This sermon emphasizes the importance of the gospel permeating every area of our lives, including political engagement. It highlights the need for the church to address critical issues like abortion, gay marriage, and leadership direction, urging believers to seek God's wisdom and discernment in all aspects of life. The message stresses the significance of humility, boldness, and genuine worship as essential components of a faithful Christian life.

I'm not political very often, and I'm not going to make it a message about politics per se, it's the primary focus is obviously gospel. But what cracks me up about this topic is the gospel permeates every area of our lives. So to remove things like abortion, gay marriage, the direction of our nation, all these things to say, Oh, no, those things don't matter. We just need to talk about the gospel. Yeah, the gospel is our primary focus. But when the gospel changes a heart like it did in Chuck Colson, he'll go to the prisons like it does with James Dobson, he'll go to Washington like it does with all these other people. When the gospel changes the heart, you want it to permeate all areas of our culture. So be very careful when they they say the church shouldn't talk about any of these things. Actually, for hundreds of years, they would tell you what the candidates stood for. And they would encourage people to go and vote. There's the pulpit should be saying here's what Hillary stands for. Here's what Trump stands for not going to tell you what to do. But you got to know the issues. And it's important sometimes for the church to be that voice of reasoning. You're not going to get fair and balanced from CNN, or Fox News. Everybody's got their little tiny motives, right? So let's look at what the Word of God says. And it either says this or it doesn't. Either this doesn't apply to us today, or it does. I'll let you be the judge of that. Proverbs 29 to when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked man rules, the people groan. Before I get to the message, it's a long introduction. But I want to get to a few points on this voting won't save America any more than a dumbbell will save someone drowning in the ocean. However, our leaders play an enormous role in shaping the direction of the nation. The leadership of this church will direct the direction of the church, will it not? The leadership in the family will direct the health of the family. Same thing comes along these lines. When we put people in positions of authority, they will direct the nation. Here's where it gets interesting. A lot of people don't understand. They say, well, you know, they just submitted to authority. Paul was submitted to Rome, or submitted to Caesar, submitted to Nero, all these things in the context of Romans 13, that we are to be submitted to the government. That's true. But then 300 years ago, people fleeing 400 years ago, 1620 or so, pilgrims, Puritans fleeing religious persecution, Europe to Holland, and then to America said, we want to be that city upon the hill. Look at the Mayflower Compact. It says, to the glory of God and to the advancement of the Christian faith. Perfectly? No, not perfectly. Nothing was perfectly. And what happened is they wanted God to be recognized. So we get our three branches of government, executive, judicial, and the other branch of government from the Word of God, that God will be your, I will be your judge, I will be your lawgiver, and I will be your king. They put people in positions of authority that were voted in by the people to vote on biblical principles. As a matter of fact, if something was proposed for the Constitution, they had to make sure that they had biblical support for it. Oh my God, how far have we drifted? Now it's the opposite. So we have, we see this nation that says, we want to honor you, God. And I know many of you are saying, what about slavery? Yeah, it's a terrible mark on our nation's history. And if I haven't already offended you, are you aware that the Democratic Party was for slavery? You can go back to Thomas Jefferson in the 1700s when it was started, the 1800s. So don't get caught up on parties, get caught up on principles. One of the Democrats was ahead of the KKK in the 1950s. Come on folks, let's get real. Stop party, party, party. Yes, America has some tattered history just like all of us do. And it's flawed because the people are flawed. James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States said, now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it's because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. So the next time we want to complain, we better look in the mirror because half of eligible Christian voters don't even vote, half. If they would just vote, that would change the landscape of our nation. And people say, well Shane, Christians, when have we ever came up with the notion that we just need to sit by and be passive? God says, here's a nation that wants to honor me. You put people in positions of leadership, church and people, you put them there, you let them govern, you put Supreme Court justices who love my law. Actually, the Supreme Court and all the judicial systems used to use William Blackstone's commentaries on the laws of England. When it gave a law, it gave the biblical reference. So God said, here, here you're going to put people in positions of leadership. So I just, it kind of irks me when people say, oh we don't need to be involved, we don't need to be involved. Why? God has given us this gift for now. Go move to China, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Iraq. It's a gift, it's a gift from God. People say, well Shane, it doesn't even matter. Well yeah, if 20 million people say it doesn't matter, then absolutely it won't matter. And then obviously people come up, well Shane, there's a one world government, there's Illuminati, there's conspiracy theories, all that. I don't care, I just know what the Word of God says. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked man rules, the people groan. Here's another lie. The church should never seek persecution. It comes, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, but you will never see a biblical text saying, go out and upset people and get persecuted. Get your head cut, your head cut off. Go do it. Jesus actually left when he was getting persecuted. My time's not yet, I'm going through the crowd and getting out of here. Right? But we have this concept, yeah, and people say Shane, bring persecution on brother, that'll purify the church. Not necessarily. Let me read from the underground church in China. I emailed a friend of mine who works with them, and he said this. Again, he oversees the underground church. For 25 years, especially when I travel in America, I have been told if we just had persecution here, we would be like the church in China. That's nonsense, and scripturally and experientially even more so not true. It shows an idol has been created of what people think the church is like in China. Christians in China would love freedom that you enjoy. And that's, bring the persecution brother. The church should be persecuted. Really, you want to see your little girl raped and your other son beheaded? I mean, let's think about where these could go. Shane, that's getting drastic. No, it's not. No, it's not. Do you ever heard of somebody named Hitler? I mean, you get the wrong people in positions of authority and leadership. This is what, but Shane, it's God's sovereignty. Yeah, but he says, do business till I return. Seek my face. If my people, what do you do with that scripture? If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and I will turn from the wickedness that I would turn from the disaster that I was going to call upon that land. Here's a shocking poll I was not going to share, but I decided to share it last night. It's in Christianity Today in August. According to new research, the Pew Research Survey, one percent of churchgoers said their pastor has spoken positively of Trump compared to six percent who have heard praise for Hillary. Trump received more criticism at seven percent than Hillary did at four percent. Now, I have a few opinions on this that I probably won't share, but I think that liberal churches are more vocal and conservative churches are just, no, let's not upset things. And I'm not going to be here and be Trump-supporting in none of these. My point is to give you the facts and let you decide. If the truth be told, we need a God-fearing man in that position of leadership, and we don't have it. So you have to check. So here, I'm just going to get brutally honest. Do you want Manasseh or do you want Hezekiah? Do you want Ahab or do you want Josiah? That's what it boils down to. People say, oh, the lesser two evils, I'm just not going to vote. That's ridiculous. That is absurd. And now you can hold to that, write your blogs, criticize on Facebook, do whatever you want. But our nation has become so arrogant now, so arrogant and drifting from God. I mean, these guys that don't stand for national anthem, that's a whole other sermon. I mean, you're not acknowledging I love America, you're acknowledging that you get to make a million dollars per game because somebody died and gave their lives for the freedom you now enjoy. That's just common sense. I told you I was ready this morning. And I don't say that. I'm not angry. I'm sad. I went and watched, I don't even watch football, but I watched the Broncos with Shaley, who's in a wheelchair at our other campus. She asked me five months ago if I'd watch her first game, and I did. And to see that guy just sitting there and not standing, you have the audacity. You make more in a season than most of us will make in our entire year because, because of that national anthem. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not focused on American pride, but I am a proud American. See, here's the difference. American pride is redneck country, Hank Williams Jr., right? And just own your guns and do whatever you want. You're prideful and you're arrogant. But a proud American says, God, thank you. Thank you that my kids can live in this freedom. God, thank you. God, thank you for what you did. God, this is your blessing. You've created America to be the number one distributor to missionaries all over the world. God, thank you. But then you have the other side, the number one distributor of pornography in the world. So you wonder, the heart breaks. So anytime people, here's why they say the church shouldn't be political. You shouldn't encourage people to vote. You shouldn't talk about Hillary or Trump or any of those things. They want the church to be quiet so they don't upset and they don't influence, silence the messenger. That's what Hitler began to do. You know that, right? First, he went after the socialists. And one pastor says, I didn't say anything because I wasn't a socialist. Then he went after the Catholics. I didn't say anything because I wasn't a Catholic. Then he went after the Jews. I didn't say anything because I was a Jew. And then they went after the Christians. And he was shot. Because there's a time to speak the truth. Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, I trust him. But the church should be on their face before God. One of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17, actually, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was probably the 1600s. I didn't write down the days, and name was Winthrop, I believe. He said, we shall be a city on a hill, the eyes of all people are on us. So that if we deal falsely with our God, in this work we have undertaken, so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through all the world. America was feared 100 years ago because they feared God. Now it's a laughingstock. Russia can just go do whatever they want. And nobody's going to do, they know it. They know we have cowered down behind political correctness. And it's something has to be done. If you don't know who Manasseh is, let me give you a brief history lesson, 2 Kings. Therefore, says the Lord God of Israel, behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem, like the measuring line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Aab. And I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down, because of Manasseh. And then you have Hezekiah, godly king, but turns his back on God. There's Ahab. Ahab, there was never anyone like Ahab, who said, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel, his wife. And then you have Josiah, a good king, who says, oh my Lord, what are we doing? Wreck all these pagan shrines and put God at the center. And you see God judging the nation accordingly. And actually people, there's well-known speakers, if I mention them, you probably tell me, they've emailed me, and they say, Shane, that doesn't apply to us. That was Israel, America is a whole different thing. Well, maybe. I don't want to take that chance, though. When the wicked are in, when the wicked man rules, the people groan, blessed is that nation whose God is, whose the Lord is their God. I read somewhere in Psalms, putting God first always has benefits. Always has benefits. But you do see God judging a nation based on where the leadership takes the people. And we see that here, too. A few things, this was part of the sermon last night, but it might be too long. John Calvin and many Christian leaders who came before him and after all agree that wicked leadership is often the judgment of God on his people. So often God will raise up wicked leadership to judge the people. And so I often think of that scripture that in the last days, people will turn to teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. See, it isn't necessarily the teachers are heretical, although they are, they are exactly what the people are looking for. It's a judgment on the people. The people want, tell us what we want to hear. So God raises up people who would tell them what they want to hear according to their own desires. So we have to be careful that wicked, we might say, well, that's God's will. That's God's will. Well, it could be a judgment on a nation that is backslidden. From Jim Garlow in his article, If You're on the Fence About Who to Vote For. Let me just throw a few things out there because it is coming up. And if you don't like what I'm saying, then you can plan a church and talk about whatever you want. But look at the platform on which the candidate will stand. You have to look at the platform. Again, I'm not going to tell you where I'm at, Republican, independent, nothing, nothing. I'm just, I'm because I'm not about sides. I'm about God. I'm about these because people get caught up. Did you know that the Democratic Party supported slavery? How many people even knew that? Okay, good. It wasn't just me. How many know that Republicans have not done a lot for abortion and pushed? So we have, so that's why you can't get caught up in parties. You have to get caught up on principles. But you have to look at what the platform the person stands on. For example, Hillary's platform. You can go on, I mean, the Democratic Party tried to remove God from their platform in 2012. Let's just remove all mention of God. What are you thinking? See, out of the mouth, the abundance of the heart will speak. You just have to look at what a person, what's a platform? What's his platform? Study those platforms and see where do you line up. And like us, both candidates are flawed. But I'd rather deal with a person who is critical or hard than a deceiving and manipulating person hell-bent on destroying the nation and the church. Now here's where it gets interesting. I shared that before. Here's where you have to be very careful. Just so you know, I trust in God. Worry shouldn't be in our vocabulary. Honestly, we trust in his sovereignty. But we have to, we have a civic responsibility. Do you realize, hopefully most believers are here, you have dual citizenship. Where? Canada? Mexico? No. God's kingdom and our kingdom here. You have dual citizenship. You have a responsibility to both. So do I. Saying I'm not going to get involved is not the right answer. You're already involved. You realize a vote, a no vote is a vote for somebody else? All these people mad at Trump. I'm just not going to vote. Well, you just put Hillary in office. Bottom line. Or vice versa. Let me say that so nobody gets upset. So, but these rabbit trails get me sidetracked. The Supreme Court is crucial. Now, what has happened, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court is not supposed to be a law-making body. They're supposed to be a protector of the Constitution. So the whole point of a checks and balance system, you have the executive branch of government being in the checks and balance system of the Senate. And then you have the judicial system being the checks and balance, making sure the laws that are passed are constitutional. So all these work as a triune lawgiver as God would. Judge, king, lawgiver, and checks and balance. Now that has turned to where they're actually changing the Constitution and making laws. When five people in robes can go and vote that same-sex marriage should be legal, there's nothing wrong with it, that is very scary. They just made that law that's been in existence for thousands of years. If you look at human history, and when, so who's going to put who in office? I'll tell you right, this person, Hillary, is hell-bent on destroying anything that has to do with religious freedom. They're going to shut my mouth just as soon as they can. I will not be surprised if at some point they will give lethal injections to people speaking the truth and will not listen. Oh gosh, you're getting out there again. Nazi Germany, same thing, same thing, this can happen. I'm not getting, you know, out there. I'm telling you that certain people have different platforms that will severely affect the direction of our nation, from abortion to gay marriage to religious freedom. And this whole, while we're on it, let's get a little more offensive, this whole issue on borders, Hillary, globalism, everybody should be one, Trump, borders. Well biblically there's nothing wrong with having a sovereign nation that has borders. We love people that need help, we want to help them, but we also love people within our borders so we don't hurt them. You don't just let everybody in and tax the system on Medicare and all these and Obamacare and free this and free everything. Just come on and free everything. Nothing can support that. That's foolish. Well Shane, that's not kind and compassionate. Well, it's not the other way. Kind and compassionate, let's make people have the ability to come into our nation and love them and help them in the crisis. Build a refuge camp in Syria. There's ways to do this where you're not bringing in things that could potentially hurt the nation or those who live here. However, there are people who desperately want to come here, families, kids. For Mexico, you see, how can we make that easier? How can we have a heart of compassion with, at the same time, not overtipping everything else? So there's a balance. I don't have all the answers. I have no clue, but I know that there's nothing wrong with borders, as God outlines them. They're sovereign nations for that very reason. There's laws to follow. And so these issues are not things that the church should necessarily be divided on. What type of counsel is surrounding the candidate? Trump, surrounding himself, hopefully, by Christian pastors who, hopefully, and again, these are just facts. So if you get upset, you're upset the facts. But he's surrounding himself, supposedly, with Christian pastors. One of them is a friend I know. He was on a phone call with 15 other pastors in the United States on a conference call and talked about wanting advice, wanting religious freedom, and how to protect the church. And the reason the church can't talk about this is about 50 years ago, President Johnson was upset that 501c3s were speaking out against him. So they passed a law that 501c3s can no longer support a presidential candidate or any type of candidate. That's why the church is silent. You go back and you read Spurgeon's sermons, find out how many preach against slavery. Billy Sunday on the prohibition. The pulpit used to preach on political issues because they're hot-button important issues. Tell the baby whose little leg is being pulled out of the womb, we can't talk about that at the church. We'll go feed the poor, and we'll go minister on Beach Avenue. We'll go paint some houses, but I can't talk about that. How ridiculous is this? The problem is we've lost the heart of God, and we want what's comfortable. We want what's easy. So when the wicked man rules, I'll just share three things. When the wicked man rules, they separate the sacred and the secular. What you'll see when the wicked come into positions of authority, they separate the secular and the sacred. Have you ever heard statements like this? My faith is private. My faith is private. So you'll hear, and I'll just, again, facts. You'll hear John Kerry, Trump, all these, or I don't know about him, I haven't heard of him. Hillary, different. Oh my faith, my faith is a private thing. It shouldn't be a private thing. It infiltrates every area of life. Your faith, you actually, you don't, you don't separate the secular and the sacred. They come together and you allow God to govern. But you'll see they'll separate that, and the whole point of separating is to silence. Because once I can separate it, I can silence it. That's why they do that. Second Kings 17. So they feared the Lord, this is us for sure today, and from every class they appointed for themselves priests of high places who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. They feared the Lord, yet they served their own gods according to the rituals of the nations from among who they were carried away. So they feared God, and you'll see throughout the Old Testament that when wicked leaders, when they come in, people are like wicked, that's a strong word. What all wicked means, even the balcony, you can listen on this one. Wicked just means anything that opposes the nature or will of God. So the wicked is a very, we think of witches, and warlocks, and wicked, and went dark, and oh my goodness. No, wicked, if you're going against God, you're going against God, that is wicked leadership. It's pulling the people away from God. The sacred and the secular were interwoven when this country was built. If a proposed article for the constitution was not supported by or rooted in the Bible, it was not considered. In their early writings, many of the founding fathers quoted or referenced the Bible nearly four times more than any other source. The sacred and the secular were interwoven. So now you'll see that they'll start to separate those, and they'll actually silence that voice. The next thing they do is they seduce the people. Wicked leadership will seduce the people. What does seduction mean? It means to attract or to entice. Wicked leadership seduces the people. Let me read a scripture on that. Oh, back to Manasseh. Kings 21, he did evil on the side of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations from the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. God removes all these wicked nations, brings in his people. His people go back to worshiping like the wicked nations used to worship. And actually the Bible, I don't know if it's in here, I read it last night, that he actually did worse than the nations that were there before. Manasseh did worse, for he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah's father had destroyed. He raised up altars for Baal, and he had wooden images as Ahab king of Israel had done, and he worshiped all the hosts of heaven, and he seduced the people. Manasseh seduced. It's interesting, leadership, whether we like it or not, does affect the people. If you see President Obama at a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender rally, and always supporting that, that is going to influence the people, correct? Whether if you see him looking to the Word of God, it's going to draw the people back to that. Somehow, someway God has allowed leadership. Now you can go against that. You can say, no, that's not for me. You can do whatever you want, but there is a seduction there, and it's subtle, and you have to be careful. Here's what seduction looks like. So can we go lock it up in the safe that I don't have a combination for? No. What will we do with the Jolly Ranchers? And that's what they do. There's a seduction. They're drawing the people away. Instead of this being on the other side, you'll draw the people to one or the other, but that looks so good and tastes so good. I don't care about the corn syrup or the red dye 40 or the yellow six or the blue one or all that junk that's going to kill my body. I don't care. I'm seduced by it. So wicked leaders will seduce the people because many people are on the fence with things and wherever they want to go. Now I probably should clarify this. It's not in the notes, and I clarified it last night, and I'm being prompted to maybe clarify it again. We have to get to a spot to where the church, and I can truly say this, that my Christian heart and what God's doing in my heart forces me, I guess might not be a good word, but it compels me because the Holy Spirit's working, is to love our president Obama and Michelle and their kids and to pray for them. Talk about somebody who I disagree on every single point, and I cannot get excited about what he's done. I think he's probably the worst president that our nation has ever had. I have no apologies in saying that, but I can look at them with Christian love and say they need the Lord. Let's pray for them just like everybody else, and I was personally happy that our nation could get beyond racism and put an African-American in office. I wish they would ask me. I would chose Ben Carson or somebody along those lines who fears God and loves God, but that's what happened. So it's not the church has to love. Hey listen, I love you. I pray for you guys, but you are so diametrically opposed to the Word of God. To use scripture to support gay marriage is blasphemy. And people say, well he's a good, no he's not. Any president that takes people away from God is not a good president at all. Some president Shane owned slaves. They absolutely did, and we repent of that, and we acknowledge that, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If I hear somebody use that argument again, I'm gonna have to do a whole sermon on that too. I've said many times before, we acknowledge that the nation is not perfect, but let me remind you it's not the nation, it's the people. Do you understand that the concept of government is, well this might offend you, God ordained God ordained the government. I ran to somebody, I'm not gonna say color, skin, not gonna say anything, not gonna say age, but he's like, man the police this, the police that. I'm like, so you want to just get rid of the police? Really? Just, yeah man listen, you have any, you have any clue. You'll be locked in your house every day. I mean, so we get, put a check on it, because you need, for example, okay there's maybe, I don't know any racist law enforcement people. I personally, I don't know any. They love what they do. They're serving the people. Is there some? Of course there's some, but you don't throw out the whole basket of apples because of the one. So these things, so the church needs to speak up, say no, no, that's not true, that's not true. Did you know boldness is actually a fruit of the Holy Spirit? Those who are not bold are not filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't give you some wimpy, don't say anything, don't offend anything. It's time to offend. It's time to wake up. It's time to alarm. Jesus, Jesus was called. You know what Jesus was called? A glutton, and a drunkard, and a friend of sinners, John the Baptist, demon possessed. Who cares? Call me whatever you will. They just told me I was delusional and out of my mind in the All Valley Press last week, because I believe in God. So who's delusional? I mean, come on. This is, but the church should be bold with love. Boldness, you will always see. That's why I'm excited. I almost want to play, I never play movie clips, but you know Elf, when he sees Santa Claus, and like, Santa, Santa. That's what I want to say about the book of Acts. Finally, let's get to what the church could be. Let's get on our faces before God and pray and fast and watch him move. It's what the church could be. It's what the church should be, and you'll read throughout the book of Acts, and with all boldness, they went and proclaimed the truth. Paul would come in front of different leaders, and he'd say, you're missing God. You're missing God. Leaders, you think he was cowering down? It's boldness. It's a byproduct of the Holy Spirit. Actually, sometimes I don't like it. I don't want to be bold sometimes. Like, God, just, man, but it compels you. It's like the love of Christ and the love of, it's like, I can relate to Jeremiah, right? His word is in my heart like a burning fire. I can't shut up. Isaiah, you people, you stiff-necked people, turn back to God. How do you guys think they were preaching? Like Joelstein? Is that what, how you think they were coming across? No, they weren't coming across. The fire of their belly was coming forth and drawing the people back to God. You will never see a nation or church waking up without boldness, ever, ever, and I'm so glad you've had, hopefully you won't mind me saying this, but she asked me to speak 10 minutes at Grace Fest in the evening on boldness, and I'm looking forward to that. But it has to, folks, it has to come from humility, because boldness without humility is anger. That's the difference. There should be, there should be tears. Many times, you don't know, but it's hard for me to fight tears when preaching, because you feel the love of God, but you also feel the judgment of God. You feel the loving father wanting to hold his child, but the other father says, you'd better turn, because my fury, my rage, my judgment on nation has to, and you see this, you go back and forth. It was said of D.L. Moody that he wouldn't even preach without tears, or George Whitefield, or these people, that love has to be there, or else the boldness is arrogance, and we don't want that. That's been the problem with the church for many years on this issue of politics. You either have angry men in the pulpits yelling, and you, gay people, homosexuality, and this, and this, and there's no love. You have to have the love. There's actually a kid, 18 years old, he's been to church a few times, struggles with same-sex attraction. He's living with his boyfriend. He called me, I think it was last month. We talked on the phone for a while, and he thinks he's seeing demonic things, and demons, and can I pray for you, and here's what you need to do, you need to repent, and then click, phone's off. I don't know how that happened, I don't know, but so we reach out, and the reason I'm telling you that is because it's not about anger, it's about love, but it's also boldness. Where do we get this notion that, I went to a pastor's meeting in the Antelope Valley recently, and they said, normally I don't talk about politics, or abortion, or gaming, or any of those things, because it might hurt, it might upset some people, so be careful. They will seduce the people. He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord has said in Jerusalem, I will put my name, and he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in two courts at the house of God. If you don't know the Old Testament much, and you're like, oh what does that mean? It means he basically brought in blasphemous things into the church, and just worshiped the hosts of heaven in this church, and altered a Buddha here, and altered a bell here, and altered this, and all these things, and they just worshiped the hosts of heaven in God's house, and that's one of my concerns with this agenda, the transgender and gay marriage, and although I love the person struggling, I don't like the agenda, because the agenda, they're wanting to lower the age of sexual consent to 12. Anybody aware of that? I mean these folks, wake up America, get off ESPN, get off Facebook, and get your face buried in the Word of God, and be filled with the Spirit. The evil, evil is coming in, and the last time I read the Bible, it said expose the unfruitful works of darkness. That's what you do when you're filled with God's Spirit, you want to expose these things, because I love the 12 year old. I love him so much, I don't want that to happen. I love people struggling, I don't want that. I want you to turn from that, but what they were doing then parallels today, when an openly homosexual person can come up with the big robe, and read the Word of God, and be in blatant sin, that's blasphemy. It'd be like me saying, hey I'm cheating on Morgan tonight, and I don't care, I cheated on her last week, and let's open the Word of God. Who's going to be here? Oh nobody's here, left, oh. Or I say, hey I'm a liar, I just milked all of you guys, all the church money here is in my account. I'm a liar, I'm a thief, I hate the Word of God, but let's open up the Bible. So how is that any different when we allow these things into church, that God says please don't allow into my house. Don't allow, so they will seduce the people to do what is evil. It's seduction. Manasseh also allowed the profane into the temple. He made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. That's my concern would say somebody like Hillary, where are they getting their counsel from? From atheists, agnostics, God haters, they're giving counsel. Where's Trump getting his counsel from? I hope somebody, so you look at where that counsel is coming from. Who is, because the funny thing is when I was young I didn't even care. You have your first child, you're going to be very aware, very aware of what affects because God has put in us, I want the best for my children. I want them to be ready for persecution but not face it. Who in the world, that's not healthy to want bad things for our family. If good, if us being evil know how to give good gifts, doesn't God know how to, see we want to give those good gifts. Also he made his son pass through the fire. Molech, picture Buddha up here, really high, he's got his arms held out, there's a big hole in the back of this Molech steel metal thing that the people come and they worship, and they beat drums, and they put tons of wood in that statue, metal statue, and it gets so hot that it actually turns red. It glows and the arms glow, and they would take that infant, and they would put that infant on the arms of Molech and not hear that infant scream because of the drums beating. Folks wake up, this is Old Testament truth alive in our nation today. I just saw on Facebook there, yeah I do go on there sometimes, but I don't even know if I should say it, it's just, they're trying to outlaw different things. I'm like okay, they're trying to outlaw how, how did it become a law where you can dismember a child, you pull off the leg first, and then you can grab this other area, and you begin to throw that baby in the trash can. So Shane, why do you talk about this? Because I have a problem with it, and so should you. But Shane, I've had an abortion, you're making me feel condemned. No, take it to the cross. I can relate, that happened to me too, 23, 24 years ago. Take it to the cross, but just because it affects us doesn't mean we remain silent. See there's one thing to love the person who's had the abortion, tell them here's hope, here's hope in Christ, he will set you free, but we can't undo what we've done. We can't undo the damage we've done, that's why God says don't do it. So on one hand I love the person who's done it, but on the other hand I rebuke a bit, an arrogant and rebellious nation, an arrogant Senate and Congress who have the audacity to say they can end life. Who, did they create it? No they didn't. Life begins when God creates life. That's a huge issues, that's why this just, and that's why I pray God please keep me within the parameters. But people, let's say a democratic side, yeah abortion, but this side will help the poor. Okay, when did everything become a priority? You see you have to remember if everything a priority, is everything a priority, nothing is. So for example, removing or a saline abortion, where they inject saline solution in the sack of the baby there, and the baby's violently dying, and they, oh don't worry, it's just contractions. Now that is comparable to paving the road, or more stamps for food, and more this, and I just have a huge wake-up call for you, if you're already haven't woken up, to say this side cares more about the poor, is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. Look at giving records. I'm not fighting for sides, I'm just giving you facts. Look at giving records. The reason they want to reach out to the poor, is they want more votes. It's all manipulated, it's all ulterior motives. Some of the only people are going to truly care for the poor, here we go again, the church. The government is ordained by God to administer justice, to defend the people. It's not designed, it wasn't designed to help in all these other areas, and become humanitarian. That's the goal of the church. Now the goal of the church can't be met, because we don't give like we should. So the church can't do what it's doing, so now we say the government ought to do what we ought to be doing, and that's not possible. That is impossible. Many times too, here's my beef, I'm airing everything out. I'm all for helping the poor. Just did it last week, going to continue to do it, but we are enabling also. If somebody knows, I don't have to work for the rest of my life. No, you're 25, and you need to work. I'll never forget, I'll never forget, I was in construction, I think it was 2001, we're laying 24-inch heavy pipeline in the city of Palmdale. Very hard job, a guy was sitting out front in his garage smoking marijuana. He's about 22. We said, hey we're out of labor, it's 20 bucks an hour, you can start tomorrow. No man, no, I don't need to work. You know, he's just like had this whole, I'm like, what is wrong? Why doesn't he need to work? Because the government is feeding that. So we take, yeah, there's some good things. We need to help those who need help, right? We need to help those who are disabled. We need, that's the whole point, help them, but that's about 5%, not 50, not 50% of the nation. So we got to get back to hard work. If you don't work, you don't eat. That's biblical. So on one hand, we can help. See, on one hand, we should help the poor, but you also don't want to enable. You want to say, how can I help you get out of that? How can we come along? So see, it's the whole system is just flawed all across the board. So it cracks me up when they say, yeah, abortion, that's really not right, but we've got to help the poor more. Okay, how do you help the poor more? You create more jobs. You create a way that they can work with the church. You should come more involved. You should also have a system in place where you check to make sure they're not mooching. Can I use that from the pulpit? Listen, these are all facts. This is just facts that the majority of the people who take government assistance don't need it. Now, those that need it, I'm all for it. There's people with kids with disabilities. What's it there for? Of course, that's how it's supposed to work, but the other 90% of the people ruin it and put us all into an economic disaster. I hope you realize that, right? The house market's great. The stock's great. Okay, that's a straw. They say a straw man argument for the economy is healthy, but it's not. Verse 9, they paid no attention and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than all the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the final point, pride is an asset and humility is a liability. Pride is an asset. When you see wicked leaders rise up, you'll realize that pride is an asset and humility is a liability. And people will no doubt say, well, Shane, Trump is very prideful. Absolutely. I hope he's getting that iron sharpened. I hope he's getting chiseled away. I hope he's working on it. But to say Hillary is humble, well, let's just be honest this morning. If we can't be honest here, where would we be honest at? Both need humility. Both need humility. When the wicked person rules, they will put pride at the forefront. Pride in everything. They'll never admit that they've done anything wrong. Email me one thing that President Obama has apologized for. It's just, it's not there. Or Bush, or Carter, or Reagan, whoever you want. Is there apologetic nature? Because that's humility. Hosea 5, the pride of Israel testified to his face. Therefore, Israel will stumble in their iniquity and Judah will stumble with them. God has withdrawn himself from them. They have dealt treacherously with the Lord. So America has become prideful, arrogant, and haughty. The wicked freely parade and prance about while evil is praised throughout the land. Psalm 12, 8. So I won't leave you on that. Here's what we need to do. The most important part is the application. The cure for wicked leaders. I hate, now I'm gonna have to break the, I gotta move this because this is seducing. Especially when you're hungry, right? The cure for wicked leadership is us, folks. God never, he would call the kings to repent, but if my people, it was written in a time, we've talked about that verse but many times we don't get the context. Solomon was the king and God says, when I bring devastation, when I bring disaster, when I bring pestilence, when I bring famine because of you rebelling against me, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, then I will heal their land and turn from their wicked ways. So it's if, it's because, and when. If my people do this, and God would often say, because you did this, I will bless you, I will restore, and when you do this, when you seek me, you will find me. So see, we're all worried about what's going to happen. We're in worry mode when we should be in worship mode. That's a good Twitter feed. We are in worry, aren't we? We're worrying, we're worrying, we should be in worship mode. God moves on behalf of his people and many times we feel insignificant. We can't do anything. Isn't that, that's why I don't do much sometimes, or we can't do anything. Oh, you plus God is a majority. You plus God with the majority. With God on your heart. What do you think Dobson said when he was starting out his ministry? Focus on the family. 100, 100, 30, 30, 40 years ago, I can't do anything. What does he raise his voice? Tony Perkins and all these ministries that God and people that God would give a platform to once they surrender to his will. So even though we're insignificant, and not everybody's going to agree on this. I have a heart for abortion and gay marriage and things like that. Others have a heart for the sex slave trade and getting young girls caught up in this. And I hate that. We want to bless those people. So we all come together to come against these things. And we pray and we worship, but don't feel insignificant. Because here's what, here's what happens. Here's the, let me drop this bomb. When we think we can't do anything, we don't do anything. That's how the enemy works. You can't do anything, it won't even matter. He tried to dissuade me so many times from preaching in the same way. So it doesn't matter, I'm not going to go vote. I'll be honest with you, I haven't voted in all elections. You know, primary, primary presidential, but probably not local, you know, just doesn't even matter. Doesn't even matter. And feeling insignificant. Now voting is just one portion. That's like, okay, over here. The main goal is to get the church on fire for God and focused on God and saying, Lord, I am insignificant, but you're not. And I'm going to give my life to you. And I'm going to do whatever you need me to do. That's the second point I feel like sharing. Failure to listen when God speaks is what has been our problem. God is speaking loudly and clearly. But many of us are failing to listen, failing to respond. Shane, how was he speaking loudly and clearly? And what do you think I've been doing for the last 30 minutes? Loudly and clearly. Is everything I said perfect? Nope. Nope. I'll be the first to tell you up here. Not everything I say up here is perfect. Doesn't even come close to this. So you filter it through the Word of God. Because human emotions get in there. Maybe I'm a little too passionate. Maybe I'm a little too upset at certain things. And those are interwoven in all of this. But it doesn't stop me from preaching. Because what God needs, the message underlying all of this is time for the church to repent and get back on track. But Shane, you keep saying this. I'll stop when we start doing it. All across, wherever I speak. I'm going to speak in October, but I'll be back for the service. I'm going to speak a Thursday night, a Friday morning, a Friday night, and then come back for Saturday and Sunday. And it's the same thing. They want me to speak on waking up the church. What's going on? And the scripture that keeps coming to mind is when Jesus said, they draw near to me with their mouth, but in vain they worship me. They'll come and sit through a sermon, but in vain they worship me. They'll come and look at songs on a PowerPoint, but in vain they worship me. This is why we do the bare minimum. Have you realized that? Many people just do the bare minimum. I did church. I guess I'll read a quick devotional for five minutes, and that's it. The bare minimum. But to experience God, He's got to be everything and all-consuming fire. Everything. But Shane, I got to work. Of course. But He's part of that. In vain they worship Him. All of us, all of our being has to be devoted to Him. Not perfectly, but a heart. And you know what I'm talking about. Everybody that is convicted in this area knows exactly what I'm talking about. We do the bare minimum. We go to church as if we think we're doing God a favor. Now I guess I got to go. And is really worship singing on these songs up here? Worship is in the heart. Worship is the heart crying out to God. I'm just going to read a quick lyric. I think a song they're going to do after communion. Just listen just to a few lines of this. It's called Clear the Stage. Take a break from all the plans that you've made and sit at home alone and wait for God to whisper. Beg Him please to open up His mouth and speak and pray for real upon your knees until they blister. Shine the light on every corner of your life until the pride and lust and lies are in the open. Then read the word and put to test the things you've heard until your heart and soul are stirred and rocked and broken. Because you can sing all you want to and still get it wrong because worship is more than a song. That line really stuck out. You can sing all you want to. You can sing all you want to and still get it wrong because worship is more than a song. The church has got to get back to that heartfelt worship. And one of the reasons I talk about this all the time is because it's eventually going to stick. Right? You reach five people last week. You've reached five last month. You reach five today. And it's worship. It's got to be a heart of worship.