Speaker 1: We are in our third lesson of the, what matters most series.
Speaker 1: And I encourage you again, to take some notes.
Speaker 1: We were looking at John chapter 17 and Jesus prays four times in one prayer in an intimate moment with his father God.
Speaker 1: And he says that they may be one talking about all believers, believers from past present, future believers that are working together in this very moment in the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: You and I he's talking about us being one.
Speaker 1: The world is shifting.
Speaker 1: It's shifting in every way.
Speaker 1: And it's, it's shifting very quickly.
Speaker 1: We used to say tenure a hundred years ago, such and such was true.
Speaker 1: Now we say 10 years ago, such and such was true.
Speaker 1: And you know, probably not too long from now, we'll say two years ago, such-and-such was true.
Speaker 1: As culture continues to shift and change rapidly and intentional unity of the faith family is more vital than ever.
Speaker 1: Intentional.
Speaker 1: Unity of your family is more vital than ever.
Speaker 1: Intentional.
Speaker 1: Unity of your business is more vital than ever because we never accidentally unify.
Speaker 1: It is our natural tendency to come apart versus come together.
Speaker 1: But Jesus prioritizes unity.
Speaker 1: In fact, the Bible is full of the priorities of God.
Speaker 1: And in this prayer, Jesus is prioritizing unity as he's about to leave this earth and arise and go to the right hand of the father.
Speaker 1: He's, he's about to do something spectacular and super ordinary and super extra ordinary of John to say it's not normal.
Speaker 1: And so, and so he's doing something that's not normal.
Speaker 1: And he's saying my biggest dream, my greatest priority for the believers is that they be unified.
Speaker 1: But if unity was easy, everybody would be doing it.
Speaker 1: First.
Speaker 1: We said, unity matters most for ultimate success.
Speaker 1: Last week, we said, identify why you're unified for long-term success.
Speaker 1: And today we're talking about how to be unified and it's not easy.
Speaker 1: It's not easy.
Speaker 1: If it were then, then we wouldn't have the divorces that we have.
Speaker 1: We wouldn't have the, the businesses that break up like we do.
Speaker 1: We, we wouldn't have a political
Speaker 2: Nightmare in our world.
Speaker 2: On
Speaker 1: Every side, we wouldn't have situations where families aren't even talking to their own family based on certain criteria in the world, because we would be unified, but unity is not easy.
Speaker 1: The fact is the lack of unity affects us all.
Speaker 1: We have people right now in this room online who are dealing with effects of broken homes, disunified homes, and you're dealing with it.
Speaker 1: Now you might be 15 years old.
Speaker 1: You might be 56 years old, and you're still dealing with some of the impact of disunity within a home.
Speaker 1: And then you might be in business and there's this unity in a business.
Speaker 1: And so one partner goes somewhere else.
Speaker 1: And another partner is dealing with the ramifications of that.
Speaker 1: And suddenly you have this unity in one way or another, and there's a price to pay involved in all of that.
Speaker 1: But here as the family of God, in order for us to do what Christ has called us to do, we must be unified.
Speaker 1: It's not a maybe or could be or should be or no way it's we, we must be it's required.
Speaker 1: The mission and vision of the church.
Speaker 1: The why of believers cannot be accomplished without unity.
Speaker 1: In our first lesson, we said this, when unity breaks down, we blame the weight of our condition versus the state of our heart.
Speaker 1: And if you recall, we had a bunch of weights on the, on the stage and we picked up that weight and it was really heavy by myself.
Speaker 1: But then when we had other people come and grab hold of it, and we unified in carrying the weight, suddenly the weight became bearable.
Speaker 1: It became easier to deal with and we could move it around and so on and so forth, much easier.
Speaker 1: But we equally discovered that even if the weight is very light, not heavy at all, that if we lacked unity, we could not move together and operate together.
Speaker 1: Even the very lightweight became difficult to manage without unity.
Speaker 1: It's not the condition that we're in.
Speaker 1: It's the state of our heart because it's our heart that unifies us or dis unifies us.
Speaker 1: And on Facebook recently asked the question, what is the most awkward thing you've ever carried?
Speaker 1: And I had all kinds of different results of that.
Speaker 1: And there was spiritual and emotional responses.
Speaker 1: And people said, things like guilt.
Speaker 1: That's an awkward thing to carry or fake friends.
Speaker 1: That's an awkward thing to carry or grudges.
Speaker 1: They're awkward things to carry.
Speaker 1: But then we also had some funny things and one person said attune.
Speaker 1: It was the most awkward thing that ever tried to carry.
Speaker 1: Another person said dignity was an awkward thing for them to carry a gentleman.
Speaker 1: I know from Houston may be one of the most unique answers.
Speaker 1: He said a hatred for gnomes.
Speaker 3: [inaudible]
Speaker 1: Apparently it's very deep and very awkward to carry my friend, Micah Costa.
Speaker 1: He and I are close friends.
Speaker 1: And he said this photo on my phone and
Speaker 3: [inaudible],
Speaker 1: I don't know why Christie and Brenda didn't want us to buy hats.
Speaker 1: We, we thought we looked quite dashing in those hats.
Speaker 3: I like them.
Speaker 1: Then we add some practical stuff.
Speaker 1: People said large boxes or pianos ever try to move piano moved a few they're awkward.
Speaker 1: They're heavy.
Speaker 1: Some people said, pool tables, ping pong tables, a refrigerator.
Speaker 1: I know one lady she's about this tall.
Speaker 1: Maybe this thought, sorry, I don't, I don't want to make her smaller, but she said a 275 pound gallon of oil, a tank on stairs.
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine that somebody said a partially empty blow up swimming pool.
Speaker 1: I only have a couple of ways to handle that.
Speaker 1: Empty it, pop it.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: My mother said I was the most awkward, heavy thing she's ever carried, which I felt bad about until I saw other mothers saying similar things about their kids, I think is just a mama thing.
Speaker 1: So yes, all of these things, some of them are light.
Speaker 1: Some of them are heavy, but what all of them have in common is that they are more than one person can control by themselves.
Speaker 1: They can't establish good control over those things because that blow up swimming pool.
Speaker 1: Nah, it's not a heavy thing.
Speaker 1: You can pick that up partially filled.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: That makes a little bit more difficult.
Speaker 1: But, but it, the thing is, is that it's moving all over the place.
Speaker 1: When you move this way, it doesn't just naturally come with you.
Speaker 1: It's, it's awkward.
Speaker 1: It's weird.
Speaker 1: It's, it's difficult.
Speaker 1: It's difficult.
Speaker 1: And so whether it be that or a piano, a piano is heavy and it's awkward and it's difficult.
Speaker 1: No matter how it is, you, you can't quite get yourself all the way around it.
Speaker 1: So it makes it very difficult and hard to handle.
Speaker 1: And if I could do it all by myself, if I could do life all by myself, if I could have a family, just all by myself, I am my own family.
Speaker 1: If I could be my own business, if I could be my own friend, if I could be my own faith family, then, then I could do it all by myself.
Speaker 1: But I can't do it all by myself.
Speaker 1: None of those things are possible without unifying with other people.
Speaker 1: I must have other people.
Speaker 1: So how do we identify or unify rather with others and Alex, would you help me please grab that box?
Speaker 1: And, and, and Amos chapter three, verse three says this can two walk together unless they are agreed.
Speaker 1: Can they walk together?
Speaker 1: Unless they are agreed?
Speaker 1: Just bring it over here in the middle.
Speaker 1: Now it's a rhetorical question.
Speaker 1: The answer is obviously not two can't walk together unless they are agreed.
Speaker 1: But I want us to, to see how agreement equals unity and agreement is necessary with the condition that Amos writes on here.
Speaker 1: Now, now here, you're going to pick up that side of the box and I'm going to give you the heavy side.
Speaker 1: And then I'm going to pick up the other side of the box and just step over here towards the middle.
Speaker 1: And let's just hold it right here.
Speaker 1: And if Alex, if you don't know Alex, you should, he's a really great guy.
Speaker 1: And so if, if Alex wants to go down that stairwell over those stairs over there, and I want to go down this stairs, these stairs over here, and we are not in agreement on that, but we stand right here and we just talk about Alex.
Speaker 1: I really want to go down this stair case.
Speaker 1: Oh, you want to go down, but that's just not the greatest staircase.
Speaker 1: And so apparently it's pretty.
Speaker 1: And so, uh, and so, and so we can stand here and talk about this all morning.
Speaker 1: And as long as we're not actually trying to walk, we can stand.
Speaker 1: And it seems like we have unity when we really don't.
Speaker 1: We haven't dropped anything.
Speaker 1: Everything's still in the air.
Speaker 1: The box is still here, but it's whenever I decide, Nope, we're going to walk now.
Speaker 1: Now you're going to go your idea.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go, my idea, you ready?
Speaker 1: One, two, three.
Speaker 1: Now nobody's winning the thing we were trying to uphold.
Speaker 1: The thing we were trying to do has fallen down as being drugged all over the place, down the wrong staircase, nonetheless
Speaker 3: [inaudible]
Speaker 1: And he and I aren't together anymore.
Speaker 1: Now he's mad at me and I'm mad at him and the whole project's falling apart.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Alex.
Speaker 1: You can put that back over there and I really appreciate your help unless you're trying to go someplace in life.
Speaker 1: You can seem like you have unity, but as soon as you have a pro, as soon as you are trying to make progress, as soon as you're trying to go somewhere, then standing there acting as if you're unified, doesn't work anymore, debating and talking about it.
Speaker 1: Doesn't work anymore.
Speaker 1: You have to have actual unity in order to go somewhere in life.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing you and I, we have a why we have a purpose.
Speaker 1: We as a church, have a purpose.
Speaker 1: You as a family, have a purpose.
Speaker 1: You as a business, have a purpose where whatever your area of unity, you as a team have a purpose.
Speaker 1: Wherever your areas of unity are, you have a purpose and you're trying to go somewhere.
Speaker 1: So unity ultimately matters a whole lot.
Speaker 1: So how do you, how do you begin to walk in unity with people?
Speaker 1: Because I don't always agree with everybody else and neither do you.
Speaker 1: I don't always agree with me.
Speaker 1: Cause sometimes I'll buy something and then I'll stand in the store and I'll debate.
Speaker 1: Should I buy this?
Speaker 1: Maybe not.
Speaker 1: Maybe I should because this, this and this, or maybe I shouldn't because that doesn't that.
Speaker 1: And then maybe I convinced myself that I'm going to buy it.
Speaker 1: So I buy it and then I get in the car and on the way home, I'm like, should I really bought that?
Speaker 1: And then I get home and I'm like, Christie, do you think I really should have purchased this?
Speaker 1: You know, I think that I should hour.
Speaker 1: They did, but, but should I bring it back now?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm still in and finally, uh, I should know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I really need it, but you don't really need it.
Speaker 1: You really don't need it.
Speaker 1: Am I the only one that ever has this conversation with myself and finally I find myself back at the line with the receipt and the person says what's wrong with that?
Speaker 1: Nothing.
Speaker 1: They don't ask the next question.
Speaker 1: So something's wrong with you then?
Speaker 3: Yeah,
Speaker 1: But it's impolite to ask that question so they don't ask it.
Speaker 1: But, but yeah, the problem is me, not the thing.
Speaker 1: It's it's me because I don't even agree all the time with myself.
Speaker 1: So how do I agree?
Speaker 1: How can I walk in unity with others?
Speaker 1: If I don't agree, even with me all the time, here's the big idea, progress together with unity in the essentials Liberty and the non-essentials and love, and all things progressed together with unity and the essentials Liberty and non-essentials and love in all things.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, ladies and gentlemen, here's the reality, the hard cold truth.
Speaker 1: It is an immature ideal and idea to say that we are going to agree 100% on everything with anybody we don't.
Speaker 1: And we won't.
Speaker 1: It's where cancel culture comes from.
Speaker 1: It's the idea.
Speaker 1: If you don't agree with me on every single aspect of who I am, what I am and what I'm doing, what I'm saying, then you and I cannot have a relationship.
Speaker 1: And I cancel you out of my life.
Speaker 1: It's an immature, impractical, unrealistic idea.
Speaker 1: And it's not a biblical one because we all unify with people, different people in different ways.
Speaker 1: We do not unify with everybody in the same way.
Speaker 1: For instance, I can work with somebody in unity and go forward in a project at work, without any problem with somebody in unity, who I would not marry, I wouldn't marry them.
Speaker 1: They're nice person.
Speaker 1: And, and at work, man, we can unify on this project and we can do great things, but I have no desire to live with them.
Speaker 1: I have no desire to be around them outside of that project, not this work, by the way, just anywhere.
Speaker 1: The reality is there are people that you work with that you wouldn't marry.
Speaker 1: There are people that you're married to, that you may not prefer to work with.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they don't lie.
Speaker 1: You're in church as wrong anywhere.
Speaker 1: We unify with different people in different ways.
Speaker 1: So we're not going to be this unified in the same way with every single person on the planet or even every single person in the church.
Speaker 1: And I have three thoughts for us today.
Speaker 1: Thought number one is this established unity in the essentials essentials are foundational principles where if they are violated, unity cannot continue.
Speaker 1: It cannot continue out agreement on these things.
Speaker 1: There is no unity.
Speaker 1: They are hard lines.
Speaker 1: They are defended consistently and they are unlikely to change.
Speaker 1: So Ephesians chapter four gives us some hard lines for believers ready.
Speaker 1: There is one body and one spirit verse five.
Speaker 1: There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism verse six, one, God and father of us.
Speaker 1: All these are non-negotiable unifying essential factors for unity.
Speaker 1: Unity may be desired, but it cannot exist without agreement on these things or the essential isn't truly essential.
Speaker 1: It isn't truly believed because of, I believe that there is one God and someone else says that there are many gods.
Speaker 1: The two cannot be true.
Speaker 1: It's either many or one.
Speaker 1: Hey, cotton cannot be mini one.
Speaker 1: So, so when we do not agree on how many gods there are, then there cannot be complete unity.
Speaker 1: I cannot walk in unity of faith with that person.
Speaker 1: I can't do it.
Speaker 1: If somebody says, you know what I believe in Jesus.
Speaker 1: I just believe that he's a good man.
Speaker 1: Or he was a good profit, but he was not the savior.
Speaker 1: Then what that does is he immediately calls unity to not be there.
Speaker 1: And now all of a sudden I'm saying, well, we can't walk in unity because I believe, and I know to be true that Jesus Christ is the only way to the father.
Speaker 1: And there's no salvation outside of outside of him.
Speaker 1: And so therefore he is a good man.
Speaker 1: He wasn't, he was a good man.
Speaker 1: He is a good pro.
Speaker 1: He was a good profit.
Speaker 1: And he is the son of God, my savior.
Speaker 1: And outside of that, I cannot have unity family in your, in our families.
Speaker 1: You might have unity around the idea that we are going to be a respectful well, family to one, another disrespect causes a problem, a rift, an issue that must be adjusted or we've got, or we will tear apart.
Speaker 1: How about in business?
Speaker 1: You might say, well, I'm an employee.
Speaker 1: And if the business does something that is not completely honest, then I cannot be unified with that business.
Speaker 1: It may also come from the business side where the business says, we are going to do everything in a completely honest way.
Speaker 1: So if an employee doing something that's dishonest, we're going to dish.
Speaker 1: We're going to separate paths.
Speaker 1: We cannot be unified with that.
Speaker 1: How about in the community?
Speaker 1: We might say we are community that will not gossip about one, another gossip, tears, things apart.
Speaker 1: And so we have just decided we're not going to gossip.
Speaker 1: And if you gossip in this community, you're going to find yourself, pushed out, not physically, but we're just not going to be unified with you.
Speaker 1: Here's the issue we, most of us would say, yeah, those things are all good.
Speaker 1: But the issue is we don't often want to draw hard lines.
Speaker 1: We want to kind of be nice to everybody and have a lot of soft cushions around us, on everything.
Speaker 1: But in the essentials, here's the, here's the reality.
Speaker 1: Choose to draw the lines or live by other people's rules and restrictions in life.
Speaker 1: You're either going to draw the line in your life or you're going to let somebody else draw it.
Speaker 1: But you get to choose which that is.
Speaker 1: It's a hard line.
Speaker 1: And you might say, well, Jesus was super nice to everybody and he helped everybody.
Speaker 1: He did, but let's look at a hard line that Jesus drew in the sand.
Speaker 1: Very clear.
Speaker 1: It says it in John chapter eight, verse 24, Jesus speaking.
Speaker 1: He says, unless you believe that I am who I claim to be.
Speaker 1: You will die in your sins.
Speaker 1: That is a definitive and hard line.
Speaker 1: That's not a, if you want to see me this way, it could work out for you.
Speaker 1: And if you choose not to see me this way, it may work out for you too.
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
Speaker 1: He's very definitive.
Speaker 1: Unless you believe that I am who I claim to be the savior.
Speaker 1: The son of God, you will die in your sins.
Speaker 1: Now here's a very critical element of the essential oils.
Speaker 1: If you're going to walk in unity with people, the fewer essentials you have, the more you will be able to unify with people.
Speaker 1: The more essentials you have, the more difficult it is to unify with people.
Speaker 1: Have you ever met somebody where everything is a big deal?
Speaker 1: And if you don't do everything the way that they do it, then all of a sudden you just are uncomfortable and you can't hardly be friends with them.
Speaker 1: Well, that's somebody with too many essentials in their life.
Speaker 1: If that ha if that's the only spatula that can possibly be used, you know what?
Speaker 1: I've got other things in my life to think about, then that spatula, I'm not going to worry about it.
Speaker 1: So I can't be, I'm not going to be that unified with somebody who's spatula specific.
Speaker 3: [inaudible]
Speaker 1: So how do I, how do I determine the right essentials?
Speaker 1: Let God's essentials become your essentials for life.
Speaker 1: If we let his essentials become our essentials, then God is always right.
Speaker 1: It is going to be the essential things.
Speaker 1: So it means that you and I must know his word.
Speaker 1: And here's some questions that we can ask when we're developing these essentials with family and business and, and friendships and church asked, who's really in charge of my life.
Speaker 1: Is it Christ?
Speaker 1: Is that me?
Speaker 1: Is that others?
Speaker 1: Who is it?
Speaker 1: That's in charge of my life.
Speaker 1: What's the greatest priority of my life is the greatest priority of my life.
Speaker 1: Serving Christ, serving my family, serving a business world or serving myself.
Speaker 1: What's the greatest priority.
Speaker 1: How about what autonomy will I give up for this family, for this business, for this friendship, for this church, for this relationship in my life, what autonomy will I give up?
Speaker 1: And yes, unity always cost something.
Speaker 1: When I decided when Christie and I decided to get married, we, I was a single man.
Speaker 1: I did what I want when I want it.
Speaker 1: And I had a lot of trust from my family.
Speaker 1: I still live in at home, but my parents never asked me where I was or when I was coming home.
Speaker 1: Or it's not that they didn't care.
Speaker 1: It's just that they trusted me and I communicated a lot.
Speaker 1: And so all of this is going on, but whenever I got married, I suddenly found out that I could not do the same thing.
Speaker 1: She wanted to know where I was.
Speaker 1: And if I didn't show up till two o'clock in the morning, she wanted to know why and who I was with.
Speaker 1: And actually, I can't remember ever being out at two o'clock in the morning, unity costs something.
Speaker 1: You have to say no to self.
Speaker 1: In order to say, have agreement with somebody else you might ask, what do I value?
Speaker 1: Or what value do I expect to receive from this family, this business, this friendship.
Speaker 1: And what's more important than this relationship to me, all of these are questions that you can ask when trying to determine your essential things, your essential beliefs.
Speaker 1: And that leads us to thought number two, that there, that offer unity, offer Liberty, rather in non essentials, there are things in the Christian life that are essentials, but there are many things in the Christian life that are not essentials.
Speaker 1: They're open to interpretation.
Speaker 1: They're open to choice as you study.
Speaker 1: And as you pray what God reveals to you in your life, and you will differ with people on those things in this faith family, in every faith family, in the community, in your, in your household, you will differ in some of these things that my encouragement is offer Liberty.
Speaker 1: Diversity is built in non essential areas.
Speaker 1: Non-essential areas, for instance, we're in a weird political system and environment right now where there's all kinds of things going on and people often ask me, what is your political stance?
Speaker 1: Who do you vote for?
Speaker 1: What do you think about this?
Speaker 1: And what do you think about that?
Speaker 1: And what I tell them is I'm not talking about it.
Speaker 1: Now, let me ask you this, truthfully.
Speaker 1: Now, is there anything about me that, you know, that would cause you to think that I have no opinions, no thoughts.
Speaker 1: And I'm totally dispassionate about it all probably not.
Speaker 1: Or you don't know me very well at all.
Speaker 1: I have very definitive and very passionate opinions about politics, but I have a higher calling.
Speaker 1: And the higher calling is no matter who's in the white house.
Speaker 1: I have to minister to people and bring them to Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so therefore I'm going to suspend my absolutism on my political persuasions in order to bring people to Jesus.
Speaker 1: If I can, I don't care who you vote for.
Speaker 1: I want you to go to heaven and be with Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's the goal and unit.
Speaker 1: So unity is costing something there, but I have to offer Liberty in that.
Speaker 1: How about wine with dinner?
Speaker 1: I grew up in a teetotaling house, no alcohol whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And so, but yet not everybody did.
Speaker 1: Does that mean one person's going to hell and the other person isn't or is that an area of Liberty now, before you answer that too quickly, in the more conference we had four teams, green, blue, yellow, and pink.
Speaker 1: And they were made of high school boys, high school girls, junior high boys, junior high girls.
Speaker 1: And there was one game that was played where a letter generator went on the screen and it would stop on a letter, like stop on K.
Speaker 1: And then they would pick the category.
Speaker 1: They would open the thing and the category would be there and it was names.
Speaker 1: And so he had the names, five names I started with K.
Speaker 1: So it was like Kyle and Kaitlin and Katie and whatever.
Speaker 1: And so, and so that happened.
Speaker 1: And then, then they did it again.
Speaker 1: And T came up on the screen and they opened the category and it was drinks.
Speaker 1: What drinks start with the letter T and out of all of them, they all had different things like from tomato juice to, to whatever, all kinds of tea.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: They had all those things.
Speaker 1: But one thing that was consistent on every one of their cards was Tito's.
Speaker 1: They did not learn that in student ministry
Speaker 3: Or from this stage.
Speaker 3: That's from you.
Speaker 3: That's your kids.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: So is that an area of absolutism or is that an area of Liberty?
Speaker 3: Uh huh.
Speaker 1: Pastor Chris didn't even know what Tito's was.
Speaker 1: When it came up on the first card he went, that's not real.
Speaker 3: That's another,
Speaker 1: Another sermon series we're going to have to do apparently.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: So the question is what's Liberty.
Speaker 1: What's essential building community to argue our opinion is not biblical.
Speaker 1: Having great discussions is arguing Romans 14, one as for the one who is weak in faith.
Speaker 1: Welcome him, but do not quarrel over opinions.
Speaker 1: If disagreement arises, ask is scripture definitive on this, or is this an area of opinion?
Speaker 1: Am I willing to lose my relationship and my influence over this Paul questions, attitudes when passing judgment, where God is not absolute, listen to what he says in Romans 14, who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?
Speaker 1: Is it before his own master that he stands or falls and he will be upheld or re rephrase, sorry.
Speaker 1: It is before his own master that he stands or falls and he will be lifted up.
Speaker 1: He will be upheld for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Speaker 1: Basically, Paul's saying if you're not their master back off and Jesus is the only Lord and master.
Speaker 1: So we back off in areas of opinion, but here's our reality.
Speaker 1: And this is why it's difficult.
Speaker 1: A desire for control often makes the nonessentials areas of difficulty, because we all have opinions on these things.
Speaker 1: And we all have thought about them and, and we want to talk about them.
Speaker 1: And, and we want to talk about how best to raise your child.
Speaker 1: And if they're homeschool, that's the only way in the world that a child should ever be raised.
Speaker 1: And if they're going to public school is the only way a child should ever be raised.
Speaker 1: And we should only do it this way and should always be that way.
Speaker 1: We have ideas about kitchen arrangements.
Speaker 1: We've walked out of houses before and Chrissy.
Speaker 1: He said, can you believe where they kept the coffee cups?
Speaker 1: I said, not only can I not believe it, I do not care, But we have opinions on these things.
Speaker 3: You might want to take a picture of the screen here.
Speaker 1: Selfish people withhold Liberty from others while demanding it for themselves.
Speaker 1: I want my opinion heard, and I want it respected.
Speaker 1: And I want my opinion to be valued and validated, but don't, I cannot do that for you.
Speaker 1: You must accept what I'm putting out there, but I will not accept what you're putting out there as a valid concept.
Speaker 1: The political climate says that all beliefs, all lifestyles, all opinions are valid except for biblical Christianity.
Speaker 1: And it's easy right now to get frustrated with that and to bow up with that.
Speaker 1: When, when the world demands that we accept everything that they're putting out, how they're putting it out and then turns around and says to us what your saying is not valid.
Speaker 1: Here's the here's reality.
Speaker 1: It's a selfish it's selfishness seeking to deny biblical truth.
Speaker 1: Now, listen, ladies and gentlemen, it's easy for us to get frustrated whenever it's people that are not believers coming at us as believers, but why would we do that against our own brother and sister
Speaker 3: Who are believers?
Speaker 1: Let's not get a bad attitude.
Speaker 1: When anyone is pushing against us like this, let's walk as Christ did, where the people who were nailing him to the cross, he was dying to save them.
Speaker 3: Let's offer.
Speaker 1: In fact, as a faith family, we will offer Liberty in non-essentials.
Speaker 1: So here's the question though.
Speaker 1: This is a good question.
Speaker 1: And you're going to want to take a picture of the screen because there's a list of things.
Speaker 1: How do you offer Liberty in non-essentials?
Speaker 1: Especially when you don't agree.
Speaker 1: Here we go.
Speaker 1: One go directly, go directly to that person.
Speaker 1: Do not talk about that person.
Speaker 3: I've
Speaker 1: I've got an issue with you.
Speaker 1: Curt here.
Speaker 1: We, we, we disagree on something I think.
Speaker 1: And can I, can I hear what you have to say?
Speaker 1: And would you share it with me?
Speaker 1: And, and can I share what I'm thinking?
Speaker 1: And maybe we can come to an understanding.
Speaker 1: Maybe I can understand who you are.
Speaker 1: I go directly to my brother because he's my brother.
Speaker 1: And I respect him.
Speaker 1: How about listen carefully?
Speaker 1: It's possible that you won't agree, but you might understand more if you were to listen carefully to what people were saying versus listening to respond.
Speaker 1: How about affirm intentionally looking for ways to affirm, let your affirmations be greater than your corrections.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we're so quick to say, Hey, let me tell you where you're wrong.
Speaker 1: How about let's say, you know what?
Speaker 1: You've really thought this through.
Speaker 1: You're obviously an intelligent individual and I value our friendship.
Speaker 1: I don't agree with you on this subject matter, but man, I'm really impressed by how you've whatever you can say there.
Speaker 1: That, that blessed me.
Speaker 1: That helped me.
Speaker 1: It helped me to understand, et cetera, affirm, intentionally speak.
Speaker 1: Honestly, lying does no one, any good.
Speaker 1: You cannot build a legitimate relationship based on
Speaker 3: Lies.
Speaker 3: So don't hide that question, that concern
Speaker 1: Or that disagreement, it fixes nothing.
Speaker 1: How about ask, instead of assuming, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: People, especially today, you hear a lot of they just, or they all, or here's the problem.
Speaker 1: They are not all them there.
Speaker 1: There is a, there are categories of people.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 1: And there are certain things that bind people together.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 1: But the truth is, is that every single person, even if they had, even if they connect somehow with a particular group of people doesn't mean they're completely aligned with every or the most vocal people that you've heard in that particular group.
Speaker 1: So ask, instead of assuming, give the benefit of the doubt when you can.
Speaker 1: And that's very difficult when you're hurting and ultimately choose to live on offended, decide, I will not be offended if you do not agree with me, I just won't.
Speaker 1: I will not accept that offense.
Speaker 1: And when somebody doesn't agree with you, it doesn't mean they're trying to offend you.
Speaker 1: It just means they might think differently than you do.
Speaker 1: And that's okay in the areas of non-essentials.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, the essentials that God has set into place are so important that we cannot ignore them.
Speaker 1: Don't allow non essentials to destroy unity.
Speaker 1: And that brings the thought number three, live out love and all things.
Speaker 1: The writer Paul takes it to the next level when he says, if I have the gift of prophecy, so I can speak confidently about what God is doing right now, and maybe even what he's going to do in the future.
Speaker 1: And if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, okay?
Speaker 1: None of these things do all of, any of us have by the way.
Speaker 1: And if I had such faith that I could move mountains, if you can please create one in Sylvania,
Speaker 3: You would make my heart happy.
Speaker 3: But if you could
Speaker 1: Somebody saying no, okay, maybe next, maybe over the line in Michigan.
Speaker 1: I don't care where it's at.
Speaker 1: Just close.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: But if you don't love others, I would be nothing.
Speaker 1: What are you saying is, look, he's saying, if you knew everything God was doing and had nothing that you didn't understand, and you had such faith in such power and faith that you could move mountains.
Speaker 1: If you didn't love everybody, it would be, it would be pointless.
Speaker 1: It would be nothing at all.
Speaker 1: So listen to me carefully, getting a Central's wrong costs.
Speaker 1: You, your soul costs me.
Speaker 1: My soul, trying to
Speaker 4: Control others through judgment makes me wrong.
Speaker 4: Even if I were right in one way or another I'm wrong.
Speaker 4: When I started it was start trying to control other people through judgment.
Speaker 4: And then lastly, operating in any attitude that isn't love invalidates what I have, right?
Speaker 1: That's what he said right here.
Speaker 1: Paul, the same guy who wrote the, just shall live by faith.
Speaker 1: The same
Speaker 4: Guy who wrote by grace are you saved through
Speaker 1: Faith.
Speaker 1: It being the gift of God.
Speaker 4: So why does God prioritize love so much?
Speaker 4: Love is God's primary identifier.
Speaker 4: It identifies his personal characteristic.
Speaker 1: Look at what it says in first, John, God is love.
Speaker 4: Whoever abides in love, abides in God and God abides in him.
Speaker 1: It identifies
Speaker 4: This primary attitude toward the world
Speaker 1: World for this is how God loved the world he gave.
Speaker 4: If his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have
Speaker 1: Your life.
Speaker 4: By the way, he loved the world to do that before the world was aligned with him.
Speaker 4: So love shown to somebody that doesn't agree with you is exactly what God did.
Speaker 4: He showed love in order to help them align in order to help me align and in love is the primary identifier of God's family.
Speaker 4: Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
Speaker 4: He doesn't say your agreement with one another, your same opinions as one another.
Speaker 4: That you're super happy with.
Speaker 4: One another all the time.
Speaker 4: None of that.
Speaker 4: He said your love now, how do we define God's love or the kind of love God has?
Speaker 4: Here's how the scripture defines that.
Speaker 4: Ready.
Speaker 4: First Corinthians love is patient love is kind love does not boast.
Speaker 4: It's not envious or boastful.
Speaker 4: It's not arrogant or rude.
Speaker 4: It does not insist on its own way.
Speaker 4: It is not irritable or resentful.
Speaker 4: It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Speaker 4: Love bears.
Speaker 4: All things believes, all things, hopes, all things, endures, all things love, never ends.
Speaker 4: And you might be saying, why is he posting a wedding scripture to us right now?
Speaker 4: Because it's not a wedding scripture.
Speaker 4: That passage has nothing to do with marriage.
Speaker 4: It has everything to do with how believers are supposed to treat one another.
Speaker 4: It's about how the church is supposed to work together.
Speaker 4: Paul's writing about how you and I are supposed to be as a faith family.
Speaker 4: Now it works in a wedding.
Speaker 4: If both parties are believers, this works perfectly.
Speaker 4: If both parties are not believers, it doesn't because they're not unified in the most basic principle of what being a believer is there.
Speaker 4: Unequally, yoked, that'd be a King James way of saying that you might say, well, wait a minute.
Speaker 4: I'm not always dealing with believers though.
Speaker 4: What's your priority, pastor Andy said this very few people have ever been argued into faith in God.
Speaker 4: Maybe you've tried it.
Speaker 4: Let me just tell you how you are wrong.
Speaker 4: And let me tell you why you're wrong.
Speaker 4: And let me argue with you.
Speaker 4: There are times in which it works and there are times where you will walk away thinking, man, I have proven my point, but here's, here's the next statement there.
Speaker 4: What's your priority?
Speaker 4: Are you trying to prove that you're right or help them see Jesus?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 4: They will see him through you.
Speaker 4: And whether that's my brother's seeing Jesus in me and through me and me seeing Jesus in and through him, or if this is a non-believing person, that's seeing Jesus in me and through me even recognize Jesus until he opens their eyes love in all things.
Speaker 4: Would you bow your heads, please?
Speaker 4: Holy spirit.
Speaker 4: What are you saying to us through this sermon today?
Speaker 4: You're calling to us.
Speaker 4: You're calling us to big things, to higher things, to greater things.
Speaker 4: And it all requires unity, unity of your body, unity of families, unity and business, unity in community.
Speaker 4: I'm asking you to help us today, help us to be strong enough to stand firm and confident in the essential things unified with like-minded believers.
Speaker 4: I pray that you give us the kind of humility it takes to offer Liberty and nonessential things.
Speaker 4: Um, it's the area that we struggle the most and it takes the most humility.
Speaker 4: I'm guilty as anybody.
Speaker 4: And I'm asking you to help us, help us to walk in that humility and offer that Liberty and not just insist on our own opinion.
Speaker 4: And I pray God that we would walk in love in all things, which is what you've called us to do.
Speaker 4: It defined.
Speaker 4: It identifies you on every level, identifies you as our father.
Speaker 4: A father of love identifies how you operate with us as you love the world.
Speaker 4: So you gave your son and identifies how we are to be known as your children.
Speaker 4: We love one another.
Speaker 4: Give us the strength to walk in that today and use us for your glory in Jesus name.
Speaker 4: And if you would be unified with that prayer, would you say amen?
Speaker 4: Amen.
Speaker 4: Let's stand on our feet.
Speaker 4: Prayer partners come forward.
Speaker 4: If you need prayer, come forward and let's pray with you.
Speaker 4: We're going to close this in a moment of worship.
Speaker 4: Let's pray together in Jesus name.