A Grateful Nation Rejoices!
Breaking: The Lord has declared victory and a grateful nation rejoices!
The November 2020 election results rightly left countless millions distraught and filled with dread for the future of our country. Out of that concern and lament, a national prayer movement launched, which possibly would not have formed otherwise. Four long years of faithful, fervent, and travailing prayer brought us these miraculous election results of 2024. When the Lord hears the prayers of a nation, it is fitting to thank Him with the same zeal we beseeched Him with.
He answered their prayers because they trusted Him.
~ I Chronicles 5:20
To those who knelt low on their kneelers and those who were seated high atop the watchman’s wall, give thanks to the Lord with a grateful heart! To those who were hungry for the meat of brave preachers and those who were thirsty for the words of the prophets, give thanks to the Lord with a grateful heart! To those who spoke the truth in the face of lies and those who employed the gift of distinguishing between spirits, give thanks to the Lord with a grateful heart!
To those who resisted the leaven of Herod and those who released the leaven of the Kingdom, give thanks to the Lord with a grateful heart! To those who prayed without food and those who worshiped without ceasing, give thanks to the Lord with a grateful heart! To those who suffered loss for their beliefs and those who were reviled, and persecuted, and had all kinds of evil uttered against them: Rejoice! For great is your reward in heaven.
I never set out to be a political commentator, and in the familiar sense of the term, I am still not one. I am a brother of Christ who is deeply disturbed to see both believers and churches succumb to the deceptions of wokeness, leftism, and globalism. The antichrist spirit has enthroned itself on this rotted, three-legged stool, the same stool from which winsome preachers muse on the nuance of abortion, the horrors of whiteness, and the unforgivable sins of America’s founding.
These are often the very same leaders who scold Christians not to be political.
The word politics is immediately construed as the corrupt and conniving tactics of crooked, public self-servants. But in its etymological sense, politics, from polis, is simply the spiritual or secular governance of a citizenry and its behavior. This is precisely why the New Testament church in the First Century was not called a synagogue or a temple but the Ecclesia. In Roman times, the Ecclesia was an authoritative gathering or council of the polis and was actively embedded in the center of the public square.
Witnessing how many preachers remained silent about the recent election has been both dismaying and disheartening. While I have written much on our presidency this year, I wrote one final plea last week charging pastors to equip their sheep before they stepped into the shearing booth. Tragically, even on the Sunday before the election, many pastors chose to remain silent.
It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.
~ George Whitefield
What Kind of Blue Did He Say?
A recently published national map exhibits the ten most post-Christian cities in America. Two of these cities are on the West Coast, and the remaining eight are here in the Northeast. You don’t have to be painter Bob Ross to quickly see this glaringly obvious portrait — The Northeast paints its political palette not with Van Dyke Brown, Titanium White, or even Bright Red. No, the once sacred cradle of two Great Awakenings prefers its politics in deep Phthalo Blue.
This happy-little axiomatic equation is obvious: Deep blue politics yields post-Christian culture, and post-Christian culture breeds deep blue politics. So, to all the church leaders and pulpiteers intent on “bringing the gospel” to New England, you must break through the fourth wall and understand that you are more than gatherers, evangelists, and encouragers—you are thought-shapers.
The apostle Paul teaches that those who have received the Holy Spirit can know the thoughts of God. Conversely, unspiritual believers can not understand God’s thoughts and even deem them to be foolish. (I Corinthians 2) Imagine, there are myriads of saints marching through the pearly gates right now who unfortunately missed out on how the mind of Christ operates within the Kingdom of God here on earth.
A believer may possess a biblical worldview, but if they lack a Kingdom way of thinking, they may not robustly release the salt, light, and leaven of the Kingdom into the public square. By choosing to remain silent throughout the election season and thereby not helping the saints grow in Kingdom thinking, our pastors became political in the worst sense of the word.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn.
~ Romans 12:15
Because some pastors carefully calculated their pre-election silence, they have relegated themselves to extending their self-imposed muzzling into the post-election season. The church leaders who viewed their campuses as potential war zones and refused to risk diminishing the size of their ranks are now unable to provide the lambs with the pastoral care they require.
Using broad estimation, imagine that half of your congregation was fervently praying, fasting, and interceding on behalf of our nation these past four years. These warriors experienced an ongoing threat of peril right up until Pennsylvania was called, at which point these spirit-filled patriots began rejoicing with gratefulness and jubilee.
These faithful and grateful rejoicers walked into church the Sunday after the election with a deepened desire to worship the Lord and celebrate His favor and goodness. It was a victory for them, and they knew that a great evil had been thwarted in the unseen realms. It was time for the church to rejoice!
Alas, because their pastor chose to refrain from equipping these intercessors, he disqualified himself from rejoicing with them. As far as anyone could tell as they entered the Sabbath biosphere, nothing of import transpired that week, so it was Sunday business as usual.
Rejoice with those who are rejoicing.
Likewise, consider that the other half of your congregation was deeply conditioned by the media, news outlets, and the current administration and genuinely believed this election would place our nation under despotic, authoritarian control. For them, a great wave of dread was released when Pennsylvania was called, at which point these believers began weeping with fear and great anger.
These shaken and unsettled mourners walked into church the Sunday after the election with an admixture of woe and fear, wondering how God could allow this. For them, it was a cataclysmic defeat and they believed a great force of good was vanquished by evil. It was time for the church to mourn.
Alas, because their pastor chose to refrain from properly preparing this group of people, he disqualified himself from addressing their mourning. As far as anyone could tell as they entered the Sabbath biosphere, nothing of import transpired that week, so it was Sunday business as usual.
Mourn with those who are mourning.
The impact of our preaching is not intended solely for the sound systems within the biosphere and the hidden chambers of people’s hearts. The effects of robust preaching shape thought, invoke action, and should be visible in the public square.
America’s Next Chance to Please The Lord
The thunderous preachers of the Great Awakening, like Whitefield and Edwards, not only shaped the thoughts and ideas upon which our nation was founded but they were also kicked out of their pious biospheres. Jonathan Edwards was fired from his church in North Hampton, MA, over the issue of Communion, and George Whitefield was booted for boldly speaking against the establishment churches.
What their opponents meant for evil, God used for good. These ousted orators became far more effective as open-air preachers, no longer sprinkling the saturated in the pews but feeding the famished in the fields of New England.
The preaching of Whitefield profoundly forged Benjamin Franklin’s thinking, and he often remarked on the fruit evident in the streets. Franklin wrote of Whitefield’s preaching in his autobiography:
It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seems as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro’ the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.
~ The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, p. 146
For me, election night was profoundly humbling. I have listened, discerned, and thought carefully about politics, culture, and the Kingdom these past few years and have paid a personal price for doing so. But when Pennsylvania was called, I was overcome by a weighty sense of history. While there will potentially be tens or hundreds or thousands of future elections, the election of 2024 may turn out to be the most consequential of my lifetime and I am humbled to know that my analysis, thoughts, and convictions are digitally stored for lifetimes to come.
Early on, I deflected attention from the man and urged readers to focus on policy. But then we watched this man, Donald Trump, endure an unending onslaught of false accusations, the Steele Dossier, the Russia Collusion, two impeachments, punitive lawsuits designed to bankrupt and imprison him, and the entire regime machinery run 24/7 smear campaigns, forced every American to lean in and look closer.
But when that bullet ripped through his ear just millimeters from taking his head off, it was no longer about policy. When he rose off the platform, clenched his fist, and yelled, “Fight! Fight! Fight! it was all about the man.
Yes, it is a time of rejoicing. And, I bear enough insight to understand why so many are mourning. But right now, this is very humbling. The Lord has given America another chance we may not have deserved, and I pray we can live up to the immensity of His grace extended to us.
“Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened.
~ The King of Nineveh in the Book of Jonah 3:8-10
Photo: George Whitefield, Preaching in the Colonies.
