Romans 14

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Romans 14-16 What Do You Accept?

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beginning chapter 14 verse 1 to chapter 15 verse 13 here the word of the Lord as For the one who is weak in faith welcome him but not the quarrel over opinions
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One person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables
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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
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For God has welcomed him Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another it is before his own master that he stands or falls and he will
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Be upheld for the Lord is able to make him stand One person esteems one day is better than another while another esteems all days alike
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Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind the one who observes the day observes it in honor of the
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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
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Lord and gives thanks to God For none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself For if we live we live to the
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Lord and 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 in Christ died and lived again
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That we might be Lord both of the dead and of the living Why do you pass judgment on your brother or you?
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Why do you despise your brother for we will all stand before the judgment seat of God For it is written as I live says the
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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 Therefore, let's not pass judgment on one another any longer
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But rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother I know and am persuaded in the
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Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean For anyone who thinks it is unclean for if your brother is grieved by what you eat
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You are no longer walking in love by what you eat. Do not destroy the one for whom
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Christ died So do not let what you regard is good be spoken of as evil
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For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the
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Holy Spirit Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men
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So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual a building do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God Everything is indeed
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Clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats
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It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble the faith that you have
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Keep between yourself and God 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 chapter 15
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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 for Christ did not please himself
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But as it is written the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me for whatever was written in former days was written for you our instruction that through in Endurance and through in the encouragement of the scriptures
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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 that together you may with one voice
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Glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Therefore welcome one another is Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show
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God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the Patriarchs and in order that the
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Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written Therefore I will praise you among the
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Gentiles and sing to your name and again it is said rejoice Oh Gentiles with his people and again praise the
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Lord all you Gentiles and let all the peoples extol him and I again Isaiah says the root of Jesse shall come
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Even he who arises to rule the Gentiles and him will the Gentiles have hope may the
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God of hope Fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the
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Holy Spirit you may abound in hope May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his
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Holy Word. Well, what do you accept? what do you find acceptable and What do you find unacceptable?
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Now by except I don't mean Your preferred or your favorite my favorite ice cream is
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Haagen -Dazs, but I'll accept Bluebell Ben and Jerry's Even Breyers maybe there are things
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I'll accept but they aren't my my preferred I don't think though. I'll accept store brands
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No I'm not gonna accept that when I was a kid the grocery stores had a particularly cheap brand of ice cream
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Maybe Herbie remembers this called so cheap. They couldn't give me call it ice cream. Remember ice milk. Yeah ice milk
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It was unacceptable. I heard on NPR now I don't know if it's true, but I heard it on NPR that if bears break into your house and open the freezer which they can do
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They will accept The good brands of ice cream they'll look they'll accept your Haagen -Dazs But they will not accept cheap store brands bears will not eat your food lie and vanilla
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Bears have standards, you know What about your standards what were you will accept
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What what about dress for church when I first went to California in 1987? I was shocked by how casually people dressed for church
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It's unacceptable to go in shorts and an untucked shirt father I would have show these
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Californians how men dressed for church men go to church in a suit in tie Now after a couple of years, well, they taught me and I was going to church in shorts.
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And of course No tie when visiting back home in Alabama. Someone greeted me at church with hey, where's your tie?
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After a few years later in that same church, even the pastor was preaching without a tie the unacceptable became
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Acceptable even if some people still didn't prefer it between what we prefer ideally
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Haagen -Dazs suits and ties and what we won't accept Store brand ice milk what men coming to church with no shirt at all between those two categories the ideal and the unacceptable is another large really vast category called
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The acceptable What would you accept and why? Why would you accept something that is not ideal?
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Why would you do that? When it comes to the church when it comes to the things of God Is there even really such a category as the merely acceptable does everything have to be ideal?
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Now we had a man who started coming here a few years ago who said that he was he was really excited To be here because here everything is perfect and there's no reason he said there's no reason to Ever put up with anything in church.
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That's not perfect there's only the pure and the unacceptable nothing in between and we were saying that I was thinking
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I Hope this works out But he's probably going to be trouble
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It's just a matter of time before he finds something about us that he thinks is not ideal and thus
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Unacceptable. I Tried to address that attitude in my teaching but to no avail He didn't last very long
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Here we see what we should accept and why in three pairs of nouns three things that are first principles and brothers second peace and faith and third strength and servants
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Here Paul is continuing from where we left off last week flowing right out of chapter 13 where he said in verse 10
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Love is the fulfilling of the law You know, we live in the age of love not law and so living in love also means living in the church
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Which means living with the weak with the merely acceptable with great cares the impact of our lives on Others on the church
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Christians today often now we have no category of the merely acceptable Between the perfect and the unacceptable.
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They also often have no category for these other people Who are these other people with us with with them?
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Between between there's them as me and there's God what's this other people I keep hearing about the church
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Remember the lady who said I know who I belong to Meaning that it was just Jesus and her which is just the same as just her
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What was missing in her calculation was love for a particular group of people
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The other believers for whom Christ died whom she should know she belonged to But there was not a hint of that of even understanding that there were others that she needed to be aware of To people like her.
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It's just me Individually and God remember that Testimony to modern
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American spirituality the footprints poem So holy they think that I've seen
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Bible covers with it on it, which is their way of saying They wish it was in the Bible They're trying to get it in there the best they can in the poem when looking back on his or her life
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From the narrator. There's just two sets of footprints of the sand. There's just Jesus and the believer walking together
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No one else included No church not like our Church Covenant would walk together in Christian love now for them
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It's just I'm walking with Jesus No one else is just me the church than they think exists only to help get the message out to other individuals
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Who are also walking alone with Jesus? So there's just a lot of individuals walking alone with Jesus There's no no no group of people walking together with him.
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And so if they drift from church to church, they're unconnected They're not belonging it really doesn't matter because it's all about just Jesus and me which it looks a lot like just me
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We don't belong to a body. We're just looking after ourselves And so if you want to eat meat, but you find yourself in a church full of vegetarians
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Well, then just switch churches if you want to drink wine, but you find yourself in a church full of teetotalers
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Huh move to a drinking church if you want to wear a suit and tie or a dress and Yet some are so uncouth as to wear shorts and no tie
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Well go find a church just for you. Everyone just is just like you if you insist that everyone be your race
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Well, you can always find churches like that today You don't really have to love anyone in church because love means sacrificing for people
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It often means putting up with the acceptable even if it's not ideal being sir Breyer's ice cream when you'd really much rather have haagen -dazs
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But in chapter 14 were to allow our liberty to be constrained By love to accept each other and so put up with a merely acceptable to edify each other.
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That's the principle The principle in chapter 14 verse 1 for the one who is weak in faith
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Welcome him You would almost kind of think he would say rebuke him for being weak get strong you people
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No, he says welcome him. Welcome the weak who are wrong, by the way And welcome them not just to indoctrinate them in your point of view to make them accept your perfect beliefs and practices
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He says not to quarrel over opinions and the word they're translated opinions. There might sound familiar.
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There's a Greek word for you dialogus moy Where we get dialogue from? There are things that you can dialogue about you can debate you can converse while accepting the other person as a believer and the new
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Members class I tell people that there is a popular in times doctrine that you can believe and be a member of the church
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You won't be left behind if you believe it But I can also make fun of you for believing it.
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That's the principle. It's wrong But it's acceptable. This is the value of the statement of faith doctrine is not stated in the confession of faith are usually
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Dialogable that is we can talk about it. Now some people have no concept of the wrong but Acceptable if it's wrong that it's heresy.
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They say every doctrine is either Perfect or heretical meaning that you should divide over it and reform people are famous or really infamous for this attitude
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It's our way or the broad way to destruction. They think The examples he uses here are first with meat and In verses two and three and then with holy days in verse five
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The the meat apparently had to do with kosher laws that meat sacrifice to idols here It's kosher laws whether the meat was slaughtered the right way whether it's clean or unclean
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Especially with the blood drained out of the animal there were Christians still keeping the kosher laws the clean laws of meats
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Probably mostly Jews by ethnicity and upbringing and they would be afraid that the meat you were serving them
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You went to their house. They went to you invited them to their house and you serve them some kind of meat They would probably be afraid.
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Well, this is not clean You were raised a barbarian and so you don't know how to slaughter the right way
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And so they would eat only the vegetables and these are those who are weak in faith. They're the weaker brother now, they are weak
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Because they're wrong They don't understand what we saw in Mark 7 last fall that the
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Lord Jesus declared all foods clean Or what Paul says in Colossians chapter 2 verse 16 about the
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Sabbath begin a shadow that is fulfilled by Christ and now Understand they're not depending on their law -keeping to be saved
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To be right with God or else Paul would indeed rebuke them like he does the legalist in Galatians They just don't yet fully understand their freedom in Christ now over the last 200 years
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There was a strong temperance movement among Christians in the US that taught that Christians cannot drink any alcohol it goes so far that most
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Baptist churches revised their church covenants to include a prohibition against quote drinking alcohol as a beverage and In fact when we adopted a covenant for this church
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We basically take the typical Baptist one Revised it a little bit and one of the things we revised is we took out that statement and replaced it with we were framed from Intoxication because that's what the
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Bible prohibits. It doesn't appropriate any drinking now, but that belief Thrived on what
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Paul calls here weaker brethren, and it was obviously wrong the Lord Jesus drank and even made wine Yes, it's wine.
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It wasn't grape juice. Sorry, but here's the principle even though the prohibitionists were wrong
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They're acceptable if someone believes that they shouldn't drink They can do that.
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They can believe that and live that way The problem came with they didn't understand the principle and wouldn't let others have the freedom to drink in moderation
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They would pass judgment on the one who drank even well, even without getting drunk
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They forgot the principle welcome the one you think you might be wrong, by the way
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But the one you think is the weaker brother if someone won't eat meat unless it's slaughtered the kosher way Then either slaughter at the kosher way or make some
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Delicious vegetarian dishes if they still think that they have to strictly keep the Sabbath no work and no going to restaurants
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No stores because that makes others work didn't let them You know don't invite them out to eat on Sunday and so tempt them to violate their own principles
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Some think that we shouldn't use anything from the traditional Liturgical calendar no
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Advent Christmas Lent Good Friday Easter. So don't make them That's the
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Puritan position. You don't recognize any of those holidays. Now. I actually mostly agree with that Except I think we can use some
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Christmas hymns around Christmastime and use Good Friday to challenge the theology of glory The triumphalism of our day that you can just you believe
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God, you know suffering we use that to challenge that But the truth is that all days are holy So really it's it's those clinging to those traditional quote holy days
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Who are the weaker brothers or sisters and if we totally ignored Christmas and we just went right through December every service and saying no
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Christmas carol Nothing no decoration around here and no mention of it in any of the sermons
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The weaker brother or sister would be offended they would And so we sing a few songs and I throw in some
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Christmas related sermon illustrations for them They think it's Christmas themed not really, but they think it is and really that's not hard to bear.
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Is it? That's not hard to bear That's easy to put over in it. Is it saying joy to the world?
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It's not it's not like a great burden to have to bear is it so notice here for both these issues eating meats and holy days
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Paul elsewhere shows that he has strong and Inspired and so absolutely true views on them and first Timothy chapter 4.
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He says false teachers will come He calls them liars with seared consciousness So he's using a really strong language who will require abstinence from certain foods.
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That's what sets them apart That's how you know who the liars with seared consciousnesses are they sir? They're saying don't eat that Like the meats here and he says that God created to be received with Thanksgiving and he says nothing is to be rejected
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He even says that those teaching that don't eat certain foods. They are teaching. There's a famous phrase doctrines of demons the very strong language about people teaching abstaining from certain foods in first Timothy, but here
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He's saying that Christians who won't accept unkosher meat You are to welcome
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That's the principle Why? Because they're brothers
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Again in Colossians chapter 2 verse 16 He tells us not to let anyone judge us if we're not a strict Sabbath keeper a
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Sabbatarian if we work someone Sunday after church Someone scolds us for it
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Really, it's the scolder who doesn't understand what the Sabbath is He's the weaker brother
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But here in verse 5 if one person esteems one day as holy it has to be kept we'll accept him
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In verse 6 he's doing it in honor of the Lord Now the person with no category of the merely acceptable is going to say wait.
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Hey Paul, why don't you set him straight? Tell the weaker brother that he's wrong
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That his doctrine is it perfect? Rebuke him, but Paul says
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Accept him Accept him because he's a brother. He's honoring the Lord This is his life of a living sacrifice
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Including him in his dying in verse 8 just be convinced He says in verse 5 that you're eating or drinking or you're not keeping the holy days
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Or or keeping them be convinced that you're doing it for the Lord not just for your convenience
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That's because you're serving money or you like the taste or whatever it is Not just for that you're doing it really for the
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Lord even if he's wrong He's not eating meat because he's afraid it's unclean or he's keeping some holy days holidays
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Because he thinks some days are more holy than others still in verse 10. He's your brother or sister
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Why do you pass judgment on your brother second time? Why do you despise your brother just because he drinks a glass of wine at dinner?
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Like someone else I can think of with a capital S or because he's so weak in knowledge that he doesn't drink
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You don't judge those who the Lord hasn't because We will all stand before the judgment seat of God God is the judge of the acceptable
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What do you accept Accept each other because you're your brothers and sisters
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That's the principle second pair of nouns is Peace and faith beginning in chapter 14 verse 13
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Therefore in verse 13 since God is the judge not you and you are brothers and sisters
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Says decide make this decision in your mind resolve it Never to put a stumbling block that is something to trip over an offensive thing in the way of another
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Christian Make that a resolution in your life Instead choose peace at verse 19.
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Notice what he says starting verse 14. I know and have been persuaded This is the truth.
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He's he has he is by revelation He has the perfect ideal doctrine Nothing is unclean in itself.
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There is again in this in this passage anything you eat or drink is all clean Anyone tells you different they're wrong
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Do you want to eat a rare steak? Well, that's a blood in it you can You can have blood pudding how do you spell how do you pronounce that Z tofu she's shaking her head don't even try
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Yeah, whatever. It's a Chinese thing blood curd sounds horrible. Why you would want to eat that?
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I don't know but whatever you can if that's what you want to do You can drink a glass of wine or beer But it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean if you think it is sinful to drink a beer and you do it
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Anyway, maybe because everyone else at the party is someone hands you a bottle that you don't want to look uncool
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So you drink it or maybe because you really like it just like the taste but you still believe it's the devil's brew
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You just think it's your weakness. I can't withstand it. Well, you have sinned You cared more about how you appeared to others or you cared more for the taste than you did for obeying
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God even if you're wrong about how you obey God if You believe
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Sunday is the Christian Sabbath that you shouldn't work on and and yet you work because you're just so greedy
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You have to make a few more dollars. Well, you have sinned even though I think you're wrong about the Sabbath and If you eat the blood or you drink the beer
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Now even if you're one of the strong you're one of those like Paul who knows that nothing is unclean in itself
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You know that you're right. Your doctrine is perfect or You work on Sunday after church but another believer sees you and then are another believer knows you're doing it and Here again notice the church intrudes
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It's not just you and Jesus walking alone in the garden when the dew is fresh on the roses in verse 15
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If you're eating or you're drinking or your freedom grieves Another brother or sister then you are no longer walking in love
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You're free to eat meat if it's not kosher even pork you're free to drink wine or beer
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You're free to watch many kinds of movies not no not porn. And yes, you're free to work on Sundays after church
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But in each of those decisions Do you know to whom you belong who you're attached to the impact of your life on the church?
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Are you thinking? corporately of your place in the body You even take that into account
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Do you think well, what would this decision mean for those other believers for whom
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Christ died? It might be acceptable to me Might be acceptable to you
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But is it acceptable to them? Well here they had Jews and Christians are mixed together in the same church
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And some of the Jews had a hard time accepting now they could eat things like pork And the Gentiles didn't have any problem with that at all and probably brought some delicious pork to the love feast
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They insisted that they were free to do so and they were right But were they free to disrupt the harmony of the church
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To offend other people other believers we could serve real wine here for the Lord's Supper I have a little more bite to it
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Like most likely the Lord Jesus did when he first instituted it. We're free to do that But what if someone alcoholic with a weakness for alcohol tasted it and then because of what that little taste we gave them
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They couldn't control themselves later That taste drove them to go back to drunkenness our freedom is it worth their soul our freedom is good in verse 16
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But if it grieves if it divides if it stumbles other Christians Then we've used it for evil because of verse 17 the kingdom of God that's being ruled by God What we are to seek first is
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Not a matter of eating and drinking of you finally getting that steak the way you like it really juicy
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Or that beer you crave No, it's about righteousness. It's being right with God It's about peace.
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That's harmony a restored relationship Not only between you and God but between you and everyone else
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God has made peace with and it's about joy in the Holy Spirit So in verse 18, if you serve
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Christ not yourself, you are acceptable to God and others
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Who does God accept Those who serve Christ by serving his body so then in verse 19
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Let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual up building that's edification Notice the word mutual there in verse 19
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Many people's only criteria for selecting your churches. What is what to do for them my edification individually here
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He says pursue what? makes for others Edification Who do you accept
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You accept your weaker brother or sister Or you like a lot of reform people so determined to be right to be perfect To only accept the ideal that you'll you'll go to war with anyone who doesn't understand as perfectly as you do
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Well, if so verses 20 to 23 are for you Don't for the sake of food or drink or music or dress or all days being holy
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Even if you're right Destroy the work of God the work of God is saving people even weaker people and building up the body of Christ edifying the church not just you if You destroy that if you cause people to stumble simply because you're right
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That's unacceptable. You could educate their conscience But don't violate it
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Christian maturity is being aware of and caring about the impact of our lives on on the body
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Again Luther is right a Christian man is the most free Lord of all remember this from last week Christian man is the most free
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Lord of all and subject to none a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all and subject to everyone
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So even if you know because you're strong Your doctrine is right and you can eat that You can drink that you can work on that day
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It's good If you refuse because you want to cause you do not want to cause your brother or sister to stumble
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You have the faith that gives you freedom to eat or to drink or to work or to watch but they don't they don't have that faith yet and If they eat or they drink or they work on Sabbath or whatever if they do that without faith because you
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Encourage them to you led them to well, then they have sinned Sin is anything that is done without faith.
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What's acceptable is peace and faith third pair of nouns strength and servants starting in chapter 15
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So you're strong Congratulations, you have faith that all foods and drinks are clean that all days are holy
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Your doctrine is right still we ought to bear with the failings of the week in chapter 15 verse 1.
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They should know better Than to think that they can't eat some foods or drink some drinks.
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They should know that it's all acceptable They should know that there's no Advent season or any of these holy days, but they don't and for now that Failing of theirs
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We can accept Not to please ourselves But our neighbor particularly our fellow church member.
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That's who he's talking about here Please him or her You're strong But use your strength to bear with the weaknesses of other
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Christians that strength like the Lord Jesus Who was a servant? strength and servants
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Now Jesus didn't please himself at one point He taught Peter that he
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Jesus he was exempt from the temple tax Because he was the Son of God He did not have to pay that tax the son of the king doesn't have to pay taxes, right?
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Jesus told Peter so I'm exempt from this tax But in order not to offend people
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Will pay he said He was strong. He had perfect faith, but he still bore with the weaknesses of others
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Indeed, he became a servant by bearing insults for us and those insults belong to us
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But fell on him. He served us by bearing them
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The Old Testament tells us about him beforehand and was written in verse 4 for our instruction.
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It's written for we Christians It was not for him for a former time a former dispensation for a bygone age
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It's for us telling us how to live in harmony that we might with one voice glorify God in Verses 7 and 8 and it tells us about the servant
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Christ became a servant. He served the Jews by fulfilling God's promises to them.
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He fulfilled those promises and he served we non -jews by bringing people from all nations to glorify
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God Because of his mercy morale chapter 12 starts in view of God's mercy
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All that he described in the first 11 chapters now to prove that Paul quotes four scriptures from Psalm 18
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Deuteronomy 32 Psalm 117 and Isaiah 11 all to show that the inclusion of the
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Gentiles people of all nations all these people with their blood pudding in their rare stakes and their
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No tradition of Sabbath keeping that it wasn't a mistake. It wasn't an afterthought Some have taught that God's first plan was to send
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Jesus for the king at the king of the Jews and only when that didn't Work out God decided bones plan
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B start the church and here Paul shows that including the Gentiles people from all kinds of ethnic groups
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Including them to praise the Lord that that was always his plan Who does
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God accept? some people from all nations So should you?
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Even if you're strong be a servant and accept those God accepts thus in verse 12
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You're filled with joy and peace and believing through faith and can overflow in hope because of the
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Holy Spirit Then Paul concludes this letter showing that we present ourselves as a living sacrifice and three pairs of verbs
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Things to do three pairs of verbs from chapter 15 verse 14 to the end preach and send second meet and greet and finally watch and glorify
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What are you to do now that you're filled with joy and your peace and you're overflowing with hope?
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first preach and send That's what Paul is doing living as a sacrifice to bring the gospel to the
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Gentiles. That's our ancestors I don't think we have any Jewish people here. Not that I know of in verse 16 He is a minister of Christ Jesus to the
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Gentiles That's who he is so that the offering of the Gentiles I was God has an offering that he's gathering like a sacrifice like they gave at the temple and he's taking them from the
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Gentiles an offering of people living sacrifices and Paul his mission is to take this offer these people giving their life of living sacrifices and Offer them to God and that offering should be acceptable
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There's that key word again acceptable in verse 16, it probably won't be perfect though Will it you think we're gonna be a perfect sacrifice?
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ideal Is he gonna bring the Gentiles to perfection us you think you're gonna be perfect really?
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Perfect obedience by word and deed of verse 18 the offering of worship like in the temple of believers from every ethnic group won't be perfect but it can be
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Acceptable to God that's Paul's priestly service He calls it verse 16 his work for God in verse 17
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While he preaches the gospel to where Christ has not yet been named in verse 18 to give
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God an acceptable sacrifice and We're to do the same
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Give God an acceptable sacrifice beginning with our lives And then lead others lives that's what he's written this long letter for not just to teach them
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But to encourage them to send even to send him in chapter 15 verse 24
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I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped in my journey there by you
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I hope to be helped What Paul means is
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I visited my life to serve the Lord by spreading the good news of God to to the non -jews
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Now you can take part in this by helping me go to another place
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Where Christ has not yet been named go to Spain. I hope to be helped by you
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Romans is one long Missionary support letter just no self -addressed stamped envelope included
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That is That is how Paul is asking them to take part in presenting themselves as a living sacrifice
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Preach if you can personally if that's your gift, if not, we'll support help the church
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Reach out help the church get to others. We have not yet heard about Jesus We have new generations of kids who need to hear about Jesus.
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So preach share the good news or Send by giving sacrificially give your checkbook as a living sacrifice
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He appeals to the Romans at the end of chapter 15 Brothers a family of God to strive with him in prayer.
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He's going to Jerusalem. He wants his service to be acceptable again Hey, that's a lot like the last sermon.
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I just preached isn't acceptable. There is again. What's acceptable? preaching or sending helping
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Not every individual Christian is called to preach we each have different gifts talked about that in chapter 12 remember but we could all be part of a body that is preaching and Sending the body's preaching maybe not you individually and sending for that strive in prayer
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He says at the end of chapter 15. He sounds like he's done It's the way it sounds to me at the end of chapter 15 like he's done.
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May the God of peace be with you all Amen, ah, but then he remembers obvious a couple things.
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I forgot two pairs of things second pair of verbs meet and greet
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Yes, you belong to Jesus and that means you belong to the church Most of chapter 16 is a list of names spiritual brothers and sisters to whom
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Paul felt he belonged great them for me He says Paul tells them they're great of all greet each other
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In verse at least 28 specific names and specific people and some references to others unnamed people to whole families
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Some of them like Phoebe he calls a servant. It's a deacon She she could have literally been a deacon
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Phoebe was also a patron in verse 2 Which probably meant that she was rich and that she gave to support
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Paul and some others Some of them are he calls him fellow workers who risked their necks for my life.
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Some of them are beloved Rufus's mother was a mother to him and verse 5 greet a whole church that meets in Prisca and Aquila's house
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Because the church is a group of people, you know, it's not a building churches meet in buildings. They are not buildings
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Finally everyone turn to your neighbor He says everyone turn to your neighbor and greet one another with a holy kiss in verse 16 meet and greet
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I'm not gonna ask you to do that. You can if you want I guess What do you do? If you've been accepted by God You preach and you send you meet and you greet and finally you watch and you glorify
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You belong to each other So watch out He says in verse 17 for those who cause divisions
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So that now you don't belong to others you think because there's a division that's not acceptable
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Watch out for the divisive the argumentative the fight picker the stumbler looking out for Looking for something to argue about to agitate over Thanks, everything's perfect.
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Nothing's acceptable. If it's not perfect stir up trying to stir up people even if they're smooth talkers watch out for the unity and the peace of the church and then glorify
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God and so he concludes in chapter 16 verse 25 And now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ According to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages
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But has now been disclosed that the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations
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According to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith to the only wise
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God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ Amen God is able to make you one of the strong who serve someone who understands the principle of accepting non -perfect people
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Who cultivates peace and faith who preaches and sins? Who meets and greets who believes and obeys the obedience of faith?
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Who watches and glorifies the only wise God through Jesus Christ forever. What do you accept?
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You accept non -ideal particular people with their
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Problems and their shortcomings and their remaining sin Has the gospel of God is unfolded in those first 11 chapters
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So all of you so made you grateful Inspiring. Oh the depth of the wisdom and the knowledge of God that you now want to live as a as a sacrifice to that God John Calvin wrote the heart must be harder than iron was not kindled by by this by the gospel in Romans Into a love for God has your heart been transformed and softened by the sweetness of trusting and obeying
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Jesus if so You'll accept the church. You'll take part in its mission
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Living as a spiritual act of worship presenting your body transforming your mind so that you can discern what is
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Acceptable that is Seen in the brothers and the sisters and in the mission
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You accept He appeals to you He urges you brothers and sisters by the mercies of God Offer your body
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Transform your mind Trust and obey Do you accept?