Leveraging Your Parentage

Biblical Principles that affect the Christian Citizen
Principle # 3 – “Leveraging Your Parentage”
Isa. 44, 2 Chron. 7:13-14

I want us to turn to Isa. 44 this morning as we continue with our series on the role of the follower of Christ in the political process. For the past couple of weeks we have been looking at some broad principles that have particular application to our situation, primarily the principle of righteous rule and the principle of active involvement. The point I have been trying to drive home is that we are privileged to live in the United States of America where we have a say in who govern us. This is highly unusual in the history of humanity. Peter and Paul did not have that privilege! The “state” they had to be in submission to was put into place and ruled by force. The subjects had no voice in the process, unlike us. As I put in your bulletin insert, good stewardship demands that we are actively involved in the political process.

The next principle I want us to look at is going to take a few minutes to develop, but if you will stay with me I think I can demonstrate its validity. I’m calling it “leveraging your parentage,” and I want to introduce it to you by sharing a conversation I had with Daniel about a week ago. He told me it was common knowledge among the Mayfield children that if one of the boys asked me for something, I would many times say “no;” yet if one of the girls asked me for the same thing, I’d often say “yes.” So the boy’s way of handling their perceived favoritism was to ask their sisters to talk to me whenever they wanted something. I’m not going to take the time to share with you my response to the allegation, but I do want to call your attention to the phenomenon that was taking place. The boys were using the special relationship a father has with his daughters to accomplish their objectives. In the business realm, that is called “leveraging.”

“Leveraging” is one of those fad words that you see so often, and it is taken from the concept of a lever. Levers are incredibly useful tools and have been used for centuries to make man’s work easier. Historians believe that the Egyptians used levers to move stones that weighed up to 100 tons. Archimedes was the one who said, “Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth with a lever.” And so leveraging is when you use something you have for maximum advantage, it almost has the idea of exploiting, but without the negative connotations.

The point I want to drive home to you this morning is that we need to take advantage of our relationship with God as we think about the role of the follower of Christ in the political arena. We need to leverage our relationship with God to bring America back to its founder’s intent. Let me share with you three propositions that will develop this, and then I’ll end with a current example of how this worked in California.

First of all, God is sovereign and has a plan He is implementing in the political realm. He even uses unregenerate people to accomplish His will. Look with me at Isa. 44:24, and the example of a pagan, Persian king by the name of Cyrus.

24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, "I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself, and spreading out the earth all alone, 25 causing the omens of boasters to fail, making fools out of diviners, causing wise men to draw back, and turning their knowledge into foolishness, 26 confirming the word of His servant, and performing the purpose of His messengers. It is I who says of Jerusalem, 'She shall be inhabited!' And of the cities of Judah, 'They shall be built.' And I will raise up her ruins again. 27 "It is I who says to the depth of the sea, 'Be dried up!' And I will make your rivers dry. 28 "It is I who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.' And he declares of Jerusalem, 'She will be built,' And of the temple, 'Your foundation will be laid.'" 45:1 Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him, And to loose the loins of kings; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: 2 "I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze, and cut through their iron bars. 3 "And I will give you the treasures of darkness, And hidden wealth of secret places, In order that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 4 "For the sake of Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me. 5 "I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; 6 That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, 7 The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.

This passage absolutely drips with references to God’s sovereign power, at least 15. And what is of particular importance to us is that God’s sovereignty extends into the political realm. We usually think of God’s sovereignty in matters like salvation and creation – you know, these things that are really important and have such long-term consequences – but it obviously doesn’t stop there as we see in this passage. And two times God states that He was using Cyrus to carry out His plan, even though Cyrus didn’t know God. What this means for you and me is that God is involved in political matters, and sometimes He even uses unredeemed men to bring about His plan.

Now the second proposition I want to share with you is that as God’s children, we can influence God’s plan. Let me show you quickly four passages that teach this truth, and we’ll start with a familiar passage in 2 Chron. 7.

2 Chron. 7:13-14 "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain [God’s sovereignty], or if I command the locust to devour the land [God’s sovereignty], or if I send pestilence among My people [God’s sovereignty],14 and My people [here we see the idea of God’s children] who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” As God’s children, we can influence God’s works!

James 5:16-18 “The effective prayer of a righteous man [here we see the idea of the special relationship with God] can accomplish much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain [Who is in charge of whether or not it rains?]; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit. As God’s children, we can influence God’s works!

Joel 2:12-14 – "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping, and mourning; 13 and rend your heart and not your garments." Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, And relenting of evil. 14 Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him, Even a grain offering and a libation For the LORD your God?

Jonah 3:4-10 – Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown." [God’s sovereign plan being announced by Jonah] 5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God [now they are God’s children]; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. 6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and it said, "In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8 "But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.9 "Who knows, God may turn and relent, and withdraw His burning anger so that we shall not perish?" 10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.”

Are you starting to see that God’s children, because of their special relationship with Him, can actually influence His plan? Here are four passages that all teach this truth.

The final proposition I want to share with you answers the question, “How do we actually influence God’s plan? As we were reading through the four passages a minute ago, I’m sure you probably picked up on this, but let’s hit them again quickly.

First of all comes confession and cleansing, as we saw in the 2 Chron. passage. “If my people, who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” What does this concept sound like that we talked about recently? This is the essence of the entire series on idols of the heart. The Bible teaches that if we hold on to iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us, so it is imperative that we start with humbling ourselves and cleansing ourselves.

The second part of influencing God’s plan involves prayer. We saw this in the James 5 passage where Elijah was actually able to influence God’s use of the water cycle. Closely associated with prayer is the third element, that of fasting. To see the impact fasting has, I want us to turn to Mt. 17.

14 And when they came to the multitude, a man came up to Him, falling on his knees before Him, and saying, 15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 "And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him." 17 And Jesus answered and said, "O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me." 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" 20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 21 "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."

This story teaches us that there are some issues we are faced with that are so large, that the only way to handle them is through fasting. These disciples had apparently cast demons out of people before, but when they came to this particular one, their normal mode of operation didn’t work.

So when it comes to leveraging your relationship with God, we see from Scripture that God has a plan He is implementing in the political realm, and that if we cleanse ourselves and fast and pray, we can actually have an impact on what God is doing.

In closing, I want to share with you real life example of how all this works together. What I have shared with you this morning is not theoretical. Remember my point: we need to take advantage of our relationship with God as His children, especially in the political arena. Or as I put it in my title, we need to learn how to leverage our parentage. And we see an amazing example of how this works in the passing of proposition 8 in California back in Nov. of 2008. Formally known as the California Marriage Protection Act, it stipulated that only “marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” When that was passed, it was a huge blow to the homosexual agenda of legitimatizing homosexual marriages, and the irony of this being passed in California is mind boggling! California! You could see something like this happening in North Dakota, or Wisconsin – but California?

How in the world did prop. 8 get passed? Significantly, the movement was spearheaded by Rev. Jim Garlow, pastor of the Skyline Wesleyan Church, in San Diego, CA. That in itself is a beautiful illustration of the point made last Sunday when we were talking about the role of the church in the political process. Dr. Garlow’s strategy was thoroughly biblical and involved a balanced use of human activity and divine activity. From the human perspective, thousands of people worked very, very hard. 25,000 people went door to door in California with their information, and ultimately organized 100,000 volunteers by Election Day. They raised over 67 million dollars to finance the push. On top of this, there were multiple webinars, satellite simulcasts and phone banks – all getting people educated. It is a perfect example of man doing his part to bring about God’s plan.

The other dimension of the strategy fits in with what I am talking about this morning. To begin with, a large number of people committed to a 40 day fast ending on election day. Three days before election day, 33,000 people attended a 12 hour prayer meeting, from 10 AM to 10 PM, in Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. I wish you all could have been at Legislative Day last year to hear Dr. Garlow’s personal account of walking through his church and hearing youth groups travailing in prayer during hours-long prayer meetings.

Something we need to keep in mind is that the sovereign creator and sustainer of this incredible universe is your papa! The Aramaic word is Abba. Jesus gives us some insight into the heart of our Father in Luke 11 when He says, 9 "And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. 10 "For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. 11 "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12 "Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"