your leadership of your church coming to our events and supporting what we do. We appreciate that, Brother Hahn, and your strong support of that. Were you there when we sang that? No, but this year we did that again, right? We sang on the steps again this year. You were here this year, I know. We didn't get that recorded, but that video of the pastor singing in 2020 went viral. Somebody shared it with kind of a well-known Christian commentator. He put it up on his page and it got hundreds of thousands of views. People were coming out of their offices listening. And I think partly it's because, and I say this to encourage maybe your music director, people don't sing those songs anymore in church. They don't hear those old hymns sung anymore. And I think that's a shame, honestly. I'm not gonna talk about music. I'm not here to talk about that. But I do think it's a shame we don't know those hymns. But I think they don't, they're not used to hearing men sing like that either. And so that was kind of neat to be a part of that. And this year, you know, when we had our pastor's day, I got to meet Jeremiah Griffith for the first time. He was there. I guess he's helping a children's church now or something, yeah. Because I'm going to talk about him. Actually, I'm going to talk about his grandfather, Alan Griffith. When he introduced himself and said who his grandfather was, and you know, here is Jeremiah, just been through our pastor's day, the governor just spoke, and I mean, you know, we just sung on the steps of the Capitol. You know, legislators coming through and speak. It was a pretty neat day. And I said, everything you see here happening today, a thread of that goes back to your grandfather and his influence on my life, his impact on me and my philosophy of ministry that's now being translated into this ministry. Even though I have not sat under him, you know, 40 years, he impacted me that greatly. Then we saw each other again. Y'all came to the statewide preacher's fellowship meeting. We all went out to dinner together and he said to me, my grandfather told me a story. And I said, I know what the story is. When I was 19, after my freshman year in college, I worked at the church, where Pastor Griffith was our pastor. Then they called us student pastors. We would say intern today, but they called us student pastors. And they had us doing everything from ministry work to physical labor work and It was a great summer, it was a great experience for me. But one day, for whatever reason, I don't know if it was to fill in time and give us something busy to do, he sent me and my buddy who we're doing that this summer to the hospital to visit people at the hospital who not only we didn't know, but they were not members of the church. I'm not sure, I just don't remember who these people were or why they sent us to visit them in particular. We weren't going door-to-door at the hospital. We were going to see specific people, but it was people I knew nothing about. a little bit even bold back then, and full of enthusiasm, serving the Lord, you know, wanted to reach people. And so I said, so we're visiting this man in this hospital bed, don't know anything about him, don't know what's wrong with him, don't know why he's in the hospital, don't know if he's on death's door, don't know anything about him. the other guy's in the bed, nurse is working on him, so she can, she's right there hearing everything we're saying and doing, and we said we were student pastors from Bible Baptist, and you know, introduced ourselves, and then I said to this man who I knew nothing about, if you were to die today, do you know for sure you go to heaven? He's laying in the hospital bed, for all I knew, He did die that day. I have no idea. Well, you know, we just trying to witness to him and share the gospel with him. When we got done, the nurse pulled me aside. She pulled me aside and said, listen, I know you said you were a student pastor, but I just don't think it's appropriate what you said to that man in the hospital by asking if he was going to die. And I listened to what she had to say, and I thought, you're probably right. And so I reported back to Pastor Griffith that account of what I had done. And I don't even know why he had this in his desk, but I think it was a credenza behind him. He reached back and pulled out a hammer and said, hey, try this next time, Paul. And I was just mortified. I was so embarrassed. And Jeremiah brought that story up to me. I was 19 years old, so it was 40 years ago. And look, here's the lesson to be learned from that. You can have college degrees, be a faithful husband and father, you can start ministries and have the respect of important people, be on a first name basis with the governor and congressman, and still someone will bring up something stupid you did 40 years ago. But no, that was fun to kind of remember about that. But his dad, Craig, was my mom's pastor when she passed away. I got to reconnect with Anne this morning and fellowship with her a little bit, talk about my mom. And my mom was a unique woman. very bold herself, that's where I get it from. In fact, at her funeral, Ann's husband, Pastor Craig Griffith, said, whenever I saw Paul's mom, he said Ann, but my mom's name was Ann, He said, I never knew if she was going to slug me or hug me. And that was my mom. But anyway, it's kind of neat to see all those connections. Forgive me. You don't mind indulging me just a moment for some personal stories there, I hope. But you know, our ministry, we are a legislative ministry to the Georgia General Assembly and to Washington, D.C. And we would ask you to pick up our prayer card on the back table and pray for our ministry. The bottom part is for you to fill out and leave us your contact info so you can get our updates and legislative alerts. I mean, let me ask you a question. How many of you here feel like you have a reliable source to get truthful information and accurate information about what's happening at the Georgia General Assembly? Would you raise, other than our newsletter, our emails, anybody? Yeah, I mean, it's hard to find that. I'd be curious to know where you get your information. You raised your hand. Because it's hard to get that information. I struggle to find good information. And I think you'll find our newsletter, it'd be helpful. One of the reasons I did the update in Sunday school and not a preaching message or teaching message is if you don't hear it from me, I'm afraid you're not gonna hear it anywhere else. So we try to keep you informed on those things and remind you to pray for us. So I'd encourage you to sign up for our newsletter and pray for our ministry. I have some other things on the back table, a card about our annual conference. coming up in August, some handouts on the issues like gambling, and the heartbeat bill, things that we've worked on, and so I encourage you to go back to our table, meet my wife Tammy, who's here, wave, Tammy won't make you stand up, but wave, and check out what we have there. Okay, take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter number eight. Romans chapter number eight. You know, when I first started our ministry, it was, first started praying about it. Tammy and I began to pray about it. April, I think, of 2009, I had a man in our church, a godly deacon, challenged me to pray about starting a ministry that became Citizen Impact, didn't have a name, didn't even quite know what it would look like, but he challenged me to pray about it. He said, you seem to have a way of explaining all of our Christian principles and values and things without using our Christian lingo. And I thought, well, I do try to do that. We get into these cliches and things, and I try to defend the faith and articulate biblical worldview to people who may not believe biblical worldview or may not know the Bible. And he just challenged me to pray about that and we began to pray that summer. That was the summer that the brand new Obama administration that had just been sworn in that January was kind of railroading through Obamacare. I don't even remember that. And by that August, when the congressmen came home for their August recess and their town hall meetings and things, people who didn't even know who their congressman was before that was showing up at those meetings. You remember seeing that in the news, screaming at them and getting drug out by security? Because they were so upset about Obamacare and it being kind of railroaded through. And so there was a lot of interest was peaked in what was going on politically and otherwise for people who may not have otherwise thought about that. And as I began to talk to people about this, the Lord laid us on our heart and we committed to doing this, I realized that People have been responding to the direction our country is going in several ways that was a bit disheartening, a bit concerning, that one would be this anger, you know, I'm just so mad about it. about what's happening. Politician. You know, just really angry about it. I won't ask you if there are people in your church like that because everyone will start looking at them because every church has, you know, did you hear about this? You know, really angry. Other people are worried. Oh, Brother Paul, I'm just so worried about our God. I'm so worried about what's going to happen now. So worried about the You know, what my grandchildren will inherit, what kind of country, I'm so worried. Other people, and this one concerns me the most, are pretty apathetic. Cynical, you know. All those politicians, they're no good, they're all corrupt. get them all, throw all the bums out, you know, and they're no good, no point. I don't even bother voting, my neighbor cancels my vote, so there's no point, they're not gonna make any, you know, apathy, right? And as I think about those reactions, and y'all looking real spiritual, like you would never, never feel that way, I recognize that, look, if you're not a little bit concerned, Worried, a little worried, a little mad, a little upset. You're not paying attention. I mean, you should be concerned. But don't we understand there's a point in worry when it becomes sin. There's a point in anger that we cross over into sinful behavior. And God doesn't want us to do that. And I actually think apathy is one of the devil's best tools. Oh, you can't make a difference. No one wants to hear what Christians have to say. There's no point in calling your congressman, writing a letter. You're not going to make any difference. The apathy is one of the most sinister ones. And so I believe that I have a message today that will help you view things that are happening biblically and from the scriptures. But first, to introduce this, let me give you just some introductory thoughts to help us frame this message. I believe that we need to recognize that we are citizens of two kingdoms. As American Christians, we're citizens of heaven, and with that comes privileges and responsibilities, and we're citizens of America, and I think with that comes privileges and responsibilities. I think we also need to realize that we're to be good stewards of what God has given us. Now, if you've heard a message on stewardship, and I suspect if you've been in church, you know, more than about six weeks, you've heard a message on, I'm sorry, that was so, no, no. You've heard a message on stewardship over the last couple of years, and there's nothing wrong with that, we should preach on stewardship, and usually the specific topic under stewardship is what? Yeah, finances, our money, tithing, but we're also to be good stewards of other things, aren't we? Our talents and abilities that God has given us, which we all have different levels, and we're to be responsible whether we have many or few. Our time, isn't the Bible talking about redeeming the time? We all have the same amount of time, and we're responsible to be good stewards of that. And I also believe, and this may be a good outline, our treasure Those things that God has blessed us with, such as the liberties and freedoms that we enjoy that have been handed to us by those who have gone before us, many of whom fought and bled and died to hand off those privileges to us. And I believe we're to be good stewards of those things. So I want you to keep those things in mind as we go through this message, as well as this, and this brings us to Romans chapter 8, a familiar passage of scripture. We need to remember God is still in control. I believe that God is a purpose and a plan for your life, yes. I think God is a purpose and a plan for this church. And I believe God is a purpose and a plan for America. And I believe He will work that purpose and plan. And I think Matthew chapter 8 helps us understand that, beginning in verse number 28. So you follow along in your Bibles as I read aloud. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say then to these things?" Would you look up here at me for just a moment? Pause in your reading and just... What shall we say then to these things? To what things? Well, to this tremendous statement on the sovereignty of God. This passage that said God is a purpose and a plan for our lives. And as we look around and we see what appears to us as being God's purposes thwarted, as we look around and we see what appears to be the enemies of God, the enemies of truth, Literally, I mean you you hear what people are saying you like do you realize that's just completely false what you're saying but they but they have a microphone to say it as we see the the enemies of freedom and And the principles of America that we hold dear we can look around at those things and think oh What is happening? What is going on? But I point you to the end of this verse that I stopped you from reading go back and look at this if God before us Who can be against us? Well, if God's in control, we don't have to worry about these forces of evil that are pushing back against the plans of God. God's in control, and we need to remember that. And I would ask you to keep that in mind as the overarching principle, overarching thought throughout the message. All right, point number one, under this idea of what is a biblical response? I said we shouldn't worry to the point of sin. We shouldn't be angry to the point of sin. We shouldn't be apathetic, which can be sinful. What are we to do? Well, number one, it's found in 1st Timothy 2, we are to intercede for our elected officials. 1st Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2. You'll forgive me if I keep saying this is probably familiar to you. I know for not all of you, it would be familiar. If you're new to the scriptures, new to faith even, new to this church, it might not be familiar with it. But to those of you who've been in church, you know this passage. Verse 1 and 2 of 1 Timothy chapter number 2. I'm in Thessalonians, hang on just a sec here. I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and the giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we might lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty." The Bible clearly compels us, commands us to intercede for our elected officials. Do you agree with that? Is that true? Is that what the scripture says? Yes. Kings, we don't have kings, we have political leaders that we are commanded to pray for. And look, I'm a guest here at your church. I don't know all of you well. I'm honored to be here, but let me tell you what I think is true. We're not doing this. And I state that because in the 200 churches I think I've preached at since starting this ministry, almost 100% of the people I meet have no idea who their elected officials are. If I ask you who your state senator was, state house member, U.S. congressman, most people don't know these three people are two U.S. senators. So how are we taking their names? They're for the Lord. We love complaining, some of us, about a faceless, nameless group of people that are politicians or Congress or whoever, whatever we call them. The Bible commands that we pray for them. I actually have, I was going to show you here, a card on the back table where you can list the names of your state house member, state senator, U.S. house member, two U.S. senators that we all have the same, unless you live in Alabama, maybe some of you live in Alabama. But you can, either way, they got them there too, write their names on here so you can remember to pray for them. And this is kind of a little synopsis of what you can do. Pick up that, it's free to take, maybe when you get a prayer card. Pray for our elected officials. You know, I have been in congressman's offices having a meeting where I said, you know, how can we pray for you? Let's see if I can drink this without spilling it. I didn't realize that was glass until I picked it up. I'm like the preacher who they made him have a sippy cup with a lid on it because he just spilled it everywhere. I'm always worried about that. I've been, you know, Congressman, we know you're busy, just 30 seconds, how can we pray for you? You know what probably the number one thing they say to me? Pray for my family. I knew when I was running for Congress what I was in for, but my wife, she just does not understand why people just criticize me, lie about me, say hateful things about me. I expected this when I became a member of Congress, but to my 12-year-old boy, I'm just daddy, and he doesn't get it. He doesn't understand why people, you know, yell stuff at me and call here and, you know, the office and scream at our receptionist. I think, boy, we can do that. We can pray for their family. That's probably the least we can do. Maybe the least we can do is pray for them spiritually. Well, I don't know where they're at spiritually. Well, I bet you're like me. You have loved ones, family members, where you don't know where they're at spiritually. We can pray the same prayer. Lord, show that person their spiritual need. You know, I'm thinking about you, thinking about your, you know, father who you're not sure if he's saved. Lord, show him what his spiritual need. Thinking about your adult daughter, Lord, show her what her spiritual need is. You got a cousin or someone you care about, a co-worker, show him, show her. If they need to be saved, Lord, reveal that to them. If they just need to get right with you, show them. Well, we can pray the same way for our elected leaders, can't we? Pray for them, intercede for them, our elected officials. Point number one, Point number two, and this is a little longer, so, you know, buckle up. This is found in Matthew chapter five. This is a sermon on the mount. Let's turn over to Matthew chapter five. Arguably the greatest sermon ever delivered because it was delivered by Jesus himself. Matthew chapter five, beginning in verse number 13. Again, I'll read aloud as you follow along through verse 16. Jesus said, ye are the salt of the earth. But the salt is lost its savor. Wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. The city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your lights are shone before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Point number two is influence as salt and light. now in order to understand this command you have to understand I think salt in Bible times today we don't think much about salt I I try to think a little bit my cardiologist appreciates if I think a little bit about salt and careful about that but most as we just take it on our vegetables or whatever and but in Bible times it was in very important commodity. It was used to preserve food. Without the modern refrigeration and things that we have to preserve food today, they used salt as a preservative. In fact, it was so valuable that our word salary, where we get the idea of our wages, comes from the Latin salt, money. Salt was very important in Bible times because it was a preservative. And I believe God is saying to us that he wants us to be a preservative. He has left us here on this earth and not just snatch us away into heaven as soon as we accept Christ, because we are here to preserve what is good, what is holy, what is righteous and just. Now salt is used, at least I'm told by bakers, that you have to use salt when baking bread, otherwise the yeast will blow it up, right? Anybody know what I'm talking about? I don't know. I don't know what I'm talking about. But I actually heard Julia Childs in an old TV clip, you gotta have gray hair to probably know who Julia Childs is, famous cooking show, like the first cooking show probably on TV. She said, salt arrests the yeast. I'm like, oh, there it is. It keeps the yeast in check. What's the spiritual analogy? Well, yeast, in our King James, the word leaven is a picture of what? Sin. Salt, you and me, arrests the sin, keeps it in check. God has left us here to be a preservative, preserving what is good and what is right. Now, let me see if I keep myself from getting in too much trouble here, but we're empty nesters. That's a personal illustration here. We're empty nesters. And our kids are grown and gone. But, so my wife doesn't cook meals quite like she used to. You know, just the two of us. She works full time, and so going out and different things, not a big deal. What has been lately you know 25 bucks eat at Chick-fil-a? but anyway She didn't cook quite as much, but when she does there's almost always food left over right and so do y'all do this I get one of those plastic containers and put don't I but we'll put the put the leftover food in that plastic container put it in the fridge and And then two weeks later, throw it away. Because I forgot about it. Or something got put in front. I meant to have it for lunch the next day or the day after that. But things get put in front. All of a sudden, you're reaching. Like, what is back here in this? Oh! purple and fuzzy and smells terrible, right? Y'all are chuckling, so I hope you've had that experience, so you know what I'm talking about, right? We've all had that experience. When you had that experience, did you think, I need a new refrigerator? Well, probably not, not unless everything is that way. Because you understand that the corrupting influence on food is so strong, so pervasive, that even when you try to save it and preserve it, sometimes it still goes bad. And yet we look around at our culture, we look around at our country, we look around at maybe even our government, maybe even other churches and say, oh, look what just happened. Oh, that guy's corrupt. Oh, look what that guy did. Oh, America's gone. Well, hang on. Let's not throw out the whole refrigerator, right? The corrupting influence on sin is pretty strong and pretty pervasive, isn't it? But we seem to give up so easy on this issue. God has called us to be salt. He's also called us to be light. Well, light, as we know, exposes. Exposes what is dark, what is dirty, what is corrupt and evil. In fact, Jesus said men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are Evil, right. Light exposes the evil. God's called us to be light, exposing the corruption and the darkness and the sin in whatever sphere of influence we have. Some of us, that's not big. Some of it, that's a little bit bigger. But he's called us to be that light, exposing the darkness and the corruption that's so prevalent. I got another illustration that's personal. I know, I like playing with fire. Normally my wife's not here when I'm preaching, so I have to be a little more careful. So let's say that we have company coming over to our house on Saturday night. Maybe our pastor and his wife come in for dinner. What are we doing during the day Saturday? You saying I have a dirty house? Did you hear that, honey? Of course, we're cleaning up, right? And when you're cleaning up, you turn all the lights on, right? You want to make sure that you catch that cobweb lurking in the corner, that you never paid attention to the dust on the baseboard. Your vacuum cleaner probably has a light, right? So you can see the dirt. Now, when the company comes over, how do you have the light? Let's have ambiance, right? That's Latin for hide the dirt. No, I made that up. I know, I'm being a little silly, but I'm trying to make a point, which is what? What kind of light do you think God wants us to be? A light that's bright enough to expose the dirt. that can expose the corruption, the evil. I don't think we need to be an obnoxiously bright light, like the guy who forgets to dim his high beams coming the other way down the road. I don't think we need to be obnoxious, but I'm afraid that the American church has become an ambient light that is blended in to be so much like the world. We're not casting any light on the world and their sin. God wants us to be light. Now I have a Bible illustration to make this point, all right? Don't you love Bible illustrations? The personal illustrations may be funny, but the Bible illustrations are always better. Esther. You know the story of Esther? Of course, many of you do. Young Jewish girl raised by her cousin Mordecai, who raised her just like his own daughter. But through the hand of God and the providence of God, despite the fact that they're in this foreign land as foreigners, she becomes queen. It's an amazing story. Right there, it's an amazing story. This young Jewish girl become queen in this heathen country. Now Mordecai, her cousin, who's like a father to her, gets himself in the hot water with Haman. Now I think of Haman as like the prime minister under the king. And Mordecai, a stubborn Jew, refuses to bow to wicked Haman. There's a lot of story in that and Haman's history and his background and what his predecessors did to the Jews and all that and Mordecai just I ain't bound to this guy Haman in his anger and really I'd probably say in his haste goes to the king convinces the king I think brother Han tricks the king into making a decree that all the Jews in the kingdom can be put to death These two guys don't even realize this sentence of death applies to the Queen herself. And so the sentence of death is given out, decree, the Jews in the kingdom, oh, they're obviously, you know, upset, hysteria. And so Mordecai goes to Queen Esther, who's like a daughter to him, appealing to her, you're the Queen. Is there anything you can do? But there's one big problem that Queen Esther has. No one is permitted to come to the king without being first what? Summoned, called by the king, risked being put to death for such an act. So she's a little hesitant. I'm not too hard on Esther. I think I'd be a little hesitant too. And so Mordecai to Esther chapter 4 verse 14 you don't have to turn there He says it in appealing to her. He says if thou altogether Holds thy peace at this time if you decide to keep your mouth shut not speak up not risk your neck to save all the Jews of the kingdom he says Then shall their enlargement, that just means help, and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. Boy, I read that, I don't know how many times that I didn't realize what it was saying. And finally it hit me. He's saying God promised he would preserve his people, the Jews. This decree will not wipe them out. If God doesn't use you as the queen, he'll use someone else to send help and deliverance to the Jews. Now, you might think to yourself, well, Brother Paul, if that's true, and if I understand what you're trying to say in this message, maybe trying to help us be a little more paying attention to what's going on in our country and being a little more influence. This feels like we have an out. I mean, if God's in control and God will send help and deliverance, he doesn't need my help. And I will say to you, I believe that's true. I don't think God needs my help or your help to accomplish his purpose and his plans. And I did say in my introduction, God is in control and God is sovereign. And I do believe that's an overarching principle, but I didn't finish that verse. Because the end of that verse, Mordecai says what is the most familiar phrase in the book of Esther, maybe the most familiar phrase in the Old Testament, when he says to Esther, who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Maybe God made you queen for this very purpose. Now we know the end of the story, right? We know God does not allow them to be annihilated or killed, that Esther does go to the king. We know the end of the story. But she doesn't know the end of the story when she's faced with that decision right there. She knows that to make this decision, she is risking her very life. And I merely say to you, as we contemplate this passage, this command to be salt and light, what are you willing to risk to be that salt and light? Are you willing to risk something to be that salt and light? See if God would use you to be that salt and light. At your school, at your workplace, in your neighborhood. I mean, most of us aren't willing to risk anything to be that salt and mud. Oh, I'm not gonna speak up about the LGBT policies at my office. I might lose my job. I'm not gonna speak up in my neighborhood because my neighbors might not be friendly to me anymore. We'll just let them go ahead and celebrate pride this month and we won't say anything. We won't say how that's offensive to us as Christians. Oh, I don't want to risk anything. We're not risking our lives here, all right? We're just risking our, you know, friends. And I want you to think about Esther when you think about that and see if God couldn't use you to be that salt in life. All right, one personal illustration, then I'll get to point number three, which is pretty quick. He didn't come here just to come home, right? Just to go home, right? He came here to get message from the Lord. But indulge me with one more personal illustration. At my house, I tend to do a lot of the home repairs. It started off mostly because we never had money to be able to call in a repairman, but I also kind of like to fix things around, learn how to fix things. And probably my biggest fun in all this is I get to buy new tools. So, yeah, honey, I will get that project done. But, you know, I'm going to have to go down here to Lowe's and get a new tool. Okay, dear, you're saving us lots of money by doing it. She talks just like that. Is she smiling? No, I'm kidding. That's not what she says. But she does appreciate it. But we were in our house in South Carolina. And many, many years ago, we moved in there. And for whatever reason, the builder put carpet in the kitchen. Well, at least the part of the kitchen where we ate all of our meals, right? Where the table was. And we had preschoolers. I mean, 37 minutes after we moved in there, that carpet was terrible. And my wife put up with that for several years and finally said, you know, I found something that we could use to replace that carpet. It's called laminate. And I hadn't heard of laminate before. I didn't know what that was. And she said, it looks pretty easy to install. And I looked, and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah, we should do that. Now, some of you men, I'm not setting this up as an example, but maybe you ladies, you wives, could be a little more patient with your husband when you realize, you know, you don't have to remind them every 9, 12 months that they said they would do something. They'll get to it, you know. I don't know if it was 12 months, I don't know how long it was, but I came home and all that carpet was already ripped up, just ripped right up. She had enough, and all there was was just a tack strip around the edge of the room. And I'm like, you know what? I'll get on that project. So I started putting that laminate down and I hadn't done it before and I was learning and didn't have a lot of tools and things to do it, but I borrowed a compound miter saw from a contractor friend at my church and I worked on it, I don't know, all day Saturday. Took a break on Sunday, was going to finish it on Monday. And on Sunday, talking to this contractor, who I had borrowed the saw from, I told him that I was to the part of the project where you run the little molding, the quarter round, around the edge between the flooring and the baseboard to kind of just finish it out, finish out the trim. Just nod a little bit if you're following me at all, okay? Just a little, you know, okay, thank you. A little trim, and he said, well, before you nail that trim, you should pre-drill the nail holes, because when you start nailing, it can split really easy. It's only, you know, a little skinny piece of wood, and that nail, I'm like, ah, you gotta be kidding me. He goes, well, do what you want. But I'm like, no, no, no, I'm sure you're right. So I measured for that. strip, I cut it, I put it in place and I took my drill and pre-drilled all the nail holes, took the hammer and the finishing nails and nailed those in without bashing my thumb and without denting up the little strip of wood. Then I took a nail set and set the head of the nail down below kind of the surface of it so I could fill it up with some wood filler and you would never see the nail, right? Yeah, you're enjoying this, aren't you? Even for a music guy, he's enjoying it. So we moved from South Carolina to Georgia. We had a room over the garage that was unfinished that I was gonna use for my office and it needed flooring and I was gonna Laminate, boom, let's do it. But I went to my wife when I got to the trim work, and I said, honey, I need a new tool. Y'all know what I bought? Went down to the store and bought a nail gun. In fact, it was a whole pancake compressor, a couple of nail guns. Now I had power. Thank you for that little laugh. So now, I mean, I still had to cut the wood, I still had to measure the wood, but no more pre-drilling with a drill, no more hammer, no more nail set, just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and it was done. I mean, you know, you go around the whole room and in no time, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, it's done. It was amazing. I mean, it goes so quick and easy and fast, you look around for other things to nail, right? Honey, does this piano need any nails? No. Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty. No. No, I would never. No, stop. It's not funny. My friend Suzanne was still here. She would throw something at me. So that tool is called a pneumatic tool. It's operated. by wind or air, and pneuma is the Greek word for wind, air, spirit. Because of the pneuma in that tool, you know where I'm going with this? Because of the pneuma in that tool, I could do that job far more efficiently, far more powerfully than I could do in my own strength. And we as Christians who are commanded to be salt and light, And who, admittedly, that can be very intimidating. We have what? We have the pneuma, the Holy Spirit that lives within inside of us that can enable us to be that salt and light far more effectively, far more powerfully than we can do in our own strength. But let me say one other thing to finish that illustration. Those nail guns, that compressor, they're just sitting in my garage right now doing nothing. I mean, for them to be of any value to me, what do I have to do? I have to plug it in, flip on that compressor, fill it up with air, plug a hose into it, plug the other end of the hose into the nail gun, load the nail gun with the right size nails, measure for the wood, cut the wood, put the nail gun on the right spot on the wood, and pull the trigger before I can release that pneuma, that air, to be of any help to me. And I simply add that to the end of this illustration to say, You're not gonna do much for the Lord, even with the Holy Spirit, just sitting on the couch yelling at the TV. I've been there. You throw your slipper at the news, you know, you get so upset about what's going on. You might have to get a little bit more informed, a little bit more aware, learn the names of your legislators, learn what they're voting on, right? You don't spend all day watching Fox News. I highly discourage you from spending all day watching Fox News, right? but be a little bit more informed, a little bit more knowledgeable. So I said number one, the biblical response is to intercede for our elected officials. Number two, influence is salt and light. And number three, and I'm done really quickly, interact as a Christian witness. Colossians 4, 6, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you might know how you ought to answer every man. First Peter 315, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you to a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear or respect. We are to humbly, respectfully act as a Christian witness. So often the people that I see, the Christians that I run across who are politically active, do it in such a way that it is not honoring to the Lord. They finally get mad enough to write a letter to their congressman, send an email, all caps, you know, you're the worst, you know. I don't think that's a very good witness for Christ. Now keep in mind, I'm a guy who talks to elected officials all the time about how they vote. I'm pretty sure I've probably done it more than anybody else here. I'm saying there's some value in talking to them about how they're gonna vote, but I never wanna do it in a way where they have to climb over me to see Jesus. Where I'm standing in the way of them coming to Christ. And I admonish you to be a Christian witness as you're being sought in life. So as we wrap this up, I know a fair question to maybe ask is, well, Paul, will we do these three things? Will America be saved? Will America be turned around? Well, I can't answer that question. I recognize that 2 Timothy 3.13 says, to the effect, things are gonna get worse and worse until Jesus comes. But what did Jesus say? Sit around on your hands till I come? He said, occupy till I come. And I want to close with a verse of scripture that, again, if you've been in church any length of time, you know this verse. Probably many of you have it memorized. 2 Chronicles 7.14, you know that verse? It says, if politicians will humble themselves and turn from their wicked... That's not what it says, is it? We act like that's what it says. That's them politicians. If they'd just turn from their wicked ways, America would be healed. But that's not what that verse says. It says, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, not the politicians in Washington, the church, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will, finish it with me, heal their land. All we gotta do to see America healed is repent from our sin. It's a convicting verse, isn't it? We're the ones maybe keeping America from being healed. But it's an encouraging verse, because you know what else it says? It ain't up to the politicians. Sorry to you English teachers here. I said ain't. But it ain't up to the politicians. Right? They don't have control. We have control as to whether America will be in. Bow your heads together with me for prayer. Father, thank you for the opportunity to preach this morning. I pray that you've been honored and glorified. Thank you for your word that helps us. Oh Lord, it would be so easy to get sidetracked and distracted and focus on so many negative things, but God, your word gives us the truth to follow. Lord, I pray that if you're speaking to hearts here this morning, anyone who needs to be saved, not sure they're a Christian, Lord, show, reveal to that person right now that they need to be saved and help them to speak to someone this morning before they leave. For those of us who know you and are born again, I pray that you'd help us know what we should do, whether we're a student or an adult or even an older person. We have a circle of influence where we can be salt and light, and I pray that you'd help us to do that. Lord, we love you and pray in Jesus' name. I turn this over to Pastor Hahn. I close as he sees fit. You stand with me, and as the pianist begins to play, maybe as the Lord has spoken to your heart this morning. Maybe it's a matter of prayer for our spiritual leaders, but as that pianist begins to play, as God has spoken to your heart, the altar is open and available, and maybe set an appointment with the Lord a day this week, pick a day out of the week. When you're in your personal prayer time, you're gonna pray for those elected leaders that we have in our country. But as God has spoken to your heart, as the pianist plays, do business with the Lord this morning.