 Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to Unfilter with Pastor David, Pastor David. Good afternoon. Thank you You know, we had a pretty good weekend this last weekend with the men's gathering We had great amazing teachings and men just want to encourage you that to look out for future events that we'll have and and And I want to personally send an invitation out to the guys to come out on Tuesday morning and join us For our Tuesday morning Bible study. We're going through second king So guys if you're got Tuesday morning open love to have you come join us today pastor you know, we recently had our mid-term elections and Didn't seem to go the way that we would hope especially with some of the with the prop one especially and and You know, there's a lot of people out there today that are blaming the church for these results What do you say about that is the pulpit the place for pastors to Direct a church to vote or what to vote for Because I find it a little interesting that the church is being blamed for this well I I've heard recently that it wasn't the church itself necessarily, you know meaning the body of Christ and the members of congregations but I actually had something sent to me where a pastor was blaming me blaming pastors for not instructing their congregations in these issues and Was laying the blame at the feet it appeared at least at the feet of of pastors and congregations Who are not properly instructing their congregations in things that pertain to? Civic duties and things that pertain to those kinds of things and I I personally don't feel the responsibility Of that there's several reasons why I Believe that if you're actually teaching the word of God and you apply it if you're giving it proper illustration and application You know that you're going to be instructing Those who are believers in Christ concerning the the morality and the things that relate to laws and why the laws I have been established in all of that so you're going to be teaching them that you know the the the whole law Boils down to love God with all of your heart Love your neighbor as yourself on these two things these two commandments Jesus himself said you know hang all of the meaning of of life itself right so If we through the word of God are teaching people to love God and love others We should be then applying those things to to laws like prop one and others I don't know that people in my fellowship come every Sunday to hear me Speak to them about a current event or even a even a great concern I did in our in our church as you know, John. I Mentioned and encouraged our church to be voting. I encouraged our church related to that proposition one I spoke concerning how demonic that is my fellowship was prepared and new But I didn't go with every single one of them to the voting, you know to vote. I didn't Watch them mark their ballots. I didn't look over their shoulders. I didn't those are things that they're supposed to do themselves I'm supposed to equip them for works of service not do the service for them You man, you know, so if we are actually teaching the word I really believe if we're actually teaching the word that that leaves the Responsibility on the shoulders of the people to vote. They're the ones who are supposed to do that and so when you know, somebody sent me some some video of Comments that were made by other past another pastor and all and I think that's extremely naive and ill-informed and a bit self-righteous For someone to stand up and pontificate saying to everybody else I did my job. You failed at yours and when you consider the fact that California in and of itself We have over 40 million people, you know, I I think that that Is it's begging the question if you're thinking? All 40 million were in church on Sunday all 40 million are getting Bible studies when you begin to naively think things like that I just think that that shows a lack of Understanding of the general just the general wind of what's going on in our in our nation We do all stand and speak forward The things that are of the Lord you teach the word of God and and you encourage your people. That's the best I can do John So when somebody and I had Somebody send me something and I thought that it takes an awful lot of nerve for some to do that to be honest with you it's not necessarily a burden so much as in a and It's the word it seems to be somebody attempting to becoming To become the spokesman for all pastors and frankly, I don't regard The individual in that way that's making those statements. I I don't I don't regard them as my pastor Nor do I regard them as a spokesman in any way that would cause me to stop and listen? I just don't and so I believe that That we're more battling Against that which is not flesh and blood I believe that the the system that we're dealing with is is more entrenched in sin and more demonically inspired and When we begin to think well if we get a Republican versus a Democratic or an independent versus Republican or whatever If we get this person in then perhaps we're we're assuming that that person who is going to be In that position of power will not be corrupted by it. We're making an assumption There are some godly individuals in Congress and and all of course and in state and as well as a national politics, there are some very good people But to assume that that my vote and the votes are going to change the moral tenor of our state is is a bit naive and I really do believe that we as pastors I do have the responsibility To do what I did which is to encourage people to vote to exercise the right to vote You know as a veteran I spent time in the military during during the Vietnam era I guess I have some qualification to understand what it means to sacrifice the life of sacrifice your time and And to spend time in uniform and and to do that with the possibility of standing on a battlefield At which I would have done had they sent me I guess I paid my price in that way and so I just simply tried to tell our Fellowship and that's the only influence I have is I've tried to tell our fellowship John you heard me do it more than once you need to vote go out and do it We had the things here that I help people in terms of voter guides giving them information and all But I really took offense to to that That pastor pastors remarks, you know that we were the failures I think that's extremely naive and a little bit Ego-centric Well, even if he's going on to save we did our job, but you did how do they measure that there's no measurable outcomes for that So that statement is just instead as as teaching the word of God and vote your conscience Vote your moral conscience with the Holy Spirit's leading and and making those blanket statements like that pastor Just as you we talked off-camera Just shows the conditions of some of the pulpits that are representing out there and and and I don't want to say outright corruption But the word of God is not being taught Well, I would never never go so far to use that word Corruption at all. I would say misdirected misdirected, you know I grew up in a heritage of of a pastor who taught us to to send her on the things that are eternal and And you can address the the issues that people are dealing with you can and you do every time you open the word You know, you speak about love not the world neither the things of the world and and you can speak of those things and you can share and encourage But again, I can't be in their pocket I can't force them to go and do the things that that they should be provoked to do from within by the Spirit of God and and so when a pastor stands up and blusters in that way and Condemns all the other pastors. That's that just is something I personally find greatly offensive but Doesn't it doesn't matter to me that much frankly, it is offensive But what saddens me is that people in congregations like that begin to take it upon themselves To send the pastors things that their pastor quote-unquote their pastor says as if I'm supposed to get in my In my pulpit next week and say I repent for not forcing you to To do this or bring in in some political speaker to tell you what to do John it's just not that way. There's a mythology related to these kinds of things that is deeply ingrained in many people's minds and I know that the United States has a Foundation that was fundamentally Christian, but I would I would be ridiculously foolish to act as if that Foundation is still here right now in the sense that it was 200 plus years ago the church has a responsibility pastors have the responsibility of informing our congregations and in Helping them to to see these things are what scripture says, but I can't live their life for them I can't make them go out and do those things grieves my heart that many choose not to I know that many Christians could have stood up and voted many didn't in a blue state like California Where people the most corrupt people do end up in power? And and I do understand the sentiment and the emotion related to to and the frustration Related to seeing that because I grew up in this state this beautiful state I've lived here born here and raised here and lived here my life And I've seen the decay. I've seen what has happened But I still haven't gotten to the point where I think that if I inspire every person in this small church To go out and vote. Well, we're not realizing the multiple millions of votes that are cast And to think that that every pastor is going to be a conservative Christian pastor Is the height of naivety? Yes, and if it really did work then the vote would have been changed You would think so so well pastor. Thank you so much for shedding light on that It's you know, it's something that I we're hearing a lot of it now that a lot of it didn't go the way Christians had wanted and But again, it's just a reminder that we had to keep our eyes on Christ and continue to teach the Word of God Reach the lost and and disciple. Yes So pastor, thank you so much for your time I want to thank you guys for tuning in do want to invite you to come join us on Wednesday night For our Wednesday evening service as Pastor David's taking us through 1st John and we have communion And we're celebrating communion And so what a great way to get into fellowship and get into the Word of God to worship and then to have communion and And so we do invite you services start at 7 p.m And then again, we have our Sunday morning services at 8 30 and 10 45 We look forward to having you come out and join us and want to say God bless you and thank you guys for tuning in Pastor David, thank you again. God bless you guys