Hey, guys, welcome to Relatable, so I want to give you guys the most recent update that I possibly can on what's going on, then we are going to move to a couple other pieces of news.

We're going to talk about a measure in Colorado that passed, one that we're waiting to pass and what it just means about the state of morality in this country. We're also going to talk about Pastor Carl Lentz from Hillsong NYC, something that has happened there. And I want to answer this question that so many of you have been asking me. Is it OK to say right now that God is in control? Obviously, we know that's true. But you've been hearing a lot of professing Christians, particularly those that identify as Christians on the left, say, no, no, no.

That's something called spiritual, bypassing. That is white privilege. You shouldn't be talking about God's sovereignty right now when people's lives are on the line, if Trump wins. So we're going to talk about the theology of pushing back on the statement that God is sovereign, what the Bible actually has to say about that. So let me give you the most recent numbers. Again, this is changing moment by moment. So by the time this comes out, it could be slightly different.

I got on Instagram yesterday and gave you the most updated update that I could. I'll do that again today if I have to. So as of right now, as I am recording, we are still waiting on the state of Georgia, forty nine point six percent for Trump, forty nine point two percent for Biden, with 99 percent reporting. Now, no matter what happens, even if Trump pulls this out, it is still too close for comfort in Georgia.

If Trump takes Georgia with that narrow of a margin, it is very likely, if they have to, that Team Biden will ask for a recount if it's looking like that could mean that Trump would win. And I'll talk about what actually has to happen for Trump to get to 270 electoral votes and take the presidency. So that's where we are in Georgia. I've been saying for a couple of weeks now that Georgia was going to turn blue and all these people rolled their eyes at me.

They said that's impossible. Well, even if it goes red, it's obviously very possible for Georgia to go blue.

So the feeling that I had when I was driving from North Georgia to the other side of Georgia that, hey, that's there's a lot of Biden signs in rural Georgia. This is really crazy. It was it was a correct feeling. It was a correct observation and a correct vibe. Georgia is turning into a purple state now. This may be it's just a fluke this election. Maybe it'll go back red. I hope so. I genuinely do. But obviously, there are some political changes going on in Georgia that we really need to pay attention to.

And we're still waiting on Pennsylvania right now. As I'm as I'm recording this, it's fifty point five percent for Trump, forty eight point four percent for Biden, with 87 percent reporting. The Trump team is optimistic about this, but because of the counties that are still reporting have yet to report, Team Biden is also optimistic about this, that this will end up going in the way of Biden. Arizona has already been called for Biden. It's been called for Biden for a couple of days.

It's fifty point five percent for Biden, forty eight point one percent for Trump, with 88 percent reporting Trump team. The even though Arizona has been called, is actually optimistic about Arizona. And there are outlets actually saying that, you know, the other outlets who have called Arizona need to retract their calling of Arizona. But again, the outlets who have already called it are doubling down and saying, look, there's just no way that Trump can pull this out in Arizona.

However, the Trump team is saying, yes, there is. Yes, there is. Yes, there is. So we'll see about that. It seems to me like Arizona is going to stay for Biden. Michigan has already been called for a Biden, fifty point six percent for Biden, forty seven point six percent for Trump, with 99 percent reporting. I've seen a lot of conservatives say, hey, why are they calling Michigan? If you look at the Michigan voting website, it shows that President Trump is ahead of Biden.

So why is there this discrepancy? But if you look more closely at the details on the Michigan site, what you'll see is that they don't have the most updated counts on their website. They are like a million behind. And so that's not really that is a discrepancy, but it's not necessarily an indication of dishonesty by the media. The website is just not quite updated yet, apparently. Now, while I'll get to the recounts in just a second, Wisconsin called for Biden, forty nine point six for Biden, forty eight point nine percent for Trump, with 99 percent reporting.

Nevada too close to call, with 75 percent reporting in North Carolina. Trump ahead with 94 percent reporting. But again, to. Close to call. So here's what Trump needs to win the presidency, he needs Nevada, he needs Georgia, he needs Pennsylvania, he needs North Carolina. So he needs all the states that are in question right now, even if he ends up officially losing Arizona, which a lot of people, of course, would say that he already has officially lost Arizona, but they are still counting votes.

If you live in Arizona, I think you can actually look at the state of your ballot. I know a lot of people, Republicans in particular, that have looked at the state of their ballot and it hasn't been counted yet or it has it been marked discounted yet. And so I think that you can look that up just to check. So Trump needs all of those states and then he would get to 270 and some change or he could win via recounts.

The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia. They want to act in Pennsylvania as well. But it's a little bit of a different situation there. And what they are hoping for is better access to the polling process to make sure that only legal votes are counted. And that is the big contention here. So the left Democrats keep saying count every vote and the right isn't saying the opposite of that. But we are adding in a..

Count every legal vote. And the reason why we are making that distinction is because we keep seeing stories are crop up.

And I haven't I haven't been retweeting all of these stories. I have been reposting all of them because it's hard to personally verify every single one. But there are so many stories. Some of them actually have been verified of crumpling up ballots, people receiving ballots that like absentee ballots after they have moved out from a state. There are reports and this is actually verifiable. You can look up, I think it's in Michigan's database. You can look up the name of a person that, you know, died and it'll show you their voter status.

And in some cases, people who have been deceased for a long time, the online, it indicates that they voted. So dead people are voting. There's been a 100 to 200 percent voter turnout in some states, which literally is impossible. People, like I said, getting absentee ballots when they don't even live in the state that is sending them the absentee ballot. There are ballot dumps, voting dumps that are all toward one candidate. It seems to be all for Joe Biden.

And so all of a sudden, it seems like a state will find like twenty three thousand votes. Not a single one of them will be for a third party or Trump. And so that is why people are having some questions here in Detroit where they're counting votes. They were covering up the windows and the room where they were counting votes will know this is supposed to be a transparent process. And apparently also every time a GOP poll or poll worker got kicked out, there were left wing activists there with their Black Lives Matter t shirts on, cheering for it.

So this is not supposed to be a partisan process. We've also seen vote counters in some of these states wearing bitin masks. You're not supposed to have any kind of partisan paraphernalia in these rooms. This is supposed to be a nonpartisan process. It's obviously not a nonpartisan process in some places. As we talked about in Wednesday's episode, the AG of Pennsylvania already said days before the election that if every vote is counted, Trump will lose and he wants to make sure of that.

That is really troubling.

OK, guys, got to tell you again about Operation Christmas.

Child, if you grew up in the church, you're probably familiar with Operation Christmas Child. It's the project where you pick up a shoe box or a plastic box that's in the shape of a shoe box and you fill it with items that are then given to kids in need as their Christmas present. And so a lot of people put in like deflated soccer balls with a pump. If you've got a girl, you can put in dolls, you can put in socks, you can put in coloring books.

There's a lot of different items that you can fit in the shoe box that are then given to kids who in a lot of cases have never had a Christmas present before, like they have never experienced any kind of generosity like that. And this is such a great way to show these kids the love and the generosity of Christ and also sharing the gospel with them. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 170 million gift filled shoeboxes to children in more than 160 countries and territories this year.

They hope to collect enough shoeboxes to reach another 11 million children. This is such an important time for these kids to feel hope, especially in the midst of the coronavirus and the economic collapse that has happened in so many parts of the world. Even kids who have suffered the loss of parents and grandparents, they are really needing this kind of hope in this kind of joy. It might seem small and. Neil to us, but to them it's really not and even more importantly than that, they need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ in Operation Christmas.

Child ensures that that happens. And so the way that you can fill out a shoebox is that you can go online to Samaritan's Purse again, O.S.S., that's Samaritan's Purse, Morgan O.S.S. and then you can learn how to pack a shoebox and where to drop it off. Or you can just build one online and they'll build it for you. National Collection Week is November 16th through twenty third. And so that is when you would need to drop off your shoebox, like, for example, my church.

I've got to drop off my shoe box I think next weekend on the 15th. And so we'll fill that out, we'll bring it to church and then Operation Christmas Child will take those boxes and they'll drop them off to the kids where they need to go. Really great opportunity to show your kids to and how to be generous and how to use your resources in a way that glorifies God. So Samaritan's Purse again.

OK, Project Veritas.

A whistleblower said that poll workers were falsely backdating absentee ballots for November 3rd so that they could be counted. That was in Michigan. That was a USPS insider that told that to Project Veritas. Again, we don't know if that's true, but that is the testimony of this one person. And all of this adds up to at least a justified desire to ask questions and investigate. We never thought that Trump was just going to lose easily, that he was just going to let this go.

Of course, there's going to be recounts in places where there needs to be recounts. And that is what he is doing in some of these states where it is just it's just a razor thin margin by which he seems to have lost. He just wants to verify it, bitin, I guarantee you they'd be doing the same thing. Hillary Clinton called for a recount in 2016. Like I said, I think Biden would if he has to call for a recount, if he loses by a razor thin margin in somewhere like Georgia and he actually needs those electoral votes to win.

Here's what I say. I actually care about fairness in this election much more than I care about Trump winning. So no matter the results of the election, I want us to make sure that we root out corruption and that we root out fraud. That is more important to me, in my opinion, that has much longer, longer lasting implications than who wins the presidency. So even if Biden wins, we need to root out the corruption and the fraud.

We need to make sure the dead people are not voting like we need to make sure that we are only counting legal votes. And the fact that there are people on the left, there are Democrats on the left pushing back on that and saying, no, no, no, you just need to count all votes no matter what y would say. That's a problem. I very much care about the integrity of this election more than I have been praying for Trump to win or any kind of outcome.

I have been praying that the process would be honorable, that it would end up being honest. We know what a lot of cases it's not honest right now, but that is my desire for honesty and integrity and honor in the process. Even if Biden even if Biden wins, especially if Biden wins, I just want to know that he won fair and square. I want to go explore all the avenues that we possibly can just to make sure that the process is being done with integrity.

If Biden wins just because he won all of the electoral votes fair and square, then so be it. We accept the results of the election and we move on whatever. That's fine. That's obviously not the outcome that I wanted in that many of us wanted, but that's the way it is. We go through political disappointment. There's a possibility of that every four years, of course. But I just want to make sure that he wins fairly. I also want to make sure that Trump wins fairly.

If Trump wins, we don't need to stop talking about corruption and potential fraud. We need to make sure that our election process is protected. And for the people that say on the lawsuit that are saying, oh, that's just fear mongering, y'all are just paranoid, you're just sore losers. Excuse me. Excuse me. You are the same people who have not accepted the results of the 2016 election. OK, and for the past four years, you have been saying that Trump's election was actually it was it was illegitimate, that it was actually just Russian collusion, that there was actually Russian interference that caused him to win.

And there is no proof of that whatsoever. And so for us to say, hey, there seems to be evidence of fraud, there's at least reason for us to ask some questions and to seek some recounts in some of these states, that's not at all paranoid.

That's very sane. That's just making sure that whoever wins, whether it's Joe or whether it's Donald Trump, that they win fairly and squarely. That is all we're saying. You guys have trained try. You've been trying to. Legitimize Trump's presidency and Trump's victory for the past four years, so I don't want to hear any of that from you guys accusations of being paranoid and being sore losers when you guys haven't even conceded the 2016 election. There also seems to be some confusion about why Trump is saying we need to stop the votes in some places and we need to keep counting in other places.

And people are saying, oh, my gosh, he's just losing his mind. Kimberley Strassel of The Wall Street Journal, she's a really great follow. She explains all of this in a tweet thread. She says this, A lot of folks are saying incorrectly, GOP wants to both count and stop ballots at the same time. Let's be more precise. There are three categories, a R's calling to count votes that came in by Election Day or before per state law.

This is obvious. Be Rs calling to halt votes until GOP observers given access to vote counting. No one is suggesting these votes not be counted, only that Rs be allowed to witness the counting. Why not? Transparency is good will raise confidence in the outcome. I agree with that. It will raise confidence in the outcome no matter what happens. See R's questioning states that want to count votes that contravene state law, deadlines, etc.. Like in Pennsylvania, for example, they have said that you are allowed to count ballots that aren't even postmarked.

And so we don't know where they came from in some of those cases. But more importantly, we don't know when they were actually filled out. If they're filled out after Election Day, they are illegitimate. They should be illegitimate. The left is claiming this is disenfranchisement, but why? Laws are laws. We are all expected to follow them in. Why should some states get extra judicially granted privileges, not others? The left is saying count every vote.

I completely agree, but I would modify count every legal vote as defined by the state legislatures. We elect them for a reason. This cannot and should not turn into a fight over what laws will get overruled to benefit one side. That is exactly right, especially in the midst of the election process. The time has come and gone for all of those decisions to be made. Let's just make sure that every legal vote is counted and that every vote is that is counted is legal.

That really shouldn't be that difficult. This process is so inefficient. It's so ineffective. We are losing trust, obviously, in the pollsters, obviously in the media, obviously. And our politicians. We already knew all of that. But we're also we're losing faith in our election process to be fair, to be free. And you really don't live in a free country if you cannot trust the election process to actually reflect the will of the people and actually reflect any kind of integrity.

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We have very good reason to doubt that the Democrats would be running the election process in some of these places with integrity. We have very good reason to believe that. I mean, if we look at the ideology, the leftist ideology that drives so much of the Democratic Party, if we look at the rhetoric that has been coming from the left for the past four years, it's that Trump is a Nazi, that he is the greatest threat to not just America, but the world.

All of his supporters are at least complicit, if not outright guilty of white supremacy, that he is a fascist, that his followers are fascists, and that we must do absolutely anything to get him out of office. We've seen him tried to the Democrats tried to impeach. They tried to say that he was an illegitimate president, they tried to say that he was a Russian agent, there was the whole Russia investigation that amounted to absolutely nothing. We've seen rioting in the streets.

We've seen harassment of Trump supporters. We've seen Trump supporters targeted with threats of violence. And so we've got a party who might not be holistically characterized like this, but a large chunk of them are characterized by an ends justify the means mentality. And so, of course, a little ballot harvesting and a little fraud is worth it if that means giving an actual Nazi what they believe to be an actual Nazi out of office. I mean, they've compared Trump to Hitler.

If you actually believe that Hitler was running the country, once you throw out some ballots from the people that voted for him. And so we don't know. We don't know. But all I'm saying is there is a reason, there is enough reason for people to question and for people to want to be vigilant about protecting the integrity of our elections. There's absolutely reason for people to be skeptical. Now, if all the investigations come out and the recounts come out and Biden wins, then like I said, we accept the results of that.

We move on. We don't reflect the craziness, the unhinged nature that we have seen from the past for the past four years. From the left, we don't say that's not my president. I'm never accepting the results of this election. Let's try to impeach him from the beginning. Let's lose our minds and to suffer from Biden derangement syndrome. No, no, no. Politics are not our God. The president is not our savior. Our joy is not derived from a political outcome.

Yes, those things matter. Obviously. You guys know, I think those things are significant. As I've said, politics matter because policies matter because people matter and policies affect people. And so you don't have to explain to me the significance of elections and the significance of politics and policies. I already know all of those things, but I'm not going to lose my mind if Biden wins. I'm not going to weep in my teeth of Biden wins. I mean, I lived through eight years of the worst one of the worst presidencies in history, Barack Obama, and we survived.

I think America is a lot worse off because of it. That's tangible. We've talked about the quantifiable ways America worsened while Barack Obama was president, but we survived. We'll survive this time. I do. I think that we are on the precipice of totalitarianism. If if Democrats were to take take the presidency and take the Senate. Yes, I do. I think that they have been very clear about that, that they want to pack the courts, that they want to abolish the Electoral College.

They would love to reconfigure the Senate. If they want to do away with the Constitution. They think the First Amendment should be limited, the Second Amendment should be abolished. They don't believe in the constitutional and the constitutional norms and the institutional integrity of our country. They don't they don't care. They don't care about those things. They actually believe that America is fundamentally bad, that it needs to be torn down and then rebuilt with something new. And so, of course, I believe that we are headed towards the direction of authoritarianism, as Roger and I talked about, if Democrats take control even so even so, we don't let that steal our joy and steal our peace.

And we'll go into more of that a little bit more in just a second. But first, I got to talk about the Senate. So you've probably been hearing that the Senate looks good for Republicans, but we are waiting on some things that should probably make us a little bit nervous as conservatives. This is honestly what I'm more concerned about. I'm far more concerned about the Senate than I am the presidency. If Donald Trump loses, but Republicans keep this in it, it's going to be very hard for Joe Biden to get anything done.

It's going to be very difficult for him to get cabinet members approved, especially radical cabinet members. It's going to be very difficult for him to get judicial nominees approved, which is good for conservatives. It's going to be very difficult for him to get any of the legislation that he approves of passed.

And so we want Republicans to keep the Senate, even if especially if a Donald Trump loses. So, listen, it does look good for Republicans. Cocaine, Mitch, he is still in charge and that's great. And right now, it looks like Republicans are going to keep the majority, but the recounts could affect the makeup of the Senate, could affect it for the better, possibly the worse. Could it could be that a recount in Michigan means that John James wins, but probably not.

Unfortunately, he lost so sad. I think that he would be a great senator and I hope he keeps running. We are waiting on some things in Georgia, so we're waiting on Perdue versus OSF. Perdue is the Republican. Assaf is the Democrat. It's very close. But Perdue is leading right now in Georgia. There's going to be a spy. Special election, Loffler versus Warnock in Georgia, that's going to be in January. So Loffler won her won her election and it's going because this was a very strange race.

She was against Doug Collins and I think one other person. And so she's going to run against raunak in January. I'm not feeling really great about that race. I think Warnock I mean, he's are a radical leftist from Atlanta. He would be a terrible senator for Georgia. But I think it's very possible that he beats Loffler. Loffler has been accused of corruption at the beginning of this year, at the beginning of coronavirus. I am shocked that she won against Doug Collins.

I really like Doug Collins a lot. And I was disappointed in the outcome of that race. Of course, Loffler versus Warnaco. I'm going to go for Loffler. Absolutely 100 percent. But I was surprised. I was surprised at the people who who voted, who voted for her. Knowing some of the things that we know about her, I don't think it's possible for her to win against Warhawk. I hope that I'm wrong. I really hope and pray that I am.

But I just I don't think that she has a strong of a chance, probably, as Doug Collins did. We're waiting for Thom Tillis versus Cal Cunningham in North Carolina. Thom Tillis is the Republican. Cal Cunningham is the Democrat. It's looking OK for Tillis. But we are apparently not going to know the result of the North Carolina election until November 11th, especially for the presidency. Don't know why. Apparently, some of these vote counters are like, I'm busy, I'm tired.

I'm going to kind of chill out for a while. So here's the deal. So we've got the two races in Georgia that we're waiting on. We've got the one race in North Carolina that we're waiting on. I don't know how long we're going to be waiting on them. If Democrats win both Senate races in Georgia and the Senate race in North Carolina, that gives them the majority in the Senate with forty nine Democrats and two independents that caucus with Democrats.

So that's fifty one. So that gives them the the slight majority.

If Democrats win, say, two of those races, they'll be at fifty, Republicans will be at fifty. And then the presidency matters very much because the vice president is the tiebreaker vote, which will be either Mike Pence or Kamala Harris, depending on who wins. So we really need Republicans to win all three of those Senate races. So if you are going to pray for an outcome, that is the outcome that I would spend your time praying on.

OK, speaking of prayer, let's talk about let's talk about this statement. God is sovereign or God is in control, because I've seen a lot of people triggered by that statement. I've been seeing a lot of posts going around, typically from left wing, identifying Christians, social justice, identifying Christians that are that are saying, oh, that's something called spiritual, bypassing. You are ignoring the real suffering and the real danger that is threatening the lives of marginalized people if Donald Trump wins.

And so please don't just kind of gloss over their suffering and their pain and their fear by saying that God is in control. You've heard people say, oh, well, you know, God was in control during the Holocaust, but people still suffered and died. God is in control during all of these terrible things that have happened throughout history. And people still died and suffered. Yes, all of that is true. No. One, let's not compare those things to what is happening right now.

We are going through an election where the candidate you might not like will win. That's really different. And there's not going to be I know people get mad when I say this, but if Donald Trump wins, like your rights are not going away, they haven't gone away for the past four years, people say, oh, there's people who are going to die if Donald Trump wins, who, who and how through what policy that he is advocating for.

I mean, we already have the Supreme Court that you don't like. I mean, what's Donald Trump going to do that is going to take away your life and livelihood, lower your taxes?

I mean, there's just not a whole lot of explanation for that. So let us try to not make the comparison between something like the Holocaust and then something like your politician possibly losing an election. But the question is, should we be saying that God is in control when we are in a crisis? My answer to that is absolutely yes. Now, as I said on Instagram, saying that God is in control as an excuse for complacency, as an excuse for apathy and paralysis and not doing anything is a sin.

Obviously, saying that God is sovereign is not an excuse for disobedience. It's not an excuse for laziness. It's not an excuse for us not to take things seriously. You guys know, I think it is our right and it is our privilege. It's our responsibility as human beings, especially as Christians, as good stewards of the time and the resources that God has given us, the freedom that God has given us. It is our responsibility to. Use that wisely for the good of our families and for the good of other people, and I think one of those things is voting and being involved in politics.

As I already said on this episode, politics matter because policies matter because people matter. And so we know all of that. But in in light of the gospel, our attitude towards those things changes. And so when we say that God is sovereign, that God is in control, that Jesus is going to rule in perfect peace, that he is seated immovably on his throne, and that he's not freaking out, he's not surprised. He's not wondering what's going to happen.

Matthew Tehn says that all the hairs on our head are numbered. And so I know that he has every vote. Number two, when we say those things, we are not saying that policies don't matter. We are not saying that there will be consequences to the election or that it doesn't matter and that we should just ignore it and that we should just say la la, la. We're just going to ignore the reality of what's going on here on Earth.

No, we are saying that we view everything that's going on here on Earth in light of the hope that we have in heaven. The Bible says that we are citizens of heaven. If you are a Christian, we are not citizens of this earth. We are exiles on Earth. We are strangers dwelling in this land. But our citizenship, our dwelling place, our hope, our membership is ultimately in heaven. And so we view everything that's happening in that light.

That gives us assurance. That gives us peace. That gives us serenity. Yes. Even when the trials are real, even when the tribulations are heavy, Jesus promises that we will have trouble in this life. But he says, take heart. I have overcome the world. And so that is where our victory ultimately lies.

So when we say that God is sovereign, we are simply saying take heart, take heart. The Jesus that you trusted, that you follow has already overcome the world. And he has promised that he is going to claim ultimate victory once and for all and that there will be no more elections, there will be no partisan politics. There will be no there will be no division. There will be no depression. There will be no sadness. And so as we care about the things that are going on in this life, as we care about elections, as we vote, as we seek the truth, as we obey the Lord and do the work that he has called us to do, we have hope.

We have peace. The phrase that God is in control or God is sovereign should not be triggering to the to the Christian. It should not be triggering. It should be relieving. And if it is if the phrase God is in control or God is sovereign is triggering to you as a Christian, that's not the fault of the person who said it. That should be an indication for you to take a look at your theology. Is God, your God or our politics, your God is your hope in this life or the next one, because as Christians, we know where our hope is supposed to be and it is biblical and that in the midst of serious trials, of serious tribulations, far more serious than what we're going through right now to rejoice in the Lord, to remind ourselves of his sovereignty.

That is what the Bible is about. We see it over and over again that God's people throughout the Bible went through much more difficult than what we are going through right now. Christians throughout history have gone through much more difficult than what we are going through right now. And yet they praised God and they trusted in his absolute control and goodness. Let's read Romans eight thirty five to thirty seven. Most of you know this passage who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your sake?

We are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present or things to come, nor powers or height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord Philippians. Four four through seven. Rejoice in the Lord, always rejoice in the Lord always again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be made known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.

Do not be anxious about anything God says. Do not be anxious about anything. When he says anything, he means anything. You think he doesn't know what you're going through right now? He does, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus James one to count it all. Joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Psalm thirty seven one through two fret not yourself because of evil doers, be not envious of wrongdoers. So we're talking about people who do evil. God is saying don't worry about them, don't be envious of them.

Even when it seems like things are going their way. Do not fret yourself says do not fret yourself. Because of evildoers fear they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green earth. So that is our hope being in heaven even when we are seeing evil done right now. Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. That is our command. Even when we see evil going on, even when we are going through trials.

Psalm 27 three, though an army and camp against me, my heart shall not fear the war against me. Yet I will be confident. Those are just a few examples that we see throughout Scripture of God's people. In the midst of serious trials, in the midst of chaos, in the midst of confusion, in the midst of severe persecution far beyond what we are experiencing right now, saying I trust God, God is in control. He loves me.

He takes care of me, he's still good. He is still righteous. He is on his throne. And my hope is in him. He is my refuge. He is my strength. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? That's another verse in the Psalms. These are people who were going through much more fear, invoking things than we are right now. And the Bible says, what are you to do in that time?

You're to trust in God sovereignty. So again, if that phrase trust God, God is in control, God is sovereign, is triggering to you as a Christian rather than assuring and rather than rather than peace giving to you, then it is time to assess your theology. What do you think about God? What do you think about who he is and what he can do? Where is your citizenship? Where is your hope? That doesn't mean, again, that we don't care about what's going on and we don't care about what happens to people, we don't care about this election or policies, again, we do, but we don't worry about them in perpetual anxiety.

We don't allow those things did a process. We don't allow those things to steal our joy because that's not where our joy comes from. And if it is where your joy comes from, then you have made an idol of this life. And that's the beautiful thing about Christianity, is that we are free from the idolatry of this life.

And so, yes, God is sovereign, God is in control. Jesus is king. He is on his throne. That's not spiritual, bypassing. That is spiritual encouragement for the true Christian.

OK, last interruption, I promise. But I got to tell you guys about simply safe. So you're looking around at the world right now and you're like, you know what? Things are chaotic. And I'm I'm kind of afraid after the results of this election, no matter which way it goes, that there's going to be, you know, maybe protests or riots or or unrest in your area, which is a totally justifiable concern, depending on where you live.

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Ali, speaking of Christianity, and this is the last thing that I want to talk about, Carl Lentz.

He was the Hillsong pastor in NYC. According to according to Religion News Service, he was fired because of leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failure.

So we don't have the details on all of that. Hillsong, is it releasing the details on all of that? And quite frankly, we don't need to know the details on all of that. It's not any of our business and we shouldn't be gloating about this. This isn't something that we should rejoice over or be happy about. This is obviously going to be very difficult for their church. And the reason why I give you that kind of warning and I give you that admonition is because I know it's tempting for a lot of people who disagree with Carl Luntz politically and theologically, like I do so much to you know, it would be tempting for you maybe to be happy about this or to gloat about this publicly on social media.

But of course, that is not what we are called to. Our desires should be for Karlan's to repent, for him to be drawn to the Lord and to be filled with the spirit of truth.

I mean, we have been seen over the past few months how Carl Lentz, unfortunately, has been evangelized to by the world when it comes to things like social justice, when it comes to things like critical race theory, bad theology and bad politics, they don't happen in a vacuum. There are obviously a lot of other hurt issues going on here.

And I can't say it's terribly surprising just seeing a lot of the things that he has shared over the past few months in regards to the the a lot of the political events that are going on that are just contrary to scripture, contrary to any kind of good theology. Unfortunately, that's what happens. Good on Hillsong NYC for taking this step. And again, we pray for excellence and and his family and pray that the Lord draws him close and draws him into repentance.

And we also pray for Hillsong NYC and we pray that they find a solid pastor that can lead them, shepherd them in spirit and in truth, and that the Holy Spirit would work in that church and would draw more and more people to himself. And so that's why I wanted to talk about today. Just a quick update. We will be back here on Monday.