Pray, Vote, Stand

Blessings to Israel presents Discerning the Times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please join us for today's program.

Welcome to the program. So glad to be with you today as we come once again to encourage you to discern the times by viewing life through the lens of the Bible. Well, folks, we have an election that is coming up in a few weeks, and I'm sure I don't need to tell you that because we are being bombarded with advertisements all across the television and radio and in the mail.

It is all over the place. And as I state the topic of election, I'm sure that some of you cringe because I know that there are some out there that believe Christians should not be involved in politics. But I want to encourage you today, if you will hear me out, that we need to be involved. For those that believe we should not be involved, stop and think about it for a moment. Jesus Christ said in the scriptures that we are to be salt and light of the world. Now, if we only keep ourselves contained or confined within the boundaries of the church and not involved in secular activities, then we would be salt and light of the church. And by definition, the church is already the salt and the light. The church is already standing for Jesus Christ. So we need to be influencing those who do not yet know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

We need to let our light shine. And that is why, folks, when we become born again in Christ, just just think about it for a moment. When we become born again in Christ, we do not immediately go to heaven. If he did not want us to be here to have an influence, Jesus would just take us to heaven as soon as we come to know him as Lord and Savior.

But he leaves us here for a reason. And that reason is we are to be, again, the salt and the light. So we need to be involved in politics. We need to get out and vote because the laws, the legislation is going to affect us all. We we want to to live in a society in which we have the freedom of religion. We want to live in a society in which the morality, as defined by the scriptures, is what we see in our society. But as we know, there are many today that are not believers in Jesus Christ and they are in places of influence and they are legislating for things that are not of God.

We need to be involved. So what I want to do today, I want to share a message from Pastor Gary Hamrick. He's speaking at the Pray Stand Vote Summit, and it's a very powerful message on the need for us as believers in Christ to get out and make our voices be heard. It's good to be with you. It's good to get out of Washington, D.C. a little bit, because the church I pastor, Cornerstone Chapel, is about 30 miles west of Washington, D.C. So I bring you greetings from the land of politics. Politics from two Greek words, poly meaning many and tix meaning bloodsucker.

So I am happy to be away from Washington at least for a couple of days. Well I think we can all agree that the past couple of years have been very challenging for all of us as Christians, myself as a pastor, navigating a church through some very chaotic times, a pandemic with government mandates, a country going woke in many respects and unfortunately some churches going woke with it. A somewhat controversial, some would say, presidential election, strained race relations and movements associated with it, BLM and CRT. Public school systems no longer just about education. How many of you are old enough to remember when education just used to be about the three R's, reading, writing, and arithmetic?

And now instead it's advocating an intentional social agenda, moving from education to indoctrination of your children, and at the same time trying to silence the voices of the parents. In Loudoun County where I pastor, as Tony mentioned, Leesburg is the county seat for Loudoun County. That's where our church is and Loudoun County is a county that nobody heard about a couple of years ago, but now it's become the epicenter of craziness. And in Loudoun County our school board recently passed a transgender policy where children, now think about this, little children get to decide whatever gender they want to be and parents have no right to interfere.

That's the policy. And so these are the times in which we are living. I've never seen it more chaotic and more confusing in our culture and unfortunately also in the church in some respects. In Luke chapter 21, 25, Jesus talked about how there will be the roaring of the sea and the tossing of the waves just prior to his second coming. And I believe he meant that literally and I still believe that he meant that literally. In other words, that there will be natural disasters as part of the signs of the end times as we get closer to the return of Christ. But I'm starting to wonder if he also meant when he talked about the tossing of the sea and the roaring of the waves, if he meant sea also in a figurative sense. Remember that when John wrote about the coming of the antichrist in Revelation chapter 13, John spoke about how the beast will rise out of the sea. Now he didn't mean that the antichrist was coming out of the ocean like some weird sea creature. What he meant was when he spoke about coming up out of the sea was figuratively that the antichrist will rise from the sea of humanity. And so could it be that in Luke 21, 25 when Jesus is speaking about the tossing of the sea and the roaring of the waves that he meant it also in a figurative sense that there will be the upheaval of humanity with all this cultural tossing and this social churning and this political roaring like waves in the sea of humanity all stirred up by none other than Satan himself because these are unprecedented times. And I believe that because these are unprecedented times that it requires unprecedented preaching to address these cultural, social, and political issues from a biblical perspective.

Because if we only teach the Bible without addressing the craziness in our world then we are simply giving people information without application. And people are looking to the church today and they're looking to pastors and leaders to help them make sense of a senseless world. I got an email not too long ago from a gentleman in our church who was raising four daughters with his wife and he emailed me and said, Pastor Gary, one of the reasons we love coming to Cornerstone is just simply because we want to be reminded we're not going crazy.

Have you ever felt like that? I just need to go to church so I can hear a biblical perspective to know that I'm just not going crazy. So I will address, I feel it is incumbent upon me to address from the pulpit social, cultural, and political issues. The confusion that is so prevalent in our culture and to give people a biblical response because see we have the handbook of life. And so we know what is true from what is false. We know what is right from what is wrong. We know what is good from what is evil because God has defined it so. And therefore then operating our lives from the handbook of the Bible, we are able to have a standard that should represent God well in a very confusing world. And so for example, I will talk to our folks about, listen, beware of government overreach.

I mean, Romans 13 is a true verse, a true chapter about honoring government, respecting government authority. But then so is Hebrews 10, 25 about not forsaking the assembling of the believers and encouraging one another even more as you see the day approaching. There was a tension in my own heart about when COVID hit, I wanted to respect the fact that it was deathly for some people. But on the other hand, CDC's own reports started to verify the fact that young people between the ages of 18 to 24, during the period of isolation when everybody was told, go home, isolate, that the CDC reported that 75% of those within the 18 to 24 year bracket, 75% had suicidal ideations because the isolation, you see, created an even greater harm than the physical virus itself. So I said, we're opening back up our church.

We were closed for only about six weeks. Guess who showed up? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Guess who showed up in addition? The health department. Health department shows up with a clipboard and pictures of our people not social distancing and most of them, it was like up to you if you wanted to wear a mask or not. And so they're showing me pictures and we got visited four different times. And I said, how in the world did you get pictures of our congregation not social distancing and not wearing masks? Well, Pastor Gary, we watch your live services. All right? So then I thought to myself, after I got over being ticked off, like, well, praise God, the health department is watching our church services.

Like, praise God. My late good friend, Dr. Ed Hindson said, if the government can mandate a mask, it can mandate a mark. So we have to be wise about the times in which we live. And now, by the way, we're getting 87,000 new IRS agents.

I'm sure just to help you with your taxes. But anyway, I'll address CRT from the pulpit. Why are we being told that just because of your skin color, you are either the oppressed or the oppressors?

We have the narrative on this. The Bible tells us in Galatians 3 28 that God is no respecter of persons, that we're all equal in his sight. Revelation says represented in heaven will be every language, tribe, people and nation. The church has the answer to the sin of racism. We have the truth of the gospel that we all bleed the same color red and Jesus died for all of us because he loves all with equal value. I'll talk about gender identity disorder. That's what it used to be called until 2013 when it was changed from a mental disorder to now something that we embrace and celebrate.

Why? Because we're believing a lie. And the church has the answer to this.

We know the narrative. Genesis 1 27, God created them male and female in his image. He created them male and female. There's only two genders. I understand that we should show compassion and want counseling for people who have the confusion, but we should not be celebrating, embracing and lying to our children that you could just decide whatever gender you want to be.

That's emotional child abuse. So I tried to, you know, encourage our folks at our church get involved culturally get involved socially get involved politically be salt and light, as Jesus told us to be. And in Virginia, praise God we turned our state around our governor.

Yeah, praise God. Glenn Youngkin has been a friend of mine we both served on the board for the Museum of the Bible before he resigned to run for governor. He's a strong believer. Winsome Sears our lieutenant governor, the first. The first black woman elected to state office in the Commonwealth of Virginia, another strong believer, she came to my church I had Glenn Youngkin at my church three times before the election. Winsome Sears came to set came the Sunday after they were elected to give praise to God, I had her up in our congregation and she said look, win or lose, I was going to be successful because success is doing what God wants you to do.

And God called me to run. Jason Miyares our Attorney General another strong believer. So we have a governor, Lieutenant Governor, and the Attorney General who love Jesus born again, we've turned our state around listen, you can turn Georgia around, and let me say this, let me say this. Any, any candidate, especially a candidate who says he or she is a believer, but they still believe in abortion does not represent God and should never represent you. Thank you for joining us now joining us we are listening today to a message given by Pastor Gary hammering at the pray vote stand summit. Folks, I am a part of a group that we go out to the abortion clinics and we pray we counsel young women, and we try to get them to allow their children their babies in their womb to have life. And there are times in which there are women who will change their minds when they see those out there who care when they see the believers in Christ out there praying and talking with them and supporting them, and they will change their minds and decide to allow their babies to live.

And just this past Sunday and our church. I was put up on the screens, the pictures of five young girls. They were about the ages of three to five years old, standing there with these beautiful smiles on their faces.

And they were little girls in which their mothers went to the abortion clinics for the purpose of avoiding them. But as a result of the work of us being out there to counsel and to pray with them. They chose to give their children life, and I stood there and I just saw those beautiful smiles on the faces of those precious little girls and I just became so filled with emotion. And I just say my god how wonderful it is that these these young girls have life. And I heard the Holy Spirit just spoke to me and in my spirit and said just keep going, keep doing the work, keep fighting for the lives of the unborn and folks that is why we need to be involved politically, we need to be out there, having an influence on these laws, and God says in his word that if you just sit by on the sidelines and do nothing, and you know these things are taking place.

He says he will not hold you guiltless. And so we need to be involved we need to to be out, making our voices heard that the ways of God are the only ways by which we should go. So we're going to pause for a brief announcement but please don't go away we're going to come back with the conclusion of Pastor Gary hammer.

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Box 266, Knightdale, North Carolina 27545. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's program. Look, I have no illusions I'm not a dominionist I'm not trying to make the United States a theocracy that won't happen until Jesus is ruling and reigning from Jerusalem during the millennial kingdom. But I do believe that the presence of the church and the power of the Holy Spirit are the restraining elements in the world today against evil, which is what Paul wrote about in second Thessalonians two.

He said this Do you not remember that when I was still with you. I told you these things, and now you know what, what is restraining that he referring to anti Christ may be revealed in his own time for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he capital H only he who now restrains will do so until he capital H is taken out of the way and then the lawless one anti Christ will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and the destroy with the brightness of his coming. In other words, the text tells us that there is a what and a he capital pronoun restraining evil in the world today. And I believe that the what restraining evil is the church, and the he restraining evil is the Holy Spirit, but that when the church is raptured, the Holy Spirit exits with the church. You see, then the anti Christ will rise to ultimate power and prominence and leading up to that.

In the meantime, you see, Satan is stirring the waters, and he is churning the waves of the sea, and we are to be the restraining force that God has placed in the earth against the rise of evil, the church. And that's because there really are two, two agendas two missions in operation right now that are diametrically opposed. You have the world mission that is basically saying to you, conform conform to our values conform to our image conform to our standards conform to our definition of terms conform conform. That's the world's mission. And they basically want us to accept it and not respond to it.

Don't speak up yet we're smarter than you don't ask questions just be conformed. That's the world's mission. But the church's mission is to go into the world and say to the world, be transformed by the power of Jesus Christ, and when a person's life is transformed by the power of Jesus Christ, then their whole understanding of right and wrong changes their values change, everything becomes more conformed now to the standard of God Why, because the human heart has been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, you see, and so we have this mission before us that we need to go into all the world and help people to understand they can be transformed by the power of Jesus Christ, but the world's going to say to you conform be true to the mission, don't give up on the mission, go into all the world, be salt and light profess the good news of the gospel and make it applicable and real to the lives of people today. This is the good news of Jesus.

This is why he said in Luke 1913, occupy until I come, don't sit on the sidelines don't check out, occupy till I come. This is being salt and light in the world Jesus says you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. Listen salt of the earth light of the world, we are to have global influence to make a difference in our world, salt and light are penetrating influences, so we are never to sit on the sidelines, we are never to be disengaged, we have to rise up to the occasion and meet a response, a biblical response to all this craziness that is happening in our world.

Jesus is calling true believers, true followers of his to make a difference in our world, to not be silent, to not be passive, to not be embarrassed, to not be irrelevant, but to impact and influence our world, to engage our culture, to vote our biblical values, to speak the truth, to live for Jesus and to tell people about Jesus wherever and whenever we go. This is being salt and light. John Stott, a great Anglican theologian who died in 2011, John Stott once said quote if the house is dark at night there is no sense in blaming the house, that's what happens when the sun goes down, the question to ask is where is the light.

If meat goes bad there is no sense in blaming the meat, that is what happens when the bacteria are allowed to breed unchecked, the question to ask is where is the salt. He said if society becomes corrupt like a dark night or stinking fish there's no sense in blaming society, that's what happens when fallen human society is left to itself and human evil is unrestrained and unchecked, the question to ask is where is the church, where is the church. In the early 1940s Adolf Hitler gathered together all the important clergy and theologians of Germany at Berlin and he assured them that with him in charge their subsidies were secure because they were state run churches, their subsidies were secure and their churches would not be harmed but one of those German theologians, one of those German pastors present at that meeting Dietrich Bonhoeffer emerged from among the group and he made his way up to Adolf Hitler in the room and he said Herr Hitler we are not concerned about the church for Jesus Christ will take care of her, what we are concerned about is the soul of Germany and when all the other clergy heard Bonhoeffer say that they all took a few steps backward and left Bonhoeffer standing alone at the front of the room with Hitler and Hitler replied to Bonhoeffer, Herr Bonhoeffer you do not need to worry, Hitler said I will take care of the soul of Germany. We just had two weeks ago an American president stand in Philadelphia against the backdrop of a blood red wall and Marines standing behind him talking about the soul of America. Ladies and gentlemen government is never the answer to the soul of a nation, the church of Jesus Christ is the answer to the soul of a nation. Jesus is the answer to the soul of a nation and Bonhoeffer from that moment on joined the German resistance movement to oppose Hitler and Nazi Germany and although it was never officially documented anywhere, it was said that Bonhoeffer said this before the Nazis executed him in 1945 at the age of 39. He said silence in the face of evil is itself evil and God will not hold us guiltless not to speak.