Strong in Faith

So a few weeks ago, we started a series called Living with Conviction.

Living with Conviction.

What we're doing is we're exploring this really interesting section of scripture.

It's Romans chapter 14 through the beginning part of Romans chapter 15.

Romans 14 · chapter mention Romans 15 · chapter mention

And this section is all about fine-tuning your faith.

Having a fine-tuned faith.

I'll be honest with you, it's more exciting as a teacher, it's more exciting to be able to engage in a topic that's more broadstroke.

So, like this, the series that we did in August was a five-week series called When I Feel.

And it was talking about how we deal with negative emotions that tend to sort of nag at us at all times.

And we talked about what do we do when we feel empty?

What do we do when we feel afraid?

What about when we feel anxious and worried?

How do we handle life when we feel those types of things?

When we feel stuck.

And every week it was like turn the page, new topic.

Every message is sort of an entirely self-encompassing idea.

And as a teacher, that's fun because each week it's like kind of starting over, and you get to cover sort of broad strokes.

That is not possible with Romans chapter 14.

Romans 14 · chapter mention

It's really not possible with Romans.

We've been going through Romans for two years.

And that is my fault.

That's on me.

It's taken a long time because it's taken a long time to study it.

I weigh, either overestimated my ability or underestimated the depth of God's Word.

It's one of those two.

It's taken a long time.

And so we've sort of gone through Romans bit by bit, and now we're toward the end.

We've taken breaks here and there, but we're about to finish up.

And this series is all about fine-tuning your faith.

My wife's grandfather is someone I really admire.

And years ago, we were having dinner with him and his wife at a big family gathering, and they were sitting at the table, and he said something really simple, and it really speaks to me, and it challenges me in a way that you don't want to be challenged.

Yeah, sometimes you just don't want to be challenged, you just want to be left alone.

But someone will say something, and it's like, dang it, now I have to deal with that.

And I have to wrestle with that, and I will for the rest of my life.

And so I'm grateful to him for this.

But he said, at some point early in his journey with Jesus, he just decided, well, if I'm gonna be a Christian, I'm gonna be a good one.

If I'm gonna follow Jesus, I want to do it well.

And I was like, yeah, that tracks.

What's the point of doing this if not to do it as well as possible?

And you know, very often in life, the difference between just being competent at something and actually being really good at it, it's it's a matter of fine-tuning.

It's the little things.

It's the little things.

You know, someone who's who's okay at something, whether that's their career, relationships, school, whether that's a sport, a hobby, anything at all.

The difference between someone who's just pretty good and someone who's really, really good, we might even say great.

It's almost always a matter of mastering the little things, the nuances.

It's a matter of fine-tuning.

I can't speak for you, but I want to have a finely tuned faith.

I want to have a faith in Jesus that that isn't just basic.

I want to have a faith in Jesus that's been thought through, that's been challenged, a faith that I've wrestled with, a faith that has had tension and it's caused me to grow, a faith that makes me look in the mirror and recognize when I fail and deal with it.

A faith that shows me the depths of who God really is, how powerful he really is, how holy he really is, how loving he really is.

I want to have a fine-tuned faith.

And that's what Romans 14 challenges us to do.

It's deeply nuanced.

It's stuff that honestly doesn't get taught about in churches very often, but it should.

It really, really should, because this is all about how we live out, how we actually live out this whole faith in Jesus together.

And this conversation, just so you know, if you haven't been here, it's very corporate.

There are personal takeaways that we can all take in our individual lives, but but a lot of Romans 14 is about how we operate together as a church, as a body, as Scripture says, of believers.

So if you could sum up this section, this would probably be the best couple of verses.

Romans 15, 5 through 6, right after Romans 14 is done, says, May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for the followers of Christ Jesus.

I love that line, as is fitting for the followers of Christ Jesus.

Jesus prayed right before he went to the cross.

He prayed, Lord, Father, let my followers, and he specifically even said, not just the ones I have now, but the ones who come later, that's us.

He said, Let my followers be one, be united, just as you and I are united.

Let them be as close as we are.

That's what Jesus prayed.

And look, we've got to be honest, 2,000 years later, we have to be able to say, Lord, we have not done that.

We do not have a great track record at that.

There are over 40,000 denominations in the world.

40,000 branches of Christianity.

And to one degree you might say, hey, cool, there's variety.

And that's that's true, there is variety.

There's different ways to engage, and certain people connect with different things, and that's not wrong.

But is there unity?

Not necessarily.

So we haven't excelled at this, and who knows, maybe our generation could be one that that gets things going in the right direction.

Maybe that would be prideful to assume, but why not why not try?

If we're going to be Christians, let's be good ones.

Right?

And if Jesus says that he values unity that much, maybe we ought to value it as much as he asks us to.

So this section is all about how to be uniquely unified.

And the the vehicle that Paul, the author, chooses to use to demonstrate how to actually live this out and be unified is really interesting.

It's the idea of having convictions.

Having convictions.

He recognizes very wisely this dynamic that started to crop up early in the church and it still exists today, that you can actually have a group of people who share the same faith, the same core beliefs and who God is and the same faith in Jesus, and at the same time, that same group of people might have very different convictions about the world around them and how to engage with it.

And as we talked about last week, it's one thing to work with people who have different convictions than you, it's one thing to go to school with people who have different convictions than you, but to worship with people who have different convictions than you, a lot of people just don't want to do that.

It's like, no, no, no.

If I'm gonna worship alongside people, I want to make sure it's alongside people who agree with me completely about everything.

And to be honest, like I've seen this play out in church so many times.

It's hard.

I've seen so much division happen simply because people have a difficult time putting their convictions aside when it's necessary.

And so last Sunday we we looked at this, and this will kind of get us all caught up.

We looked at a blank piece of paper, it was beautiful.

Um last Sunday we looked at this idea absolutes, interpretations, convictions, and preferences.

And these are ranked in order of importance.

We have absolutes.

There are things that God has told us.

They're clear, they're absolute.

We don't always like the things God tells us absolutely.

There's things that God says with just absolute authority and clarity that we'd be like, man, I wish you had never said that.

Because I don't like that.

And there are people who try to find wiggle room in the absolute sometimes.

There's a lot of people who try to say, well, you know, when God said he didn't want us to do that, what he meant was it's actually okay to do that, provided X, Y, Z.

No, it's like, no, the absolutes are absolute.

They're really clear, they're easy to understand.

And when God tells us something, he's the creator of the universe, he has that authority, he can command things.

Commands, absolutes come from our creator.

Then there's interpretations.

This is the stuff that Scripture speaks about, and it may speak about it a lot, but it leaves it a little open to interpretation in terms of how you work it out.

This could be things like how churches do baptism.

Like some of us grew up Catholic, some of us grew up Southern Baptists.

We're all recovering something, right?

We're either recovering Catholics, we're recovering Southern Baptists, we're recovering, you know, atheists, you name it.

We're all in recovery of some kind.

And depending on how you grew up, you grew up doing things very, very differently.

And so one of the things people have asked us is why don't you, Justin, the pastor, baptize people?

And I will, if you ask, I will.

Please don't.

Um, because just logistically getting wet and changing is tough.

But but no, if someone asked me to, I will, I have never said no to that.

But Jesus didn't actually baptize people, his disciples did.

And so we've always said, okay, Jesus didn't baptize people, he had his followers baptize people, and so it's okay for Christians to baptize other Christians.

It's just a simple thing.

And so we always say, when people want to get baptized, by us interpreting that bit of scripture, we say, okay, there's a precedent in the Bible for someone who's not like the person at that place to do the baptisms.

And so we just say, if you want to get baptized, if if there's another believer that's been meaningful in your life, we would love for them to baptize you.

If not, we have a team, and it's great.

But sometimes people go, why do you do it that way?

And we point to an interpretation.

That's not an absolute.

Either way, there's no scripture that says the pastor must baptize.

He's getting wet.

Every week.

He's getting wet.

That's not in there.

Okay?

And it also doesn't say that the pastor can't baptize.

It's an interpretation.

Okay?

Below that are our convictions.

These are our deeply held beliefs.

They don't come from our creator, they come from our conscience.

Now, very often, if we're Jesus followers, especially, our convictions are going to sort of be birthed out of what we see as the absolutes and interpretations.

We develop these convictions.

Classic one that we've used for the last few weeks to illustrate this is alcohol.

Right?

The Bible says, do not be drunk.

Some people develop the conviction that drinking alcohol is wrong.

And it's out of that desire to obey the command not to get drunk.

Other people are like, no, I mean, Jesus turned water into wine.

And he made a lot of it, if you read the scripture.

There's a lot of wine.

Someone drank too much that night.

I'm just saying.

Someone did at that wedding.

But like, that's a conviction.

And if a person has that conviction, that's fine.

In fact, Paul actually says in Romans chapter 14, verse 23, if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, he's talking about food as his example.

Romans 14:23

If you have a conviction, basically, 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.

Now, maybe you're not sinning against God, maybe you're sinning against yourself in that scenario.

But no matter what, you're you're you're betraying your own convictions.

You're doing something that you believe is wrong, which isn't right.

So if you have convictions, good, have them, know what they are.

Tell your spouse, by the way, if you're married, tell your kids what your convictions are.

Talk to the people that are closest to you, make sure they understand, hey, I have deep convictions about this so that there's understanding.

Live by those so that you're a person of integrity.

But do not confuse your convictions for something more than what they are.

This happens all the time in church.

People have strong convictions, but they begin to confuse their convictions with the commands of God.

They become one and the same, and if other people don't share their convictions, that means they're wrong.

It's not true.

And then below that we have preferences.

This is why most churches have conflict, because they don't like the music or something.

Right?

This is the this is preferences.

This is just the stuff we like.

But you know what's what's crazy?

What's heart, what's heartbreaking, has to be to Jesus.

Is that every once in a while you will see churches or movements within our faith break apart due to issues with these.

If you know the story of Martin Luther in the 1500s, Martin Luther breaks away from the Catholic Church because he has strong disagreements about interpretations and things he would probably also consider absolutes.

And so there's a break.

Right now, and you can research this if you don't know about it, but the United Methodist Church in America is becoming less united and very divided because of arguments about these types of things.

This happens.

But most of the division that occurs in churches, most of the division is about this stuff.

And I've experienced this so many times, firsthand, and as a third party, where all that happens is somebody has a conviction or a preference, this is the way they think things ought to be, and someone does things a little bit differently, and all of a sudden, instantly, that person goes from being super excited to like, I don't want to be part of this, and even does so in a really divisive way, putting other people down, telling other people they're wrong.

Because, you know, this is just not the way that I think it ought to be.

Well, that's a conviction.

Have it, but know what it is and what it isn't.

Okay, so again, nuanced stuff, right?

Finely tuned stuff.

I know this isn't like, woo, convictions.

Yeah, here we go.

Um, but man, guys, I'm telling you, if we can understand these concepts and have some mastery over this, we could be so united and I do believe personally become people, this is like a superpower who are hard to offend.

If you can become a person who understands these ideas and you know where you live, you know where all your thoughts and your convictions, where they come from, where they don't, you can become a person who's really, really hard to offend, and that is like a superpower.

Believe it or not, being easily offended is not a spiritual gift.

That does not come from the Holy Spirit.

Many people need to know this.

Because many people are confused that, like, being like, oh, I couldn't.

That's not a gift from God.

If that was the case, Jesus would have just been, he would have checked out way before he did.

He would have been like, you know what, I just can't.

All of you, I just I can't.

But he had a high tolerance level, right?

Because he understood these dynamics.

Today, we're gonna talk about something really interesting.

In fact, this would be almost like the finest of fine-tuning, the nuance, the like the nuance of the nuances.

There's this concept that Paul talks about that we're gonna look at today.

And it's this idea of what it means to be either strong or weak in your faith.

Strong or weak in your faith.

Okay, so all this is set up to what we're jumping into now.

I want to read Romans 14 1 and then jump to 1 Corinthians 8 because they connect.

This is how Paul begins Romans 14.

He says, accept other believers who are weak in faith.

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

Now, instantly, when Paul says this, all of us naturally are going, which one am I?

I mean, how many of you think you're strong in faith?

Go ahead.

Bragg.

Come on.

A couple of you're like, me.

A few of you raise your hands, sort of half raised.

Not a good sign.

Okay?

You're either bold or you're not.

No, I'm teasing.

How many of you are like, I think I'm weak in faith?

I'm one of the weak ones?

A few of us, rest of us, in the middle.

We're the slash.

That's me.

I'm right there.

This is such an interesting concept.

And I'm telling you, there's a curveball here.

Because it's not what you might assume.

What does it mean to be strong in faith or weak in faith?

Well, Paul actually expands on this in 1 Corinthians chapter 8.

1 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

He's dealing with a similar issue.

Uh, some convictions are dividing a church.

And this is the church in Corinth, and the specific conviction, we talked about it a little bit last week, but we didn't read this.

It's about whether or not people should eat meat that's been offered to idols.

What happened in their culture is that if you went to the meat market, all the meat that was there had been offered to whatever false God was worshipped in that area.

And so you have some Christians who are like, God, that God doesn't even exist.

I'm just gonna buy the meat, I'm gonna enjoy it.

Other Christians are like, man, I don't know if I can eat meat that has been offered to a false god, is that me somehow, like, by extension, accidentally worshiping that God?

This was a major issue.

And it was dividing people.

So here's what Paul says.

He says, So what about eating meat that has been offered to idols?

Well, we all know that an idol is not really a God and that there's only one God.

There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords, but for us, there's one God, the Father, by whom all things were created and for whom we live.

And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were uh through whom all things were created and through whom we live.

However, not all believers know this.

Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated.

It's true that we can't win God's approval by what we eat.

We don't lose anything if we don't eat it, and we don't gain anything if we do.

But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.

For if others see you with your superior knowledge eating in the temple of an idol, won't they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol?

So, because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed.

And when you sin against other believers, by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ.

So, if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live, for I don't want to cause another believer to stumble.

Okay.

Here's kind of the gist of what Paul is getting at.

This is really interesting.

And it's going to challenge some of us.

You can be mad at me if you want to.

I would have said years ago, please don't, now I guess I'm okay with it.

Um, because I'm not the one who said this.

All right?

So take it up with God, with Paul, whoever.

But here's what he's saying.

It is not the believer who has a hyperactive conscience, who has a lot of scruples, a lot of convictions, what Paul might even call unnecessary convictions, that is not the person who is strong in faith.

I'll give you an example.

Um, a friend of mine used to work at a Christian school, and do not worry, if you were, it was not, it was not a Christian school here in Cherokee County.

If you send your kid to a school or if you work in one, it's not you.

Okay, it's fine.

In fact, this school is a great school.

I would send my kids there in a heartbeat.

But they worked at this school and they were out to lunch with a group of teachers.

And, you know, it's lunch, and so the server comes and they put the menus down, and they do what servers do, and they they said, Oh, by the way, our drink special today.

One of the teachers cut the server off.

Excuse me, just we're Christians.

We don't drink.

That's what they said.

And the server is like, I'm so I'm so sorry.

You know.

And it's so interesting because Paul would not describe that person as a mature believer.

He wouldn't.

We very often think about mature believers with strong faith as people who, you know, are just extremely buttoned up.

And they take their faith very seriously.

And they have and because of that, they have this tight rope that they they walk.

They tow the line, and that's bad, that's bad, that's bad, that's bad, that's not as good as that, that's bad, that's bad, and they live this way, and they're so committed to it, and we think, wow, that's a really mature believer.

And Paul would say, actually, that's indicative, not labeling it, but that's indicative of a person who's actually weak in faith.

Because they don't experience the freedom that Jesus has given us.

And Paul would say that the person who is strong in their faith is a person who obeys God.

I'm not talking about sin here.

I'm not talking about doing things that God has said is wrong.

A person who's strong in their faith is a person who obeys God, honors God, loves people, enjoys all the freedom that God has given us.

It's the person that's like, meet, yeah.

Let's go.

But loves other people enough that when they encounter someone who has a weaker conscience, who isn't there yet in maturity, they make allowances for that.

And they love them enough that they're even willing to sort of put their freedom to the side for a second to show love for that person.

So when asked earlier, are you weak in faith or are you strong?

It was kind of a trap, okay?

Because none of us are probably as weak as we think we are or as strong as we think we are.

But Paul's understanding of a person who is strong in faith is a person who understands and values the freedom that God has given them.

So let's talk about this for a second.

Again, we're talking nuances today.

Are you guys still with me or are we in this?

Are we understanding this?

Alright, good.

Because this is like, I'm telling you, this is stuff that just doesn't get talked about in church because it's too minuscule, it's too whatever, it's not broad stroke enough, but this is where it gets good.

Like, this is where we actually live this stuff out.

Okay?

So, freedom control.

How many fans of freedom in the room?

Just out of curiosity, freedom fans?

Anyone like I prefer control?

It's okay.

You know, what's funny is we prefer control more than.

We think in certain circumstances.

Most of the time, when people are mad at God, it's because they think God should have controlled something differently.

Something bad has happened, something tragic has happened, and we say, God, you have all the power in the universe.

You should have exercised control and changed that circumstance.

We want God to control our circumstances, but we don't want Him to control us.

Because people also get mad at God when they, you know, read something in Scripture and God's like, hey, I don't want you to do this.

And they're like, How dare you control me?

I don't want you to control me, I just want you to control everything around me.

That's what I want, God.

Now, a lot of fans of freedom, not as many fans of control.

If so, you felt shy, and don't, if you like control, that's fine.

Where do you think God is on this spectrum?

Freedom or control?

What do you think God values more?

Freedom.

Not as enthusiastic, though, as the hand raises, right?

It's like freedom.

I think a lot of us know that's the right answer.

Because the way things are going, you're smart.

But but like a lot of people, deep down inside, would say, no, no, God's He's God.

He's control.

Now let me say this: God is in control.

Like the flow of history, God's in control of that.

There's not, it's not like something's gonna happen on God's watch where he's like, oh man, I didn't see that coming.

I didn't anticipate that.

I don't know what to do with that.

He's in control.

But as far as the way he chooses to interact with us on an individual level, he is far, far more on the side of freedom.

We see this all through scripture, by the way.

The garden.

He creates Adam and Eve, puts them in a garden, gives them a guideline.

How many trees were they not allowed to eat from?

Those of you who know the story.

One.

And he said, the rest eat freely.

That's freedom.

But very often, we think it's the opposite.

And I think people who Paul would describe as having weak faith or a weak conscience would say, no, no, it's more like there's one good tree, and all the rest are bad, and you better walk that tightrope.

Because, you know, control.

But no, no, God's like, it's freedom.

Hey, don't eat that one, but everything else, that's fine.

We still mess that up, but like, that's what we do.

Look at even the Old Testament.

God gets this rap in the Old Testament for being like all about control because there's the law.

You know, if you've read the Bible, some of us are at different places in our understanding level, but if you read the Old Testament, there's all these laws, and it sometimes we get this idea, and I definitely have had this idea in my mind too, but this is starting to change a little bit.

I give myself permission to change my mind, I guess, that like God was really controlling through the law.

There were 613 laws that the people of Israel had to live by.

That is nothing compared to our laws.

I did some research.

On average, 600 new laws are added to our law books in America every two years.

Every two years.

There are, on average, 600 new laws.

So every two years, we add as many laws as the nation of Israel had altogether.

In fact, if you look at the people of Israel in the Old Testament, when God frees them from slavery in Egypt and He gives them the law because they need some basic way of operating to be a civilization to function, it is the most free ancient society you could find.

They don't have a king, they don't have a bureaucratic government that they have to like pay taxes to.

They have the minimal amount of laws that you need to function as a society in a healthy way that's sustainable.

And they have maximum freedom.

And as time goes on, they actually are the ones, they are the ones, not God.

They're the ones that limit their own freedom.

They're like, you know what, we want a king.

And God's like, no, you don't.

They're like, nah, we do.

He's like, all right.

And then that goes really poorly, really, really fast.

And God warns them here's what's gonna happen if you have a king, he's gonna take all your kids for his army, he's gonna wanna build stuff, he's gonna want to charge you money for that, and we've been in that place ever since.

And so, like, they they let go of the freedom that God gave them.

He gave them so much.

He's always been a God of freedom.

And Jesus comes and he gives us a unique amount of freedom.

Because Jesus frees us from the power of sin.

He does.

Romans chapter 6, verses 6 and 7, says that we know our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives.

Romans 6:6

We are no longer slaves to sin, for when Christ died, uh, when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin.

Okay, so it's a weird concept, right?

We died to the power of sin.

What this means, and we've covered this before, but it's been a long time, is that apart from Jesus, we are slaves to sin.

Now that might be really offensive to the world that we're part of, to say that, and yet the world that we're in will say things all the time, like, we can't help who we're attracted to, we can't change the way we feel, there's all kinds of, and everyone nods their head like, yeah, you can't, and it's a powerless stance.

We can't.

We're helpless.

We're slaves to our feelings, we're slaves to our deepest urges and desires.

And scriptures say, that's true.

You are unless you have Jesus.

Because Jesus defeated sin.

And so through the Holy Spirit in our lives, we still struggle with sin.

We still mess up, and there's grace when we do.

There's forgiveness and love and grace.

But we're not slaves to it.

We don't have to.

Like, sin can come up and be like, hey, you know what you ought to do?

And you can be like, nah, I don't want to.

Go away.

And that you have a power over sin because of what Jesus did on the cross.

He freed us from sin, and because the law existed to sort of mitigate sin, he also freed us from the law.

We don't have to justify ourselves to God by following some rigid code of rules.

That's not what gives us access to God.

Jesus gives us access to God, his righteousness given to us.

I'm gonna bring this home, I promise, and how this actually plays out, because this is really important to understand.

Jesus gave us this unique freedom.

God values freedom, Jesus won it for us, and Paul, who wrote Romans, the idea of Jesus' followers letting go of their freedom, it's like he couldn't take the idea.

It incensed them.

That's why in Romans chapter 6, verses 1 and 2, he says, Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?

Romans 6:1

He's saying, look, anything you do, any sin you commit, there's grace for it.

And so some people are like, sweet! Well, let's just sin a bunch.

Bunch of sin, bunch of grace.

I like that equation.

And Paul's like, of course not.

Because none of us think that way.

When you've truly been forgiven and you recognize what you've been forgiven of, you don't desire to go out and sin more.

Paul would say, like, why would you do that?

In fact, why would we re-enslave ourselves, so to speak, to the very behaviors that Jesus fought so hard to free us from?

But the same is true with the law.

So in Galatians chapter 5, verses 1 through 4, Paul is dealing with a group of people who are Jesus followers, and here's what's happened in this particular church, this group of believers, is some weak in-faith people, some people who have come to faith in Jesus, but they have all these scruples, right?

Galatians 5:1–4

They have all of these unnecessary conventions, or convictions, rather, and they're still really tied to the old ways of doing things.

They're very picky.

Okay?

These people have come in and they've started to influence all these believers to go, okay, maybe we should be following the law again.

Yeah, yeah, because these people seem really serious about their faith.

And so maybe we ought to follow.

And here's what Paul says to them He says, Christ has truly set us free.

Now make sure that you stay free and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law.

Listen, I, Paul, tell you this.

If you're counting on circumcision, that was one of their big ones, everyone loves that topic, to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you.

I'll say it again.

If you're trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, or we might say by following the rules, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.

For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ, you have fallen away from God's grace.

It's so interesting because that idea of falling from grace usually is used to describe people who are caught up in some major sin issue.

That's not how it's used in Scripture.

Falling from grace is leaving your freedom behind and going back to living by the law, by religion.

See, religion's a sneaky thing.

It's a sneaky thing.

We have to fight really hard to enjoy and maintain the freedom that we have.

And as someone who's been involved in this church for 15 years, I've seen it play out in so many ways.

Like one of the things I love about his hands is the freedom that we have.

There are things that we're free to do here that we take for granted because they're they're like normal now, but 15, 20 years ago when our church started, oh my gosh, you could bring coffee into this room.

I mean, there were people that like had coffee, and right before they'd walk through these doors, they'd be like, oh, where do I throw it away?

And we're like, no, no, just you can bring it in here.

People are like, what do you mean?

It's the you know, it's the room.

There's gotta be a law against that.

And you know what?

I I get it.

I grew up in a church where I'm I I don't think there was coffee, but like if there had been, it wouldn't have been in that room, you know?

And that was hard.

The idea of freedom.

My shirt is untucked, and I'm the one on stage.

Like, there was a time, I'm not not that long ago, there was a time in church culture where it's like the pastor's shirt is untucked.

You you're this church straight to hell.

That's what that means, right?

Now look, there was a conviction, and understand the whole dressed up in church thing, there's a conviction that, hey, you're you're serving the Lord, you're honoring God, like bring bring your best, tuck your shirt in.

But I will tell you, I do not look my best with my shirt tucked in.

I just, I don't.

I some of you do, you've got trim or waistlines, great, go for it.

I don't.

Okay?

A black untucked shirt hides what it means to hide.

So I'm I'm happy with that.

Okay?

But there's a freedom here.

There's a freedom here, and that freedom, I'm just gonna be honest with you guys, has had to be fought for.

Because even though, and I've seen this happen so many times, there will be people who'd be all about that freedom, eventually, religion starts to slip in and begins to divide, and this whole division thing comes up.

And here's the way it usually plays out.

This is what we're committed to not having happen.

You get two groups of people, typically, and our challenge is can we be the third?

Group one are the people who are immature in their faith.

And what does that mean again?

Weaken faith.

It's not the person who's enjoying freedom, it's the person who has all kinds of holdups.

And these these people who are less mature in their faith, they don't understand freedom and can't enjoy it, tend to get really offended at everyone who doesn't see things the way they do.

They're immature and offended.

And they want everyone to conform.

And this plays out in so many ways.

So I'll give you some three examples that come to my mind: smoking, jokes, and magic.

Okay?

So we have outside, we have uh some, I don't know what the right word is for it, receptacles.

I don't smoke, but smoking receptacles, trash cans, I'm not sure what they are, but they're for cigarettes, right?

And so, again, 20 years ago, people showed up to church, and there's people outside smoking, and they would like let us know.

Like, hey, just so you know, there's people who are smoking.

We're like, we know.

We put the receptacles there, right?

Now, is smoking a sin?

Ah, people are like, I don't know.

Trick question.

No, it's not.

Do you know why?

Because God never says that it is.

It's really simple.

Is it healthy for you?

No.

Is it is it maybe the best thing to do?

No, probably not.

Is it a sin?

No.

Now, now you can have a conviction against it because you might say, well, well, scripture says that you know, my body is a temple.

And if my body's a temple, then I don't want to smoke.

And if you're saying that, then you probably don't eat sugar, you probably never drink caffeine, um, you don't stay up late at night.

Like you are just, I'm teasing.

But you know how convictions are slippery slopes.

Okay?

Smoking is not a sin.

It may not be good, it may not be wise, but it's not a sin because God never says that it is.

But but again, in church, we have a tendency to conflate our convictions with commands.

And so we had a we had a person one day, this was gosh, 12, 13 years ago, who said, I will not come to this church ever again unless you remove the smoking section.

I will not, and this is what they said.

It was like, and this was a person who at the time, way back, I don't even remember their name, but at the time they were very involved, and they kind of put their foot down and said, I will not walk past smoke to worship my God.

Right?

And in in their mind, they were the mature one.

They're the person who's strong in faith, strong convictions, but they weren't.

That's not true.

That's not how scripture would place it.

But you know, here's what we did.

We thought about it, and we said, okay, well, you know.

They mentioned children walking in.

We're like, okay, yeah, okay.

Children shouldn't probably have to do that.

And so we moved the smoking section just a little bit sideways, and the smoke, the people who smoked are like, that's fine.

And we just said, we'll put it over here, and and and that way you can, you know, there's a more clear path for you.

Is that okay?

And then they left.

Because that's what happens, right?

So that's smoking.

Get immature and offended.

Jokes.

We tell jokes in his hands.

Not always good jokes, not always that funny.

I am funny for a pastor.

I will say that.

I believe that.

I am funny.

It's a low bar for comedy in church, though, right?

Like, hey, clap for me.

Woo! No, I'm just saying, like, church funny is a low bar.

Like, to be the funniest pastor in an area, you don't have to be that funny.

Right?

But I've always been like a class clown.

And this is who I was in school.

I've just, I like, I like humor.

I even like humor as a teaching tool.

Okay, so a few years ago, we started doing video announcements.

We had never done those before.

And we fell in love with it because I didn't have to give the announcements every Sunday.

And I used to.

Some of you who have been here long enough remember that the start of every message was like seven minutes of announcements.

It was awful.

And so we put the announcements at the beginning, and we have the videos, and our videos tend to be lighthearted.

And in the videos, people would like joke, and you know, it was kind of goofy.

And we had a person who had been here for a long time, and they got very upset about the announcement videos.

And they literally came to me and said, it was like as clear as day.

They're like, those videos bother me.

And I was like thinking, like, why?

You know, I know Madison isn't like the most handsome person in the world, but neither am I, right?

He's better looking than me.

Like, what are you getting at?

Madison would think that's funny.

So I didn't ask him ahead of time, but look at there.

Or he'll forgive me.

Forgive me, Madison.

Madison, you are can we all just say Madison is handsome?

How about that?

Yay! He will hate that.

Okay.

And they said they're they're they're just they're it's all the jokes.

I said it's all the jokes.

And what they said was so interesting.

They said, if we're gonna be a church that attracts spiritually mature people, then we can't be having haha, jokey announcement videos.

And I was like, I had to hold my tongue, because I actually really love this person.

And I paused, and here's what I did.

I said, you know, okay, hold on.

I love you.

The announcement videos don't matter that much.

We took two weeks off of the announcement videos.

I said, let me just take two weeks off.

Because I do believe in like, again, Paul said, hey, if you think you're one of the strong in faith and someone else is weak in their faith, you know, accommodate that to whatever degree you can.

So I said, all right, let's pause.

I thought about it.

And I was like, who said we're trying to attract spiritually mature people?

Because we're not.

We're trying to develop spiritually mature people, right?

That's different.

But and here's the thing, when when that person said that, they're assuming they're one of the mature ones, right?

That's that's baked into that conversation.

But Paul would say, uh-uh, if you're offended at a joke in an announcement video, you're not as mature as you think you are.

Because you're deeply offended at something that there shouldn't be.

Third example magic tricks.

Okay.

We started doing this kids' curriculum a few years ago.

And our our, by the way, shout out to our kids church team.

Like, they are incredible.

They do such an amazing job.

And it's not just that they they don't just watch your kids, your kids are not being babysat.

Our team develops their own curriculum every single month, and they teach the kids and they don't skip the hard stuff.

They, I mean, our our children's areas just got done going through the book of Job in like third grade.

Okay, like they tackle the hard stuff, and it's awesome, but they make it fun.

And we have a gentleman who goes here named Arthur, and Arthur is a really good magician.

What I mean by that, okay, he is not a sorcerer.

Okay, he's not conjuring things out of thin air.

He's a sleight of hand magician.

He does card tricks.

He even taught me how to do one, and it was so simple that I felt dumb.

Like, that's all you do, and here I thought what you did was hard.

I'm teasing Arthur.

What you do is really hard.

But but we had a person, so here's what we did.

With our kids' curriculum, we would have Arthur do these like card tricks and things like that.

And he would weave in teaching about Jesus through it.

He would say, like, take these two cards.

And then he would do something with the cards and say, like, and he would weave in like what the kids were learning about.

It's kind of like when God does this, it was really creative and cool, but we had a person that saw that got very offended.

And they said that we were teaching children witchcraft in church.

Now, now here's the thing though.

Like, we don't want to do that.

I mean, if you go to Barnes and Noble, there's a huge witchcraft section.

Witchcraft has actually grown tremendously in popularity in America, and we want like kids are really impressionable.

They are.

So here's what we did.

We we stopped, we thought about it, and we're like, well, we don't think we're teaching kids witchcraft.

We feel good about that.

We don't think Arthur is a witch.

We feel good about that.

But we just said, sorry.

We don't think, we don't know.

You never know, but we're we're pretty sure.

But we just said, you know what though?

Um let's just be extra careful and let's make sure that we and we really thought we were already doing this, but let's be even more careful about framing it for the kids in a way that's really clear.

Like, hey guys, you know, Arthur's gonna do some tricks and some illusions, and it's not, you know, what but at the end of the day, like, it's fine.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

It's just fine.

Because we tend to fall into this camp of being immature, we raise our convictions to a higher level than they ought to be, and we get really offended at stupid things.

Okay.

That's camp one.

We're almost done, I promise.

You're like, how long is this gonna last?

Just a little longer.

Camp two, we're more mature, but we get really annoyed at people who don't understand the freedom thing.

And I I have fallen into this camp where I feel, and and trust me when I say, I'm not saying, oh, I'm so mature, okay?

Because if you get annoyed with people who don't understand what you think you understand, you're not as mature as you think you are.

But this church opened my eyes to freedom for the first time.

It really did.

I came here at 23 years old, and I never experienced freedom like this.

And I was I was at church and I was like, oh man, this is awesome, and I'm free to worship God, and I'm free to show my passion for God, but I'm also free to be myself.

It was really cool.

Never experienced anything like it.

And I loved the freedom so much that if anyone had a hard time with it, I would just be like.

And I would be very, very short.

And this manifested in a lot of really unhealthy conversations where I definitely hurt people's feelings.

In my especially in my younger years.

So I mentioned one a week ago as a person that was like, your music sounds like the world.

Because we did, you know, kind of modern music, and I was like, your music sounds like the world 200 years ago.

You know?

I'm the mature one in this conversation, right?

But but when you love freedom, sometimes you just don't want anyone to steal your joy and rein on your parade.

And so you become annoyed with people who don't understand it.

That's not okay.

Years ago, there was a person who was really confused by why we didn't do altar calls.

You know, did any of us grow up in a church that did altar calls?

I would just love to see your hands.

Oh my gosh.

Does this mean anything to you?

With every head bowed, and every what?

Why were we closing our eyes?

Why was it a bad thing to see people give their lives to Jesus?

I never understood that.

I cheated.

I peeked every Sunday.

I did the whole thing, I put my head down and I was like, who's going into all right?

But they were they were confused because we have people get baptized all the time, but we never had an altar call.

We never had a moment in church where you're like, now's the time.

If you may have not known this, altar calls did not exist in church history until about 150 years ago.

Never, never had been done.

Jesus never did one.

It's not in the Bible.

It was not, it was like a thing that didn't happen until a few hundred years ago.

But

Rather than talk to this person who was like confused, I saw this as an attack on our freedom, and I just and I said, altar calls weren't a thing for Jesus, and if Jesus didn't do it, we don't have to do it either.

And it was rude and it was short and curt, and the person instantly was like, Oh, I'm so sorry.

Because I was in this camp.

Felt like I was one of the more mature ones, but annoyed at anyone who would challenge that.

You see, we we don't want to be in either of these.

Because the reality is this to truly be strong in your faith means that you are rich in freedom and abundant in love.

Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

All right.

Not going to mention the kind of clap that I always do that.

I always do that.

There's a certain type of clap that I just want to stop and talk about, but I'm not.

Alright.

We kind of read some of this earlier.

Paul says, listen, I Paul tell you this.

If you're counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you.

I'll say it again.

If you're trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.

For if you're trying to make yourself right with God by keeping the law, you've been cut off from Christ.

You've fallen away from God's grace.

And this is where it gets really good.

But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.

For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or uncircumcised.

What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

So, this whole section that Paul's talking about, Romans 14, strong in faith, weak in faith.

Summing it up, it's this.

All of us are on a journey, guys.

All of us are at different places.

And all of us have areas where we're really strong in our faith, and we enjoy the freedom that comes with that.

We do what God says is right.

We're not just looking to sin and get away with stuff that's wrong.

But we recognize that Jesus has freed me.

And so I don't have to live my life all buttoned up and tight and worried about this being wrong, that being wrong.

Like, I'm going to do the things Jesus has said to do.

I'm going to love God, love people, and I'm going to enjoy the freedom He's given me.

But in other areas, we often have weaknesses where things bother us that maybe shouldn't, but they do.

But they do.

And we're all going to have that stuff going on, all of us as a body, all of us as a group of people.

Some of you are going to feel really freed up in certain areas and then really confined in others.

Some of you are going to have the opposite areas where you're feeling freed up.

And all of that.

Point is, we're all at different places in our journey.

We're all at different levels of maturity or immaturity.

How do we get along when those convictions collide?

Because that's what convictions do, they collide.

Can we be a church?

Can we be Jesus followers who are strong in faith?

We're grateful to God.

We love him.

We worship him.

We follow him.

And we enjoy the freedom that he's given us.

We hold tight to it.

But when we encounter others who don't share that same level of freedom, rather than just tell them that they're wrong, rather than get annoyed or offended or whatever it is, we are rich in freedom, we enjoy it, but we are abundant in love.

Like Paul said, you know what?

I'd rather not eat meat than eat meat and bother the conscience of another believer, even if that believer is weaker in faith.

That's amazing.

On a personal level, if we can be like that, like I said earlier, we become people who have a superpower.

And you are someone who is impossible to offend, can you be that person?

Can we grow and be strong in faith?

Which means rich in freedom and abundant in love.

That's what it means.

And I will tell you, if we can do this, if we can do this, man, we have a chance to be this church, this group that is so different than the rest of the world.

We get along with each other even when we disagree.

We're not easily offended, we're not easily annoyed.

We are rich in freedom and abundant in love, and that honors Jesus, that honors God, it honors one another, and it's just fun.

It's just enjoyable.

So I asked earlier, are you strong in faith or weak in faith?

I'd like to ask that again as we wrap up.

How many of you would say I'm strong?

A few more?

How many of us I'm weak?

I get offended easily, a couple of us?

You're on the front row.

A front row person would say they're weak in faith.

That's because you're on the front.

You don't want to be in the front.

How many of you say I'm the slash?

I'm somewhere in the middle.

Yeah.

Like that's me.

I think I'm really immature in some ways.

In other ways, I recognize that I'm not.

We're all somewhere.

But can we love each other?

Can we be rich in freedom and abundant in love?

What do you guys think?

Yeah.

So let's do that.

Let's be that.

Let's be the church that we're called to be.

And enjoy it.

All right.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for Romans 14.

Um, God, thank you so much for giving us these little details, these nuances, for helping us fine-tune our faith.

I know that what we're talking about, Lord, is not it's not one of those topics that's just a grab a hold of it and apply it to your life today, and it's easy, and it's not a life hack.

This stuff is, it's it's it's the little things.

Lord, but I need to grow in the little things.

I need to grow in the big things too.

I need all of it, Lord, but I really need to grow in my ability to not be easily bothered or easily offended, to not be easily wounded, but to be someone, Lord, who's rich in freedom and abundant in love.

Lord, help strengthen our faith so that we can all live and enjoy the freedom that you've won for us, but help us be so accommodating and loving to those who are still trying to get there.

Help us be a church where we truly love one another, even when our convictions collide and disagree.

Help us live this out, Lord, because it's more rare than we might imagine.

Help us truly be a church that lives this out just to bless you, just to honor you.

I pray that you be with every person who's here today.

Lord, be with their families, be in their be with them in their jobs, at school, wherever they might go.

Lord, and help them experience everything we're talking about, this freedom and the love that goes with it.

I pray this in your name of Jesus.

Amen.