Unity: Maturely Disagree

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look for in his wonderful face

And the face of earth will grow strangely thin

In the light of his glory and grace

Well, Father God, we are so thankful to be here this morning.

Lord, thank you for the opportunity that we have as people to

call on the name of Jesus

to turn our eyes to him, our hearts to him

and Lord, to simply just by faith and believing

that he will come and do a mighty work in our life.

Father, we don't deserve it, we have not earned it

and Lord, we're just so thankful

to be able to call on the name of Jesus.

And Father, if there's anybody in this room this morning

who has yet to do that,

Lord, I pray that you would speak tenderly

but powerfully to them.

Lord, that you would call them and draw them to yourself.

Because until we all know you,

the other things that we're going to talk about today aren't going to mean much at all.

So, Father, I pray that you would help us all to know you,

to love you, to surrender ourselves to you

in the way that you've called us to.

Father, as we gather this morning, we pray

specifically for our shut-ins.

God, I just want to lift up Ralph and Kathy,

Ted and Inga,

Pat, Ms. Helen,

Lord, we lift up, Ms. Juana to you,

Ms. Sis and Lella Reed.

And Lord, there are probably others that I've not mentioned,

but God, we just pray for all these.

We pray for the Long family today

and the struggles that they're going through.

And Father, we just, through faith, we cry out to you

that you would work and move in all these situations and all these things.

God, I pray specifically for Mr. Johnny Crocker,

Ms. Margaret's brother who's in desperate need with some health issues,

and Lord, we just pray for him this morning as well.

And Lord, we thank you for being a God that we could come to worship,

we can come to you in prayer, we can come to you just dumping all of our stuff at your feet

and knowing that you love us enough to care to do something about it.

God, thank you for that.

Lord, as we continue on in the service and we read your word, we pray

that you would be here among us, that you would be present in us,

and God, that you would speak and work and move powerfully.

We love you, and we ask all this in Jesus' precious and holy name,

and all God's people say, Amen. You may be seated.

Before I get started this morning, I want to share with you.

So I've had a lot of conversations this week from different people in the church,

and I just want to say, if I haven't spoken with you,

the chances of you and your family going through something significant

or weird or out of the ordinary that's very difficult,

I would not be surprised because we have a lot of families right now

who are going through some different things.

I had some different struggles this week, different problems, different things going on.

I'm not going to share anything specific.

We just want you to know like it happened.

So if you feel like this morning that there are some things going on in your life

with your family that you've been struggling through,

that you feel like the enemies at work, do not be surprised

because he's at work in other places too.

Now, on that hand, let's talk about the other hand.

I've also had the privilege to have some great conversations with people

that the Lord is working and moving and doing great things in.

There's already been some progress in some of these other situations,

and also had the privilege of getting breakfast with someone this week

who was just kind of telling me about their life and their testimony

about how God has worked and moved in them

and they've received Christ as Lord and Savior

and they want to get baptized and they want to join the church.

And so I say that because I want you to know,

wherever God is working and moving,

it's very important to know that Satan is going to be working and moving as well.

He's not going to be satisfied with allowing God to work and move in our lives

and to speak to us and to help us grow and mature

without coming in and trying to pull us back,

trying to frustrate, trying to discourage.

And so just know, everything may not always be hunky-dory,

there's going to be seasons in life,

but God is always working and moving,

especially in the times where sometimes we don't see it

and we can't feel it, God is working and moving.

And I really believe right now God is working and moving at the church,

He's working and moving in a lot of hearts and lives here,

and I'm not surprised to see Satan fighting that.

I just want to share that with you before we start, okay?

Is it good?

All right, we're talking about unity.

It's our second week.

Last week we talked about this need for us as believers to work together

to understand that God has never meant Christianity to be this walk with just Jesus,

that He never called us to just walk on our own path all by ourselves

and to just trudge this thing out alone.

God has called us to do this together with other believers

as a family, as a community, as a church, even as a nation.

God has always called groups of people together to serve Him

and to do this journey together.

This is so important for you as an individual

when you look at your own walk with Christ,

you should be walking this walk with other people.

But even as you are walking this walk with other people,

to be very aware of other people that you see or observe

who profess the same thing you do and who might be making that journey alone,

that we have a calling and an obligation in our life

to go get those people and bring them into the community of God,

into the family, into the church, okay?

So today we're moving forward and we're talking about disagreeing.

And, oh, boy, are we going to disagree.

And today we're talking about maturely disagreeing

with one another as believers, as Christians, as church members, as family members.

There's a calling on our life to do this.

Now I want to share something with you

and I'm going to say this throughout the sermon regularly.

The absence of disagreement is not our testimony.

The absence of disagreement is not our testimony.

In fact, it is a false testimony.

Because where there are two or three gathered,

although the Spirit of the Lord may be present among them,

the more disagreements you will have,

more people, more problems, right?

Like, thank you.

We got some amen, say, all right, struck a nerve.

The more people you have, the more opinions, the more thoughts,

the more personal convictions, the more everything.

And so it should not be surprising this morning

as we have the number of people in this room that we have

that you're not going to agree on every single thing that you talk about.

So the absence of disagreement is not our testimony.

And in fact, the world will know that it's just a facade.

It is something that we're putting on.

If we try to act like Graham Chapel is this perfect church

and we've never disagreed on anything

and we just roll through and everything's hunky-dory

and rainbows and apple pie, that's a lie.

And they know it.

And we know it.

I know it.

Because I'm the pastor, so I get all the calls.

It's not true.

Okay, we disagree on many, many things.

And that's okay, because our testimony is not the fact that we don't disagree.

Our testimony is in how we go about disagreeing with one another.

And we're called as Christians to do it in a very mature way.

So our passage today is going to be from Romans chapter 14, verses 1 through 13.

Romans 14:1–13

Paul is writing to the church in Rome,

and he's talking about the dangers of criticism

as this church is having disagreements on various things.

As we read today, this is a really important passage.

It's not any more important than another passage of Scripture,

but I do think the way in which we approach stuff,

the way in which we approach different things,

determines the way in which we receive it.

So I'm going to ask you to stand this morning.

If you're able, if you would stand as we read this passage of Scripture

to show reverence to the Lord's Word this morning,

and maybe in this we can have a little more of an effort

to submit ourselves to the authority of God's Word

and how we move forward from this point on.

But Paul says in verse 1,

accept other believers who are weak in faith

and don't argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.

For instance, one person believes it's all right to eat anything,

but another believer with a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables.

Those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don't,

and those who don't eat certain foods must not condemn those who do,

for God has accepted them.

Who are you to condemn someone else's servants?

I want to stop right there because this is a little bit of terminology

that we probably don't understand a whole lot of.

I don't think anyone in this room is wealthy enough to have a servant.

So whether it would be paid or unpaid,

in this time having servants would be a very common thing

in this culture in this day and time.

And the servants were not responsible to anyone else

other than the master whom they served.

So whether it was male or female,

they were directly responsible and held accountable by their master.

And so it was pointless to criticize someone else's servant

because they had to please their master

and they were not worried about pleasing you.

And in the same way, every single one of us are called by God.

We are servants of the Lord Most High.

He is our master.

We are accountable only to Him to make sure that we are serving Him

and honoring Him, and therefore, to a certain extent,

and we'll talk a little bit more about this in a second,

none of us have the right to criticize one another

within reason, we'll talk about this a little more,

as to whether or not we're fulfilling our duties to our master.

Does that make sense?

That's what it's talking about.

Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall,

and with the Lord's help, they will stand and receive His approval.

In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day,

while others think every day is a lie.

You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable.

Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor Him.

Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord

since they give thanks to God before eating.

And those who refuse to eat certain foods

also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God.

For we don't live for ourselves or die for ourselves.

If we live, it's to honor the Lord.

And if we die, it's to honor the Lord.

So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Christ died and rose again for this very purpose to the Lord,

to be the Lord of the living and the dead.

So why do you condemn another believer?

Why do you look down on another believer?

Remember, we will all stand before the Lord,

we will all stand before the judgment seat of God,

for the Scriptures say,

as surely as I live, says the Lord,

every knee will bend to me,

and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.

Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God,

so let's stop condemning each other,

decide instead to live in such a way

that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

You may be seated.

So this morning, point number one,

if you're taking notes, first thing is Jesus is enough.

And we're gonna say that over and over and over again

during this message, Jesus is enough.

And I think so many times as Christians, we forget this.

Like we forget the simple fact that

if you truly know the Lord,

and if He has called you and He has saved you

and forgiven you of your sins,

to be reminded that we were all lost,

every single one of us were dead in our sins,

we were undeserving, we were bound for hell,

we had no claim or stake in the kingdom of God whatsoever,

and thanks be to the Lord

that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins

and paid the price so that we could receive eternal life freely

and enter into heaven and walk in fellowship

with God on this earth.

Jesus is enough.

And so many times as Christians,

we get caught up on everything else in the world.

We can disagree on so many things

and have different ideas and opinions and convictions.

And I wanna just say this morning,

I believe that your personal convictions are important.

I truly do.

But I remind you that they are your personal convictions.

I believe that doctrines are important.

I believe that abstaining from sin is important.

I believe that being obedient to God's word is important.

But none of these things saves us.

None of these things gives us eternal life.

You could have perfect doctrine

and that doesn't get you into heaven.

Jesus is the only thing that gets you into heaven.

You could have the greatest personal convictions.

You could be more holy and pious

than anyone else in the world

and it does not get you into heaven.

Jesus is the only thing that gets us into heaven.

It's the exact reason why a six year old

can profess faith in Christ

and walk a godly life and go to heaven one day

and the thief on the cross can profess faith in Christ

and go and be with him in paradise that same day.

Only Jesus can do that.

There's nothing else that we have

or think or can do or obey that gets us there

and sometimes we just need to be reminded

that Jesus is enough.

That is the one thing that every single one of us

has in common.

Look to the person beside you this morning

and tell them Jesus is enough.

Now look to someone else

who you may not feel as comfortable with

and tell them Jesus is enough.

Amen.

It doesn't matter how different you are.

It doesn't matter your thoughts or convictions

or anything like that.

Sometimes we just need to be reminded

that Jesus is enough.

In ministry for the past 20 years,

it's just a really odd thing.

It's kind of a privilege

but it's also this curse of you get to see

and experience and do things.

I've seen people who are incredible people.

They're the most kind and loving and positive people.

People who I really enjoy hanging out with

and being around and just enjoy their company

and yet there are those people

who have never professed faith in Jesus Christ

and until the day that they humble themselves

and submit themselves to Christ

and receive him as Lord and Savior,

they will not get to step foot into the kingdom of God.

And that's a tragedy but that's truth

because it doesn't matter how good they are

or how wonderful of a human being they are,

it's only because of Christ.

And I've seen people

who have humbly called on God's name

and have walked with him and struggled in their walk with him

and struggle with addictions and struggle with sins

and not be proud of who they are or what they've done

and keep going back to Christ

and keep praying and crying out to him.

And it reminds me of the tax collector in Luke 18

where he sits at the temple

and he dares not raise his eyes to heaven

but he looks down and he beats his chest.

Father, forgive me for I'm a sinner.

And Jesus said it was him who goes away

justified and not the religious leader

who was pious, who was religious, who obeyed all the rules

because Jesus is the only thing that matters.

And I've seen people who have professed Christ

who were great at following the rules

and abstaining from everything and they dressed great

and they looked great and they said all the right words

and they obey God's word and they abstain from sin

and yet there was very little love or patience in their heart

for anyone around them.

And there's a problem in that.

And I say all that because we need to be reminded

that none of us are perfect.

None of us deserve to be here.

Like I don't deserve to be on the stage.

None of us deserve to walk in these doors

much less sit in these seats.

We don't deserve to get to sing the songs.

We don't deserve to get to read the word,

but Jesus is enough and he's made a way

and he's afforded it to every single one of us

to benefit from this wonderful thing that we don't deserve.

And none of us are perfect.

The beauty of it is, is that I've yet to meet a perfect Christian.

And as much as this calling is for us to remind ourselves

this morning that other people aren't perfect

and we need to be loving and caring and accepting

and to graciously and maturely disagree with people

because I want to share with you today,

I'm not teaching you this morning to be weak

and to be passive.

I'm not teaching you to just let stuff go

and sweep it under the rug and say,

well, James said we need to all get along like no,

we maturely disagree.

We can do it in a way that honors the Lord.

Again, the absence of argument is not the testimony.

The manner in which we handle it is our greatest testimony,

not only to the world, but even people in this room.

The way in which you speak about the things of God

and how you disagree and how you handle

and how you move forward, your children,

your grandchildren, they're listening,

they're watching, they're learning.

And the things that we say

and how we go about certain things

will be one of the greatest things

that continues to draw them into the family of God

or it'll be one of the greatest things

that repels them away from it.

It's one of our greatest testimonies as believers.

Second Corinthians chapter 12 verses eight through 10,

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Paul writes and talks about this thorn in his flesh.

And this passage has been debated by scholars

for a long time as to whether or not

this was this physical element that Paul had

or maybe it was a spiritual shortcoming

like a temptation or a sin

that he struggled with over and over again.

And there's no clear direction

and I think that was done by God

to not give us a clear direction.

So whether it is physical or whether it is spiritual

to understand the passage and the implications

can translate through both.

But Paul said three different times

I begged the Lord to take it away.

And each time he said, my grace is all you need.

My power works best in weakness.

So now I'm glad to boast about my weakness

so that the power of Christ can work through me.

That's why I take pleasure in my weakness

and in the insults, hardships, persecutions

and troubles that I suffer for Christ

for when I am weak, then I'm strong.

So many times as Christians, we try to present ourselves

in this way of like we're right or we're strong

or this is the way things should be done.

And in reality, it never fails that we always see

that God seems to work and move and do the greatest thing

in the thing that seems the weakest.

But one of the things that we were talking about

this morning before church started

is Pastor Timmy and I was here,

is the way that this whole situation

with the assassination of Charlie Kirk has happened.

And I don't care about politics,

I care very much about the stance

that he took for Jesus.

And a lot of people would say,

well, if God was there and he was real,

why would he let that happen?

And I think that it's very easy to see

that in the weakness of the world

and in the sin of the world

and in the atrocity of this young man losing his life

and his kids being present among him,

how God

and what's amazing is,

is all the videos that seem to be surfacing.

The people who don't like him keep posting

the political videos.

But all the videos that keep surfacing that I keep seeing

are the ones where he just keeps proclaiming Jesus.

He keeps proclaiming Jesus.

He keeps proclaiming Jesus.

And the God that we serve can take the worst,

the weakest, the least desirable thing that can happen,

and he can always take it and use it to glorify his name.

And so as we sit here today as a church

and you look at your fellow believers around you,

whether it be family or non-blood related,

but we're all in the kingdom of God together

and you look at one another,

know that you're gonna disagree this morning

and know that it's okay to disagree this morning

and know that as we move forward

and we serve Christ together,

that we are called as believers to maturely disagree in a way.

And we can't sit here and say, well, God,

if this was the church and this was your church,

they wouldn't be arguing or they wouldn't be disagreeing.

It's like, yes, they were because we're all people

and we're all sinful and we're all imperfect

and we're all gonna disagree and we're all gonna do something.

One of us is gonna do something to hurt another.

It's gonna happen.

We're not gonna say the right things.

We're not gonna do the right things.

We are going to fail and there are gonna be disagreements

and how we handle it is our greatest testimony

that we have as Christians.

Jesus is enough.

He's enough to overcome that through Christ,

He is more than able to do immeasurably

more than we could ever think or imagine that through Him,

all things are possible.

And so even for you as an individual this morning,

it doesn't matter if every single person in this room

believes that Jesus is enough.

If you as an individual don't believe Jesus is enough,

you will not be united with everyone else

who may be united.

And even the desire this morning in your heart

as to whether or not you're sitting here

and you're just like, you know,

I know I should be, but I'm just resisting this

and I'm not ready to commit to that.

As for a church to be united to do this thing,

I just think my walk with God should be a little more personal.

Jesus isn't enough for you.

You haven't come to that realization yet in your life

that He's more than enough for you to give up

anything He calls you to give up.

If you're sitting here, it's like, no, I'm definitely not doing that.

Obviously, Jesus is not enough.

But if He is enough, then our greatest desire should be

to keep the unity among God's believers

no matter what we disagree on because He's enough.

He's enough for us to sacrifice our own thoughts

and our own wants to make sure that unity takes priority

over getting what we think should happen.

It's true.

Point number two.

There are infinite things to disagree on.

Look at the person beside you.

Tell them there's infinite things to disagree on.

Notice most spouses looked at each other in that moment.

You know.

I don't know if you know this or not.

We actually had one person here in the early service

this morning who was a product.

Their marriage was arranged.

So it's a very unique situation.

But everyone else in here, you chose your spouse.

You know what I'm saying?

It's like you picked them.

And that's one of the funny things about marriage

that Hannah and I talk about as we get older.

It's like the more you realize the older you get,

it's like arranged marriages probably wouldn't be like that.

You know, maybe someone more mature should make the choice,

you know, because we start making choices.

Then you realize that marriage is hard.

You think you know someone,

and then like you have all these disagreements

and all these things going on.

Even the person that you claim that you love the most

that you chose to be with,

you made the biggest financial legal spiritual decision

in your life to be with them.

And you probably disagree with them more than anybody else

because you live with them every day, right?

You should not be surprised to look at the people

beside you in this room

and know that you're not going to agree on everything.

Now Paul wrote about food enrollments in our focus passage

because there was a lot of issues going on

with like what foods they were allowed to eat

because you had Jews who were still trying

to cling to Jewish customs,

which set aside a lot of things they weren't able to eat.

You had this food that was being offered to idols in Rome

but it was cheaper and they could get ahold of this

and so some people felt okay to eat that food

and then some people were like,

no, we shouldn't eat food offered to idols.

So there's a lot of issues with food going on

that we see addressed in this thing.

Another thing was the day of worship.

You know, the Jews celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday.

The Sabbath was originally on Saturday,

but the Christians started worshiping on Sunday

to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus

on Sunday morning.

And so there's these tensions going on about

what day should we worship on?

What should we eat?

What can't we eat?

There's all these disagreements

and today you look around in this church this morning,

it should not be surprising that you're not

all going to agree on everything.

Can I be honest?

Can we open the veil a little bit this morning?

At Graham right now we got disagreements, right?

The absence of disagreements is not our testimony, okay?

Right?

The absence is not our testimony.

How we disagree is the testimony.

Right now we're getting ready to venture into

this whole process of remodeling

some portions of the old part of the church

and the first phase is a new nursery.

I don't think anybody agrees on it.

A lot of things said, a lot of complaints,

a lot of talks and stuff.

It's okay.

Guys, no one has said anything wrong.

No one has said anything inappropriate.

Nobody has been ugly about it.

It's absolutely fine.

It's a cakewalk compared to what the sanctuary was like.

Sanctuary was rough.

I still see some eyes like, yeah, it was rough.

It was rough.

Sanctuary was hard.

Nursery, cakewalk.

But nobody agrees.

Everybody thinks something should be done differently

and that's okay.

Look at the way you're dressed.

Nobody's dressed the same.

The cars you rode here in,

everybody drives a different car.

The houses you live in are all different.

But the cool thing is is they all work.

You're all clothed this morning.

Thank you for that.

You all got here.

Your car works.

May not be what somebody else would choose

to spend their money on, but it worked.

It got you here.

Your homes may look completely different,

but you all had shelter last night.

You all were safe.

You got here.

It works.

You know, Hannah and Ma's cars are completely different.

As much as Hannah and I love each other,

we're very different when it comes to that.

Hannah's car, the inside is...

I don't even like riding in it.

It's scary.

I don't know if fungus is living in there or animals.

It's bad.

But the outside of my car, it's bad.

It might have grease or diesel fuel or oil

or dirt or manure.

If you lean on my truck,

you're going to take a souvenir with you.

It's okay.

Our cars work.

And as much as we love one another,

we're different in our opinion of what's acceptable.

It doesn't matter.

It's like the cars don't matter.

And as believers in Christ,

we have to just take a step back sometimes

and just remind ourselves like,

we're not all going to agree on everything.

It's okay.

The absence of disagreement is not our testimony.

How we handle it is our testimony.

In 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 23 through 26,

2 Timothy 2:23–26

Paul wrote to Timothy and said,

again, I say,

don't get involved in foolish,

ignorant arguments that only start fights.

There are things that are important

and then there are things that aren't.

And we need to be mature and wise enough

to know the difference between the two.

In verse 24, he says,

a servant of the Lord must not quarrel

but must be kind to everyone

so you can disagree and still be kind,

be able to teach and be patient with difficult people.

They're going to be difficult people.

It's going to happen.

And I'm going to tell you inside the church,

you have the most difficult people

because it's not just a matter of opinion

when you get inside the church,

then it's like this fuzzy line between opinions

and preferences and personal convictions.

And a lot of times they truly are personal convictions

and then sometimes some opinions and preferences

get pulled into maybe what we think are convictions

and maybe they're not necessarily are.

And it's okay.

There's going to be difficult things.

In verse 25, he says,

gently instruct those who oppose the truth.

Now this is important

because there's a big difference

between convictions and doctrines

and all those things.

And then like what color the carpet should be

versus someone who opposes God's truth,

which is the gospel message.

And we're not called to be passive

and we're not called to be weak,

but we're called to stand firm.

But I want to challenge you guys this morning

is that as we stand firm for Christ,

we don't have to ball up our fist

and swing when we stand firm for Christ.

We can do that in a loving and gentle way.

There may be sometimes when we have to stand

a little more firm than others,

but the greatest testimony that we have

is how we love and treat other people.

And so if there's ever a time

where you just have to bulldoze

or steamroll someone in order to feel like

you stand up and make your point,

it's probably the time that we need to be

taken a step back and say,

are we doing this the right way?

Because even for someone who opposes the truth,

they oppose the message of the gospel.

It says, gently instruct those who oppose the truth.

Perhaps God will change those people's hearts

and they will learn the truth.

Then they will come to their senses

and escape from the devil's trap

for they have been held captive by him

to do whatever he wants, even for people

who have been held captive by Satan.

Paul commands us to gently instruct them and guide them.

So be careful in how we handle things.

We're going to have a million things to disagree on.

Last one, point number three.

The way we disagree should be a witness.

As we disagree with one another,

the way that we do it is going to be our witness.

One more time I say it,

the absence of disagreement is not our testimony,

but the way in which we disagree is.

If we run around like everything's hunky-dory,

the world knows it's a lie.

It's a false testimony.

We know that false testifying is wrong.

It's sinful.

It actually talks about it in Scripture

of it being sinful to falsely testify.

And for us to act like nothing's wrong

or act like we're not agreeing on everything,

it's just crazy to do that.

Maturity, respectfulness, love, mercy, and grace

is the way that we go about handling things.

Knowing and reminding ourselves over and over

and over again that Jesus is enough,

that no matter what is decided

or no matter how strongly we may feel about something,

to be reminded that Jesus Christ is enough.

When you go back and you look at the epistles

and all the writings to these early churches,

they were disagreeing on everything.

They couldn't decide what day to worship on.

They couldn't decide what food to eat.

They couldn't decide what the correct version

of the gospel was a lot of the times.

Like they were fighting over

the most important intricate matters

and they were also fighting over little stupid silly matters

just like we do.

I mean, it's amazing that the church still exists today

when you begin to look and research

and read what they were going through

and what they were fighting about as Christians.

It's amazing it even exists.

But guess what?

2000 years later, not only does the church still exist,

but it's spread across the entire world.

And it's just a reminder to you this morning,

even if you think, man, Pastor James is really screwing it up

and I might really be screwing it up.

Jesus is more than enough to overcompensate

from my lack of abilities

and my lack of knowledge and understanding.

And that if God wants this church to grow and maneuver,

he can do it in spite of many things.

And that the church in general, not just Scram Chapel,

but any church for that matter.

One of the things that I hate seeing so much

is all of the criticisms,

all of the negative comments and everything that you see

about all these other churches,

all over social media, all the time.

And that's a dangerous game to play.

And I'll be the first one to tell you,

there's a lot of other churches out there

and a lot of other pastors.

And you say, what do you think about that?

And I'd be the first one to say,

I probably wouldn't do it like that,

but I'm not them.

And God hadn't called me to that place

and God has not called me to those people.

And so while I wouldn't do it like that,

I'm not going to criticize too much because I'm not there.

And I don't want to be responsible for spreading

any kind of disunity in God's church whatsoever.

And there's been pastors who have had some great,

huge failures that in spite of their sin,

in spite of their stupidity,

God has still used them and people have been saved

and lives have been transformed in spite.

And so as we walk through this thing together

to remind ourselves as much as we may feel

this is the biggest mistake in the world,

that Jesus Christ is more than able to carry us through.

And that if it is a mistake, he can carry us through.

He can get us to the other side.

He can bring reconciliation.

He can bring healing.

He can bring health even through this matter

that was a disaster.

He can do it because he's more than enough.

In Ephesians chapter 4 verses 30 through 32,

Ephesians 4:30–32

Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus,

and he says,

and do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit

by the way you live.

Remember, he has identified you as his own,

guaranteeing that you will be saved

on the day of redemption.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger,

harsh words, and slander,

as well as all types of evil behavior.

Instead, be kind to each other, tender hearted,

forgiving one another,

just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

There was a lot of stuff going on

in these churches, man.

And Paul knew that the people were still people.

That's a beautiful part of it is like you're here.

You're a human being.

You've been saved by Jesus Christ,

but you're still human.

You're not gonna be perfect.

I don't expect you to be perfect.

No one expects you to be perfect.

But at the same time,

whenever something happens when we hurt one another

or offend one another,

then it's like, well, people should be perfect.

And it's like, that's crazy.

We should be kind and loving and tender hearted

and forgiving to one another.

Now, I just wanna close out the service

with a little story about Henry Cash.

And Henry is an easy person to talk about

because most of you knew him.

He was just that personality.

He made himself present in every room,

in every situation.

Everyone knew him.

And he was a great guy.

And I've said many times that Henry was,

I said this at his funeral when I preached his funeral,

Henry was one of my greatest supporters.

I don't feel like anybody supported me

and cheered me on more than Henry Cash did.

And in that, let me tell you,

Henry Cash did not agree with everything that we were doing

since I took over as senior pastor.

In fact, there were many, many days

where Henry would come into the office

and we would close the door

and he would express many things

that he did not agree with.

And it was a tough time.

We were going through COVID.

We were like trying to juggle that garbage.

We were going through remodeling a sanctuary.

I mean, like we were going through

all kinds of different stuff.

And so there was multiple occasions where Henry comes in.

He says, listen, I wanna talk with you about this.

I don't agree with this.

I don't think we should do this this way.

And so we would go and we would start talking.

A lot of times, most of the time,

we never came to an agreement

on the things that he was bringing before me.

But one of the things that Henry would always do

whenever he was done,

and sometimes it took him longer to get done than others,

would get up and he would give me a hug

and say, I just want you to know I love you.

And whatever the church does, I'll support it.

And I also say that I don't think

Henry was always like that.

I've heard some stories from the past

that Henry used to kick and scream a little more than that.

But in his last days, when he disagreed,

he would come in and he would say,

no matter what the church decides, I'll support it.

That's the wisdom that only God can give.

And it doesn't matter that he was 90 years old.

Because the truth is, is if you're 10 years old,

God can give you the wisdom.

God can give you the fruits of his spirit

if the spirit of God is living in you,

the fruits of the spirit will be present in your life.

And every single one of us in this room has a calling on our lives

to live in a way that maintains unity within the church.

And in doing that, it's one of the greatest testimonies that you ever give.

There are kids and teenagers and young adults

who are in our church right now

who are literally making up their minds and their hearts of,

is this real?

Is Jesus Christ really as powerful

and as worth sacrificing for

as I hear other people say that he is?

And if we go home

and we have conversations and we have disagreements

and we're bickering and murmuring

and that's the only conversations we're having about church

that surround Christ,

what testimony are we giving to the people who are coming behind us?

But if we can say

that's not the way that I would do it.

I don't necessarily agree with it,

but that's what the church has said

and so that's what we're gonna do.

We'll support it.

And we give that testimony and how to handle those disagreements.

Not only will it help affirm those people's fates in Christ

as they're making up their minds and they're listening in,

but think about the day when we're all dead and gone

and all these kids

and all these young people, they're gonna be the ones

who are leading the church

and you better bet your high end

there's gonna be junk going on then just like there are now

and they're gonna be having disagreements.

They're gonna have to find ways to deal with stuff

and to know that they had an example lived out before them

of how to handle it.

We'll set them up for success

and making sure that the kingdom of God

moves forward honoring Christ

rather than just stomping their feet

and pitching their fits and trying to get what they want.

That's how churches fall.

That's how churches split.

That's how churches die.

But the calling on our lives to live in unity with one another.

Jesus is more than enough

and we're not called to not disagree,

but we're called to do it in a way that is glorifying

and honoring to God.

And that's only something that you can do

according to what you're willing to surrender

and how you're willing to move forward

in your walk with Christ.

Let's pray together.

Father God, thank you so much for this day and time.

Thank you for your word and your love and your mercy.

Lord, as we said earlier,

Graham Chapel is just a church made up of people

and we are not perfect.

But Lord, I thank you for a body of believers

that from my knowledge and my understanding

has always done a good job since I've been around

of dealing with issues and moving forward

for the sake of Jesus.

And Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit

will be present among us and help us to continue to do that.

Help us to be living examples

and living testimonies of what it means

to serve you and represent you well.

Lord, it's not about being right.

It's not about making sure that we can say I told you so.

Lord, it's simply about honoring you,

making sure that Jesus is the one who is glorified.

And Lord, it may not always be the way we think it should be.

But Lord, as long as you are being glorified,

we can all agree on that because you are more than enough.

We love you.

We thank you and ask all this in Jesus name.

Amen.