Snakes and Doves

For the last few weeks, we've been talking about this very simple idea of conviction.

Living with conviction.

We've been exploring this idea that Paul talks deeply about, Paul being the author of much of the New Testament, the book of Romans, that we've been going through piece by piece for a while.

And let me just give you some highlights of what we've looked at.

Actually, before I jump into Romans, let me go to John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

Jesus prays in John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

It's the last time he prays around his disciples before he's arrested and goes to the cross.

It's a powerful prayer.

If you've never read John 17, read it.

But within that, Jesus prays something really interesting.

And we've looked at this uh every so often during this series.

He says, I'm praying not only for these disciples, but also for those who will follow me and believe in their message.

He's praying for us.

For anyone who will ever follow him and believe in his message.

He says, I pray that they will be one, that they will be united just as you and I are one, as you are in me, Father, and I am in you, that they may be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

Jesus actually prays, God, let them be so united, so unified, that the world looks at them and says, Man, that has to be real.

And there's just no way that that eclectic of a group of people could be so together unless there's something there.

Jesus prayed that we would be that united.

And up to this point, 2,000 years later, as a whole, the church hasn't really done a great job of that.

That's been a hard one to live out.

Now, he says that we would be united.

He doesn't say that we would be uniform.

That's where it gets challenging because let's be honest, we like to be around people who are kind of uniform sometimes.

We like people who agree with us, we like people who think the way that we think.

We like to be around people who share our opinions.

And so sometimes churches begin to seek uniformity instead of unity, and they're not the same thing.

In fact, the more uniform the people around you are, typically, the less hard you have to work to have unity.

It's kind of a shallow unity because it's just unity by circumstance.

But when you're around people who are not uniform to you, they don't think the way you do, they don't have all the same opinions that you have, you have to actually put some work in to have unity.

You actually have to live out the things that Jesus tells us to live out, you know, like forgiveness and grace and mercy and patience.

And so we are called to be united, but not uniform.

How do we work that out?

And Paul uses this word to kind of help us understand it.

It's all about understanding convictions, what they are and what they're not.

So Romans chapter 14, in the beginning of 15, I won't read through all this, I'll just kind of hit some high points.

Romans 14 · chapter mention

Romans 14, 1, accept other believers who are weak in faith.

And as we talked about this last week, if you weren't here last week, if you're here for the first time, listen to last week.

It was interesting.

This idea of weak in faith, strong in faith.

Just suffice it to say that Paul views those who have like a lot of holdups, that they're very, very rigid and they really don't experience any freedom because of their faith in Jesus.

He views that as being weak in faith, that you have sort of an overactive conscience, and it just leads you to get all hot and bothered about all kinds of things that don't really matter.

And others who enjoy more freedom, who don't have an overactive conscience, he calls strong in faith, but as Paul's addressing in this chapter to the people he's writing to, those who were strong in faith and those who are weak in faith weren't getting along.

There's a lot of infighting happening.

So he says, accept one another, don't argue with each other about what you think is right or wrong.

This is not about what God has said is right or wrong, it's about what you think is right or wrong.

Those are different things.

Romans 14, 10 says, Why do you condemn another believer?

Why do you look down on another believer?

Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

Later, verses 12 and 13 say, 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.

Don't push someone, challenge someone to do something that would cause them to contradict their own convictions.

Verses 22 and 23, he goes on to say, you may believe there's nothing wrong with what you're doing, but keep it between yourself and God.

Blessed are those who don't feel guilty for doing something they've decided is right.

But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, food was actually one of the issues he was using as an example.

You're sinning if you go ahead and do it, for you're not following your convictions.

If you do anything you believe is not right, you're sinning.

In chapter 15, he says, We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this.

We must not just please ourselves.

We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord.

And finally, in verses 5 and 6, he says, May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with one another, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus.

Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay, so that's sort of a synopsis of what we've been covering if you're just joining us.

It's really nuanced stuff, but I'll tell you this: I don't think I've ever had more conversations with people than I have in the last month where they've said, man, this is stuff I've just never heard talked about in church.

This is sort of these these details that no one really talks about.

And so we've been working through this, and this is a framework that's been really helpful, and I want to jump on this real quick before we move on to wrapping it up today.

We've looked at this idea: absolutes, interpretations, convictions, and preferences.

Absolutes.

These come from God.

God is the creator, he gives commands.

He has that right.

He made everything.

He made you, he made the world, and he actually set it up.

It's been spinning for a long time, and so far it's going fine.

You know, I mean, all things considered.

So God created everything, and he has the right.

In fact, I would say he is the only one who has the right, who has the authority, to definitively say that something is wrong.

Or that something is right.

And he does that.

Scripture is filled with commands where God is saying, hey, do this, focus on this, don't worry about this, don't do that.

And they're pretty obvious.

Sometimes people, especially kind of modern culture, um will try to take absolutes and sort of downgrade them and like, well, maybe not, and they have to do some interesting mental gymnastics to make that all work, but but absolutes are not really hard to see because God says them very clearly.

But beneath that are interpretations.

These are things that are in Scripture, but they're a little more open-ended.

And this is a lot to do with how churches kind of operate and how things can be structured, and people like to argue about these all the time, and you can actually have really smart, really well-meaning, really educated people come to very different conclusions about interpretations.

And you have to look at both sides and be like, you each have valid points.

But it's not an absolute, it's an interpretation.

Now, a lot of a lot of division happens because here's the tendency with all of these: we like to elevate the lesser ones to a higher place than they ought to be.

So there's a lot of people who who their interpretations and their minds are absolutes and they're not.

Now, beneath interpretations is convictions.

Convictions don't come from our creator.

We've talked about this.

They're not commands, they come from our conscience.

They are the deeply held beliefs that we have about what is right or what is wrong.

Now, as we grow in our faith, and we've got people here at all different stages of faith, people watching from home, some of you haven't decided whether or not you're gonna follow Jesus.

You're checking it out.

That's awesome.

Check it out.

I believe that if you look at Jesus long enough, you will see what you need to see.

He's amazing.

Some of us have been following Jesus passionately for decades, others of us were sort of figuring it out, right?

And depending on where you're at in your faith, you're gonna have different convictions that are gonna be informed over time by these other things.

My convictions about life are very much informed by what God has spoken, what God has said, what I interpret in Scripture.

But they're my convictions.

And if I were to take my own personal convictions and then put those on other people as if it's a law, that's not right.

That's not okay.

That's just religion, and that never ends well.

And then beneath that is like preferences.

This is just the stuff we like, the stuff we prefer.

We talked a few weeks ago about music style being a great example of that in church.

And it's so funny because I had no idea that they were gonna be doing like an acoustic set today.

Would have been a good Sunday to talk about that had I known that, you know.

But but a great example.

We kind of mess with our music style at his hands pretty often.

Sometimes like we're loud and proud, and other times it's super chill, and it's not because we're we're not sure who we are, it's because it doesn't really matter.

It's a style of music, and they're all different ways of expressing the love that we have for God.

Sometimes it's exciting and bold and booming, and other times it's it's quiet and contemplative, and it's fine.

It's fine.

Churches, which are groups of people who share the same faith, do not often share the same interpretations, convictions, or preferences.

And so, again, that tendency for us as people, like I just want uniformity.

I want to be around people who agree and think and prefer all the things that I prefer.

And it leads to unnecessary division.

And we've been talking for weeks about okay, can we, can we be a church?

Like, can we please be a church that that cares passionately about the absolutes and we hold strong to those?

And we take the interpretations seriously, and we live by our own convictions so that we have integrity as people, and we give other people the freedom to do the same, and we check our preferences at the door most of the time, because we recognize that they don't matter that much.

And if we can do that, we will enjoy a kind of unity that very few churches enjoy, and I think it could be like life-changing for many people, maybe even for an entire community.

But so far, most of our conversation has been focused on sort of how we engage corporately with one another.

Today, as we wrap up, I want to make it really personal, and my hope is that we'll take all these concepts and be able to walk out of here today with a very simple framework for how to make the right call in virtually every situation that we encounter in life.

I know that that's a big goal.

Like, I just want you to be able to walk out of here and really simply know how to make the right decision for you in every situation that you face in life.

Right?

And I'm not overselling this, I don't believe so, because I'm not the one who came up with what we're gonna talk about today.

Jesus did, and I don't think it's possible to oversell Jesus.

So, how can we take all of this stuff and boil it down in such a simple way that we can be people who live by conviction and all the different decisions that we have to make that challenge our convictions, and we don't quite understand what's the right call here?

Well, what if I do this, and all the what-ifs that go with all the decisions we have to make.

Can we be people who live by this in a really simple, consistent way?

And I believe we can.

And to do that, I want to look back at something that Jesus said.

This is one of my favorite things that Jesus has ever spoken.

We're gonna go to Matthew chapter 10, verse 16.

Matthew 10:16

I'm reading everything, by the way, from the mobile app.

If you have that, you can always follow along with the scriptures there.

Jesus said, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.

Sometimes that's what it feels like to be a Jesus follower.

We're not the wolves.

We shouldn't be, we better not be.

But it can feel like you're a sheep.

You know, Jesus is the shepherd, we're sheep.

Sheep aren't very intelligent creatures.

I don't know if he was like knocking us a little bit or what.

You know, I don't I don't feel flattered.

I don't feel like sheep are particularly attractive, athletic, intelligent, but you know, that's what we are.

And so, you know, we're sheep.

But we're not just sheep among sheep, we're sheep among wolves.

And wolves have have ill intentions.

And so what does Jesus say?

What does he say to like prepare us for this?

For life in the world.

And he says, here's what I want.

I want you to be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

As shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

I love this because it's so unexpected.

You just wouldn't expect Jesus to ever tell you to be like a snake.

You know what I mean?

Like, because we always associate snakes with evil, because snakes, like, let's be honest, are probably evil.

You know?

Some of you might have a pet snake.

I would.

I mean, great.

That's live by your convictions, okay?

That's fine.

For me, no.

No, not at all.

Like, we're wired as humans to see snakes and move another direction.

It's one of the few creatures in the world that we've just decided, you know, we're not gonna get along, so you do your thing, we'll do our thing.

And and yet Jesus tells us be like a snake, but also like a dove.

Willie, who who helps on our tech team this morning, was laughing with me.

He's like, So you're talking about snakes and doves this week and then birds and bees next week?

And I was like, I guess so, you know?

Animal theme or something like that.

But but here's what Jesus is saying, and I'm gonna kind of flip it for our purposes today.

He says, be innocent as a dove and be shrewd as a snake.

If you can be innocent as a dove and shrewd as a snake, you have the framework to live out everything that we've been talking about for the last several weeks.

To be a person who lives by your convictions, doesn't force them on others, doesn't get offended and bothered and annoyed at everybody else who thinks differently than you, has relative peace with the people around you, but makes the right call.

You just have to be innocent as a dove and shrewd as a snake.

Let's break this down a little bit.

So if you're innocent, what this essentially means is that your motives are pure.

And you care deeply about doing the right thing.

When you're innocent, even if you make a mistake, if it's an innocent mistake, it means that you thought you were doing the right thing.

Okay, so if you're innocent, you value the right thing.

If you're shrewd or wise, you know, snaky, um you value doing things the right way.

In a way that will work, in a way that's effective.

So he says, be innocent, do the right thing.

And the right thing informed by what?

Well, obviously, God's commands.

When God tells us something is right or wrong, like, okay, live that.

And you might be someone who's wired to be like, well, I'm not just gonna, just because it says it in the Bible doesn't mean that I'm gonna believe it's right or wrong.

And I, by the way, if that's your attitude, like, great, I believe, question everything.

Question scripture, wrestle with God.

I have found in my life that when I've wrestled with God, he's one.

And every time I've been like, God, that doesn't make any sense.

I just feel like you're you're off in that.

I have a different opinion.

As time has gone on and life has taught me lessons, I've learned, crazy, God is not wrong.

I am.

I've learned that often, right?

So, so what's the right thing?

It's what God says, but it's also your convictions, right?

Like Paul said, live by your convictions.

Do what's right in your heart based on where you're at in your life, and then try to do the right thing in the right way.

And so let's let's make this really, really simple.

This is it.

Do the right thing in the right way and trust God with all the rest.

That's it.

You want to be a person who lives by your convictions and does life successfully to the best of your ability while having peace and unity with other people, but all at the same time like sticking to your guns a little bit, which is important, then do the right thing in the right way and trust God with the rest.

Do the right thing the right way and trust God with the rest.

Let's explore this.

It is possible in life to do the wrong thing the wrong way, and it never goes well.

Now, sometimes it can be funny.

This would be like children.

Sometimes I watch my kids do the wrong thing in the dumbest way possible.

And it's it's hilarious.

Like, I won't say which child, um, but back in the day, one of my kids, who was still in diapers at the time, knew explicitly that certain snacks were off limits unless mom and dad, you know, opened up that that snack drawer or or gave permission.

And it's not because actually we're some type of family who's like hyper-focused on the food, it's just that it's expensive.

When your kids just raid the fridge and the pantry, you're just you spend so much money.

And so there's certain snacks like this needs to last a week, so come and ask us.

Well, this child, a little sneakier, definitely more uh well, not even really this the snake, I would say.

Just just uh like a dumb snake.

I don't know what that would be.

Um so this child was breaking that rule unbeknownst to us, and here's how we found out my wife goes to change this child's diaper.

And when my wife opens the diaper, all kinds of snacks just fall out on the floor.

Okay.

And, you know, my wife's just looking at this child of mine who's like, well, you know, and and they have nothing to say.

Because what do you I mean, what do you what do you say when cookies fall out of your underwear?

Like what is the appropriate response for that?

And you know, I just I mean, I'm like, who's raising these children sometimes?

Because I'm not even mad that they were st they were sneaking snacks.

I did that, of course.

Like we've all done it.

We like let's be as adults, we still do it, even though no one could get us in trouble.

Like, even though you're in charge in your home, you're still like sneaking things in the pantry, like you're fine.

You bought it, eat it, it's fine, right?

But it wasn't that they were sneaking it, it's that they were putting it in their diaper, and I'm just knowing that they're walking around just pulling cookies out of their diaper.

And I'm just gonna pray and hope that like they were really focused on making sure that the diaper was fresh, but I don't know that.

I don't know how long this has been going on.

And so basically, it's like looking at a child going, You're doing the wrong thing, but you're doing it in the wrong way.

Like the dumbest way possible.

You know, it's like when my kids fight me at bedtime, and some of my younger kids will try to actually, and maybe you who've had young children have had this experience, where they almost try to like physically keep you from putting them to bed, and they're just tiny.

And it's like, what how do you think this is gonna play out?

Like you're gonna push me and run away.

And you think you're gonna, this is gonna end up in your favor.

That I'm just gonna be like, well, I guess you're not going to bed tonight, you know, because you weigh 30 pounds and I can't possibly just pick you up.

It's fun.

Sometimes kids do the wrong thing the wrong way, and it's funny when kids do it, less so when we do it.

Because when you do the wrong thing and you go about it the wrong way, it is ultimately destructive.

Great example of this would be in Scripture the story of David and Bathsheba.

If you know that story, David's the king.

Bathsheba's a married woman, David sees her, he wants her, so he takes her for himself.

But she becomes pregnant and he freaks out.

And so he has this idea, and he's like, I know, her husband is off in battle, fighting on his behalf, and he's like, I'll bring him back.

And then they can be together, and people will think, oh, she was pregnant by her husband, no scandal, no big deal, and he refuses.

We actually talked about the story a few weeks ago looking at convictions.

Um, he has such a strong conviction that he shouldn't be there because his men are in battle that he doesn't he doesn't go with that.

And so David just goes, Ah, dang it, I guess I just have to have him killed.

And so David does a really wrong thing, and he does it in the worst way possible, and it it is so destructive for his heart, for his kingdom, for his family.

And and a prophet named Nathan comes to David and says, Look, man, because you've done this, there's just gonna be a whole heap of trouble in your life as a result of this decision.

When you do things the wrong way and they're the wrong thing to begin with, it's destructive.

And so don't do that.

Okay, let's move on.

Because I don't think many of us are like, you know what I'm gonna do today?

The wrong thing the wrong way.

That was that's my that's my plan, that's my goal.

I think we all understand no one needs convincing.

Sometimes you can do the wrong thing the right way.

You actually can.

Sometimes you can do the wrong thing, but you can go about it like the best way possible.

Now, there's a version of this that would be like an evil genius.

This is someone who has really bad motives, but they're really smart, and so they can become like a supervillain.

More often than that, though, is where we just make mistakes, we do things that are selfish, we do things that are are ultimately, we we even know it.

Yeah, that's not this is not the right thing to do, but we still have the capacity, even in those moments, to try to go about it in the best way possible.

And amazingly enough, this can actually work out sometimes.

Let me give you an example in scripture.

In Acts chapter 5, uh, Jesus has has left, and the disciples are now telling everyone about Jesus, and it's going great.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

Like, there is momentum in this whole Jesus movement, and it's really messing with the people who had Jesus killed, because they kind of thought logically, oh, we killed Jesus, we stop his movement.

Turns out, no, didn't work at all.

And so it says uh when they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill them.

When they heard that the disciples were out preaching the message of Jesus after being told not to many, many times, they're like, let's kill them.

But one member, who was a Pharisee named Gamaleel, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while.

And then he said this to his colleagues, Men of Israel, take care of what you're planning to do with these men.

Some time ago there was that fellow, Thaedis, who pretended to be someone great.

Four hundred others joined him, but he was killed, and all of his followers went their various ways.

The whole movement came to nothing.

After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee.

He got people to follow him, but he was killed too, and his followers were scattered.

So my advice is leave these men alone.

Let them go.

If they're planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown.

But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them.

You may even find yourselves fighting against God.

The others accepted his advice, so they called in the apostles and they had them flogged.

Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.

Now, you know, Gameleel isn't necessarily doing the right thing.

The right thing would be like, guys, Jesus, he's the way, he's the one we've been waiting for.

Clearly.

Look at what he did.

Look at the miracles that he performed.

Listen to what he taught.

What are we doing here?

We should be following him.

We consider ourselves experts in Scripture, and we've said no to the Messiah.

Like, that would be the right thing.

And he's not doing that.

But he is kind of doing the wrong thing in the right way.

He's like, hey guys, let's be like careful.

Let's be gentle in our approach.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Let's not be too harsh.

Let's see how this sort of plays out.

And you know what?

He ends up, in a weird way, helping the movement of Jesus advance.

Because sometimes, even when you do the wrong thing, but you go about it in the best way possible, it has ways of working out.

Another story in scripture would be King Darius, who was over, he was over Daniel.

If you've ever read the book of Daniel, Daniel's an interesting story.

And Darius sort of gets trapped by his advisors to have to throw Daniel in this den of lions because Daniel prays to his God and it's this whole long story.

And Darius is kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place because if he if he lets Daniel go, he looks weak.

But if he follows through, he has to hurt Daniel, and he loves Daniel and actually kind of believes in Daniel's God.

And so he goes ahead and puts Daniel in the lion's den, but then he like goes and fasts and prays.

Like, hey, God, if you're real, save him.

And he does.

And it works out.

And so sometimes in life, if you recognize that you've done something wrong, if you recognize that you've made a mistake and you haven't done the right thing, at least, if you're not innocent as a dove in that moment, at least be shrewd.

At least go about it in a wise, gentle, loving way, and you might be surprised at how it ends up working out.

Wisdom is so underrated.

Now, it is also possible to do the right thing the wrong way.

And interestingly enough, when you do the right thing the wrong way, it's often more destructive than if you did the wrong thing the right way.

Like the way we go about things really matters.

You can do the right thing the wrong way.

Let me give you an example.

Genesis chapter 37 tells us about Jacob and his sons.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

These become the men whose names become the tribes of Israel.

If you know this story.

If not, read it.

It's really cool.

It says, Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age.

You know how those of you who have multiple kids, you know how you got a favorite?

You know?

I'm teasing.

Oh, you're like, don't do this.

I have favorites depending on the day.

It just depends on the moment.

It changes like all the time.

But look, Jacob, not a good father.

He just wasn't.

And he had a favorite, and everybody knew it, and he made it clear.

He loved all of his other children.

So one day, Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph, a beautiful robe, but his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them.

They couldn't say a kind word to him.

One night, Joseph had a dream.

And when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.

Listen to this dream, he said.

We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain.

Suddenly my bundles stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine.

His brothers responded, So you think he'll be our king, do you?

Do you actually think he will reign over us?

And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way that he talked about them.

And then they end up selling him as a slave to Egypt and faking his death and convincing his father that he was eaten by wild animals.

You know, just family drama.

And so, you know, Joseph didn't do anything wrong.

He didn't lie.

He had the dream.

And he did.

Like he's innocent in the sense that, hey, if you have a dream, you're free to tell people about it.

It's not wrong to do that.

But he's dumb.

Like, his brothers hate him, and I think he knows this.

And he definitely knows that he's like the favored one because he's got the special coat.

And so he just decides hey, you know what'll be a good idea?

I'll just tell my brothers about this dream with obvious interpretation.

Hey, guys, I had a crazy dream last night.

You were in my dream.

Yeah, you guys all through these bays of hail bowed down in front of me, and I was just elevated above all of you, you know.

Gosh, I just wonder what that means.

And it goes really poorly.

Because sometimes when we're innocent and our motives are pure, and maybe his motives weren't pure, maybe he was being prideful and arrogant.

We just don't know that.

That would be us trying to read between the lines, but but there's nothing he does that's explicably wrong, but he just goes about it in a really unwise way, and it ends up being incredibly destructive.

I have done this so many times in my life.

I may have done all these, right?

But there have been so many times where I thought I was right.

I was convinced that I had the right decision, and maybe I did.

But I chose to go about it in a way that was haphazard or a way that was really forceful.

And even though I may have been making the right decision, the right call, I went about it the wrong way, and it ended up being destructive.

I'll be honest, for me, um, I can talk too much.

You don't know that about me, but it's true.

No, it really is.

It's so true.

Um that's why those of you who have kids uh who get in trouble in school for talking too much, one day someone might hand them a microphone and be like, talk now, and so it works out sometimes.

But I was that kid, I I've always talked too much, and I just I verbally process, I think as I speak.

And there have been times in my life where I've made a decision and I know it's right, but I've had an unhealthy need to talk about it with people that don't need to have conversations about it.

And part of that's probably just insecurity and wanting people to be like, yes, you made the right decision.

I'm like, thank you.

Um but sometimes for me it's just it's just this lack of self-control when it comes to talking.

And so I have created drama at times in my life where I have just involved people in decisions that didn't need to be involved.

Because I wasn't even asking for their opinion.

I just wanted to share my opinion with them and get some support.

And so it's like I was doing the right thing, I was making the right decision by my convictions, by what I believe to be true, and I went about it in the wrong way, and it created lots of drama.

This actually ends up often being more destructive than if you were to do the wrong thing the right way.

Because Jesus isn't giving us an and or.

He's not saying, hey, be innocent as a dove, and you know, maybe shrewd as a snake.

He doesn't say be innocent as a dove or shrewd as a snake.

He's saying be both.

Because man, if you can be both of these, ooh.

If you start doing the right thing the right way, it doesn't matter how difficult of a situation you find yourself in, there's a way forward.

I mentioned Daniel being thrown into the lion's den uh earlier.

He's a really good example of this.

Um, Daniel was a Jewish man, young man, and he happened to be alive at a really bad time.

And it was the time where his nation happened to be conquered by the Babylonian Empire.

And so what the Babylonians did is they would conquer a nation and they would take all their best and brightest, and they would take those people from all of the other people and kind of raise them in their kingdom to become their servants and to make their kingdom better, and also to sort of take away the best and brightest from potential enemies.

And Daniel is chosen as one of the best and brightest.

And so here's what happens uh they go, they're put into this program of sorts, and because they're in Babylon, not in Israel, and the Israelites had really strict laws about what you were supposed to eat as part of their faith, uh, Daniel is being asked to eat things that would go against his conscience, would go against his convictions of what he believes is right and what's wrong.

It says, Daniel, though, was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given by the king.

So he asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods.

Now, God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel, but he responded, I'm afraid of my lord the king, who's ordered that you eat this food and wine.

Look, if you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I'm afraid the king will have me beheaded.

Daniel spoke with the attendant, who had been appointed by the chief of staff to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Meshael, and Azariah, who later get named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

He says, Please test us for ten days on a diet of just vegetables and water.

Give us ten days.

And at the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating all the king's food, and then you make your decision in light of what you see.

And the attendant agreed to Daniel's suggestion and tested them for ten days, and it ends up working out.

It's great.

They're really healthy, and Daniel gets to live by his convictions and not go against those, and at the same time, because he went about it in such a wise and respectful way.

I mean, he didn't just be like in the in the name of boldness, no, I'm not doing it, you can't make me.

I mean, he would have been living it by his convictions, but it wouldn't have worked out.

But he goes about it in the right way.

He asks for permission.

And he does it in a gentle and honoring way.

And he even gives the person that he's talking to an out and says, hey, look, look, just try it.

And if it doesn't work out, hey, I'll submit to that.

And it's amazing how often, and look, a lot of us probably aren't in a situation where we might be beheaded at work, which is good, but we often find ourselves feeling like we're we're walking on eggshells, maybe in our in our corporate career environments or in other types of relationships that we have in life.

And it's so easy in those types of situations to just burn bridges fast.

Because you try to do the right thing, but you go about it in a really hard-headed way.

Daniel does the right thing the right way, and it works out.

Because when you do the right thing the right way, it usually does.

Now, what about all the what ifs?

You know, what I'm saying is if you if you want to be a person who lives by conviction and does all the things we've been talking about for all these weeks, just commit yourself to doing the right thing the right way.

And more often than not, it'll work out, but what if it doesn't?

You know, what if you do the right thing the right way?

Because I'm sure, like, have any of us in the room ever done the right thing the right way by our own estimation and it did not work out, like it didn't go super great?

Look at only like seven of us.

See, this really does work.

But for the seven of us who have had negative experiences with this, what do you do when it doesn't?

What do you do with all the what ifs?

But like, like, what if what if that happens and what if this?

And you can see in your mind, we're all really good at imagining disaster.

That's why disaster movies will always exist.

We are so good at as human beings, and be like, you know how it could end?

You know how it could all fall apart?

Oh, there's a million different things to choose from.

Look, if you do the right thing the right way, then you just have to simply trust God with everything else.

There have been so many times in this role here where the right thing has been clear and the right way was simple to figure out, but it created a lot of what-ifs that it required a lot of faith.

And in the long term, the short term gets interesting.

Sometimes in the short term, you're like, God, what are you doing?

Where are you?

But in the long term, I have yet to see God not show up.

I haven't seen it.

I just haven't.

In the long run, I've yet to see God not show up.

And I mean, there's examples of this in scripture, left and right.

The story of Esther would be a really interesting story.

If you've never read it, it's a pretty quick read, especially the first two-thirds of it really tell her story, and she's in this really tough spot, and it's it's dangerous, it's high stakes.

And as you read the story, you find out that behind the scenes all these things are happening that sets her up for success, and it sets her enemy up for failure, and it's not a result of anything that she's even done.

It's just the stuff that God was doing behind the scenes.

I've seen that happen.

And I'm not saying that it's easy to trust God, and I'm not saying that in the short term, it always feels like God is doing what we think he might ought to do.

Because honestly, sometimes God does things that we don't think of.

I've had times in life where in my mind there's two options, A or B.

And A is good and B's bad, and I'm like, God, I mean, this is what's gonna happen, either this or that, and then God actually shows me later on, oh no, I had a whole different way of doing it that you could never have thought of, you could never have dreamed of, you could never have anticipated, and it was better than any of the options that you saw.

Because this is a shocker, he's God, and he knows stuff that we don't.

If you do the right thing the right way, and you trust God with all the rest, I will tell you what it will do for those of you who are like passionate Jesus followers.

It will give you a freedom to get angry with God that very few people have sometimes.

And I mean that.

I don't I mean that.

Like, if you do the right thing the right way, and it's not working out, you have the ability to go, hey God, dude.

And I sometimes I say this jokingly.

I don't, I don't ever, I've actually never said dude to God.

I do have a reverence for him when I pray.

But in my heart, like if I'm actually being honest, and read some of the prayers that David has in the Psalms, where you basically do that with God.

Hey God, are you asleep?

What, like, what gives?

Because I've done the right thing and I've done it the right way, and you make all these promises, and I'm not seeing that happen, and so I kind of feel God, and don't take this the wrong way, but I feel like I'm kind of doing my part.

And I'm just waiting on you to do yours.

And I'm not encouraging you to like get angry with God every day and yell at him because it's just not gonna do much, okay?

But it also doesn't make him angry, because if it did, he'd be angry all the time.

Some of the most amazing followers of God that we know of have had really dark seasons where they got pretty pointed with the Lord.

And he didn't strike them with lightning.

In fact, he came through for them.

But see, when you're doing things the if you're doing the wrong thing the wrong way and you're like, God, what are you doing?

He's gonna be like, what are you doing?

Stop it.

Just stop, right?

Make a good choice, see what happens.

It was hard to pray with a lot of conviction when you're you're doing what you know is wrong and you're going about it a foolish way.

But man, if you are doing the right thing the right way and you're trusting God, it does give you the ability to pray and say, Lord, I don't know what else to do.

I'm doing all that I know to do, and I just need you to come through.

And I can't promise you that he'll come through tomorrow, and I can't promise you that he'll come through a week from now.

It's not always on our timetable, but in the long run, I've never seen him not show up.

And he often shows off a little bit.

It's often like, oh wow, I couldn't have anticipated that.

And so, summing all of this up, we've spent these last several weeks just exploring the idea of living by conviction.

Here's what I would just say: be a person who has strong convictions.

Know what they are.

Spend some time reflecting on that.

And look, the people you're closest with, if you're married, you have a spouse, let them know what your convictions are.

Those of you who are raising children, let your children know what your convictions are.

That way, when you make decisions that they disagree with, which will happen all the time, instead of it just being, oh, my parents are just saying no or yes or whatever, like it's some flippant thing, like, like, no, they'll know this is based on a conviction.

Sometimes I tell my kids, like, look, when you grow up, you don't have to have my convictions.

But you have to have convictions of your own.

I want you to become people who live by convictions, even if they're different than mine.

So know what your convictions are, share those, commit to living by those, but remember what they are and what they're not.

They're not commands from God, so never take your convictions and try to force those on other people, except for your children.

You are allowed to do that.

But other than that, but do it the right way, be gentle, be loving.

But in every situation you find yourself in life, especially in a world that's gonna put a lot of things in your path that will challenge your beliefs and will challenge your convictions.

How do you navigate it?

How do you live all this out?

You do the right thing the right way, and you trust God with the rest.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for this awesome, awesome church.

I love this place so much.

I love all these people.

I'm so grateful that I get to be part of this place and that my kids get to grow up here.

I'm so grateful that this church is like a safety net in my life and around my family where I know that no matter what happens, there's a lot of people here who have our back.

And that's the way it is for all of us, God, because we are a family.

We are a family.

We we love you, but we're all all we're all in different places with you, and we're all at different points in our journey, and we all have different ideas and different convictions and different beliefs about all kinds of different things.

But I pray, Lord, that we would be unified, even if we're not uniform.

And I pray, Lord, that you would give us the wisdom, the discernment, and the courage to do the right thing the right way and trust you with everything else.

We love you, Lord.

We pray all this in your name.

Amen.