Convictions, Courage And My Heart Nolan Bechtel

Good morning and greetings this morning, and Jesus Name, Jesus Name,

because he is the reason why we're Here's the reason

why we're We can travel clear across the country as

some of you obviously have, and are worshiping with a

group of believers, finding the spirit directing our hearts together

because of Jesus. I bring you greetings from the Hill

Country Order Congregation. It's good to be here with you again.

Thank you for directing our minds to that passage in Isaiah.

The Word of the Lord and the power of the

Word of the Lord. There's no question as to the

effectiveness of God's word. There's no question as to the

effectiveness of his spirit. The question this morning as relates

to my thought process and standing at this place and

sharing with you, is my humanity. That's the question. I

wish for that to stay out of the way and

not get in the way of the Lord wanting to

do all he wants to do with his word. I've

titled the exploration this morning Convictions, Courage, and my Heart.

There's a lot of different directions that I'm sure if

we would take turns sharing a couple line sentence about

that title. A lot of different directions it would go.

I'm sure of that. For one reason is that my

mind has gone in a whole lot of different directions

with the title, and so you put different minds to it.

I'm sure there's a lot of different ways. Romans fourteen

is a chapter, and we're not going to spend much

time there. But Romans fourteen is a chapter that deals

with the differences between backgrounds, brothers, sisters, perspectives, differences of conscience,

eating of meat. It talks about there a variety of

things come to the table, and it talks about the

sensitive or the weak conscience. I'll call it that. It

kind of finishes up the chapter. The last couple verses

of that chapter with a thought said a couple different

ways that whatever is not of faith is sin. Whatever

is not of faith is sin. What does that mean

in the context of all of that. I'm sure you

probably contemplated that verse, and I still contemplated, and I'm

not sure that I wrap my mind around all of it.

I'm sure I don't. In fact, whatsoever is not a

faith is sin in the context of serving each other

and respecting each other and protecting each other and deferring

to the other and sorting through my own mind what

is right, what is wrong? Whatsoever is not of faith

is sin? I think that pertains to our subject here

this morning. Keep that in the back of your mind

as we as we talk a little, think about conviction.

How would you define conviction. I think it's a belief

that we are convinced of. We could go many different

directions with that. It's a belief that we have that

we feel like God wants to shape my life with

this belief. God wants me to He wants it to

guide my life, he wants it to take me in

a particular direction. The persuasion convictions are beliefs that can

and should be developed over a period of a lifetime.

It's not something that at conversion snap and the convictions

are there and you have the premise whereby you're going

to make all of your decisions and the assurance and

the surety that the right didn't work that way for

me anyway. It's a process of growth and understanding and

learning to listen to the Holy Spirit, and learning to

understand God's word and hearing from my brothers and understanding

that some of my perspectives that I've hosted are wrong.

Perspectives and need to be changed, need to be adjusted.

Convictions finally, should be framed in the contents, in the

context of God has said, shouldn't they we make application.

We understand scripture and it affects life, and we decide

we don't do this over here, because God's word says

this here, so we make application to it. Convictions framed

in the context of what has God said? What does

he say about this now? Convictions getting a little more

closely to our subject this morning. Can be held solely intellectually,

or they can be persuasions that are rooted in our hearts.

We want to sort that just a little bit. Maybe

part of that sorting could be done just to guide

our minds in the direction of truth. Here could be

done from Matthew twenty three, verse twenty three, where Jesus said,

one to you scribes and pharisees and hypocrites, for ye pay,

So he's talking about the law. Here ye pay ties

a mint and coming and annis and so on. You

fulfill the law on all of these things, and have

omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.

These ought ye to have done, and not to leave

the other undone convictions held intellectually, or persuasions that are

rooted in our hearts. Maybe in the process of thinking

about this, it's good for us to think just a

little bit about the idea of living from our heads

versus living from our hearts. I have a variety of

personalities that I work with in the office where I work,

and there are personalities all the way from leave me alone.

I'll figure this out to Could you give it to

me in black and white so I know exactly what

I'm supposed to do. The black and white thing has

been difficult to work with. As we approach our customers

and we want to offer customer service and we want

them to walk away smiling. It takes different thanks to

make different customer smile. And on the side of the

black and white, well, just tell me how I should

respond when my customer says this to me, when I

get this on the phone, when he responds that, what

should I do? How should I respond to that? Can

you write some policy for us, give us some direction.

This ship needs to be guided, and I say, the

guiding helm, the rudder set that on customer service? What

do you need to do to achieve that? It's going

to be different in this situation versus that situation. All

of a sudden, you got the black and white rule,

and you'll be ruining a relationship with customer because of

the black and white rule. Does that mean that there

are no foundations that cannot be moved? What does that

mean in your life? As you think about that in

the bigger picture, leaving the office and stepping into the

way you live life? What does that mean? I believe

the convictions that are rooted in our hearts allows for

what we do to be founded upon the weightier matters

of the law rather than the offering of ment and

coming and annis. We'll try to break that down a

little bit as we go, but I've already said to

the black and white person, we need to learn to

live from our hearts, not solely from our heads. You

tell me what to do, and I can do it.

You tell me the principle whereby you want this project

to be known when it's finished and I have to

go to work. I have to go to work. How

am I going to achieve the bottom line? Really? Where

does courage come from? Courage is a strength we all admire,

We covet courage, courage suggests there's a potential risk. So

you're coming up against something, you need to have courage.

Maybe it's to cross that field in the dark. Maybe

it's to cross that busy street in Dhaka. If you will,

then you know courage. Maybe it's so there is raw courage.

There's raw courage based on fear, the knowledge that something

worse is gonna happen if I don't do this right,

raw courage. Children, are you with me? You know the

little story about Gunga, Gonga and the lion. Let me

tell you just a little story here quick. So Gunga

was a boy who was just I don't read remember

his age exactly from the story, but I believe he

was six seven eight years old somewhere in there. He

had a little baby brother. The men of his village

were gonna go out and hunt. They had been having

trouble with a lion prowling in the village, and they

were gonna go out to hunt this village, and Gonga

wanted to go along, but his dad said, no, you're

too young. You cannot go along. Stay here and watch

the village. Gonga stayed and the men of the village

left Early in the morning, hunting for the lion that

was plaguing the village. Gunga's little brother was sleeping in

an open room Branda and Gunga went to see how

his little brother was doing. And as Gunga approached the room,

he looked through the door opposite him, and there stood

the lion. The lion was intent gazing at his little

brother sleeping in the crib. Gonga had heard that lions

do not like sharp piercing sounds. Gunga was a boy

who loved to play his flute, and Gunga had his

flute in his pocket, and Gunga took out his flute

and he began to play, and the lion's ears went back,

and Gunga played his flute louder, and that lion took

one step back, And when the lion took one step back,

Gonga took one step forward and he played his flute,

and the lion took another step back, and Gunga took

another step forward, and slowly the lion backed away from

the hut, the house where his little brother was sleeping,

and back down the village path, and Gunga played his

flute and took another step forward. Well, they went that

way till they came to the edge of the village,

and Gunga was getting tired. Gunga did not know how

much longer he could continue playing his flute. He kept

playing his flute. He knew that if he would stop

and turn and run, probably there was no way for

him to get away, and he continued playing his flute.

But Gunga's wind was getting shorter and shorter. His breath

he was panting harder, and he could just hardly keep

playing his flute. When all of a sudden, there was

a snap from beside him, somewhere off to the side

of him. He was only looking at the lion. He

hadn't looked at anything but that lion, for it seemed

like a very long time. But some of the men

had come back from hunting the lion and saw what

was happening and killed the lion. And when the lion

fell to the ground, Gunga also. His knees gave way

and he fell to the ground. He was fine, but

he was so exhausted, he was so tired, and he

was so relieved. That was courage, wasn't it. That was courage?

Maybe that was raw courage based on fear. Maybe that

was courage that flowed from a heart of love, and

probably it was both. Probably it was both courage. Courage

flows from heartfelt convictions. Courages is a gentle strength that

can't be resisted. You know what love is like from

the head. You know you should take this action. You

know you should send a note, You know you should forgive,

you know you should give encouragement. It's struggling because of

a relationship problem, but you know you need to take

the act. Sometimes we do things without feeling because it's fact,

it's what we ought to do, it's the right thing

to do. Convictions must be held in the head. But

what if that is the only place that love flowed from.

What if the only expressions of love that happened in

this brotherhood was because of fact, black and white regulation.

I know I must do this, My conscience says I must.

So therefore here it goes. You ever have someone love

you from their head and not from their heart. You

kind of know that, don't you. You kind of figure

that out. Sometimes loving from our head is the step

that's needed to learn to love from our heart. Follow

me in that. Convictions are a lot the same way

convictions are a lot the same way. Courage like love

flows best from the heart. Give that salesman, the dues

and the don'ts and the black and the white, and

without feeling, he says it, and he hangs up the phone.

Take the one who's figuring out how to support the

underlying principles. And he spends three times the amount of

time on the phone. And there's a lot of feeling involved.

But they're both smiling when they're done. We like things

that flow from the heart. Jim Elliot Neats Saint. You

know the story, the flight into the how do you

say it, wil Donians or something of that, some of that,

something of that nature. Anyway, the correct name for that

tribal group that they went and ministered to or attempted

to made that flight into lost their lives before they

ever got started. But the end of the story, maybe

he isn't even known yet. But Elizabeth Elliott and Rachel Saint,

their two wives, stepped back into that environment, and many

knew the Lord because of their forgiveness, because of their

persuasion that this was God's work. They worked from convictions

founded in their heart. Point of our study, convictions held

in the heart they begin to close the gap between

faith and intellect, between compassion and holiness. God is a

god of holiness, and he stands his ground and he

does not give. But because he loved Jesus came and

taught us compassion. What bridges the gap in your heart

between holiness and compassion? Another question will will circle back

around to in a bit, courage produced by convictions held

in the heart. It doesn't make a macho out of

a man, but it'll make a real man out of

a macho. A man who's a pillar of faith, a

man who is strong in meekness and love. Courage that

allows you and I to adapt, to blend where needed,

and yet to stand firmly on principle. Paul's testimony was

this in one Corinthians nine, I become all things to

What's he say, all men? What for wishy washy, unlacking

foundation type of statement? Is that I become all things

to all men? How does he make a statement? We know, Paul,

and then he says also just ahead of that, he says,

I make myself servant servant to all Yeah, Paul had

the black and white, he had, he had conviction in

his head, he had he had truth, he had knowledge,

and yet with all of his personality, as we get

to know him through the Book of Accent his epistles,

yet he was a man who wanted to reach people,

and whose love reached out in compassion, and he wished

to be all things to all men. You can have

the black and the white. You can have the conviction

in the head, and you can stand on that, and

you can dance around that, and you can run your

life by that, but you'll be judged as stubborn. You

let conviction work its way in and let the weighty

matters of the law come to bear in relation to

your and my convictions. And instead of stubbornness, you have

courageous conviction. You have courage. I think about this sometimes

at maintaining our practices, doing the things we do, the

things that we believe Scripture teaches us, and the application

thereof as we have brotherhood together, holding those convictions, shaping

our decisions only from a motivation to stay true to form,

only from a motivation to follow tradition. Only because I'm

told what I need. I've been given my list, and

I like my list. I can do my list. The

things I need to do A life that is guided

that way may barely slip by at a time when

there's no test and when there's no deep challenges. But

what happens when we're tested? What happens when I begin

to question within my own heart who is God? And

where is God? And why is God? What happens when

I'm ridiculed for who I am? Why I do this

or why do that? What happens when I'm alone and

I'm tempted to do wrong? What happens when I must

adapt in my convictions to a culture that's different than mine.

What happens? What happens when you see there's a side

in which I believe we live in a world of

people who more and more and more would just like

to be told what to do. It's too difficult to

do our own thinking. You see. I think God even

thought about this since Jeremiah, chapter thirty one, verse thirty three.

He understood he had given the law, and people were

to have that law, they were to know that law,

to follow that law. And it was black and white,

and people dropped dead because they didn't follow the law.

But God was not happy with that whole He wanted more.

The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ

in what how? But this shall be the covenant that

I will make with the House of Israel after those days,

sayeth the Lord, I will put my law in their

inward parts. I will write it in their hearts, and

I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And we can see the comparative scripture of that in

Hebrews chapter ten, verse sixteen. There's actually a couple of

them in Hebrews. I will write my name, he says,

in another place, on their hearts. I want it in

their hearts. I want them to live, not just from

their heads, I want their hearts. I want to be

in their hearts. How do we involve our hearts in

our convictions? How do we move from doing what is

right simply out of a sense of obligation or mental decision.

How do we gain feeling and purpose to live out

our faith. I'm sure we can't answer all of that

this morning. Well, let's take a look at a few things.

You go to First Samuel chapter two. I'd like just

to think just a little bit initially here or at

this point before I go on. In First Samuel chapter two,

you know the man Eli Eli was a priest, and

his sons were in the priesthood, and they were in

charge of worship in Israel. And you remember how Samuel

grew up and he became a boy, and he came

and he sat at the feet of Eli. He took

care of Eli. He did the work that Eli couldn't

due because of his age, and so on. His mother

came and went, but she gave him because Samuel was

a gift to Hannah. Hannah gave him back to the Lord,

and Samuel served there. So in that setting of Samuel

being a boy, I don't know what stage he was

at this point, how much time had elapsed. But Eli's

sons were wicked men, and Eli rebuked them in chapter two,

verse twenty two, because of their immorality with the women

at the temple they're at the tabernacle, because of their greediness,

because of their lawlessness. And he said to them in

verse twenty three, why do you do such things? For

I hear of your evil doings by all this people. Nay,

my sons, it's no good report that I hear you

make the Lord's people to transgress verse twenty five. In

the middle of it. Notwithstanding they hearken not unto the

voice of their father. And then the man of God

comes in verse twenty seven. And I'd like us to

read just a few verses here and think about this

loss of conviction and dwindling courage and an indifferent heart.

I don't want to be too hard on Eli. He

was but man. But let's hear what God says about him.

Verse twenty seven. There came a man of God unto Eli,

and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord. Did I

plainly appear into the house of thy father when they

were in Egyptian Pharaoh's house? And did I choose him

out of all the tribes of Israel, the Levites, in

other words, to be my priests to offer upon my

alder to burn incense? So this is the lineage of

Erin to wear an ephod before me? Did I give

unto the house of thy Father all the offerings made

by fire and to the children of Israel? Wasn't I

at the root of why you are where you are today?

Did I not put you here verse twenty nine. Wherefore, Kiki,

at my sacrifice and mine offering, which I have commanded

in my habitation and honors thy sons above me. You see,

we kind of get a little bit of a picture

into Eli's life by reading the words of the Lord

here to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all

the offerings of Israel, my people. They wouldn't take of

the sod or the boiled flesh. If we go back

in chapter two. They wanted to roast it. They wanted

the fat with it. They were disobeying the commandment of

God for the lust of their own taste buds. If

you will verse thirty. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel

Saith I said, indeed that thy house, in the house

of my father, should walk before me forever. Now God

was in a pickle, wasn't he. He made a promise,

You're going to walk before me forever with God in

a pickle? Is God in a pickle because of the

promises he makes to us? Sometimes God's never in a pickle,

is he? But now the Lord Saith, be it far

from me. For them that honor me, I will honor,

and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Yes,

God had it written, if you will, God had given

black and white that the descendants of erin the tribal

believe they were to stand before the Lord. But here

was a man who was standing before the Lord and

his sons were evil, and he was not restraining them.

And God is saying unto saying to Eli, he said, yeah,

you're right, the facts are this, But you know what

the heart of the matter is. The heart of the

matter is, I'll honor those that honor me. This is

what is underlying. This is where we really need to go.

This is the weightier matter of the law. Don't just

stick with the lineage thing. You think you're here and

your sons are here because I said it would be

that way. Sorry. Underlying all of that is something much deeper,

the weightier. And then we jump over to chapter three,

verse thirteen, as God is speaking to Samuel, speak Lord,

for thy servant heareth. And in verse thirteen, God is

saying to Samuel of Eli, for I have told him

that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity

which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile, and

he restrained them not verse eighteen. And Samuel told him

every whit. Eli come and said, tell me, what did

God say? And Samuel told him he hid nothing from him,

And Eli says, it is the Lord. Let him do.

Let him do what seemeth good to him. Why didn't

Eli gird up his loins, if you will, and go

to his sons and say, sons, this is not flying.

God is bringing judgment. We must change our ways, we

must change our course, said the Lord. Let him do

what seemeth good. At this point, I think perhaps Eli

was disengaged. He probably had disengaged quite some time earlier.

Somewhere along the way he became jaded. Somewhere he began

to indulge in the meet and the fat offerings that

his sons were indulging in. Because later in the Well

chapter four, if you will, when the Ark of God

was stolen the Bible, God in his writing makes a

particular note here in verse eighteen that when Eli heard

that the Ark of God was taken, that he fell

from off his seat backward by the side of the gate,

and his neck break and he died. For he was

an old man and heavy. Why Why was Eli heavy?

I think we understand why. Somewhere he began to indulge.

He enjoyed those meat offerings, the fat he ate the

same way his sons ate. Somewhere he began to honor

his sons above God because God said, that's what was happening.

He began to neglect his own role because God said,

that's what he did. Cynicism. How do you find cynicism?

I'm just gonna say pessimism, sarcasm, and suspicion. I don't know.

Cynicism takes on a lot of different feaces. Sometimes it

sets in with age. I felt it myself. Sometimes it

sets in with difficult experiences. It's a condition that moves

our convictions out of our hearts and leaves them only

in our heads. That's what cynicism is. That's where it

leaves us standing. I don't know. Did that happen here?

What about Hezekiah where God came to him and said,

you've made a mistake. And God says, but because you've

been faithful to me, I'm going to bring this punishment

in your son's days rather than in your days. And

Hezekiah says, is it not good of peace and truth

reign in my day? Is it not good? At peace

and truth be be for the duration of my days?

Hezekiah was disconnected, His heart was disconnected. What led to

the faithlessness? Just think a little bit with me. We'll

move from this story very shortly. But why KICKI at

my sacrifice? God asks him to make yourselves fat with

the chiefess of the meat. Self indulgence destroys the courage

of conviction in me. Self indulgence destroys the cur reach

of conviction in me. It will do that. Eli was not,

to my knowledge, to the words of the scripture. Eli

was not lying with the women at the gate like

his sons were, and he rebuked them. And this is

not right, this is idolatrous. But somehow he looked at

the idolatrous action that he was already involved in his

own indulgence with food as a lesser evil. Self indulgence

discourt destroys the courage of conviction within me. Why couldn't

Eli address the indulgences of immorality in his sons. It's

because he wasn't willing to discipline himself regard to with

regard to his own indulgences, I lose courage. What about

this statement name my sons? It is no good report

that I hear. But they hearken not unto the voice

of their father, they hearken not. And so inconsistencies destroy

the effectiveness of my conviction in others, it destroys the

courage of my conviction as it relates to other people.

How can I move my sons? And Eli was helpless

to move his sons. He was helpless to do that.

The courage of conviction was not there. Inconsistency sap the

power out of my own convictions. Maybe I think I

have them hidden, but just the fact that I let

them exist will drain my courage even in other areas.

God says, we didn't read it. It's just down just

a little bit farther. In chapter two, them that honor me,

I will honor, them that honor me, I will honor honoring.

God deals with my cynicism. You see. Cynicism is focused

on everybody else and how everything is going to the dogs,

if you will. It's focused on the losses that I

felt myself. It's focused on my interpretation of everybody else's

attempt at faithfulness. Cynicism, them that honor me, I will honor.

Do you grapple with cynicism in your own heart? This is,

I find, is a real key, a real key to

getting past Take your focus off everybody else, Get your

focus off yourself, even focus on God. Them that honor me,

I will honor honor God. It'll pay. And so you

have the downward tread of the falling of conviction because

of my own desire to indulge in this area or that.

But the loss of conviction in this area challenges my

courage to hold conviction anywhere else. It just is that

one true courage flowing from a from a heart, convictions

that abide in the heart. All right, let's just contrast

that a bit. We need to we need to bring

Jesus into the picture here quickly. In this I'd like

us to just think about this heartfelt convictions giving courage

to exercise godliness. Think about Jesus. Yes, he's our perfect example.

Think about the high priests and religious leaders of Jesus date.

They had convictions, they had the law, They stood on

the law. They demanded that Jesus follow the law. Why

do you do this on the Sabbath? Why when they

both Jesus came to fulfill the law, not to destroy

the law. Why when they both were intent on fulfilling

the law, were they miles apart? Why head versus heart?

And we could go to one hundred and one or

one thousand and one things about Jesus that would speak

into this. There's three phrases that Jesus mentioned that will mention.

Three phrases of Jesus John three, verse John five, Verse thirty.

Jesus said, I seek not my own will, but the

will of my Father, which is in heaven. What gave

Jesus courage? I seek not my own will, but the

will of the Father, which is in heaven. Convictions can

be no more powerful than the passion behind him. You see,

if you're a black and white person and you have

this little paper thing that says decrease for to keep

by the Halsey Mennonite Church, and now I know how

to live, Now I know where I need to walk.

How much power is in that? How much power is

in that? You're exactly right that there are times we

need to do this, whether we feel like it or not. Right,

just like the love example, there are times that we

need to do it whether we feel like it or not.

But when that becomes a motiv motivating source in my life,

there's no courage there. The church says that we should

do this, So if the church is watching, I do it.

But guess what if the church isn't watching, it must

be more. You shouldn't leave the others undone, but it

must be more. The weightier matters of the law, it

must be more. Convictions will be no more powerful than

the passion that drives them. And Jesus was driven not

by the law, but to do the will of his Father,

and he fulfilled the law. Think about the passion of Stephen, who,

in his dying breath cried, I see Jesus standing at

the right hand of God. Think about Peter the day

before he was to be executed, as he slept there

between the between the soldiers chained. Think about Felix Monts.

He wouldn't recant and he was drowned in the LaMonte River.

Think about people like Ken Miller, who went to jail

for doing the right thing not so long ago. Do

you want power in your convictions? Understand the underlying premise.

The underlying passion is not for me to keep porter

Mennonite Church spotless. The underlying passion is for me to

do the will of God. And in doing that I

won't misrepresent my brother I won't feel them to do

the will of the Father. Courage conviction, You see, then

when we get into trouble, like Stephen got into, like

Felix got into, like Ken Miller got into. There's something

more than the decrease for to keep, to hold me,

to keep me. Jesus another phrase, Mark ten forty five.

I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,

and to give my life a ransom for many I

would have liked to read. And I'm not going to

luke chapter seven. Toward the tail end of that chapter,

let me just quickly draw the picture there for you.

Jesus was invited to the pharisees house for a meal,

and he came into the house, and he sat there

at meat with the Pharisees, and a woman came in,

and she began to cry and to wash his feet

with her tears, and to anoint his feet with her

hair and the ointment that she had brought in. And

the Pharisee who had invited Jesus sits across the table

or wherever however they were lounging there in a reclining position,

no doubt in that culture for eating. And he says,

if you knew this one, you wouldn't let her touch you. You

wouldn't let her touch. You remember what we said about

needing something to bridge the gap between holiness and compassion?

What is it? What is it? And Jesus looked at

the Pharisee and he said, Sir, I came into your

house and you didn't kiss me with the traditional greeting. Sir,

you did not wash my feet with the traditional cleaning

of your guess feet. But this woman, So what do

you think who loves most, the one who's forgiven little

or the one who's forgiven lots. Well, must be the

one who's forgiven lots. Yes. Jesus continued looking at his

pharisaical friend and spoke to the woman and said, your

sins are forgiven you, Your sins are forgiven you. As

he continued looking at the Pharisee, he spoke to her point,

well made you see, Jesus had a way of doing

those things. The Pharisee had nothing. He had the law,

he had black and white, he had in his head,

but he did not have the weightier matters in his heart.

And he had no way to bridge the gap between

this woman and Jesus. Sinfulness, holiness, compassion, and God's perfection.

No way to bridge that gap Jesus wasn't concerned about

having the reputation of being a friend of sinners. He

wasn't concerned about that. He was motivated. He came to minister.

He came to bring health and life to them that

needed a doctor. For those that don't need a physician,

they think their whole. What bridges the gap between holiness

and compassion? There are many in our world today that

would say, you must let go of some of your holiness.

You must get down here and live like we live,

dress like we dress, listen to the music we listen to,

and then we'll know you understand us and you can

help us. And there's people in the religious world that

that is their goal to live like, to experience and

then to be able to help help where no is

to be able to become like At that point, there's

no help. Author. What did God want us to have

to bridge the gap between compassion and holiness. It's not

a giving up of our convictions. It's courage to stand

on them and to be all things to all people.

It's conviction that flows from a heart that recognizes that. Okay,

so what about the reputation in this situation, this person

needs to be ministered to, and maybe it means you

end up standing at the tavern and talking, or sitting

in the tavern and talking. I don't know. There's a

lot of situations that we're drawn into that we wouldn't

go into of our own will, for our own self

and for our own reasons, and the and in it.

Those kinds of things become an excuse for licentiousness. There

is no conviction at all all. Right, you understand that

come convictions can be no more compelling than the purpose

behind them. I came to be ministered, to not be

ministered to, but to be a servant, to be a servant.

Another statement of Jesus in twenty three thirty four, Father,

forgive them, Father, forgive them. Jesus hung on the cross

his dying breath. What love? Convictions can be no more

effective than the love that motivates them. Don't go into

this mental mode without your heart when you work with people,

when you talk about truth and life and holiness. Yes,

we must have the love of Christ within us. Real

courage flows from convictions that are rooted in love. Love

doesn't make conviction wishy, washy and undefined. Love makes conviction adaptable,

to be able to reach in any opportunity that God

brings to us, whether in this culture or any other culture. Well,

how do you pass your convictions onto your children, to

the next generation. Hold them in your heart, not just

your head. Think about We don't have time to explore this,

but think about Abraham and Genesis twenty two, where he

and the lad went up yonder to worship, and where

he said, my son, God will provide. God will provide

unwavering faith. Yeah, Abraham's faith wavered, but he was strong.

He was strong. We and Two Corinthians, Chapter four, verse thirteen,

having the same spirit of faith. According as it is written,

I believed, and therefore have I spoken. We also believe,

and therefore speak. Is your life flowing from your head

or from your heart? God bless you as you let

the Holy Spirit make it clearer for you than what

I could, because he will. Let's kneel and pray.