The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 31: Gospel Unity

Episode Date: August 19, 2018

The gospel compels me to sacrifice myself for you to the Glory of God, not justify myself for me and my own glory. "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, charity." - John Wesley (Maybe…there is an ongoing internet battle over who said it first…how ironic.)

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Everybody good. Everybody's looking good. If you got your Bible's Romans 14, you should know that by now. That is where we are going to be before we dive into Romans 14. I want to update you on some good news, man. I'm into good news.

Gospel means good news. And we're going to talk about the gospel, but we're going to talk about some other good news too. Last week I stood before you and said that we need to be in prayer for Pastor Ryan Stone, particularly his dad, Craig Stone. And Pastor Ryan called me last week and said, we need a miracle because I'm a miracle because on Thursday, his father was, he's been battling cancer for about 10 years. And he was basically in a comatose state. And so Pastor Stone, Ryan Stone called me on Thursday before the 722 service and said,

my daddy's going home. And I was like, you mean like Georgia or heaven? Because, you know, Christians in our words, right? Like what does that mean? And he's like, no, no, no, like his house in Georgia. That after the 1122 service last week, right after the service, he opened his eyes. And by the end of the day, he started talking and he was discharged from the hospital on Thursday. It is miraculous. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So I'm not saying our prayers healed him. I'm saying God healed him. We had about 10,000 people praying. So glory to God for that. Also, just an update on that video. Jim, the guy in the video, he was here at 722.

And I just wanted to high five him. One of the most incredible testimonies I have ever seen. Essentially what he was saying is to live as Christ and to die his gain. And I talked to him at 722 here at San Pablo, and he letting us know that he went in for another checkup after he got baptized, and all of the spot on his lung was all free and clear after that. Isn't that great? So glory to God. All right, Romans chapter 14, here we go. If you've got your Romans journal, I hope you do. There's a bunch of you that do. That's pretty cool. If you'll flip over just a little bit, you'll see the memory verse here is from Romans 10, 9, which says, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved. And I'm glad that that's where that memory verse landed because we are not today talking about matters of salvation. a lot of what we were talking about today is matters of opinion. And so here's what I mean. In Romans chapter 12-1, Paul makes a shift in what he's talking about. From Romans chapters 1 through 11, essentially it's theology. It's about what the gospel is. Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

for it is the power of God and to salvation, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. And then he begins to unpack what salvation is, that we are saved by grace, that we are justified by faith alone, that therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that God is at work in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. And if God is for us, then who could be against us? That we are reconciled unto God because of what Christ has done.

That's all theology there. But theology, right theology leads to right doxology. And in chapter 12, verse 1, he shifts gears now into the implications and application of that gospel. He says, therefore, by the mercies of God, may we offer our bodies or our entire lives as a living sacrifice. May we not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but may we be transformed, that's an inside word. May we be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

And then he's going to talk from chapter 12 through chapter 16 of what it looks like when the gospel has infected our lives. And what he's talking about today in chapter 14, is this. How does the gospel inform our differences as a church? How do you handle it when you go to church with a bunch of different people, different kind of people, and you have differing opinions? I don't know if you know this or not, but within the first century, church people had opinions. Can you believe that? I think God didn't have email, but that's a different story. Now, I may be honest, in 1122, we don't spend a lot of time squabbling over minor things.

You know, we don't have fights over the color of the carpet. We don't even have carpet. And I think it is a result of being a gospel-centered church. When we come in and deal with the gospel, when we deal with the really big things, God's cosmic glory, we don't have a lot of time to squabble over little things. but what Paul's going to unpack here is what do you do when you have Christians in your life, in your church, and you don't agree on stuff. And so chapter 14, verse 1, he says this, as for the one who is weak in the faith, welcome him.

So I would just say this to you, if you would consider yourself weak in the faith, or you'd say, hey, look, I'm brand new to this thing, I'm just kicking the tires, I just pulled the cellophane off my very first Bible, then this place is for you. We are a movement for all people. And if you went to Sunday school with Moses and know the Hebrew word for everything I say, then this place is for you too, because we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so he says, as for the one who is weak in the faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. You might want to underline that word opinion.

The Greek word for opinion is Twitter, I think. I don't know if that's true, but it seems like that's the right pronunciation of it. Essentially what he says is this, don't elevate your preferences to God's precepts. There's a difference that God has been very clear about very many things in the scripture. And then God, by his sovereign grace, has decided to not speak about a bunch of stuff. And our opinions are not commandments. Our preferences are not precepts of God. And I'm telling you, the longer you're in church, the more you like your opinions.

And you think everybody else should live by your opinions. And so he says, don't squabble over that, don't quarrel over opinions. Verse two, one person believes he may eat anything. I think I'm that person. I've been eating everything, whatever. And then I love this next verse. Look at this verse. Vegetarians read this, while the weak person eats only vegetables.

There it is, see? Y'all need to eat something. Now, if you're a vegetarian, again, we're a movement for all people. All Means All, All, All, All. I love a vegetarian. vegetarians too. I love them. So, glory to God. Now, much to my chagrin, this has nothing to do with whether you're a vegan or not. What he's talking about is in the first century, in the church of Rome, there's all kind of different people from all kind of different cultures. Before Al Gore gave us

the World Wide Web, Rome was the World Wide Web, and it wasn't the Internet. It was a road system throughout the entire known world, and all roads led to Rome. And you've got all kind of different people from all kind of different backgrounds. And you've got people that grew up Jewish, that professed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And then you also got Gentiles that grew up doing all kind of crazy stuff. And one of the things that became a really big deal, what he's talking about specifically here is, in the market, they would sacrifice meat to an idol.

And then they would say in the church, how in the world could you eat that meat? If you eat that filet who has been sacrificed to an idol, then in essence you're participating in idol worship. And so there would be some people at the church that would say, well, since I don't know if that meat has or has not been sacrificed to an idol, then I'm never, ever going to eat meat. And that's what they're arguing about.

Now, we find out in 1st Corinthians chapter 8 that Paul essentially says, well, look, there is no such thing as a false God. So you might as well sacrifice the thing to Peter Pan. So just eat the steak, medium rare, like Jesus intended. But don't squabble about this stuff. That's basically what he's saying. Now, it's interesting here that he can. categorizes the weak person as the one that has the most rules. Isn't that interesting?

The weak person is the one that does not have a full grasp of an understanding of the freedom that the gospel provides for us. He goes on to say in verse 3, let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Here's what he means. Now, again, he's not talking about high. hypothetically. He's going to address real issues at the real church there in Rome that real people

were getting into it about. And so what he's saying is that both the eater and the non-eater, the freedom guy and the rules guy, if they despise and pass judgment on one another, then they both have the same core problem. And their same core problem is pride and self-justification. that they begin to elevate their understanding of whatever this sort of secondary issue is as to the level of like God said it because I think it and you have to do what I do. Now, in our church, we're not talking about food sacrifice to idols. It's not a thing anymore. But man, you want to see some Christians just get after it about secondary opinions?

I could pick about 100 things to talk about. But one of my favorite to watch is you watch some mamas get together and talk about how to educate kids. You let a homeschool mama and you let a public school mama get near each other. And what begins to happen is pretty dang close to UFC, all right? And if we're not careful, our pride, our preferences get in there and we're despising and we're passing judgment.

And nobody would ever say that, but the homeschool mama is like, hey, listen, and listen, I know you're going to be offended, So just you can shoot me an email at jimmy cracks corn at i don't care.com, okay? Because I know, I know what's coming, especially from the homeschool moms. I know, I know, I know, because you go to school like half a day, so what else are you going to do, all right? Is that bad? Are you offended yet? Or how about this?

But the public school, they're chasing their kids all over town. I don't know where they are, so they don't have time to email. That's why, see what I'm saying? So the homeschool mom's like, well, we homeschooled Timmy. Because, I mean, I understand, you can send your kid to public school if you want to that. God forsaken place where they've outlawed God and prayer like Nebuchadnezzar did in Babylon. And you can have him be taught that they're just a cosmic accident and their granddad was a monkey and maybe they'll get stabbed in the face by a gang.

That's fine. But we love our son. And the public school mom's like, oh, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, there's some things we want for our kid, though. You know, we want him to have a thing called like social skills. And we think it's cool that Timmy can like turn his own butter and make. make is on clothes, but we want our son to know like math. Maybe be smarter than you.

Just stuff like that. And not only that, the Bible says that we're to take the gospel into the darkest places of the world to the ends of the earth. And if all the Christians bubble up together, then how in the world would anybody know who Jesus is? And they begin to despise and pass judgment. And then you let another parent come out and go, well, we private school. And both of them will go, how dare you?

I mean, it's just crazy. It's crazy. And there's no verses to tell you what you should do. You see, like in my house, we got a public school kid, we got a private school kid. We did not homeschool for a very biblical reason. Because the Bible says, thou shalt not murder. And my wife would have killed my kids, and that wouldn't be good. This is what I'm talking about.

And you can take whatever secondary issue you want to and watch it if people despise and pass judgment. And again, they're talking about the kind of food that they eat here. And they both believe that they are biblically informed, and they are. And here's how we know, verse four, who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands are false. For the Lord is able to make him stand. You see, essentially, when we pass judgment over on one another to someone who God accepts, what we are saying is, God, your judgments aren't strict enough.

You need a little help from me. that's what we're saying. And the only way to look down your nose at somebody else is we have to take our eyes off of the cross of Jesus Christ. And at the root of us judging one another on secondary issues is self-righteousness. Now what he's going to do here is he's got the same subject and he's going to use a different example. And again, it's another example that was specific to the Roman church in the first century. Verse five, he says this, one person esteems one day is better than another, while another esteems all days alike.

And what he's talking about here, there's two major things. One, I mean, you want to talk about a major shift in culture. For about 4,000 years, the Jewish people treated the Sabbath as the day to worship and reconnect with God. From Friday evening to Saturday evening. They did this from all the way back to Moses' time. And then the church comes along, and they need to make this decision, we're not going to primarily gather for corporate worship on the Sabbath day. we're going to gather for corporate worship on the Lord's Day because it's all about the resurrection.

And so the church is trying to figure out when do we go to church. And then not only that, there was all these holidays and festivals and all of these things in the Old Testament. And some people thought they were a big deal and other people didn't think they were a big deal. And so they're arguing over these days. And some people think all the days are the same and some people think some days are more important than others. And Paul doesn't even, he doesn't even answer the question. here. It's crazy.

I don't know why I'm so surprised by what the Bible says still, but it surprises me where Paul goes. He doesn't say one person esteems one day is better than another and another esteems all the days alike. So just get over it. It's not that big a deal. He doesn't say, don't sweat the small stuff. He doesn't say just keep the main thing, the main thing, all these little goofy things

that we say. He actually goes in the opposite direction. He says each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. like what yeah you have different opinions we do then you should be fully convinced of what your opinion is you should be fully convicted informed by the scripture of what you and your house are going to do and you're like paul you think that's going to make the conflict better it looks like you're trying to put the fire out with kerosene what are you doing but here's what paul i think is pointing us to what paul is saying is we're not talking about uniformity we're talking about

unity amongst diversity. I mean, you want to show a picture of what the gospel can do to this world? What if a whole bunch of different people that disagree on a whole bunch of different secondary issues were able to, with great conviction and great humility, lay down their preferences for the sake of unity? Because Christ is above all. That's what he's talking about here. So whether you're homeschool or public school, private school, or whatever you do, he's saying, be fully convinced in his own mind, but just know that those are not commandments from God. They're your preferences. Verse six, the one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.

The one who eats eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. This is remarkable. What Paul is saying is that why behind the what matters most. Check this out. Two people could do the same thing. And one could be pleasing to God and one could be displeasing to God. The same activity.

Why? Because it's a heart matter. The intentions matter. If you're a Bible person, maybe you know this all the way back in the book of Genesis. There are two sons, Cain and Abel, and from the outside, it looks like they do the same thing. They both bring an offering to God. And one of the offerings pleases God. and one of the offerings angers God.

And from the outside, you're like, how is that possible? They're doing the same thing. That Abel brings one of the first offspring of his livestock. And then Cain brings vegetables. Now, does it mean that God likes meat better than vegetables? I think we've clearly established that from the previous verse. But in this case, that's not what it is at all.

You see, what Abel is doing, Abel is bringing his first fruits. Essentially, Abel worked on commission, and he did not wait to the end of the year to see how much he had, to see if he had enough leftover from God. He gave his first and his best, trusting that God, by faith, would provide everything else that he needed. And then the Bible says that came in his own time after he had harvested everything and made sure he had enough, then he took his leftovers to God. The only difference, the only difference was a matter of the heart, that you could do the same thing, the same activity, and it could please or displeased God.

And the other is true, too. You could do the exact opposite activities, the exact opposite activities, and God could be very, very pleased. In fact, there will be people today, and you will bring your ties and offerings to the Lord, and it will be very pleasing to the Lord because God loves a cheerful giver.

And then some of you are trying to bribe God to get that promotion this week. And you think in your mind, if I drop a hundie on the Lord, he's going to hook me up. and you cannot put him in your debt. And yet you could do the exact opposite thing. You could homeschool, private school, or whatever it is, and God be pleased.

Why? Because it is a matter of the heart. Verse 7. For none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. Listen, Christian, we must consider, it's not just about me and Jesus. We are not saved by the church. We are not saved by our faith family. We are not saved by our community.

but we are saved into a church. We are saved into a family. And our activities and actions impact one another. And the way we love one another matters a bunch. So Paul keeps going. He says, for if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. I think the reason that Paul goes with life and death is because he is illustrating

that one person could have two completely opposite activities. And those two opposite activities could be pleasing to the Lord. Lord. There's nothing more opposite than living and dying. And he says, for if we live, we live to the Lord, if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and lived again. And he might be Lord, both of the dead and of the living. In other words, we are the Lord's. And it is not, listen to me, church, it is not pleasing to God to be united to him and to be divided over secondary issues. And in this case, the secondary issues are things like,

what do you eat and what day do you go to church? This is a really big deal to Jesus. In church, I'm telling you, we, not just our own local church, but the church universal, is missing this as bad as it's missed anything, ever. I mean, this is what a big deal that unity is, according to Jesus. Jesus, in John chapter 17, he prays what's known as the high priest prayer and he pray stuff like this. Father, may they be one. He was talking about Christians. May they be one like you and I are one. Now Jesus and the Father are distinct and yet one. So again,

he's not talking about uniformity that all of us have to think the same and vote the same and look the same and like the same foods and like the same music. That is not what he's talking about. In fact, he's saying it is more beautiful when we come together and we're very, very diverse, but we're unified in our diversity because Christ is above all. And then he goes on. to say in John chapter 17, and the world will know that they are Christians by their love for one another. I mean, it's an understatement to say that we live in a politically divided country right now, right? And the church is missing the best opportunity ever to put on display what the glory of God can do in our lives. I mean, just imagine. Imagine if every church everywhere all over our country

was somehow unified in a supernatural way, even though people thought different and voted different and all that, I'm telling you, the world would look at us and scratch their head and go, how do they do that? And yet so often, the church is so divided, so judgmental. Not even to the world, but against our brothers and sisters on secondary issues, like worship styles and how you dress at church and all kind of stuff. So Paul goes on to say this.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother? And I can tell you why. I can tell you a bunch of reasons why. One, pride. The reason I pass judgment on you, the reason you pass judgment on me, is because we think too highly of ourselves. I mean, that's where judgment starts. I think I'm right and I think you're wrong.

I think I'm better than you. That's why I pass judgment on you. And that's why you passed judgment on me. And nobody would ever say that. But it comes out subtly. This happens about every other week here, honestly. It's usually from like a 21-year-old. Like a third junior year at UNF, studying humanities.

We usually sit over here. They'll come up at the end of a service, and they'll say, that was actually a good sermon. I agree with everything you said. Oh, thanks, Scooter. I've been doing this a minute, you know what I mean? but I appreciate that you have been listening to somebody's podcast and approve of the sound doctrine based on your filter. And by the way, just for free, you know you can ruin any compliment with the word actually.

You'd be like, you actually look good today. Is that an insult? Or is that not? I don't know what you're saying. And essentially, honestly, what somebody is saying to me is, congratulations, you have lived up to my preferences. It is just rooted in pride. that's why we judge one another because we think we're awesome another reason is because we're insecure we know we know that that person is better than us and somehow we think it will help us feel better

if we judge them and bring them down to our level now so far in the history of humanity it has not worked in any kind of long-lasting way but yet somehow if we think even if we know in our soul they're better than me but if I can stand in judgment over them somehow I can drag them down. Another reason we pass judgment on our brother is because I'm not secure in what God thinks of me. And so instead of being secure and what God thinks of me, I'm going to try to gain the approval of the people I work with. So what you do is you wait to your boss leaves because good knows, you would never talk to him, you only talk about him, and you just gather up some common enemies to make you feel better about you. And that's why we pass judgment on one another.

or sometimes sometimes we just feel convicted of our own behavior but instead of submitting to the conviction of the Holy Spirit we say forget you I'm going to do what I want and we pass judgment on those people who God has convicted and they're walking in obedience and we just surround ourselves with people that will tell us what we want to hear

so we don't have to change anything or maybe one of the biggest reasons we pass judgment on our brother is because we're just jealous we're just jealous of them We want what they have. And here's how this thing plays out at church. One girl will say to another girlfriend, can you believe what she wore to church?

And really what they think is, God, I wish I looked like that in that skirt and shirt. Oh, gosh. But instead, just like, how dare she? And dudes do it too, sometimes in different ways. We'll be like, yep, hear about Ted. Ted got a new boat. Yeah, I'd buy a boat, but I'd give them missions. You gave $43 to missions on Compassion Sunday two years ago.

And yet, like, what is wrong with us that we just can't celebrate God's grace in other people's lives? That's why we pass judgment. Now, see, I think if Paul was reading us a letter and he says, why do you pass judgment? And I go, oh, I got six reasons. He was like, no, no, no. That's a rhetorical question. You're not supposed to answer it. What Paul is saying is don't.

Don't pass judgment. You see, here's why, though, the foundation is this. we pass judgment on our brothers, it's because we've taken our eyes off the gospel. We begin to think that we have merit. Grace is unmerited favor. And if I stand in judgment over you, essentially what I'm saying is I have married. I've deserved this. I have earned the favor of God.

And whenever we do this, we just forget the gospel. Who am I that you would take my place? And so Paul says, or you, why do you despise your brother? again what is wrong with us when we can't celebrate our differences even different opinions particularly on secondary issues and appreciate god's grace in our lives he goes on to say for we will all stand before the judgment seat of god for it is written now he's going to quote Isaiah here and he also brings this up in in philippians chapter two in another book of the bible it says this as i live says the lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to

God, so then each of us will give an account of himself to God. That when we stand in judgment over one another, you know what we're doing? Hey, God, hop off your throne real quick. Let me sit there. You're not doing it a good enough job. I think you need my help. That's what judgment is. Now, does this mean we're supposed to just never say anything to our brothers and sisters and about the way we live and all of that? No, the Bible talks all throughout the scriptures that we are to hold one another accountable. When the Bible says encourage one another, that encouragement, that word doesn't mean way to go. It means to poke, it means to spur, it means to prod. But the fundamental difference between judgment and accountability, I think, is in your posture and position. You see, accountability is

this. Accountability is, I see you heading down a path that leads to a place that I know that you don't want to go. And the Word of God speaks directly about this path you are on, and I'm going to put myself in between you and this cliff that you're about to just train wreck your family over, or train wreck your finances, or train wreck your faith. And I love you more than I love your opinion of me, and I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just waving my hand saying, if you keep going this way, brother, I'm telling you, it does not lead to a good place. That's what accountability is, from a place of humility and love. But judgment is when I stand between you and God and say, God, don't worry about it.

I got this one. See the difference? Here's the crazy thing. Sometimes from the outside is really hard to tell, but you know. If you're a Christian, you have the spirit of God in you, and the spirit of God can tell you the difference between self-justification and self-denial. The spirit of God can tell you the difference between selfishness. You do what I want and selflessness.

I'm here for you, brother. See the difference? And so he keeps on going. He says, therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide, again, I'm totally shocked by where Paul goes here. He says, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother. You see what Paul does. Paul does not say, therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer and just mind your own business. That's not what he says.

He actually says that you and I should pay less attention to what you're doing and we should pay more. attention to what we're doing. That's what he says. Instead of, hey, listen, I have a different opinion of you on if you should eat meat or not. Let me tell you why you should think like I think. Instead, he says, why don't you do a little self-reflection, and is there an area in your life that is causing your brother to stumble? You see, once again, the way I describe it is this. Paul is basically saying, quit using the scriptures like binoculars and use it as a mirror. because Christians are notorious for taking the sword of the spirit, which is the sword of the spirit,

Ephesians chapter 6. And we're notorious, but by the way, in Ephesians chapter 6, it says that our battle is not against flesh and blood, that we wrestle against principalities, not of this air. But you know what, man, especially in this city, Christians are notorious for taking the sword of the spirit and rolling it up and clubbing people over the head with it, like a binocular.

instead of holding up the word of God like a mirror to our own life and say what's wrong what's going on in here it reminds me this dumb joke my dad told me one time but you know he's a good old country boy and that's what they do and he said he said this lady called the police one time and said you guys got to get over here my neighbor is exposing himself to me so sure enough they hop in the car boom they get to her house and knock on her door she opens the door yes ma'am what's the problem she's like my neighbor is exposing himself to me. They go where is he, ma'am? He goes right in the bathroom. And they're like, he's in your bathroom? She's

like, no, but that's where it's happening. So they go in the bathroom together, and she goes, yep, every time I come in here, I see him exposing himself. And they're like, well, man, we don't see anything. She's like, yeah, but if you climb up on the back of the toilet right here and look through the... I know it's dumb, but you'll remember it. And I'm telling you, Christians are notorious

for getting out their Bible and just hunting. Oh, yep, there she is. Look at her. Sin her. And Paul, says, hey, instead of doing that, paying attention to everybody else to sin, what if you just held the mirror of the word of God up and paid attention to our own a little bit and didn't put a stumbling block? What if you cared more about them than you care about our own preferences? This is what he's saying.

Now, this doesn't mean that we don't hold one another accountable. Jesus says, before you go to remove the speck of sawdust out of your brother's eye, you might want to check the telephone pole hanging out your face. And so he keeps going. He says, I know and am present. persuaded in the Lord Jesus. Listen, we're 14 verses in, and finally he's going to give the theological answer on can you eat meat or not. Here's finally the answer, which is what he's saying is.

That's not the point. But he says, I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But it is unclean for anyone that thinks it's unclean. Historically in the church, we call this matters of conscience. for example my grandma would be she she has a hard time ladies with any of you that don't wear a dress to church now there's not a bible there's not a thou shalt not weareth the pantsuit in the bible i mean 1122 we're just if you got pants on we feel pretty good about it all right but for her own so and honestly in her she's got reasons about about you know dressing up for jesus basically is what her reasons are

I praise God for that. And part of the reasons, a bunch of folks, you know, we don't have a dress code because we're trying to remove any obstacle from anybody that would come to Christ. And so you could have two very differently dressed people at church, and both of them are honoring God. I think this is what he's saying here. But really what he means is this. So here's the doctrinal truth about eating meat, sacrifice to idols. No problem. No problem.

And yet, and yet, he says, being run. right about this secondary issue is secondary to being in right relationship with your brother. That's the main deal. But don't ever use your freedom so that somebody else would fail. Because I'm telling you, the moment you see this, nothing is unclean. And you're like, oh, I got this. And you're in disciple group with a bunch of recovering alcoholics. You just rolling with a hyniquin one week.

Pastor said I could. Don't, don't, don't, don't. Then you're, you don't understand the gospel. Because what you're saying is this is all about me, and the gospel fundamentally is saying it's not about you. And this is where Paul is leading us. Verse 15, for if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard is good to be spoken of as evil.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy. And here's probably the most important part, the prepositional phrase, in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. In other words, what Paul's saying is this. The way that we deal with the small deals is a really big deal. It's not the small deal in and of itself. What day you go to church, can you eat meat?

Those are the ones specific to him. but the way we deal with each other will reveal the condition of our hearts. Is this all about me and my preferences, or do I love my brothers enough to be able to lay down my preferences? Now, I'm telling you, the moment you begin to talk like this, there's something about being American that kind of rises up in us. You know, the spirit of America comes on in. And there are some core values of this country that I dearly love. I mean, I'm pro, red, white, and blue as much as anybody I know. but our core values of independence can be in stark contrast to the gospel, which is all about dependence.

And we start talking about, but I have the right, and we follow a Savior that laid down his rights. And it's about self-justification, what I get to do. But the Bible is about self-denial and calls that love. Remember last week, 1 John 316? By this, we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. that the Bible calls us, the gospel calls us to lay down our lives and most of us can't lay down our opinions for a minute. And instead of making a difference, we just want to make a point because we think we're right. And Paul goes, that's not the point.

He keeps going, verse 20, do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. Now, when you read that, you have to ask the legitimate question. Does this mean that we live in the prison of the opinions of others? Can we never go anywhere or do anything in case somebody else does not approve? No, no, no, no. See Galatians 110.

Paul says, am I now seeking the approval of men or of God? But what's going on here is Paul is talking about specific examples in the Roman church. And I think you know the difference in your soul whether you are destroying the work of God in somebody's life by your own selfishness or you are laying something down because of your selflessness. He says in verse 22, the faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. That doesn't mean don't tell people about Jesus. That means you don't always have to put every opinion you have. Even the biblically informed opinions, you don't have to put them on display always, especially to throw them in the face of somebody else. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.

But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. In other words, the why is more important than the what? So what he's saying? In the first century Roman church, he's like, listen, Gentile Christians, you've got to quit bringing your BLT sandwich to disciple group because it's freaking out your Jewish brothers and sisters. and they're like, yeah, but Jesus died for bacon. It's true. It's not all he died for, but it's included.

No cross, no bacon. Glory to God, all right. And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you're missing the point of the gospel. It's not about you. And in the first century church, in Corinthians, he's talking to people that have the sign gifts of the spirit. He's like, can y'all just chill out for a second? I mean, God bless you that you had the gift of prophecy in tongues, but put the banner away and keep, quit spinning around in the front row because nobody's listening to the sermon.

Can you just relax and not think about you for a second? Now that might not necessarily be what we're dealing with today, but I'm telling you, Christians will fight over some secondary issues that are biblically informed, but people have different opinions. Like, should a Christian listen to secular music? This was the thing. Like when I was in high school, getting this youth group, and they showed us a video called Hells Bells,

the dangers of secular music. You know what the band that was, highlighted in that video was, journey. I was like, I thought, you ain't going to like my Tupac, man, I don't think, at all. And we would have, the youth group would have these meetings where everybody would bring their secular music to throw it into fire to burn it. And the youth group director one time was like, you hear that? You hear that?

You hear that? That's the demons leaving. I don't think it is. I don't think anybody's going to take you seriously if you say stuff like that a lot. And so I would help people about here. I'll take it for you. oh, guns and roses, I think I'll take that to the house. That's what I did. There's like a whole thing over, remember when Harry Potter came out?

People are like, oh, do you let your kids watch Harry Potter? If you want to become witches and do heroin and stab your eyeballs out, you center. Are you serious right now? Here's what it's going to creep up in our church in the next two weeks. We're going to start the Daniel fast in a couple of weeks to get ready for saturated. The Daniel fast comes from the book of Daniel. Daniel only ate vegetables, basically is what the Bible says, and we've turned it into a whole thing. And you watch the judgmentalism rise up in some people.

Nothing will reveal your heart, like board games and fasting. You find out real quick who's a rule breaker, who's a rule follower, who's a rule bender. And some of you, you ain't even going to, you'd be like, Daniel didn't have a microwave. We can't microwave stuff. I mean, you'll be into it, right? And then you'll be scrolling around the town center one day during the Daniel fast, and you'll see a covenant member of 1122 getting something Daniel didn't approve of. and you're like, ah, yeah, like the Lord's going to move in their life during saturated.

And I'm telling you, it's that kind of stuff. Can Christians wear yoga pants? Is that okay? Now, I have an opinion, but even as I say it, some of you can't get by yoga. In our church, we have people that teach yoga classes, and they're like, I'm just stretching and breathing. And you have other people that think you're participating in a seance under the devil. in our church. Now, you can usually by physique tell where people land,

but that's a different conversation, all right? And it's these kind of things. Church clothes? What do you wear to church? All secondary issues. And so what Paul does, this is brilliant, man. I mean, so smart. He's also inspired by the spirit, so that's helpful.

But where he goes is now he does not just chase down every little thing you could think of. My grandma's church in Marion, South Carolina, had a almost split over whether to put air condition in the sanctuary whenever that came out. Straight up, people would be like air condition to make people comfortable. Do you think Jesus Christ had air condition on the cross? I mean, those kind of battles. I don't know. I don't know if he did.

Maybe that's why he bought it out the sun. I mean, it's that kind of stuff that was happening. So it'll change by generation. It'll change week to week. And so what Paul does is now Paul is going to go for the ultimate example and reason why we should be unified through the gospel. In chapter 15, he turns to Jesus. He says, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up. Why, Paul, here's why, for Christ did not please himself. But as it has written, the reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me. That's Psalm 69.9. In other words, instead of Jesus trying to be right, and instead of Jesus always talking about his rights, Jesus lays down his rights so that you and I could be made the righteousness of God. That's the ultimate example. Paul will say it over in Philippians chapter 2 this way.

Let each of you look not only at his own interests, but also the interest of others, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but he emptied himself. Whenever we judge one another, we essentially are full of ourselves. But Jesus emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Again, we are called to lay down our lives, and many of us are not even willing to lay down

our opinions for the sake of unity. Paul is saying, how can we divide the church by clinging to our rights when Jesus established the church by laying his rights down? That is the ultimate example. So when we fight and quarrel over secondary issues, it's because we've taken our eyes off of what Christ did on the cross. And then Paul brings it home, starting in verse four, he says, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through

encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Jesus Christ. That listen, what he's saying is unity and fellowship ain't easy, especially in a movement for all people because all kinds of different people come. Everybody's got an opinion.

And he says it requires endurance. Not only are we to endure with one another, but we are to endure one another. Which means this church. When you don't get what you want, or every other week when I say something that is offensive, don't push away from the table, take your marbles, and go home. The gospel compels us to be united to one another in spite of our differences and because of our differences. And he goes on to say, and encourage one another, spur one another on.

You see, the legalist, the rules guy, and the licentious one, the freedom guy, we need each other. as iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another. You need to be around some Christians that see the Bible differently than you do, that vote differently than you do, that have different socioeconomic norms than you do to help you understand what is a preference of yours and what is a precept of God. And then I love the, of all the words he uses, to live in such harmony. Harmony is not uniformity. It is the singing of different notes that when they come together as one, make it more beautiful than any one individual note. And that's what we have been called to.

In accord with Christ Jesus. You see, the goal is not just a beautiful bouquet of humanity. The goal is the glory of God, and God is more glorified when a whole bunch of his kids that think different and look differently get together and are unified by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then this is how he closes it. That together. Like all of us together, one church, many locations, all of us together, that you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, I think this is one of the reasons that singing is such a big deal in church, because singing is a picture of all of us together with one voice saying one thing to the one true God. It's kind of the only time it happens in church that way. When we pray, everybody prays their own way. When I preach, everybody kind of hears it. their own way. But when we sing, we join our voices together, all kind of different voices. Some of you can really sing, and most of us are not good. So, if some of you were like, why it's got to be so loud, because of you. If you were good, we wouldn't have to be loud. I'm terrible. That's why I sit in the front. It's like sing as loud as I want. Somebody asked me one time, why you make every worship song a country

song? Well, I don't mean to. That's just how it sounds when I do it, all right? And God takes all of these voices. And we sing one thing to one true God. Sometimes people ask me, do y'all have a choir? And I say we do. The choir of 1122, it's about 10,000 people. Then everybody hears in. You don't have to audition, thank goodness.

And we join our voices together, not just to sing Christian karaoke, but to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 7, therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. Yeah, but they're different than me. Newsflash, you were way different than God. Way different. And through the gospel, he welcomed in us. And through the gospel, therefore we welcome one another for the glory of God.

See, we are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And it is that all-people thing that brings God more and more and more glory. let us through the gospel welcome one another the way God has welcomed us. You see, here's the point. The gospel compels me to sacrifice myself for you to the glory of God, not to justify myself for me and my own glory. As I was figuring out how to close this thing out this week, I've heard this quote in regards to how Christians should deal with secondary issues in the church.

Very famous quote. It says this, in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things, charity. And it's attributed to John Wesley. That's who they told me in seminary said it. If you go online right now and Google it, there's this intense online battle about who said that first. Was it Augustine? Was it Martin Luther?

Was it John Calvin? You want to talk about the church epically failing once again? that we are squabbling and fighting and battling over the quote that says, don't do that. In essentials, unity, in non-essentials, like whoever said this first, liberty, but in all things, charity.

So the only way to do that is that the preeminence of Christ has to be bigger than my own preferences and opinions. That's the only way. It's not saying you shouldn't have strong opinion. and be highly convicted. Praise God, you should. And then you should take those convictions

and take those opinions and consistently lay them on the altar of Jesus under the banner of the headship of Christ for the sake of unity so that this whole world will know we are Christians by the way we love one another. Not look like one another, not act like one another, not talk like one another,

not even agree with one another on everything. But love one another. And so we're going to close by joining our voices together. We're going to sing an old school song that Pastor Ben wrote years ago called Fall on Your Altar, and a part of what we'll sing is this, all that I have, I lay at your feet, Lord Jesus. All that I have. Not just time, talent, treasure, that's really important, but all that I have, like my opinions and my preferences, and the way I think everybody else should act,

and I'm going to take all of that and lay it on the altar for one reason, the one name, Jesus Christ. Would you please stand and pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because Jesus, you first loved us. God, I pray that by the conviction of the Holy Spirit and by the authority of your word, you would make things clear in our lives what is primary and what we cannot let go of, sound doctrine in regards to the character and nature of you, particularly in our salvation. And yet, God, you would make us aware of what things in our life that we've just adopted culturally,

even if biblically informed, and what are just our preferences and opinions. And that God, that the gospel would compel us to love one another in unity through the power of the Holy Spirit and in accord with Christ. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.