Intro / Review:
Because we are ALL a Work in Progress:
- Accept others' convictions. (Acts 18:18-23)
- Assist those who need to grow. (Acts 18:24-26)
- I must confront everything
- Confrontation is not loving
- Confrontation equals judging
Three Myths About Confrontation
Three Tips for Confronting
- Do it informed
- Do it privately
- Do it biblicly
- Always be teachable. (Acts 18:27-28)
- I am aware of my weaknesses
- I am not afraid to seek help
- I try to learn from criticism
- I admit when I am wrong
- I am aware I don't know everything
- I am always looking to learn new things
- I invite others to give me feedback
Are You Teachable? (Mark YES or NO for each statement below)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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So let's turn to God's Word together today.
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Acts chapter 18.
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Acts chapter 18.
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We're going through a series.
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Unstoppable church.
01:15-01:17
The church of Jesus Christ.
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The church that He promised to build is unstoppable.
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Jesus said the gates of hell won't prevail against it.
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Amen?
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The church is unstoppable, but I'll be honest with you, that there's times that I don't I don't I don't feel that personally and I guess there's times I feel more like if you're from this area if you can think back a few years ago there was a there was a building in between Butler and Gibsonia right on route 8 it was on like the east side of route 8 there was a building that was obviously going to be used for commercial space and it was looking fantastic and it got halfway built and construction stopped and some of you guys know what I'm talking about but some smart aleck came along with their commentary on this halfway done building project and spray-painted a word on the side of this half building and the word that they spray-painted on the side was fail.
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I don't know the whole story behind that, but I will tell you this, there's a lot of times in my life I feel like that building.
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Don't you sometimes?
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You feel like I had a good strong start, I've had some good days, but let's be honest, there's times that I blow it, and I'm like, "How could I have been so stupid?" There's times that I see an immature attitude welling up in my own heart.
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And I think to myself, "Jeff, you're 41 years old now.
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You should have been done with those stupid attitudes 20 years ago." Sometimes I feel like somebody should just come along with a can of spray paint and just spray it across my head.
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Fail!
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Fail!
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There's a verse in God's Word that I remind myself of often.
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Philippians 1.6, the apostle Paul, who we're going to be talking about today, he said, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Paul says, "God always finishes what He starts." Really?
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He says, "And I am sure of this." So instead of spray painting the word "fail" for that building which since that time has been completed, and I think more accurately portrays the Christian life.
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Instead of spray painting the word fail at the time, if we could go back, maybe on that building, maybe on your life right now, if you're feeling like a failure, maybe there's something different that should be spray painted on you.
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And that's what we're gonna talk about today.
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What should be spray painted on you is this, work in progress.
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How many people here this morning would say, "Pastor Jeff, I think my life qualifies right now "as being a work in progress." Anybody else?
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Fantastic, because that's me, all right?
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And if you're like done, complete, then you're a bit delusional, okay?
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But for the rest of us that have a more biblical reality of who we are, we're a work in progress.
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And there's good news for us because God always finishes what He starts, right?
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Remember creation week?
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God didn't start creation week as like, separate water from waters and create dry land.
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I'll get to it later.
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He finished what he started.
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We saw this through the Bible 101 series with Abraham.
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God promised Abraham he was gonna be this mighty nation with countless descendants in this special land, a blessing for the whole world.
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And God saw that through to completion, despite all of the human obstacles that didn't bother God.
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He finished what he started.
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We saw it with the mission of Jesus Christ, amen.
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"Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising and shamed Jesus, went through with the mission." He finished what He started.
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And the absolute certainty of God's Word for you and for me is God is not finished with you.
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You are a work in progress.
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I am a work in progress.
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At Harvest Bible Chapel, we talk about discipleship.
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What does it mean to be a disciple?
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We believe a disciple is somebody who worships Jesus Christ, who walks with Jesus Christ, and who works for Jesus Christ.
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And talking about walking with Christ, that concept is used so many times in the New Testament.
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Your Christian life is a walk.
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You know what walk means?
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Well, first of all, walk means intentional, right?
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It doesn't happen by accident.
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If you're going to walk somewhere, you have to consciously make the decision, "I'm going to get up and get my legs moving.
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But what I want you to see, especially for today, is walking.
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The reason the Bible uses that word to describe the Christian life, walking denotes progress, right?
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If you're going for a walk, you're able to say, "You know, I was there.
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And over some time, now I'm here." It's progress.
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Your walk with Jesus Christ was an event and it is a process.
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What do you mean by that?
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You are saved, that's done.
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Christ accomplished that.
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So you were saved and you are being sanctified.
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In other words, you were born again and now you are growing in Christ.
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So I can readily admit that I'm a work in progress.
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And when I asked you if you're a work in progress, you were very eager to put your hands, I'm a work in progress, yeah, yeah, yeah, I am too, I am too.
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Okay, but here's the hard thing, church.
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Here's the hard thing.
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Can you acknowledge that other people are a work in progress?
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It is so much easier to acknowledge that I am, than it is for me to look at your failures and remember that you are also a work in progress.
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If I refuse to acknowledge that I'm a work in progress, I'm going to stagnate my own growth.
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But if I refuse to acknowledge that other people are a work in progress, I'm going to be judgmental.
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So as we get to Acts 18, we're going to follow Paul on his missionary journey.
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I just want you to see from the text today, Three attitudes that you must embrace.
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Knowing all of Christ's people are a work in progress.
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We're talking about Christ's people here.
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If you're here today and you're not a born-again follower, born-again believer in Jesus Christ, this isn't going to apply to you.
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You're still dead in your sin.
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But today can be the day.
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Today can be the day that you say, I'm done trying to do things my way.
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I'm done trying to figure things out my own way.
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My sin isn't getting me anywhere.
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I want to turn from my sin.
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I want to receive Jesus Christ by faith.
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I want Him to be my Lord and my Savior.
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You can do that right now.
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And the glorious reality for you too will be God will finish what He starts in you.
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So in your outline today, I want you to jot a couple things down.
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because we are all a work in progress.
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Number one, accept others' convictions.
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Look at verses 18-23 with me.
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It says, "After this," the events we talked about last week, sermon available online, "After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers "Set sail for Syria." And with him, Priscilla and Aquila.
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We met them last week.
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At Sancreia, he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.
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And they came to Ephesus and he left them there.
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But he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
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and they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined.
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But on taking leave of them, he said, "I will return to you if God wills." And he set sail from Ephesus.
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When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.
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After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
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Stop there for a second.
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Because we're a work in progress, number one, first of all, you have to accept other people's convictions.
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Now verse 18, you saw it, it says that Paul was under a vow.
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And he cut his hair because he was under a vow.
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What in the world is the Bible talking about?
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Well, this is probably a Nazirite vow from Numbers chapter six.
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You know any famous Nazirite vow takers?
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One that comes first to mind is Samson.
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Remember Samson?
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He took the Nazirite vow.
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John the Baptist took a Nazirite vow.
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Now those guys, they took the lifelong version, okay?
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You could do it.
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So I'm going to be a Nazirite for the rest of my entire life.
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But did you know that you could also take the vow for a month?
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It could be a 30-day vow.
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That's probably what Paul did.
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The Nazirite vow, you can read about this in Numbers chapter 6.
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It was a vow of separation unto the Lord and there were some things that went with it.
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You remember the top three things, especially from Samson's life.
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You weren't allowed to cut your hair.
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You weren't allowed to drink alcohol and you weren't allowed to touch dead things.
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So Paul, again apparently taking a temporary vow, he would have cut his hair to finish the vow.
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And according to what I studied this past week, it seems like an unusual custom to us, but in this case, when you were completing the vow by cutting your hair, you had to go to Jerusalem to present your hair at the temple within 30 days of cutting it.
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And that explains why Paul was in such a hurry to get to Jerusalem.
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Did you see in verse 22, it says when he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down.
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Very specifically, it says he went up and down.
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What does that mean?
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Jerusalem.
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Jerusalem was built on a high place called Mount Zion, right?
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So the language is saying that he went up to Jerusalem and he went down from Jerusalem.
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So apparently, kind of putting the pieces together in the text, he was trying to fulfill this vow.
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Like, okay, so what is your point?
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Well, while you do what you do all week, I do a lot of reading and studying.
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And I get to this verse and I'm just like, what's going on here?
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Okay, he takes a vow, cuts his hair, he's on the run.
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Interestingly, commentators that I've read this past week are on two extreme sides of Paul taking this vow.
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There are some guys that were like, how dedicated.
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Look at Paul, so dedicated.
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He just warms our hearts with his dedication to his mission.
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Look how dedicated.
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Then you had other people that were like, "He's sinning!
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How dare he, who has divorced himself from the ritualistic and legalistic aspects of of Judaism, immersed himself again into Judaism by taking a Jewish vow. How dare he? This was sinful, this was wrong, and both sides of the spectrum.
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But here's the problem with that. Does anybody have anything in your Bible that says one way or the other whether this was the right thing for him to do.
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Does your Bible say that, does anybody have a Bible that says, you know, "And the Lord was greatly pleased at what Paul did"?
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Does your Bible say that?
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Or does your, does anybody have a Bible that says, "And the Lord's anger was kindled because of Paul taking this vow"?
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Does your Bible say that?
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Mine doesn't either.
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So obviously, my only conclusion when I read this, is just simply this.
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Paul obviously was under some kind of a conviction at this point in his ministry, and he was just living it out, right?
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I mean, are we safe to say that?
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That Paul was obviously living out some kind of a conviction that he had.
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Are we safe to say that?
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So, I mean, he wasn't denying Christ.
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He wasn't sinning. The text doesn't say he was wrong.
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And here's the truth I want you to see, work in progress people.
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That some people, whether you agree with it or not, are still going to hold on to some convictions.
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This guy was Jewish. He was Jewish for his entire life.
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And he took a Jewish custom.
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So why do we feel like we have this need to jump in and judge this?
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When God's Word doesn't even do it.
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God's Word just says this is what happened.
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But commentators don't treat it like that.
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They treat it like this is something awesome that we should all do today.
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Alright, everybody, let's go to the barbershop.
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Right after church, we're going to line up.
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We're all going to cut our hairs and fulfill our vow.
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And there were some people that were like this was a horrible low point in Paul's life and he committed a grievous sin.
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I just don't see it from the text.
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Either way.
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Here's what I do see from the text, and even up to today, some people whether you agree with it or not still hold on to some convictions.
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They might not be your convictions.
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And you need to learn to say, that's okay.
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Like for example, some people say, "You know, I'm a vegetarian.
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and think we should eat meat.
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That's not my conviction.
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But if that's yours, that's okay.
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Some people say, "I think drinking alcohol is a sin, and you should never, ever, ever, ever drink alcohol." And some people say, "I think it's okay.
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As long as you don't get drunk, I think it's okay to have a drink once in a while." You have to seek the Lord and come up with your own convictions.
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But why in the world should I stand on the sidelines and tell you that your personal convictions and your walk with the Lord is wrong when it's clearly not a sin issue?
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We could go on for some people, homeschooling versus public school.
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You gotta come up with your own convictions on what you're gonna do with your kids.
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Some people, it's what kind of movies we're allowed to see, not allowed to see, politics, Democrat versus Republican.
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You know, somebody very close to me, he has a conviction, he will not shoot guns on Sunday.
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As an avid hunter, avid sportsman, he will not shoot guns on Sunday.
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That is certainly not my conviction.
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But who am I to step in and tell him that he should not hold this conviction?
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Why do we feel like it's our civil duty to jump in with commentary on everything?
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You know what I think it is?
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You know what I really think it is?
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I think it's social media.
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Social media has given us a platform that we think our opinion matters about everything.
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Now, your opinion does matter.
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But about everything?
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Anytime anything happens in the news, is we gotta get on here and get to the commentary section.
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And really?
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We somehow feel empowered by social media that I have this voice and people need to know exactly what I think about every single thing.
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No, people don't really need to know what you think about everything.
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Like, but Pastor Jeff, their convictions are so immature.
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I hear what you're saying, but sometimes people hold very immature convictions.
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You know why?
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Because they're a work in progress.
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Like me.
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They're a work in progress.
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And as they grow, the Lord's going to work out some of this stuff in their lives.
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Meanwhile, God says, Romans 14, one, "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions." And I'm not gonna read the whole passage.
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You gotta go home and read Romans 14.
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That's what Paul talks about the whole chapter.
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Not to quarrel over opinions.
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Sin issue? Yes.
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Doctrine issue? Yes.
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Matters of opinion? No. No.
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You seek the Lord and do your thing.
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I'll seek the Lord and do my thing.
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All right?
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Not to quarrel over opinions.
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Like, okay, I hear what you're saying, but is there ever a time that we should confront somebody?
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Actually, there is.
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Let's look on in the text.
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Number two, jot this down.
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Because we are all a work in progress, you accept others' convictions.
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Number two, assist those who need to grow.
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Assist those who need to grow.
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Meanwhile, in Ephesus, look at verse 24.
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"Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.
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He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures." Okay, Alexandria, that was in Egypt.
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And this is where Paulus was from, giving you a little bit of his background.
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Look at verse 25, it says, "He had been instructed in the way of the Lord." What does that mean?
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That was sort of an Old Testament term.
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That means living a moral life as God prescribes.
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You know, he really understood Old Testament theology.
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and Old Testament morality, the law, and all of those things. Look on verse 25, "And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus." Okay, so he knew about Jesus, but look at this next phrase, "Though he knew only the baptism of John." What does that mean? What that means is he understood Jesus to a point, but he didn't understand the coming of the Holy Spirit.
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That's what he's saying.
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He knew about John's baptism.
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Jesus said, "I'm going to baptize you with what?
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The Holy Spirit, right?" So he knew about the whole, you get dunked in water, sign of repentance, right?
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We still do that as a church.
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He didn't know about the coming of the Holy Spirit.
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Why?
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This was the day before the internet and before CNN.
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And it took some time during this first century for news to travel about what happened.
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And apparently, Apollos was busy doing his thing and he didn't get the memo, right?
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So he was teaching accurately, it just wasn't complete.
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He didn't really know the rest of the story.
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Look at verse 26, it says, "He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him," remember them, the tent makers that we met last week, became really good friends with Paul.
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It says, "But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, "they took him and explained to him "the way of God more accurately.
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"They took him aside and they taught him." That is Aquila and Priscilla didn't publicly rebuke him.
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They didn't storm in pointing a finger in Apollos' face.
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You are wrong, heretic!
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"You need to repent of your blasphemies." They didn't do that.
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They didn't do the passive aggressive thing that we do in our day.
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I don't agree with that, so I'm going to write a little blog about that.
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I'm going to tweet about that.
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I have 140 characters or whatever to express my dismay at Apollos' teaching.
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They didn't gossip about Apollos.
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They didn't ostracize him.
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What did they do?
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They did the loving thing.
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They pulled him aside.
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They're like, "Hey, hey, you are such a good speaker, but did you know there's more to the story?" They pulled him aside and they taught him.
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And in cases like this, the loving thing to do is to confront someone.
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So let's talk about confronting someone.
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Because when I say confronting, you're going to be in one of two camps.
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Some of you are gonna go, "Ah, confronting, no, no, no, no.
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I don't like to confront.
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I hate confrontation.
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I'm a middle child.
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I don't confront, not my thing." Then there's going to be some of you that are like, "Yeah, yeah, tell us Pastor Jeff, how we can get people's faces." And both of those are wrong, okay?
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I read a book many years ago.
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This is going to sound a little cheesy, but the word always stuck with me.
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But the author of the book says, instead of calling it confronting, we should call it care-fronting.
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Let's change the word because it better reflects the attitude with which we're going after this.
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We're doing this because we care.
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We're care-fronting.
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All right?
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The loving thing to do is confront.
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I'm going to give you a couple of myths about confrontation, and I'm going to give you a couple of tips straight from the text here.
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First of all, the myths about confrontation.
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Quickly, these are myths.
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I feel like I'm going to share these things to give us a whole balanced meal here.
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Myths about confrontation.
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First myth about confrontation, I must confront everything I don't like.
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That is a myth, all right?
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That is a myth.
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You do not have to confront everything you don't like.
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Only when there are sin issues, like 1 Corinthians 5, or there's false or incomplete teaching in the church like we see here.
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Be careful not to be the preference police.
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Some people think it's their job, they've been duly deputized by the Lord, the police style of worship, dress, the font in the bulletin.
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I'm going to set these people straight.
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You don't need to confront everything that's not your preference, okay?
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That's a myth.
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Second myth is confrontation is not loving.
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You know, I would say something to him, but I really like him, and I just feel like it's harsh to like, that's a myth.
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The most loving thing you can do is watch somebody's back.
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It's unloving to not confront when confronting is appropriate.
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It's unloving to care more about the person walking in tune with you than that person walking in tune with God.
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Okay?
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Thirdly, here's a myth, confrontation equals judging.
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You know that's coming, right?
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If you confront somebody like, "Hey, look, you know what?
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"I gotta talk to you about this.
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"This is just something I see in your life "and I just wanna talk to you about it." People like to play a couple of cards here.
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First of all is the Matthew 7 judgment card.
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You're judging me.
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You're judging me.
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Bible says don't judge and you're judging.
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You are sinning.
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Somebody should confront you.
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Or they pull out another card, the John 8 card.
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He who is without sin, he who is without sin.
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They cast the first stone.
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And look, we talk about judging when the Bible talks about judging.
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Jesus said not to judge hypocritically.
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Now judging has to do with a person's character, not a person's conduct.
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Two different things.
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If I'm pointing out that something you are doing is sinful, that is not judging you.
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That is saying the thing that you're doing is sinful.
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Judging you is saying something like this, you're a horrible person because you think that way.
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Now I'm judging you.
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But if I say, hey, you shouldn't think that way, Those types of thoughts are sinful.
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I'm not judging you, I'm saying your thoughts are sinful.
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Do you see the difference?
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Okay, so I don't wanna hear the whole you're judging me.
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No, I'm not judging you.
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Sin is sin, we point out sin, we point out conduct without condemning the person.
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That's the difference.
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But confrontation is not judging.
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Some people play that card because that way nobody can say anything to them.
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Don't say anything to him, he'll think you're judging him.
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We watch each other's backs.
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So tips for confronting, very quickly, right from the text here.
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First of all, do it informed.
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Write these down, tips for confronting.
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First of all, do it informed, informed.
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There's a rumor I think I might have heard that, you know, if you're gonna confront somebody, get your facts straight first, right?
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Secondly, do it privately.
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Jesus talked about that in Matthew 18.
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we see it put in practice here.
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Do it privately. They pulled him aside.
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"Hey, we've got to talk to you about something." So do it informed, do it privately, thirdly, do it biblically.
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Meaning, have the truth in hand.
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I'm sure that's what Aquila and Priscilla did, to say, "Look, you're teaching some things about Jesus, but let me tell you the rest of the story." But they did it according to the truth of God's Word.
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Do it biblically.
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In these situations like Apollos, somebody that's from a sincere heart trying to seek the Lord, listen church, you can either destroy someone or you can empower someone by the way you come alongside that person.
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Hypothetically, what do you think would happen to Apollos if Aquila and Priscilla pulled him aside and just like trashed him?
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Or even publicly just trashed him?
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You don't know what you're talking about.
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You should shut your mouth until you learn the Bible.
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Apollos might have been like, I don't know if I'm ever gonna be qualified.
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Or he might, I don't know, it didn't happen hypothetically, but it happens in the church a lot.
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Church is the only army that shoots their own wounded.
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You can have somebody from a sincere heart trying to serve the Lord, needing some assistance in growth, and you can come along and just stamp them into the dirt by the way that you confront them.
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Or, like in this case, you can empower someone.
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You can empower someone.
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One of the main ways that God works is through people, through you.
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Be someone who helps people grow.
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Like, well, how do we know it took?
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How do we know it took for Apollos?
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Well, look at verse 27.
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Last point.
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Verse 27 says, "And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him.
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When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus." So apparently it's stuck, right?
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Because he was encouraged, They wrote a letter of recommendation for him, and he went, it says in your Bible, he went to Achaia.
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The capital is a place you're more familiar with, it's Corinth.
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He went to Corinth, okay?
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Which was the capital of Achaia.
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And when you get to 1 Corinthians in your Bible, you find that Apollos became a major church leader.
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So here's the third point.
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Because we're a work in progress, you're going to accept others' convictions, you're going to assist those who need to grow.
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The third point is for you.
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Always be teachable.
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Always be teachable.
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We saw previously that Apollos had a pretty big rep.
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Remember it said Apollos was an eloquent man.
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It's a very rare word.
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I think this is the only time it's used in the New Testament actually.
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and the best understanding of what the original meaning of this word is means that he was a man of words, or he was a man of ideas.
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He was an eloquent man.
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And here I think the translation is a little toned down, but it says he was competent in the Scriptures.
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Actually, that word "competent" in the Greek is "adunimous," which is where we get the English word "dynamite." It means explosive and powerful.
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He was powerful in the Scriptures.
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So here's this eloquent man, this man of ideas.
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Here's this man who was dynamite in Scriptures.
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But here's the best thing that was said about Apollos, that could be said about Apollos.
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He was teachable.
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Because a couple of tent makers, a couple of tent makers pulled him aside "and said, 'Man, good, but let's do better.'" That's teachable.
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That's teachable.
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It would have been very easy for somebody like Apollos to say, "Who are you to tell me?
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"Do you know who I am?
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"I got a reputation here.
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"People know me.
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"I'm the greatest speaker in the area.
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"And what do you two guys make?
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"You two guys make tents, really?
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"Like who camps, really?
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"And you're making tents?" He was teachable.
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And it doesn't matter how skilled you are or what you've accomplished, if you aren't teachable, if your heart isn't open to learn, you're going to hinder your own walk with Christ.
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You're going to hinder it.
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A huge danger sign for you is when you get to the point that you come to church to critique, not to learn.
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And I'm not saying you shouldn't always evaluate things under the filter of the Word of God is what I'm saying true?
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Does it line up with God's Word?
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I'm not saying that at all.
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But when you graduate yourself to the point that you haven't learned anything in church in the last six months, but let me tell you several things that I've noticed wrong about church, that's a huge danger sign because you're determining that you're unteachable.
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I'm unteachable.
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I've learned it all.
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I know it all.
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I don't come to church to learn, I come to church to set them straight.
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That's a problem.
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So are you teachable?
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I'm going to give you a quick test here.
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These are yes or no questions, one through seven.
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Yes or no?
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Jot down your answers, one through seven, yes or no.
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Are you teachable?
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Number one, I am aware of my weaknesses.
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I am aware of my weaknesses.
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true statement for you, yes or no? I'm aware of my weaknesses. Number two, I am not afraid to seek help. Number three, I try to learn from criticism. Somebody criticizes you, the first thing you should do is ask, is what they're saying true? That's the first thing you should ask. Instead of getting defensive, and who do you think you are? Why are you saying that to me? First thing you should say to See yourself, is that true?
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Is there some truth in what he's saying?
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Number four, I admit when I am wrong and I take responsibility when I fail.
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Is that you, yes or no?
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Number five, I am aware I don't know everything.
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I am aware I don't know everything.
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Number six, I am always looking to learn new things.
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I'm always looking to learn new things.
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Number seven, I invite others to give me feedback.
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That's a big one.
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I invite others to give me feedback.
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Hey, what'd you think about that?
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How could I have done that better?
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Yes or no for those questions.
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Now, if you have a lot of nos on the list, that's a very bad sign, honestly.
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But if you have a lot of yeses on your list, and you are Apollo's like, all right?
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That's a good thing.
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As I close the worship team, they make their way up.
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I just wanna ask us, imagine church as we talk about the fellowship in the body.
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Imagine what kind of a church we would be, Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh North.
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What kind of a church we would be If you have a heart to accept other people's convictions, even if it's not yours.
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Let's say, you know what?
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I don't agree with them on that, but that's okay.
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Not a sin issue.
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Not a sin issue, not a doctrine issue.
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We're just gonna have to agree to disagree on that.
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What kind of church would we be if we had a heart to accept other people's convictions and trust that the Lord was going to grow them as a work in progress as He's growing me.
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What kind of church would we be, Harvest Bible Chapel, if we have a heart to help those who need to grow?
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If we see people like Apollos in our midst and say, "Wow, that guy's got such a sincere heart.
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Wow, that lady, she really has a heart to work and she can do better and I want to try to help her get to the next level." What kind of church would we be if we had a heart to help those who need to grow, what kind of church would we be?
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Harvest Bible Chapel, if we have a heart to learn from others.
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Everybody in here has something to teach me.
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What would this church be if we came in here saying, I have a heart open to learn?
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I'll tell you what kind of church we would be.
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We'd be an unstoppable fellowship.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I thank You for the truth of Your Word.
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And I pray, Father, as this passage really talks about some of the relational things that happen in the church, the horizontal relationships that happen here, Father, I pray for this church.
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And Father, I see many of the things that we've been talking about today, I see them being lived out.
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But of course, Father, every single one of us and as a church collectively, we have room to grow because we are a work in progress.
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So I pray, Father, that our hearts are open to the kind of work that you wanna do in our lives.
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Father, we are as a church want to today embrace the glorious truth that you began a good work in us in Jesus Christ and you have promised that you're going to finish it.
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Let that be a grace that we embrace for ourselves, and let that be a grace that we embrace for others.
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We pray these things in the mighty and strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 18:18-28
Was Paul right or wrong to take a vow (Acts 18:18), in your opinion? Do you think it's appropriate for Christians to take vows today?
What is the right approach to handling someone teaching error (Acts 18:26)?
Do you think Apollos was saved before his encounter with Priscilla and Aquila? Support your answer.
What does this passage teach about when it is appropriate to confront someone?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.