Latest / HOTLCAST / [SERMON] Dogmatic: Holding Tight, Holding Loose, Holding Lovingly | Spiritual Mutts

Transcript

[SERMON] Dogmatic: Holding Tight, Holding Loose, Holding Lovingly | Spiritual Mutts · HOTLCAST

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, today we continue our series called Spiritual Mutts.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh last last week I gotta talk about one of my favorite things, my dog.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so for the dog people, yay, times two.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: The cat people, they didn't come.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so yeah.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is a last week cat people.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe there'll be a spiritual cat sermon somewhere.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I doubt it.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll figure it out.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but uh last week we talked about how uh what muts are, mutts are just dogs with different genetic ancestors who are not all on the same line.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So they might be like uh Labrador with a poodle, with a um, I don't know, a Great Dane and uh um Chihuahua.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: That probably is a weird mix.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: That would be a mutt for sure.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: But all that different genetic diversity comes together to create something called hybrid vigor in a mutt, which means they're healthier because they have a lot of genetic diversity that comes in, and the good genes can rise to the top, and so mutts can usually live longer, have healthier lives, not be as crazy as uh you know, full breed dogs like mine.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um so, but I thought today, uh, so we we want to be, we want to take all of our influences from all of our different spiritual backgrounds, and we want that to be something that creates spiritual vigor in our lives.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: We are better spiritually and we have more vigor because we've had these good influences in different ways, whether we come from Pentecostal churches, whether we come from uh evangelical churches, Catholic churches, Lutheran churches, whatever it may be, we find the the good stuff that rises to the top that unifies us as Christians and gives us spiritual vigor in our life and allows us to be better for the Lord.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of what we talked about last week.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: This week I want to show you some pictures of my dog.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So uh this is Trevi and Capri and me.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is her favorite thing to do is be with me, laying with me.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's her when she was a little bit litter.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Here's some more pictures of her.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is yeah, our favorite thing to do is this.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So just hang out together.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last one, this is how we really like to be.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we are close, very close.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um so Trevy doesn't have boundaries.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, whether I wherever I am is Trevy is so uh she's like my shadow, she's like the Holy Spirit.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh she is just everywhere all the time.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: If I go to the bathroom, she goes to the bathroom.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh she doesn't go to the bathroom, she comes with me.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's weird.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh work on that one.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if I go to the bathroom, she goes in the bathroom with me.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: If I go to the shower, she's hanging out with me.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's just the way it does.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: We do shower together.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's how she gets clean.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's weird, I know.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um but like if you've had a wine marauder, you get it.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: They are with you always, everywhere.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: If I leave the room, she leaves the room.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: If I go outside, she goes outside.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: If I go inside, she goes inside.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: My wife says that she is much more calm and happier when I'm not around because she's not trying to please me all the time.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we have a very close relationship.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I actually was telling Patty about this sermon, and I was saying, I really hope that Trevi does this thing that will be the emphasis of my sermon, and she did it last night.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so today's sermon we're talking about dogmatic.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And dogmatic, you people are dogmatic when they're refusing to bend on what you believe to be true.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: We can be dogmatic about sports, about our free time, about politics, about anything.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: We refuse to bend on what we believe to be true.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: My dog does this because she believes she is dogmatic about her belief that she belongs in our bed under the covers.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that is like there's nothing you can do to stop her from believing that.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so last night, at like three in the morning, she got out of bed and like wanted to come back into bed to get her covers.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no, it's not happening.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: I kept telling her, no, not happening.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, not happening.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I did it like 10 times.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, my wife, who is adamant the dog shouldn't be in the bed under the covers, but lets her, anyways, lifts up the covers for Trevy to get in, because Trevi just keeps pawing her to get in.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that is that is an idea, an understanding of dogmatic to the point where we believe that thing to be so true, we just keep pawing and pawing and pawing and pawing and barking and barking and barking and barking until you get your way or you get your point across.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's a dog, it's a dog's necessarily aren't dogmatic, but there's a but we have to understand we are like that.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like that about politics, some of you are like that about your sports team.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing somebody asked me yesterday, are you excited about Michigan?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Think they're gonna have a good team.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And my response was this every year the media says Michigan team is gonna be the best one ever, and then it's not.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so I said, I'm just gonna wait this year, see a couple games, and I'm gonna make a decision, because I don't want to be dogmatic about how good Michigan is or how they're not good.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so we but we we tend to do this and we all get dogmatic about things.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And being dogmatic about certain things isn't a problem.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: When it's the right things, it's that the everything aspect.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be dogmatic about everything in your life, because not everything deserves the same level of dogmatism.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So when it comes down to it, not everything is to that level of priority or importance in your life.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, some of you it is.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: If I asked some of you to evaluate if your spouse is dogmatic or not, you probably would raise your hand for them.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna do that, but you can just elbow them as many times as you want during this sermon.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's fine.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so some of your kids are too dogmatic about some of their opinions, right?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Teenagers.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: We just call them teenagers, might as well just call them dogmatic individuals.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, like they got strong opinions because they're they're growing up and they're learning life.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was one too.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we all are guilty of this.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to realize that in life, some things are imperatives, some things are convictions, and some things are preferences.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And those are all different.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And when we have our imperatives, our convictions, and our preferences, and we are just dogmatic about it, when I believe my truth is my truth, and you need to hear about it, and I want to tell you my opinion, and you need to hear about it, and all those things, it becomes a problem, and then nobody likes you.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's typically how it goes.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to break these things down.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Imperatives are truths that God has clearly commanded in his word.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are biblical truths that are true that are unchanging, and there's nothing you can do other than accept them because it's God's word and it's God's truth.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: When we go to 2 Timothy 3, 16 to 17, um, you read the yellow part out loud.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: It says, All scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: There are imperatives in here, and those imperatives are profitable for teaching, for correction, um, for training, for for proving, they're for understanding how to live a right uh the right life like the Lord, so that we can be the best version of ourselves.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to know what those imperatives are.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: And typically we talk about the imperatives.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is God.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was born of a version, he died on a cross, he rose.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Those are those are stated truths.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think we all know those truths.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: But there's other ones, other imperatives we don't often talk about.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: But the Bible does have imperatives in here, and those imperatives we need to be dogmatic about.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: What the Bible says is what the Bible says, and it's true, and we need to we need to affirm that and we need to be convicted about that and know that.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Here's some other ones.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Here's some someone we don't really talk about.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Love God and love others.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: We say love God and love people.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: That is an imperative of scripture from Matthew 22.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: We are told very clearly by Jesus to love God and love people.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: That is the first and greatest commandment.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Love God.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: This next one, love others.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: That is Jesus on the mouth.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: So when we are living life, that's what we need to have an imperative.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's we as a church, we say love God, love people.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't make this up.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know this.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a heart of the lakes thing.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: We do some weird stuff.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: That one's not one of them.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's just, you can go to any church probably and find on the walls some version of love God, love people, or they say it.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: We might do our own little call and response thing at the end of every service with Rob that is new.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: But like, that's about it for us.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's an imperative of scripture.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Every Christian must believe, love God, love others.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe this, you might be struggling with the Lord because that's an imperative.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Next one, this is a harder one for people.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: An imperative in scripture in Ephesians 4:32 is to forgive others.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: We like to say an imperative is Jesus is God's Son.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is, but also that we should forgive others.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Even when we don't want to forgive each other, even when there are our enemies, we're called to forgive.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's a biblical imperative.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: That should be something we should be more dogmatic about.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Not holding on to grudges, not holding on to bitterness, but actually forgiving.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: That one is a wild one for people that they don't always want to make a dogmatic statement about their belief that that one's true because we don't like to forgive.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: But it's really clear in Scripture that that is a biblical imperative.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Next one.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is another one.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: How about this imperative?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Flee sexual morality, 1 Corinthians 6.18.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible makes it clear, really clear about your romantic side of your life, your sexual life, that it is supposed to honor the Lord.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, living in 2026 in America, we're like, eh, I don't really like that one.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: People just say, well, culture says this.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says this.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I'm in my 20s.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: God will forgive me.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a teenager.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: But it's an imperative.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: We aren't supposed to look at bad things on the internet.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're not supposed to look at porn.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're not supposed to have sex outside of marriage.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're not supposed to do those things.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Those are not negotiable, those are imperatives, yet we do it as a culture.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we just say, well, God will forgive me.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: God will forgive me.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the Bible makes it really clear that we're supposed to flee those things and honor God with our life and our choices.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Those are imperatives.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Those are things we should be dogmatic about.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: As individuals, we live, but we don't.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: We pick and choose them.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we're supposed to be dogmatic about all of the truths in Scripture because they're clear.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And when God has spoken clearly, we should speak clearly on the topic.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know when I get up here some Sundays, I'm gonna say something that's gonna rough people's feathers.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not my that's not my goal.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like get wake up and it's like, hey, this week, let me find something to really tick off somebody, right?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: So oh Jake's not gonna love this one.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go for this one, right?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: That is not how it works.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: We just said we're doing spiritual mutts in January at HotelCon.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: We like have a whole year schedule of sermons that we do.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: We plan them out, we put them in a schedule.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: So if you just happen to come that week, God wanted you here for that one.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the way it works.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not targeted and God's targeting you, right?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's called the Holy Spirit.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes down to it, we want to speak clearly about the things that are imperatives in Scripture because we want you to know them, and we do want you to be dogmatic about them.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: We want you to make better decisions in your life, how you live, how you live out the word, because we want you to honor God.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're called to do.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem is we don't always do that because we like to bend with society, and we're called to understand the imperatives of scripture.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Next, convictions.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Convictions are how we personally apply biblical truth.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: They are not imperatives.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's how when we read the Bible and we read God's word and we read imperatives, we get a personal conviction from the Holy Spirit of how we apply those imperatives in our life.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that might look different for each of us.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here's one I don't have a problem with cussing.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't cuss.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: If I hit my finger with a hammer, not gonna say a swear word.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Not even gonna be a thing that comes out of my mouth.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not my problem.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: So if you cuss, it doesn't really affect me.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up playing sports and spending time in locker rooms, and so locker rooms have a lot of swearing.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's like being on a sailor ship, it's just the way it is.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't bother me.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: So if you I'm around you and you're swearing, it's not gonna affect me.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I have a but I have a personal conviction about not swearing because I read like James and other Bible verses that make it very clear that the words that come out of your mouth are a condition of your heart.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so if your heart is bad, the words come out of your mouth, bad.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I really guard my speech as best I can so that I don't dishonor the Lord with the way that I live my life.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I have a significant conviction about that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not everyone has that same conviction.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are there are pastors I know who swear.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're just words, right?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're just words that don't matter, but they're words that come out of your heart, right?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they they cast something.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so we I have pastors that I disagree upon this with, and that's fine, but that's not it's a conviction for me.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just not gonna do it in my life.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that one of us is going to hell and one of us is not.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's for God to decide.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: It just means we have different convictions through the Holy Spirit.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to ever stand up in front of people and them see me out in the community saying all these crazy words and think, well, I can do that because Kyle did.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have convictions about different things.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Here's another one drinking.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't drink, I don't have a problem with drinking.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's never gonna be a problem in my life.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: There are people here in this room and in our church who do, who have significant problems with alcohol.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so personal conviction is they will never drink alcohol, they'll never be around alcohol, they'll never be at parties with alcohol.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't, it's not a problem for me.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: If we were to go out to eat and you were to say, Can I have a beer?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Does that bother you?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be like, it doesn't bother me.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna make me want to drink.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's nasty.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, right?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So ultimately, when it comes down to it, we have different convictions about the same thing.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean if you were out to lunch together and you have a beer, you're going to hell.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: It just means that we have a different conviction about imperative scripture because when we see scripture, scripture, the imperative is that to not get drunk.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the imperative of scripture.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: But when you have a conviction that you're able to drink, it's pretty close sometimes, that line of getting drunk or not for people.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: And where does that line fall?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is it the legal line?08?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a lot of alcohol.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people get way past that as they build a tolerance.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, are you drunk legally?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Where does that fall?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, I just don't want that hassle in my life to try to navigate that.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: So my conviction is I don't do it.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have anything like that's not my life style, but some people it is.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to understand that these differences between an imperative and conviction, they matter.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Here are some other uh convictions, whether to drink alcohol or not.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's a personal conviction for people.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: What movies, music, or entertainment you allow into your life.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: I do not like scary movies.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I'm a big guy, I should be okay with it because I could I can defend myself.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I do not want to be in the woods in the middle of the night thinking about what I saw in a movie because the world's insane.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: People are crazy.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you pay attention to the news, people are nuts.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like those stall movies, they could be real.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: I uh people are crazy.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want that in my mind, my thoughts.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's a personal conviction to me.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to expose myself to that.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know some of you are so psychotic, you can watch those movies and just cackle and laugh and think it's the funniest thing.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: We have really different convictions about it.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that one of us is going to hell and one of us is not.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: It just means it's not a problem for you.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Some people like to go to haunted houses.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: I went to the first haunted house I've been to in like over 30 years last year.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't scary anymore.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was like this is kind of dumb.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't allow myself to be exposed to that because I didn't want to think about that self stuff.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: But some of you go out to like 15 haunted houses a fall, and that's fine.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Different convictions, it's not a problem for you.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit hasn't convicted you.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's an issue in your life, and you have to understand those kind of entertainment choices, not a problem.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Here's another one gambling.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you can go to the casino, you can spend$200 and have a nice time in entertainment.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's called gaming.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you go to casino, spend$200, and the next thing you know, you just lost the rest of your year's house payments.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, that's called gambling, and that's a problem, and you need to have a conviction about that.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: So different people can handle that differently, and you need to understand that that all flows from the biblical imperatives and how the Holy Spirit convicts us personally.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we can disagree about some of those things.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Next, how you personally observe the Sabbath.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: For some people, the Sabbath is Sunday, they go to church and they do nothing else.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: They don't cook, they don't clean, they don't shower, they don't shave, they take a nap, whatever.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: For some of you, you go to church, you get dressed up, you go have a nice meal.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: You can have a different conviction about how you spend it.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like for me on Sunday afternoons, I like to go play card games after church.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I like to get in the car, take off, and like I go compete all afternoon.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun for me.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's relaxing for me.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: For some of you, that is not your conviction.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to understand our imperatives drive our convictions, but our convictions may differ from each other as long as they're pointing back to the imperatives.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 14 5 says this one person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: We can disagree.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: I can wake up in the same bed as my wife and my dog, and uh I can hit the floor and be like, it is a great day.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be awesome.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I feel good.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And my dog will agree, because she always does.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then my wife can get out of that same bed and be like, oh, it's gonna be a terrible day.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: I feel so bad.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like we can have a completely different perspective on the same day.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what the Bible is saying, that's just people.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like we can all look at a day and see it differently.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: We can all have different convictions about the same moment, the same thing.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we we need to understand those differences.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when it comes down to it, we can be fully convinced of our mind, of our conviction, and that's okay, because one person's conviction, Cassandra's conviction, may be different than my conviction, and that's okay as long as both convictions go back to the imperatives and they honor the Lord.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's what matters.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: A conviction can be right for you without becoming a command for everybody.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we get in a lot of trouble on this as just people, because we think our convictions must be the same for everybody, and that's that's wrong.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Preferences, the third category.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Preferences are what we like, not what God commanded.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is the one I think that gets people in the most trouble, causes the most drama in churches, because everybody's got a preference and they become problematic for us.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Too many Christians turn their preferences into imperatives or convictions.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I strongly hold this preference.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is only one way to do it the way I like it.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's my preference, and that is an imperative of scripture because God says, Well, God doesn't say what a lot of our preferences are.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 14 says this let no one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: For God has welcomed him.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Ready?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: It is before his own master that he stands or falls.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty clear in Scripture that our preferences are preferences.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: They're not something that we're to beat over each other's heads.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And there's something that we could have our own preference about, but it doesn't really matter.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's just something that you like.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if someone has a different preference, it's fine.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Don't pass judgment on them because they have their own preferences.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so here's some examples uh in the church world.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Ready?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Traditional hymns versus contemporary worship.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: There are some people, if they walk in and we don't sing a hymn, that church loves the devil.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm never going back there.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't sing a hymn.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the only Christian songs, hymns.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: The majority of hymns are bar songs that they changed the lyrics to back in the days.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so, those of you who want us to sing hymns, all you want us to do is just sing bar shanties because you like bars.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I hear.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: But that's the truth.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Those songs, we lose perspective of how they came to be.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: I love hymns in a time and place.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like hymns for worship every day, all the time.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's not my thing.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: I went to a hymn sing.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Who's been to a hymn sing this year?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've been to a hymn sing.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: See, I love hymns.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I had I I actually arranged a hymn sing, went to it.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was not great.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: So um, because I don't like obscure hymns, I found out.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: I like the popular ones like How Great Thou Art and Amazing Grace and all the really good ones.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: The other ones, oh, that's a that's a terrible time for me.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: And for a lot of you too, if you heard them.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, just like if we sang some of the songs that maybe aren't so recognized now, and to modern songs, you may not like them either because they're not known, they're obscure.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: So the argument between hymns and contemporary songs is just a style of preference.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: What do you like to listen to?
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: We try to blend a little bit of everything here.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: We actually aren't a contemporary worship service, we are a modern worship service.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Contemporary worship service would be songs that are about 10 to 15 years old.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: On average, we sing songs that are usually five years old or newer, and we mix them in that are hymns, and we mix them in there that are older as we go.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we try to blend because we try to find different ways to kind of meet everybody's need in different ways.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: But this argument is just preference.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing in the Bible that says that we have to sing only hymns.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Songs, hymns, and spiritual songs.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: That means basically, in our modern context, that would be hymns, contemporary worship, and modern worship.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: That would be the thing.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Just sing them all, basically, is what the Bible's saying.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um how about this one?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Dressing formally or casually for church is a preference.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: The way you dress for church.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you want to wear crocs or flip-flops, or you want to wear uh whatever kind of pants these are, so, or um jeans versus slacks.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: When I started, when I came to this church 10 years ago, there was a huge drama going on before I got here about can you wear jeans on stage and preach?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: That was like a major, major thing.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now you might think that's crazy at this church now.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is, but 10 years ago is a thing.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I wore jeans intentionally on stage because the They were fighting about it.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, and I was a guy who years before, 10 years before that, I was preaching in Hawaiian shirt and shorts and sandals every week.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that would have shocked them.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so ultimately I tried to just find a compromise and honor people for what they were struggling to walk through.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't wear the Hawaiian shirts and shorts and sandals.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I wore jeans and a polo.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I was trying to respect people's differences of preference with worship.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are people that come here and they come with a suit and ties on to church, and then they, you're allowed to do that here.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to dress up and look great, do it.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you're gonna be one of the few, and that's just the way it is.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And normally what happens is they do that for a few times and then they start dressing down.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And nobody asks them to, it's just how they feel.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and they feel kind of maybe their preference will change once they get into the community, and that's fine.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: But you're well to dress up, dress down.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a preference.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's no demand, there's no command or imperative in scripture.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And how about this one?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Whether we use chairs or pews.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you like pews, sit over in the pew.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: We have one pew, it's a short pew.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's over there.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: We can't get it out, that's why it's there.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: So uh it's for those of you who really love pews.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we switched to chairs, that caused some drama.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: People were frustrated about it, but listen, as a big guy, I didn't fit in the pews anyway, so they had to go.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: So um uh lights versus screen.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole big thing on TikTok about how churches that have screens like this, we're going to hell.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're we devil, we're devil worshipers.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, if you have lights and screens, you're the devil.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a thing, that's not in scripture.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, if you look at Paul's life, Paul used a lot of contemporary thought and programming in what he did in the day 2,000 years ago.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: I know because I've been to Corinth, I've been to where his church was there, I've seen the world, I've seen the teaching that you understand.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: They were they were on the forefronts of communication and understanding and logic and understanding different thought patterns and styles and religions and utilizing that to teach people.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's what modern church is just doing in its modern context, is we're using the stuff of the day to worship the Lord in the best way that we can.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's a preference, whether you like it or not.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, here's a big one that's kind of in society right now, a preference thing.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's artificial intelligence, AI.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Some people hate it, some people love it.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the funny one to me.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I was searching for uh like the school states to start.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I was on Columbia's website, Napoleon's website, Michigan Center's website, Vanderkook's, Jackson High, and the one thing I I found out is every single school had the same AI post, just with different color schemes.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: They all went to Chat GPT and all spit out all these like advertisements for all this stuff, which I kind of thought was hilarious because kids aren't allowed to use Chat GPT for papers, but the teachers can use them for the advertisements, which is really funny.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we we just live in a world where everything's AI.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can drive to Addison and see like five AI billboards on the way to Addison.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're they're everywhere now.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the kids got back from Jamaica and told me that like everything in Jamaica is AI ads everywhere, and that makes total sense because they don't have the marketing capabilities and the finances and the resources we do.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: So of course they're gonna use AI to do all their advertising.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the way the world is.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a battle right now in church is should churches use artificial intelligence or not?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: We've made a decision, we've told our staff, use it.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great resource, it's a tool.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is taking over the world.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: We need to figure out how to use it and how to utilize it for ministry.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, you'll see like uh some of the some of the things that Cody makes, and like you said, like that is not a word, that's some weird thing.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you look right here, it looks like words, but that is not a language.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that is, but like when it comes down to it, um, you have to use the tools and resources, and there's a preference about it.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, uh, those are preferences, they're not convictions, and they're not imperatives, and we have to understand the difference between those things in our own lives and in the world and in our homes.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so when scripture is silent, here's the thing, Cody said this to me last week.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was great.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: I actually typed it up right after he said it.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Where scripture is silent, we should be contemplative before we become dogmatic.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: We should, when we we have to say, what does scripture have to say about this?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's always an underlying imperative that should give us direction, but when scripture doesn't say anything, we shouldn't be out there like beating people over the head with the Bible.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: We should be contemplative about it before we're dogmatic about it.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: See, silence from scripture is not permission to invent a commandment either.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just because, well, the Bible doesn't say so, I'm gonna just tell you what I think because I represent the Lord.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get to do that either.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like we need to be careful about how we live and how we love.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 10 gives us some guidelines.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Paul actually says this.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: He says, All things are lawful.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here's coming.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's close.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: All things are lawful, but not all things up.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: What is what is Paul saying is as Christians, especially for us readers, as Christians living in 2026 in America, everything is out there is available for you to do, and it's lawful.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can do whatever you want to do.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: We live in a world where I have the freedom to be an American and do whatever I want.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is, Paul's telling people 2,000 years ago, in a very similar society, the Roman society was much like us.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a Roman citizen, you could do whatever you wanted.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul's saying, you can do whatever you want.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's lawful, but not always helpful.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so if it's not helpful, it's not beneficial.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: And for us as followers of the Christ, we don't want to do things that are not helpful because we're not supposed to be a problem for the world.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be a blessing for the world.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to believe it better.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so that goes back to the imperative.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then not all things are lawful, but then those things that we do, they don't always build up the church or people or the brotherhood.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to think, just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should do something, right?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: You have to navigate through the imperatives and the convictions and the preferences whether you should do something or say something.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just we like we live in a time where you can say whatever you want to say.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: But is it helpful?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is it beneficial?
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Did you make that telemarketer's day better by how you treated them on the phone?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just because you can say whatever you want to say doesn't mean you should, right?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Christian liberty doesn't only ask, can I?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Can I do this?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Can I say this?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Really, you should ask, should I?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Should I do this based on God's word?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And my understanding of it, and my convictions and the imperatives.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Should I say this?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Should that be my lifestyle?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're lucky to be a part of a denomination called the United Brother Church.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: The United Brethren tradition back in the 1800s gives us a really powerful way that kind of hold an idea, a mindset, a phrase told truth and grace together.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's this it's in essentials, unity.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's essentially in the imperatives of Scripture.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: We are to be unified.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the essentials.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: You can't budge on those.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: We must agree on those things.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: There are wonderful churches in our community that we agree on the essentials, the imperatives with.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: And those churches that do, guess what?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: They love the Lord.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: There are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we're gonna see them in heaven.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: We may not agree on the convictions or the preferences, but if we agree on the imperatives, we gotta be unified.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Then there's the non-essentials.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: These are those things where we have different convictions about.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: We have liberty.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: We have liberty.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: We can agree to disagree.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: There are churches in town that we agree on the essentials, but we don't agree on the non-essentials.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: They have different styles of worship, they have different ways that they dress, they have different ways that they program.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Those are non-essentials.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have the liberty to be different.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's okay because someone might like that style of church or that style of worship, and that might mean that that's a place that they can go and find community and connection.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we have the liberty to be different.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's wonderful.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to fight about it.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then in everything else that's not covered under those two, guess what?
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Charity.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: We just love each other.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's that simple.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if it's not essential, it's not a non-essential, if it falls in that last cutter, just be kind to one another.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's the preferences.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: So an essentials, imperatives, and non-essentials, your convictions, and then all else, your preferences, just be nice to each other.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can agree or disagree.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: We don't all have to like the same stuff, the same sports team, the same style of music, the same color carpet.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to like that stuff.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to love each other.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be kind to each other.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4, verses 2 and 3 says, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit of the bond of peace.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta be unified with each other.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta love each other.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta find ways to understand that being in relationship with each other means that we have to give of ourselves humbly and gently so that we can be in community.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: You are not gonna agree with everybody in this room.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna agree with their politics, you're not gonna agree with their lifestyle choices, you're not gonna agree with how they talk, but you gotta love them.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: And what we do have to agree on, though, is the imperatives.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta agree on the things the Bible says.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: These are the imperatives.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: And unity, it does not require uniformity.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Just because we're unified doesn't mean we have to be exactly the same.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: We can be unified and recognize we have different convictions.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: We can have unity and recognize we have different preferences.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: I got great friends at this church that like Ohio State, that like Michigan State.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: I hang out with them.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: We just don't talk about it.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: So like but we can be unified because those are different convictions, or pre, those are really preferences, right?
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Those are preferences.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes down to it, what matters, that really brings unity, which is God's word.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Christians can disagree without declaring each other disobedient.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's been the hard thing in my life.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in churches where if you didn't agree with that church on everything exactly, you're going to hell.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's scary.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's horrible.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I told you, I grew up in church where if you played cards, you're going to hell.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you went to dance, going to hell.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you went to movie, you're going to hell.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's a horrible way to live life.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to cast that on other people.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: We want to love people.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be unified, have liberty and charity.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: We want to do all those things.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: See, dogmatism becomes dangerous when we give our opinions the authority of Scripture.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's when it becomes tough.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: When we take our preferences and our convictions and say, oh, this is scripture, this is God's word.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's not.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Imperatives are God's word.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: The rest are convictions and preferences.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 14 warns us, therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: We often take our preferences and our convictions and we push them on each other so much so that they become a stumbling block or a hindrance for another.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like for me, one of the reasons I don't drink, because many reasons I have addicted personality, so let's I collect way too many cards and all these things when I play card games and stuff.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, I know that if I if I liked alcohol, it could become a problem for me.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I just don't.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: I also have a lot of alcoholism on both sides of my family.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: I just stay away from it, it's not a problem.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if I go out to eat with you and you want to have a beer, that wouldn't bother me, right?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't become a stumbling block for me.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: But there are people in our congregation, if you had a beer, they struggle with alcoholism.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: They struggle with overindulging.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so for you to be able to have that drink would be potentially a hindrance or a stumbling block for them, because that might send them down the wrong path.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to have conversations and know how we could hinder each other or create a stumbling block for each other.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons that I know pastors who drink, and pastors who do who I know that drink, that feel like they can do it without getting drunk, they won't be they don't want to be a stumbling block, they'll never drink in public.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because what if somebody from church were to see me out at Atlas having a drink and think, well, the pastor drinks, I can drink, that's not a problem.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, well, if he can do it, I can try it again.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then that sends somebody down their wrong path.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it becomes a stumbling block for somebody and leads them into sin.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to do that.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I am very careful about the way that I live, the way that I talk, the way that I treat others, because I don't want to be a hindrance for each other.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I may disagree with my convictions or my preferences, I don't want to be at risk of putting someone else's faith at risk because of how I live.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so that should be the way that we change our preferences and our convictions and the way they impact each other.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to think through those things.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's the reality.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I could be around people who swear, it doesn't bother me.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: But for other people, if they're around people who swear, it makes them want to swear because they've had a problem with it in the past they try to get over.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And on and on and on.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Those are just some examples.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what does this mean for you?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we talking about it?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have to know the difference between what God said, what you believe, and what you prefer.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Those are differences.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: We often speak for God in our own beliefs, and we also speak for God in our own preferences.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: We do a lot of barking about what, oh God says this, and no, it doesn't, right?
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: I hear that a lot.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, God says this, I'm like, no, no, he actually doesn't.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: You say that.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: You believe that.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's your preference.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we need to do is we need to hold imperatives tightly.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: We need to have our convictions faithfully.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, with our preferences, they need to be loose, and then we need to hold people lovingly.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to I want to read this together out loud, ready?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: On the count of three.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: One, two, three.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Hold imperatives tightly, hold convictions faithfully, hold preferences loosely, and hold people lovingly.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you gotta live.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that may mean you need to rethink some of the things in your life and go back to this.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Is your thought, is your preference, is your conviction in here?
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: And is it does it, is it okay if someone has a different one?
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: As long as it goes back to the underlying principle behind that conviction is an imperative.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what we gotta stop doing is we gotta stop barking so much.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't wanna we don't wanna bark like God spoke when God didn't speak.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: When God speaks, it's in his word, we need to we need to have a strong, we need to have a strong kind of dogmatic approach to what the imperatives are.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: But outside of that, we don't.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: We need to be dogmatic where God is clear and be humble where he is not.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem isn't being dogmatic, the problem is being dogmatic about the wrong things.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, as humans, we often get dogmatic about the wrong things.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that becomes a problem.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's what breaks up relationships, that's what makes churches split, do all these things, because people get mad about the dumbest stuff.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: And in my life, I I have I've not actually been part of a church split, but I've seen, I've been at churches after they split, and they always split about the dumbest stuff.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's never an imperative issue, it's always a preference or conviction issue.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then people like, ah, you know, I I don't like, I don't like that you change the carpet from red to blue.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we're leaving.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Starting our own church.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, because that's a sinful caller.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's not a simple caller.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um blue and yellow are perfect.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just kidding.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just teasing.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: But like when it comes down to churches do split over the dumbest stuff because people get dogmatic about things they shouldn't be.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't want to be individuals that do that or people that do that.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be people who honor each other and have charity for each other, and we are unified in God's word.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you that we can, Lord, just understand the importance of scripture, uh, the imperatives of scripture, board, Lord.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: When you speak on a topic and you say this is so, Lord, we understand it, we're dogmatic about it, we we're unyielding about that truth.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: But Lord, all for all their other things, we love each other.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: That we understand our convictions and our preferences, they they're the things that the Holy Spirit uh impacts upon us and that we believe in, but that might differ a bit from other people, Lord.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: And as long as we agree on the imperatives and live those out, Lord, we can honor you together and be unified.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: We pray that in our homes, in our schools, in this church, we uh we faithfully, with unity and humility, Lord, we honor you and we live for you.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that we have more conversations to get to know each other and to respect each other than we do fighting about things that don't matter.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: We pray that uh if anyone's in here, Lord, they realize they bark a lot too much about the wrong things.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or you just to use your spirit to convict them right now and say, hey, it's time.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to do a little better with our convictions, time to change a little bit about our preferences and really become more honoring about how we live out the imperatives so that we love each other and we love you.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: We just pray this in Jesus' name.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.