All right, if you'd like to join me this morning for our study, we're going to begin in the book of Second Peter, chapter one. We're going to take a one week break, Lord willing, from our study through the book of Proverbs. I want to talk about the upcoming election and our responsibility as believers to vote wisely in the upcoming election. I'm not particularly concerned that the people that are here this morning are going to vote unwisely. It's not like I'm bearing some great concern that I need to change your votes this morning or anything of that nature. More than anything else, what I want to do is help equip you for all of the conversations you may have between now and November with people that ordinarily would not vote wisely. And I'm going to be coming this morning by way of remembrance. I did a message very similar to this. I think it was some four years ago at the occasion of the last presidential election. And I'm essentially just reworking that message. I could have just had some copies of that message made up on tape and CD and passed them out. But I do think there's a biblical principle at stake here. And the reason why I'm going to be redoing this message, in a sense, is described here in the book of 2 Peter 1, verses 12 and 13. Peter writes to the believers, therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them. and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right as long as I am in this earthly dwelling to stir you up by way of reminder. And that's what I'm hoping to accomplish this morning. I'm confident that the majority of you if not all of you are already established in these perspectives and these principles. But I'm looking at it as my responsibility in light of the timing of our upcoming election here in November And what I think we could all agree is probably going to be a very significant, important election in terms of the course that our country will take in the next four years following, for me to remind you of some basic and important principles in regards to voting. Now, when we're going to do, and I had mentioned this before four years ago when I did this study, when we're going to do a study together from God's Word on biblical principles of voting, or what I'm calling here in relationship to our recent Proverbs study, exercising wisdom in voting, being a wise voter. Where do you go in the Bible for that information on biblical voting principles? What passage should we turn to first for the list of biblical voting principles that we need to keep in mind and take with us as we go to the booth and, you know, exercise our United States rights of citizenship in voting. What passage do we start with for biblical voting principles? Anyone? I'm open to suggestions here. Ten Commandments, okay. I love the Ten Commandments. I recommend that we understand them, know them, follow them, you know, believe them, all of those things, but where in the Ten Commandments does it mention voting? Okay, I was asking for principles, absolutely. What David is saying, and I didn't mean to put him on the spot there, but, you know, he's an easy target, so I will. And he can handle it. The problem with a study on biblical voting principles is there is no place in the Bible that specifically addresses the issue of voting. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I've looked for it high and low, not because I was expecting to find it there, but just in case. Let me look. Let me check. Let me make sure before I make such an all-encompassing kind of statement that you won't find a passage that directly addresses biblical voting principles. Why? Would you all agree before we go any further? What we do as believers in regards to voting is significant, spiritually important. For anything that's spiritually important, you would expect God's Word to address that issue and to instruct us on that issue, to give us light and understanding on that issue. And thankfully, God's Word does that. God's Word addresses everything that we will ever have to make a decision on in our lives. But it doesn't address everything in the same way. Some things in the Bible are addressed very directly, where God actually names the thing that you're concerned to learn about, and He then goes on to instruct you on it. Step one, step two, step three. Other things are not directly addressed in the Bible at all, but are addressed indirectly, and voting is one of those. The reason why voting is not directly addressed is because that's not how people got their leaders back in Bible days, in biblical cultures. What kind of governments did they live by in those days, and how were leaders chosen? Generally speaking, most governments, in Bible times were what we call a kingdom form of government. There were some variations on this, but the kingdom form of government, and this was generally speaking all across the world in every nation known to man in Bible days. Kingdom form of government is essentially what? How is that government run? Well, you have a king, And how do kings get chosen? Right. Kings don't get chosen by elections or by vote. Generally speaking, kings get chosen by inheritance or, you know, descent. Meaning, when the king is done with his life and his life comes to an end, generally speaking, the king would pass on his role as king to his son. We have a couple of, even though they're more figurehead than they are actual kingdoms, we have a couple of expressions of this in modern times, modern world. In England, what we know as Great Britain, there is still a kingdom form of government, even if it's in name only. Of course, there's not currently a king over England, but there is a queen. And when the queen of England eventually dies, who's going to take over for the queen? her son or grandson, someone from her family line. They're not going to hold an election in England and let everybody go to the polling booth and decide, you know what, who do we want to be king next? You know, let's get some candidates in here and let's hold an election. They just don't do that for kings. And so in Bible days, all of the nations of the earth, in fact, you remember when Israel first had a king appointed for them for the very first time. The first king of Israel was Saul. And when Saul was appointed as the first king of Israel, it was an issue, because at that time, what was the form of government before Saul? Because Israel existed before Saul as a nation of people. What was the form of government? Right. God actually ruled over his people in a very direct way, and he did so through the vehicle of these men and, in one case, a woman that he appointed to serve the Lord in this role of judge. And when Saul was appointed king, it wasn't because it was like some brand new great idea that the Lord had. It was because the people had begun to cry out during the ministry of Samuel, the judge, And they had begun to cry out to the Lord saying, we want a king just like all the other nations on the face of the earth. Give us a king just like all of the other nations. We want a king. We want someone to go out and fight our battles for us. We want someone to represent us. We want someone that we can point to and take some pride in as our representative, as our king. And so the Lord gave them a king. But he gave them a king as an expression of judgment for them having rejected him as ruler over him. But the point being that they wanted a king in order to be like all nations on the earth, which implied that every other nation that they knew about did their government this way. So as a result, there were no elections in ancient days. There were no elections in Bible days. I don't know. I probably should have checked this out. I don't know when the first election was held on a national level for any nation to choose the leader of that nation. That'd probably be an interesting study. But as we know, our nation was founded on a constitution. And in that constitution, the provision was made that we are going to have not a king because we're not going to have a kingdom form of government. What form of government do we follow in our nation? Okay, it's called technically a republic, and you are correct in that, and that simply means that we have representatives that are chosen to lead us, and it is often also called a democratic or a democracy. It's not a pure democracy. We'll talk about that in a little bit here. I think that's maybe a C instead of a S. a republic or a democratic form of government in which we choose or elect our representatives. So what does that tell us about our form of government? Well, it just tells us that it's something new in history. It's something unique and it's something different. Now, more nations because, you know, this is the way nations work. you know, one nation wants to be like another nation that is perceived as being better than it. And so there are more nations today that do follow this basic form of government, mainly because of our influence in the world and the way that the Lord has blessed this particular nation. But my question is, has the Lord blessed this nation because Our Constitution established that we're going to vote for our leaders rather than having kings that are chosen or some other form of government. And that's the reason why the Lord has chosen to bless the United States. And if you have any question about it, the Lord has blessed the United States. You don't have to do too much world traveling to other nations to recognize just the obvious differences and the evident blessing of the Lord that rests upon this nation. But the question is, Is the nation blessed because we're a republic? Is the nation blessed because we're a democracy? No, in fact, I'd say it this way. We're blessed in spite of this. We're blessed contrary to what these forms of government would ordinarily produce in human affairs. And why is that? Well, because there's one spiritual issue at stake here that shadows all democratic procedures whether people recognize it, know it or not. We as believers need to understand this and that is, you know the story, how did the history of mankind began? It began in a garden setting, really beautiful situation and things were lovely. What was the form of government in the garden when things first began? God ruled and Adam ruled under God's authority. God appointed a single representative. He said, rule over all the earth and represent me, image me, bear my image in the earth by bearing my authority. And then, of course, Adam made a decision that God had warned him not to make. And in that decision, we have this event that we call the fall of man. And in the fall of man, something happened to Adam. And something happened to his ability to properly bear authority in government and to properly image or represent the Lord in the earth. His ability to do that was twisted. It was marred. He was no longer able to perfectly represent the Lord in the way that he was created to do. And as a result of that, from that point forward, was it just Adam that was affected by his decision and his, what we call, fall? And then everybody that's born after Adam, of course, starts out a perfect, beautiful, innocent, spiritually pure being. And therefore, things have just gotten better and better ever since then. How does this work? After Adam fell, everybody that was ever born from Adam, which includes how many of the world's population since then? 100%. Everybody that's born from Adam since then is also fallen. And as a fallen person, their tendency is by nature, just to begin with now, this is before any later element in which the Lord will later intervene in that person's life and save them. But just based upon natural birth and natural tendency and the nature within a person is their tendency toward good or toward evil. Are we all clear on that? It didn't sound like we had a real rousing, you know, vote there. We were I heard a little murmuring or mumbling or I'm not really sure what to think about that. Listen, once once man fell, the tendency is to evil only. If you have any question about that, turn back with me for a second to Genesis chapter six. very, very well-known portion of scripture. The circumstances, of course, the flood and how God is going to judge the entire earth. But let's not forget what the Lord says before he brings the flood of water upon the earth and wipes out an entire world's population in judgment. This is what the Lord says about where mankind is at. And understand as I read this, even though the Lord is describing the spiritual condition of the world's population then, it absolutely applies to the spiritual condition of the world's population now. Verse 5, chapter 6, verse 5, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart and the Lord said, I'm going to do something about that. And so only, let me add a couple of words here on the board, only evil continually. Now, if you're following me and tracking with me in my statement that this is an accurate spiritual description of the condition of the general population just before the flood. The question is, is it true what I'm saying, that this is an accurate spiritual description of the general population today? Will it be an accurate description of the general population in November, when it comes time for everybody to go into that little polling booth and make their own decision? Their tendency, and I'm leaving out the factor that some have been marvelously, miraculously, powerfully saved from this and transformed into something else. I'm leaving that out for a moment. I'm just talking about the general population. Their tendency is to only evil continually. When it comes time to vote, how are they going to vote? They're going to vote with an evil perspective and make, generally speaking, evil choices. Okay? So, why did the Lord, for His people in the Old Testament, never establish a voting form of choosing their leaders? Because the Lord understood and knew that His people would tend to pick the wrong person if He left the choice in their hands. The wrong person is an evil person. The wrong person is someone that is going to contribute to greater and greater evil in the society if they're given the freedom to lead and to rule. The Lord knew that. And so what he did was he intended to limit the spread of evil in society by taking the decision out of his people's hands. And who did that leave the decision with? It left the decision with the Lord himself. The Lord made the decision. The Lord made the choice. Turn with me for a moment to the book of Daniel. And we're going to read a passage that's going to create a problem for us in our perspective here. But that's all right. Biblical problems are well worth enduring and dealing with because they're always there to lead us to a deeper understanding of God's sometimes difficult to understand ways. Daniel chapter 5. This is from the story of, of course, Daniel is a young man who is in captivity in Babylon, and he has, through a process by the hand of God, been brought into a relationship of counsel, close relationship and counsel, to the king of Babylon. And here, the king of Babylon is as I'm describing here on the board, not a good guy, he's an evil guy. And the Lord has, through Daniel and through a dream, he's begun to speak to this ruler over Babylon. Babylon at this moment in history is the single most powerful nation on the face of the earth. And he gives this king a vision, a dream, and in this circumstance, it's a situation that the king doesn't understand, so he calls for his counselors to explain it to him. And Daniel, among all of his counselors, is the only one that's given wisdom from the Lord to know what to say about this. And I'm just going to read a small portion of this, starting in chapter 5, verse 18. This is the conclusion. This is the spiritual conclusion of what God is speaking to this king, this evil king of Babylon. Daniel 5.18, O King, the Most High God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father. Now, the story of Nebuchadnezzar is earlier in the book, and his life has come to an end, and now this is his son that is considering what the Lord is speaking to him. Because of the grandeur which he bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations, and men of every language feared and trembled before him. Whomever he wished, he killed, and whomever he wished, he spared alive, and whomever he wished, he elevated, and whomever he wished, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his glory was taken away from him. You remember the story, what happened with Nebuchadnezzar. He was at the very height of his power. He was walking through his gardens one day and patting himself on the back for what a great and awesome king he was. And suddenly the Lord took his clarity of mind from him. It wasn't like he was deposed by some rebellion of human beings around him. The Lord took his clarity of mind from him and drove him out from the company of his fellow men and he lived like an animal, like a beast for some seven years. But that wasn't the end of his story. At the end of those seven years, what happened? The Lord restored his clarity of mind and spoke to him. after the whole thing, and this is basically what the Lord said to him. Verse 20, But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his glory was taken away from him. He was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that of beasts, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and that He sets over it whomever He wishes. Yet you, His son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this." The Lord, through Daniel, is explaining to this son of Nebuchadnezzar the lesson that God had taught his father. and reminding him of the impact or the import of this lesson. And the lesson was, if you boil it down, in a nutshell, was what? God rules over all nations, and more than that, just in a general kind of vaguely spiritual sense, rules over all nations, God not only rules over all nations, He does what in relationship to the leaders of the nations? He chooses. God chooses who leads. All right, so my point is this. What does this have to do with voting and us wisely voting? Before we ever start the consideration of how to vote and who to vote for, we as God's people, because no one else in this world is going to have this perspective, we as God's people need to recognize that God really does rule over all the nations of this world. Now, not all the nations of this world recognize the rule of God. Certainly most of the nations of the world reject the idea that God rules over them. But whether they acknowledge it, whether they reject the idea or the concept or not, God is still ruling over them. That's including the so-called Christian nations of the world, that includes the Hindu nation of the world, that includes the Buddhist nations, that includes even the Muslim nations. And it includes the nations that reject all ideas of God, the atheistic nations. God rules over the nations. And not only does he rule in a vague way, he specifically rules by selecting individuals to actually take the positions of leadership over those nations. Do you believe that? What that means is God chose, at least for the last four years, it's not clear yet who he's going to choose for the next four, God chose George Bush to be president of the United States. Do you believe that? But he also chose Bill Clinton for the previous eight years. Do you believe that? And he chose Ronald Reagan before that. And he chose Jimmy Carter before that. And George Bush Sr. is in there somewhere. I forgot him. I don't mean that in a joking way. I just meant I forgot to mention him as I'm working my way back through history here. God chose Tony Blair to be the prime minister at this point in history for the nation of Great Britain. God chose all of the leaders of the Muslim nations that are currently leading their nations in ways that don't exactly honor the Lord. God chose the leader of every nation that's currently serving as leader of his nation today, God made that choice. God put them in that position. So what does this have to do with voting? Well, it has everything to do with voting because for us, we need to start our consideration of voting with this concept, that God is sovereign over the nations and God has a choice that he is going to make. It may not always be who we would prefer, it may not always be who we think would be the best choice, but God will ultimately make His choice each and every time. I'm saying that the implication of this statement in Daniel is that there has never been a leader of a country that God did not put in that position, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and the best of the best, you know, Abraham Lincoln and whoever else you might look at as a heroic leader, a good leader. God placed them in those positions. Why would God put someone like an Adolf Hitler in a position of power in order to lead to the kind of circumstance that that inevitably led to? because God has purposes in the earth and judgment is one of them. I heard someone mention the principle of judgment. In other words, God does not always choose leaders that will lead to the best result for the nation of people that they're leading. There are times when there will be an entire nation of people that disregard the Lord to such a degree that God will choose a leader for them that will actually lead that nation into a worse place on purpose rather than a better place. And why would God ever lead any group of people into a worse place Why would he ever judge them? It's because he's wanting to get their attention and he's wanting to turn their hearts to him. And sometimes pain is the only thing that will turn a nation's heart when pleasure will not. And so the Lord is leading all of the nations by choosing whom on a human level will lead. That's the starting point of us wisely voting, meaning that as believers, we cannot afford to limit ourselves to a completely partisan perspective when it comes to voting. We have to take one step above partisanship, and we have to recognize sovereignty before partisanship. We have to recognize the Lord's rule over all of history for his deeper and greater purposes. But does that then mean, does that extend to this issue? If that's the case, and it is, then why vote at all? How about if I said it to you like this? God is going to decide which of your prayers to answer before you even pray. So why bother to pray? Did you know that? God decides what prayers, because how many prayers have you prayed in the last year? How many prayers? Just give me a number. 500 prayers? 1,000 prayers? Okay, let's just say you prayed 1,000 prayers in the last year. How many of those did God answer? Well, I mean answer in the way you wanted it to be answered. How many did He give you what you asked for out of those 1,000? Maybe, I don't know, whatever, 100? 1 out of 10, 5 out of 10, whatever it was. I'm saying that before you even opened your mouth to pray, God had already decided whether he was going to answer your prayer. And not only that, whether you had prayed for it or not, he had already decided to do what he ended up doing anyway. In other words, if you don't pray, he's still going to do what he wants to do. So why pray? Right. We pray because He tells us to pray. We vote because He tells us to vote. And we do it with the right understanding that not only is He sovereign, but He calls us, like He did Adam in the garden, to be responsible over the earth. Even though our responsibility is carried out in understanding and in the context that God is ruling and He's going to get His will and purpose accomplished, He calls us to participate with Him in that. He calls us to the privilege of cooperating with Him in the outworking, the unfolding of His plan and His purpose. And so we are called to pray and we are called to vote, even though the decision has already been made. And that's the way that God takes us into a deeper identity and a deeper fellowship with Him in the outworking of His kingdom purposes in the earth. And it's not an option for us. We don't have an option not to pray as believers. And neither do we as believing citizens of the United States have an option to not vote. If we rightly understand why God has placed us in this nation at this moment in time, which is that God works through the imperfect vehicles of human government that he himself has established. And in this case, we do live in a Republican Democratic form of government or expression of government in which voting is the means by which our leaders are chosen. Now, God is sovereign over that and he's going to choose who he wants, but he is also going to use our participation in that to get his will accomplished. So that we had a vote, 2000. I'm saying George Bush was God's choice in 2000. Whether he will be in 2004 is yet to be seen. But in 2000, he was God's choice. How did God accomplish that? He accomplished it by stirring the hearts of just barely enough individuals to get them to pull that lever or punch that, you know, that ballot on that specific spot. God used human agency to accomplish his sovereign purpose. So knowing that, that makes our prayer and our vote so much more important than it would be if we were just looking at it like, I'm just one more citizen. My vote doesn't count any more than anybody else's vote counts. Your vote counts so much more than anybody else's vote counts. It's almost scary how much your vote counts. Now, I'm not talking about the actual number that, you know, it's not like when you vote, God is going to miraculously multiply your vote a thousand times. I'm not trying to describe something like that. I'm trying to describe that there is an influence and an effect in our society when you understand who God is in relationship to our government, you understand His manner or method of leading and establishing leaders, and you pray and you vote according to the wisdom that God establishes in His Word, that will make a huge difference in what happens in this nation in the future. So let's look at together some of the principles that we need to understand when it comes to voting. Let me just briefly describe how it is that people in the world around us tend to vote. And we understand this, but I wanted to just rehearse this for the sake of our perspective. People vote for interesting reasons. People are motivated by some really strange and funny stuff when it comes to voting. I remember watching in the debates of 2000, four years ago, they interviewed people in the street after the debate. And they went up to different individuals and said, who do you think won the debate and who are you going to vote for? And they interviewed this one lady and she said, well, you know what? I was planning on voting for this one guy, but I'm going to vote for this other guy instead. And he said, well, why is that? Well, you know what? I really liked his smile. And that did it for me. I'm going to vote for him. Now, what kind of standard is that in regards to why it is that I'm going to vote for one person versus another? I really liked his smile. What's underneath that? What's the point there? Well, yeah, absolutely shallow. It's the triumph in that person's heart and perspective of style over substance. And you know what? We are a culture that has come, because of television, I think, has a lot to do with it. We have come to value style over substance. It doesn't even matter anymore in a debate. Like, how many of you watched the first debate the other night? A lot of you took the time to watch it. I would recommend that you watch it. If for no other reason, I mean, even if you've already made up your mind, I think it's well worth just sitting and watching and praying as you're watching for, you know, God's purposes to be established for this nation over the next four years. But it doesn't even matter anymore what is said in terms of who won the debate afterwards as they're describing and, you know, the pundits are evaluating, you know, who came out ahead. It doesn't even matter what they say. All that matters is how they said it, how they came across saying it, how they looked as they were saying it. They're talking now in terms of the most important factor in determining who wins the debate is what they're calling style points. Style points. Did Bush have more style points or did Kerry? Well, in the first debate, who had more style points? Kerry. Kerry had more style points. So he won the debate. He came across, as he said, this is what the most important thing that Kerry accomplished in the first debate. He came across, for the first time, looking presidential. That's all that matters. Who cares what he had to say? Who cares? I mean, we should care. People who have understanding of what matters in life should care. But the vast majority of the people out there that are going in to vote don't care. All they care is, how did he look? Did he come across presidential? Did he make me feel safe and secure in terms of his personality and his presentation? You know, those kind of things. Well, for believers, of course, we're called to vote on exactly the opposite principle. And this is the way the kingdom affects our lives. You know, we, as kingdom people, we're almost always finding ourselves on radically opposite ends from the world around us in terms of how we look at things, how we make our choices, what matters, you know, what are our priorities. And in this case, it's certainly true. For choosing a candidate, I don't even care, personally, the style of the individuals that I'm dealing with. Now, I mean, in terms of George Bush, I spent a lot of time in Texas growing up, so I'm comfortable with the Texas style. That's easy for me to swallow and whatnot. But I could care less about the style of George Bush or John Kerry. All I want to know, all I'm concerned about is, what's the substance underneath the surface? What's the substance? Not even how effectively they communicate what's in there. I just want to know what's actually in there. You know, peel back the surface of the man. Let me see what's in his heart. Let me see what he's committed to. Let me see what he really believes. Let me see what he really lives according to. What are his standards? What is his real character? Show me the heart of the man. That's what I'm interested in knowing. You know, I mentioned Saul, the first king of Israel. What was the problem with Saul? Bad heart. He had huge style points. He was called, when he's first introduced in the Bible, the most handsome man in Israel. He's a head taller than anyone else in Israel. He had huge style points, and the people readily embraced him as king. What was the problem with Saul as his kingship unfolded? The substance was missing. The character was missing. The things that matter when it comes to good leadership were missing. And so what did God do? Well, he judged Saul, dealt with Saul. He deposed Saul. He rejected Saul from being king over Israel. And he chose a replacement. And who did he choose? He chose David. And the only reason he chose David over Saul was he identified David so that the people would hear it as a man after my own heart. The Lord is saying, look, I gave you Saul and the Lord gave them Saul because you cried out for a king. I gave you the style that you wanted. Now I'm going to replace him and I'm going to give you what you need, which is the substance that Saul was missing. And that's all laid out for us in such a way so that we could learn the lesson and we would not, as God's people with understanding, fall into the same patterns of being impressed by the style of a man and ignore the true substance. So what kind of substance are we looking for? I'm just going to briefly go through these principles. We have talked about these before, but they are important for us to understand and for us to prioritize. in our own choices and not just our choices. When I say your vote matters more than the average person, your vote matters not just because of what you're privately and secretly going to do that day. Your vote matters because of all the conversations I hope you're going to have with people between now and the day that it comes time to vote. And I'm not asking for partisan conversations. I'm asking for spiritual conversations. I'm recommending and encouraging you to have conversations with people to get them to start thinking along these lines for the first time maybe in their entire lives when it comes time to making their own choice. So what kind of things should we keep in mind? First, and these are some of these at least we talked about before when I did this message a few years ago. Let me rehearse these. First, let me give myself some room here. Where do we vote first when it comes time to vote? We vote first in heaven rather than on earth. We're going to ultimately, hopefully everyone here will be responsible to actually go and vote on the polling day or at least the absentee in advance if you don't have the opportunity to go that day or the ability to go that day. But before you go and vote, you need to first be voting in heaven. What do we mean by that? Of course, we need to pray. And again, this touches that issue of, you know, why vote, why pray? Because we are the disciples of the Lord, and we are called by the Lord to do what Adam was called to do, which is to image God in the earth and represent his concerns in the earth. to represent his kingdom concerns in the earth. And so we pray because we're asking for God's choice before we're asking for anything that we would naturally tend to choose for ourselves. And what kind of stuff are we praying about? Let me just briefly rehearse this to you. Matthew chapter 6, you're familiar with this. This is, of course, from the Lord's Prayer. This is the prayer that he taught his disciples to pray. And this applies to every circumstance of life, but it certainly applies to voting. So he said, the Lord Jesus' sisters, disciples, when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do. For they suppose that they will be heard for their many words, so do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. Like we were emphasizing before. So how should we pray then? If he already knows what we need, and he already has decided what he's going to do, pray then in this way. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What should we be praying about in regards to this election? And I would urge you, this is something I'm practicing, I would recommend that you follow my example in this. Between now and the day that we go to the polls in November, I would recommend that you pray every single day for this. You pray for God's name, God's rule, and God's will. What do you mean pray for God's name in relationship to voting? What is that? Pray for His name? What we're talking about is that in the decision that God is ultimately going to make, but that He is calling us to make alongside Him in terms of our actual voting, that what matters most between these two candidates is which individual is ultimately going to bring greater glory to the name of the Lord at the end of their four years of service. As you look back on the four years of service as president in the United States, and that's, you know, the election that I'm primarily concerned to talk about this morning, which candidate will have brought a greater measure of glory to the name of the Lord? Why does that matter? It matters because it's the first concern that the Lord Jesus has in his heart when he teaches his disciples what to pray about in life. It's ultimately, at the end of history, what's going to matter most is how our actions on earth have reflected on the name of the Lord. Okay? So that's what you should pray for first. Then, of course, God's rule, meaning that God would exercise His authority in this decision. And exercise His authority, overwhelming if need be, the natural evil tendency of all the other voters out there. Now, does that mean I'm praying specifically for one candidate over another. You can if that's how you feel the Lord is moving you to pray. I'm not really praying for that. I'm praying that God would rule in this decision because I'm recognizing we may need judgment over the next four years rather than blessing. Now, if it was just a simple matter of, okay, pick between these two candidates. One, you're going to be more blessed than the other as a people, as a nation. For me, it would be a pretty easy choice which one I think would bring greater blessing. But that may not be the Lord's plan. It may not be his purpose for the next four. We as a nation may need judgment. We may need pain rather than pleasure. If that's the case, I don't want to be praying at cross purposes to the Lord's deeper plan. So I'm praying for the Lord's rule in this choice, to rule over the evil tendencies of other voters and even over my own temptation to vote for what I would naturally prefer. And then of course I'm praying ultimately for the will of God to be done in the earth in this actual decision that's being made on the day that we vote. And what else should we do? Should we vote for, let me ask you this, should we vote for Christians only in this election? Yeah, should we vote for the candidate that we think is most Christian? Because the problem is here, in terms of practicality, the problem is how many candidates, and I'm not talking about people that just said, I'm running for president, and there were like three people that were going to vote for him. I'm talking about the candidates just in this century, for instance. that have actually represented, when it came time to vote, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party on both sides. How many of those candidates identified themselves as a Christian? Every single one, without exception, has identified themselves publicly as a Christian. Now whether or not each one of those men were true believers, belong to the Lord, were born of His Spirit, were committed to Him, His name, His rule, His will or not, that's more difficult to discern. And we have to discern that on a case-by-case basis. But every one of the candidates identified themselves as a believer. And we have two men that are portraying themselves to the public right now, and when asked the question of whether they're a Christian or not, what are they saying? these two men, they're both saying that they belong to the Lord, that they're committed to the Lord, that they follow the Lord. Now, they each have different ways of describing that and defining that. We have one candidate who, if you'll watch for it, In every public appearance he makes before the end of the appearance, he greets people with the Hindu Namaste sign, which is a New Age symbol of, I believe that God is in you and God is in me and God is in everything and everyone and, you know, I'm honoring the God in you just like I'm honoring the God in me. which is not exactly a Christian principle or a Christian symbol, but one of the two candidates does that in every single public appearance. They don't really talk about it. They don't really emphasize it. But it's real, and you can watch for it in the future. So do I go by what they say? It's just hard to discern whether a person is, you know, listen, it's hard for you to discern about me and me to discern about you. And we know each other as to whether we're truly committed to the Lord. It's really difficult with a stranger. And that's what these men are. These men are strangers to us. We don't know them. We've never sat down and had a personal conversation with them. And no one has bothered to ask them the hard questions that I'd like to ask them. If I could sit down with these guys and ask them some direct questions and hear what they said, I could pretty quickly determine whether or not I believe they really knew the Lord. At this point, I don't know. So I would say vote for Christians only. The answer is no in terms of their profession. We don't know what their profession is. So what should we vote for in regards to their spiritual commitment? Well, I mentioned this four years ago. I'll mention it again like this. I would rather vote for a principled unbeliever than an unprincipled believer or someone that claims to be a believer but isn't leading or isn't willing to lead according to biblical principles. An example of this in the Old Testament is Cyrus. Cyrus was king of Persia and was committed to following false gods, but actually conducted his leadership in a way that ultimately honored the Lord and followed some biblical principles and served the Lord's purpose. And the Lord at one point even spoke through the prophet to Israel and called Cyrus, my servant, Cyrus. Even though Cyrus was at that very moment worshiping false gods. So the issue to me is I'm more concerned with principles than I am with profession. I'm not going to believe these guys just because they're telling me that they are believers. I'm going to look at what they're actually doing. So that leads us to this. Vote then for what? Vote based on principles, not profession. or even party affiliation. What I mean by that is, is the Republican Party God's party? Is the Democratic Party God's party? I like your answer. You know, one was a no and the other one was a definitely not. Because what we're dealing with here in both the Republican and the Democratic Party is degrees of evil. Degrees of evil. Neither one of them represents the Lord in the way that the Lord wants to be represented in terms of the expression of principle, because that's what parties are. They're just an accumulation of principles. And the candidates represent what is called a party platform, where people get together on these steering committees, and they discuss, well, what are we going to stand for, and what is our candidate going to represent to the nation in terms of what we stand for? And they drop a whole list of principles And it's those principles we need to pay attention to. And the principles matter, and some principles matter a lot more than other principles. And so what we have to do is we have to learn how to prioritize which principles matter the most to us, but beyond us, which principles matter the most to the Lord. Because, I'll say it this way, both candidates have some good principles. And both candidates have some evil principles that they represent. But one candidate represents less evil than the other. And we have to discern that. And that's who we should vote for. We should vote for the candidate that represents, and that leads to the next point, vote for the lesser of two evils. And this applies for every election that I've ever voted in. I'm not saying both men are evil men. Again, I don't know them. But they represent degrees of evil in terms of their party and their platform. I mean, if there were such a thing as a true God party, what would their platform be? It would just be, well, we don't have to write it. We've already got the platform written right here. So to whatever degree the Republicans or the Democrats ignore what's written in this book and write some other principle in its place. To that degree, it's just become evil. And so what I have to discern, because I have no easy choice now, I have to discern which of these groups has violated less of God's standards, God's laws, God's principles, God's concerns, as they've written their own platform. And then that's the one I'm going to vote for. And I'm going to vote for that I mean, think of it this way. If I'm voting for the lesser of two evils, what am I voting for? Evil. Okay? Does that make me evil, to vote for evil? No. As long as I'm voting for less evil, because this principle is... We studied this together a couple of three years ago. It's the salt of the earth principle, which is, as believers, as disciples, we're called to limit We're called to hinder the growth and development of evil in the earth. And this is one of, in our cultural and social setting that God has placed us in, this is one of the primary ways that he's given us the means to limit the spread of evil. And so we limit the spread of evil by choosing that influence and leadership that will produce less evil than the other. And what evil things am I concerned about most? That's going back up to this one, which is we have to discern which principles are most important. Like if it came down to an issue of, all right, one candidate has a perspective on abortion, and the other one has a different perspective on abortion. And then this one has a perspective on economics, and this other one has a perspective on economics. And I'm mixed, because I like this guy's abortion view, but I don't like his economic view. I like this other guy's economic view, but I don't like his view on abortion. Now I have to vote. Who am I going to vote for? I'm going to vote for the guy that I think better represents God's concerns in relationship to the issue of abortion. Even if it means I'm going to suffer economically by my choice. Why? Because some things matter more to the Lord than others. And this is where, when David mentioned the Ten Commandments earlier, this comes in very handy as a quick check. because the commandments represent God's concern in proper order. Something's more serious than others. Murder is mentioned ahead of lying for a reason. It's mentioned ahead of thievery for a reason, ahead of adultery for a reason. It affects the earth and society in a worse way. And so, when I have an issue on the table in which one candidate is going to limit the spread of murder in the society and the other candidate is going to open the floodgates, but on some lower level issue that is flipped, I'm going to choose the one that's going to limit the greater expression of evil in a more effective way. All right, what else? I want to vote for character. This is for me the the reverse of what we were talking about earlier about style over substance. This is, for the believer, I'm going to vote for substance, personal substance over style. Because this is what I believe. If a man of character is in leadership, he won't necessarily always make the best decision. But overall, he's going to tend to lead in the way that he should lead. ultimately be a better leader because his character is a better character. Even if the other person is more convincing in terms of what kind of a leader he's going to be, if his character's not there, this is the David versus Saul perspective, that's going to definitely have a greater effect in the spread of evil. The problem is, how do I evaluate a man's character if I can't sit down and have a private, personal conversation with him? The only thing we can do, yes, the only thing we can do is look at their past history in terms of their behavior, their words, and their decisions in the past. That's all we can do. And one of the benchmarks, and I'm not just saying this, trust me, you'll have to trust me on this, this was in my notes from four years ago. I'm not just saying this because of the characteristic of one of these two men that's become a focal point of a lot of discussion on the television. And that is you have to look for consistency in their decisions. Why? Why do you have to look for consistency? Because if you see a person making inconsistent decisions or inconsistent statements, and that characterizes that person, what is being revealed is that person is not committed to any specific substance at the core. They're just saying to a crowd what that crowd wants to hear at that particular moment. If they're in front of a different crowd later, they're going to say something different later. It's style versus substance when we're dealing with issues of consistency. A consistent person is going to say the same thing no matter who they're talking to, no matter what crowd they're in front of, no matter what they perceive it's going to cost them politically. They're going to say it because they're committed to it and because they believe in it. All right, hopefully this just gives you some good ammunition. And again, my main goal here was not to change your vote. My main goal was to just be a rehearsal and a reminder to you to equip you for any conversations you may have in all of your interactions between now and November. because we recognize that if we're called to limit the expression of evil and to be salt ourselves, one of the primary ways we do that is by convincing others of how they should think, even though they've never necessarily, there's, you know, the vast majority of people that are going to vote in November have never even once considered any one of these things we just put on the board as their concern in voting. They're voting on entirely different perspectives. They're voting on entirely different desires and motivations. And so I would hope that you have, I know, I believe the Lord will give you opportunity. I hope you would take opportunity to have conversation with people about these things between now and then. Let's pray. Father God, I am thankful that you are sovereign over all the earth and over all of history, over every nation of the earth, and that you decide ultimately who will lead this nation And what I'm praying for, for November, Father, in regards to the choice between John Kerry and George Bush, what I'm asking is that you would install the man that would bring the greatest measure of glory to your name, that would represent in a greater way your rule in the earth, and would be better equipped to do your will. Father, what that is, is asking for really is your blessing. And that's what I would desire. But at the same time, we recognize, Lord, that you may have a deeper and greater purpose for this nation. And if you have determined judgment for us, then I pray that you would bring that. I pray that you would accomplish whatever we need from you, Lord, as a nation of people, in order for the hearts of the nation to turn to you, to recognize you for the first time and to be willing to honor you. But Father, if it's not too late, please bring blessing rather than judgment. We would prefer that, we would desire that, but ultimately what we're asking is for your will and your purpose to be accomplished. And in regards to our interaction with other people, I do ask, Lord, that you would give opportunity to each person here that heard this message today to have at least one good conversation with someone that doesn't even consider these things. And I pray that you would use that conversation to stimulate them to begin to consider your place and your role in the affairs of men and the governments of men and in this nation in particular. And I thank you for that grace in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.