Paul Daugherty - Standing at a Crossroads (12/22/2025)
Summary
Pastor Paul preaches from Jeremiah 6, calling the church to stand at the crossroads and choose the ancient paths of God’s truth rather than following cultural lies or demonic agendas. He urges Christians to engage politically by voting for policies aligned with biblical values—protecting life, family, gender, religious freedom, borders, and Israel—while trusting God alone. In the end, he emphasizes that flawed people can be used by God, silence is complicity, and our ultimate hope and trust is in Jesus Christ.
Standing at the Crossroads
All right, everybody, say «In God We Trust.» So, we’ve been in a series this month leading up to the election week, which is just eight days from now. We’ve been in a series focused on how we navigate the times we’re living in as a church, as Christians. How do we vote? Should we vote? I’m here to tell you that you should, and I have a message for you today on how to. If you’ve got a Bible, go to Jeremiah chapter 6. You can make some noise if you want, and I want to preach to you today. The message is «Standing at the Crossroads.»
The Prophet and the Government
Jeremiah was a prophet sent by God to speak to government. Anytime people say the church should not talk politics, the church should not talk to the government, you would have to take away the whole Bible. The whole Bible was written specifically to address governmental issues and leaders. I mean, starting with, we could go all the way back to the beginning, but really, when you look at Moses confronting Pharaoh, that’s government. God has called His people to be both biblical and political, whether it was Esther, Nehemiah, or Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was speaking when he said this: Stand at the crossroads and look; stand at the fork in the road; stand at the decision place. You’ve got paths to choose. Life comes down to choices; a nation comes down to choices, and we have a choice. We’re standing at a crossroads. He says, «Stand at the crossroads and look, and ask for the ancient paths.» Don’t ask what sounds good right now; don’t ask what feels good. Ask, «What is the ancient path? What’s the path that’s tried and true? What’s the path that God wants?» Ask where the good way is and walk in it. Everybody say, «Walk in it.» He says if you walk in it, you will find rest for your souls.
But then Jeremiah said, «But you have said, 'We will not walk in it.'» Jeremiah was dealing with a nation that had walked away from the ancient path, walked away from God, and they were suffering the consequences of choosing to do what they wanted instead of doing what God wanted.
Who Is for the Lord?
In Exodus 32:26, Moses was watching the children of God right after he confronted the governmental leaders of his time, Pharaoh, and took the Israelites out of Pharaoh’s captivity. He brings them to the wilderness, gets them through the Red Sea, and prepares them for the promised land. While he goes up to the mountain to listen to God and receive some governmental wisdom from God to lead the nation of Israel, God starts giving him the Ten Commandments.
While he’s up on the mountain, the Israelites get restless and say, «Man, we’re tired of waiting on our pastor to come back from his break. We’re tired of waiting on somebody to come and preach.» They look at Aaron, Moses’s assistant, and say, «Build us a calf that we can worship.» So, from that moment on, they started worshiping Baal. We’re going to talk about Baal worship later in this message, but Moses comes down from the mountain, and God is angry because He is jealous. You know, it’s a righteous thing for God to be jealous for His people because God’s heart beats for people, people, people. If you could put your ear next to God’s heartbeat, it would be saying «people, people, people, ” every tribe, every tongue, every nation.
God is jealous for us because He knows there is no other god, no other idol that can satisfy us like He can. He created us to worship Him. He created us not to live by accident, nor to worship worthless idolatrous things in our nations. He created us to know Him, to worship Him, and to find our fulfillment, significance, and satisfaction in Him and Him alone. In God, we trust.
But God was watching as His nation, that He just rescued, was no longer trusting Him. They were trusting in their own man-made images. Moses comes down from the mountain, and he asks this question in verse 26: „Who is for the Lord?“ Whoever is for the Lord, come to me. In other words, he was drawing a line in the sand. He was saying, „You can choose what you want to do. You can choose where you want to go. You can choose who you want to worship. You can even choose who you want to vote for. But Moses said, 'I just want to know who is for the Lord.'“
I think that’s the question God’s asking His church right now: who is for the Lord in this room? Who is for what the Lord wants? Who is for what the Lord’s heart beats for?
The Lesson from Russia in 1917
I think it’s interesting that in 1917, I heard a story about a church in Russia. There was a large church in Russia in 1917; this was way before Victory went into Russia. We entered Russia in 1993, St. Petersburg, Russia. I remember going with my parents, and we went every month for the next 18 months, and we saw a million-plus people come to Jesus Christ. This was right after the Iron Curtain fell and communism was shut down, and the door was open for Christianity to come in, and Victory Church was there.
But 70-plus years before that, in 1917, the Orthodox Church of Russia had a meeting for several weeks about the theology in the church, and on the last day, they had a major argument about the color of their robes. They were intensely focused on arguing over whether the robes should be purple, black, or yellow. It was heated—it lasted all day, for 10-plus hours, literally 10 hours. They spent that time arguing over the color of their robes.
Five blocks down the street from this Orthodox Church, there was a leader growing in popularity named Vladimir Lenin. He was sharing a vision of Marxism, communism, and how to overthrow the current Russian government. Within a few months, he overthrew Russia and brought in a communist regime to turn the entire nation to the religion of atheism. He outlawed Christianity, shut down churches, got rid of all Bibles, and burned the Bibles and other religions. The church was arguing about robes within the four walls while a nation was being deceived, divided, and destroyed by a demonic agenda of communism that would shut down the impact of the gospel for the next 70 years.
A Demonic Agenda Today
Can I tell you there is an agenda right now in the United States of America, a demonic agenda to take away the freedom of religion, to take away the freedom of speech, to take away the freedom to bear arms, to take away the sanctity of life, the natural God-given birth gender of humanity, to erase gender norms, to redefine marriage and sexuality—that’s already happened—and to use the government-funded school system to indoctrinate children with an antichrist mindset and worldview? We’re standing at a crossroads, church, and it has been said that if you want to ruin a dinner party, talk about religion and politics. So, I’m here to ruin a dinner party this morning, so buckle up, buttercup, let’s go.
If you got a Bible, go to Romans chapter 13:1. Lord, I pray that you would speak to us today. God, help us at the crossroads of America. In Jesus’s name, thank you so much. We’re going to worship again at the end. Romans 13:1 says, „Let everyone, ” everybody say everyone, „be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.“
God’s Four Types of Government
Now, there are authorities that have become corrupt, but God instituted government, and He had four different types of government. He had individual government, which God instituted in the very beginning when He created Adam. He created us to be our own governors of our own actions. You are in charge of you. This is why it’s so important: if you want to change the world, change yourself first. So there’s individual government; this is self-government, self-control, where one loves God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loves their neighbor as themselves.
God expects us to govern ourselves well. Secondly, the other form of government is family government. God instituted marriage between a man and a woman, and He instituted the husband to be the head of the household, to be the father. He said, „Be fruitful and multiply.“ Right now, we have a population problem in the world. There’s a decreasing population; there are fewer and fewer people who want to bring kids into the world. They say the world’s too evil to bring kids in. Ashley and I are doing our part; we’ve brought five into the church. Everyone else—God commanded us to be fruitful and multiply.
But I hear people saying, „Well, we just can’t have kids right now. It’s just crazy out there with inflation; we can’t afford to have kids.“ But God desires the Earth to be filled with people. That’s why He put Adam and Eve here. He said, „Be fruitful and multiply, ” and He has a plan for the family. Now, there’s a demonic agenda to destroy the family network, the nuclear family—to get rid of men and to call men buffoons, idiots, and say they don’t know what they’re doing. They’re dumb and shouldn’t be in charge. There’s a demonic agenda against women as well. So, we’ve got to confront: What does the Bible have to say about family? Not what does Oprah or some popular icon like Beyoncé or Eminem have to say about family—what does God have to say about family?
Number three, the third type of government is church government. God instituted in the Old Testament and the New Testament priests and leaders—priests that would lead the people in worship, worship leaders. In the New Testament, there are pastors, prophets, apostles, teachers, evangelists. This is church government. God has a plan for leadership in the church. God’s not against churches; there’s a movement right now that’s trying to get rid of all church leadership. They say everybody should just float around in houses, but God actually instituted leaders in the church: pastors, prophets, apostles, teachers, and evangelists.
The fourth type of government He instituted is civil government. God actually instituted civil government: kings, leaders, and rulers of nations. Civil government also has those who would be in charge of correcting and punishing those who do evil. This is why Romans says to be careful with your life because these authorities have been placed by God in their position; they’re called to punish those who do evil. This is why you should do good so that you’re not walking in the punishment of that.
The Church Must Speak Up
Now, the idea that has crept into our nation and has intimidated a lot of pastors, and I’ll be honest, I’ve even at times felt intimidated, is that we shouldn’t talk about this in church; that pastors and Christians shouldn’t talk about politics or that there’s a separation of church and state. But the more I’ve studied this and talked with my pastor friends, the more I’ve realized it was actually to keep the church safe from the state trying to step in and control what the church can and can’t believe and speak. Now, it’s been used to intimidate pastors and Christians to say, „You can’t talk about anything.“ But the Bible is what we stand on; this is what we believe and we actually have a right to this. The men who founded our nation did so on Godly principles and to separate from a tyrannical type of society that was trying to control what the church could and could not say.
If the church doesn’t speak up, the world will. The world has. If the church doesn’t disciple children in this generation, the world will disciple children in this generation. If Godly voices go silent or refuse to be clear on specific issues, the only voices left are Godless voices. America’s government is a democracy, which means we the people get to vote and elect officials and laws that represent our values, concerns, and ideas as a nation. When the government was just focusing on road construction and mathematics and little things like that, it wasn’t a huge deal. But the government has now crept into its territory; it’s not that the church has become more political, it’s that politics has become more spiritual. Politics has become more theological.
Now we have politics trying to tell us what we can and can’t do as parents and families. This is why we need to understand we’re in a time right now where the issues on the ballot are way bigger than we realize. We’ve got way bigger issues going on in our nation right now besides inflation. We have a government that is genuinely trying to take over what the church can and can’t do, and the church has to rise up and tell the government, „Get back in your lane! Get back in your lane!“
I might be removed from YouTube for preaching this message. The United Kingdom just released an article saying that most young adults there have been polled and believe there should be a ban on the Bible in the United Kingdom. You know Christianity used to be the top religious belief in the United Kingdom; now it’s atheism and Islam, and the young adults there are actually saying they believe there should be a ban on the Bible, labeling it as hate speech. Right now, if you post a scripture on social media in the United Kingdom without its proper context, you can be removed from social media, and you could actually have to pay fines or be thrown in jail for saying something from the Bible that sounds like hate speech against another person’s beliefs. We are living in some crazy times right now.
Doing What Is Right in Our Own Eyes
Deuteronomy 12:8 warned us of what was coming. It says you are not to do as we do here today; everyone was doing as they saw fit according to their own eyes. Judges said it like this in Judges 17:6: everyone did what was pleasing in their own eyes. Throughout the scriptures, at first, people were listening to God and following God, and then people started becoming morally confused. They said, „What’s right for you is right for you, but what’s right for me is right for me, ” and everybody has their own truth. „This is my truth; that’s your truth.“ No, no, no, there is an absolute truth. But people exchanged absolute truth for a lie that was pleasing to their flesh, to say, „Well, it feels good, and I don’t like you condemning me. I don’t like you shaming me. I don’t like you making me feel bad. You’re hurting my feelings; you should just affirm what I want to do.“ But if I affirm what you want to do, I don’t actually love you.
If I love you, and I have five kids, if I love my kids and one of them punches the other one in the face and says, „Daddy, don’t tell me it’s wrong; just affirm me, ” I’m going to say, „You’re hurting your brother! I can’t affirm your action because it is not only harmful towards others, but ultimately it’s going to land you in a bad place. If you don’t take control of your temper, someday a policeman will throw you in jail. So how about I teach you what’s right and what’s wrong?“ We’re living in a society that doesn’t want to be told what’s right and what’s wrong.
This was back in the Old Testament, too. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. I believe the United States historically might be right where this place was in the Book of Judges. God had to raise up some interesting characters to take care of business. I’m so thankful God uses interesting characters like you and me.
Bonhoeffer’s Stand
One of those characters was a man named Samson. Samson was raised up as a judge; he was going to be used by God to do some great things. But Sam had some issues—one of the big issues Samson had was women, and he did not make wise decisions with women. But another thing Samson was known for was his hair. I’m just going to let that sit there for a second. He was known for his hair.
But Samson was also known as a resilient fighter. He escaped multiple assassination attempts on his life. Think about that for a second. Now, you can get mad at me today; I’m preaching the Bible. There was a moment in the early 1940s when Hitler gathered together a group of pastors and sat down with them. He said, „I’m going to start something in the coming months and years, but I want you to know that when I start this, I’m not going to hurt the churches. I won’t harm the churches. In fact, if you pledge your allegiance to me, I’ll take care of you. I’ll financially provide for the church.“ Germany funded the churches during Hitler’s time as long as the pastors pledged their allegiance. He said, „You don’t have to worry about your churches; I’ll take care of you.“
This was right before he began slaughtering millions of Jews. We’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to be discerning no matter who’s running for office. At the end of the day, our allegiance is to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. You should vote; you should pray and keep your eyes on Jesus and bow to Jesus Christ only. But in this moment, pastors began to get afraid because they thought, „I don’t agree with everything Adolf Hitler’s doing right now, but he’s funding our church, and we do get that nice tax-exempt status, so we’re not going to say anything.“
Well, there was one pastor who spoke up. His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. There’s a movie coming out next month on Bonhoeffer; I think we should all go see it. Bonhoeffer was a pastor who was willing to take a stand. In fact, he wrote this down in his journal: „Not to speak is to speak, and not to act is to act.“ Because right now, 31 million Christians in America are saying, „I don’t want to vote. I can’t find a perfect candidate; I can’t find someone I’m super excited about. I don’t want to vote.“ But not to speak is to speak; not to vote is to vote; not to act is to act. In fact, you’re more political when you back out of politics because you’ve now joined with a neutral movement that adds to more political decay in our nation.
Bonhoeffer looked at Hitler in that meeting and said, „Mr. Hitler, we are not concerned about our churches being okay; God will take care of our churches. God is the one who established this church. What we are concerned about is the soul of Germany.“ Hitler said, „Don’t worry about the soul of Germany; I’ll take care of that.“ Friends, God is our only hope for America. The soul of America can only be saved by Jesus Christ and by the Word of God and by the power of God. It’s not going to be a man, a woman, or a governmental leader. Our hope is in Jesus. In God we trust.
Three Kinds of Leaders
There are three kinds of leaders that we’ll have a chance in our lifetime to follow. Three types of leaders: there are Josiah leaders. Josiah leaders are righteous people who promote righteous things. Lord, we need more Josiah leaders in the church. I want to be a Josiah leader. We even named one of our kids with Josiah as his middle name. Josiah was the youngest king in Israel, and he was the one king who repented personally when he heard the scrolls. They didn’t have Bibles back then, but they had scrolls of the Word of God that had been written up until that time. When Josiah opened the scrolls, he began to weep and said, „Oh, God, I’ve sinned, I’ve sinned.“
Now, Josiah wasn’t a bad person, but he was a human just like all of us, so he recognized his sin. Instead of telling everyone else to repent, he personally repented first to God and then he began to lead the nation in repentance. He tore down the idols of his time; he tore down the false gods that had been lifted up. He cleaned out the temple; he began to purge and rebuild the temple. He worked on getting people back to worship and back to the fear of God. These are the kinds of leaders that we pray for; these are the kinds of leaders we hope can lead our nation.
If you’re called into politics, please be a Josiah leader. Please lead America. Please lead Tulsa, Oklahoma. Whoever in this room one day is running for office for anything, we need some Josiah leaders in our city, state, and our nation that are going to care about what God cares about.
Number two, the second kind of leaders is Ahab and Jezebel leaders. Ahab and Jezebel, in First Kings 16, were known as the most wicked king and queen that ever led the nation of Israel. King Ahab was a weak man, and he married a woman that was a witch. She practiced witchcraft, and she brought in all kinds of witchcraft into the nation. She began to practice magic arts and then began to worship false gods and idols. The three idols that they lifted up during that time with Ahab and Jezebel are called the dark Trinity by some people. This trifecta of false gods was Molech, Ishtar, and Baal.
The Dark Trinity: Baal, Ishtar, and Molech
Baal worship was this intense, possessive spirit. Baal was this pagan god of sexuality, war, dominion, and power. So, what they did to worship Baal is they would actually have—can I preach the Bible? It’s going to feel like it’s rated R, but I just got to go there—they had orgies in the temple. They took over Christian churches; they turned them into sexual temples of perversion between men and men, women and women, which is absolutely not God’s plan for humanity. They began to worship Baal and prostitute themselves to each other in groups to try to get Baal’s power to send rain down on their land. They would worship Baal and then produce false prophets that would tell people what they wanted to hear.
This was all throughout Israel. God’s heart was breaking as He watched them worship Baal. The god of Ishtar was actually a god of immorality. They would lift up Asherah poles, and these were poles of pornographic images. This was the spirit of pornography, a spirit of nudity. People didn’t care what anyone thought; they were just going to do what felt good.
I think it’s interesting right now—I read an article last week that there’s a group of witches that have been trying to cast spells on one of the candidates, and one of those witches said, „I hate to say this, but I can’t do any magic spells against this person. There’s some form of protection surrounding him that feeds off a magic that’s done against him.“ I just think it’s interesting that witches are casting spells on one candidate.
You’ve got to think about that. Ishtar—the god of Ishtar actually—the Israelites would parade themselves in the streets one month out of the year. One month out of the year, they would parade themselves nude, doing dances and sacrifices and sexual acts of perversion. They would dress up as men and women—full-on parade, one month a year. This was happening thousands of years ago in the name of idol worship to Ishtar.
And the third god that Ahab and Jezebel lifted up was Molech. Molech was the god where they would actually sacrifice children on the altar. When you read the Bible and start reading this, you’re like, „What? In our lifetime?“ We’re like, „What in the world?“ Who would sacrifice or kill innocent babies in the womb? Who would kill millions of babies on the altar of Molech? Jeremiah 7:31 calls these the altars of fire where they would shed innocent blood. They hadn’t grown up yet; they didn’t know right from wrong—they were babies. They didn’t even have a moral system in their mind, and they would just kill them in the name of trying to get Molech’s favor.
We’re in a time right now when our nation is at a crossroads where there have been multiple false gods lifted up in the spirit. I’m not saying we’re in a personal battle; we’re in a spiritual battle. We’re not in a cultural war; we’re in a spiritual war right now. Don’t start thinking, „Who’s who?“ Don’t point fingers. I’m just saying we’re in a time where we need to discern the spirits that are all at war. Even in our own city—Tulsa, South Tulsa, North Tulsa, East Tulsa, West Tulsa. Oklahoma—you might say, „I don’t think it’s here.“ It’s here; it’s here; it’s right down the street. There are spirits at war over Christians.
Right? The devil doesn’t want you to hear this sermon, so if you’re tempted to walk out of offense right now because you don’t like something I said, I’m just saying, sit through to the end. Let the Holy Spirit digest. Eat the meat and spit out the bones. I’m a flawed person in need of God’s mercy, just like you. I’m up here doing my best to deliver what God’s put on my heart, but don’t miss what God wants you to hear today.
Jehu: The Flawed Instrument
Ahab was a spiritual leader in his time—a wicked spiritual leader leading people away from the Spirit of God. Jezebel was his wife. The third kind of leader—this was an interesting leader—was Jehu. Jehu was a flawed man used by God for good to execute judgment on Jezebel. God used this guy who was kind of described in the Bible as a maniac. He was called a madman, and he had this gritty resilience, strength, and perseverance where he would stand up to people. People were like, „Don’t mess with Jehu; he’s kind of wild. I don’t know if he’s fully saved, but he’s been used by God in some way.“ He wasn’t perfect.
How many of you all in this room aren’t perfect? If you didn’t raise your hand, we’ve got an altar for liars at the end of the service. Your spouse will tell you, „Hey, you’re not perfect!“ At times we miss it. Jehu really missed it. He missed it, but he also fulfilled God’s assignment.
It’s possible for God to use people like Samson and Jehu that aren’t perfect, that have many flaws but, in some way, fight for things that are close to God’s heart. When a nation was overrun by wicked leaders, one godly leader disengaged, and that was Elijah. Elijah ran into the caves when Jezebel threatened to take his life. Elijah started crying out to God; he said, „God, I need your help right now.“ And God said, „Elijah, I want you to anoint Jehu to do what I’ve asked you to do. I’ve asked you to take over this nation and bring revival, but because you’ve disengaged and feel afraid and intimidated, because the spirit of Jezebel caused intimidation and depression, it caused a sense of hopelessness—people just became hopeless under Jezebel’s spirit.
So God said, „Elijah, I need you to anoint someone that not everybody’s going to agree with.“ So He said, „I need you to anoint Jehu.“ Elijah doesn’t even get to do this; he ends up anointing Elisha and then Elisha sends someone to anoint Jehu. When they do, it’s in 2 Kings chapter 9—it’s one of the craziest stories. They anoint Jehu while Ahab’s son is the king of Israel. Jehu goes in and kills Ahab’s son. You go, „I don’t think that’s right.“ That man was leading the nation into more and more perversion, darkness, and murder. He was killing all kinds of godly people. Sometimes God will—listen, God’s going to get justice; God’s going to get justice.
We don’t always understand it, but when you read the whole Bible, this is why we can’t throw out the Old Testament; we need Genesis to Revelation. We have to have a full scope understanding. God loves people, but God also cares about righteousness and justice. And so God used Jehu to overthrow. You know, just two weeks ago, the world actually rejoiced when Israel took out the top Hamas terrorist leader because the world understood this man has been killing people; he wants to kill more. When Hitler was dead, the world rejoiced. When the righteous thrive, the nation rejoices. When wickedness rules the land, the people moan; the people mourn. It’s grieving.
Three Things to Remember at the Crossroads
As a church, we’ve got to understand these times we’re living in, and then ask ourselves, „What do we need to do with this?“ Three things to remember as we approach this crossroads: number one, God uses flawed, sinful people. God used Abraham to be the father of many nations, but Abraham slept with another woman that wasn’t his wife. Noah was a drunk man. When you start looking through the characters of God’s chosen people, Isaac was just like his dad: he lied. Jacob was a deceiver, a cheater, a liar, and yet God called him the Chosen One of Israel. Leah was jealous and angry; her husband called her ugly. Joseph was abused, left behind by his family. He felt traumatic—I mean, he went through a lot. Moses was a murderer, right? David committed adultery and murdered someone, yet he was called a man after God’s own heart.
These are things that we don’t get—it just doesn’t add up. What’s going on? God’s using flawed people; God’s using people that have sinned. God’s using you. God loves you; He loves your family, He loves your children, and He loves your grandparents—even the people you don’t love. When you start reading through the Bible, Rahab was one of the greatest women that God used—the prostitute. Gideon was insecure; he questioned God and doubted God at times, yet God used Gideon to deliver Israel. Samson slept with prostitutes, right? He was a womanizer who disobeyed his parents, and yet God used him to take out more Philistines in his death than he ever did in his life.
Elijah was depressed and suicidal. You can have Jesus in your heart and Jezebel in your head, and God used Elijah in his lifetime. Jehu was deeply flawed but used by God. Jonah ran from God and got angry when he preached to a city, and the city actually repented and received forgiveness. Jonah wanted to see them all burn in hell, and God was still using Peter, who denied Christ three times. Jesus said, „You’re going to build the church, Peter. You’re going to be the first preacher at Pentecost.“
The Samaritan woman was divorced five times, and Jesus used her to be the greatest evangelist to the Samaritan village. Paul the Apostle was a terrorist. If we pull up your track record or mine, we all stand at the foot of the cross on level ground saying, „God, I need mercy; I need Your grace.“ Where would I be without the cross, without Jesus? Who are we to demand 100% perfection from our president? We never have had a perfect person running for office; we never will. We just have to choose the lesser of two evils. God uses some flawed people.
Number two: vote policies over personalities. Jesus said in Luke 18:19, „No one is good except God.“ We’ve got to stop looking for the best personalities. We’re like, „Well, I just like this personality; I really like the jokes they tell. I really like their hair; I just feel like I connect with them.“ God said in 1 Samuel 16:7, „Don’t judge outward appearances when it comes to picking a king, ” because outward appearances are deceiving. Outward appearances are not the goal; personalities will come and go.
I just don’t like the way some of these people tweet on Twitter or on X. I don’t like their personality quirks or the cuss words they’ve used. Personalities will come and go, but policies and Supreme Court justices will last a lot longer than personalities. A vote is not a valentine; we’re not just looking for warm fuzzy feelings to send. A vote is a decision to say, „Are there policies that align with what we stand for in the Word of God?“ Which one is going to be closest? How we treat the poor, how we love people, how we stand for life, how we stand for what God’s Word is—all these issues matter.
Number three: voting is not just a right; it’s a duty. I’m thankful for that clap right there. I’ll take whatever I can get! I’m standing out on a limb today, y’all don’t know how hard this is for me to preach this message. I have to overcome all kinds of fears to share this message. Thank you!
A Personal Testimony and Call to Action
This past week, I had a chance to go pray for one of the candidates in a room with pastors, and I brought Liam with me, my oldest son. We were in a room with President Donald Trump. By the way, I’ll pray for Vice President Harris if she asks me to. I’ll pray for any political candidate; they just haven’t asked me yet. I’ve been asked multiple times to pray for Trump, and I’ve taken some of those invites, but I went this last week and took Liam with me. I was just thinking about future generations, and I thought, „We are where we are today because of choices our nation has made or not made.“
To not speak is to speak; to not act is to act. I want our kids to know where I stand. So I just felt like this week, Ashley and I prayed, and I really feel like I’m supposed to preach some things that might feel uncomfortable, and maybe we might have some people that misunderstand me and leave. But I pray they know my heart because our nation is on the line in some ways right now.
Maybe you disagree with me, and you can still be in our church. I pray, but I also pray that you challenge your thoughts, your reason, your logic. Challenge what you watch on the news. Just ask, „What is God’s heart right now?“ People laid down their lives for our right to vote. They laid down their lives for our duty to vote. We are stewards of our voice; we’re stewards of what God has given us. He’s given us time; He’s given us talent; He’s given us treasure. We’re stewards of this—not my body; it’s His body.
So, I want to be a good steward of this. We should all, in this nation, understand God places us in nations to be an influence on that nation for the betterment of that nation. What would it look like to make our nation better—not just economically but spiritually? I don’t think there’s anyone that can fix the spiritual issue in our nation except Jesus Christ. He’s the only one. He’s our only hope.
In Matthew 25, Jesus talks about stewardship and says, „With whatever you’ve been given, you’ve got to do something with it.“ There was one guy that hid his gifts. He hid his opportunities; he had the chance to vote, to use his voice, his influence, his impact, his skills, his time, his talent, and his treasure. He said, „No, no, no, I’m going to hide it, ” and Jesus said, „That’s laziness, and that’s bad stewardship.“ The ones who use what they have are given more.
Don’t disengage; voting is our power to pick the best available path forward. Matthew 5:13—Jesus said, „You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world.“ Everybody say, „I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world.“ That’s what Jesus called us to be. Salt is a preservative. It’s not just good flavor you put on your chicken, steak, mac and cheese, or green beans—whatever you eat after church.
Salt is also something that stops decay; it slows down decay. Ultimately, our world is going to decay; eventually, it will die. But the church is not called to sit back and watch it all go down. The church is to be salt to say, „How can we slow down the moral decay in our nation? How can we stand for some things that are righteous right now?“ We’ve got to use whatever we can with what’s at our disposal to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world to slow down the decay. Whose policies will slow the decay of morality in our nation the most?
The world is eventually going to decay, but whose policies will slow it down the most? Right now, listen, I love you; God loves you. Whether you came in here today and you sinned right before church or you had an abortion last week, you are loved in this church. We are so grateful you came into Victory. Whether you’ve ever made a mistake, I’ve got close friends in my life who’ve walked through some of these things we’ve been talking about today; they know I love them.
But love doesn’t mean I just affirm every single decision that I’ve made or you’ve made in your lifetime. Love says, „Listen, I love God, and because I do, if I were to look back on my life—not every single thing I’ve done is the best decision that God would have for my life and for that, I repent.“ Not every single decision you’ve made as a close friend can I say, „Hey, I affirm every single decision you’ve made in your lifetime.“ No, no, no. If you started sharing with me some things that you regret, I’d say, „Man, I’m sorry you walked through that. I know God will forgive you if you’ll repent and turn to Him. He’ll help you get back up. God has mercy waiting for you.“
But that doesn’t mean I just affirm every decision. This is why we’ve got to come back to what is God’s heart. I want the band to come out.
Key Issues on the Ballot
Some key issues that are going on right now: judges, borders, Israel, religious liberties, gender, family, and life. Let’s talk about it.
Who we elect will also elect judges. We have to ask ourselves who the kind of person is that will elect judges that will lean towards helping Christian beliefs. You go, „I don’t think judges really matter.“ Oh, judges matter! We found that out in 2020 when you started seeing cities that were getting locked down and pastors being told, „You cannot have religious liberties to preach the gospel and to gather.“ He was arrested and spent time in jail. We have to understand that judges make decisions and those decisions affect the church, businesses, bakers, graphic designers, and photographers who have religious beliefs. A doctor who says, „I just can’t do this.“ Judges will determine, so we have to ask, „Who’s going to elect judges that are going to lean towards protecting Christian beliefs in our nation?“
You go, „I just don’t think it matters.“ It does matter. Borders—God is a God of boundaries and borders. We’re a church that loves every nation, every tribe, every tongue. We’re so thankful for every ethnicity in our church; we reach the nations. God loves the whole nation; God loves the foreigners; He’s called us to love everybody. But God set boundaries. Even in the Garden of Eden when He had to remove Adam and Eve, He put an angel in front of the Garden and said, „This is a boundary; you can’t come back in here.“
God actually put borders when He started the nation of Israel. He told Abraham, „Here are the borders; here are the boundaries.“ God is a God of boundaries and borders. That doesn’t mean we don’t love people; it just means we need to have proper vetting and caution. Even in the last month, they found someone in our own state who was planning a bombing on Election Day—that was an illegal immigrant.
Right now, there are millions coming in. I think we’ve got to be careful. Who’s going to help protect the borders of our nation to protect our children and grandchildren? Thirdly, we’ve got to look at Israel. Who stands for Israel? You go, „Why does Israel matter to God?“ Genesis 12:3 says, „Whoever curses Israel will be cursed, and whoever blesses Israel will be blessed.“ I don’t know about you, but I want our nation to be blessed. We’ve got to pray for Israel. That doesn’t mean we agree on every single decision that is made, but we stand for Israel.
We’re going to pray for Israel and believe for an end to war in the Gaza Strip so that innocent lives will not be taken anymore, and that the terrorists will be taken out. But we need a president who stands strong with Israel and for Israel. Fourthly, look at religious liberties. We need someone who’s fighting for religious liberty—someone who’s saying, „We don’t want to cause pastors and Christians to feel like they have to be quiet and sit in a corner, ” but someone who will give Christians the courage and boldness to have beliefs that aren’t punished and thrown in jail.
If you’re a baker and you won’t bake a cake for what you believe, you shouldn’t have to bake a cake. I’m not saying we shouldn’t ask ourselves these questions, just like gender is on the ballot. Who ever thought this? I remember when I was in college; my first election I voted in was in 2004 when I was a freshman. My dad preached, and later in 2008 when I graduated, he preached again as the interim president of our campus, and he caught a lot of flak because he said our nation is headed in a direction based on this next election.
He said this, and little did he know he would pass away the next year in 2009. He said our nation one day will be faced with decisions on gender and the sexualization of minors, of children, pedophilia. He said it was coming to our nation, and people were like, „Gasps!“ at ORU—we were like, „What?“ As his son, I just tried to shrink back. There were people mad at my dad for taking such a strong stand, and here I am 16 years later trying to take a strong stand again.
Genesis 1:27 says, „So God created mankind in His own image, male and female.“ God created two genders, not 97. Now, if you don’t know the difference between a man and a woman, I’m not going to say it from the pulpit, but a man has a body part, and a woman has a different body part. If you don’t know the difference, you shouldn’t be in the Oval Office leading the nation.
Right now, there are 14 states that have signed into law that the state has the power to take a minor from his or her parents if they desire to make a gender change. They can say, „I know I’m a boy, but I want to be a girl.“ If the parents don’t consent, the government can take the child from their house. You go, „I don’t know if that’s possible.“ It is happening in 14 states; one of them is Minnesota, and the governor said, „We’re going to make this a refuge for any minors who want to be mutilated.“
What’s happened is a lot of these children, after they’ve made the change, a few years later, they’re saying, „Man, I was in a confusing time. We’re all confused as teenagers and as kids.“ I was confused; don’t act like you weren’t. If I made decisions in my hurts, wounds, and insecurities, and confusion, right now, there are states saying if a kid wants to do this, parents don’t even have a say. They’re stripping parental rights away. This is important.
And I know that might not be a huge deal to everyone, but boys are playing in girls' sports and taking away girls' ability to compete in ways they’ve had for years. They’re now saying, „Well, if a boy says he’s a girl, he gets to go in a girl’s locker room.“ Listen, family is on the ballot right now. The nuclear family—the very essence of what God designed—is being attacked. Lastly, life is on the ballot. God hates the spirit of murder; He does. Proverbs 6:17 mentions things that God detests, and murder is one of them—murdering innocent blood.
Right now, in this current election, we don’t have someone who’s 100% pro-life, so we have to choose who’s closest to this. As I was praying with a group of pastors, we were talking and praying for this candidate and discussing, „You know, we really need to pray for his heart to be turned back to being 100% standing with the church on this issue.“ I know he’s navigating a lot of different voices and pressures; this is why the church has to pray.
We’re called to pray. But the other side has gone to the extreme, saying abortion can and should happen all the way up to nine months and delivery. In that delivery, it becomes women’s reproductive rights. Mobile abortion clinics were set up like food trucks outside of the DNC convention, where they celebrated abortions on the spot. Evil is being exalted in our nation right now.
How can we look at that and say it’s okay? Paul, we shouldn’t talk about it. This is uncomfortable. This is God’s heart. God’s heart beats for you; it beats for me. It beats for those children. You go, „There’s just no perfect situation going on right now.“ If that’s the cop-out to back out, then we need to ask ourselves, „What do I believe?“
I’m standing at a crossroads, and I need to ask, „What is it that I do believe? What is it that I would draw a line in the sand and say, 'Yeah, that’s not okay in our family. We shouldn’t stand for that. We shouldn’t just sit back and watch that.'“
Prayer and Commitment
1 Timothy 2 challenges believers. Paul tells Timothy to tell everyone to pray for governmental leaders. As we end today, I want to end with prayers for our nation, prayers for the future president. At the end of your rows, actually in front of your seats, there are white cards. Would you take one? There are pens, and if you don’t have a pen, just pass the pens down the row.
I want you to write down a prayer you have for whoever’s elected as president. We’re going to collect these, and I want you to write what you’re praying for our nation. Now, you might be sitting here today saying, „Man, I wish our nation was in a better place spiritually.“ Put that on your prayer card. We’re going to collect these. We’re going to send them to the president on inauguration week as a church.
So they know there’s a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that’s praying fervently for the future of our nation because God cares about cities, states, nations, peoples, tribes, and tongues. As a church, we’re committing to pray. We’re not praying to a person, so don’t put „Dear whoever it is you want as president.“ You need to write, „Dear God, I lift up right now the future president of our nation. Lord, I pray, whoever it is, that You would guide them in wisdom and truth, deliver them from deception, deliver them from voices that lead our nation astray. God, bring revival to America.“
Whatever you want to pray, just put your personal prayer on that card. And as you do, I want us to stand to our feet. We’re going to worship and bring those cards down to the altar as an act of prayer, an act of surrender, an act of faith to say, „God, in You we trust.“ In You we trust for the future of our nation, the future of the next generation, the future of our families.
Once you finish writing that card down, just stand to your feet and bring it down to the altar. Then we’ll have an altar call and dismiss. Please don’t leave; we’ve got a few more minutes. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for staying today and praying with us.
As you finish, just bring it down to the altar. Go ahead; let’s worship.
„Your name is a light that the shadows cannot deny; Your name cannot be overcome. Your name is alive forever lifted high; Your name cannot be overcome.“
We sing, „Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Come on, let’s lift up the name of Jesus!“
If you’re here this morning and you need to get right with God, maybe you’re here and just saying, „Paul, I need to repent; I need to let Jesus be Lord of my life.“ There’s only one way to heaven—it’s through Jesus Christ. He’s the way, the truth, and the life. It’s in Him we live; it’s in Him we find our purpose. Maybe you’re here today and just going, „I’ve been in a rough season in my life and walking through a lot.“
If you’re honest, you just go, „There’s some sin in my life I need to repent of, ” or maybe you’ve never let Jesus be Lord of your life. Whether you find yourself at the crossroads of recommitting your heart to Jesus or for the first time committing to say, „I will follow Jesus, ” I just want to ask you to raise your hand if that’s you across this room today.
You’re saying, „I’m ready. I’m ready to get right with God.“ Can we give a hand clap to any person that just raised their hands, those that are watching online?
Now, here’s a second request. Will you commit with me on this message to pray for our nation? To pray for the current state of our nation at the crossroads? How many of you all received the word today, and you’re going to commit to pray? That’s all I’m asking you to do is just pray.
After and before you vote, that’s the other thing I’m asking you to do. If you’re at the crossroads of whether or not you want to vote, I would just say pray about it and listen to this message again and maybe listen to other messages you hear online about the current state of our nation, and just keep praying for our nation. Keep praying for God’s will to be done; God’s kingdom to come.
So, I’m going to ask our church to consider meeting me in the morning at 6:30 am to pray for the next eight days up to the election—from tomorrow, October 28th, all the way to November 5th, which is next Tuesday. It’s eight days, and if we would pray together, maybe you could come. We’ll meet in this room; we’ll just put on some worship music, and we’ll pray for our nation.
It’ll be before work, before school, from 6:30 till about 7:30, 7:25, and then you could head off to work. Just a time to gather, to pray. For some of you, you’re like, „That is way too early“; for others, you’re like, „I’m up at 4:00 am; let’s go!“ But I just encourage you—whether you can come to that or not—to just every day between now and then to pray. Pray for pastors, for churches, for Christians, pray for leaders.
Ashley, you got something?
Yeah, I just have—I’m just so stirred with courage and gratitude for our pastor to preach a word like that. Billy Graham says that „When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.“ I believe that Paul and many other pastors that are taking a stand—not necessarily for a candidate, but putting a microphone to the principles and truths that are found in the Word of God—will inspire us as a church. We should then step out with boldness as well.
When someone takes a stand, the best response is for every single one of us to take a stand as well. I just want to say publicly that we’re proud of you, Paul.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we pray right now for every person that raised their hand, for every person that watched online, God, that You would just be Lord of their life. I thank You, God, for Your forgiveness entering their hearts. Lord, I thank You for a stirring of courage to enter all of our hearts, God, by the Holy Spirit.
I pray, God, that You would protect us, God. Deliver us from every demonic agenda and attack against the church, and I thank You, Lord, that the gates of Hell will not prevail. Lord, I pray in Jesus' name that we would go and be salt and light, God, to be an impact on our city, our state, our nation, and the world. I thank You, Lord, that You are building Your church. The best days for Victory are right in front of us. In Jesus' name, if you agree with that, say amen.