Rick Green

Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's the Wall Builders show, where we take on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. David Barton is the founder of Wall Builders and America's premier historian. Tim Barton's a national speaker and pastor and president of Wall Builders, and I'm Rick Green, America’s Constitution Coach. All three of us appreciate you listening and encourage you to go to our website today at wallbuilders.show and share today's program, which means you need to share yesterday's program, because we're actually going to pick up right where we left off yesterday with Pastor Josh Howerton at Lake Point Church in Texas.

Incredible message, timely, so timely I don't know for those of you that don't remember it back in 2016,. Tommy Nelson from Denton Bible Church Great man I remember I used to listen to cassette tapes, yeah, of Tommy Nelson. Anyway, he had a timely, timely message right there in 2016, about a month out from the election, and this feels so much like that. I hope you listen to it. Same thing with Gary Hamrick's message from a couple of weeks ago. That's another great one to listen to. But anyway, let's jump right back in where we left off yesterday. This is Pastor Josh Howerton and he's talking about the election this year right out of the pulpit and just dispelling the lies about no politics in the pulpit. Here we go with Pastor Josh Howerton.

Pastor Josh Howerton

So these three types of leaders exist Josiahs, Ahab’s and Jezebels and Jehus. Now let me say two things on this. Number one don't treat a Jehu like a Josiah. Do not ignore imperfections. Don't do that. But number two we all want a King Josiah, but sometimes God uses a flawed leader for good purposes. And when you don't have the option of voting for a Josiah and your choice is between Ahab and Jezebel and Jehu, that choice is very obvious, because a flawed leader used to do some good things is better than suffering under wicked leaders. It's better. Okay, so we need to now. Here's the question. Okay, here's the next question. So we need to now. Here's, here's the question. Okay, here's the next question. So if that's what voting's, not what is voting and I want you to see this Voting is it's your power to pick the best available path forward. That's what a vote is. Voting is your power to pick the best available path forward.

Let me put this to you in biblical terms because, again, a lot of well-meaning but naive Christians. They struggle to put these things in biblical terms. So Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount here's what he said. He said you're the. I want you to say the yellow words out loud You're the of the. He didn't say you're the salt of the church. Just keep your religion to yourself. Just keep it right here. Don't try to influence the nation, or don't try to do that, don't, don't you know? Hey, uh, by the way, I wish I don't have time to do this in a sermon. It's in the podcast.

Separation of church and state does not mean a separation of righteousness and state and it does not mean a separation of politics and religion. That's impossible. It means a separation of governments. So when Jesus says this, you're the salt of the earth, he's saying hey, man, don't take your light and hide it under a bushel. Is what he says. Don't just keep it in the house of God. We need that righteousness to influence the world and nations. And check this out. Here's what a vote is. He said you're the salt. Salt was a preservative. Its purpose is to slow decay. So check this out. When a Christian is choosing who to vote for, they're not asking who perfectly embodies all my values. That's not what you're asking. What you're asking is whose set of policies is most likely to slow societal decay. That's the question you're asking.

All right, now this is the spot in the message where I've got a. This is a brace yourself moment, because I need to get specific. I need to get specific about some things, so let me do that. I'm gonna speak to you in a straightforward way on five policies that I think thinking Christians should be thinking about right now in this election policies okay, five of them. They are border security, religious liberty, biological sex policies okay, five of them. They are border security, religious liberty, biological sex, family and life. I'm gonna do them very briefly. Number one border security. Now, really quick, I just need to say this If you're gonna clap at one spot in these parts of the message, you better clap at both, at all the right spots, okay, oh, I wasn't saying that, but that's great, okay, so let me just say this as Christians, we are called to love immigrants.

That's a biblical command. That's a biblical command, and the leaders of a nation are called to uphold the law. They are, they're called to do this. Okay, let me just say this like a lot of Christians, they really struggle with this. Guys, God is not opposed to borders. I'm gonna read this to you from Acts 17, 26. From one man, he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. This same God led his people in the Old Testament and blessed them in building a wall to protect their border. So God is not opposed to borders. But then also, obviously, we are commanded and blessed to love individual immigrants.

I could read dozens of verses on this. I'm going to give you Zechariah 7.10. Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner. Zechariah 7.10,. Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner. That's a big Bible word for an immigrant or the poor. So I just need to say this If you are an immigrant, that's here and, by the way, we have thousands of immigrants that are part of Lake Point.

I need you to know this. We love you. This church loves you. We love you okay. This is why we partner with dozens of local partners, food pantries that are helping people, immigrants, all throughout the city. This is why we have Lake Point in Espanol.

Come on, somebody that is full of people from nations all over the world, all these things and listen. We should welcome legal immigrants. Listen. These are people who have worked hard for decades. It has cost them money. They love this country. They contribute to society. We love that and you need to understand this. Not all illegal immigrants are evil people. They're just not Okay, they're just not.

But I do need to speak honestly about this issue. There are currently between 10 and 20 million illegal immigrants in our nation. The data I'm about to give you is not some like crazy info wars, you know fake news data. This is data released from the Department of Homeland Security last week. Okay, of the illegal immigrants in the United States right now, 425,000 of them are known to have criminal records. 16,000 of them entered our nation as convicted rapists. 13,000 of them entered our nation as convicted murderers. I just have to ask this question when was the border czar? Where was the border czar? So you need to ask yourself the question you do. You need to ask yourself the question which candidate will best protect our national security? You should ask that question. Number two these go a little quicker. Number two the issue of religious liberty.

The early church in the New Testament adopted a phrase. Here was the phrase in Greek Iesus kurios. That means Jesus is Lord. It was counter what all the Romans were saying. They were saying no, no, caesar's Lord, caesar's Lord. The early church went no, no, iesus kurios Jesus is Lord. What they were saying is Caesar is a king. Rios Jesus is Lord. What they were saying is Caesar is a king, but Jesus is the king of kings.

So whenever a government commands us to do something that God forbids, or forbids us to do something God commands, our job as Christians is to humbly and respectfully have a backbone and tell them to go pound sand. That's our job. That's like through all throughout church history. That's what civil disobedience? There's tons of examples of this in the book of Acts, tons of examples.

So now what you need to understand is that Christians Protestant, Christian Protestant ideals. They founded our nation. So what the Christians who founded our nation did is they founded it on the concept of religious liberty to keep people from being forced to violate their genuinely religious consciences. What this means is that doctors who object to performing abortions should not be forced to. It means that Christian bakers, graphic designers and photographers who object to providing their services in celebration of marriages that their convictions cannot celebrate should not be prosecuted for the purpose of trying to have their businesses closed, like Jack Phillips in Colorado. It means that Christian teachers, like Byron Cross, should not be fired for objecting, on the basis of his convictions, to using a minor's pronouns in an elementary school. So you need to ask. So you should be asking yourself, ask yourself the question which candidate is more likely to protect religious liberty, because Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not?

Rick Green

Got to take a quick break, folks. We'll be right back. You're listening to the WallBuilder Show.

Break.

Rick Green

Welcome back to the WallBuilder Show, jumping right back in with Pastor Josh Howerton in this sermon on the election coming up. This is Lake Point Church, by the way, in Texas. Pastor Josh just nailed it. Tim Barton heard this and was like, oh man, we have got to share this and he's right on I hope you with share this with as many friends and family as you can. Let’s jump right back in

Pastor Josh Howerton

Number three, the issue of biological sex. Okay, genesis 1:27 says this. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created them, male and female. He created them. Now, on this spot, I wanna speak with grace and truth. Grace and truth.

If you are a person that currently identifies as transgender, or you have somebody in your family maybe a son, daughter, cousin, whatever it is a family member that currently identifies as transgender, I need you to know this. God loves you and the Lord Jesus Christ died for you. You are deeply, deeply loved by God. Like y'all understand, like I have these conversations in the lobby because what's happening now is people who did the transition thing. They get three or four years in and they realize, oh man, this was like a dead end of misery, and so they start doing the detransition thing, and then I'll pray with them in the lobby and it's like, hey, man, you don't know what I've done, you don't know how I feel. Okay, listen, here's what I know. Feelings come and go, but the love of the father lasts forever. I know that. Okay, so you fearfully and wonderfully made. You should know that full well. You are valuable and you should be treated as valuable. And if you underwent some procedures and you got scars in your body, you need to know this your scars don't define you. His do. Those are the scars that define you. Okay, so, grace, but listen, I also need to speak with truth. We don't get to decide if we're a different gender, and to support that idea is to call God a liar, to rebel against the created order, to erode the family and to contribute to mental illness instead of helping people with the only truth that can set them free.

So currently, you need to know this, 14 states in our nation have what are called transgender healthcare shield laws. Among them, the state of Minnesota. Governor Tim Walz signed legislation making Minnesota a trans refuge state. I want to read you what that means. It means, if a listen carefully if a minor child has been unable to obtain gender affirming care because one or both parents object, the Minnesota law allows courts to have quote temporary emergency jurisdiction over the child Translation. They can take your kid from you. They can take and have done so.

Now, guys, what you need to understand is evil never stops itself. It must be stopped. So if that ideology is not stopped, understand this. Wait. If that ideology is not stopped, it will not be 14 states, someday it will be 50. So ask yourself the question which candidate will oppose the erasure of gender through transgender ideology? You need to ask that. Question Number four the issue of the family. Okay, I wish I had time to do this. It's more on the podcast. I wish I had time to do this.

God established. What God did is he built the world in four layers the layer of the individual, the family, the church and the state. What God did is he established it so that the health of everyone is dependent upon the health of the one that is previous. So a family can only be as healthy as the individuals that make up the marriage. A church can only be as healthy as the health of the families that make up the church. A nation will only be as healthy as the health and boldness of the churches that make up the nation.

What this means? What this means is that whenever a nation attacks or erodes the family through things like abortion, the incentivization of divorce, the redefinition of marriage and the erasure of gender, it is sawing off the very branch it is sitting on and someday it will fall. So what we're doing right now in our nation is all these things, that we're breaking down families and then we're asking the government to step in and do what the family's supposed to do. So the government now is going hey, man, we'll be your family, we'll protect you, we'll provide for you, we'll educate you, we'll indoctrinate you. In some case, the state is literally saying we're the parents now and everybody's going, oh well, we're looking, they're looking at all the problems in our nation and going, oh, we need to fix the system, fix. How about we fix the family? How about we fix the family? And then, all of a sudden, stuff starts to trickle up. We don't need more government, we need better families. Okay, so ask yourself the question which candidate is more likely to stop or slow the corrosion of the definitions of and the functions of the family?

Finally, the most sensitive one of all, let me finish with the issue of life. In John 10:10, Jesus said the thief, the enemy, comes to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that you might have life. The Bible calls God the author of life and the book of Proverbs says the Lord hates hands that shed innocent blood. Now, really quick. If you are one of the one in four adult women in our nation who has had an abortion or terminated a pregnancy, I need you to know this. The Lord, Jesus Christ, loves you, and we do too. I need you to get this ma’am. What you need to understand is, if that's you, the death that most defines your life is not the death of your unborn child. It is the sin cleansing death of the son of God. For everything you've ever done. That's the death that defines you. Okay, now we do.

Let me speak truthfully. We need to ask the question which candidate will best protect life? Now, this is where I'm gonna say some things that many of you will not like, and, honestly, I don't care. My job is to tell you the truth. I'm called to be a prophet, not a politician. Okay, I need to speak truthfully with you. We do not currently have a consistently pro-life candidate in this race. We don't. We just don't, okay.

Strangely, while Donald Trump is responsible for the greatest victory for the protection of the unborn in two generations in the overturning of Roe v Wade, he has now moved left more towards the center of American popular opinion, including after the vice presidential debate I was like all over it. He, immediately after that debate, tweeted in all caps that he would veto a national abortion ban if it came across his desk, because he wants the states to be able to decide. He wants this to be a state's rights issue, although he did say that he opposed the termination of pregnancies in late term, abortions the seventh through the ninth month. Very frankly, I gotta be honest with you. That means percentage-wise, that means very little. The CDC says that 95% of all abortions happen in the first 15 weeks. I just gotta be honest with you. Here's honesty.

The Republican Party today on the issue of abortion has become what the Democrat Party was 30 years ago when Bill Clinton said he wanted it to be safe, legal and rare. So this is where we are right now. Now I also have to be honest. The other side is far worse, far worse. The other party has moved from a desire for abortion to be safe, legal and rare to something that should be celebrated, paraded and promoted as a moral good. There are currently 12 states that allow for abortion up to nine months. Think about this. That is a thinking, feeling, human. It has fully developed pain receptors. It is emotionally. It has fully developed pain receptors. It is emotionally just hear it a precious child in that moment. It is emotionally connected to the mother inside of whom it is growing. When they terminate one of those pregnancies, they dismember it limb from limb. In late term abortions this is what they're doing.

Rick Green

One more break, folks. We'll be right back. You're listening to the WallBuilder Show.

Break

Tim Barton

Welcome back to the WalBuilders Show. Let's jump in for the conclusion with Pastor Josh Howerton from Lake Point Church.

Pastor Josh Howerton

Very frankly, this is Kamala Harris's position. She refuses to articulate even one potential restriction, even one at any point during a pregnancy. She has now said that her desire is to eliminate I know this is a little government-y, you know deep dive. She's now said that she desires to eliminate the Senate filibuster that has been in place for 180 years for the purpose of making it illegal for any state to be able to enact any restriction on abortion whatsoever. If you don't think they're serious about it, the Democratic Party pulled up mobile abortion clinics like taco trucks outside of the Democratic National Convention, mockingly celebrating murdering infants with banners and hashtags like shout your abortion.

As I watched that on TV, there was one Bible verse that tattooed itself on my soul Proverbs 8:36 says all who hate me love death. So ask yourself the question which candidate will best limit the taking of unborn lives? Okay, now this sermon just ends, so I'm just gonna end it. Here we go. Okay, let me say two things. One, there are some again well-meaning but naive Christians that they hear all that and they're like yeah, Josh, but even if this politician gets elected, they won't save America. Or they'll say, yeah, yeah, josh, but politics can't save anybody. My response to that is from what? From what? You're right, Politics can't save anybody from hell. In fact, let me just say this. This is so important Politics can't save anybody from hell. There will be people in hell who were very passionate about their Judeo-Christian values. Politics can't save anybody from hell, but the book of James says that our everyday decisions either pull heaven down into our lives or pull hell up into our lives. So politics can't save anybody from hell, but they can save us from pulling hell up into our city states and nations. So just ask yourself this question. Ask yourself this question Like okay, what is hell? In fact, if you're a guest, if you're a guest, you're like what did I walk into, bro? This is insane. You're like y'all talk about one more, I'm one less, you know whatever it is, okay, let me. What is hell? You need to understand this because without saving faith in Jesus, you will spend eternity there.

What is hell? Hell is a place of darkness, of lawlessness, of bitterness, unforgiveness, hatred. It's a place of chaos, all these things. Think about this when you look at urban centers in our nation, cities ruled by godless leaders, and you see lawlessness, rioters burning buildings, looters shoplifting in broad daylight and police aren't even allowed to do anything about it. Drugs sold in open air markets in front of children, people and businesses fleeing because of rampant lawlessness. What happened? Decisions were made that pulled hell up into the city. And let me say this leaders who lead cities like that should not be given more authority to lead an entire nation. They should not.

Okay, so let me just I need this, I need this to sink into your heart. I'm going to, I'm going to say something. I'm going to what I'm getting ready to say. I'm going to say twice, because I don't think people have internalized this yet. 30 million Bible believing Christians abdicated their spiritual responsibility and did not vote in the last presidential election. 30 million. That same election was decided by a strategically placed 42,000 votes. I just want that to sink in. 30 million Bible-believing Christians did not vote in the last presidential election. That election was decided by a strategically placed 42,000 votes. So listen, I just wanna say this If there are 24,000 in-person attenders at Lake Point this weekend, I want 24,000 people walking in as disciples and doing their like man.

Let's go, let's do our God-given job. Okay, let's do that. All right, now, that's number one. Number two this is the most important part of the sermon. You come back any other week. This is what you're gonna hear constantly.

Number two you are primarily a citizen of heaven and you are only secondarily a resident of a nation. That is the most important thing and, very frankly, some of you, honestly your capital R Republicans and lowercase C Christians, or your capital D Democrats and your lowercase C Christians you must be born again. Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That is the only thing that ultimately matters in eternity. That is what will matter. Listen, your Judeo-Christian values can keep you out of jail. It will take the blood of Jesus Christ to keep you out of hell and he wants that for you.

What you do with your vote, it can change. It can absolutely. It can impact your life. It can impact your children's lives. It will impact your children's lives. It might do that for 50 years. What you do with Jesus will impact your eternity for 50 million. That's what matters.

So listen, your convictions ought to pull your vote right or left, but I don't want to pull your heart left or right. I want to pull it up into the kingdom of God so the Holy Spirit can come down on your life and bless your life. That's what needs to happen. That is our greatest hope in life and death. Listen to me, man, there are absolutely and you need to get this. There are things that politics can fix, but listen to me, politics cannot fix what politics did not break, and you cannot solve a spiritual problem with a political solution. The world's greatest problem, it's the problem underneath all the problem. The world's greatest problem is a sin problem, and sin problems require savior solutions, and we've got one of those. Okay, so listen, I close this sermon. I close this sermon with one final sentence. All that said, may God pour out reformation and revival on our nation for the good of people and the glory of His Son.

Rick Green

Amen, amen, all right, folks, you've been listening to the Wall Builder Show. That was actually Pastor Josh Howerton, not on the Wall Builders Show, but the sermon at Lake Point Church, something that everyone should be airing and we should be sharing with as many friends and family as we possibly can. So please do that today. You can easily do that by going to wallbuilders.show. Just grab the links from today and yesterday and send them out to everybody you know, especially if they're a Christian and especially if they bought into this lie that we shouldn't pay attention to politics or shouldn't be involved in that arena. That is not biblical at all. In fact, it's anti-biblical. It's being a wicked and slothful servant burying the talent that God has given us, specifically in this case, the talent of freedom, the responsibility to lead our country, since we, the people, are actually in charge in this particular constitutional republic. Thanks so much for listening. Today You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show.