If You Love Me, You'll Do This (Romans 14:13-23)

Hey you guys, we just got done with the message just now and the title is this. If you love me, you'll do this. Right? Think about that. How many times have you heard that in life? Well, if you love me, you'll do this. Well, let's hear what God has to say to us from his Bible regarding our love for him and for one another. Let's dive into the word of God. Take care. Romans 14 13-23. You say that's a lot of verses and uh I'm intending to finish them all. That's my intent. And so Romans chapter 14, I'll begin reading in verse 13. If you'll pick it up together, a whole new section for us.

Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. But to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not your good be spoken of as evil.

Wow. For the kingdom of God is not eat and drink or not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. Verse 21, it is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. Final verse, verse 23. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats. We would say why? Because he does not eat from faith. For whatever is not from faith is sin.

Lord, speak to us from your word. We pray now in Jesus name. And all God's people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated, church. And we're looking, in fact, what I really should do right now is in the introduction bring the hybrid. A hybrid introduction. Uh, meaning this, focus on verse 13 for a moment. With your Bibles open, which I really encourage you to do, have your Bibles open. I'm a big fan. I know I know you might look kind of nerdy doing this, but um, have a Bible open. You should bring highlighters and a pen. Uh, and and I mean, you know, you know, you could have them all sticking in your shirt pocket and really look like a nerd, but people think you're a scientist and that you're very smart if you do that. And so, you got your Bible open and you start rigging your Bible. rigging your Bible means right here in verse 13, verses 14 and onward that you would write these uh supporting verses and then God will speak to you about something. Even though the message is being taught, the Holy Spirit will make the Bible uh applicable to you personally about a certain thing in your life. What I encourage you to do is write that thing down or or just put a few words down that you'll be reminded in the margins of your study Bible. And you might even date it today, August 31st. You might want to write that down. And you wind up creating a Bible that becomes somewhat of a testimony and a dictionary. A dictionary, not a dictionary, a diary to your spiritual growth. And uh somebody might say, "Are you allowed to write in the Bible?" Yes. Yes. And yes. In fact, write so much in your Bible that you wind up having to put it on the shelf for posterity sake and get a new Bible and start it all over again. And by the end of your life, you should have maybe several quite a few Bibles that are pretty much a commentary on your life, verse by verse and chapter by chapter. And so, and one of those things would be this today. I think it's best to start this series this way or this message. In Romans 14:13, we'll consider this the hybrid introduction uh to the texts that are before us. And there are there, by the way, in this section we just read, there are three things. You might want to note this. There are three of these great. Three great. A trinity of great. You say, "What do you mean great? These three great things." And that is the word therefore. Does anybody remember what therefore means? Exactly. What is there? What is it there for? That's what it means. It means everything that Paul Paul pretend I'm Paul. everything I said to you previously that in consideration. Now read this. He says it three times in such a short section of verses. He's trying to get something across to our hearts and our minds to understand that what he's saying is vital to the function of the church. In fact, honestly, from chapters 14 to the end of the book 16, it's all about now I call housekeeping. Many things from these next three chapters 14, 15, 16, you will you will have heard months ago or years ago in the opening chapters. He starts to repeat in the conclusion because he's a great Bible teacher. And he says, "Therefore," take a look and understand these things. But look at verse 13. He says, "Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore." The word in Greek means stop it, but rather resolve. And we'll see what this means in a moment. Not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. And I'm not going to include this in our point because it's too important. It is the presiding overriding factor in our study all the way to the closing of the book of Romans itself. Mark this down. Three key words in our note takingaking. Resolve. He says, "Resolve this. No more judging each other. Stop it." Because we're prone to do that. He says, "Stop it. Just stop it now. When it when when the thought comes up in your mind that you're judging your brother or sister, rebuke that thought. hand it over to Christ. Resist that and do this with the same uh tenacity, resolve. It means all the more to go beyond to be extravagant with this. I love this. Listen, in the Bible, we have what is known as the uh parable or the illustration of the prodical son, right? We all know this one, the prodical son. And did you know, listen, it's pretty cool. Uh, we call it the section of scripture regarding the prodical son. Even some Bibles will note it in the in the footnotes. This is about the prodical son. Did you know that's actually an error? That's not in the Bible. People put that in there. Well, what are you saying that the prodical son is not in the Bible? No. No. The the prodical son, as you and I know it, is in the Bible. Jesus spoke it himself, but it's not about the prodal son. I hope some of you remember this from yester year. It's all about the prodal father. Thank you. You're exactly right. She's got the answer. You guys come on. It's not the It's not about the prodical son. You say, "No, no, it's about the son who left his dad, took his inheritance early, and went and lived like a maniac on all kinds of things and then ruined his life and then crawled back home." It's about the prodical son because he went out and he lived extravagantly. That's that's what happened. No, it's about the extravagance of the father's love for his prodical son. That's what it's about. The star of that illustration that Jesus gives is not the son. It's not even the older son. Do you remember what the older son? He stayed home. He was a good boy. It's not about either one of the boys. The boys are illustrations of how great the father's love is. He's the extravagant loving father and so is our father above. That's what Jesus was communicating. And when we talk about being resolved, it's an extravagant decision. I as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ today resolve to do this. our founding fathers. You can read those documents where Patrick Henry for example very famously says resolved we will do this resolve we will do the other it's a declaration and one powerful word and then the word is stumbling we make this resolute and that is this we will not stumble our brother and sister any longer because we are Christians we care more about what Christ cares about than what we care about we are followers and we are disciples of the Lord Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I know what I just said a moment ago flies in the face of the modern day. Uh, please serve me, please make me happy, please give me a sermon that makes me feel warm and fuzzy and do all the worship songs that I like kind of church kind of churchianity in America. Why should I go to church? I'm surprised. Maybe I don't know, maybe I'm missing it. Churches have gotten so carnal and so devoted to pleasing carnality that they they the whole church experience they boast that it's come come to our church you'll be in and out in under 60 minutes. Now somebody might say oh that sounds good to me. I mean I got to be honest it sounds good to you because you don't care about the things of God. Honestly see that's kind of rude. No I'm just getting started. No. Are you going to say, can you imagine if God said that to you? Can you imagine if you said, "God, I need you to protect me and watch over me through this battle of cancer." And God says, "I will watch over you and I will protect you through this battle of cancer for 60 minutes."

No, the word stumbling is a mean. This is what we do not do. If we're doing it, we must stop now, church. And that is don't set up or to or create a trip hazard. to make an occasion of stumbling, to put an obstacle on a path. Um, the Bible says don't do this. But how many times do you and I spend on Instagram or YouTube laughing our heads off at people who trip and fall over stuff. Have you noticed that? Let's be honest. I mean, come on. We are so evil that we will laugh when a when a 70year-old man Wait, no. a 90 year old man. When a 90year-old man gets gets on a on a unicycle, not a good combo or some 80-year-old decides to ride his grandkid's skateboard and then the next thing you know, he's flying in the air. Everybody, why do we laugh at that? Have you noticed the calamity? Somebody falls down. We go, "Oh my gosh, that was so funny." There's some funny to it. This is not funny because it has nothing to do with falling down and getting a bruise or a broken bone. It's far worse than that. It's doing something in your life and in my life that me as a believer, I think I'm so mature that I'm going to I'm going to die on this hill. And it might be that eating eating a bag of potato chips is very offensive to some people and that you they can't handle that. But you can. But you know that they can't handle that. So you what you do is you go get a bag of potato chips and you eat it in front of them just to exercise your your Christian liberty and you might think it's funny and cool and kind of laugh a little bit cuz look at that. We should put it on YouTube. Look how offended he is for me eating potato chips. Not funny because it's not about bruising or breaking bones. It's about offending a soul. It's about offending the spirit. It's about the heart and the mind of of the individuals that you and I love in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the next word, check this out and then we'll move on. The word fall, it means to bet a trap. To us, the word fall means something else in the Greek language. Notice the word. I'm not even going to say it. Do you guys recognize the Greek word? What does it remind you of? Say it. Scandal. Do not create a scandal in your brother's heart or mind. And this goes to all kinds of ways. Listen, can I be uh direct? Uh in this day and age with uh with sexual uh our our our culture, our nature being sexually charged, everything's sexual. Can't even you can't even see a hamburger commercial with some girl half naked eating and they're selling a hamburger. Listen, this goes both ways, guys. Listen, you need you need to get control of your eyeballs. You need to control where your eyes look. You say, "Well, Pastor Jack, it's so hard because she just showed up and everything's out there." Yes, ladies, don't put everything out there. Number one, the the man falls. He allows himself, even though nobody may know, in his mind, he falls into a scandalous situation before him and God. Why? Because he trips. He's baited, but he he trips over the bait. He doesn't say, "Watch." He doesn't say, "Oh my gosh, there's bait there. I'm going to walk away." Didn't Job do that? Didn't Job say, "I've made a covenant with my eyes not to gaze upon a young woman." Job said that. And then the young woman, she needs to be careful how she dresses. Amen. Because listen, okay, you're beautiful. God made you that way, but you're not on sale. Amen. You are a You are a daughter of the living God. And listen, guys, control your eyes. You got to do that. And women control the way that you look. Why? Because guys are weak. And women are weak. Guys are looking. Women know it. Women want to feel approved and accepted. And so they bait just enough to think, "I'm pretty." Let me tell you, I've never been a woman. I don't even in California, I do not plan on becoming one. I know it's a bit I know that's a heavy thought, but here's the deal. I've only been a guy, but I can tell you this. Uh, at some age of 12 or 13 years of age, a a young man's life changes, and it's not for the good. He sees everything different. He's got supernatural abilities like Superman to have X-ray vision. And anybody says he doesn't know what he's talking about is lying to you. I'm telling you right now. And the men are going to scold me after service because they're going to say, "Why did you tell them our secret?" But women, listen, women are more innocent on that end. But it's like, "Oh, he thinks I'm nice. He's thinking way more than that. Don't create a scandal.

We need to be wise. And I'm looking all you guys are going to write me from both ends, both pendulums that you were horrible today. It means uh to pressure or to coers someone into doing what they believe to be wrong. In other words, I knew I should not have done that. Have you ever heard that? Have you ever said that? I knew I shouldn't have done it. Boy, I got in trouble. Uh, people tell me this they stop and they say, "We feel like we know you." As far as I know, I've withheld nothing from you. And here goes another one. Have you ever been at a stoplight when there's no one around and there's no traffic any which way and you're waiting and then here's my It's like it's been like five minutes and then here's what I do of my justification. I know this it's very fresh in my mind. I just did this any any day now. Any day now. Right now. Nothing. So, I looked left, I looked right, I looked straight ahead, and I looked in my rearview mirror, and I concluded, the city doesn't know that this light's broken. [Applause] It's broke. I safely like pulling up to a stop sign just like that. Hear my justification. City needs to know. I should call them. It's broken. I'm doing like a stop sign when the lights go out, but this light's on. I know, but it's not moving. It's broken. And so I go forgetting that the Holy Spirit I mean Lisa was sitting next to me. And she said, "What are you doing?" I thought it was fine, but my liberty in Christ stumbled my wife. I throw myself under the bus for your edification. The same happens in your life. Maybe not that, maybe something else. And we need to be very careful about this. This is still the introduction we're in. This is terrible. The conclusion is this, that we need to watch out where we step, where we're walking with God. Listen, the conclusion is this. Watch out where you step. Make sure your foot is following in his steps. Put your foot down where his was. We are followers of the Lord Jesus. Just like you go to the beach or maybe at on a trail, you see the footsteps you follow in. Did you know that today, to this very day, you can visit parts of Montana and uh Nebraska and Wyoming, and I believe it's still uh eastern Oregon State where the ruts are still in the ground from the great migration when people migrated out west from the east coast that the the wheels so many uh with so much weight, with so much of their life and so many of them left an indelible scar upon the landscape of this nation and now it's a historical spot. Listen, they followed one after another. Jesus walks before us and God says, "Walk where he walked." Didn't Jesus say, "Come and follow me. Put your foot in his footprint is the command of God." And every true believer longs to live that way. Thus, we are in hot pursuit of Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray, put my foot where your foot was, so I please you and honor you in all that I do. Psalm 63:8 says, "My soul follows close behind you. Your right hand upholds me." I love that. I love the Old King James, by the way. The Old King James says, "My soul followeth hard after thee." I love that. Where you have this passion and a drive. I want to follow you, God. I don't want my foot to fall anywhere else but where Christ's prints are laid out before me. This is this is being a Christian. Did you know I'd like to look at it this way. Did you know that when you leave this building today before you Christ has his footprints for you to follow in? Tomorrow when you wake up, do you get to sleep in tomorrow? Do you have the day off? No. Some of you do. Most of you do. Doesn't matter. I'll see you at 5:00 a.m. Put your feet down every day. You think about that. Lisa and I were on vacation some years ago. We're up in Northern California and we're in the redwoods and there was this little shack and supposedly it's this guy has seen more Sasquatch than anybody else. Bigfoot. And he had these feet that had straps on them and they were giant uh supposedly Bigfoot feet. So if you believe in Bigfoot, so you know, okay, uh look people, we we didn't know gorillas existed until like the 50s. Did you know that? Did you know that? We did not know that gorillas, the silverback gorilla did not exist until the I think 1950s. I'm not saying Bigfoot exists. I'm saying that there's people that have really big feet that could run around the woods unshaven. Uh I'm describing a lot of people out of the 60s and 70s right now. But this guy had these giant fake Sasquatch feet that you could strap onto your own feet and run around the woods. And I just thought, I want to buy those. I mean, isn't it just kind of cool to think it like freak people out? But the thing is, it's not your feet. It's fake. His footsteps real. And he says, "Just just come with me. Let's go. Let's walk." And we walk with him. Isaiah 41:10 says, "Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. That's the promise of God. And then I want to read this to you. As those who name the name of Jesus, notice the the name name here. Uh the word name is capitalized. So it goes this way. As as those who name the authority of Jesus Christ, that's what that means about his name. We are very aware that how we step and where we step leaves a trail of footprints, footprints of evidence, evidence of faith that others will follow. Isn't that what we do as a family? Isn't that what moms and dads are doing and big brothers and big sisters are doing? Isn't that what we're doing with one another? We are leaving footsteps. What we hope to be splits of faith. Paul the Apostle put it this way. As I follow Christ, follow me. Man, that's bold, is it not? Can you imagine saying that? As I follow Christ, follow me. That's awesome. We should all be able to say that. But I don't know about you, sometimes get a little insecure on saying something like that. I would just rather tell my kids, follow Christ because I'm afraid of messing it up. Mom and dad, you know what I'm talking about. We can live for Jesus 99% of the time and make that one goof up and oh my goodness, we feel horrible. And then we have to tell our kids, which is still a powerful act of redemption, hey, that 1% thing I just did by losing my temper or going across the light when it didn't turn green yet. Jesus is not like that. We can even redeem those areas in our life where we went south on the issue or the moment and we can tell our kids or our husbands or our wives, I did this and it was wrong and I repented of it. Just know this, that was not Jesus. That's a very powerful church. Romans 12:4 tells us, Romans 12:4 says, "For as we have many members in one body, that's called the church, but all the members uh do not have the same function. So we many being many members are one body in Christ and individual members of one another." What an amazing statement of what the church is. And everything that we do should be led by the therefore I will no longer live my life in such a way that I would be putting in front of you a stumbling block by which you were put in the place of a scandal in your mind that you were you were so disillusioned by how I lived or how I dressed or the words I used or the things I invested in my time or energies. Church, are you with me? Everybody awake? This is what being a disciple of Jesus Christ looks like is that I'm going to follow him because we want to bring with us as many men and women and boys and girls into the kingdom as we possibly can. And that's called a witness. It's called a witness. And so here we go with the few moments left. Our first point is this in hot pursuit. So So verse 13 was the introduction. So you're not totally getting ripped off here. So that was we got that behind us. In hot pursuit of a working love. Look at verses 14 and 15. In hot pursuit of a working love means that's having a clean conscience. It's so important. He's been talking to us for weeks now about a clean conscience. This is so beautiful. And he says in verse 14, he says,"I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. But to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean." This is one deep statement and it's beyond deep in the sense that it's coming from Paul the Apostle. Paul the Apostle. Remember, before he was Paul the Apostle, he was Saul the Pharisee. He was the Pharisee, circumcised on the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. Concerning the law, he was perfect. Concerning zeal, nobody compared to him. And concerning righteousness, he had kept the law. Saul was the man. So much so that the Sanhedrin delegated Saul of Tarsus to be the very one who would go out and squash this thing called Christianity. Did you know that he was like ISIS of the day? He hunted people down and he either arrested them, imprisoned them, or had them killed. Why? Because they were Christians. They were they were traitors. They were Jews that somehow departed out of man-made Judaism, not Christc centered Judaism. And because these renegades believe the Bible and fought for themselves, Jesus is the Messiah from the Old Testament. He is the one. They became those of the way. That's what we that's what believers were called to to be of the way. You listen, you call yourself a Christian today. You want to know why you call yourself a Christian? Because in Antioch, the Jews, the the hierarchy, those who did not believe and the Gentiles who did not believe said, "We have a nickname for those crazy people." The way that's too nice. Forget that. We're going to call them Christians. We're going to insult them by calling them Christians. Did you know that the term Christian is an insult? Do you know what it means? They said, "Look at them. They're little Jesus's. They're little Christs walking around loving one another, preaching the gospel. Oh, look at them. Let's call them Christians. But the term stuck. The believers went, "That's exactly what we're trying to do." That's when people say, "You guys are a bunch of Jesus freaks." Yep. Think about the labels that get thrown on you and those that attack you. Uh, not everything they're saying is wrong. Have you ever thought about maybe much of what they're saying is actually true? They just don't understand it. Oh, you guys believe that God will forgive you your sins? Uh, yeah. You believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead? They think we're crazy. Look, I used to think you were crazy. I mean, not you. You know what I mean? Before I was a Christian, I thought Christians were crazy. I thought I thought they were brain dead. If you're a Christian, you're you're your brain something's wrong. And then you encounter God and you find out that he's right and that he's true and that he loves and that he's real and that heaven is a paradise and hell is hot. Today is not going to be hot. By the way, what is it going to be today? 100. That's nothing. That God is who he says he is. And the Bible tells us regarding this word convinced, a tremendously strong and powerful word. Look at the word convinced. It's beautiful. It means that this one who was once the the killer of Christians encountered Christ on that road to Damascus, wound up becoming not only a lover of Jesus, but a lover of the the church, the believers of Jesus. He began to love those Christians which now he became one of them. His conversion was so poignant and so powerful that Paul is able to say these words. And I say this friends because I believe God expects he wants he desires you and I to be able to not only say these words but to say them with conviction because they're real in your life. And it's this confident confident. I mean it when I tell you right now there's a lot of things that I love to do. I love the ocean. I love being in the water. Um but I'm not confident. I'm not going to swim to Catalina. Um, you pick your thing. I was talking to somebody the other day who races uh funny cars and they they just love it. Now, in my mind, I'm thinking, I don't know. I mean, I'd like to go fast race cars, that's amazing. But getting in a getting in something like that where you you know, in three seconds, your guts are still back where you started and your skeleton is, you know, a quarter mile ahead. I don't know if that's really that's fun, huh? Uh, but how confident can you be in that when you're taking a car at 300 miles an hour and a/4 mile and it's made out of fiberglass and metal? Excuse me. I'm not in on that. But some people are kind of confident, but they're not sure. God wants you confident in him. Amen. Let's be honest. Look, I'm very biased. There's nothing in this world that you and I can produce whereby which we can have absolute confidence in. Period. Why? It's man-made. I saw a sticker the other day made in America. And I had to pause. Honestly, I'm not joking. I had to pause and say, is that a good thing anymore? It used to be the standard. Yeah. Now it's not. But we put this together. We did this thing or the other. It may be great, but I'm not confident in it. I have learned in my old age to be confident in one thing. And that one thing is not even a thing. It's a him. That's right. He's the only one I'm confident in. Why? It's not even my ability to have confidence in him. It's in his ability to perform what he says that wins you over. Paul says, "Confident, certain, made aware of, have come to know, fully persuaded." God wants you fully persuaded. And this is what he is saying to us right here in all of this. That we are to be fully persuaded and confident how we live our lives, the things that we portray as brothers and sisters, having a clean conscience that at the end of the day, you've lived your life for God. There's no greater way to live. Can you lay down? When you lay down, you test yourself. When you lay your head down at night, are you free? When you're all alone with you and God and you put your head on your pillow, are you free? Oh, if you don't know what that is, friends, God wants you to live like that. So, come on over to his side and find out what it's like to be uh well, frankly used by the Holy Spirit of God. Why not? And you can be confident in him in him. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse one. We'll start with this. 1 Timothy 4:1. Now the spirit that is the Holy Spirit expressly says that in latter times or the end end times, end of days, last days, some will depart from the faith. It's happening now. What are they doing? Giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. Wow. What do they do? Speak lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. In other words, they'll film a murder instead of trying to stop the murder, forbidding to marry, they get cultlike, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. Notice that, huh? Those who know the truth can eat anything or nothing. Doesn't matter. They give God thanks. These cult crazies, they can't do that because they're all about control. And so uh he goes on to say verse four, for every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. Verse five, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Every creature of God is good. Now that's a statement by God himself in the Bible. Every creature. And what's what is the what is the uh atmosphere? What's the theater by which this is being discussed? To eat or not to eat? What's a He's not talking about what pets are available. I mean, to me, that is a liberty that I It's beyond me. I don't have that much liberty. This look this morning. Every day, by the way, some we should I should have you come over to the house from 2 am to 7 a.m. It's like a circus or a zoo. My backyard, it's you can you can almost set a timer. So the raccoons, they come, they sit on the seat, they w this washing themselves in the pool. It's the funniest thing. Then they go and then the skunk comes and the skunk is eating and then his girlfriend or boyfriend comes and then sometimes they get married because earlier this spring we had baby skunk and the cutest things in the world and then after they leave and I'm talking within minutes they got it all down. Okay, next skunks move in. And then and then comes the possum and they're they're so ugly. They're cute. And I'm watching this stuff. And it's unbelievable. And then there's a we have a big we don't the neighborhood has a big feral cat. He's everybody's cat. You should see this guy. He walks right by the possum. He walks right by the possum and he goes like this. Pawsum looks at him. No, the cat walks right by the skunk. The skunk doesn't even lift his head. He's eating. And the cat goes like this. But he walks right by him. They're all kind of what's the word? Symbi. They're kind of in an orchestra of working right. It's working. Completely different in every way, shape, or form. And yet they're getting along. They're making it work. And they got a schedule. They arrive in those orders. It's amazing to me what what I I have filmed it. Maybe I'll post it. So, but the but the thing is but but but to eat them. See Paul God says everything I've made is good. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. But but but not for food, right? For entertainment. Backyard. possum, skunk, raccoon, cat to look at. Some people might say from other parts of the world. I'm not making this up. Last month, Lisa and I are this month. It was this month. Lisa and I, we were in Cusco, Peru, the home, the capital of the Incan Empire, and they had these guinea pigs are running around. A. And we're going, "Oh, look." And we're And they had a cage and they had guinea pigs. And we thought they were for sale, like the pet shop. And I'm not kidding. This this lady goes, "Oh, you like guinea pig?" And we said, "We love guinea pig." She said, "We have the best." It the menu had guinea pig on it. They think it's okay to eat. To us, you are putting in front of me a rock of stumbling. My my respect for the for for the Peruvians were it was here. And then I found out they love guinea pig. I know. But you know what? They probably think uh you know us eating fish tacos is some sort of a sin. Who knows? God says what I've made it's good. This is a Jew Paul now the apostle saying I'm convinced that God's love and God's grace and God's liberty is way bigger than ours. Of course I'm not talking about sinful conduct. I'm talking about decisions or choices that are what we would call amoral. They don't have a morality. This last week, horrible shooting yet again in our nation. By the way, I don't mean to offend anybody, but let's let's let's get on this now. How is it that these transgender individuals are the ones now that are pulling the trigger on people? Not one, not two, not five. What's going on? The medications that are being put into these people are causing them to go insane. Of course, you don't need a scientist to figure that out. This is an age of doctrines of demons and deceiving spirits. And a child is being destroyed. And everybody's piling on to destroy a child. The school's destroying them. The culture is destroying them. And then the parents are terrified because if they don't coales with the big lie, then CPS, is it CPS? CPA. I always get it confused. CPS is going to come take the kid. Our culture. It's crazy. And then what happens? I think it's Satan's attack on children to destroy them. So Satan has doesn't have to deal with them later when they're adults. Get them while he while he can. It's evil. But whatever's going on, these kids are losing their minds and they're shooting guns at people. And it's not a fluke. It's horrible. Evil spirits are a foot. It's tragic. Having a clean conscience is knowing that you're living your life before God and you're free to the point seriously if somebody do you realize if somebody at that farm that we were at we're at a farm on a little tour in in Peru. What if what if one what if somebody would have said we'd like to have the two of you to our home tonight. We've never had an American in our house before. We'd love to have you over tonight. You know, you're feeling it, right? I can feel it. You're here. It's like, what are we going to have, right? Have you ever traveled internationally in such settings? I have in numerous countries. It's kind of terrifying. I'm telling you. And that you sit down and they bring out, you know, they bring it out and it's like, and you're like, "What is this?" I'm telling you, I'm speaking from experience. You can't say, "Uh, what is it?" And they say, like in Russia, "Oh, it's eel from the Bay of Finland. We got it ourselves." Really? You say, You honestly say, "Lord, help me. I don't want to offend them. You got to help me now. Is it not going to work right, God? I need you now. And you eat eel. If we sat down in Peru and the and the family would have been offended if we say to them, "Yeah, no, we can't do that." I could tell you right now, the Holy Spirit will say to you, "Eat it. Don't stumble them." Now use your Christian liberty as a great strength. And when you eat No, you can make a true statement. This is the best guinea pig I've ever had in my life. Of course, maybe the only one, but it was the best one you've ever had. But this is actual conduct. We were in a Russian home when on the streets in Russia. We even have it on film. We were preaching Christ and the man got saved. The young man got saved. I remember his name to his he was a Georgian living in Moscow and his name was Kaha. And he was walking by and he stood out because he was so tall. And I said, "Hey, you." And he stopped and he looked and he just stood out. So I thought I noticed him. and he stood out. We're preaching Christ in the streets. This is a divine appointment. Can I talk to you? He spoke perfect English. Long story short, the guy prays right there on the spot and gets saved. And then I don't see him again that day. And then later on in the end of the day, he comes back and he says, "You guys are all coming to my house to my dad's house. I told I went home. I told my family that I'm going to bring you home tonight and you he points to me. You are going to tell my entire family the gospel tonight. No, listen. And it's like, "This is amazing. This is like the book of Acts." And we went there and and the father opens the door and they're all starruck because they had never had Americans in their home. They're touching us. No, no, no, no. Like this. And before we could go in the house, the father gets cognac. Anybody know what that is? I didn't know what it was. How do you know what it is? They use it to take paint off of cars. And the my translator is with me and the father and and he she's telling me, "You have to go like this and you have to With what?" With the cognac. And I said, "Yeah, yeah, no. Uh, it's not gonna happen." And she goes, "Yeah, yeah, you are going to do this." She says, "You have no idea what's happening right now." She goes, "I've heard of this. I'm a Russian. I've heard of this. I've never seen this done before. This is amazing." So, she I'm dying to see this myself, but you will do this because if you offend, this is the patriarch of the home. He's like 80 years old. And you go like this and you put cognac like this. And I'm thinking, Mark's Mark's Gospel says if we can take up poison. And I I told Lisa, God's got to protect us. There are four others with us, including my translator, God, God has God's got to he's got to protect us. This is totally the Bible happening right now. The Bible says we can take up poison and drink it and it won't kill us. And we just went like this. And then they then they bring the bottle and they top it off. No, I'm kid. Listen, not 10 times. During the night, not 20 times. Toast about everything. Everything. And they had uh vodka and cognac. All this poison. And none of us listen. Just the fumes alone would have killed you. But nothing happened to us and nothing happened to them. When it all was done, the son stands up and he and he it was awesome because he there was no messing around with him. He said to his family, "Listen to what he has to say." Wow. Wow. And when he's done, I want all of you to become Christians. He did. It was amazing. It's like, it doesn't work that way. But it was amazing. It was amazing. and I gave the gospel. And you leave this up to God. When it comes time, again, I'm speaking to a translator. When it came time for them to receive Christ, all of them accepted Christ. But listen, you say, "Well, that's because the son made them do it." I don't know. You don't know. Only God knows, right? Think about that. Only he knows. But when we walk with him in those steps, it's exciting. It's thrilling. And even in a world that's got all of its things from conac to guinea pigs, none of these things stop God who announces to the world, "My son Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He's the only way to heaven. What you could not do of yourself because you are sinful, Christ did for you by having come into this world living a perfect life on your behalf. Because you can't. God says, "Because I'm righteous and holy and I cannot change my word, my law is true, but none of you could keep it. You broke it in thought and or deed. And so I sent my son to be the atonement for that sin of yours. He died in your place. And not only did he die in your place by taking upon himself your sins at the cross, but on the third day, he rose again from the grave, guaranteeing your salvation. That's called sanctification. Christ rose from the dead that we might be justified and sanctified by the work of God. It's all his work.

So, what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to receive that gift out of a heart of great thankfulness, love, and joy. We'll talk about that next week. And I really had big plans for that part about peace and joy and the Holy Spirit. And we become free, no longer restricted by the confines of man and man-made religion. We become free to follow in Jesus's footsteps wherever he's going. Here's the beauty about all this. If you follow him now, if you decide to follow him, you don't know where you're going to be tomorrow. You know, I'm pretty sure we got these plans. That's not what I mean. If you're going to go to work or if you're going to go on a little Labor Day day trip, doesn't matter. You think you think God says to heaven, God announces in heaven, hey everybody in America it's Labor Day, so there'll be no witnessing. He doesn't do that. Wherever you go tomorrow and the day after and the day after until Christ comes for you, he actually has footsteps for you to follow in. He literally, scripture says that God knew us before we were ever created and that he has created for us works that we should walk in them. So instead of strapping on Bigfoot feet, imagine in your mind strapping on Jesus feet. Because if this world is going to experience any love, any forgiveness, any mercy, this is such a brutal world. Let's be honest. It's a hard world. If this world is going to experience anything good, it's going to come from you. It's going to come from us. You can stand. I'll leave you with this picture. Of course, in the book of Exodus, but there's beautiful accounts in the book of Numbers, the Bible tells us that as Israel was encamped in the wilderness, remember they lived in tents, everybody, they had their tents. And I this is just to in my memory now from scripture. I I didn't premeditate this. If I would have, I would have put on the screens. I would have put it on the screen. Imagine this. We should do this with AI. Try to redeem AI. We should tell AI to get two and a half million people and put them in order of the numbers given in the Bible of Israel. So for example, these particular tribes, they were to the west. These particular tribes, they were to the right or to the east. Okay, these particular tribes were to the north and these particular tribes were to the south and they were to keep that encampment in that order every time they set up their camps. But what dictated their camps breaking up and marching again? God. The Bible tells us in the book of numbers that the glory of God res re resided or or uh abodeed. The glory of God hovered over the ark of the covenant. And the ark of the covenant, by the way, I'm not joking when I tell you Steven Spielberg's a Jew. He went to great pains to reassemble in the movies Raiders of the Lost Ark. He did the best job that I've ever seen by illustration. The ark of the covenant probably didn't look very much different at all from what Spielberg put in that movie. Do you remember how you move the ark of the covenant? You had to move it with staves or stakes. And it was carried by who? Anybody? Priests. And they carried the box that contained the Ten Commandments, Aaron's rod that budded, right? The impossible. and mana. By the way, all those things represent Christ. But the ark never went as powerful as it was with God residing over it in glory. It never moved without the priest. That's right. Glory. Amazing. Supernatural. And God says, "You keep your eye on the glory and when I begin to move, break camp. pack up, be ready to go in the instant, and follow me." And that entire group would then get in line like a serpentine lying through the desert following the glory of God because the priest would carry the ark of the covenant out in front. God's glory would reside over it and the people followed the glory. You got that? One foot behind the other, following as it were, in the footsteps of God himself. But listen, it wasn't God's footprints then. God manifested that ministry through the priests. And wherever that ark was carried by the priest, the nature of God went, the attributes of God, the righteousness of God, the light of God, you name it, the protection of God. Wherever you go, you're going to leave this building in about four minutes, three minutes. When you go out of this room, out of this building, you are priests of the most high God. You are carrying the glory of God. And if there's going to be any mercy this week anywhere, it's going to have to come through you. It's any any goodness, any righteousness, it's got to come through us. And then they camp again because God's glory stopped. And when he stopped, they didn't know if he was going to stop for a night or five nights or a month. Book of Numbers tells you this. And then here's here's the end. when they camped, if you were to take a drone, this is what I was saying about AI. If you took a drone at head level, it would look like just, can you imagine two and a half million people at your campsite? But if you took the drone and went straight up, maybe about a thousand feet high, maybe higher than that, that's a lot of people. Maybe take it up to 5,000 feet with that drone camera and look down. It was the perfect shape of a cross because the tribes to the north, south, east, and west are numbered by the Lord. And each one, they're same amount on each side except the south side. The south side is longer than the rest. And if you were to stand up those tribes, it was a cross. Isn't that amazing? That cross represents your Jesus who loves you. And we bear his love to the world around us.