How to Vote with Conscience and Conviction | Tony Evans Sermon

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Dr. Tony Evans challenges Christians to prioritize God’s kingdom over earthly political divisions, advocating for “kingdom voting” where voters align their choices with biblical principles. SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/drtonyev… ▶ Never miss an episode of the Tony Evans Daily Broadcast by subscribing to the official channel:    / @tonyevansdailybroadcast   If you would like to download two encouraging, FREE full-length MP3s of Tony’s popular sermons: “The Sovereignty of God” and “How to Handle a Crisis,” you can do so by clicking on this link: https://share.hsforms.com/1atT9MJvXQN… If you would like to sign up for our daily devotional bringing you hope and inspiration, please go to this link: https://share.hsforms.com/1CkOLA910Sm… ▶ Do you know Jesus as your Savior? https://tonyevans.org/know-jesus-christ/ ▶ Stream Sermons: https://tonyevans.org/podcast/ ▶▶ Free Sermon App: https://subsplash.com/tonyevans/app/ ▶▶ DONATE: https://give.tonyevans.org/the-altern… ▶ Facebook:   / drtonyevans   ▶ Instagram:   / drtonyevans   ▶ Are you a preacher? Free sermon outlines: https://go.tonyevans.org/dr-tony-evan… Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually. #tonyevans #tonyevanssermon #ChristianVoting

God’s definition of civil government is

to maintain a safe just righteous and

compassionately responsible environment

for freedom to flourish that’s what

you’re voting for who’s going to best

achieve that which party which platform

which policies will achieve that I’m

under the lordship of Jesus Christ that

governs my vote even if it means I vote

differently than another brother who I’m

called To Love

we’ve been talking about Kingdom

voting and what we’re doing is we’re

trying to challenge

Christians to think Heavenly even though

they have Earthly

preferences that in spite of the

conflict when an election comes up and

is in our face and we’re being hit by

both

sides we still have to speak and declare

in terms of the kingdom of

God we’re challenging you to be a

kingdom

voter that’s a

Christian who accepts the opportunity

and responsibility to partner with

God for the advancement of his rule in

history through the institution of civil

government and regardless of where you

lean Democrat or Republican

you take your

messaging and you take your stand with

heaven with the

King and that becomes the dominant

influencer of your belief system and

your

declaration but I do not want to be

insensitive to the

problem of different people having

different

preferences how do you navigate

for whom to

vote no matter which election you’re

talking about locally Statewide or

nationally

congressionally how do you decide

particularly when nothing is definitive

you could perhaps have an argument one

way or the other person versus policy

policy versus

personality for whom do you vote how do

you

vote well let me cast the answer to this

question in a theological

reality Proverbs chapter 16 verse 33

says

men men cast

lots but God decides the outcome did you

hear

that I’m sure some are asking well if

God’s going to decide why

vote because it’s a partnership

and God wants his kingdom men and his

kingdom women to partner with him simply

says God rules and he

overrules for example job

23:13 God is unique who can turn him and

what his soul desires that he does job

422 I know that you can do all things

and that no purpose of yours can be

through

Ed Psalm

135:6 whatever the Lord pleases he does

in heaven and on Earth in the seas and

in all the

deeps Isaiah

45:7 the one forming light and causing

Darkness causing well-being creating

Calamity I am the Lord who does all

these

things Ephesians

1:11 also we obtained an inheritance

having been predestined according to his

purposes who works all things after the

counsel of his will Romans

11:36 for from him and through him and

to him are all things to him be glory

forever Revelation 19 verse6 it

concludes with the Lord Our God the

Almighty

Reigns or we could go to

Daniel chapter 2 verse

21 God bestows Authority on whoever he

chooses or John 19 vers 10 and 11 when

pilate tells Jesus don’t you know I’ve

got the authority he’s the government

I’ve got the authority to crucify you

don’t you know who you dealing with

Jesus Jesus says uh-uh not the only

Authority you have is the authority my

dad he gives you he’s in charge up in

here we quoted for you Proverbs

21:1 the heart of the king is in the

hand of the Lord and He meanders it

moves it wherever he

Wills or 2 chonicles 20

verse6 no one can stand against his

sovereignty God has a conditional

will these are the things he decides to

do in concert with whether we do what

we’re supposed to do or not but he has a

sovereign unconditional will those are

the things he going to do regardless of

whether you do your part or

not that’s why you pray you pray because

certain things he’s only going to do if

you meet the condition of prayer that’s

why you obey because certain things he’s

only going to do if you meet the

condition of

obedience so you can delay things or

even deny yourself things that God would

have given you but it was predicated on

the condition one of the conditions is

voting if you don’t vote God will take

that into

consideration and still accomplish his

Sovereign plan because if you don’t vote

but he wants that person to win he’ll

wake up somebody that never voted tell

him this year is the year for you to

vote in order to override your refusal

to vote see God has got this thing down

to a

theological science

so let me be

clear your vote matters but God is

still in

charge so that raises the question how

do I make a

decision I go back and forth I don’t

know how much to weigh one issue of

another

issue well what we are seeing

today especially among Christians

is US building walls against one another

because of

government we’ve allowed government to

divide the church and that is an agenda

from

hell we have established from Romans 13

verse1 that God created

government but notice Chapter 13 Verse 5

therefore it is necessary to be in

subjection that is to government not

only because of Wrath but also for

conscience sake ah there’s that

word for conscience sake you see what I

want to explain to you is the role of

your conscience in your decision for for

whom you should

vote within the boundaries of God you

are free to vote your

conscience and everybody’s conscience

won’t vote the same

way when you’ve got two legitimate or

two illegitimate forces at work now if

it’s biblically clear all the

way then of course that makes it easy

but what happens when there’s some right

some wrong some wrong some right which

way do you go well the Bible says you go

based on your conscience and everybody’s

conscience won’t be equal when the issue

is not perfectly biblically

clear what is your

conscience your conscience is your heart

regulator it is the thing that regulates

between right and wrong good and bad up

and down the Bible says the heart is

deceitfully wicked so you can have

uninformed consciences that make

uninformed decisions but they’re still

operating on wrong consciences that’s

why it is critical that your conscience

gets the right data in order to make the

wisest possible

decision but everybody’s consciences

won’t register equally to every

circumstance because every Christian is

not at the same spiritual level that’s

where Romans 14 comes in and I hope you

read the chapter in

full he says in chapter 14 verse1 except

the one who is weak in faith but not for

the purpose of passing judgment on his

opinion one person has faith that he may

eat all things but he who is weak eats

vegetables only chapter 15:7 says

therefore accept one another just as

Christ also accepted us to the glory of

God when your political vote

causes you to

reject

demean uh

ridicule

curse

cuss others who differ from you but are

not abandoning scripture to do so they

just have a different set of priorities

vegetables versus

meat vegetables are legitimate meat is

legitimate but everybody may not feel

the same about vegetables and meat me

and everybody may not feel the same

about Democrats and Republicans or this

candidate versus that

candidate but he says don’t let that

issue get in the

way of your

fellowship in the program of

God Dr Evans will’ll be right back after

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God do not be caught off

guard the Bible says in James chapter

three he

says how can out of your

mouth or with your finger come blessing

and

cursing verse nine he says he says how

can you do that how can you talk about

I’m a Christian I love the Lord praise

the Lord but then you turn around and

you use the most vow kind of

communication putting down kicking to

the Curve negating

others in the body of Christ and even

doing that the non-christians showing

your a terrible

Christianity oh it’s not wrong to

disagree it’s not wrong to vote

differently it is wrong he says to be

contemptuous verse three the one who

eats is not to regard with contempt the

one who does not eat and the one who

does not eat is not to judge the one who

eats for God has accepted him democ

you’re going to have to accept

Republicans Republicans you’re going to

have to accept Democrats because God has

accepted them so when you attack another

person in the family of God because they

voted differently you have attacked

God so this is no small thing when it

comes to this issue he says how dare you

regard in

contemp because they can do what they do

for conscience

sake for their conscience sake he says

You must accept them and not force them

to violate a legitimate conscience

now the Bible is to set the boundaries

for your conscience you know if you

disregard a direct command or precept of

God because of your conscience your

conscience is wrong not the word of God

but if you’re within biblical boundaries

God allows you to play calls why or or

make your own play call because every

Christian doesn’t start in the same

place what he is saying is you must

allow for

differences within the boundaries of

scripture when there is room for those

differences because there is not a

perfect word in One Direction or another

if there was perfect words it’d be one

vote that’s why Christians need to get

together Christians need to come

together Democrats and Republicans and

Libertarians all all Christians whatever

we need to come together and say this is

our

platform and y’all gonna have to come to

us because we not adjusting we’re

dealing with the whole Council of God

because we’re not gonna let y’all divide

us anymore oh yeah we may vote

differently but we will not be divided

you got to come to find out what we say

because what we say is gonna be the

whole Council of God not those partial

councils that y’all deal with in the

secular world it is until

Believers align themselves together

recognizing that God accepts different

conscience levels God can deal with the

differences and we need to learn to deal

with the differences while raising

people to God’s standard see that’s the

problem we’re not raising people to

God’s standard so people are living with

weak consciences because if their

consciences grew then their decisions

might change

or how they view the other side might be

adjusted so you grow the conscience but

you don’t ignore the conscience that’s

why he says in verse 22 the faith which

you have have in your own conviction

before God happy is the one who does not

condemn himself in what he approves

don’t go do something against

yourself as long as you’re not violating

the Lord cuz you still have to live with

you you don’t have to live with all them

other people you got to live with you

verse 23 says but he who doubts is

condemned if he eats that’s the

vegetable meat thing because his eating

is not from Faith whatever is not from

faith is sin there’s another theological

principle

here he brings it up in verses 8 and N

for if we live we live for the

Lord or or if we die we die for the

Lord therefore whe whether we live or

die we are the

Lords for to this end Christ died and

lived again that he might be Lord both

of the

dead and of the living we don’t have

enough Christians who have made Jesus

Lord he’s Lord of

all and that’s why Christians who vote

differently should still be unified

because he says he’s he he’s Lord of all

God has accepted him in spite of their

political

differences and until we do that God

won’t work in Luke chapter

6 Jesus comes down for

prayer and in verse

13 he brings his disciples when he named

Simon he throws up a word he says Simon

the zealot did you hear me S he doesn’t

just say Simon those other guys he just

give their names but when he comes to

Simon he says Simon is the Zealot now

let me tell you the Zealot the Zealot

was the revolutionaries of the

day like like uh when when Jesus was on

the cross they say who you want us to

crucify who you want us to uh uh uh to

set free and they set free the Zealot

they set free the Revolutionary and

crucified Christ Simon was a

revolutionary he roamed the hills the

Judean

Hills looking to overthrow the

government Matthew is a tax

collector Matthew is part of the

establishment Matthew is part of the

swamp Matthew would have been one that

Simon was

after cuz Simon was a

zealot and Matthew was a Benedict aror

he was a turn coat he worked for the

system and yet when Jesus comes down

from prayer and he comes down from the

mountain he says come here Simon come

here Matthew we got some Kingdom

Business to do he could take a

zealot and a man in the system two

different sides of the political uh

divide and bring them together why

because he brought them together under

the lordship of Jesus Christ

so don’t tell me a Democrat can’t sit

next to a

Republican and everybody loving the Lord

and loving each other and serving the

lord although their consciences cause

them to vote differently why because

like Simon and like Matthew they all

belong to the kingdom and they submit to

the

Lord and until we get that kind of

radical Acceptance in the

church that’s why they got upset in Acts

chapter 17 ver7 because they said these

there’s this group of people out here

running around talking about Jesus is

King not Caesar that was ticking folk

off Caesar’s the government you mean the

government not King no Jesus is King the

problem is we don’t have the lordship of

Jesus Christ we got the lordship of

political parties we got the lordship of

government have the lordship of Jesus

Christ because if we had the lordship of

Jesus Christ you wouldn’t find

Christians acting a fool

online you wouldn’t find Christians

being illegitimate divided online you

wouldn’t find Christians embarrassing

the kingdom of God online the Bible says

in First Peter 3:15 sanctify the Lord

God in your heart in other words let’s

get this lordship thing straight is

Jesus lord or is your political party

Lord no your conscience should govern

your

vote you inform it with the word of

God and then you vote for God’s

definition of government okay here it is

again God’s definition of civil

government is to maintain a safe just

righteous and compassionately

responsible environment for freedom to

flourish let me say that again God’s

definition of civil government is to

maintain a safe just righteous and

compassionately responsible environment

for freedom to

flourish now big picture that’s what you

voting for who’s going to best achieve

that which party which platform which

policies will achieve that now because

people are coming at this with different

backgrounds and different experiences

some people are going to vote with an

emphasis on safe others are going to

vote with an emphasis on just some are

gonna vote with an emphasis on righteous

you see for many africanamerican

Christians because of History that’s

created a

an extra

sensitivity about Injustice an extra

sensitivity

about about the meaning of life and the

Dignity of life and that may cause many

not to be able to jump to the other side

even though they agree with it because

the sensitivity has softened their

conscience in that area for many Anglo

Christians the moral agenda

that they concerned is contaminating our

kids that is that is that they they’re

worried about what their kids are going

to be taught in school they’re worried

about that and so that governs the

dominant thing that’s covering their

conscience neither is wrong both are

right but they’ve been affected

differently so what do you do you have

blacks and white sitting next to each

other in the same church Church having

voted differently but under the lordship

of Jesus Christ that’s what you

do and he says you don’t look down on

one

another because we belong to another

king and another

kingdom so how do you decide on who you

vote for what’s the profile of a kingdom

voter

one a kingdom voter votes let’s start

with that Kingdom voter doesn’t stay

home two a kingdom voter prays about

their vote they don’t just talk to man

they talk to God God give me wisdom give

me understanding show me the direction

you want me to go

in next a kingdom voter

examines the issues based on the word of

God they don’t skip what God has to say

and keep reading what the news media

says God what do you say about life what

do you say about Justice what do you say

about uh uh uh Nations and globalization

what do you say about immigration what

do you say about taxation what do you

say because guess what he talks about

all that what do you say about family

morality what do you say they they

investigate what scripture says a

kingdom voter seeks Unity not division

they don’t they don’t use this voting

thing to create division a kingdom voter

looks at

policy and

personality character and competence

they don’t divide the two they put both

on the table and yeah they’ve got to

weigh it but they don’t ignore it a

kingdom

voter looks not only at themselves and

how voting will benefit them but they’re

part of something bigger they they we we

have to look at how will my decision

affect others as well as me you you

don’t vote selfishly you vote

sacredly and when you’ve done that you

take the

isue you draw a line down the center of

a piece of

paper and then you put the issues based

on the different parties and in fact you

have three columns the word of God

Democrats Republican or whichever on you

want to com

compare this is what the word of God

says this is what these groups

say then you prioritize them what’s most

important because everything won’t be

equally important in the same order to

everybody else except the top which is

God okay that biblical definition of

government and then you go down the list

based on the priorities accompanied by

the word of God and then you invite your

conscience to make a decision it’s okay

God says that after you’ve done your

work you’ve set your conscience at peace

that even though I can see both ways

even though they’re good and bad I can

take a deep

breath and say okay okay

this is the way I’mma go maybe different

than my neighbor different than my

coworker but this is where God gives

me gives me

peace I’ve talked to so many of members

of our church and people in the

community who can

argue strongly and

biblically from one side to the

other and I accept them and love them

both because guess what God has accepted

them so I’m I’m not here to tell you who

to vote

for I’m simply want to tell you

vote cuz the

answer is in your

[Music]

[Applause]

conscience God has given us a conscience

a

regulator that helps us to determine

good from bad right from wrong up from

down and many of the decisions we make

as long as they are within the biblical

framing won’t be the same because people

don’t start in the same place have the

same burdens or share the same

experiences that’s why it’s so

important that we allow people the

freedom to obey their conscience as long

as they’re not stepping outside of God’s

Will and word to do so God God allows

for disagreements he’s had disagreements

in his own word between his servants and

they were both in the will of God

because they were being led differently

so let’s not let the politics of the

culture divide the family of God as long

as the family of God is centered in the

kingdom of God

[Applause]

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