Saddleback Church Lead Pastor Andy Wood has urged congregation members to apply their faith and conscience in voting for the candidate whose life and policies “more closely align with the Word of God” in the upcoming presidential election on November 5.
During his sermon on October 13, titled “Critical Filters for Moments of Decision,” Wood encouraged congregants to consider, “You've got to ask this question: which candidate and issues more closely align with the Word of God?”
He expressed concern about how many people do not fully understand what they are voting for.
“When we hire people, we say the best indicator of future performance is past behavior. So if you want to know what a person's going to do in the future, look at what they've done in the past, and they're telling us what they're going to do. They're telling us their beliefs. And I've got to ask, which of the candidates more closely aligns with the Word of God? And then vote based on your conscience,” he added.
Citing new research from Evangelical pollster George Barna and his team at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, Wood noted that an estimated 104 million people of faith, including 32 million self-identified Christians who regularly attend church, are unlikely to participate in the upcoming presidential election.
He warned against the implications of Christians avoiding their right to vote, stating, “Now, in my humble opinion, this is problematic. If you are a follower of Jesus, you have a responsibility in culture. And I believe followers of Jesus should be integrated into serving in the culture that we're in, and this includes our vote.”
Wood reiterated that Christians are called to glorify God in all that they do, including their voting practices. The pastor also expressed concern that the Church has become too similar to the world due to various influences from the media.
He mentioned, “In church, at large, in our country — and this is it, the world is outpacing the church with the shaping of our worldview, so we have so much coming at us. And if we're honest with ourselves, for a lot of us, the algorithm is influencing our worldview more than God is, more than the Bible is. [F]or many of us, we've got so many messages from the media channels that we watch and we're confused,” labeling this confusion as “a challenge that followers of Jesus face.”
Wood criticized the existence of trans "healthcare" shield laws in 14 states, citing findings from the Williams Institute at UCLA, which indicate that as of August 2024, 17 states and Washington, D.C. have enacted such laws permitting permanent bodily disfigurement through the prescription of puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures like mastectomies for girls.
He stated, “Several of these states have laws that say if a child has been unable to obtain parental consent [...] for their transition in gender, the state can take their child from them. So a state can decide that a parent who says to their 14-year-old son, you can't change your gender, they can define that as abuse. That is not abuse. That is shepherding a child who is not at a place that they can make that decision. That's a parent's job. The state does not have the authority to do that.”
Finally, Wood cautioned that while voting for the more godly candidate does not guarantee that person will win, he reassured his congregation that the Church will persist regardless of the election outcome.
“From generation to generation, Christians were burned at the stake in the first century of the Early Church, and the Church grew exponentially. Jesus said, ‘I will build my Church, and the Gates of Hell will not prevail against it,’” he noted.
He concluded, “Yes, we're in a critical hour. Yes, your vote matters. Go and make a difference. [...] But at the end of the day, have faith and confidence that God can do what God says He will do, regardless of what happens.”
