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Mariners Church Weekend Messages
February 16 - What Should Christians Do with Things Like Halloween, Yoga and Alcohol? - Eric Geiger
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Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast, inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes.
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I'm so excited to open God's Word with you this morning. If we haven't met, my name is Eric. I'm the senior pastor here. Gather together with different backgrounds, different walks of life, different experiences. But what unites us is we believe that Jesus is the one who's rescued us, that Jesus is the one who gives us real life. What unites us and why we spend time in our services studying the scriptures. We believe that this isn't just any book, but this is God's word that he's breathed for us, that he's inspired for us, as a gift to us. And so we unite on those essentials yet. And this is what we're gonna talk about this weekend. You probably worship alongside somebody in the same row seated at this service as you are, who makes some different decisions than you do on some lesser issues. And you've learned this the longer that you've lived, the longer that you've been a Christian. Oftentimes, what Christians fight about isn't the most important issues. Who Jesus is, the scripture, what the scripture teaches. We actually fight about some cultural issues. And there's a whole chapter in the Bible that talks to us about this. And that's the question we're going to put on the table. How, as a Christian, do I navigate decisions? I know I belong to Jesus. I know he's the most important, but how do I navigate decisions in this world, in this culture? So I want to introduce you to some people that you worship alongside here at the 10am service that you may not have thought about that. We actually have some different viewpoints on some things. This is the Lee family. The Lees are in our church and at Halloween they have a party at their house. They pass out candy to all the kids who show up at their home. In fact, the Lees are known as the most generous house in the neighborhood because they don't just pass out Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. They get the king size Reese's Peanut Butter cups that a kid can grab like a whole candy package at the house. And so all the kids love the Lee family. And the reason they celebrate Halloween is it's actually spiritual for them. They thought about this. They've read verses in the Bible about making the most of the opportunity, and they want to use that calendar day on the calendar, that party, that holiday, to show hospitality to people in their neighborhood. But on the same row as the Lees, there's the Smiths. And the Smiths are also in our church, and they do not celebrate Halloween. Now, they aren't rude about it. They aren't the people who, like, bomb your social media page and call you a pagan. They're not those people. They're. They're actually kind and gracious. They just have done some reading and see that there's some pagan roots when it comes to Halloween and some evil spirits that have been involved. And they. They just have decided for us as a family, we're going to minimize Halloween. So every year at. On October 31, they go out to eat as a family and they go see a movie. They try not to make a big deal about it. They just minimize Halloween. Now there's someone else who on the fence at their house puts a big sign that says, halloween is from the devil. And if you're trick or treating, so are you. That guy's not in our church, and we're really glad he's not. We're really glad he's not here. But the Lees and the Smiths both are, and they're a diff. They have different viewpoints when it comes to music. Amy, she's in our church. She works downtown la. She commutes sometimes. Depending on when she leaves, it might take her 58 minutes. Sometimes it takes her 2 hours and 58 minutes to get there to her work. But however long she listens the whole time to Christian music, she believes, why would I listen to anything else? Because she read a verse in the scripture about whatever is praiseworthy or lovely or trustworthy think on such things. So she wants to redeem her words, her commute time by listening to truth. That will help her grow in her faith. That's. But then there's maybe on the same row as Amy at the service, there's Stephan. And Stephan doesn't believe that about music. In fact, Stephan's done a lot of thinking. He's not just. It's not as if he hasn't thought about this. He's thought deeply about this. And he doesn't believe that there's this hard line between the sacred and the secular because he also has read verses in scripture that God causes it to rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. He. He believes in a high view of common good or common grace, that God gives gifts to humanity, and included in those gifts are art and music. So he believes that all music can be a gift. And he doesn't even like that people call music Christian music. Because he's like, music can't be Christian. It's not a person. A person can be a Christian. Music itself can't be Christian. That would be like calling a hamburger a Christian hamburger or a non Christian. No one orders a Christian hamburger. Hamburger. And he doesn't like that gospel is a genre because he believes the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes it's not a genre. And so he just has a different viewpoint of music than Amy does, and they have different views. There's a lot of these kinds of issues. And the one I want to take us to in the scripture happened 2,000 years ago in a church in Rome. And on the same row were people who were eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols and people who said, nah, ain't no way I'm eating meat that was sacrificed to an idol. Here's what was going on 2,000 years ago in Rome. There were a lot of little g pagan gods that were worshiped, and cows would be slaughtered as a sacrifice to a God. The meat would then be put in a market. And so Christians were asking, can I buy the meat that was used in worship to a little G God? Can I eat that meat at my house or not? And some Christians were like, I'm eating the meat. In fact, this is Terrence. His friends call him T Bone. He eats all kinds of meat. Ribs and brisket and chicken and pork. And he can throw down a fat burger with the best of them. He loves meat. And so when this question came, he's like, I'm eating the meat. The little G rain God that that cow was offered to is not real anyway, so pass me the filet. I'm eating any meat I want. Now, Reggie, his friend, who in the same church at Rome, Reggie, did not eat meat, only eat broccoli. His friends call him Veggie Reggie. That's all he would eat is vegetarian. Because he would say, veggie. Reggie would say, I can't. Why would I eat meat that had been offered to a pagan God? There is no way. And because I don't know which meat at the store was offered to which God. I'm not eating any meat at all. So these people were in the same church, and they started to fight. There's a whole chapter in the Bible addressing them. And this chapter will help you think through decisions you make in this culture. And here's what we know. Sadly, some of the lesser decisions, even though we know they aren't as important as who Jesus is. They're often what causes Christians to disagree with with one another. If you will listen to God's word, I believe you'll get really gracious clarity from him today. This is his word. Romans, chapter 14, verse 1 and 2. I'll begin and I'll continue to read after that. Paul writes, welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but don't argue about disputed matters. One person believes he may eat anything. That's Terrence. He's eating the steak. While one who is weak eats only vegetables. Now, let me stop here for a moment because some of you vegetarians are getting offended by this verse. He's not saying you're weak physically. He's not saying you need some more protein in your diet. That's not what he's teaching. He's actually saying. Now this is shocking. This is even more offensive, really. Of the two people, Terrence, who eats meat that was sacrificed to an idol, and Reggie, who says, I'm only eating vegetables, you could think that the apostle Paul would say the strongest Christian of those two is the one who says, I'm drawing a line in the sand. I'm drawing a line in the sand. I'm never going to eat anything that was offered to an idol. It's shocking. The apostle Paul says the weaker Christian is the Christian who says, I won't eat the meat. Why? What? How is that person the weaker Christian? Because as you keep reading the text, you will see the apostle Paul is going to emphasize because that person, and we can be the same way if we're not careful, is actually giving the impression that they think the reason they are right before God is because of their decisions and not because of the grace of God. And it's only the grace of God that causes us to be able to stand. And so let's continue to read verse three. One who eats must not look down on the one who does not eat. And the one who does not eat must not judge one who does because God has accepted him. Who are you to judge another household servant before his own Lord? He stands or falls, and he will stand because the Lord is able to make him stand. One person judges one day to be more important than another day. Someone else judges every day to be the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. Whoever observes the day observes it for the honor of the Lord. Whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. And whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat. And he gives thanks To God. This is God's word. So clearly you see in the text, they're not only arguing about whether they should eat this meat that had been sacrificed to an idol or not, they're also arguing about what day they should go to church. And Christians still do that 2,000 years later. Now, you don't have to worry about that 10am because you worship on the Lord's day. But lesser people than you, they, you know, we have some people go to church on Saturday night. We even have people at our church who go on Thursday night. Now, you're laughing because you're more mature and you realize I'm joking. But some actually believe that one day is more holy than another. And the Apostle Paul writes, and he's saying, each day is holy before God. You can worship on either day, whichever day you want to worship, you can gather with God's people and worship him then. Now we know these are third level decisions, meaning they're not the most important level. Like, is Jesus the only way to God? They're not even second level, like we talked about last week, is my salvation secure or not? This is like third level. Do I eat meat that was sacrificed to an idol or not? But the reality is you still have to make these decisions. You are still gonna have to decide. Parents of little ones, you're still gonna have to decide do my kids dress up for Halloween or not. You are gonna decide what is on your Spotify playlist. You are gonna decide if you're at dinner, do you order alcohol or not. So I want to give you a tool that will help you think. And you may land differently than somebody on your row, and I'm going to show you how that's actually even good. But when you came in, we handed you a framework that I'm going to walk you through. There's some. Excuse me, there's some issues that you're going to put in the avoid bucket. And you're going to put it in the avoid bucket because whatever gets put in this bucket actually disrupts your faith. It causes you to be pulled away from the grace of God or not to represent him well in the culture. So there's some things you're gonna put in the avoid bucket. There's some things you're gonna put in the appreciate bucket. The world offers these things and you don't have to adapt them and make them, quote, unquote, Christian. You can just receive them as they are. And then there's some things that you're gonna put in the adapt bucket, meaning the There's a cultural thing offered to you, and there's some things you want to take from it, but you want to tweak it and adapt it so that you can use it well in your life. So the avoid bucket. This one's actually the easiest bucket. I had a young adult on Thursday night say, eric, isn't it just easy to put everything in the adapt bucket? I said, no, it's actually hard to figure out what goes in the adapt bucket. The adapt bucket. The easiest is you just say no to everything. No, no, no. The easiest bucket's the avoid bucket. But there's some things that clearly go in the avoid bucket. If you're a Christian. We saw this in this teaching series. Your body is no longer your own, and so you are to be pure with your body. So in the avoid bucket, you avoid pornography. Pornography goes in the avoid bucket for all of us that goes in the avoid bucket. It hurts women in our culture. It hurts us. It hurts. Is bad for you. It should go in the avoid bucket. Don't try to say, you know what, I'm gonna put pornography in the appreciate bucket, or I'm gonna put pornography. I'm gonna make a Christian version of pornography. You're an idiot. It doesn't go in this bucket. It goes in the avoid bucket. But there's some things that you put in the appreciate bucket. Now, the appreciate bucket is things that you can just receive as they are. You don't have to attach a Bible verse to them. You don't have to try to make a Christian version of it. Example. I moved here six and a half years ago. Real quickly after moving here, I fell in love with mountain biking. I absolutely love it. It's beautiful. I feel like when I mountain bike, I get to see God's beauty, his beautiful display of creation. I enjoy the people that I mountain bike with. I can just appreciate it for what it is. I don't have to put Bible verses on my mountain bike. I don't have to make it, like, Christian. I can just take it as it is. There's arts that are given to us here in Southern California. I've enjoyed going to so many plays and musicals in downtown LA and here in Orange county, like Les Mis, I can just appreciate it. I can just receive it as it is. It actually reminds me of the story of redemption. I can receive the art without having to adapt it at all. I just appreciate it. There's food halls that I enjoy going to. In the packing district in downtown Anaheim, the food hall in downtown Santa Ana. The Central Market in downtown la. I just love them. I love walking in and smelling all the different flavors and all these amazing tastes. I just appreciate it. I just receive it as it is. It actually reminds me that God is pursuing for himself people from every single tribe, tongue and nation. I love it. I appreciate it. And so there's things that you can just appreciate that the culture offers. You'll put in the appreciate bucket, and then there's some that you adapt. Now, you may not know this, but most of us are probably on the same page about Christmas, that Christmas is a holiday that we remember and we celebrate. You may not know that Christmas trees initially were pagan. They were used by early Germanic tribes in the winter festival of Yule, and they were offered to the little G God Ordon. They were used in pagan worship. Christmas trees were. Christmas trees were decorated and used to worship a fake God. And then Martin Luther came along, the famous reformer. He's the first one who said, let's put lights on these Christmas trees to remind ourselves that Jesus is the light of the world who stepped into our darkness. And I'm so glad that he did, because I enjoy Christmas. I enjoy sitting in front of a Christmas tree and reading the Christmas story. I've had credible conversations right in front of a Christmas tree. I'm thankful that he adapted the Christmas tree. So I'm assuming that most of us are on the same page on these issues. So this isn't, like, controversial so far that you're going to avoid a strip club, you're going to appreciate surfing, and you're willing to adapt snowflakes on a Christmas tree, like, totally fine. But Romans 14 isn't about what we agree on. Romans 14 is actually about what we disagree on. So if I just ended the sermon right now, I'd be letting you off easy. I'd basically be saying, hey, aren't we all on the same page anyway? Yay, group hug. Let's go. But that's not Romans 14. Romans 14 is actually, no, there's things we disagree on and how do we treat one another on things we disagree on. How do we respond to one another on those issues? So let me mention three and use them as examples. Halloween, yoga and alcohol. Halloween. There's some in our church friends of mine who have put Halloween in the avoid bucket. And they've not done it carelessly. They've done research and they believe that there's connections to the occult. They don't want any kind of evil like that being unintentionally brought into their family. So they put Halloween in the avoid bucket. Kay and I, we've put Halloween in the adapt bucket. We've used Halloween to connect with neighbors and with friends. And I'm thankful for these people. I don't look down on these people unless they look down on me. Then I'll look back down on them. But you know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying. Those people, yeah, I'll debate with them. But the kind avoid people. The kind and gracious avoid people. I'm actually thankful for them because they actually did help me think about I should be wise with the costumes we let our kids wear when they were little. I don't know if I would have been as thoughtful about that without these people in my life. And so we can have different viewpoints on this. Yoga is another example. There's some who will say yoga should be avoided. If you look at the history of yoga, it was invented in India. It's used by Buddhists, it's used by Hindus as a way to, quote, unquote, empty your mind. And the Christian faith is never about emptying your mind, but filling your mind with his truth and his grace. And so some will say, no, that's pagan. That has to be avoided. Others will say, no, I'm gonna adapt that. And Kay and I, we tend to land a lot in the adapt bucket. We will use yoga or Pilates. I'm more of a Pilates guy, but whatever. This is the weirdest thing I've said all weekend, is that right there, we will put it in here. Not because we're trying to empty our mind, but because we're trying to take care of the body that God's given us. And it's a great way for us to exercise. And we want to fill our mind. As we are practicing, as we're exercising, we reflect on who Jesus is and what he's done for us. Now we have in our church Pilates instructors and yoga instructors, and some of you have been made to feel guilty by these people over here. And I want to say to you, do not let someone judge you because you were not judged, because that person isn't who makes you stand. Jesus is the one who makes you stand. Jesus is the one who makes you stand. But you can listen to the caution about that group is right about. We aren't to empty our minds. We're to fill our minds. But you can take something just like we've taken Christmas trees and adapt it, and you can put it in the adapt bucket. Alcohol. All right, High Schoolers for you until you're of legal age. It should go in the avoid bucket. It should go in the avoid bucket, moms and dads. What also should go in the avoid bucket is this myth that you should throw together a party for high school students at your house where you serve alcohol so that you can keep them safe. And the reason that should not happen is because you're sending a signal that your kid needs alcohol to invite people to his or her home, that you need alcohol to actually have fun. We never want to send signals to our kids that we need something other than the spirit of the living God within us to have a good time and be the people that we should be now. Some adults in our church have put alcohol in the avoidance bucket. Some have done so wisely because they have a past where alcohol was something they were addicted to or became a crutch for them on to land a deal in a sales call or to make them have enough courage and boldness to talk to a woman. Alcohol became a thing they needed, and they wisely have moved alcohol into the avoid bucket in their life. And our brothers and sisters in Christ who put alcohol in the avoid bucket. What they need from us who haven't put alcohol in the avoid bucket when we go out to dinner with them is to respect the decision they've made and to not put them in a situation where they're gonna be tempted to move something out of the avoid bucket that by their conviction, they've put in the avoid bucket. Some put alcohol in the avoid bucket because they read verses in the scripture. Beer is a brawler. Wine is a mocker. Anyone who is deceived by them is not wise. So they put alcohol here. Avoid. Others put alcohol in the appreciate bucket. And they do so because you read the scripture where the apostle Paul writes Timothy and says, hey, you should use a little wine. They look at the first miracle Jesus performed at a wedding where he turned water into wine. And they've used alcohol the same way that food is viewed. Yes, food can be abused. Yes, alcohol can be abused. But food can be a gift that you appreciate, and so can alcohol be a gift that you appreciate. And those who put it wisely in the appreciate bucket don't view alcohol as something they need. They view it as a gift that they can enjoy. I'll tell you what I told our recent group of shepherding elders at Mariners Irvine. We invite once a year new shepherding elders to join shepherding our church. And I share with them passages about what it means to be an Elder. There's One passage in First Timothy 3 that says the elder should not be given to much wine. So I tell the elders, I say, listen, there's no prohibition in Scripture against you drinking. The verse says not to be given to much wine. But if you're an Elder, you're to set the example for the whole flock. And so there shouldn't be videos of you on Instagram of you drunk at your cousin's wedding. Like that should not be. If there is one from two weeks ago, you should tap out and not be an elder right now. If there's one from 10 years ago, then God's done a gracious work in your life, then you can be an elder. I say that to the elders. I'm being upfront with you, what I'm saying to the elders, but I'm saying that to you as a Christian, you should set the example. So it's not only if you drink, it's how you drink. You can appreciate. You can put drinking in the appreciate bucket. In my season in life, we put in our family alcohol for canine, not for our kids, obviously, but for us is in the appreciate bucket, not the abuse bucket. So we have different viewpoints on this. And the Apostle Paul has one major statement to people in Rome, which would apply to us here at Mariners, on how do you deal with this? And here's what he says. You have to be convinced in your own mind and be kind. So you on these decisions, they're not as important as Jesus or the Word, but you have got to spend some time wrestling and praying with what you're going to do on these decisions. You need to be convinced in your own mind. And if you're not convinced in your own mind, you'll be inconsistent. If you don't know why you're putting things in which bucket they go in, you'll be inconsistent. And you don't want to be an inconsistent person. A couple years ago here at Mariners, Irvine, on Saturday nights, we were doing parties coming out of COVID to try to just gather people back together. At the end of the pandemic, as the pandemic was coming to a close, and I think this was three years in a row, maybe it was only two years in a row. On a Saturday night service. After the service in the lawn area on the patio, we did a lunar New Year. And that it was Irvine, where this congregation is located, is 42% Asian. We have many in our congregation who are in the Asian community. It was a way to honor them and a way to reach out to friends and neighbors. So we did a Lunar New Year party and we put it in the adapt bucket. I mean, there was lots of singing and dancing. Instead of a dragon, we did a lion. And it was fun. It was a lot of fun. Well, there was one message on Instagram that I got. Really long, not so kind message. In fact, let me show you the person who sent me the message real fast. I'm joking. I'm joking. I would never do that. I thought about doing it a lot, but I've never done it. Never done it. But the message essentially was, this is milquetoast church, watered down church, heathen. This is such a pagan tradition. I can't believe this church brought a pagan tradition into the church. So I went to the person's Instagram. If you are unfamiliar with Instagram, you post pictures, and the last picture that the person put on their profile was a picture of their family in front of a Christmas tree. Some of you aren't ready to think about this, but that's really inconsistent. That's really inconsistent. Because what that picture is is you being comfortable adapting a pagan ritual that you grew up with, but being unwilling to let someone else adapt the pagan ritual that they grew up with. You haven't done the hard work and thought about this. And I say it as kindly as I can. Who are you to judge your neighbor? Who are you to judge your brother and sister? It's woefully inconsistent. And unless you think wisely. I mean, it's just easy if you throw everything in the avoid bucket. But if you really will do the hard work and think, and God, how do you want me to lead my life? How do you want me to lead my family? How do you want me to live in a culture where I'm set apart by you, but I influence people around me, then you're gonna have to do some hard work on what goes in what bucket. And if you find that you're putting something in the adapt bucket and something else in the avoid bucket, and they're very similar, you may well just want to ask yourself, are you doing that out of convenience and not out of conviction? Are you doing it just because that's how you grew up and not because you've actually thought about something deeply? So, number one, you want to be convinced in your own mind. And then number two, you want to be kind. You want to be kind. The Apostle Paul is writing this group of people, and he's saying, we're going to view these things differently. And I encourage you to be Kind and gracious to one another. Tonight, judge each other. Because God is the one who makes you stand. You don't make yourself stand. He's the one who makes you stand. When I was in Miami, I pastored there for eight years. There was a man in our church named Juan. And Juan, before he became a Christian, lived the party, like big time party scene on Miami Beach. In fact, he didn't only go to all the clubs until late in the night. He was a well known bongo player. Juan was. He played the bongos and the congas. And I learned about this after I was pastoring him. Like, oh, man, that's the guy, man. He used to like shut clubs down. I mean, he used to just be able to roll on the bongos. And so we heard that and we were like, juan, dude, play bongos at our church, bro. Play bongos. So our church in Miami, I think we had like 76 different nationalities in our church. Been heavily influenced by the Latin culture because we were in Miami. So we had Congos on stage and bongos on stage. And so we wanted Juan to play the bongos. And so we asked Juan and Juan said, nah, nah. And we asked him again. Come on, dude, we are you the man, dude, It'd be awesome. God's gonna redeem that gift you have. Use it in worship to God, man. Come on. Nah, nah. Third time asking him, Juan said, hey, listen, let me tell you why I keep saying no and why I don't want you to ask me again. Because every time for me that I play the bongos, the sound brings me back mentally to places I've left behind that I don't want to go back to. Every time I hear the rhythm going, it emotionally pulls me in to places that Jesus has rescued me from that I don't want to go back to. But Juan was mature. He was mature, is mature. Juan believed that for him he shouldn't play the bongos. But he never one time, you see how we even had to like pull it out of him. He never one time said to somebody else, you shouldn't play the bongos. Our church shouldn't have those on the stage. He didn't think that. He knew that for him this is what was best for his spiritual growth. And then he was kind to everybody else. The apostle Paul writes a whole chapter in the Bible on issues like this. And he ends chapter 14 this way. So then let us pursue what promotes peace. This is verse 19. And what builds up one another. Do not tear down God's work because of Food, everything is clean. But it is wrong to make someone fall by what he eats. So Paul says, the meat is clean, but don't make someone fall by eating the meat. It is a good thing not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. This is his word. All right, it's really clear. Paul says, hey, let's promote peace among one another. And he says, like Paul says, I eat meat. He actually was similar to T Bone Terrence. It's totally fine to eat the meat, but if Veggie Reggie comes to your house, what's the kind thing to do? Not to serve me. That's what he says. Hey, you're told you're free to eat meat, you were free. But if you have a brother or sister in Christ who struggles with that, when they come to your house, don't say, hey, this was sacrifice to the little G God Ordon. Don't do that. Paul says, like translation to here, if you worship alongside someone at 10am and you go to lunch after or dinner tonight and you know that they wrestle with alcohol, that they've put alcohol in the avoid bucket, the Christian thing to do for you would be, though you're free to drink, to not exercise your freedom for the sake of your brother or sister who's wrestling, can you abstain for one meal for the sake of the person you're at the meal with? That's what he's saying. So if you are free to listen to all kinds of music on your Spotify playlist, but Amy comes over to your house who only listens to Christian music, Paul's saying, when the person comes over to your house, can you adjust your Spotify playlist for the sake of that person? Can you not exercise your freedom for the sake of. Now, he does say, he calls that the weaker person. So I will say, some of you who live your whole life in the avoid bucket, thinking you're the stronger we're going to be, we're going to give concessions to you, but not because you're stronger. I'm going to say it, but because you're weaker. That's what Paul's saying. Not because you're stronger, but because you're weaker, we're going to. Because we're going to. Probably a lot of us are going to live with a lot in the adapt bucket and we're going to make concessions for you who put things in the avoid bucket because we love you, but don't be showing up trying to judge everybody. Who are you to judge? Making people feel guilty for their profession or their music or some of the decisions that they make with their family. You aren't the one who makes them stand right before God. Jesus is the one who makes them stand right before God. Jesus is the one. A Helpful oh, some of you are thinking, dang man, this is so complex. I just think it'd be easier if I only hung out with friends who think exactly the same as me. Like I want to go to church with people who think exactly like I think. I just want everything to revolve around me. It actually would be easier if you only hung out with people who thought exactly like you, but it wouldn't be better. It'd be easier for you, but not better for you because you would then start to form unity around things that are less important. Here's what's beautiful about being in church with people who view some of these things differently is it then forces us to find our unity not in those lesser things, but in Jesus the one who's rescued us. It forces us to find our unity in our Savior Jesus and not in some of these decisions. And may we never be the people Mariners church who are filled with Christians who evangelize their position on lesser issues to other Christians and waste their lives doing that. Instead of loving people who don't know Jesus and keeping Jesus as the main thing and Jesus the one that we evangelize to the world around us. May we be those kinds of people. There's a famous quote that is attributed to many people in essentials unity. In non essentials liberty in all things, charity. So in essentials Jesus is the only way. The scripture is true. We believe everything that he teaches. We go all in. We unify in essentials, let's be unified in non essentials liberty. You want to drink, you're free to drink. You want to not drink, you're free to not drink. You want to dress your kid up as a Cabbage Patch Kid free. You want to go to yoga free. You want to knot Free. In essentials unity. In non essentials, liberty. But in all things charity towards one another. And we unite together because Jesus is the one who's rescued us. Can we all together go all in that Jesus is the One who's worthy of all of our affection and attention, that our hearts are overwhelmed because Jesus is our Savior. Let's stand and let's worship him together. All right, Extend your hands please and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week that you would remind them that you are gentle and approachable and and that you love them, cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week.
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Thanks for tuning in to the Mariners Weekend Message Podcast to support the ministry of Mariners Church. You can click the link in the show Notes or download the Mariners app at your favorite app store. If you've been navigating God's wisdom with us through this year's annual read and would like to hear personal reflections from pastors in your community, check out the Gospel Every Day podcast. Imagine feeding your heart, mind and soul with the kind of practical wisdom that will change your life. If you haven't picked up the annual read yet, visit MarinersChurch.org or download the Mariners app for more information on where to find it.