those who want the right to murder their babies... babies that Christians fail to demonstrate concern toward except those babies' living breathing bodies). Please remove your scales...
But isn’t it banned in 10 states which is based on handing control to the individual states and this hasn’t happened in a very long time? And couldn’t more strict legislation help people choose to be a bit more discerning in choosing to be active with a partner if it’s harder to obtain or even illegal in your own state? Is this statistical breakdown a reason to choose inaction and pretend to be above choosing a candidate? And the comment about helping the poor I can’t even spend that much time here. You think letting people in indiscriminately, not checking ID or testing to see if it’s a family member is helping those 320k missing children? Not to mention drugs, murderers and gangs. For real brother/sister?
As usual in this series, Matt has a great grasp on grace and the goodness of God but is blinded by a poor grasp of history and an inability to see past/through the current Christian culture. Let's start very basically. It's clear abortion is far and away the most important issue for Matt and the majority of his followers. If that's where you are, with even the littlest bit of awareness and or honesty with yourself, you'll realize/acknowledge that Trump is in favor of keeping legal 95% of the abortions that occur (with his ban after 15 or 16 weeks - the vast majority occur before that point). So, you're actually saying, whether you realize it or not, that you can't vote for Democrats because they would allow 5% more abortions. I'm sorry, but if you think that 5% more abortion and gender identity are really the thrust of God's vision of justice, you are reading the bible and especially the Gospels and prophets with your eyes closed. The OVERWHELMING thrust of them is economic justice for the poor and needy, for the alien. You are not to replace that with what is essentially a pet issue, abortion or gender (however right you might be about those issues). Those are not things that even register in the biblical view of goodness and society justice, at least not compared with economic justice. There's simply no way to get there except to replace what the bible/Jesus says with what you think is a more important issue than the ones he has given us. Now, that said, the democrats are more or less just as much slaves to capital, greed, and American empire as the republicans (maybe slightly better, there's that 5% again). SO, Matt is right. You can't vote for the democrats, but for different reasons than the ones he gives. However, you also can't vote for republicans. It's lose lose and it's their fault. Don't let anyone bully you into thinking God demands you vote for one of these parties.
Okay but ultimately one of these parties is going to win whether you like it or not, so to not vote is actually even worst them voting. This is because you are being passive in your role of being a follower of Jesus, Yes it is only 5% and abortion is horrible but even just one baby being saved is worth a vote. Jeremiah 29:7 English Standard Version 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. How are you seeking the welfare of the city by being passive and sitting back and watching what will happen, instead of using the voice God gave you? James 4:17 ESV So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. You know that 5% matters but yet you do nothing? you are called to be salt, so how are you using your saltness to preserve the earth? because we know what happens when we are salt yet do nothing.
RainbowFactory1, it is manifestly NOT 5% that abortion has been reduced since the overturn of RvW. Pushing it to the states (since a president is not meant to be a king) has meant a radical reduction in total abortions and a near abolition of it in some states. That's how the laboratory of democracy is meant to work in our "representative" republic - in the various states' policies. We should take-and celebrate-every step, every life, saved in the process of turning it back. And, economic justice for the poor is badly defined by the left and the policies can offer no virtue for the supporter of those policies and they offer "help" at the cost of some significant social problems the left ignore entirely. And the "alien," the "sojourner" is being conflated by the left with a far-too-wide cadre of influx to the U.S. Nowhere in scripture does such a group have God's affirmation for the destruction of society and forcible stripping of property in order to be lifted to the level of the citizen. In fact, on the contrary in scripture. Further, it is not gov't that is employed in it at all in the NT but the free and sacrificial action of the church for those who enter the church and the near community. Period. True, God does not demand a vote for a particular party. But, by his sovereignty of the "boundaries of your habitation" he does have expectations about stewardship. And these being discussed are not equivalent evils on the right and left.
@@AndrewKendall71 Fine, you don't want government to do it? You want to be a good steward? Work towards the church eradicating poverty. There are 733 MILLION people starving. If you think the church gets off the hook on working towards the end of mass death on a scale abortion could never touch, just because the government isn't supposed to do it and you voted for the philandering guy who still wants to enshrine abortion as a right up to 4 months, think again. Look, the church absolutely should freely give to the poor to stop hunger and poverty and abuse. But it's not. And people are dying because of that. I don't care who stops it, but it must be stopped. There are *over two thousand* verses about taking care of the poor. Meanwhile, abortion was around in biblical times, and you don't see mentions of it. Let's assume you're completely wrong in being against abortion. You're still wrong on the math. God doesn't seem to think it ranks with taking care of the poor.
@@AndrewKendall71 Those "significant social problems" are really not your problem. God shows us that we are to build economic justice into the very fabric of our society. Make sure that's done first, then worry about the problems. There are TWO THOUSAND PLUS verses about taking care of the poor. None about abortion (literally the closest you'll get is a verse in Exodus describing the unborn as property, compared with the mother, which is not described that way). None about gender (both of which, as Matt points out, were in play in biblical times). Be against abortion, I'm not certainly not arguing you shouldn't! But that's not where Christian biblical priorities lie. That is a cultural preference replacing a biblical mandate.
Only one thing - we've got to stop the "both sides do it" language about their marketing, their manipulations, their failure to take various actions or whatever. That language is used in order to preserve a false equivalence between the sides. Like it's "either this or this" mentality. It's not. One side is flawed, feckless, fails to do much more than talk, hasn't fought for the economy or cultural sanity. But the other is NOT its equivalent. It's the insanity, and abortion is fully unsupportable at any cost.
Both sides lie and say what people want to hear. The only truth is Jesus. There is only one thing to truly believe in is the LORD, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit.
All sin is "fully unsupportable at any cost." Please use Scripture to support abortion as THE sin that allows us to ignore all other sins, including the false representation of Jesus we convey to a lost world when we elevate the sins WE hate and ignore the ones we commit.
@@jennyk.2690 You've read much more into the original poster's statements than what he has said. No where does he suggest we should ignore all other sins. While ALL sins separate us from God, which is why we need our Savior Jesus, there are some sins that are more consequential than others. If I stole a candy bar from a grocery store as a kid (which I did on a few occasions), then that would be a sin. But the consequence of that sin pales in comparison if I drove drunk as a teenager and killed somebody in an accident (which I did not do). "Thou shalt not murder" is one of the Ten Commandments. I think it's reasonable to conclude that since scripture tells us we are made in the image of God, then "Thou shalt not murder" emphasizes the infinite significance that God places on human life...whether born or in the womb. The sin of abortion is forgivable, but certainly merits being elevated over many other sins...and doing so does not mean we are ignoring other sins that we commit.
@@idneilkell Our ultimate hope is in Jesus, not political systems. Having said that, government and rulers do matter. The Bible devotes two entire books to those topics, describing how Israel was both, blessed and cursed via good and bad kings. So it is important to do one's homework and vote wisely.
@@jennyk.2690 Please use scripture to support the framework of your argument, characterizing abortion as equivalent to an individual lying to another, or someone having lustful thoughts. Or, was it your intention to prove my point? Abortion IS different from many other sins about which a *government* has little or nothing to say. Abortion involves the willful termination of human life. Exodus 20:13 says so, Psalm 139, Leviticus 24:17 (pertaining to God's ethos about gov't), Proberbs 6:16-19, Deuteronomy 27:25 and more and more tell us God's view. And, Acts 5 tells us we ought to obey God rather than men when there's a disagreement between the two. "All sin is 'fully unsupportable at any cost'" obfuscates that there is a will by the side that seeks to enshrine abortion to use of the power of law to justify that and other sins (which, incidentally, tends to have the cultural effect of leading the credulous and the licentious to believe a thing should be okay with the church because gov't has said it's okay).
What an excellent sermon. Perfect timing in today’s issues.
Brilliant and timely series. Thank you for your boldness!✝️🙏‼️
Here on Election Day. Just needing to remind myself Who is in control and Who I find my safety in.
Great message ! Let’s get to work , doing the will of the Father. The days are growing short .
Love the intro videos and creative writing. Whoever does those does a really good job.
Thank you for preaching truth. As believers we have to stand up for what is right. Jesus is Lord!
Nice message
I often wonder what elections would be like if abortion were not on the table-for either party.
Thinking about how Christians would vote if that were a non-issue.
We are really close to that as Trump removed pro life from the R platform and Vance is soft there. Kamala appealed to the middle by changing positions on 15 issues. Trump changed on 1 - the wrong one.
THE wrong one? As if only one sin matters to God?
He is a showman. Pride
No, Matt! You added to God's Word when you refer to 1 Peter! It does not include "murder"!!! Murder is bad enough... in all its forms including the murder of born and unborn babies... we Christians don't need to added one word about its atrociousness that isn't included in Scripture, rather we need True faith in Scripture alone... in Jesus' Lordship... rather than believe and be carried away by a foolish unspoken philosophy that Jesus didn't anticipate 2024 and thus needs our help: insert our extra words and lies and striving to earn earthly power and eternal rest.
Murder of babies is BAD (pre-born or newly born). Evil. We Christians already know THAT and pastors do no favors to this generation of "believers" by stirring up MORE emotion against the sins of worldly people and power structures rather than stirring up our hatred of our own sins, which are aplenty. How can we love a people enough to follow Jesus our Lord's command to do to them as He has done and shown to us (washing Judas's feet just moments before Judas would reveal himself as the Greatest Threat from within Of All Time) when we are constantly being emotionally amped up against them? Can anyone in today's body of believers picture themselves washing the feet of Kamala Harris? Is she lower than Judas and are we higher than Jesus?
1 Peter, written to believers of Jesus who were scattered throughout modern-day Turkey, includes "lawless idolatry" in the list of societal norms the early Christians avoided. So, instead of add "murder" to God's list, hiw about focus on the sin issue we Christians are not only committing but desperately need to hear, since our political obsessions and love of power make our stance toward the lost (people in need of our vital gospel info) nothing short of incredibly proud and lacking all humility.
A sermon on the "lawless idolatry" (actually on the list) is a more profitable sermon to the 80% "Christian" supporters who voted Trump... the man who makes attacks on the American Constituation, the government and has been impeached as well as convicted of many crimes. Christians have certainly turned to idol worship in their obsessive love of their temperal rights (while Jesus, on the other hand, didn't consuder His equality with God a thing to be grasped) and their distraction from the Great Commission in favor of their political party and Barabas-like leader... a man they refuse to be honest about... a guy who looks a lot more like a representative of the qualities that mark the dragon in Revelation than the political left does.
But, wow, Matt... I cannot believe you are one to pervert what Scripture says to support a differing ideology, so please explain why you are trying to force a narrative that equates to falsely making Scripture support what you want to do with your life (including with your vote, which, according to Scripture is not the big deal you make it to be in comparison to defending your hope in Christ "with gentleness and respect" ~I Peter 3:15, which is an actual biblical command... while nothing about voting is ever stated... so maybe consider a whole sermon on gentleness and RESPECT toward all, even those who want the right to murder their babies... babies that Christians fail to demonstrate concern toward except those babies' living breathing bodies).
Please remove your scales...
Thank you:)
I see that my comment was removed. There was no reason for it. I was not disrespectful in any way. You just didn't like what I had to say. Smh
What did you say?
So we sit on our hands and not vote for either party and not move closer to saving our nation?
"Saving our nation" from what, exactly?
But isn’t it banned in 10 states which is based on handing control to the individual states and this hasn’t happened in a very long time? And couldn’t more strict legislation help people choose to be a bit more discerning in choosing to be active with a partner if it’s harder to obtain or even illegal in your own state? Is this statistical breakdown a reason to choose inaction and pretend to be above choosing a candidate? And the comment about helping the poor I can’t even spend that much time here. You think letting people in indiscriminately, not checking ID or testing to see if it’s a family member is helping those 320k missing children? Not to mention drugs, murderers and gangs. For real brother/sister?
I'm quite for real and you didn't read all of my comment.
As usual in this series, Matt has a great grasp on grace and the goodness of God but is blinded by a poor grasp of history and an inability to see past/through the current Christian culture.
Let's start very basically. It's clear abortion is far and away the most important issue for Matt and the majority of his followers. If that's where you are, with even the littlest bit of awareness and or honesty with yourself, you'll realize/acknowledge that Trump is in favor of keeping legal 95% of the abortions that occur (with his ban after 15 or 16 weeks - the vast majority occur before that point). So, you're actually saying, whether you realize it or not, that you can't vote for Democrats because they would allow 5% more abortions.
I'm sorry, but if you think that 5% more abortion and gender identity are really the thrust of God's vision of justice, you are reading the bible and especially the Gospels and prophets with your eyes closed. The OVERWHELMING thrust of them is economic justice for the poor and needy, for the alien. You are not to replace that with what is essentially a pet issue, abortion or gender (however right you might be about those issues). Those are not things that even register in the biblical view of goodness and society justice, at least not compared with economic justice. There's simply no way to get there except to replace what the bible/Jesus says with what you think is a more important issue than the ones he has given us.
Now, that said, the democrats are more or less just as much slaves to capital, greed, and American empire as the republicans (maybe slightly better, there's that 5% again). SO, Matt is right. You can't vote for the democrats, but for different reasons than the ones he gives. However, you also can't vote for republicans.
It's lose lose and it's their fault. Don't let anyone bully you into thinking God demands you vote for one of these parties.
Okay but ultimately one of these parties is going to win whether you like it or not, so to not vote is actually even worst them voting. This is because you are being passive in your role of being a follower of Jesus, Yes it is only 5% and abortion is horrible but even just one baby being saved is worth a vote.
Jeremiah 29:7
English Standard Version
7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
How are you seeking the welfare of the city by being passive and sitting back and watching what will happen, instead of using the voice God gave you?
James 4:17 ESV
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
You know that 5% matters but yet you do nothing? you are called to be salt, so how are you using your saltness to preserve the earth? because we know what happens when we are salt yet do nothing.
RainbowFactory1, it is manifestly NOT 5% that abortion has been reduced since the overturn of RvW. Pushing it to the states (since a president is not meant to be a king) has meant a radical reduction in total abortions and a near abolition of it in some states. That's how the laboratory of democracy is meant to work in our "representative" republic - in the various states' policies. We should take-and celebrate-every step, every life, saved in the process of turning it back. And, economic justice for the poor is badly defined by the left and the policies can offer no virtue for the supporter of those policies and they offer "help" at the cost of some significant social problems the left ignore entirely. And the "alien," the "sojourner" is being conflated by the left with a far-too-wide cadre of influx to the U.S. Nowhere in scripture does such a group have God's affirmation for the destruction of society and forcible stripping of property in order to be lifted to the level of the citizen. In fact, on the contrary in scripture. Further, it is not gov't that is employed in it at all in the NT but the free and sacrificial action of the church for those who enter the church and the near community. Period. True, God does not demand a vote for a particular party. But, by his sovereignty of the "boundaries of your habitation" he does have expectations about stewardship. And these being discussed are not equivalent evils on the right and left.
@@AndrewKendall71Have you seen actual abortion statistics nationwide since the overturn of Roe? It is not what we would have hoped or imagined.
@@AndrewKendall71 Fine, you don't want government to do it? You want to be a good steward? Work towards the church eradicating poverty. There are 733 MILLION people starving. If you think the church gets off the hook on working towards the end of mass death on a scale abortion could never touch, just because the government isn't supposed to do it and you voted for the philandering guy who still wants to enshrine abortion as a right up to 4 months, think again.
Look, the church absolutely should freely give to the poor to stop hunger and poverty and abuse. But it's not. And people are dying because of that. I don't care who stops it, but it must be stopped. There are *over two thousand* verses about taking care of the poor. Meanwhile, abortion was around in biblical times, and you don't see mentions of it. Let's assume you're completely wrong in being against abortion. You're still wrong on the math. God doesn't seem to think it ranks with taking care of the poor.
@@AndrewKendall71 Those "significant social problems" are really not your problem. God shows us that we are to build economic justice into the very fabric of our society. Make sure that's done first, then worry about the problems. There are TWO THOUSAND PLUS verses about taking care of the poor. None about abortion (literally the closest you'll get is a verse in Exodus describing the unborn as property, compared with the mother, which is not described that way). None about gender (both of which, as Matt points out, were in play in biblical times). Be against abortion, I'm not certainly not arguing you shouldn't! But that's not where Christian biblical priorities lie. That is a cultural preference replacing a biblical mandate.
Only one thing - we've got to stop the "both sides do it" language about their marketing, their manipulations, their failure to take various actions or whatever. That language is used in order to preserve a false equivalence between the sides. Like it's "either this or this" mentality. It's not. One side is flawed, feckless, fails to do much more than talk, hasn't fought for the economy or cultural sanity. But the other is NOT its equivalent. It's the insanity, and abortion is fully unsupportable at any cost.
Both sides lie and say what people want to hear. The only truth is Jesus. There is only one thing to truly believe in is the LORD, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit.
All sin is "fully unsupportable at any cost." Please use Scripture to support abortion as THE sin that allows us to ignore all other sins, including the false representation of Jesus we convey to a lost world when we elevate the sins WE hate and ignore the ones we commit.
@@jennyk.2690 You've read much more into the original poster's statements than what he has said. No where does he suggest we should ignore all other sins. While ALL sins separate us from God, which is why we need our Savior Jesus, there are some sins that are more consequential than others. If I stole a candy bar from a grocery store as a kid (which I did on a few occasions), then that would be a sin. But the consequence of that sin pales in comparison if I drove drunk as a teenager and killed somebody in an accident (which I did not do). "Thou shalt not murder" is one of the Ten Commandments. I think it's reasonable to conclude that since scripture tells us we are made in the image of God, then "Thou shalt not murder" emphasizes the infinite significance that God places on human life...whether born or in the womb. The sin of abortion is forgivable, but certainly merits being elevated over many other sins...and doing so does not mean we are ignoring other sins that we commit.
@@idneilkell Our ultimate hope is in Jesus, not political systems. Having said that, government and rulers do matter. The Bible devotes two entire books to those topics, describing how Israel was both, blessed and cursed via good and bad kings. So it is important to do one's homework and vote wisely.
@@jennyk.2690 Please use scripture to support the framework of your argument, characterizing abortion as equivalent to an individual lying to another, or someone having lustful thoughts. Or, was it your intention to prove my point? Abortion IS different from many other sins about which a *government* has little or nothing to say. Abortion involves the willful termination of human life. Exodus 20:13 says so, Psalm 139, Leviticus 24:17 (pertaining to God's ethos about gov't), Proberbs 6:16-19, Deuteronomy 27:25 and more and more tell us God's view. And, Acts 5 tells us we ought to obey God rather than men when there's a disagreement between the two. "All sin is 'fully unsupportable at any cost'" obfuscates that there is a will by the side that seeks to enshrine abortion to use of the power of law to justify that and other sins (which, incidentally, tends to have the cultural effect of leading the credulous and the licentious to believe a thing should be okay with the church because gov't has said it's okay).