DO YOU STILL WANT KINGS? // S03E06 (EPISODE 34)

Election Day just passed and, as we write this, we have no way of knowing what’s actually going on as you read this—except this one thing: God is still on the throne. But! This week we’re dropping a pre-recorded, pre-election episode that asks the question: Do you still want Kings, y’all? Or, the King of Kings? Join us live tonight at 8 p.m. as we revisit this topic with election day insight.

Questions we touch on in this episode:

What does God think about the 2020 Presidential election?

How should Christians vote?

What happens after election day?

Who does God want to win the presidential election?

VERSES FROM DO YOU STILL WANT KINGS?

Romans 15:4, 1 Samuel 8:18-22, Romans 8:28, 1 Timothy 2:1-4

QUOTES FROM DO YOU STILL WANT KINGS?

We don’t need to be busy worrying about, “Oh my gosh. So-and-so is on the throne.” We also don’t have to be busy celebrating. “Oh, yay. That person I wanted is on the throne. What we need to do is, “Okay, God, who’s always on my throne. What do you want me to do?”

Michelle Watson, Do You Still Want Kings?, The Pantry Podcast

I have to trust in the one who died for me. I have to trust that He’s in complete control. You’re saying in that He allowed it for his purpose. That is sometimes the hardest thing to sit in, but you know what, COVID: He allowed it for his purpose. What have you been doing this election? These last four years? He has allowed it for his purpose, but what have you been doing? And when I say, what have you been doing? What have you been doing for the kingdom? What have you been doing for your King?

Shea Watson, Do You Still Want Kings?, The Pantry Podcast

We have to focus on what our actual King has us doing and not fear how that’s going to be impacted by what law comes through, what justice is appointed, what governor is here.

Michelle Watson, Do You Still Want Kings?, The Pantry Podcast

ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPT

Michelle: *Beatboxing*

Shea: Get it girl, come on.

Michelle: *Beatboxing*

Shea: Break me a baseline. We came to podcast. We came to podcast. We gonna podcast, podcast, podcast, podcast, because we love Jesus. We love Jesus. We’re going to podcast, podcast, podcast podcast, pod—alright, anyway.

Michelle: *Laughs*

Shea: This is stupid, oh my gosh. Anyways. It’s been a week to say the least. It’s a really good week.

Michelle: It’s been a good week though.

Shea: Yeah, it’s been a good week. We’re coming off of a, a nice little short vacation in Colorado.

Michelle: Yeah. Tinged with rhinovirus, but I’m glad it’s a rhino and not Corona. But nothing that some elderberry and apple cider vinegar didn’t complete knock out of the park.

Shea: But man, I will say this though. It’s good to be sitting here. It’s good to be sitting in front of you. I always say that. I love this. I love this portion. I love this time. Um, elections are coming and I’m gonna put a disclaimer out:

This is not about who you vote for, who you shouldn’t vote for, why you shouldn’t vote for why you should vote for, if you feel like you got a vote and it’s prayerful and you, and you’re like, I need to vote then vote. That’s what you do, who you vote for is who you vote for. I’m not going to beat you up. I’m not gonna sit here theologically and break it down on either side and tell you which one’s better because I have my own opinions, but really what I want to bring to the table is who we trusted. And so the episode title is: Do You Still Want Kings?

Michelle: Shea has reeled me in many a time with the biblical foundation of how we need to look at this, which…I know it in my head space, but often when you get lost in the day-to-day current events and also in the day-to-day “is this a real event?”, “a fake event?”, “a scripted event?”, “a rumored event?” What is this? When all that starts playing, then your heart space is the place that needs to know this and, and live and breathe it. So I also, as another disclaimer:

This episode is being recorded before election day. So we still don’t know the outcome. This is Sunday, October 25th at 7:23 PM. And we knew that this episode, when we scheduled this season, back in the summer, we knew episode was going to be coming out the day after official election day. So we aren’t coming at this knowing how you feel after, but you’re listening to this in your feelings about what is currently.

Shea: Yeah, we’re kind of in the atmosphere, the pregame atmosphere. Oh my gosh. It’s, it’s been brutal. And I think that’s why this has really settled in my heart. Um, I’ve written several devotions on this and it’s really something that I’ve had to do in my own life. I mean, look, I could replace, “do you still want,” and that could be a blank with so many different things in life, but just, hey, it’s the season. Let’s just talk about it because I know one thing’s for sure: I don’t want Kings. I want the King of Kings.

In Romans 15:4 it says:

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scripture, we might have hope in first Samuel eight, this is a time period where God is in complete control of a people of a nation, the nation of Israel it’s God and them.”

There’s no in-between a set for the people who are speaking for God. They have no leaders in that sense, right? It’s like, there’s not this overall ruling overarching anything government. Right? But the nations around them had government. And it’s kind of crazy that when you look at first Samuel eight, they asked for Kings, they wanted other Kings. They wanted the Kings that other nations had. They wanted Kings that were of man. My life has been centered the same way. What does man have the offer me? What does man going to give me? What is the man going to pay me more? And where is my next promotion from the man obviously worked for the man. But uh, it’s still the same thing. This idea of how I’m going to move forward in my life and how, how that’s going to is going to play out.

But what I see in 1 Samuel 8, it’s kind of interesting. They come to Samuel and they’re like, “Oh, we want Kings, like the other nations.” And Samuel looks at God and he’s like, Lord, what do I do with this?

Michelle: That’s awkward.

Shea: Right. We don’t want the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, no more. It’s like, we want our own man. I think he’s stooped by this. He’s looking at, like, what, Lord, tell them no! Strike them down! Right? I think—I know it would be me. That’s—that’s that nature in me. Sometimes it’s like just track them down, Lord. But the Lord says, you know, “they want a King, right? If they want a King, this is what the King’s behavior going to be.” The sons will be charioteers foot soldiers, captains, horseman plow his ground. Farmers, makers of weapons for war. The daughters, perfumers cooks, and bakers.

I’m sure there are things left out on this list because we all know the history of Kings’ possessions, their possessions, the best of their fields, their vineyards, the olive groves. He’s going to take a 10th of their grain and vintage. He’s going to take the male servants, the female servants, the finest young men, their donkeys, a 10th of their sheep. This King that they want is to just take and take, take, right? Like the world. That’s what the world does it. And this is what they’re asking for a pre-warning for the nation of Israel. He even tells them they’re going to cry out because of the King they chose. It’s just amazing to me that they would still go down this path.

Michelle: I see people that want so desperately to fit in with everybody else and feel normal that they’re willing to subject themselves to all of this oppression. That’s guaranteed by God, the same God that guaranteed them, a Homeland, deliverance? He’s guaranteeing them oppression if they turn all their hope into these worldly Kings.

I see a ton of believers that will hear what we’re saying and will then say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. But!” and then give you a long laundry list of reasons why all this stuff needs to dominate their attention, dominate their concern, and dominate their action, though.

The saying is you’re so heavenly minded, you’re no worldly good, right? To be heavenly minded means you cannot be interrupted from what God wants you to do. Doesn’t mean you’re not any worldly good; you will do good in the world for an eternal purpose. It won’t just be tons of band-aids.

No, one’s going to say you’re a terrible person if you run around with bandaids, slapping ’em on everything. That’s not wrong because you’re trying—good lowercase good. But when you’re doing what God wants you to do, no matter what it sounds like to anybody else, that’s uppercase Good. That is eternal Good. That’s everlasting Good. That’s the purpose that brings Him glory and you’re being used for that.

And so we have to make sure that even though these things are incredibly tragic and important in the sense people are hurting and suffering because of them, we cannot get lost in those weeds. What is not weeds is whatever God’s telling us: our hyper-specific call. That’s what we need to be doing. Saving souls is what counts, because otherwise they’re just going to have an eternity that’s worse than what we’re already thinking is really terrible. So we do have to sit here and stop defending how much we care about these finite tragic things and trust that God has a eternal lens on the matter and that what He wants us to do is going to impact this in a way we don’t understand, but that will be more powerful and more effective than what we can do with our own political and governmental plan.

Shea: I like how you’re unpacking that, you know, having this, this heavenly mind, that is what the Bible is, teaching us kingdom living. And I know I’ve probably said this before, because I mean, it is something that I dial in on. Yeah. Do I fall? Do I stumble? Do I make mistakes? And do I sometimes have to reel myself back into the kingdom mind frame? Absolutely. But you know what? I’m reeling myself back in. I’m not getting lost out on a tangent. What I love to see sometimes in my Christian brothers and sisters is you’ll see them like their posts. It’s like, Ooh, God, God, God, God forbid something goes wrong. And they, and they dip. But of the ones that I’m like sitting there going yes is they’ll dip for a minute and they come back out of it and be like, nevermind.

It’s God, it’s God. It’s God. And that’s okay. It’s okay. You’re going to dip. I’m not beating people up. I want people to understand that. We’re trying to find a mindset. That’s going to give us the joy, the peace, the happiness, you know, all of those things that are promised, you know, it’s funny and Philippians four, eight funny. I don’t know. I think it’s cool. Funny. However you want to look at it, but look, we keep getting reinforced on this same idea that we need to be in this mindset. Finally, brothers, whatever’s true. Whatever’s honorable. Whatever’s just, whatever is pure. Whatever is lovely. Whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things because guess what? Our kingdom knows what’s happening. Our kingdom is dialed in to what is happening us. We’re not, unless we’re dialed into the word of God.

It’s kind of like what Romans said at the beginning. It’s all been set out for us to use for 1 Samuel 8:18-22. I kind of touched some a little bit, but I think sometimes it’s, it’s good to say it because this is what was going through the people’s mind. This is what was going to happen when you choose a King because the other nations have it. And you will cry out in that day because of your King, whom you have chosen for yourself. And the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless, the people refuse to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, no, but we will have a King over us that we also may be like all the nations and that our King may judge us and go before us and fight our battles. Did you just hear what I said?

The Bible says that it’s God that goes before us. It’s God who fights our battles. But here they are putting their hope in a man. And Samuel heard all the words of the people and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. He took it to the Lord, love Samuel. So the Lord said to Sammy heed their voice and make them a King. And Samuel said to the minute Israel, “Every man go to his city.” That’ll let you make the choice. But the repercussions, what happened when they chose man over God call before them a man that will fight their battles? What happened to the scripture? What happened to the word of God? What happened to the Psalms and all of these, these, these beautiful verses about how God stands there for us stands in the gap?

He’s our rear guard. He goes before me, he goes behind me. He fights my battles and I want to just encourage people to turn, turn to him. Turn back to him. Christians are going to vote. The world is going to vote and whatever comes of that vote, God hasn’t changed. Same God yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Michelle: For the last four years: “Who are you going to vote for? And here’s what it means when you do.” And it’s become this incredibly divisive, deteriorating conversation, distilled down. Every issue has been distilled down to a life or death thing. That four-year buildup is done. And now we’re sitting with whatever has happened. When you’re listening to this, we’re sitting with whatever’s happened. Whatever’s happening after something that’s been talked to death for four years. That’s why I like what you say about God being the same, our calling, and God can’t be interrupted by who’s in power because God knows who’s going to be in power and has put that into consideration when He gave us our call. He used the Pharaoh of Egypt that worshiped demon gods. He used Cyrus who worshiped demon gods. Babylon is still to this day referenced as one of the most brutal, disgusting, vile groups of people to have lived through biblical times and yet he is mentioned in Isaiah, in Daniel. Both of them were used for something that was blatantly God’s purpose.

But if you wrote down what their accomplishments have been, for a believer, it wouldn’t be very impressive because at the end of the day, neither of them had the Lord, but God used them. God has used every single one. And I know we all don’t like it. Cause we’re all going to pick five or six that have been in charge to say they shouldn’t have ever been there. They caused all this pain and yet God used them anyway. So now that the nation isn’t distracted by one checkbox anymore, we’ve got to remember: We don’t need to be busy worrying about, “Oh my gosh. So-and-so is on the throne.” We also don’t have to be busy celebrating. “Oh, yay. That person I wanted is on the throne.

What we need to do is, “Okay, God, who’s always on my throne. What do you want me to do?” God is the one who can get us through everything. Like you said, fight every battle. Now we can, if this isn’t, if we have, if we live in a country where we’re allowed to vote and there’s something that’s coming through that is definitely godly, vote for it. If you feel led, vote for it. If it definitely doesn’t, vote against it, right? But that’s, again, a checkbox action that can be interrupted by what actually comes about. So we have to sit on that. We have to focus on what our actual King has us doing and not fear how that’s going to be impacted by what law comes through, what justice is appointed, what governor is here.

You might not even live in America and you don’t have the freedom to choose who’s in charge and you might be like, “Wow, what a group of privileged people that even had a choice.” But regardless, all of these things, all the activism of the world is limited by what man can come up with as a solution to propose, to try and erect. Whereas God’s activism, which is the only type that’s again, eternal. I’m going to keep saying that word. Can’t be interrupted by who’s there. If you’re happy now, are you going to be scared again in four years? If you’re sad now, are you living for four years from now? Like we can’t live like that.

Shea: Yeah. It’s miserable living. Oh, it’s a so miserable living. Uh, you know, I, I had that resonates, but it resonates because I tell people this all the time, don’t be me. Don’t be 40-something years old and start to dial this in. If you’re older than me, okay, dial it in, dial it in. If you’re younger than me, though, dial this thought in because it has been a miserable existence for 40-something years for me. And I think Michelle and I were talking about this earlier today because, you know, I have to trust in the one who died for me. I have to trust that He’s in complete control. You’re saying in that He allowed it for his purpose. That is sometimes the hardest thing to sit in, but you know what, COVID: He allowed it for his purpose.

What have you been doing this election? These last four years? He has allowed it for his purpose, but what have you been doing?

And when I say, what have you been doing? What have you been doing for the kingdom? What have you been doing for your King? I like what you were saying, because that is where our mind needs to be. Because watch this. When we start to nitpick here, we start nitpicking everything. And then we get all of these multiple slashes and cuts on our arms of things that are bothering us and things that aren’t sitting well in us. And the whole time God is sitting there saying, Hey, if you’re with me, it is well. So if God is sitting there saying it is well and I’m not well, then your mind is probably not where it needs to be. It needs to be in that kingdom, Romans 8:28. That’s your verse. I’m gonna let you say it.

Michelle: Well, you know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Shea: That is the verse that we need to live by. That is the verse that we need to focus on.

Michelle: And I encourage everyone to read all of Proverbs 3. That’s the chapter that says, “do not depend on your own understanding, seek him in all you do, because he’ll show you the path to take.” It says, that “common sense and discernment” are what keep you safe on your way so “your feet don’t stumble,” so that you can “go to bed without fear.” It says, this is, this is the part I love:

“You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked for the Lord is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.”

Now all of that has this presupposition, right? That you need to know what He’s saying, right? And the way to find it, even when you feel like God ain’t answering: open the Bible and pow, He’s talking to you. You can kind of summon His voice on demand by reading the Word of God, whenever you can. It gives you that direction. That common sense and discernment, because He’s not talking about common sense from the earth. He’s talking about common sense from above. And that is why we need to sit in this rest in Him because He can guide us out of whatever outcome you’re scared of right now. He can go. He can, he can just snatch you out of it. And even if it’s His will that you sit in that, we have an eternal life. So it’s only temporary. The fear is going to fade away like dust.

Shea: There are a lot of things wrong in the world, but we know this. There’s a lot of evil people in the world and we know this, but sometimes there are even the people that were used for good. You know, you’re talking about Pharaoh, I’m thinking King David: sleeps with his friend’s wife and then murders his friend.

Michelle: He’d have all the friends on Instagram but he was terrible.

Shea: You know, we went to Pharaoh’s as all these evil demon worshipers, right? Solomon, we read a lot of his wisdom that he asked for. Anyway, he too worshiped evil demon gods and slept with foreign women. God will use them for His purpose, but we need to keep our minds on Him. And I’m going to leave our listeners with 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Paul lays it out exactly the way that a believer needs to be involved in what’s going on around them. He says,

“First of all, then, I urge that supplication, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for Kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good. And it is pleasing in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. Seek first, the kingdom of God and all things will be added to you.”

Amen?

Michelle: Amen. What’s comforting is that it doesn’t matter, praise God, but if you’re struggling with anything that’s going on right now, because, hey, there’s going to be struggles regardless. Remember we are here. We want to pray with you. You can go to ThePantryPodcast.com, submit a prayer request, send us a question, a comment, a thought. You can do that on Facebook or Instagram or Gab @thepantrypodcast. And, as always, you can help support us by rating us on whatever you listen to us on as well as write a review, if possible, subscribe. Share with a friend and support us by buying merch. We have some super cool worship is our worship stuff in stock. Perfect for Christmas gifts. So until next time, bye.

Shea: Bye.