Living with Conviction

So we're starting a new series today, and we're gonna be jumping back into the book of Romans.

Now, if you've been here for a while, two years ago, someone had the great idea to go through the entirety of the book of Romans, and that someone was me.

And I thought it would take about three to four months, and here we are, two years later.

Um you learn as you go, right?

That's that's how it is.

Romans is a really deep book in the New Testament, and we've taken lots of breaks.

I've kind of likened it to scuba diving, like we go way down deep, and you gotta come up for air.

And so uh maybe that's just what I've had to do, but we've done Romans bit by bit, pause, done something else, come back to it, and now we're right at like the very last section.

And it's interesting, this is a section of scripture that doesn't get taught on very often, and I really don't know why.

Maybe it's because it's not one of those immediate, like, do this and your life is ten times better, sort of things, and sometimes in our current culture, everyone's sort of obsessed with the what's the shortcut?

What's the life hack?

This is dealing with some of the nuances of what it means to be a Jesus follower.

But this is a section of scripture that I couldn't honestly think of one more practical and more timeless, and maybe even timely for the sort of environment that we live in today in our culture.

And so I'm gonna start.

I just want to read the entirety of Romans 14 to you.

And you can read along if you have a Bible with you, if you want to use our mobile app, it's all in there, it'll be on the screens.

It's a big chunk, because I really think just reading the entirety of this chapter will really help you understand and frame everything we're gonna talk about for the next few weeks.

And so let's jump in.

Romans 14.

It's not that long of a chapter, so don't worry.

It says, accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don't argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.

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

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

This is an issue they were dealing with in the early church.

We don't have a lot of vegans versus carnivores in our church today, at least I don't think so.

Um, but this was a big issue in their church because of the culture they were in.

So we'll talk about this more in weeks to come.

But he goes on to say, those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don't.

And those who don't eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them.

Who are you to condemn someone else's servants?

Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall, and with the Lord's help, they will stand and receive his approval.

In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christ died and rose again for this very purpose: to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.

So 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.

For the scriptures say, As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bend to me and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.

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

So let's stop condemning each other.

Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

I know and am convinced, on the authority of the Lord Jesus, that no food in and of itself is wrong to eat.

But if someone believes it's wrong, then for that person it is wrong.

And if another believer is distressed by what they eat, you are not acting in love if you eat it.

Don't let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died.

Then you will not be criticized for doing something you believe is good, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God and others will approve of you too.

So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.

Don't tear apart the work of God over what you eat.

Remember, all foods are acceptable, but it's wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble.

It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble.

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 have decided is right.

But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it.

For you are not following your convictions.

And if you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.

All right, there it is, Romans 14.

We'll spend the next few weeks going through this, including the first part of Romans 15.

But this section is all about this idea of living with conviction.

Living with conviction.

That's what we're going to be talking about for the next few weeks.

This is an issue that doesn't show up in the same way in our kind of current time and culture.

Paul was talking about eating certain foods, not eating certain foods, worshiping God on certain days, not on certain days.

Like I said, that's not like a big issue in the church today, but we have all kinds of issues that have proven really divisive throughout our history as a church.

Not his hands church, but the church in general.

Where people have divided based on having different convictions than those around you.

And Paul is saying, like, no, no, no.

We have to love each other, we have to value harmony and unity, that we never allow our own personal convictions to cause division.

We don't look down on those who hold different convictions than us.

At the same time, we don't try to convince other people that their convictions are wrong.

We can be people who live with conviction and have the ability to tolerate people who have different convictions.

It's really hard to do.

Because most of the time when we have deep convictions, we think we're right.

I'll give you a classic example.

Um, drinking alcohol.

That's that's a classic example in kind of modern church culture.

When I was in college, I waited tables at Chili's.

And uh and we had the presidente margarita.

I don't know if they still have that or not.

I haven't been to Chili's in a long time.

But that I would come up to a table, hi, my name's Justin.

Would you like to get started with a presidente margarita?

That's what I was told to say.

And then my strategy was really simple.

I was broke, I was in college, I was engaged to be married, and I needed good tips.

And so I would spend the rest of my time working in every little part of my personal life because at the end of the table, when it was done, when they were done with their meal, I didn't want them to tip their waiter, I wanted them to tip a broke college student who had just bought an engagement ring.

I wanted the wife to look at the husband and like kick his foot, be like, give him more.

He so I I was like, How are you guys doing?

Yeah, I just bought an engagement ring.

Don't know how I'm gonna pay for it, but yeah, that's all good.

All right, I'll be back with your drinks.

You know?

That was my strategy, and it worked.

So one day I get called into the office of our manager, and I was like confused.

I went, why am I getting called in the office?

And he was really mad at me.

And what he told me, he said, Justin, your alcohol sales are the lowest of all of the employees here.

And I didn't even know that was a thing they tracked.

And he said, and this is exactly what he said, I'll never forget it.

He said, I know you're a Christian.

I was very open about that, always have been.

He's like, I know you're a Christian.

And so I'm sure you think alcohol is bad or whatever, but you need to check that at the door if you're gonna work here.

And I was like, well, first of all, I'm not checking anything at the door when it comes, like, like I love people, that's I'm a good server because I'm a Jesus follower, honestly.

Um, but but I told him, like, I don't actually think drinking alcohol is wrong.

And he kind of looked at me, like, what do you mean?

I was like, yeah, I I don't drink alcohol personally, so I don't know anything about alcohol, so I'm not very good at like suggesting drinks to people.

I'm not like, you know, you know what goes really well with your chicken fingers here at Chili's.

Um nice Chardonnay, I don't know, like diet coke.

I'm not sure like what to but I told him, I said, like, I really don't know anything about alcohol, so I'm not good at suggesting it to people.

I don't know anything about it, so I kind of just do the normal spiel, and then if they say yes, I do it if not.

I promise you, I said, I'm not I'm not withholding that offer because I'm a Christian.

I actually don't believe drinking alcohol is a sin.

But he had grown up around people, or maybe he grew up in a home where that was the case.

And in his mind, following Jesus equals being against alcohol conceptually.

And I was like, no, that's that's not that's not where I stand on that.

And he didn't kind of know what to do with that.

So he was like, oh, okay, well, get better at selling the drinks.

I was like, I'm not gonna work here very long anyway, so we'll see what happens.

All right.

There's all kinds of situations like that, though, that depending on how you grew up, some of you were like, yeah, that is exactly how I grew up.

Some of you might even hold that conviction, no, drinking alcohol is wrong.

And there's a lot of scripture that talks about how dangerous alcohol can be.

But the thing is, while we we all, at least most of us, might share a common belief in Jesus, we have different convictions on things like that.

And so you might be sitting here and you might be like, I am against drinking alcohol, I think it's wrong, and the person behind you might brew beer in their garage.

Right?

And they love Jesus just as much as you do.

And that can be a hard thing, especially in a church like ours, where we don't hold to some rigid, this is exactly our stance on every little thing.

That's not what Paul did.

You know, there are certain truths that that are that we have to acknowledge.

They come from God, and if we're gonna follow Jesus, we need to follow him.

And if he says something is right, we we hold it to be right, and if he says something is wrong, we hold it to be wrong, no matter what our culture tells us.

But there is this large amount of gray area.

There absolutely is, and that's what Paul's addressing here, where honestly, at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter.

It's it's a matter of conviction.

And we gotta figure out how to do that because we might be sharing space right now with people who hold very different convictions than us about all kinds of things that we're passionate about, and maybe it would be even hard for us to understand how someone who believes what we believe could have that conviction.

That's what was going on in the early church.

It still happens today, it just manifests in different ways.

So we're gonna explore this.

What does it mean to live with conviction?

And so here's where I want to start recognizing the importance of having convictions.

It's very important to have convictions, and and because we have to understand if we don't have convictions, we end up living out of convenience.

There's sort of this convenience versus conviction dynamic that all of us have to figure out in life.

Am I going to be a person who makes my decisions based on what is convenient?

Or am I going to be a person who makes my decisions based on my personal convictions?

It's convictions versus convenience.

And so take any aspect of life.

We'll use this as an example.

Take your time.

I'm a father, I've got kids, and I really believe it's important to spend time with my kids.

They think it's less important the older they get.

They want less time, and I'm learning that.

That's like a sort of a dance you have to figure out.

But it's important to me to spend time with my kids.

Now, I'm I'm busy.

I have a lot to do, I have a lot going on, I have a lot on my plate, so it's very easy for me to think I just don't have time for that today.

It's not convenient for me.

Because it really never is.

But if I if I say this to myself, if I say, oh, I will spend more time with my family when I have more time.

One day when I have more time, then I'll spend that time.

Well, guess what?

That's never gonna happen.

Because life does not organize itself around what we believe is important.

That's me thinking in terms of convenience.

When I have more time, when it's convenient for me, then I'll do that.

And from my experience and observation, people who live that way never end up finding that time or whatever else that it is, because it just never comes, or it comes so much later than they thought it would that they look back and go, man, I wasted so much time.

But if I say out of conviction that I will spend time with my family, I will find time, I will make time, I will carve time out, I will protect that time, I will fight for that time, well, that's a totally different story.

It's out of conviction.

Maybe it's not time, maybe it's it's money.

Maybe it's like saving money or even being generous.

Same sort of filter.

If I do that out of convenience, like, oh, one day when I have more, then I'll start to put some in savings and then I'll even be generous and that'll be great.

That's just it's not gonna happen.

Because it's never convenient to save money.

It's never convenient to be generous.

If we ever say, well, one day when I have more.

And I'll give you a great example of that.

You know, last year, because of just government decisions and whatnot, there was this giant influx of cash that people had.

That they just people got checks.

I don't know if you were like that, you get checks from the government for just being here.

And uh, you know what didn't happen in America?

Some giant record-breaking year of generosity.

It didn't happen.

Nor was it like people have put more into savings than ever before.

People were like, what can I get with this, right?

Because it's convenient, it's just easy to live out of convenience, and when you do the things that are important, they they always fall by the wayside.

But if you're a person that has conviction and you say, you know what?

I am going to make sure to save every single month.

I'm gonna make sure to give every single month, not because it's convenient, because it's important.

Well, it's a different story.

It could be your physical health.

You know, I keep waiting for the day when I'm in the mood to like really work out and eat healthy things.

It's amazing how I'm never hungry for what's good for me.

I never have a craving for that.

Like there's never been a day where Megan's like, where do you want to eat after church?

I'm like, mmm, I don't want anything fatty.

I definitely don't want anything sweet, nothing savory.

Um is there a place that, I don't know, just serves lettuce?

Is that a thing?

Like, I'm like, how many calories can fit on one plate?

That's what I want to eat, right?

We hunger for that.

It's just so it's never gonna be convenient to be healthy.

But if you have a conviction, it's different.

Conviction is very important.

And notice this section, it is not saying, ah, forget your convictions.

Don't worry about it.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't say that.

It says no, no, no.

At the end, it actually says you'll be sinning if you're not living by your convictions.

So conviction is very important.

And if you live by conviction, it will serve you well far, far more than if you live out of convenience.

So choose conviction.

Which kind of brings us to an obvious point.

Okay, this is like the big thing.

How do we live with conviction?

We start by having them.

You have to have convictions, and you have to know what they are and what they're not.

So if you want to say, I want to be a person that lives out of conviction, I don't want to be that person that just does everything out of convenience.

I recognize that won't work.

How do I be a person that lives with conviction?

I would say you need to have some convictions.

And you need to be able to name them and understand them.

You need to know what they are and what they aren't.

Let me give you an example.

I have a strong conviction that teenagers shouldn't have phones.

And if you have a teenager that has a phone, I'm not, it's a conviction.

It's not a command from God, right?

Like, okay, so it's just a conviction that I have.

Now, here's the challenge.

I have a 12-year-old who really wants a phone.

And uh, and some of you are parents of his friends and have recently gotten phones for your kids, and you've made my life harder, and that's fine.

It's totally fine.

It actually totally is fine.

Because my son knows where I stand.

I say, hey man, look, just the positives that you mentioned to me, they don't really matter that much to me.

The negatives, like I think about myself and when I was that age, and if you would have handed me a device and and what I would have done with it or what I would have wanted to do with it, like I just, nah.

And and so we have some tension in our home on this issue.

And like about a week ago, it kind of boiled over just a little bit, not in a fight or anything, but I said something that my son thought was incredulous.

Like he looked at, Dad, you're stupid.

That like basically came out of his mouth, and I was fine with it.

Because he can think I'm stupid, he's wrong.

He's stupid, he's 12, what does he know?

Right?

So he says, he says, we're walking, and the phone thing count comes up, and he's like, Well, clearly when I'm 16, you're gonna get me a phone, and I was like, No.

He's like, You're not gonna get me a phone when I'm 16 years old.

And I was like, Well, first of all, I don't know the 16-year-old U yet, so we'll we'll have to see who you are when that day comes.

We have some time.

But I said, I probably probably not.

And he was like, What?

He's like, How am I gonna drive places?

You know?

I'm like, oh, you assume 16U has a car?

Wow, we're way ahead of ourselves right now.

Um no, I'll get we'll get him a car.

But but I said, well, you'll just learn where stuff is.

And he's like, what do you mean?

And I'm like, well, so first of all, where do you think I'm sending you at 16?

You think I'm like sending you to the south side of Atlanta to pick up a parcel for me and like hopefully you make it back?

You know, be real careful when you get to the loop, you know?

Like, I'm not.

I'm like, you'll just learn where stuff is.

I said, Do you know where the church is?

He's like, yeah.

Like, you think you could get there today?

He's like, sure.

I was like, Do you know where your school is?

He said, Yes.

That's like 70% of the places you're gonna drop.

And you're only 12, you're way ahead of the game.

And then I started thinking about it, I was like, you know, actually, now that you mentioned this, because I hadn't really thought about it until he brought it up, that can be a dangerous thing if you're a kid.

Be careful when you bring stuff up to your parents.

I said, you know, the more I think about it, the more I actually think you'll be a better driver if you drive for at least a year without a phone.

Because you won't have the distractions, you'll be able to just pay attention to where you're going, you'll actually think with your brain and go, where am I going?

What roads take me there?

Like those are the basic questions all of us had to figure out, and we were fine.

And he's like, What if I get lost?

And I said, Well, you'll figure it out.

You know, we all we all did.

It's just a conviction that I hold.

Now, you may have a very different conviction.

In fact, I was thinking about that this morning, and then I was like, What about my daughter?

I was like, Oh, she definitely needs a phone when she's 16.

Because, you know, it's a scary world out there.

I'm not sending my baby girl out into the world without a phone, she can call me, you know.

And I even told him that.

I said, hey, I'll probably get Lily a phone before I get you one.

And he's like, if you do that, I'm like, what?

What?

What?

If I do that, what?

Finish that sentence, you know.

But here's my point: it's a matter, it's a matter of conviction.

It's a matter of conviction.

Now, if you sit here and you're like, oh, I have a 10-year-old and we bought them a phone, and I think it's important that they have one, so fine.

That's your conviction.

But but like, whatever they are, it's good to have some.

Have convictions.

It's it's important to have them.

You can't live by them if if you don't have them.

Now, that's an example of something that's sort of practical.

What about when it's more spiritual in nature?

That's when it gets really hard.

Because when when our convictions start to blend with our faith, we we have a tendency to confuse commandments and convictions, and it gets really dicey in the church.

That's when people really get all bent out of shape.

When it's connected to something spiritual.

So I'll go into more detail about this next week, because we're gonna get into sort of the nuts and bolts of this.

But uh, a friend of mine in the 90s was someone who went to church all the time, and they had a youth pastor who got fired because they plugged a guitar into an amp and therefore turned it into an electric instrument, and that was a firable offense.

Can you imagine if whoever made that decision came here?

Like, we have so many things plugged into so many things.

We're all going straight to hell.

Like that would be that would be the thought, right?

But that was a big deal.

That was a big deal, and and it was it was hard.

It actually was a really divisive thing in that in that church.

Because what what happened was really simple.

Someone had a personal conviction about a style of music, and they conflated it to like a commandment from God.

And that's when religion gets involved and it gets really messy and really, really stupid.

So we have to understand this.

Commandments come from our creator.

Commandments come from our creator.

Our God has given us commandments.

And he's commanded us to love each other.

That was actually the main command he gave us.

He commanded us to love each other.

He commanded us to be unified.

And there's also things he commanded us not to do.

There are things that this world approves of that our God has said no to.

And that can be really inconvenient.

Convictions usually are.

Commandments are too.

So we have to understand, we have a God, a creator, who gives us commandments.

And look, if we're really gonna be Jesus followers, like really do it, we gotta take those seriously.

We can't ever kind of play, get iffy about commandments.

I just personally think, look, if I'm doing something that isn't in line with the commandment that God has given, I've got to wrestle with God on that one.

Like that's that's not that's not okay.

It's like when a parent gives a command.

When I was in college, I was visiting my family, and my little brother was in middle school at the time.

He had gotten grounded.

I'm actually gonna out him right now.

My parents are gonna listen to this, they're gonna know, and that's okay.

It's statute of limitations, he's in his 30s.

So he was in middle school, and uh and he had gotten grounded from playing video games.

That was the big thing.

Like, no video games.

And I walk in his room and he's playing a game on his computer.

And I was like, dude, what are you doing?

Like, I'm not, I wasn't gonna tell on him, he's my brother.

Like, we had dirt on each other, we would never do that.

And I was like, what are you doing, man?

He's like, what do you mean?

I was like, Mom, mom and dad told you they commanded you no video games.

He went, it's a computer game.

And I was like, oh, okay.

If that's the risk you're willing to take, if you think dad's gonna walk in the room and you're going, Dad, no, no, no, it's a computer game, he's like, oh, great point, son.

Way to get me on a technicality, like, that's fine.

If you want to go, hey, it's your life, like, go for it.

Right?

Like when God gives us commands, we we shouldn't do that.

We shouldn't try to, like, well, you know, technically he said this, but really, if you think about it this way, it's like usually his commands are pretty clear.

And and we should follow those because he's our God, he's our creator, he has a say.

Convictions are different than commandments, though.

Convictions don't come directly from our creator, convictions come from our conscience.

It's this deeply held belief based on our own sense of right and wrong.

And that matters.

We should follow those.

Like I said, if if you don't, like it's it's sin to do something that you believe is is wrong.

But it's important for us to recognize that especially when it becomes spiritual in nature, we have a tendency to conflate convictions with commandments.

And if we rise convictions up to the level of a commandment, it creates so much division, and the church becomes this religious organization that it was never meant to be.

Religious, what I mean by that, is valuing the rules more than the relationship.

And so convictions are not commands.

We have to know what our convictions are and what they're not.

Now, a little bit of nuance, and we'll move on, but as we develop in our faith and mature, our convictions should become informed by God's commands.

Give you a really classic example, Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Jesus is teaching in his very famous message early in his ministry, we typically call it the Sermon on the Mount.

He says, You've heard the commandment that says you must not commit adultery.

But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Now, understand the context here.

Jesus is talking to a bunch of really religious people, many of whom thought they were better than everybody else.

Because they could say, Well, I've never done this, this, and this.

And they had this sort of arrogance, this spiritual pride, and Jesus is saying, hey, look, before you sit on your high horse thinking you're better than everybody else, just know that counts too.

And they're like, oh.

So that's a commandment.

Don't lust.

Okay, so I have a conviction, and this is a conviction I share with several of my really close friends, and we sort of just do this together, that it's unwise to have a phone or a device that is completely wide open.

As a man, at least.

That's something that, like, that's a personal conviction I have.

I had a history.

I was introduced to that stuff, to pornography at a really young age, and so it's just not wise for me, and I think for many men to have phones or or some type of device that's just completely and totally unlocked.

And if I ever have a man who comes to me and says, Hey, I'm struggling with this, what do you recommend?

The first thing I say is, Hey, is your phone completely unlocked?

He's like, Yeah.

And I'll say, Well, that's like an alcoholic carrying a flask of whiskey in their pocket everywhere they go, hoping they don't take a drink.

And he's like, Oh, yeah, good point.

And so, me and a bunch of my friends, we just have this sort of system where our phones have like filters on them and locks, and we each have each other's code, but we don't know our own code, and it's fine, it's great.

That's a conviction, but it's a conviction that's based on a command.

That my king has said, hey, don't lust after a woman.

Don't lust.

Oh, how am I gonna do that?

Well, personal convictions have risen in my life that help me obey that command.

But if I were to take that conviction and rise it to the level, raise it to the level of a command, and then say to every one of you, like men, you are not allowed to have phones that are unlocked, that would be wrong.

Because it's not what God said.

That's not what Jesus said.

He gives us the freedom to sort of work it out for ourselves how we want to go about that.

So convictions and commands, we've got to understand the difference between those.

Does this make sense?

All right, cool.

Let's move on.

Let's wrap up pretty quick.

Not only do you need to have convictions and know what they are and what they aren't, you need to live by them.

Even when it's hard.

Live by your convictions.

If you're a person who learns to live by your convictions, you actually experience something very few people do.

You have peace with yourself because you know you're a person of integrity.

Like the most frustrating thing to see so often are people who claim to have deep convictions, but then you see their behavior and you recognize they don't actually believe that.

Or at the very least, they're not willing to hang on to it whenever it gets tough.

I find this a lot with private jets.

I've been thinking about it.

There's nothing wrong with flying on a private jet.

If you're a person and you've amassed wealth and you're successful and it's like I can afford that, I want to go on a trip, but I don't want to do the whole airport thing.

Airports, none of us like them.

None of us.

And so that's fine.

It's just like, I'm taking a private jet, go for it.

But you see this a lot with private jets.

This is my example.

So, like, pastors that have private jets.

That's a thing.

Should it be a thing?

It's not a sin, and I'm not going to say my personal conviction.

I don't have one, and I'm not going to.

I'll go ahead and make you guys that promise now.

Um, you know, I'd like to upgrade the 2006 Scion, but I'm honest with you, I've told my oldest that it will be his first car, and so I'm holding on to it.

You know, I'm teasing.

I'm teasing.

You guys are thinking, he's really mean to his oldest son.

I'm not.

I love him.

But but here's the thing you have this, this is hard.

Like, this has been a scandal in church culture in America where you have these guys who are the head of a nonprofit organization that somehow can afford to buy a$60 million jet.

That is not a non-profit.

Whatever it is, it is not that.

Okay?

And so people get mad about that.

They get mad about the private jet.

Because it's not because the private jet's wrong.

There's nothing wrong with a private jet.

It's it's that that person is espousing values that that seems to deeply contradict.

Or, or we see it like with celebrities and political figures who are all about climate change.

And they'll be like, climate change, climate change, and you guys all need to cut back on your stuff.

And while you cut back, I'm gonna fly on my private jet, you know, 15 minutes down the road, because I just don't want to deal with traffic.

And it's like, you liar.

You're a hypocrite.

You don't actually hold that conviction, or at the very least, you let go of it the moment it comes at personal cost to you.

See, conviction always comes with a cost.

It does.

To be a person who lives by conviction, there will be a cost.

Great example of this.

I love this story in the sense that it's why would you say I love the story?

It's horrible.

It's a horrible story.

Sorry.

Let me frame this better.

Um I love the character of the man that becomes evident in this story.

It is a challenge to me and to just about anybody, I believe.

It's the story of a man named Uriah.

Uriah was a soldier in Israel under the reign of King David, and King David happened to have an affair with Uriah's wife, and she became pregnant.

And then King David was like, oh no.

What do I do?

At the moment that it all happened, Uriah was off fighting a war on David's behalf.

And he was a well-known soldier in the army, and so here's what happens.

David sent word to Joab, who led the army, send me Uriah the Hittite.

So Joab sent him to David.

And when Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing.

Such an awkward thing, right?

Just, I mean, imagine the situation.

Let it play out in your head.

Like, David has had an affair with his wife.

She's pregnant.

He's like, So, how are things?

You know, the war you're fighting, you know, for me, is it going pretty good?

That's good.

That's good to hear.

And he told Uriah, hey, you know what?

Why don't you go on home and relax?

And David even sent a gift to Uriah after he had left the palace.

But Uriah didn't go home.

He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king's palace guard.

And when David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, What's the matter?

Why didn't you go home last night after being away for so long?

Because he's hoping that if he goes home, you know, he and his wife haven't been together for a while, that'll happen, and then the pregnancy will be like, it's mine, because it's when I came back from the war.

David's trying to get out of this.

And it's not working.

Here's what Uriah replies: The Ark, which is the Ark of the Covenant that Israel carried with them, and the enemies and the rather the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents.

And Joab, my master's men, Joab and my master's men are camping in the open fields.

How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife?

I swear that I would never do such a thing.

That's conviction.

It's not a command from God, it's a conviction.

He's like, how could I go and enjoy that when all of my fellow soldiers are suffering right now?

There's just no way I could do it.

And David says, Well, stay here today, and tomorrow you may return to the army.

So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next, and David invited him to dinner and got him drunk, but even then he couldn't get Uriah to go home to his wife.

And he again slept at the palace entrance with the king's palace guard.

And then David just has him killed.

So, I know, sorry, spoiler.

Uriah, you might say, Well, if that's what living with conviction looks like, then no, I would rather not.

Because he dies.

But sometimes integrity is worth dying for.

Because what is life without it?

You know, it's one of those stories where Uriah is clearly the victim in the story, but at the same time, he's this hero because here's a man who lives with conviction.

And he says, No, I refuse.

I refuse to let go of my convictions the moment holding them becomes inconvenient.

That happens so often.

It happens so often where people claim to hold strong convictions, but the moment it costs them something, they let it go.

And when they do that, they they let go of all personal integrity.

We have to be people who have convictions and hold them, even when it's a little painful.

That's a powerful person to be.

And thankfully, most of the time, our convictions don't require us to sacrifice our lives to cover up the scandal of a king who's who's lost his way.

The cost is usually much, much less than that.

But there's always a cost with conviction.

Because it's not about convenience, right?

And so, like I mentioned earlier, jokingly, honestly, we have such a great relationship, but my 12-year-old son, there are moments where he's not happy with me because of the conviction that I have.

And it's hard when he looks at me and says, Dad, but my friend has this, and and you know, I tend to play around, but I don't like that.

I don't like the feeling that he's upset with me because I have said no to something that he wants.

I don't like that feeling.

I really don't.

I love him.

I would die for him in a heartbeat.

I would give up anything that I have so that he could have the life that he wants, but I have a conviction.

And I'm willing to endure some pain to hold it.

And if that means that he doesn't like me, if that means he thinks I'm dumb, I can live with that because you know what?

I would rather him grow up and learn what it means to be a man who has conviction.

I don't even care if he has the same convictions I do.

I just want him to have some and to live with him because I know that he's gonna need that to make it in this world in a way that honors and pleases the Lord.

So, how do we begin to live with conviction?

We're gonna get into the nuts and bolts of this next week.

I'm so excited.

This is so practical, so relevant, because it's hard to do, guys.

This is hard to do.

It is hard to be a person who, because of your faith, has certain convictions that aren't shared by the rest of the world or even by all of your brothers and sisters in your relationship with Jesus.

It's hard to be a person who has those convictions, lives with those convictions in a way that doesn't create all kinds of drama and division and anger.

And very few people can do this.

It's so vital.

I'm so glad we get to go through this.

I'm grateful that God put this in his word.

I will wrap up with this.

You have convictions, you know what they are.

You live by them even when it's tough, and this is the big one that we're gonna talk about at length in the weeks to come.

You give other people the freedom to do the same.

You have conviction, you live by your convictions, and you give other people the freedom to do the same.

That's hard.

It's hard sometimes when you're talking to someone and they express a conviction they have, and your brain is just like, nope, nope, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

You're an idiot, you're dumb, that's wrong.

There's no way.

And again, I'm not talking about commands, that's different.

But convictions, it's tough to give people freedom to have their own.

But Jesus has done that for us.

I mean, honestly, he's given us so much freedom.

He said, hey, this is what it means to follow me.

And it's it's not easy, but it's pretty simple.

There's not this laundry list of rules that all of us have to keep track of in the in the back of our minds.

In fact, most of the time, it's not really rules, it's more like filters.

Is this loving?

Is this kind?

Is this honest?

Is this right?

Is this pure?

But but within that, he's given us tremendous freedom to enjoy life.

But one of the hardest things that we often struggle with doing is giving other people the same freedom that God gives us.

And this is the kind of church we have to be.

A church of passionate people who love Jesus and love people and believe in something that's true and right and are willing to stand for what's true and right, and at the same time has this massive, massive amount of grace for people who will disagree with us.

Or we can be a church that welcomes people in, and it's not like you didn't vote for who I voted for, then you are at the wrong church.

It's really important.

And and and before I pray, this is what it gives us.

This is the the win.

If you can master this, it's hard to master, but if you can master this, what it really means to live with conviction, you will be a person who lives at peace with yourself, like I mentioned earlier.

Like you feel good about yourself because you know you're doing what you're supposed to do based on what God has said and what you're convicted by.

You'll have peace with yourself, peace with God.

Like we all have peace with God because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, but sometimes we don't feel that because if you're living life betraying your own convictions, you'll often have this sort of nagging feeling, like, God, are we okay?

And he is okay with you.

He loves you, he forgives you, even when you mess up, but you'll never have that just simple peace if you're constantly breaking your own convictions.

Not only will you live at peace with God and yourself, but you'll live at peace with other people.

You'll actually have the ability to look at someone that you completely disagree with and just be like, I love them.

They're wrong, but I do love them.

Right?

And I'm serious, that's so rare.

And it's becoming unbelievably rare in our culture.

There is so much anger, there is so much vitriol, there's so much hate, and most of it is so silly.

Some of it actually matters.

But there are things you take a stand for, and there are things you stand against.

But most of what, at least in the church, get divided over and angry, oh, that's silly stuff.

And so we're not gonna be a church that gets wound up about the silly things.

We're gonna live with conviction and give others the freedom to do the same.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you for every person here.

Lord, selfishly, I want to ask that there would be at least one other family with a teenager who would not let their kid have a phone so that I can stand strong with no, I'm teasing.

I'm teasing, Jesus.

I I just I love this group of people so much.

And I pray, Father, that this study that we're in right now, in this very last few chapters of Romans, something that most people never even really get to as they read and study, would be something that really helps us navigate a very difficult world to navigate.

Because this world is filled with people who don't share our convictions.

And even when we hold strong convictions ourselves, it is so easy for us to trip over them, to let them go the moment we feel some pain.

But I pray, Lord, that you fill our spirit with courage and strength.

That we can be people who live deeply, passionately out of our convictions, out of what we truly believe is right and wrong, and we can also be people, Lord, who just like you give other people the freedom to do the same.

We love you, praise you.

We ask all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.