Biblically Unacceptable Tolerance Of Misconduct

all right romans 14 this is the other side of this morning's coin romans 14 1 him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations so here's the statement there are people who are very strong in their faith and faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of god strong faith doesn't mean you believe in yourself or you believe what you believe is right because you believe it strong faith is believing what god said in the bible and and thank god we have in our churches people who are very strong in their faith we also have people in our churches who are very strong in their opinions but who are very weak in their faith because the opinions upon which they build their foundation and the opinions which govern their lives are not in line with what the word of god teaches and what we learned this morning is those who are strong in their biblical faith are to be as tolerant as possible of those who are weak in their biblical faith but tonight we want to to understand that those who are weak in the faith are not entitled to a hearing you don't get to come to church and promote your weak and faulty beliefs you get to come to church and you get to be part of a church and you get to enjoy the fellowship until you want to direct it away from the paths of biblical truth and into the paths of how you see things or or the way you feel about something for example verse 2 for one believeth that he may eat all things now why would one believe that because the bible says it right so you're not strong in the faith because you are not concerned about a particular diet you're strong in the faith because you're concerned what the bible says about what people eat and what the bible says is eat what you want just don't complain to me when you get sick that's that that put that part in there one believed he made all things now look another who is weak eateth herbs so the bible says if you limit your diet based upon faith not not something that's genuinely physically wrong with your body but if you believe as a matter of your christian faith that you shouldn't eat certain foods you're weak in the faith because what you believe is not taught in the bible you see what he's saying and i'll go over again this morning not all of you heard this morning or some of you were here you weren't and you weren't paying attention so we'll say it again if you're a diabetic you shouldn't eat sugar you shouldn't eat carbs it's very bad for you but that's not a bible doctrine so you can't say people shouldn't eat sugar people shouldn't eat carbs because they're bad for you they'll cause you to die young my mother lives on junk food and has for decades and she's coming up on 96 and she's sharper than i am mentally as as you know michael i think some others have a peanut allergy brother andy has a an egg allergy if andy eats egg or egg product he goes into toxic shock he shouldn't eat eggs eat all the eggs you want it's not a bible doctrine so that's that's the the issue here let not him that edith despise him that he doeth not let not him that which either judge him that eateth uh if not judge him he forgot that received him who i thought judges another man's servant to his own mastery stand of their fallen if yea he should be holding up for god is able to make him stand so so we covered this morning i'll read the verses again in just a minute that if you're weak in the faith our main concern is do you know christ is your savior and if you do know christ as your savior we will receive you into fellowship but we will not alter our fellowship to accommodate your weak faith we will use your presence and our fellowship to try and bring you up to speed so here's the message tonight we're we're not going to condemn you for being weak in the faith we have all been weak in the faith everybody starts with weak faith and hopefully their faith grows but do not ask us to ignore everything in the bible you don't agree with or you don't want to live just because you don't have enough faith to believe any more of the bible than what you believe we will be reasonable toward you and your weak faith but you got to be reasonable toward us in our desire to live by the bible i just don't i just don't think you should eat pork you know back there in leviticus we know we're not under leviticus we know the law doesn't apply to us we know who the law applies to and we're sorry that you don't know that and if you'll stick around we will teach you that and then you will know that like we know that but in the meantime stop talking about it because we don't want to hear it see now that's that's the two sides of the coin we will be tolerant of someone's misunderstanding of the bible when it comes to food but you have to be tolerant of the fact that you're not in charge of the church well who is we'll get to that that ice is real thin verse number five one man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth everyday alike let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind now look he didn't say you're both right he said if you're fully persuaded in your mind that certain days are more important than the other keep it there be fully persuaded in your own mind don't try to persuade your church because that's not your place i just don't see anything wrong with easter egg hunts that's fine it's fine just keep it to yourself because we got something so much better that we don't need to go there he that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the lord he that regarded not the day to the lord he doth not regard it he that eateth eateth the lord for giveth thanks and he that he doeth not to the lord he eateth not and giveth god thanks for none of it to live up to himself and no man diet to himself here's what people say i just don't think you people should be minding my business and trying to shove all your beliefs down my throat which is an odd thing to say when you come to church where you know a man is going to preach to you what he believes i can see if you're walking down the sidewalk and i walk up to you and say look i believe the gospel you need to believe the gospel you could say why are you trying to shove that down my throat but you drove here and walked in here and sat down here knowing this wasn't a discussion group and you don't get equal time we'll get to that this guy with this this guy that sent out this stuff about knox is a secret jew and all that you know why he's angry he wanted the pulpit to get up here and tell you why i'm wrong go rent your own building and have your own pulpit and let people come listen to you if anybody wants to listen to you so we're supposed to be patient with you as you grow but you're supposed to be patient with those who have already grown and not we're not we're not demanding that you give up your weak faith but you can't demand that we give up our strong faith just because it's more than you're interested in is that fair well i don't see why people got to go back to shirts on sunday night we know that because you don't come back but but we're not going to shut down the sunday night service because you don't want that much is that is that fair you're going to show what we're saying okay so he says in verse 8 for whether we live we live unto the lord and whether we die we die unto the lord whether we live therefore or die we are the lords for to their sin christ both died and rose and revived that he might be lord both the dead and living but why does thou judge thy brother our widest thou said it not thy brother for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of christ as is written as i live saith the lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to god now here's what we said this morning i don't spend a great deal of time coming to your house and trying to find things you're doing wrong and then criticizing you for them and judging you for them because i got to stand at the judgment seat of christ and he's going to judge me now tonight here's the other side of the coin instead of you being offended when somebody says you're not living right or offended when the preacher says you need to step it up or offended when somebody says how come you still got that in your life when you profess to be a christian instead of being offended that somebody tries to help you do better why don't you realize you're going to stand before the judgment seat of christ and he is interested in you being right when you get there not being wrong when you get there and maybe we're trying to help you get ready for the judgment seat of christ because you're not ready for the judgment seat of christ don't be offended look to the future you're going to stand face to face one day with jesus christ and you're going to have to give an account for the things that you did and if they don't line up with the bible you're not around some preacher now that doesn't say it doesn't matter how you live you're going to be standing in front of the one who to whom it really matters how you live preachers may throw out 90 of what's in the bible but you're going to stand before the one that wrote it he must have wanted it all in there so with with that understanding that i'm going to stand before the judgment seat of christ i listen to preaching i read books by preachers i try to fellowship with people that are living a better christian life than i am i don't want to say how dare you say i'm not good enough i want to be better because i know when i stand before the lord he's going to say you're not good enough i'm not talking about salvation we covered that chapter 3 4 5. we're talking about you stand for jesus christ to get a reward for the life you lived that is going to matter for all of eternity wouldn't you like to be as prepared for that as possible i would all right so we touched on some things this morning and i want to read them again from the other side and then get into the real dangerous territory first timothy chapter 4. first timothy chapter 4 and verse number 1. first timothy chapter 4 verse number 1 spirits speak the expression in the latter times some should depart from the faith i don't want to do that do you giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils i don't want to do that do you speaking lies in hypocrisy having their conscience seared with a hot iron you ever burn your tongue ever drink something that's too hot and burn your tongue you know what it does it loses feeling they burn your fingertips you know what happens they lose feeling when you sit in church and hear the bible preached and the preacher's preaching something that you don't do or the preacher is preaching about something that you do that you shouldn't do and you say i just don't see anything wrong with it why are you bragging about having a conscience that doesn't work why do you think that's a good thing well i just i just don't i don't i don't feel convicted about it i don't see where it's wrong i don't you know i i see what he says but i just don't think it's all that important what are you saying the holy spirit of god preaching the word of god has no effect upon my heart that's not something to brag about now listen this is one of those kind of pastor church sermons okay so so bear with me you know why we don't vote on what's right and what's wrong a we have a bible b you'd be giving vote to a hundred people who don't see anything wrong with what god said is wrong and after about 10 or 15 years of those votes there's no righteousness left in the church so it's not up for a vote if the bible says it it's right if the bible says it's wrong it's wrong and if you don't feel like it's wrong it just means you're messed up it just means your conscience is burned seared and it no longer registers when it should casey an auto accident they want to go just get some shots in his back so his back his brain won't know that his back's hurting that's a real dangerous thing because you're grinding a back problem into oblivion sorry brother i don't and you don't know it you know i don't feel anything that's not that's not safe it's not safe to not feel anything and people go to church and the preacher preaches and people are bowing their heads and people are crying and people come to the altar and he said i don't feel anything that's not a good that's nothing to brag about amen it's a dangerous thing the bible says in verse number three speaking lies in hypocrisy having the conscience here with the heart three forbidding to marry you say i can't believe there's this church that has this gigantic problem with with harming children well yeah but god just told you right there the people running that church have no conscience how do you know that well if you if you met somebody had no conscience they would be forbidding people to marry when god said man finds the wife who finds a good thing and i will therefore the younger men with mary so how is the head of a church and the leaders of a church forbidding people to do what god said was really good and commanding was staying for meats at least on friday at least some of them or down to adventist church you know we followed the dietary laws which god had created to be received with thanksgiving and gravy of them which believe and know the truth that's that's that's the amplified version there for every creature of god is good nothing be refused if it be received with thanksgiving if the holy spirit wrote that you tried some kind of meat that wasn't good you just don't know how to cook it as well as the holy spirit does because he he he said it's all good my dad said grow up that up in that depression uh they they eat anything they could catch trap or shoot and he said he said he enjoyed all of it but the possum he said i just never i never could acquire a taste for possum now don't don't knock it till you've tried it but anybody here ever eaten possum knowingly knowingly just just one there all right for it is sanctified by the word of god in prayer thou put the brethren remembrance of these things i should be a good minister of jesus christ so here's what the bible says if a man tells you you are not to restrict your diet based upon spiritual beliefs or or christian or religious considerations he's a good minister now if you disagree with him the bible says it's because you are weak in the faith and you shouldn't ask a good minister to become a bad minister just because you don't have enough faith to agree with him that's what it says well you know what the church that preacher preached some things i didn't agree with yeah and you did what repented because they were out of the bible or said i'm not never going to that church again because i want to be weak in the faith come on that's that's the other side of the coin colossians chapter 2 colossians 2 we read this this morning but it's okay we'll read it again colossians two verse 16 let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holiday see the why there instead of the eye english spelling is is uh holiday british spelling holy day that's where it comes from or the new moon or the sabbath day sabbath day sabbath days which are shadow things to come but the body is of christ so i have christ you have christ okay so if i have christ i don't need a horoscope if i have christ i don't need a harvest festival if i have if i have christ i don't need halloween if i have christ i don't need fourth of july you understand what he's saying now romans said one man esteemeth every day alike i'm one of those guys to me every day is a great day i don't need like six days out of the year circled on the calendar to rescue me from my mundane life that i hate to me every day is a great day christmas for me is even more enjoyable than it is for you because they don't cost me any money [Laughter] and people say well you know christmas really about giving it's more about giving and receiving you quit giving and see how much you receive all the people that say it's all about the joy of giving if you don't give them something this year you ain't getting nothing next year that's just the fact people that people never walk up to me and say well i still celebrate it here's a hundred bucks i say okay but look i don't have to wait for one day a year to celebrate the resurrection of christ even on the day he actually rose from the dead not one that moves around with the phases of the moon but if if your life is a drag are we still allowed to use that word is that that was thursday night's sermon if you if your life is boring and you're just you can't wait for i don't know from halloween to thanksgiving and thanksgiving to christmas day and christmas day to kwanzaa and kwanzaa the new years because you have to have these media-driven days to pump you up help yourself really really i've come to your house and you've got an inflatable snowman in the yard and fake icicles hanging off the roof go for it but don't ask us to do it in the church because we got christ i love these people move down from up north because they're sick and tired of the ice and snow and then hang fake icicles off their roof frosty the snowman i thought you were done with all that about frosty the beach bum but he put him out there some guy out there in a pair of swim trunks with a carrot in his face you know frosty moves south all right jeremiah chapter 10 oh no and some of you are saying what's that oh you're about to find out my preacher friends say it's a totem pole brother james really knows the bible until he gets on this topic then all of a sudden he doesn't know anything all right jeremiah 10 1 [Music] see if you can guess without me without me saying anything which i will but before i say anything see see if see if you can guess hear the word which the lord speaketh unto you a house of israel there's your out if you want it thus saith the lord learn not the way of the heathen now i would say doctrinally speaking dispensationally speaking this passage is directed to the house of israel and i would say based upon what i know about the new testament god is still in favor of his people not learning the way of the heathen so i think i can safely make application to my life be not dismayed at the signs of heaven for the he they're made it them when i see a shooting star i said that's pretty cool but it wasn't a star if it was a star our planet would be burned up was a little piece of rock and it burned through the sky and it was pretty neat i don't think oh it's an omen i need to go play the lottery right lightning hits the tree in the front yard i don't know what i'll tell you i must i need to get right with god that one was pretty close i just said wow that was really cool everything was loud and glad it didn't hit me for the customs of the people are vain for one cutteth a tree out of the forest the work of the hands of the workmen with the ax they deck it with silver and with gold they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not i mean if you're going to decorate a tree you don't want to fall down they are upright as the palm tree but speak not they must need to be born because they cannot go be not afraid of them for they cannot do evil neither also it is in them to do good so when i read that just you know being me i read that and i said well see god doesn't want me to cut down a tree bring it in my house fast it in place and deck it with silver and gold because what good would it do me it can't do me any good it can't do me any evil it's just a thing romans 14 says nothing's unclean of itself so what's wrong with it well the heathen do it so if i got a choice between doing something in my house that godly christians do or doing something in my house that heathen do i'm gonna go with godly christian not heathen now listen that's just me and it's not a law that i enforce as a pastor we don't send our deacons in the middle of the night to fly our bible baptist black helicopter and land on your roof and come down your chimney and tear down your tree but we're not going to ignore the biblical reality of this heathen practice because it makes you uncomfortable to have it preached against you understand if you do that i love you as much as if you didn't do that but if you do that having seen what the bible says it's because you're weak in the faith it is doesn't mean i hate you it just means that you haven't been willing to go as far as god would like you to go in the bible and just like i won't demand that you give up your decorated tree you can't demand that i stop preaching against heathen practices there's there's that's romans 14 is a two-way street see it's okay with that meat thing because you want to eat well we get on santa and his reindeer and all that stuff and now it's why didn't you sin in there i know but he's lurking in the shadows verse 6 for as much as there is none like unto thee o lord thou art great and thy name is great in might who would not fear thee o king of nations okay so so here's why listen here's why it's easy for me to give up decking the halls with bowels of holly fa la la la la la la because i've got god but if you've got god and deck the halls that's that's that's your thing do it do it you're free to do it but you're not to judge those of us who are more excited about a great god than we are about an elf on the shelf oh look what we got we get now if we got one over here we got one in the kitchen we got that we just got elves on the shelf everywhere i never saw you that excited one time at church not one time did i ever see you get as excited about jesus saving your soul as you get about your little reindeer display that you put in your front yard and you're welcome to have it front yard backyard on the roof get one of those spinning light things that changes the color of your house go for it really i ride around december i said but look at that man that guy's got it going look at that house that's pretty cool but i'd say that if you did it in june i'd just have to stay up later to go see it you know daylight savings time and all but see is what people want they find a church and they say i really like that church i really like that preaching and then the preacher preaches on something they don't want to give up or preaches on something they're supposed to do that they don't want to do and all of a sudden it's not a good church anymore no it's a great church you just you just need to just go ahead and exercise a little more faith and do a little more god stuff than you were doing a year ago and a little more god stuff than you were doing two years grow grow god's our father and if your child said mom listen i did i learned my numbers in the first grade i learned adding and subtracting in the second grade i really i've had all the math i'm interested in she would say well you know what that's really not your call to make you're going to learn times tables and you're going to learn division and then dad says keep algebra out of it because whoever stuck letters in math was really messed up it's 2 plus a equals it don't equal nothing a is a letter and 2 is a number that's why somebody has to build my house for me because i can't do the math anyway god doesn't want you to say i'm saved and that's all i want from you or i've obeyed three things out of the thousand in the bible that's all i want to obey he wants your ministers to urge you to do third grade and then fourth grade and then fifth grade and then get get a diploma and then go to college and then get a master's and then get a doctorate and that see my job is to not let you be content with weak faith my job is not to let you fry your conscience that's my job and you shouldn't if you if i'm not to resent your limited interest in the things of god romans 14 asks you to not resent my total interest in the things of god and and i've got to keep from coming your way while i'm trying to pull you my way the sign says don't walk here but i'm going out there anyway hebrews 13 hebrews chapter 13. have you ever said or thought well that's just your opinion i have said and thought that's just your opinion and guess what a lot of things are just somebody's opinion even wait wait wait even some bible things and let me let me explain to you let me tell you what i mean there are a thousand churches in america tonight that are having services and the pastor is preaching is that right that's what we're supposed to preach the word some of them are loud some of them are very soft you know what that is preference personality some of them preach on topics my sermon tonight is balloons my sermon tonight is birds my sermon tonight is clouds some of them take a book of the bible and go through verse by verse by verse by verse you know what that is that's the preference of the preacher okay that's what it is now here's the cold hard sad truth the church you attend this one or another one will have a vbs or not have a vbs based upon what the pastor wants to do it'll have a choir or not have a choir based upon what the pastor wants to do it'll have a dress code or not have a dress code based upon what the pastor wants to do i get that now what you have to decide what everybody has to decide is not whether or not i will go to church because that's commanded it's can i find a church that is true to the word of god and a pastor whose opinions are close enough to mine where i can enjoy going to church there now that doesn't sound spiritual at all but it is biblical i've told people i've sat in my office and told people this is not the church for you there is another church in this town that you would enjoy more than this one i hated to see them go they were good friends of mine they've been happy in the church that i sent them to for many many many years because this wasn't their spiritual cup of tea if you're all into christian school there is a church in west volusia county that is all into christian school and you would love it you know why we don't have a christian school because i'm close enough to losing my mind with just the church i'm not against christian schools as a pastor i decided we're not going to have one pastor herschenroder decided they were going to have one you know who's right nobody neither one it doesn't it doesn't matter you understand fellowship see a senior's fellowship meal on tuesday and uh and a young couple's fellowship meal on friday night and a meet-a-gal teen fellowship meal on a saturday afternoon we don't do that we don't do that because when i eat i like to eat rudely i don't want to have to eat all my meals in front of a bunch of people and have to be polite i want to get it over with get it done and get back to work ask brother david my lunch break's like five minutes and it'd be one minute if there was you could make it in pill form somebody's like why don't you come up let's just go out to eat and just just make an evening of it an evening of it we're going to take a bite walk around the block you might take another bite it's like you know what that is that's me that's not right it's not wrong okay so when you come to a church and you say well he does some things i don't like there's never going to be a church where some things are not done that you don't like unless you're the pastor and you don't want to do that okay so i have to i have to be patient with you while you do some things that are wrong absolutely wrong from the bible and you have to be patiently with me while i do things that are not wrong at all but just aren't the way you would do them come on and that's the only way we can stay together for decades i give you space to grow and you give me space to just be who i am until christ conforms to be in his image because nothing else is going to work right my mom couldn't encourage out of me out of me my dad couldn't drive it out of me my wife hasn't been able to talk sense into me i just my mother she'll say you get on one of those rolls you start cracking these jokes and telling me she said i can see it in your eyes when you go over the line and you can't stop and she said i just know you're going to take it too far and there's nothing i can do about it now some people come just for those occasional train wrecks they say to their spouse here he goes he's about to lose control and other people don't i had a man walk out one time he walked up to he said not come back here said why he said sarcasm is a form of lying and you're a liar and i said you're a great guy [Laughter] which was a perfect illustration of what he had just said hebrews 13 7 now watch this hebrews 13 7 remember them which have the rule over you who has spoken unto you the word of god whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation verse 17 obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you now if i read that right we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of christ and give account for ourselves but the pastor is also going to give account for the people that were under his preaching okay now you know what the bible says your any pastor you ever join yourself to is going to have the decision-making power in that church over the emphasis the direction the type of outreach the type of music all of that but before you leave because you disagree with something and go to another church where you're going to disagree with something you need to ask yourself something does this man practice what he preaches and is he watching out for my soul because he's concerned about my standing at the judgment seat of christ and if you can find that you've got to be willing to put up with the little things about him that bug you because they're going to be something about every preacher that bugs you because he's not you and you're the measure of all things you know why somebody's opinion is wrong if you disagree with them because it's not your opinion right right come on that's we can we can agree to that so i don't agree with you on some things you don't agree with me on some things the things that are written in the bible we we have to agree on and if we don't the person that says i don't agree with the bible is wrong and the person agrees with the bible is right but the other things i listen i preach in churches and they do not allow stringed instruments they think they're wrong they think they're worldly they have a piano but if you can't see the strings they're not really there it's like you know what i don't care i go and preach in those churches i don't care i preached in church last month they had a i pre well a couple years ago i preached at the church and i was there on the weekend and i sat there and ate cake with them at their valentine banquet i would have a valentine banquet if i'm if i'm in a nursing home and don't even know my name anymore and you'll say can we have a valentine banquet no i want to have a valentine banquet got a girlfriend take her out to eat we're not feeding her that's just me you'd never think that way i put these signs up in front of the floor it's it's february 14th you better take her some flowers really your relationship is that fragile some of your wife makes more than you let her get her own flowers man what'd you bring me i came on preaching this meeting and the church they sent my wife this big box of chocolates and she said why do you tell them i don't i can't eat that i said cause i'm gonna eat it [Laughter] see that's what i don't like about him okay that's fine did you cut my mic got a revolt in the sound room back there he doesn't want his wife to hear that part what you need if you're a visitor when you get back home wherever you live you need to find a church where the preacher preaches the bible where he's concerned about you being a better christian a year from now than you are now and when you find some things about that church you disagree with go home and look in the mirror and say there's plenty about you i disagree with and just stay in that church second thessalonians three seconds second thessalonians chapter three verse number six you wouldn't think this would be in the bible but here it is sec thessalonians 3 verse 6 now we command you brethren in the name of our lord jesus christ you would draw yourselves from every brother and walk it disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us i just don't think we ought to go by tradition we ought to just go by the bible well but that's not what the bible says the bible says there are some traditional things that the new testament church did and we shouldn't give them up you know what you could come to church and just listen to the preacher preach but traditionally we've brought our own bibles and looked in our bibles and confirmed that what the preacher was saying is true i don't have a single verse that says you should bring your own bible to church but i think you should and i wouldn't i wouldn't give that up it's just a tradition but i wouldn't give it up there's nothing the bible says you have to sing three or four hymns before the preacher every good church i've ever been in does that and every church i've been in that gives that up starts into some sort of a spiritual decline it's not a bible command but i wouldn't give it up you know it's not commanded in the bible that you let the seniors park closest to the door and the young people can walk a long way part farther away from the building but we've always done that around here i think it's a good thing to do if i die or get run out of town or church opens up in the keys you change the whole parking system i don't it's not in the bible i don't care you say what we're saying there are some things that we do that are just what we do and here's what i would ask you if you if you're not big on congregational singing and you prefer choir singing is that enough of an issue for you to give up a church like this to go to a place with no decent preaching and no no genuine evangelism so you can hear a choir sing you have the best choirs in the world on youtube when you get home well that's just not the way i would do it start a church don't want to do that then enjoy this one so you know look look second thessalonians 2. second this noise two v look at verse um 15 therefore brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught whether by word or our epistle you know what god put in the bible the epistles the epistles aren't everything paul ever said there's some things that paul said that the churches he started kept doing just because paul knows more about this than we do let's keep doing this now we have to go by the epistles we don't have to go by the traditions but is it that big a deal well how can we have a thursday night service and most of the churches have a wednesday night service i don't know you like wednesday night service go to one of the churches that has a wins night service we're not having service wednesday night go there and then come here thursday night two times in one week okay we'll skip them both you're on thursday night midweek services it's traditional you don't have to agree with it you don't have to find a versus meet on thursday night so what you know why we meet on sunday because almost everybody's off from work on sunday if we had a church of several hundred people and and all but 30 of them had monday off none of the bible says you can't meet on monday i don't know about that huh okay just understand what we're saying here there are some things we do that are just my opinion and when i die or i i leave or i get run off and the next man comes in might be brother david he might get tired of waiting and go somewhere else we find you know what's going to happen some people are going to leave it won't matter how good he preaches it won't matter how well he lives it won't matter how scriptural his teaching is they will leave because he's not me and they liked me you know what that is that's carnal guess what we got a lot of cardinal people in our churches leave the church and and you know y'all love me and you come up preacher don't take it personally it wasn't about you it was exactly about me it wasn't about anything what about you well you know that's it that's one more lady one more lady around here where's where's green that's i'm i'm out of here no you know what it is i don't think he handled that right i wouldn't have handled it that way i don't think he dealt with that the way it should have been dealt with i'm leaving and you'll stay at the next church until that preacher doesn't handle something the way you think it should have been handled that's why people leave i get that i i can live with that don't sleep much don't don't rest well but i can live with that because that's the reality of the thing if you want to grow in the lord you need to find a church that preaches and teaches the bible where the preacher cares about your spiritual life not your favorite team whether church people care about you growing in grace not your favorite restaurant and you need to stay there in spite of the things that go a little contrary to how you would do them because nobody but you does everything the way you would do it i know that's that's not that's a little nervous about what's she saying like he's running the show somebody's got to run it who do you want to run it somebody comes once a month who do you want to run it somebody doesn't give i mean i don't want to be in charge like i'm i'm in trouble i'm going to do that but something's all messed up somebody's got to say fix that right in in the hallway today there's a sign on one of the restroom doors set out of order i'll tell you what let's do um the fourth wednesday of this month is a business meeting we'll put it on the agenda and vote on whether or not to fix the toilet no the pastor asked somebody that knows how to fix toilets would you fix that toilet and he said no and i threw him out of the church hey and he said sure i didn't know i didn't know it was broken i'll check on tomorrow you know what that is that's just a commonsensical way to do things but it's not in the bible there are churches that vote on everything honestly long the lawnmower is broken they have a vote as to whether or not to to vote to repair the lawnmower then they have another vote on whether or not to take bids or just get it done and then when they get the bids they have a vote on whether or not to pay what it costs to fix the lawnmower i couldn't handle that i don't want i don't want to the report the pilots get the headphones on there's turbulence ahead and he gets on the pa we're going to have a vote how many want to go through it how many want to go around it i don't want anybody on that plane giving any suggestions to the pilot although after that french dude flew that airliner into the mountains because he was depressed about the next six months i never got on plane and asked the pilots did you feeling okay he'd say yeah why so you know that french guy i hate flying man my son said if you were the pilot you'd love it you just can't stand somebody else to be in charge of anything i slapped him [Laughter] just just kidding just first corinthians 12. first corinthians 12. look at verse 4 now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit and there are this is what the holy spirit said there are differences of administrations but the same lord every church is run a little bit differently than every other church which one's right probably none of them there's nothing in the bible about an order of services nothing in the bible about how loud or soft you're supposed to preach there's nothing the bible about how long or how short you're supposed to preach don't you wish there was verse six and there are diversities of operations different churches operate differently different missionaries operate differently different finance committees operate differently okay it doesn't have to all be your way but it is the same god which worketh all in all you know what we want we want churches established where people can get saved where saved people can grow in the lord and they don't all have to be cookie cutter identical reproductions one of another they're not supposed to be they're not going to be so romans 14 says to all of you who are strong in the faith be patient with those who are weak in the faith just like god's been patient with you and the bible says to all of you who are weak in the faith don't ask us to make our church weak so you don't have to get stronger the duty and responsibility of the church and its preacher is not to let you sit contentedly where you are but to compel you to go farther don't resent that don't resent that it's for your own good because you're going to stand at the judgment seat of christ and we want you to get a bigger reward and a better reward now say one last thing and then we'll go i'm not overtime my time's fine kenny ate up a lot of a lot of your time if i if i teach something and i think i'm teaching from the bible but you think i got it wrong you would you know what you do you come and you say preacher maybe i misunderstood you or maybe you misunderstood the bible but can i show you this verse over here that seems to say something different than what you taught if i'm not okay with that i got a problem but you know what you know who who gets run out of when you don't come to me and you don't come to our assistant pastor and you don't come to our deacons but you start handing out your literature and you start handing out your videos and you start linking people to websites that you know go against the teaching of this church if that's what you believe go there if you think the pastor pastor's wrong show him if he won't receive it go find a pastor that agrees with you don't tear up a church okay now one of these days one of these days depending on whose prayers are the strongest i won't be the man standing in this pulpit and next man coming in may not be who you thought he was what the bible says in acts chapter number 20 the church has to preserve the church the church is more important than the preacher the letters to the seven church in the book of revelation told that church that you've got some false teachers in there i want them gone okay so here's what we're supposed to do the church is not to allow the preacher to teach false doctrine and the preacher is not to allow the congregation to teach false doctrine but when it comes to matters of opinion or matters where people just aren't up to speed you're allowed to hold even you're allowed to hold false doctrine you're allowed to hold false practices you're just not allowed to dispute them you have to keep it to yourself okay there might be somebody here who thinks they're going through the tribulation and if you're not saved you will be but amen well don't believe that we'll be the rapture of the church for the tribulation you're welcome to come here until the rapture you're not welcome to come here and teach in any way shape or form your false doctrine of the church going through the tribulation that's that's romans 14. there is no doubt a crowd this size somebody here still drinks and doesn't have a problem with it we have a problem with it but we're not going to come to your house search your cabinets and break your liquor bottles but you're not going to come here and tell people it's okay to social drink see where we are there's give and there's take and there's give and there's take and and i have to agree with the bible and you have to agree with the bible and if either of us don't agree with the bible we're wrong but we don't have to agree with each other's opinions but if our attitude toward the other person because we don't agree with their opinions is wrong then we're wrong okay and that's that's how you stay together that's how you stay in love with each other is you just give everybody the same break that you want people to give you all right father thank you so much for giving us the bible thank you so much lord for giving us a church in which we can fellowship thank you lord for the preachers you put in our lives to teach us the bible and show us more about about your will in your ways than we would have known otherwise father thank you for the people that see things differently than we do how many times lord or are we both right or we're both wrong or we both get a little something more from the other that we never would have known if we hadn't heard their different viewpoint on the thing god help us to just not be so stuck on this idea that that we got it all figured out please father help us to understand this chapter practice it in our fellowship one with another we pray in jesus name amen amen

Channel: James W. Knox Sermons

Views: 2,922

Rating: 4.8974357 out of 5

Keywords: bible, preaching, preacher, independent baptist, christmas, not celebrating christmas, holidays in bible, drinking, is drinking a sin

Id: ScwTIuHJuao

Length: 60min 38sec (3638 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021