SPEAKER_01: Hey, this is Andrew Demazio, lead pastor of Rose Church here in Portland, Oregon.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to our podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission here at Rose is building big people, becoming like Jesus in community while growing in our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever you are, wherever you are, I pray today's message challenges you and encourages you on your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Enjoy today's podcast.
SPEAKER_01: We have started a new series last Sunday called One Another.
SPEAKER_01: One another.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, as we talked about last week, there are 45 verses, there's 45 commands in the New Testament about uh blank one another.
SPEAKER_01: That's loving one another and encouraging one another and supporting one another and praying for one another.
SPEAKER_01: There's 45 of them in the New Testament that says one another.
SPEAKER_01: And so we we're spending the whole month of March on this idea that this is a communal thing.
SPEAKER_01: This is not an individual thing, this is not a solo journey, this is not um you and Jesus by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It is us, it is we, it is our, it is us together, and this is a communal journey.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going through these commands on the one another's.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we talked about what does it mean to encourage one another?
SPEAKER_01: Not just with positivity, but biblically encouraging one another as brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: And today we're gonna deal with another aspect of the one another verses.
SPEAKER_01: Real quick, before we jump into our text, let me just um paint you a picture.
SPEAKER_01: Let's do a mental exercise together.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to embody this.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to like fully hear what I'm saying and try your very best to put yourself in this scenario.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine it's the first century.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has died, resurrected, he's gone.
SPEAKER_01: It's been about 50 years since he left.
SPEAKER_01: And you are a Roman centurion.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you're a Roman guard.
SPEAKER_01: You get saved because a man named Paul is in your prison.
SPEAKER_01: And while he's in your stay, while you're a Roman guard, making sure this Roman slash Jewish man does not get out, you get saved because the power of God shows up in that cell and you get saved.
SPEAKER_01: When Paul leaves, he says, Hey, this is in Rome.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm I have to move to Ephesus and Thessalonica and Galatia, I have to go start some other churches.
SPEAKER_01: You stay here, and there's a few other believers that you can start a church with.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And as a Roman guard, you now understand that because you are now saved, this is gonna change your entire life.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says, Hey, there's this woman, uh, her name is Phoebe, go to her house.
SPEAKER_01: She's hosting another room full of other Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Start there.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: You follow me?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You're a Roman guard, you show up to this house, you walk in, you're in your Roman guard because it's status.
SPEAKER_01: You probably still have your centurion gear because of safety.
SPEAKER_01: You walk into this home, and there's not a thousand people, there's not five hundred people, there's twenty-five or thirty-five people in this terrace, in this Roman house.
SPEAKER_01: There's food, there's wine, there's people sitting around tables and talking.
SPEAKER_01: You walk in and you see a single Jewish woman who's about 17.
SPEAKER_01: And you've been told your entire life she's your enemy.
SPEAKER_01: You turn to the other side of the house, and there's a tax collector that has stolen from you your entire life.
SPEAKER_01: You turn to the other side of the house, and there's a family in which you killed their brother because he was against the Roman Empire, and they know who you are.
SPEAKER_01: You turn to the other side, and it's a Pharisee who has tried to ruin your entire life, and you know his name.
SPEAKER_01: You turn to the other side, and it's a politician who you know that you and him have ruined everyone's life in this room, and you know you and the politician have been doing things behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_01: You walk into this home and you sit down, and Phoebe says, Welcome to church.
SPEAKER_01: And they open up to a letter that talks about, dear brothers and sisters, and you look across the table going, That is not my brother and sister.
SPEAKER_01: That is my enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Let's make it worse.
SPEAKER_01: If you were a Jew in the 1930s and 40s, and you start serving Jesus, and you get invited to a gathering, and you walk in, and there's five other Nazi regimes there who have now accepted Jesus as well.
SPEAKER_01: And you open up and read, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: To make it worse.
SPEAKER_01: You're a Christian in the Gaza Strip that serves Jesus, and now you're your saved Israeli that lives in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: You get invited to a private meeting in a home and you show up, and half the room is from the Gaza Strip, and half is from Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And you open up and have to read to your brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to church.
SPEAKER_01: Let's make it even more personalized.
SPEAKER_01: See, I don't need to even read this text.
SPEAKER_01: We can talk about our cultural moment.
SPEAKER_01: You walk in, and there are immigrants there, and there's also somebody who's there January 6th, who have now both been saved.
SPEAKER_01: And you have to look across the table going, you're my brother and sister now?
SPEAKER_01: Like, friends, what I want to talk about today, and this is why it's so uncomfortable, is because I want to talk about what does it mean to live in harmony with one another.
SPEAKER_01: And is that even possible?
SPEAKER_01: Let alone in the ancient world, in our world, in our cultural moment, we live in one of the most, I won't say the most because I wasn't alive back in the 20s or back in the 1700s or back in the third century, but I would say one of the most culturally divided moments in our time.
SPEAKER_01: You would talk about Bad Bunny playing at the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_01: Divide that that lit some homes on fire.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about Trump, talk about Iran, talk about Ukraine and Russia, talk about what do you want to talk about?
SPEAKER_01: We can lay a whole bunch of stuff at the table and then sit those people in a room and go, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Is the seriously, is that even possible to do a church in complete harmony?
SPEAKER_01: That's what I want to talk about today.
SPEAKER_01: The messy church.
SPEAKER_01: You want to talk about messy church?
SPEAKER_01: Walk into a room with 25 people and see those faces around a table, and you have to ask your arch rival, can you pass the communion cup?
SPEAKER_01: You have to ask the person you've been told to never trust a day in your life, can you pass the bread?
SPEAKER_01: You want to talk about messy church?
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk about the book of Romans today.
SPEAKER_01: This was the literal Roman experience.
SPEAKER_01: Roman centurion guards, slave girls, single, married, widowed.
SPEAKER_01: People that other people in that room have most likely either murdered or ruined their life.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to do communion with those people.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul dares to say, dear brothers and sisters, live in harmony with one another.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Romans were bringing up their social status, and the Jews were bringing up their religious status.
SPEAKER_01: The Romans were like, don't you understand that?
SPEAKER_01: I'm a Roman.
SPEAKER_01: I have legal status.
SPEAKER_01: And the Jews are like, we are the children of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: We think you carry we carry your status, we are the spiritual royalty.
SPEAKER_01: So these two people are going at it in the book of Romans, chapters 11 to 16, is simply Paul trying to help a Jewish woman and a Roman man take communion together.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Jews are like, you can't eat that.
SPEAKER_01: You ever heard of kosher?
SPEAKER_01: And the Romans are like, grow up, it's just meat.
SPEAKER_01: And the Gentiles are like, this is not a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: And the Jews are like, you can't drink wine like that.
SPEAKER_01: And they cannot, they literally can't do church together.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul writes a little letter to this little house church at Phoebe's house going, I need you guys to live in harmony with one another.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what you and I are going to talk about today.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm pretty sure I don't need to remind you, maybe I do, that we have an enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not your next neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: It's not even your stepmom, it's not your boss, it's not your ex-wife.
SPEAKER_01: We have an actual enemy.
SPEAKER_01: His name is Lucifer, Satan, the devil, whatever you want to call him.
SPEAKER_01: We have an enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that enemy would look at this church and what God is doing in our midst and try to find a way to ruin what Rose is.
SPEAKER_01: And I bet you he would think is if I could cause division.
SPEAKER_01: If I could seed disunity and separate that church at the seams, they won't be able to accomplish the will of God in that city.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm trying to communicate today.
SPEAKER_01: I can't speak for any other church in this city.
SPEAKER_01: I can't speak for this one.
SPEAKER_01: That I long to be a church of harmony, a church of unity.
SPEAKER_01: And let's read Romans chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to read the majority of the chapter.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to show you some things I've never seen before until I've been wrestling with this chapter all week long.
SPEAKER_01: Man, thoughts, deleting thoughts, writing some.
SPEAKER_01: What does this mean?
SPEAKER_01: I have given all my time and attention to this one chapter this week.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to read 18 verses.
SPEAKER_01: Stay with me and hear.
SPEAKER_01: And think of the scene that I just painted in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Don't lose that scene.
SPEAKER_01: And hear these words, imagining sitting around that table.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 12, 1.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, not arch rivals, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, for this is your true and proper worship.
SPEAKER_01: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good and pleasing and perfect will.
SPEAKER_01: For by the grace given me I say to every one of you, who's the you, think of this table.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance to the faith that God has distributed to each of you.
SPEAKER_01: For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so it is in Christ we have though many from one body, uh form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
SPEAKER_01: We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us.
SPEAKER_01: If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy, in accordance with your faith.
SPEAKER_01: If it's serving, serve.
SPEAKER_01: If it's teaching, teach.
SPEAKER_01: If it's to encourage, encourage.
SPEAKER_01: If it's giving, give generously.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If it's to lead, do it diligently.
SPEAKER_01: If it's to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
SPEAKER_01: Your love must be sincere.
SPEAKER_01: Hate what is evil and cling to what is good.
SPEAKER_01: Be devoted to one another in love.
SPEAKER_01: Honor one another above yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Never lacking in zeal, but keeping your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: These three are just so good.
SPEAKER_01: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Man, if just those three could be said about our community.
SPEAKER_01: Those people are joyful in their hope, patient in their suffering, and faithful in their prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Share with the Lord's people for those who are in need.
SPEAKER_01: Practice hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: Bless those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_01: Bless.
SPEAKER_01: Do not curse.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn.
SPEAKER_01: Live in harmony with one another.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be proud.
SPEAKER_01: And be willing to associate with people of low position.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be conceited.
SPEAKER_01: Don't repay anyone evil for evil.
SPEAKER_01: But be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
SPEAKER_01: If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Could you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: Sitting in the scenario, I just painted in your mind, having those words read over the church that you just joined.
SPEAKER_01: How could we live in harmony with one another?
SPEAKER_01: Well, they did.
SPEAKER_01: They figured it out.
SPEAKER_01: This is a big aspect on what changed the world.
SPEAKER_01: Historian Rodney Stark says this about the early church.
SPEAKER_01: The early Christians responded with an appealing alternative to the state policy of religious toleration.
SPEAKER_01: Throw out all pagan gods and replace them with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: But people did not convert to Christianity solely because of what the early Christians believed.
SPEAKER_01: They converted because of the way in which the early Christians behaved.
SPEAKER_01: Love of one's neighbor is not exclusively a Christian virtue.
SPEAKER_01: But in this period, first of the third century, the Christians appear to have practiced it in a much more effective way than any other group.
SPEAKER_01: Why does this matter if you and I to live in community?
SPEAKER_01: Because living in community embodies your theology.
SPEAKER_01: You can believe whatever you want when you live by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis has this hilarious quote.
SPEAKER_01: He says this forgiveness is a lovely, abstract idea until you have to forgive someone.
SPEAKER_01: We can read all this about forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a forgiving person.
SPEAKER_01: I love to forgive.
SPEAKER_01: Wow, the forgiveness of God.
SPEAKER_01: Until you have to sit across the table and actually forgive someone.
SPEAKER_01: Then forgiveness takes on what?
SPEAKER_01: Flesh and bone.
SPEAKER_01: Living in community embodies your actual beliefs.
SPEAKER_01: You can have whatever beliefs you want until it's tested across the table.
SPEAKER_01: So, I have five ideas today on how you and I can live in harmony.
SPEAKER_01: Let me piece my way through.
SPEAKER_01: Are we okay so far?
SPEAKER_01: It is quite quiet in this room.
SPEAKER_01: Five ways.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna teach the Bible to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna just go verse by verse through all the 18, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna read you to see what Paul said.
SPEAKER_01: How in the world could we live in harmony, let alone the ancient world, our world right now?
SPEAKER_01: How could Rose live in harmony?
SPEAKER_01: Number one, I've never seen this before.
SPEAKER_01: This is profound.
SPEAKER_01: Harmony takes a renewed mind.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see how he starts?
SPEAKER_01: I've always put Romans 1 and 2 as a different section.
SPEAKER_01: I thought it belonged in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: I thought those that gave the Bible chapters and verses made a mistake.
SPEAKER_01: Like these two verses belong in chapter 11, and this chapter should start at chapter 3 because they're seemingly completely separate notions.
SPEAKER_01: Until I really dove into this text this week, what is Paul saying in Romans 12 and 1?
SPEAKER_01: Verses 1 and 2?
SPEAKER_01: How are you going to live in harmony?
SPEAKER_01: You have to have a renewal of your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Because biblical harmony is not possible if you've kept your worldly mind.
SPEAKER_01: If you still think like your news feed, harmony is not possible.
SPEAKER_01: If you still think like your university, harmony is not possible.
SPEAKER_01: If you still think how your mama raised you to think, it is not possible.
SPEAKER_01: If you only think how your TikTok feed tells you to think, harmony is not possible.
SPEAKER_01: The only way that you and I in this church, in this moment, in this cultural time, are going to live in harmony, it's only if the word of God is washing our mind.
SPEAKER_01: This is the only way.
SPEAKER_01: Look what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be conform to this world.
SPEAKER_01: Too many Christians are conformed to this world.
unknown: That's so true.
SPEAKER_01: Made in the image of.
SPEAKER_01: He says, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, have you ever considered you don't need another ultra call, you need a renewed mind.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need another pursuit, you need a renewed mind.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need just another pastor praying over you, you need a renewed mind.
SPEAKER_01: I think too often charismatic churches give so much weight to the experiential side of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Another ultra call, another prayer, another pursuit, another moment, another experience, and those are all great.
SPEAKER_01: I'm for them.
SPEAKER_01: They've changed my life.
SPEAKER_01: But what has changed the trajectory of my life is changing how I think.
SPEAKER_01: Renewing my mind.
SPEAKER_01: So, so, real simple.
SPEAKER_01: What about your life do you still think like the world?
SPEAKER_01: Don't don't nudge anyone, just you, you.
SPEAKER_01: This is for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you came.
SPEAKER_01: What things do you think about that is not found in these pages?
SPEAKER_01: If you just got saved at 22 or 25, and you see some girls from school, from your college, some friends from high school, when you start having discussions about the things you all used to agree upon, there should be some level of I don't I don't think that way anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I don't hold that value anymore.
SPEAKER_01: That's not my ideal any longer.
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
SPEAKER_01: I got my mind, my mind got renewed.
SPEAKER_01: Everything else we're gonna talk about today literally does not matter if you still think how you used to think.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's why Paul starts with chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: Let our minds be renewed.
SPEAKER_01: Why should our minds be renewed?
SPEAKER_01: So that we can live what I'm about to say.
SPEAKER_01: Because everything else we're about to read in this chapter is not possible without a renewed mind.
SPEAKER_01: Has the word of God changed how you think yet?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you still TikTok formed?
SPEAKER_01: Are you still Fox News formed?
SPEAKER_01: Are you still CNN formed?
SPEAKER_01: Are you still my professor from college formed?
SPEAKER_01: Are you still dad always told me formed?
SPEAKER_01: What has formed your mind and how you think about this world?
SPEAKER_01: Number one, harmony takes a renewed mind.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, harmony takes holy diversity.
SPEAKER_01: Harmony takes holy diversity.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see what he says in verses three to eight?
SPEAKER_01: He says, We are one body, just how your body is one, but it has many members, and they don't all have the same function.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see the language?
SPEAKER_01: We won't read it because I need to move on, but between verses three and eight, he uses this phrase over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: We have one body, but many gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Many members, one body.
SPEAKER_01: This is profound.
SPEAKER_01: That you and I serve and are formed by the Holy Spirit, right?
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is the author of oneness and unity.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is the one that makes us one and the one that makes us many.
SPEAKER_01: So we are called to be one body with many parts that are not like the other parts at all.
SPEAKER_01: But yet we're still one body.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says if you have the gift of prophecy, prophesy.
SPEAKER_01: Prophecy is not teaching.
SPEAKER_01: Teaching is not serving.
SPEAKER_01: Hospitality is not generosity.
SPEAKER_01: Those gifts are wildly different.
SPEAKER_01: But yet they're one.
SPEAKER_01: You have to hear today that we serve the spirit of one and the spirit of many.
SPEAKER_01: We serve the one that makes us one body and the one that makes us diverse.
SPEAKER_01: Later in the next book over, Corinthians, sorry, Romans, then 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 12, he doubles down in this thought, and then Ephesians 4 doubles down again.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 12, he says, What hand, so we have the body again, what hand can say to the foot, I don't need you.
SPEAKER_01: What foot can say to the eye, I don't need you.
SPEAKER_01: So, if you only like hanging out with hands, you are deformed.
SPEAKER_01: If you only get along with feet, gross.
SPEAKER_00: But weird.
SPEAKER_01: You are deformed.
SPEAKER_01: So if a church only looks like an eyeball, they're missing the rest of their body.
SPEAKER_01: If a church only looks like a hand, they're missing the rest of their body.
SPEAKER_01: If any church has not committed to diversity, they will look deformed.
SPEAKER_01: And I do not just mean racial diversity, though that is a big aspect.
SPEAKER_01: I mean diversity of gifts, talents, perspectives, ideas, upbringings, social groups, political groups.
SPEAKER_01: Like it is not just racial diversity.
SPEAKER_01: It is diversity as a whole that you and I are meant to live in.
SPEAKER_01: Where we act different than one another, but yet we're one.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want anyone to walk into Rose back, oh, that person's the image of Rose.
SPEAKER_01: Any one of us should not be the image of Rose.
SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't be able to walk in and define robes with one person characteristic.
SPEAKER_01: They all look like that, they all talk like that, they all sing like that, they all worship like that.
SPEAKER_01: Man, it is just a church of what?
SPEAKER_01: Uniformity, not unity.
SPEAKER_01: To use a bigger word, homogeneous is not the same as heterogeneous.
SPEAKER_01: Homogeneous is the word that we create one like-minded bodies and groups that all have one thing in common.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the church that he is building.
SPEAKER_01: We should be able to walk into this thing called Rose and be like, there are so many different types of people here.
SPEAKER_01: And they're all way different from one another, but they're all one.
SPEAKER_01: They're all on the same page and the same mind and the same spirit and the same heart and the same focus, and they're all there.
SPEAKER_01: What it's oneness and diversity.
SPEAKER_01: Look what Scott McKnight says about this.
SPEAKER_01: Phenomenal quote Unity transcends our differences in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: What's up there?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we must transcend our differences.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot live in our differences, we must transcend them.
SPEAKER_01: But look what he says.
SPEAKER_01: But transcending differences in Christ does not mean eradicating differences.
SPEAKER_01: Eradicating differences is what happens when we're tempted toward uniformity.
SPEAKER_01: Being one in Christ does not mean Yachov, or the Hebrew word Jacob, is no longer a Jew.
SPEAKER_01: Nor does it mean that Theodore is no longer a Gentile.
SPEAKER_01: One in Christ does not mean that Fortunatist is no longer a wealthy Roman.
SPEAKER_01: Nor that pubivist is no longer a slave.
SPEAKER_01: Getting a new mind and living in the Spirit means we transcend our differences while remaining different as we live with one another.
SPEAKER_01: And here, our differences is not eliminated.
SPEAKER_01: For difference is the vitality of our fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: It takes diversity, difference, not just racially, backgrounds, upbringing.
SPEAKER_01: It takes all of us.
SPEAKER_01: Being in one room together, being formed into the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We transcend our differences, but we don't eradicate them.
SPEAKER_01: We celebrate and we encourage diversity within unity.
SPEAKER_01: Why would we do that?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Trinity is diversity and unity.
SPEAKER_01: They're three in one, one in the same.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is not Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have a body, but they're all one.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father is not like God the Son.
SPEAKER_01: God the Son is not like God the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: They are all three distinct, different individuals, yet they're in total unity with one another.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus in the sermon in John 14, 15, 16, 17, he says, Lord, I pray that they will be one like we are one.
SPEAKER_01: Total unity within our diversity.
SPEAKER_01: So, harmony takes diversity.
SPEAKER_01: Number three.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying.
SPEAKER_01: Harmony takes continual formation.
SPEAKER_01: Continual formation.
SPEAKER_01: Look what he says in verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Your love must be sincere.
SPEAKER_01: Hate what was evil, cling to what is good.
SPEAKER_01: Be devoted to one another.
SPEAKER_01: Think of each other above yourselves, honor one another.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this, verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Never lacking in zeal.
SPEAKER_01: But keeping your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking to ongoing, committed discipleship to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So what happens is in my life and in your life, we can kind of put it in neutral and we go into passive Christianity, not intentional Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: It's whatever, another Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go, let's give, let's go to pursue, let's sit in the back, let's sing, let's go home, let's leave early.
SPEAKER_01: We got stuff, let's come late, we're busy, let's go to the connect and not really dive in.
SPEAKER_01: Let's give but not really be generous.
SPEAKER_01: Let's kind of like stir, but like it's just like, well, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And you would just put yourself in neutral and you're just passively becoming what you become.
SPEAKER_01: You're just passively floating through this river called Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: That is not what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about keep your zeal, keep your spiritual fervor.
SPEAKER_01: Because then when we again imagine the image, the room you walk into, that will settle some anxiousness when you walk into a room of difference, when you walk into a room of diversity, but you know, every one of us around the table, we are highly committed to being formed by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We're highly fervent, we have our fervor, we have our zeal, we're pursuing Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: None of us in this room are being passive about our faith.
SPEAKER_01: We are all we're all doing this, right?
SPEAKER_01: We are all intentional that will probably give some peace to your spirit, because you know that no one in this room is slacking.
SPEAKER_01: No one in this room is not taking this seriously.
SPEAKER_01: We are all this whole connector, we're seriously pursuing the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And this continual formation is going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Why does the continual formation need to happen?
SPEAKER_01: Because this was really, really hard.
SPEAKER_01: And there maybe there's some people in the room that you don't like.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's why you left the Kinet group.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's why you switched services, because you don't like the girl at the 830, so you came to the 1030 and whatever, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like you have services of law.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't an option back then.
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't a bridget town to go to.
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't a door hope.
SPEAKER_01: There was one church in the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: There was no escape down the road.
SPEAKER_01: So you got highly offended.
SPEAKER_01: Guess who's back tomorrow?
SPEAKER_01: That same girl.
SPEAKER_01: There is no, I don't think this church is for me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me find another.
SPEAKER_01: There is no other.
SPEAKER_01: Not yet, there isn't.
SPEAKER_01: So they had to what?
SPEAKER_01: Work through the messiness of church.
SPEAKER_01: So my submission to you, if there's some people that you just like don't really vibe with, because I dare you.
SPEAKER_01: I dare you to do this.
SPEAKER_01: I dare you.
SPEAKER_01: Double dog, dare you.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for them.
SPEAKER_01: And watch your heart start getting softer and softer and softer.
SPEAKER_01: And your anger and your bitterness or your uh preconceived notions about what those type of people act like and what they always do, your heart starts getting what?
SPEAKER_01: Linked with theirs.
SPEAKER_01: And something starts changing, something starts being softening.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't think your hatred is valid if you're not praying for them.
SPEAKER_01: Continual formation, continual pursuits of God.
SPEAKER_01: The fervor and the spiritual zeal must be there.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, How do you do this?
SPEAKER_01: Be joyful in hope.
SPEAKER_01: So good.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we'll do a series on this in the future.
SPEAKER_01: Be joyful in hope.
SPEAKER_01: Patient in suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Patient in affliction.
SPEAKER_01: Faithful in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: If you are telling me you can't find harmony with anyone in this church, I have a question.
SPEAKER_01: Are you faithful in prayer?
SPEAKER_01: I have a question.
SPEAKER_01: Are you patient in suffering?
SPEAKER_01: I have a question.
SPEAKER_01: Are you joyful in the hope you've been given?
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you what, those three things will start creating a synergy and a harmony.
SPEAKER_01: And then Lucas says at the end, he says, uh, share with the Lord's people, those who are in need.
SPEAKER_01: Practice hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: I love that word.
SPEAKER_01: He does not say, pray that God you're born with it.
SPEAKER_01: Tell your friends this is my spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, practice it.
SPEAKER_01: Get better at it.
SPEAKER_01: Practice hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: You know what the word in Greek practice?
SPEAKER_01: It means seek out opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: Practice it.
SPEAKER_01: Seek out opportunities to be what?
SPEAKER_01: Generous.
SPEAKER_01: Hospitable.
SPEAKER_01: Number four.
SPEAKER_01: Are we okay?
SPEAKER_01: So people walked out last service.
SPEAKER_01: So I know this is a difficult idea, but this is what we are committed to.
SPEAKER_01: Actually living in harmony with one another.
SPEAKER_01: Number four.
SPEAKER_01: Harmony takes humility.
SPEAKER_01: Humility.
SPEAKER_01: And this is where I want to drill down and offend you even further.
SPEAKER_01: Notice verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Live in harmony with one another.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: Paul, how are we gonna do that?
SPEAKER_00: Don't be proud.
SPEAKER_01: But be willing to associate with people with low position.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be conceited.
SPEAKER_01: One of the biggest hindrances to church harmony is pride.
SPEAKER_01: Pride.
SPEAKER_01: To be inconsiderate, to be conceited.
SPEAKER_01: To what?
SPEAKER_01: Those in the lowly positions.
SPEAKER_01: Church, we will never ever accomplish biblical harmony if we are not people of humility.
SPEAKER_01: If pride was powerful enough to get the devil kicked out of heaven, what do you think it's gonna do to you and I?
SPEAKER_01: And it sounds like this.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you go up to somebody you have nothing in common with and go to coffee with them?
SPEAKER_01: And just ask, can you just tell me what it's like being you?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, like I know, like you're an immigrant and you moved here and you spoke only Spanish till eight and you had to learn English.
SPEAKER_01: What was that like?
SPEAKER_01: Having to learn English at 8, 9, 10 in a school when everyone knew a language but you.
SPEAKER_01: What was that like?
SPEAKER_01: What was it like being raised by a single dad?
SPEAKER_01: Like, how did that shape and form you?
SPEAKER_01: What was it like living off food stamps?
SPEAKER_01: I never missed a meal a day in my life.
SPEAKER_01: What was that like?
SPEAKER_01: Believing in food scarcity that actually matters every day to you.
SPEAKER_01: Hey man, what's it like owning a business?
SPEAKER_01: What kind of pressure is that?
SPEAKER_01: What's it like getting saved at 45?
SPEAKER_01: I've been raised in church my entire life.
SPEAKER_01: What's it like going to church later in life?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know the only way those conversations happen?
SPEAKER_01: Humility.
SPEAKER_01: Being humble enough to ask someone else, can I just pay for some coffee?
SPEAKER_01: Can I pay for a meal?
SPEAKER_01: I just want to learn more about you.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're a brother and sister to me.
SPEAKER_01: We're in this thing called family of church together, Rose, and I want to know more about you because notice he doesn't describe the lowly position because the Romans thought the Jews were lowly.
SPEAKER_01: And the Jews thought the Romans were lowly.
SPEAKER_01: So how about both of you come low?
SPEAKER_01: He does not say invite the lowly people to the high place.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Why don't you come low?
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you associate with lowly positioned people?
SPEAKER_01: And that's why I love the Bible, because he leaves it pretty open.
SPEAKER_01: Who do you think is the lower position to you?
SPEAKER_01: That could be racial, that could be intellectual, that could be financial, that could be political.
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, you only make how much money?
SPEAKER_01: We don't really have that much in common.
SPEAKER_01: You don't own a business, you're just a manager, we don't have that much in common.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you never graduated?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we don't have like you can create positions, strata in every situation of your whole life.
SPEAKER_01: And then what do you start doing?
SPEAKER_01: You start creating every table that looks like you, sounds like you, votes like you, and you just start creating mirrors of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And no wonder you live in total harmony because you live with yourself.
SPEAKER_01: This is when church gets messy, friends.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about messy church today.
SPEAKER_00: Try it out.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's the best?
SPEAKER_01: Right around somebody like, I can't wait for someone to invite me to coffee.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I can't wait.
SPEAKER_01: Hope someone invites me to coffee after church today.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is why what I'm speaking on never happens.
SPEAKER_01: Because everyone waits for the other.
SPEAKER_01: And then you leave Rose saying, no one did it.
SPEAKER_01: Did you?
SPEAKER_01: Well, no.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I just can't wait for this to come into fruition.
SPEAKER_01: How about you?
SPEAKER_01: After church today?
SPEAKER_01: No, maybe not after church.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty disingenuous.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, don't just walk up to somebody right after church going, all right, you and me, we're not alike.
SPEAKER_01: Let's get coffee.
SPEAKER_01: It's a bit weird.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not start there.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: A bit disingenuous.
SPEAKER_01: In the golf cart.
SPEAKER_01: Me and you, man.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, after church some Sunday at a pursuit?
SPEAKER_01: At a connect group?
SPEAKER_01: That somebody says something so different than how you think?
SPEAKER_01: Instead of shutting it down, go, that is, I've never thought of that.
SPEAKER_01: Where did you come?
SPEAKER_01: How did you think?
SPEAKER_01: Like, can we?
SPEAKER_01: I'm really bad at this, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Don't that loud.
SPEAKER_01: I go! I'm bad at this.
SPEAKER_01: My mother goes, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Humility?
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk later.
SPEAKER_01: My wife is so much better at this than me.
SPEAKER_01: She, I I need to get better at this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just not.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying really hard.
SPEAKER_01: But she's so good at having holy curiosity.
SPEAKER_01: So when you go to coffee, do you just talk the entire time?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you actually ask questions?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what do you think?
SPEAKER_01: How did that hit you?
SPEAKER_01: Like, I have I have like, is it always about you?
SPEAKER_01: What is that called?
SPEAKER_01: Pride.
SPEAKER_01: She's so much better at this than me.
SPEAKER_01: Like, get curious.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of going, that is so stupid.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, where did you get that from?
SPEAKER_01: That's an interesting perspective.
SPEAKER_01: Like, where did who taught you that?
SPEAKER_01: Like, get curious.
SPEAKER_01: And you might be invited to somebody else's seat and see an angle of something you have never considered in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you've sat in your seat your whole life.
SPEAKER_01: Harmony takes humility.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, could I know it's like been really quiet today because I think people are really considering our world.
SPEAKER_01: Could you imagine sitting across the table from someone who imprisoned your uncle?
SPEAKER_01: Who killed your father?
SPEAKER_01: Who tore down your business because you started serving Jesus and they ruined everything?
SPEAKER_01: And you show up to communion table with that joker across the table.
SPEAKER_01: And you have to call them brothers and sisters?
SPEAKER_01: This is my question.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't get into this last service because I forgot.
SPEAKER_01: How do we live with total forgiveness of past mistakes while not erasing the ramifications of them?
SPEAKER_01: How do we believe in like pre-cross?
SPEAKER_01: Like everything you've ever done is forgiven under the blood of Jesus, but it still affects my life.
SPEAKER_01: I know what you did five years ago is forgiven under the blood of Jesus, but that decision still has ramifications to me right now.
SPEAKER_01: So how are we going to work?
SPEAKER_01: You know what's humility, humility that takes?
SPEAKER_01: We can all scream about let's do harmony, let's do unity, until it really becomes something hard.
SPEAKER_01: Number five.
SPEAKER_01: Very, very important.
SPEAKER_01: Harmony takes personal ownership.
SPEAKER_01: Personal ownership.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see in verse 18?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17 and 18, where we end it.
SPEAKER_01: It says, do not repay evil for evil, but be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
SPEAKER_01: If it is possible, he opens the window.
SPEAKER_01: It's not always possible.
SPEAKER_01: If it is possible, look at it.
SPEAKER_01: As far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone.
SPEAKER_01: See, he opens the window at the end.
SPEAKER_01: Because there are some people it's not possible to live in peace with.
SPEAKER_01: A whole conscience and go, I did everything I could.
SPEAKER_01: If it was up to me, I lived in peace.
SPEAKER_01: As far as it had to do with me, we lived in peace and harmony.
SPEAKER_01: There are two things that you, I'll just give you an out right now.
SPEAKER_01: There are two things you never have to be unified over.
SPEAKER_01: Number one is sin.
SPEAKER_01: People are just flat out living a life of sin.
SPEAKER_01: And if you try to have a pastor meeting them, I can't believe you told them.
SPEAKER_01: I thought we were unified.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not unified over your disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: And second, false doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Things we do not teach, things we do not believe expressions.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I thought you'd be curious.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, I'm not curious about lies.
SPEAKER_01: I do not believe what you said.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity does not believe what you just said.
SPEAKER_01: We are not unified.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the only two things.
SPEAKER_01: You can immediately be allied.
SPEAKER_01: We're not unified over this.
SPEAKER_01: I will not unify over your sin.
SPEAKER_01: I will not unify over your false doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Beyond that, do everything you can.
SPEAKER_01: As long as it has to do with you to live in peace.
SPEAKER_01: So again, so what what's one of the fruit of the spirits?
SPEAKER_01: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, kindness, and self-control.
SPEAKER_01: A fruit of the spirit is not other control.
SPEAKER_01: And I wish it was.
SPEAKER_01: It's what?
SPEAKER_01: Self-control.
SPEAKER_01: The only control you get while serving Jesus is controlling yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You can't control their decisions.
SPEAKER_01: You can't control their response.
SPEAKER_01: You can't control the email that's coming back.
SPEAKER_01: You can't control the text that's coming back.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot control them.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says, as long as it's up to you, personal ownership, I will live in unity and peace with everyone that I do church with.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why should we live this way?
SPEAKER_01: Rose, why should we attempt to be in harmony with one another?
SPEAKER_01: Psalms 133.
SPEAKER_01: How wonderful and pleasant it is when the brothers live in harmony together.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: For harmony is as precious as anointing oil.
SPEAKER_01: Harmony is precious.
SPEAKER_01: That's poured over Aaron's beer that ran down.
SPEAKER_01: Look at second thing.
SPEAKER_01: Harmony is as refreshing.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_01: Could you imagine leaving that divisive, hatred, hateful job that you live in?
SPEAKER_01: And when you come into rose, it's what?
SPEAKER_01: Refreshing.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to argue with everyone and everything.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to.
SPEAKER_01: This is what harmony does.
SPEAKER_01: It is it's it's as precious as oil and it's as refreshing as water.
SPEAKER_01: You ever woke up at four in the morning and your throat is as dry as the Sahara Desert?
SPEAKER_01: And you go downstairs and get that big old cup of water?
SPEAKER_01: That first drink is holy.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's speaking of.
SPEAKER_01: When this life is making you dry, you know what's refreshing?
SPEAKER_01: Harmony.
SPEAKER_01: Now why?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why does this matter?
SPEAKER_01: Because Luke says at the end, and there, where's there?
SPEAKER_01: Harmony.
SPEAKER_01: Unity.
SPEAKER_01: Where's there?
SPEAKER_01: The place of harmony.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord pronounces his blessing.
SPEAKER_01: The ESV says he commands a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So Watemon is very committed to living in harmony with one another?
SPEAKER_01: Because if that's where God's blessing is, I'm one of our church blessed, I'm one of our families blessed, I'm one of our resources blessed, I'm one of our services blessed, and then if God is coming, I'm one of the poem I'm blessing about.
SPEAKER_00: What the fuck can I put them on my blessing about?
SPEAKER_00: Places of unity.
SPEAKER_00: Places of harmony.
SPEAKER_00: That's a profit.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will commend it.
SPEAKER_00: I will declare it.
SPEAKER_01: That's a place of harmony.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what can happen is if you don't think Rose is harmonious enough for you, you'll find another church.
SPEAKER_01: That church won't be harmonious enough for you, or as unified, you'll find this is what this is what we hear these sermons and tend to do.
SPEAKER_01: I can't wait to find that church.
SPEAKER_01: I can't wait to find it as if it's floating out in the cosmos somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: What we need to think is, I can't wait to cultivate that church.
SPEAKER_01: This church does not fall from the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: Because guess what?
SPEAKER_01: If the church was perfect, it's not when you got there.
SPEAKER_01: The minute I walk into the connect group, it's no longer perfect.
SPEAKER_01: You know that, right?
SPEAKER_01: The minute you showed up, Rose stopped being perfect.
SPEAKER_01: So what do we do?
SPEAKER_01: We go from connector to connect group, church to church, looking for a church of harmony.
SPEAKER_01: We should not be looking for a church of harmony.
SPEAKER_01: We should be, how can I create?
SPEAKER_01: Churches like this are not dreamt, they're cultivated.
SPEAKER_01: It's not going to fall out of the air like, oh wow, one day Rose became very unified.
SPEAKER_01: Never.
SPEAKER_01: It's when we create it.
SPEAKER_01: When we cultivate it.
SPEAKER_01: When we when we when we go through the hard stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Live in harmony.
SPEAKER_01: I just, man, I'm telling you, I know I've gone over it four times this sermon, but like, just imagine sitting in that room and hearing those words.
SPEAKER_01: Live in harmony, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: You would think, and so would I.
SPEAKER_01: That's not, come on, man.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what's going on here?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Paul does know.
SPEAKER_01: The church has gotten messy.
SPEAKER_01: It's always been messy.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the church 20 years has really taken the left turn.
SPEAKER_01: No, it has not.
SPEAKER_01: We've been going left for 2,000 years.
SPEAKER_01: Read the Bible, friends.
SPEAKER_01: It's been messy.
SPEAKER_01: First Corinthians, he writes to the church of Corinth, he said, tell so-so, and he names him.
SPEAKER_01: Stop sleeping with your mother.
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about 5,000 people.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about 25 people in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Tell us jump on the sleep with his mother.
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's 20 of us in this mug, man.
SPEAKER_00: Like, we all know.
SPEAKER_00: Tell them about messy.
SPEAKER_01: Like, we need to recommit to the messy church.
SPEAKER_01: This is not gonna be easy.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna stumble, you're gonna fall, you're gonna make a joke that wasn't funny, you're gonna make a stigma that wasn't right.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have, I'm so sorry, I didn't know, I didn't realize I will never like it takes humility.
SPEAKER_01: It takes getting up again and falling again and getting up again.
SPEAKER_01: And if we do this, man, in 10, 20, 30 years from now, we can look back and go, man, I almost left about 500 times, but thank God I stayed.
SPEAKER_01: And we worked our way through this.
SPEAKER_01: Rose, let us be known as a church of harmony, not uniformity, deep diversity.
SPEAKER_01: Deep diversity while remaining one.
SPEAKER_01: If our ministry has been a blessing to you at all, whether through the podcast, online, or through socials, would you consider partnering with us financially to help us continue blessing people and reaching people with the gospel of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to do so, you can go online to Rosechurch.org slash give.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for partnering with us and helping us continue to do what God has put in our hearts here for you.