Ep.54 - When Your Pastor Gets Political Pt.2

In this episode, we continue our conversation about how the current political culture is influencing our churches and how to remain faithful to Christ through it all.  In Part 1 we explored the first two of four questions whose answers can equip us to navigate these issues well as we encounter them in our own congregations.  Now in Part 2 we look at our final two questions, 1) How to spot political error and 2) What to do when you discover an error.  The conclusion of this important conversation is jam-packed with scripture and practical insight.  Enjoy and Christian well everyone!
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right, everyone, and welcome back to yet another edition of the Christian Inc. Podcast. Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us, especially on this part two episode. Anytime I get a click on a part two. That means there was something worth listening to in part one. So thank you. Appreciate that. Always encouraging to know that we're scratching where somebody's itching. So hopefully this discussion has been helping you as we've been talking about what to do when your pastor gets political. And as we discussed ad nauseum in episode one, we really laid... A vast framework and foundation as far as the current political climate and how that's having a direct impact on a lot of our churches and a lot of us regular folk are kind of caught in the middle didn't. Maybe it wasn't your thing, your agenda, but you find yourself getting caught up in the agenda either one way or the other. We talked about how it can be on both sides, the left and the right. It can be woke church really using biblical ideals to support, you know, what conservatives would call the woke agenda. And it can be Trumpy church, you know, kind of the What a lot of people feel is the evangelical takeover by Donald Trump and people seeing Donald Trump as God's sent savior for the United States in this current moment. And so either way, whatever situation you find yourself in, I think... I'm pretty adamant in saying whatever side I think it's grieving. It's grieving the heart of our Lord, who, as you read the Gospels, went through just above and beyond, went every way possible to get his followers, get his disciples to think not of the natural world, but to think of the spiritual kingdom that he brought first. And which sets our hearts, which sets our hopes on the future natural physical kingdom to come later. And so kind of, you know, kind of laid that groundwork. So hopefully that's, you know, if you're paying attention to this episode, probably you've picked up on this. At some point in your faith journey, whether you've come across woke church or Trumpy church, whatever it is you're in the middle of, we're here to help equip you so you can, as always, Christian well in the midst of it all. So please, if this has been blessing you, share this episode with a friend, especially if you've been connecting with other Christians that are just like, man, I don't know what to do. I just feel like something's off. Yeah. My pastor goes these directions, and I'm not quite sure. I love the church. I love the pastor. It just kind of takes us there as a congregation that just doesn't sit right in my spirit, not sure what to think or what to do. So we offered kind of four questions with four different words of the day just to help you digest it. Again, I'm a firm believer that the Bible is very clear. The Lord sets the members of the body as he sees fit and where he sees fit. So I'm not really trying to tell people what to do and where to go to church and where not to go to church and all that good stuff. That's not what this is all about. This is about really in wherever the Lord has placed you, being able to discern and decipher and as much as it depends on you, show your faith biblically and exhibit your faith biblically. So the four questions, we went through the first two questions in part one. We'll get to the second two questions here in part two. But just for recap's sake, we looked at why this tendency exists. And basically, it's a tendency that we should all have a lot of compassion on because it's been a tendency of the human heart to much ever since creation but really it was highlighted we looked at acts you know chapter one verse six when the disciples for the very last time went to jesus like when are you going to do your natural physical reign over israel that's the thing we've really been waiting for that's what we've been really hoping for as we've been following you and here you are you're telling us you're going to ascend back to heaven okay so What does that mean for us here on Earth? Does that mean one of us will be installed as a physical king? And Jesus' answer was very clear. Nope, not yet. It's not for you to know the time and the seasons that my Father has set, fixed by his own authority. Basically, now is not the time for the physical reign of Christ. We are in the dispensation, big theological word, the gospel dispensation, where Jesus is reigning authoritative over the spiritual realms, meaning he transforms the inside out. He transforms our spiritual nature, which has huge impact on the physical. I'm not saying there isn't any impact on the physical, but it's an inside out transformation. So we looked at that, but it's been our tendencies. The disciples really are the great illustration of really all of our hearts, where we want to see Jesus fix some stuff here now. And And so we see Jesus' compassion on the disciples and willingness to continue discipling them. And then he gave them the keys to the spiritual kingdom, basically, in the Great Commission. I've given you all authority, these guys who didn't quite get it all. So lots of encouragement, lots of grace there. So all that to just really help reiterate the fact that We're not bringing this up to condemn ourselves. It's just this should be a unifying issue. This should be a unifying flesh issue that we should look to the other side of whether if you're conservative leaning or you're liberal leaning, you can look at the other side and say, hey, I get you. I have the same issue. Obviously, I think the solution is different than what you think the physical solution is, but we both are doing the same thing. We're after... we're kind of out of order in what we're desiring Jesus to do. Then we looked at what is the problem. We really looked at in depth, what is this, what is the problem that happens? And that's, we looked at first Corinthians nine chunk in there. There's like a three chapter chunk in first Corinthians where just Paul just lays, lays it out. And the problem is, Basically, with this type of political activity and activism, is a better word, is what we said, it's not just divisive. It actually limits your church's potential to reach the people who need Christ. It becomes an unnecessary obstacle. The gospel presents enough obstacles on its own. Again, remember, for us to receive the gospel, receive and put our faith in Christ, we have to admit that we are wretched sinners, desperate, weak creatures in need of saving. That's some humble pie that's really hard for humans to eat. So that's a big enough obstacle. We don't want to throw on their... a political leaning as well be like okay in order to go to our church you have to first eat humble pie accept your your status as a sinner before god oh but then also you have to vote a certain way too and believe these certain ways of these very tense controversial issues you know it's it's this unnecessary obstacle so um yeah it's it's it's not great it's it's a bigger problem than i think you know some people just be hey to each its own you know hey if they This preacher wants to, you know, kind of get political. It's his church. It's his thing. Well, I don't know. I think we always have to fight for something bigger in our faith. Okay, so that's where we left off, why the tendency exists. So what's the big deal? What is the problem? Okay, now let's get into the nitty gritty. Today, we're going to look at how to spot the error. So if you're just sitting there in church and something just kind of, maybe a statement gets thrown at you. Maybe it's a whole sermon or maybe it's, you know, it's, it's just conversation, you know, in church parking lot or whatever. And it just kind of something zaps you where just like, huh, I'm not sure if that's what the people of God are supposed to be about. Let's, let's give you some equipping that can, you know, you can bring it back and be like, okay, what I just experienced. No, that's, that's okay. That's, that's not out of bounds in biblical faith. Or after kind of walking through this, you can be like, oh no, yes, I believe that is, I believe that is out of bounds. Okay. So first we'll get into how to spot the error and then we'll talk about what to do when you have found the error, which is, it's a whole, that's a whole nother thing. But this first question, how to spot the error, you know, we're going to, we're going to spend some time in, we're going to you know, kind of first talk conceptually, and then we're going to get nitty gritty. We're going to get into two passages of scripture as examples that I have seen misused to further a political agenda and kind of show you at least how I was able to come to those conclusions. By the power of the Spirit, according to the Word, not my genius or brilliance. Anybody who knows me knows that if there's any firm conclusion that I can draw, it is purely by the grace of God and not my own intellect. Because not a lot going on up top for me. I'm a simple dude. I need very, very simple, simple answers. All right, how to spot the error. First, let's get into the concept. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 4, 6, kind of the big overarching issue you're looking for. 1 Corinthians 4, 6 says, Again, Paul speaking, I've applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against the other. Great, great passage, but to nutshell, what are you looking for? What's the error you're looking for? Is someone going beyond what is written? And that is so encouraging because what is written, you have in your hands, either digitally on your phone or your iPad or whatever, your device, or in paper version. You have the truth of God, the written word of God in your hands. So You can be unshakable. You can be unmanipulatable. That is, man, I cannot encourage that. That is the only thing you pull away from this episode. I'm going to hit the nail on that head a few times just because it's so important. Paul said, learn from us not to go beyond what is written. Because what happens when you go beyond what is written? He says that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against the other. And that's what... That's what we're seeing in these political contexts, are we not? People puffed up, believing they've got the Almighty God on their political side, and they're puffed up against the other side. And so Paul's saying there's a remedy to that. Just stick to the book. And don't just stick to somebody else's version of the book. Just look at what it says. And that's it. Don't go beyond that. Don't add to it. And that's so, it's so profound. And it's so, I don't know, it's amazing. As you look, you'd be like, oh, no, duh. Like, doesn't everybody do that? No. In America, barely anybody does this. Barely anybody just sticks to the text. We love to flavor it and add to it a million different ways for a million different agendas. And so obviously, the political divisive culture that we're in, so of course, political agendas get attached to the word of god as well so conceptually that's what we're looking for don't go beyond what is written another step deeper than that here's kind of what how this plays out how this plays out in a political lens is the bible teacher makes the natural kingdom primary and the spiritual kingdom secondary okay now First to state, here's my kind of precursor. There's a ton of nuance to what I just said. A ton of biblical nuance to what I just said. But this is your starting point. This is your starting point. As what I'm hearing, as what I'm listening to, as what being taught to me or being presented to me, a Christian, a Bible teacher or a friend or whatever, referencing a Bible passage in a way that that prioritizes the natural kingdom makes that the primary focus of the word above the spiritual kingdom that's when if you're like man i feel like that's happening you know i'm not saying it's it's just an automatic guarantee but be that's where you're Red flags should start going up. Your little spiritual feelers should start tingling. Something very easily could be off. Because again, the Bible was written. And when Jesus returns, I don't think he'll give us another book because we will have the living word in front of us. So I believe the written word, I'm not saying it'll pass away, like it'll be irrelevant. I imagine in heaven there's great reverence for the written word just because of how essential it was to those of us that make it to heaven. Like I'm not saying, but there will be a sense that it will be unnecessary. that the time of that written word will no longer be needed, number one, because Jesus is alive and well, but the main focus and the main thrust of the written word will have been fulfilled. It will have been completed with the final coming of Christ because this current 66 books of the Bible is trying to get physical creatures to prioritize Their spiritual trust and faith in an unseen God. That's it. That's all of its ammunition. All of the guns of the Bible are pointed at that target. Generally speaking. I'm not saying that the Bible doesn't specifically address physical realities. That's not my point. So... Just understand there is nuance. There is definitely nuance to the word. But in order to just help you get a starting point, if you're listening to a Bible teacher and they're pointing a biblical text that they're reading to see this natural, physical kingdom reality, and I'm pointing this biblical text straight to this, This is the primary application of this word. That's when you're like, ding, ding, ding, your little red flag alarm should be going off. That is a typical giveaway that someone is going beyond what is written. beyond what is written because what is written is written in a way, faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ. The point of the word of Christ is to have us put our trust and our faith in his spiritual reign. And again, I'm not saying that that kingdom and that lordship of Christ today has no influence over the physical realities. No, that's not the point. But for us as individual Christians, it is to get our hearts in tuned and in faithful devotion to the spiritual reign of Christ. Okay, so anybody who's trying to take the Bible and say, look, here's this physical reality, this physical event that's going on right now. read this passage and it will tell you what you need to do in this physical reality that would be going beyond what is written okay so you're probably going to need some some more help so we're going to give some just examples of how of what this can look like but before we get there the last encouragement If you do want to see natural change occur in yourself, in your life, in the world around you, and in your community, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not trying to take away your hope in that. But here's the way the biblical process works is more transformative natural change occurs when the spiritual nature of our faith changes. is leveraged to the greatest extent possible i'll say that again more transformative natural change occurs when the spiritual nature of the faith is leveraged to the greatest extent possible so if i want to see physical change natural change happen in the world around me and in my personal world the best way to go about that is to to the greatest extent possible, go all in on the spiritual aspects of our faith and watch God do his transformative work in and through it, in and through it. It's really trusting God first, trusting myself, not at all, trusting my fellow man, not at all in this process. Just when I fully leverage the spiritual aspects of the faith, and i commit things like prayer i commit i fast i that's when you see transformative things in the natural world occur okay when i speak spiritual truths and i share spiritual truths like the gospel with people that's when natural realities trans can really really transform all right so just an encouragement i don't want anybody to miss understand what i'm saying as far as like it's all spiritual kingdom right now the natural world is just whatever don't don't pay attention to it don't even focus on it no i'm saying the exact opposite i'm saying if your heart breaks for injustice around you if your heart breaks for gosh who knows any million things your heart breaks for lawlessness around you things that that get our soul and just grieve us if your heart breaks for murder around you the way of the bible is go all in on the spiritual nature of our faith and watch god really start moving and working through the natural and doing his thing because it's when that's when our faith really showcases the most amount of trust in god okay so let's get into a couple examples and as usual i'm an equal opportunity um political basher so we will pick on both sides here as always so we'll we'll kind of look at uh what i experienced and we'll say kind of a a woke church um you know kind of going beyond what is written, and then something that I've experienced, and we probably all have experienced in, you know, kind of the more traditional conservative church, kind of going beyond what is written. So just to really get you a flavor, what does it mean when Paul says, don't go beyond what is written, and kind of how you can clearly use the tools that God has given you to discern that in your own space, okay? So First example, Galatians 2. Galatians 2, this passage was used in a racial justice context in a sermon I experienced. This was the passage, this was the hallmark passage as to why God has placed priority of racial injustice pretty much over That was kind of the main kind of takeaway from the message. And this was the proof text to drive that point home. And again, just before we get into it, God hates racism. God hates racism. So to be a child of God means you hate racism too. But if you want to see racism eliminated as much as possible on this side of heaven, my point isn't that, you know, give up. No, or that God doesn't care. No, the point is, the way not to do it is to go beyond what is written and prioritize over, prioritize the natural kingdom over the spiritual kingdom, kind of like what we just talked about. So let's read the text first. And just so you know, the error that was seen in this text was natural racism was seen as being corrected over spiritual legalism in the name of racial justice. This is the way I would term the error that I, after digging in the scripture myself, the conclusion that I came to is that natural racism was seen as being corrected by Paul in this conversation over spiritual spiritual legalism in the name of racial justice both things are bad racism and legalism both bad okay but the problem you don't overlook one to focus on the other you deal with the spiritual reality of the text first and you trust that the lord will as he does his spiritual transformative the natural racism element gets dealt with as well. That's quote-unquote the risk, but let's show you how this broke down. Galatians 2, 11 says, I've done a whole podcast episode on this before, but it's a great, I love this passage. But when Cephas came to Antioch, that is Paul, I mean, that is Peter, came to Antioch, that is the church that sent the apostle Paul on his missionary journeys. This was Paul's home church. So Peter came to Paul's turf. I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. Notice the language there. This isn't a moral right away. We see, we see, Peter standing condemned, that is spiritual biblical language as being condemned, being judged. That is what... The gospel rescues us from. So he was saying, as a gospel-believing Christian, Peter was standing in the position of a condemned sinner. But again, it sets up the context. Again, don't go beyond what's written. This is spiritually rich language. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. So this is where the context of the issue is important. Race and ethnicity is a factor. It's definitely here. It is definitely here. But again, it's not a question of is it here or not. It's a question of what's the greater priority. Okay, so here's the deal. Peter was eating with the Gentile Christians before Christ. So, Peter... was engaging in the full body of Christ. Jewish Christians, Gentile Christians, the way the church is supposed to operate. It doesn't matter what the Lord saved you out of, it's what he has saved you into, and we all enjoy fellowship together. All of a sudden, kind of more legalistic Jews that say, yeah, we believe in Jesus, but we believe Jesus still wants us to eat kosher, basically. They showed up to the church as well, and Peter was influenced by that. He's like, okay, I can't eat with the Gentiles because they're eating unclean food. So I have to eat with the Jews in order to gain their approval. That would be the illustration of a legalist, a legalistic interpretation of the gospel, meaning that you have to do certain things in order to earn god's favor and earn salvation so to speak and so that's what paul is calling hypocritical here and he's saying so imagine paul this is his church this is his church like this is his faith community and he sees these these legalists come in and they start swaying people he's like even his boy barnabas is sitting there No longer associating with the Gentile believers. And Paul, as you can see him sitting there, just seeing before his eyes, the church get divided. But I do want to point out, what is clear in this text is, it wasn't a racial divide that was driving Paul's heart. And he makes it clear here. Let's go on. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step, this verse 14, was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? So this is where we, in our disciple tendency to want to see physical change here on earth okay this is where we come to this with compassion and when we spot these errors we spot these errors in compassion because like dude i totally see i totally get why i'm the same way i want to see jesus fix the natural things first okay so if you've experienced racism if you've been a victim of it you know obviously this is something you've Your heart cried, Jesus, fix this here. But remember, the fix isn't now to go beyond what is written and make primary racial justice in a passage that we see clearly that what offends the heart of Paul is the offense, the spiritual offense of the truth of the gospel. And yes, it has... racial ramifications it can it shows up in the context of race but what i was sitting under was someone telling me paul straight up told peter don't be a racist and that would that goofs the whole thing up The problem, the biggest problem with that is that can cut people off from salvation. And here's what I mean by that is if you see racism as what Paul is confronting and what he's correcting, the takeaway can be, I just have to not be racist and then I will be approved by God. And that is anti-gospel. That is anti-gospel. There is nothing we can do. There's no good deed that we can offer. We can't go to God and say, look, I wasn't a racist in a time in great racism and say, accept me. That is a false gospel that we have to fight for gospel supremacy. So that's why this is a big deal. That's why Paul says, don't go beyond what is written. Okay, so we get it. We understand. I can understand, especially who has listened to a black pastor from the South that I'm sure has seen things and heard things that that we just don't want human beings to see and to hear, and that I'm sure it had an impact. I don't know. I didn't walk in his shoes. I'm just showing the compassionate side of understanding and wanting to see Jesus eradicate this physical, natural issue from planet Earth. It's... This is just not the way to go about it. And this is when we get ourselves into error and we go beyond what is written. So there's an example I hope that kind of helps you kind of flesh out in a real practical sense of in this passage, how someone could take the natural kingdom and prioritize it above the spiritual kingdom. Because what Paul is really grieving here is that Peter was limiting people's access to Christ. Not because they were racist, but because they were putting works as a means to earn the kingdom of God. And that is as anti-gospel as you get. And so you can see why Paul, who... put his life on the line for the gospel of Jesus Christ would be so ticked off and would actually oppose somebody to their face. Man, that would have been a scene to behold, that righteous frustration and anger. All right, so hope that helps. That's example one. So example two, let's kind of pick on our kind of more Republican conservative folks. Let's go to Romans 1. We've gone here in past episodes, but again, it's a really easy illustration to help us understand how the other side, okay, when Romans 1 is typically used by, you know, political Christian conservatives to, you know, condemn homosexual marriage and things we've had a long history now, probably over a decade of really intense political battles over this issue. And yes, as you probably all experienced, as I've experienced, Jesus was dragged into this fight through his word. And so what we read in Romans 1, the error that often happens is condemnation for the natural act of homosexuality over the spiritual act of suppressing the truth about God. So, again, Romans 1.26, for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Again, for this reason, we have to know that's referring back to stuff that he's already laid out, where he says the wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness. All unrighteousness, those who suppress the truth in their unrighteousness, suppress the truth about God. And then he continues to list the ways in which this spiritual condition, how the spiritual condition impacts all of creation. All of creation. Okay? So when he says, for this reason, he's saying, I'm showing you all the ways in which the... the spiritual condition of man that we suppress the truth about God in our unrighteousness. This is how it shows up. God gives us up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchange natural relationships for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise give up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." Again, a lot of people will interpret that last portion to be the AIDS pandemic. The due penalty is the physical consequence of AIDS. And, man, you have to go beyond what is written in the Book of Romans to draw that conclusion, because the due penalty is spiritual separation from God for all eternity. And physical separation. I'm not trying to say there's not a physical aspect to that, but... But that is the whole thrust of the entire book of Romans. But you see when the natural act is what typically gets prioritized in this, where the condemnation of Romans 1 is better not be a homosexual. And that is not, that's not, that goes beyond what is written. Romans 1 is laying out the ways in which God's natural creation has suppressed his truth. Homosexuality is one of the ways. And Paul wants to make sure we've gone through this, I'm sure, like two, three times now on different episodes. You can't. If you're going to read Romans chapter 1, you have to get to Romans chapter 2, where Paul clearly states, and you cannot judge because you, the judge, do the very same things. In Romans chapter 1, it's they and them. Romans chapter 2, it's you. So Paul wants to make clear. He's painting this picture of a third-person humanity. He's kind of treating all of humanity in the third person. and then he goes into the personal um what would that be second person that's where my grammar skills wane but when he goes to the you okay that's to make sure we don't miss we don't misinterpret this word and go beyond what is written Romans chapter one is a description of all of mankind. And so again, just like Galatians two, if we go beyond what is written and we prioritize the natural act of homosexuality over the spiritual condition of suppressing the truth about God, what happens is we create a false gospel. And this is the false gospel that like, Subconsciously, I believe like 90% of all American Christians live by that. If I'm straight, heterosexual, I'm good before God. That's just the one mistake I need to make sure. The one sin I can't commit. So many conservative Christians feel just an acceptance before God because of their sexual preference. And holy cow, does that miss... does not miss the entire gospel. So that is why this error is a big deal. That's why I even bring this stuff up because all error has unintended consequences. And I don't think any faithful Christian is trying to set up false gospels, but they don't realize that's what subconsciously happens where people feel validated on the merits of their physical condition before God. And then we go to politics and fight for that. And we fight for that condition. Be like, well, everybody needs to be heterosexual. Then this nation will be under God again. Like, what? No. The only thing that makes a nation under God is the collective submission to the lordship and reign of Jesus Christ by faith, through repentance, through all these spiritual acts, all these spiritual acts that... nobody really wants to do when it comes to you know enforcing their political agendas okay so two examples two different places in the word where i personally have experienced you know what i would believe is a bible teacher trying to trying to send me down an agenda by going beyond what plainly written in the scripture. So I hope, you know, like I said, there's a lot of nuance to this stuff, but hopefully that just gets you a start. And again, my good news, my encouragement is you have the tools needed to discern error. You do. Number one, you've got the spirit of the Almighty God. You have the spirit of Christ, the creator of the entire universe inside of you. And the Bible says the spirit leads you to all truth, not some truth, but all truth. So you have the intelligence of the Almighty God inside of you, revealing himself to you. Gosh, I can't overemphasize how that's the only reason I know anything about anything. It's not because I'm so biblical scholar. It's just the Spirit's alive in me, and He starts connecting some dots. And two, you have the Word. You have the Word. By God's grace, we live in a time where the Word is all over the place. If you're just an average American Christian, you'll probably have like eight Bibles just dusting up on your shelves. You have it. You have it. 30 apps that you can download right now with the Word of God on your phone. You have everything you need. All you need is the Spirit of God and the Word of God. And you just need this crazy radical idea to just stand on it. To stand on the Word. Just be like, you know what? This is what the Word says, so I'm going with this. Regardless what he says, she said, they say, this person, this superstar, influential person, this person with a million Twitter followers, regardless of what all of them say, this is what the word says. So this is what I'm going to stand on. And if we have more individuals within the body that are in that place to just do that, man, we're going to see just crazy revival happening. You know, just that is sorely lacking. in the church. And, you know, I pray for myself, pray for me. Cause it's, trust me, the, the temptation to, to sway against the word based on the whims of, of, of the what's popular around you, man, that's, that's a, that is a tough temptation to, um, to, to stand against. So anyways, anyways, sorry, my computer is wigging out there. Hope, Hope you're still with me. So, all right, so good news. Be encouraged, guys. Be encouraged, be encouraged, be encouraged. This is not impossible stuff here. All things are possible. All right, last question. What to do when you have found error? Okay, and this is where we might get a little radical. This is very anti-cultural right now, even within, especially within the Christian church, okay? First, I want to... bring you to Ephesians 4, verse 11, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers, so pastor fits in that to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of christ we see the purpose of the of spiritual leadership positions is to equip the saints for the work of of the ministry for the building up okay so really There's a lot of places I just feel like that word just kind of encapsulates a lot. But what do you do when you've found the error? Don't exemplify, meaning don't parrot the same error. Once you've been like, man, don't just because that person, people revere more than they revere you. They follow this person. It's this popular leader or the leader of your church or whatever. Don't exemplify it. just because the person is who the person is. That's where, you know, at the end of the day, we're all humans trying to figure this out. And so don't exemplify, don't mimic it, don't parrot it. Don't keep making, don't perpetuate the same error. And don't mortify, meaning don't do what natural man does, which is once you get your, like, knowledge, your word of knowledge, all of a sudden, you use it as an opportunity to make people think that you're so smart and so great, and you start mortifying, start beating up the poor pastor, the poor leader. Rather, edify. That is the whole point for the building up of the body of Christ. So, you now have an opportunity to showcase, maybe you have some apostolic gifts, some prophetic gifts, some evangelists, some shepherding gifts, some teaching gifts. These things aren't just reserved for one person in the church. These are aspects of giftings that we all have to a certain degree and we can walk in these things because you may not be a pastor of church, but you may be a mother over three children. You know what I mean? So you're going to have to tap into some teaching gifts. You know what I mean? so so this is an opportunity for you to edify to to build up so don't exemplify or mortify rather edify make sure that you use this as an opportunity to do what the word wants everybody all these giftings to do so really practically what does this mean Pray for your pastor, number one. Pray for your pastor. You have just, by God's grace, the Holy Spirit has revealed to you a human being in error. Guess what? Happens 50 million times a day. God's not surprised. So thinking that some great injustice is happening, like get over yourself. It's not that big a deal. God, well aware of it. And it was part of his plan from the beginning. So pray. Pray, pray for your pastor. Well, Lord, I just, by your grace, by your word, by your spirit, I see my pastor in error. Lord, will you do a work in this situation and whatever role you want me to play, keep me faithful to it and keep me faithful to your word throughout the whole process. Pray, pray, pray. Next thing, encourage your pastor. It's okay. It's okay to go to a pastor. It's okay. it should be and you know if a pastor is unwilling to receive your encouragement and i don't mean like sarcastic encouragement what i mean remind the pastor the leader why the lord brought you to this church you know reference this word I am here to be equipped for the work of the ministry so that I can be a part of building. That's why I'm here. I'm here to submit to your leadership as God's placed you over this church. That's what I'm here for. So just encourage them. Don't feel like you have to bow to the pressures to other agendas. That's what I mean by encourage. Encourage that you... If you're the only one in the entire church, make sure they know you're there for the biblical reason of why they exist. That's why you show up. Because I'm submitting myself to you so that this spiritual thing can happen. Encourage them in that way. Don't just... just call them out or leave the church or whatever because you've found the church now to be in error. Guess what? Every church you're going to find in error. Don't be like that. So encourage your pastor by saying, hey, if I'm the only one there, if I'm the only one here that's here for what Paul lays out in Ephesians, then just every Sunday, just lock in on me. I'm just saying my encouragement to you is to resist the temptation of the masses right now. I get it. I know what's going on. I know how I can be susceptible to that as well. That's what I mean by encourage, sit down. Like, don't just correct a pastor. Yeah, pastors a lot of time have, you know, they're vulnerable. They're standing in front of Christian people every single weekend, bearing their souls down. And so, yeah, sometimes I struggle when the response to their work is people nitpicking and be like, well, you said that wrong, you said that wrong. You know, so that's why I don't say, quote unquote, correct. Because that's, it's not super effective. So we say encourage, say, hey, this is why I'm here. I want you to know for me, I don't need you to go that route. I don't need you to do all that. I don't need that. I'm here for you to just pour the word of God into me exactly as the word of God is. And in the first conversation, it probably won't. It probably won't make a huge difference. Probably won't. But I'm telling you that encouragement will sow a seed. That in due time will... It will. It won't be within a couple weeks. It may take time. And to the best of your ability, build a relationship. Build a relationship. Make sure with your presence, with your actions, that pastor knows you're there for them. You're there for them to encourage them. Because doing what a pastor has to do is hard. It is hard work. And there's spiritual warfare galore. They need people edifying, encouraging them, lifting them up, praying for them. Not being a voice of discouragement and condemnation. That's the last thing that's useful to a pastor. So be a voice of encouragement, but encourage in truth. Encourage in truth. You don't have to just be a yes man and just pretend that the pastor's perfect because they're not. So And the last thing that I'll say, leaving your church should be the last resort. And again, I'm not here to tell you what to do. I just think sometimes it's helpful if you kind of have an order of priority as you work through these situations. I am sure there's going to be instances where the good, healthy thing is to walk away from a church because God hasn't placed you in a position to... to bring about the kind of change that's necessary. And sometimes some of these issues can be very, very unhealthy, very harmful. You know what I'm saying? So every situation is different. I'm just kind of laying out maybe an order of priority. Pray, encourage, and then as last resort... Leaving the church needs to be the last option. I say that because leaving the church is typically the Christians first. It's the first thing. Oh, they played a song by such and such a worship group. I heard they worship Satan. So I'm out. I'm out. That's literally how quick we walk away from ministries that are trying to be faithful in the word of God and are trying to be beacons of hope in the community. We need to give way, way, way, way, way more benefit of the doubt on that. especially in this modern context where all of the sheep are going to the shepherds with a hundred different agendas. I can't tell you how many pastors I've talked to throughout this COVID pandemic were this close, like a fraction of an inch away from walking away from the faith just because they could not satisfy all the agendas being thrown their way. So don't be another... another person in that dark cloud so let leaving the church be the absolute last resort because if that's when that's our first choice what it does is it creates yet another denominational preference so now we have another currently we have another category and i saw this on a youtube video and it just broke my heart i won't say the church the ministry the whatever but they were using language of basically good church, bad church, based on their political activity and their political activism. I was just like, no, oh no. We have created yet another category of denominations. So now we have woke church, we have Trumpy church, and wherever you fit on that spectrum will determine which church you go to. That is a big thing going on right now Christians are picking church based on politics and that's if that's not proof of error I don't I don't know what to tell you so yeah man I think I think we're good I think I think that's about as good as I can do hopefully this as always was helpful for you but yeah I'll be Pray for me. I'll be praying for you. Pray for our church, our global American church right now. We've got a lot of stuff to sort out, but the good news always is, guess what? I'm not the pastor of it. You're not the pastor of it. Even your pastor isn't the pastor of it. It is Jesus' church. He will accomplish what he wants to accomplish in and through it. despite us or because of us. That's how good Jesus is. So never lose hope. Never, ever, ever lose hope. So, all right. Well, that's all I got for you today on this subject. Yeah, have a good one. Love you guys. And as always, until next time, Christian well, my friends.

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he taught me how to live my life as it should be he taught me how to turn my cheek when people laugh at me i've had friends before and i can tell you that he's one who will never leave you flat