The Art Of Living With Disagreements

Introduction:

A. Once there was a ministerial panel that was asked to debate the question of when life begins.

1. The first minister said: “Life begins at conception, of course!”

2. The second minister countered: “No, no, life certainly begins at birth.”

3. The third minister chimed in: “Perhaps you’re both wrong, the unborn baby doesn’t have a heartbeat until the 5th or 6th week, so perhaps that’s when life begins.”

4. The last minister emphatically offered his opinion: “All of my friends here are wrong. Life begins when the last child leaves home and when the dog they left behind dies!!!”

B. That’s a humorous take on a very serious and important discussion and debate.

1. My purpose today is not to answer that important question, or any specific debatable matter.

2. Rather, my purpose today is to talk about the art of living with disagreements.

C. It is literally impossible to go through life without being forced to live with disagreements, because we are never going to agree with every person about everything.

1. There’s an old saying that says: “If two people agree on everything, then one of them is unnecessary.”

2. That quote highlights the importance of having differing viewpoints and the need for individuals to think critically rather than just conform to the group’s consensus.

D. Although there may be some people in the world who have no opinions of their own, I think the vast majority of people are very opinionated.

1. Many opinionated people have learned when and how to express their opinions, but other opinionated people have not learned this important skill.

2. Unfortunately, there are some who think that their spiritual gift is the gift of opinions.

3. Those people have opinions on everything, even on things that they know nothing about.

4. And they believe that their role in life is to help everyone else come to agree with all of their right opinions.

5. It’s not hard to imagine how much conflict and difficulty is going to result from a person who has that kind of mindset and approach to life.

6. And more importantly, I believe God wants His children to display a much different mindset and manner.

E. But please don’t misunderstand me – I’m not trying to say that we shouldn’t develop vast knowledge and strong convictions and opinions.

1. What I am trying to say is that we have to be careful about how we use our knowledge, convictions and opinions, and be careful about what we allow our knowledge and opinions to do to our relationships with others.

2. I also realize that there are some clear, critical biblical truths that cannot be compromised and may impact our relationships with others, but not all disagreements fall into this category.

3. Of course, feel free to disagree with me, but you’ll be wrong.

4. See how easy it is to fall into this trap?

5. So, how do we navigate this stuff?

6. Allow me to offer a few important suggestions to guide us.

I. First of all, I want to suggest that we need to Stay Humble

A. An important foundation truth for us to keep in mind is: There is a God and you and I are not Him.

1. God knows everything and God is always right.

2. You and I don’t know everything and we are not always right.

3. Am I right about that?

B. There are so many things that God is able to do that we, feeble, sinful people are not able to do.

1. One of those things that God can do that we can’t is: only God knows everything about a person; including their thoughts, motives, and the experiences that have shaped them.

a. How can I expect to know and understand everything about others when many times I don’t even understand all that is going on with my own motives or reasons for doing what I do?

b. Therefore, we should be giving others the benefit of the doubt and not be mind-readers or motive-judgers.

2. Another thing that God is able to do that we can’t do is predict the future because God is outside of time and can know the beginning and the end.

a. We are stuck in the present and although we can learn from the past, there is no guarantee that the past will repeat itself in the future.

b. So, we ought to keep our future predictions to a minimum and hold them loosely, for we really don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

c. As Jesus taught us, we should trust God with the future and seek first His kingdom today, this puts tomorrow in God’s hands where it belongs. (Mt. 6:33-34)

C. I am encouraging us to be humble because pride can cause lots of problems in our relationship with God and in our relationships with others.