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Romans 1: 18-32 Romans 1: 16,17 Romans 3:23 There is an author several of you might have heard, her name is, Jen Hatmaker, and she is one of the funniest, best communicators. If you have ever read her books, they are easy to read. They're very relatable and she's just got a gift from the Lord of talking to women. And so I had to read a book of hers called “Seven”, because it's my favorite number, and it was about an experiment that she did. And it was kind of like her journal as an experiment where I think in a nutshell, she took seven different months and picked seven categories. Let's say the month that she did clothing, she picked seven items of clothing and that's all she wore. She would do the same thing with different categories. This woman was a public speaker and she was able to survive with seven items, so I think the whole point of the book was, we can live with much less. So, out of the blue, probably, I don't know, two, three years ago, she made a public statement about her support for same-sex marriage and, of course, you know, the Christian world went crazy again, divided right down the middle. Some for support and some said, oh my goodness what did you just say? You're the pastor and you're supporting same-sex marriage and all that. So she posted about this experiment of just seven experiments on her Facebook page, and you know I was really struggling because I loved her as an author and loved some of the ideas that she shared. I relate to her in so many different ways. But then, this was something that when she came out with this public support, and even went as far as to say that she thought the union of same-sex marriage was actually sacred. There are some things that just did not sit in my spirit right. It's because I don't believe in it at all. I think it is very evident in the Bible that it is wrong. After asking the Lord about this, I believe he made it clear that we don't have to agree 100% with everyone to love them. After all, I'm wrong about so many things, yet God loves me. I believe that he called us to love, no matter what. If we're willing, we can learn something from everyone. Just because I don't agree with her position on same-sex marriage, doesn't mean that I can't learn other things from her that I do agree with. It also doesn't mean that I don't love her or people who choose a lifestyle that I don't agree with. We all struggle with sin in God's eyes. We have all fallen short of His glory and deserve his wrath, but for the blood of Jesus. I'm so thankful that he accepts me right where I am, and I want to accept them. I was right where they are, however, I would hope that if I had some kind of blind spots and was choosing a lifestyle of sin, that one of my sisters in Christ would come to me and in humility with the truth of God's word. I don't think I would even hear what they have to say if they just wanted to be critical and judgmental. Jesus never shied away from confronting sin, but he did it in such a loving way that people were drawn to him everywhere. Let me live my life in such a way as to reflect Jesus in my love for all others.” So that was my post that I felt like, the Lord revealed to me that allowed me to have the freedom to still listen to someone that I vehemently disagree with on matters of the Bible. And I know that in today's world we are so divided. I think part of the problem is that if someone says, one thing that we don't agree with, it's very easy for us to just dismiss everything about them. Whether we really feel that way or not, a lot of it is just the fact that we're not willing to even listen after we find something that we disagree with.