Last Sunday, we wrapped up a series that we'd been in for a while. We're going through the book of Romans bit by bit, but every once in a while we take a break, come up from air. If you're familiar with the book of Romans, you get that. Next week, we're actually starting a really short focused series called Different. And it's based on a really simple idea. This might be the most powerful understatement in the history of the world. Jesus is different. Like anyone, anyone believe that? Like Jesus, he's different. He's not like anything else in the world. There's nobody like Jesus. There's no one like him. Like he is the answer to our problems. He really is. So much of the time when we have an issue in life, when we're struggling in some way, the answer is a person.

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You get connected to the right person, everything can change. And Jesus, he is the person. We have to remember that as Jesus followers. Now, I know not everyone here, not everyone watching maybe has made that decision yet to be a Jesus follower. But if you are one, you've got to remember that the answer is Jesus. It's not who's in office, it's not who was in office, it's not who will be in office. The answer for our world is Jesus Christ. He has the wisdom, he has the power, he has the love, he has the perspective, he has everything that we need. He is utterly different than anyone else. And what's really interesting is that when we follow Jesus, we're supposed to be different. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9 says, But you are not like that. It's talking about the world in general. For you are a chosen people, you are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he has called you out of darkness and into wonderful light. We are actually called by God to be different people, to be different. The truth of the matter is, you cannot make a difference if you're not different. And so we're gonna spend a few weeks starting next week talking about what is it about us as Jesus followers that's different. Or at the very least, what's supposed to be different. Because our world needs something. Our world is in desperate need for something different. And Jesus actually says that's supposed to come through us in the way that we live our lives. We're gonna explore that together, really excited about it. Today, though, we're gonna have a conversation that's that's connected to that idea. It's connected to it, but it's it's something that kind of stands on its own. I want to spend a second, I want to focus on a word. It's the word navigate. Every time I turn a page, I hope I spelled a word right. Okay, so the word navigate, I have this like paranoia in the back of my mind. Like, did I spell, I don't know. Navigate. Looks good to me. This is gonna be a very specific reference. Some of you are gonna be like, yes, all about it. Others, crickets, that's okay. Does anyone here remember a computer game called the Oregon Trail? Is there anyone that has any familiarity with the Oregon Trail? Okay, so this is like late 80s, early 90s elementary school for me, okay? And uh we would go to computer class, which all I don't remember anything from computer class except for playing the Oregon Trail. Apparently it was just we probably did other things, like I learned to type somewhere, but all I remember from computer class in elementary school was the Oregon Trail. If you're not familiar, it's a very old school, like early computer game, and your your job was to take a group of people on the Oregon Trail out west and survive. And you just had to navigate the world, but it was it was not easy. Because you had to bring supplies and you had to hunt, and you had like people, you had to name the people that were in your party that were traveling with you, and and lots of things would go wrong. Like somebody always got dysentery. I remember that. Somebody always got dysentery. It would say on your screen, uh-oh. And I always name my people after my friends in class, and I'd be like, Brian, you got dysentery again. It's not looking good, man. You know, and you'd have to choose, like, give them medicine, leave them behind. And I'm like, Brian, it's we just we can't we can't spare the medicine. I'm so sorry. You know, Brian didn't make it. And then you get to rivers. Like those of you that played this game, you remember the rivers? And you have to decide what to do, and you're like, We're gonna, we're gonna make it. We're gonna ford the river, we're gonna cross the river, you might decide to stay and wait for the river to go down. I was always like, no, we're going, and then someone else, they drown, they're gone. You know? Those of you that raised your hands, how many of you beat the Oregon Trail? Yeah. One guy. Two. I never did, no, I never knew anyone that did. It was like, I didn't even know if there was the end of a game. It was just like no one ever made it to Oregon. If that's where we were even going, I don't even know if that's where we're going. It was like we never made it. It was hard to navigate. You know, there's all these perils, there's all these things that are standing in your way. It was tough. I think about that word sometimes because as a Jesus follower, I have to navigate the world that we live in. All of us who who say that we're Jesus followers, all of us who have made that decision, we have we have to navigate the culture that we're in, and it's tricky sometimes, right? Like, can we just say this and and and I think there's agreement here. We live in an interesting culture. Like we live in very interesting times. Every once in a while I have this odd feeling, and it comes from like scenes in movies. I get visuals in movies. There's there's this very cliched scene that's been in so many movies you couldn't even count. And it's a scene where people are on a river, they're on like a boat or a raft. It's kind of organ trail-like, right? And uh and and the camera pans out, and unbeknownst to them, there's a waterfall. Like you've seen, you've seen this scene in a movie, right? And it's usually accompanied by one character, it's like a close-up of their face, and they see it, and they just freeze for a second, and then there's just sheer panic. And sometimes they survive, sometimes they don't. Usually they do, at least a few do, right? That's the waterfall moment. You ever you ever look around at the world and kind of feel like there's a waterfall? Like maybe are we headed for a waterfall? Because things can seem crazy sometimes. You know, as Jesus followers, we have to navigate a world that we're not in control of. Like when you're on a river, the river's taking you. Like it's not the other way around, right? It's difficult, it's challenging. And so, so how do we live as Jesus followers? In a culture whose values are very different than the values that we have, or at the very least, the values that we would have if we based our values off of what Jesus teaches? Like, how do we do it in such a way that we're like what Jesus asks us to be? He says, be the light of the world. And that light, by the way, wasn't like an annoying light that you shine in someone's face. You know, some people, I've known some Christians that that's the way they interpret that. Like, he never said annoy people. He didn't say that. But how can I be a light in the world? How can I make a difference? How can I take a stand, but at the same time be loving? How can I show compassion but also hold my ground? How can I love people and show that love to people while at the same time staying true to the things that God has asked me to do and the things that God has said are right and good, versus those he said are not. It's difficult to navigate. And I constantly have people come to me and they say things like, hey, at my office, help me out. Because at work, this is the way things are, and I'm trying to be a light for Jesus. I'm trying to be somebody who's sharing my faith and helping other people see how good God is, but it's tough because all these things are coming at me. Like it's it's a tough environment. You know, I feel so much for our students who are in school and the environment they have to navigate. I remember that. It wasn't easy. My oldest just turned uh, well, 11 years old. He's in middle school now. He's in middle school, like I remember middle school. Like, really remember middle school. Anybody have a good time in middle school? Fewer people than beat Oregon Trail. That's good to know. Right? And so I drive my son to school and I'm like, son, I just every day I'm like, look, just keep this in mind. Because it's difficult to navigate. How do we as Jesus followers live differently but effectively? How do we show people the goodness of God, but at the same time stay true to what's supposed to be our anchor points? That's what we're gonna talk about this morning. Does anybody relate to this? Just out of curiosity. At all? Anybody? Sweet. Ten people, I'm excited. You ten, this is great. The rest of you, you got it, you're good. Now, here's the deal. This is something I think about all the time. And I want to say this really, really just directly. I have a very easy job in many ways. Now, being a pastor is not all easy. There's there's difficult moments. I've done like a hundred funerals, I never thought about that. I don't want to do those things, but I do them. That's not easy. But one of the things that makes this job uniquely easy is every person I work with loves the Lord. Every day when I come into work, I'm surrounded by people who pray and who are filled with joy and love Jesus. And I know that's not the way that life is for most people most days. Most of us, every single day, we're out there in the world and we're trying to do our best, we're navigating, and it's not always easy. And so, what I want to do today is I want to provide all of us with what has been for me an incredibly helpful guide for navigating an interesting world, being a different person because of Jesus, and making a difference in the world I'm part of. Okay, and there's four words that I want us to look through. These are four words that really God sort of gave me over time in prayer, being a pastor of a church and a culture that's changing really, really fast and always being presented with new things that pastors 20 years ago didn't even have to think about. And I'm like, how are we gonna engage with this? How are we gonna respond to this? How do we live in this world and do the things that God has called us to do? Lord, give me some help. And in all that prayer, these four words have just over the years come up time and time again. And it's the words love, accept, agree, and endorse. Love, accept, agree, endorse. These words will guide you as you navigate the world that you're in. Being different, making a difference, having compassion and love, but also standing firm in your faith. So let's let's start here. We're gonna go through these one by one. And the first one's love. It's the easy one, right? Love's the easiest thing in the world. It's easy to love people. No, no, it's it's really hard to love people. We talk about love a lot here at His Hands, it's just part of our DNA. We love people, we love God. Jesus actually said, Hey, if you just want to sum up all the law of the prophets, all the Old Testament, basically, love God with all your heart, love people. And we used to talk about love so much and still do, but in the early days, people got annoyed with how much we talked about love. And I wasn't even the pastor yet, I was under the guy who started the church, and one time I'll never forget this, a person came to him and said, Hey, I just wish you guys would move on from love. And he said something so profound. He said, The problem is you think love is the easy thing. And you want us to move on to the bigger things. But what we learned from Jesus is that love is the biggest thing, it's the hardest thing. Like, what's more difficult? Me keeping my marriage vows or me loving my wife with all that I can, with all that I have. Like Jesus loved the church. It's actually what I'm told in scripture to do is love my wife as Christ loved the church. What's easier? Loving her that way, or just keeping my vows, just following the rules? Love is hard. But this is the first word we've got to look at because as Jesus followers, we are called to be people who love. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 and 2 says this Imitate God therefore in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and he offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. And I really like the way that the message version puts it. It's interesting, the wording. It says, Watch what God does, and then you do it. Like children who learn proper behavior from their parents, mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. He was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us, but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. We are called as Jesus followers to love the world. Why? Because God loves the world. John 3 16, for God so loved a few people that he gave his one and only son, right? It wasn't for God so loved the Jews, or for God so loved the Gentiles or the Romans or whatever. It wasn't for God so loved Republicans that he gave his one and only son that whosoever would vote a certain way, right? It's not what he says. Doesn't say it about a political party, doesn't say about a certain type of person, it says, for God so loved the world. And so I have this as a filter. Who am I supposed to love? Everybody. I don't like everybody, right? But I don't have to like everybody. Thank you, Lord. Right? But I have to love everyone. As I search the scriptures and specifically the example of Jesus, I cannot find justification for showing anyone in the world anything but love. So as you as you navigate the world as a follower of Jesus, even if the world has very different views, very different opinions, very different ideas of what is good and what is right, what is true and what is not, you start with love. You love everyone. Period. And you love like Jesus, extravagantly, expecting nothing in return. It's tough. And you're gonna need the Holy Spirit to do this, by the way. You cannot muster that amount of love. I can't even muster that amount of love for my own children some days. I just don't have it. And so you pray and you say, Lord, fill me with your love, but he promises to do that because the fruit of the Spirit, the very first one listed, is what? It is love. If you live a life connected to Jesus, his spirit inside of you, you will be filled with love. That's your only hope. Let's move on. Second word is accept. Who do we accept? The answer is just about everyone. Okay? We love everyone. Period. End of story. No exceptions. And we accept, and what I mean by accept is we let people in, we come alongside people, we live life alongside people. We accept just about everyone. Jesus actually shocked people with how he accepted, with who he accepted. John chapter 4, verse 16, really short verse, but it's it's loaded, it's powerful if you know the story in the context. It says, Jesus told her, I am the Messiah. Now, this is the very first time in the Gospels, the accounts of Jesus' life, that Jesus outright says, I'm the Messiah. There's a lot of hints. There's other people that say that about Jesus, John the Baptist, his cousin who baptized them, says, That's the Lamb of God. But this is the first time that Jesus just says outright, I am the Messiah. And the person he's talking to is a very interesting person. Number one, it says her. This is a big deal culturally. Because in Jesus' day, in the culture that he was part of, women were not valued. They weren't valued in the same way that men were. They wouldn't have been educated. They wouldn't have been able to have positions of importance. And so for Jesus to make the very first person he says, I'm the Messiah to a woman, that would have shocked people. But he wasn't just a woman, it was a foreign woman. He's in a place called Samaria, and the Samaritans and the Jews, they didn't get along at all. Like at all. In fact, Jesus once told a parable called the Good Samaritan, and the reason he does that in part is because to the Jewish people, that was an oxymoron. There's no such thing as a good Samaritan in their eyes. And Jesus, he's telling this person, this foreign Samaritan woman, I'm the Messiah. He hasn't told this to any of his disciples yet, not that directly. He hasn't said this to anyone from where he's from, but he tells this woman, I'm the Messiah. He gives her hope. And she's not just a Samaritan woman, she's an outcast. Every single person in her culture would have pointed a finger at her and called her a sinner. She was someone who had a checkered past. None of us do. But she did. Right? No, we it's like, I love the fact that our church does. Like, I love that. Because it gives me this joke, and I've said it before, it's my favorite joke. Every time a police officer says your people are nice, I'm like, a lot of them have records, and it's like a great joke, and you laugh, and then the police officer laughs, and I'm like, no, but I'm being serious, and it's great. Right? But this this woman, she had a past. And she had messed up. And in fact, in the moment that Jesus was speaking to her, it wasn't even like she had changed and said, Hey, I'm turning from my ways. I am I'm a changed person. No, in this moment, she's actually living in a way that isn't good, it's not healthy, it's not pleasing to God. It's not what he wants for her. But Jesus doesn't wait until she turns around to share his love with her. And he accepts her. Jesus accepted so many people that everyone else rejected. Such that it was scandalous. And all the religious leaders of his day, you know, they're constantly going, Why is he with that person? Why is he having dinner at this person's house? Why did he invite those people? Those are the people that if he was really godly, he would reject. But he accepted. Now, there were certain situations where Jesus did not accept someone. Not that he didn't love them, because he loves everyone. But he didn't allow them to come along. We see an example of this actually in Mark chapter 8. Verse 11 says, When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him, which is always a bad idea. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. And when he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign. And so he got back into the boat and left them. And he crossed to the other side of the lake. The Pharisees are a pretty constant thorn in Jesus' side. They're always coming to test him, they're always coming to argue, to try to set a trap. And Jesus loves them. In fact, he spent a good bit of time with many of them, had dinner with a man named Nicodemus. There's other stories where Jesus was invited to dinner and he obliged and went to their homes. But when Jesus recognized that there was an agenda, and that agenda was division, that agenda was strife, that agenda was destructive, Jesus didn't go along. You don't have to go along with someone else's agenda to love them. You can love someone passionately. You can love someone and still have the healthy boundary of saying, hey, I'm not going to be part of that agenda. I love you, but I can't accept this direction.

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But that's that's rare. Right? Like Jesus loved everyone, and if you look at his story and you read his story and you follow it, he accepted pretty much everyone. And we've got to do the same. Again, this is as we navigate this world where we're constantly going to encounter people who see the world differently, who view the world differently, who have different values, different ideas of what is right, what is wrong. We love everyone, we accept just about everyone, unless they have a divisive, destructive agenda and are trying to force us to go along. But then we get to what I believe is where things get interesting. The word agree. Who do we agree with? Some. We love everyone, we accept pretty much everyone. But but who do we agree with? Some. But not all. Here's what's really important, and we're gonna come back to this. Agreement is not a requirement for love. And agreement is not a requirement for acceptance. And if anyone ever tries to force you to agree with them in order to be loved and accepted, that is not real love, that is not real acceptance. Our culture, our world right now, has begun to equate agreement and love. And if you don't agree, it means you hate. That is childish, that is destructive, that is foolish, that will not end well. Because we can love and accept even when we don't agree. In fact, that's what real love does. Can you imagine how few people Jesus would have really agreed with? Like, honestly, you're you're Jesus. Picture this for a moment. This is a tough thing to picture, right? You're Jesus, you know everything, you have the perfect perspective, you know everything there is to know about the Lord because you are the Lord. And people are coming to you and they're saying things to you, like some of them are trying to impress you. Like you see that with the disciples sometimes. They come to Jesus like, hey, I've been thinking, Jesus, and like, this is probably what you value, right? And he's like, no, not at all. Or you're like the Pharisees, you're gonna go argue with God about God. That's not gonna go well. Right? Jesus probably agreed with very few people. And yet he loved and he accepted passionately. Now there are some people that we need to agree with. There are some things that we need to agree with always. Number one, Jesus. Like you've got to agree with Jesus to be a Jesus follower. It's very important if you're a Jesus follower that at some point in time you begin to follow Jesus. It's vital. Jesus says so. Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 through 27. Anyone who listens to my teachings and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it's built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and the floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. Jesus is saying, Hey, listen to me. Do what I say. Agree with me. He's not mincing words, he's very direct. It is vital. As Jesus followers, that we know the teachings of Jesus. And that his perspective, that his words carry the greatest weight. Our culture is designed right now to get us to follow people. Right? I mean, every social media app, you follow someone, you listen to someone, you have a podcast, you listen to someone, you turn on your TV, you listen to someone, you get on YouTube, there's someone talking to you, someone telling you what you should think, what you should do, what you should value. And it's fine to find people. There's people I really like to listen to. But if anyone's words carry more weight than Jesus, I'm off track. You have to agree wholeheartedly with Jesus. And on top of that, we would add scripture. Now this is where it gets interesting. Because I I I don't like everything that's in scripture. But 2 Timothy 3.16 puts it really, really simply. It says that all scripture, all scripture is from God. All of it. Not some of it, but all of it. And all of it is what? It's it's useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we're wrong, it teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. When we teach on Sunday mornings, we don't teach with scripture, we teach from scripture. Because what do I know? Very little. Every year I learn more about what I don't know. But when I open up his word and I ask it to guide me, he gives me the answers. Now, scripture is interesting in the sense that people can take it out of context. A lot of people have used scripture to justify some really horrible things. But scripture, when it is responsibly interpreted and lovingly applied, it is always, always good medicine. Now, responsible interpretation, that's something you have to work at? That's where you research and you read, and we live in a world where that stuff is at our fingertips, it's easier than ever before. You ask questions. But when scripture is responsibly interpreted and lovingly applied, it's always good. Now, now what's interesting is right now in the church world, at least in America, we live in a time where a lot of a lot of churches are working really hard to try to like do the Jesus thing, but with less scripture. And what's interesting is the idea is like, yeah, you know, a lot of that stuff's really old, and it's true. That's one of the things that makes being a Christian a really interesting thing, is we live in a world that changes its opinions on what is good and what is right. Like 10 years ago, you could have tweeted something, and 10 years ago it would have been like, yeah, everyone agrees, and now it's like, no, you're canceled. You can't say that. You're like, I didn't I said it ten years ago. Everyone agreed, not anymore. Like the standards change all the time, and we follow someone whose most recent teachings are 2,000 years old. They don't really change. Like it's it's set. But there's this idea right now in American church where it's like, ah, some of that scripture stuff, man, it's some of it's kind of outdated. You know? It's almost like people have decided they could be Jesus' PR team, God's PR team. Like, hey, some of that stuff doesn't test well with today's market. So we want to lean a little bit more into this, a little bit less of that. And you see this fight to almost do a slalom course through scripture and try to be a church and to be Christians and to follow Jesus, but avoid some of these teachings. It gets really difficult though when you understand how interconnected scripture is. I want to show you guys a really cool picture. This is a visual representation of all of the cross references that we find in Scripture. Okay? So every little line that you're seeing is connecting one piece of scripture to another. And if we zoom in a little bit, I encourage you to look this up. It's really fascinating. There's a whole article that goes with it. I want you to look at how dense some of those lines are. And so that that is a knot that we cannot untie. Don't even need to try to. It's like if you're trying to put up Christmas lights and you open up the bin and it's all in a knot, and you're like, anyone ever do this for like five minutes, and then you're like, let's go buy new Christmas lights. Right? Done. Done. Scripture is deeply interconnected. Jesus affirmed it often, quoted it constantly. And the New Testament quotes the Old Testament. And yes, we look at everything through the lens of Jesus, but it's vital. It's vital for us. If we're gonna navigate the world we live in effectively as Jesus followers, it's vital that we agree with Scripture when it's responsibly interpreted and lovingly applied. Let me give you some examples. At least one. And I'm I want to use an example that is somewhat divisive. But I want to ask for a favor on the front end. If you agree with me, don't clap. Because it's easy to clap for things that you agree with, right? Because this example is one that not everyone will agree with. But I'm I'm bringing this up because I'm using it as an example of what it means to base everything that you see the world through, at least have your lens through which you see the world be based on scripture in the person of Jesus. Let's talk about a subject like abortion. Now, on the front end, I have several incredibly close friends who have who have had an abortion. And I know the statistics, and I know that in a room this size, and with the number of people that watch online that listen to the podcast, many people have been through that, or you're someone who has encouraged someone else to do that. And if you feel guilt and you feel shame right now, that is not God the Father. This is not a place where there is guilt and shame. We've all made mistakes. It's it's fine. Like God is good, He's forgiven you. Okay? This is not about bringing up the past. In others, it's like, yeah, that's something that I'm aware of, or there's not any negative feelings because it's something that maybe you agree with. But here's here's my point. When I encounter any issue in the world, it doesn't matter how how relevant, how prevalent, doesn't matter how divisive, doesn't matter if it's a hot button topic, if anyone ever comes to me and says, What do you think about this? I'm not just gonna give my opinion, because again, what is that that's not worth much. But I always go back to scripture and say, What does what does God say about this? So for example, on this issue, I could use I could use human logic, and human logic's nice, it's helpful sometimes. Like if someone said, hey, abortion, human logic, I'm like, well, logically, it's hard for me because I I know that if we discovered a germ on the moon, there would be newspaper clippings that would say, you know, headlines on online that would say life discovered on the moon. And I'm like, if that's life, I think this is life. But see, even human logic isn't enough. Like human logic will only take you so far. So if someone like really drilled down to me and said, Why why do you not agree with abortion? Why do you believe it's wrong? I would say very simply, because I'm a Jesus follower. And my faith began on the promise of an unborn child. And what scripture teaches me time and time again is that unborn children have destined. Because multiple times in scripture, there's a child in the womb, and God speaks about that child's future. And he says that the child that you carry will do great things. And what that tells me is that even in the womb, God sees us and he knows us. John the Baptist leapt in the womb when he was near Jesus, as Jesus was in his mother's womb. Even in the womb, John the Baptist responded to Jesus. And so what that teaches me is that the unborn, in God's eyes, have a destiny. And so I can't support something like that when my faith began on the promise of an unborn child. I'm only saying this, again, this if you agree, great. If you don't, that's okay. My point is whatever your opinions are of whatever issue we're talking about in the world, let Scripture be your guide. Let God's word, let his truth be what guides you. Work really hard to agree with God. Now, if we live our lives, navigating the world that we're part of, you know, if we play our version of Oregon Trail and we make God's word, if we make the teachings of Jesus what we agree with, inevitably what's going to happen is we're gonna have a lot of people that disagree with us. And on some level, that's gotta be okay. Now, some of us are wired that we don't like it when people disagree with us. I don't enjoy it when people disagree with me. But at some level, we've got to be okay with being people who are different and having the world say, I disagree. When that happens, and it's bound to happen, it's inevitable if we follow Jesus. He promised as much. There's a few things that we have to remember. Number one, we have to remember that we can work really, really hard to find as much agreement as possible with the people that we're trying to love. You see a great example of this in the book of Acts. Really interesting. Acts chapter 17, verse 16, says that when Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols that he saw everywhere in the city. The situation here is the Apostle Paul, he wrote much of the New Testament. He's traveling around, he shows up in a place called Athens, and Athens is filled with idolatry. They worship all kinds of gods in Athens, and Paul, who believes passionately that no, no, there's one God, it says that he's disturbed, right? He's deeply troubled, he's mad. Like you've ever been in a place and you're just walking around mad? Like you're looking at what's going on, you're like, this is oh, this is so, this is this is bad. That's just Paul. He's angry. But then just a short time later, he has an opportunity to share a message with these people. Listen to what he says. Verse 22. So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows. This is an opportunity for him to tell them off. This is an opportunity to tell them how they're they're ridiculous, how they're wrong. But here's what he says: Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way. For as I was walking along, I saw your many shrines, and on one of your altars you had this inscription to an unknown God. This God whom you worship without knowing is the one I'm telling you about. He's the God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord in heaven and earth. He doesn't live in man-made temples, and human hands can't serve his needs, for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him, though he is not far away from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring. And since this is true, we shouldn't think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. God overlooked people's arrogance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed. And he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead. And when they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, We want to hear more about this later. And that ended Paul's discussion with them. But some joined him and became believers, among them Dionysius, a member of the council, and a woman named Demoris, and others with them. So here's Paul, and he doesn't agree with these people. Like he's looking around, he sees all these shrines, and he's just like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. But he checks himself. And he says, even though I don't agree, what can I find agreement with? I can work hard and figure it out. And he says, you know what I like about you guys? Y'all have a lot of shrines. You are people of faith. And interestingly enough, he doesn't quote any scripture in this specific message, but he does quote some philosophers from their culture. He says, as your own poets have said, he's like working hard to find anything he can to agree with them on so that they can find common ground. And then he uses that to share about Jesus, and it's effective and it works. So inevitably, if you follow Jesus, if you let Scripture and Jesus and his teachings be your guide for what is true and what is right, you agree with that, you will disagree with people, people will disagree with you, but if you work hard enough, you can find enough agreement to share your faith, to make an impact, and to make a difference. And most of all, when you disagree with people, what do you do? You love. You love. Because love and agreement, they don't have to go together. They don't. Finally, this is the last one. This will be quick. Is the word endorse. Who do we endorse? Very few. Like you'd think we would get this by now as people, because what happens all the time in our culture is someone becomes really popular, someone like like becomes a big deal, and everyone's like, we endorse them. They're yes, this person, this person. And then just a few months later, we're like, never mind, they're nuts. We were wrong. Like I remember this is like gonna date me, and some of you guys may remember this if you grew up in the church world, like, man, when I was middle school, high school, late 90s, uh, there were these these big, big giant Christian gathering things for men called Promise Keepers. Does anyone ever remember Promise Keepers? Okay. One year at a Promise Keepers, the keynote speaker, the main attraction was Gary Busey. Does anyone know who Gary Busey is? Alright? He's crazy. Okay? He is absolutely nuts. Look him up. He was a he was an actor, he was in some movies, you know. It's it's a short link between him and Kevin Bacon. I like that about him. That's good, but he's just a little, he's a little crazy. Not saying I wouldn't love him. I actually think hanging out with Gary Busey for a day would be one of the best experiences a human being could have. The stories you would tell, I actually hope that happens. I hope Gary Busey, if you ever listen to this, if someone hears it and knows you and forwards it, I would like to hang out with you provided I have the agenda in advance and I know where we're going because I want those stories. Okay. But all that happened was like, hey, celebrity, and he talked about Jesus, and they're like, You're gonna be the guy that we all cheer and look to, and then it was like, oh man, never mind. But we do that as people, we do that all the time. We're so eager to lift people up and endorse them. But the truth is, we don't need to endorse people. We have Jesus. I guess we have we have Jesus, and like I said at the very beginning, he's different, there's nobody like him. So we shouldn't be in a rush to find some person in the world that we can say, them, they're the one. Follow them. No, no, no, follow Jesus. Stand proudly with Jesus. If you're a Jesus follower, just be like, hey, I got the guy right here, he's the answer, he's the one. Let's just listen to him. What does he say? Because he's Jesus Christ and he lived and he died and he rose again, and everything that he says is true and it's powerful, and he's the beginning and he's the end, and one day everyone will bow, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that he's Lord, like he's the one we need to endorse, but we've got to be careful to endorse anyone else. And I mean a pastor, I mean a teacher, I mean a podcast host, anyone else. Because we have Jesus. It's vital for us as Jesus followers, who have submitted our lives to God, that we never endorse something that God opposes. This is really important. You know, sometimes when you follow Jesus, you're gonna read something in scripture. If you if you open it up, you're gonna read something and it's gonna freak you out. One of my good friends, Robertson Green. I don't know if Roberts' in the room or not, he might be serving in an area of the church. Roberts' awesome. Robertson started coming here when he was in high school, and I got to know him really well. I was his youth pastor, and he's just an incredible man of God and loves his wife, loves his child. And all of a sudden, when he was in like late high school, he started reading the Bible. And he opened it up one day to this story in the Old Testament of these people who come after a prophet. They make fun of this prophet, and and then they're eaten by bears. Okay? And he that freaked him out. He's like, What do I do with this? He's like, Justin, I'm just reading this story where there's this prophet, and these people come at the prophet, and then like they're eaten by bears. What do I take away from that? And I was like, Roberson, it's a very simple lesson. Don't make fun of prophets. Like, that's the lesson. Not a hard one, right? But and we were, you know, half joking, but the point is, is you're gonna open up your Bible, you're gonna read something that's gonna go, oh, I don't like that. That's that that breaks the mold. Especially in a culture like ours. I want to read something. Isaiah chapter 5, verse 20. It says, What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet, and sweet is bitter. We do live in a world that often finds itself upside down from what God says is true and good. And there is enormous cultural pressure sometimes to go along with the flow of culture, and to say that things are right that God has said are not. And to say that things are good that God has said is evil. And sometimes we struggle with that because, man, if we endorse the things of this world, then the world will accept us. And the answer to that is no, it won't. Because you don't belong to the world if you belong to Jesus. You don't. You can't. It's two totally different worlds. Now, when you read something in scripture or you see something in the teachings of Jesus and you don't like it, it's like, man, that's very different than what I've been brought up to believe or what I want to believe. I want to encourage you, wrestle with God on that as much as you need to. Have arguments with God. Like, go pray and be like, God, I don't get this. I don't think you should do this, I don't think this should be your view. God, let me share with you some of my perspective. You will lose that argument. But you can have it. And honestly, God is okay with that. We are supposed to wrestle with God. It is one thing to wrestle with God, it is one thing to question God, it is another thing entirely to believe that we can override God. So be careful. Be careful to never endorse what God has opposed. Now, I'm gonna wrap all this up. I want to say one more thing. This is probably what I should have called the worship team. I apologize. These two words are really important. What I have found when most people come to church or want to have a conversation, they find out that I'm a Jesus follower and they have they have issues, is at first they think that they want agreement. Like at first they they I have times where people like, hey, I want to talk to you about this issue. Like, what do you really think about this? And I've found that over the years I I've I've gotten in far fewer of those conversations. I at least don't let it go very far. And I stop and I ask a question: What do you desire more? Agreement, endorsement, or love and acceptance. And inevitably people stop and go, love and acceptance. And I say, look, I can't promise that I'm gonna agree with you. Like, I can't even promise that I'll agree with you about which sports teams that you like, let alone major issues in the world. I can't promise you that I will endorse every decision that you've made. But look, I love you and I accept you. And it doesn't matter what what all the other stuff is about, I love and accept you. Because Jesus loves and accepts you. You know, people may ask for agreement, they may claim they want endorsement, but deep down inside, in our heart of hearts, what we really crave is love and acceptance. And as Jesus followers, it is possible for us to navigate this world and our culture, as interesting as it may be, as upside down as it may be, and stand our ground and be really careful that we don't agree or endorse anything. We don't agree with or endorse anything that isn't of God, but at the same time, we love and accept like no one else. Because I'll tell you this: the world doesn't do love and acceptance very well. Our world is not very good at those things, but Jesus does it like none other because he's different, because he's different. And so if you want to be different, you want to make a difference, start there. All of us, we have to navigate this world that we're in. And like I said, over the next few weeks, we're gonna be talking about what makes us different. We're supposed to be different. We're not supposed to look at the world and go, like, wow, that's cool what they do. How can we know? The world's supposed to look at us and go, that doesn't make any sense. Like when we have nights where we in one night provide 225,000 meals to people in Africa, the world's supposed to go, how'd you do that? Like, oh, Jesus people, they're really generous. What'd they get for that? Nothing. Doesn't make sense to the world. That's what being different's all about. So, how do we navigate a very different world, a very different culture than the values that God has given to us? Well, we love and we accept, even when we don't agree, we don't endorse. Does that make sense? So I want to encourage you, think on these words. Like think about them. And think about all the situations in life that you find yourself in, the conversations that you might have this week, the situations you might be in with family members, with loved ones, with friends, with brothers and sisters who don't agree with you. Whether it's at school or work or wherever it might be, when you get on social media, maybe just get off, you know, before you comment on something, before you post your views, like stop for a second and say, Who am I supposed to love? Who am I supposed to accept? How important is it that I agree with everyone and who and what am I supposed to endorse? And let those words guide you as you navigate this world as a follower of God. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this day. Thank you, Lord, for giving us an example to follow. Lord, I know there's there's no scripture that says, here's the four words that guide you. But as I look at your word, God, as I as I spend time reading your teachings and reflecting on who you are and what you've done, I see it time and time again. You love everyone in this world. And Lord, I pray right now, if there's anyone in this room, anyone watching who's never felt that, who's never received that, whatever our mistakes may be, whatever our sins, whatever our issues, whatever our holdups, I pray right now that you make it so abundantly clear that we are loved, that you love us completely and totally, all the time, always, no exceptions. Lord, help us as Jesus followers love like that. Lord, give us the courage and the selflessness to accept people. Even when we don't agree, even when we can't endorse, we can love and we can accept. I pray that you make us the most loving and accepting people who have ever walked the face of this earth. That's who we're supposed to be as your followers. But at the same time, Lord, give us the courage to stand firm and to stand strong when it comes to what is good and what is right. Lord, help us be people who agree with you, who let your words and your teachings and the truth of Scripture be what shapes our thoughts about the world around us. Lord, don't let us be people who let the world around us shape our thoughts about your truth. God, help us be effective. Help us be different so that we can make a difference in this world because this world needs you. And we pray all this in your name, Jesus. Amen.