WWUTT 1383 Welcome One Another as Christ Welcomes You (Romans 15:6-7)

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People all over this world, in all different walks of life will talk about unity, but what they probably just want is their own passions of the flesh.

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True unity comes only from Christ, when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast. That we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

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Lord. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in Romans 15. I'm going to read again verses 1 -7, and then we'll pick up where I left off yesterday.

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The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

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Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

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For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

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For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the

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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 Christ Jesus.

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That together you may with one voice glorify the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

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We're picking up here in verse 6. We have verses 6 and 7 to cover today. And here it says in verse 6,

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Together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. That's the goal here. To the glory of God, doing all that we do to his glory, welcoming one another, living with each other in such harmony, in accord with Christ Jesus.

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Why? That we may give glory to God. So all of these instructions that we've been reading here about not quarreling over opinions, but receiving one another.

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Those who are mature have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak. Those who are weak do not condemn the more mature.

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Those who are more mature do not despise those who are less mature. But consider how we may build each other up, that we're all maturing in the body of Christ, holding fast to the head of the body,

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Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church. This is our desire. It is our pursuit together as a church.

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So we fix ourselves to the scriptures. As it says in verse 4,

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Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction. We fix ourselves to the word of God, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we have hope.

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The scriptures point us to Christ. The scriptures show us the promises that we have in Christ, the kingdom of God that we receive.

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Enduring in him to the very end, we are encouraged by what we have in the

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Bible, the will of God revealed to us through the prophets and apostles who wrote these things down, guided by the

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Holy Spirit. God is the God of endurance and encouragement. And so he grants to us through what we read in his word, his word dwelling in our hearts, living according to the things that we read and hear proclaimed.

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God grants us to live in harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus. So where there is unity in the church, that is a gift of God.

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And that comes when we are all sitting under the same teaching. We are all guided by the word of Christ, which is growing us in godliness.

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It is sanctifying us. Remember the word of Christ in his high priestly prayer in John 17, where he said,

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Father, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

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How are we sanctified? How are we grown in holiness? How do we grow together in unity?

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It is all according to the word of Christ, what we have in the Bible. These are the things written in former days for our instruction.

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Remember the words of Second Timothy 3, 16 and 17. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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The unity that we are going to attain, the only unity that can be had this side of heaven is going to be among those who fix themselves to the word of Christ.

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And as Paul talks about in, and also in his letters to Timothy, this is First Timothy chapter six, those who leave the sound teaching of the

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Lord Christ fall into division, causing factions, constant friction.

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There's no grace. There's no forgiveness. There's no being patient or kind with one another.

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It's just envy and jealousy and evil suspicions and stuff that just causes division.

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When you leave the sound teaching of the word of Christ, there's division. James 4, 1 says, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

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Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you, desiring the things of your flesh rather than having the mind of Christ?

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And we are told here to be in one accord with Christ. That again was verse five. May the

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God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another. How do we achieve that?

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By having the mind of Christ. That was the instruction Paul gave to the Philippians to Philippians to five.

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So by having the mind of Christ, by being in accord with Christ, Jesus, verse six, together, we with one voice glorify the

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God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The goal is to glorify God.

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And we do this together with one voice as the church. When we are being built up by his word, there are a lot of people out there that will use the word unity, but just because they say they want unity or, or they say we should strive for unity.

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That doesn't mean there's going to be unity. Anybody can desire unity, but saying you want unity doesn't cause unity.

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What kind of unity are they talking about? What are they wanting to be unified around? Because what they want to be unified in is probably not unity at all.

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It's, it's their own autonomous, selfish, sinful, fleshly desires. That's what they want.

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They're saying we need to be unified around this. We need to be unified around what I want.

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So just desiring unity does not cause unity. It is

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Christ that unifies us. We're all broken from each other. We're all separated because in our sinfulness, we're striving for our own autonomy.

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So you have each person wanting their own sin and they don't think of it as sin.

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They just, it's perfectly fine. I'm not harming anybody by what I do, but what they want is sinful.

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And that can have an appearance of unity. Just think about like a rock concert, a major rock artist, secular rock concert.

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I've been to these before. I know what they're like. So you have these, uh, these artists singing these songs that more often than not are extremely blasphemous.

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Blasphemies will be hurled from the stage. People will cheer. They will rejoice. They'll sing along with these songs.

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And there's a lot of drug use that's going on at this stuff too. Some folks are there high or drunk or, or even sexual promiscuity going on at these concerts.

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And so you might look at something like that and think these people are unified. They're all doing this together.

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They all just want to have a little bit of fun. They're not really harming anybody. So, Hey, there's unity.

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Look at this. It's unity. Like you look at Woodstock, Hey, unity, everybody's just unified around a common cause.

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It looks that way. It appears like it's unity, but it's not. The scripture tells us in Titus three, three, that before we come to Christ, we're foolish, disobedient, led astray.

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We're slaves to various passions and pleasures passing our days in malice and envy.

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Now, here's the phrase that really struck me when I was younger, hated by others and hating one another.

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And that's, what's going on at these things. Nobody's really for peace and love, even though you might have a big gathering or some sort of festival that might be held in the name of peace and love or protecting the environment or something like that.

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Everybody unified around a common cause. They're not. They're hated by others and they're hating one another.

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It has an appearance of unity, but when everybody is after what they want, they're just trying to appease and attain the passions of their own flesh.

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Then there's no unity there. They're not for anybody else. I'm only with you as long as you're for me, but the moment that you're not going to let me have what

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I want, we're not unified anymore. So it has an appearance of unity, but it isn't really unity.

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True unity happens when you die to yourself, when you are not out to get what you want, but you want

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Christ, you want him to be glorified and honored. You want to put your own desires and passions totally aside in the entrance, in the interest of helping somebody else.

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Paul's instruction, going back to Philippians two again, where he says to have the mind of Christ. He says each one should look not only to their own interests, but also to the interests of others.

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And even here we have it being said that we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, not to please ourselves.

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We please our neighbor for his good to build him up, that together we may with one voice glorify the

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God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What we are striving for together is to glorify

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God. We don't do this individually. Nobody worships as an island. Our desire is that the glory of God would be exalted in his church.

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Yes, you can worship God by yourself. I'm not saying that true worship can't be unless you are with the people of God right now here in Texas.

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We've had some major winter weather that is very unseasonable anywhere in the state of Texas, but every single county in Texas has been below freezing.

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Somebody told me that in recorded history, they don't know of a time that this has taken place where temperatures getting down into like zero degrees.

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We've had snow all over the state, even down around the coast, down around Houston and along the

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Gulf, down into Mexico, over the Mexican border. They've received some of this winter weather that we've had.

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Now, this is unseasonable for Texas. So Texas does not have the kind of equipment that is needed in order to get the snow out of here.

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There's no salt. People don't, you know, you have entire towns across Texas. Nobody's invested in a single snow truck or snow plow.

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They've never been needed. And so here in Lindale, where we live, the snow is just covering everything. There are still people getting out there and trying to drive around, but it's snowmageddon out here.

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This has kept people at home. Nobody can go anywhere. We're isolated at home, and some people live by themselves.

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They don't have roommates. They don't have a family. So they're just stuck at home by themselves. Now, I'm using current events to explain being stuck at home by yourself.

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But I think a lot of people have experienced this even over the course of the past year with COVID and lockdowns and stuff like that.

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You're just stuck at home. Can you worship God at home? Yes, absolutely. You can. In fact, as we read back in Romans 12, 1, that we're to present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto the

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Lord. And this is our spiritual act of worship. That's your responsibility to do that.

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You are to worship God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. As you hear me saying that, as the

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Holy Spirit is convicting your heart, that is your responsibility. Give all of yourself unto

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God. But you can't be just settled in that. I'm doing all that I'm supposed to do as long as I'm worshiping

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God. Part of the worship that you're supposed to give to God is being with his body. So you need to even take responsibility for yourself to get to church and to worship with the saints and find ways that you can build others up in this faith, in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Because together, as it says in Romans 15, 6, together, you may with one voice glorify the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That does not mean that, hey, every Christian in the world is all worshiping

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God, so therefore we're lifting a voice up together. No, there's actually some intentionality there that you can see this spelled out here in Romans 15, 1 through 7.

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And everything that we've read here all the way back to chapter 14, even back to chapter 12, everything that we see here is speaking to a body of people to love one another and build each other up.

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You can't do that online. You don't do that through virtual church watching YouTube videos.

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You don't do this in social isolation. You do this when you're with the body, when we are assembled together, when we know each other.

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Church is not a business relationship. You don't just have a business partnership with people that you're with and, hey, we're just going to go do our worship thing together so we can all check our religious boxes and feel good about one another.

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We are called as a church to love each other, to build these relationships, to forge fast friendships and help to sanctify one another, building each other up in this faith.

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Watch out for one another when you see somebody in sin, kindly correcting them and bringing them back to the path of righteousness.

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Our desire together as the body of Christ is that we may with one voice glorify the

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God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, Paul says in verse seven, therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

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Welcome one another. And remember, as we've been talking about these things all the way back to chapter 14, we've been talking about considering one another's conscience.

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Something might be right to you, but it might be sin to somebody else. And we've used some examples about this food and drink is what

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Paul references back in chapter 14. We've talked about masks. We've talked about watching movies.

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We've talked about alcohol consumption and things like this. Another one occurred to me the other day. What you wear.

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We didn't talk about this so much when we were going through chapter 14, but I thought of this, so I'm going to come back to it.

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It's my podcast. I can jump around subjects all I want. So back in chapter 14, verse 13, it says, decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

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Verse 15. If your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love by what you eat.

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Do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. This applies to clothing and attire as well.

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I know that in saying this, it mostly falls upon the women. Whenever we talk about clothing and attire, this goes to guys as well.

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Guys need to be careful about what they wear also, even though the instructions when it comes to modesty, yes, it's going to be directed toward women more than it will be to men.

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So in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 8, Paul says this. I desire that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

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That's something to consider in itself, because in 2 Timothy 2, 14, Paul says, do not quarrel about words, which does no good but only ruins the hearers.

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Sometimes we need to be careful about the discussions that we have and the way we have those discussions so that it doesn't cause somebody overhearing the discussion to stumble.

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We need to be mindful in that way as well. But then Paul goes on back to 1

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Timothy 2, verse 9. He says, likewise, also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self -control.

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They need to adorn themselves with what is proper for women who profess godliness.

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And that's good works. That's what Paul says there in verse 10. So when we talk about modesty and self -control,

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Paul Washer has said this, that what a woman wears needs to accentuate her face more than anything else.

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If what you're wearing is drawing attention to your body, then you're being immodest.

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But if it's directing attention more toward your face, because that is where the glory of Christ is to shine from our faces, from our eyes, especially from our mouths, the things that we say.

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So a woman needs to dress in such a way that the attention is on her face and not on her body. If it is on her body, then she is causing others to stumble.

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And therefore, she is sinning, according to the instructions that Paul gives here in Romans chapter 14.

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Just about every year we get around to April or May or something like that. I will say something on Twitter. This gets me in trouble every time.

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But I'll say something to the effect of remember that that leggings are not pants.

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You can wear them under things, but they're not to be just your pants. And every time I do that,

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I get accused of legalism. There's kind of like this liberal, feminist, anti -patriarchy sort of side of social media.

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They would not call themselves liberal, but they're against patriarchy. So that's liberal.

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They might call themselves complementarian, but not in their practice at all. Anyway, that group of women tends to get really, really mad whenever I say that.

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And some of the vitriol that has been hurled at me over the last couple of years has been because of that statement.

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Exactly. Because I've said that leggings are not pants. Look, it doesn't matter if you wear them because they're comfortable.

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And that's often what I hear. That's fine. You want to dress for comfort. Perfectly okay. But you still have to consider what that looks like and if it could potentially be causing another man to stumble.

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No, this isn't rape culture, which is the way that stuff gets shouted down or purity culture. You're just imposing something legalistic.

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I'm not. I'm saying that you have an obligation to care for the conscience of your brothers and sisters in the

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Lord. That's what's being said here in Romans 14 and 15. You who are strong, you may not think that there is anything wrong with wearing leggings.

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You're perfectly confident in your mind. Wearing leggings is right. Okay. But I'm telling you, there are men staring at your derriere and it is causing them to stumble and sin.

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And if you are not mindful of what that can be doing to the mind of a brother in the Lord, then you're sending to Paul says that here in Romans 14.

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If your brother is grieved by what you eat, verse 15, or by what you do or what you wear, you are no longer walking in love by what you eat or what you wear.

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Do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So you must be mindful of one another's conscience.

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And what is the goal? Again, what's the goal? You focus on this goal and we stop arguing about all of the little ins and outs of all these little tiny things over here.

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These matters of conscience off to the side. It's good to have those discussions, but they don't divide us when we're focusing on the goal that together you may with one voice glorify the

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God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God, where Paul tells us in Philippians 2 5 to have the mind of Christ.

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He goes on to say that Christ did all that he did to the glory of God, the father.

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And so likewise, as that was the aim of Christ in his earthly ministry. So it should be our desire as well.

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We do all things to the glory of God, even when it comes to considering one another, helping each other, building one another up.

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We who have more maturity in faith, caring for those who are less mature, that we may grow up into the head who is

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Christ Jesus into mature manhood and womanhood so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves carried about by every shifting wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

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Rather, we are speaking the truth in love, growing into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

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I'm just quoting to you now from Ephesians chapter four. We have a little bit more of this kind of teaching regarding one another and building each other up here in Romans chapter 15.

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And we're going to resume our teaching on this with verse eight on Monday. Let's finish with prayer.

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Heavenly father, we thank you for the good word that you have given to us, that this word that we have read might build us up in sanctification, growing into Christ.

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And we have a desire to help one another do that as well. No longer divided from each other the way that we were when we were chasing after the passions of our flesh.

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But our foremost desire is to glorify God, to glorify him with our body and to glorify him in the body.

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We glorify Christ in the way that we live in our own body. And we glorify Christ in the way that we live in the church and building each other up in the

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Lord until the day of Christ comes. Hold us steadfast in your love.

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Keep us directed according to your word. May we have patience and kindness toward each other as you have had toward us.