The role of Christians, immigrants, and the government - Summer Heat series - Nate Clarke

This summer, I'm starting today a series that I'm calling Summer Heat, where I'm tackling some of the issues of our day in our culture from a biblical perspective. And I want to share before I do this, my heart behind this summer, tackling the topics of the day.

Um, about 90% of my preaching calendar, 90% of the ministry as we preach God's word is applying God's word to your life and to your heart. If you could use um maybe a parallel to a battle or to a war, 90% of the war we do is ground war. Ground war in your heart, God's word applied to your life in your heart. But how many know if you all you do is ground war, but you have no air support? You can take a lot of ground down here, but you can get taken out and lose a lot of ground by air real quick if you don't have air support.

So, so to take that analogy to God's word, most of my preaching and most of our ministry is applying God's word to your heart and your life. But occasionally we have to get up from the ground war and apply God's word to the culture in the day we live in to do some air war. Because as a pastor, what I've seen is people discipled in their own heart, in their own life, but if they're not discipled in what's happening around them in the culture, they leave the four walls of the church and they lose ground in their faith. And so my heart for you as as the pastor of this church is to provide this summer a little bit of air war uh for you to be able to go out and apply God's word to the world around us.

And so I'm always taking notes and inventory each year of the top things people are asking me as a pastor, the top things my pastor friends across the country are dealing with. What's dominating people's discussion and struggles? And we've talked about a number of things over the years. How many know nothing's off limits? Nothing's off limits. And uh and so this last year I've been taking note and uh even hearing from some of you what am I getting asked about a lot? What's dominating headlines? What are people confused about? And so I've compiled several different things uh that I want to look at from a biblical perspective today.

And uh today I want to talk about what does the Bible say about borders and immigration? What does the Bible say about borders and immigration? I don't know about you, but particularly the first part of this year, it felt like everyone's discussion and news and conversation was dominated with borders, deportations, immigrants, and and what what do we do with that discussion? People from all kinds of sides saying it, discussing it, debating it, being emotional about it. And I don't care what Fox has to say, and I don't care what CNN has to say. I want to tell you today what God's word has to say, okay? What God's word has to say about it.

And I'll say too, as as all the discussion has been going around and and I'd imagine, I'm not a prophet, but I'd imagine in the next few years, it's probably not going to die down. Um, if you're an immigrant in our church, and I'll say this cuz I know we have a lot of immigrants in our church, first and second generation. If you're an immigrant in our church, uh, I want you to know I love you as your pastor. I love you and I care for you deeply. Our church loves you. In fact, our our serve team, a lot of the people very involved in our church were not born here, came here from places all over the globe. And our church is blessed and better because of you. And so, I want you to know I love you today. And so, I'm talking to you today as an immigrant. I'm talking to our whole church today, those that were born here in the States and those were that are not. And we're going to see what God's word has to say about it. And I believe you'll be challenged and encouraged.

All right. So, let's look at Leviticus 19 verse 34. verse 33 and 34. This is God speaking to his people, Israel. He's giving the law. In this chapter, you have a ton of other laws given. You have laws given uh things like you have to stand up in the presence of elderly, like social laws. Um, you have just all kinds of stuff. And there's a law here about how to treat an immigrant, how to deal with foreigners to God's people in Israel. Leviticus 19:33 says this. When a foreigner is residing among you in the land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner that's residing among you must be treated as your native born. Love them as yourself. And then he reminds Israel, look at this, you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God. God has a lot to say here and in the scriptures to his people Israel about the idea of borders and immigration. And so we're going to look at it today.

So let's pray and then we'll jump into God's word. Will you repeat this with me? Say, "Dear God, >> Dear God, >> today do what no man can do. >> Open my eyes. >> Open my heart >> that I may receive your word. >> Believe your word. >> And obey your word."

I'm going to jump right in today because I've got much to cover and I want to try to get through it. this scripture that we read in Leviticus 19 where God commands his people don't mistreat a foreigner but in fact treat them as yourself. It's very similar to the law your neighbor as yourself. He's saying treat them as yourself, treat them as native born. In other words, he's saying don't discriminate against them or treat them differently because of the place of their birth origin. Treat them like you would yourself and treat them like a native born. Right? That's what God is telling his people in Leviticus 19. And it's it's kind of hard to understand when you read that scripture how radical that command was in that day. That command in that day was unbelievably in sharp contrast to any other command, any other culture, any other people group in that day. When God is telling his people, hey, treat treat people that weren't born where you're born. treat them like you treat yourself was was radical because God gave this command in this ancient culture in a day and age of tribalism. Here's how I'm defining tribalism. It's where people are organized only around ethnicity. And the culture of tribalism is this. Protect your own and fear the outsider. The the only identifier is your place of origin. And anyone that is not in your tribe is to be stiff armed, is to be feared, and even to be as you look at world history to be oppressed. Tribalism always breeds evil treatment of people. And a great example of this in the scripture is where God's people in Israel are enslaved in Egypt. That was a day of tribalism. the Egyptians conquered and oppressed the the people of Isra of Israel and they served under Pharaoh and because Joseph was given land uh by Pharaoh but many generations went and a Pharaoh came that didn't know Joseph and all of a sudden tribalism kicked in and there you have the Egyptians conquering God's people Israel that is what tribalism always leads to and when God gives this command to his people. He's speaking a command of nationalism.

So th this is very different than tribalism. It's where people are not organized primarily around their birthplace, but now they're organized around borders, shared values and morals and laws. So this is much healthier than tribalism. And we today in America, we are a nationalism versus tribalism. We are more of a nationalism nation. In fact, we as America, we identify proudly as a nation of immigrants. We are the country that all the people around the world want to come to. And millions have come and millions have been blessed in this nation. And this nation has been blessed by millions that have come. They come here from all over the world and are blessed. And they come here and are a blessing. But it's not primarily because of their ethnicity. It's primarily because we come together with shared values, shared morals, and a shared culture here in the United States. People come here and are blessed because they come here for shared values. We welcome as a country, I don't know if you know this, more immigrants into America than any other country on the earth. And it ain't even close. It ain't even close. Those who do so by following the laws to do so enjoy the full privileges, protections, and freedoms that our Constitution gives and they're able to pursue the American dream here. In fact, on the seal of the United States, I don't know if you guys know this, on dollar bills, on coins, the seal of the US, there is a bald eagle who has a banner in his beak. And on that banner is the phrase, it's a Latin phrase e pluribus unum. Anybody ever heard this before? E- plurabus unum. And it means out of many one. It's speaking of our nation. We have many different people, many different states, many different people from many different places all over the world. But here in the states, we come together out of many, we make one. And I have no hesitation or no second guessing about saying this, but we live in the best nation in the entire world. >> We live in the best nation in the entire world. In fact, the proof is in the pudding. We're the place everyone wants to come to and we're the place for the people here that hate it won't even leave. Come on. Proof is in the pudding most of the time. And we we are a nation of immigrants. We are a nation where people from all over the world have come to pursue a better life. And we as Christians, we should be able to celebrate and love the immigrant and the rule of law at the same time. Both of those things can be true. In fact, Presidents Clinton and Obama both said numerous times, quote, "We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws." Both of these things can and should be true at the same time. And we have we we as Christians have to hold both of these things true together.

And so today, I want to break down three different groups in the job and responsibility of three different groups. So I want to talk about the role of the Christian, the role of the government and the role of the immigrant. Each of these three groups has a job to play in God's design and for people in a nation to thrive.

So first the role of the Christian, the role of the Christian. Let's go back to Leviticus 19:33 and 34. This was God's command to his people. He gives them the command. When a foreigner is residing among you, don't mistreat them. When they reside among you, you must treat them as nativeorn. Love them as yourself. You were once foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Here's the role of the Christian. This is the role for you personally. This is the role for us as a church is to not mistreat the foreigner, but to love them. It's the role of the Christian. The role of the church. The command of God here is to not treat someone differently again based on where they came from. Your Christian love, your Christian blessing, your Christian prayer, your Christian service should not discriminate against someone because of the place they were. And to do so is evil and God hates it. Let me say that again. To discriminate from some from the place that someone came from to not give them love, to not give them prayer or encouragement strictly based on where they came from is against God's heart. It doesn't please him. So what God is saying is nativeborn or foreign foreignb born you are to love them. And this is not only true for us personally as Christians. This is true for us as a church. We as a church do not discriminate our ministry based on the origin of someone's birth. And to do so would be evil. In fact, I'll prove it to you today. How many people today had to show a passport proof when you came in the room today? You kind of laugh at that and it's funny, but it's but I'm trying to make my point here. We don't we don't we don't train our prayer team to ask where people came from or what the status of their passport is when they receive prayer. Because when people come here to pray, like I think it's Isaiah 57 says, "My house should be a house of prayer for all nations." When people come here to get prayer, we pray for them because that's our job. When people come here to hear God's word, we preach God's word because that's our job. When people eat food, we're feeding people today. We're feeding you. And I don't care where you came from or how you got here. We're feeding you today cuz that's our job. We clothe the naked. We feed the hungry. We pray for those who are sick. We bless those who need. We we encourage. That's the job of the Christian and the job of the church is to not mistreat but to love and care for the foreigner. Your job is to love the person God puts right in front of you. No matter where you are and where they came from, the person right in front of you. There's probably a lot of you who have people from all over the world in your life. Maybe in your workplace, maybe in your neighborhood. I know for sure many in this church, many of your kids' friends that they go to school with. When your kids are hanging out in the neighborhood, here's your job. Native or foreign born, love them. Bless them. Pray with them if they need prayer. Challenge them with God's word if they need that. Bless them because that's what Christians do to any person God puts in front of. Why? Because every person is made in the image of God. And we give people the dignity of loving and caring for them because they're made in God's image. So that's our role. That's our role as a church and that's all of our roles personally as Christians to not mistreat the foreigner but to love them.

Now what is the role of the government? What's the role of the government? The role of the government is different from the role of the Christian. And this is where progressives get this mixed up a lot because progressives take commands given to people and try to put them on government. Government and people are two different things. So what's what's the role of the government? The role of the government is this. to protect the people and borders of its nation and to administer justice without partiality. Without partiality. All right.

So, we're going to break this down, but we have to ask first, uh, are borders for a nation a biblical concept? Are borders righteous and biblical, or are borders evil and wrong? Okay. What does the Bible have to say about national borders? Uh, I'll say the Bible is pro-borders and there are many different examples and descriptions where God is given people and nations throughout the scripture and every time God is talking about a nation or a group of people, he gives the geographical borders of the place. Acts Acts 17:26 says, "From one man he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth. He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their land. When God created, he marked out different people in different areas. And to define those areas, there are boundaries or borders. Numbers 34:1, the Lord said to Moses, "Command the Israelites and say to him and say to them, when you enter Canaan, the land that will be uh given to you as an inheritance, look at this, is to have these boundaries." And then if you read the 34th chapter of numbers, the entire chapter is borders. The entire thing, it's like this group will be at this mountain to this desert. That group will be at this river to that river. This group will be from this hill to that land. Like the entire chapter of Numbers 34 is the geographical borders and boundaries of tribes of people, groups of nations. Joshua chapters 13- 21. Every chapter in that entire section is a description of how the land is divided up amongst the different tribes and the people groups. Everywhere God is talking about people groups and land, he gives the borders in which it's there. To have a border is where a culture, a set of rules and standards and the authority of it starts and where it stops is the border. For a country to be a country, it must have established and enforced borders. All right?

So, let's just do a little uh thought a thought experiment here. And I want you to follow this logic with me. If you're a parent, and maybe we've got a lot of them in this church. If you if you if you have young kids at home, okay? Okay, if you have young kids at home, you might set a rule in your house. And the rule might go like this. No jumping on the couch. The couch is not a trampoline. It's a couch. Not on your feet, on your bottom. No jumping on the couch. Right? You might set that rule. Now, as soon as you set that rule as a parent, what do the children want to do? They want to they're testing to see if your rule is actually a rule >> because they know as well as you know a rule that is not enforced isn't a rule. It can be said and it can be written but a rule that's not enforced is not a rule. So so then look borders that are not enforced aren't borders. And if a nation is without borders, it's not a nation. So therefore, a nation that does not enforce its borders will cease to be a nation. You following that logic with me today? And there's so many examples throughout the scripture, not only of borders, but the enforcement of the borders in place. Did you know there's an entire book in the Bible about a man called by God, equipped by God, and funded by God to build a border? Nehemiah. Nehemiah is called by God to go back to Jerusalem because the temple had been built. And every time the temple was built and they were putting this stuff in it, people would come from all over and they would destroy the temple. They would steal what was in the temple. Because there was no border that was enforced, the temple and the people in Jerusalem couldn't thrive. So what did God do? He called a man named Nehemiah. He gave him favor with the king. He funded him with people and resources. And he went to enforce the parameter around Jerusalem so the people and the temple could thrive because without it they could not. Did you know in Genesis chapter 3, God enforces a border? In the third chapter of Genesis, this is where sin enters mankind. Adam and Eve had sinned and what does God do? He kicks them out of the garden. Now, to be kicked out of the garden, that means there had to be a place where the garden started and the garden stopped. And then it tells us in the third chapter of Genesis that once they were kicked out of the garden that the gates of the garden were guarded that they might not go back in. It it it was God showing there is a boundary here and it's going to be enforced. So, you have to stay out, not come in.

Why should a nation respect and protect its borders? two different reasons that I want to give you today. The first reason is national security. A nation needs borders for the same reason that all of your houses have doors and have locks. Not because you hate the people outside of it, but because you love the people inside of it. Hear me. This is so important because if you hear this today and you don't agree with it in your head, I promise you, you agree with it with your life. because you'll take your car places and you'll lock the door because at night your wife gives you the elbow and goes, "Hey, hey, did you lock the door?" And the husband gets up and makes sure the door is locked. You don't do that out of hatred for everyone else. You do it out of love for those there. National security. Again, we see the whole book of Nehemiah is building safety and security for the temple in Jerusalem so that God's people could worship. And if borders are there but not enforced, the people inside of them are have a great danger and risk to their safety and security. Here's here's just a few numbers and example. From 2017 to 2020, when the borders were mostly closed, there was 11 people at the southern border that were found and caught that were known terrorists with stated intent to do harm to people in America. 11. From 2021 to 2024, that number went up to over 380 from known terrorist watch lists. And additionally, in those years, 1.7 million people came from places with known intent to do harm to America like Usbekiststan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan. When when borders are not enforced, there is an extreme risk to those that are there on the inside of them. It's very it's very dangerous. And like you take responsibility for your own life to lock your vehicle or lock your car. It's the job of the government to enforce its borders to protect its citizens. Not because it's against everyone else, but because it's primarily for those on the inside. We see an example from Nehemiah chapter 13. Nehemiah is built and building the wall and they start to read God's word to get God's word back in now that they are safe and can do it. Says this in verse number one they take the book of Moses and and they and they read it aloud in the hearing of the people and they found this two people groups the Ammonites and Moabites. Now just put that in the back of your head for later. We're going to come back to Moabites. Okay, we're going to finish with talking about that group of people. But they found these two people groups are doing this. It says they should not be admitted into the assembly of God. And then here's why. They had not met with the Israelites for food and water. But then look at this. They hired Balam to call a curse down on them. But then I love Nehemiah just adds, "But God turned it into a blessing. God's like God's got it. God ain't worried about them. God can handle them." But there's a group of people that is so against God's people. Again, they're not just there, but they're actively against them, hiring out false gods to curse them. Again, not neutral, very, very active opposition. So, what does God say? He says they can't come in. So, verse number three, when the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent. What does Nehemiah do? Nehemiah enforces a boundary for those who came to do harm. For those who came to do harm against his people in Jerusalem. They were excluded because they posed a threat to God's people. They were actively hiring false gods to curse God's people. And so, how many think God's like, "Yeah, we ain't doing that. We ain't doing that." The borders being enforced helps protect people inside of them. It's for their safety and security. And uh the boundary matters. And again, if you don't agree with this with your mind, just do an assessment. I promise you, you agree with this with your life. You agree with this with your life.

All right. The second reason why we enforce and respect the borders, is to preserve our prosperity. If you ever traveled outside of America, especially to extremely poor countries, you you know how good we have it in America. In fact, the poorest people in America really live better lives than the average people in most other countries around the world. If if you've traveled around, you know this and you see this. And it's why millions of people around the world desire to come to America for a better life and better opportunity. Uh, and how many think that's easy to understand and sympathize with because I'd want to do the same thing. I'd want to do the same thing. In fact, the pastor that put this sermon together with me, I wrote this with a few other of my pastor friends as we were talking about some of these issues. Uh he was an immigrant uh that came here to plant a church and was talking about this firsthand about how blessed and prosperous America is uh compared to so many places around the world. And we are a blessed nation. And God's instruction to his people in Israel was that they would be a blessed nation. And because they're so blessed, the borders have to be enforced to protect and preserve the prosperity. Now, before you hear that and think to yourself, that sounds selfish. That sounds like, yeah, we're real blessed and we just going to stay back here because we're real blessed and have to protect what's blessed and what's ours. Because that's kind of how it can sound. But God's intent for for his people in Israel was not to just protect their blessing, but that they would be so blessed it would overflow and anyone around them would get their blessing because they were so blessed that they would be a blessing. This is why he says to Abraham, "Those who bless you will be blessed. Those who curse you will be cursed. Many nations will be blessed by you." It's because they were going to be so blessed. The blessing would spill out. it would overflow that those who are even around get blessed because of the prosperity of that nation. And in fact, this is true of us. I was uh traveling, this was a year and a half ago. I was outside of the states and I was with a good friend of mine in ministry who our church supports around the world in missions every single year. And it was time uh here where we were there was like an election. It was an election year and there was a bunch of stuff in the news and it was just crazy American politics happening. And I asked my friend in this other nation, I said, "Do you do you follow us? Like, do you think we're crazy?" You know, like, "Do you do you pay attention to what's happening here in our news and our stuff?" Cuz I was I was genuinely like, I don't know if they care or not, you know, at this part of the world. And he said he said, "Oh yeah. Oh yeah, we care. We watch." I was like, "You do? Why do you watch?" And he said, "We want y'all strong because when y'all are blessed, we're all blessed." He says, "When when y'all are strong, everybody's blessed. When y'all aren't, we all suffer." It's it's not that we protect our prosperity so that no one else gets it. It's we protect it so that we can be positioned to be a blessing. And when a border is not enforced, it threatens the prosperity and the blessing inside of it.

So this is why the government's job to go back to the role of the government is to do justice without showing partiality to do justice and it not matter who broke the law or why they broke the law but to do justice without partiality. All right.

So, let's do a little experiment with this. If if we have, for our example, say you own here locally a farmers market and you harvest food from around town. You have a little farm and you have a farmers market that people come and get their groceries at. And there's two different people that commit a crime at your farmers market. Person number one shows up to your farmers market with a weapon. They threaten people with the weapon. They steal the cash. They take some of the food. and they go away with it because it was a part of a gang to sell drugs. Now, how many people hear that? We don't really have a lot of hesitation about like, yeah, throw the book at them. They should be punished for that crime, right? Like, you know, there might not be a lot of hesitation for something like that. But now, say person number two comes to your farmers market and commits a crime. Person number two, you just see out of the corner of your eye kind of like stuffing away a few things of food. Kind of like just trying to get away with, you know, stealing a little bit here. So, you approach them. You talk to them about it and you find out this guy just lost his job recently. His wife is terminally sick. He's got multiple kids at home and he's so desperate to just put food on the table for tonight. He doesn't know what else to do. So, he goes and grabs some food. Now, how many know person number two as a Christian you can sympathize with a little more and understand like man a lot more compared to person number one? And so you as a Christian like you might even say you know what like here we want to help you. Here's some food. And you know what? While you're trying to get back on your feet, I'll hire you. Why don't you come work at my farmers market to get right? You as a Christian would want to do that. But hear me. The government's job is to do justice without partiality. And that includes the motives of people. So true justice is not to determine one motive was good and one motive was bad. True justice is to say if if the law was broken, whether you're rich or poor, your motive was good or bad, whether you're a nobody or you're powerful, if the law was broken, biblical justice shows no partiality. So, so it's the government's job to enforce the border in such a way that doesn't show partiality because if person number two is just told, you know what, it's fine. Go ahead. That's fine that day. But what happens if the next day five people number two show up to your farmers market and then the next week 100 people number two show up to your farmers market. And then the next month 10,000 people number two show up to your farmers market. Then all of a sudden, how many know you don't have a farmers market and the very thing that drew them there if the law is not enforced without partiality gets destroyed. Does that make sense? Are you with me today? And so this is why to protect the prosperity of our nation, the government must enforce a law without partiality. Because if too many people come in the wrong way, it overthrows and overwhelms the whole system they came for in the first place and destroys the thing that made it attractive to begin with. Financially speaking, here's just some numbers to give you an idea. Our our country right now is 34 trillion with a t dollars in debt. In fact, while I've been preaching to you this morning, it's gone up by millions just in the last few minutes. 150 billion last year with a B, 150 billion was spent on people who came here against the laws of our nation. If you pay taxes, that is,50 of your dollars last year that went towards someone who broke the law to come here. And each of the people that broke the law to come here received from our government $8,700 last year. Again, if too many people do it, it ruins the thing that drew them here in the first place. And with all this, even a Christian should be able to show love to the immigrant, whether they're here in compliance with the laws or whether they're here against the laws. Because again, I want to remind you the role of the church versus the role of the government. But our country, because we were founded on Christian principles, those principles treat even those who broke the law to be here unbelievably good. In fact, we America treat those who break our laws better than any other country in the entire world treats those who break their laws. I know. I promise you. We're about to send a team to Jamaica in a few weeks. I promise you, if I broke the laws to get there, I would not be treated as well as people that break the laws to get here. Here's here's a list here's a list of things that we do for people despite whether they broke the law or not to be here. Free K through2 education, free school lunches, instate tuition, PEL grants for college, free emergency medical care, free food through WIC, free food and pregnancy centers through WIC, uh fair labor standard act, which entitles them to a minimum wage and overtime, uh due process through the 14th amendment. They can get banking services with a I10. Hundreds of banks now allow them to open bank accounts and get mortgages. They can benefit from public safety. They can call the police or fire and they'll show up. public services, parks, libraries, public roads and transportations, and they get the national defense of the US military. How many think that ain't that bad? And the government is acting justly and within biblical grounds when they uphold and enforce the borders of our nation. And to hinder them from doing so is sinful and wrong. regardless of who or why they come to do so against the laws of the government becomes just to punish and enforce the borders. Here's some scriptures on that. Leviticus 19:15. Do not pervert justice. Do not show partiality. Here it is. This is biblical justice to the poor or favoritism to the great. Again, biblical justice. It shouldn't matter where you came from. It shouldn't matter what kind of money you have. It shouldn't matter how powerful you are or are not. Biblical justice is not perverted by those things. There's no partiality. Proverbs 6:30. This is actually the example of our farmers market in Proverbs 6:30. Look at this. People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he's starving. That's person number two. Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it cost him all the wealth of his house. That's saying, hey, there there could be someone you could be more sympathetic to or more understanding to, but biblical justice is upholding this standard without partiality, even if the motive in your eyes seems better than another motive. Laws that enforce borders are biblically aligned, morally good, and we should follow them. And this is just in line with what Paul says in Romans 13 where he tells us to obey the governing authorities of the place we live. Now, the only time we don't obey the governing authorities is if they go directly against God's word. But if they don't go against God's word, then we submit to the laws of the land where we are. So that includes the speed limit when you're on your way to church. >> Come on. I'm talking to some of y'all. That's why we don't have bumper stickers here because I see how y'all drive. Look what Paul says in Romans 13. Let everyone be subject to governing authorities. There's no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted to those. And so those who do will bring judgment on themselves. He's he's telling us to obey the laws of the land that we're in. We should honor and obey the law up to the point that it goes against God's word, but where it doesn't, we submit to them. And this is this is a challenging part for for some of us to hear, but I've I've had conversations with people in our church and friends and things that have said to me the last year about their friends and their family with all this discussion going on. They've said, "Pastor Nate, my friends, my cousin, my coworker, they're scared." Right? They read an article about ICE or deportation or something or whatever, and they say, "I'm scared. I'm scared for my friend. I'm scared for my neighbor. I'm scared for my classmate." And and I've I've heard I've talked with a lot of you about that. I've heard that from many of you. And as a pastor and just personally, I sympathize with the situation. Every situation of people feeling that is different and I have compassion and can understand the fear. But I also want to say something that's going to sound hard, but you need to hear it because it's true and it'll help you if you can digest it in the long run. The only reason they're scared is because they broke the law. If they didn't break the law, they wouldn't be scared. In fact, that's not me saying that. The Apostle Paul says that in Romans 13. Look what Paul says. For the rulers hold no terror. So there it is. Fear for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear or the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid. For the rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servant. and agents of wrath to bring punishment to the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to authorities not only because of possible punishment, but also as a matter of conscience. And by the way, this is true in every area. Do do you know how to not fear the IRS? It's real simple. Do your taxes and do them right. However, if you don't do your taxes and do them right, here's what you will constantly have. Fear of the IRS, right? And it's again, it applies all across the board. This is what Paul's saying for for the rulers don't have terror for those who do right for those who follow the law. So, the role of the government is to protect its people and its borders by administering justice without partiality.

There's the role for the Christian and there's a role for the government. Now let's look finally at the role of the immigrant. The role of the immigrant, the role of the immigrant is to join in with and obey the laws of the nation. If someone's an immigrant, by definition of their action, they are leaving one place and going to another. They are leaving place A to go to place B. What they're doing is they're choosing one place to another. And so the job of the immigrant is to join in not with the place they're choosing to leave, but with the place they're choosing to go to. Not with the one they've said no to, but with the one they're saying yes to in the future. For God's people, they had they had clear instructions in Israel about how they could deal with foreigners. But it it but like you could summarize it like this in one sentence from Israel in the Old Testament. The outsiders could join, but they had to follow the proper procedures to do so and could not change the culture or reshape the covenant in Israel. They could come in, but they had to come in through a procedure. And when they came in, they couldn't change the culture of God's covenant in Israel. They had to join and be a part of it. And so God gave his people and foreigners in Israel laws to make sure they were becoming part of Israel, not where they came from. So there's a lot of these. I just have a small sample size, but this will give you an idea of how God instructed foreigners and natives. Okay, look at Exodus 12:49. This this phrase is used a bunch. This is just one example. The same law applies to both the nativeorn and the foreigner residing among you. This is God saying there's one common law here. There's not this group of people, they play by these rules. This group of people plays by these rules. There's one law here. Whether you're native or foreignb born. Exodus 20:10. This was the patterns and the customs and the rhythms. The example here is the Sabbath. On the seventh day was a Sabbath to the Lord. On it you shall not work. And then he lists who should follow this rule. Look, you, your sons, your daughters, male, female servants, animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. He's saying, "Hey, if you're not from here, if you're a foreigner, we have a pattern of living. We rest on the Sabbath. The animals are resting. Your sons and daughters are resting. Your mom and dad is resting. So, if you're not from here, you're coming here, but you're getting in the rhythm of how we live." Look at Leviticus 18:26. You must keep my decrees and laws. This is talking about right and wrong. The nativeborn and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things. He just lists a bunch of right and wrong, good and evil. And he's saying, "Hey, this applies whether you're from here or not here, the same laws." Look at Exodus 12:48. This, in my opinion, was the most extreme one. This was extremely uncomfortable and extremely sacrificial. Look what he says. A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised. How many think that's a tough immigration policy? That's sacrificial. That is uncomfortable. But what is God doing? He's saying this is this is our way of operating here amongst our people. So the if you partake in the Passover, you you must be you must be circumcised. Okay. All right. A few more examples. Deuteronomy 31:12. Uh, you had to learn the Hebrew language. If you came and you didn't speak the language, you had to learn the Hebrew language. He said, "Assemble the people." And then he lists the people that were coming to learn the laws and learn the language. Men, women, children, and foreigners in your town so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of his laws. All right. I got one final one. Nehemiah 13 verse 15. In those days I saw the people in Judah. So those are nativeorn in Israel. Judah is native born. Okay. And they're treading the wine press on the Sabbath, bringing in grain, loading it on donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, all other kinds of tools. They're bringing this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. And I warned them against selling food on that day. So here's what's happening. nativeborn people in Judah are not following God's law. They're buying on the Sabbath, trading on the Sabbath. They're they're in and out of Jerusalem. And the Sabbath, all that's supposed to stop. And the nativeborn people from Judah aren't doing it. So, this makes Nehemiah mad. Look at verse 16. People from Tyer, so now we've got foreignb born, got native, now we've got foreign who lived there in in Jerusalem. We're bringing in and they're doing the same thing. look, fish, all kinds of merchandise selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. So you've got natives and you've got foreigners breaking the law in Jerusalem. So what does Nehemiah do? I rebuked the nobles of Judah to the native born. He says, "What wicked thing are you doing? You're desecrating the Sabbath. Your ancestors did the same thing. So God brought us this calamity on the city and now you're stirring up more wrath." So, he's rebuking the people from the ch from the tribe of Judah. But then, but then look at this uh verse number 19. When the shadows fell in the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed my men at the gate so they could not be brought in on the Sabbath day. Nativeorn and foreignb born who weren't following it. Then what does Nehemiah do? He says, "Okay, you're not going to follow it. You can't come in. gate closed. After the Sabbath, we'll open back up. But if you're not going to follow it, we're going to close the gate. And you can't be here, native or foreign, if you're not following it. Do you see that? You see what Nehemiah is doing? I know this preaches real good today, but you know, it's it's God's word. Look at verse 20. Uh, the merchants and sellers of all kinds of good spent the night. Nehemiah didn't put them up. Nehemiah Nehemiah's like you're outside. You're you're going to spend the night out there. And then look at this. He warned them and said, "Why do you spend the night out by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you." From that time they no longer came on the Sabbath. So notice this is not ethnic hostility. This is guarding the covenant promise of God. Native, foreign, he's saying, "We're protecting God's laws. We're protecting the culture of what we're doing here. We're protecting the Sabbath. So if you're not following it, the gate is closed. the gate is closed. The role of the immigrant is to join in with the nation and follow the laws of the nation that they're coming to.

So now let's finish with a beautiful example from the scripture that I think is going to summarize all of this. And I want to look at the story of Ruth. The story of Ruth is a biblical

example of all three of these things. The Christian, the government, and the immigrant doing God's intent, God's design. And it, and it's beautiful.

The story of Ruth, she is a foreigner to Israel. In fact, she's a Moabitess. Do you remember that from the scripture before? Ruth is a Moabitess. A little history of the Moabites. The Moabites were not just foreigners to Israel, but they were in great hostility to Israel constantly. In fact, if you read Numbers 22 through Numbers 25, you'll find that the Moabites oppressed the Israelites. So much so, again, they're hiring false gods to curse them. The Moabites and the Israelites were like this for a long time. So much so, God commanded in Deuteronomy 23:3, "No Ammonite or Moabitess," look at this, "or any of their descendants may enter the assembly, not even the 10th generation." Such hostility between these people groups, God is saying 10 generations long, they're not allowed in the assembly of the Lord. How many think that's tough?

That's Ruth. Ruth comes from Moab. She's a Moabitess. Now, the second thing we see from Ruth is she leaves Moab to go to Israel and she becomes a foreigner that resides there. She becomes an immigrant to Israel. She leaves her land. But look at this. This is important. She joins the culture and the laws of Israel. She does this in the first chapter. Look at verse 16 and 17. She's speaking to Naomi, who she was following to Israel. She says, "Don't urge me to leave you or turn back to you. Where you go, I'll go. Where you stay, I stay." Then look at this. This is significant. "Your people will be my people." She just said, "I'm leaving Moab and going with you. These aren't my people. You're my people." And then she says, "Your God will be my God." Again, that was a big statement because the gods of Moab were crazy false gods, and the God of Israel was the creator God. So what she's saying here is a big deal. She's denouncing the false gods of Moab and saying, "I'm going with you. You're my people and your God is my God." So she's joining in doing so. The boundary was not erased, but Ruth crosses it by faith and by allegiance.

And then when she does, we see because God commanded his people to treat the foreigner well. We see she is welcomed and she is living, but within the laws. She's living within the laws. So there was a law instituted by God to care for the foreigner because remember God told us people don't mistreat them, care for them. But he didn't just tell them that in general. He gave them practical ways to care. So in Leviticus 19, verse number 9, God gave a law of provision for the foreigner. And the law was this: "When you reap the harvest of your land, don't reap to the very edges of your field or the gleanings of your harvest. Don't go over your vineyard a second time to pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and foreigner. I am the Lord your God." This was a law of provision where God wanted to make sure the poor among you and the foreigner who just got here and has nothing else, they're going to be taken care of.

So what did he say? He said, "For those already here who have your farm, you have your harvest." He said, "Don't, don't squeeze every drop out of the harvest. Cut it and harvest, but go up to the edges and leave some on the edges. Leave some on the fringe. Don't, don't squeeze every ounce of it for you. Leave a little bit. When you're going in your vineyard and you're getting grapes from your vineyard, don't, don't circle back two, three, four times and account for every single little grape. There's going to be some that drops. That's okay. Leave that. It's not for you. It's the provision of the Lord." He says, "For the poor and for the foreigner."

What God was doing was he was giving a law of provision for the foreigner. But look what he was also doing. He was giving a law of dignity to the foreigner. They didn't get handed that. They had to go out and glean it for themselves because God didn't just care about providing for them. He cared about keeping their dignity high. So, so God gave a law of provision and a law of dignity that those who are coming from other places and don't have, they might have a way to go out and be productive and be provided for as you care for them.

And Ruth did that. Ruth goes out and she works the law of provision and the law of dignity. Ruth goes to the field and she starts getting the outside gleanings. She's provided for. She goes to the vineyard and she starts getting it and she does it humbly. She does it with integrity. And when she's doing it, she's not mistreated. In fact, she's doing it so well, she catches the eyes of some dude. Boaz looks across the field, this new Moab lady in town who's working diligently within the laws of the land, and he notices her. I'm sure he notices her hard work, her integrity, her character. But he also is very attracted to her and thinks for himself, man, I want to, I want to get to know this Moabitess woman. I want to get to meet this woman. And sure enough, she goes from a resident foreigner and makes it official by marrying Boaz. And I say she makes it official because in Ruth chapter 4, it tells us that there was a process that happened at the city gate. The city gate was the official place of business. This was the way you make it official was at the city gate. She gets married to Boaz.

And so she went from a Moabitess foreigner to a resident immigrant to being a part of God's people in Israel. And she wasn't just a part, but that's why the story is amazing because she's a part not in a little way or a little side story way. She's a part in a massive way. In fact, she joins Israel. She's part of the genealogy of Jesus. More specifically, she's the great-grandmother of King David. She went from a Moabitess woman to the great-grandfather of King David, the man after God's own heart, through his line in which our savior Jesus Christ came. How many think that's a beautiful story? It's a beautiful story. God brings her in from being far off to being apart.

Now, I'll finish by saying this. It should be easy for a Christian to have compassion and care for an immigrant more so than your average person. I know that's kind of a bold statement, but I'm going to back it up. It should be easier for a Christian to have compassion for a foreigner than an average person that has compassion for a foreigner. And here's why. Because as a Christian, we have a spiritual understanding that we too were once foreigners. Spiritually speaking, if you're in Christ today, before you were in Christ, you were a foreigner to Christ. In fact, that's not my words. That's the Apostle Paul's words in Ephesians chapter 2. Look at this. He says, "We should remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenant of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." That's all of us spiritually before Christ.

But here's what Jesus did for us now in Christ Jesus. "You who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. Verse 19, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household." We as Christians have a deep understanding of the nature of a foreigner because spiritually we were all foreigners. Spiritually we were lost. We were outsiders. We were excluded. We weren't apart. We were, we were beyond the barrier until Christ tore down the barrier and made us a part of a spiritual family.

In fact, I've, I've loved in the last few years, we've got a few that I know of and I'm sure more that I don't know of people in our church who were not born in America that have been on their process to get citizenship here in the last few years, officially get it. And if this has been you or a friend or family has ever done this, you kind of know the process, right? There's a whole thing you have to go through. It takes a while, all the different tests and things. But when you finally get citizenship, they have a ceremony. And the ceremony is awesome. It's just incredible, right? People with incredible stories from all different places, but the one thing in common is they've all come here and they're all grateful to be here and celebrating. They've got citizenship in the US, right? And it's amazing because when they officially say like, you're a citizen and you've got it, there is so much behind what they're saying and you can tell by the way they celebrate because what we say when we welcome a new citizen in is we're saying, "All the power, all the rights, all the privileges, all the blessing, all the protection of this nation is now yours. It's behind you. It's behind you."

So, so I think about that in a natural sense here, but then it makes me think about what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 3:20 where he says this: "Our citizenship," he's talking about Christians, "is in heaven, and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." What is Paul saying? He's saying what I just said is true in the natural, in the spiritual. When you're a citizen of heaven, all the rights, all the privileges, all the power, all the defense, all the blessing, all the strength, all the ump that's behind our place of citizenship, heaven is ours. It's ours. I don't know about you, but that's an awesome feeling. I'm a citizen of heaven. Yes, I live in the States. Yes, I'm a citizen of the States, but more, I'm a citizen of heaven. The power of God is behind me. The seal of heaven is behind me. The rights, privileges, blessings, and defense of heaven is with me because I've got citizenship in heaven. Got citizenship in heaven. I don't know about you, but that's a beautiful thing today in Jesus name. Amen.

All praise to the one who saved my life. All praise to Jesus Christ, our king of heaven, my king forever. All praise to the Lord most high.