Well, like I said a few minutes ago, guys, happy Fourth of July weekend. We are in a very interesting time right now. This is a very strange Fourth of July. You know, Fourth of July, usually Americans are pretty united in celebration for the country that we live in. But right now, things don't feel united at all. In fact, that name, United States of America, it feels almost like a misnomer. That we're technically the United States, but in spirit, are we really united right now? No. We are incredibly divided. In fact, there really hasn't been a time in the last 150 years where we have been this divided. And I'm sure many of us watching this are concerned about that. We're wondering, what's this gonna look like a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now, as things begin to move forward, as the division in our nation grows and the gaps widen, what's that gonna be like? What's that gonna be like for our children, the generations to come? Something needs to happen, something needs to change. We need God to bring us back together. I want us to understand that even though it feels very much like everything going on right now just sort of happened in an instant. I mean, everyone's talking about 2020. I mean, just this year, it's almost like, what in the world happened? Where did all of this come from? The reality is that what we're seeing happening right now is something that's been developing for a very long time. Because as a nation, politically speaking, we have been growing further and further apart for a very long time. I want to show you guys a chart. This chart illustrates the widening gap between the average Democrat and the average Republican since 1999. Okay, and you can see that as time goes on, this just widens and widens and widens. And so the average Democrat and the average Republican, they stand very, very far apart on almost every issue in America. Back in 1999, which was not that long ago, the average Democrat, the average Republican, they were they were pretty close together. There was a lot of common ground. There were definitely things they disagreed on, but there was a lot of common ground, and now we see that common ground almost non-existent. And keep in mind that this was all done in 2017. And so just think about what this would look like if we did it today. I mean, that gap has widened tremendously in the last several months alone. We are as politically divided right now in America as we've ever been before, to the point where almost every single thing you can imagine is a political issue. And we have to understand as believers how we navigate this world that we live in. How, as believers, do we bridge the political divide in this country? That's what we're talking about today. How do we, as followers of Jesus, bridge the political divide that we see happening in our country, the divide that we see tearing our country apart? We've got to figure this out because trust me, God has to have us involved. He wants to have us involved in bringing unity where there is division. God wants the church to be at the forefront of bringing unity back to this nation. Maybe a unity that we've never even really experienced before. It has to be a God thing. And if it's gonna be a God thing, it's gonna come through us, the church. I'm not saying that pridefully. I'm not saying that with some type of disingenuous grandeur. But the simple reality is that we, the church, are the body of Christ. So often as believers, we find ourselves using this sort of token answer of Jesus to be the solution for everything, which is true. That the solution to the problems in America right now, what is it? It's Jesus. But Jesus how? It's important that we define that. Because when we say Jesus is the answer, what do we actually mean by that? Do we mean that Jesus is gonna run for president this year? Probably not. He didn't run for political office or seek political authority when he was on the earth the first time around. He's not gonna do that right now. When we say Jesus is the answer, what we mean is that Jesus is going to work through his body, the church. Colossians chapter 1, verse 18. Says Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. He is first in everything. So Jesus is the head of the church. And this illustration of the body, that's an illustration we see many times in the New Testament. The idea is that Jesus is the head, he's the brain, he's the one who's guiding us, he's the one that's making the decisions. We're the body, we're the instruments that he uses to do his work in this world. And if you go to his hands, that should mean a lot to you because look, our name is his hands. We get our name from that very metaphor that we are like the hands of Jesus working in this world. He's the head, we're the body, so if we're gonna see change happen, if we're gonna see transformation and true heart change happen through Jesus, it's going to happen through the church. We have a role to play. You have a role to play as a Jesus follower in bridging the divide that you see growing in our nation. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. First and foremost, I just want to say that I don't generally talk about politics. And I want us to understand on the front end that I am not advocating in any way any political party over another. Many of us watching this right now are Republicans, and I'm not advocating the Republican Party as the solution. I'm also not gonna demonize the Democratic Party. Many of us watching this right now are Democrats. And the same holds. I'm not going to advocate a Democratic candidate or the Democratic Party as the one who has the solutions and then demonize the Republicans because I don't believe that the politicians have the answers. I think that's that's pretty clear at this point. That if we really want to have hope for things changing, if we want to have real hope for progress, politicians are not the answer. The answer is Jesus working through his church to do the things that only the Holy Spirit can do. So, yes, we're talking about the political divide in our nation, but but the answer isn't politics. In fact, in many ways, politics are a huge part of the problem. They're a huge part of why we have this divide in the first place. How do we, as believers, bridge the political divide? I want to focus on three very specific ideas. Number one, we have to have undivided hearts. We have to have undivided hearts. There's a scripture in James chapter 1. It's verses 5 through 8. It says, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. That's very important. It doesn't say that your faith is in God and the systems of this world, that your faith is in God and government. It says that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed about by the wind. And then it goes on to say that such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything that they do. We can't be like that. You know, it's interesting, as people, we we naturally have divided hearts. There is a gap inside all of us between who we are and who we're supposed to be, who we're meant to be. We're born with that gap inside all of us. This is not just a picture of the state of our country, this is a picture of the state of our hearts. We're naturally divided. And the simple truth is we're never going to be able to be part of the solution if we have divided loyalty and divided hearts. How in the world can we be people who bring unity to the world around us if we don't have unity within us? And this is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to politics and our faith. When I say that we have divided loyalty, here's what I mean by that. What I mean is that is that we have to first and foremost, and by a large measure, be citizens of the kingdom of heaven and not see ourselves primarily as citizens of this earth. It's a nice thought, it's a nice sentiment, it's easy to sort of say that and be like, yeah, I see myself as a citizen of heaven and not a citizen of this world. But it's actually kind of hard to live that out. Because we so easily become swept up in what's happening in this world. It's so much easier for us to be swept away by what's happening right now than it is for us to be mindful of what God is actually doing. We can't be divided in our understanding of who we are. We are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Where I think that becomes really difficult is when we get political. Because please understand this. If there's any word that we can put in front of the title Christian or Jesus follower, whether it's Republican, Democrat, or even American, any word that we could put in front of that word Christian, that would be idolatry. That would be us being completely divided in our loyalty. What I mean is that I can't be a Republican Christian or a Democratic Christian or even an American Christian. If there's any word that goes before Christ, if there's any idea, if there's any, if there's any loyalty I have that rises to the same level as Christ, that I would use to define who I am, that is a divided heart. That is divided loyalty. And it's so easy for us to, especially in times like this where everything is so, so tense, it's so easy for us to get swept away with everything going on on one side or another and actually begin to be just as much a part of a political party or a political movement as we are a Jesus follower. And understand this the movement of Jesus was not a political movement. There were many who tried to make it a political movement. There were many who would have sided with Jesus had he made it a political movement, but it was not a political movement. Jesus made it so clear, my kingdom is not of this world. And so I'm not saying if you're passionate about politics, that's a bad thing. Not at all. We're Americans, we have this unique privilege to vote and to express our concerns. We have the unique freedom to be able to voice our concerns in a variety of different ways. But what I'm saying is this if you are a Christian who also happens to lean Republican, that's fine. If you're a Christian who happens to lean Democrat, that's fine. If you're a Christian who happens to be an American, that's that's great. But if any of those words could actually go at the front of the fact that you're a Jesus follower and that defines you as much as Jesus defines you, that's a problem. That's divided loyalty. If there's a political pundit or some person in the media or someone you listen to, or a politician, and their voice carries as much weight in your heart as the voice of Christ, as a Jesus follower, that's that's a huge problem. That's divided loyalty. That's you putting just as much faith and trust in the systems of this world as it is putting your trust in Christ. And if we're gonna be people who bring unity where there's division, we cannot have divided loyalty. So when it comes to bridging this political divide, it starts in our hearts. We have to be completely and totally sold out to Jesus. To see ourselves first and foremost as citizens of his kingdom and not be people who get so swept away by everything that's happening right now in our nation that we forget that we belong to him and that we do what he tells us to do. So don't allow anything to rise to the level of Jesus when it comes to the sway that it has in your heart. Have an undivided heart. That's the first idea. The second is really simple. Bottom up. Bottom up. Like I said a few seconds ago, Jesus said that his kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom that he came to build, it doesn't work the way that the kingdoms of this world work. It doesn't work the way that everything naturally works in terms of the way we see things. It's very counterintuitive. It's always been that way. We tend to see change as something that happens top down. We want to see things change. We want to see our nation change. We we naturally think we've got to get the right person elected president. We've got to get the right people at the top. And if we get the right people at the top, that's where change is gonna happen. It's gonna happen top down. That's the way the world works. But that's not the way the kingdom of God works. In the kingdom of heaven, it's it's upside down, it's bottom up. There's a really short parable that Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 13. He says, here's another illustration that Jesus used. This is what Scripture says. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants. It grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches. If you want to later on, Google what a Middle Eastern mustard tree looks like. They're huge. They're 20 plus feet tall, and they spread out, and they're incredibly thick. It's almost like thicket, like a bush, and such that birds could come in and make nests inside of it and be completely and totally sheltered. But the seed for a mustard plant is tiny. And Jesus actually said that's the way his kingdom works. It starts really small and it grows. And it grows, it grows bottom up. It's so interesting when you think about the life of Jesus and the fact that Jesus created the greatest movement that has ever been created. We live in a time right now where we're seeing grassroots movements happening. But there's never been a grassroots movement that has captured the attention of the world the way the message of Jesus has. It's never happened. The movement of Jesus is the greatest movement this world has ever seen, and it was a completely bottom-up movement. Jesus did not set his sights on the most influential people in his society. His strategy was not, ooh, if I can just get one of the most influential people, if I can get one of the government leaders, if I can get one of the religious leaders to follow me, and then everyone else is going to get on board. I'll go top down, I'll go get the most influential person, the most important person. He didn't say, Man, I've got to go talk to Caesar, I've got to go talk to Herod. That's not how he built his kingdom. He built his kingdom bottom up. He talked to the everyday person. He started with the lowest people in society at that time. The people who were poor, the people who were oppressed, the people who had no influence to speak of. Those are the people that Jesus went to. Those are the people that he chose to lead the movement that he created. Because he understood that in God's kingdom, in God's economy, we sometimes say, that real change happens bottom up, not top down. Here's where that becomes really practical for us right now as Jesus followers. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be thoughtful and mindful about who you're going to vote for. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have convictions about who the president should be. Again, we're Americans. We can vote. That's a privilege that we have. So vote your convictions. But please understand, and guys, I just wonder sometimes how long it's going to take us to understand. Like how many more presidents do we need before we realize that it's not some type of situation where we elect this one person and that person is going to usher in all of the change that our nation needs. That's not the way things work. Things change bottom up, not top down. And so as believers, if we are obsessed with who the president is or who the president should be, but we don't pay any attention or pay any mind to whether or not our neighbors know the Lord, to whether or not the people that we work with on a daily basis, the people that we interact with on a daily basis have a relationship with Jesus, we're missing it. Because change is going to happen bottom-up. The movement that Jesus wants to create in this nation to bring unity and healing where there's pain and division, that movement is going to be a bottom-up movement. It's going to start with believers caring enough about the people around them to share their faith, to share encouragement, to share real hope, to pray, to serve. And so if you want to help bridge the political divide that we see in our nation right now, wherever you're at, wherever God has put you, just say, Lord, how do you want to use me here? How do you want to use me right where I am to bring your love to the world around me? Start with your neighbors, start with your coworkers, start with your family, start with your friends. And yes, vote. That's fine. Support a politician you believe in, that's fine. But don't believe for a minute that real change happens top-down. It doesn't. It's bottom-up. Jesus understood that. That's the way that things are, that's the way that things should be. It's bottom-up change. One final idea. We have to be bridge builders. I know this is a little bit obvious, like how do we bridge the political divide in America? Oh, we build bridges. But this is actually a literal idea in many ways. Well, I guess it's literal and figurative. I'll explain what I mean. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9. This is a scripture that we looked at a few weeks ago. You are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he has called you out of the darkness and into his wonderful light. Let's leave this up for just a second. This is a statement about who we are in Christ. This is a statement of identity. It says that we are a chosen people. And then it says we're royal priests. And this word priest, this is an interesting word. It's an interesting word in the original Greek language that we have here. It's an interesting word in just in terms of the history of what priest has meant over the centuries. In Latin, priest is pontifex. And that's why sometimes in Latin you may have heard the phrase a pontiff. A pontiff would have been a priest. Pontifex, that's the Latin word for priest. And the literal translation in Latin for pontifex is bridge builder. So a priest, in other words, is someone who's a bridge builder, a person who helps build a bridge for people from where they are to where God maybe wants them to be. A person that helps people along. How do we bridge the political divide in our nation? We build bridges. We build bridges to bring people together. That's what a bridge does. It takes groups of people who never would be able to connect and allows them to connect. It allows them to cross paths. It takes two places that are separated by something, by some gap, and it it bridges that gap. We are priests. We're bridge builders. And in many ways, that's why it's so it's so vital and so important and so good that we have Christians who are Democrats, and we have Christians who are Republicans. Because it gives us this wonderful opportunity to build a bridge from both directions. Let's go back actually to that image that we had of kind of the last time this poll was taken. And again, this is 2017. 2020, I don't know if they would even fit on the TV, but but this gap has widened tremendously over the years. And some of us watching this, we might have a really hard time understanding the fact. Some of us listening to this have a hard time understanding the fact that there are a lot of Republicans who cannot imagine someone being a Jesus follower and also being a Democrat. In their minds, it's like, no, you you could not possibly be a Jesus follower and be a Democrat. And you're looking at all of the things about the Democratic Party that to you don't line up with Jesus. On the flip side, there are a lot of Christians who are Democrats who cannot even imagine someone being a Republican and being a Christian. It's like, how in the world could that track? They see things wrong with the Republican Party that don't line up with Jesus. And the reality is neither party lines up with Jesus, guys. You might feel like one does more than the other, and okay, fine, but neither party lines up with Jesus. Jesus would not be the head of either political party. If Jesus were right now, practically physically running for president, if he was physically here with us running for president, neither party would put Jesus at the front. He would challenge both far, far too much. So the reality is there are genuinely amazing Jesus followers who are Democrats. There are genuinely amazing Jesus followers who are Republicans. We can't let our political divide become a divide within our hearts, become a divide in the church. You have to understand that that's the case. And what that means, it's actually a tremendous opportunity. It means that we have Christians over here. And we have Christians over here. We have Jesus followers on both sides of this ever-growing gap, which means we have the ability to build bridges from here and from here at the same time. We have an ability to come together if we value, passionately value finding common ground. But it has to be intentional. And it has to be something that's birthed in prayer. It has to be something that's led by the Spirit. It will not happen if we demonize the people who are on the other side of the gap, no matter where we're at. But we have to have a heart that says, yes, I don't agree with that person's politics. Yes, I don't agree with their views on this issue or that issue, but they are a child of God. They are someone that Jesus came for and died for just like me. And I have a responsibility as a priest. I have a responsibility as someone that God has called and invited into his kingdom to be a worker in his kingdom to build a bridge. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the differences that we have between other people, we can't even imagine ourselves connecting with them. And that attitude, it's so far from the heart of Christ, it's not even funny. Can you imagine how far away the average person was from Jesus when it came to what? Jesus would have believed is true, to what Jesus would know to be true, to what Jesus thinks about something. But if you're going to take Jesus and what he thinks about things and the average person and what they think about things, that is an incredibly wide gap, and Jesus built a bridge. The cross became this bridge that Jesus built. The sacrifice that Jesus gave to us, where he connected people, he connected us and God when the gap between us could not have ever been wider. What do you think is wider? The gap between, let's go back to that one more time. I'm so sorry. What do you think is wider? The gap between the average Democrat and the Republicans, or Republicans and Democrats, or the gap between us and God. Which gap is wider? Clearly, the gap between us and God. And yet Jesus built a bridge. And he brought us together. You can go off of that now. I won't go back to this chart, I promise. Jesus built a bridge. If we're going to bridge the political divide, we've got to be bridge builders. We've got to be people who value unity so much that we are willing to work to build a bridge and find common ground with people that we don't agree with. We've got these words at his hands that have guided us for years, and it's love, accept, agree, and endorse. And one of the key ideas in those four words is that we don't have to agree to love. And if we allow agreement to be a prerequisite for love, we will never be bridge builders. We have to make a decision. We have to decide to actively love those we disagree with. And that might look like you intentionally seeking out conversations with people you know don't have your views. And doing everything you can in your power to find some common ground, to find reasons to come together, to find reasons to pray together. That has to happen if God is going to heal our land, and please hear me, God can heal our land. He can do it. Because he's a healer. Jesus brought Jews and Gentiles together when they had been separated for centuries. Jesus is the answer through the church, through his spirit, working through us, if we have undivided hearts. If we recognize that change happens from the bottom up, and if we are committed to being bridge builders, if we do those things, if we're willing to do those things, we can bridge the political divide. And we can make a way, we can make it possible through the power of the Holy Spirit working through us to not just bridge the divide, but to see the divide go away, to see it gone. So that we are the United States of America. Under God. Not under God in this religious, rebellious, hey, that's in the Pledge of Allegiance under God, but under God in the recognition that clearly we need Him to help. Clearly we cannot be united if it's not under someone who can unite us. And that person is God, it's Jesus Christ, working through his church, the body. We can bridge the political divide. And if we don't, Jesus followers, if we don't, if we don't work toward that, who else will? Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much. Thank you so much for allowing us to be alive at such a time as this. That phrase, such a time as this, it shows up in Scripture. It was spoken over Queen Esther when she was made known, made aware that she had a role to play. And as difficult as her situation may have been, Lord, she had a role to play and she was alive for such a time as this. All of us are on this earth right now, in this nation, right now, for such a time as this. And so, Lord, I just pray that you would put a fire inside of us, inside of your people. That we refuse to be swept away with all of the political craziness going on around us, that we we refuse, Lord, to allow there to be anything, anything at all that rises to the level of you when it comes to our heart's loyalty. Lord, that if we've allowed ourselves to be as much Republican as Christian, or as much Democrat as Christian, or as much American as Christian, that we would repent of that, that we would reject those idols that they've become, and we would 100% commit to you, to let you lead us, to look to you alone, not you and, but you alone as our guide. Lord, we ask that you would heal our nation. We ask that you would be with our leaders and our elected officials, those that we agree with and those that we don't. And we ask, Lord, that you would begin a movement in this nation with your church at the forefront where healing and unity takes place. And we ask all this in your name, Lord. We love you. Amen. Well, guys, thank you so much for watching today. Happy Fourth of July weekend. Don't forget, we have Canvas coming up this Friday night. Uh, we'll stream it live. Go to hishands.online and see all the details. There's still time to be involved in that. It's going to such an incredible cause. Also, don't forget that we're working toward our return. Right now, it is scheduled for Sunday morning, August 2nd, 10 a.m. Uh definitely go to our website to learn more about that. We're so excited about everything that's taking place there. And obviously, right now everything is kind of crazy and fluid. So we're daily, weekly listening to God and looking at everything happening and trying to adjust and make the right plans so that when we return, we return in the right way. Um, but I'm so excited that we're now finally working toward this and it's close. I love you guys. Have an incredible week. I'll see you soon.