If you'd like, you can turn in your Bibles to the book of Philippians chapter one. The title of this morning's message is The Messenger. Before we get into the message, I'd like to tell you a story. I knew a pastor one time, he was a young man. He had the opportunity to serve in the ministry in church before being given the position of lead pastor. This young man was a young man who loved God dearly, loved people dearly, had gained a lot of experience in the positions that he had prior to that of leading the church. He had a lot of experience with teens, a lot of experience with children. Unfortunately, as we all find is the case, your experience in one part of life does not always carry over into experiences of other parts of life. Being strong in your marriage does not necessarily guarantee you'll be a strong parent. There are choices you have to make. There are adjustments you need to make to be both a strong spouse and a strong parent. Being good at teaching adults doesn't carry over necessarily into being good at teaching teenagers. So a lot of times, we think that because I have experience in my life up to this point, I can take anything that may be in the future. Now, as much as I would love for that to be true, it's not always true. This young man had a lot of experience in a lot of different types of ministry, but not in the position of lead pastor. So he became a lead pastor, and within one year, had caused a lot of pain to a lot of people in the church. In that church, there were people who had trusted this young man as a lead pastor. They had trusted him as a youth pastor, trusted him as an assistant pastor, and assumed he could be trusted as a lead pastor. Unfortunately for both the church and this young man, his experience did not play over as smoothly as all had hoped it would. A lot of people were hurt in that church and a lot of wrong had been done both ways to the young man and to those in the church as they were all figuring out this new role from this new messenger of God. Over time, this messenger began to figure out what had not worked and began to make adjustments. Unfortunately, the pain had already been caused to some members in the church. Unfortunately, there were already some broken relationships due to the choices this young man had made. Here's the purpose of my story, and this is a true story, by the way. The messages that this young man preached were never, according to my knowledge, were never against the Bible. There was nothing this young man preached that was unbiblical. There was nothing this young man spoke from the pulpit that contradicted the truth of God's word. The issues were mostly the young man's inexperience, immaturity. Good intentions might have been there, but good intentions are not enough. When things are said that should not be said, when things are done that should not be done, you can say I didn't mean to, and the person you hurt may actually believe you didn't mean to, but the truth is you did. Whether you meant to or not, you did. You said what you said, you did what you did. You weren't there when you said you would be there. Regardless of your intentions, the action was done. A lot of Christians find themselves in a dilemma. The message is pure, it's God's word, it's truth. The messengers, not so much. The messengers are faulty. The messengers are sinners. The messengers have their own struggles and their own lives. The messengers are still growing and still maturing. The messengers have passion for the truth and passion for people, but the messengers don't always know how to communicate that passion in effective, healthy, godly ways. The message stands squarely on the shoulder of God's word because the message is God's word. A lot of Christians, though, struggle to see the purity of the message because we're so caught up in seeing the messenger. The story of the young man that I am telling you of is a story of which I'm well acquainted because it's my story. When I became lead pastor in 2016, I caused a lot of damage to a lot of people. There was no desire in my heart to do so. I had no intention to hurt people, mostly due to inexperience, immaturity, and There were other things going on in my life at the time that played a part in the relationships I had and the relationships I broke. I can tell you, honestly, I believed with all my heart I preached the word of God. But I can also tell you honestly that the messenger was flawed. And the messenger that stands before you today is still flawed. That part hasn't changed. I'm no less flawed than I was back then. I am as flawed as I've always been. The difference between then and now is I do my best to not let my flaws control my choices. You see, my flaws are still there. I still have the same issues. I am only human after all. The choice we can make is not to be perfect. That choice doesn't belong to us. No one in this room will ever be perfect this side of heaven. The choice we can make is to say, I'm gonna let the fruit of the spirit control my choices, not my flaws, not my flesh, not my sin, not my pride, God calls imperfect messengers to preach and to teach the perfect message. Now, my story that I just told you was not to in any way justify the imperfection of the messengers, not for you to overlook the imperfection of the messengers. That is not the point of my story. The point of my story is to remind you there's no such thing as a perfect messenger. You aren't one and I am not one. Don't let the flaws of the messenger cause your eyes to stray from the purity of the message. Now having said that, you have every right and you are justified in calling out the messenger when the flaws of the messenger get in the way of the message. You have the responsibility to do so. As the church, if there is a messenger preaching the message, myself or anyone, whose flaws are hindering the message, you must do something about that. You cannot say, well, the messenger's imperfect, we're all imperfect, let's just get over it and hear the message. No, it doesn't work that way. Don't let their flaws affect your connection with the truth. But the truth is, you have to address those flaws when the flaws get in the way. When the flaws of the messenger become public, when the flaws of the messenger affect the public, it is the responsibility of God's church to call them out. In my earlier years, I was called out on more than one occasion. By some of you sitting in this room, you called me out. Quite a few of you no longer sitting in this room called me out. Over time, I made the adjustments I had to make. I am still with flaws, I am not flawless. But I've made the adjustments because my love for the message is more than my love to be comfortable in my own flaws. Now, you have a message to preach. You are a Christian. You are a follower of God. You have a message to give, just as I have a message to give. Are you so comfortable in your flaws that you just say, well, people need to accept me for who I am and hear the message in spite of my flaws? I chose to not take that path. It did take years, it did not happen overnight, I can tell you that. It was years, a process of three to four years that God worked in my life, where I was able to, and in my opinion, mostly keep my flaws from hindering His message. It was a long process. That process is usually not overnight. For those who want to say, I have truth to give, and I want others to hear the truth, then they need to not see you so loudly. When I perform marriage counseling, I have found that a lot of married couples, if they're getting counseling, they want the marriage to work. If they didn't want the marriage to work, they wouldn't be in counseling. So they want the marriage to work. So if they want the marriage to work, why wouldn't that be enough? If they both want it, you would think it would be sufficient. You want it, well, then make it work. That's how it goes, right? Here's the thing. A lot of folks, when you are in a close relationship with someone, you know their flaws better than anyone else, right? You know their flaws on an intimate, personal level. And if I am performing marriage counseling, I will tell you what is usually the problem. It is not a lack of desire from those two who want the marriage to succeed, whether for the sake of the kids, for their own sake, for the sake of the one they love, because they know it's right before God, whatever reason they have, they want the marriage to succeed. Here is one of the major problems. One or both of those spouses, They both have flaws. One or both have flaws that they're too comfortable in and are not willing to set aside for the sake of the truth. The truth of what? The truth of the love they have for their spouse. You may or may not be shocked, but inevitably when I look at these that I'm giving counseling to and I say, young man, do you love your wife? And he says, yes, I love her. Do you love your husband? Yes, I love him. What's the problem? If you both love each other, what's the problem? I do love him, and I believe he loves me, but his flaws are so much in my face all the time, that's all I can see. Now, they don't say that. If they knew that, they wouldn't be in counseling, but that's what's going on. Within marriage, one or both of the spouses has flaws that are overwhelming the truth, which is, I do love you. That's the truth. but the spouse can only see the flaws. Now, there's more going on. Maybe the spouse sees the flaws because that's all they look for all the time. They're not willing to see anything good about the other. All they want to see is the flaws, so that's all they will see. That needs to be addressed as well. The point is this. Everyone in your life has flaws. Stop looking for the flaws, but do address the flaws when the flaws overwhelm the message. In marriage, that message is love. In the church, that message is both love and grace attached to God's salvation for mankind. In the company that you work in, that message is progress, success for the individual as well as for the company. Don't let your flaws overwhelm the message. Do you have a message that you're passionate about? Maybe your passion is helping people. Maybe your passion is helping animals. Maybe your passion is providing a resource to people that you know would help them. Whatever your passion is, why isn't your passion seen by people? Because you're so comfortable in your flaws, your flaws overwhelm the message. The world is full of flawed messengers. And the church has just as many as everyone else. The church is not flawless yet. The church is flawed. We've been saved by a flawless God. And someday God will take his flawed church with all of our mess, and he will fulfill the promise of his covenant with us, fulfill the promise of the interaction with us that we've had through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, it will be fulfilled, and we will become flawless in heaven. But until then, we are flawed. The messenger. If you ever find yourself hearing from a messenger within or without church who claims they have attained perfection, run. If you ever find yourself hearing a truth from someone who says they've attained nirvana, they are perfect in all things, they are flawless, stop listening to them. The message surely is tainted by their own view of themselves. But here we have the Apostle Paul in the prison of Philippi. And as he's in the prison, the Apostle Paul is speaking about flawed messengers. He says in verse 15, some messengers indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife. Now, that word envy has the idea of wanting something that does not belong to you. All right, so jealousy has the idea of something that does belong to you has been taken from you and you're jealous that it was taken from you. That's jealousy. By the way, if you look at scripture, you will find jealousy is not a sin. You say, whoa, whoa, whoa, Pastor Russ. Yes, it is. How could it be? The Bible tells us God himself is jealous of his church. If jealousy is a sin, then we're all in trouble because our God is sinful then. Jealousy, the idea of something belonging to you being taken from you, jealousy is essentially attached to this idea of justice. It's not right that that was taken from me. I am jealous that it was taken from me. Jealousy is almost always, in the human condition, almost always attached to people. So the problem is when you are jealous that someone was taken from you that didn't belong to you. That's the problem. So you have a friend, and you say, that friend belongs to me. Well, hold on a second. Let's really ask ourselves if we want to go down that road. That person belongs to you just because they're your friend? No, they don't. You know, at a middle school level, high school level, but also happens at adult level, when your friend then befriends someone else and that other person takes your friend, you are jealous that this person who was your friend is now taken from you. That is jealousy. So jealousy itself is just an emotion. It's not a sin. The question is, were you justified in viewing that person as belonging to you? That's the real question. You see, God is jealous of his church because we do belong to him and he's completely justified in being jealous of anyone who would try to take us, who belong to him, from him. Now, there are people in your life that do belong to you. If you're married, you have a spouse that belongs to you and you have every right to be jealous that someone might try to take your spouse from you. You are justified in that feeling of jealousy because in that relationship of marriage, you belong to them and they belong to you. That's jealousy and it's justified. You have children. God has given them to you, at least for a time, under your care, and you are completely justified in being jealous that some other adult would try to manipulate or influence or take your children from your protection and from your influence. You are completely justified in the jealousy you would feel as a parent. How dare they take my children from me? That's jealousy. That's the same kind of jealousy God has for his children. You're justified. The Bible does not speak of that as sin. You know what the Bible does say is sin? Envy. So envy now is saying, I don't have it, I want it. It never belonged to you, they never belonged to you, but you want it because you're not content with who and what you do have. So instead of being jealous over the wife or husband you do have, you're envious over the wife or husband someone else has. You are justified in being jealous. Don't anyone take my spouse for me. That's justified, that's godly, that's biblical. There'd be a problem if you weren't jealous of your spouse, okay? Maybe you need counseling if you're not jealous of your spouse. The problem is when you're envious of someone else's spouse. That's the sin. Envy is the sin. As the apostle Paul is in prison, he's saying there's a lot of people, and he doesn't use the word jealous because jealousy doesn't define what's going on. He uses the word envy. He says, they believe that the gospel and the recognition of following God, they believe it belongs to them solely. And he said, they are envious that I, who do follow God, am recognized as a follower of God, and they're envious of what they don't have. They want what I've got. Now we're gonna talk about what it results for them, but here's the thing. It's interesting how sometimes we are envious of what other people have when we could have it. We just don't want to do what they did to get it. Not always is that possible, but often you can be envious of someone else's success, but what you're not envious of is the choices they made to gain that success, are you? You're not envious of the not four years, but six to eight years of higher education they got to get that success. That you don't envy, you just want the success. You're envious of the marriage they have. It seems like it's a good marriage, it's a solid marriage, they love each other, you want that. But you are not envious of the 15 years they stuck together through the good, the bad, and the ugly to get to that point. You don't want those 15 years, you just want the results. You see, here's the thing, there's a lot, not all things, there's a lot of things we're envious of we could have if we did what they did. These men who are preachers of the Word of God are envious of the Apostle Paul's status, which is what? Well, he's a man respected to be a follower of God. You can have that, you just have to do what? Follow God. Be a follower of God and you can have that, if you wanna call it status. You can have that. But what the apostle Paul had to go through to get that, he tells us, multiple shipwrecks, arrested, the man's in prison now. As he writes this letter, he's in prison. He was rejected by the other apostles. He was rejected by Christians. He was attacked, beaten, stoned, almost killed on multiple occasions by both the Jews and the Gentiles. The man paid for that status, if you want to call it that. He paid for that. You want it? All right. Pay it out. But Envy says, no, no, no, no. I don't want the work. I want the result. You know what I find? A lot of young adults, teenagers, 19-year-olds, 20-year-olds, they want the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house that their parents have. They want the five-bedroom, three-bathroom house their parents have. They want the two cars their parents have that are within three years of being new. They want the yard. They want the pets. They want everything their parents had. What they don't want is the 30 years of labor their parents put in to get what they have currently. I'm not saying all, I'm not painting a broad brush, I'm saying that is prevalent. A lot of 18-year-olds say, oh, I want the life my parents have. And your parents said, really? Let me tell you what I had at your age, 18. I was living in a mobile home trailer. I was living in this apartment on the side of town that you don't go outside after 9 o'clock at night. I had a car that I had to push more often than I could turn the key and it moved, right? So let me tell you what I did to get what I have. Do you want that? And the 8-year-old says, no. Why would I? No, I just want what you got now. It doesn't work that way. Envy is a horrible thing because envy essentially eliminates the responsibility for action. And he says, give me, give me, give me. These messengers who are preaching the word of God says, we want the notoriety of Paul, but we don't want the problems of Paul. Now you think that might bother Paul, right? It actually doesn't bother Paul. It's amazing, Paul's response. In verse 15, he says, some preach Christ out of envy. Now, he also says strife. So some of these guys are just contentious. Some of these guys are preaching the word of God purely because they don't like Paul and they're trying to win people over from Paul's camp to their camp. They think it's a competition. and some also of goodwill. So not all messengers were out to get Paul. Verse 16, the one preached Christ of contention, arguing, fighting, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. These people dislike Paul so much, they believe that if we preach and if we win people over to Christ, it will make Paul, not envious, jealous. You can't make Paul jealous because Paul recognizes these people don't belong to me. So if you lead them to the Lord, praise Jesus, because they weren't mine, and you bring them to Christ, brings them to who they belong to, certainly not me. You see, Paul's view of life, Paul's view of ministry, Paul's view of people, kept him from suffering, from unjust jealousy, and what is always sinful envy, because Paul didn't view people as belonging to him. He viewed them as belonging to God. Verse 17. But the other, of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense, their hope to hurt Paul, do him wrong, or in truth, Christ is preached, and therein do I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. All right, I got two main points this morning. Normally I have three. Let's take a look at these two. The first one is a truth speaker. The motive of the truth speaker doesn't always match the message of the speaker. Have you found that to be the case? The motive doesn't always match the message. The person can be giving truth, but when you start to evaluate their reasons for the truth, you recognize their reasons don't match what they say. That is often the case. And so as I said earlier, it can be very easy for us to say, okay, so I know your reasons, I know you, therefore I will not believe the truth. Here's the thing about truth. Truth doesn't care who is communicating the truth. Truth doesn't care who is hearing the truth. Truth doesn't care whether you believe the truth, know the truth, accept the truth, or reject the truth. Truth doesn't care. Truth stands on its own. When you start to evaluate truth through the messenger, you need to understand something, you don't define truth as it is. You see truth as opinion. You see, you are completely in your right to say, I don't value your opinion because I know you as a person. And as a person, you're a scoundrel, right? So the opinion of a scoundrel means little to nothing to me. You have every right to think that. But when you start saying that about truth, you don't understand truth. Truth is truth no matter who speaks it. It's truth. The Apostle Paul clarifies that. And he says, you gotta understand that the motive is not always pure. The truth speakers have their own motives for why they are saying what they're saying. You would hope it's pure. You would hope they're speaking truth because they love you and they want you to succeed. It is possible they are speaking truth to sway you towards truth, but towards truth under their influence. The motive is, I've given you truth, you can trust me, now trust me with everything else. Don't question me in the future. I've given you truth. You know that I know it. I know that you know that I know it. Now just follow me, get in line, get in the crowd, let's go. The motive of the messenger is not always to offer truth for the sake of truth. If the motive is tainted, truth is still true. but pay attention to the motive, lest the person influence you outside of truth. Because here's the thing, just because someone speaks truth this time, doesn't mean they speak truth the next time. Just because someone knows truth, doesn't mean they always give truth. So you would be wise to constantly evaluate, is what they're saying true today? They said truth yesterday, but I'm not going to assume that it's true every time, which is why we put the verses on the screen. Which is why I ask you, hey, if you have your Bible, get your Bible out, because I don't want you, anyone in this church, never ever will I ever ask you to trust me, close your Bibles, and just listen to what I say. I would never say that, because that would not be the proper way for you to hear truth. You need to constantly say, is what Russ is telling me true to the scripture? Otherwise, it's just my opinion. Let's go to letter B. The method does not matter as much as the message. As the Apostle Paul talks about these guys, and he says, their reasoning for it, their motivation for it, but even the method, surely if these guys are doing it because they hate Paul, I can't imagine that the method, the style that they preach, I can't imagine it being full of joy and love and peace. I mean, these guys are full of bitterness and envy and strife, and you're gonna, you know, if you know anything about people, you would sense that as they preach, right? You're going to notice the difference between a preacher who is preaching out of joy and love for people, and a preacher that is preaching out of envy and strife with people. They could both be saying the exact same thing, but you're going to sense they're not in the same place emotionally. They're probably not in the same place spiritually. All right. And this person's method is not going to probably endear a lot of people to them, but here's the thing. The method, although it does matter because it helps you to hear it better, does not matter as much as the message. If truth is being spoken, then truth is being spoken. Apostle Paul is not only willing to accept this fact, he says, I joy, in verse 18, I find joy in the fact that truth is being spoken even through a method that I wouldn't agree with. You know a lot of Christians, we have a problem. We claim that the problem is the world. We claim that the problem is the community doesn't listen to our truth. But if you were to watch us as Christians, You would find that what we claim isn't how we act because how we act is the problem is other Christians. That's how we act. I don't like the method of that church. I don't like the method of that pastor. They look different than us. They do things different than us. They dress different than us. They sing different than us. Their method is not our method and therefore their truth cannot be true. That's not how truth works. Your enemy, and we're gonna talk about this briefly in a little bit, your enemy is not other Christians. They aren't the problem. The problem is always deception. The problem is always lies. The method will differ from ours, and that's okay. The Apostle Paul was not nearly as concerned about the method as he was about the message. Here's the thing, everyone has their own ways of communicating and receiving communication. And if God's church only communicated the message through one type of method, then we would miss the opportunity to reach a lot of people. I am grateful that there are different types of churches. Now, I'm not grateful for different, supposed different statements of truth. I'm not grateful for churches who claim God, that Christ is not God. I'm not grateful for that. I'm not grateful for churches who claim the Bible cannot be trusted. I'm not grateful for that. I'm not talking about truth here. I'm talking about the way in which they present themselves. their style of music, their method of preaching. I use a coat and a tie and a lot of pastors, their method is jeans, shorts and a t-shirt. That's a method thing. You may not like the method, it's not as big of a deal as the message. I am grateful for those guys that have a different method than me and I'll tell you why. They're reaching different people than me. And I know that my method would not reach everyone, I know that. I know there are people who would not like my method, and I'm okay with that. I'm glad that God has given them someone else with a different method, as long as it's the same message. Christ is the Lord, the Savior, we are the sinner, and can be saved by this God who loves us dearly. As long as that's the message, I don't care what you're wearing, I don't care what you're doing, nearly as much as I care what you're saying. Letter C, all messengers are flawed. So I talked about that and you're looking at one of them. But we have to admit some are more dangerous than others, right? This is a very big truth. Notice what I said in letter C, all messengers are flawed. Some are more dangerous than others. Notice the word I didn't use, leaders. Now leaders are also flawed. I'm gonna give you my opinion now, right? This is an opinion. The flaws of the messenger are not nearly as detrimental to your family as the flaws of the leader. Let me explain. The flaws of the messenger are not going to affect you as much because they're just there to speak the truth. You can overlook their flaws, hear their truth, and move on with life because they're not really influencing you past that message. And you may know their flaws, and that flaw may be in the front of your mind, and it may be distracting you as the person speaks, but if you love truth, you are able to get past that flaw and hear the truth, and apply the truth, and do better in your own life, because that person is in a part of your life outside of the message. So the flaws of a messenger can be a problem, and some are more dangerous than others. The real danger, though, is not in the flaws of the messenger. The real danger is in the flaws of the leaders in our lives. Now, Philippians chapter one isn't talking about leaders. The apostle Paul, in my opinion, is being very gracious to these messengers because they're not, in his opinion, being viewed as leaders. Because Paul is not nearly as gracious in his letters to the leaders that are flawed. Paul deals with them pretty strongly when the leaders in the Corinthian church and other churches are causing problems in the church from their flaws. I mean, Paul's bringing the hammer down on leaders. Christ was also pretty strong, had some strong words to say about leaders that were allowing their flaws to affect the people. So let's separate messengers from leaders. Although leaders are often messengers, messengers are not always leaders. Someone can speak something but not have any influence directly in your life, just the truth only being influencing you, and that's not really a them thing. That's the truth. They spoke, did not return void and affects you. The leader's life affects you. The leader's relationship with you affects you. What the leader does and doesn't do, say and doesn't say, outside of the message, with you, in the lobby, in the parking lot, at your house, in the store, on social media, that leader's choices affect you daily, at least weekly. And so the flaws of the leader are going to affect you a whole lot more than the flaws of the messenger. This passage is not dealing with leadership, which is why the Apostle Paul is saying, their flaws are a problem, but the message is still strong. And as long as the message is preached, I'm okay. He does not have that same opinion when it's leaders. Everyone in this room, myself included, we've all experienced poor leadership. Some of you experienced it under me in the past. I have had my moments of poor leadership. We've all experienced it because we're all flawed. We all make mistakes. Like me, some of you have been that flawed leader. Like me, some of you have made choices that have influenced your spouse, your children, your coworkers in ways you knew were not appropriate. You've been the flawed leader. Stop saying it's not a big deal because I'm just here to speak the truth. That's a messenger. No, you're more than that. You're now a leader. Your life is influencing other people. And although the flaws of some messengers are more dangerous than others because your flaws can be so prominent that no one will hear the message because your flaws are so horrible. Look, there's men that are long dead, but if I was to get Joseph Stalin here, the man had a lot of flaws, major flaws, rightly so, a big problem. There's nothing Joseph Stalin would say that I couldn't think of without rethinking of who the guy is. how horrible of a man he was. So there are times where the flaws of a messenger overwhelm even the best message. But the flaws of a leader, even the subtle ones, can seep in and destroy relationships. And if you think it's important to not allow your flaws to distract from the message, if that's important, and that's what I started with, how much more important is it for the leader to say, I have to start putting these flaws to rest. They will still be there. They will not be active in my life. I'm going to put them to sleep. All right, so the difference between a flaw that is active and inactive, they both exist. One is controlling you and one is being put to rest. It's still there, it's dormant. At any time in your life, it could come back up, but you just keep putting it to bed and say, no, no, no, this is not your house. You don't get to control this. At best, you sleep here and that's it. You are just renting a space. You're not controlling my life. You will not eliminate all your flaws in this life. You will live with some of your flaws until you're dead. put them to sleep, stop letting them control your choices. Number two, the truth spoken. Verse 18, what then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice, letter A. The church is not a competition, and Christians are not on opposite teams. I love this statement by Paul. He says, whether they are preaching in opposition to me or not, I do not care. They think they're my enemy, but they're not my enemy. They don't realize we're on the same team. And they're pushing the same truth I'm pushing. It's like two basketball players on the same team, both trying to score higher than the other. Now, that's not how a team should play. But in the end, if both of these guys are scoring three-porters every time, the team is going to win by a lot, blow out the other team. Now, they may say, hey, I scored more than you. The coach is saying, we won. The team won. And that's how the Apostle Paul is seeing it. But in this case, it's not two players trying to score. It's one player trying to play, and the other player is saying, I'm gonna score more than you. And the first player says, it's a team effort. As long as we win, I don't care. I don't care if you score more than me or not. We're gonna win. That's what matters. So what kind of Christian are you? Are you the Christian trying to outscore other Christians? Or are you one saying, we're on the same team. I don't care how much you score, I score. It does not matter. The score isn't ours anyways. Winning is God's, and that's what I'm here for. I wanna be on the winning team. I know I'm on the winning team. I already know God's going to win. The score doesn't matter to me nearly as much as it does to a lot of other guys. Don't let it matter to you. We aren't keeping score. We know who's gonna win. You wanna bring as many players onto our team to serve our God as we can. Letter B. Personal disagreements cannot overshadow public evangelism. He says, some, in verse 16, are preaching Christ out of contention. Verse 18, he says, some, again, preaching out of pretense. They have an ulterior motive to the truth, and it's to hurt me. We all have personal disagreements, every one of us. There are people in our life with which we disagree. Some of you are married to them. Some of you have birthed them into this life. You call them child. We all have disagreements with people because people are not robots. You don't program people. A lot of parents try that. A lot of parents try to program their kids. I don't want to disagree with my kids. So when you're young, I'm going to program them to think exactly like me so that the rest of my life will be so easy. Because if I program them at five, then by eight, nine, 17, and 18, oh, it's just going to be a breeze. Because this programmed child will be a duplicate of me. OK, if you're saying that, it is your first child, and you do not understand children. Because if you understood children, you understand this. Children can't be programmed. Oh, surely children can be influenced, children can be taught, children can be brainwashed. That's not the same as programming. Children can be brainwashed, but even this, the human mind is an amazing thing. And for most people, at some point, sooner than 18, they realize what you are doing, and they do not like it. That includes children. Children want to be able to, at some point in their life, think for themselves, and rightly so. Now, I'm not for a five-year-old thinking for themselves. Five-year-olds need information and a lot of it. But I would hope by the time they're 25, they're thinking for themselves. So what point from five to 25 did that child get from being given information and thinking for themselves? And what, as you as a parent, were you doing to get them to that point? You see, no one likes to be programmed, brainwashed, and our minds fight against it. What I've discovered, is that the adults who try their hardest to program their children, percentage-wise, are the ones who lose them the most. I'm not saying free-range parents in the sense of, you know, let your kid do what they want, think what they want, say what they want, and everything will turn out okay. That is not what I'm saying. There is a balance. There's a balance of giving information, living the results of the information you're giving, guiding and directing that child, but as they get older, you have to allow them to come to their own conclusions. They have to, because every individual is an individual. Personal disagreements are part of life, because even your children will think differently than you, because you cannot program them. Your spouse will think differently than you. They're not you. And if that's true in family, how much more true is it in church? If you're not gonna think exactly like your spouse, why would you expect other Christians you're not married to to think exactly like you? It's unfair to expect that. If your own children disagree with you at home, don't be shocked when someone else's child disagrees with you at church. That shouldn't be a big deal to you. You should understand, oh, because they're an individual, they think different than me. People disagree with people because we are not the same. The Bible in another passage of scripture talks about the unity of the body and tells us what should be important to us and what we should be united on. And we'll get to that further down the road. But it is not the things you think it is. It's the things important to God. Who is God? What is truth? What is the church? That's the things that's important to God. That we can be united on. But it saddens my heart that so many Christians get so caught up in minor disagreements and it literally stops them from doing the most important work, evangelism. That they would let their disagreement with another human being over something that is of minor value keep them from dealing with the biggest value, the human soul. Disagreements are a part of life. Discuss them, confront them, overcome them when possible, and be gracious when you can't. but never let your disagreements affect the most important task given to God's church, reaching the lost. Letter C, and we're done. Those who love the truth will always rejoice when it's spoken. Those who love the truth will always rejoice when it's spoken. I read a story, this man I do not know. This is just a story in a book that I read recently, a true story, which is a common one. of a young pastor who had planted a church. I don't know where this church was. I don't know this guy. It's just in a book I read. This young man had planted a church, and God was beginning to do a work, and the church was growing, and there was 30, and then 40, and 50, and 60, and 70 people. From what I remember in the story, they never really broke 100, but the church was going in the right direction. And then another church was planted some miles down the road, and the methods were different between the two churches, and for whatever reason, People were drawn to that church more than the first church of the young man. The message was the same. They were both preaching Christ. Salvation was the same. The gospel was the same. It was a different style of a church and a different method. And this young man began to be very discouraged, even depressed as he tells his story because the church down the road seemed to be growing much faster and larger than his church. And instead of saying, praise the Lord, other people are hearing the truth, people that I'm not reaching, people that I never would have reached, people that never would have came to my church, they're going there, praise the Lord that people are hearing the truth, this young man instead, as a pastor, fell into depression. What was more important to that young man? Now this young man admits his own problems in this book, but I'm curious, do you know? What was more important to that young man than truth? Truth was not his priority, although he claimed it to be. That was his job description, the speaker of truth, the liver of truth. That's his identity, a follower of truth. But when it came down to it, he proved to himself there was something more important than truth, numbers. Now, the numbers themselves have very little value. What we attach to the numbers is what matters. And to that young man, it would have been his version of success, some form of glory, some form of I'm leaving a legacy behind. And so this man's personal legacy, this man's desire for glory, this man's inner need to be recognized as a great speaker was more important to him than the fact that truth was being spoken. We are on the same side. Whether you speak the truth or I speak the truth, I do not care. Whether you lead them to the Lord or I lead them to the Lord, I do not care. Whether the church up the road, down the road, different state, different country, grows faster or slower than Meredith Hills, I do not care. And I've told you before, at Meredith Hills, numbers mean very little to me. There's only one reason for numbers at Meredith Hills, and that is more people to hear the truth, that's it. I gotta tell ya, there's a lot more issues that come with numbers. With more numbers come more problems because people are always problems. So numbers for numbers sake is actually a foolish way to look at ministry because problems always come with numbers. Now I'm willing to accept whatever problems come our way from numbers because of the benefit of more people hearing the truth. But if those people hear the truth here or somewhere else, I don't care. I just want them to hear the truth. I've told you at Meridian Hills, my heart isn't that we grow out only and that God will do that as he does that, but my heart is that we grow deep. I want to take whoever's here deep. I don't wanna take you down a path that is fun for you and that makes your life easy because Christianity never challenges you. I want you to be constantly challenged with questions about who am I, who is God, where am I going, what am I doing? That's where I wanna take you. And as God brings more people, God will bring more people. But the ones he does bring, we're going deep. Who speaks the truth doesn't matter to me. We're on the same side. I am overjoyed by the, you might say, success of other churches, however you deem that to be. I'm overjoyed by that. as much as I'm joyed by the success that God brings to this local congregation. Because my success is God's success. Their success is God's success. And it's not my success that brings me joy, it's God's success. Through this church or another, I'm overjoyed by the success I see in God's kingdom. How about you? Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for those here Again, I'm so very grateful for the many families. I know there are dozens, dozens of people and dozens of families who are out enjoying your creation. Some are camping. Some are traveling. Some are flying. Some are driving. Some are in this state of Connecticut. Some are near states. Some have traveled further. But I'm so very grateful that these families get a chance to just be with people they love. Take a break from the chaos of life. And I pray that when you do bring them back this week, that they would be prepared emotionally, spiritually, and physically to continue the path that you've given them in their marriage, in their family, in their work in this church, and that they would come back refreshed, ready to serve you again. I pray for those here that you would encourage them, those who went on vacation and came back or didn't go on vacation, I pray that today, this afternoon, tonight, they would get the refreshment they need to move forward another week in service to your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, folks, just a couple of announcements. We do have Wednesday night Bible study going over the Old Testament. If you'd like to be here, it's 6.30.