Ep.58 - When You Need Everyone to Agree with You

Our polarized national culture is creeping in and polarizing the Christian culture.  As time goes by new camps within the Christian church are being formed around explicitly political lines.  The Christian church is no stranger to divisions within our ranks, however, traditionally those dividing lines came in the form of theological or methodological debates.  Seeing Christians openly organizing themselves on political lines isn't completely new but is picking up momentum rather rapidly.  In this episode, Kirk will take a deep look into what is at the root of this growing issue.  He will also take a look at an age-old biblical principle to help guide us to a better place.  If you are growing tired of having to make an answer for where you stand politically at the places you worship take a listen and find some encouragement.  Enjoy!  

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Transcript

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right, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Christian Inc. podcast. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. Joining us, another great conversation and discussion ahead of us today. So again, hope you enjoy it. If you have been enjoying and you haven't rated or reviewed the podcast, please do that today. And most importantly, if there's been an episode that's kind of touched your spirit in a way that's like, oh man. I feel like so-and-so would really be blessed if they heard this. Please hit that share button on your Apple iTunes or podcast episode page or the website if you're on the website. Every place has that awesome little share button. Put it in a text. Say, hey, so-and-so, I think you'd really be blessed by this. Yeah, let's keep spreading love. Spreading the message out there. It's kind of more, I don't know, kind of sane, even-headed approach to Christianity in the midst of much controversy. And today will be another discussion to help us do just that. So thank you, thank you, thank you as today. Talk about a little epiphany that I had a few weeks ago. Talking about when you need everyone to agree with you. That's the title of our topic here. I'll tell you why in a minute. Why that kind of popped in my head. I think if you're humble enough and open-minded enough to really just consider yourself. Because I did the same with myself when I had this epiphany. Just consider your own approach to other people with differing views within the Christian culture. And I think we all will find a lot of moments where we've been guilty of what we're going to be talking about here. And so, again, don't let that guilt discourage you. Let that guilt drive you, drive you to Christ and his grace, his forgiveness, his compassion, his understanding. Always, our guilt always drives us to the most beautiful places. pieces of Jesus and the most beautiful aspects of the gospel message. So always keep that in mind. That's why we're not against rebuke. We're not against correction. We're not against understanding that we are guilty because when we sit in it, we get to be showered with grace. And that's a beautiful thing. It gets our faith off our own righteousness and our own merits and onto the righteousness and merits of Jesus Christ. So So yeah, don't ever be afraid and enjoy. But be open-minded because really I think if we can all solve some of this stuff in our own hearts, the collective experience of Christianity will change drastically. The reason why we get stuck as Christian culture in a lot of things is because we're waiting for a lot of the other people that we see as so, so wrong to We're waiting for them to change. And once they change, then the Christian church will be better. And if we just all understand our contributions to the problems and we just focus on the only thing that we have any sort of control ourselves, I think collectively we'll be in a better place. So this could be a good episode to spread so more people can have a... open humble heart and kind of understand and take a leading role in in what's going to help our collective witness as a church our collective experience with one another in very contentious times that that we're facing that i don't know about you i just come in contact with christian after christian after christian that's just weary weary weary um having to face and work through all the stuff that we're having to work through just so that we can be at church with one another you know so so anyways um yeah i'll hope uh hope you enjoy today but the epiphany that i had that led to this whole uh this whole episode and happy summer by the way i hope you guys are loving it summer is my vibe that's my uh That's my season, so I will get these episodes out as much as I can, but just know that if you're not hearing a bunch from me, it's because I am just enjoying me some summer. A lot of work to do, but anyways, at least when it works out, get to hang out and enjoy and get some fun stuff with the family, all that good stuff. But anyways, back to the epiphany. I was having a conversation... with a friend, you know, a little ways back. And it was kind of a discussion that, you know, kind of evolved into what is becoming more common, like I shared. Just frustration and angst with some, you know, those some people in the church who just don't see things the way this person did from a cultural political perspective. So what we're going to be talking about today are these are not so much theological arguments, which we're very experienced in, but kind of really applying it to the cultural-political moment to where that's been just a growing divide within the body of Christ and our experience in it. And so, again, having another conversation with this person kind of just outlying their frustrations with... kind of the evangelical church as a whole in America. And then this person was pointing out some difficulties he's been having just with some interpersonal relationships and things of that nature. And so the epiphany came is some of the people that this person was frustrated with, I knew. I actually had friendships with, and I knew... pretty pretty well like relationally had to you know could had a good sense of who they were and who their character was and uh some of these people i'd known for for a long time and and i was sitting there listening i was just i was like man these people that this person's frustrated with or having a tough time connecting with or or whatever i'm like like these are based on like, you know, I could be wrong, but I was like, these, these are Jesus first people. Like I understood, like I knew them well enough to understand where, where, what they kind of thought about different political issues and things of that nature. So I, so I got all that. I understood that, that, you know, that there was an accurate assessment of how these people, um, were leaning on, on controversial cultural issues. So I got that, but then it just, what was kind of, was kind of, bubbling up in my heart, it's like, but I just, I know that, I know that there's that layer, and I'm not saying that's not, you know, easy to deal with, you know, that that's, you know, that can be difficult, I get all that, but I was just like, but of all people, I was like, these people are Jesus people, these people are like, from what I could understand, like, willing to lay anything aside, if there was agreement on Christ and the gospel and be in relationship, be in friendship. And so that's what kind of got my mind really thinking. It got me thinking about really the nature of unity in the church, this kind of nebulous concept that we all are after to a certain degree and are all frustrated by when we don't experience it happening. And, you know, unity's been, you know, kind of the cry of Christian culture. And I don't think any of us really feel like we've gotten there. And there's plenty of historical moments and plenty of examples to point to as far as how far away we are from it. But that really got me, you know, just thinking deep, like, well, then how... Why are we disunified? How do you gain unity? Where does it come from? And so, as I just was kind of thinking, meditating on this, just some thoughts bubbled up, and really what I've come to realize, and this is where we need to open our minds and look internally, Jesus said, get the plank out of your own eye before... Pointing out the speck in your brother or sister's eyes. So let's make sure we do some plank removal first. And that's what I had to do first and foremost. Was really understand my instincts when it comes to this issue. And understanding what was present in my heart. And how... Why do I struggle contributing to unity and how can I personally get in the way? And so kind of what dawned on me is unity instinctually to us. So when we just instinctually, because I think all of human beings, we want to surround ourselves with unity. with as many like-minded people. We want to be unified with as many like-minded people. Think about watching your favorite sports game. I'm a huge Warriors fan, so I just got done watching the finals, which was another reason why you haven't heard much from me. I was kind of wrapped up in the finals, me and my boys. When I'm watching the Warriors, what's my preferred setting? It's either by myself or with a bunch of other people that are all rooting for the same team. That's an instinct for us. So there is an aspect of human instinct that reaches out, craves, leans in to unity. However, what that definition of what unity actually is to us as fleshly human fallen creatures is, this is what it means. What What we're craving for is everyone agreeing with me on things that are important to me. That's what really the unity that we're craving for. And the sacrifices that we're willing to make for unity are on the things that really don't matter much to us. You know, you think about age-old Christian theological debates. You know, we all are... understand that you major on the majors and you don't major on the minors. There's different kind of phrases we use. There's close-handed issues and open-handed issues. You want to keep the close-handed issues as few and as essential as possible, and you want as many issues as you believe biblically allow you to be in that open hand. But really, again, instinctually to us is what we're going to put in the close-handed are the things that are really just important to us as theology. So for some people, speaking in tongues is going to be close-handed because it's such an important aspect of their expression and faith. And so it's... And other people would put that in open-handed because they're like, you know, speaking in tongues, I've never really done it, don't quite understand it. So, hey, I can hang out with people who speak in tongues, but I don't need them to as long as they don't need me to and things of that nature. So the same issue can be close-handed or open-handed depending on how essential it is to you and how important it is to you. And so that's really, that's our instinct. We don't need to be taught that. That's what it is. Like, again, in the sports analogy, like, I can watch, say, any, let's say, like, Clippers game, L.A. Clippers game with anybody at any time because I don't really care. I don't really care if, you know, Clippers are fine. I don't mind them, you know, but, like, if they lose, I'm not, like... brokenhearted you know so it's like it's like whatever so that's open-handed like i can i can experience a clippers game with any number of people i can experience that with crazy fans i can experience that with people that hate the clippers like whatever it's not important to me so that would be an open-handed fan experience where it's just like yeah anybody like oh clippers games on you know they finally made the finals for the first time in the history of the world like And someone invites me to go watch the game. Sure, I don't care. But when it's a team that's essentially important to me, I think through that audience really well or very carefully. Who's going to be there? Are they going to say things that are going to tick me off and frustrate me? What if the team I care about, what if they lose? And then I have this kind of bad attitude in front of a house full of people. That's the kind of stuff that that you think through as a fan when you really care about the team. But when you don't, it's

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like, hey,

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whatever. That's kind of how we are culturally. These issues, you know, these cultural political issues that are like,

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eh,

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you know, tax rates. Yeah, you know, I'd rather not pay high taxes. You know, however, as long as, you know, the taxes are going to Go into things that really drive our country and provide stability and infrastructure. That's maybe a bad example because nobody likes high taxes, but just think of any political issue that's tossed your way in the news media. There's some of that stuff you're just like,

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eh,

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that's okay. I don't really care. I can go either way on that. You can be open-handed about that, but we all have these two, three, two to five seminal issues of importance. And because those are important to me, they are now close-handed because I can only be unified with people that agree with me on these things. Because it's important to me. So that's kind of our... Our fleshly definition, understanding of unity. Unity biblically, in order to kind of set this conversation up well, and this is the case that I believe we'll prove through our word of the day here. Unity biblically, here's what I think that means. It means loving what matters the absolute most so much that what doesn't matter most is easy to lay aside. That's really, as I read the whole scripture, Genesis to Revelation, and try to wrap my head around, what is unity? What does it feel like? What's the experience? How do you get there? All those things. It really, what it is, is just being so insanely in love and for what matters the absolute most. You know, all those core essentials. Jesus, his... Death, burial, resurrection, his perfect life, the fact that he's deity. And just the gospel message that all those theological truths prop up. The fact that Jesus was a worthy sacrifice. The fact that he had authority to get off that cross and he chose not to. All those truths just prop up the story of Christ and his grace for his people and his love for his people. And so really to be unified means that I love that and I cherish that at such a high level. that the secondary issues aren't secondary. They're more like, they're more like 30 area. They're so far down. They seem that there's so much distance between what matters most and these other things that the other things are like in comparison, they're much easier to lay aside. Like you may, you can easily have a position on them, and have your position be what you believe is biblical. But it's just like, but Christ, it's so much better that it's easy to unify around those essentials because of how high those essentials are in my heart that when I run into somebody else who has the same views of those essential things, it's like, heaven it's like instant brotherhood sisterhood deep friendship that and then when you find out that that person you know views this way about spiritual gifts or that way about um you know the nature of salvation or whatever it's like oh hey let's let's let's talk more about that let me it actually those differences drive you to deeper you know, conversation than they do drive you away from one another. That's kind of, you know, just to set this discussion up. That's really my heart of hearts, you know, to summarize what I see unity being in the Bible. It's just simply loving what matters the absolute most to all Christians. So, so, so, so much that the rest of it it just pales in comparison. And so that way, the rest of it, you can have non-emotionally charged perspectives on and actually have edifying conversations because those differences don't attack somebody else's identity or they're not these emotionally charged issues. So anyways, I hope that helps. Another thing that I encourage you, to check out is way, way back in the beginning, episode number two. I did an episode called When You're With Other Christians, so Christianing When You're With Other Christians, and that was just a kind of engaging way to to talk through unity as well so that episode two if you kind of joined later you know now i think we're at episode 58 or something so if you if you joined in later and you haven't you know gone back all through the whole catalog jump on episode two you can even hit stop here go back to episode two and that we really we take a a deeper dive into what unity is, the mistakes that we make typically in unity and what the fixes are and things of that nature. And this episode, we're gonna attack that notion that I think we can all humbly admit about ourselves is that unity to me too often means I can be unified with anybody who agrees with me. And if they don't agree with me, I'm going to have troubles with them interpersonally. I'm going to have troubles worshiping alongside them. I'm going to have troubles being on mission with people, so on and so forth. And that's where I see us drifting, drifting, drifting so much further towards. So without further ado, let's get in our word of the day. Flip your Bibles or flip your screen Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12. This is the... the quintessential passage on the body of Christ and where we get that metaphor and what that means for unity. Now, we're going to take this passage a little out of context, meaning that this passage is specifically dealing with spiritual gifts, spiritual giftings within the body. However, the principle that Paul uses to make his case is for a diversity of spiritual gifts, that principle is so easy and it's so biblically accurate to apply to all facets of unity within the body. So really what this chunk of scripture, 1 Corinthians 12, it's really just a master course on just unity as a whole. And he's teaching it to us through the context of of differing spiritual giftings within the body of Christ. But again, it's just another thing that we Christians in our flesh, spiritual giftings is another thing that will rally around like, will identify and rally around like giftedness and will despise some gifts and uphold others depending on on how we've been gifted and how Jesus has wired us. So just, you know, if you're going to share the concepts of this podcast with any of your fundamental friends, God bless them, but they'll nail you on the context, on the contextual issues, but I think you can rebuttal pretty good and just say this. But yes, there is a clear principle being taught here that can apply to all facets of unity And right now we're in a politically charged culture within our church. And so we can easily take what we see here and apply it that direction as well. So we're going to be in two different spots in 1 Corinthians 12. First, we're going to be in verse 4 through 11. And then we're going to kind of, you know, I'm just going to assume that you guys have dove into the into the metaphor of the body of Christ where he talks about eyes, hands, feet. He uses these different illustrations. We're going to skip those illustrations and get to kind of where he takes another main point to. So we're going to look at how he sets it up, skip kind of the metaphorical symbolic explanation, and then jump back in verse 24 through 26 where he starts driving it back home to a you know kind of a a main point so let's read and then we're going to pull four things four things out of this passage that's i think i'll help uh help start beating out of your heart and my heart this tendency that we have to to only unify um with people that agree with us on on secondary issues and politics, please, for the love of God, please consider that a far, far, far, far secondary issue, maybe even third, fourth to 60th issue. But anyways, I digress. Verse four, first Corinthians 12 says, now there are a variety, varieties of gifts and but the same Spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. Key will spend a lot of time on those first two verses, because anytime you hear something repeated three different times in three different ways, he's driving home some deep, deep key points. Verse 7,"...to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles according to another, prophecy, to another, the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another, various kinds of tongues, to another, the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions each one individually as He wills. So basically, you got verse 4 and 5 and 6 that kind of lay out, you know, the summary thesis statement. And then He says, illustrates that same point, verses 7 through 11, in a ton of different ways, but you hear the same point. There's this gift, but the same. This gift, but from the same. This gift from the one, the only, the same. So you kind of get the point there. Let's get down to verse 24 after he kind of dives deep into the metaphorical language of different members of different types of members, but all part of the same body, like our fingers, our hands, our toes, our heart, our eyes, our ears, all serving different purposes, but We all know in our bodies, once we remove the function of even, say, one finger, your life is altered pretty significantly and you miss that finger dearly. So it's a great, it's just one of the great biblical analogies, you know, because it's just so clear and it's so dead on, it's so helpful. But anyways, and then he starts talking about that there's different members that are less presentable or less honorable in Christ. He talks about how those may be parts of the body that are viewed as less honorable. What do you do? We give them greater honor. We compensate. The rest of the body, if something is viewed as less honorable, less presentable, or whatever, the body compensates and puts greater honor on them. on that part so that it's it's brought back to the level of equal with all the other parts and verse 24 he picks up but in this middle of this kind of part b but god has so composed the body giving greater honor to the part that lacked it and there may be that and this is where we get to the heart that i wanted to get to verse 25 that there may be no division in the body But that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. So that's where he kind of just brings the whole concept to the whole point that there may be no division between and that members have the same care for one another, that there's this one another experience that we'll dive into in our last point. But great, great chunk of scripture, very important. So there's four aspects about unity that we're going to see here in this scripture. One, the goal is variety in unity. So number one, we're going to see the goal is, is variety in unity. Two, we're going to see the path is priority in primacy. Priority in primacy. I'll explain what that means. Three, we have the attitude is humility of authority. Humility of authority. And then lastly, we have the outcome is interactivity amongst everybody. So we have a goal, we have a path, we have an attitude that's governs us on that path and then there's an outcome there's something that's experienced there's a there's something when we get this right when this thing happens there's an outcome that we will all see and say there it is there's unity so we're going to look at the goal of unity we're going to look at the path for how to get there we're going to look at the attitude that that governs us and guides us on that path keeps us on the path i would say and then The outcome, like how you'll know when you've arrived. So let's dive in. First, verses 4, 5, and 6. The goal is variety in unity, not homogeneity in unity. Okay? That kind of goes back to what we talked about at the beginning. We are wired to unity through homogeneity. And what homogeneity means is a likeness. Similarity. We're all homogenous. We all have the same perspectives. We all have the same attitudes. Nobody needs Jesus to learn how to do that. We all know how to do that. We know how to do that as babies. We all were in high school and we were in a variety of cliques or we were in our one clique in the midst of a variety of cliques because we don't need to be taught unity through homogeneity. As usual, like the gospel, Jesus comes and he does something completely opposite of what we can do in our fleshly fallen self. He lays out that we, as Christians, as a body of Christ, we find unity through variety. And that's so clearly seen. Varieties of gifts, but the same spirit. Varieties of service, but the same Lord. Varieties of activities, but is the same God. So you see here very clearly three times over that there is variety. So that means there's diversity. But then at the same time, there's unity because it all comes from the same place. And we all recognize who that is. We are all So there's this tremendous glue, this overarching unifying glue of the Spirit of God and His work in us and the faith that He has given us to trust and believe what we trust and believe in. But the actual experience of that is being a very unique piece of God. of an extremely diverse group of people. And I don't mean just diverse. We as a nation, we're just so hung up on racial diversity. We literally can't see diversity beyond skin deep. That's all we can see. And that's sad that we still struggle with that. Truly, I'm not trying to undersell the importance of that. But it's like the unity, I mean, the diversity of the body of Christ is so, so, so deep. It's so, so deep. Yes, I can, as a Caucasian male, I can be alike racially with a whole group of people, other Caucasian males, but I can be extremely diverse individually. in that group and extremely unique in that group because of the depths of how different characteristics we all are and that's just so there's a depth of diversity here that's that's crazy so here it's applied to spiritual giftings even how god has gifted us is extremely diverse so not only are there different types of gifts but then Then there's just how we manifest those gifts and how we apply those gifts and how we, which will be different. I can be similarly gifted to somebody else in the body of Christ, but the way I'm wired in my background and my upbringing will cause me to just, will explore those gifts in a completely different way than what's so, so the diversity here is just, it's so rich and it's so deep in the body and So it goes much deeper than just our skin tone. So again, we see here how people naturally order themselves even in the Corinthian church. They were ordering themselves by like giftings because they understood one another on those terms and so they needed this instruction. And The struggle for us Christians, we have the same struggle as anyone else. Christians, just think about this. By our participation in the religion that we participate in, in the faith that we participate in, think about it. We just have now more things to unify around than a non-believer does. So our quest for unity is going to be maybe even a greater struggle than people that don't believe because Now we have biblical perspectives and theological issues to work through. And then you have issues of application to work through. We have this whole mountain of more potential for disunity and lack of diversity because of our faith. We say, okay, I believe in the message of this Bible. Okay, there's about... A thousand different ways people have decided to interpret and read and understand the Bible. It's like, oh my goodness. So just, you know, I kind of see when people point out the disunity within the Christian body. I'm like, well, it makes sense to me. It makes sense to me. Yes, we need to strive for better. And because of the power Christ has given us through his spirit and grace, So it's not an excuse, but it does get me to be like, well, no, duh. Yeah, we have this whole huge new mountain of issues to be divided on. So that's going to be a struggle for us. But we can make it through if we really just understand the simplicity, I think, of what Paul's trying to teach. So the goal is, We've got to keep that in mind. The goal is variety in unity. So if you're in a situation where there's a lot of homogeneity, meaning a lot of alikeness, not just like, I don't mean like, like-minded about Christ and the gospel. I mean a lot of homogeneity as far as like, let's apply it to what we're talking about, political perspective. If you're in a situation, if you're in a church, if you're in a fellowship, if you're in a community in worship with people, and you look around the room, you look around the sanctuary, it's just like, yeah, we all kind of think the exact same about this political stuff. You're not experiencing the goal of unity, which is variety. Again, I'll say it for the thousandth time, There is room in the body of Christ, in the Christian church, for the full gamut spectrum of political views. Like I said, there's only a couple issues that I can think of that the Bible, I believe, would implore us to take a specific position on. But the rest of it, the full gamut of everything else about how government should be run and the economy and all these other things and immigration and all this stuff, there's no biblical political standard. So if you're in a church in a situation where you look around and it's unity and homogeneity, then you're missing something beautiful. You're missing something beautiful. So... So pay attention. Pay attention. Okay? So that's the goal. The path. Okay? We're going to stay in verse 4 through 6 is priority and primacy. Now here's what I mean by this. Because as he says, there's a variety of gifts but the same spirit. What needs to be the priority in that phrase? The gifts or the spirit? Clearly, It's what's the same amongst everybody. That's the spirit. That is, we have to prioritize. We have to prioritize what makes us the same, which is salvation by grace through faith in Christ and his work, not our work. All that good gospel goodness and the spirit of God that dwells inside every single one of us. That holds such a high priority. And why is it such a high priority? Because it's It's primary. That's what I mean by priority and primacy. It's the primary thing that I am fixated on as a Christian believer. I'm primarily fixated on Christ. And that priority is so much higher than everything else. So that when I run into somebody else that has a different perspective, maybe even voted differently... than I did. I know what a sin to vote differently than I would have voted. That is so like, that's so, that's such a low priority to me because it's like, oh my goodness, I just found another person that loves Jesus the same way I love Jesus. And they have the same spirit of God inside of them. So that would like, We are going to rejoice and rally in that together. That's what our relationship is going to be founded on. And then as we talk and we get to know each other and so-and-so is like, oh, man, I hope Trump runs again. And this person is like, no, no, I'm really hoping Biden runs again. And, you know, that stuff's like, oh, really? Why do you think that? What are you... What are you excited about? What do you think in there? I want to learn. I want to understand where you're coming from. Why do you think that that person helps this? And why do you think this person, you know, it becomes just like this because we're good. We're good. I don't need you to vote the way I voted because Jesus voted on you and he voted on me. He chose you. He chose me. We're in the most essential, important kingdom of Christ. together and we're planted there we're we're sealed guaranteed there by his spirit so like this kind of superficial kingdom that we all live in this temporary kingdom where rulers come and go and ideas some ideas work a lot of them don't like it's just like okay that's fine let's What do you think about that? Oh, cool, I think this. I think this will be most helpful. Huh, I never considered that before. I'm going to think on that. I'm going to think more. You know, that might change a little bit about the way I approach this issue or at least the way I approach other people with this issue. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. That's helpful to me. That's great. That's what happens. That's the path is when we have prioritized things the primacy of Jesus Christ so high that everything else is like such a whatever issue. Like whatever, like me at the Clippers game, like whatever, they win, they lose, big deal. You know, it's cool. As long as I get to be here with you guys, as long as I get to hang out with you guys that invited me, that's all I need. That's the path. That's when you know you're on the path to unity. Jesus has to be far and above the most significant source of worship and the greatest goal of your mission. So Jesus has to be what you worship the most. Your worship of Jesus has to be far greater than any other thing that you look up to politically. And then Jesus has to be the goal of your mission. Like in politics, the mission is to get everybody to vote for the person I want to vote for. No. As Christians, we have that mission of political engagement. It exists, but it's so, so lower. I can unify with any Christian whose goal is to get people to vote for Jesus Christ in the heart of their lives. That's... That's the mission. That's the mission. So you vote for Trump. You vote for Biden. Cool. Let's roll. Let's go get to the real mission. And you know what we're going to find? Spoiler alert. You're going to find out that, hey, this person that likes Donald Trump, man, they really easily connect with these other non-believers who like Donald Trump and And wow, it's this quick, easy relational building thing that where this person can get these people to look to Jesus. And then the same as Biden, kind of Democrat, like this person has access to this unbelieving community that is of that mindset. And they can build relationships so much quicker and so much easier. Wow. And they can quickly turn those conversations to the most important conversation. to the king of the entire universe, Jesus Christ. And then we can come back together and share like, oh

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man,

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I was on mission today and I was with all these right-wing Republicans, but I was able to turn these conversations to get them to really consider Jesus and really vote Jesus with their hearts. And they can compare notes with their Democrat friends. And I know what I'm saying right now sounds absolutely nutso to you people, but Please give it a try. Give it a try. Just open your mind to it. So anyways, moving on. The path is priority and primacy. So let's jump down to verse 11, where we see the attitude is humility of authority. And this is the attitude that will keep you in bounds, that will keep you on the path. You see in verse 11, all these are empowered by one and the same spirit. Here we go. We see the unity again, the sameness of the spirit, of the source. But the spirit has authority, has ultimate authority, who appoints to each one individually as he wills. So the attitude for you and me is humility of somebody else's authority. Look, I say this all the time. I'm a white kid who grew up in the suburbs of Grand Rapids, Michigan. That's what I know. That's my background. There was like, I think, two black kids in my high school. Did I choose that? No. That is the... That is the position the Lord decided to put me in to give me the background and the perspectives that I have. He apportioned that as He willed for the formative years of my life. So I'm going to draw on those perspectives and those understandings as I walk into my adulthood realities. That's somebody else's authority that laid that out for me. I was a kid. I can tell you the story of how we ended up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, how my family ended up there. But it doesn't matter. I was along for the ride. And that's the reality that formed who I am today. And I'm not apologetic of that. That may not be a great thing to be in this kind of... woke culture or whatever, but it is. I can't change it. And I can't change the reality that a lot of my perspectives on life and politics and things like that were formed through that. Don't you see? All these are empowered by one in the same spirit who appoints, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. So now as I exercise my different thoughts, beliefs, opinions about secondary issues in the kingdom of God, some of that stuff's going to come out. And a lot of it's going to be ignorant. A lot of it's going to need to be corrected and rebuked. And I need to be open to that. But still, there's a lot of goodness that came out of that too. A lot of things that other people need to listen and pay attention to. It's... We all need to humble ourselves under the weight of that authority. You were formed exactly the way the Lord had you. That's what the sovereignty of God means. There isn't accidents in the kingdom of God. It doesn't exist. He puts you through the trials, tribulations, and the positives, and all the good things, the privileges, dare I say, of aspects of your upbringing to make you the person that you are today so that you'll have the perspectives that you have so that he can utilize those perspectives for his kingdom and his mission. That's our attitude. It's not like any one of us was in the right or perfect scenario because of our choosing or we're more enlightened than somebody else or whatever. That's how you get off the path to unity. That's how you get... you know to the path of of unity through homogeneity so god groups his body how he sees fit and then also we need to understand we don't get to determine who we worship with how crazy is that that's the most anti-american evangelical thing to really wrap your head around is he apportions to each one individually as he wills. And later he says, he places in the body as he sees fit. So wherever you're put is where you need to be. And whoever's sitting next to you, who is lifting up their hands to worship the one true God, Jesus Christ, and his saving work for them, guess what? That's who... the authoritative God has told you you get to do this Christian thing with. We don't get to choose. That's the only criteria we get to choose on. We only get to choose who's in and out based on Christ and everybody's individual faith in Christ. Whether they put their trust in the one true God and the one true message of the one true gospel, or if they put their faith in something else, well, then we could say, hey, I can't worship with you on this. I can be in a relationship and I can try to minister to you, but I can't worship with you because we're worshiping two separate things. But if the person, the people around you, you've looked at them and you've come to the conclusion, the Spirit led you to the conclusion that these people are Jesus' first people, guess what? You don't get to separate yourself from them. You don't get to that would be going against the authoritative work of God in his body. And I think every church, every Christian, we need to get better at submitting to that authority, yours truly included. So the attitude is humility of authority. We understand that it's somebody else's authority, not ours, that determines who we ultimately get placed in the body with. And You, Republican, may be sitting next to a Democrat, and you need to stink and get over it. That's just it. You may find out the person sitting next to you voted for Donald Trump, and you just need to get over it. You just need to get over it so that we can finally be unified. They don't need to agree with you on that. It's okay. All right? Last point. Now here's the outcome. That's where we jump ahead to verse 25. The outcome is interactivity amongst everybody. How do you know you've arrived? How do you know you've made it to the place that the biblical path lays you on? You're going to see something. You're going to see that there may be no division in the body. But, so what... What does lack of division look like? That the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. You just, that first scream of interaction, interactivity, people being, doing, experiencing together. And the key word you see twice is if one member suffers together, all suffer if one member is honored all rejoice all suffer all rejoice everyone not this group or that group all there is an interactivity amongst everybody that's when you know when your small groups are kind of portioned out We've got the Republican group over here. We've got kind of more liberal-minded woke people over here. You're in the outcome of a different, of a more fleshly unity. You're not in the outcome. You're not experiencing the outcome of biblical unity. Okay? So keep this in mind. Keep this in mind. Because here's the reality of... Unity through homogeneity, which is fleshly unity. We know how to do that. We've been doing that since we were babies. When we get this wrong, we will rejoice when others suffer and suffer when others rejoice. That's the telltale sign that you're somewhere else. You got on a path and you arrived at the wrong destination. That's the time where you... in your hearts when you're watching your preferred political candidate win. You're like, yeah, eat it. I'm so glad, man. I want to see the other side's reaction. I want to see them frustrated. I want to see them angry. I want to see them suffer. I saw this a lot in 2016. I'll just leave it there. There was just a joy of watching somebody else suffer because what was important to them wasn't going to be executed in the country that they live in. So that's what the wrong kind of unity, that's what division produces. People rejoicing because they're excited that other people are suffering. and people suffering while other christians are rejoicing that's you've arrived the wrong you got on the wrong train because you're at the wrong at the wrong station when that's where you're at all right so that's a good uh just a good i guess um guideline and a good good map to know a good description of the destination so When you're in a place where you look around and you see a variety of perspectives on a lot of political issues, and everybody is there watching consequential elections and things, and everybody is there able to rejoice with those that are excited about the outcome, but then those that are excited about the outcome are able to lower themselves and say, I knew this part was important to you or this aspect was important to you. Man, I feel for that. I feel for you. Maybe there's something we can do together to kind of help ease that or whatever. Then you know you're in the right place. Then you know you're in the right place. All right. I think that's it today. Again, just pray, pray, pray, hope, hope, hope that that's... useful and helpful. This is stuff that is just, I'm telling you, has revolutionized my experience within the church. I mean, just Christian culture as a whole, because I spend time with a lot of Christians. I run a Christian ministry, and I employ only Christians, and there's a lot of Christians that use our service. So this is my life. This is my world. I've I've been humbled a lot, and the Lord's taught me a lot how to get the most out of it. And I'm telling you, it's a better place to be. It just is. And I'm just stumbling into it myself. So join me, and let's fumble around here together. All right? Hope that was helpful. Hope you enjoyed it. As always, until next time, Christian Well, my friends, we love you. Can't wait to talk to you again. Have a great week.