0
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:09,000
Do you all believe the same thing doctrinally? How do you handle differences?

1
00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:13,000
I think we’ve talked about that already to an extent.

2
00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:20,000
 Our common ground is Jesus, high and lifted up, and our obedience to Him. That’s what Jesus said it had to be.

3
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:31,000
Remember that in Matthew 7, He said that the only foundation that would withstand a storm isn't a common belief system, as wonderful as that might be.

4
00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:38,000
The only thing that will withstand the storm is a foundation of obeying Him and putting into practice His word.

5
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,000
That’s the issue the house has to be built on.

6
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,000
If everybody is built on THAT foundation of putting into practice His word and obeying it

7
00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:50,000
--if everyone loves the truth--then we can work out those other issues.

8
00:00:50,000 --> 00:01:01,000
What you’ll usually find is that there is a nuance, quality, or character of some particular doctrine that is important to me but not to you, or vice versa.

9
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:11,000
Somehow, if we’re built on the common foundation of putting His word into practice--of obeying Him in every little area of our lives--

10
00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:18,000
 then we can all grow in the depth of the wisdom of understanding. We don’t have to subscribe to some certain set of doctrines.

11
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:25,000
In a sense, you could probably say that every dogma of eschatology, for example, is wrong.

12
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:30,000
And in a sense, every dogma of eschatology has some grain of truth to it.

13
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:37,000
Someone is just taking one facet of the diamond and running off with it to develop it into flip charts,

14
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:44,000
and they’ve got it so "figured out" that they exclude all these other things which also have elements of truth in them.

15
00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:48,000
It was like that with Jesus’ first coming. The people did not have it all figured out.

16
00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:56,000
 There were many scriptures that the New Testament shows us were prophetic inferences or statements of Jesus’ first coming

17
00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,000
(Jesus riding on a donkey and being in Egypt and so on and so forth),

18
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:07,000
about which you could say, "How in the world could the New Testament say that was a Messianic prophecy?"

19
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,000
"Let another take his place of leadership."

20
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:14,000
There are so many things that are quoted out of the Old Testament--even Joel 2 and Acts 2.

21
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:19,000
They are quoted differently, and they’re applied totally differently.

22
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:23,000
You couldn’t "find" tongues in Joel 2. There's no way.

23
00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:35,000
So basically what I’m saying is this: Just as it says in the book of Revelation that there’s an opening of the scrolls,

24
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:40,000
--"this was that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel" (Acts 2, THIS is THAT)--

25
00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,000
there’s a way that God will help lead us into an understanding of truth.

26
00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:48,000
That’s exactly what it says in Ephesians 4 that those gifts are in place to do

27
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:59,000
until (mechris: until the fulfillment of) we all reach “unity of the faith,” which is oneness on doctrinal issues and related things;

28
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:04,000
the “full knowledge of God," epignosis, which is intimacy with God to an extreme;

29
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:09,000
and “full measure of stature” of the fullness and character of Christ, taking us unto a complete man.

30
00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:16,000
Those things are things that God desires for us as a church and as individuals. But there’s a process involved.

31
00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:20,000
We make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.

32
00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:26,000
We grow by the gifts that God has given us as a church and we grow into a unity of the faith.

33
00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:33,000
So to make unity of the faith a test of orthodoxy is quite foolish.

34
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,000
 We’re not going to have unity of the faith without being compacted together.

35
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:42,000
 You can't have it. You can’t decide, “Well I’m not going to be compacted together with anyone until we have unity of the faith.”

36
00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:44,000
 That’s an unbiblical order to the process.

37
00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:51,000
 We need to keep the unity of the Spirit and then be equipped into and grow into and emerge into being able to say...

38
00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:59,000
 "THIS is THAT" from God's Spirit, and as in Acts 15, “It seems good to us and to the Holy Spirit that we do this today.

39
00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:03,000
This is the kind of people we ought to be today BECAUSE these things are true.”

40
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:09,000
That kind of unfolding revelation God can apply to our lives in a spectacular way that doesn’t create unnecessary division.

41
00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:20,000
We all can grow into a unity of the faith and an understanding of how the facets of the manifold wisdom of God fit together in the church.

42
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:23,000
 Apart from the church, the pillar and foundation of truth,

43
00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:30,000
I fear for anyone who is flipping their charts and making extreme statements about the way it has to be, "or else,"

44
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:36,000
 when there is nobody involved in their life, really, having input into how they treat their children and their wife,

45
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,000
and how they are on the job, and their attitudes, and the way they present themselves,

46
00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:43,000
 and the things they think about and act upon and speak of.

47
00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:48,000
 If there's not a fabric of life compacted together, which God says is the pillar and foundation of truth,

48
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:56,000
 then they’re going to be off the deep end, more than likely. If they’re not now, odds are they will be.

49
00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:00,000
These issues are things we work out together, and that's why people from every conceivable background

50
00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:05,000
can be in relationship either from afar or locally here.

51
00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:09,000
Doctrine is not the essence or the substance of our relationship.

52
00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,000
The rock that we build on is putting into practice His word,

53
00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:19,000
 not knowing what is going to happen next year or ten years from now, or even being able to agree on what happened last year.

54
00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:26,000
It’s putting into practice His will today that we agree on, and God works the rest of it out in our lives.

55