 Welcome everybody to unfiltered pastor David. Welcome. Thank you. I want to thank you for joining us here today and pastor I had a question because We have a lot of churches around the world. We have a lot of churches in our area we have a lot of churches in California and You know, you see the different uses of the pulpit in some churches and some churches use the pulpit as or not churches, but pastors use the pulpit as a place for entertainment or as a platform to Launch a personal agenda or any other use than the word of God and how dangerous can that be for the church if the the most holy Table in the in the church Where the place where God's word goes out is I don't want to say vandalized It's tainted with an agenda. How dangerous is it for the church? You know that? churches in the United States at least I think for the last many years have Often been occupied by pastors who have a desire to glorify the Lord and I would say the overwhelming majority Pastors that I would be aware of at least Are people who want to honor God and they want to present the truth of Christ and they want to see the captive set free and all of the things that that That pastors ought to want and on occasion what you end up with is you end up seeing By by virtue of just comparison you will see some places that are occupied by pastors who seem to have have lost their way and Maybe have taken a turn in a direction that at this moment to them may seem to indicate that they're They're on the right note if you will that they're doing the right thing and perhaps even may applaud themselves and their church May even applaud the pastor For taking the turn that he's taken you know, I do see that I do see Churches that unfortunately sometimes are being led by somebody who's forgotten what he was called to do And I think that that's becoming a little more common, but not necessarily overwhelming the church You know we We've been given a mandate when the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking to the Apostle Peter after restoring him He had said if you love me feed or tend my sheep and my lambs given the word of God why because Shepherds are to give the full counsel of God when Paul was speaking to the elders of the church of Ephesus there in place called my lead us when he was there giving his last Really his last talk and encouragement to these men He said that they are to You know to shepherd the church there to love the church He said I have not shunned to declare into you the entire counsel of God and because of that he was very capable of Leaving them in the hands of the Lord as he moved on to his final his final destination so my own pastor taught me Chuck Smith taught me that My role is to Present to people the kingdom of God and to present people the king of the world the king of the universe and that's Jesus Christ I Think that churches are making a huge turn moving into the wrong area When they become Republican churches I Also think that churches are Going in the wrong direction when the pastor makes them Democrat churches We see both you know in many churches It's obvious that the pastor himself believes in the agenda of the Democrat Party and From my perspective, there's a great error in that in that The Democrat Party is by and large Energized by demonic spirit any party that that that champions people who are our homosexual any party that champions abortion on demand just because Any party that that follows the plank that Democrats have followed you, you know I believe all you have to do is examine their their principles You'll see no, this is anti scripture and anti Christ on the other hand The Republican Party seems to sometimes champion themselves as extremely moral when in fact There are just as many of them are just as corrupt as any Democrat And so it is very wrong I would say for a church to want to make converts to the Republican Party, you know Or to make converts to the Democrat Party to champion the causes We we have to understand that our call John is is a greater and a higher call than that Some people get confused and this may even be disturbing some probably some have already Turned this off. I mean, that's what happens. That's the the way people think today. If I don't agree with you I'll just turn you off and That's that's that's what they do But I'll tell you the truth the truth is that Christ never sent me as a pastor To preach a political stance. He taught me to teach biblical principles And if I as a pastor am successful at that if I train people to think biblically out of scripture for this reason Then they're gonna know how to vote I was re I was raised in a home where my mom and my dad were what they called Roosevelt Democrats They used to call them Roosevelt Democrats they grew up in the time when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president and they loved and in Were encouraged by what they believed him to have been at that time so naturally Not only me, but my wife Marie Naturally, that's what we were Many of us who are of Mexican heritage Have gravitated and did gravitate towards the Democrat Party After I got saved I began to use the Bible to help me to develop a biblical mindset as it relates to Who I elect to govern me or who I don't want to govern me? And I think that many Christians have mistakenly begun to preach the Republican Party or the Democrat Party and In fact while doing so you may convert somebody to become a Republican But they're still going to hell Because you didn't give them the gospel that transforms their life and making an assumption That you're doing God's business by helping people to see the Republican way or the Democrat way is really a disqualifier because I'll be honest with you The pastor's role is a higher role than to be a political activist And so yeah, I think that one of the things that's happening in the church in our day and I can understand it Seeing all the evil that has been called good. I understand it is to What is one of the mistakes? I think has to been to be that the pastor has become a political activist and in doing so Has actually sullied the call of the minister again, this is not a Judgment against a brother who thinks he's doing the will of the Lord It's really more of a concern that I as a pastor have I want my church to vote I encourage our church to vote and I I still haven't gotten to the point where I have given up hope that we can change this nation But we have a national day of prayer for a reason is because we need to turn as a nation to the Lord and I think that many pastors are preaching an angry gospel and It's a mistake John I Posted some on social media this morning something to the effect of if Paul Were to examine the church of the United States. Would we receive a letter from him? You know think about the Church of Corinth and And these churches that were the way they were do you think Paul would would be sending the United States a letter I believe that Jesus already did in the book of Revelation. He said repent you know Because when he was talking to the Church of Ephesus the Church of Ephesus had walked away from the first love and So I think the church In many places have actually walked away from the first love They may be known for good works, but they're not known for being on fire for Jesus Christ. Yes, and so Would Paul write us a letter? The Church of the United States being such a large a Large geographic area Could there be a general letter written? I think it already was by Jesus himself and he said we need to return to our first love Because we've walked away from it. You know, we've got that letter already And we need to read it. Yeah, we need to do it. It's not Pastor thank you so much because again, we see a lot of things coming from the pulpit and praise God for those churches that are teaching the Word of God and and but the danger that can be involved when a pastor May have a tendency to use up because the pulpit is one thing before we close The church can be numerically large in a small geographic area and so the people there who gather might feel like we're doing something and We're sure but here in California, for example, we have over 40 million inhabitants growing daily and so even if my fellowship here was 50,000 and everyone voted in a certain way That's not going to change That's not going to change the outcomes of the elections. It's not going to change 50,000 votes will not change it what will change the outcome of elections is When we reach people with the gospel of Christ and help them to see that there's a right way in a wrong way That changes their heart which results in the change of their votes And so we can gather people, you know, invite people to come and speak that we think are knowledgeable and and we may inflame our people with a passion to To read reject these things, but we're already doing that when we're teaching the word verse by verse and so I really think that it's It's really a mistake When we emphasize political parties political positions, I think we should address them We should address those things that are within the confines of their statements of You know why they exist and all but but John I still believe that you know Paul who lost his head for the gospel The Apostle Peter and all the rest other than John who lost their their head Or lost their life for preaching the gospel They were reaching out to a world that was was pretty much ruled by by Rome And yet Peter says we're to honor the king Paul says that we're to pray for those who are in authority and he says go out and preach the gospel even as Jesus taught us what's going to transform a nation is going to be the gospel and our holy our holy occupation is Present to people God's way and so I Know people like to argue and they'll argue with somebody like me Because oh no, you don't understand But I don't see any proof that they're doing any good themselves And so when we when we preach the gospel we see people converted we teach them the ways of Christ We're actually actually producing salt and light if we understood it Or we can run around saying I take credit for the person who just got elected because I influence so many people And I think that's ridiculous Because what you ultimately end up with isn't another sinner occupying an office another sinner who needs the grace of God So I cut through that and I just say what we need is Jesus and and when you know of Jesus Invote your conscience because your conscience is informed by the word. Amen. Amen Pastor, thank you so much for sharing and thank you guys for tuning in just a couple of things We have an interest list that's going on in our gazebo currently for those who are Interested in going to Israel next year in 2024 and the dates are still be worked out We have a date that's listed, but I know things are still tentative with those dates But the you could still sign the interest list you can stop by the gazebo and after any of our services We have somebody there that who can take your list name on the interest list and then Men we have our June 3rd men's conference. We have a good lineup of speakers come out and join us You can get your tickets at the gazebo or online, but most important We have our Sunday services at 8 30 and 10 45 pastor you're taking us through the book of Mark and Invite your friends and family to come out and join us We've been having a great time on our Wednesday and Wednesday evenings and Sunday morning services We have a time of worship. So Great idea to invite your friends to come out and join us invite your family Maybe the Lord's putting somebody on their hearts right now to bring in and you can come out and join us We look forward to seeing you pastor David. Thank you so much for your time. God bless you Thank you guys for tuning in