Undivided: Convictions

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning church, how you doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: Good, good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so excited to continue our undivided series today.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have a great one to talk about today.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you, if you haven't been with us the whole time, we're in the middle of the series, called Undivided, where we're talking about the buckets of belief and how we prioritize our beliefs, to make sure that we are focusing on the things that matter most, and not dividing on things that matter, but matter less.

[SPEAKER_00]: And today, I want you to start off by just imagining yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: as a Roman citizen 2,000 years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're in the city of Rome.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a good Roman citizen, you worship the emperor and you worship a lot of different gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rome was a bit of a melting pot.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there are many, many different.

[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, hundreds, perhaps thousands of different deities, if you include all the local variants that were worshiped there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lots of temples, lots of shrines.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so you worship the emperor.

[SPEAKER_00]: You worship the different gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: you bring your sacrifices towards the ones that you particularly show allegiance to.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then one day, someone introduces you to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you learn that there's actually one God, not many God's.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you learn that he doesn't want you to worship at idols.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you learn that he doesn't need your sacrifices.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, he became the sacrifice for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: so that he could pay for your sinfulness so that you could be a part of his family.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a God that you have to reach out to and do something for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a God that reached out and did something for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you trust in Jesus and your life is radically transformed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you want nothing to do with your old way of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every time you walk by the temple you used to worship, you just shut up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you think about the lies and the false beliefs that used to hold.

[SPEAKER_00]: you would never be caught dead going near one of those statues that you used to pray to and adorn and offer sacrifices to.

[SPEAKER_00]: That old way of life is just dead to you now.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there is one reminder of your old way of life that you can't get around every time you go to the marketplace and you go to buy some food, you see it there.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is the temple stand where they sell the food and the meat that has been offered to sacrifice is probably at a discount.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's got the signature temple wrapping around the food and you just you can't believe it because to you to consume that food would be like participating in the idle worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so even though you could probably save some money.

[SPEAKER_00]: You avoid that completely and it's just that visual reminder every time you see of the old life that you were saved out of.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got a new community now.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got new friends now.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're starting to learn and grow and the church leaders are teaching you about what Jesus said and what Paul has shared.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're learning and growing and then one day a church leader invites you over to his house for dinner with some other Christians and you show up there and you see as they're preparing the food in the other room.

[SPEAKER_00]: That signature wrapping of the temple food that was offered to us to an idolist sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: and you are shocked and horrified.

[SPEAKER_00]: How could they?

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I was going to a church leader's house.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here he is serving me this stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: He participates with idol worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: How can he even call himself a Christian?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he's not a Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is heretical.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you watch and horror as the other Christians around you eat the food and participate in this with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you have the good sense to not make a stink about it in the moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you just refuse the meat, eat your salad, and you wait until the next day when you can go to the church leaders, the other church leaders and say, you got to keep this guy out because you don't know what he's doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is a heretic, he is participating in idol worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: And to your shock and horror, the church leaders do not seem nearly as bothered by this as you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you start to wonder, maybe they're not real Christians either.

[SPEAKER_00]: because I have this pit in my stomach that surely is the presence of the Holy Spirit within me telling me in the every fiber of my being this is wrong and yet they're okay with it and they're okay with it and they're not sure about it but they're not condemning it and what is going on here and am I the only true Christian in this place?

[SPEAKER_00]: Surely if the Apostle Paul were here he would drop the hammer on these people and tell them how wrong they are to participate in this pagan

[SPEAKER_00]: And somehow, some version of that comment slips out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the church leaders says, that's not a bad idea.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why don't we write to Paul?

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got a whole bunch of other questions to ask him anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to write him a letter, and we're going to see what he has to say about this issue.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something like that happened before Paul wrote the letter to the Romans.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Paul writes his epistles, they're always in response to the questions and the problems he's hearing from the local churches.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he writes them specifically about the issues they are facing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And something like this must have happened in Rome, and they let Paul know.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's writing the book of Romans, the letter of Romans to them, to answer some of these questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: They had problems in their churches that were not all that different from some of the challenges that we face today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Questions about what's right or wrong for Christians when there isn't some clear biblical command that spells it out explicitly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Questions like, you know, so the Bible says it's wrong to worship idols, but what about the meat that sacrifice to an idol?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it okay to eat that?

[SPEAKER_00]: or in a modern day kind of version of that, okay, the Bible says it's wrong to worship idols, but what about worshiping God in front of an icon?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that different than worshiping an idol?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says it's wrong to be drunk with wine, but is it wrong to then have any wine?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: So should we never do anything to damage that temple?

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, ladies, the piercings are out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can't damage your body.

[SPEAKER_00]: No holes.

[SPEAKER_00]: No nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: No tattoos.

[SPEAKER_00]: No adventure sports.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anything that could risk injury to your temple.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the body says the Bible says the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, is that what that means?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible tells us to dress modestly.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what does that mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that look like?

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that change in different periods in different cultures?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says we should not be conformed to this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that mean that it's wrong, that it's sin, for us to let our kids dress up on Halloween?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are they not conforming to the pattern of this world when they do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: You can laugh, but these are real questions that a lot of Christians face their legitimate, good questions, and we could list thousands of more items that Christians have wondered about and divided over.

[SPEAKER_00]: questions like, what movies are okay to watch, what music is okay to listen to, what about video games, books that you read, youth sports, social media, piercings, drugs, alcohol, yoga, cosmetic surgery, dieting, and birth control, alternative medicine, expensive purchases, gambling and lottery, credit cards, school choice, holidays, curse words, Santa Claus, dating, firearms, politics, AI, boycotts, war, creation care,

[SPEAKER_00]: The instruments that you use in worship, the age of the earth and the age of the universe, baptism, how you do it, communion, how you do it, predestination, worship style, complementarianism, head covering sabbaths, eternal security, the end times, spiritual gifts, and you know I could go on and on and on.

[SPEAKER_00]: with the types of things that we Christians wonder about and struggle with and when we bump up into differences with how someone else interprets the way you should live on one of those items, how do we handle that?

[SPEAKER_00]: In many cases, Christians have accused other Christians of not being Christians because of their different view on one of these issues and we might feel something very deeply

[SPEAKER_00]: and think something very logically.

[SPEAKER_00]: And based on those thoughts and those feelings, we conclude that must be God who's telling me something and I need to live that way and I need to make sure others know you need to live this way too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So how do we handle those differences?

[SPEAKER_00]: How do we handle differences of belief?

[SPEAKER_00]: When the Bible doesn't give us a clear command, but we are convinced that this is the way we need to live.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a thing we should do, or a thing we shouldn't do, a thing we should believe, or shouldn't believe, but it's not clearly spelled out in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is one of the major reasons why we teach the buckets of belief.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's another look at the buckets of belief, just as a refresher.

[SPEAKER_00]: The dogma, as you know, is the core of what makes us a Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: the gospel, the good news about Jesus, the doctrine is the collection of sound teachings that get passed on by church leaders to their local family of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And today we're going to talk about the conviction bucket.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now convictions are personal beliefs that are based on biblical principles or the leading of the Holy Spirit, but they're not required for everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're not clearly spelled out in Scripture or something everyone has to follow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there are two questions that I want us to be thinking about in the back of our minds as we go through this today.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first one is, how can you be wise about your own personal convictions?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the second one is, how can we have unity in the church?

[SPEAKER_00]: even though we have some different personal convictions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can we continue to coexist and get along and serve together and minister together and be good friends together when we have very different views about some of these conviction areas.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible has the answers for us and it's in that letter to the Romans.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've got your Bible, go to Romans chapter 14, that's where we're going to be at today.

Romans 14 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to go through the whole chapter together.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to start in verse 1.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what Paul says.

[SPEAKER_00]: except other believers who are weak in the faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And don't argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: For instance, one person believes it's all right to eat anything, but another believer with a sense of conscience will only eat vegetables.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don't.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those who don't eat certain foods must not condemn those who do for God has accepted them.

[SPEAKER_00]: The answer that, or the example that Paul gives here is for food.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's food in this case, vegetables, or meat.

[SPEAKER_00]: In another case, in first Corinthians, it's meat that's been sacrificed before and idle, but the principle applies to a lot of different things.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could swap out just about anything from that list I went through earlier in place of food, and this principle will apply.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul has one main command that he gives them for how to deal with these differences that they have, about what they will eat and what they won't eat and the word that he uses is except.

[SPEAKER_00]: except them.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually a word that literally means to welcome or receive someone.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like you're welcoming them into your home, or in this case, welcoming them into the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: The idea is that there are people who are new believers, Paul mentions that they might have to be weaker in the faith, have a weaker conscience.

[SPEAKER_00]: They haven't grown much yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they have a certain number of rules or things that they think they need to follow, maybe based on their background, based on their history, based on the religion they just came out of.

[SPEAKER_00]: And other Christians who maybe know that that's not necessary, he says, your job is not to argue with him about what is right around.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need to accept them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't fight over those differences.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't condemn them for having a different view.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember many years ago at a different church.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was having this conversation with another pastor in the church that I served in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was really surprised at where he went with it, because he started criticizing and judging another church that was down the road.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the church that I was in and this church down the road, they were basically the same kind of church.

[SPEAKER_00]: They had almost exactly the same views, but there was one particular issue,

[SPEAKER_00]: that they felt differently on, than our church did, and this pastor, friend of mine, co-worker of mine, was kind of questioning whether or not they might be saved based on their position on this issue.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a non-essential issue, not a gospel issue.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I couldn't believe the friction in the animosity, the us versus them mentality that was there, when we believed 99.9% of the same stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there was this one issue that he disagreed with a man.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so maybe they didn't even have the Holy Spirit in their lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the kind of thing that's going on in Rome, and the kind of thing that Paul is warning them about, and why he says, hey, accept them, even if you think they're weaker in the face.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't judge them, welcome them.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we go through this today, I want to give you three points that really reflect three roles in our relationships with each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the first one is this, in God's kingdom, we are greeters, not governors.

[SPEAKER_00]: where greeters, not governors.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are supposed to accept and welcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the family.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're the welcoming committee.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are not the bouncer at the gate.

[SPEAKER_00]: Say, no, no, no, no, you haven't figured all these things out yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you really can't be part of this group.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, welcome them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't argue about those differences of opinion about what is right or wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we're talking about convictions, by the way, these are beliefs that are not clearly spelled out in scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to be clear about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are not the decision makers for everybody else.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what is right and what is wrong?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me give you a couple of practical examples because that can really help to solidify, okay, what are we talking about in this conviction bucket?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll give you an example of a thing that we can consume and a thing that we can believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here's the example of a thing that we can consume.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are many Christians that are absolutely convinced that any form of alcohol consumption is wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they make that argument not based on some clear command and scripture, but based on a logical conclusion from what they deduce in scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, they read in one case that the New Testament says we're not supposed to be drunk with wine.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they go, well, if we're not supposed to be drunk with wine, then a surefire way to make sure that doesn't happen is to just never have any.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a fine personal conclusion, but that's not exactly what the text says.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's another case in Proverbs where it says that wine is a marker.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, well, if wine is a marker, then obviously wine is a dangerous thing, and then obviously Christians should never have any of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is the conclusion that many Christians today have,

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there's a little problem with that perspective, which is there are even more passages of scripture that seem to indicate that that's not true.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, for starters, back in the Old Testament, when the Israelites were about to have a celebration, God told them, go get strong drink as a part of your party.

[SPEAKER_00]: have strong drink which refer to a strong alcohol to be a part of your celebration.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what God told the Israelites and Deuteronid.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, first miracle was turning water into one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul told Timothy, hey, stop avoiding wine.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need some of it for a health benefits.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're tummy's hurting.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you need some wine to help it feel better.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stop just drinking the water.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we never see anything in Scripture that says you can't have any alcohol, we do see cautions about the excess of alcohol.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we are left with what we in our association call a significance of science.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some Christians have read Scripture and conclude should never have any alcohol.

[SPEAKER_00]: Other Christians' reading conclude should have moderation if I consume alcohol.

[SPEAKER_00]: And both of those issues are acceptable in God's Word and in God's Church in the family of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are personal convictions.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could talk about another issue with something we believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about theology, and we're going to talk about a subset of theology called soteriology, and that is the study of salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says that God predestined us unto adoption.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible also says that God for new and predestined and called and justified and glorified.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are lots of other scripture passages like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: To seem to indicate to many people, well, God must have selected who will be saved and by exclusion, who will not be saved, who will be condemned to hell.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so there is a Christian view point that many people hold, it's often called Calvinism, that God has determined in advance who will be saved, and of course, then by exclusion who will not be saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that leads to some other beliefs, because if God has already determined who will be saved, and Jesus has died on the cross to pay for sins, well maybe so that none of Jesus' sacrifices wasted on people that God never intended to save, Jesus' sacrifice only applies and only atones for the ones that God has already selected.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if God's pre-selected who will be saved, well, then those people can't resist him, and so then you get the belief called irresistible grace that when God draws someone, they cannot say, no, they cannot reject him, and so his grace is irresistible.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's one side of the issues, and I'm oversimplifying it for the sake of time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then on the other hand, you've got other Christians who say, no, wait a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible also says, let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life when talking about salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says, God wants everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a quote, God wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says, God doesn't want anyone to be destroyed before everyone to repent.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said at one point, Israel, I longed to gather you under my wings as a mother, hand does her chicks, but you refused.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, Jesus was willing to have them come to him and follow him, but they rejected him, not that he rejected it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stephen told the Jewish leaders that by not believing in Jesus, they were resisting the work of the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, the Holy Spirit,

[SPEAKER_00]: is work on your hearts right now, and you are resisting that Holy Spirit as what Stephen told the Jewish leaders.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews said that Jesus experienced death for everyone, all said that God commands everyone everywhere to repent and turn to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you have these two different sides of this theological, satirial logical question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does God determine who will be saved?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or does He provide the opportunity for the free gift of salvation and illegitimate choice people can make to choose to accept or reject Him?

[SPEAKER_00]: And in our church and in our association, we don't take a position on that issue.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's why.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible does not clearly tell us one way or the other.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, some people think that it does.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I have my own viewpoint on this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if God wanted to make it completely 100% clear where there is no chance of interpreting it the wrong way, he could have done that.

[SPEAKER_00]: What we are talking about in this particular issue is not the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people mistake it for the gospel, but it's not the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: What we are talking about is our own human theories about how the gospel works behind the scenes.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know how it works.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that it's by faith alone and Christ alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that it's not by works of righteous.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is clearly spelled out in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know it's only by believing in Jesus Christ and what he did for us on the cross in his resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is clear in Scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: But whether or not God determines who will be saved and regenerates them so they can have faith and beliefs, or whether or not he provides them the opportunity and they trust in him and then he regenerates them.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's really what it comes down to theologically.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't take a position on that as a church or as an association.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a view on that, and my view in our elders' views have not always aligned, and it's never caused a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, on our pastoral staff, right now we don't agree on this issue, and I'm pretty sure it's never caused a problem, as far as I know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've also been in a church that split over this issue.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so you can see how these kinds of differences can be blown up to become a huge divisive things that lead to nasty arguments and church splits or we can just view them as, yep, you have a difference of opinion on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a difference of belief on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty sure God's gonna tell us when we get to heaven who is right and who is wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, I think I'm gonna be right.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a possibility, there's a possibility I might be wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would say there's 100% possibility I'm wrong on some of the details.

[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, we have to operate with that kind of humility and the things that we judge as right and wrong and the things that we believe in God's kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are the Greeders, not the governors.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go to verse 4 with me, Romans 14, 4, who are you?

[SPEAKER_00]: to condemn someone else's servants.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are you to condemn someone else's servants?

[SPEAKER_00]: 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.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something one day is more holy than another day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, others think every day is like, you should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that amazing?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul says, who are you to judge someone else's servant?

[SPEAKER_00]: In today's language, he might say, who are you to judge someone else's employee?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he says, you need to be fully convinced in your mind, which day that you choose is acceptable as the day that you worship on.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a choice that you have to make.

[SPEAKER_00]: and you need to be fully convinced.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord since they give thanks to God before eating.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look how He's affirming both sides of these.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is no specific command from God on these.

[SPEAKER_00]: For we don't live for ourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: or die for ourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we live, it's to honor the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we die, it's to honor the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord Christ died and rose again for this very purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the thing he's bringing it all back to.

[SPEAKER_00]: The resurrection of Jesus to be the Lord of both the living and the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: And by implication here, he's saying, the Lord of the person who believes this and the person who believes that because he compared those two.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, verse 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you condemn another believer?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you look down on another believer?

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: For the Scripture, say, as surely as I live says the Lord every knee will bend to me and every tongue will declare allegiance, praise to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God so.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's stop condemning each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Rome was a city of many diverse backgrounds.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a melting pot of people.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the way religion worked there was the Romans.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're pretty good at being inclusive of all the different faiths.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you brought in different gods, it was like, yep, you can worship them too.

[SPEAKER_00]: As long as you also worship our gods and the emperor.

[SPEAKER_00]: But as a result of this, they had all these different beliefs and backgrounds that started to come into the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: and many of the new believers in the church because of the faith they came out of and the paganism that they left might have stricter rules that they thought were important as a reaction to what they just came out of.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul says in verse 3, don't look down on people who think that God has a rule against something when maybe you know that he really doesn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: And also for those that are living by stricter rules right now, he says, don't judge the people who don't believe in the same rules that you do, when they're not clearly given by God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul gives the example specifically of treating certain days as reserved for worshiping God.

[SPEAKER_00]: This day is a holy day.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the day that we worship God.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was a big deal for the Jewish Christians.

[SPEAKER_00]: As they came to Christ, they came out of this tradition.

[SPEAKER_00]: of keeping the Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so many of them thought that, well, God still wants us to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if he wants me to do it, he probably wants you to do it too.

[SPEAKER_00]: I saw you working on Saturday, buddy.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they would judge each other over this.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually still an issue among Christians today.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are followers of Jesus today who believe that Saturday is still the Sabbath and still needs to be kept according to the laws that God gave the Israelites in the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's a whole different faith and religion actually that's popped up as a result of this that looks down on and condemns other Christians for not keeping Saturday as the Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then there is a lot of other Christians that say, well, Sunday is the new Sabbath Sunday is the new Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we need to make sure that we don't work on Sunday or we don't play sports on Sunday.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've grown up around Christians like this, that that was their view Sunday is the new Sabbath problem is the Bible never says that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible never says that Sunday is the Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_00]: at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, in Romans 14, Paul says, Hey, different people treat different days as holy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people treat every day alike.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those are both equally valid.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you can't judge another Christian for saying, Well, I don't think that we have to worship on Sunday.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to worship on Saturday night because my church has a service on Saturday

[SPEAKER_00]: These Christians in the churches that think, well, you have to have a Sabbath on Saturday or you have to treat Sunday as the Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what they do when they get to Romans 14.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really don't know what they do when they get to Clash in Chapter 2.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Clash in 2 says, so don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or if they're not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.

[SPEAKER_00]: right there in Scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come and Christ Himself is that reality.

[SPEAKER_00]: The crazy thing about this is, the sin is not in viewing a certain day as a holy day that you need to worship on.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're fully convinced of that, go for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: God bless.

[SPEAKER_00]: The sin is not in thinking that there's not a certain day that you should worship on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that there's not a certain holy day that you have to worship on.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not a sin, either.

[SPEAKER_00]: The sin is in one of those people look in the other one and go in, you're wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shouldn't be that way, you shouldn't do that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: The sin often happens when the person who has decided, Saturday is holy or Sunday is holy, looks at the person who's working on Sunday and goes, you shouldn't do that, that's not okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you can't point to the scripture that says, in fact, we can point to the scripture that says, the opposite of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Both those views are fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the judgment and the condemnation that is a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you know the Bible says nothing about us needing to worship on Sundays?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a tradition, the church started to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do know that very early on, the church started to meet on Sundays, and so we carry on that practice, but God never said you have to do it then.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do that out of tradition.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the day that Jesus rose from the dead, and so that's the day that we continue to worship Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Bible doesn't say, we have to worship on Sundays.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just gonna give you a really, really loving, pastoral warning here, seven years from now in 2033.

[SPEAKER_00]: December 25th is going to fall on a Sunday, carry through the implications of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's possible that we're going to have our church services on Saturday, December 24th.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that our staff and our volunteers can all have Christmas with their families on Sunday morning, December 25th.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying it's going to happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying it's possible, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: If, if you go and say, I don't, I don't like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't agree with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a different opinion.

[SPEAKER_00]: I actually think it'd be better if we did have church on something.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's totally fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing wrong with a difference of opinion, a difference of conviction on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is when we start criticizing and judging other Christians for a different view when the Bible does not give us a clear command.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what you can't do in 2033.

[SPEAKER_00]: is going around saying to people I can't believe our church did that that's ridiculous they should have church on Sunday Sunday is the Lord's Day it's the day we're supposed to work that's not with the Bible says.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact Paul in multiple cases directly contradicts that if you insist that is actually the sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not whether or not a certain day is treated as holy or another day is treated as holy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our traditions are not unimportant, they're valuable, but we have to hold them with open hands, and we can't treat them like they come from God himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to be careful about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's your advance warning.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have seven years to rumenate on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think it's tempting for some of us Christians to try to fill the role of the Holy Spirit for other Christians.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it kind of makes sense because as we go through life and we learn some things, we figure out what works for us and we figure out what things to avoid even if the Bible didn't specifically say that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we find some things that are practiced with spiritual disciplines and practices that we say are really good to do even though the Bible didn't specifically say that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to share those things with others.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because we realize, wow, this has been so good to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is how God has led me and guided me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now it's just a rhythm for me to have it for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I want this for other people too.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I share this with other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when they reject it, we go, wait, but that's what God led me to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Certainly, if we have the same Holy Spirit, it's what is gonna lead you to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why can't you just agree with me and do this my way?

[SPEAKER_00]: But notice what Paul says, who are you?

[SPEAKER_00]: To judge someone else's surface.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not their boss.

[SPEAKER_00]: He reports to his boss.

[SPEAKER_00]: She reports to her boss.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only person who can give that person a valuation is their boss.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only person that writes that person's job description is their boss.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not you, you're a coworker, you're a fellow servant.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he says, who gave you the right?

[SPEAKER_00]: To judge someone else's servants, God is the master.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will judge each person, and we will all give our own account for the personal things that we concluded were right or wrong when the Bible did not give us a clear command.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so number two in God's kingdom, we are the servants, not the spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to approach each other with humility, recognizing that if there's no clear biblical command on this, if this is not part of our doctrine, that our family of faith, the church has passed on his sound teaching and said, this is the way we ought to live, there's a lot of flexibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes a frustrating amount of flexibility in the body of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have to approach each other as co-workers, as fellow servants, not as each other's fully spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: the boss that gets to write the job description, not you or me.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can make suggestions, we can share our opinion, we can share what's worked for us, we can counsel and teach what we can't condemn and judge and criticize on something that God has shown us and let us in, but maybe isn't clear in his word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now,

[SPEAKER_00]: With all the energy that you save by not judging and criticizing and being other people's Holy Spirit, there's something else you can do instead.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what Paul is going to get into in verse 13.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, instead, decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of worrying so much about what they might be doing that you disagree with.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why don't you focus on yourself?

[SPEAKER_00]: You live in a way that won't cause anyone else to stumble and fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I know, and I'm convinced on the authority of the Lord at Jesus, that no food in and of itself is wrong to eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if someone believes it is wrong, get this, then for that person, it is wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if another believer is distressed by what you eat, you are not acting in love.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you eat it,

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then you will not be criticized for doing something you believe is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: For the kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those are the priorities.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not checking up on other people to make sure they're doing all the things you think they ought to do, or avoiding all the things you think they ought to avoid, but our priority is living a life of goodness and peace and joy as we follow the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you serve Christ with this attitude process, you will please God, and others will approve of you too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So then, let us aim for harmony.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't tear apart the work of God over what you eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's bringing all these different people together and they have different backgrounds and they're all on a different point in their spiritual journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we go through those, we're going to figure out different things along the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, don't rip apart that thing that God's putting together.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are a mosaic of people.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are very different from each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our backgrounds and our beliefs and our all sorts of things, the histories that we bring, our perspectives and opinions and careers, all of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God builds, puts together this amazing mosaic and he says, don't tear that apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't rip that apart by nitpicking the things that aren't clear in God's words.

[SPEAKER_00]: So don't tear apart the work of God over what you eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, all foods are acceptable.

[SPEAKER_00]: But,

[SPEAKER_00]: It is wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, if you're in front of someone, you know this is an issue for them, and you're like, well, I don't care, I've got freedom in this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to go ahead and do it, then you could be leading them to stumble if they then follow you because of what you did.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is better, he says, not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may believe there's nothing wrong with what you are doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But keep it between yourself and God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Blessed are those who don't feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sending if you go ahead and do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: For you are not following your convictions.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you do anything, you believe is not right.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are sending.

[SPEAKER_00]: When I was in college,

[SPEAKER_00]: Professor gave me a ride one day, which was very helpful.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a long walk.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got into his car and he immediately reached for the volume and turned it down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course I thought, hmm, what were you listening to that you didn't want me to hear?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a little strange.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then he turned me as a, hey, I like to listen to this certain type of music.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I understand not everybody approves of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to make sure before I turn that back up, that you don't have any convictions against listening to that kind of music.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was shocked.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because as a young college kid, this guy was over twice my age.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was the biblical authority in my view.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a strong mature Christian, had been a pastor before he came in Professor.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really looked up to this guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I could not believe that he, instead of telling me what was right or wrong, was deferring to my opinion about what was right or wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, why would he do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why would he say, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let this little kid decide.

[SPEAKER_00]: what we're going to listen to in my car as I'm doing him a favor in giving him a ride.

[SPEAKER_00]: So first time I had ever encountered something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're a Christian said, hey, I want to make sure I'm deferring to your convictions on this.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not, that is so cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I guarantee you, he doesn't remember that at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here I am, two decades later, talking about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that left an impression on me?

[SPEAKER_00]: That showed me the way Christians are supposed to behave with each other about these issues where we have disagreements.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says instead, decide not to live in a way that will cause others to stumble.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the translation.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have differences of beliefs.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's part of the program.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have some different thoughts about secondary issues.

[SPEAKER_00]: And instead of trying to force your way on each other,

[SPEAKER_00]: Or instead of using your freedom as an opportunity to do whatever you want even when other people think it's wrong for them why don't you defer to their views and make sure that you don't live in a way that causes them to stumble don't put up a stumbling block don't put up a barrier in front of them that they might trip over and cause them to sin in fact that would actually be the sin for you the differences in God's church are a feature not a book God could have created a Bible that was tens of thousands of pages long

[SPEAKER_00]: God could have created scripture that had so many things inspired throughout all the history, 1500 years of writing God's word, all the different authors and everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: He could have included every little thing that we deal with so that we had very specific answers on how to handle stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, can you imagine Paul, 2000 years ago, going, parents, do not give your children cell phones until they reach middle school.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know you don't know what that is yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we'd get into the early 2000s and go, oh, it's finally makes sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cellphones, thank you Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: God could have done that.

[SPEAKER_00]: He could have given us really, really specific clear commands on everything, but here's the thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He actually wants us to figure this out in a relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all about relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants us to figure this out in relationship with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you walking daily with your heavenly father and with his spirit and with your Savior in a way that he's helping to guide everything you do and don't do what you conclude is right and wrong?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's supposed to happen in relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are certain things that are clearly spelled out in Scripture, but there's a lot of specifics in the application that are not.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's supposed to be figured out in the journey of faith through relationships.

[SPEAKER_00]: And not just the relationship with God, but the relationship with each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: as we interact together, we're learning from each other, and we're thinking of thoughts and God is speaking to us through each other, not in ways of condemnation or judgment or correction or criticism necessarily, but in these areas of conviction, in ways I never thought about it that way before.

[SPEAKER_00]: I need to give that some more, I need to pray about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this is what happens in our groups all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love my small group, because we have conversations about this kind of stuff, and we learn and we grow from each other, and we wrestle through life together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody needs to be in some kind of a group.

[SPEAKER_00]: Either on Sunday morning or a small group, you've got to have that relationship, because this was supposed to be done in relationships.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not just the big group here, but the smaller group that gets together and says let's do life together and let's talk about how this applies to our life in ways that we need to figure out personally for us right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is all supposed to happen in relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: This also helps us to be on mission as a church because the differentness actually helps us to reach more people.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to reach different people that I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are some Christians who would never walk into a bar.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there are other Christians that go there to reach people for Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Either one is fine, as long as they don't judge and condemn each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no scripture you can point to that gives you a clear command about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we have to hold on to those personal views with open hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: As Paul said, being fully convinced about what we do and living up to our own consciences, but also allowing for differences in the body of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those differences actually help us to reach more people and be on mission better as a church.

[SPEAKER_00]: The question that we have to ask.

[SPEAKER_00]: is whether or not the motivation for us and all of this is coming from a place of judgment and criticism or a place of love.

[SPEAKER_00]: And love can be easily confused.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the way Jesus talks about it, the way we love each other, ought to show up and be visible to outside people.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a love that says, I love you so much to tell you that you're wrong about this thing, even though the Bible doesn't specifically say.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love you so much that I'm gonna tell you never do that thing that I don't think you should do.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not the kind of love that he's talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about a visible love that makes outsiders go, whoa, something's different about those people.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says it in John 1335.

[SPEAKER_00]: John 1335 is as you're loved for one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll prove to the world that you are my disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're loved for another one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll prove to the world that you are my disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the motivation we're supposed to have.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're coming from a place of love.

[SPEAKER_00]: and a place of care for each other, and a place wanting to build each other up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna stay number three in God's Kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are the builders, not the barriers.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are the builders, we're supposed to build each other up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not the barriers, not the stumbling blocks for other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've shared this story a couple times before, but for some of you it will be new, and it's just the best story I have that relates to what we're talking about right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Several years ago, my wife and I were leading a mission strip with a bunch of people and part of this trip was on a free day, we went and visited a temple of a pagan religion with shrines and idols all over the place.

[SPEAKER_00]: We took a tour with our team, and as we walked around, we got to see the different idols and something happened that we did not expect.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the staff members brought out a platter of bananas,

[SPEAKER_00]: Took it into one of the shrines, offered it before an idol in a ceremonial way, and then brought it out in a hand of us, one by one, a banana.

[SPEAKER_00]: So each of us in our hands now has a piece of food that has just been offered as a sacrifice to an idol.

[SPEAKER_00]: Never has Romans 14 or 1 Corinthians 10 felt so real to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: To go, wow, this is what they were experiencing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're all wondering, like, should I even be holding this right now?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, am I going to catch something?

[SPEAKER_00]: Should I just drop it on the floor?

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody, held onto their bananas, we walked out to the parking lot, we went to our vehicle.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we talked about Romans 14, we talked about 1 Corinthians 10, we talked about the fact that Paul says, you know what, there's nothing wrong with eating this, this is food that God provided, nothing changed about it since it was offered in front of an idol.

[SPEAKER_00]: The idol is nothing, it means nothing, nothing changed about this, this is okay food eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing, I may be fully convinced of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as your leader right now, if I take this and I go, I have freedom to eat this, I have no problem as watch, I'll be fine, nothing's gonna happen to me and I eat the banana.

[SPEAKER_00]: But some of you holding your banana have doubts in your mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that you might have doubts in your mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you might think, I'm not so sure this might be wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: And because you see me do it, because of that peer pressure, you then decide, well, I'm just gonna go ahead and do it, because he says it's okay, but I'm not really convinced in my mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's where the sin happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: It happens for you because you weren't fully convinced but you did it anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: You thought it might be wrong and you were willing to do something you thought might be wrong even though God actually says that's not wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the fact that you were willing to do something, it's the motivation, it's the heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I would be sitting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because here I am knowing that might be an issue for you, and knowing that this is a new thing that none of us have ever dealt with before.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if I go ahead and my freedom and my fully convinced mind, eat the banana, and then that causes you to do it even though you have doubts, I have now been a stumbling block you have led you in the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how that works.

[SPEAKER_00]: I never imagined to have such a practical real example for my own life, but that's how that works.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you can think of all sorts of situations where that applies to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the love for each other that makes a difference.

[SPEAKER_00]: We cannot put up barriers for each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to build each other up.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's our loving relationships in the family of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is the best example that God's doing to work in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the best example to an outside world that these people are different.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, they're not different in a way where they're all aligned on everything and so they're just kind of weird like that because they're all a hive mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're different from each other and yet they still love each other like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I know they don't all agree on stuff, but they don't criticize each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't judge each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're not taking shots at each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know if you get online or if you look in the news what you see all the time is the ops of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, this is how God tells us to live.

[SPEAKER_00]: You should expect differences.

[SPEAKER_00]: You should expect to have different views on things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you should love each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's how the world will see while something's different about these people.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we want to really be on mission as a church, this is where it starts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul says, hey, it's not that I want you to have uniformity.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I want you to have harmony.

[SPEAKER_00]: and verse 19, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.

[SPEAKER_00]: So why we teach the buckets of belief?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's why we learn how we can prioritize our belief.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we know what's worth dividing over and what is not, and there's a whole lot that's not worth dividing over, so that we can be gracious with each other even though we disagree.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when we disagree with each other, we can still live in harmony with each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: A year ago, I used to get tired in illustration.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that illustration was, for our Genesis series, we were talking about the limitations that God has provided in this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: And how, with those limitations, if we ignore them, we'll create some pre-ugly music.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we embrace them, we can actually create some beautiful music.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm back with another illustration with a guitar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see how this works.

[SPEAKER_00]: The guitar is an awesome instrument because you've got these six strings to work with.

[SPEAKER_00]: And unlike some instruments, you can change the tone of those strings as you go.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I can play lots of different notes with this, but I can also make some of them play exactly the same note.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if I play this and this and this, those are three different strings, but they're all playing the same note.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can play them at the same time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can play a pattern.

[SPEAKER_00]: but it's all the same note.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's cool, but I wouldn't want to listen to that for more than maybe 30 seconds.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is not harmony.

[SPEAKER_00]: Harmony is when you play different notes, but you play them together, and they work well together.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's harmony.

[SPEAKER_00]: Three different notes, all playing that work along well together.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a simple illustration.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an obvious illustration.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think that God is the creator of music has embedded a lot of really cool illustrations into his world.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we are all in complete unity and uniformity together, not unity, but uniformity together.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually the differences that make us a more beautiful picture of what God is doing by bringing people together.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I say I think the difference in the body of Christ is a feature not a bug.

[SPEAKER_00]: We should embrace it.

[SPEAKER_00]: and not rejected.

[SPEAKER_00]: In some churches, the goal seems to be to just conform everybody to the same views on a whole list of different issues.

[SPEAKER_00]: That has never been our goal here.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not our goal for our whole association, all of our churches, that's not what we do.

[SPEAKER_00]: We actually believe that the differentness God has given us can be a really, really good and positive thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I want to make a suggestion to you that's kind of a main takeaway from today.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to think about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps, God gets more glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: from a group of people who are very different, getting along in his name, then from a group of people who think the same way about everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: What if that's exactly what God wants for now?

[SPEAKER_00]: What if God loves this beautiful mosaic that he's put together?

[SPEAKER_00]: And he is not at all bothered by the fact that you have come to some different conclusions than you have on things that are not clearly laid out in Scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: and what's all the more beautiful is when those people who buy all rights should not like each other because of those differences say but Jesus matters more in my life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God's family matters more in my life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm not gonna let those secondary issues that we disagree on be a point of contention between us.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, we can still fellowship together, we can serve together, we can do life together, we can be friends together, we don't have to have arguments about this, even though we still have our disagreements.

[SPEAKER_00]: The goal is not uniformity.

[SPEAKER_00]: The goal is harmony.

[SPEAKER_00]: So as you leave today, remember these three things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Be a greater, not a governor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Be a servant, not the spirit, be a builder, not a barrier.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's all pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord Jesus, you have given us such a beautiful thing in the body of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all of these principles are in your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet so many times, we as a church have been guilty of ignoring them and adding layers upon layers and trying to enforce those views on other people, and yet Lord, you've given each of us your spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you've even told us in Romans 14 that there are certain things we just have to make a choice on.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's right there in the text, we have to make a choice, and we have to live with that choice and we're accountable to you for that choice, not some other person.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I ask that your Holy Spirit would guide us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Each of us individually into that next step of faith to live the way you want us to live.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe on the convictions, the things that aren't clearly spelled out in Scripture, maybe there are ways that that's going to be different this week for different people here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help us to appreciate those differences.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help us to not divide or fight over those differences, but to recognize when something goes in that conviction bucket, we can talk about it, but we don't have to divide over it, Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that such a sweet sense of harmony and unity would be in this church that nothing Satan could do could threaten or divide it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I pray that as a result of that harmony, you would help us to be so on fire for you that we would reach out to people all around us in our neighborhoods and in our workplaces and our communities at our schools, that we would be inviting them into your church, that would be telling them about you and that these differences of views that often divide Christians would not be a distraction from the mission, would not become the focus for our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then our focus would truly be on you, the work you have done for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we follow the buckets correctly,

[SPEAKER_00]: The dog must be the most important thing that good news about Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: We stand by our doctrine that we hold to in our church as a local family of faith, and we hold our convictions with open hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: Following them fully as we are fully convinced, but also not trying to force them on each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be pray that it helps us to do this well this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: We prays you for everything you've done for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, name we pray, amen.