The Sunday Sermon: The End Times
A lot of you are anxious and want to fight the left. I get more and more complaints these days that I just don’t seem to get fired up in the cultural fight. As I’ve said repeatedly, I think targeting Disney in Florida because it spoke against a law is bad policy, but barring some reasonable alternative, I don’t see how to proceed in any other direction than deterrence. Taking away its tax improvement district will hopefully deter other businesses from catering to the wokes.
But, and this is a big but, we’re not actually going to win this fight. The things of the world hate the things of God. The situation is going to get far worse over time. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak up and take a stand. But it does mean we should expect to lose more and more. The world hates the things of God.
This is not a call to surrender. It is a call to acknowledge reality. Increasingly, we will see people on the right become as ruthless as people on the left. They will fight each other and use each other’s tactics in pretty worldly and godless ways. We will see people on the right attack those of us who urge a more Christian path because not everyone who professes to be a Christian is with Christ. The things of the world hate the things of God. We will see betrayals from the right both for the hedonism of the world and against us for not being willing to deploy scorched earth policies.
God calls us to love our neighbor. He never said it would be easy. God calls us to turn the other cheek. He never said it would be easy. He called us to pray for our enemies. He never said it would be easy. He called us to not be like the world, but to glorify God in a fallen world. Again, he never said it would be easy.
Ultimately, there’s more. There is no reason to fall into despair as the world falls apart and we see both the left and the right revealing themselves as pagans. God calls us to love and calls us to Him and in the end, we are on the winning team. The world will seem dominant. The world will look victorious. But in the end, we win not because of our arguments, our cunning, or our political strategy. We win because He wins and we are on His team. In the meantime, we’re to love our neighbors, even that guy.
Erick I really appreciate you being willing to stand for Christ. I agree it will be more and more difficult as time goes on. We need to focus on Gods plan for his kingdom. It is hard to get beyond the decay of goodness and civility happening in our country, but if we do we can avoid much despair and that feeling of hopelessness as we observe the decline.
I agree we should fight for what is right but do it without vilifying those that do not know the Truth. We may win arguments in our own mind but will not bring others to the Truth by malice and slander.
We must remember that we are on the winning team.
Thank you
The things of the world hate the things of God. The world hates the things of God. A common refrain on Erick's show. I've probably heard that phrase monthly minimum if not weekly.
Yesterday was my group's turn to cook breakfast for the bi-weekly Brotherhood of St Andrew bible study and breakfast. It's one of the last vestages of my long struggle to cling to hang onto something of my multi-generational Episcopal Church heritage.
The first lesson in the lectionary for this Second Sunday of Easter this year is Acts 5:27-32. The sanhedrin is trying to figure out what to do about keeping the genie in the bottle after crucifing Jesus. John and Peter have just been the medium through which God cured a lame beggar at the temple gate, thus infuriating the powers that be, who promptly threw them into jail for not knowing their place and staying in their lane.
Acts 5:27-28
When the temple police had brought the apostles, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us."
I had finished my cooking, and I'm sitting there thinking, so of course cancel culture and the ostracism toward the people of God today is nothing new. The things (...and people) of the world hate the things of God. The Sanhedrin, the elite of their day. The most higly educated class. The experts. Having these rube fishermen brought back before them for teaching what they had seen and heard vice listening to words of the wise to them to shut the heck up about it.
They were facing a group worried about their own power being usurped, and wondering how to stop the spread of this misinformation (..or is it disinformation? I can't keep the two straight). How can we cancel these troublesome people? Why don't they realize their plight and stay cancelled?
Their reply in verse 29 goes straight to Erick's point. "We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."
Its critical to understand and follow through as people of faith as the modern day Sanhedrin attempts to feed the world (in Rush's vernacular) an "Excrement Sandwich". Its our duty to obey God and not the Human authority as they preach their secular idols.