Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative
This podcast was intended to resource our Dream Teamers at LifePoint Church, with biblical fundamentals on worship, life and a variety of leadership principles.
Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative
SUNDAY REWIND: Love One Another
What happens when you align your daily life with the blessings of God? Pastor Mike Burnette joins us for a thought-provoking conversation about the profound impact a local church community can have on personal faith and growth. Listen as Pastor Mike shares an inspiring tale that underscores the importance of living in faith today and how a consistent connection with God and the church community can transform your life. We'll also draw parallels between the church and marriage, emphasizing how crucial it is to maintain these connections as we navigate our personal journeys.
Politics and faith may seem like strange bedfellows, but navigating this complex landscape is more important than ever. We discuss the need to think beyond party lines, and how past policies shape our current reality. Reflecting on divisive topics, from political motives to doctrinal differences, we emphasize the power of unity and compassion within the Christian community. By voting thoughtfully and maintaining biblical principles, we can foster a supportive church environment that encourages spiritual growth and accountability. Join us for this episode, and discover your role within the church while embracing the path God has for you.
Hey, what's up everybody? It's your boy, cousin Willie, here. Welcome to our Sunday Rewind, and joining me is none other than the illustrious, industrious, immutable and impregnable Pastor.
Speaker 2:Mike Burnett, I'm going to need you to define every one of those words for our audience, illustrious.
Speaker 1:Illustrious, meaning that you are literally a shining example of a human being. So the word luster, luster, that is a root word there Industrious, you're hardworking, ain't nobody going to outwork? Pastor Michael Burnett, I'm telling you that right now I got a job, yep, and then impregnable. Does that mean I can't get pregnant? You cannot get pregnant.
Speaker 2:What does that word mean?
Speaker 1:Impregnable it means it can't be, it can't be assailed, it can't be uh, penetrated, it can't be assaulted, it can't be violated like a um, like a castle, like a castle is impregnable and a defense can be impregnable yes, okay, yeah, well, I appreciate your adjectives.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, thank you very much. Absolutely, he's got quite the robust vocabulary. Man, it's Sunday. Preached four services.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 2:It's an exciting series. We're in the journey, I'm loving it personally and I think it's helpful to our people.
Speaker 1:So today we're in week four of the Journey series and again shout out to Pastor Chris Hodges and the team over at Highlands for allowing us to preach through this.
Speaker 2:I'm hopeful that the series is stacking well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know God has more for you. That's a revelation everybody needs, right? God has more for you. He's got more hope, faith, joy, peace, love, grace, power, forgiveness, more mercy. He's got more to do with you and for you and through you. I recently, at our night of worship, I met a young man who he asked to talk to me at the end of the night and he just broke down in tears and said my life's a wreck man and it's terrible.
Speaker 2:I said, do you believe in Jesus? He goes a hundred percent. I believe in Christ.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I said do you believe he died for your sins and raised from the dead for you? He said a hundred percent. And I said so. You believe in Jesus and his death and resurrection for your afterlife. But what about this life? And he kind of looked at me and I said he gave his life for you to have eternal life now. So Titus says, the grace of God's appeared, teaching us to say no to ungodliness, deny worldly lusts, live upright godly lives in this present age. Come on. So I think this idea that God has more, the Christian should always be excited to wake up and go. Lord, what you got for me today.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Instead of I'm hanging on till heaven. And then the second week is how to have a daily time with God, who has more for you. So go find out what it is. Go spend time with him to learn it. Last week Stephanie did a great job. I'm proud of her for the talk on the local church and being planted and rooted in the local church.
Speaker 1:So important, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I don't know you can speak to this too, but I don't understand Christianity without the church.
Speaker 1:Absolutely no, I'm with you Without the bride, without the church. Absolutely no, I'm with you Without the bride, without the body. It makes no sense. I mean again, if the church is the body of Christ, then there's no way in the world that I'm actually fully living. I'm living the full expression of the Christian life without doing life in the church, not only being in the church, planting in the church, serving in the church and helping the church to thrive and grow. So I'm not just a member of the body, but there's, but there's in scripture. First Corinthians 12 says that every joint supplies. So it's not just that I'm a part of the body, but I'm actually helping to infuse health into the body so that it can grow and thrive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know I've we've known couples cause we're in a military town If you're not here local to Clarksville. But you know marriage is where this couples can't live together because of deployment or training and those are the hardest marriages. Yeah, I mean, they're just always nobody's like. Oh, I can't wait for my husband to go TDY for nine weeks or deploy for 15 months.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They grieve that they don't look forward to that. And the church, the bride of Christ, and the bride I mean, and Christ, we're meant to be in fellowship with one another. Yeah, right, so the church we gather to be in fellowship with each other and to be this glorious bride of Christ. So I don't understand Christianity without being planted in a local church and I didn't have to be convinced of that.
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:You kind of grew up in church in a ministry family. I did not Right, I did, yeah, and I got saved into church and I had visited that church over the years here and there hitting this, but all of a sudden, I mean, it smelled different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I couldn't wait to get there, come on, and I didn't know anything about how to behave. I mean, I knew enough.
Speaker 1:Southern colloquial Christianity not to cuss in the building and smoke in the parking lot and stuff.
Speaker 2:But I didn't know anything about how to belong, but I knew I did yeah, and. But I didn't know anything about how to belong, but I knew I did yeah, and I've just always loved the church.
Speaker 1:Right. So, yeah, I agree with you, pastor. This is stacked extremely well. Again, god has more for you, and part of that more is you only experience the more through connecting with him Bible reading, prayer and scripture, daily time and then, as you do that, you come to have this understanding. It's like this spiritual awareness hey, there are others like me, let me join and be a part of them. I'm not going to join back with the word. It makes no sense. I mean, a butterfly doesn't say, okay, I'm newly hatched and I've got my wings, let me go back to hanging out with caterpillars. No, no, no, I'm a new creation.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting point.
Speaker 1:Right. So now that we understand that that leads in this series and talking about loving one another, Okay, I'm a part of this organization.
Speaker 2:Within the church specifically.
Speaker 1:In the church, specifically now, which is really not just an organization but an organism. It's a body. So now I'm a part of this. Okay, how do I function in this? Because I'm doing life with other people who grew up vastly different backgrounds, different perspectives, but we're united by one spirit and we're affirming one Lord.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have one church, one gospel, one Lord one spirit, one salvation, one faith, one salvation one baptism, yeah, and we're all united.
Speaker 2:I love how Paul says excuse me, the Apostle Paul who wrote much of the New Testament. He said in Christ there's no longer the dividing lines of Jew and Greek, male, female, slave and free. So he's dealing with race, economy and gender actually, which are three of the prevailing dividers in our culture today. But he said we're all one in Christ and that fleshes out in life in the church. Now that doesn't mean you're going to never have conflict or issues, and that's part of the reality of the message. Today we deal with divisions in the church and conflict and the things that divide us. But, man, it's a beautiful part of God's design. When we say things like the local church is the hope of the world, I believe in the local church, I love the church, well then, it's not the building, it's the people.
Speaker 1:That's right, exactly.
Speaker 2:So we got to choose to get along. Bear one another's burdens. Put up with each other is the way Colossians says it. Bear with one another, that means put up with folks, and it's a challenge, but it's a right challenge.
Speaker 1:It's a good one.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like sometimes you got to gear up to go to family reunions, you know, and sometimes that may be how it feels if you're in a bit of a strained relationship with church family, but it's worth it. You know, a couple of years ago at Thanksgiving I got in a conflict with one of my brothers and you know we've fought our whole life. So in one regard it's kind of like brothers fight and it was kind of stupid and just prank kind of went too far or whatever. But you know I love, I'm never going to cut relationship off with him.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't even dream of that.
Speaker 2:And so I think the same is true with the church. We just got to fight for right relationships and fight to nurture healthy ones and be in right relationships, see those relationships differently and the opportunity that they have.
Speaker 1:Well, I do love that as a first point that you teased out and really leaned in heavily on nurturing right relationships, and so I love the analogy used about putting more wood on the fire that's dying out, and I think that's. The problem is that we're very passive about these things that God calls us to If it didn't work out, whatever yeah.
Speaker 1:But again, biblically speaking, we're actually supposed to nurture these relationships and I love again how you I love Pastor Mike again you're thinking first Christologically, because it's easy to think humanistically about. Oh well, let me first think through my marriage and my parenting and familial yes, all that's important. But can you just kind of tease out more about why you really chose to walk us through Revelations 2, and I'll read it, verses 4 through 5. This is the words of Christ to the church at Ephesians. I believe it is, and he says but I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. I love how you started there Christologically. That's the framework.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a great model. The best relationship we can nurture is the one with Christ. Yeah, and then that should inform our relationships with coworkers, family, kids, marriage, whatever, right. So Jesus is so patient to say keep me first, keep me in the first position, and that's I mean we talk about it all the time. Right, god should be first in your week. That's why we worship on Sunday, that's why we tithe all those things. But what happens is we. It either becomes routine, it becomes rote. That relationship can even be rote.
Speaker 2:All right, it's Sunday, we're going to church First of the month. We're paying our tithe. You know, it's the first thing in the morning I'm going to read my Bible and that, even though we're going through the motions. Like, if you read back a verse in that Revelation text, he says you guys are doing a lot of great things. Yeah, holding leaders accountable. Yep, you're doing the word. You're keeping the church alive, right, you just don't love me anymore, and I think we can be going through the motions in every relational category and doing right things. So think about your marriage. We're paying our bills. We're keeping our house, uh, running. We're getting the kids to camps, to schools, to sports, to whatever. We're doing three meals a week, you know, or whatever it is, and uh, we don't really fight all the time, we don't really fight that much. We basically have resolved to where we're amicable roommates. That's not a first love, vibrant, hot, you know, like get, you know, uh, getting busy kind of marriage.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying? I don't know how to say it. Come on, that's the only way to say it. I preach four times.
Speaker 2:By God help me.
Speaker 1:Help me, come on.
Speaker 2:But we've just worked with a lot of couples and we've all been there where we've just kind of split apart, we just kind of maybe drifted apart, and you've got to throw some wood back on that fire.
Speaker 1:Go throw some wood back on that fire. Go on a date, go grab her up. Man, lady, fella, just grab your wife, come on and surprise her with a dance move and, yeah, dip her in the kitchen.
Speaker 2:Come on, do it right in front of your kids, man, let them see you hug on your wife and get your wife and just put passion back, it's true, in your walk with god, your relationships with your family, your spouse, your kids. You know when's the last time you dated your kids?
Speaker 2:a lot yeah I grew up in where, um, we, we, I never went on a date with my mom, you know, with a parent, but it there was just a routine of life. Got home from work and school and then you grabbed a snack and then I always went to work. My mom took a nap on the couch after her job or whatever. We just never were intentionally close and fostering that. But you gotta, you gotta pursue it.
Speaker 2:And it is hard work. That was one of the points that I I thought was really helpful. Is you know what matters is worth working for? It's hard work, absolutely so yeah you can want a fire to be as hot as you want but, you actually go chop wood, pull the wood and put the wood in the fire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's worthwhile doing it again. Like I said, it's so easy to get passive about that. And, of course, pastor Mike, this begs the question what about relationships, I mean, that are fractured? Again, you had talked about, you know, jokingly with your brother and you know, again, kind of, yeah, there was some tension there around a family event, thanksgiving. But for other people, I mean, their reality is like like hey, either, you know, we've stopped talking, we hadn't talked in a long time. There's offense, there's hurt, there's anger, whatever, I guess there's anger, whatever. So take us, I mean your second point really being restoring. How do we walk through that?
Speaker 2:How do we step forward in that? Paul's attitude is as it pertains to you, so it starts with your decision.
Speaker 1:I want to get it right.
Speaker 2:And I may not ever talk to that person, but I can in my own heart, forgive them, release them, let go of any anger or resentment. But if I'm going to be in relationships so like, we're both greeters on the greeter team right Working in kids ministry, our own staff together- yeah.
Speaker 2:You need to work, be mature enough to go stand face to face and say, hey, I messed up or I've been offended. I think both of those things. Um, you know the the you you're carrying a fence or you are offending. But the responsibility? Man I've been upset, I've been mad, angry and bitter with you. Or man, I said something and it clearly bothered you and I'm just really sorry, quit waiting on the other person to take the first move.
Speaker 2:Just go restore it Now. If the relationship's dead or there's abuse or maybe distance, or the person's no longer around or alive, you can still do that in your heart with the Lord, and I don't have any ill will towards that person who hurt me, I'm just letting it go. Yeah, I'm forgiving and I'm gonna let the Lord deal with them.
Speaker 1:Well, so, and again, admittedly that's easier said than done Um, and and I'll say this for those of you that don't know, pastor Mike is, he's a. He's a very forward type of leader. If you, if you guys, do the Enneagram, he's an eight. So I think for you it's easy to kind of confront if there's tension or something like that, because I think by nature you're a challenger. Would you agree?
Speaker 2:Let's talk about this. Yeah, I am, and I don't mind conflict.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:But I don't do it in a mean spirit.
Speaker 1:No, no, and I'm not saying you do, but I'm saying that what about someone who is conflict averse? What if somebody says man, that sounds really good.
Speaker 2:What Pastor Mike's saying yeah, this is where I challenge the Enneagram and the DISC assessments and all these personality profiles, because we're still spirit-filled, spirit-led and word-driven, right, come on, you might be an Enneagram 2 or 4 or 1, or I don't even know what they all are, because I'm an 8. But that doesn't give me an excuse to violate the scripture or not confront or, as it pertains to you, live at peace with a lot of people, so you can't let your personality get in the way of that, right, yeah, and so that's why I taught it this way. Today, I said you take the first step, and maybe that first step is you and God having that conflict. Okay, because he can handle it. And yeah, anybody can talk to God, right, you don't have to have a personality trait to meet with him. Come on and, um, if you're not comfortable confronting the person, you can at least confront the offense in your heart in prayer, okay, and release that person, yeah absolutely Anthony.
Speaker 2:Daly taught me that pastor mosaic. Um, he had somebody that he was really bitter with and angry with as a young Christian and he just began to pray the greatest prayers ever for that guy and he said the Lord really changed the way he viewed that guy because of how he prayed for that guy. Yeah, so yeah, I think, no matter what your Enneagram is or your personality type, you still have the opportunity to obey Scripture and be Spirit-led.
Speaker 1:Well, and to your point, I mean again, I think scripture to be clear, pastor Mike's, quoting Romans 12, 17,. That says as far as it depends on you, if possible, live at peace. You know, with everybody. And so the danger of not pursuing peace is the back half of that scripture, when the Apostle Paul says beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For what it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And during your message, pastor Mike, you even said man, we are just so, we are so drawn to vengeance and this need we push past justice?
Speaker 1:It's like man.
Speaker 2:Well, we do it in joking too, Like we could chop it up in the office about a sports team. Yeah, Right, and I can say what happened to Alabama today. And you go, oh really, and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then throw 82 stats about the Vols or whatever. And we do it honestly, I think unintentionally. We do it in highs and lows, in humor and in hurt, and so we're so quick to cut back and get back at each other. It's actually a discipline that sometimes I don't know sports stats. So whenever anybody wants to pick on my sports team, I got nowhere to go Because I don't know what to say. Right, Okay, and it quickly disarms that stuff Because I'm like, okay.
Speaker 1:Oh, because you won't engage back. Okay, I see what you're saying, but it's a discipline, too, that I don't.
Speaker 2:What am I going to argue with you? I don't know his name, I don't know his first name Stephanie. Knows Josh my point is whether it's in humor, we cut back. I mean, you ever listen to comics? One of the things that makes me like I love stand up comedy. I love stand up comedy, but when they start riding people in the audience, okay, and just cracking on them, yeah, yeah, I don't know man, I feel like that's that cutting culture.
Speaker 2:That's not fun and it's hilarious yeah, I mean at the expense of someone who paid to come watch yeah and then you just trash them out. But it's in so much of our culture. I mean, we talked about politics. We can shift there in a minute if you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but our politicians are doing that. I mean, they just destroy each other. Yeah, honestly, one of the most grievous things about our political process now is it starts with I'm not going to run a smear campaign, but if you drop into polls, man, you might as well just start chewing them out.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Pulling all the skeletons out.
Speaker 2:So we have that vengeance and payback and cutback and clapback kind of culture, and I think we do it subtly with humor and we do it with vengeance and I don't know not, I'm not innocent on this, I'm just saying it's so subtly a part of our culture. And then one of the greatest movie series in the present culture is the avengers. I think it'd be a dead movie series if someone just read the bible and was like god will avenge. You don't have to iron man, just let it go, the lord will avenge. You don't have to Iron man, just let it go. The Lord will avenge. Movie's over.
Speaker 1:Romans 12.
Speaker 2:In a world Could you imagine Pastor Mike on screen with Robert Downey Jr having the Bible open straight up on screen, like that scene you remember in the second Iron man, where they blow his house up, helicopters go and they just shoot it, and then I just come out with a Bible. Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. I will avenge Tony Stark, why don't you just go on home for a little while? Where am I going, man? I ain't got a house. Oh yeah, go to Pepper's house. Yeah, it would make for a short movie, right, but we love Vengeance. Man, braveheart, it's the Patriot. I watched the Patriot recently and you just you want to fight with him for his son.
Speaker 2:He was killed in cold blood in the front yard. And so with that next scene, when he just goes and takes out an entire troop of British soldiers and man, it's the music this is not God's way. I mean, I'm not slamming just war theory and all that kind of stuff. Defense of a nation, and he was. Was that defense or avenging, I don't know. It's just so in our culture. That's it. Yes, it's so prevalent, it's so ingrained.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this you ever watch comic roasts? Oh man, that's all they do the whole time. Brutal, it's brutal. You wonder like there's no way that you guys are going to remain friends after this.
Speaker 2:But we just do it and we love it and we congratulate each other. That's the crazy part. They just congratulate each other for how much they destroy each other, and we call it art. Wow, it's everywhere.
Speaker 1:Come on man.
Speaker 2:But I'm not a purist and I'm Much of our culture. We don't even realize it. So then, when a church friend doesn't return your email, answer on Planning Center or cut you off in the parking lot, we just have it built in us to go. Well, forget them, I don't have to go back to that church anyway.
Speaker 2:I talked today about something that raised a few eyebrows and folks can choose to like't. Did I, did I hear from god? Like that's, that's the part that I? I would go sitting in the room like did my pastor pray and seek the lord? And that's why, because I was obviously a little uncomfortable. I think you're talking about it, but we talked about it as a team. Yeah, prayed it through and man just felt like it was something the lord wanted for our church. And then we get the choice like I'm gonna be vengeful or unforgiving and ascribe motive, or I'm going to listen. Right, god challenged me. That was a conversation we had at one point today. I just but we're just so wired to win to clap back and I don't think it should be that way yeah, it's part of our divisive nature absolutely, and and again.
Speaker 1:I think you know speaking about being divisive, you know I thought you did a wonderful job, um, in addressing, among the other divisive issues that plague or face our society, and that is politics, and it's just— Well, we're 10 days from an election, we're 10 days from an election Presidential election. And I don't—listen, unless you've been living under a rock. I don't know if you're aware, but we're about to elect a president so Well and truthfully, this has been what an eight-year campaign.
Speaker 2:I mean 10 years. Trump he was first elected eight years ago, then he lost the second election to Joe Biden and then he immediately started campaigning again. But then there's all kinds of layers to it and the last four years have been so crazy. Left and right. You've got social, racial, gender politics, we've got financial things thrown in there inflation, et cetera and so to touch it, it's a bomb. Yeah Right, yep, it's a powder keg. And that's why I touched it, because Christians can't talk about it civilly.
Speaker 2:You're either a Christian who believes like me or you're a Christian who believes like them whatever that category is left or right, and so we've branded each other as whether or not we can be in fellowship together.
Speaker 1:Shouldn't be that way. Yeah, you know earlier, yeah, and I loved earlier. You know, you and I were kind of having a one-on-one and you talked about all these labels, that we use the term community and tribe and group, and that's all. That language is already in and of itself divisive, so it's okay. Well, you're not a part of my community, you're not a part of my tribe, you're not a part of my ilk. So so because of that, there's there's this divide and I've already I broad brushed you and I've decided already that, despite everything else that I may know about you, I'm going to use this one thing to to disqualify you from fellowship with me or disqualify you from being treated with respect and honor. That part's crazy and I loved how you really did break it down in talking through the way that we tend to vote at large and a more mature way that we vote. You said we tend to think through personality and party, whatever it is. We tend to think that way.
Speaker 2:I'm a libertarian, I'm a Republican, I'm a is. We tend to think that way I'm a libertarian, I'm a.
Speaker 1:Republican, I'm a Democrat, I tend to think this way, and whoever the candidate is, whoever the candidate is, yeah, but a more mature approach would be to think through policies and platform. I'd love for you to really expound upon that for our listeners here. Why is that a better way for someone who has electing power to think through that way?
Speaker 2:Why is it a better way for someone who has electing power to think through that way? Well, I think it's important to remember that a political election in our country is only for a short season, like our congressmen are only elected for two years at a time. I think our senators are six, but a president, a governor, four years, and some have term limits and some have term limits. So I remember that my first time I voted was Al Gore and George W Bush, okay, 2000. 2000, okay, that is such a distant memory I barely remember who was running Like. I don't remember who was Al Gore's running mate.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's a good question. It was Bush and Cheney.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just remember that because they won.
Speaker 2:But here's what's crazy I wasn't able to vote. I stood in line for two hours as a junior in college in the year 2000. I got to the line, I turned in my ID and they go. You're not registered to vote in Knox County.
Speaker 2:I grew up in Johnson City so I was in college, at UT, I was like what I? I was like what. I stood in line all that time I couldn't vote. I remember praying Lord, let somebody switch their vote to my vote so that my vote will count. I laugh about that. Now God's going okay, I got you. But we don't even remember. I mean his presidency. Now Bush, for example. I mean he's a senior citizen and nobody even talks about him anymore. Same with Clinton.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, it's just like we have to remember that these elections are moments, but the policies they employ, the policies they put into practice. Like you know, tsa at the airport is still hard and frustrating because of the policies Bush put in play back in 2001.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The policies that Clinton put in place. I mean, we're still living with the, the some of the policies that obama put in place in 2010 or 11. I mean, we are living with the fruit of some of those decisions. And that's the part that I. That's really the bigger reason why I think that's so important to think beyond the personality. Look, we can chop it up and talk about personalities all you want, absolutely. And um, comedians are doing a great job doing impressions. I mean, snl's got a big read on them as persons, right, but they're not really talking a lot about policy. But what's interesting is, every time there's a debate or a discussion or they go and do an interview with somebody whether it's Trump or Harris, kamala Harris they're talking about these five issues.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so in the church.
Speaker 2:We. Should talk about those five issues right. So life, family, borders and international security gender and sex and sexuality.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sanctity of life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those things are what they're talking about. Yeah, but then they're telling us to agree with their position because they're my party or they're the personality I like Well wait a minute.
Speaker 2:I love your personality, but I may not agree with everything you agree with. I may not like Popeye's over Chick-fil-A or whatever. Well, that's the right decision. Praise the Lord man. You know your football team or what kind of phone you like. Just because I like you doesn't mean I have to do everything you do or like everything you like, have to do everything you do or like everything you like. So when you make it just party and personality, then you have to go along with what they stand for. Well, no party fully aligns with the scripture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, absolutely, and neither personality fully aligns with the scripture. That's the point I was. I probably should have said that a little more clear. Both sides have flaws. Biblically, yeah, that's true, absolutely. And so you have to be able to stand in a voting booth and go man, what's the best option forward? I wish we could vote on policy. Yeah, but that's why you need to go into politics and become a congressman or senator, so you can affect change at the policy level. But at this point you're voting on a leader that best represents, and they may get three out of five or two out of five, and you got to decide okay, these things matter more than these things, or I don't think. All five of those things is one side.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But what's the best way for? If I can get four out of five or three out of five, yeah, okay, and it's. Maybe it's Kamala Harris or RFK Jr Donald Trump, then that's how I'm going to vote. But you have to let the Bible inform it first, not who that person is your history, liking that person or not, and I think just, I'm voting this party because that's who I am.
Speaker 1:I think that's incredibly short-sighted. So, Pastor Mike, what do you say to people who would look at, would hear you?
Speaker 2:By the way, before you ask this question, the reason I brought it up is this is dividing the church, and the context of the sermon is we need to be known by loving one another Absolutely, and this is one of the reasons Christians don't love other Christians because we've become partisan. We've become Babylonian partisans and I just want to remind you we belong to the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of the earth, not the kingdom of Babylon, and first century Roman Empire was way worse than 21st century american empire of the west it was way worse, they had sexual immorality and brokenness and they had polygamy and all the kind of craziness and and literally murdering people in the street for sport.
Speaker 2:There was a lot of crazy stuff yeah but they didn't have the privilege to vote their values. And we have that, yeah, and it shouldn't divide us, like if if you want to vote for a different candidate than me, that is your privilege, that's your right.
Speaker 1:And if we?
Speaker 2:want to have amicable discussion about it and stay brothers, great. If we can't talk about it, stay brothers. Done, just don't talk about it. I will choose fraternity over winning a debate with you.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:I'd rather be your friend than make you believe like me.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying? That's good, that's so good. You were starting to ask a different question.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to give context. That's why I even brought it up in the first place. Because, it's affecting love one another. Disciples, loving disciples.
Speaker 1:So how would you respond, pastor Mike, to someone who hears your message and says man, well, it sounds like you're you're telling me to think through scripture. I mean, how do you, you know? How do you respond to that? Because you know people.
Speaker 2:You know folks have their preferences. Yeah, it's fair, I think you know people are gonna. People are gonna believe what they want to believe about my motive, um, which is actually, ironically, one of the things that we keep hearing about both candidates is they just want to criticize their motives. So now to talk about politics at all ascribes a motive. I I'm not trying to actually make anybody vote any kind of way. Yeah, I do think everybody should vote, um, and tennessee's not really even a swing state, so even like, if I wanted to vote, uh, left it.
Speaker 2:You know the state as a whole historically has always gone one direction. So some people are like, why are you talking about it in Tennessee? You know, because I think it's a an important thing to think correctly about. I want to think well about this stuff, but I'm I can say with a clear conscience, I'm not trying to get anybody to vote one way or the other, left or right, um, but I do want people to think biblically and I do want people to vote yes. Yeah, if you don't, I'm not mad at you either, right, I just I think it's a little inappropriate not to yeah, because I love the point you made.
Speaker 1:I mean, as the electors, I mean we're the leaders in this country, I mean it's for the people, by the people, yeah, and we should embrace that. And then, secondarily, which I thought I love how you touched on it, I mean we have men and women who have fought, bled and died for this right to do this to engage in the election process.
Speaker 2:So it's again the bigger point there is restore broken relationships. So if this is a reason to break fellowship, let's fix that. Yes, and even if me talking about it has upset you to being here, being under my leadership, let's talk about that. Set you to being here being under my leadership, let's talk about that.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I'll be glad to talk with you about it. It's not my intention. I promise you that, and you were in the meeting when we talked about it and all of our pastors were in the room and we prayed through that decision to bring this up, and we just know that it's divisive in our culture and needed to be addressed. But we tried to keep it from a kingdom perspective, not a political one. So but, anyway, the sermon continues.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, to your point. The best way forward is Colossians 3. Put on love. Put on, then, as God's chosen word Yep, we're holy and beloved. Compassion hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, very with one another. That's just the best path forward. When there's a sense, when there's a rub, hey, put this on.
Speaker 2:Like you choose this way. So I just want to challenge you guys. I know we're kind of pushing a long time here and I don't mean to preach the sermon again. I don't think anything's unforgivable and I don't think anything's really that important to split the body of Christ. The truth is, the Christian faith is so fractured and splintered because we've allowed fracturing and splintering.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, whether it's denominational differences I mean, stephanieie preached last week and we had people push back that we had a woman preacher, yep, and that's a division, a divisive discussion among some. Some people want to divide over, uh, baptism methods. We've had people upset recently that we don't baptize in the name of jesus only versus father, son, holy spirit, and so they they get mad, they leave, and I'm going nothing should split us up from fellowship, right? Nothing. That's a okay. The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. Christ has come that we have life unto the full. Come on. The big idea of what I'm talking about is we should fight for unity, fight for right relationships. If things have offended you, then restore it. And then I talked about evaluating unholy, ungodly relationships in your life and getting those right. Right, which that I mean. Hopefully all of your small groups have had those conversations. If not, you should have that evaluation. Like, what's a good evaluative tool to relationships that are unhealthy and toxic, maybe? And then what are some accountability steps to get them out of my life?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I remember dating a girl in college my freshman year not a good relationship.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was new to Christ and she was not even close to Christ at all, but it was really fun. It was terrible, but it was fun and it was not goodly good and godly goodly. It was not right. And I had a small group leader named Kwa. He was a Korean guy with the Navigators and he and I met every week and I would just lament and say, man, I know I shouldn't date this girl and it's not right, but but man, I just really like her and whatever. And he'd go, you should break that off. I was like, ah, probably will one day. He's like I don't know what you're waiting on. But it took him challenging me Like I just stuck in my head.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like he's really right and he held me accountable. Yeah, we broke it off and then I quit dating forever until I met my wife. I just told the Lord, I'll wait. I'll wait for you to bring me a woman. And then I got one, come on. But it took that accountability to say just to nudge me consistently. And so you know, when it comes to unhealthy relationships, submit those to your small group, submit those to your friends and say what do you guys think, how do you feel about?
Speaker 1:this. I challenge you. Well, I love how you, how you took us there. Next, because there are some people, when you talk through you know restoring, you know broken relationships, they say, well, what if this is irreparable? What if this is irretrievable? And you say, ok, well then redefine it. What was it? I forgot the name of the book by Henry Cloud that you know? Necessary ending. Yeah, maybe, hey, for some of you, maybe it's time for a necessary ending. You need to have what my daddy used to call a come to Jesus meeting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, DTR is what the kids call it today Define the relationship, oh Lord.
Speaker 1:Okay, shut it down. Where are we going? Where's this heading yeah. Where's this heading yeah?
Speaker 2:Which is a valid question. Yeah, it's very important that you do life with believers and common fellowship and yoked up together with folks. Come on.
Speaker 1:And then, obviously, to me, it was one of my favorite parts as well is talking through these three types of relationships, these meaningful relationships that we need to initiate and comb through All of us. You know, paul, we need a spiritual mentor. We need a Barnabas, an accountability partner, a brother, a sister, and then we need a Timothy, we need an apprentice, and that's just somebody that you're spiritually pouring into, that you're leading, a guy that you're discipling, and I'm listening to you preach these messages. I'm thinking that sounds like a really full spiritual life, like there's nothing boring about that at all. No way. If I'm being poured into, if I'm sharpening iron, iron, and then if I'm leading and discipling man, that is an exciting fun, refreshing redemptive life for the Christian, and it's kind of a 3D approach to your development and your growth too.
Speaker 2:I'm receiving, I'm sharpening and I'm giving, and it's all centered around my walk with God. These are not programs, this is a way of life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, it's the journey.
Speaker 2:Come on, it's the journey. It really is. That's the journey I can say clearly I do have all three of those types of people in my life multiples of each which I love that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And man, it just pays off. It's good for you. Yeah, you feel protected, you feel cared for. Come on, encouraged, all those things we talked about at the end, right? Yep, this has been fun, man, come on, and there's a lot more content. I felt like it was three sermons in one.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I know small groups have a lot to discuss here. Hopefully we didn't take up all of your time, but I do want to encourage you to just chop it up on these things. What are the relationships you need to initiate and what are the ones you need to repair and restore, and then what are the ones that you need to? You know, pursue a little harder and then go do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's one thing to know right, it's the other thing to do right. Come on now, and that's part of the accountability that you get from others in your small group. Absolutely I think it'll be really helpful.
Speaker 1:Come on. Well, listen, thank you guys for tuning in. Like Pastor Mike said, if you're not part of a small group, do it Jump into a small group today. Also, I want you guys to attend our growth track class as well. You know, again, you talk through accountability and learning and putting right relationships. Yeah, for sure, the first thing we're going to talk through is your relationship with Christ, but then we're going to talk about your relationship with each other and with your church. Yes, hey, thank you guys so much for tuning in for Sunday Rewind. Again, I'm Cousin Willie, thank Willie. Thank you so much, pastor Mike, for jumping on with us.
Speaker 2:Do you have a lot of cousins?
Speaker 1:I have a lot of cousins A lot.
Speaker 2:I wonder if anybody's curious about that.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely yeah. I borrow money from a lot of people. I probably owe half of the man pay your debts.
Speaker 2:The Bible says owe no man anything. Yeah, absolutely I'm with you.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying I probably owe about half the balance of the Ford campaign.
Speaker 2:Anyway, what's your joke about?
Speaker 1:I got you next time I say I'm that cousin who's going to borrow money from you. And then every time I see you I'm going to say I got you next time.
Speaker 2:Now to be clear that's not true. That's not true. I just don't want anybody to question your character.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure they know these are just jokes.
Speaker 2:Looking out for my friend. I appreciate.
