Randy Brower: Good morning again.
Randy Brower: This sermon is a little different than most of the ones I've preached because normally someone will come to me and say
Randy Brower: Randy, can you preach on such and such a date?
Randy Brower: And I'll say sure.
Randy Brower: And then I'll go home and I'll start thinking, what should I preach about?
Randy Brower: What should I preach about?
Randy Brower: And then usually on the Thursday night before I'm supposed to preach
Randy Brower: I'll wake up in the middle of the night and go, oh, that's a perfect sermon time.
Randy Brower: And I'll get up and on Friday I'll write the sermon and then Sabbath I'll preach it.
Randy Brower: Easy peasy, right?
Randy Brower: Not this time.
Randy Brower: This time I got tricked.
Randy Brower: First of all, I got asked to be the elder on the platform today because Willie's out of town.
Randy Brower: And I said, sure.
Randy Brower: And immediately Dawn, where did he go, that rascal?
Randy Brower: Dawn said, I'll switch with you.
Randy Brower: I'm supposed to preach that week.
Randy Brower: I'll be the elder, you can preach, and I thought, okay, sure, I'll do that.
Randy Brower: Yes, I said, not knowing what was going to happen next
Randy Brower: Next thing I know, Pastor Dale is telling me what he wants me to preach about.
Randy Brower: I've never done that before.
Randy Brower: I have never been handed a topic and then preached on it
Randy Brower: He said, I need you to preach on Romans 15, 5.
Randy Brower: Why?
Randy Brower: Because he's been doing this series.
Randy Brower: Those of you who've been here all along, you know that Pastor Dale's been doing this series on one-anothering.
Randy Brower: All the texts in the New Testament, the New Testament that talk about being this to one another or that to one another.
Randy Brower: And he said, I need you to preach in Romans 15, 5.
Randy Brower: And then I had a great idea.
Randy Brower: I went to him and two weeks ago and I said, Pastor, since you want me to continue your series, how about you give me your notes on the sermon?
Randy Brower: And I'll use those to preach.
Randy Brower: And then that way I'm on the same page as you are.
Randy Brower: And he said, Oh, I've lost most of my notes for my sermons.
Randy Brower: I don't have it.
Randy Brower: But it's right there in the Bible, he said.
Randy Brower: Okay.
Randy Brower: That wasn't much help.
Randy Brower: So I decided to do what preachers have been doing for hundreds of years
Randy Brower: I went straight to ChatGBT and I said, hey, give me a 20-minute sermon outline on Romans 15, 5 from the King James, New King James Version.
Randy Brower: And I'll be darned if it didn't do it.
Randy Brower: That ChatGBT is amazing.
Randy Brower: I'm I mean I'm old school.
Randy Brower: I've never used it before for anything.
Randy Brower: But I've heard all kinds of people my son said my son who's a computer programmer said it's great.
Randy Brower: You go in, you tell it what you want it to do, and it does it for you.
Randy Brower: It's amazing.
Randy Brower: So I went and it gave me this.
Randy Brower: Now I'm not going straight off of that outline.
Randy Brower: Don't think I'm cheating on you here.
Randy Brower: I use that outline as the basis for the things that I wanted to say today.
Randy Brower: And so
Randy Brower: So here we are talking about Romans 15, 5.
Randy Brower: So I said, okay, let me just look at it and see what pops out.
Randy Brower: Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another
Randy Brower: according to Christ Jesus.
Randy Brower: And that those words like-minded are what popped out to me.
Randy Brower: What does it mean to be like-minded?
Randy Brower: Now we're going to get a little deeper into that a little bit later, but for now I want to give you two examples.
Randy Brower: of what I feel like-mindedness means.
Randy Brower: My grandson, who may or may not be watching on streaming right now, I don't know
Randy Brower: But when he was entering third grade, he was asked, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Randy Brower: Now, we all expected
Randy Brower: the an an answer that he was going to give because first and second grade when we asked what do you want to w be when you grow up, it was I want to be a garbage truck driver.
Randy Brower: Which is not a typical you know, but this kid is obsessed with garbage trucks.
Randy Brower: Now and I mean obsessed.
Randy Brower: Okay.
Randy Brower: When they came out last Thanksgiving
Randy Brower: And he found out that the garbage truck was coming on Thanksgiving Day.
Randy Brower: He sat in front of the living room window for six hours.
Randy Brower: waiting, just waiting for the garbage truck come.
Randy Brower: We kept saying, Maverick, don't worry about it.
Randy Brower: You'll hear it.
Randy Brower: You'll know that it's there.
Randy Brower: And then you can go look.
Randy Brower: No, what if I miss it?
Randy Brower: He was obsessed.
Randy Brower: So when he was entering third grade and we asked him, What do you want to be when you grow up?
Randy Brower: We expected his answer.
Randy Brower: But instead, he without hesitation and tremendously serious said
Randy Brower: I want to be Taylor Swift's boyfriend.
Randy Brower: Smart kid, in my opinion.
Randy Brower: He and I are very like-minded on that topic, okay
Randy Brower: Bar, I love you, but I wouldn't mind being Taylor Swift's boyfriend either.
Randy Brower: Okay.
Randy Brower: So that, you know, that we were very like-minded on that topic.
Randy Brower: Now on the other hand, on the other side of it, you will notice that I am wearing a tie today.
Randy Brower: If I had my way, I would never, ever, ever, ever wear a tie.
Randy Brower: Okay?
Randy Brower: But my wife, bef bless her heart, before she left for her trip, she picked out what I was gonna wear today and including a tie.
Randy Brower: Because she feels like if you're on the platform
Randy Brower: You should be wearing a tie.
Randy Brower: She and I are not like-minded on that topic.
Randy Brower: The word like-minded is oftentimes compared to the word unity
Randy Brower: We want unity in the church.
Randy Brower: And we're going to come back to unity in a minute and like-mindedness in a minute.
Randy Brower: But I want to go back to the beginning of the verse.
Randy Brower: The God of patience and comfort.
Randy Brower: Those are good feely words, right?
Randy Brower: Patience and comfort
Randy Brower: God is a God of patience.
Randy Brower: Let me give you a prime example of that.
Randy Brower: It's found in the book of Numbers.
Randy Brower: Chapter 14, verse 18.
Randy Brower: If you want to look it up, great.
Randy Brower: If not, you can just listen.
Randy Brower: Whatever.
Randy Brower: Numbers 14.
Randy Brower: Verse 18: The Lord is long-suffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression.
Randy Brower: but he by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers of blah blah blah blah blah.
Randy Brower: You think about those children of Israel.
Randy Brower: Was God patient with them?
Randy Brower: Oh boy was he patient with them.
Randy Brower: He reached a point so many times where I would have said, That's it, I'm done with these people You're on your own now.
Randy Brower: And God even said that to Moses once.
Randy Brower: He said, Look, I'm done with them.
Randy Brower: I'm just gonna destroy them, and I'll make a new nation from you, your descendants.
Randy Brower: And Moses said, No.
Randy Brower: That's not you, God.
Randy Brower: Why would you want the people to see you that way?
Randy Brower: No.
Randy Brower: You're a God of patience
Randy Brower: God has mercy.
Randy Brower: God is mercy.
Randy Brower: Over and over and over and over again.
Randy Brower: As many times as you need it
Randy Brower: He gives it.
Randy Brower: That's patience.
Randy Brower: But it also says he's the God of comfort.
Randy Brower: Let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 and 4.
Randy Brower: This text came up in our Sabbath school class this morning.
Randy Brower: God comforts you.
Randy Brower: So you can comfort others with the same comfort with which he comforted you
Randy Brower: We talked a lot about that in our Sabbath school this morning, about the comfort that God gives, the peace that you can have when God comforts you in your troubles.
Randy Brower: So
Randy Brower: God is a God of patience and comfort, and he expects us to reflect those attributes in our dealings with others
Randy Brower: Because you know what?
Randy Brower: When others create their picture of God, they are most likely creating it
Randy Brower: Based on the way that you have shown God to them.
Randy Brower: If you're not displaying patience and comfort
Randy Brower: Then they don't see God as a God of patience and comfort.
Randy Brower: And and it works the other way.
Randy Brower: The only way that we can display patience and comfort
Randy Brower: is by receiving those attributes from God.
Randy Brower: Because we can't create them in ourselves.
Randy Brower: All good things come from God.
Randy Brower: Now let's get to those words like-minded again.
Randy Brower: I already said that like-minded is another word for unity.
Randy Brower: But I want to make it perfectly clear that unity is not the same thing as uniformity.
Randy Brower: God does not expect every one of us to be exactly the same.
Randy Brower: So then what do we mean by unity?
Randy Brower: Well, I looked it up.
Randy Brower: And one of the definitions I found of unity is shared goals, values, and purpose.
Randy Brower: Now I want you to be careful when you answer this question.
Randy Brower: What is our goal as Christians?
Randy Brower: Thank you.
Randy Brower: I uh uh some some people when you ask that question, what is your goal as a Christian?
Randy Brower: My goal is to get to heaven.
Randy Brower: And I've said it many times over in Sabbath school, if your goal is to get to heaven, you're doing it wrong.
Randy Brower: Our goal should be to get others to heaven.
Randy Brower: To reflect God in such a way that other people will see him as a God of love and that they'll want to be with him too.
Randy Brower: Now granted, if you are pursuing that goal, you're gonna get yourself there too.
Randy Brower: I firmly believe that.
Randy Brower: So you're actually accomplishing both goals by pursuing one of them.
Randy Brower: Think of it this way.
Randy Brower: Have you ever been to see a symphony orchestra?
Randy Brower: I just lost half the audience.
Randy Brower: Most of you have never been to see a symphony orchestra.
Randy Brower: Not most of you, some of you.
Randy Brower: Um, but I'll ask the question anyway.
Randy Brower: Have you ever been to a symphony orchestra where thank you where every instrument in the orchestra was exactly the same?
Randy Brower: It wouldn't be much of an orchestra, would it?
Randy Brower: If every instrument there was a flute, or if every instrument there was a violin, it wouldn't be the same.
Randy Brower: It wouldn't th you wouldn't get the same experience
Randy Brower: When you go to see an orchestra, you expect a full array of instruments.
Randy Brower: The more, usually the better
Randy Brower: Every one of them with a different sound.
Randy Brower: A violin doesn't sound like a flute, a flute doesn't sound like an oboe, an oboe doesn't sound like a trumpet, and that's good.
Randy Brower: Every one of them has their own place in that orchestra.
Randy Brower: That's what we are as a church.
Randy Brower: We are God's orchestra.
Randy Brower: Everyone playing their own instrument
Randy Brower: But everyone playing the same song.
Randy Brower: Again, I ask you, have you ever been to see a symphony orchestra where every instrument in the orchestra was playing a different song?
Randy Brower: What would you have there?
Randy Brower: The word that comes to my mind is chaos.
Randy Brower: And God is not the God of chaos.
Randy Brower: God is a God of order.
Randy Brower: He wants us all singing out of the same book, singing the same song, but playing our own instruments.
Randy Brower: And we should not allow differences in opinion or differences in culture
Randy Brower: or differences in personality to divide us.
Randy Brower: If you ever want to see differences in personality, culture, or opinion divide people, go to Facebook.
Randy Brower: I don't even comment in Facebook anymore.
Randy Brower: Because every time I do, it sparks this huge flu.
Randy Brower: Explosion of everybody telling me why I'm wrong or why I'm right and it just it tends to divide
Randy Brower: Our country right now and our world is in a place where it seems like no matter what you do, it causes a division.
Randy Brower: Everything you see on the news, everybody's got an opinion.
Randy Brower: Everybody's a Republican or a Democrat, and they can't get along.
Randy Brower: There's no way these two parties can work together towards a common goal, it seems.
Randy Brower: But God told us through Paul, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor fent female, sorry.
Randy Brower: None of those divisions are there.
Randy Brower: And if he knew about it, Paul would have said, there is no Republican or Democrat.
Randy Brower: There is no Adventist or Catholic.
Randy Brower: The dividing wall is not there.
Randy Brower: We are all sinners in need of grace.
Randy Brower: And there's only one place you can get that grace.
Randy Brower: So the question we need to ask ourselves.
Randy Brower: Every time we open our mouths to speak, is this.
Randy Brower: Do our words encourage unity
Randy Brower: Or division?
Randy Brower: And if the answer is division, then shut your mouth again.
Randy Brower: If your answer is unity
Randy Brower: Preach it.
Randy Brower: Do we allow sinners to come to our church?
Randy Brower: I sure hope so, because if we didn't, this place would be empty.
Randy Brower: If someone has committed an infraction against this church, do we want them back?
Randy Brower: You bet we do.
Randy Brower: Because this church is a place where we want to reflect a God of grace.
Randy Brower: Christ
Randy Brower: Is the standard by which we should be measuring ourselves.
Randy Brower: And I guarantee you, if you measure yourselves by that standard,
Randy Brower: You will come up short.
Randy Brower: And that's okay
Randy Brower: Because we have a savior who makes up the difference.
Randy Brower: Unity will not come about by human effort.
Randy Brower: It is a divine gift of God
Randy Brower: One more time I'm gonna come back to the words.
Randy Brower: I can't decide if it's words or word.
Randy Brower: Like-minded.
Randy Brower: It's hyphenated, so I guess it's one word.
Randy Brower: Like-minded.
Randy Brower: It's not hyphenated on the sign outside because I don't think that there's any hyphens in the box of letters.
Randy Brower: So whatever.
Randy Brower: And I don't think I hyphenated it in my text whenever anybody asks me what your title is.
Randy Brower: So it doesn't matter.
Randy Brower: Word words.
Randy Brower: Where was I?
Randy Brower: Oh yes.
Randy Brower: Like-minded.
Randy Brower: Like-minded in what
Randy Brower: Does that mean I expect you to be like-minded with me?
Randy Brower: But I may not necessarily be like-minded with you.
Randy Brower: You all need to come around to my way of thinking, and then we'll all be like-minded, right?
Randy Brower: Well, that's true.
Randy Brower: But I have a better idea.
Randy Brower: That better idea is related in Philippians chapter 2.
Randy Brower: Verse five.
Randy Brower: Well I'm going to start with verse one though.
Randy Brower: Therefore, if there's any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love
Randy Brower: If any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being, here it is again, like-minded, having the same love.
Randy Brower: Being of one accord.
Randy Brower: No, it's not talking about the card, Anne.
Randy Brower: Of one mind.
Randy Brower: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.
Randy Brower: That's hard to do.
Randy Brower: At least it is for me, I'll tell you that.
Randy Brower: Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but for the interests of others
Randy Brower: And then the text that tells you what mind we need to be like-minded with.
Randy Brower: Verse 5: Let this mind be in you, which was also
Randy Brower: In Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God
Randy Brower: but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men.
Randy Brower: And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross
Randy Brower: That's the mind we need to be like-minded with.
Randy Brower: Because God runs an upside-down kingdom.
Randy Brower: If you seek to be humble, what happens?
Randy Brower: Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name.
Randy Brower: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should
Randy Brower: Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Randy Brower: That
Randy Brower: is the mind that should be in you, in me, in all of us.
Randy Brower: And we should be like-minded in that way.
Randy Brower: Now in practical terms, how do we apply this to our life?
Randy Brower: Okay, great.
Randy Brower: I'm like-minded.
Randy Brower: I love Jesus.
Randy Brower: Yay!
Randy Brower: Now what?
Randy Brower: I have three practical steps that I would like you to I would challenge you to follow this week.
Randy Brower: Number one.
Randy Brower: Pray for patience.
Randy Brower: What's that old joke?
Randy Brower: God give me patience and hurry up about it.
Randy Brower: Plead God.
Randy Brower: Plead with God to give you patience as you deal with some of these people that you're supposed to be like-minded with.
Randy Brower: Because we're not like-minded.
Randy Brower: And you need patience to deal with that.
Randy Brower: Step number two.
Randy Brower: Once you have achieved patience, and for some of us it will take longer than others.
Randy Brower: But once you've achieved patience, step number two.
Randy Brower: Offer comfort to someone who needs it.
Randy Brower: We all know somebody who needs comfort.
Randy Brower: And guess what?
Randy Brower: We all need comfort
Randy Brower: And when you comfort someone else, it has a strange effect on you.
Randy Brower: You start to feel better too.
Randy Brower: So step number two, offer comfort to someone.
Randy Brower: And step number three, there it is.
Randy Brower: And this is probably the most important.
Randy Brower: Prioritize Christ-centered goals over your own goals.
Randy Brower: That's how we become like-minded.
Randy Brower: We start prioritizing Christ's goals, and all of a sudden we're all thinking alike.
Randy Brower: We may disagree on how to achieve those Christ-centered goals, but that's okay.
Randy Brower: We're all different instruments in the orchestra, right?
Randy Brower: We all have our own ways.
Randy Brower: God gives us patience and comfort.
Randy Brower: so that we can reflect that to others, which results in unity.
Randy Brower: So my prayer for this church is that we all be like-minded with the mind of Christ.
Randy Brower: As the pastor's been preaching this this uh series on one anothering, he has chosen a closing song.
Randy Brower: The family of God.
Randy Brower: We're not going to do that today.
Randy Brower: And you all know why.
Randy Brower: Because when I preach, what do we sing?
Randy Brower: Jesus loves me because that's the most important message in all of Christendom.
Randy Brower: Now I gotta get my guitar out again, so give me one second.