Tony Evans continues his in-depth series on the subject of “Kingdom Voting” as he seeks to share God’s perspective on this delicate, yet important, subject with this message: God and Government. You can view each sermon online here every week or on his Facebook or Instagram pages (@drtonyevans).

Tony Evans continues his in-depth series on the subject of “Kingdom Voting” as he seeks to share God’s perspective on this delicate, yet important, subject with this message: God and Government. You can view each sermon online here every week or on his Facebook or Instagram pages (@drtonyevans).

with so many competing and even

contradictory voices and opinions

swirling around us today

it can be a challenge to know just what

you should do when it comes to voting

how should a christian vote after all

tony evans answers this question and

many more

get informed on kingdom voting

principles

welcome as we continue our series on

kingdom

voting a kingdom voter

is a christian who takes the opportunity

and receives

and welcomes the responsibility

to promote the rule of god

in history through civil

government they are

at their core kingdom independence

they do not ultimately belong to any

political party

they belong to the kingdom of god and so

no matter for whom they vote or for what

policies they vote

they ultimately are dedicated to

advancing

god’s name god’s person and god’s

policies in history

and that is taken into consideration

as they go to the voting booth every

christian is to be a kingdom voter

and a kingdom independent anything else

is a betrayal of your ultimate

commitment

god promises to bless the nation

who prioritizes god’s relationship to it

now at the core

of the definition of civil government

which is what you vote for

the biblical definition for civil

government

is to maintain a safe just

righteous and compassionately

responsible

environment for freedom to flourish

that’s the one thing you vote for yes

there are a lot of subtext

underneath that but the umbrella over

all of it

is you’re voting for one thing because

you’re voting for god

and god’s definition of civil government

is to maintain a

safe just righteous and compassionately

responsible environment

for freedom to flourish

at the heart of the american idea

and the american experiment

is the issue of freedom

the statue of liberty in new york harbor

introduces herself with this clarion cry

give me your tired your poor your

huddled masses

who are longing to breathe free

at her base is a broken chain

because this would be

in principle the place where you could

find freedom

well if god’s definition of civil

government

is for the flourishing of freedom by

providing an environment of

safety and justice and compassion

then how exactly does that work in other

words

you and i don’t get to define freedom

since you and i didn’t create it

yet we want to benefit from it so i want

you to roll back with me to the first

use of freedom

which is not the american constitution

it’s the word of god because remember

government is subject to god so

we ought to find out what god says about

freedom

so that you know when you vote whether

you’re really voting for freedom or

another form of bondage because god has

defined it

the first use of the concept of freedom

is found in the book of genesis we read

in genesis chapter 2 verses 15 to 17

these words

then the lord god took the man and put

him in the garden of eden to cultivate

it and keep it

the lord god commanded the man saying

from every tree of the garden you may

freely eat

did you hear that from every tree of the

garden

you may eat freely

but from the tree of the knowledge of

good and evil you shall not eat

for in the day that you eat from it you

will

surely die

the principle of freedom was tied

to human creation when god

created the first man who would be the

preamble for

the human race he brought in the issue

of

freedom now in hermeneutics which is a

big word that describes the science and

art

of biblical interpretation is a

principle

it’s called the law of first mention it

means

if you want to understand a concept from

god

that he is incorporated into the bible

look at where he gives the concept

first the law first mentioned find out

what he meant then

to determine what you should be

believing now

unless he gives you a reason to change

what he said

and if he doesn’t give you a reason to

change what he said you got to go with

what he said

by the law of first mention because he

didn’t give you permission to say

something else

but we live in a world today as folk who

want to say something else

when god has already said what he meant

he didn’t give us a basis for changing

what he said when he meant what he said

when he said it

please notice that in his first

definition of freedom the scope of

freedom

every tree of the garden

you may freely eat now god is the

government

there’s no human government that’s been

set up yet we’ll get into that

but he is the model for what human

government

was supposed to be and notice how

maximum the freedom option was every

tree of the garden you may freely

eat notice the breath of freedom

you have choice i’m going to give you

the opportunity to choose from my

good provision because everything god

had made by that time

was good so the question is what do we

mean

by freedom freedom is

the unimpeded opportunity and

responsibility

to choose to righteously and justly

and legally pursue one’s divinely

created

reason for being it is where you get to

choose

what god has provided for you to

maximize

as part of his created order he says

every tree of the garden you may freely

eat

and this would be a principle that would

operate throughout scripture leviticus

25

10 when the folks got out of line and

out of order god says proclaim liberty

throughout the land

and get back to freedom

this is why when you see governments

that are oppressive

that reduce freedom that limit

illegitimately freedom they have to get

rid of god

or dumb down religion or control the

church why

because they don’t want god’s view of

freedom

because it means that they are not in

ultimate control

god is god says from every tree of the

garden

you may freely eat

that’s why god gives you a choice but it

gives you the choice

from the good things he has provided

that’s why freedom is so magnificent

because there’s an apple tree there’s an

orange tree there’s a there’s a great

vineyard there’s

there’s pears there’s all of these good

things and

i feel like pears today i feel like

apples tomorrow i feel like orange is

the next day and because they’re all

good

and because i’m free i get to choose

it is being released from anything or

anybody holding you

illegitimately hostage from what god

has authorized to for you to enjoy

and benefit from what he has provided

i want you to notice something else

about freedom freedom

involved responsibility it says

god put him in the garden of eden to

cultivate it and keep it

i’m going to give you freedom but you

have to be responsible

to manage it to maintain it

and to expand its productivity

yes freedom involves the responsibility

to maximize

the opportunity that god has provided

you

and isn’t that what we say to pursue

happiness that is to pursue because

everybody may not pursue the benefits of

freedom everybody may not pursue it

equally

and everybody may not pursue it

righteously but he says to adam

which would be the preamble for

government based on his government in

the garden

that if you will act responsibly related

to the good things that i have provided

you will have the opportunity to take it

use it

expand it benefit from it and

enjoy it because that fruit was sweet to

the taste

freedom is to be utilized and it is to

be enjoyed

it is to be benefited from and because

it’s a garden it is to be beneficial

as we’ll see in a moment to others

so god allows you and me in the name of

freedom

to maximize our potential and since this

government would be the preamble for all

governments

all governments are designed to

allow you and me to maximize our freedom

which is why they get rid of god when

they want you to be held hostage

to government but please notice

something

the restriction did you know freedom has

restrictions

without restrictions the word freedom

loses its meaning

from every tree of the garden maximum

freedom

you may freely eat but of the tree

in the midst of the garden you are not

to eat it

or it will kill you

he creates a restriction in the midst

of the opportunity for freedom he says

even though i’m gonna give you freedom

i’m gonna give you a

boundary pay attention here

maximizing your freedom demands

legitimate boundaries the boundaries

are not designed to restrict freedom

it is designed to enhance freedom

if it’s a legitimate boundary

okay a football player

can’t run up into the stands the running

back

into the concession area out to the

parking lot

come in the other side of the stadium

go to the end zone and say i scored a

touchdown

that’s not football that’s chaos you’re

only free

to play football if you operate within

the lines

tennis has a baseline you can’t hit the

ball in the stands

and claim your point because in order to

enjoy the freedom of tennis

you must operate with the restriction of

the lines baseball has a

foul line you can’t do a pop-up in back

of you

and then run the bases because the

foul line the uh the foul ball

is designed to show you you can’t have

baseball

without a boundary did you know a train

is not free to take you from one place

to another

unless it is bound to the track that it

rides on

the moment it wants to go across the

prairie

it’s lost its freedom because it’s not

living up to its

designer’s purpose you see

freedom in order to be experienced

enjoyed and benefited from which is what

government

is supposed to protect has to have

boundaries because the goal of freedom

is to maximize the reason why you were

made in the first place

so what we have today is people wanting

to be free

from their creative purpose creating

anarchy chaos

and confusion in society and in the

world

the boundaries have to be set by the

tree

in the midst of the garden what did he

tell adam he said adam

from every tree i’m going to give you

maximum freedom

but i’m going to give you limited

regulations i’m only going to tell you

don’t do one thing don’t mess with the

google tree

that’s right i called it the google tree

why

because it was an information center

this tree was an information center and

it’s set right in the midst of the

garden let’s uh

contemporize that a little bit let’s put

it it’s set in the den of his house the

garden was his house

it set in the den of his house so when

he

went to the bedroom he had to go through

the den he had to see that

information center when he went to the

kitchen and cooked the food he had to

pass by the

information center it was the tree of

the knowledge

of good and evil of right and wrong

of up and down it was an information

center now why did he put the tree in

the den

where he couldn’t miss it every day

walking from one side of the crib to the

other side of the crib

one side of the house to the other side

why did he put it there

here it is adam i’m your government

i’m gonna tell you how to run your

existence and i’m gonna give you maximum

freedom i’m not gonna give you a whole

bunch of rules

give you one you are not

to live your life by human reason

knowledge you’re to live your life

by divine revelation in other words

you are to get your instruction from me

not come up with it on your own apart

from me

but because freedom has off offers

always a choice

you can choose to do it my way or you

can choose to do it your way

but i just want you to know it’s not in

your best

interest to experience freedom if you’re

going to choose it your way

rather than my way it’s not it’s not

going to be good for you

because i want you to be free

when god created government he created

government with the idea

of limited regulations

you see it here in the garden let me

give you another illustration

when he created the first nation first

nation he ever created

was israel that’s why israel is a big

deal in scripture

that’s why god says i’m a blessed nation

that blesses israel

and i’m a curse the nation that curses

israel because i am

setting up in israel a format

for how society is supposed to run and

how civil government

is supposed to function now most of us

when we think in terms of

israel the nation and its government

think about the ten commandments and we

should

limited regulations i mean ten things

and if you run by these ten

things you’ll have a free society

but he introduces the ten commandments

with the statement

and if you start with the ten

commandments but miss the statement

you’ll miss what government’s supposed

to do he says

i am the lord god who delivered you from

slavery

exodus chapter 20 verse 2 i am the lord

god

and i delivered you from slavery guess

what i gave you your freedom

and because i gave you your freedom i’m

going to give you the boundaries in

which to operate that freedom

they’re going to be 10 amendments to the

constitution

613 statutes and ordinances to kind of

show you how to apply

my 10 rules and if you do what these 10

rules apply

this way you will live in a free society

you will live

with the freedom for why i created

government

and why i created civilization and why i

created nations

but the moment you create your own rules

throw up regulations that are

inconsistent with mine

you’re gonna have a problem because you

will not be

running the nation or your life or your

family

or your church for that matter but since

we’re talking about civil government

you will not be running the civil

government like i created it to run

and you are going to create chaos so

that maximum freedom is not enjoyed

and you will turn limited regulation

because see

when you have anarchy then you got to

come up with more rules to control the

anarchy

he says no if you will abide by my

regulations then you will experience the

freedom as a nation

i have given you to experience

now when you have time i want you to

read

first samuel chapter 8

and i want you to read verses 10

through 19. i want you to read all those

verses and take your time

because this section of scripture will

blow your mind i’ll just summarize it

for you right now god said this

he says if you exclude me from your

government

if you exclude me from your rulers now

you can say

in god we trust all you won’t you can

put the ten commandments on the

you know in the courthouse all you want

but if you depart

from my definition of civil government

to maintain a safe just righteous

and compassionately responsible

environment so that freedom can flourish

and you decide to come up with your own

rules to run your nation

i’m gonna tell you what’s gonna happen

and here’s what he says in first samuel

eight beginning with verse 10.

you will see the word take take take

take take he says if you build a civil

government without me setting the rules

the government will take your family he

says the government will put you in wars

that you shouldn’t go in

the government will require taxes that

you shouldn’t be obligated to pay

he says the government will control your

children

and he says and then you will be in a

hot mess

and then he explains why because you’ve

turned your government into god

okay i said it because god said it he

says

once you turn your government into god

and stop looking to god and start

looking to government

the government will take things i never

meant for the government to have

because when i govern its limited

regulations it’s

maximum freedom and he says then

you will let government take care of you

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kingdom

anytime anywhere

this is where whether you’re democrat or

republican whether you’re right or left

you can either have too many rules or

you can have the wrong rules

because if you have the wrong rules it

doesn’t matter that you have a few rules

because they’re not the rules you ought

to have god

says that i want to set the boundary and

if you don’t

let me set the boundary you will replace

me

with another god and you will make

government that god

because it will infringe on my other

governments remember

in god’s kingdom civil government is not

the only government

there’s self-government there is family

government

there is ecclesiastical government and

then there is civil government

and the one is not to illegitimately

impose

itself on the other and it is an

understanding the kingdom because

remember you’re supposed to be a kingdom

independent right

it is in understanding the kingdom that

civil government gets to be

what it’s designed to be now i know i

know

that we live in a secular world with

secular thinking

that’s why you need the right kind of

leaders

both in character and both incompetence

that are biblically oriented

so that they can seek to influence

the biblical definition of government so

that god can be involved in government

and not excluded from government because

god says in first samuel if you exclude

me from government

i will stay excluded and i will leave

you alone

and let you handle this hot mess you’ve

created without me

and it doesn’t take a genius to see what

has happened

in our world so god created boundaries

in order to maximize freedom

he told adam

the tree in the midst of the garden is

an information tree

it’s got good information and bad

information tree of the knowledge

of good information of of good and evil

it’s an information tree

i do not want you discovering truth

apart from me so i need to say a word

about this

truth truth goes beyond probabilities

and possibilities

and potentialities truth is an

absolute standard by which reality is

measured let me dumb it down for us all

truth is god’s perspective on every

subject

truth is not what you believe to be true

truth is not what you

feel is true truth is not what you want

to be true

truth is what god says is true which

means you address your thinking your

feeling your education

your knowledge your votes all of that

you you adjust all that to what god says

and the reason why we don’t have kingdom

impact

is we don’t have kingdom thinkers and

thus not kingdom independence

they’re more aligned to a political

ideology than through the kingdom of god

leading to a division in the church and

a lack of impact

in the culture no

god gave them 10 rules and the rules are

negative thou shalt not thou shalt not

thou shalt not

but the only reason that gives them ten

negative rules is so we can keep them in

maximum freedom

isn’t that what laws do laws are to

restrict bad in order so that good can

flourish

if it’s a righteous law he says i

don’t do these ten things so that you

can stay free because i set you free

if you want to experience the freedom in

your life and in our nation then we need

a government

that gives maximum freedom limited but

safe just

and righteous regulations look when you

when you when you draw a line you

usually use a ruler right

if you want the line to be perfectly

straight because if you just use your

hand it’s going to wiggle

see what we have today are christians

who lean to their own understanding

and we wonder why the culture is

wiggling because we don’t have a ruler a

standard

separate from ourselves outside of

ourselves

to which we must look that is perfect

to guide our decision-making and yes

who we elect what policies we support

or reject because we are we belong to

another kingdom

and our ultimate allegiance is to

another king

what would you think about a pilot who

said i think this is the button out of

push

or a doctor who said i think this is the

place i ought to cut

or a pharmacist who says well i think

this is the medication

that you ought to take your confidence

would fall flat wouldn’t it because in

that position you don’t want somebody

guessing

when your life is on the line but what

do you do when the life of your nation

is on the line

do you go back to guessing do you go

back to

people who think who don’t agree or do

you go to the creator of government

which we saw in romans 13

the one who created government and who

says you don’t even know how to run a

government

without me and you won’t run it right

without me and as a result

you have all kind of evil that

proliferates

and that’s why people skip passages to

keep their evil

one of the passages that addresses

slavery for example

one of the the great sins of our history

is exodus 21 16 it says if you could

can kidnap somebody and then if you sell

them

then you’ve committed a capital crime

worthy of death i’m gonna shut down

slavery right there

but people skipped it in order

to not follow through on freedom

in order to maintain an economic system

that was wrong

but then the bible talks about protest

it says there’s a righteous way to

protest

there’s a righteous way it encourages

protests as long as it’s just

and it’s righteous and so

we get all this mix up because people

want to lean

to their own understanding and the

problem is christians are doing it too

across racial cultural class and

political lines

but god has established government

and when people turn from his standards

of government

consequences are great because look at

what he said to adam

the day you eat of it you shall surely

die

okay now you got it civil government is

to give

maximum freedom of the good things god

has provided

for people to exercise responsibility

it gives limited regulations

and it gives dire consequences you shall

surely die

in other words as romans 13 says the

government does not bear the sword in

vain

an instrument of intimidation and an

instrument of judgment

and death in other words you are to live

under the threat why

because men are sinful and one of the

things

that holds in their sin are the

consequences that’s what laws are

designed to do

that are righteous and just and safe to

maximize our ability

to enjoy freedom which means those laws

must be righteous but they must be quick

in their just execution and so

when adam and eve decided they would

choose wrongly

guess what they lost they lost the

freedom of a happy home

they were now in conflict with one

another they lost the freedom of

enjoying their work

because it says now in chapter three

they were toil

in their work they lost the freedom of

enjoying

a healthy environment because thorns and

thistles would now grow

chapter three says and why did all of

that happen

because they settled for the okie doke

they settled for the okeydoke they got

tricked by the devil who said

you don’t need god you can govern

yourself

and when they decided i don’t need god

i’m my own government

set my own rules and lost their freedom

the thing that should manage and inspire

us all

is that we’re not being held

illegitimately hostage because

we’re operating on god’s definition of

freedom now so if a man

or woman comes and tells you something

and they can’t validate it from

scripture

they just tell you what they think and

you’re a christian you’re not a kingdom

person

you may be on your way to heaven but

you’re no good for god on earth

you you belong to a party you’re not

functioning for the kingdom

one other thing i want to share with you

when you understand this definition of

government and i know

you want to know how this applies to

certain issues and we’re going to talk

about

those coming up next how it applies to

specific issues there’s so many issues

we can’t cover them all but some of the

major ones

but here’s the principle you should be

dealing with if you

now understand freedom you

as god defines it maximum freedom

limited regulations dire consequences

so you’re going to exercise

responsibility

to maximize your created potential

then what is one of the main things you

should be doing

here it is setting other folks free

ah that’s why i love galatians

it was for freedom you have been made

free

every free person should be invested in

freeing somebody else

you don’t just get to be free in order

for you

only to be free you get to be free to

become a freedom fighter

to become a spiritual abolitionist

because you’re involved in setting other

folklore being illegitimately

held hostage whether by class whether by

race

you you got your dignity back you’re

transferring that and giving other folks

their dignity back god has raised you up

out of the ashes you’re reaching down

and raising other folks out of the ashes

one of the tragedy of the civil rights

movement

that set the laws right is that not

enough of us have reached back down for

those still

trapped we’ve not reached down and

brought them back up to the dignity

we ourselves have achieved if you name

the name of jesus christ you should be a

freedom fighter

the tragedy of the american experiment

is that folks who were fighting for

freedom were still willing to hold other

people hostage

they weren’t setting other people free

whether it’s slavery or

or the antebellum days or whether it’s

it’s criminal

leasing or whether it’s jim crow

or however it’s manifested no matter how

it shows up

if you are a christian and you

understand god’s definition of

government you’re a freedom fighter

and you’re setting other people free i

love the way nelson mandela put it

when i went to south africa and i saw uh

in the museum there of apartheid

the statement that he made he said to be

free is not merely to cast off one’s

chains

but to live in such a way that respects

and enhances

the freedom of others are you a freedom

fighter

are you setting other folk free who

willing to be responsible

the emancipation proclamation was a

glorious document in

january of 1863.

it set the slaves free when the slaves

were set free

many of the slaves went north

because they were no longer held hostage

to southern plantations

now going north was risky business

because there were still folks out there

who didn’t believe in freedom

there were still folks out there who

didn’t accept

the concept of freedom and so

they were willing to take the risk to be

free

because they didn’t want their families

and their legacy

to operate in slavery any longer

but did you know there were many people

in the south

who didn’t make the trick trek north

they wouldn’t go north

one of the reasons why is because

they’ve been a slave too long

they got used to slavery the plantation

had become comfortable

they at least knew the plantation they

understood the plantation

they knew how to work the plantation but

freedom was risky business they had to

go through

these areas where there were enemies

and so they they locked themselves in

slavery

because to be free was taking too big a

risk

unfortunately we’ve got too many

christians who don’t want to go north

they don’t want to fight for biblical

freedom and so they dumb down

to the cultures and the parties of the

day

and they operate with a spiritual

plantation mentality

not understanding god’s biblical

authority bars biblical guidelines

it’s time for another kind of juneteenth

you know juneteenth

that’s when in june 1865

uh 1865.

the word came to the slaves

in texas and then beyond you’ve been set

free

that’s a year and a half from the

proclamation

folkman partying ever since texas

surrounding states

it’s called juneteenth it’s a party

because it’s remembering when we got the

good news

of freedom now for a year and a half it

had been hidden

and so folks were folks were functioning

in slavery

when they had been set free

jesus christ offers you and me freedom

he even offers governments freedom that

will operate

by his definition of freedom under his

definition of civil government

but a lot of folks are so used to being

slaves

illegitimately depending upon government

to be god

or illegitimately applying government in

the wrong way

and they get used to the plantation

mentality

it’s time for some freedom fighters it’s

time for a spiritual juneteenth

to celebrate freedom and to bring it to

the politicians

the pundits the political party and to

the media

that god offers nations freedom

but only by his rules and regulations

you skip that and you live

in slavery even though you still may

talk about being free

now the worst kind of freedom of all

is recorded by jesus in

john chapter 8. when he says

that if you’ve been if you’ve been

controlled by

sin then you’re in personal bondage

and what good is setting a nation free

if god

you won’t even let god set you free from

whatever is holding you hostage

that’s why i want to invite you if

you’re under the sound of my voice

and you’ve never received spiritual

freedom

you’ve never accepted jesus christ as

your personal savior

you’ve never invited him into your life

to forgive your sins and give you

eternal life

that i want to invite you to come to

christ right now for salvation

how do you do that you simply go to him

and say i’m a sinner

and i need a savior i need to be

forgiven

of my sins i agree that i cannot save

myself

and i trust you alone for my eternal

destiny

and if you place faith alone in christ

alone

he will forgive your sins and give you

the gift of eternal life

and he’ll do it right now if you go by

faith

in him trusting him as your

only sin bearer he will give you eternal

life

and so father thank you for freedom the

freedom you offer us and the freedom you

even offer a nation

if it will operate by your standard

and your definition help us to play our

part as kingdom independence

to take our stand with you

so that if christ be not come we save a

nation

from slavery in jesus name

amen with so many competing and

even contradictory voices and opinions

swirling around us today

it can be a challenge to know just what

you should do when it comes to voting

how should a christian vote after all

tony evans answers this question and

many more

in his best-selling booklet how should

christians vote

along with the accompanying sermon

series by the same name

request your bundle of resources today

and get informed on kingdom voting

[Music]

principles