Episode 58
God, Country, and Comfort: Why We Reach for Political Power
What happens when our desire for comfort and security pushes us to place our faith in political power? This episode of Seek Go Create dives into the complex relationship between God, country, and the pursuit of safety, exploring how nationalism and comfort theology can blur the lines between spiritual allegiance and political loyalty. Discover why elections often feel like spiritual battles and what it truly means to engage in public life without losing sight of the kingdom that cannot be shaken. If you’ve ever wondered where your deepest security comes from—or questioned the way faith and politics intertwine—this conversation is for you.
"Comfort theology creates demand for protection. Nationalism defines what must be protected. Politics promises the power to protect it." - Tim Winders
Access all show and episode resources HERE
Episode Resources:
- NT90 Hub – This is the central website for the 90-day New Testament reading plan, with downloadable, printable plans, background information, and links to all episodes and resources.
Episode Highlights:
00:00 Comfort Meets Politics
00:55 Series Setup and Reading Plan
02:29 Why Protection Feels Spiritual
06:44 Fear and the Search for a Protector
08:51 Patriotism Versus Nationalism
14:43 Politics as Savior Myth
18:45 Jesus Refuses Empire Power
21:52 Faithful Civic Engagement
27:13 Fruit of the Spirit Test
29:10 Protection Politics Cannot Give
32:57 Five Practices for Believers
40:17 Kingdom Cannot Be Shaken
43:31 Final Episode Teaser and Wrap
Transcript
Comfort theology does not stay private for long.
Speaker:If we believe God's goodness means keeping life safe, manageable, and
Speaker:familiar, someone must protect that life.
Speaker:Nationalism tells us what must be protected: our country, our
Speaker:people, our values, our way of life.
Speaker:Politics promises the power to protect it.
Speaker:Then an election becomes more than election.
Speaker:A candidate becomes more than a public servant.
Speaker:A political loss begins to feel like spiritual defeat.
Speaker:That is the real danger.
Speaker:When country replaces the kingdom, political loyalty and party affiliation
Speaker:replace allegiance to the king.
Speaker:Hello, everyone.
Speaker:Welcome to Seek Go Create.
Speaker:This is Tim Winders.
Speaker:We're continuing this series that spun off from some deep study that I did within
Speaker:the New Testament, and it really started with me wanting to understand more of
Speaker:the context, understand who wrote it, understand the audience, and then that
Speaker:led to this very interesting thing where I put the New Testament books in the order
Speaker:that they were written and released in.
Speaker:So this is kind of something that I've done where I'm reading the New Testament
Speaker:in order and in context, not the way it is typically in most of our Bibles.
Speaker:It's the order that the letters actually went out.
Speaker:And all that's going on here, all of these messages and the things I've
Speaker:been sharing now for, gosh, months, going all the way back to the beginning
Speaker:of this year, if you're listening to this in 2026, it spun off from that.
Speaker:It was just some studies that I did.
Speaker:It got me thinking about things.
Speaker:I, I went deeper on some subjects.
Speaker:Some things jumped out at me, surprised me, challenged me, just
Speaker:changed the way I understood and continue to understand scripture.
Speaker:And so that's what we're doing here.
Speaker:If you would like to get that reading plan, I encourage you to do that.
Speaker:Go to k2m.foundation/nt90, k2m.foundation/nt90.
Speaker:Download it, read along, see what you find.
Speaker:Have fun with it.
Speaker:The link should be down in the show notes wherever you're
Speaker:watching or listening to this.
Speaker:Last time, on the last episode in this series, this will be a standalone,
Speaker:but if you wanna go back and listen to the ones before, we examine
Speaker:what happens when church structures begin protecting their reputation,
Speaker:authority, influence, and routine.
Speaker:They get in protection mode.
Speaker:Structures can serve people, but when institutional survival becomes central,
Speaker:protection begins to feel spiritual.
Speaker:That instinct does not remain inside the church.
Speaker:It's not just that institution.
Speaker:Once we believe faith should protect our comfort, we begin looking for someone
Speaker:powerful enough to protect the church, the culture, and the life that we know.
Speaker:We want our families safe, our churches secure, our values
Speaker:respected, and our children prepared.
Speaker:Laws, freedom, public order, and wise leadership matter.
Speaker:They begin to matter more than everything else.
Speaker:But good desires can become spiritual demands.
Speaker:We begin believing God must preserve our culture before we can remain faithful.
Speaker:A political leader begins carrying promises Only God can keep.
Speaker:Promises that only exist within his kingdom.
Speaker:Here's the progression.
Speaker:Comfort theology creates demand for protection.
Speaker:Nationalism defines what must be protected.
Speaker:Politics promises power.
Speaker:Politicians, of course, promise all kinds of things.
Speaker:In earlier episodes, I discussed my years inside Republican politics and all of
Speaker:that, especially back when there was the movement that occurred during the '80s.
Speaker:It was the rise of the religious right, that most of us have heard
Speaker:that term, and the mistake of treating elections or court rulings as proof
Speaker:that the kingdom is advancing.
Speaker:I also argued that government can restrain behavior but cannot
Speaker:produce the fruit of the spirit.
Speaker:I'll not repeat all those conversations here.
Speaker:We've done it in past episodes.
Speaker:I want to examine the question beneath them here.
Speaker:Why does political protection begin to feel spiritually necessary?
Speaker:So let's talk about how it really evolves.
Speaker:Comfort theology expects God to prove goodness through safety,
Speaker:control, and favorable outcomes, expectations, or possibly escape.
Speaker:We've seen that.
Speaker:The storm still came when we did that, showed that obedience does
Speaker:not guarantee easy circumstances.
Speaker:Comfort theology named the assumption beneath our surprise when trouble comes.
Speaker:Quick answers, that episode, showed how the desire for
Speaker:relief can shape our reading.
Speaker:We're looking for comfort in all of the things that we read.
Speaker:The comfortable church, last time, showed how it can shape our institutions and
Speaker:what we call church or the buildings and institutions that we call church.
Speaker:Now the same belief can move into public life, and we know it has.
Speaker:It does.
Speaker:I mean, when-- as I'm saying this, most of you should be going, "Of course it does."
Speaker:If God is good, we assume faithful people should remain protected.
Speaker:If God favors a church, we assume that church should
Speaker:remain influential and powerful.
Speaker:If God has blessed a nation, we assume that nation should remain
Speaker:secure, prosperous, and powerful.
Speaker:Each concern may contain something good.
Speaker:Parents should care about the world their children inherit.
Speaker:Churches should value religious liberty.
Speaker:Citizens should care about public safety, honest government, and equal justice.
Speaker:Comfort theology turns those desires into expectations or expected guarantees.
Speaker:Then fear enters.
Speaker:What if we lose influence?
Speaker:What if laws change?
Speaker:What if people who disagree with us gain power?
Speaker:What if the culture no longer treats our beliefs as normal?
Speaker:Fear does not always sound like fear.
Speaker:It may sound like urgency, courage, protecting the next generation,
Speaker:or taking the country back Or the way things used to be.
Speaker:But the demand beneath it can remain the same.
Speaker:Keep our world familiar.
Speaker:Keep our position secure.
Speaker:Keep discomfort, dis-ease away.
Speaker:Then we search for a protector.
Speaker:We want someone who promises order, restoration, strength, and victory.
Speaker:The leader is no longer judged only by wisdom, honesty,
Speaker:competence, or public results.
Speaker:The leader becomes the person standing between us and the future we fear.
Speaker:Government, of course, can create order, enforce laws, defend rights,
Speaker:and protect people from certain harms.
Speaker:It cannot guarantee a comfortable future.
Speaker:No government can do that.
Speaker:No election can do that.
Speaker:No leader, no elected person can really do that.
Speaker:The more protection we demand, the more power we give the protector.
Speaker:Then we may excuse conduct we would condemn if the promises
Speaker:came from the other side.
Speaker:That makes us hypocritical, because we look the other way when it's our guy.
Speaker:Mostly it's guys, let's go ahead and say that.
Speaker:But we judge it and complain about it when it's the other guy.
Speaker:That is where fear become-- fear begins reshaping our conscience.
Speaker:Now, this is what's interesting.
Speaker:Love for country is actually not automatically nationalism.
Speaker:I think we've kind of gotten to a place, especially in the United States and
Speaker:maybe in other places, I'm familiar with the United States, where love
Speaker:for country seems to be thrown into this pot where we call it nationalism.
Speaker:Gratitude is not necessarily worship, and patriotism is not always idolatry.
Speaker:I am extremely thankful for being born in, growing up in, and living
Speaker:in this country, this country we call the United States of America.
Speaker:Travel has given me a perspective on freedoms and opportunities many
Speaker:people may not be able to experience.
Speaker:I am extremely grateful for that.
Speaker:I've shared before that my wife and I at one point traveled with the
Speaker:thought in our mind that we may want to go live, reside, possibly even
Speaker:move citizenship to another country.
Speaker:What we found was this was the spot for us, and so-- but we have traveled
Speaker:around and looked And we can speak, worship, build, travel, disagree, start
Speaker:businesses, criticize leaders, and participate in government in this country.
Speaker:We have so many things that we can be thankful for.
Speaker:Those are gifts.
Speaker:We can honor what is good without pretending the entire
Speaker:national story is holy.
Speaker:Nationalism makes a larger claim.
Speaker:It takes a nation and gives it sacred meaning.
Speaker:Our country becomes specially chosen.
Speaker:It is just special.
Speaker:Our history becomes a story of divine destiny.
Speaker:Our prosperity becomes proof of the favor of God.
Speaker:Our wars become necessary chapters in a holy mission.
Speaker:Our political enemies begin looking like enemies of God's purpose.
Speaker:Then protection is no longer only about public safety.
Speaker:It becomes protection of a sacred identity.
Speaker:The country starts protecting the kingdom.
Speaker:Nationalism answers the question, what must be protected?
Speaker:Our country, our culture, our borders, our history, our religious position,
Speaker:our economic expectations, our definition of who belongs at the center.
Speaker:But the word our needs examination when we say that.
Speaker:Who is included?
Speaker:Does our people include citizens who vote differently?
Speaker:Does it include immigrants and refugees?
Speaker:Does it include people of another religion?
Speaker:Does it include people from other countries, whether
Speaker:they're coming here or not?
Speaker:Does it include people who criticize the nation because their
Speaker:families experienced its failures?
Speaker:Does it include poor communities whose experience of
Speaker:opportunity differs from ours?
Speaker:Or does our quietly mean people who resemble us, believe like us, and remember
Speaker:the same version of the national story?
Speaker:Nationalism draws a circle and calls the circle sacred.
Speaker:Comfort theology ask political power to guard it, and it sort
Speaker:of equips it and props it up.
Speaker:Jesus keeps challenging circles like that.
Speaker:He speaks with the Samaritan woman.
Speaker:He praises a Roman centurion.
Speaker:He makes a Samaritan the faithful neighbor in a story told to
Speaker:people who did not expect it.
Speaker:He touches people labeled unclean.
Speaker:He welcomes outsiders.
Speaker:He shares tables with people religious leaders reject.
Speaker:Jesus does not erase truth.
Speaker:He does not pretend every decision is wise.
Speaker:He does not eliminate boundaries, responsibility, or justice, but he refuses
Speaker:to let national, religious, and social categories determine who deserves mercy.
Speaker:That was uncomfortable in the first century, and it
Speaker:remains uncomfortable today.
Speaker:Nationalism says our identity depends on the nation remaining dominant.
Speaker:The kingdom gives us an identity that crosses every national boundary.
Speaker:Nationalism says security requires defeating the threatening group.
Speaker:Jesus tells his followers to love enemies and pray for persecutors.
Speaker:Nationalism searches for a leader powerful enough to preserve and protect the group.
Speaker:Jesus reveals a king who serves, suffers, forgives, and refuses
Speaker:the methods of the empire.
Speaker:That does not answer every policy question.
Speaker:It does tell us what kind of people we must remain while answering them.
Speaker:The question is not whether we love our country.
Speaker:That's not the question.
Speaker:The question is whether our country has become the container for promises God
Speaker:gave to his kingdom, to the kingdom.
Speaker:Those two do not cross.
Speaker:They're not the same.
Speaker:That is where nationalism moves from gratitude into spiritual dependence.
Speaker:Once comfort creates demand and nationalism defines the protected
Speaker:circle, politics offers the mechanism.
Speaker:Vote for us, and we will protect you.
Speaker:And we know that the politician, not just politics, will tell you just about
Speaker:anything to get you to vote for them.
Speaker:Give us authority, and we will restore order.
Speaker:Help us win, and we will return the country to what it should be, to what
Speaker:it used to be, the good old days.
Speaker:Political decisions affect real people.
Speaker:That is why participation does matter.
Speaker:But comfort theology gives politics this spiritual assignment, kind
Speaker:of this thing that's more holy than it probably should be.
Speaker:The election begins carrying our peace.
Speaker:If our side wins, we relax.
Speaker:If our side loses, we panic.
Speaker:If a court rules our way, we say God is moving.
Speaker:If it rules against us, we say darkness is winning.
Speaker:The emotional life of the church becomes tied to the political calendar.
Speaker:Psalms 146 says, "Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man,
Speaker:in whom there is no salvation."
Speaker:The passage does not say rulers are irrelevant.
Speaker:It says rulers cannot save.
Speaker:Their plans end, and their authority has limits.
Speaker:That warning applies to leaders we admire as much as leaders we oppose.
Speaker:A public official may protect liberty, restrain harm, or administer justice well.
Speaker:We can be thankful for good service, but protection becomes dangerous
Speaker:when it matters more than character.
Speaker:We excuse dishonesty, cruelty, or corruption because
Speaker:the stakes feel too high.
Speaker:The leader becomes necessary.
Speaker:The party becomes necessary.
Speaker:The victory becomes necessary.
Speaker:Then anything threatening a victory becomes an enemy.
Speaker:The New Testament gives no ruler that place.
Speaker:It's just not in the text.
Speaker:Jesus remains Lord under faithful rulers and corrupt rulers.
Speaker:He remains Lord when believers have legal protection and when they do not.
Speaker:The first followers could not vote Caesar out.
Speaker:Caesar was not elected.
Speaker:They couldn't appoint favorable judges or create something
Speaker:called a Christian majority.
Speaker:They were no doubt in dis- massive minority Yet they were not powerless.
Speaker:Acts one says they received power when the Holy Spirit came upon them.
Speaker:It was power to bear witness, cross boundaries, announce another king,
Speaker:and remain faithful under pressure.
Speaker:That is different from power to control Rome.
Speaker:That's not what it said.
Speaker:Politics offers control from the outside.
Speaker:The Spirit forms witness from the inside, and not just the inside of
Speaker:the kingdom, from inside the people that are citizens of that kingdom.
Speaker:The individual people make it up.
Speaker:It's Spirit forming on the inside.
Speaker:Politics promises protection through victory.
Speaker:Jesus forms people who remain faithful, whether they win or lose, and especially
Speaker:whether it looks like they win or lose.
Speaker:Sometimes you can't tell when you're looking at it from the outside in.
Speaker:All right, let's look at what Jesus-- how he responded when
Speaker:protected power was offered.
Speaker:Jesus entered a world where religion, public power, and
Speaker:empire were already intertwined.
Speaker:Rome occupied the land.
Speaker:Soldiers enfor- enforced order.
Speaker:Taxes funded the empire.
Speaker:Local rulers depended on Roman approval.
Speaker:Religious leaders negotiated to preserve their position.
Speaker:They, let's go ahead and call it out, they compromised so that
Speaker:they could keep their power.
Speaker:Inside that world, Jesus repeatedly refused power that
Speaker:offered a protected path.
Speaker:In Matthew four, he sees the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
Speaker:The offer is rule without suffering, a crown without crucifixion, but it requires
Speaker:allegiance that Jesus will not give.
Speaker:He answers, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve."
Speaker:In John six, Jesus feeds a crowd, and the people want to make him king by force.
Speaker:The movement is ready.
Speaker:The need is real.
Speaker:The opportunity is immediate.
Speaker:What does Jesus do?
Speaker:He withdraws.
Speaker:In John eighteen, Jesus stands before Pilate, who holds
Speaker:legal and military power.
Speaker:Jesus says, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from
Speaker:this world, my servants would have been fighting." He is not removing
Speaker:his kingdom from this world.
Speaker:He is naming its source and method.
Speaker:If his kingdom ran on Rome's operating system, his followers
Speaker:would fight for control.
Speaker:Jesus refuses the tempter's kingdoms, the crowd's crown,
Speaker:and Pilate's operating system.
Speaker:Then he goes to the cross.
Speaker:He does not seek pain.
Speaker:In Gethsemane, he asks whether the cup can pass, but he does
Speaker:not make immediate protection the test of the Father's goodness.
Speaker:He remains faithful when power could have offered another path.
Speaker:The resurrection then reveals that Rome never held final authority.
Speaker:This is not withdrawal from public life.
Speaker:It is public faithfulness with a different source of power.
Speaker:The Church becomes vulnerable to political control when it believes
Speaker:survival requires political protection.
Speaker:Jesus shows another way.
Speaker:Faithfulness does not wait for favorable conditions Now, let's
Speaker:take a look at s- faithful civic participation and kind of how it's
Speaker:not related to spiritual dependence.
Speaker:At this point, someone may hear, you might be thinking I'm, I'm saying be
Speaker:passive and back away from everything.
Speaker:You may hear withdrawal.
Speaker:That is not what I am saying.
Speaker:Christians can vote.
Speaker:Christians can and should hold office.
Speaker:Christians can work in areas like law, education, public safety,
Speaker:government, and public policy.
Speaker:I'm not saying go away and not live in the real world.
Speaker:That's not what I'm saying.
Speaker:Christians can advocate for better laws.
Speaker:There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker:They can challenge corruption.
Speaker:They can defend people who are being harmed.
Speaker:They can protect religious liberty.
Speaker:They can work for fair courts and responsible public institutions.
Speaker:There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker:They can disagree clearly and publicly.
Speaker:They can stand up for things that they believe in.
Speaker:Civic participation is not the problem.
Speaker:Spiritual dependence is the problem.
Speaker:Faithful participation recognizes what government can and cannot do.
Speaker:Government can restrain certain harms.
Speaker:It can punish wrongdoing.
Speaker:It can protect rights.
Speaker:It can provide public order.
Speaker:It can create conditions where communities can flourish.
Speaker:Those are meaningful responsibilities.
Speaker:Romans 13 describes a limited public role for governing authority, but
Speaker:Romans 13 does not say government can create or run or rule the kingdom.
Speaker:It does not say Caesar can form the fruit of the spirit.
Speaker:It does not say political authority deserves the
Speaker:allegiance that belongs to Jesus.
Speaker:The same Paul who writes about public order also announces Jesus as Lord.
Speaker:He writes from confinement imposed by Rome.
Speaker:He knows government can serve justice.
Speaker:He also knows government can punish innocent people.
Speaker:1 Peter tells believers to live honorably and respect
Speaker:government, governing authorities.
Speaker:The same letter prepares them to suffer for doing good.
Speaker:Civic respect never becomes worship.
Speaker:The first believers could honor what was honorable without
Speaker:pretending that Rome was righteous.
Speaker:They could obey lawful authority without surrendering their conscience.
Speaker:They could accept consequences without giving Caesar the
Speaker:loyalty that belonged to Christ.
Speaker:Our system gives us forms of participation they did not have.
Speaker:We should steward those opportunities.
Speaker:Be thankful for them.
Speaker:Vote because policies affect neighbors.
Speaker:They affect us, and they affect our neighbors.
Speaker:Serve because public institutions need integrity.
Speaker:They need people that operate that way.
Speaker:Advocate because laws can protect or harm real people.
Speaker:Study the issues because slogans are not enough, or faults or empty promises
Speaker:are things that we should not follow.
Speaker:Listen to people whose experience differs from yours.
Speaker:Tell the truth about your preferred side as carefully as you tell
Speaker:the truth about the other side.
Speaker:Then hold the outcome without panic.
Speaker:That is the distinction.
Speaker:I will say I have not always done that.
Speaker:There are times that my mood went up and down based on the election cycle.
Speaker:I really did think that certain things would be so much better if
Speaker:certain people were elected, and that things would be horrible if certain
Speaker:people, other people, were elected.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:Time has shown me
Speaker:It's not that much different.
Speaker:The kingdom of God is still thriving and growing, and I'm still part of that.
Speaker:So are you.
Speaker:Faithful participation says, "This matters, so I will act responsibly."
Speaker:Spiritual dependence says, "This must go my way or everything is lost.
Speaker:It's a catastrophe.
Speaker:It's horrible." Faithful participation can support a candidate without turning that
Speaker:person into God's necessary instrument.
Speaker:Faithful participation can seek a legal outcome without
Speaker:calling the outcome revival.
Speaker:Faithful participation can lose an election without believing that
Speaker:the kingdom of God lost or that darkness is overcoming things.
Speaker:Faithful participation can win without treating victory as
Speaker:divine approval of every method.
Speaker:Galatians 5 gives us a test for the kind of people our participation is forming.
Speaker:Paul names hostility, strife, jealousy, anger, rivalries,
Speaker:dissensions, divisions, and envy.
Speaker:Then he flips it.
Speaker:He names the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience,
Speaker:kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Speaker:Which list describes what our politics is producing in us personally?
Speaker:What's going on inside you when you think about the politics of
Speaker:what is happening around you?
Speaker:The fruit of the Spirit or the other things that Paul talked about?
Speaker:That question is not partisan.
Speaker:It is a discipleship question.
Speaker:If political participation makes us dishonest, something's wrong.
Speaker:If it teaches us to enjoy cruelty, something is wrong.
Speaker:If it turns neighbors into enemies, something is wrong.
Speaker:If it makes the fruit of the Spirit seem weak, something is wrong.
Speaker:If it requires silence about conduct we would condemn in an
Speaker:opponent- Something is wrong.
Speaker:We may still believe the policy stakes are serious.
Speaker:We may still make a clear choice, but no political emergency suspends
Speaker:the character of Jesus and the character of Jesus' followers.
Speaker:No elections makes the fruit of the Spirit optional.
Speaker:The fruit tells the truth about which operating system is shaping us.
Speaker:Now let's talk about the protection politics cannot ever give.
Speaker:Protection, safety, it's not a bad word.
Speaker:Parents, obviously, we wanna protect our children.
Speaker:Communities wanna protect vulnerable people.
Speaker:Governments should restrain violence, fraud, abuse.
Speaker:Churches should protect people rather than institutions.
Speaker:Businesses should protect workers from unnecessary harm.
Speaker:The problem is asking political power for protection it cannot provide.
Speaker:Politics cannot protect us from grief, illness, every economic
Speaker:change, or every harmful idea.
Speaker:It cannot preserve one culture forever, keep churches faithful, make
Speaker:a nation holy, or reconcile enemies.
Speaker:It cannot give us an identity that survives every political season.
Speaker:The more we demand, the more power politics promises, more control,
Speaker:more loyalty, more urgency, more fear if the other side wins.
Speaker:The original promise remains impossible.
Speaker:Psalms 23 offers the shepherd inside the valley.
Speaker:Romans 8 names tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, danger, and
Speaker:sword, then says none can separate us From the love of Christ.
Speaker:Hebrews 12 speaks of receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Speaker:That is spiritual security.
Speaker:It does not mean nothing changes.
Speaker:It means Jesus remains king when change comes anyway.
Speaker:A nation may become stronger or weaker, the kingdom remains.
Speaker:A party may gain or lose power, the kingdom remains.
Speaker:A church may gain influence or lose cultural status, may shut down.
Speaker:I drove by one in the Atlanta area here that had shut down.
Speaker:It was just a big old massive church at one point, and it was shuttered
Speaker:up, doors closed, locked up.
Speaker:May lose that, but the kingdom still remains.
Speaker:That does not make loss painless.
Speaker:It means loss does not become Lord.
Speaker:Comfort theology wants enough power to keep the storm away.
Speaker:Jesus forms people and a kingdom whose foundation can
Speaker:hold even when the storm comes.
Speaker:Nationalism says our future depends on national dominance.
Speaker:The kingdom says our future rests with a king no nation can elect or remove.
Speaker:That frees us to participate without worshiping victory.
Speaker:Tell the truth about our coalition.
Speaker:Love people who vote differently and lose influence without losing faith.
Speaker:The church can care about freedom without treating freedom as its foundation.
Speaker:It can accept public responsibility without depending on the state for life.
Speaker:It can love a nation without treating the nation as the kingdom.
Speaker:Our deepest protection is not control of Rome.
Speaker:It is belonging to the King and serving in his kingdom.
Speaker:Now, what does all of this mean for us?
Speaker:Because I've thrown a lot of things at this, and some of you might be going,
Speaker:"Yeah, that makes sense," and some of you might be going, "Hold on a second, Tim.
Speaker:That kind of rocks my political foundation and therefore maybe impacts my spiritual
Speaker:foundation." Let's talk about that.
Speaker:What does it mean for us?
Speaker:I said this earlier, but it does not mean retreating from civic life.
Speaker:It means participating without asking politics to carry our
Speaker:identity, peace, or hope.
Speaker:So let's look at a few things.
Speaker:Number one, participate without surrendering your allegiance.
Speaker:Simple things.
Speaker:Vote, serve, advocate, study the issues, consider consequences.
Speaker:Policies affect real people, and public service can be honorable work.
Speaker:But participate as someone whose deepest allegiance has already
Speaker:been given to something much stronger and much more powerful.
Speaker:A ballot matters.
Speaker:It is not a confession of your faith.
Speaker:A public office carries authority.
Speaker:It does not carry salvation.
Speaker:A victory may produce real good.
Speaker:It does not prove divine approval.
Speaker:A loss may cause real harm.
Speaker:It does not mean the kingdom failed.
Speaker:Faithful participation says, "This matters, so I will act
Speaker:with wisdom and integrity."
Speaker:Spiritual dependence says, "This must go my way or everything is
Speaker:lost." Let's look at number two.
Speaker:Tell the truth.
Speaker:Man, this can be a tough one for some of you.
Speaker:Tell the truth about every side Truth does not change with party labels.
Speaker:I will often say when, when I'm dealing with conflict with people, and I
Speaker:think our party politics is roughly the same, is that if two people are
Speaker:in a disagreement, that there's most likely three sides of that story.
Speaker:There's what this person says, there's what that person says, and somewhere
Speaker:in the middle or way out here or something like that, there is the truth.
Speaker:I think party politics, especially in our system in the United States where
Speaker:there's two, there's this side, there's that side, and then the truth or reality
Speaker:or what really should happen is somewhere in the middle or somewhere out there.
Speaker:Truth does not change with party labels.
Speaker:If conduct is corrupt when an opponent does it, it remains
Speaker:corrupt when an ally does it.
Speaker:That's hypocrisy, folks.
Speaker:If cruelty is wrong in the other coalition, it remains
Speaker:wrong in ours or yours also.
Speaker:If we need a leader's protection so badly that we cannot tell the
Speaker:truth, dependence has already begun.
Speaker:You're not serving in and operating in God's kingdom.
Speaker:You've stepped outside those gates.
Speaker:Access is not worth integrity.
Speaker:Influence is not worth a silenced conscience.
Speaker:No coalition gets to borrow the name of Jesus while rejecting his character.
Speaker:All right, let's look at number three: refuse fear, contempt, and dishonesty.
Speaker:Fear says every election is the final battle.
Speaker:This is the final one.
Speaker:If this isn't won, all things are lost.
Speaker:I can't tell you how many times I've heard that over the course of my life.
Speaker:I'm now sixty-two years old as I'm recording this.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:Things just kept clicking right along.
Speaker:Fear says every election is the final battle.
Speaker:Contempt turns neighbors into enemies.
Speaker:Dishonesty says the stakes are too high for ordinary integrity.
Speaker:We have to sort of put our integrity at the door when it
Speaker:comes to the political world.
Speaker:We can name danger without feeding panic.
Speaker:We can oppose harmful policies without dehumanizing people.
Speaker:We can make difficult choices without pretending flawed leaders are righteous.
Speaker:Galatians 5 remains a discipleship test during every political season.
Speaker:No emergency makes the fruit of the Spirit optional.
Speaker:No election turns contempt into courage, and no policy
Speaker:goal makes dishonesty faithful.
Speaker:Number four, protect people without worshiping control.
Speaker:Seek laws and practices that protect real people.
Speaker:This could be a tough one because sometimes it's
Speaker:tough to know repercussions.
Speaker:But restrain violence, fraud, abuse, and exploitation where possible.
Speaker:But protection has limits.
Speaker:We cannot control every idea our children encounter, preserve one
Speaker:culture forever, prevent every loss, or secure every future.
Speaker:The desire to protect becomes dangerous when it demands unlimited control.
Speaker:Then we excuse methods we once opposed and surrender conscience
Speaker:to whoever promises strength.
Speaker:Jesus calls us to protect people without making control our God.
Speaker:Number five, release the outcomes.
Speaker:Let them go.
Speaker:Let them go.
Speaker:Vote carefully, of course.
Speaker:Do your research.
Speaker:Serve honestly if you do that.
Speaker:Speak truthfully.
Speaker:Protect neighbors.
Speaker:Challenge corruption.
Speaker:Then release what you cannot control.
Speaker:There was a time in my life where I was all racked with anxiety, and I was jacked
Speaker:up by what was going on politically.
Speaker:Now, I just look over all of it and say, "You know what? I can control
Speaker:certain things, but it's a small little world or little realm."
Speaker:Everything else, I just go, "You know what? I can't do much about
Speaker:that." That's not passivity.
Speaker:Don't say that.
Speaker:It is trust.
Speaker:The party can gain or lose power, and the kingdom remains.
Speaker:A nation can become stronger or weaker, and the kingdom remains.
Speaker:A church can gain influence or lose status, the kingdom remains.
Speaker:Consequences can be painful without becoming the lord over our lives.
Speaker:Participate, tell the truth, refuse fear, contempt, and dishonesty.
Speaker:Protect people without worshiping control.
Speaker:Release the outcomes to God.
Speaker:That is how we care about public life without asking public power to save us.
Speaker:I wanna kind of wrap up with a few things here because this is a tough one for us.
Speaker:And boy, we see, we see this out there.
Speaker:If you ever do anything in the media or social media, you see this all the time.
Speaker:Comfort theology creates demand for protection.
Speaker:Nationalism defines what must be protected.
Speaker:Politics promises the power to protect it, and of course,
Speaker:politicians make those promises.
Speaker:The progression can sound faithful because it uses words like God,
Speaker:family, freedom, truth, and country.
Speaker:And we see many people pull scriptures out, many times
Speaker:misusing them to justify this.
Speaker:But the fruit tells the truth.
Speaker:Does our political life produce love, peace, patience, kindness,
Speaker:goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?
Speaker:That's the measure.
Speaker:Or does it produce fear, anger, rivalry, division, and contempt?
Speaker:I'm not telling you to stop voting or abandon public life.
Speaker:That's not what I'm doing here.
Speaker:Laws, courts, borders, leadership, security, and religious liberty, they
Speaker:matter because people matter, and that's part of what's going on today.
Speaker:I am asking whether we have given political power a spiritual assignment
Speaker:that it cannot fulfill Government can protect certain freedoms.
Speaker:It cannot become our freedom in Christ.
Speaker:Many times we put that political power on a pedestal much higher than our God and
Speaker:much higher than the kingdom that many of us profess to be living and operating in.
Speaker:A nation can provide security.
Speaker:It cannot become our refuge.
Speaker:A leader can serve with wisdom.
Speaker:That leader cannot become our savior.
Speaker:A party can represent values we share.
Speaker:It cannot own our allegiance.
Speaker:The kingdom does not rise when our party wins or fall when our party loses.
Speaker:It was present under Rome two thousand years ago.
Speaker:It's remained through empires, wars, reformations, elections,
Speaker:and cultural change, and it will remain when every current
Speaker:political argument becomes history.
Speaker:The promise is not permanent cultural control, national dominance,
Speaker:or protection from every storm.
Speaker:The promise is a present king.
Speaker:The king is faithful.
Speaker:The kingdom cannot be shaken.
Speaker:That frees us to seek justice without worshiping power.
Speaker:We can love our country without confusing it with the kingdom and
Speaker:lose influence without losing faith.
Speaker:Our deepest security does not come from politics.
Speaker:It comes from the King.
Speaker:And that is going to bring us to the final conversation in
Speaker:this arc that we've been on.
Speaker:We began with a storm.
Speaker:We named the belief beneath our demand for easier outcomes.
Speaker:We saw how comfort shapes our reading, our churches, and our politics.
Speaker:Now, one question remains: What does Jesus form in us when
Speaker:control cannot guarantee security?
Speaker:Faithfulness.
Speaker:That is what it does.
Speaker:In the final episode in this series, Faithful Not Comfortable, we will
Speaker:explore what that life looks like.
Speaker:I wanna remind you that the reading plan for reading the New Testament in order
Speaker:and in context is at k2m.foundation/nt90.
Speaker:Go download it.
Speaker:Start the reading plan if you haven't.
Speaker:Continue it, press on if you're in the middle of it.
Speaker:Possibly reread it if you've already done it.
Speaker:That's what I'm about to get started doing myself.
Speaker:Just get started and get it.
Speaker:If what you were taught does not match what you read, my belief
Speaker:is we should trust the text.
Speaker:I'm Tim Winders.
Speaker:Keep digging, keep seeking, keep going, keep pressing.
Speaker:I'll see you in the next one
