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

So church family, we're in a brand new section, Romans chapter 14 today. We're going to read a long section of the scripture. We'll cover uh the first three verses in our study today, but we're looking at a series now titled getting real with God and man. Getting real with God and man.

Romans chapter 14, I'll start in verse one. If you read the odd-numbered vers or the even numbered verses, that would be great. Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one who believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat. And let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him. Who are you to judge another servant? to his own master. If he stands or falls, indeed he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

Verse 5, one person esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He 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.

Verse seven, for none of us lives to himself. Think of that. And no one dies to himself. 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 Lords. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again that he might be Lord of both 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 to God.

Lord, we pray that the going forth of this truth, remarkable, practical life. Now, our love for you and our love for one another is the preeminent call that has been on the lips of the apostle and in the hearing of our ears. We ask you, Father, in the name of Christ Jesus, that you would open up our hearts and our minds to leave this building today literally more mature than when we came in by virtue of your truth, your eternal truth. We pray now in Jesus name. And all God's people said, amen. You may be seated, church.

And again, getting real with God and man, as we open up this section together, and um as we do this, I'm going to ask you to be taking notes as I often do. challenge you to take notes for a lot of reasons. I'm a big fan of either a marking up your Bible. I take notes. When I take notes, I write it in the margins of my Bible. I like I call it rigging. I rig my Bible. And uh you can also, of course, take your phone right now and scan the QR code and you'll get the notes that I have, my personal notes, right onto your device. And um you'll know how to do this. I don't. But you can write on those notes on your device and uh make it personal, which is a great diary commentary for your own life. But um when you write things down, you'll remember them better and you can rehearse them.

But as we look at this, we uh to actually start this teaching, we have to look uh look at the end uh to start the beginning. And what I mean by that is look at verses 11 and 12. We just read it a moment ago. Uh the actual beginning is at the end. In other words, what we're about to read here, let that be the prevailing view, the lens in which you read the Bible in this section of scripture. Romans 14:1, for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me," he said, "and every tongue shall confess to God." So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God in light of the fact that you and I will literally stand before God on our own alone. Every one of us say, "I'm an atheist." Doesn't matter. You're going to stand before God. You won't be, by the way, you won't be an atheist then. It'll just be too late for you to decide. Your time will have expired. You'll stand before God. Your judgment is set. But you will be a believer by then at that moment.

But speak speaking of the the church and Paul is writing from Corenth Greece to Rome and the churches of the Roman area and he's announcing to them with what we're going to talk about. It's all based upon the fact that all of us are going to stand before God in the end. Every single one of us. And uh know this that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Very very powerful. And so the gravity of these two verses that are before us set the tone of what we're looking at today. And um it is a powerful thing for sure.

And I want you to mark this down as well. What we're going to be learning about here in the New Testament is what is spoken of in the Old Testament by Micah. Micah chapter 6 verse 8. Remember we used to sing this song by the way. We need to get back to it. He has shown you, oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. What a tremendous, beautiful verse that is. And yet, in all of these things, the Bible tells us that the God of the Bible is a God who has given us the Bible. And the Bible is the revelation of God's plan for your life. Yes, it deals with the nation of Israel and other nations. Yes, it deals with Bible prophecy. Yes, it deals with heaven and hell and sin and death and life and forgiveness. But the Bible's announcement to you and I as individuals is this, that God can be known. And God wants to be known. He wants you to know him. He wants you to grab hold of them.

And when we see scripture, listen, throughout scripture from old to New Testament, there's those moments where somebody lays hold of the heart of God as it were. Moses did that uh on Mount Si. And we'll talk about this in just a moment, but Moses did that as it were. His spirit lunged for the living God. He couldn't take it anymore. In fact, at one point, Moses, God tells Moses, "You're going to leave now. Get the people to break camp. You're going to head and you're going to go into the promised land." And Moses said, "Are you going to go with us? Because if you're not going, I'm not going. Don't send us some angel." I love that kind of talk. But you know what? God loved that kind of talk. Moses said, "We're not going, God, unless you're going with us. Angels are great. No doubt about it. But they're not the Lord." Amen. And I I I think there there had to be a smile on God's face in that moment. But he's a personal God. What kind of God would he be if he was not personal? And many times in this congregation, I've stressed the reality that relationship that you and I can have with one another. Why would you and I be able to enjoy somewhat of a relationship here in this fallen world? And God wouldn't allow us to have a relationship with him, the very creator of relationships. Of course he does. And there's a way. We'll talk about this in in a moment. There's a so to speak loving protocol to approach him. He is God.

By the way, the Bible tells us in Psalm 16:es 8 and N. I have set the Lord always before me. David says, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope. Friends, listen. Will you just take note of that or take a picture of that or copy of that? What a great statement that is. David is saying that the God that we study about in the Bible is a God who is so knowable that David 3,000 years ago expresses this. I've set the Lord always before me. I just love that thinking. See, how does he do that? Well, we know how he didn't do it. He didn't set up an idol. That would have been blasphemous. He didn't set up a statue. Oh, look. The Lord is always before me. See, he's right there. No, it's way, way more real than that, folks. It's Paul or it's uh David deciding, I have determined that I'm going to live my life with and before the Lord, and that's how I'm going to live my life. And I hope that's how you and I are going to live our lives. That's certainly what God wants. And I love how he says, "Therefore, my heart is glad." And he says that my glory rejoices. What a wonderful statement that is. How can it be said? Because God's personal. He's not remote. He's not distant. God is not removed as some might get you to think.

And then we talk about the fundamental revelation of God in him being knowable. the knowable God. And that is in Genesis chapter 3:15. I I love this verse. You've heard it many, many times in our studies. But um I'm a real big fan of Bible prophecy. I think everybody should be to be honest with you. Bible prophecy proves that the Bible is given by God. God tells the future in advance. But one of the great things about God prophesying the future is when he prophesies what is known as the doctrine of sotiology. It is God, the God of the Bible, who prophesied salvation. No man made that up. Nobody concocted that idea. God did. Listen, I'm being sarcastic right now. Why would God give you and I the idea that he wanted you and I to be forgiven and experience salvation? Why would he do that? Yes. Because he loves us. That ought to blow your mind. Amen. You say, "Well, I don't know, pastor. Nobody loves me in this world." Maybe that's true. Maybe nobody does love you. Who cares? God does. By the way, let's be honest. The people who love us on Monday, they may not love us on Tuesday.

Genesis 3:15, God is speaking. He says, "I will put enmity between you, Satan, and the woman Eve. I'm going to put warfare between Satan and his descendants and Eve and her descendants. Between your seed and her seed," notice the capital S, divinity. Someone's going to come from Eve who will be divine. Whoever he is, we know who he is. He shall bruise. The word bruise, you'll see the bruise twice. The word, the context demands everything. Let me read it according to context. He shall crush your head. Hey, Satan, you're going to get a head crushing by the one who's going to come from the woman Eve. She's going to have one in her line who will be one of divinity. He's going to crush your head. Oh, I like that. and you Satan shall bruise his heel. Satan will inflict the pain upon Christ. And that is summed up in the fact that Christ goes to the cross and he suffers rejection and he fulfills Isaiah chapter 53 and Psalm 22 of the Old Testament. and he goes to that cross and he bears the atoning weight of God's people. And uh the Bible tells us that Christ and it had to be this way. Jesus died at Golgtha. He died in Jerusalem. He died in the nation of Israel. And all of that to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies.

And I want to stress that in light of today's insanity that's being discussed by I was going to say what came into my head, but you know there's a big debate right now. Is Israel really Israel? Are they legitimate as a country? Should we be helping them? And the word in Hebrew is libtard. Libtard. Sorry, I probably need to ask God to forgive me. If you say today that there is no viable existence for the nation of Israel, you are denying the Bible. Jesus not only had to die in Jerusalem, but the Bible tells us that without an Israel and without a Jerusalem, Christ can't return. When Jesus returns to the earth to establish his kingdom, he returns to where? Canada. Santa Monica. He returns. His foot will touch the Mount of Olives. Zechariah tells us, the Bible tells us it's going to split open. Ezekiel tells us that water will explode from from uh the Mount of Olive and it will flow down into the sea of the Mediterranean and half of it will flow down into the Dead Sea and Christ will cross the Kidron Valley and he'll go through the Golden or the Eastern Gate. He will establish his rule and reign. And Daniel tells us he'll judge all the nations as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. That's at the end of the seven-year tribulation period, the great second coming of Christ. And I'm getting so excited about this. It has nothing to do in my notes, but I just had to say that there's a lot of people denying denying the legitimate government of Israel today because they say they're sinners. They don't believe in God. They're immoral. No. And I hear people saying that and I'm thinking, are you are you sinless? And what are you referring to? And they're they're talking about America has now taken the place. Are you c is America not immoral? Is not America the one that pumps out sin to the world? We are the pornographic capital of the world. No, it's ridiculous. Israel is Israel in the Bible. Jerusalem is Jerusalem and the Messiah is the Messiah. And there's no messing around with that. I digress.

Genesis through Moses announces that you and I will have a redeemer who will crush Satan's head. And Jesus did that at the cross and when he rose again from the dead. It's an awesome thing. I'm going to give you a list of some things. This is all introduction. We haven't gotten to the Bible study yet. God is personal. Listen to this. He's personal and um he willingly displays that by his acts of grace. Um oh this is not on the screen. I'm going have to read it all by myself. Uh example, you might want to write this down. What would be God's personal and willing display of himself in the act of grace? Number one comes to my mind um is Noah. The Bible tells us that Noah found grace in the sight of God. Noah. Then I think about Abraham. Abraham, this is kind of a shakaroo. Abraham was a gentile before he became a Jew. He was from of the Caldes. He was pagan. This is how, are you listening? This is how personal your God is. Your God, who is God, same God. We're studying that on Wednesday nights. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's the same God who calls Abram out of paganism. He called me out of paganism. He said, "Come." Basically, the word is the same. Think about it. Didn't Jesus say to Peter, "Come, follow me." God said to Abram, "Come to me. Follow me. I I'm going to lead you out. Come." And then, you know, the Bible tells us, Sarah asked him, "Where are we going?" Hebrews 11:8 says, "Abraham went out following God, not knowing where he was going." Can you imagine, Abram, where are we going? Where are we going? Can you This is the dread of every every married man. Honey, where are we going? I don't know. He tells her, "I don't know. I'm following his voice." Personal. He's so personal. Yet he's God. He's spirit. And we are just mere mortals. But he loves you. and he loves us.

A great example of his grace is again when God spoke to Moses and when Moses said, "Show me your glory." God says to Moses, "Humans can't look at me and live just my very presence." That's so personal. He tells Moses, "I'd love to show you me, but if you see me, you'll fry. I mean, the physics won't work. You're mere mortal. I'm spirit. And if you were to look at me, you would die." Moses, but he saw the artor of Moses's heart and he says, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll do second best. You see this crack in the rock over here? I'm going to stuff you." This is how I see it. I see Mo God says, "Moses, go in the crack." And here's God's finger and he's just pushing Moses into the crack. Tucking tucking the There's an elbow hanging out, but push that in. There's part of Moses's chin sticking out. You just push that in there. All right, Moses, don't move. It's kind of like taking a picture. You ready? Don't move. Smile. God stuffs him in a rock. And the Bible says that God passed by and then God removed his hand from covering Moses's body and Moses's face. And the Bible says that the atmosphere was so disturbed by the presence of God passing through that that's where we get the word afterlow. Moses saw the residual effects of God's presence having gone through the atmosphere that was in front of Moses. And so powerful was that that it actually changed the look of Moses's face as he began to take on the glow. That's why he came down Mount Si with his face covered that he didn't want the people to see the glory departing from him as it faded. Personal God.

And then what about the personal God revealed in the man David? He says of David, David is a man after my own heart. You can't get more personal than that, everybody. In all of life right now, you and I need more and more and more of this personal awesome God. We sing worship songs to him, but we scarcely know him. Let's be honest. We can combine all of our knowledge together and we've scratched the surface, maybe, but we love him. How do we love him when we've never seen him? It's hard to explain this, but he has revealed himself to us personally on the inside. hearttoheart.

And then what about the man Isaiah? In Isaiah chapter 6, it's an awesome revelation where Isaiah sees the glory of God. He's allowed to see heaven and the seraraphim before the presence of God, the great angels before him. And when Isaiah sees that, Isaiah understands that when he sees the Lord, he says, "I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his glory filled the temple." Isn't that interesting? There's a temple in heaven. And then what about the man Daniel, the personal God, met with Daniel. By the way, young people, listen up. Daniel was taken as a very young teenager, very young, maybe 13, captive and taken into Babylon. He never saw his home again. He never saw family. He never saw his country. He never saw his home again. And Daniel remained true to God. How do you remain true to God after all of those decades? Because God revealed himself personally to Daniel. And I want to submit to you today that the more that you pursue and seek after the Lord, he will reward you with more of his presence in your life. So much so that as you walk with him, that reality takes more hold of your life than anything in this temporal world can ever possess. Remarkable.

But Daniel had favor from God. And then finally with this one, just these are just brief examples. The prophet Malachi in your Old Testament is summed up in this. God tells Malachi, "i, I'm listening." Isn't that a beautiful thing to hear? Don't you want to maybe right now in your life, don't you want to hear God say to you, "I am listening to you. I can hear you." In fact, he says in Malachi, "I not only can hear you and I'm listening to you." God says, "This is awesome." I think it's Malachi 3:16. I'm not sure. God says, I'm even writing it down in my book of remembrance. Oh, this is the God of the Bible and he loves you. Said, "Where are you going with this? I'm trying to build you up, strengthen you up." Because as we begin to look at this portion of scripture, you and I have no right whatsoever to look down upon a brother or a sister who eats meat or doesn't eat meat. And it has nothing to do I heard some of you chuckle when it says vegetables. You're thinking, you were thinking vegetarian, weren't you? This has nothing to do with being a vegetarian. This is not some hippie woke uh food choice. You'll see what it means. You'll be quite uh quite surprised what it means. Why wouldn't somebody avoid meat? And Paul's writing this in the Bible. You'll see. It's it's pretty cool.

But it's the ministry of the Old Testament in the Hebrew Bible that tells us that God reveals himself and has given us his promises. And in Romans chapter 1 16 and 17, Paul writes and says, "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." Amen. I hope you're not ashamed of naming the name of Jesus in public. I hope you don't turn red in the face. If anything, we should mention the name Jesus and the world should turn red in their face. Amen.

By the way, can I get all of you to do this? I shared this with you before, but let's just do this together. If you and I are somewhere and we hear the name of God, we hear God or Jesus Christ said in a not so happy setting. It could be in a movie, could be at a restaurant. Let's let's agree to do this. Kind of like slapping that sticker on the back of your car and getting prayed for. Let's all agree on this. When you hear somebody say in a movie or TV show or on the golf course, Jesus Christ or God, exactly. Just say is Lord. If you're at a theater and you're in then and the thing's going on and notice it's the number one cuss word than any other word. If somebody says Jesus Christ uh there in the theater, say is Lord and you just ruined the day for everybody. It's beautiful. You know what they'll go? They'll leave that movie thinking, you know, there was some lunatic. Every time somebody said Jesus Christ in the film, somebody yelled out and said, "He's Lord." And you know what's going to happen? Somebody's going to say, "Well, what's wrong with that? He is the Lord." Think about that. We can't let them get away with that. Amen. And we can have some fun doing that. Let's just do that. If I if I'm in Look, if I'm watching if I'm watching a Despicable Me or something, I'm kidding. I don't know what it is. But wherever we're at, if if if I hear it, I'll say it. And if you're down the hall or over the other way or five seats behind me, if it h and then you say it, could you imagine what if there's three of us in the theater? What if there's 10 of us in the theater? Jesus is Lord or he's Lord. What a witness.

Don't be ashamed of the gospel. He says, "For it is the power of God into salvation, to every believer, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." And here's the Old Testament verse. This is the gospel in the Old Testament. The just shall live by faith. Habach chapter 2 verse4. Beautiful. Wonderful.

One more introductory verse before we get going here. You remember Genesis 3:15, right? Well, how would that be performed? This is a good question for you theologians. If Genesis 3:15 is in the Bible, and it is, and if it's written by Moses, given to him by God, and it is, is there any way that I can pursue that claim? How do I find out? Well, one of those great discoveries to back up Genesis 3:15 is Jeremiah 31:31, starting right there. Listen to this. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. You guys remember when Charlton H did that, my covenant, he's talking about the Old Testament, ten commandments, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds. Wow. And I will write on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. You can say amen to that. Amen. Because did you see a moment ago in Romans chapter 1 16 where it says that the gospel of salvation is to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. There's the fulfillment of it right there. Remarkable.

So God who is all loving and all caring and kind invites all to come to him by faith. And because the gift of salvation is provided by God, paid for by God, invented by God, he's the redeemer. Who are we to boast? Who are we to strut our what? our knowledge, our uh denominational background. What a joke. Yeah. Well, I'm a Lutheran. Well, we'll pray for you. Well, I'm a Catholic. I'm a Baptist. I'm a Calvary Chapel person. By the way, do you guys know you're in Calvary Chapel, which forget about the name. This this is a Bible study, and you'd be shocked to find out who's sitting around you. There are people here from every every denomination. There are some people here who don't know even know why they're here. They just thought they should come. There's there's listen, there's Jews who come here after Sabbath. They come here to learn to find out what what is it we thank. There's even cult members who show up trying to get after a message. They try to follow you to your car to hand you something. And let us know. By the way, set your alarm off. The car will beep. We'll send We'll deploy some of our special forces to to rescue you from false doctrine. But wow.

So, here we go, church. It's this getting real with God and man, verses 1 to3. It's this. It means that uh we have a grounded faith. Can you write that down? Grounded faith. We've got to make sure that you and I have a grounded faith that can take it. That can take the criticism. That can take the attacks. can take all of the challenges. Is your faith grounded? And we look at it this verse one. Wherever there's a grounded faith, there's going to be maturity that produces a practical faith. I love God's definition of faith in the scriptures.

So here it says right in verse one it says receive one who is weak in the faith but not to disputes over doubtful things. You say what in the world does this mean? Well number one we've got to unpack the meaning of these words. Look at the Greek word for receive. It's very important in chapter 14 verse one. The word receives here means to bring in or to take alongside. Listen as brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, that would be those of us who understand that the Old and New Testament speaks about Jesus being the Messiah, Yeshua Hamashiach. We understand that. We understand that he forgives sins, but his requirement is that you must confess your sins, repent of them. You, in other words, you must agree with God. I have sinned against the Almighty God. We've all sinned. The question is, what are you going to do about it? This is critical. Are you going to humble yourself and receive his free gift? Or are you going to pull up your boots and tighten your belt and say, "I'm going to believe, but I'm also going to help God out." There's a big difference. There's an eternal difference between those two things. Why? Because the just shall live by faith. And so when the Bible tells us to bring in or to take alongside of, to open our arms or to welcome in, to make welcome accepted, he's saying this to us all right now as believers. Be opening and accepting with arms to bring in alongside of you any weak brother that has a weak faith. And make sure that you do that for no other reason but for love. Don't listen, don't bring them in. He says to get into disputes about doubtful things. This is a profound declaration of maturity. A grounded faith is a mature faith. It knows what it believes and it can defend what it believes. I'm going to ask you this. Don't answer. Don't answer out loud, but by all means, please get this answered. Can you tell anyone who asks you on what basis does God forgive sins? You need to have the answer or else you don't know the answer. Do you hear what I'm saying? I don't care if you've come here all your life. I don't care if you're a card carrying member of the first Pentecostal church. If you cannot answer this very basic fundamental question like this one, here's another one. On what basis does God forgive sins? You need to know this. If you don't know the answer to that, how can you believe in it? I believe Jesus is Lord. What does that mean? I believe God is God. What does that mean? You've got to be able This is what's wrong with the church today, at least in the Western world. It says and spouts off all kinds of things, and it doesn't know how to back up what they claim to believe. Amen. You would never get your job that way. you'd never keep your job that way.

A practical faith is a working faith. Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins and to give us that new identity that's in him. When we talk about the word receive, here's a great verse. You probably already thought about it. John 1:12 says, "But as many as received him," that's that word for as many as come alongside and have him come alongside you and you come alongside him. You're in agreement. To them he gave the right to become children of God. To those who believe in his name. The word name can also be translated authority. Who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God. Born of God. The believer must be born of God. Jesus said it this way. You must be born again. He said to Nicodemus the teacher of Israel.

And then the word is weak. Look at the word weak. This is the one that we concerning our brothers and sisters that you and I know. They are weaker in the faith. They're not as strong as you. How are we to deal with them? Did you know that we live in a family? This is a family right here. And part of being in a family is that we're all in different we're different ages. We're different levels like a family. But this is even deeper. It's a spiritual family. And in a family there's uh the need for us to practice these things in love. Not out of arrogance. The word weak means feeble. Sensitive in the negative sense. Sensitive. Not sensitive to the voice but sensitive to you're very very thin skinned. You're a Christian. You're going to heaven. You love God but you have thin skin. You're easily offended. Uh, that person didn't say hi to me. I don't think I'm going to go back to that church anymore. That's who we're talking about. You're weak. It's not an insult. It's just an assessment of your of your level of spiritual growth or not. The word means sickly or prone to feebleness of spirit or faith implying a lack of spiritual freedom. That's important. And power narrow or limited. What does that mean in our day? Listen, you and I to have a grounded faith. It's a practical faith. And there are those who have not yet grown much along in their faith. They may have been Christians for a long time, but they've never been well taught. But here's the thing that they're easily offended by the slightest things. The truth is they haven't come to understand grace. And so they can't they don't understand grace and so they can never give grace. I call them sin sniffers and faultfinders. They they're in the family, but they're always calling you out. I get letters every time I say this. I'm going to It's going to happen again. Here it comes. You ready? At least I'm telling you the truth, and it's this. I need the Holy Spirit to have greater control of my life. When I see a speed limit sign, I see a speed limit sign and I think that's a challenge. I need to have I need to repent of that. I need to understand that that the car cannot go beyond that number. I'm thinking the car can't go slower than that number. I'm weak in the faith that way. Okay. But think about your life. Well, this per that I I that person has makeup on. No, this is for real. They should be more spiritual like me. They have makeup on. When we begin in our weakness, when we begin to look at other brothers and sisters that do not fit our ranking of acceptance into the body of Christ because we've established our standards and they're not God established standards. Did God say anywhere not to put makeup on? Ladies, that was your moment to say actually. Wait, us men should have said, "Yeah, that's right." A woman wrote Jay Vernon McGee and said, "I've been told that I can't wear makeup. What does the Bible say?" He says, "The Bible doesn't say anything about it." And he said, "Ma'am, if the barn needs painting, paint it." I didn't say that. Jay Burn and McGee said that. You can ask him when you get to heaven. But we set up these rules and they're not even in the Bible. when the but listen if it's not in the Bible what does the Bible say about rules that are not in the Bible the next word is this conscious our what's our conscience our convictions about it and what about the conscious or the convictions of others about it if it's not mentioned in the Bible we always default to love think of this and so there's the weaker that is offended by many things. It's the weaker one that is critical. The one who has these rules and regulations. Listen, the weaker you are in the faith, the more rules and regulations and fences you're going to have to establish because you do not understand and you do not enjoy. Listen, listen, this is serious. Your freedoms that are in Christ. And boy, I say that carefully because so many people today abuse the freedoms and misuse that's that true doctrine of God. Let me put it to you this way. In Christ Jesus, you're not free to go do anything you want. Well, I'm a Christian. I can go sin. God will forgive me. Oh, no. That's not Oh, no. That's called anti-nomianism. And God doesn't forgive that. The Old Testament says that's sins of the high hand. Well, I'm going to go do this thing next Friday night 8:00. We're going to go out and then I'll ask God to forgive me. No, no, no. He doesn't forgive that. Did you know that? He He calls it sins of a high. It's premeditated sin. He says, "I I'm not going to forgive that." Isn't that amazing? That just proves that you're still not a believer. You may you may go to church. You may claim to be a Christian, but if you can premeditate an appointment with sin and it doesn't have a storm go off inside of you, it just proves that you're internally dead. Amen. And that's why the the call out to that. And that's why God rebukes that so strongly. And much of people who live in the church today are actually living that kind of a life. They don't have a practical faith. They have a Sunday morning, an hour and a half faith. And God says, "Away with that."

The Bible tells us in Romans 15:12, "We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others, do what is right, and build them up." I love that. In the Lord, come alongside them. Build them up.

And then the words dispute and doubtful. Two powerful words. We shouldn't get caught up and and uh get into un unnecessary uh debates that take us nowhere. The act of passing judgment upon another. The word disputes. It means to hold someone in a lesser state or in a low opinion. To assume a superiority uh or superior authority that you do uh that you do not have. You you think you have this authority to judge other Christians. when in reality you don't have that. And Paul says that cannot be us. We are to get real with God and man. And it starts out with us confronting the fact that God loves us. So should we in turn and love others like he loves us. And again, Paul is writing to the family of God, the church. Very powerful.

Listen to this. Uh St. Augustine, Augustine of Hippo wrote wrote this. This is great. He says, "In essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all things, charity." Isn't that beautiful? When it's in essential, we need to come together biblically and unite. It's right there in the Bible. We submit to the obedience of the word of God. When it's peripheral things where it's not crystal clear, you know what we'll do? We'll exercise liberty in those areas. What does that mean? You know what? If somebody says to me, I I can't go to the beach. This is this is this is kind of true. Watch this. Did you know um where there are those who think we Californians Oh, you Oh, California. I had I had this happen. I had this happen in England years ago. I taught at a church in England and after the sermon, I didn't know, but everybody the All right. Amen. Let's go. And everybody walks out of the church and they walk across the park and they go to a pub and and I'm following them. I don't know where we're going. I'm like And we go into a pub and I'm okay. Uh, I'll have shepherd's pie and a water for real. And you know what they told me? Oh, you don't you don't you don't drink. See, in America, people drink to get drunk. In Europe, because the water's filthy, all those countries drink and they don't get drunk. But I couldn't get near I couldn't have a Guinness near me. So why? Somebody might take a picture. I could be on the front page of the news. So, I drank my water and ate my shepherd's pie. And this one guy said, he made me laugh. He said, "You know, it's funny." He said, "This always happens. You guys come here and you won't touch the beer. But when we go to California, you guys all put on your board shorts and bikinis and jump in the water. And we won't we won't go near that. We'll just stand on the beach with our clothes on because you think we're sinning by doing this. And I'm thinking, yeah, well, you are. They think we're sinning because we go to the beach or go surfing. What does the Bible say about surfing? Liberty. Now, in England, I'm not Look, maybe I didn't look. If the water's that bad, maybe they're justified in doing it. I'll let Jesus figure that out in the end. But we can start pointing at different people and they can start pointing back and we're not exactly sure what we're doing because in my insecurity, I'm trying to lay a law on you that I live by. And if you don't live by that law of mine, you make me feel uncomfortable. And this is called church. This is who we are. And what are we going to do about it? Love one another. come alongside one another and pick each other up.

Well, he goes on the word doubtful things, things being reasoned about. This is so so social media appropriate. Doubtful things. Things being reasoned about, arguments, speculations. To judge another man's thoughts, conviction, to judge what they are thinking. You can't do that. We all know you can't do that. But we do it. And the Bible says that would be immaturity. What are you saying? I said this. That's what you didn't mean that. This is what you meant. We don't know that. We need to be careful. But this practical faith that God gives us is a faith that works. Colossians chapter 2 verse 16 says, "So let one let no one judge you, listen to this, in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come." But the substance is of Christ. So what's the rule? You'll never go wrong when love and loving your neighbor is the rule. If I know that I'm going to go over to Pizza Oolie to have spaghetti and you got to walk through the the bar area to get back to the restaurant area and it will offend someone that's that I know we're going to dinner with. We're not going to go there. They said, "Why wouldn't you go there? They got fantastic food." Yes, they do. But I know that that's going to offend my brother if we have to walk through the bar area to get to the seats in the back. I won't go there for that. You see what I'm saying? Why? Why would you do that? It's the best lasagna. I love him more than the lasagna. Does that make sense? You love them more. And so you put yourself in the back. And even though it's a weakness of theirs, it is a weakness. Christianity is much more resilient than that. We're te, you know, you know, we're teflon coated as believers. We're galvanized as believers. Amen. The word of God is all powerful, but you can't let your liberty be something that stumbles someone who's still growing in the faith. Very important.

The complexion, think about the complexion and the composition of the church is remarkable. It's it's all inspiring if you ask me. Recently, I was asked, "What is the demographic?" Somebody was asking me there's somehow they're in the church world business stuff. What's the demographics? I was at a conference. They said they asked, "What's the demographics of of your church?" And I just I don't know. But I told them, I said, "Well, I know what you're asking, but we don't keep record of this stuff, but I can tell you this." I said, 'I wish I had a a a body cam and I could stream each service to show who is attending these services. There's black, there's white, there's every color in between. Listen, there are various Asian cultures. The Vietnamese are sitting next to the Japanese. The Japanese are shaking hands with the Chinese and the Chinese is shaking hands with the Indonesians. Listen, in those cultures, they don't do that. They don't do that in this culture in in that world that they live in. They have a very very rigid division. Not here. Not here. Because Jesus trumps all. His love for you, the fact that he's made you new, all that stuff goes out the window. and we love on one another. It's remarkable. But we need to be very very I see what time it is. I can't believe this. It's We need to be very very thoughtful people that we do not live our lives like this. Well, I've been a believer for all these years. What are you saying? What are you saying when you say that? I assume by you saying that you're something. Well, you know, I've been a Christian for many decades. Oh, boy. What are we getting into here? So, you've been a Christian for many decades. What does that mean? Does that mean for 50 years you've been a Christian with one year experience every 50 years? Or have you been a Christian for 50 years with 50 years experience? That's that's something. But I got news for you. If you've been a Christian for 50 years with 50 years of Christian experience, the last word that's going to come out of your mouth is, "Well, you know, I've been a Christian for 50 years." Are you hearing me? The the the young believer, the new believer, God bless them. We love them. We love to be around them. It's like being around a puppy. They're so great. New believers are so much fun to be around. They're bouncing off the walls. They got books everywhere. They're telling this. They're witnessing to a street pole in a fire hydrant. They're telling everybody. I love it. But have you noticed they've got zeal, but not much knowledge. That's where you and I come along and love them on the rest of the way. We don't stand back and say, "Hey, you go sit in that cage over there. We'll lock you up until you get all stiff and grumpy like us, and then we'll let you out." No man, the body of Christ coming together, working together as we all mature together in Christ Jesus is such a glorious thing. It's such a

beautiful thing. And I, I, I'm out of time, but I, I, I must mention this. Drive you crazy all week, pastor. What was the thing about vegetarian? What was the thing about the vegetarian? It's, it's this. It's this. It has nothing to do with health stuff. Look, you want to be a vegetarian? I think that's a great idea. It, it leaves more meat for me to eat. If you're vegetarian, that's awesome. Is that your conviction? Yes, I feel better. Good. Great. But the moment you say to me, you know, you should be a vegetarian, too. I don't want to. Well, if you get close to Jesus, you'll see that you, you should only eat vegetables. No, I've read my Bible and it's pretty clear. Look, if you're blessed by eating vegetables, I am happy for you. Literally happy for you. You should be as happy for me. I, look, you have to take it up with God. How he ordained In-N-Out Burger, I don't know how he did it. But that's you cannot say, "Pastor Jack, this is the second time this week I saw you go through In-N-Out Burger." [Applause] You can't. The Bible says you can't, you can't judge that. Those kinds of things.

The world laughs at us because we have focused on minor things, if they're things at all. We've made them things and we've let all the greater, deeper things of God go along the wayside. And the world looks at us and they laugh at us. They know better. We need to practice love above all things. And I'm not talking about accepting and condoning sin in the name of love. We are to never do that. Amen. It is not a sin to eat vegetables and it's not a sin to eat a burger. All things, Bible says, given for food are to be received with thanks and given to God. And when someone is in error, sinning, this verse doesn't apply. This study doesn't apply to that. We are to go to them and say, "Listen, I love you. That's why I'm going to tell you, and it could cost us our relationship. This is how much I love you." You shouldn't be doing that. God says this in the Bible about this thing. Look, you can read it for yourself. It's black and white. And I'm telling you because I love you. Don't do that. You want to go and repent before the Lord on that. The Bible says if you succeed in doing that, you've gained a brother. But if the, if that brother turns and says, "Leave me alone." Oof.

When it comes to these things about who's strong and who's weak, the reality is in church, some people are strong and some people are weak, but we're all growing up. The beautiful thing is, why don't we link arms and make sure that we all grow up together? Because, because that's, that's exactly how a family ought to work. I got a picture this week. You can stand. I got a picture this week of a family. Very beautiful picture. Um, I was thinking of the mom in the picture because they're on vacation and they're in Florida. Her husband is there and they've had, I, I've lost count. They have all sons and she's, and she's the only female in the whole tribe, the mom. And I, my first thought is, boy, I bet she's spoiled. But then I thought, boy, I bet she has her hands full. But then the very sweet thing is, you could see the one of the more elder sons holding one of the little younger guys and, and you look carefully and I happen to know that these kids play all kinds of sports and football and all, and you see this strong young man holding this young little brother in the picture. And because I knew what we were studying this week, it made me think, "Wow, that's how the church should be for this one little guy to be in the picture." Because if you do the, if you look at the picture, if that little guy would have been standing down, you might have, you might have seen his head maybe. But the big strong brother picked up the little brother and so to speak, right? Brought him into not only the picture, but brought him into the family. There's evidence. I got the picture. The strong one picked up the little one. The little one didn't pick up the strong one. Aren't we like that?

Father, we're about ready to experience this in a moment. These doors are going to open up and people are going to go out and we're going to go to our day. And Lord, for those of us who we would say, well, we've come along some years with Jesus. Well, if we've got any liberty, may we not use our liberty to sin. We are free to not have to do things. There may be those who have strong convictions about this thing or that thing, and they're no less a brother or a sister. We're to receive them. Bottom line, just like we heard in the opening, how Christ has received us. Thank you, Lord, that when we all met you for the first time, we didn't know our right hand from the left and you took us in. You are an amazing God. And thank you so much, Lord, that you died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave to justify us by your atoning work and by being our great high priest. Thank you, Lord. May we live before you in reality, Lord. May we be getting real always before you, God, and before those in our lives. May we not be hypocrites in any way, shape, or form. If we ask it now in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen. God bless you today, church. God bless.