Honoring All People: A Self-Examination

0:00For All People: clear is kind

Amen. Well, if you will do me a favor, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. We’re going to get there here shortly. I think I’m going to go through quite a few things before we even get there. Let’s see, Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2. All right, today we’re starting an interesting message series. Today’s going to be an interesting message. The series is going to be interesting. I’m going to be honest with you, there’s a measure of discomfort that I’m going to have to embrace over the next several weeks, but I believe this is good and timely.

It’s for our church. It’s for our community. It’s for our county. It’s — you know, and if God will breathe on it, we’ll just say it’s for the country. Amen. Come on, somebody. But we’re going to be getting into a series today that I’m calling “For All People.” This is the last of our eight values that I’ve been preaching on since I’ve gotten here, our eight core ministry values. And so today I’m jumping into a series called “For All People.” The value itself is, we’re honoring of all people. We’re honoring of all people. Look at the person next to you and say, “You’re safe. You’re safe.

You’ll be honored here.” Amen. So I can feel the quietness in the room, and I know where it’s coming from. It’s from my background, and I know this because this is actually already on the internet, so I can tell I’ve stunned some of y’all with it. I got some questions about this because we have a graphic that’s up. It’s not this exactly, but someone asked, they said, “Why are you preaching with a gay flag? Why are you doing a thing with a gay flag?” And they asked me that question, and I just — first, here’s what I need to let y’all know. Okay? Because some of y’all are trust until you don’t, and then you get borderline ready to lose your mind all the time. Right?

So this ain’t a gay flag. First of all, okay, they’re hanging them everywhere, so y’all know what they look like. This is not a gay flag. This is just the background for the series. We want to do some color because we wanted to — you know, identify there’s different people. In the online it has people in the things, but I didn’t want people staring at me all the time. I was preaching — y’all do that enough. Amen. And so let me just show you, this is what our background is. Just a background. This is it. Now I want you to look, just so you can tell the difference. Here’s a gay flag. These don’t look anything alike. So everybody calm down. Amen. Okay.

Listen, most of the series is going to be serious. That was maybe the one I’m giving myself. Okay, so I’m just joking. If you’re a Tennessee fan, we love you. We’re praying for you — and unless you’re playing Alabama or Auburn, and we’re praying against you. Amen. And so, just good fun jokes here. But over the next several weeks — did you see it coming? Stay on your toes here in this church. Amen. Over the next several weeks, we do have some moments that are going to be dreadfully uncomfortable. What I’m going to ask you to do is bear with me and hang with me and be gracious through this message series. My goal first and foremost — and this is not an abnormal goal for me, this is typically how I land in the pulpit —

my first goal is to preach the Word of God. It’s my first goal. But secondly, I want to just clearly state where we are on certain issues. Over the next several weeks, less than preaching, I’m actually trying to just create a standard of the operation that we have here at the church on some issues. And I figured this is the most efficient way for me to get those things documented, is by talking with you about them. But we believe God’s going to give us a great harvest, and when that happens, we’re going to have people show up in the church, and I don’t want them thinking we stand in a certain place theologically that would blindside them after six months of being here. Author, counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist — I don’t know exactly what she is, but her name’s Brené Brown. Brené Brown says that clear is kind.

So my goal today is not to be ugly. It’s not to be rude. I’m not trying to be mean to anybody through this series. I just want to be clear, because clear is kind. And I think you’re going to find that this is going to be a clear message series. I’m going to be very clear on some things, top to bottom, from what the Bible says to just how we implement and deal with that here in our church as a local body.

4:40Where Pastor Jason stands

Now, for full transparency — I think this is fair, because the question will float around, you know, where I kind of stand on some things in terms of spectrums and scopes. And I want to be clear: I’m not saying that I am this because my demand is for you to be this. I’m saying this because I believe clear is kind.

I want you to know who I am, what I am. You know, I don’t talk about this stuff ever, but I feel like right now, going into the series, that’s important. So if you want to know kind of where I’m at in terms of things that would be raised in this series that we’re getting into: I generally embrace a conservative philosophy of government. Every president — I’m just saying this. Don’t cheer, don’t — this is the only time I should be quiet. Okay. I just want to tell you where I’m at. Every president I’ve ever voted for was at the top of the Republican ticket. I voted for Donald Trump three times.

I don’t own a red hat. I don’t know where that’s at on the spectrometer, but you know, that’s where I’m at. If you’re politically liberal, I think this is fair for you just to know what I’m going to say and kind of where I stand. And the reason for that is simply because clear is kind. Clear is kind. And most of this won’t be political in nature, but most of what we’re going to talk about over the next several weeks does touch the political third rail here. I mean, it’s just going to be grabbing it. What we’re going to talk about over the next several weeks you will hear on TV — on Daystar, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, your local affiliates.

You’re going to hear this everywhere. So I just kind of want everybody to know where I’m at. And I’m going to do my best to be measured in some of the things that I say throughout this, because my job is to do this. It’s not to come up here and tell you my opinions and how I want things to shake out. Okay? But if y’all are down for that, I could change my preaching ministry at any given moment, just come up here and do an hour of my opinions every week. They’d be entertaining if nothing else. And so, borrowing from an early turn-of-the-century political commentator, newspaper columnist, Pastor Tim Keller kind of reinterpreted a philosophy of news delivery and applied it to preachers. And he just said the job of a preacher and the job of Bible teaching should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. If you’re hurting, I hope you find something. But if you just think you’ve got it all figured out, I hope I really get under your skin today. But my goal today is to make you think. Look at somebody and say, “Turn your brain on. Turn your brain on.” And over the next several weeks, if you are a liberal politically, you’re going to think I’m a blazing conservative. You’re going to think I’m just the most conservative guy.

“He’s a far-right preacher.” But I want you to know, the more conservative you are, you’re going to have moments where you go, “He sounds a lot like a liberal.” And you know why? Because anybody who uses their brain doesn’t sound like either one of them. If you blanket agree with everything that every conservative politician says and everything every liberal politician says, you are what is called by definition an idiot. You ought to disagree with all of these people on something, unless you’re the politician. I worry that they disagree with themselves more than we do sometimes.

Amen. And so I’m just going to ask you, for the next few weeks, if you come in and you go, “My God, I don’t know how I feel about that” — I’m just trying to preach the Word. If you’ll be gracious with me, open your heart, open your mind, open your ears, I believe the Word of God will get in here and work on us. My goal is not to get you, by the way, to think the way I think. My goal is to get you to think. To think, period. Now the silence, the cone of silence, is lifted. I want y’all to have fun with me this morning. So before we get — so everybody just give the Lord a good praise real quick.

9:23The log in our own eye

Well, Jesus said that before you remove the speck from your brother’s eye, you’ve got to remove the log from your own eye. That was Matthew chapter 7, where he says that. And so this morning what I’m going to do is, I’m pretty much going to go after the log today. The good thing is, it’s easy to aim at because it’s so large. Amen. And so much of what we’re going to talk about over the next few weeks is dealing with other people. It’s dealing with people who probably wouldn’t come through our church all the time, or people who would at least think differently than those who attend an evangelical church every week.

And so most of this series is kind of talking about those people. But I think it’s good form, before we talk about them, we talk about these. Amen. And so this morning I want us to talk about some things going on inside the church, some things that we’ve got to come to terms with before we start demanding change from the world. The seat from which some people demand that the world change amazes me sometimes. Sometimes the church is atypical — if you point a finger at somebody, three more point back at you, brother. We’re atypical of that. And so I think it’s good form, I think it’s fair. But what I don’t want to do is necessarily focus and hone in on sin this morning. What I really want to talk to you about today is the kingdom. And if we’re mindful of the kingdom, the positions we take on these issues are going to work best for us, because you can be right and be wrong at the same time. That wasn’t a political statement. I could feel like 75% of you were a fit. We’re going to use the phrase “right” sometimes and it mean “correct.” I heard recently — this guy came back to me that when I was — here, we did a town hall before the church voted on me to be the pastor, and in the town hall I made some comment about us being a progressive church. That’s the only place we can figure this came from. This just came back to me this week, that there was someone in the meeting who had gone out and started telling people in our city that I am for — I’m about gay TV and radio ministry. That is wildly specific, and I have no idea where they got that from. But if you happen to hear that I’m for gay TV and broadcast ministry, I just want you to know, until this week

I’ve never considered gay TV and radio ministry before. Amen. I’ve never thought about it. Honestly, it’s a very niche thing to be concerned about. Amen. But I want to talk about the kingdom now. If I didn’t want to talk about the kingdom and I did want to address it all, all I’d really have to do is get up here and hit a quick list of divorce, pornography, withholding the tithe, deceit, gossip, coveting, boasting, foolishness, greed, selfishness, disobedience to your parents, and insolence. Did I leave anyone out? No, I got the whole room. Something grabbed everybody in the room. And so if I want to do that, I can do that, but I don’t know how helpful that’s going to be. You’ve heard preaching against it before, and you’re still doing it.

So I’m not going to add to the — I don’t know that I’d add to the list today. No, that’s not where I want to go. I want to talk about some kingdom stuff with you. Let me just read you a few things about the kingdom. Luke chapter 4, verse 43 — we’ll be at Ephesians 2 soon — but it says, “But he said to them” — this is Jesus talking — “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose.” When Jesus talked about preaching the kingdom — while we know that the purpose of Jesus was much greater than just his preaching ministry, Jesus self-identified his purpose as to preach the kingdom. That’s what Jesus put his attention on, was the kingdom. The kingdom matters. The kingdom is important. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 28 says, “Therefore

let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.” I’m thankful that we’re receiving a kingdom, and we’re receiving a kingdom in such a way that we have received the kingdom, we are receiving the kingdom, and we will receive the kingdom. The kingdom has come, is here, and is coming. I’m grateful that the kingdom of God is advancing in the earth today. Can somebody say amen in this church? The kingdom matters. Romans chapter 11 talks about how people who are unlike us — now we’re there — how people who are unlike us are drafted into the kingdom, into the family of God. And one of our kingdom mandates is to bring people in who aren’t like us.

So here’s what I want to deal with today. Here’s the log in the eye of the church — if we’re really talking about the log in the eye of the evangelical church. I can’t say the church as a whole; I think churches that are different than ours have got different issues. But churches like ours, here’s the log that is in our eye: it’s undiagnosed pride, willful ignorance, and immovable expression. Undiagnosed pride, willful ignorance, and immovable expression. These are things that keep churches and church people from expanding the kingdom. Do you hear me this morning?

15:03Ephesians 2: the dividing wall

Ephesians chapter 2, go with me to verse 11. We’re going to read this together. The quieter you are, the harder I’m going to preach. I just want to warn you. “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision” — okay, so we’ve got two people groups here. Ephesians chapter 2, we got one that’s called one thing, another that’s called the other thing, and they probably call each other those things. And if my Southern experience tells me, they probably call each other things they shouldn’t call each other.

I know, because I’ve got a church full of crackers. Amen. Go ahead and post that on the internet. So, “they’re called the circumcision by what is the” — or, “they’re called the uncircumcision by what is the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.” That’s another thing to keep in mind. This stuff’s less deep than you think it is. “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off” — hallelujah — “have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both” — listen here — “one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the Christ” — or, through the cross — “thereby killing the hostility.”

Let me just tell you this morning, one of the most important things that we do as a church is to honor that Jesus Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility. It matters. We’re going to talk about these things — undiagnosed pride, willful ignorance, and immovable expression — because they rebuild the dividing wall. They rebuild hostility. This is the problem. This is why we can’t get along. This is why we can’t grow churches. This is why we can’t see the gospel take root. This is why people embrace lifestyles and dismiss it, because they’re certain that Jesus Christ hates them, because the church has been the representation of Jesus Christ in the earth. And I’m telling you, I think the church is better than a lot of these people let on, but it’s because we haven’t been open about it. You know, they used to, when you bounced checks at places, they used to put you face up: “Don’t take checks from this guy no more.” They put you face up.

They put you face up. I’m telling you, when you’re the reason that people will not embrace the gospel, we ought to be putting you face up. And I know where to print signs, y’all better watch out. Amen. I know people. Hallelujah. So we don’t want to rebuild the dividing wall of hostility. You may say, “Well, how do we rebuild what the Bible just said that Jesus has broken down?” I don’t know, but Galatians chapter 2 says you can do it. Galatians chapter 2 says you rebuild what Christ has brought down. We can do it, and we have to be careful. Our job in the kingdom: we can’t build walls.

We have to remove obstacles. That’s not a political commentary. I really don’t care how they solve immigration. I’m worried about the wall we build outside the church. I feel like I could preach today. I really don’t care. I really don’t. You know, I want things to get better. However we get there is above my pay grade. I want to make sure we’re not building walls that keep people out. We have to remove obstacles. First Corinthians chapter 9, verse 22 says, “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” As a teenager I read this in the NLT, and it just marked me for my life. In the NLT it says this: “I’ll try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.” I’m just trying to find some common ground with people. And when we have this undiagnosed pride, willful ignorance, immovable expression,

it keeps us from finding common ground. At some point we’ve got to put people above everything else. At some point — not in everything. We don’t let people vote on what this says. That’s not how we — this says what it says. The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it. But my God, this is not — that philosophy of life is not: checking out at the grocery store, somebody comes up with a t-shirt you don’t like on it, and you’re screaming at him. All of a sudden it just doesn’t make sense. At some point you have to just say, “I’m in a moment where I’ve got to honor the person in front of me.”

We’re honoring of all people. I know y’all don’t know what to do with this message yet. I know some of y’all — it’s funny, because some of y’all think I’m going to say something that, you know, any common sense would tell you where I stand on all this stuff. By the way, visit an evangelical church’s website, you’re going to find out what I think about everything. My God. It ain’t — I’m not about to drop the other shoe on you. Amen. Here we go.

20:35Undiagnosed pride

Number one. Let’s start here: undiagnosed pride. Now, you might not call this pride — that’s why it’s undiagnosed. Right? Some of this stuff’s just common sense. Amen. So you might not call it pride, but it’s the sense that you have within yourself that says things like, “I’ve done enough.” “You’ve got enough.” It’s funny how you need stuff to solve your problem, but people who’ve got problems, they already have enough, they could solve their problems. “I know the answers, and you just make excuses.” Things like that. Oftentimes it’s kind of, “I’ve solved the problem, and you just need to get with my program.” And even more often than that, it’s, “I’ve solved the problem, and if you’ll watch this video from my favorite news commentator and get with the program, it’ll solve your problem.” It’s amazing how much we think that somebody on TV solved the problem of the guy on Facebook.

I don’t understand that math. I’m going to say some things that are going to be very real to you today. It’s a feeling that we have the truest handle on a situation and other people are wrong. That is pride. That’s what that is. That is pride. This isn’t going to show on the screen, but Galatians chapter 6, verse 3 says, “For if anyone thinks he’s something when he’s nothing, he deceives himself.” He deceives himself. We walk around thinking we’ve got it all figured out in situations we have no experience in. Oftentimes the opinion you hold doesn’t go any further than your opinion.

There’s nobody around you walking through it. And for anybody who is going through it, that is their life. That is their life. That is their whole world. But you’ve come up with seven words, it’ll fix the whole thing. Just stop. If “just stop” worked, man, we’d have church once a year. “Just stop.” “Just start.” That doesn’t — I’ve told this story before about — I’ll never forget, and I hope this isn’t offensive, I just got to talk the way I talk in order to communicate. I told this story before, but my grandmother — and the only reason I tell these stories now, she’s passed away, so the embargo’s lifted. So at her funeral I just looked at the casket and said, “Thank you for the content,” and I walked away.

I mean, I love my grandmother. That sounded colder than I meant to. She was a sweet woman, misguided a little bit. But I was with her a few years ago, and this was after 2020 and everything had gone down. We were at her house sitting around the kitchen table. How many of you just — you sit at the kitchen table at grandma’s house? Is that right? That’s where you go. Amen. And so we’re sitting around the kitchen table, Meemaw let me know that all these black people talk about — everybody calm down first of all — but she said, she said all these black people talk about is Black Lives Matter. I let her go on for a minute or two, and then I said to her, I said, “Meemaw, I got a question for you. How many black people you talk to?

You’re 85 years old, you live in Hueytown, Alabama. How many black folks you see in Hueytown, Alabama, y’all? How many black folks you talk to?” She says, “Well, not any, hardly.” All right. I said, “Well, I got quite a few black friends, and ain’t one of them told me ‘Black lives matter.’ Could it be possible that they keep bringing commentators on to your favorite news station that harp on this stuff, and in reality it’s not as exploded in the culture as you think it is?” That is undiagnosed pride. “I think I have a handle on a situation” that I actually don’t know a stinking thing about. And listen, I don’t care where you land on it. If you can’t — listen, I was going to go ahead and help — if you can’t hear something like “Black lives matter” without saying “All lives matter,” at some point, folks, that’s just argument. It’s just us trying to be argumentative. “Black lives matter.” “White lives matter.” “Mexican lives matter.” Come on, “Tennessee Volunteer lives matter,” in Jesus’ name. You know, I mean, like, yeah, all lives matter, but there are times that some lives need more attention on them than others. Let me just say this: unborn lives matter. Lives matter. Lives matter.

25:35Willful ignorance

Number two: willful ignorance. Willful ignorance certainly plays into undiagnosed pride.

This is the worst — or this is one of the worst ways that we reinforce undiagnosed pride, is with willful ignorance. It’s the inability to be willing to listen to another human being about why they see things differently than you. It keeps you in the dark and it builds the dividing wall of hostility. And I want to be clear, there is truth. There is absolute truth. There are some undeniable truths, and truth is truth. But some of the stuff that we have disagreements about really isn’t about truth. It’s about some element that, if we understood it better, would cause us to be empathetic, and we’d walk with people in a way that actually helps them to experience the kingdom. I just want to say something about some of y’all’s favorite political people. And I can say this because — listen, I am not a perfect man, and I’m not a perfect pastor, but I’m consistent.

I am consistent. Consistently not perfect. It’s funny how I said that. I’m a consistent person. I believe in being consistent. I think you ought to be consistent. I think if you go back — we just did this, we just ran two of the earliest messages here at the church, the one before I was voted on and the one my first Sunday. We ran it through AI and judged it against what all we’ve done here at the church, and it basically said — maybe I need to have the AI read this off, y’all, so I’ll say it like him — it basically said I’ve done everything I told you I was going to do. I came in here, told you straight up, I said this is what I’m going to do, and then I did it.

Have I surprised anybody? We don’t do surprises here. We’re very forthright about stuff. I believe in consistency. Because I believe in consistency, this irritates me maybe more than it does you. Y’all need to be careful who you listen to. Y’all need to be careful. Some of these political people y’all listen to — some of y’all are so on to these commentators, and it’s opinion people. You know, none of y’all looking at data. It’s just opinion stuff. You’ve got all these opinion people, these different personalities. And here’s what I need to say to y’all: y’all get so on to them guys.

They flip-flop all the time. You think politicians flip-flop? Listen to these news commentators. I’m going to tell you — I’m not going to say the name, because I’ll lose some of y’all, because y’all can’t handle it — but there’s a political commentator, I’m going to tell you, she will just beat people down, until she sits down with them, and then all of a sudden she thinks that guy is just fantastic. “They have a little bit of a difference of philosophy, but all in all, he’s a good American.” Amen. And they change their tune as soon as they sit down with somebody. Well, my God, if you’ll let them get away with it, don’t you think it’d be fair if you did it in a reasonable way, that you got a little bit of insight on what’s going on with other people? One of the things I’d encourage you to do is pick your phone up once in a while and ask questions. If I’m engaged with somebody just enough — I’m not talking about best buddies, just enough — and we’re different, and I think I can breach that: “Hey, let’s talk. Talk to me about this a little bit.” That’s what I’m going to do. I’d encourage you to do that. Ask questions. Talk to people. Proverbs 25, verse 2 says this: “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings to search them out.” Proverbs chapter 20, verse 5 says, “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” He’ll draw that thing out.

You look at what’s going on in somebody. “I want to understand. I’m going to bring to the surface a little bit of what you think and what you’re going through and what’s happening in you.” But if you constantly are just willing to not be educated at all about anything or about anything anybody goes through, well, you’re going to constantly be in a place where you’re rebuilding a wall of hostility. You can’t do that. We can’t be that kind of people. We’ve got to at least have the wherewithal to figure out that maybe we don’t know everything about everybody who goes through everything. And I know this is going to shock some of y’all, but I really don’t know what it’s like to live in China and have Chinese parents and eat Chinese food all day. Especially different Chinese food than what they sell here.

I don’t know what that’s like. Is it possible that you don’t know what it’s like — what your granddaughter is going through, or what your neighbor’s going through, to some degree? To some degree. Willful ignorance. Undiagnosed pride, willful ignorance.

30:18Immovable expression

The third is this: immovable expression. Immovable expression. That’s a fancy way to say some of y’all struggle to keep your mouth shut. Nobody’s looking at anybody in this room right now. Everybody’s got their eyes down. So I know y’all are all thinking there’s somebody sitting within five people of you that you want to go — you struggle to keep your mouth shut. You just can’t keep your opinion to yourself.

Some of y’all share your opinions too much. I want you to know this. I’ve had an eye-opening experience recently. Changed my life. Changed the way I’m going to pastor. Changed the way I’m operating as a human. And that experience is, I have joined local Facebook groups for Mobile and Saraland. And any day that I think, “Why, Pastor? Does the world need what you do?” I just go to one of them groups. No, they need me to preach. Amen. They need me today. And I go here and I see how these people are talking and arguing with each other and going back and forth in the comments section, to people who are — I mean,

you could look at their Facebook profiles and go, “You’re diametrically opposed.” But they’re, you know, a liberal and a conservative arguing with each other, and an old person and a young person arguing with each other, just going back and forth, different races going at each other, different people going at it all in these Facebook comments. And the thing is, I’ll ask you this for real: would you do that in the grocery store checkout line? Like, would you? I mean, maybe you would. If you would, don’t say anything, because most of the room, I don’t think would. We’d all be looking at you like you’re crazy. But I mean, if someone walked up behind you in a checkout line and they had a — you know, if you’re liberal, they had a MAGA thing on, or if you’re conservative and they had a whoever’s going to run next, a Kamala Harris or Joe Biden thing on, and they’re wearing it — would you turn around in the checkout line and just start giving them the one-two right there in front of everybody, right in front of the magazines, going,

“You’re so stupid! She’s going to run the country and I can’t believe you’re going to do that!” And they’re looking — or you’re looking at somebody who’s wearing the other hat: “You’re a racist. I can’t believe you want to make America great again.” And you know, and you’re yelling at each other. Would you ever do that in the checkout line at the store? No. That is what Facebook is. You’re fighting and screaming at people who are strangers who live in your area, and you’re just going to town on them. And here’s what’s crazy: nobody walks away from this stuff and thinks, “That was a really insightful counterpoint.” You’re just arguing. It’s immovable expression. You can’t see something without saying something. And my God, if you’re going to do it, please stop sharing stuff

that is so obviously fake. Some of y’all, if you see it on Facebook and it bashes the person you don’t like or affirms the person you do like, you would post it on the internet. Some of y’all today, if you saw it, if it said Joe Biden was in the process of building a Buddhist temple inside the Abraham — the Lincoln Bedroom, you’d go, “I can’t believe that.” Share. But if you read a post today that said Donald Trump is currently in talks to build a local Pentecostal church outside the White House, next to the new ballroom he’s trying to fix, because he prays in tongues for four hours every morning before he feeds the poor, you’d go, “That’s my president.” Share. And it’d help if y’all stopped sharing dumb stuff. If you’re going to share your opinion, don’t be dumb when you do it. Amen. I don’t know what else to say.

Some of this is just to get it off my chest. Amen. Lord. I worked with a pastor one time who — he had some things going on in the background that were inappropriate, and those had not come out yet. He was sharing some stuff on Facebook that people were finding offensive, and it was questionable, the stuff he was sharing. And his big argument, he just said this — this is what everybody says about this stuff. He came in, this happened, he goes, “Listen, guys, I know some people have some problems with stuff

I’m sharing on Facebook. I need you to understand something: it’s my Facebook.” “It’s my Facebook.” This is something y’all would say. He said, “It’s my Facebook.” Here’s the thing, though. Honey, I need you to understand, you don’t have a Facebook, because you are not your own. First Corinthians chapter 6 says this: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. You have been bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” I don’t own anything. I don’t have anything. I’m a steward and a manager of everything that the Lord has given me. Amen. And so I’m not going to just get out here and act any old way that I want to. And some of you might go,

“Well, hey, listen, it’s not a sin for me to share my opinion.” No, it’s not. It’s also not a sin for me to come up here in the pulpit and fill my messages up with fart jokes, but I don’t do it, because it’d be bad form and it’d be bad etiquette. Some of this ain’t about sin or not sin. Some of this is about representing the love of Jesus Christ in the earth in a way that the gospel takes. But I do have a good one I’d like to share right now. I’m just kidding. I mean, I’ve got a good one, but I’m not going to share it.

36:12Learning to human well

Let me close. I want to talk about what we ought to do, what we ought to do in the household of faith. I might use a little bit of semantics here, and I hope it communicates, but it is essential that we learn to human well with other humans.

We’ve got to learn to human well. Like, just be a person. Some of you can be a person around people who act like you, talk like you, look like you, but when you get around other people who have different opinions or this or that idea, you all of a sudden just can’t behave in a way that is normal. And you just got to learn to human well with the humans. And I want to talk about something just for a moment, because we’re talking about finding common ground, building common ground, keeping the wall of hostility down, keeping the doors of the church open so that people who don’t look like you, sound like you, smell like you can come in and receive the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ and a touch of the power of the Holy Spirit. Because we’ve got a church for all people, so anybody can come in. And if you think I just like everybody — I don’t. This message is for me too. There’s people I get uncomfortable around.

I don’t feel it. I can’t feel it. I’m just not about it, you know. And I get that. There’s some stuff I can’t do. Y’all hear what I’m saying? But there’s a mandate that I step up to the plate for, for the kingdom. Because at the end of the day — and I will get to this — but I’m not a conservative. I’m not a Republican. I’m not an Alabamian. I’m not an American. I’m a kingdom ambassador. Now, everything else there is true, but it is all subset to the fact that I am blood-bought, born again, and called according to a purpose. I’m a kingdom ambassador.

You’re a kingdom ambassador. You’re more than what you think you are. You know, if you really wanted to see your life effortlessly change, just think about who you are. Who you are. You’re so much more than you think you are. If you’re born again — if you’re born again, you’re not just people. You’re an ambassador. You’re someone — we used to use that word, ambassadors of Christ. We’re ambassadors of Christ. I want to talk about this for just a moment. Recently, Pastor Travis Johnson at Pathway Church in Mobile caught some attention because he took a very public stance against the Pride Month banners in downtown Mobile. And just to be clear, we land in the same place on this. I don’t know what Mobile’s history is.

Let me just tell you this though, from where I’m standing: we’ve seen a great reversal over the last several years. We have taken major steps back from this all-in-your-face Pride Month. And I’m going to talk to you about some stuff here in a second. But if you want to see the most change — I wasn’t going to preach this, but I said it this morning in an off-the-cuff conversation — if you want to see the most change in the nation and the culture, go to the market. If you’ll see something change in Mobile, don’t go shopping in Mobile for a month. Things will change. And I’m not big on boycotting, but I’m going to tell you something: a few years ago Target did some stuff that ticked everybody off, and everybody stopped going to Target, and guess what, they changed it all. They didn’t do that again. You know, so when the market responds, you don’t have to be ugly about it. Just don’t go shop there. Go to Walmart. Slum it. Go to Walmart, you know. And when you see this stuff, just stop doing it. We just went to Disney, by the way. Went to Disney, you know, and weren’t thinking about it being June. And so we went to Disney and we got there, and I saw the first thing and I thought, “Oh God,” because I know this is going to be in my face. Oh, man.

Hardly anything. Why? People stopped buying stuff from them. They stopped going there. They stopped seeing their movies in the theater, and they left their toys on the shelf. So if you really want to see change, go to the market. Pray, but go to the market. Just change the way you do business and it’ll change. Trust me. Let me tell you something about every corporation: they don’t like straight people or gay people, they only like dead presidents. At the end of the day, that’s what’s going to make things happen. Amen. So, Travis Johnson — Pastor Travis Johnson at Pathway — he had made those statements. And I just want you to know that there are going to be times that leaders and public personalities have to take certain stands on certain issues.

Let me just segue to say this. I believe that God is doing something great in our church. Probably the end game on that is a lot of influence for our church, and that means that there are going to be times over the years where I’m going to have to say some things, and I’m going to have to take some stances and some positions that I do not have to take today. I don’t have to do it right now, because nobody really cares outside of y’all, and that’s only like 50% of y’all. Amen. But I’m serious, that stuff I have to do. There’s going to be a day where there’s going to be a demand. And when I say those things and take those stances and make certain comments, there is a potential that I, in my own ministry in the pulpit, can unintentionally, but by default and out of necessity, rebuild that wall of hostility. And there could be things that I say in taking a stance and just being very clear — even over the next few weeks I’m really going to be careful — but I could rebuild a wall of hostility that keeps all people out. And God knows I’m not trying to build a Jesus-centered, Spirit-filled church for some people. So that could happen. Here’s the dance. Because I’m afraid that church people by and large have only been shown — because I have learned that y’all catch more than you’re taught.

It’s caught more than it’s taught. I feel like church people at large have only learned how to take a stand. And I can take a big stand. I can, you know — not today, but at some point, maybe. Amen. I can get behind the pulpit and I can get on the camera and I can, just like Pastor Travis just did, take a very noted, large stand where that is a strike to the water. It hits a community, everybody’s talking about it right now. It has people trying to get him removed from stuff. That’s how effective it was. Like, it hit the — and it just — I can do that. But here’s the problem: if the church only knows how to take stands, but you can’t take a big stand, what you’ll do is you’ll just go around in your life taking little stands everywhere you go. Little stand at McDonald’s, and a little stand at Burger King, a little stand at Walmart, a little stick, and then you’ll take stand, stand, stand, stand, stand on Facebook. And so now every time people encounter either the church as a figure, as an organization, as a corporation, or they encounter the church people, all they’re getting is stands all the time. And all they’re hearing is bad.

“No, change. Don’t be like that. We can’t stand it when you do the blah, blah, blah, blah.” And that’s all they’re getting. They’re just feeling that all the time. And the reality is — I’ll just say it like this — you don’t have to take a stand on everything all the time. You don’t. You don’t have to participate in everything, but you don’t have to take a stand. I just told you the best way to make change doesn’t require any communication. You just don’t shop there anymore. “We missed you.” “We’ll see — you’ll see me in July.” You know, July 1st ought to be the biggest day that some of these places have in business. Just saying. “Oh, they won’t show up in June.” And so you don’t have to take a stand on everything. And I need everybody in this church to do me a favor: for us to do what we’ve been called to do as a church,

I need you to learn to human very well. That this is the dance. See, it’s in order for us to stay on mission and for us to do what God’s called us to do, you have to human with the other humans, building common ground in such a way that people outside the kingdom say things like this: “I know where that church stands, but every time I deal with those people, they are kind, they are considerate, they are caring, they’re complimentary.” People should struggle — and I don’t have this in my notes, but I got in a little thing in the production booth this morning, they said they’re going to start talking to me before I preach every week to get better stuff out — people should struggle to figure out why we would hold one position but act another way. “They say they’re not for this, and yet they act kind and loving and caring. What’s that?”

That is a dance of the tension. That’s the tension we have to hold, where we hold the truth of God’s Word in one hand and we hold the love of the cross in the other. And when you’re standing in front of me, I don’t have to say all kinds of stuff. I don’t have — listen, I know there’s some stuff that stands in front of you that you just don’t know what to do with. And I struggle a little bit with the they/them stuff too, folks. I can’t do it. I just can’t go there. But I will tell you something: “friend” is a non-binary word. You can use “my friend.” “It’s good to see you, my friend.” “Could you help me find this in the store that you work in, my friend?”

“I’ll have a double quarter pounder with cheese and hot mustard.” Amen. That is a phrase that you can use. You don’t have to be in people’s face and go, “And sir — sir, sir, ma’am, ma’am.” You don’t have to do that. You just say, “My friend, could you help me? Have a good day. God’s good. His mercy endures forever. I woke up this morning, he started me on my way, and now I get to come in here and be with you.” I’ll never forget, we went to a glasses store one time, you know, and there’s somebody in there and it’s right in front of me. I’m going, “What do I —“ you know, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what I’m not going to do: I’m not going to scream at him.

I’m not going to make my position known, though. You know, I’m trying to figure out what to do and how to navigate. “My friend, can you help me find some glasses?” And I wish I’d have been more friendly, in hindsight. We have opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to human well. That’s going to help us be on mission as a church. And I’m going to wrap up, because I know I’ve been going a long time, but I haven’t preached in two weeks. I mean, y’all knew what was going to happen. When I talk about being human and learning to human as a verb, like you just be kind and function with people, I find it interesting —

47:36God humaned with the humans

this is really where I want to close, it’s my second closer — I find it interesting, this is actually how God approaches redemption. John chapter 1, verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” First Timothy chapter 3, verse 16 says, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: he was manifested in the flesh.” Romans chapter 8, verse 3 says, “For God has done what the law, weakened by flesh, could not do, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.” So you don’t have to do everything everybody does. Everybody does. But you can — I mean, y’all now see, that’s — we’re accepting of all people, even the ones who can’t talk. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” You know, when God the Father, who held a holy and righteous standard that no person could meet or can meet — when God the Father said it is time for full redemption to take place in the earth, the way that he did it is through God the Son manifesting in the flesh. God putting on human flesh. God the Son becoming one of us, in the likeness of us, and he brought about redemption through the cross. If God would walk through the whole process of redemption by saying, essentially, “I’ve got to human with the humans,” how much more

will we see the gospel take root and the kingdom move forward when we say as a church — and when other church people in our area stand up and say this as well — that we’re going to human with the humans in our area, and we’re not going to be them people who operate in pride and ignorance and always spouting off an opinion, but rather we’re going to be loving and considerate, we’re going to be kind, and we’re going to step up and say we’ll represent the love of God and the gospel? Because if God loved me, it seems fitting that I would love people as well. And if we do that, I think we might see some people grafted in to the kingdom.

We might see some kingdom advancement. Jesus prayed this, and he told us this is how we ought to pray: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” I want to see the kingdom come, because he is willing that none should perish. If you receive the word today, give the Lord a hand clap of praise.