Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 338 | Waging Quiet Resistance Through Bold Obedience

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

It's often easy to be overwhelmed by the chaos of the world, wondering "What can I do to make a difference?" While some might think the only way to affect the world is through a large platform with many followers, the truth is God can do amazing things through regular people who just live their lives according to the word. God has an important purpose for everyone, regardless of how many Twitter followers they have. And although the reward for living a biblical life is eternal, we must accept that the world will continue to persecute Christians in the short term, especially as progressives work their way into Western society. Today's sponsor: Hydrant: For 25% off your first order, go to https://DrinkHydrant.com/ALLIE and enter promo code 'ALLIE' at checkout -- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. If you have not, listen to Friday's episode with Sager and Jetty, make sure that you go do that. We talked about a wide variety of things, but we talked about populism as a political and even cultural perspective. We talked about the threat of China. These are not always things that we talk about specifically and in detail on this podcast, but we did get into a good bit of detail. And I think that his perspective on things and where we are as a country is very refreshing. Now, if you ended that episode, if you did listen to that episode, you didn't go listen to it, but if you did listen to that episode or watch that episode and you're thinking, oh, my gosh,

like, you know, we're living in such a dire time and you're worried about a perspective, Biden presidency, and you're worried about where the country is going. You're worried about a China takeover. You're worried about irreconcilable differences between the right and the left. that's an understandable concern. But today we're not going to talk about the political aspects of it. I want to talk about what our role is as Christians in the midst of all of this. I want to take a break for the nitty-gritty of the politics because for the last couple episodes, we did talk about political things, but I have heard feedback from you guys that sometimes you just want to break from

that. Like you want to talk about bigger picture issues. You want to talk about deeper issues than what's going on on the surface. And look, I believe that what's going on on the surface. I I obviously believe that politics and these cultural issues and the headlines and still the election litigation that's going on right now, all of those things very much matter. And there are worldview implications of all of those. And we talked about on Wednesday when we talked about the coronavirus lockdowns, the arbitrary lockdowns, the unscientific shutdowns of schools, that all of that actually comes from a worldview, that that comes from a materialist secularist worldview that denies real holistic human nature,

We actually have emotional needs. We have spiritual needs that are met by fellowship, that are met by in-person interaction, that are met by being able to provide for ourselves and for our families. Like, we're not just bags of bones that are only threatened by a virus. We are also threatened by tyranny. Like, we are also threatened by being isolated in our homes. We are also threatened by a lack of education. We are threatened with a whole host of things that are unfortunately being imposed on us.

us by politicians who care much more about power than protecting us from a virus. And so we always try to take the things that are going on and link them to the deeper reality that we as Christians abide by. I know I don't always do that perfectly, but that's my goal in most episodes. So obviously, I think that the things that are going on matter. But sometimes we just have to take a break from the headlines for a second and the weeds of what's going on and just remind ourselves big picture of what our role is in the midst of this. We on Instagram talked a little bit about eschatology.

So that means the end times. And I've talked about that several times in my podcast before. You can go back to an episode over a year ago now. I think it was somewhere of 2019 that it came out where I talked about my view of what is going to happen in the end times according to script. scripture. This is not a gospel or salvation issue in that. There are lots of sincere Christians who disagree on what the end times will actually look like. We are all believing in the sufficiency and anerrancy of scripture. But because these are complex and difficult subjects to analyze and to approach, there are disagreements between faithful Christians on these things

and we kind of all understand that it's okay that we disagree. So I am a post-tribulation, a pre-millennialist. And so I do not believe that believers will be raptured before the tribulation, but that we will, if we're alive at that time, endure the tribulation. And then Jesus will come back. He will catch up believers at that time, and I won't get into all of it. But I actually posted the timeline of what people like me, which is just classic traditional pre-millennialism, believe about the end times.

And then you've got someone like John McArthur who believes in pre-tribulation, a pre-millennialist. And so he actually believes that believers who are alive at the beginning of the tribulation will be raptured up, that they won't have to endure the tribulation. Then you've got post-millennialism, you've got a millennialism. And I had Jeff Durbin, a post-millianist on my podcast, do a two-part series with me that was very popular and we kind of went back and forth, mostly him just talking, but a little bit back and forth about the biblical support for pre-millennialism versus post-millennialism,

Vody Bacham, who I've had on this podcast, who is an amazing teacher that I very much respect. He's an a-millennialist. And if you're curious about what all of this is, you can go back and you can listen to my End Times podcast that I did over a year ago. You can also go to got questions.org. Gives a lot of great resources on this. my big systematic theology book by Wayne Grudom that is just a staple, I think, in learning biblical theology. I've also had Wayne Grudom on this podcast. It gives a great explanation and

depictions of what that means. But so all of that said, all of that said, we have disagreements obviously on eschatology and in times within Christianity. But the point is, is that we all believe that one day Christ will rule in perfect peace. Like we already believe that he is the king of kings, that he is the ruler of all, that nothing happens outside of his sovereign will, but that one day he will destroy his enemies forever, that there will be no war, that there will be no sorrow, there will be no sin, there will be no evil, there will be no partisanship, there will be no political parties, there will be no factions, that there will be no dissonance, there will be no dissent from the king of kings, that he will rule in totality in perfect peace.

That's what all Christians believe in. And we are all working to live in such a way that speaks to that hope. That looks forward to that hope, that looks forward to that assurance. Now, we disagree on what that means as far as political involvement, as far as cultural involvement. obviously I believe that we should care about culture and politics, like I said. But the point of all of our lives, those of us who hope in Christ, is to glorify God and to make him known and to make his will done on earth as it is in heaven as the Lord's prayer tells us to do. So no matter how involved you are in politics, no matter how much that you are going to make yourself care about

the threat of China, for example, the question is, how do we, in light of whatever our eschatological views are down to the details. But in light of the forever reign of Christ and the full authority of Christ, how do we live our lives in a way that resists evil? We are told in the Bible to cling to what is good and to resist evil with everything that we have. A lot of people ask me, like, how do I push back against liberal indoctrination? How do I push back against liberal policies? How do I push back against the things that I know aren't good for my kids, aren't good for my family aren't good for my community and neighborhood. And of course, we talk about those things. Voting is important. Talking to your representatives, your city council, your school board,

making sure that your kids are protected as much as possible from secular ideology and raising them up in the way that they should go, discipling them closely, being intimately involved in the details of your kids' lives, and making sure they know who made them, why they were made, what they were for, who has the authority over the heavens and the earth. All of these things are ways to push back against what we think are harmful policies and what we think are harmful and anti-God ideologies in our life. But I want to comfort you in the fact that it's not always in the form of a political revolution. Like you do not have to be the person who is constantly posting on social media. You don't have to be a person with a podcast. You don't have

to be a blogger. You don't have to be a journalist. You don't have to be a speaker. You don't have to write a book in order to have influence and in order to push back against evil because you living as though you know you know exactly who is the ruler over all who you ultimately submit to who is the king of kings that in itself is defiance of tyranny that in itself is defiance of evil you living in a way that you are subscribing to the the tenets of christian the commands of the Bible and the dictates of scripture over any earthly authority is a form of resistance. It is a form of protest, Protestants. And I am, as you guys know who have been listening to this podcast, a reformed Protestant. The Reformation, the reason why we were called

Protestants is because we were protesting against what was at the time. corruption and unbiblical doctrines within the Catholic Church. And Protestants have continued to push back against what we feel is corruption and what we feel is bad leadership and what we feel like is anti-God. That has not always been in the form of us overthrowing kings or resisting, you know, for example, within the Catholic Church, the papacy. It means that we abide by the Word of God, even when it's unpopular, even when we're castigated for it, even when we're chastised. even when we're persecuted. And I think we in America, we see resistance only as being able to, you know, speak out about things or protest or, like, take on some movement, which is all great.

Like, we have the freedom to do that. Obviously, I have a podcast because I think these things matter. But throughout the world, the way that people are resisting, like dictatorships in different countries that don't allow religious liberty is by worshiping together. like by sharing the gospel, by reading their Bible. Like these are acts of resistance that are powerful in the kingdom of God. They have spiritual implications. They have eternal implications. Like, don't you think that Satan is also afraid?

Satan is also trembling. Like when the person in a country that does not have religious liberty is reading his Bible or is sharing the gospel or is worshiping with fellow believers. So I am encouraging you that if you ever feel like you are helpless or hopeless, like you don't know what to do to make change, like how do you make everyone aware of this particular issue? God might be calling you to speak out. He might be calling you to have a platform. He might be calling you to lead some kind of movement or to start some kind of organization

or to start some kind of ministry. He may absolutely be calling you to do that. Or he could be calling you to be radical in your daily obedience. He could be calling you to take advantage. of the liberties that you have by also reading your Bible, by caring for your neighbor, by being hospitable in a time that we're told that we can't be hospitable, by being generous in a time that we're being told to hoard everything that we have, by sharing the gospel in a time that we are being told that imposing your values on another person is actually hateful and it's

bigotry. Standing for the truth of God's word when it comes to controversial issues like marriage and gender and sexuality and defense of life in some. the womb, even just in conversations with your friends and teaching your kids the truth about God's word, the truth about who created the heavens in the earth, and therefore who has the authority over all of it. Maybe that's your radical resistance. Like, maybe that's how you make the biggest changes by being a faithful, godly wife, by being a good and a loving and a caring mother, by being a loyal friend in an era that tells you that you have to cut off people that are not serving your interests right away, that there's actually nothing virtuous about being

a faithful friend. There's nothing virtuous about speaking truth. There's nothing virtuous about standing up for the things that you know are true. Basically, we're encouraged to be these morally relativistic, selfish noodles of people, whereas the Bible is telling us to absolutely stand firm. And so maybe you being radical is standing on the Word of God and submitting to Christ and all that you think, say, and do. And not borrowing the language from the culture even a little bit, not borrowing ideas from the culture even a little bit, not going along on the mainstream from culture even a little bit, ignoring the bullies who tell you that you have to think a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way, parent a certain way, live a certain way in order to fit in with the cultural

powers that be like maybe your resistance, maybe your revolution. It's just submission to Christ. That's all of our revolution. And I think it looks differently for everyone. It does. Like God uses our particular talents as the Bible tells us in different ways to serve the body of Christ. And I think we just have to make sure that we are a sensitive to the Holy Spirit, that we're praying for sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to convict us and where to go and what

to do. So take a deep breath and realize that you might not be called to start a movement or to even start a podcast or to have a platform and you don't need those things. You don't have to be an influencer to have influence, not in the kingdom of God. One of my favorite passages is 1st Corinthians 1 and I'm just going to pull that up so I don't botch it. But I just love the counterintuitive nature of God in his kingdom. So this is God through Paul speaking in 1 Corinthians 1, starting in verse, let's see. Okay, starting in verse 18.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. and pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. I know this is a long passage and I didn't realize how long it was going to be when I started reading, but I got to keep going because the meat of it is still coming.

for consider your calling brothers not many of you were wise according to worldly standards not many of you were powerful not many of you were of noble birth but god chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise god chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong god chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of god and because of him you are in christ jesus who became to us wisdom from god righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that as it is written let the one who boast boast in the Lord so god does not need your ability to gain an audience he doesn't need your ability to articulate idea as well he doesn't need your particular uh he doesn't need your particular talents

he doesn't need whatever we believe that uh we are good at even the gifts that he gave us he is going to use people as he sees fit and yes he does very often use our talents in our gifts to advance his will and to bring him glory, to advance his kingdom, absolutely. But God is not looking throughout the world and trying to pick the most powerful people, the most influential people, the most beautiful people, the people that are in the most powerful positions in the world. That's not who he is picking. He has chosen us before the foundation of the world, as Ephesians 1-5 says, in love that he might do in us the work that he wants to do. And so, and this passage says the reason that he does this, like he picks the people

that the world would not pick. He picks the people that the world does not regard as important so that he can shame the people who fancy themselves important so that this passage says, no one might boast. No one might boast before the Lord. That we don't have our own things, our own qualifications, our own competence to boast in. But we get to boast. in God, this is what he does. So the pressure is off of us. I just feel that a lot of us feel a lot of pressure to be something, to make something of ourselves, to make our voices known. And I know I'm saying this as someone with a podcast. Who knows how long this podcast is going to last? Like, I don't know how long the season of my life is going to last. I'm probably not going to be called to do a podcast

or have a platform forever. There's going to be a time where other people have a platform and I don't and I'm behind the scenes and I'm not doing this anymore and there are different seasons of our life. But the fact of the matter is is that the pressure is off of us. All we are called to do is to submit to God who is going to do with us what he wants to do with us, no matter what the world says and no matter how the world defines success and influence. And the quiet revolution of submission to Christ is exactly what God is calling his humble servants to do. I also want to read to you, Ephesians, too. This is all just like kind of coming into my head.

If you haven't noticed, I actually kind of had a different plan for this episode today. But I also want to read you part of Ephesians too, which if you've listened to this podcast, you know how often I cite this passage, which is one of my favorite passages in the Bible because Ephesians is really, it's my, it's one of my favorite books of the Bible. Ephesians and Genesis are two of my favorite books of the Bible. Genesis, I just think, is amazing storytelling. And I'm not talking about like fairy tale storytelling. Just the narrative of how God created the world and then his people in the early days.

It's just fascinating to me. And I love it. Like Genesis, there are moments that make me laugh. There are moments that I'm like, I can't believe that happened. That's crazy. I love the book of Genesis. And I love the book of Ephesians because I think it speaks so perfectly to what the gospel is. Like it explains so well in Ephesians too who we were before Christ and then what Christ does in us.

and then what is the result of that salvation that we did not, that we did not earn. So talking about in 1 Corinthians 1, and I actually didn't even mean to make this connection, but it works really well. And 1 Corinthians 1 saying, hey, look, God chose you. He chose what is weak in the world. He chose what is small in the world. He chose what is insignificant and unwise to the world. And he is going to shame the self-importance and the self-righteousness and the self-empowerment

of the world. And he is going to show his power. through what the world considers weak vessels so that no one can boast and everyone has to glorify God for the things that he has done through these people. This idea that he chose us is reiterated also in Ephesians and also the result of that. What that means is glorifying God in us obeying Him. So, Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. So again, you can't boast. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.

For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And I just want to do an aside. I wasn't going to do, I wasn't going to do this faith versus works argument right here. But I just love to emphasize in this particular passage how much, how many pains. are taken in these few verses to explain that it is God who saves us, that our works cannot save us, that our words cannot save us, that it is God alone so that we cannot boast.

The only thing that we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary, as the saying goes, and I did not come up with that. It is God who saves us. It is God as Ephesians 1-5 says, who chose us. Romans 9 also makes this very clear. and people say, well, faith without works is dead. What about that? Yes, that's true.

But this Ephesians 210 actually answers exactly what that means. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And so even the good works that we do that are not, they are products of our faith, like they do not create our salvation, but they are results of our salvation. even those we can't take credit for it. Even those are God's workmanship, which he prepared beforehand. And the works that he prepared beforehand for us to do are the ones that we are going to

accomplish. So again, I'm just trying to reiterate, one, that it's faith by grace through faith that saves us, that it's not your own doing. But really, the larger point that I've been trying to make is that the pressure is off. Like the pressure is off of you to try to do. come up with your own significance, to try to be what the world says is important or influential, even in the realm of Christianity. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with doing what seems like big things. But doing the good works that God prepared for us beforehand that we should

walk in them is exactly the quiet resistance and the quiet revolution that changes nations. I mean, it changes lives. It'll change your kids' life. It'll change your family's life. It'll change your family's life. It'll change your own life. It'll, it has an effect on your neighborhood. It has an effect on your community. It has an effect on your church. It has an effect on your state. And then it has an effect on your country and the world. And that doesn't mean that necessarily the world is going to start grunting towards the cross right now. But it does mean that that's ultimately that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God has chosen by his sovereign and will to use our obedience and our good works that he prepared beforehand as the channel

through which his kingdom is advancing here on earth. That is revolutionary. That's huge. There's nothing bigger than that. So if you ever feel mom, if you ever feel student, if you ever feel employee, like you're not doing enough by being a Christian, like you just got you got to do something else. You got to start something. You got to start a move it. start an organization, maybe, maybe so. Maybe the Lord is calling you to that. And he has given you the specific opportunity, the connections, the leadership abilities to be able to do that, to start a podcast, to start a movement, to start an organization.

All of those things are great and wonderful things. And if he is calling you to those things, he will equip you to do those things. But if you are a mom, for example, who feels like you're the mundane moments throughout your day are not doing anything, that the changing of the, the diapers is not doing anything, that the washing the dishes, that the cleaning of the house, that the making the dinner, that the getting together with your friends, that it's not doing enough, maybe, maybe, and I would say probably definitely, although I can't tell you what the Holy Spirit is doing in your heart and mind. Like this is the radical revolution that God is

calling you to by carrying out the good and excellent works that he prepared for us beforehand. And maybe you'll have a season of your life where things will look different, where you will be called to something, you know, some kind of thing in addition. Maybe so. But let's not take for granted the season in which God has placed us. There are a lot of opportunities, like I said at the beginning of this episode, to be radical and to be different because we're being told that we have. have to be isolated and that we can't that we're not allowed to worship together in some places,

that we're not allowed to be hospitable in some ways, that we should be scared of our neighbor, that we should be distrusting of our neighbor, that we should be angry at our neighbor for not agreeing with us. There are a lot of ways to push back against that. And I'm not advocating for recklessness with the coronavirus guys. I've said that a hundred million times, but people still need love right now. Like the, good works that God is prepared for us to do, haven't been suspended. God's will hasn't been suspended. The timeline, the grand timeline of redemption, hasn't been suspended, it hasn't been altered, it hasn't been thwarted in some way. Like, we're not taking like some pause in the span of

eternity just because we have bureaucrats trying to lock down society. Like, Jesus is still coming back at the time that the father has planned that he is going to come back. That's still happening. And so our obedience is not less important now. Like we are not, we are not excused for lack of the better term because we are in, you know, a public health crisis and an economic and a government crisis right now. Now, this is the time that the church thrives. And that's another piece of encouragement that I want to get, that I want to give you that I'll get to in just one second.

But first, I have to take a quick ad break. So the reality is, is that these times are actually when the church, thrives. Like this is when the church steps up. I heard a pastor a few years ago that, unfortunately, I no longer align with in some ways, but he has a lot of good stuff. And something that he said was that the church thrives on the margins. And so while I obviously think the fight for things like religious liberty are so important, and I want this to be a country where Christians and people of all faiths can worship freely and can speak freely, can gather freely. I also realize that when the church is pushed to the margins of society, when we're no longer mainstream, when it's

no longer popular or safe or lucrative to be a Christian, that is, it's not where the church is destroyed. That is where the church steps up to the plate, the true church. Yes, there are people who have lived their lives as cultural Christians, as comfortable Christians, as nominal Christians, who then walk away and they say, you know what, this is too costly for me.

But those who left us were never with us, as Scripture says, and those people may have been Christians while it was comfortable, but, you know, they were like the seed thrown on the bad soil. And once things became difficult, once things became thorny,

they said, you know, I'm out. I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm just going to join the culture. I think that we've probably seen that a lot recently. And so as the church has pushed to the margins, yes, their numbers may get fewer because it gets more difficult. And people who have not counted the cost, as Jesus tells us to count, to count it before we become his disciples are going to decide, yeah, it's just way too costly. It's way too expensive. It's way too unsafe.

It's way too uncomfortable for me. And so there will be people who decide that they're going to walk away from Christianity altogether. there are going to be people who try to maintain some semblance of Christianity while mimicking the world's talking points on every single issue. And obviously those people unfortunately haven't submitted to the authority of Christ. And I'm not just talking about people who, oh, they disagree with me on politics or they disagree with me on these theological issues. So that means they're not really Christians. That's not what I'm saying. We all know who I'm talking about, the people really on the right and the left side of the political aisle who used Jesus as a mascot for

their views that have nothing to do with scriptures. So those people might try to maintain some kind of semblance of Christianity, even as Christianity gets pushed to the margins of society. But those people will even be few. Because again, it won't be popular or even necessary to say that you have any kind of spirituality or allegiance to Christianity. And so the true Christians will be on the margins of society in America at some point. Right now, we have a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny,

tiny taste of what persecution looks like. But in the rest of the world, and for most of history, as we've talked about before, Christians have been very severely persecuted against. They have been tortured. They have been arbitrarily detained. They have had their organs harvested. They have been martyred. And so we don't, thankfully, in America, we have had, you know, a few century-long respite for Christianity. Well, really in the West, they're his has been a reprieve from heavy persecution, that kind of persecution of people of faith. And in particular, since we're talking from a Christian perspective of Christians, because of the Western rule of law and this idea of individual liberty and individual rights.

But we don't know how much longer that's going to last. And yes, I think it's okay to be fearful in some sense. Certainly, we're fearful for our kids. we don't want our kids to grow up in a world to where they can't speak freely of Jesus. We don't want them to be punished for saying that they're Christians. Of course, no parent wants that. But we can also look throughout history and see that the church is not just survived through those eras. And they have been eras, but that they have thrived in those eras, that the church has never once been destroyed by that persecution.

That the church is not destroyed by fire, but it's refined by fire. And I don't want to say sadly, but I guess fearfully in some ways, that is a way that is employed to refine the church and to separate the true believers from those who were nominal believers. trials and tribulations and persecution are used in that way. So even if that is what we face in America, which I don't know, the political tides change very quickly, but even if that is what Christians face in America in 10 years and 20 years and 50 or 100 years, yes, I think that we can do everything possible to exercise our constitutional rights to ensure that people are free to worship, how they're able to worship, but it's going to come at some point.

Like, those trials and tribulation are going to come in some point. I don't think American Christians are exempt from that, nor should we expect or even necessarily want to be exempt from that forever. Because, again, the church thrives on the margins. When we are pushed against the wall, when we are pressured, when, you know, our rights are being threatened, that is when the church shines. the brightest, when it is the darkest. And so there is actually some anticipation. There's actually some encouragement. And yes, even joy, knowing that the gospel is not going to die when the First

Amendment dies. Like Christians and the church are not going to be destroyed when our Second Amendment rights are taken away. Like the Word of God, the Kingdom of God is not predicated on the First and Second Amendment. It's not predicated on religious liberty. These are wonderful gifts that I think that we should fight for, that we should vote for people who also fight for them. Absolutely. But the Lord doesn't actually need those things in order to do his will in order to maintain his kingdom. The Bible says that the word is not going to return void. He is not going to allow anything, according to Job 42 to thwart his will. It's just not going to happen. And I do think it's important to explain the difference between sovereign will and moral will. Nothing happens

outside of God's sovereign will. Absolutely nothing happens outside of God's sovereign will. He is in control of the entire universe. There are no, as R.C. Sproles says, maverick molecules. There's nothing that is outside of God's will. Jesus says that not even a sparrow falls from the sky outside of the will of the father. And a sparrow is sold for two pennies. And so if we know that he has that under his sovereign will, that we can trust that he has everything else under his sovereign will too. But a lot of things do happen against his moral will. And so we can read in scripture what God calls evil and what God calls good. Things happen every millisecond against his moral will. And those things will be punished. Those things will be paid for. He is not just

allowing them to happen. He's not just apathetic or complacent about evil. He will pay it back. Justice will be served. And so we trust in that. That is where our hope and our assurance and even, yes, our joy is as we are looking to the future of the country who is so bogged down in moral confusion and emptiness and hollowness and these contradictory trains of thought that represent the most grotesque cognitive and moral dissonance that we could ever have imagined. And we can still trust in the fact that nothing happens outside of God's sovereign will, that he has got his church, that he cares about his church and his believers more than we do, that he has not suspended his plan of redemption, that the timeline hasn't been thrown off, that he is not off his throne, that he is not worried about what's to come, that his plan has not been changed, has not been thwarted just a little bit, that God hasn't been shut down, that he hasn't been locked down, that he has not worried about what's to come, that his plan has not been changed, that he has not been is not under the jurisdiction of the American government or Governor Cuomo or Mayor Lightfoot or any of the tiny tyrants that we have or any of the totalitarian regimes that we have

throughout the world. He is not subject to them and he is not subject to their edicts or their regulations. Thankfully, the word of God and God himself and the kingdom of God are unbound. And he is the King of Kings and that is a political statement. By the way, That is why, as I've said so many times, Christians have been a thorn in the side of tyrants since our beginning. Because we are beholden to the king of kings, even when we are pushed, especially when we are pushed to the margins of society. And so we have hope when we look towards that. Like, we have hope when we look towards the promises of God that have never gone unfulfilled and will never go unfulfilled. We have hope when we look to the faithfulness of God, which promises to never fail.

and the new mercies that he promises to give us every morning. And so we continue to lead this quiet revolution with our lives, which is nothing more than submission to Christ and submission to His Word, that we don't suspend just because of certain regulations. Yes, as Romans 13 says, we do everything that we can to submit to our earthly authorities as long as it is not causing us to sin, but we still have to abide by the Word of God, and we still have to submit to Christ, that is the quiet resistance and the quiet revolution

that many of us are called to. Some of you, like I've said, are called to having a public voice, absolutely. But do not think the things that you are doing at home, the things that you are doing as a hard worker in your work, working with excellence and integrity, being a good student that is taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity that you have to learn and to glorify Christ with the knowledge that he has allowed you to have. Do not think that you, that your work is a mom, that you're changing of diapers with joy, that you're disciplining your children with joy, that you're cleaning the kitchen with joy

is, it doesn't mean anything. These are the good works that God is prepared for us beforehand. Don't think the kindness that you showed to your neighbor, that no one may never know about besides you and your neighbor. Don't think that that doesn't matter. All of this is preparing for us, the trials that we're going through, the struggles that we're going through, the scripture says is preparing for us a far greater glory that is going to outweigh all of this.

That's revolutionary. That's radical. Being a Christian who submits to Christ, as if there were any other kind of Christian, but nowadays people think that there is, is the most radical thing that you can do. So take comfort in that, that if you are a believer who is abiding in Christ, that the God of the universe is on your side. God's not going to let evil go on forever. there will be a day where there are no corrupt politicians. There's no deceit. There's no manipulation. There's no

hidden agenda. There's no secret plan going on that we need to know about. There's no divisive ideologies that are infecting universities that are infecting the minds of our children. There is no, there's no persecution anymore in that kingdom. That's what we have to look forward to. And we have every reason to be confident now to pursue Christ with our whole hearts and with boldness, that is enough. That is enough. In this self-empowerment, self-sufficiency culture in which we live that is actually devoid of any power and any sufficiency at all, the most radical thing that we can do is to depend on Christ for our purpose and for our strength and for the assurance that the radical revolution, the quiet radical revolution that we are living with our lives

by submitting to him and everything we think, say, or do, that that is actually what real empowerment really looks like. That's what real change making really looks like. That's what really pursuing your dreams really looks like is submission to Christ. And that's it. So take comfort in that and take comfort in the fact that God is in control, even when things are chaotic, even when things are crazy. Okay, that's all that I have for today. We will be back here on Wednesday.