In this episode of Pastor To Pastor, Pastor's Jason and Seth talk about their upcoming Mother's Day services, family and life in general, before hitting the main topic of Truth over reverence. Do we simply miss the mark on sharing the Gospel for the sake of trying to be relevant? Do we care more about pleasing pleasing people's ears over helping them prepare their souls? Let's Talk About It!
In this episode of Pastor To Pastor, Pastor's Jason and Seth talk about their upcoming Mother's Day services, family and life in general, before hitting the main topic of Truth over reverence. Do we simply miss the mark on sharing the Gospel for the sake of trying to be relevant? Do we care more about pleasing pleasing people's ears over helping them prepare their souls? Let's Talk About It!
Are we compromising reverence for relevance in a church today? Let's talk about it Hey, it is Pastor the pastor we gave you a week off. This is Pastor Jason from Cross Pointe and Pastor Seth yeah, yeah, what's up family? Yeah, from Reliant Church in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Look, we are excited about this new episode. We took a week off we had we were in DC this past weekend. We weren't able to make the schedule thing work. So we're back when we're back this weekend. We're looking forward to sharing this topic with you. I'll be compromising reverence for relevance in the church today. It's gonna be good. Yeah, absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. But before we get there, you know how we started this thing? Oh, yeah. Tell me how the family is doing man family is doing. And tastic Levi is sorbara in reading and development at school man. He's making us really proud. We're still doing the T ball things. He hit a homerun. Yet he had a triple turn. He could have went home but the coach the coach made a stop but he's all companies walking all around. Ya know, strutting his stuff, man. Yeah, he's funny do but we got like two more weeks of that. But uh, you know, it's it's grass cut and season. So yeah, I'll be praying for you boys allergies. You know, I'm be huffing and puffing call me a little Wheezy boy, yeah. Gonna be wheezing all summer long. But life is good, man. How about you doing great, hey, let me back up for just a moment. Because I want to share something that really inspired me as a parent, something that you do. And I know that we even talked about this, this is something I'm just I'm hitting you off the cuff with okay, but something I feel really important that I really admire about what you do with Levi every morning, is the affirmation that you do. And so man, if you don't mind just for a moment, because I think that we as parents could be better in parenting. And there's little things that we can learn from each other, that will help us help the next generation help our children. And so I love what you do, man, tell me about these affirmations? Yeah. So every morning, we do affirmations and I used to I love this because I used to have them. I used to say them and make him repeat them after me. But now he says them and I repeat them. He's like, let me lead it. So now when he leads it, yeah. And so you know, if I'm smart, I'm important. I'm brave. I'm courageous these things. And, for example, when he does, I'm a good listener now because a few months ago, he he had a bad a bad day or two where he wasn't a good listener. So we added it into the affirmation, bro. And I'm telling you, it just does a world of difference for him in his day. We have a little song that we do. We beat box a little bit. And what's funny is Taylor, my wife, she doesn't she doesn't do it because she's not in the car. But when I'm not there, like this week, I had to go to a Carolina movement event. And so he was teaching her mom, we got to do our affirmations. Yeah, the teacher and stuff. But man, I think it's so important. We start off our day with going ahead and affirming our kids because we know how the world is now we know what the enemy's gonna tell him at an early age. Yeah, so we're already affirming him on the way to school. Today's gonna be a great day. And one little moment don't change anything about today. Yeah, so I love it. Man. You know you've been on the phone is I love it. You've been on the phone if you've gotten to hear now. Yeah, I got to call you at 730 so that when you drop him off at school, I can hear you're gonna be good. Oh, good day. A good day. I love it man. And actually I even started doing some some small things like that with Caleb because you're right man in today's world there's so there's so much surrounding their head so much surrounding their ears so much surrounding their eyes that we absolutely need to put in their head. Look God's already affirmed your unit you don't need to go to the world for affirmation. You need to go to God and He's already given you everything just rise word. And so we end it bro. A part of the affirmation part is that God has a purpose. Yeah. And that God has a plan. Just that reminder to keep God in front of him every day. So yeah, I love it. Dude. I love it man. Yes, things with you and your family going great. So we are still in graduation season. Kobe. I can't I don't know how I got this old. It's like you wake up one morning and realize I gotta graduate. I got a senior in high school like you started and you started growing your beard. So you're seeing Yeah, definitely getting you know getting getting some gray in there, man. Almost. Somebody was laughing at that ace. I mean, you I didn't know you had read read. I said man. Look, it's a little bit of brand. It's like a Brando. Right? So yeah, but yeah, he's he's, he's a senior man. And we've got the college thing figured out. I think he's gonna go to UNCP for the first couple years. His dream is to transfer to state not UNC goodness, Charlotte. Tar he's not gonna be a Tar Heel. All right, and don't say Charlotte. We are we are we're ready for read. I guess you know. You've let me down. Well, it'd be alright to get over it. But he's gonna go to USC P for a few years. Of course. July 25. He chips off to the best my birthday. It's my birthday. He's going to the summer heat in South Carolina. For basic training. I told him you know, you're not gonna be wearing a hoodie come July 25. Yeah, cuz they wear hoodies all the time. Yeah. And he's like, Oh, no. So we're excited, man. We're just going through it. We got the graduation party planned. And of course here we we like to honor our seniors for them for their hard work for the graduation. So we're planning that here at the church. We're planning the party personally, privately for him and for his friends. And so we're just going into that season man, we just got back from DC. And we I want to let you know that man, DC is so rich when it comes to the Scripture and how we were founded how scripture is ingrained in our fiber of the faith and the Foundation of America and who we are. We went to when we went to DC The funny thing is, we found I didn't know this. I don't know if you know this or not, but there was there's a Bible Museum in DC. Never Knew it. Neither did I know you're safe stuff. When Yes, we did. Yes, we did. We were getting on the metro man. Look, it was like it was like, Oh, I mean, it was divine. We cancel the plans, baby. We're going to the Bible Museum, right. And so we were looking for the metro and I'm on my phone, you're looking for the Metro from the front from the app from the hotel, and happened to see Metro right beside the Bible museum. And I'm like, we go into the Bible museum from God city. So we went man, we spent a couple hours, we're excited to go back spend more time, but you can see how scripture is used and a lot of the different monuments and things like that awesome time. And I encourage people to go we actually had a really, really good time. So encourage you to do that. But that's really about it, man. We're just we're in a season of of busyness. Right, but we're blessed. No doubt. Amen. Somebody was talking about Sunday. Yeah, Happy Mother's Day. Shout out to the moms, we appreciate you, we love you. Yeah. And we're gonna be talking about the woman with the issue of blood. And the beautiful miracle of God being interrupted by her as he's on his way to heal somebody else. I don't want to say that God always has time for you, no matter your need, no matter what you're going through, God always has time he will stop just like he did for her in turn, and affirm you and who you are. And so the really the basis of this is about faith. Um, you know, you could talk about identity we've shared just a little bit you could talk about identity, there's so many good, good things that can come out of these stories, but my main focus is own of faith. And you know, she The Bible says she had heard everybody talk about this man named Jesus now quarterly, she was isolated because she was deemed unclean. So she couldn't go to the synagogue. She couldn't hang out with family and friends. Anybody that she'd come in contact with was now deemed unclean. Yeah. And so you got the crowd there. You got Jowers there who is the leader of the synagogue, and she presses through man she touches Jesus, Jesus turns is his daughter, you have been your faith has made you well in front of everybody. I love that Jesus affirms her right there as a daughter. And you know, she had faith in the garment Pastor Jason, because Old Testament and Malakal says that there will be healing from his wings. And when you translate that the wings mean the fringe the fringe of his garment that would call it the cannot. And so she knew if I could touch that I know what the prophecy says I knew what Scripture said, If I can just act on Scripture put my faith to work, yeah, that I can be healed. And the Bible says that when Jesus turned and said, Your faith has made you well, not that you touch me or touch the cloth, but it was that your faith made you healed. And I think a lot of times that we just sit on our faith because of Jason, I think we have all the faith in the world, in the faith would have kept her in the room. Yeah. But putting a balance between faith and works is where God begins to create miracles in our life, we rattling we're all sitting on miracles, a lot of times we have the faith to believe, but not the faith to put action to what we believe. And one of the things in the next chapter, Mark chapter six, verse 56, it says that, I love this, I love how our stories can create miracles, a wave of miracles in the people around us and connected to because of the faith that we acted on. And the Bible says this is that in the villages in the cities, that all over people will put their name in the streets so that when Jesus walked by, they would touch his garment, and they all were healed. And it's because she had faith, to know what Scripture said and put it in her life and implement it to it. God saved me God got healed. And what I know this is this is that if we only tell the generations of the stories in the Bible, we are not people of faith as a JSON, we are people of history. Every one of us have a story to tell that is relevant. Talking about relevancy, talking about reverse that is relevant to us today. That can change the world forever. Don't sell your story, share the story, have faith have worked. So put them together so that you can create you know the legacy that you want. Yeah. And I love it, man, you know, because truth is grandma Nim saw a whole lot of different miracles and God move and God do all kinds of things. But how many of you know if you want to be relevant? The right way to be relevant is to share stories that you have of God. Yeah, that's from your perspective, from your experience. Yeah. And then you won't. And then when it comes to the Bible Museum, right, you won't be just experiencing what other people have experienced. You will be sharing with relevance what God has done in your life, and how God has used you to do things for the Kingdom. Yep, that's the difference. Yeah, I believe that Bible Museum is going to come up a couple more times in this episode. I'm not sure how but somehow, are they on there? It's like we get a jewel on our crown if we go to. So, Toby, let's talk about other you're not free to this day. Yeah. Do you do have stuff do you want to share and talk about? Yeah, yeah. So we do have the, obviously we're honoring mothers that this coming Sunday, and today's Saturday day before we're getting the recording in a little early. So that way, Mother's Day can be we can focus on our mother's rhymes, and then the mothers in our life. And so yeah, they are actually honoring the mother. So I'm not preaching. But I do want to share something, though, because it's got some bearing into what we're talking about today. And when you look at Luke eight, four through 10, is the parable of the sower. We talked about his Wednesday night, we do a Bible study on Wednesday night. And so when I talked about was we're in this, we're talking about prayer, and how the word and prayer, you need the word, you need prayer, and they help each other. Yeah. So your prayer will drive you to the Bible, and the Bible will drive you to prayer. I don't know about you, but I've read Scripture before. And I've realized, man, I've missed it in this area, or I've sinned, and I didn't know that it was a sin. Oh, yeah. That will preach by itself. And and I've repented, Lord, I've read scripture, and I'm like, I've missed up there, Lord, forgive me. It drives you to prayer. Yeah, and vice versa. So we talked about in the parable of the sower, the seed being the God's Word, the gospel being the seed, oh, Jesus talks about it in Luke eight, four through 10. And then he breaks it down in Luke 811, through 18. And he says, one piece of scripture that I really hit on was take heed to how you listen. In verse 18. Take heed to how you listen, how you listen to so important. Yeah, you are the soil. And the Word of God is the seed. And can I tell you that it's not your leaders job to prepare your soil? That's right, it's your job. And so we can be the thorny soul, we can be the rocky soil, we can be the hard soil, and all those negative things will happen or we can be good. So when I talked about how prayer and meditation on Scripture meditation on God will prepare your soil and make you good, make you good, so to receive the Word of God, and that's talking about how oftentimes we will have a crop full of things that we won't we like the sweet corn, we liked the corn and alive, man, corn and coconut without talking about foods, right? I was thinking about that little video of that little kid, he talks about Cohen. And so we will, we will, we will plant in our garden, what we want to be planted instead of the word of God, which we're actually going to get into talks about, it's more than just edifying you it's more than just building you up. It does a lot of different stuff. I talked about how we got to be good soil, we got to spend time on prayer, we gotta meditate on the Word of God. We got to spend time with the word and with God. And so but anyway, let's talk about the main topic, man. Are we are we compromised and reverence for relevance in the church? Yep. And just to kind of preface it preface this, I think that there are a lot of churches that are doing this very well, I think but as you look over social media and what's trending, I think we as a church is starting to trend in the wrong direction when it comes to relevance and reverence. And I want to break it down a little bit. But let's let's start off with first Corinthians, chapter nine, verse 22, and I'm gonna read also 23 But it says to the week I became as weak This is Paul talking, that I might win the week, I had become all things to all men that I might, by all means, save some in verse 23, says, I do everything, to spread the good news and share in His blessings. I think it's so important Pastor Jason, that we actually talk about what this means. Yeah. Sometimes we we would take it as I become all things to all people. So it is, is justifiable for me to hang out with certain groups to be in certain places and spaces for the sake of the gospel. When a lot of times that's really not the end result. And we end up failing at that. I want to say just wait, it's not really fast. What this does not mean is that we are to compromise with the world in order to fit in like some of us would have probably used Paul's statement to become all things to all people as an excuse to live worldly lives assuming that unrepentant people would be impressed to want Christ because you're hanging out with them in their Arena in their their area. But Paul what he did Pastor Jason, he's never compromised. was God's standards that he set forth in Scripture, when he became all things to all people, he instead what he was saying is I'm willing to forego traditionalism, and was familiar into my comfort zone for the sake of the gospel in order to reach a certain audience. Yeah. And so when we look at this passage, when he says up to come all things, all people have to come to the weak, I go to the weak, and I share in their weakness because I need to be relatable. I need to be able to minister to those needs. And so if I go to the weak with all of my strength, but I can't, I can't have compassion in their needs. And I've never, I'm not going to ever win. I'm not ever going to share the really true gospel. I will say this, and this is a pretty bold statement, Pastor Jason, okay, you weighed me, go ahead. Okay. If if what you become, when we talk about I become all things, if what you become compromises your ability to reach the people, you are becoming like, you're failing. Yeah, absolutely. I think too, oftentimes, that that would be that would almost in a way, be where we've missed that we've made a mistake. And then at some point, we realize, like, I've become what I've been preaching against. That's a problem. But I'll be honest with you, I think today in most churches, and I don't think I don't think we're just we're just seeing this, I think we've been seeing this. It's a it's a trending growing thing where people are hearing what they want to hear. Yeah. And scripture talks about that. And we could share that just a moment. But people are hearing what they want to hear and they're planting what they want to plant in their garden. Yeah, they're getting all the all the sweet corn, right. And not all the other stuff that they need to be a well rounded Christian. Like, they want only want to be edified. But there are pastors who are not just, and not just pastors, but people in general who will tell you what you want to hear in order to build their congregation or build a following to get what they want from you and to get what they want from you. And or build in the individual building, building a following on Instagram or a following on tick tock by telling you what you want to hear, instead of what you need to hear. Right? I would rather have and I think John Wesley said this, he's like, I would rather have it a 10 or 100 people than I would 1000. He said, You give me 10 people sold out to God, and we'll change the world. Yeah. Like there's a difference. Look at what Jesus did with 12 who were sold out to him. Yeah, change the world. Was it upside down? And so we've got to quit. We as people have got to be the difference. If we look like a duck, we talk like a duck quacks like a duck just like the world does. Then we're a duck just like the world. Yeah, that's right. We're supposed to be the difference. Pastor Jason. And the reality is is is a lot of that stuff is ego driven. Yeah. Because again, that's what's trending. We it is easy if if we are trending or we had the followers, we had the light we had the congregation then we are successful. But the reality is this better we could have a church full of people with no conversions. We could because we we neglect preaching the real truth of the gospel, that we've lowered the standards. Paul never lowered the standards of Scripture. He preached a truth, no matter what circle he was in and he became the get into that circle. We can have a church full of people, but on their way to hail Yeah. Well, somebody will say, Well, Jesus hung out with sinners. Yeah, he did. But he didn't send with a never sin with him. He became like a human. He became just like us took on our flesh. He became part of the quarter to change the quarter. Yeah. And he did it. And that's our model. That's how we should be. And Pastor Jason, I love our people enough to tell them the truth. Yeah. Because if we don't tell as leaders if we don't tell our congregants, the truth, the whole word, not pieces and bits and pieces, but we preach the whole gospel, the truth that is tough, the truth that hurts the lie that people are living, if we don't share that truth, it's not love man, I love you enough to tell you that the way the way that you're leaving, the judge righteously is going to send you to eternal damnation. And we've got to get to the point to where we choose the reverence and the purity of the gospel over over relevance in the world today. You look at Jesus called Zacchaeus down out of the tree, he goes to his house. But then here's the deal. Zacchaeus didn't continue in his sin. Zacchaeus gave away everything. He gave away what he's trying to turn remember story, that guy sold everything having a gate, that gate gate, yeah, paid back. Well, more than what he what he stole from people if he ever stole anything. And so, there's the difference. If you when you show up, people continue sending. Yep. Then you have to ask, is there a difference? Yeah, that's right. So good. So am I am I making a difference in their life? Or am I allowing them? Do they feel conviction when I show up? Or do they change their pattern? Because I show up? Yes. When you know, you're making a difference. Yeah. If Zacchaeus had left that conversation with Jesus, when Jesus went to his house and continued in his way, that have been no difference in his life. Yeah, he just had lunch. Yeah, pretty much Jesus. Yeah, but what happened? Jesus didn't change. Jesus changed him. Yep. And what I tell our people is no matter whether you just got saved or you've been a part of church and your relationship with Christ for years, when you leave a service, you should leave challenged us. There should be an area in your life where God is saying, oh, okay, you need to adjust this. You need to make things right here. You need to do better. And this because we haven't reached it, man, anytime we unfold script or something in us should be challenged. Yeah, something in us to be challenged. And I think that go ahead. I was just thinking that, you know, we have become more like, modern day parents as pastors and as not just pastors man, but let's be honest, if you are a child of God, if you represent Jesus, when you show up people should change. Yeah, they should, they should. But the problem is, we become more like modern day parents where I'd rather be your friend than be your pastor. Hmm, alright. And but you have got to, you've got to call change out of people. I'm not here to tell you. I'm not here to allow you to compromise in your sin. I'm here to call you out of it. I'm here to help you cut it out your life, not how to cope with it. And we become counselors of how to deal with your sin instead of how to cut it out of your life. We bandaid everything, yeah, we've got to stop man, we've got to sit, we got to be the difference. And here's here's Pastor Jason, where I think that our lack of reverence and keeping the purity of the gospel when we share it, again, that's not just preachers I'm talking about as a follower of Christ. It's your gospel to share that it's your responsibility to share. The good news is I think we've lost fear, we have no fear and of in reverence in Christ, you look at scripture, I have a couple of examples of where how we come to Christ, individually in our personal life, reflects how we come at it in public. So you look at how do you approach when you're in the presence of God? Is there is there reverence there is there honor there is there exaltation there, for example, job in the Isaiah in the presence of God, you know, these are these are how they responded in His presence. Okay. This is, as I said, a woe is me form loss. Yeah. If Joe cried, he said, My, now my eyes see you, therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Does the presence of God draw you to repentance? What what is the praise of God do for you? Peter cried Depart from me for IMS, sinful man, oh, Lord, John writes, When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though was did. What they're saying is there's a holy and righteous fear. When I'm in the presence of God, I need I need to be changed. I need God to challenge I need him to do that refining process, that he talks about that fire in us where he purifies us. And listen, how we come to Christ in private, affects the way we share him publicly. That's right. And a lot of this is a result that we have no private, no personal relationship with Christ. But because we are so egotistical, we're so ego driven, we'll do all we can to get a gaining of a following follower followers on social media in person. So how you present the gospel is a direct reflection of how you actually are intimate with Christ as it and we are ambassadors of Christ. And if Jesus wouldn't do it, why are we doing? Right? I mean, Jesus, Jesus, you know, and then there was it was, well, he would, yeah, okay, take it this Jesus treated religious people and senators differently. Absolutely. Senators don't know they're doing any any wrong until they're confronted with the truth. And we had danced around so much what we should and shouldn't do. Well, it's okay to be this. No, it's not. No, it's not this sin is simple. I mean, if it offends God, if it's against God, you're sinning, and you need to get it out your life. And the Bible says that even if there's doubt whether or not you think it's right or wrong, I shared in fact, that's exactly what I said Wednesday night, and I said, you know, as a law enforcement officer, I would tip people would ask, How do you know when you're drunk? Because if you have to ask, and should I drive? If you have to ask yourself that question you shouldn't be driving. Yeah, it's the same thing with sin. Is this a sin? If you have to ask yourself that you probably shouldn't be doing it, right. Yep. Stay clear. Yeah. Stay stay away from it. Why compromise with it? Yep. That's right. And so, you know, when I talked about well rounded, I want to carry you to Second Timothy 4234. When When Paul is telling Timothy when it comes to he said, Preach the Word. Preach the word. Like we've become great storytellers. Rebic. We try to Don't you say that past. You make people mad? We try. We try to make stories to make this to make scripture relevant. But can I tell you scriptures already relevant? It's not here's I love this. It's not the old news can I'd say it might be 2000 years old. But the gospel is not the old news. The gospel is not the dead news. This is the living word of God. And it is relevant in its own self, and every time somebody hears it, it doesn't matter that is 2000 years old, it's called the good news because every time somebody hears it, it's good. And we don't have to dress it up and make it pretty, to make it impactful. It's impactful own this room. In fact, we dilute it and water it down by dressing it up and making it palatable, palatable to people. But I'm telling you, this scripture is going to offend you. If you are a if you are a born again, believer if and even if you're not, if you are confronted with your sin, it's going to change you it's going to chop off it said it is sharper than a two edged sword separating bone from narrow meaning it is going to hurt the gospel is going to offend you. And if it does, if you go to church every single Sunday, and it never offend you, I challenge you to I would think that you're not hearing the gospel. Yeah, you're not hearing the full truth. But he says, he says Second Timothy, four, two, the way he said preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering patients and teaching. So oftentimes we want to be, we want to be exhorted through the word, but we don't want to be convinced we don't want to be rebuked. Oh, heaven forbid, you have to rebuke somebody past them. Yeah. Or brothers and sisters, where you have to correct somebody. Oh, we shy away from that anymore. Nobody wants that make anybody feel like they're less important. Can I tell you that? It's all about God. And it's not about you. It's right. Come on high five. You your next door neighbor or your steering wheel? Slap your passenger? Oh, I don't know what Yeah, yeah, whatever. But yeah, I mean, truth is, if the word when you get the word if if if it's not, if it's not convincing you if it's not rebuking you if it's not exhorting you, and it's not being done in patients and teaching aren't that I'm telling you, we have to ask what are we listening to? Yeah, what kind of gospel? Are we being fed? Is it the sugared watered down? Religious stuff, we become life coaches, we become motivational, motivational speakers where there are getting to be fewer and fewer preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ anymore. Yep. You know, I was when you were talking about preaching the gospel in what you're sharing with Timothy, I got to think about how we're in a generation where we want to be able to say something to make people say, wow, oh, wow. I want somebody to preach to me, for me to say, ouch. Yeah. That that stung a little. Because ultimately, I want to be a better person. Yeah. And I need the truth a lot of times, for me to be that I don't need someone. I don't need someone just to say something that Oh, that's good. That's good. I need somebody to say something that directly hits the part of my life that I'm deficient in, in my walk with Christ. And so it's so important as leaders, Pastor Jason, that we we look at Scripture, and we teach scripter properly. And one way to do that is to be able to distinguish between how to execute scripture. Some of us are not executing, we are associating. Yeah. So you got exegesis, and I saw Jesus, and I want to break that down that All right, yeah. Yep. So exegesis, I said, Jesus means you're reading the Scripture with a preconceived notion. So in other words, I have a thought. And I need Descriptor to line up with a thought, a lot of times, this is what we'll do, we'll get a thought that we say from the Lord. And so I need to find a truth or that I can twist or I can make somewhat fit with this thought that I saw Jesus, I'm trying to change the original intent of a scripture to make a good story. To make a good point to make you say, wow, yeah. Now that's the improper way to read Scripture. us as leaders, we are supposed to exit GTE, Scripture means to take directly from in the context, it means that use the words of the text in Scripture through the lens of his original content is not. It's not mass, which is not confusing. We, we, we might not always like what the Bible says, Pastor Jason, but we must resist as leaders and as people that are reading scripture, us that follow Christ, we must exert resist from trying to explain away anything that we don't like. That is a good scorcher right now. Yeah. Scripture says this, that you don't add to or take from what I want you to understand is exegesis means I take out reasonable 10. When you look at the ISO Eisah ice on their means to to add to the take in and what we're doing is when we don't realize, understand this is that we are adding to Scripture when you make it about you. And I think we're warned against about that. Absolutely. Absolutely. And the gospel should never be asked centered. It should be Christ centered. So I've heard people read this and they automatically think of somebody else and I say when you read scripture, you need to read Scripture. To apply to you not miss them, oh, they need to read this. I need to send this to them. Okay, this No, no, no, there's a reason why you read it and you need to read it for yourself and then you know we've all we've all been there at some point read a scripture and like, oh, this person did a very dear to me. Passive aggressively send this over to them. But listen, proper proper exegesis requires guarding against taking verses or passages out of context or doing irresponsible word studies that lead to misleading conclusions to fit what we want scripture to mean. I think we have a lot of that in the pulpit today. Yeah, no doubt. And and just to be honest with you, man services have have become all over and don't get me wrong. I believe in operating excellence, I believe, making it you want a see right, like making it? What we preach places where there was none, right? We've preached in streets we preached on on dirt floors. I mean, we've preached on tarps, right? In this hose, right? It's nice to have a see it's nice to be comfortable, but we become we we become comfortable and compromised. Yeah. When when. Give me Don't get me wrong. I love the lights. I'm not a fan of smoke, and mirrors. I don't do all that stuff. My asthma act like man, it'd be wheezing. Right? Like, like, those things are nice to a degree man. But when it becomes about those things, and not about scripture, when it becomes those things and not about God when it becomes about us and not about him, right? We're getting out of alignment with who we are called to be. Everybody. People want to be prophets. People want to be apostles. People want to be preachers, people want to be teachers. But can I tell you that Scripture tells us that not everybody should be because we're going to be doubly judged. Yep, we will be double S scary thought, man. But back to the fear of God, people don't fear God anymore. I love how we were talking about this earlier. And I said, Man, why couldn't the Lord just let me just work at food line? Cuz you gotta work full. His sales sales you are and a lot of judo. I love it. But when you talk about compromise, I got I got three things that we should look at when we look at Scripture, and we'll make sure that we don't do Yeah. Number one is don't compromise scriptures. Original Intent is wrong. And it's really easy to do that. Yeah. It's really easy to do that. And it's something you've got to have discipline and to not change it. And accountability. Yep, exactly. Oh, exactly. I'm so glad you said that. As far as accountability. I actually did this with you yesterday. Because a lot of times we have a great thought ever. And one thing you said as Jason was not every thought from God. Yeah. And there's two things, what really three things that as a leader, anybody is going to be sharing the gospel that we have to be accountable to one is the authority of Scripture, the authority of the Holy Spirit, and accountable to those that have authority over us. If you don't have those three accountabilities and authorities in your life, you need to get them. And you need to get them quick, especially if you're sharing the gospel. Because they see the holes, they see the gaps. They see the blind spots, and they really keep you in line with scripture. I called Pastor Jason, I said, Hey, I've got this thought you need to help me see if this makes sense. If the scriptures I'm using, is this a stretch, or is it not? And I submitted it to him, I told him, he said, Well, unless you could find some more, I think this is a little stretch. And that's him. I'm not offended by that. I'm like, thank you. It's not in my message for Sunday, because I don't feel like I can articulate it with the original intent of Scripture. You've got to have people Pastor Jason Yeah, to do that, that can really challenge you and equip you. And you got to give people the space to do that to do it. Because it's easy to come to them, it would be easy for you to come to me and say, Hey, I love this idea. You're all excited about it. You share it with me. And I'm like, Ah, sure, brother. Where's the Scripture? And you're like, it's Marine Corps. And you know more here we'll never like that. Nor it. Yeah, yeah, well, I'm gonna preach it anyway. Right? That would be the easy thing to do. That would also be the wrong thing to do. Like Absolutely. People in your life, who, who you look, you got to have the right mentors, man, you got to have the right people above you, like we have we're accountable to each other. We're accountable to a bishop, we're accountable. We're accountable. We've got to be held accountable. You gotta get people to space and you'll have to do that. That's right. And we got don't compromise scriptural intent. There's original intent. And then when that I think that with a lot of people struggle with, and this is don't remove the biblical friction in Scripture. What does that mean? There are going to be moments of tension in your sermons when you've got to talk about homosexuality, transgenderism, when you've got to talk about alcohol and fornicating and people shacking up, I mean, when you've got to talk and address these things, Do not avoid biblical friction. Because it's the whole word. We don't we don't pick it's not trail mix. Pastor Jason, we don't pick up just two good things out of it that was born out of s right. And I just want the m&ms It's So you don't that's not how we treat the Word of God. No, it is from cover to cover you as a leader as a follower of Christ. You cannot ignore the parts that you don't like. Yeah, that deal with areas that maybe are uncomfortable to talk about. It's just reality of it. We got to talk about it. You're convinced. rebuke, exhort. Yep. Go ahead and tell Timothy, those three things, right? And then the third one is stay pure, and don't compromise to build your ego or just a church. Yeah, a lot of times we'll compromise and not talk about these hard passages and not deal with certain things and only be good storytellers. Because that's what draws people. But I would I would challenge the fact that it's not drawing, what you're preaching is not drawing people. I think what would actually draw people is you're is you're not challenging them. But I would rather just what you said, rather than have to and, and blah, blah, blah, I'd rather have the Alberta have people come to my church that give me the space as a shepherd? Yeah. You talked about a little a little bit that we treated as parents, like, we want to be best friends, but we're supposed to be an authority figure. As pastors and leaders, we are supposed to be shepherds of these people. And challenging them is the best thing you can do. Yeah, that's a clip put on with descriptors. It's, yeah, but you know, it says here to, to, in that in that same text, and Second Timothy four, two through four, it says For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Yep. But according to their own desires, because they have 18 years, and they will keep up for themselves teachers that they will turn to, maybe they will turn their ears away from the truth. And they will turn us up to fables. At the end of the day, when I want to talk to somebody who's gonna give me the truth, whether it hurts my feelings or not, you know who to go to. And those are the people when you when you really want truth, those are the people you'll go to. Yep. And if you want, if you want to really test the relationship of how much they trust, you go to the people who only want to hear what you have to say that is good to them, and not a challenge. Go to them and challenge them with something biblically that affects their life and see if they're still a part of your life. Yeah. It because paradoxically, that we call the pastor everybody Yeah, as some brother bliss used to say, man, it's true. I'm called to preach the gospel to everybody. But I ain't called the pastor everybody. But anyway, hey, we're here to challenge you here to help you hit here to bring it bring you out, help you be better. I don't want to just feel good. I want to be good. That's right. I want to make I want to be oh my god, this the joy of the Lord is our strength. A lot of times will say, Oh, that the Lord is my joy. That's not what the scripture says that joy of the Lord is mastering what brings joy to the Lord. us walking in obedience, us listening to him, and you have to be confronted with truth in order for you to operate in obedience. Yeah, that's a whole nother talk. Come on. We go with that. But anyway, hey, you good man. You're good to go. I'm ready. We're gonna bless these people. All right, Numbers chapter six. We'd love to do this priestly blessing because we believe this over your life and pray this over your life. May the Lord bless you and protect you may the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you may the Lord showed you his favor and give you peace. Thank you so much for listening on to the to to the Tom. We'll see you here next week. See you the next time God bless you