Trillbilly Worker's Party - SUNDAY SERVICE 3: Great Political Leaders of the Bible

Episode Date: April 26, 2020

Bishop Sexton preaches about the need for Strong Italian Leadership; Music Minister Ray brings the heart of worship back to the heartland; and the Apostle Paul gets his ass thrown in jail once again. Send your tithes and offerings to: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

© BF-WATCH TV 2021 Let's pray. Church, if you brought your Bibles this morning, turn with me if you would over to the book of Matthew, chapter 27 and verse 1. I'm going to be reading from the New King James Version this morning, a version deemed unsuitable by our friends over at JesusIsSavior.org who claim this particular text was forged in the fires of hell. But how many of you know this morning we like to do things a little differently over here? And also, just to add a little color, we've sprinkled in some period-specific annotations here and there just to really encapsulate how our Italian friends spoke here in the scriptures. Chapter 27, verse 1, the Bible says, When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death. And when they had bound him,

they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. And they said to him, What is that to us? You see to that. Verse 5. When he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself.

But the chief priest took the silver pieces and said, It is not lawful to put them into the treasury because they are the price of blood. And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. Verse 8. Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day. And how many of us know that's true and certainly something we've been taught in school. Verse 9, then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, and they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of him who was prized, whom

they of the children of Israel prized, and gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed man. Verse 11. Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Hey, ain't you the king of the Jews or something? And Jesus said to him, It is as you say. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then Pilate said to him, Hey, don't you hear what these fucking guys are saying about you over here?

But he answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly. Verse 15. Now at the feast of the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. And at the time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Hey, which one of these fucking guys you want released to you? Is this Barabbas guy or a guy that says he's Christ over here or something? Verse 18, For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy.

Verse 19, When he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, Honey, have nothing to do with this fucking guy. I've had some really bad dreams about him today, honey. Don't do nothing to him or nothing. Verse 20. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, Hey, which one of these fucking guys you want released to you now? And they all said, Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, Hey, which one of these fucking guys you want released to you now?

And they all said Barabbas. And Pilate said to them, Well, what do you want me to do with this Jesus guy over here then, huh? But they cried out all the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he, and this is important, church, when Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed hands before the multitude saying, hey, I don't need this

fucking shit on me. I ain't had nothing to do with this. This is all on you. And the people answered and said, his blood be on us and on our children. Verse 26, then he released Barabbas to them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning. Dear most kind and gracious Heavenly Father, we just come before you this morning thanking you for yet another day. Another day to lift up our leadership of our countries that are doing all they can in this trying times, and that have to make all the tough decisions. And, you know, as we witness here in the Scripture sometimes that, you know, it's not easy to do those things.

But when you have to do those things, best to just wash your hands of it and act like it was, you know, due to forces beyond your control. And Lord, we just want to preach on a thought this morning and highlight and recognize certain politicians from the Bible who have directed great nations and brought us to this moment with their leadership that we now stand in. Lord, I just ask that you help us just to deliver that word and that you just be with us as we navigate the troubles and trials of the day.

Everybody said, Amen. Church, if you'd let me just preach for a minute. I want to share a thought with you I had this morning when I was following Chris Cuomo's ordeal with the coronavirus. And it's that when times get tough, what we need most as evidence in the scriptures is tough Italian leadership. And, you know, if you look at the history of Italian leadership, starting with Pontius Pilate, who, you know, in church you can say what you want to about about him but he had to make a tough call there and it was a call that altered the course of history of course but he made

it nonetheless and if you look just on down through the generations we've had several great Italian leaders from Rudolph Giuliani post 9-11 in New York who handled that situation perfectly and as good as could be under the circumstances. On down to back in the motherland, we had, of course, Silvio Berlusconi, who, you know, was sort of a slave to the good times, but, you know, made some, again, some tough calls when he had to and rose to the occasion. Of course, now that's why we'd like to just go on record this morning, and then we'll just close with this one real quick.

But we'd just like to give a full-throated endorsement to a future Andrew Cuomo administration to lead this country out of the Murray Clay and toward a brighter, more just future where we have access to affordable health care and where we have reasonable, tough-minded leadership that can stave off the bad times. So yeah, that's the takeaway today, church, is that when the going gets tough, we need tough Italian leadership. With that, I'll just call Brother Ray back up here.

Thank you so much. How's everybody doing this morning? This morning we're going back to the heartland. The heart of worship. Over the mountains and the seas and the rivers. The heart of this great land. It's been taken over by the millionaires and the billionaires. But we're going to take it back. We're going to gather down in Asbury Park,

and we're going to let the leaders of this country know who's running the show. I was thinking the other day about how after the Roman Empire fell, and the only institution, The only force that could bring social cohesion back together was the Catholic Church. Our enemies, of course, across the street. But nonetheless, when this is all over, when this pandemic is all over, when this coronavirus pandemic is all over, and the economy has gone into recession and society has completely collapsed. Will the church be there to take

care of us? I wonder about this. Or will it be Walmart? Will it be gathering in the soup aisle, aisle nine, every Sunday morning to see your neighbors and your friends? Just think about that as we go back to the heartland tonight. Over the mountains and the sea

Your river runs with love for me And I will open up my heart And let the hill set me free I'm happy to be in the truth And I will daily lift my hands For I will always sing When your love came down Over the mountains and the sea

Your river runs with love for me And I will open up my heart And let the hill set me free I'm happy to be in the truth And I will dance in my hands For I will daily lift my hands for I will always sing when your love came down. I could sing of your love forever. I could sing of your love forever.

I could sing of your love forever. I could sing of your love forever. I could sing of your love forever. ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ When we see those corporations Siding with the government We'll know I don't know, man over the mountains and the sea

you're ever in love with me and I will open up my heart and let you in I'm happy to be in And I will open up my heart in victory I'm back to do it And I will day to lay my hands For I will know the sin

When your love can't get through Amen! © BF-WATCH TV 2021 Wow. Well, another Sunday, another opportunity to learn about the teachings of our most revered, highest of highest. The funniest thing in church was when they would try to list off all the various names for God, like King of Kings, Holiest of Kings. Jehovah J jireh jehovah nixie jehovah shalom elshad elshadiyah and jesus is the chief cornerstone there's a little song you can make to remember it by there's a lot of perks there's a lot of ups upsides to being a deity but having a hundred different names all of which are become increasingly more badass as you go down the list well let me ask you this

i'm gonna give you three names i want you to tell me who had the best like selection of names all right god edie i mean and highly selassie what were edie i means uh titles what did he what did he have going for him let's go to the tape on I mean... Okay. Idi Amin was his Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al-Hajji, Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VC DSOMC,

Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth, and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa, and General Nug Uganda in particular. And this is in addition. This was in addition to his official title, which he just abbreviated to, His Excellency President for Life Field Marshal Al-Haji Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VCDSO MCCBE.

Marshall Alhaji, Dr. Idi Amin, Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE. And Haile Selassie. Oh, damn. That's what Haile Selassie's names were. Oh, shit. Haile Selassie's name was, um, Holly Selassie, John Hoy, Talakwu,

Mary, Abba, Takel, and, uh, let's see, hold on a second. Well,

like the thing about Holly Selassie is that he was, wasn't he like a deity in the Rastafarian religion? Yeah, I was getting ready to get to his Rasta names. I mean, because Idi Amin wasn't... He kind of gave himself all of his nicknames. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Lord of all the beasts of the fields and fish of the seas. A little intense, though. I mean, even for the most narcissistic person,

it's a little over the top. Oh, damn. Well, I mean, in the Rasta movement, he's also known as Ja, Ja, Ja, Ja Rastafari and His Imperial Majesty. Mm-hmm. Right, right. But, you know, Selassie was an interesting character.

He, I think one of the funniest things he did is he allowed Marxism to be taught in Ethiopian schools. Like, he opened it up and then the Marxists used that to overthrow him. Classic.

Classic. Can't trust him. Nope. No. any any of you emperors out there if you think about opening up marxism and the empire think twice about it all right well so the theme today is power in the Bible what attitude and uh yeah like what attitude should you take to power as a godly man um well I made the case in my message for strong Italian leadership I think that's the first lesson we can take from the Bible, because every relationship to power that happens in the Bible has to be mediated through Rome, which would have been the Italians, right? Right, right, right, right.

So, you know, like there's scripture that says, like, render to Caesar what's due Caesar, and to God what's due God, which has basically been used as justification for taxation. Right. So, I don't know. Well, it's interesting to read Acts. Acts is a very fascinating book. Because if it was a movie, it would be a montage of Saul just getting thrown,

or Paul, I'm sorry. At this point, he's Paul. Getting thrown into various prison cells and dungeons all across the Levant and Greece, the Mediterranean. Ultimately, how did Paul meet his end? Was he boiled in something? That's a great question. I knew i never knew so there's like all like in the scriptures everybody talks about how such and such was martyred or whatever but i don't know if that stuff is apocryphal or really in there for some reason it's just a gap in my

knowledge decapitation he he was uh guillotined he lived to be 4 000 years old and they cut his head off in paris yeah um but uh who was who was boiled upside down or somebody was crucified upside down somebody else was boiled alive i believe believe Peter was crucified. Okay. I'm probably getting this wrong, but they're all apocryphal. I mean. Who knows? Well, yeah. I mean, the whole Paul's, all of Paul's exploits are probably written by him after the fact.

Like, man, I was a total badass. I was getting thrown in jail cells. They couldn't touch me. They couldn't touch me. They couldn't touch me. But Acts is pretty fascinating because Paul is always getting in trouble. But either the New Testament, or I'm sorry, either the Bible itself, the writers of the Bible, or Paul himself, I'm sorry, either the Bible itself, the writers of the Bible, or Paul himself,

had to walk this razor-thin line of on the one side, Christianity, especially the people who assembled the Bible, needed you to obey authority. And there's that on that side and then the fact that early christianity was a very subversive political movement is this the dialectical well if it is i don't know what the result would be because if you read acts it's it's constantly paul being like now i don't have any truck with the Romans. You guys are doing your thing, whatever. But fuck the Jews.

That's literally what he says pretty much every time he's thrown in jail. He's always like, I don't have any truck with Caesar. The Jews hate me. They can go to hell, but I've got no problem with Caesar. So who knows how much of that's real or not it seems to me that through his actions he had just as much problem with this the Romans as he did the Jewish authorities that oversaw the Romans or that over or yeah anyway that were overseen by the Romans a lot of anti-seSemitism in the New Testament. I've noticed, even reading from the passage, I hesitated to read it because, like,

two or three verses in Matthew 27 are used as justification for, like, you know, for example, the protocols of the elders of Zion, conspiracies and so forth. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it's... So you think Paul was just a Jewish cynic or what what do you think well i mean like all early christians he was jewish i mean he was right or maybe he was arab now he was i don't guess there's any

fucking talking about me but i mean like early christ early Christianity was a Jewish religion. It was a Jewish sect. But I think we're... It's an apocalyptic Jewish sect of people that just like to be on the road with the boys. I mean, who doesn't like that? Yeah, who doesn't like being on the road with the boys? Yeah. the boys yeah um but um but a lot of the like new testament's scriptures about governance and power and authority and everything else um they all are written in the context of israel being a basically a protectorate or a i don't know what the word would be like they were like a sort of colony kind of of rome like they had their own government they had the sanhedrin

or whatever right but then they had so like like so like, so this is the, this is the thing. Like, Herod was not a Roman official, but Pontius Pilate was. Pontius Pilate was like the, he's a pison, yeah. He's a pison. That was his official title. Yeah.

Um, whereas Herod was a king in Israel who was controlled by Rome. He was a puppet of the Roman government. He was a puppet. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, but like the big bad guy in Acts, or at least the second part of it, is Felix. You remember him?

Felix? Yeah. He was like, I think his name was Antontonius felix yeah it's like anton yeah antonius is anani well we would call him ananias in eastern kentucky parlance because we take out the t for some reason but yeah ananias yeah right well he was the one who was constantly finding paul in his jail cells like what the fuck man like i've i can't keep bailing you out dude i only got so many favors but a lot of the problems that paul ran into was literally the exact as jesus

it was the jewish authorities wanted him dead the romans were kind of just like, guys, we're trying to conquer the world here. We can't get, like, can't get boiled down in here. Yeah. We're trying to do empire here. Trying to do empire. Hey, we're trying to do some fucking

empire here. So, you're saying the head of the Roman authorities were kind of like Polly and Goodfellas? Hey, what am I supposed to do? He's a bad apple, huh? He won't listen.

He won't listen. They gave him $300 in... You gotta go away now. You gotta go away now. If you come back I can't protect you but like uh yeah I don't know

let's look at some classic like you know early Israeli society was famously ruled by judges right? Weren't there 12 judges? that sounds right.

It's kind of fascinating how our system, they've pared it down even more. Like, over 3,000 or 4,000 years, like, we just have nine judges now. Sometimes eight, sometimes 24. Just as needed. Right, right. Which, I mean, if you are living in a pre-civilized society uh just the most basic sort of like maybe stone and bronze

implements uh with a very sparse population that's constantly being raided by hordes of barbarians and etc you could do worse than a governing council of 12 elders like that's a pretty sound form of government i guess that's what they had in 300 right they had to climb to the top of the mountain talk to the oracles i think we also we have to we we can't really discount in our sort of parliamentary system this sort of neo-roman senate and all this kind of stuff that we have the role of witchcraft oh yeah a lot of witchcraft mysticism involved oh yeah i mean if you were the ruler of rome and you didn't know what to do you would just literally go visit the oracles at delphi let them boil some tea and you like trip for like three hours and then you get some sort of revelation about how the world should be organized yeah yeah but But the judge system eventually

gave way to monarchy, right? Right. I mean, who was the first king of Israel? Was it Jacob? Or Solomon? Maybe Solomon? I don't know. I don't know, man. I'll tell you this, though. Solomon Seale, man.

Solomon Seale? The Masonic Lodge? Think about about it what's the tie there goes way back man this has always been in motion so you're saying it's an unbroken chain from solomon's time to our way to donald j trump my man it up. Open up your third eye. That's the secret. Interesting. Very interesting. Man, didn't you watch National Treasure star Nicolas Cage? Yeah, I did. Did you not read

the Da Vinci Code? So yeah, no, you had like kings in Israel, obviously the famously horny ones like David, and then the famously... I guess... Like, Solomon was a good boy. Solomon was a boy scout. He was like the good king.

Wasn't he? Well, but he also... We gotta talk about Solomon, though, because the Bible says that he also had an appetite for strange women. What does that mean? I guess he just liked strange women. What does that mean? I guess it's just like strange ass. I don't know. Like strangers. Either that or like weird women.

Yeah, does it mean weird or does it mean? Or like multiple, like a bunch of strangers. Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question. Maybe somebody that studies the scriptures and hears this can point that out for us. Women with their own SoundCloud rap accounts, I mean, and who like to trip. I don't know what fucking makes someone weird. But then, you know, so yeah, by the time you get to the new testament you've got this whole uh

arrangement where rome rules over israel and um and and so yeah like you've got uh pontius pilate um famous bad dude of the bible but i, I mean, I don't know. It's easy to kind of feel sympathetic for Pilate in some ways because he kind of, in some respects, he kind of gives off this vibe of someone who's just kind of caught

in the middle of something where it's just like, man, I don't care. Just got caught in some bullshit, didn't I? Yeah. And then you gotta remember he's a Roman governor, so he's probably an asshole.

Yeah, he probably had like a harem of six-year-old boys. Yeah. Got them all drunk on pizza and wine coolers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's the context, I guess. But that's the context, I guess. So basically, like, every position of power and authority in the New Testament is bad. But, like, the weird thing about it, and this is a weird, I mean, it's pointless to point out, like, hypocrisy or whataboutism or whatever. It's 2011, buddy.

Yeah, this is a new day. But it is always so fascinating, and I really remember this most viscerally from the Bush years, that we live in the modern Roman Empire, and it's just crazy to me that like growing up in church, we were just not allowed to criticize the presidents. I know, and this is what all the scripture is about. Right.

And I was sort of taken to task the Roman government. It's funny because also, too, like I always heard, my mom was really into the apocalyptic stuff like she really liked jack van empy and like all the doomsday preachers how um how what's his name morris i think it's no how morris is a baseball player anyway uh and like you know they always said okay the antichrist is going to rise out the revived roman empire and it's funny that like under everybody's nose this country everybody was jerking off our own country was the revived roman empire to the letter but everybody was like i wonder if it's iran i wonder if it's uh you know a society society that has stood in its own sort of very distinct cultural trappings for thousands of years now.

I wonder if it's Iran. The guy you're thinking of is Hal Lindsey. Hal Lindsey, that's right. He's the guy that predicted when the world was going to end a few times and botched every one of them. Yeah, he was certain it was going to end in the 80s and honestly who could blame him i've made a career out of predicting when the world is going to end and um being wrong about it so i've got a certain soft spot in my heart for the how lindsey's how lindsey wakes up it's 83 tepeche modes all over TV Probably thought This is it man This is it So yeah

This is it Swing and you miss sometimes That's podcasting you know Yeah that's right So what big takeaways Can we learn from the From The ordeal of Pontius Pilate and the need for strong Italian leadership.

Is that what the world needs right now? The world is crumbling. It really does look like we are at the end of the world now. Well, what people step up most in the big moments? I mean, if we're talking World Series, Mike Piazza. I mean if we're talking World Series Mike Piazza we're talking football Joe Montana, Dan Marino

bad example of Marino you know I'm just saying Italians have a history a long and proud tradition of strong leadership and maybe that's what we need to lean into these times it's a good need to lean into in these times.

It's a good message to go forth with into your week. Well, that's probably a good little stopping point. We really overdid it last week with last week's Sunday service. It's a little much. We almost hit an hour. Nobody likes to stay in church a long time. Yeah, exactly. So let's go out. So on, you know, in the style of every week,

I like to do a little T-Rays. Godly music for an ungodly world Christian music guide. So this week, is it if you like Bruce Springsteen, then you'll love this? Well... You know the calibration charts?

There was really no equivalent to the boss in, like, country music had an equivalent to the boss. Steve Earle. Steve Earle was the, like, the attempt at country music trying to, like, incorporate the boss. My name's Conley. Why is that Steve Earle? Copperhead Road. Copperhead Road would be the classic

example. Yeah. But Christian music never really got that kind of sort of like heartland populist Really, Christianity only had equivalents for black music and punk music. Everything else was already fine. I mean, nobody thought you were going to hell for listening to the boss they might not like some of his pro-union uh stylings but i mean

maybe someone's listening to this and saying no no no no um i'm trying to think but i just can't really think of any like maybe michael w smith was trying to or i don't i don't think so though i mean because by the like here's the thing by the time ccm really took off in the late 90s the boss was already on the way out so all right the boss is still not on the way out buddy well you know what i mean his glory days uh were behind him were you trying to be funny there? Yes. Okay. So there was really no equivalent. But, like,

last night I kind of went down a rabbit hole with, do you remember Paula Cole? Paula Cole? Paula Cole, yeah. Who was she supposed to be? Paula Abdul? Paula Cole, yeah. Who was she supposed to be? Paula Abdul? She was a singer.

She had that song, Where Are All the Cowboys? She did the... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. She did the I Don't Want to Wait song for Dawson's Creek. Okay. She was CCM? No.

She was not. But she was not. But she was kind of in the same milieu with Tracy Chapman, 10,000 Maniacs, Natalie Merchant. Sean Colvin. What did Sean Colvin say? I think Sean Colvin was a little bit after that, right? Sean Colvin? He sang Everything's Gonna Be little bit after that, right? Sean Colvin? He sang Everything's Gonna Be Alright, Lullaby, right?

Sean Colvin was a she. Who am I thinking? Sonny Came Home. Oh, okay. But no, you're right. Same time, same basic time. 1997 Grammy Award winning song Sunny Came Home Same basic time frame

Okay So these bands were all big Around the same time And this is where Sixpence and None the Richer came from Okay But there was another band That got big around this time

That I've always Kind of had a soft spot for called Plumb. Plumb? P-L-U-M-B. Like plumb. Like plumb, smart toilet? I guess so. But they had some good songs, and they had one song that could very easily be refitted into a very perverse remix. But you know what?

We're good godly men here. We're not going to do that. We're not going to sing about God-shaped holes, but they had a song called God-Shaped Hole. Yeah, we could do something with that. Not choose not to. So we're going to go out this week on Plum, God-Shaped Hole. It's actually a good song.

They were a good band. it's actually a good song they were a good band they they successfully managed to pull off the 90s sound without doing without getting too overt that's the thing with a lot of these christian bands they would be very unsubtle yeah god shaped hole is pretty unsubtle but yeah subtlety doesn't seem like the strong suit if somebody wrote a song called guys shaped hole but yeah i get what you're saying musically it was not you know uh rip like blatantly ripping off any any one thing right right right so we're gonna go out on that one this week for lovers of natalie merchant, Natalie Imbruglia. Sean Colvin.

Sean Colvin, Paula Cole. Who sang that one song that was like... Oh, Vega. What's her name? Oh, yeah. Tom's Daughter. Yeah. Okay, so anyways. Plum, God-shaped hole. Go with God this week.

Go with... Suzanne Vega. I'm sorry. Go with Suzanne Vega. Go tithe at the Trillbillies Patreon. P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash Trillbilly Workers Party. And support us on there. We surely appreciate your support and help.

And we'll be praying for you this week. Another week of laying hands and praying. So we'll see you next time. Every point of view has another angle. And every angle has its merit. But it all comes down to faith. That's the way I see it. You can say that love is not divine.

And you can say that life is not eternal All we have is now But I don't believe it There's a God-shaped hole in all of us And the restless soul is searching There's a God-shaped hope in all of us. And it's overwhelming. Only you can feel.