Don’t Take the Bait: A Prayer for the Nation Following the Attempted Assassination

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This is the weekend of the month where we normally pray for specific congregational needs, and we will do that today. But as you all know by now, if I’m standing up here, there’s something that’s gone somewhat wrong, and I thought to myself last night, as I was thinking over this, that we have to stop meeting each other this way. I think about all the varying things I’ve had to give some statements to you all as your pastor in the three and a half years since we founded this church and started doing ministry.

So just a quick refresher: Why am I going to speak on this issue? I believe as a pastor it is my job to shepherd you in all of life, and one of the reasons why the church is so messed up is that the church often refuses to acknowledge the elephant in the room, no pun intended. We have several specific congregational needs that we are going to be praying for this morning. But the reason why I am up here is to shepherd you in our strange and evil times.

What happened yesterday, the attempted murder and assassination of a former president, is historical, it’s evil, and it’s rather unsettling. Sitting there watching it on TV, it was rather surreal. So what do we say in a moment like this? I wrestled with this as the thunderstorms rolled over my head last night and I couldn’t sleep. What do I say to my people in this moment?

I want to begin with this: I love my country. I don’t begrudge anyone from any country to love their homeland. That is a good and natural thing. I love America, and I say that being fully aware of her many flaws, her many sins, both past and present. I am also aware of and very grateful to God for her many graces and her many blessings. I believe that our founders did something tremendous and historical, and that the ideals of America are worth fighting to preserve. I’m also greatly burdened as I look out at my fellow citizens in my country.

I remember reading a few years ago, for the first time, The Great Evangelical Disaster by Francis Schaeffer, and I was struck by the tone he took in that book, and how it was often very different from our evangelical leaders as he lamented what he saw in his own nation and he wept over it. He’s like, "It shouldn’t be this way." I found that refreshing. While our citizenship is primarily in heaven and not in a nation, God has placed us in this time in this country on purpose to be salt and light. To be human is to be incarnated. It is to be in the flesh. It is to be located in a specific time and location. And part of being a good earthly citizen, and really the center of it, is to know that Jesus Christ is Lord over all, and that his kingdom is above and greater and transcends all kingdoms of this world. He is indeed King of Kings.

And at the risk of being entirely reductionistic, our country right now is royally messed up in a bunch of ways, and that should burden you as Christians. We should not reject the inheritance prior generations have left for us. We should be grateful for that. And we should strive to, as a father, leave a great inheritance to my children and to our grandchildren as well.

So what am I getting at here? There are forces at work, both seen and unseen, who are working diligently to destroy the righteous parts of American ideals. There are forces at work, both seen and unseen, who want to foment political violence. We should have no part in that. There are forces seeking to tear us down and to divide us in a myriad of ways. And as a pastor, I can tell you that the only way forward for this country is repentance. There are many, many grievous sins we are guilty of as a people today, from abortion to child mutilation, from governmental theft to statist idolatry, self-worship to sexual promiscuity, and I can tell you that all the lies they’re selling, none of them are working. And the Bible teaches us in no uncertain terms that freedom begins with freedom from sin. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

As our founders recognized, this government is only going to work with a moral and religious people. Why is that? Because government exists, as Romans 13 tells us, to punish evildoers. The more evil a people is, the greater and bigger a government has to grow to control the evil within the populace. Why is our government growing so big? Because the people are stuck, entrapped, and in sin over and over again. And the only way out is Christ Jesus. The only way for the world to see that is if the church of Jesus Christ stops being so pietistic and says, “Repent and believe,” in the public square. Everything’s burning around us and the church is wondering whether or not we can say Jesus is King of Kings in the political sphere. He is.

So my advice to you in these troubled times, as your pastor, is first to pray for your leaders, both your church leaders and your political leaders. Repent of your own sin in your own families first. Don’t give in to the eye-for-an-eye vengeance that is so natural to us. Don’t take the bait, as there are people out there who want you to respond with violence. One of my friends sent me this. God’s got a sense of humor in all of this, right? There was an article published yesterday morning before all of this happened. I think it was The Washington Post, but it was one of those ilk. And the article was about how religious Christians are violent in politics. On that same day, I think God’s got a sense of humor.

One of the more genius things our founders did was to offer us a path forward to have nonviolent revolutions through elections up to the highest offices of the land every four years. So don’t take the bait. Violence is not the step. And so, as the body of Christ in this nation, I encourage you to pray for our people. Let us be like Moses, petitioning on behalf of our sinful people before God. His arm is not too short to save. His ears are not stuffed up. He is not deaf. Christ will hear. God will hear if we humble ourselves and pray.

So let’s pray together.

Lord God, we come to you this morning confessing that we are a sinful and needy people, that we have rebelled against your righteousness in many ways, and Lord, we ask that you would forgive us. We ask that you would give us clarity of thought and speech to speak to our neighbors, to speak to this dying world with the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We ask that you would, as you have done throughout history, bring a revival, that people would repent of their sins and run to Christ. And we ask this knowing, Lord, that we do not deserve it, but we ask for your grace and for your mercy. Lord, we pray for our leaders as you have commanded us to do. We pray that you would raise up righteous leaders who would enact righteous laws according to your standards. We pray that you would remove wicked leaders and that you would frustrate their plans. Lord, we pray for the families of those who were injured yesterday and even died, that you would comfort them with a comfort from above. We pray for anyone who is impacted by this, including former President Trump, that if they do not know you, that this brush with death would convict them of their sins, and that they would repent and believe and be free from those sins in Christ. Lord, we ask for your good and gracious mercy upon our people.