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Welcome to the Brew City Church podcast. We are a Christian church following in the way of Jesus and located in the heart of downtown Milwaukee. We're glad you've joined us and we hope you enjoy this week's message.
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Off. I don't know how that works. Good morning. It's good to see you. Good to be with you. Before I get into my. My stuff here, let me just put a postscript on that last announcement. Not the money announcement, but the baptism announcement. And just tell you super briefly. I think baptism is a really big deal. As I said last, I think it was last week in my sermon. The early church had a higher vision of what baptism is and does. The early church had this vision of baptism, that baptism is kind of the entrance into the community of faith, into following Jesus. And that baptism meant something. It meant that you're included in this family in all the ways. It meant that you're called into now submitting the rest of your whole life to the lordship of Jesus and to following Jesus. And it's this marker, this moment where we declare it, but also something happens inside of us. So I just want to encourage you, if you're thinking about being baptized, you haven't been baptized and you follow Jesus, I want to encourage you. I think baptism is something that I'd strongly consider or I'd strongly encourage you to just pray about and ask God, is this something, something that you have for me? Because I think it probably is. But that's between you and God. If you have any questions about that, I'd love to talk to you. Let's talk afterwards or email me. We can chat about that. If you've been baptized and you're feeling strongly that you want to be re baptized. Couple things I've. This is one of those areas that in 20ish years of ministry, I've changed the way I kind of think about this. And my first, my first preference would be not to re baptize you. I gotta tell you, because I think that there is truly one baptism and I think the baptism that you received matters. And so if you've been thinking about being rebaptized, that your faith has come alive in new ways, or God has done something miraculous in your life and you want to put a stamp on that, I get it and I want to hear about it. So let's talk. Because I'm not saying we won't rebaptize you guys, but I just want to hear the story and hear where you are of what has led to that. And let's Process that together and figure that out together. And at the very least, I would love to have a time where we can maybe pray over you or some of you who would love to say, God is doing new, fresh things in my life and I want to honor and look back to my baptism as this moment and kind of resolidify what God covenanted in that moment. Does that make sense? Let's talk. But I hope you consider being baptized if you haven't been baptized, whether you're 8 years old and you follow Jesus, or you're 80 years old and you follow Jesus. It's a beautiful, beautiful moment in your life and your spiritual journey and in our lives as a spiritual family in the kingdom of God. So that's my commercial. And I'm gonna just begin this time with prayer. God, I'm grateful for this time. I'm grateful for this text, I'm grateful for the scriptures. And I just ask Holy Spirit, because I think that you love it when we, when we pray. I think you love it when we ask you things. I think you love it when we're attentive. I think you love it when we turn our hearts and our minds and ourselves towards you. And so we just say now with open hands, would you come and continue to lead us and to teach us. In a text that is heavy and weighty and caused a huge disruption in the church a couple thousand years ago? Would you use this story to help us discern how to live and move and have our being in you, Jesus, following you? Holy Spirit, as followers of Jesus and as a community of faith, we ask that in Jesus name. Amen. A couple weeks ago I asked you guys a question and then we heard some really interesting stuff. And the question that I asked you two weeks ago was could you tell me about your spiritual shift? Could you tell me about that moment when things theologically and your understanding and concept and vision and picture of God changed or morphed or. Yeah. Evolved for you. Could you tell us about that moment or that journey and what it felt like? And we had some stories. We had some really heavy, weighty things. Some people said it felt like literally my whole world, what I knew was ripped out from underneath me. We had from that to it was this beautiful experience of feeling freedom and liberation for the first time in a long, long time. And then a lot of things in between. What I want to know today, I want to ask you a similar question and I want to talk together. And if you're new, just know participation is not a requirement. But I Find even, I think, as we listen to one another's stories and where we are in our journey with Jesus, man, that's encouraging stuff. So I want to ask you, last two weeks ago, the question was, what was your spiritual shift? Today the question is, what was the fallout of your spiritual shift? And by fallout, I mean, what was the response of your community, your people, your church, your family, your friends, your relationships? What was the response? What was the fallout? Good, bad, or ugly? If you are bold enough to share that with us, Because I think we're going to be encouraged by one another's stories, what was the fallout? And maybe even this is an ongoing current situation, the question more for you is, what is the fallout right now? What are you living in? If you have the courage to just share that story just a little bit, and we got to keep it not like little versions of these stories. Let's hear from one another. What has been the response to your spiritual shift? Dallas, thank you for being willing to get this ball rolling. I had a friend say, like,
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still love you, but you're going down the wrong path. Huh? Yeah. Yeah. But now I don't. Okay. Yes. Thank you. The Dallas was saying one of. And I'm assuming this is one of the responses. Right. One of the responses to Dallas is to say, I still love you, but I'm really worried for you. Right. I still love you, but you're in danger. Now, I want to say a couple things about. Am I getting that about right? Dallas, I still love you, but you're probably going to hell. Is that about what they were saying? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I ask because I've heard that. Right. Now, I want to say I think it's a really, really wonderful and beautiful thing to assume the best about people, because I've heard this, too, and I know that I've received it in a way that is actually loving. Like, I need to tell you this because I believe it. But also, we religious people really don't know the power and weight to our words and what that does to a person and how actually unloving that can be. Right. That's power that we hold over people. And when you have that power held over you, when you're being held over hell by a thread that the person tells you about, that's fallout that we're talking about. That's stuff that takes a while, a long time to process and recover from and feel like you're getting your feet underneath you and you feel like you're doubting yourself now all the time. Thank you. Dallas, what else? What's been the fallout or the response to your spiritual shift? Marianne, then Lauren, Certain family members. I can no longer talk about religion because it's super surface. Yes. Because I end up being the heretic. Yep. Yep. Marianne just said there are certain relationships and even particular family relationships where we can no longer talk about religion, about our faith, about spirituality, because we know if we do or we can only stay at the surface level because if we get in depth a little bit, I know that I'm going to here have the heretic word tossed at me, thrown at me, which is another way for a religious way of saying, you are no longer part of this. You are going to hell because of the things that you believe. These are. These things do something to a person when you hear that long enough. And also the fallout then becomes our relationships. I have relationships like this, too. We can only go so far, and then we know things are going to get dicey. And so we choose to love one another and honor one another enough to not go there. But we. That's a loss that we have to grieve and our relationship changes. Right. This is the fallout. Lauren, I'm going to tell on my
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wife because as soon as you asked the question, she laughed and said, we got crucified.
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Did you ask Lily if you could tell on your wife? Yeah. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just saying.
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Yeah, but, but no, we were youth pastors at the time, and the community we were part of made it very clear we weren't welcome among them anymore.
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When you're. What happened that made it. You. Unwelcome there?
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Well, we were asked to leave and. Yeah. Because we started seeing things differently.
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Okay.
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We weren't, we weren't causing a division or anything just because our theologically. Our theological perspective.
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Yes.
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Shifted. We were dangerous people.
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Yes. And I know Lauren and Lily's story to know what those things were. But as, as they're. As we're leading a church. Right. As we're. As we're helping. As we're serving and helping steward this faith community. Now, our, Our. Our beliefs have over a long. I'm assuming. Right. Long period of time with lots of fear and trembling and lots of checking and double checking and triple checking and quadruple checking and all the things, your sources and all the things. You come to a place where your faith has changed, you believe some things differently, and all of a sudden you're not welcome here anymore. Not only are you not welcome, you're just this Isn't the place for you anymore. That's fallout. Any other stories of responses and fallout from a spiritual shift that happens because these things don't just happen in a vacuum all by themselves. Lee. Oh, really? Oh, thank you. Lee just said that invitations to family events start changing and having caveats. And when I can, I can share this out loud. And when I asked Lee to clarify what that looked like, she said, invitations sound like this. You can come, but your trans sister can't. Now, this is a complex issue and complex stuff, and I just want to say whatever you think about gender and sexuality and what how Christians should or shouldn't think about that, because probably I'm certain we have differing viewpoints represented in this room. Hopefully everyone in this room, regardless of where you sit or stand in that position, say, that's not of Jesus. Like, some things are just super simple and we don't have to put any extra words to them. That is not of Jesus. And when we say and do things like that in Jesus name, it damages the reputation of Jesus. Fallout friends on these spiritual shifts is very real, very live, very current. And the reason that I'm asking you these questions is because the leader of the church up until this point, if this is your first time with us this Sunday, welcome. So glad you're here. We are walking through the Book of Acts and we're at this story that is kind of this humongous, weighty story right in the middle of the Book of acts in Acts 10 and 11. And it's the story of Peter who the person who is the leader of the church up until this point. The leader. It's the reason why Catholics look at Peter as the original Pope. He's the leader in the church and the lead. Imagine if the Pope today would be like, I've changed my mind. God has done something and shifted some things. And. And I've changed my mind about this thing that the Bible says and that we've believed in our tradition for thousands of years. Imagine what would happen. Tons of people would leave the church. There'd be a split. He'd be vilified. It'd be wild. But that's exactly what's going on in our text. God speaks to Peter in a vision and says, I'm including a whole bunch of people you never imagined were included. This is why the gospel is called good news, friends, because we're always going to be surprised by who's included. But so Peter has this shift, something that he thought God clearly spoke in the Scriptures and not he thought God clearly spoke in the scriptures. This is how to be my people, to follow me, how to be acceptable before me. It's to not hang out with those people who eat those things. And now all of a sudden, Peter gets a vision that seems like it's from God that says, go ahead and eat those things. And by the way, the point isn't just eating those things. The point is hanging out with those people that you thought weren't included. Now God's including all of them, and a spiritual shift happens in Peter, and this earthquake happens. This shift happens in the church. And now we come to the part in the story where the fallout happens. See, what we see is what is good news. A bunch of people, a huge community being included in the gospel the church didn't see as good news. Does that sound familiar? Seems like God's including a whole people group that we always thought in our faith tradition were excluded. But now God's doing something new and fresh and showing us this people group is actually included. And the church responds and says, that is not good news. See, because we frame and shape our theology based on our prejudices and hatred and the people that we don't love, the people that we love to hate, we draw lines and theological borders says, you cannot come into this space. And now there's some fallout. So we're gonna read this fallout together and just kind of learn from this story. We're in Acts 11. We're gonna do the whole first half. Acts 11:1 through 18. So Peter had this experience of the second Pentecost with the Gentile believers. And then it said he stayed with them for a few days. He's breaking the rules. He's breaking the rules that are in our scriptures. He's breaking them actively now in this story because the Spirit of God is leading him and telling Peter to break the rules, to break the religious rules, to go against what the Scriptures have been taught, what the scriptures say. This is wild stuff. I'm going to continue trying to get us into the disruptive and wild nature of this text. In this story, the apostles, it says, in Acts 11:1, the apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. It should be good news, but it's not to them. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him. Now the circumcised believers, we know this is kind of like they. This is not just Jewish believers and followers of Jesus who obey the rules. This is ones who actually Paul calls Them the circumcision. These are people who think this is a requirement to being a part of the people of God. They've drawn a line. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, you went into the house of an uncircumcised men and ate with them. There's so much here. We can spend two months in this story. Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story. Hey, look, I was in the city of Joppa, praying and in a trance. I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet. Have you ever like felt like you had a word from God and you're trying to describe gets clunky and clumsy and weird and you get all insecure about it? Do you know that feeling? Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story. Look, I was in the city of Joppa, praying and in a trance. I saw a vision. I. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners. And it came down to where I was. I looked into it and saw four footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. Here we get a little bit more detail, clarity about that vision. Luke didn't give us those particular animals. Peter does. Then I heard a voice telling me, as I'm looking at this weird sheet with animals on it, I hear a voice telling me, get up, Peter, kill and eat. Now I must ask for forgiveness for the vegetarians in the room. I've used this verse to just like have fun with vegetarians quite a bit. It's not what it's about, just for, for the record. Then I heard a voice telling me, get up, Peter, kill and eat. And I replied, surely not, Lord. Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth. Now it's easy to forget here when we read this. The reason that Peter says, surely not, Lord, I've never eaten any of those things is because you said for me not to eat those in the Bible. Like the Bible clearly says it in the book of Leviticus. This is a really big deal. It's not one of those secondary laws. Even if God's telling me to eat these foods, I cannot break God's law. Can you hear the dilemma? Peter's in the voice spoke from heaven a second time. Peter's telling this to his friends who criticized him and are ready to maybe kick him out of the church or maybe to ready to take him, take his role of leader in the church and say, you are no longer faithful enough to the way of Jesus to Lead the church anymore. This is what Peter's facing. And he said, look. A second time. The voice talked to me and said, look, do not call anything impure that God has made clean. Something new is happening here. This happened three times, and then it was pulled up to heaven again. And then. Right then. And three. Right then and there, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. And the Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. So these six brothers also went with me. There are witnesses, right? Remember I said, this is gonna be smart, that Peter took along friends with him. These six brothers also went with me. And we entered this man's house. He told us how he had seen an angel appear to him in his house and say, send a joppa from Simon who is called Peter. He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved. As I began to speak to them and preach to them, the Holy Spirit came on them just as the Spirit came on us at the beginning. And then I remembered what the Lord had said. John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Have you ever had moments like that when you've heard the Scriptures your whole life, you've taken them in and digested them, and here's where you know they've become a part of you is when they're just sitting there inside of you, you don't know they're there. And all of a sudden, something happens in your life, and you're like, I remember when Jesus said that. Have you had a moment like that where this light bulb goes on in the Spirit? And you're like, wait a minute. Maybe this is like what Jesus talked about. Peter had that same exact kind of thing happen as he's seeing the Holy Spirit fall on the Gentile believers who he thought the Spirit would never be compatible with. Like oil and water, they don't mix, they just separate. No, the Spirit falls on the gentile believers. And he's like, wait a minute. I remember when Jesus says, you're going to baptize Jesus. John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Maybe this is what it looks like. So if God gave the same gift, gave them the same gift he gave to us who believed in Lord Jesus, who was I? Here's something really big. Who was I to think that I could stand in God's way? As I said last week, this was not Peter's doing. Peter would never have chosen this belief in this work at all. This is Peter relenting to the way of God. Who was I to think that I could stand in God's way of breaking God's own law? That's what basically Peter's saying. When they heard this, they had no further objections and praise God saying so then even to the Gentiles. Do you hear that? Do you still hear that? The way they're still seeing these Gentiles, right? Holy moly. Even the Gentiles are included. But that's called progress. When they heard this, they had no further objections and praise God saying so then even to the Gentiles, God has granted repentance that leads to life. Now let's just think through a few things in this text.
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Text.
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As we finish up this story as a faith community this morning, the first thing that we find is the first thing that I just want to point out. The apostles and believers throughout the Judea, throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, hey, explain yourself. Word travels fast in the church. I could have like an evil laugh there. I'm sorry, I just realized could have gone into it, because this still happens today is what I'm trying, what I'm laughing about. Word travels fast. God does something new, unexpected. The spirit of God moves, includes a whole group of people we never imagined were included. And the rumor mill in the church starts rolling, right? And before Peter can even get back to Jerusalem, word of what happened among the Gentiles with Peter, with his approval, that he ate with them. That's the really offensive thing because that means he approves of them. That means he's with them. That means he's now unclean. He ate with them, he stayed with them. All this stuff happened. Word traveled fast. And Peter, I'm sure, is like, I have to get back to Jerusalem asap because they're going to be losing their brains. They're going to be freaking out. And I'd imagine Peter spent many sleepless nights rehearsing a speech in his head as to how he's going to account for what just happened among these dirty rotten people who aren't included in the family of God, these people who have no business in the church. So they believed up until this point. Peter's rehearsing the speech as to why he's changing his mind, why his spirituality has had this profound transformative shift. He's got to try to figure out, how do I explain myself now? Have you Had a moment like that where you're convinced that God is leading you in a different and new direction, where you're convinced that God is leading all of us in a different and new direction. And now I got to explain it to my family and friends and things might never be the same, right? This is a vulnerable moment for Peter in this narrative, in the thing about when God does something new, friends, and when God does something of the newness that God brings is bringing, including and liberating a whole people group who our faith tradition never had an imagination for inclusion. It's usually never seen as good news. Like I was saying before, it's usually always seen as heresy. It's usually always seen as turning our back on the way of God. It's usually always seen as compromising the scriptures. This heart of inclusion that God shows and displays here in radical ways is almost never seen as good news by the church. But I want to tell you, friends, it always is good news. It always is good news. And God is always including more and more in God's family. Or maybe just God is trying to expand our minds and hearts and spirits to include more, just like God does, along with God, including. And I want to tell you friends, this idea of inclusion, this word inclusion, has become a dirty word in the church in many, many parts of the church today in America. And I'm just going to say really quickly, really briefly, I am not sorry for using that word in association with God. See if you've heard that the word inclusion is a dirty word in church. I want to tell you I'm not going to beat around the bush because I don't have time to. You've been lied to. There is no. I'm thinking of this as a heart of a father. I have four kids. And I can just tell you thinking about this, trying to say it out loud breaks my heart open. And I just want to say I will never apologize to, for focusing on the cross in the open, armed embrace of Jesus for every single person, including the people who crucified him. It's the clearest picture we'll ever get as to who God is, what God's like. And it is a heart of inclusion. And we should never, ever apologize for it. We should root ourselves around it every single week reminding ourselves this is the way. Next thing, next thing in this story that I want to, that I think the spirit is kind of shedding light on is what is happening here, the kind of a bigger picture. What's happening here is that Peter's trying to Reconcile and bring together two really tough things to bring together, which is the past and the present. And more clearly, what I mean is Peter's trying to bring together what God has spoken and done in the past and what God is speaking and doing right now in the present moment. See, what's happening is there's this collision between the past and the present working itself out right in the present moment that Peter and the church are existing. And right here it's just smashing together. And. And this is the way it always is for the people of God, friends. See, we have a tradition where we read these books. What we're doing right now is orienting ourselves around a book that was written, a story that happened and was written about and taken into account almost 2,000 years ago. That means that we religious people, we Christians, who center ourselves around this book, this, this ancient sacred text, are rooting ourselves in history, in the past. We're just doing that. And that's a really, really good thing to do. Well, you'll. I hope you never come to Bruce City Church. And we're not somehow way, shape or form rooting ourselves in the scriptures. It's a really healthy thing to do. But see, what happens, what easily happens when we have. When we observe the traditions of the past and when we read the scriptures that are pointing to the past is we get stuck in the past and we kind of romanticize and fantasize and I want to say, even fetishize the past. In our faith tradition, we get to this point where we think that. We think that everything is fixed. All of God's words are done being spoken. Do you hear what I'm saying? We root ourselves in the past. And what happens is we kind of fantasize that past and we romanticize it to the point where our faith is nothing but an exercise in nostalgia, friends. Where faith is nothing but trying to get back to the good old days. You know what I'm talking about? You're gonna experience stiff arms and roadblocks every time you point out and testify to the movement of God in the present moment. See, here's why. Do you want to know why you're always gonna see us rooting ourselves in the scripture here at Bruce City Church? Because we have to learn about our past in order to know what God is doing in the present moment. That is why we root ourselves in the scriptures. That is why we root ourselves in the tradition of the church and know it and know our church history. Because if we know and are familiar with how God moved in the past, we are going to recognize it when God's moving in the present day. All of our spirituality exists right now, right here in the present moment today. And I want to say, I need to say that because I feel like we think our spirituality exists 2,000 years ago. The Holy Spirit can only, can only act and move right here and right now. The Holy Spirit is not, friends, moving in the past. The Holy Spirit is not moving and shaping and guiding in the future. See, those two things don't exist. God is moving and working and guiding and directing and inviting and calling and loving and liberating right here and right now. And I want to tell you, friends, this is always going to be a collision in our faith tradition because we are rooted in the past in the best ways. But friends, we learn about the past again in order to inform us and to recognize how it looks when God's moving today. That needs to always be our question. Willie James Jennings says this. The key for us, Jennings says, seen in this moment for Peter, is to refuse the binary of naming the past word false and the present word true, or naming the present word false and the past word true. The key for us is to discern through the Spirit the line of continuity between the past and the present. We don't have to get into the enter into this world where to say, if God is doing something new, that means that everything happened in the past is false. And we also don't have to say what God did in the past is the gospel truth the way it always is. And that means what God's doing now is false. We don't have to do that. That's immature. What maturity looks like in following Jesus is to say, let's learn from the past. To interpret the present moment accurately, to exegete the present moment accurately. We learn from. We anchor ourselves and root ourselves in the past so that we can be fully alive in the moments that we find ourselves in. Because this is the only moment that the Holy Spirit is acting and working and moving in. And the key to how this happens in our text, what we're finding here is this, as the past and the present in the church, in the life of the religious community, is smashing together in Peter. You know what, How God navigates this and how God is going to teach how to navigate this collision, this divide, even Peter becomes the bridge between the two. Peter becomes the bridge between what God did in the past and what God's doing in the present. See, I'm gonna mix these two points into one. So, Conrad, just don't feel like you have to follow me or hang with me. If you notice when Peter's giving an account, do you notice what he doesn't talk about? Real question. Do you notice what Peter doesn't mention in his defense of what happened in Joppa? He doesn't mention in his defense. This would be the number one thing that you want to bring as he's rehearsing in his head, how do I defend myself about what God did in Joppa? The first thing, which would be Bible verses, right? Scripture. Like the. Clearly you're not remembering back in the prophets when God said this. He's got nothing. There's no scripture to defend what God is doing in his. Matter of fact, I guarantee you, I guarantee you as much as I can without being in the room. The, the, the, the circumcised believers who were confronting Peter, they were quoting some scripture, they were quoting plenty of scripture and telling Peter all the reasons why, the scriptural reasons why this cannot have happened. And that if you thought it was from the Spirit of God, it was not, because it goes against the scriptures. You know what Peter had? I thought I heard it whispered. Peter had this thing that we've been taught to doubt in the church. And it's the only thing that Peter had in this moment, his experience. Like the only way that Peter tried to defend himself and to model what was happening and what God was doing. He had no scripture to back himself up on. And I'm not just coming up with this Randy night. My own. This is the theologians and scholars pointing this out. All he had was the story of what happened to him in the Holy Spirit and these excluded believers. And see, the reason that I'm highlighting this is because we've been told by the powers that be in the church our experience shouldn't matter in questions like this. You know, your experience doesn't matter. See, we've been told that. The couple things that I've heard and inferred through what I've been told is that the Scriptures are the only thing that's authoritative, that can kind of speak to what God's doing, right? And if you're a little bit more kind of open minded, we believe there's this thing called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral that I think is a really good tool for kind of trying to, trying to discern these things. What is God up to in the world? And the Wesleyan Quadrilateral says there are four things that should be authoritative as we discern what God's doing and where God is showing up in the World. The first is Scriptures. And to be honest, it says that this is the main authority for us, the scriptures. But then there's also reason and then there's also church tradition and then there's also our experience as human beings. But primarily in the Protestant, American, modern day church. We've been told, I can just tell you, I've been told your experience doesn't matter. As a matter of fact, you can't trust your experience because you are a human being who has bias and desires. And that's true. But I think what Peter would say is I can't deny what the Holy Spirit did. And as a matter of fact, it's not just one experience. It's I had this dream and then this other guy had this dream and then I was preaching to them and the Holy Spirit fell on them in these ways. And then I stayed with them and there was more evidence. It felt like it feels between us. Peter's just explaining his experience and I want to tell you your experience. Your story is sacred, friends. Don't let any Christian or any religious person try to gaslight you into not trusting your own lived experience. Don't let any well intentioned, perhaps Christian try to convince you that you're not experiencing the Spirit of God. You're experiencing something that's difficult, divisive or not of God. Right? And I know that this takes immense discernment and I know that this feels dangerous because it is. But I want to tell you, I'm just saying this because Peter lived it. This is our story. See, the Spirit of God shows up in our stories and in our experiences and in our lives. And when the Spirit of God shows up so many times that it becomes undeniable that that needs to become authoritative for us in some way, shape or form. And we need to pay attention to where the Spirit of God is leading us. And in that experience, in that lived experience, Peter then becomes the bridge between the past and the present. Peter himself is the living testimony to what God is doing in ways that no one ever expected. And I want to tell you, friends, I think our church serves the same role and function in today's church in Milwaukee. I don't want to speak too highly of ourselves or think too much of ourselves, but I want to tell you I've had this experience. I can tell you I spent those sleepless nights thinking as we were, as I had experienced a faith shift, a spiritual shift, and believing something different. In particular, I'm talking about becoming affirming to homosexuality and believing that God is as well, and there's a number of those conversations that I had to play over in my head to imagine what's the fallout going to be for this one. I know it's going to be big. And one of those groups of people that I thought this is going to be ugly is my pastor friends in the city, particularly my evangelical pastor friends in the city, because those are the most of my pastor friends in the city, vast majority. I thought most of those relationships were going to end. And I remember being on a zoom with a bunch of pastors and I could tell you the names of the churches and you'd recognize all of them. And I remember we were clarifying what, what our belief statement for this community of churches is going to be. And I remember being like, this is the moment of truth right here. And I said, I need to tell you where I am and where our church is moving into. This is several years ago. And I told him that I've come to a place where I believe and where I'm affirming, where I affirm homosexuality and I think God does too. And here's why. And if you have any questions about it, I'd love to talk to you. And I thought I was going to get this come to Jesus moment or I was going to say schedule these come to Jesus moments with all these pastors. Just long story short, what has happened since then is I've had a bunch of my friends and pastors of evangelical non affirming churches who are super, super curious and intrigued about what God's doing here. I've had a bunch of pastors and friends, not all of them, some of them have moved away from me. Right. But most of them, a vast majority of them, are incredibly curious and intrigued and have lots and lots of questions. And we sit down for coffee or lunches and we have these conversations. I've had pastors tell me I am affirming actually, but I can't publicly say that because I'll lose three quarters of my church. And as I've processed these conversations that are ongoing, by the way, as I process these conversations, I want to tell you I think we are becoming a bridge between what God has done in the past and what God is doing in the present moment. Our stories are becoming the testimony to what God is doing, friends, because this is what we're doing here. Again, I don't want to think too much of ourselves, but I think what we're doing here is pretty unique and pretty dangerous, but it's following the spirit of God and people Are. This is why I think it's so important for us to be part of the church. Because people are watching our church right now to see if this works. Do you know what I mean when I say that some people are counting on this failing? But people are watching right now to see if this works. People who might be willing to change their minds if there's evidence that man, the spirit of God is in this. So I want to tell you, you and I, we get to be, we get to have the privilege becoming this bridge between what God was doing in the past and what God is doing right now. And I want to tell you that to me is so exciting. How do we inhabit this space more? I've just got just a couple, a little bit, a little bit extra for you. Two things, two more things. How do we, how do we discern this? How do we follow God in this? How do we become like Peter? And I think two things that help us become like Peter and stay like Peter. Because see, what happens, what can happen is we have this spiritual shift happen and we have this new way of believing or new way of seeing, just a little switch. But we get really settled in and dug into those positions and those new positions and we can become fundamentalists of the new variety instead of the old variety. Right? So how do we navigate this stuff? The two things I think that are so key, the first is stay open. Stay open in your spirituality. Stay open in your walk with God, stay open in your faith journey. Stay open, stay flexible to where God's leading and how God's leading us. Stay open and flexible in ways that say, I think this is where God is leading us and this is exciting because I think God is always leading us into new, more beautiful, more liberative, more healing, more life giving places. This is just always what God is doing. It's never just a one time deal. And the way for us, I think one of the key ways for us to discern where God is going is just to stay open, stay flexible. See, this is really difficult for religious people because we get addicted to certainty. We get addicted to being overconfident. We get addicted to this, having this pride. We love to talk about the sin of pride, but here's the sin of pride that the church gets is that we think we have it all figured out. It's just what religious people do. You'll always have that tendency as a religious person, but I want to tell you, fight against it. Because when you think you've got it all figured out is when you become Resistant to the movement of the Holy Spirit. When you think you've settled into the land where you know everything, where you this, my position is true and right and gospel truth. God told me, God said it, I believe it. That settles it. You become resistant and blind to what God's doing in the world around you. And you stay in the past. And you get a faith that's based on nostalgia rather than what God's doing right here and right now. Stay open, stay flexible. And as we're trying to discern, where is God, what is God is doing, how can I discern this? Here's just a biblical scriptural way to discern this. Look for the fruit. Just look for the fruit. Here's two texts that I'm going to give you that are authoritative for Jesus and for Paul, two guys who are kind of big deals in our faith tradition. The first is from Matthew 7. I'm going to give you this over and over again because I think it's so important that we root ourselves here. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says this, Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. This is a text that some of us who have been called wolves, it's a little, little sensitive by their fruit. Here's the thing, though. By their fruit, you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Of course not. Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit. But a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot breed. Is like, you're not getting this. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. It's just impossible. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And so thus, by your fruit, their fruit, you will recognize them. And Jesus is talking about false prophets, but I also think he's talking about teachings and where the Spirit of God is. And how do we discern where the Spirit of God is moving and what spirit of God is doing? Look at the fruits. Is there good fruit of the kingdom being born, being brought about? It's probably of the Spirit. Then if there's ugly fruit of the enemy, it's probably not of Jesus. Here's. And then you say, what does that fruit look like? Well, Paul's got a good answer for us. The scriptures kind of work together. Galatians 5. Can we get that, Conrad? But the fruit of the Spirit, Paul says this against people who are saying, just so you know, the Scripture said, clearly Gentiles should not be included. And so therefore they're not included. And Paul's like, there's different. Here's what it looks like to discern where God is and what God's doing. Look for the fruit. And here's how you discern what the fruit is. The fruit of the Spirit is love, it's joy, it's peace, patience and forbearance. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, let's keep going. Gentleness, self control. Against such things, there is no law. This is what it looks like. Peter said, look, the spirit of God just did something. And I saw the fruit of it. And Paul's doubling down and saying, if you want to know what the Spirit of God, where the spirit of God is moving and what God is doing, if God's in it, look at the fruit. This is what we do to say, I don't know what to tell you. I know what the scriptures say, but I can tell you that I'm affirming not in spite of the scriptures, but because of the scriptures. But that's a different sermon for a different day. But I will tell you because of this text here, conversations I have is just. I can just tell you the fruit of the Spirit is being born in our church. And even more than that, the fruit of the Spirit is being born in these lives and in this community in profound and undeniable ways. If you have eyes to see it, you just look for the fruit. As we talk about the fallout, friends, as we talk about this whole story, it's been challenging for me to preach this story over the last three weeks because this has become a personal text for me. It's a text that kind of. I felt like God blew the dust off of in my journey and kind of spoke to me afresh and used it in this present moment, this last kind of season of my spirituality to. To step in, inviting me to step into new ways of seeing things and understanding, expanding how I saw God working in the world around us. And even as we're talking today about the fallout, I can tell you, personal, firsthand experience, the fallout's real, friends. When God does something new, it's not always celebrated by the people of God. And for us who are following in that newness, it's going to come with that fallout and that response, that pushback, that ejection. And man, I can tell you firsthand, it never stops being painful. And I know some of you have stories even more vivid. I'm not trying. This is why I've struggled with this, how to preach the stories. I don't want to center myself, but it's real and the pain is real. It never gets to be less. But here's one bit of experience, one thing from experience that I can tell you, one bit of advice and encouragement is the fallout maybe happens to you as you become the bridge between what God's done in the past and what God's doing now. Right? Here's what I've learned. And this is not like this blanket statement, but it's been true for me. Choosing love and grace and forgiveness. I've never, ever regretted it. People who speak those words, family who have made it plain that because of really, really rough stuff, I can't go there with them, or family who decide to reject other family members or loved ones, choosing the way of the love of Jesus and the grace of God and forgiveness that Jesus tells us to give freely. It's just never, ever gone wrong for me when I do that. When I get, when things go wrong is when I get dug in angry and I work out of my anger. But here's another thing that I think is always that I've learned goes along with those things, and that is I also think it's important because we get gas lit all the time to say, you can't trust that, or you can't trust what's going on. You can't trust your experience that God's not in that. I want to say what has also helped me in dealing with the fallout, dealing with the pain, navigating these relationships, confidence in what God is doing. I've just come to a place where I will not apologize for what God has taught me, where God is leading me, how God is opening my eyes. I will not apologize for it. I'm gonna give grace and I'm gonna do it with love. And I'm gonna forgive when I've been hurt and wronged. And I'm gonna try to not reproduce that death cycle. But I'm also not gonna apologize for following where the spirit of God is leading me. See, this is like walking a tightrope here, friends. In our spiritual journeys with spiritual shifts and fallout, that happens. But I want to tell you, just like I said last week, just like Peter showed us, faith takes courage, man. This is not for the faint of heart. But this story reminds me over and over and over again that this stuff, this walking with Jesus thing, it is so exciting. There's something new around every corner. And we're always going to be surprised by the love and grace and inclusion of Jesus. Let's, if you're able, let's stand and finish our time together. God, I don't have lots of extra words except just to say, would you, if you're in this stuff, come and lead us? Would you repair hurting and broken relationships and would you bring healing between the past and the present and between those of us who are feel like we're pitted against one another? Would you, in your invitation into what you're doing now, God, would you make a way for these stories to kind of come together and bring healing? Would you give us the courage to follow you and say yes where you're leading us? God, I'm grateful for the story that we get to sit with and hold and let it shape us and transform us and encourage us and push us into the future while watching for you right here in the present moment. Holy Spirit. So we sing to you one last time as a community this morning.
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Thank you again for being with us. We would love to have you join us if you are ever in the Milwaukee area and we hope you have a healthy place to gather wherever you are from.