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Every once in a while, you will come across a message within Christianity that

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seems to contradict another message within Christianity. So here's an example.

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A few years ago, Rend Collective had a popular song on the radio,

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and in fact, we sang it here at Good News Church as well. And the lyrics go like this.

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Build your kingdom here. Let the darkness fear.

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Show your mighty hand. Heal our streets and land. end.

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Set your church on fire. Win this nation back. Change the atmosphere.

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Build your kingdom here. We pray. You remember it?

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Yeah. The message of that song seems to be pretty clear in that the emphasis

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of that song is on the here and now. It says, win this nation back, which I think the band is, I think it's an Irish

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band, so they were probably talking about Ireland. I assume when Americans sing it, though, they're probably singing about America.

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It said, heal our streets and land, right?

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So the emphasis of the song is on here and now. And I assume the part of the

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song that says, set your church on fire and other parts of the song that talk

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about us, it shows that there is a desire on our part, like we, the people of God,

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that we want to be a part of winning the nation back and healing our streets and land.

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Like this is our home and we want God to fix it. And we want God to use us in that mission, right?

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Right. Okay. However, right around the time that that song was popular.

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There was another song on the radio that was just as popular,

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if not more so. It was a song by Building 429, and these are the lyrics of that song.

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It said, all I know is I'm not home yet.

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This is not where I belong. Take this world and give me Jesus.

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This, you remember this song? This is not where I belong.

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So what happened? Did they sneak in like another song from another religion

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onto our radio stations? Well, not at all. Well, which one is it? Like, are these our streets and our

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land, or is it I'm not home yet, right?

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Is the goal win this nation back, or is it this is not where I belong?

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Well, I'm happy to admit it could be that one or both of these songs are incorrect.

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I mean, after all, they are not scripture. They're not God's word.

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Sometimes Christian songs do get things wrong.

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But in this case, I don't think that's what happened.

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I think both songs are right. I think that the things that are in these two, these two songs are emphasizing

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two different aspects of the Christian life.

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And the ideas that are found in both of these songs, both ideas are found in the Bible.

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What I'm saying is the Bible that says our citizenship is in heaven and friendship

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with the world is hostility toward God is the same Bible that says you are the

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salt of the earth and you are the light of the world. And it's the same Bible that tells us to pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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So the question I'd like to answer this morning is how could it possibly be both?

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How do we recognize our separation from this world at the same time that we

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make a difference in the world?

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Or another way of saying it, how can we dig in and participate in making things

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better here in our streets and our land while also acknowledging we don't belong

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here and we are awaiting our Savior's return, which will be the only way the

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world will really be as it should be? So I think I have a good answer to that question. But before I give it,

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I'd like to teach you some relevant Bible passages. I think that we can see this idea taught on by way of analogy in the Old Testament

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and then more directly in the New Testament.

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So we're gonna go in that order, Old Testament first and then New Testament.

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So kind of by way of analogy and then more direct. So let's start with Jeremiah chapter 29.

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If you have your Bible with you, turn to Jeremiah chapter 29.

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I'm gonna start reading in verse one. It says this, Jeremiah 29 verse 1. This is the text of the letter that Jeremiah

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the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exiles,

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the priests, the prophets, and all the people Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.

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So this is important. I want you to understand what's going on here.

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So what I'm about to read to you in a little bit later on in the chapter is the text of a letter.

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Jeremiah is the prophet and he sends the prophecy by way of a letter,

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right? He says, this is what God says. This is the message of God for you that you need to know. And he sends it,

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who? He sends it to the exiles.

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He sends it to people who had been captured by Nebuchadnezzar and brought to Babylon.

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They had been deported there. They had been, I think, essentially kidnapped

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there. He's writing this letter to Israelites who had been living in their homeland,

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Israel, and then the bad guys came. Okay, Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon came and conquered them.

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So these people are now a conquered people. And instead of some,

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I think probably lots of them were killed, but I think there were some of them that were not killed.

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They were taken to Babylon as prisoners, not like behind bars prisoners,

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but just they're not living in their hometown anymore. They've been taken to the new land and they are now living in Babylon.

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So the exiles are living in Babylon. These are people who are from Israel.

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They're now living in a city that they didn't choose because of people that conquered them.

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And I'm assuming probably most of them wished that they could go back home, but they can't.

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They can't because they're in their city. So I want you to notice the similarities

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here that what I'm about to read you is a passage that's written to people who

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are not in their home, right? They're in a different place temporarily, and the letter is going to tell them

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what to do while they're there in the place that's not their home.

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So the text of the letter actually begins in verse four of that chapter.

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So Jeremiah 29, verse four. This is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I

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deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.

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So if you're one of those people, right? So Jeremiah's in Jerusalem writing

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this letter to them. You're one of those people that's there. And you probably want to know, what does God say for us to do?

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And especially, when is he going to get us out of here?

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And look at what God says to them, okay? To all the exiles that I deported from

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Jerusalem to Babylon, this is the command he gives them. Look at verse five.

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Build houses and live in them.

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Plant gardens and eat their produce. So these people are sitting there going

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like, how much longer till God lets us go back home, okay?

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How long is it gonna be? And God says to them, oh, it's gonna be a while.

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Dig in. If you're sitting there, what do we do? What do we do while we're waiting

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to be restored? Oh, you start living there.

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Right? You build houses and live in them and you plant gardens and eat their produce.

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If you're sitting there thinking, well, why build a house? I would just rent because we're probably going to get to go back home soon. No,

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no, you might as well build the thing. Well, should I plant a garden? Because maybe I won't be around for harvest time.

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Oh, you're going to be around for several harvests. Dig in and make the best of it, right? He says, build houses and live in them,

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plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your

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daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters.

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Multiply there, do not decrease.

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Seek the welfare of the city I have deported you to.

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Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it has prosperity, you will prosper.

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Isn't this interesting? These people have been captured. They're there among the bad guys, right?

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These are their enemies who have conquered them. And so they're living there

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in Babylon among people who they do not think are good people,

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right? They're saying, we are the good people who worship the true God.

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We are now in Babylon against our will among these people who don't even worship

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the true God. And what does God say?

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Dig in and make the best of it. You're going to be there for a while.

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Have kids and have grandkids. Keep going. And then verse seven is really interesting.

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Seek the welfare of the city I have deported to you. Pray to the Lord on its behalf.

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Wait a minute. So we're here in the city with all the bad people.

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What are we supposed to do, God? and he says, make their city better while you're there.

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Improve the city that you're stuck in. Seek the welfare of the city I've deported

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to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf. So you look at those people, these are all the bad people. They're not even,

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they're worshiping false gods. Yep, they are. So here's what you do. You pray to the true God and you ask the

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true God to bless those bad people in their city.

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Is this really in the Bible? It's really, it's really right there.

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Seek the welfare of the city I've deported to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf

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for when When it has prosperity, you will prosper. Make the city a better place. Here's why. Because you got to live in it.

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You got to live in it. So you make it a better place and you do what God's called

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you to do and you even call out on the name of God to bless even these people

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who do not worship the true God and you seek the welfare of their city.

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You keep having kids and you build houses and you plant guards and you live there.

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So he keeps going. I'm going to skip to verse 10. Because at some point they

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might go, at what point are we going to get restored to our land?

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And things are going to go back to normal and things are going to go back to good.

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So this comes up in verse 10. Jeremiah 29, verse 10. This is what the Lord says.

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When 70 years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm

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my promise concerning you to restore you to this place.

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I assume the word this place because Jeremiah is writing from Jerusalem.

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He's talking about Jerusalem. I will restore you to Israel.

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When am I going to? There's gonna come a point where I keep my promise.

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I'm gonna confirm my promise. I'm gonna make it happen. I'm gonna restore you.

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I'm gonna take you back to the land. When's it gonna happen from the verse? Can you tell?

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70 years, which means the people he's talking to, I think the majority of them

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are actually not even going to get restored to the land.

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They're gonna die there. It's gonna be their children and their grandchildren,

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that are restored to the land. But for 70 years, you dig in and build houses and plant stuff and have children

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and seek the welfare of the city because you're going to be there for a while.

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But yes, one day I will restore you to your land. So he keeps going.

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My promise concerning you to restore you to this place. Verse 11,

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for I know the plans I have for you. This is the Lord's declaration, plans for your welfare, not for disaster to

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give you a future and a hope. That's a very famous Bible verse. Did you know that?

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Quoted all the time, almost always out of context. Okay. That verse is on about 10,000 coffee mugs.

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Okay. And the majority of probably the 10,000 Christians that own them do not

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even know it's about Babylon and Jerusalem and not about like the car they really want next year.

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Thank you. That keeps going. Verse 12. You will call to me and come and pray

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to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

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I will be found by you. This is the Lord's declaration.

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I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you.

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This is the Lord's declaration. I will restore you to the place I deported you from.

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Right? So he tells them to prosper in the place they're in. He says, you're not home yet.

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And he says, one day you will be. I will restore your fortunes.

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I will restore you to this place. And so what we can see in this passage, first of all, I want to be clear,

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this passage is not about heaven and earth. It's about Babylon and Jerusalem.

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But can you see that the principle applies to the topic that I'm trying to bring up this morning?

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That we can see in this passage that it is possible for the people of God,

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that it can be simultaneously true that we are not home yet.

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And we are still part of supporting a kingdom here in the meantime.

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Like God's people can be supporting a kingdom where they're at and not home yet at the same time.

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And so this is about Babylon and Jerusalem, but in principle,

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it does apply to heaven and earth. And in fact, now I'd like to move to the

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New Testament where I think that you can see this topic more directly addressed.

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So let's go to Hebrews chapter 13, verse 14.

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Fantastic little verse. It's in this big paragraph. the verse would make even

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more sense if you had read like the chapters that came before it,

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but I'll just refer to it and just explain what it means. As he's talking to these Hebrews in the first century and telling them how to

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live, he says this in Hebrews 13, verse 14.

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He says, "'For we do not have an enduring city here.

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"'Instead, we seek the one to come.'", He says, we're living in such a way that we've got to remember this.

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We don't actually have an enduring city here.

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What does he mean that, right? These are people that are living in a city,

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right? They're living somewhere. He's saying, no, we don't have an enduring city here. We don't have a permanent one.

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Instead, we seek the one to come. What enduring city do they seek to come?

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There's some permanent sort of city in the future that they're looking forward

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to. What's he referring to? Well, if you were reading the book of Hebrews and you didn't just jump straight to the last chapter.

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Like two chapters earlier, he had already said what that's talking about.

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He talked about Christians and they were looking forward to a city and he called

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it a heavenly one, right? A city that God has prepared for them.

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And so when he talks about the enduring city that we seek to come,

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he's talking about the new heavens and new earth. He's talking about eternity with God. He's talking about the heavenly one.

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So as he's speaking here, he's saying, listen, right now we're living in a city,

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but we're not living in the permanent one.

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We're waiting for that one, right? This is not, This city that we're in,

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like we, we live in Ocala. They live in wherever they were.

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This is not the permanent city. This is not the everlasting city.

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We're still waiting on that one. We're waiting on the one to come. And so this verse, I think,

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fits very well with that song. This is not where I belong.

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Okay, it's not where I belong, but it's where I'm at. So what do I do in the meantime?

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Between now and the one to come. And for that, we go to the book of 1 Peter.

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1 Peter 2, this is fantastic. You probably have not heard very many sermons

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from this passage. I certainly haven't. It's good.

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1 Peter 2, starting in verse 11.

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He's writing to the people and he says something interesting. He says, dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain

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from fleshly desires that war against you. Peter's telling the people how to live and he's telling them you have to be

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careful about these fleshly desires that war against you.

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There are these pressures and these pulls within you to do things that you shouldn't

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do. You need to fight against it. You need to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.

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But who does he say it to? It's interesting. He doesn't say just like general, like, you know, hey, nice Christian people, I'm writing this to.

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He says, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents.

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These are Greek words that mean things like people who are from a different

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country and they're living in a different country than the one that is their

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own. They're living in a different land than their own.

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Why in the world does he not, he doesn't just say abstain from fleshly desires.

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He says as strangers and temporary residents.

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You got to do it. Why does he call them temporary residents?

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Well, it's, I guess, what he'd been calling them all along. Like when he wrote

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this letter, that's who he wrote the letter to. So if you're in 1 Peter, you can just flip back a page and I'll just read to

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you the very first two verses of the book. When Peter wrote this letter, this is how he began it. 1 Peter chapter one,

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verse one and two, it says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

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So that is the from part of the letter. Back then they did their from at the

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beginning rather than at the end. Okay, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. And then here's the to part of the letter.

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To the, now what does he say? To who?

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To the temporary residents. That's who he wrote this whole letter to.

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He wrote to the temporary residents dispersed in Pontus, Galatia,

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Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, and set apart by the

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Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ.

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And then that's the greeting. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

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So as he's writing this, he's writing it to the temporary residents.

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He used that word. These people that are living in a land that's not their own.

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And he lists these lands that they're in. in Pontus, Galatia,

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Cappadocia. So who's he talking to? I will let you know, commentators and scholars actually differ on their opinion

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of who they think 1 Peter is written to. Commentators are divided as to whether 1 Peter was written to a Jewish audience

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or a Gentile audience, or I suppose it could have been mixed.

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Apparently there are some people that believe that what he says by temporary

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residence dispersed in, he is saying these are people who are from Israel,

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Jewish people, who are now living in these other regions that are not Israel,

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So they're temporary residents there. The other view is that this is more of a metaphorical way of saying people who

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are Gentiles and they're Christians and they love Jesus and they are part of

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his kingdom, but they are living among the kingdoms of this world temporarily, right?

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They're waiting for Jesus to come back and make all things right.

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So I don't know whether he's like, when, if you were to ask me,

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is first Peter written to a Jewish audience or a Gentile audience or mixed?

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I would say, I don't know. In fact, when like scholars and commentators are

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divided like that, oftentimes I don't try to solve that on a Sunday morning.

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But I will tell you one thing that is for sure true and really obvious,

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and we got to get this out of the passage. We got to get this. Whoever they are, whether it's Jews or Gentiles or mixed.

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He's writing to Christians. He's writing to believers in Jesus Christ here.

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He has to be because he says these are temporary residents of these places,

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but what is true about them? They are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

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and they've been set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with

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the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ right there, that's a really huge hint that he's talking to Christians

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that are temporary residents.

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These are Christians that are living in these places for now.

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They're followers of Jesus. You can tell that as he writes the letter. If you go to 1 Peter 2,

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verse 10, which this would be the verse just before the one I read to you.

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Peter's talking to them, and he says, once you were not a people,

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but now you are God's people. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

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Which that first part, by the way, is a quote from Hosea, for those of you who

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were here all year. Isn't that fun? Okay. Anyway, for those of you that weren't, it's not fun, but that's fine.

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Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. You had not received

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mercy, now you have received mercy. he's saying, he's talking to people who are Jesus followers.

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He's saying, yeah, you didn't know God, you didn't know Jesus, and now you do.

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You were people who were not forgiven, and now you are.

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And then the very next sentence is this one.

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Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from

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fleshly desires that war against you. So I don't know if as he's saying this, he's thinking of Jewish people that

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are scattered around, that are temporary residents looking forward to the day

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that their Messiah returns and they come back to Israel because because their

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Messiah is there and he establishes the kingdom. Or if he's imagining Gentiles who are a part of God's kingdom and they're living

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in all the nations and all the different regions of this world,

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and they're looking forward to the day when their Savior arrives,

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their Messiah arrives, and he shows up and makes all things new, and there they are.

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All right? Or like I said, or a mix between the two. I kind of think it's probably

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the mix. But that's what he's thinking. I urge you as strangers and temporary residents, I guess I'm saying regardless

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of their ethnicity, you can definitely tell he is writing this letter,

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telling these people how they are to live, and he's writing it to Christians who are not home yet.

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And what does he say to them? He tells them to abstain from fleshly desires.

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And then let me tell you the next thing he says, verse 12. He says, conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles.

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Now, this is a word that could also be translated nations or pagans, okay?

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So he's saying, those of you who are temporarily living here,

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you're waiting for the day that Jesus returns, right?

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And makes all things right. And you have the enduring city, the permanent city.

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So you need to, in the meantime, conduct yourselves honorably among the nations,

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among all the people groups, particularly, I think he's saying here,

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the Gentiles, the people groups that don't worship God yet, right?

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You're living in this world and there's all these different nations and all

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these different groups of people that they don't follow the true God.

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And you're living among them temporarily. So conduct yourselves honorably as you live among the Gentiles or as you live

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among the nations, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who

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do evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation.

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Live among them in such an honorable way that, I think he's basically saying,

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make it hard for them to slander you. When they want to say that you're a bad person, like, let there be so many good

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works that they go, wow, it's really hard to slander these people.

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In fact, I think he's saying, behave in such a way that some of those people

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will switch teams and they will become followers of Jesus and they will glorify

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God on the day that he shows up. That's how you're to live.

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And then he continues talking and it almost looks like he's changing the topic, but I don't think he is.

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I think he's still thinking of these same thoughts. And this is the very next sentence.

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He says, submit to every human authority because of the Lord,

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whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to governors as those sent

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out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good.

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So he's telling them how to live among the nations.

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How do you conduct yourself honorably as temporary residents in your land?

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And so he says, well, submit to the authorities there.

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Submit to every human authority because of the Lord. And it's interesting.

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He says to the emperor, because this is the Roman empire, and to the governors.

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So these are these lesser authorities that are underneath the emperor that are

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enforcing laws and rules and such. He says, submit to them. Now, remember, he's writing it to people who go,

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this isn't, we're temporary residents, right?

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We're strangers in the land. This is not our country. This is not our empire.

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This is not our king, right? This is not our land.

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So why do we gotta do this? Why do we gotta submit to these people?

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Well, because this is where you are for now. Submit to every human authority. And look at this, because of the Lord,

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you might go, well, that person's not my king. That person's not my governor.

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Well, the Lord is your Lord. And he says, submit to every human authority because of him,

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because of your submission to him, the emperor, the governors,

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for it is God's will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.

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I think that's, again, that's one of those, make it hard for them to talk bad about you.

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Make it hard for them to talk, make them look dumb, trying to come up with bad stuff about you.

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And then he goes on to the next verse and he says, as God's slaves,

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because that's who you really belong to, as God's slaves, live as free people,

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but don't use your freedom as a way to conceal evil.

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And then look at the last four sentences of the paragraph. Very interesting

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that this is in the Bible. He says, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.

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Isn't that interesting? He's telling them how to live as temporary residents

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in the land. And he says, honor everyone. So I'm assuming the word everyone here, especially because it's followed by

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love the brotherhood. I'm thinking what the word everyone probably means is like everyone.

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Okay. Like not just Christians. Honor everyone is like just Christians,

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non-Christians, good people, bad people, right?

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Just have a respect and an honor for all the people that you're among.

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Then he follows that up with love the brotherhood. And I think that's a way

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of saying there is supposed to be a special love that you have for your brothers and sisters in Christ.

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And then he says, fear God. Yes, because God is absolutely at the top of the org chart.

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The only reason you would obey anybody else is because he says so,

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right? You fear God. You worship him above all else. You honor him.

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He's that that would even be in the Bible. He's saying, yeah, honor the emperor. This is where you live for now.

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So show honor to everyone. Love the brotherhood in particular.

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Yes, submit to God above all else, but you're in an empire. Honor the emperor.

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Now, what is he saying here? I will tell you this. I do not believe that Peter

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is saying this in a way as he's trying to communicate.

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I do not think he was saying to them, obey the emperor into sin.

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I do not think he was saying, submit to the emperor all the way to the point

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of sin, which could have been a thing. I mean, back then, I think in the Roman

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empire, in the first century, there was a lot of emperor worship. And the emperors would say, hey, you need to worship me as the Lord, right?

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And the Christians aren't supposed to go, oh, well, the Lord told me I have to honor the emperor.

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Now I got to worship the emperor as the Lord. Well, no, we honor the Lord above all else.

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Therefore, we cannot honor the emperor as Lord. If he requires that, then we have to say no.

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So when he says honor the emperor, this is a general thing. There's no way he

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means obey the emperor to the point of sinning.

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There's no way he's saying submit to me so much that you do things that are

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the opposite of what I said, right? In fact, Peter, as best as I can tell, is the same character who is in Acts chapter four.

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And I don't know if you know the story of Acts chapter four, but basically Peter is there in

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Jerusalem and there is a set of authority figures that he is speaking to.

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They're called the Sanhedrin. They are religious authority figures in Israel.

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And as Peter's speaking to the Sanhedrin, you can read it for yourself in Acts

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chapter four. I'm just gonna paraphrase it. There's a point where he's speaking to them and the Sanhedrin says to Peter,

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stop preaching about Jesus.

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And Peter says back to the Sanhedrin, you're going to have to decide which is the better option.

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Should I obey you or should I obey God? But I've made the decision.

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I'm going to obey God over you. That's what Peter says to them. So there's no way Peter's saying here,

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honor the emperor to the point of sin. Well, then what is he saying?

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I think he's saying, as you live among the peoples, live peaceably and honorably

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in the nation that you are temporarily living in,

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in such a way that the people glorify God as they react to your behavior.

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So you can tell for Peter, it mattered what they did in the meantime,

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even though they were temporary residents.

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Like he calls them temporary residents and he still thinks it's important the

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way that they live in the land while they're there.

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So do you see both sides of the issue? Do you see it?

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Like, yes, we need to honor God as like, you need to honor God as your true

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king above all the kingdoms of this world.

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Yes, this world is not your home. Yes, this city that we're in right now is not the eternal one.

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But also, do good while you're here in the meantime, because you are a part

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of God's kingdom, even right here and right now.

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So here's how I think you do it. This is an illustration. This is the way I like to say it.

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Life is like a mission trip. I don't know if you've ever been on a missions

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trip before, but let me go ahead and describe them for you. Okay. I've been on a few.

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When I was in like late high school, or maybe it was early college,

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I went on a couple of mission trips with my youth group at my church.

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We went to Peru one of the years, and we went to Mexico one of the other years,

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and we worked in an orphanage in both places. Then I was a youth pastor in Dallas, Texas, and we did mission trips each year

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to Mississippi, where we would travel from Texas to Mississippi and work in an orphanage.

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I realize Mississippi is not a foreign country, but it might as well be for Texas kids.

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And so we would drive the kids over there and we work in there.

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So whether it was going to another state or whether it's going to another country,

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the thing that all the mission trips that I've been on have in common is every

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single one of them, we were somewhere temporarily.

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I was living in a land that was not my own for a little while and I was helping

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out in an orphanage. That was true of every mission trip I've been on.

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And so I want to describe for you what they're like. There you are.

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And the whole time you're there, you know that you're not there permanently.

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There's never a point that you're like, oh, this is where I live now. You know that you're not there permanently.

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You're just helping out at the orphanage for a little while. So you don't panic about local problems because you know you're going home.

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Like when you're in Peru and they give you rice and beans the first day and

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you're like, this is delicious. And then they give it to you on the second day and you're like,

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this is fine. And then they give it to you again on day three and four and five.

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And you're like, what's gonna happen to me? Right? And then if you start to think like, am I gonna have to eat rice and beans forever?

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And then you realize, nope, not forever. I have a plane ticket and I'm going

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back home next week, right? So there's no reason to panic about the problems. The whole,

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all this stuff is temporary. So you don't panic about the local problems because you know you're going home.

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And yet at the same time, you do not disregard the local problems.

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You don't look at the people in the city around you and go, well,

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I don't care what happens here. None of you matter, right? I'm not from here. I don't care what happens to you. Of course not.

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You don't have that attitude because the reason you went there was to help, right?

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Okay, so you understand the idea. Now, this is what you do. You just broaden that out to all of life.

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All of life is like a mission trip. We are temporary residents here on this

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earth, and we don't need to panic about local problems because we're going home one day.

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However, in the meantime, we don't just sit around and like do nothing as if

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this place doesn't matter. No, we're here to help. We're here to do good among the Gentiles and point them to God. Amen?

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So this idea, I believe, can, like once you understand it, it can apply to multiple topics.

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Take the issue of poverty. Here we are in a world where poverty exists. What are we supposed to do as Christians?

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We as Christians are to help people who have fallen on hard times.

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That's part of our our job. That's what God's told us to do.

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Like we as believers in Jesus Christ are to care for the poor,

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but we also acknowledge this earth will not be as it should be until after Jesus returns.

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Like we will not fix the problem of poverty and greed and, you know,

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addiction and laziness and whatever, everything that's all connected.

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We will not like eradicate all those things before Jesus returns. I don't think so.

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But in the meantime, we are called to care for the poor.

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Or take the issue of evangelism. We are to tell people the gospel. We tell people the good news of Jesus Christ

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so that they can know God. We tell people the good news of Jesus Christ because believing in Jesus Christ

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or not, the difference there is huge when it comes to where you spend all of eternity.

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So we tell people the gospel so that they become followers of God.

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But we acknowledge this world is not gonna be filled 100% with all followers of God at this time.

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But when Jesus returns, that mission will be over.

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Or let's take the issue of politics. Maybe I should address it since this is

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an election year and a lot of

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people's emotions about this topic are like heightened around this time.

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So when it comes to politics, what do we do? I would say this,

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as Christians, of course, there are many of us who vote for candidates that

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we believe will govern best. Whether it's governing a nation or governing a state or somebody for like Marion

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County Commission, right? We are gonna vote for people that we believe will govern best in that area,

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that will do the best for our city or that will do the best for our nation.

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Or maybe it's not about voting. Maybe we lobby to try to end an unjust law or

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to repeal an unjust law or to remove an unjust judge from a particular courtroom.

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Like we do these things to make our world a better place.

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But get this, at the same time, we do not put our hope in government.

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We acknowledge that the kingdom will not be here in its fullness until King Jesus shows up himself.

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This applies to marriage. I was thinking about it this week.

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A lot of times, you know, like people are in a marriage, and I guess it feels

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like it's going to last forever, okay? But it actually doesn't. I don't know if you know this. Marriage isn't forever, right?

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There are a lot of us that you're dealing with some sort of issue,

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and you go, in fact, I think love songs are part of the problem.

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There are a lot of... I'm not against all love songs.

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I'm just saying Christian love songs and non-Christian love songs,

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one thing they have in common, if you listen to them, you'll notice,

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there's a lot of this talk of we're gonna be together forever. Have you noticed that?

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That's not true. Just so you know, marriage is just for a lifetime, not forever, right?

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Just for your life. Like ideally, an ideal marriage lasts your lifetime, but not forever.

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Jesus said at the resurrection, they're not gonna be married and be given in

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marriage, right? So a lot of times, oh, we're gonna be together forever.

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No, forever hasn't even begun yet. Just this little life. That's all. And if you're here and you're single and

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you're going, well, I always talk about married people stuff. Why don't you say something that matters to me?

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All this applies to other family members. So it could be your spouse,

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but it also could be, let's say you have a problem with your father or your

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mother or your son or your daughter or your brother or your sister.

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And you're sitting there going like, oh, this is so frustrating.

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And it's never going to go away. I'm going to be related to them forever.

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I'm telling you, whatever problem it is, do what God has called you to do in

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the meantime. In the meantime, in your marriage, or the way that you deal with

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your dad, or the way that you deal with your daughter, or the way you deal with

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your brother, do what God has called you to do for now, realizing forever hasn't

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even begun yet. This problem that you're going, what am I going to do?

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I'm telling you, this problem will not last forever.

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Or some of you have a sickness, or a disease, or a disability.

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I mean, there's no cure for it. And you're going, I'm going to have to deal with this forever.

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You will not. If you know Jesus, you will not deal with it forever.

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Forever hasn't even begun yet. We are temporary residents doing the best we can with the time we have looking

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forward to the day when Christ comes back and makes all things new.

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So, all I know is I'm not home yet. This is not where I belong.

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Take this world and give me Jesus. This is not where I belong. Amen to that.

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And build your kingdom here. Let the darkness fear, show your mighty hand,

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heal our streets and land, set your church on fire, win this nation back,

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change the atmosphere, build your kingdom here, we pray.

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Amen to that too. Let's pray.

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God, I thank you so much for this truth. It is incredible how many helpful things

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you crammed into this book, so that we would know how to act even as temporary residents.

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And so I pray that we would live for you. And I pray specifically for us in

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this congregation, I would imagine there probably are some people who lean more

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toward the kind of escapist mentality. Well, I'll just get through this time until Jesus comes back.

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I'll just be happy to be out of here. I'll just survive until then.

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And I pray for those of us that lean that way. You would help us to live honorably

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among the Gentiles in the meantime. You would help us to point people to you in the meantime. That you'd help us,

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to be citizens of heaven while here on earth, doing what you want us to do here in the meantime.

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And I pray for those of us who are activist kind of people, who go,

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well, I'm going to revolutionize things, and I'm going to change things,

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and I'm going to make things better. And that's good. I pray that you would use that good thing that you put in us.

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But I pray especially for people who lean toward, like, well,

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I'll fix all the problems. I'll just figure out how to fix it all. I pray that you would help us to be

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people who depend on you and realize this world will not be as it should be

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until you show up and make it so. And so we trust you in the meantime.

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Thank you, Jesus, for the hope, the enduring city to come.

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And thank you for whatever you have for us in the meantime. I pray you'd help

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us to be faithful in it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.