Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we are

processing the election results because

the results are in and we now know that

former president Donald Trump is now

President elect Donald Trump winning in

really a landslide victory at least at

the time of this recording seemingly

having won every Battleground State

winning the popular vote and even

leading his party to to win the Senate

and maintain control of the house it's a

staggering result and it has resulted in

a lot of people feeling very strongly

either positively or negatively because

of the results and by the way I'm not

saying that because I've watched the

news or I've read that in articles I'm

saying that because I'm the pastor of a

church who has filled up my email inbox

with some people celebrating and other

people wondering if they can continue to

come to a church and sit next to people

who voted a different way and listen I

am not a political expert or a political

correspondent so I'll Focus my response

and remarks on how a local church or

more importantly the Christians who make

up that church should be thinking about

these election results first I want to

challenge you to process your own

immediate reaction often times the the

way we react is indicative of what we

actually believe Jesus said it this way

out of the Overflow of the heart the

mouth speaks if you feel like America

was headed to you know to destruction

and now has been saved I would just

challenge you that you're probably

putting a little too much stock in your

political candidate or political party

we I want to be wary of Christians

adopting a savior kind of language

because a that's putting too much on any

one person and B is going to result in

pretty massive disappointment because no

one person is capable of fixing

everything that is wrong with human

nature I'm not saying if you are happy

with the outcome that you should feel

bad about that or that you can't think

that this is a turn in the right

direction if that's your opinion you're

definitely entitled to that but I just

want to make sure that we aren't saying

that Donald Trump can do for us what

Jesus Christ wasn't going to or couldn't

have done without him by the way the

same thing holds in the opposite

direction if you woke up this morning

and saw the results and said oh now we

have no hope now we are devastated you

are putting too much into Donald Trump

as a villain and too much into kamla

Harris as a potential hero look to both

sides I would say if you're feeling good

I get that if you're feeling bad I get

that but ultimately both of those

reactions need to be chased pretty

quickly by reminding yourself that your

ultimate hope is in Jesus Christ that he

is the one according to the Book of

Revelation that is making all things new

the second thing I want to challenge you

on is realiz I that there are people who

love you and love Jesus people who go to

your church who greet you at the door

who uh take care of your kids while

you're in a worship service who play

instruments or sing to you who probably

voted the other way in this election and

their feelings matter they may not be

right I'm not asking you to agree with

their conclusion but part of loving each

other is understanding that people have

different perspectives that people value

different things that in the economy of

their vote they were seeking to

understand what it looks like to pursue

human flourishing and potentially even

following Jesus by valuing some things

over and against others I think we got

to make sure that we make space for each

other to be excited or to grieve the

other part of that is believing the best

about each other you know in First

Corinthians 13 a great passage on love

said that love believes all things I

think a great way of understanding

understanding that is that love gives

people the benefit of the doubt people

who voted in an opposite direction of me

didn't do that because they're evil and

they didn't do that because they were

seeking to destroy the country that I

was trying to save people who voted

differently than me did so for a lot of

the same reasons I want this country to

be great so do they I I want people to

flourish so do they we just don't agree

on how to get there believing the best

about the people who sit next to us

believing the best about our fellow

Christians is thinking that they

probably had what to them were good

reasons because after all there's no

such thing as a perfect candidate there

wasn't one in this election there will

never be one in future elections so

we're all trying to figure out what

matters most in the order and value that

we give our particular votes and then

lastly I'll say this uh the election is

over nothing fundamental about your life

change this week the people who matter

are not the people you watched on CNN or

fox or whatever news show you were

watching the people who matter in your

life are not even the ones who got

elected not fundamentally it always

worries me that elections happen in

November because we're headed into

Thanksgiving and Christmas we're going

to be around families a lot of us feel

pretty passionately about politics and

the danger of course is that that could

lead to some explosive conversations can

can I just challenge you to remember

that it is far more important that you

love people than that everyone sees

things your way it is far more important

that you value your family and time with

them and loving them and representing

Christ to them than it is that you lord

your win over them or that you lament

your loss with them look the reality is

our country has a long way to go in a

lot of ways we may have taken some steps

forward we may have taken some steps

back WS time will tell but none of that

matters as much as you and I loving each

other and loving Jesus and trusting his

kingdom to go forward so let's get back

to the work that really matters and move

on from this election hey thanks so much

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