Getting Real with God & Man - Part 4 (Romans 14:1-12)

We're looking now, and we have been. This is a miniseries, it turns out, because of the meaning and the depth of what we're seeing here in Romans chapter 14. We've been looking at verses 1-2, but we haven't yet made it very far along the way. Uh, today, we'll be picking it up in verse four.

But we saw last time together that, uh, getting real before, uh, God and before man, that is a, a Christian faith that is a reality, not a joke, not a Sunday thing that you pull out for an hour and a half, but it's your day-to-day living. That it would require you and I have a grounded faith. And I would say this to all of you, more than ever right now, you better make sure that your faith is grounded. I cannot make you do that. You've got to decide that on your own. But the days of deception, which is a great title for a book, by the way, the days of deception are so here that things are going on now that, uh, it's bad, people. It is bad what's going on. In fact, I didn't plan on saying this, but last Wednesday night, we had our special happening now with Daniel Cohen. And on Thursday morning, we're getting phone calls because, listen, I posted a website sign-up for our next Israel tour. Click here and make your deposit. Fill out your credit card information. It was all a fraud. People have been robbed. We've hired a, we've hired a cybersecurity team to go out and try to blow that website up. This is a, these are professional scammers who listen to services like this, created an Israel tour and put my face on it, and then pulled money from your bank accounts. Deception everywhere. You and I must know the Bible, the word of truth, if we're going to navigate these days. And look, that's in the area of monetary deception. What could be worse than that? Spiritual deception. Know the word of God. Your faith has got to be grounded. If you have what I call a recreational faith in Jesus, it's time to grow up. It's time to get right with God. And it's time to get kind of like what I think Hal Lindsay wrote a book years ago called Combat Faith. I like that. And it's time.

And so we saw that we need a grounded faith, and that was in verses 1 to 3. And we learned that we have to have a practical faith. True Christian faith is practical in the body of Christ around us. We saw also that we have to have a compassionate faith. It's faith in God and faith in his word and obedience to his word. Yes. But our, listen, there's no contradiction with being honest and truthful and biblically grounded and compassionate at the same time. Our world tells us that compassionate is carte blanche, no matter what, and there's no truth assigned to compassion. I would argue that true compassion must be assigned to the truth of God, or else it is enablement. The third thing we saw last time is that if we have a grounded faith, we are going to be united as brothers and sisters in Christ. God will do that. It's a byproduct of our pursuit of the truth. If we pursue the truth, remember I said, never sacrifice truth on the altar of unity. You need to, you need to think about that. We have got to be rallying around truth and then let that be our unifying point.

And, um, and so, church, we pick it up today. We'll read it together in verse four on down to verse 12. And that is, we're looking at getting real with God and man. And we touched on it in closing last week, and that is it requires you and I to know who we are. And, uh, I'll, I'll read verse four. If you guys would read verse five, nice and loud. Here we go.

"Who are you to judge another servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand."

"One person esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind."

Verse six: "He who observes the day, whatever day that is, he who observes the day observes it to the Lord, and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord, he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat, to the Lord, he does not eat, and gives God thanks. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. What a powerful verse that one is. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.' So then each of us shall give account of himself, herself, to God."

Father, be our teacher. We have come together to worship You, and now we worship You in giving You our minds, our attention, and we are inviting You to transform our lives. And Lord, I pray that there's somebody maybe here right now, or maybe they're watching right now or viewing, that they might even say, "I'm the, I'm, I'm curious. I don't know if I'm, if I would say I'd go that far to have my life be changed, but I'm willing to ask God if he's real to make me willing." How about that? That God would make you willing to know that He's got a new life for you in Christ. And all God's people said, "Amen." You may be seated, church.

And as I said a moment ago, we're looking at part two, and we touched on it last week. So, some of these things will sound a little bit familiar, uh, to you for a moment. And that is, getting real with God and man requires you and I, uh, to know who we are. And I'm stressing the fact to know who we are, meaning this, to know who you are. I need to know who I am in Christ in this relationship with God. And so, if you've come to this church for the first time today, uh, we're a little bit different than most churches in the sense that we dedicate our Wednesdays and Sundays as a church for discipleship making. We are followers of Christ, and this is a discipleship time. This is where we get into the word and we dive into the scriptures that we might, uh, develop a strong and active faith in God. We're not here to be entertained. The worship you heard a moment ago was for God, not for you. Amen. And it's all about Him. And so, uh, this is a church that we want to keep, uh, going as a Bible teaching church, making disciples of all people, as the Bible says, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And, uh, we are to be God's ambassadors to the ends of the world. And we need to know how to do that. And so, we touched on this, and here it is. The first consideration under point number two is that it really means this for you and I to know who we are. And that is, remember now, that I'm not you, and you're not me. This is where we end it. We are completely different people. There's a variety in the family of God, which God loves this variety. It would be wrong. Listen, it would be wrong for us to make everybody just like us.

Somebody reminded me last week in a conversation I had after one of the services. They said something, and it was kind of sketchy. And I said, "Well, let me ask you something. If you are so much the ideal model of what we should be like, um, where do you go to church?" "Oh, I don't go to any one church. I go to all churches." And I said, "Oh, okay. I don't know if that's the definition of being church, but where do you serve?" "Oh, I serve the body of Christ everywhere." So then I asked him, I said, "Let me ask you this. If you didn't show up to any one of those things everywhere, would anybody know that you didn't show up? I mean, you are so something that the church needs you so badly that if you don't show up, will anybody miss you?" And then I asked, "How can you, I said it's none of my business, but how can you tithe when you're, when you're not going anywhere?" "Well, I give to the Lord." I said, "That's great. That's just great. But let me ask you this question. If you, if you are such an example, but nobody depends upon your walk with God, right? And you're not advancing the kingdom of God. Because in this world, uh, God uses tithing as tools, not as money. Don't get caught up in money. That's weird. If you start thinking money, then we're getting off track. God uses what we give in Him in worship as tools to advance the kingdom and minister to the body of Christ." And so when I began to probe into his life, uh, his whole thing was this: everybody needs to be more like I am. So I asked him, "If everybody at church was just like you, they would not go to any church. They would be going everywhere like a bee goes to every flower. Nothing would be supported or prayed over or for, and nobody would be dependent upon your walk with God because you're not fixed anywhere. You're not anchored anywhere." And his word to me was, "H," I wanted to say a light bulb came on over his head, but it wasn't even a spark. But do you hear what I'm saying? Everybody, you look, wherever you're from or whatever, you need to find a church and get rooted and grounded in it. Because here's the deal. God will design a church in such a way, and His churches are all like this, where there will be people of every various walk of life, every pigmentation of skin color, that we might work together loving on one another. Because the moment we begin to think, "You know what, you all need to be more like me," is the manifestation of spiritual self-righteousness and pride. And it ought not to be. It is the very same people, verse four, who conduct themselves like this. "Who are you to judge another's servant?" Answer: I am not qualified. Only Christ is qualified. None of us have the right to judge anyone else in their Christian walk. We have no authority. Now, I told you before, if someone you know is living in sin, you take the Bible to them and you show them chapter and verse. That's different. But when it comes to the things that you read a moment ago, "Well, I eat this and I don't eat the other, and I worship God on this day versus that day," Paul the Apostle announces, don't get caught up in arguments over that stuff. It doesn't matter. Here's the fun part about it. He says it doesn't matter. What day somebody deems to be the day of worship versus somebody else picking a different day. Paul says it doesn't matter. I love Paul's attitude. You'll see it soon. Paul says, "Why limit yourself to a day?" Paul says, "I, I worship God the same every day." That's awesome. And you say, "Well, isn't that Paul? Isn't Paul being arrogant in saying that?" Not at all. Because Paul didn't look down at the brother who worshiped God on Saturday or the brother who worshiped God on Sunday. You might be surprised how many traditions have crept into our own lives, and we begin to think, "Oh, that's the holy day." For example, according to Christians and traditional Christianity, the Christian Sabbath, which I don't agree with this, by the way, I can tell you right up front, the Christian Sabbath is deemed to be Sunday. I don't agree that the Christian Sabbath is on Sunday. I believe the Christian Sabbath is seven days a week. Think about it for a moment. No, no, no. It's got to be on Saturday. No. It's got to be on Sunday. Look, it's the day of rest. Maybe for you, not for me. I work my tail off on Sundays. Monday is my Sabbath. If you want to dial it down that way to a day, then Monday's my day. You can't do that. It's a Monday. I honor Monday as my Sabbath day. And then there'll be a group knocking on your door saying, "You got to do it on Saturday, or you're going to go to hell. If you worship Sunday, you're part of the Antichrist." Poor people. It's insane. Is not God the God of all, every day of the week? Yes. Watch this. Isn't it interesting that when you look back at the Old Testament record, even though God made his announcement that He created and rested on the seventh day, did you know that there's no reference by Abraham himself about a particular Sabbath day? Jacob never referenced the Sabbath day. Isn't that interesting? It was only after Mount Sinai that the law was given. And you want to be careful because if you dial down on one day, even, listen, even God says that you shall Sabbath on the seventh day. Here's the fun part. This ought to kind of freak you out for a while. This is unnecessarily going to disrupt you, but I'm feeling very honory this morning. If God rested on the seventh day, then what was the first day? What was the first day of the week, the Monday through Sunday? Does it say in the book of Genesis at creation that God's first day of creation was on Wednesday? Doesn't say it. It says that on the seventh day of His creative works, He rested. Do you see? Are you guys? Why are you quiet? Do you not get this? It's very important because people who are legalists, they're going to say, "You got to worship God on this day and for this time." 59 minutes. You ever seen those churches? It's like drive-in, drive-out church. 30 minutes. Yeah. Takes 30 minutes just to get in and out of this parking lot to come in and go, which we're grateful for. We're not complaining. We're not complaining. God. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 16: "Therefore, from now on, listen, we regard no one according to the flesh." How many of you are Christians? Raise your hands. Officially, right now, you are to regard no one else around you in your Christian life, brothers and sisters, after the flesh anymore. What does that mean? I'm gonna tell you. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Watch this. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled past tense us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and He has given us the ministry of reconciliation. This is awesome because I have been forgiven. I've been made new. I have no right to turn around and judge you on what day you decide to worship God or if you decide to eat vegetables or meat. It's none of my business. By the way, I'm happy to report, I don't judge anybody on those things. And it's wonderfully liberating to not have to tiptoe around with a, with a magnifying glass trying to spot some sin on you. The moment I do that, that glass turns around and there's a big wart on my nose or something that calls me out. Listen, you, you and I, it's hard enough, you and I, living our life for Jesus in this world. What in the world are we doing looking at other people for? But see, that whole thing comes from pride. Hey, you need to walk like I do. You need to pray like I do. You need to do what I do. And this is where religion is so, so sad because it's lost its way. Jesus says, "Come to me." How complicated is that? God said through the prophet Isaiah, "Look unto me and be saved, all ye ends of the earth." How hard is that? It's beautiful. But I love the fact that right now, from here on out, starting today, and by the way, we start every day. We'll do this again tomorrow. We do not regard any of us according to the flesh. I don't know you according to the flesh. You see, what does that mean? It means that you don't need to know anything about my old days before Christ. Watch. I'm going to, I'm going to step on a toe or two. And I, and I, I am not even now to regard you after the flesh. So we need to conduct ourselves wisely. Meaning this, when the scripture says in the book of James, "Confess your faults one to another." That does not leave discretion outside at the door. When the scripture says, "Confess your faults one to another," it simply goes like this: "Hey, brother, pray for me. I just, I've been battling lately the things of the flesh. I need to, I need prayer." That's it. Have you guys noticed that there's been a movement? It, it comes and goes where small groups form and eventually, uh, tends to go toward, you know, it, it says here to confess our sins one to another. So, what, what is your sin that you want to confess? Seriously. Watch. You want to know how dumb this is? This is how dumb it is. So, this guy might say, "Oh, man, you know, uh, money. I'm just constantly distracted by money." "Oh, we'll pray for you." "Wh, what, what's your thing?" "Oh, lust. I'm really having to cope with lust." "I, okay, we'll pray for you." "Um, what, what's your thing?" "Oh, I'm just listening to what you guys are confessing. My, just pray for me because I have the sin of gossip. I'm going to, I can't wait to get out of here and post this all." [Applause] Listen, you're not to get together and confess those sins that should go to Jesus's ears alone. You have to be specific unless you're talking to God. But people seek control. Religion seeks to do that. But from here on out, we don't know each other after the flesh. That means when I look at you and you look at me, I'm to look at you in such a way like God does. God says, "I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of a future and thoughts of a hope." That's how we should look at one another. And I want to see your life come to a full and glorious completion. That's the thought that you and I are to have toward one another as believers. The Bible tells us again in Jude 1:24. Last week I quoted this, it wasn't on the screen. Jude chapter 1, verse 24: "Now to Him who is able, thank God, to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." How's that for encouragement? I want to encourage some of you. If you drop dead later today as a believer, you're going to enter the presence of God with glory and exceeding joy. How's that? Oh, don't say that. Don't say that. But I could drop dead later this afternoon. Are you a believer in Christ? Oh yes, I am. Then cheer up. Our days are numbered. You don't know. I don't know our number. God knows the number. Can you imagine? Every day the world wakes up. And I don't know how that works, but God's got a bucket, so to speak, of the number of the person, the people that will go to heaven or go to hell on this day, their their expiration date. You know how you grab a can of beans at the in the pantry and you look for the expiration date? Did you know that every one of us were born with an expiration date date stamped on us? Kind of like Teddy Ruxpin. You know, remember that? Remember that little signature was on him? If he was a real Teddy Ruxpin little bear, every one of us, believer or not, has been given an expiration date given to us by God. It's, you're not going to change it. You say, "What if I try to commit suicide?" It's, you're going to fail and then you're going to lay in the hospital in a lot of pain for a long time because it wasn't your day. So don't do that. That's dumb anyway. And Christians, you listen. Christians cannot commit suicide. You want to know why? You don't have the authority to do that. "I can't take it anymore." Yes, you can. "I'm going to end it all." No, you're not. Are you a Christian? I mean, I really, do you not want, I, you don't want me to counsel you? I'm serious. "This, what I, I'm going to kill myself." "Okay, well, wait. Before you do that, are you a Christian?" "Yes." "All right. This is all good now. You can't kill yourself." "Well, I'm going to do it." "No, you're not. Because if you're a Christian, you can't do it. You don't have the authority to do that. Jesus is Lord. You're not. So, put the gun down." This is ridiculous. That's what you got to tell them. Either denounce, I'm on the phone. Denounce Jesus Christ right now on the phone. I'm listening. Denounce Him. Pull the trigger. Or say that He is Lord. Put the gun down. Open up your Bible. Stop goofing off. We don't have that authority, folks. God's children. It, look, it's rough. It gets rough. We all get down. Okay? That's why we have one another. We don't regard one another after the flesh anymore. That means we don't show up and say, "Man, I'd love to help you, John, but I know about your past." You know, that's like Job's helper helper is coming. "Hey, Job. I don't know what's going on in your life, but I could see all this happening to you because you remember when, there go we but by the grace of God." Remarkable. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Write these verses down. I worked hard on this. There's a lot of verses. 2 Timothy 4:18 says, "And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever." Amen. What a promise. Ephesians 3:20. We all love this verse. "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." Friends, look at that verse. Ephesians 3:20. That means stand there. Just stand there. He's at work in you to do all these amazing things. And you are the one that benefits from His great power to work in your life. What, what point am I trying to make? God has made that promise to you. You don't need to look around at anybody else's life and try to figure out their Christianity. You figure yours out. Let them figure theirs out. God will be honored. Hebrews chapter 13:20. Hebrews 13:20 says, "Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant." How long is that? Everlasting. How long is heaven? Everlasting. Make you complete in every good work to do His will. Look, look who's doing the working. Working in you what is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. God does this. Christians, show up and say, "Lord, here I am." Maybe today you're not a Christian. You're religious, but you're not a Christian. Today's the day for you to say, "I divorce myself from all that legal stuff and morality and trying to be good. And I step into Jesus and I say, 'Lord, take the wheel from here. I'm done. Take it. And I'm going to follow You. You lead the way. I'm not going to lead. You lead.'" Watch your life be transformed. Let God do it. Stop working at it. He will do it by the power of His Holy Spirit. Few more verses on this. Matthew 5:12: "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." So, when persecution, as it is today, is rising all around the world, and make no mistake about it, of course, none of us want it to to come, but it's coming. It's happening now in America against Christians. I think it's pretty safe to say it's happening now in America against Christians more than any other time in American history. In American history, you don't need to worry about that. God will even use it. He may not cause it, but He'll use it. Amen. And God's church gets just gets stronger. The real get more real. Those who we thought were real walk away. It stings. It hurts to see people walk away. But just remember, the Bible tells us, "They were among us, but they were not of us." Can you handle that? That's a toughy, huh? Because our emotions get involved. Romans chapter 8, verse 31 says, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" Now, I got to tell you, the first time I ever read that verse, I, I read it like this: "What shall we say to these things?" Okay, apparently that means we can say nothing to these things. This is a statement of fact. What is it? If God is for us, who can be against us? And I, I used to read that verse and think like this: God is for us. Who can be against us? And I heard this silence. And my life has changed over this verse. This is how this is how my life is. "What shall we say to these things?" You don't have to say anything to these things. It's a fact. If God is for us, amen. Hallelujah. Who could be against us? A whole lot of people. That's right. That's how I know it to be. Who can be against us? Uh, a lot of people. The point is, what can they say? They can say whatever they want to say. If you're living for Jesus, let the accusations fly, and they're going to fly. Satan will see to it. You'll find some people to work for him who will attack you because you're standing for Jesus. Blessed are you. We can't see it on your chest, but you've got a badge of honor. You're bearing the name of Jesus, and the world hates you. That's a good day. That's a blessed day. And then one final passage before we get into our second, uh, point under this. And in my notes, you can see if you have the notes from this morning, and it's checking in with Romans 8:28 to see if it's still there in the Bible. And it is still there. I just checked this morning, by the way. Romans chapter 8, verse 27: "Now, He that is God, who searches the heart, knows what the mind of the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, is because He, the Holy Spirit, makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." That's God the Father. "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Verse 29: "For whom He foreknew." Love that word. God can learn nothing. Before there ever was, God knew. He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son." Did you, did you guys get that? God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son, that He might be the firstborn or the preeminent one among many brethren. "Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called." These He also called. Isn't that a great, listen, what do you say? What does that mean? Call. How, what does, what does a call mean to you? When your phone rings and you answer it, you, you take the call. God does the same thing in the spirit realm where He speaks to you and He calls you into His family. He's speaking. Some of you might be here today and you're just kind of like, "I don't know, maybe I'm not sure," but you're here, or you're watching, or you're listening right now. Why? Turn it off. Go surf. Climb the mountain. Go back to bed. No, I can't do that. Why? Why? Why have you tuned in? Or why have you come? Why? Because you want, you have a curiosity. You want to draw closer to God, or you want to know who God is. Why? Because He's been calling you. He's calling you. He's inviting you. Sometimes, look, His phone when He calls, the ring is not too loud. It doesn't even vibrate. It's very soft. It's very gentle. And it's often over a series of maybe days, weeks, months, or years. And I would, I would encourage you today, maybe God's, uh, saying, "Listen, uh, will you pick up if this goes to voicemail one more time? It's the end." You know, you, you never know whom He called these. "He also justified." This is amazing. It means, in fact, the cute way to remember the theological definition of the word justification or justified is this: "Just if I'd never sinned." Amen. That's what the word means. Are you kidding me, Jack? I am not kidding you. If that, look, if that one, if that one word was not in the Bible, if that word was not true, I would leave right now and go straight to the beach. I'd say, "Have a nice day," but I'm not coming back because that word fails. Absolutely. Justified. Christ justified all those who He called. Did He call you? Did you take the call? Did you pick it up? Did you answer? The Bible tells us that He justified us. He looks at us. You ever, you ever seen somebody go, "I got my eyes." God is saying, "I got my eyes on you and I see you as holy and as pure as my Son, Jesus. You've been justified by His blood, washed in the blood of the Lamb, made clean, made whole, made new, so new that nobody can take our past and judge us any longer." And I love that. I, I meet people in the foyer who I went to high school with or elementary school with, and it's great because most of them, they come up, "Hey, you remember me?" "Of course not. I mean, come on. I've never even seen you here before." "Oh, no. I'm visiting for the first time. But do you remember me?" So, what kind of question is that? "I don't know who you are." "Yeah, yeah, actually you do. We hung out together in the seventh grade." And he's just like, "Yeah, can you just keep that down and just move out the door? I don't want to remember those days." But then it's beautiful for them to come back and say, "I became a believer, too." You know? It's like, "Yes." Wow. So good. God is so good. So, the second thing is this: that we're all under construction. Can you say amen to that? Amen. If you think you arrived, you got hit in the head. Again, it all goes against judging one another. We can't do that. We don't have this. We don't have the skill set, the know-how, or the authority. The truth of the matter is, we are individually under construction. And some people grow faster than others. Now, in this city, uh, when you submit plans to build, they hold you to dates. And I appreciate that, by the way. This is the scope of your project. This is the scope of the, this is the, and it's going to, you got to get it done. Once you put a shovel on the ground, you got to get it done by so many months or years or whatever it's got to be done. But listen, when that is not upheld, uh, things go weird. Now, all of us are growing at different rates, but listen, we are to be growing. You know, over here in town, there's this, um, I, I don't even know what it is anymore. I got all excited and then I lost all my excitement about it. Some contractor started about eight years ago, uh, this place that looks like Egypt, that Pharaoh, it was like a restaurant that was supposed, and I was so excited for Egyptian food. And this is like, this is going to be great. Look, they got all this incredible, the building looks like it's been yanked out of the Egyptian desert. It's like, this is awesome. And, uh, it's still not open. It's just standing there. I think the city should take it and just kind of leave it alone, but sell tickets to walk through a reenactment of ancient Egypt because it's all abandoned. And but you, they were supposed to complete it by a certain date. Friends, listen. Well, I don't know why people around me don't grow up and, you know, get on board. Whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait. God's the one working in them. Well, my wife is not coming along quick enough. Okay, Mr. Law Enforcement Spiritual Development Overseer, back off. In fact, if you want to play that game, I'll come back on you and say, "How much of you, how much have you been fasting and praying for the spiritual development of your wife?" Okay, that's very important. Well, it's my husband. Commit him to the Lord. Seriously, every day get up and you might, you can, you can text him or call him or say, "Hey, I just want you to know I've committed you to the Lord today." That'll drive a man nuts right there. All day long, the Holy Spirit's saying, "She committed you to the Lord." You know, we all grow at different rates. My goodness, when I met my wife at 18 years old, Lisa knew the Bible so much. I was a new believer. And I knew right then by her witness, hey young people, listen up. This is free. Do not go out or date anyone whose spirituality does not impress you. Did you hear what I said? Young people, if you're not blown away by her prayer life or his prayer life, you don't need to go on a date. You don't even need to go that far. You can, you don't, you don't need to do that. But if you see somebody who's grow, who's strong, preferably even stronger than you. Now, so Lisa was way stronger than me. She had been raised in a Christian home. I came along late. So she was, uh, at the time, I'm bad at this kind of stuff, but I got saved at the age of 19. I met her, I think I was late, maybe 20, almost 21. We got married when I was 21. I met her. She was 18. I went to a graduation. Yeah. I met her. Went to her graduation, and I thought, "I got to marry this woman." She knew the Bible. So her Bible was worn out when I first met her. I thought about, she had her grandmother's Bible. I'm serious. She got up at Calvary Costa Mesa. I took her there. Her first date was to Calvary Costa Mesa. Took her there, and she got up to go to the bathroom. I started looking through her Bible. I thought it was, I thought it was her grandmother's Bible. It's so worn out. It was her Bible she got in the fifth grade. I'm thinking, man, what is this? This is a real Christian. And then I decided, "I'm not going to let this one get away." If you're looking for somebody, let their spirituality impress you before you go any further or before you take another look. Yes. Yeah. Yes. You. Yeah. Thank you, God. Yes. They should be a witness to you, right? And so this is very important. "One person esteems one day above another. Pick a day. Another esteems every day alike. Let each that is individually a person be fully convinced in his own mind." Can you guys handle this? Think about the liberty in this. What if people can only worship Jesus here on Wednesday nights? Their schedule doesn't allow Sundays or Saturdays or Tuesdays or Mondays. You think God's, you think God will accept them? I don't know. It's Wednesday. You know what? What if you're a believer and you fall out of an airplane and land on a deserted island in the South Pacific and there's no church? What day of the week are you going to worship? Oh, every day. You and, good for you. But you, but why? Why every day? Ali airplane. That's awesome. Did you hear what he said? You thank God every day because you'd survived falling out of the airplane. Oh, that's good. All of a sudden, listen, on a deserted island, all the, all the criteria are blown away, right? You worship God every day. Hey, take that mentality and insert it into your life now, every day. Every day. The difference about today is that we all get to get together today. But we could do this on Monday nights. We can do this Wednesday, Tuesday, Friday. It's all the same. And I tell you what, if you understand that, if you start to practice that every day given to the Lord in honor of Him, you're going to experience what I, what I take from the Bible as walking in the Spirit. It's every day, all the time, everywhere. You can't like get up on Tuesday and say, "Now, God, I'll see You tonight. I'll, I'll be home a little early, but I'll see You later, God. It's Tuesday." You can't do that. You can lie to yourself, but you can't do that. Remarkable. And the Bible here tells us to be convinced. The word here means, and look at it, it's, it's extensive. It means to bring in full measure, to fulfill, to accomplish, to be made fully assured of deep personal conviction. Are you deeply personally convicted of this belief that you can only worship God on Saturday? If that's true and not on Sunday, that's why He told us a moment ago, then worship God on Saturday. And if you don't worship God on Sunday, then that's between you and God. But neither one of us have the opportunity or the authority to judge anyone of any day of the week somebody chooses to worship God. Do I agree with what I just said? I'm not sure. I'm a big fan of seeing every day exactly the same. You might be of the persuasion, nope. It's got to be Fridays. What does the Bible tell me to do about your Friday belief? Love. You say, "You, you worship God on Friday?" "I sure do. Friday's the day." You know what you say to them? "Right on. That's great. Make it the best." But if you're legalistic, you're going to say, "You can't do that. You got to do it the way I do it." And now you're wrong. It's no wonder why we're called a family. Think about it. But we as humans, we have a predilection toward error. You know that? We just, we have a predisposition toward error. Jesus said that. But listen to what Isaiah said. Isaiah 45:23 says, "I have sworn by myself." Okay, first of all, just that part, those five words, that's enough. We could go home. You guys, this is the God. Are you guys with me? This is the God of all that there is. He is it. And His word to us is, "I have sworn by myself." You, He didn't say, He didn't, He never will. God says, "I want you to stand up and raise your right hand and I want you to swear to me." Do you understand that God knows even if you had the best intentions, you're going to fail. Look, I'm not knocking it, but but personally, remember the big Promise Keepers movement? That's a great idea. But let's be honest, the reason why they probably never invited me to speak is because I often said, "We can't keep any promises. We ain't the promise keepers." But you have a t-shirt. I could, I could want to keep every promise I make, but I don't have the power to pull it off. That's why God says, "Don't sweat it. I have sworn by myself. I shook my own hand. That's what it means." Did you know that's what He did with Abraham when Abraham fell asleep at the altar? God, it says, who could swear by none greater than Himself, swore with Himself. "I agree to uphold this." Okay, isn't that amazing? That's the covenant that God has made with you. With you. And this gets fun because it's really feisty time we're living in. God made all these eternal promises to Israel, but now all these podcast lunatics are saying that God is not going to keep His everlasting promises to Israel. You better rethink that, because if He doesn't, He will not keep any promises to you. He said His promises to them are everlasting, no matter what they ever do. He said, "I've picked you and I've made an everlasting covenant with you guys and I'm going to make you a nation a second time. I'm going to bring the Jews from all over the world back into their own land and I'm going to set Israel up and I'm going to return to Israel when I come back." If you don't believe that, if you don't believe that for them, you have no grounds of faith in your New Testament Christianity. Zip. Not a net. Nothing. I'm actually loving what's going on. All this debate, argument, split. This church is splitting over the issue of Israel. Let it split. That's a good thing. John the, listen, John the Baptist said, "Let's lay the axe to the root of the tree." Charles Spurgeon put it this way: "Those are blessed subtractions." Isn't that great? Charles Spurgeon said, "When a church divides, people who don't want to adhere to orthodoxy, biblical faith," he said, "those are blessed subtractions. Let them go." Do you know what? Uh, boy, am I getting off my notes right now, but it's flowing in the old memory banks right now. You guys remember Dr. Walter Martin? Raise your hand, please, because I'm a really old person. Is there any other old people in here? Dr. Walter Martin once said, and I've never forgotten it. He said, "You should thank God for the cult down the street." He's like, "That's what I did." I went, "What?" And he said, "They have a hunger for spiritual things, but they don't want the truth." He said, "If they weren't over there in that appendix, they would be in your church wreaking havoc." Think of it. If they don't want Jesus, but they want religion, go over there. Does that make sense? Good. That's good. I, but we need to finish Isaiah 45:23. "I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that to me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall take an oath." Everybody listen. You want to struggle or you have been struggling with the deity of Jesus Christ. Did you see that knucklehead billboard sign off the, was it the 10 freeway, somewhere up the 215, whatever? "Jesus is not God." Did you see that? Yeah. Look, look at that. I, I saw that and I went, "Praise God. In the last days, Jesus said false prophets would come." It's like, I wanted to call them up and say, "Thank you for your sign. You guys are false prophets. You're fulfilling Bible prophecy." It's amazing. You're heretics. It's exactly what the Bible warned about that lunatics like you would come in the last days trying to deceive people. I'm so grateful for your sign. Keep it up. Keep it going. Keep it going. This verse is amazing because God of the Old Testament is saying, "Every knee is going to bow to me." Does that ring a bell, folks? Philippians chapter 2, 10 and 11: "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Say amen to that. Wow. That is the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. He's the same God. He's the same one. Just to be sure, Acts 4:11 and 12: "Acts 4:11 and 12. This is the stone which was rejected by the builders, which has become the chief cornerstone, nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Amen.

Oh, church family, that is an absolutely awesome declaration. You think about that for a moment. I'm going to bring this to your, uh, memory after this third point here. And it means this in verse six. It means that we're to be living with Jesus in true liberty. In true liberty. Look at verse six. "For he who observes the day observes it." Notice the qualifier. "To the Lord." Okay, you want to make Tuesday the Lord's day for you, do it. And he who

does not observe that the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. This doesn't mean you're a believer on Sunday and not a believer on Monday. He's talking to believers. It means that this day is a day that you have chosen to set aside for a special day of esteeming God.

Look at Paul's liberty, you guys. This is the apostle, Mr. Legalist. Before that, Paul says, "If you choose not to worship God on Wednesday, but just live your life for God, that's that's your choice. That's fine. Just every day belongs to God."

>> If you have to work on Monday, do you not work on Monday to the glory of God? Amen.

>> Are you not worshiping God at your work?

>> Yes, you are.

>> This gets more beautiful. Watch this. He goes on to say, "He uh he who eats eats to the Lord for he gives God thanks." Watch for the qualifier. He who does not eat to the Lord, he does not eat and gives God thanks. What's the qualifier? Give God thanks.

>> Look, if I choose today to order a I don't know, a gigantic whatever.

>> Pizzas, burgers.

>> Yes. In and Out. Yes. Fish tacos. All of it. I'm I'm to eat it with thanksgiving unto the Lord.

>> If you are fasting today, you are to be joyful about it. Remember the Bible says don't dis don't Jesus said don't disfigure your face when you're fasting. And he said anoint your face. I love that. He said anoint your face when you're fasting. Don't let your mug drag around. And people go, "Oh, what's wrong?" I'm I'm fasting to God. Like, what? You're When you're fasting, you're not supposed to let people know you're fasting. Did you know that?

>> You know, a legalist though, a legalist, a self-righteous person will say, "Hey, sorry, I can't join you guys. I can't join you guys. Thanks for the invitation. I'm fasting to God. I want you to know that. Oh my goodness. Don't ever do that. But Jesus said, "Don't let your right hand know what the left hand's doing.

>> You don't need to broadcast that. Anoint your face. Look like look like you're eating even though you're fasting. That's fine. But the but listen, the qualifier is to give God thanks. We should be the most thankful people

>> in all the world.

>> You know what? I again, I'm running out of time. I just ask that clock in Jesus name. Please stop. Lord, you move the sun for Joshua. We pray that you'd stop. I told I think I told you guys on Wednesday night when Melissa and I were in Peru, there were people up there. We were up in the Andes mountains. They they didn't have much. They were so happy.

>> They were so happy. They got their food and they're eating their part and they got this much food and they're inviting everybody over to eat.

>> What? We're like, wait, that's all I have? I'm not I'm not letting them.

>> It's very precious. Happy with so little. Wow.

Another profound statement regarding Christian liberty there in verse six is the fact that God himself came to set us free. So much so that he became a human to allow his life to experience what you and I live and experience so that he might communicate to us. The Bible tells us in Colossians chapter 2:9, "For in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily." So for those of you who don't think Jesus is God, you got to fix that verse. You got to tear it out of your Bible. That verse is undeniable. For in him dwells all the fullness, the multiplicity of the triune singular God is manifested to the world by Jesus taking on a human body.

>> Can you imagine God contained in skin? You know, in the book of Revelation, he says he walks to the midst of the lampstands. Remember, fellowship. He walks back and forth in the fellowship of any church that is open to him and his word.

I want to show you something because we're kind of out of time. Is when you leave, I know I don't know. I know all of you do not come through the main entrance because you wouldn't all fit, but have you ever seen Have you ever seen the when you leave or enter this building, the foyer? Have you seen Have you seen what's there? There's a 280 pound uncut Jerusalem stone that was shipped to us from Israel. And there's a 1954 51PB bronze replica manora. The the architect built eight of them before he built the one at the Knesset in Jerusalem. That is a there is a bonafide museum piece in that foyer for real. That's one of eight in the world. And we're blessed. It was provided to us. Keeping that in mind, Jesus said, "I walked through the midst of the seven burning lamps." Let's look at this some of these images I want you to see. You see there's a plaque on the ground. I'm not going to read it right now, but notice this stone. And we'll run through some pictures here to show you. Um, beautiful. It's uncut. You see there? It's not sawed. It's not cut. They knocked it out of the hillside and that's what tumbled out. And that's And by the way, it's kind of floating on top of the ground. It's not exactly sitting on the ground. Okay, closer. It's in Hebrew, by the way. Notice how many lampstands there are.

>> You want to count them? There's seven. From Genesis to Revelation, the manora only has seven lamps. Did you know the manora that was in the tabernacle in the wilderness and in the temple were seven? It doesn't appear again until the book of revelation. Jesus says, "I walk through the midst through them." Little bit closer. Isn't that gorgeous? From right to left, it reads, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord." from Zechariah.

>> All of these carvings are the are depictions. This is what the architect designed before he built the real one in Jerusalem. It's massive, by the way. You can look at it online. I forget how high it is. Maybe 15 feet high, 20 feet, I don't know. But these are all biblical events. For example, from counting from the left, go over three. Do you see David holding up Goliath's head?

>> Yes.

>> It's full of all of this. Next, next slide. I think we have more slides. Okay. This explains it. This gal stone was excavated from the hill country of Jerusalem and on and on it goes. Go. It was shipped by ship to Los Angeles as a gift to the church here from Israel. 9,000mi journey took six weeks. On and on it goes. It's a symbol of the cornerstone. The gospel is presented in that. Next slide. The manora. Describing the manora. Jesus said as I have been saying he walks through the midst of the seven lampstands. It's a symbol of this of the fellowship of God among his people in the temp in the tabernacle and again in the temple. The light of those of the manora was to never go out. Never go out. Next.

Oh yeah. This is beautiful. Look at that. Isn't that beautiful? All handcrafted. That's not that's not poured into some mold. It's amazing. By the way, when Pastor Chuck came to dedicate this church in our service, he attempted to buy that some months earlier in Jerusalem. They told him it wasn't for sale. And then we were we received it. In fact, you know how it got here? Amir hand carried it on a British Airways flight. 51 pounds. He walked on the British Airways flight. He brought it here by hand. And uh Pastor Chuck saw it when he walked in the building and he went, "I'm not going to tell you how much he offered, but he offered them money for it and they said, "No, it's not for sale." Then he shows up here and it's I just felt very happy to impress a man that's hard to impress. He's already seen everything. Next slide.

Yeah, just some of these depictions. Look at the art. Look at the the crafting of all of that. What's the point? The fellowship of God is among his people. Next slide. I don't know how many we have. I forget a lot. More. Go. And go. Look at that. Go. Look at that. So all these biblical events. Take the time to look at it. This is absolutely amazing. Wow. Beautiful, right?

>> All declaring the goodness of God. Not by might,

>> not by power. You can't do it by being mighty. Can't do it by being p powerful. Not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord is how you and I experience the salvation and the saving work of God.

And um Lord we are grateful today we are so grateful and Lord we are to extend the fact that you've accepted each of us in Christ by the blood of Christ. if you were to apply to us individually that which we apply to others. In other words, Lord, if we critique and criticize and hold at a distance a brother or a sister who hasn't met our standards, we're inviting you to treat us the exact same way. I pray that that sinks into our lives right now. that somebody here who has a standard not found in scripture. It's what they've established is spiritual maturity. They just so happen to be they think like that that they come out of prayer and then turn to their brother or sister and basically say, "Now, you need to be just like me if I'm going to accept you. Thank you, Lord. You're not like that. Thank you that you look to us and you say to us, "As a father pies his children, so the Lord pies those who fear him, that you look at us and you say, if I don't open that person's eyes, if I don't rescue them from their path and from the their future that I see, they're going to be destroyed. They're going to wind up in hell." My friends, can I put it this way in a human term? If God is willing to to dirty his hands to rescue you out of the pit of immorality or drunkenness or addiction or evil or arrogance, self-righteousness, if God is willing to come down from heaven and veil himself in human skin to show us the way and salvation of eternal life through him, then shouldn't we who are saved be so grateful and thankful and exercise that graciousness to others that maybe are either new in the faith or they're just not growing as fast as we'd like to see. And instead of criticizing them, we'd put our arm around them and help them along the way that we'd all grow together in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit upon this place, upon us, upon this work. May we honor you in all things. We were once like children and you've called us to put away childish things and now we seek to walk with you. May your grace as promised sustain us. May your Holy Spirit as promised possess us. And may your word be the final word in us. We ask it in Jesus name. And all God's people said,

>> "Amen." Amen. God bless you. See you Wednesday night.