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167. Freedom To Love Without Compromise · 4-Freedom Podcast

0:10
I found my freedom in you. I found a toy I can't lose, and
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thank God it's true. You wrapped your arms around me
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and heaven broke through. From the moment she found me.
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I found. Welcome to the Four Freedom
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Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the
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freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with
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everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James
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Seyfried and Brett Marks. Welcome back to the Four Freedom
0:49
Podcast. It is a blessing to be back with
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you. What a wonderful day it is.
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Over this last week and weekend, we have been getting wonderful
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storms. We've needed some rain, but
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we've been getting some rain here in North Carolina.
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And I know Arkansas and Tennessee have been getting
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flooded. My family's, my wife's family's
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in Arkansas and I'm seeing roads been flooded.
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It's reminded me of what happened with Helene here just a
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couple months ago with North Carolina.
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Lots of things going on in Tennessee with flooding,
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tornadoes, lots of those things. Brett, you're alive in
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Mississippi. Have y'all had any of these
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storms come through? What's it looking like in
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y'all's area? Well, we've had some
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thunderstorms come through. We had thunderstorm come through
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Saturday night, early Sunday morning.
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But for the most part all the bad weather is went north of us
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and South of us. We've kind of threaded the
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needle as far as the really bad weather goes.
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And so we're blessed in that regard.
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And so, but we've just been enjoying this, these rain has
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come through making the grass grow.
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So we've been out cutting grass in between rain storms.
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And so it's just, you know, it's, it's that time of year.
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Yeah, I love it. I think it's great.
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And I love the the spring, summer weather, fall weather,
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winter weather. I, I love all the weather, man.
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I I love it when it's hot. I love it when it's cold.
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I don't like it when it's too hot.
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The weather, man. Yeah.
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And it's great to be outside with the kids when we're
2:18
recording this. I had a full schedule of stuff,
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right? I had Monday with is when we're
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recording this. I had a 2 football games.
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My son Brody had a both football games as well.
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He had a baseball game this afternoon.
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My youngest son, Hudson had a baseball game and my daughter
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had a volleyball practice. It was crazy busy.
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And all of a sudden, like almost all at once, I'm getting text
2:39
message. Football games are canceled,
2:40
baseball practices are canceled. We still have volleyball
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practice to go to. But it's like I went from a slam
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pack, a wide open schedule full of everything to a schedule of
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nothing. Like I don't, I don't have
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anything to do this afternoon. So those those things happen
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when you get these thunderstorms in the middle of the springtime.
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So I'll tell you one thing that happened to me is I had ordered.
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I wanted a big do a big push for Easter.
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So I ordered 500 door hangers. I ordered 1000 tracks and I am
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getting ready to go out and we're getting ready to go out
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the Sunday before Easter and pass all these out.
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And so I have the all the tracks and door hangers in a box
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outside the church office. And I come in and I listen to a
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seminary class on spiritual warfare.
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And I didn't think much of it. No nice class.
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An hour later I get a knock on the door said, Brother Brett,
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you, you got to come look at this.
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And so I went out there and the there was an AC line in the
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attic above the church office that had flooded it.
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It water was, you know, full of the light fixture was full of
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water and it dripped right on top of my box of tracks and it
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ruined like 1000 tracks. Now, I was able to salvage the
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door hangers and we're still going to go out this coming
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Sunday and put the door hangers out.
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But I got out Sunday morning to talk about spiritual warfare and
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how the devil doesn't want us out passing out tracks.
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You don't want us inviting people to church.
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And then we went to go pray for the offering and I heard a
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crash, boom, bam. The whole ceiling in front of
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the church office collapsed while we were in Sunday morning
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church. And then I got up and I said
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that when I got the preacher said, you know, some people say
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that they don't go to church because of the roof will fall
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in. I want to know whose fault it
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was. They got a laugh out of that.
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But yeah, the spiritual warfare is real.
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Devil doesn't want us out passing out tracks and like
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people to church, but we're going to go out and do it
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anyway. So y'all are literally going to
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be raising the roof here in a couple of weeks?
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Exactly, exactly. This is going to be on fire.
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Yeah, So hey, got some great things coming up.
4:54
We're nearing the end of this season of recording.
4:57
We've got just one more episode, Lord Wheeling of this woke
5:01
series this week and next week we'll be wrapping it up and then
5:05
we're going to jump into some college Bible college series
5:08
talking through some different forefathers of the independent
5:11
fundamental Baptist movement. We began when John started this
5:15
podcast 4-5 years ago, he began talking about J Frank Norris and
5:20
what that looked like in his life.
5:22
And he really LED up to like the Bob Jones, Bob Gray, J Frank
5:27
Norris sort of Lord, he really ended there.
5:31
So we're going to try to pick up a little bit with the house
5:33
Anderson and Jack Howes and sort of follow the thread of the
5:37
needle from there over the like over the last month of the of
5:42
the podcast and, and leading up into our summertime.
5:45
We'll have some, we're already working on some great interviews
5:47
for next season and it's going to be a great time.
5:50
Just excited about what the Lord has given us as far as vision
5:53
wise and excited about some topics coming up.
5:57
Hope you've tuned in and hope you've enjoyed it.
5:59
I've we've gotten lots of feedback from this series of
6:03
just talking through some topics that aren't necessarily talked
6:06
about on our everyday issues and we want to be faithful with
6:11
that. And Brett, we've got Dallas
6:14
coming up and man, it's getting here quick.
6:16
We are, I mean, two months away from being in Dallas and being
6:23
right there at the convention and hanging out.
6:26
And so we're excited about that being down there.
6:28
And if you're planning on being there, please let us know so we
6:31
can hang out. We've got some lunches already
6:33
planned, some dinners already planned with some people, but
6:36
we'll definitely have you come on, hang out with us and we'd
6:38
love to see you. Yes, me.
6:41
I tell you what we we need, we need a muster point, we need a
6:44
rendezvous point at at Dallas. And if you don't text us, you
6:49
can meet us. If you go to the Luther Rice
6:52
booth and you, you accost a man by the name of Marcus Merrick
6:56
and he's going to be our liaison there.
6:59
And, you know, you tell him that you're for freedom and he'll
7:01
give you all the free stuff and. I will tell you that no, no, no
7:08
plug here on Luther Rice Seminary, but if you want to go
7:11
there, it's great. They have some of the best merch
7:13
ever. Like they find some of the
7:14
coolest mugs, some of the best hats.
7:17
My son wears their blue hat all the time with the leather patch
7:21
on it. All right, They've got some of
7:22
the coolest merchandise out there and it's always free.
7:25
That's awesome. Exactly, and they got some good
7:28
swag. And of course, swag means stuff
7:31
we all get and so, so they got some good swag there.
7:36
But also don't forget, not only on we are, are we on the road to
7:40
Dallas, but we're on the road to Israel because we've got Israel
7:44
coming up in 2026. Our Israel trip, it is happening
7:48
finally. Our dates are January 30th
7:51
through February 7th. And we're looking forward to
7:54
this trip. We've been looking forward to it
7:55
for a long time. We want you to go with us and
7:58
the spots are filling up quick. We need you to if you want to
8:01
go, you've got till just a month or two to put in the the deposit
8:07
for that. It's a 450 deposit to reserve
8:09
your spot, get on the website, go to our Facebook page, go to
8:12
our website, check it out, see our our itinerary on the trip
8:17
website and and put in your registration pay, get get your
8:22
deposit down, secure your spot. We're going to spend over a week
8:26
in the Holy Land going to different places, places we've
8:29
been before, places we've never been.
8:32
And it'll, it'll change your life.
8:34
I guarantee it'll change your prayer life, your Bible reading,
8:37
you'll never look at the Bible the same way again.
8:39
And I just really want you to go if you ever, if you have an
8:42
inkling that you want to go on this trip, check out the
8:45
website, read that itinerary. We've got a payment plan.
8:49
We've got a year to to pay on this trip to get it to get to
8:53
get ready to go and so we are looking forward to our Israel
8:56
trip. Absolutely.
8:57
You know, we were talking about Marcus Merritt with his free
9:00
stuff. Unfortunately here at the Full
9:01
Freedom podcast, we don't have the big money back rollers as
9:04
Luther Rice does. So we have to have some fun
9:06
adventures to pay for what we do, which is the Full Freedom
9:11
cigar line, which we're excited to have and roll out with.
9:15
And we are excited about what the Lord's doing through it.
9:18
And the, the sales that we've had have definitely helped the
9:22
podcast podcast and help us update some of the things that
9:25
we've been doing. Hope you've noticed that with
9:27
some of our additional editing and some other things that we've
9:30
been doing. So those things always help and
9:33
always give value to what we're doing.
9:35
And so we'd love for you to go over, check out the link to our
9:38
cigar line and our show notes. And Father's Day is coming up.
9:42
Maybe your dad enjoys some. This would be a great time for
9:45
you to grab him a 5 pack or a sampler pack for him to have
9:48
there and all the prices on the website at a very discounted
9:52
rate based on the premium cigar factory that we have.
9:55
And so hopefully you'll go and check that out as well.
9:58
And I've been, we're excited about the day's episode and
10:01
we're going to jump right into it.
10:03
And Brett's got our cold open here in just a minute.
10:18
We cannot truly worship God while we stay silent on
10:21
injustice in all kinds of areas. And I know as a white pastor I
10:25
have blind spots, so I am part of the problem.
10:31
James Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith.
10:35
From there, Jewish. Scriptures.
10:39
And my friends. We must as well.
10:46
White people fear black men. That's not fair.
10:51
But it's true. Jesus repents of his racism and
10:56
extends healing to this woman's daughter.
10:59
I love this story because it's a reminder that Jesus is human.
11:01
He had prejudices and bias and when confronted with it, he was
11:05
willing to do his work. I believe in the non binary God
11:12
whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their
11:17
child who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads and saw
11:23
everyone as a sibling child of God.
11:27
I believe in the rainbow spirit who shatters our image of 1
11:32
white light and refracted into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity.
11:38
I believe in the Church of everyday Saints as numerous,
11:42
creative and resilient as catches on the 8th quilt, whose
11:48
feet are grounded in mud and whose eyes gaze at the stars and
11:53
wonder. I believe in the calling to each
11:56
of us that love is love is love. So, beloved, let us love, I
12:03
believe, glorious God help my unbelief.
12:08
Amen. This woke self loathing and we
12:19
will never let the woke left take it away.
12:22
It's because they're putting woke ideology.
12:24
To a woke. Mob that can't even tell you
12:27
what a woman is. In this season of the Full
12:37
Freedom Podcast, we want to bring to you some enlightening
12:39
topics that deal with the wokeness of the church.
12:43
We want to bring to light some issues that are often
12:46
overlooked, and we hope that it'll be a blessing to you in
12:50
your listening experience. Everybody OK.
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There was a church in a small town that had always been a
13:06
beacon of hope and truth in the community.
13:09
Pastor David had served there for over 20 years.
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He was known for his unwavering commitment to God's Word,
13:16
preaching with clarity and conviction, but also with love
13:21
and grace. One Sunday after service, a
13:24
young woman named Sarah came to him, her eyes filled with
13:28
emotion. Sarah had grown up in the
13:31
church, and Pastor David had seen her grow from a child into
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a woman, always a part of the congregation.
13:39
But recently, she'd been struggling.
13:42
She had made choices in her life that didn't align with
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Scripture, choices that Pastor David had always taught against.
13:51
With a trembling voice, Sarah said.
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Pastor, I need you to understand.
13:57
I need your support. I feel like I'm losing
14:01
everything if I'm honest. I feel like you're turning your
14:05
back on me because of my choices.
14:08
Doesn't love mean accepting people for who they are, no
14:11
matter what? Pastor David paused, looking at
14:15
her, his heart heavy. He loved Sarah like a daughter.
14:20
He had prayed for her, walked alongside her, and wanted
14:24
nothing more than to see her walk in God's truth.
14:27
But in that moment, he faced the dilemma.
14:32
His love for Sarah was real, but so was his commitment to God's
14:37
Word. Sarah's words echoed in his mind
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long after the conversation ended.
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Doesn't love mean accepting people for who they are, no
14:48
matter what? It was a question that many
14:54
pastors, churches and believers are wrestling with today.
14:59
The culture is pushing for a love that accepts everything, no
15:03
questions asked, no boundaries drawn.
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But the Gospel tells us something different.
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It calls us to love without compromise, to offer grace, but
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also to speak the truth in love. This story, while deeply
15:21
personal, is a reflection of the larger issue the church is
15:25
facing. Can we truly love without
15:29
compromising God's truth? Welcome back to Four Freedom
15:38
podcast. I'm your host, Brett here with
15:41
James. Thanks for tuning in again.
15:43
And we're continuing our series in Freedom from Wokeness and
15:48
where we're discussing how to live out God's truth in a world
15:52
that often tries to, you know, redefine truth.
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We've talked about that a lot through this series, James, And,
15:59
and, and today's topic is so important.
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It's close to my heart because I've got family members and not
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only church members that I'm that I'm having to navigate this
16:10
subject with. And I know that there are other
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blisters out there that they have, they have family members
16:17
also that they may be working through this with.
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But the title of the the subject is freedom to love without
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compromise. And this is just an important
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discussion because so many people today think that in order
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to love someone, it means that we have to compromise with the
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word of God says. Exactly, Brett.
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And you know, the truth is true love is rooted in God's truth.
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It is where we get truth from where we get love from.
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Bible says that love is from God because God is love.
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And it's about standing firm on our faith and loving people
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without watering down what we believe.
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So today we're going to be discussing this topic and we're
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going to dive into this this this topic of how the modern
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culture has pressured us to compromise love, how the church
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has responded, and what Scripture says about loving
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without compromise. Right.
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So let's let's let's get into it.
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So let's. Start with the culture that we
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live in. It feels like everywhere we turn
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we hear that loving people means accepting everything about them,
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even behaviors that go against what God says in Scripture.
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How do you how do you see this playing out today?
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Modern culture often promotes the idea that love equals total
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acceptance of someone's actions and their lifestyle, regardless
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of whether those actions align with biblical truth.
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The idea of loving without judgment is often twisted to
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mean that if we disagree with someone's choices, we're not
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loving them. In reality, true love cares
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enough to speak the truth even when it's uncomfortable.
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There's often times where we are the voice of reason in the
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desert, and our voice of reason is what is going to call someone
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to begin that journey of questioning when we speak the
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truth in love without compromising what we believe.
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Exactly. You know, there's so many people
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out there, their life verse is, you know, judge not lest you be
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judged. It's the only, that's the only
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verse in the Bible that they know is judge not lest you be
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judged. You know, you're not supposed to
18:30
judge me, you know, but I, I, I think the pressure to accept and
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embrace things that go against God's word has really ramped up.
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You see it in the LGBTQ plus debate, for instance, where
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people are told that if they truly love others, they have to
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endorse things like same sex marriage, even if they don't
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align with what Scripture says about marriage between a man and
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a woman. You know, how do we navigate
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that, James? We've seen so much, We've seen
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these people, these Christian business owners that they work
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on wedding cakes or they have wedding venues and they're
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having to, you know, deny doing business because somebody's that
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because a same sex relationship doesn't align with their with
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their beliefs. And then they're these these
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only business owners, they're persecuted because of their
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religious beliefs and they're called haters and they're called
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prejudice and things like that when it's actually a loving
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thing that they're doing. Yeah, but I think that's a
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perfect example. This is a great thing to look at
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and and I think the the first and foremost thing and, and
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really the most biblical thing we can do is be clear.
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Loving someone doesn't mean I'm going to affirm every choice
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they make. I think that we've confused love
19:53
with approval. We can love people while calling
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while still calling them to something higher the the the
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gospel. But it's about speaking the
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truth in love, not compromising the gospel just to make someone
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feel comfortable in today's day and age, right?
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We want to show love towards people, but we don't want to
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accept and feel like they they we're accepting what they're
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doing. For instance, if I have a friend
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who is LGBTQ. And they have a wedding.
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I'm not going to go to that wedding because as a witness of
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that wedding, I am endorsing what is going on there.
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And so I'm going to love them. I'm going to care for them.
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I'm going to have lunch with them.
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I'm going to have dinner with them.
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We're going to hang out. I'm going to share the gospel
20:36
with them. But I'm not going to show up and
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support what they're doing in a public manner because that is me
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endorsing. Still can love them, but we're
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not endorsing what they're doing.
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Exactly what was in that? I can't remember the name of the
20:53
preacher, but it's the same pastor that talked about.
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He had a video one time about the man on the middle, Cross
21:00
said I could go in. Sinclair.
21:02
Was it Sinclair or was it No, it wasn't Sinclair it was.
21:07
I know you're talking about though.
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Yeah, I'm, I'll look it up while you're talking.
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But he's, you know, he said that that same guy, he had made this,
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this this pastor had stood up and said this woman had asked
21:20
him, should I go to this LGBTQ wedding even though I don't
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align with it? And then this pastor, same
21:29
pastor said, yes, he would go. I think that's a compromise.
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OK. I don't think that's that's the
21:34
right decision. I agree with you in there,
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Alice. Alistair Begg.
21:39
Alistair Beck. That's it.
21:40
That's it. He said that he would go to the
21:42
wedding to show them love. I don't know.
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And the point of what we're talking about today is that's
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actually not a loving thing to do.
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It actually shows that you love yourself more than you love that
21:55
person or that you love God's truth.
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Let's talk about the church, OK? Because unfortunately it has
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been, it hasn't been immune to this cultural pressure.
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Many churches have compromised and biblical truths in an
22:10
attempt to be more inclusive, especially issues like
22:13
sexuality, gender, and marriage. How have you seen this play out
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within the church, James? Yeah, you know, there's been a
22:21
trend where churches soften their stance on sin, especially
22:26
sexual sin. They avoid alienating people.
22:30
But the reality is the church's mission isn't to make people
22:33
feel good about their sin. It is to help people understand
22:36
that the grace and freedom found in Jesus Christ.
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By compromising God's truth, we're not loving people.
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We're actually enabling them to stay in bondage.
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But I'm often reminded of how many times Jesus sat down with
22:52
the prostitutes and the tax collectors and he had a meal
22:56
with them and he told them go and sin no more.
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He didn't sit down with them and say, well, it's really nice that
23:04
you guys are here with me. Isn't the weather nice outside?
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This is great. Let's have a great, let's, let's
23:09
do this again someday. No, he sat there and he, he
23:12
brought them in and he said, what you're doing is wicked and
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it's wrong. And I love you so much to tell
23:18
you the truth. And therefore he loved them and
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told them that they need to repent and sin no more.
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Exactly how many, how many Pharisees actually came to a
23:30
saving faith in Jesus because he wasn't afraid to tell the
23:35
Pharisees the truth. He wasn't afraid to hurt their
23:37
feelings because of that. You know, Nicodemus and Joseph
23:42
of Arimathea and, and, and there are other Pharisees that came to
23:46
faith in Christ because Jesus was not afraid to tell them that
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they were on a destructive path. And I, I think that's the key.
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Love doesn't let someone stay on a destructive path.
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So when the church compromises, it may look loving on the
24:01
surface, but it is not helping people in the long run.
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People need to be set free from the lies they believe, not just
24:10
affirmed in their sin. James I scroll through TikTok
24:14
probably more than I should, but I scroll through TikTok and I
24:17
see these videos of these churches, these progressive
24:20
pastors promoting a church that, man, we are all inclusive and,
24:26
and we're LGBTQ affirming and, and all this stuff when that's
24:31
not. What?
24:31
What true? Love, is it true?
24:33
Love is not affirming sin. It's not redefining what the
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Bible says. Yeah, I think you're exactly
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right. You hit the nail on the head.
24:42
And Brett, I'll tell you, I've seen churches where they've
24:45
accepted all kinds of behaviors just to be relevant or
24:49
culturally acceptable online goes right now to the United
24:52
Methodist Church where they accepted homosexuality, they've
24:55
accepted transgender pre pastors and they've accepted women
25:00
pastors. And at the end of the day,
25:03
that's not what God has called us to be.
25:05
God has called us to be a beacon of truth and a beacon of light,
25:09
a city on a hill. And what we have done, even when
25:12
it's difficult, is we've avoided that.
25:15
And when we begin to see these other denominations and other
25:18
churches and other organizations accept this, we begin to see the
25:22
gradual downfall of them accepting sin versus accepting
25:27
the righteousness of Christ. But the Bible says that when we
25:30
lift up Christ, he will draw all men unto himself.
25:34
We are not responsible to stand up and accept people and and
25:38
tell them that what they're doing is right.
25:39
We are to get up and preach the truth of Christ and let Christ
25:44
bring all men to himself and let him be the judge and let him be
25:49
the the one that that convicts their soul.
25:52
Our job is to get up and tell them the truth and tell them the
25:56
truth without compromise. Exactly.
25:59
The church's message isn't come in and stay the same.
26:03
The church's messages come in and Jesus will change you.
26:05
He will make you a new creature. He will.
26:07
He will do in your heart a new thing.
26:09
He will, you know, take out your habit, heart of stone, and give
26:12
you a heart of flesh. The church should be a place
26:16
where people are shown the way to freedom, not a place where we
26:20
compromise God's truth to fit into the world.
26:25
We're called to be separate from the world, to be separate from
26:28
the world's sin, not make the world's sin acceptable in the
26:31
church. But you know, we need to ask a
26:34
question. What does Scripture say?
26:37
So we're we're going to turn to the Scripture now because that's
26:40
where we find the foundation for how we're supposed to love
26:45
others. We're this who the what defines
26:48
this for Christians is the Bible.
26:51
So, James, what do you think are some key verses that speak to
26:55
this idea of loving without compromise?
26:59
Yeah, I think we'll start at Ephesians.
27:01
You know, it's a passage that we are familiar with, and then
27:04
we'll go to some more that we might maybe not as familiar
27:06
with. But Ephesians 415, it says that
27:10
a foundational verse that what we should have here is it says
27:13
instead of speaking the truth in love, we grow to become in every
27:18
respect the mature body of him who is the head that is in
27:22
Christ. It's clear here that love
27:25
doesn't mean avoiding hard truths.
27:27
It says we speak the truth in love and that's how we grow in
27:31
Christ and help others grow as well.
27:34
We we begin to challenge. I was meeting with the counselor
27:38
this morning and and I was telling him, I said we we begin
27:41
to sharpen iron with another harder substance of iron and
27:46
it's not a fun process. I said.
27:49
It is painful. There are sparks, I said.
27:52
But in the end of the day they both have become sharper and
27:56
this is what love does. When we begin to sharpen each
27:59
other with love and speak truth and hard truth to each other, we
28:02
both begin to get sharper and we must be people who are speaking
28:06
truth in love. That's really, that's a really
28:09
good verse that you brought up. I want to go back.
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I don't want to read the verse before that verse.
28:16
It's verse 14 says so that we may no longer be children tossed
28:20
to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of
28:24
doctrine, by human coming by craftiness and deceitful schemes
28:29
rather, or instead speaking the truth in love.
28:34
So that right there and that's what the the the new church, the
28:38
modern church, the progressive church is doing it tossing about
28:42
with, you know, to and fro with all this different doctrine.
28:45
Let's redefine words these these orthodox truths that the church
28:51
is believed for 2000 years. Let's redefine them.
28:55
Let's bring in a new doctrine. Let's bring in a new teaching.
28:59
And you know, Paul said, no, no, don't, don't do that.
29:03
Just speak the truth in love. Don't speak the truth as a way
29:07
to, because you hate someone, throw a verse at them to condemn
29:12
them. You want to speak the truth in
29:15
love, say, look, this is the way that you need to believe or you
29:18
know, it's not going to be the right way.
29:20
So that's a powerful, powerful verse because it shows that love
29:25
and truth aren't opposites. In fact, they work together.
29:30
Another verse I love is John 1513, where Jesus says greater
29:35
love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's
29:40
friends. Jesus is the ultimate example of
29:44
love. His love wasn't about
29:46
compromising God's truth. It was about making the ultimate
29:50
sacrifice for our freedom. And James, just like you said
29:54
earlier, you can look at the example of Jesus's life.
29:58
Jesus didn't sugarcoat it for anyone.
30:01
He told the woman he was caught in adultery.
30:03
Yes, yes, he, he loved her, He protected her.
30:08
He said where are thine accusers?
30:10
Neither do I condemn you. But then what did he say?
30:13
He said go and send no more. He didn't say you didn't do
30:17
anything wrong. He didn't say we need to accept
30:20
you for who you are. He said go and send him or yes,
30:24
I forgive you, but you need to not do that anymore, OK?
30:27
You you need to repent and you need to get right.
30:32
If I could say it. Amen to that, Preacher Brett.
30:34
Let's go, baby. As we continue on looking at
30:37
some passages here. First Corinthians 13-6 classic
30:41
love passage. I'm sure you thought we were
30:43
going to get there and we are. I, I've read this passage
30:46
yesterday. I did a, a wedding for my, my
30:49
nephew. I was there to help marry him
30:52
and his new bride. And, and I always like to read
30:54
First Corinthians 13. If they don't ask me, I will
30:57
anyways, if they want it there, then of course I do.
31:00
But this is it's one of those classic verses and, and 1st
31:04
Corinthians 13-6 says it like this.
31:06
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rather it
31:11
rejoices in truth. You see, love is not about
31:15
excusing sin. Oftentimes we want to say I love
31:18
you and I'm OK with what you're doing.
31:20
No, it says that if we do that, we're rejoicing in the
31:23
wrongdoing. But it's about holding on to the
31:26
truth of God, word and deeply caring for other people.
31:29
Who are we to look at someone and not tell them they're
31:33
drowning and about to die and allow them to go under without
31:38
giving them the life giving, the life saving power of the gospel?
31:42
What we're doing is, is is this, I give this illustration.
31:46
Often we're seeing someone drown in a pool and we're walking by
31:50
and saying, hey, hope you get better as we walk away with life
31:53
jacket wrapped around our arm. Or we could throw that into them
31:57
and we could say, hey, grab on to this, grab on to the truth.
32:00
This is going to save you and yet we don't do that.
32:04
We hold on to it because we like holding on to it and just hoping
32:07
that someone's going to get better.
32:09
When we have the gospel, we have the hope of Jesus Christ and it
32:13
is telling the people there we love them and this is what they
32:17
need to do to change for the gospel, and yet we hold on to it
32:20
without telling them. That's really good.
32:23
That's really good, James. And and then of course, let's
32:26
look at Jude chapter 1, verses 22 through 23.
32:30
It gives a powerful example of how we can love without
32:33
compromise. It says be merciful to those who
32:36
doubt, save others by snatching them from the fire.
32:41
The others show mercy mixed with fear, hating even the clothing
32:45
stained by corrupted flesh. This is a picture of loving
32:50
people enough to pull them out of the danger, even if it's
32:55
uncomfortable. We have to snatch them out of
32:57
the fire. I was thinking of an of an
33:00
illustration of when I took my boys hunting this past year.
33:03
We're walking to the deer stand and one of them is, is holding
33:07
the gun incorrectly. And I I could say in my mind,
33:11
you know, if I got on to him, he might not like me.
33:15
So, you know, I'll just stand clear and and not, you know, I
33:19
want yeah, I care about what he thinks about me.
33:21
But my real love is to say, hey, you're holding that gun wrong.
33:25
You're going to hurt somebody. This is how you need to do it.
33:28
And and it's a snatch others from the fire, show mercy mixed
33:33
with fear. So that that.
33:35
So now that we talked about culture, the church is
33:39
compromised and what Scripture says, here's the big question.
33:44
What should the church do to love without compromise?
33:48
James, how do you think the church can stay faithful to
33:52
God's truth while still showing love to the world?
33:57
Yeah, I think it's part of what we've been saying the whole
33:58
time, something I'm really passionate about.
34:01
When I when someone steps into the counseling room, I don't
34:04
know how long I'm going to have them.
34:05
I don't know how long they're going to be in that room with me
34:12
and if they come back. And So what I want to do is I
34:14
want to give them as much truth as I possibly can.
34:18
I want to give them the clear picture of the full gospel.
34:23
And I believe that's what the church needs to do.
34:24
We need to get back to the basics.
34:25
We need to get back to preaching the full gospel.
34:28
We can't water down God's word. We can't avoid conflicts.
34:32
The church must be a place where truth is spoken in love and
34:36
we're people are challenged to live according to God's word.
34:41
We must create a space for people to hear truth, even if
34:45
it's hard, but with grace and compassion.
34:48
I just got done this past Sunday, Brett preaching on
34:51
Stevens faithful message to the unfaithful people.
34:54
And he got up and he preached on Moses and Abraham and Joseph and
34:59
how these were the patriarchs and yet they rejected them.
35:03
They rejected true worship, they rejected their forefathers and
35:07
they ultimately rejected Jesus. And I believe that is what has
35:11
happened. We have rejected the gospel when
35:14
we have replaced it with something that makes people feel
35:17
good. And we must get back to the
35:19
place where we stand up and we stand firm on the Word of God,
35:22
and we preach the Word unadulterated.
35:26
We preach the Word fully, and we allow the gospel to penetrate
35:30
our hearts. Right.
35:32
And, you know, I think that the church needs to I agree with
35:35
that. The church needs to be bold.
35:37
There's a fine line between being compassionate and being
35:40
afraid of confrontation. We have to stop being afraid to
35:43
speak the truth, even when it goes against the grain of the
35:47
world. We can't allow cultural
35:49
pressures to shape our theology and excuse me, you talked about
35:54
you preached on Steven Sunday. One of the people that I
35:57
preached on was Pilot and pilots sin for why Jesus died was
36:04
feared because he was trying to. He was pilot was trying to have
36:08
his cake and eat it too. He was trying to let Jesus go,
36:13
but at the same time he's trying to pacify the Jews.
36:16
So he's trying to be just and unjust at the same time He was.
36:20
He tried four different times to compromise Jesus, but never once
36:27
would he stand firm and assert, look, Jesus is innocent.
36:32
I I'm not going to do anything to him.
36:34
I'm going to let him go. He refused to do that because he
36:38
was afraid of the people. And I think that that's what the
36:40
church is doing today. The church is afraid to stand
36:44
with Jesus because they're afraid what the world will think
36:48
of them. The other day I called myself an
36:50
evangelical and I had somebody say, why do you use that word?
36:54
People today, that young people, they hear the word evangelical
36:59
and they just get turned off. You're just turning people off
37:02
the church by using that word. I'm not.
37:04
I'm not ashamed of the word evangelical.
37:07
It it's it's a biblical word is from the Greek word you on delay
37:11
on and I'm it's a biblical word and I am an evangelical and it
37:16
means reaching people with the gospel.
37:18
And I am not about to let that word the the ruined or or
37:23
compromise. I'm not going to be ashamed of
37:25
it either because we don't need to be.
37:28
We don't need to be compromised. To compromise with Jesus is to
37:32
reject him, because there is no compromise with Jesus.
37:35
And that's what the church has been doing.
37:38
Yeah, absolutely. And also we cannot forget this
37:42
main power, the power of prayer. We need to pray for wisdom and
37:46
discernment, to know how to love without compromise.
37:49
And we need to pray for the encourage the courage to stand
37:53
firm on God's Word, no matter what the world says.
37:58
Exactly right and and we need to be a place where people can come
38:04
as they are, but aren't expected to stay that way.
38:09
When when people encounter Christ, they should experience a
38:14
transformation, not just an affirmation.
38:17
The hospital, the church is a hospital is a place where people
38:21
were sick. People come to get well.
38:23
You don't have to get well before you come to the hospital,
38:28
but also you don't expect to come to the hospital and stay
38:31
sick either. You want to come to the hospital
38:34
and get well. Well, that wraps up our
38:37
discussion today. The truth is, love and truth are
38:42
not opposites. If we want to love others the
38:45
way God loves them, we have to speak truth in love and never
38:49
compromise on what He says. Yeah, you're exactly right,
38:53
Brett. And as the church, as the body
38:55
of believers across the world, we've got to be the ones that
38:59
lead by example. We've got to show the world that
39:03
real freedom is found in loving others without compromising
39:08
God's truth. And I believe we can do that
39:10
through the model of Jesus, the model of Paul, through the model
39:13
of the apostles, by allowing us to love without compromising the
39:18
truth of the gospel. Exactly.
39:20
So thanks for tuning in today. We hope we we challenge you
39:24
today. We encourage you today.
39:26
And James, why don't you give? Us, our final word, absolutely.
39:30
Until next time, to God be the glory.
39:33
Great things he hath done. My new name found that good
39:38
grace, found that healing, and the tears fell down my face when
39:44
I found my beginning. It has no ending.
39:46
I found that second chance, found my best friend, found my
39:48
forgiveness, found my happiness. I've been singing ever since I
39:50
found my freedom. Thanks for listening to the Four
40:08
Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do
40:11
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40:14
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40:18
Be sure to join us next time for The Four Freedom Podcast.