The Pastor’s Piece, Pastor Kevin Cernek – Chaplain
FCFI
November 10, 2024
Do you believe the Bible to be real? Why is that? Well, there are several reasons. 1) There has never been an archaeology discovery that contradicts the Bible. 2) There has never been a truth of the Bible that if you apply it to your life, your life does not improve dramatically. 3) We have the most accurate and transparent, historically robust account that one can have of the most important figure ever to live in the history of the world. Jesus of Nazareth and the Resurrection is the pinpoint of our belief that Jesus did rise from the grave so that we may live. If Genesis 1:1 and the resurrection are true, then anything in the Bible is possible.
The greatest miracle is creation, and then the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. You say: “How do you know that Jesus rose from the dead?” Well, show me another historical piece of history where so many people willingly died a brutal death for a lie. Every single person around Him had everything to lose yet they went to the absolute death from Paul to Peter, to James, the half brother of Jesus, saying that Jesus is Lord – Jesus rose from the dead.
It’s been over a week since the election. The night before the election, a man by the name of Bob Perry published the following prayer: “Almighty God, you are the Creator of this world, and the source of our wisdom, knowledge, and favor. You have made people for your glory, to serve you in freedom, justice, and peace. We ask that you, Lord God Almighty, in the aftermath of these elections, help each believer, in whatever their position of influence, allow their faith in You and Your unchanging Word to guide and lead them in how they follow their principles, decisions, and actions.
Father, remove from us all doubt, fear, and unbelief. Strip down the world’s systems that mock the living God. Lord, we ask for those who come to positions of power, that they will reflect Christ’s values and kingdom. May you help us to walk in courage, love, mercy, and justice. Grant, O God, that your life-giving Holy Spirit may so move every heart, and especially the hearts of your people, to act according to your heart and mind.
Lord Jesus, we beg You to have mercy on this land. May you extend your grace by granting favor to your righteous men and women. Would you grant great favor to believers in every place and role in the government process. May the Godly be exalted. Now unto Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns forever and ever: have mercy on us, as your people. Forgive us, and heal our land. Amen.”
At our church, we teach and recognize the sovereignty of God in all things. Sovereignty means having supreme power or authority. We believe the Bible to be true. According to the Bible, one of the characteristics of God is His omnipotence – which means He is all-powerful. In the second chapter of Daniel, verses 20 and 21, the prophet writes: ““Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes times and seasons; He deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.” That tells us that God is the one who puts our presidents in place and He is the One who removes them from power.
(Just a little side-note on Daniel. Daniel was a God-fearing and Godly man. Nevertheless, he was taken as a prisoner of war into a Godless country when he was a teenager and was never released. Most likely he was castrated as a prisoner and became a eunuch. But His faith in the sovereign God of the Bible did not waver. He lived to be in his 80’s. During his lifetime he served in the courts of a total of four pagan kings. He never saw his people return to their homeland and much of his prophecies to the kings of his time were about God’s judgment against them and their own destruction and death because of the fact that they ignored God. He didn’t have the luxury of elections and people choosing their leaders like we do).
Sometimes I hear people say, “If God is sovereign and He already knows and He makes it happen anyway, why do we do anything? Why pray? Why seek His direction. Why do anything? Why bother to vote?”
And those are good questions. We pray, we evangelize the lost, we seek God’s direction because as students of the Word of God, we find we are instructed to do all those things. We are to be salt and light in a dark world, so we respond to God’s call on our lives and we choose to receive Him and to subsequently live for Him. And that means all kinds of things – like taking a stand for righteousness and pushing back against unrighteousness. It means telling others of the saving faith found in Jesus. We are civic minded because we care about our culture and our future. We vote because God has given us that opportunity to let us express our personal preferences on who leads us. On May 2, 1863 Thomas J “Stonewall” Jackson is quoted as saying: “The duty is ours, the consequences are God’s.”
God’s sovereign control does not mean that we sit idly by and allow life to happen. It means that we go bravely into life, trusting that our loving Father sees the larger picture and is faithfully working everything for His glory. We sometimes make the mistake of thinking that because God is altogether holy, His sovereignty only extends over the serious things – things like death or a cancer diagnosis. And although it is true that He is sovereign over tragedy, He is also sovereign over everything else, including last week’s election. The God of the 2024 election, and every prior election and every election after this one, is the Lord Jesus Christ – The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is in complete control and we trust Him because whatever happens is for His glory and our good. All things, do in fact, work together for good to those who, do in fact, love God and who are, in fact, the called according to His purpose, (Romans 8:28).
(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).