 And I figured maybe all these are just Tesla's because of their disruptive nature. Maybe that's what they all are. So I'm going to read to you from Romans 14 for about 14 verses. The message Bible says this so well. And that's why I wanted to choose this version of the Bible to read this passage to you. So Paul writing to the church at Rome, his beloved church in Rome, he writes to them and he says, welcome with open arms, fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. Don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with. Even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they are their own history to deal with, so treat them gently. For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another with a different background might assume he should only be a vegetarian and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ's table, wouldn't it be terribly rude if they fell to criticising what the other ate or didn't eat? God after all invited them both to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God's welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help. Or say one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way, so each person is free to follow the convictions of their conscience. What's important in all of this is that you keep a holy day, keep it for God's sake if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib. If you're a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It's God we are answerable to, all the way from life to death and everything in between, not each other. That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again, so that he could be our master across the entire range of life and death and free us from petty tyrannies of each other. So where does this leave you when you criticize a brother? Where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I'd say it leaves you looking pretty silly or worse. Eventually we're all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren't going to improve your position there one bit. Read it for yourself in Scripture. As I live and breathe, God says, every knee will bow before me. Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and I alone am God. So tend to your knitting. You've got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. Forget about deciding what's right for each other. Here's what you need to be concerned about that you don't get in the way of someone else. Making life more difficult than it already is and convinced Jesus convinced me that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it can contaminate it. Some say that Paul's letter to Rome was his definitive master signature kind of work. It comes the first in the epistles so the Bible translators felt it should sit there at the headwaters of all the other letters that flowed out of that. Some say that Paul's heart is expressed most clearly. His gospel is found most clearly in the pages of the book of Romans. Rome was a megachurch, many, many thousands strong, but it was a mix of Jew and Gentile and slave and free and rich and poor. So Paul's appealing to them because of that mixture amongst them is appealing to them to not be judging of each other, to not fall out and divide over things that really God would rather you leave to your conscience. And the authorized version, the translation says these things are disputable matters. These things about eating or drinking or keeping certain rituals, observing certain days and they were going to war over these things. Now the title of this idea, this concept that I want to share with you tonight, the title is this tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance. Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance. This line is a quote I randomly heard on a podcast a couple of weeks ago and someone quoted this. And so I found out who said it and it was said by a man called Albert Males. I'd never heard of him and it doesn't really matter that you haven't either. He was a very well-known apparently American documentary maker. He died in 2015 and he used this phrase, this quote, to I suppose express some of the difficulty he had found in documenting the behaviors of certain communities in America and around the world that caused him to decide that one of the greatest tyrannies in life is deliberately removing nuance from each other. The word nuance in case you're not familiar with it comes from the French word nuance, I think you pronounce it like Beyonce, not that I'm a French expert. Nuance and the word nuance means shades. Shades of meaning, shades of perception, shades of understanding, shades of expression, shades of belief or viewpoint. The word nuance means shades and it matters for me to talk to you about this tonight and I guess from here around the world because we live in a world that's more divider perhaps than ever it's been. This is certainly true in America right now. When there's this huge sense of people taking sides and people reducing everything to either or, you're either with us or you're with them. You're either one of us or you are one of them. You agree or you disagree. You're in or you're out. You are Republican or you're Democrat. You're black or you're white. You're gay or you're straight. You are rich or you are poor. And we are dividing along all kinds of social lines and it is crazy. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, just try posting anything on social media that may remotely look like an opinion. Seriously, not even an opinion. I posted a photograph just a few days ago and if you don't follow me on social media, heaven is not guaranteed for you. I'm sorry to tell you that, but it's a biggie, okay. But I posted a photograph that I took in an airport where they have an area for dogs to go to the bathroom. It's genius and it's like false turf and a little fire hydrant replica. So the dog can cock its leg. So the dog psychologically doesn't feel it's wrong going to the bathroom indoors. So it's just well thought through. You'll never ever see that anywhere in Europe and I made a comment about how I loved the service industry of America, which I do and that he even looked after these dogs and these dogs were treated better than humans in some parts of the world. And so I just put that out there. Well, within a few seconds, someone had jumped on there saying America treats animals better than humans because the government will pass laws to protect animals overnight. But they will not pass laws to stop our kids being shot in school. I just put something out about dogs going to the bathroom. It wasn't even an opinion. I wasn't trying to be controversial. So it's getting even to the point of just putting anything out that was just innocent and had no agenda to someone. They have to force it to become an agenda because we have no allowance for nuance on Paul is saying to the church in Rome, you have no allowance for the fact that you just have your take on that. And it doesn't mean that your take is the only or the right one. So don't judge people that are different to you because it was destroying the church. It still is in much of the church around the world because this extends to are you in our church or their church? What brand of Christian are you? And so the church is just as divided along different fault lines as any other realm of society. And we live in a world that is divided not least because of this refusal to allow you to have a shade of something different to mine. We have an us and them culture. Us is those that think like me. And them are those that don't think like me. Is how this simply divides up in many people's minds. It creates a culture does this mentality as it was doing in the church at Rome. It creates a culture where we feel a social pressure to choose a side. If you don't choose a side, then people feel it's their job to make you make your mind up. And to choose a side, usually their side. Because to be neutral is to be wishy washy. To be neutral is to be undecisive. To be neutral is to be irresponsible even to not join the debate. And so there are people shoving us into one camp or the other. And if at all you're intimidated by strong minded, strong opinionated people, then they will get busy making sure that you make a choice based on their ideas. If you haven't thought something through enough to make a choice yet. And so our bond becomes our common enemies rather than our common humanity. Is what our bond becomes in society and that's what's happening all across the world. People are bonding together over a common hatred. Over a common enemy. And common enemy intimacy is counterfeit connection. There's no quicker way to make a stranger a friend than to both talk negatively about something or someone that we both hate. If we can agree on somebody that we don't like, even strangers being our instant friends. Over that shared sense of dislike about something or someone. But that is a false flawed version of connection. It's based on a common hatred. It's happening all across the world. Are we four guns or against guns? And on the debates go endlessly and you have to pick a side. And when we can't belong without jeopardizing our individuality, we shut down or we isolate or we stay walking on eggshells around the opinionated people. And none of it is good for society. None of it is good for our kids coming up in this very divided world. Belonging, belonging somewhere is being accepted for you. Fitting in is being accepted for being like someone else. We don't want to fit in. We want to belong based on who we are. And yet often because of how divided the world has become, you can only belong if you agree to certain beliefs and perspectives that they have that say that's the grounds of belonging. And when you have to belong by surrendering something of your individuality, it is not true belonging. And yet the world is making these connections at a rapid speed I've never seen before and it's out of control. And I don't think in the church we're immune from it or we're any better. The reason, one of the reasons why 98% of our country are not in church is because the church has done this to the world for generations. We've waved a finger at them. We've slapped them down and judged them and sent them to hell for all kinds of things that we're convinced God can't use and God wouldn't look at that person and God couldn't use that person. And we've come across finger wagging like the right wing evangelicals in America who are known for everything that they hate and known for what they're against. I don't think Jesus was known for what he was against. I think he was known as a friend of sinners. Yeah, that's right. And we like that about Jesus but you wouldn't, you know, we worship Jesus but we wouldn't like him to be our pastor. You wouldn't want to be on staff with Jesus because he's out of control. Because some of the people he included, some of his opinions, some of his refusal to have an opinion, would make Jesus very difficult to be your leader. What does Jesus think? Well, I don't know, he hasn't said anything. Well, we asked him a direct question. I think I have one statistic and it doesn't matter whether it's accurate or not but the ratio is the point that Jesus was asked some like 300 questions in his life on earth in his public ministry. 300 questions, but he only ever answered three because he refused to let other people decide his agenda. He refused to let their questioning trap him into saying something that he knew would separate him from someone that he wanted to include. And so what do you think about this? What do you think about that? Constantly trying to get him to give a sound bite those fake news people who want to put a spin on something that he said and make him look to be against and for something he hadn't chosen to be against or for. Fitting in is humanity's default mode. We fit in because it's socially and easy an experience for you. It's easier to fit in. It's difficult to not join any particular group. It's difficult to stay neutral ever increasingly in this very divided, extreme world that we live in. And removing nuance is a tyranny because it's deliberate. If it's ignorance, then there's no nuance in ignorance anyway. If people are just ignorant and just don't know the issues, then that is not as bad as deliberately deciding I can allow you to not be either or. I am forcing you to have an opinion about this. That is why it's a tyranny. It's when I control the debate by denying any gray, denying any shade to you. When I control the debate by denying you any gray because I'm addicted to black and white is what happens when we deliberately deny and remove nuance shade from how we think and speak and lead our lives. Nuance is the difference between letting your first impressions shut your heart down towards someone and realizing there's more to this than I know. And I need more information and more understanding before I make a judgment. That's the difference having a mind that's geared towards nuance gives you over those they instantly want to judge us and categorize us and make their mind up about us instantaneously the moment we open our mouths or post something. Jesus was a master of nuance. Who sinned Jesus, this man, or his parents, you know, either or, black or white, him or his parents. There was no other possible options for them. So they just put to Jesus the clear options. And Jesus said, neither. What do you mean, neither? And he introduces a third option, a third idea, that this man's blindness has occurred because through his life God wants to do something and God wants to be glorified through this situation in his life. So it wasn't a consequence of someone's sin because this was a popular belief in the Jewish Hebrew mind. And he says, neither. I love the neitherness of Jesus. I love his utter refusal to take aside. When he tells the parables of the kingdom and the farmer goes out and sows these seeds and the wheat grows up. And then while the farmer's asleep, an enemy comes and sows tears amongst the wheat. And then he's telling the parable to give his insight to the kingdom. And then the workers come and say to the farmer, should we go out and pull up all the tears because we don't want the tears and the wheat to grow together. And the conclusion of that question was Jesus said, the master said, a picture of God, no, just let them grow together. It'll all get sorted out in the end anyway. His refusal to take sides, his refusal to intervene and tidy things up that we would think God should. God will frustrate the heck out of you because he refuses to answer our questions. He refuses to tidy up. He says neither more often than he says one thing or the other. And some of you need to come to know that kind of God, I think. Let him who is without sin throw the first stone. What a curved ball answer that was. When he comes across the woman caught in adultery and they're trying to trap him because the law says clearly what should happen next. And so all Jesus can do is to agree with the law because he's a rabbi, he's a preacher, a teacher. So when they present to him the scenario, there's no wiggle room here. And so instead he says nothing. He just kneels on the floor and draws in the sun. He says nothing. And then the first thing he says, he looks at them all and says, well, any of you that feel that you qualify to throw a stone, any of you that feel that your life is perfect and that you have the right to judge someone else, go ahead and throw the first stone. We're all gonna be waiting for who that is. When he set it that way, he's creating a different shade. He's creating nuance. He's giving people new options. He's giving people a new idea. Jesus, how many times do we forgive people that sin against us? Maybe as many as seven? He's, I think, what Peter thought. I think he thought seven's impressive. Seven? And Jesus is like, try 70 times seven. He's introducing a whole new idea that forgiveness isn't to do with quantity. Forgiveness is to do with quality. 70 times seven, and it wasn't a case of, do the math come up with a sum that 70 times seven equals. And then when you get close to it, you can say, I am free from giving you anymore because I'm close to the limit. It wasn't a mathematical equation which a religious mind would have done with it because some people will take you to 70 times seven in the same day. He teaches the beatitudes, doesn't he? And he says, you have heard it said, but I say to you, nuance. I'm gonna give you another shade. You have heard it said that you should, that you should love your friends and hate your enemies. I've got another idea that you should love those that hate you and you should be kind to those that are not kind to you. You have heard it said, do not commit murder but I would say to you, build a heart of love and tolerance and if you build a heart of love and tolerance, there'll probably be less murders. And he takes hold of these ideas that have been around for centuries and he puts another shade. He adds nuance to it and that's why people hated him because he wouldn't just go with the flow no more than the church should be going with the flow. We should be allowing in our discussions together in our relating with God to find this beautiful nuance that's in Jesus, that's in Christ. And I'm not saying here that we should be wishy-washy or we don't have convictions but I want you to know that your convictions are your convictions like the Roman church. Some people believe that that was wrong for you to eat certain foods and they would shun you and they would distance from you if you did certain things. I'm Paul saying who died and put you in charge of what people should or shouldn't do and he's appealing for nuance and he's appealing for the removal of that tyranny of taking a ground that says there's only two options here, pick which one and if you can't pick which one then you're not gonna be in any group. You'll be excluded and isolated because you won't join a group by agreeing is it this or is it that? He said the first shall be last and the last shall be first, what? And he tells the story about people that were employed at different stages through the day and those that have worked all day were upset because the ones that had come late were paid the same as them and it's like what? And he's giving people insight and he said well it's all topsy-turvy it's all upside down in the kingdom of God. It doesn't work, fair, fair doesn't mean equal in the kingdom of God and grace isn't fair and love and mercy isn't fair and the people God loves and accepts, he just accepts anyone the same as those that have been in for years and many, many season Christians hate it when some Johnny come lately springs up from nowhere and he's been used by God more than they are because they feel they qualify to be used more by God because they've been around for a long time and this has always been true in the church generationally when the last move of God persecutes the new one that's emerging because we want to force it to be one thing or the other on our terms and religion reduces God to formulas and there is no nuance in a formula. Are you saved or unsaved? It's as simple as that. Are you light or darkness? Good or evil? Good or bad? When I preach messages around the world that bad things happen to good people it's like a riot breaks out because it removes from you your sense of safety. I've seen too many Christians die of cancer. I've seen too many of the wrong people as it were. The good guys suffer and die of things that the heathens don't die from often. I've seen too many things go wrong and not end well over 30 years of pastoring to know that life is as simple as if you're a Christian, somehow you're immune from suffering and problems and if you're a heathen, well, you deserve what comes to you. This mentality that good things happen to good people and bad things to bad people, whoa, whoa. That's why the Bible says the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Bad things happen to good people and great things happen to bad people. Go figure. Are we with or against? Blessing or curse in or out? We love this language because it makes things tidy for us but the tidiness is artificial. Everybody close your eyes and then point east. Keep your eyes closed, point east. Right, open your eyes. See how many east opinions there is. Now, if I did this in Europe, we wouldn't have a clue because we go left or right, it's like, what? You know, the truth is that there is only one east. It's not a case, it's not debatable. But if you think east is that way and the person next to you pointed that way, who's right? And this is what life and this issue is about that nuance allows you all to point somewhere different and I can't jump all over you because you pointed different to me. How many of you, this is why I've got some green up here. How many of you like green? Can I see your hands? I love green. How many of you like green? Which one? Which green do you like? Do any of you know how many shades of green there are officially? Officially, there are 500 greens. 500. There are 500 different shades, nuances of green. There's 500 tints and pantones and hues of green. There's asparagus green and avocado green and artichoke green and bottle green and bright green and Brunswick green and emerald green and harlequin green and fern and forest and laurel green and jade green and jungle green and malachite green, midnight green, moss and mint green, mantis and recedar green, shamrock green, teal green, olive green. There are 12 green greens. There are 10 light greens. But it gets worse because actually, as I've studied this, there are over one million shades of green because beyond the 500 official greens, what takes it from 500 official shades to over a million is the way that you see color. Remember the internet dress? Is it blue and black or golden white? Remember that? And people that saw it different to you, you're like, are you kidding me? What is wrong with you? You couldn't, because you so clearly saw it as one way and you both look at the same thing and you couldn't figure out how two people could see two totally different colors. So when you add to the idea of color, all of our individual, without number, individual eye photo receptors, all of us, every human being has a unique set of photo receptors in the human eye, an infinite number of them and these photo receptors govern how we each see color. So if I said to you, do you like green? And you say, yes, and I see to you, which one? You wouldn't know which one. You'd just say, well, I like green, but I'm here to tell you that green has many nuances. Green has multiple shades and it has 500 official ones and over a million when you add in how we all see color. And I'm telling you this for this reason, I believe we go to war over green. Not knowing we both love green. Not knowing we all actually love green, but we go into war over a shade difference. And because we can't allow for shade difference, we deliberately remove nuance from the relationship and from the subject and from the issue because it's my green or no green. It's my East or no East. It's my way of doing it or no way of doing it. And this is why it's a tyranny. To remove nuance is a tyranny because it leaves you with no option, but to choose the only options I give you. I'm the world out at war over a shade of green. And people and families and homes and marriages and friendships out at war over actually when you analyze it, it's really a war over shades of green. It's not a war over green or black. It's in the same area, the same neighborhood that we all love, but the way we see it has not been allowed to be expressed. And I wonder if out of this tonight, you could train yourself to be more attuned to nuance, listen to people, listen before you speak, listen. Because sometimes we listen to answer, we don't listen to hear. Listen and let it run a little bit and think, okay, well, what's going on here is I understand they see this differently to me. I was gonna jump in the first time they indicated they don't agree, I was gonna jump in then. Whoa, slow, if all you do this week is just slow down, hit the brick and just listen. And listen for a shade, listen for a nuance, listen for a different perspective to the one you have and learn to celebrate and learn to appreciate that really it's not right or wrong, either or. It's just a different take. And if we would open our minds often to a different shade, we would be a lot smarter, a lot wiser, and the church wouldn't have a reputation around the world of doing this to people. Because even if you have your opinion, it still really is your shade. And that's fine, we should choose a shade and we should take a stand on areas, but it still is a shade. And I love that Jesus refused to do that when people wanted him to make him their representative on an issue and they said, I'm not gonna do that. Let's all stand here, come on, time's gone on my clock there. I wonder if this week in your life, your family, your relationships, I wonder if you would not deliberately contribute to the removal of nuance in a relationship in the place where you work, in listening to someone speaking. And if you will sow that, then you will reap that in your life. Because some of you are in problems because no one allows you nuance. You have been shut down the moment you start to speak about a certain thing. And I think if we sow a more gracious, tolerant heart towards people that are all finding their way, like the Roman church was, then I think you will see it coming back your way. I would love us to build churches where we step away from the default mode often of either or, where we ourselves get stuck in black or white, this or that. And we enter into the understanding that there are thousands and thousands of shades of that, which doesn't mean you don't choose a shade, but it means that when you choose your shade, it's informed, it's thought through. I chose this shade because, and when another shade comes up, you don't get threatened or jump on it. You say, yeah, I'm aware of that. I thought a lot about that too. And I understand people that think that way. I understand that. Is all sometimes the world wants us to say. I understand where you're coming from. I don't agree with that shade, but I understand to you that is how you see it. And I can only appreciate people's perspectives that are different. I think we'd reduce a lot of wars, a lot of conflicts, a lot of division in our lives and families and society if we would be more conscious in our lives every day of a need to allow for nuance in our interactions with humanity. Let's close our eyes. Father, we wanna thank you that you are the ultimate God of shade. We thank you that you never created one shade of anything, that the whole of creation is filled with your nuance. Even within the same species of flower or animal or insect, even within the same species, you have created multiple shades that the law of creation speaks of a God of nuance. And yet often we have lost the art in our relationships of nuance. I pray therefore that as we step into our week this week, as we navigate our way relationally through our world this week, that we will just have a little bit more care that will slow down a little bit, that we ourselves will not continue to contribute to the division problem in our countries. Help us to discover the art of nuance in our relationships, in our thinking, our conversations, our expression of opinion. Help us to spend some time in someone else's mind. Help us to be in someone else's shoes. Help us to increase our gift of empathy. By just sometimes seeing things from someone else's perspective, instead of ruling them out the first moment we perceive, they don't see things like us. This Lord would be a huge work of grace on your part in our hearts and through us to our communities. In Jesus' name, thank you Father. Yeah, let me take a moment to ask all across this room that if you have never given your life to Christ, who gave his life to you by the way, 2000 years ago. So this moment here is not about God making his mind up about you. He made his mind up about you before you were born. So you are loved in advance tonight. You've been loved before you even arrived on the planet. So this moment is not about would God accept me? Would God look in my direction? That's a done deal. So all the movement here is on your end, not his. Would you in this next few moments be open to this new idea for your life that God loves you and he has an amazing idea for your life? This all gets triggered and set in motion by you making a decision to connect with this God that wants to connect with you. Maybe you once prayed a prayer, lifted a hand. Maybe you did it in this church, but you know you didn't do it for the right reasons. Maybe you did it to keep someone else happy. But tonight it's different for you. Tonight you're ready for yourself, for your own individuality to make this decision. I'm including you in this moment too. Come on, all across the room, our eyes are closed, we're praying because we were once you. And I'm asking all across the room, if that's you tonight, if you're saying yes to a God that said yes to you a long time ago, will you do a simple but important thing? Will you just lift your hand where you are? And that hand's gonna be saying, yeah, that's me tonight. And I'm not leaving this room without making that decision. Come on, someone down here, someone over there. Come on, who else? Just lift your hand where you are. Someone over here, I can see you guys. Come on, others in the house. Just lift your hand where you are, then you can take it down. Someone over here, I can see you over there. Fantastic, come on, who else? Others in the room tonight, come on, who else? Just lift your hand where you are. Then you can take your hand down when I've seen it. Other others that need us to just hang around for a few more seconds, we're very happy to do that. Come on, who else? Anybody else that we're missing? Just lift your hand where you are. Anybody else across this place? Everybody look at me, listen. You'll never ever say to God, nobody waited for me. We want to remove that from your future. Because we are, and we're happy to. Because we were you. Let me say one more thing. If lifting a hand doesn't suit you, then please don't let lifting of a hand be a stumbling block to you. If our methods don't suit you, then you must ignore our methods. That's nuance. And find your own way to Christ. We don't care how people come to Christ. This isn't a one-size-fits-all. It's just one thing we do in a service. It's one of the quicker ways to do what we do. But if this doesn't work for you, then find your own way. We don't care how you find your way to Christ. We just care that you do. So don't let our methods bother you. It's not a deal breaker. I can't go back there, I didn't lift my hand. Please don't ever think, or let anybody that you bring think that's the issue with lifting a hand. For those that did lift a hand, and if you didn't but thought I'm just on the brink, tell someone, ask someone, get help. Just find your way to Christ, however it suits you. Because that's nuance. Love you guys. Thanks for listening tonight. And your love and your welcome goes strong, eh? The best is gonna come this year. Love you guys. Be a nuanced person.