Book of Romans, 14:16-15:3 - Freedom in Christ | Handling Doubtful Disputations, Pt. 7 (05/15/2022)

Park Meadows Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Good morning, I want to first thank you for being here for my mom's memorial service on Thursday and I had worried about it for days that it wouldn't be enough, you know,

00:19

I mean how do you take a person's life down into a few minutes and so we figured the answer to that was to make it last three hours and it helps, it helps a little, you can get more of the life in but thank you for being there for our family, we needed it and I was really proud of my kids, all five of them were amazing and I think

00:49

I cried all the tears I've had for a while, I grew some more though after that the next day or so but it was, it was fitting for my mom, she was a wonderful person, she was a leader for everyone in our family starting with me and it's just always funny thinking back because her mother was not an only child but the good brother died in a plane crash and the bad brother got disowned so she kind of was an only child and then my mother was an only child and I was an only child so we had like, we had three people at our family reunions every year, three or four, it was always small and then

01:26

Charlotte and I had three kids and then Ben, the surprise baby Ben came along and then we had

01:32

Matt on purpose and then the family was a little bigger and then they grow up and I get new sons and daughters that are not sons -in -laws and daughters -in -laws but sons and daughters and grandbabies and so Nana found herself with about 24 people every, about once a month, we'd have a birthday for somebody or maybe one or two at a time sometimes and she'd always come and she'd be sitting there through the whole thing and I know it had to be loud and noisy for her but she loved it and she, in fact, she was at one of those when she had that second little baby stroke that let us know something was going on and we had to help her get home and time she got home she was normal again so but then the next one was the one that got her, it was bad and we thought she could, we thought she would be able to maybe, you know, through therapy and things to get where she could live a more normal life but then all of a sudden the last three days she started having strokes again at night and she'd wake up different the next morning and the last one was just,

02:45

I knew that was going to be the day, it felt like it was so fortunately all the children were able to be there so we were all around her the whole day and it was, it was a wonderful thing to watch my children ministering to my mom and something else.

03:06

It's bittersweet, isn't it? Well, anyway,

03:12

I don't want to talk too much about that lest I not have the ability to see very well up here so let's turn to Romans chapter 14 and I've talked to several of you guys who had lost your moms already and and you keep telling me it never goes away so I'm sure that's true but you don't want it to go away do you?

03:37

I was driving to church this morning and I was by myself because Charlotte's ill today and Katie and Dave are out of town and so I've had so many trips by myself to Corsicana from Mahea, coming to school, coming to the office, all through the years and it's, there aren't usually many cars out there, it's a nice drive and it's a good place to pray and a lot of times after I get through, my first person

04:12

I always prayed for was my mom every morning so that's kind of unusual now when I start to pray but then when

04:21

I get done I usually start looking around and thanking the Lord for the beautiful grass and beautiful sky and the birds singing and all that you know and even through after the curse there's so much beautiful so many beautiful creations of God and you can talk to him about that and this morning

04:39

I was thinking yeah but the grass isn't quite as green and the sky is not as blue and the birds are off tune today a little bit but anyway well let's go to Romans chapter 14 and this whole chapter has been talking about things we ought not to be bickering about pretty much wouldn't that be a good way to put it and the

05:03

Lord even tells us how to deal with things where we have disagreements with our brothers and sisters over small issues not over how salvation works we wouldn't want to fellowship with people that don't have that right we might want to witness to them but we don't want to fellowship with them right but smaller things how do you deal when you have a disagreement on things that are not as important as say salvation and how that works and that's what this chapter is about is how to deal how to deal with that and we've learned several things we learned that first of all it really helps if we realize that our brother or sister that we think we're disagreeing with and they're wrong of course right it's always them that's wrong well they're not our servant they're the lords and they serve him and we'll all answer before him for the things we do and say and whether they be right or wrong and he'll straighten all that out so we don't have to straighten it out that's one good thing that helps the second is that not only do they belong to him but he holds them up he's holding them up right at the time you're tearing them down in your mind at least hopefully not talking to other people about them in a negative way but that'd be even worse and the whole time we're doing whatever we're doing the

06:13

Lord's holding them up and the scripture teaches that in this in this chapter and then it says when it comes to things you might dispute and you remember the examples in this one of them has to do with like meat eaters versus vegetarians right and the scripture says let every man be persuaded in his own mind so I don't have to require you to be just like me and you don't have to require me to be just like you we just need to do after our study and I don't think this is not the same as humanism where it says what's your truth if you hear people say that young people now they say well my truth is this and I'm going it doesn't work that way you don't get to have your truth like this right here is the truth and we all have to live by it and and there's the standard but that's not what

07:01

I'm talking about I mean let's assume you're in the word and you're walking with the Lord well it still says you got to be persuaded in your own mind about certain things and I may be persuaded a different way and we don't need to argue about that that's what that's talking about and then the fourth thing is we must take any perceived imperative like if someone brings something from scripture and says well y 'all aren't doing this right well we need to look at the context and make sure they're getting it right right so we remember that and and then we are not to judge others with regarded disputable disputable things because each of us live and die unto the

07:43

Lord him only that's kind of a redundant truth it's taught almost kind of taught in a similar way twice in this passage and then the sixth thing is and this is where to me it started getting difficult because a lot of what

07:58

Paul says is like you know all things are lawful to us we're going to talk about that a little bit more today but but then he says yeah but don't make your weaker brother stumble so then that becomes almost a stronger law than if you had law in some ways you know you have to really think about that one because that's very if you think about Jesus himself the person that's very much

08:20

Christ -like isn't it not to make like he would think about the other person and what do

08:25

I do in front of him how does that make him feel would it make him stumble and if it would I'm just not going to do that in front of that person and so that's key and then the seventh one was this one and this is kind of talked about this a little bit

08:39

Paul says there is nothing unclean in and of itself and Jesus taught him this in the wilderness

08:46

I'm confident of because Jesus also taught Peter this one time when he needed to learn this lesson but in Romans 14 14 it says

08:55

I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus I think it's interesting that he mentions that like I Paul says

09:01

I don't want you to think this is just something that I believe is true Jesus taught me this right and that is that there is nothing unclean of itself well that was astounding to the

09:12

Jews in Paul's time that was astounding because they live by laws and rules things you can't eat things you can eat places you can and can't go things you can and can't do on the

09:22

Sabbath all these things and Paul said there's nothing unclean in and of itself totally changed everything in their world and Paul sort of mirrored this in first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 23 when he said all things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient all things are lawful for me but all things don't edify your brother you see how he suddenly brings in Jesus's teaching that don't make your brother stumble like maybe it is lawful for me to do it but not everything that I do will edify my brother so it brings that in you always have to think about that it's not enough just to say well actually

10:03

I don't have to live by your list of rules because all things are lawful for me if I want to have a social drink

10:12

I can have one right but if I do that and you saw me what would you think what how would you feel

10:19

I have to think about that don't I or what if someone I don't even know that's a young person that's seeking the

10:26

Lord saw me and I was a preacher it heard about me and you as a preacher and you saw me drinking a nice little social drink is that what they call it say maybe after a tradeway meeting in some city far away and yet they had heard of me that happens people walk up and say

10:44

I know who you are you're David Mitchell how do you know because you talk funny because you know I have a southern accent and maybe

10:50

I'm in California that's happened before because you nobody talks like you around here and then it makes them stumble so you have to think about that so that that to me sort of becomes a law in and of itself doesn't it so maybe all things are lawful but they're really not because I have to think about the other brother or sister and if I don't do that I'm not very

11:15

Christ -like you know what I'm saying so that's very strong teaching I think and then you come to even

11:22

I think a more difficult one to deal with and it's I think it's found in like the second half of Romans 14 14 so let me read it and then we'll discuss it but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean to him it is unclean so Paul said nothing is unclean in and of itself but to the person who feels that it is to him it is so what you cannot do in faith becomes a sin for you but maybe not for another person well that one is very difficult to deal with when you think you would like things to be black and white you would like there to be rules like God says do this don't do this there it is but it's not that way

12:06

I've had a theory about that for many years now my theory is that God made it that way on purpose because he wants every one of us as individuals to walk filled with the

12:17

Spirit and have to be informed by the Holy Spirit whether to do that or not do that in the moment rather than having a list so that way you have to have a relationship ongoing all the time rather than a list of what you can and can't do and God prefers that because now he's drawn us over to sit in his lap like a grandpa thinks of his grandkids you know

12:37

I really like ones that'll sit in my lap a little longer than the others that's the ones that I keep my mind on for my inheritance someday as far as proportionally like the ones that like that you know

12:50

Katie picks up on things quickly she will coach her three children this is how grandpa is so you need to like sit in his lap longer than the other kids

13:03

I think she may coach him a little I'm not sure if she does that and and then and then

13:08

Ben and Ashton don't have to even deal with it because because they will just do it and then

13:13

Jenny's over there already got the two grown ones now her Ella is is I've always called her my lap baby because she would sit on my lap whereas others would jump off you've heard me tell to get tired of my stories but others would jump off and go play she'd sit on my lap until until she knew

13:28

I was good to go and then she'd jump off so she's always been that way and Tyler is sweet as he believe it or not you think he's a big tall dude you know just sweet as he can be now

13:39

Finn on the other hand like he will taste like my pants are on fire he sits there oh it burns and he jumps off he's got because he's learning about everything in the universe so I don't hold that against him because I know why he does it he just like I got to go learn something sorry

13:56

I'll be back papa but anyway they're all different and wonderful but you know that's kind of how it goes so God is like that too he wants us to sit on his lap thinking of your kids and grandkids and how you feel about them

14:10

I think is a great learning experience for how we should treat the Lord and so therefore he's made it where we don't have a list of rules we have to ask him right now in the present you want me to do this or not will you do this with me or not and then we have that ongoing relationship that's my theory on why all of a lot of people confuse grace

14:33

I boy it frightens me a little to see some of the modern churches where they confuse grace to mean like all that the scripture says is is uh you know that all things are lawful that's all it says but if you read scripture it didn't stop there it said but not everything is expedient and not everything edifies your brothers and sisters it added that they leave that off so now like anything goes in church

14:59

I've talked with godly friends of mine who are even in the ministry who tell me that they have kid grown kids who go to church every

15:09

Sunday but they'll throw a curse word out there anytime they feel like it as if there's no problem with it isn't that amazing in this generation they'll ask they'll ask interesting questions like well who gets to define what a curse word is anyway why can't

15:27

I say that who defined that that's a bad word now how would you answer that that that young people are asking questions like that now my friend said

15:35

I did in my home and you ain't saying that so I like that I like that answer but it's a hard question sometimes because we didn't ask those questions to our parents did we you know because we had like a strap back there or in my case a

15:49

David board with my name on it sitting by the breakfast table so I'd see it every day first thing in the day so I didn't ask my dad well why can't

15:57

I say blankety blank bill did you ask your dad anything like that no Raymond did you

16:03

I doubt it Sharon probably didn't either and I bet your kid didn't ask you that either so you know think times are a changing so let's let's deal with this thing a little bit about what you cannot do in faith is sin

16:19

Paul says in 1414 but to him that esteem if anything to be unclean to him it is unclean now

16:27

I want to dwell on that one a little bit because we haven't talked about it much this can actually be problematic in our lives because there are other scriptures that indicate that the

16:39

Lord does not want us walking around with guilty conscience we don't serve we don't tend to serve him well when we think we're not right with him have you noticed that we tend to kind of just further backslide we had a funny backslide example this morning but anyway you know when you when you think you're backsliding you you don't tend to serve the

17:02

Lord so the Lord doesn't want us going around with a bad conscience over something that's not even a sin does that make sense but maybe we think it is one but it's not one so let's talk about that now

17:12

James 4 17 says therefore to him that knows to do good and do it that not to him that is sin well that's kind of one of those areas where you're not dealing with a scripture you're not dealing with a rule you're just like you looked over and you saw this lady on the side of the road with a flat and you just kept going because you were late now how do you feel gentlemen how do you feel yeah well you feel like you just sinned well then you did right so that's a little part of understanding that but that's not the main thing

17:44

I want to deal with I want to deal with this idea of where you like there's something that you do or something you should have done that you didn't you can put it both ways and to you you just feel like that's sinful but you're not sure the

17:57

Bible even says it is but you just feel guilty about it right let's talk about that a little bit a little bit so Romans 4

18:05

I'm gonna in Romans chapter 14 you have to go several verses down from where we are from verse 14 all the way to verse 23 and it sheds a little light on it it says and he that doubts is condemned if he eats but because he eats not of faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sin so here you have an example of a person who realizes this meat that's being served was offered to an idol and now they cook the meat they're serving it to me people are eating it and I feel guilty about that this particular person feels bad about it all right so now if he thinks it's wrong to eat that can he eat it in faith and what what here's how

18:54

I define what that means what does it mean if you can't do it in faith it's a sin what does that even mean if you try to figure that out because it's kind of strange language see if you think

19:03

I'm right here but I think what it means is and this is where I got this way that I've taught my kids

19:09

I don't know what kind of music to listen to when they're by themselves in the car or whatever is I think it means if if I literally ask the

19:17

Holy Spirit will you do this with me and he says no then that then

19:22

I can't do it in faith does that make sense like I'm doing it outside of faith I'm just back in the realm of the flesh now and I'm just by sight or whatever

19:32

I want to do I'm just doing it right I am not walking with the Lord while I do it that's what I think it means so if you can't do the thing with the

19:41

Lord right there with you then can you do it in faith because that's what our faith is about is we can't see

19:48

Jesus we we walk with him by faith so I can't do it with him therefore

19:53

I can't do it by faith that's sort of my definition of what this means where it says whatsoever is not of faith is sin so what about that well let me let's look at one example in the

20:09

Bible it might help a little bit I have to find my glasses because this Bible is a little bitty print

20:15

I'm going to go to one we sort of alluded to this one earlier in this study but we didn't really talk about it much but in Acts chapter 10 we see the story where Peter had been taught clearly by the

20:28

Jewish law certain things he couldn't eat things he could eat like he could not eat catfish that was a funny story at the memorial about my mom

20:36

I had so many people tell me they loved that Sharon and I had people from everywhere

20:42

Raymond telling me that when you talked it just got him got to him but so he couldn't eat catfish you know couldn't eat bacon right and and so Peter wouldn't eat these kinds of things and so now we're dealing in the context what's interesting about this is

21:03

Cornelius a Gentile needed someone to witness to him right and Peter knew he's a

21:14

Gentile and he's kind of struggling with that is the context of this thing and so here we pick it up Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour because I don't think he really wanted to talk to this gentleman and he became very hungry and would have eaten but while they made ready he fell into a trance and he saw heaven open in a certain vessel descending unto him as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth and wherein were all manner of four -footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air and there came a voice to him rise

22:01

Peter kill and eat and Peter and Peter being a good Jew and think he was pleasing the

22:07

Lord didn't he because he's keeping these rules that he thought God had made and Peter but Peter said not so Lord for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean and the voice spaken to him again a second time what

22:22

God has cleansed that call not thou common so if God says it's okay don't you say it's sinful that's the lesson now this was done three times why do you think it had to be done three times with Peter because he ain't listening right three different times the voice from heaven told him the same thing now

22:47

I want you to think about that for a minute God is speaking with the voice which he did in the

22:53

Old Testament times and you got to remember some of the New Testament was living in the Old Testament time because the church didn't start till after Pentecost but even after that there's a transitional period if you follow it through the book of Acts where predominantly the

23:07

Christians were Jews Jewish believers and it even in the book of Acts it transitions to where it's more and more

23:14

Gentile believers and less and less Jewish believers and the church became more what it is today so you had some

23:19

Jewish things that that were there in the early beginnings and then began to transition away and pass away like the

23:26

Jews always felt that the only way you could depart the Holy Spirit was by putting your hands on the other person and if you remember in the

23:34

Old Testament they were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit were they but he could fill them he could come upon them and do mighty things as with Samson for example but they imparted that by the touch the laying on of hands that's a very

23:48

Jewish thing well you got so many people in churches today thinking they got to do that and they do it because they they don't understand how to rightly divide the word of truth they don't understand their dispensations where God deals differently with us but if you read carefully with an open mind rather than what your denomination has taught you you will see a transition away from that for example in the book of Acts you'll see a section where the gospel is preached and you know they lay hands on people they say well

24:20

I didn't know there was a Holy Spirit remember that one and lay hands on him and he gets filled he gets indwelt by the Holy Spirit and then you'll go just a few chapters over and you'll see

24:29

Peter preaching and all of a sudden it says and the Holy Ghost fell upon them that heard they didn't need anyone to touch him they got saved and they were indwelt by the

24:40

Spirit and there's your change there's the transition to the way that it is during the church age and Acts is a transitional book and any group that tries to form their doctrinal positions on the book of Acts is going to be messed up in their doctrine they're not going to understand they're going to be doing things that are no longer even done that way well one of those things according to Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 is

25:01

God does not speak to us any longer as he did through the prophets which means visions dreams words of knowledge words of wisdom prophecy prophetic announcements

25:14

I'm not talking about the kind of prophecy where you're speaking forth the word from the word that still exists but where you do it without the written word and you just say

25:22

God told me to tell you this he doesn't do that anymore so people that tell me with a sincere heart well but I've seen it happen and I go well

25:30

I'm not saying you don't see it happen I'm saying you need to consider the source it's no longer the Holy Spirit causing it you can determine what you think's causing it is okay but it's not the

25:40

Holy Spirit because he won't lie and he said he doesn't do it in Hebrews one way so I don't do that anymore until the second three and a half years of the tribulation then he will start doing it again that in itself proves that it there's a transition away from it or it couldn't start over again if it didn't stop but anyway

25:55

I don't want to get off on that but this but this is during the part of the time during the transition period and God literally spoke to Peter who was an apostle and he spoke to him three times and he said things are a changing things are changing you can't keep being in this

26:13

Jewish life things are changing Jesus has died on the cross he has risen it changed everything

26:20

Peter so I'm saying this stuff is no longer unclean for you so don't tell me that it is you got it all right so here's here's from that here's what

26:28

I think what about in your lives where you come up with something that maybe your grandparents your parents who knows told you that it's a sin to do that and you search the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation and you don't find anywhere in the

26:43

Bible where it says where God says don't do that what should happen to you at that moment about that particular thing you should be set free from it just like Peter was set free from not being able to eat bacon he was able to eat bacon from that point forward and if he the truth is if he weren't able to he didn't listen to God did he so now when we're in a situation like that where we got something someone told us is sinful and God's Word nowhere says that it is then we need to be set free where it's not a sin for us we can do that in faith because God doesn't say don't do it now if if you still and what

27:27

I'm saying is the Word of God can set you free from some binding that Satan has put on you through legalism of some sort and some of you don't even have that problem because you never went to a legalistic church you never had that background but some of us do have that problem because we grew up in them

27:42

I you you grew up Pentecostal I grew up in the well I grew up southern badness which had no rules at the time that's why we left the church like this are they even believers you know that sort of thing's how it felt

27:52

I'm not saying it's true because I was over zealous as a young Christian but to me none of them seem safe so we're leaving so and I'm not saying that's true but that's how we felt so we went we're here low and behold we find a preacher that was a legalist but we didn't know what that was and Raymond and Sharon experienced some of that with us and they knew what it was and the

28:14

Lord just kept them there I think to be here now is the reason but to but they knew it but me and Charlotte were so young we hadn't figured it out yet but we did figure it out because God showed us but there were a whole lot of things that preacher said we could and couldn't do and as Charlotte and I began to search the scriptures we didn't see that in there anywhere so where'd they get that I don't know and it freed us from those things one by one by one and my mother and dad knew from the very beginning this was a bad deal we were getting into and the dude's name was

28:51

Preston Bunnell the founder of this church and his wife was Sandy and I'm not still not sure if the

28:57

Lord knows her or not I hope so but I don't know that he does because of her fruit that she bore back then maybe she's changed

29:05

I hope but the point is good things came out of it like our

29:10

Christian school they started our Christian school and so there are many things good but there were a lot of rules that didn't come from the

29:18

Bible so what happens when you live in that especially at the young age of 20 something and you're taught that it's the truth along with some stuff that is true because they did preach the

29:28

Bible too then later through later years as you see those things happen you still judge people that do them

29:36

I give you a stupid example women were not supposed to wear slacks they were supposed to only wear a dress all right so my girls give me so much trouble

29:46

Katie and Jenny because we didn't let them wear pants because of the rules of that church and they had to do things like we had a horse

29:54

Katie had a horse back then well how do you how do you ride a horse modestly with a dress right and then the kids were smart enough to ask those questions we said you just did you just have to so we'll get you some culottes that like no girl wants to wear culottes right so to this day they will throw that at me sometimes dad look at this old picture of me wearing these culottes around you look ridiculous yeah they did you know that sort of thing well but we didn't we didn't know we were told it was sinful and men were not to have hair touching their ears and Raymond you're good but some of you guys out there a little bit sinful you know you're getting close yeah so like Rocky Freeman Rocky Freeman was the best preacher

30:37

I ever heard and in Preston Bunnell was in his Sunday school class when he was in seminary

30:42

Rocky was his Sunday school teacher so he knew how awesome he was he would not invite him to speak at our church because his hair was touching his ear and and that God used that and also his wife wore slacks she's one of the most godly women

30:56

I knew though and and God used those little things to help me wake up later years later because I kept saying well how can this how can this be true because I know

31:05

Pat because we went to their house about twice a month and just stayed all day with him he was my mentor

31:11

I know Pat and I know Rocky and this guy's telling me they're they're walking in sin and I'm going that ain't that's not true so I know something's off but it's just amazing to me it took us so long to free ourselves we didn't

31:25

God had to free us and he picked a day and we were sitting in a swing and one moment

31:31

I said Charlotte will we ever be free of these people the next moment he set us free in that same swing same minute that was so weird and that's more to the story but the truth is sometimes

31:44

I will still well I gotta look at my son Paul with that long hair and I'll go he's just not very spiritual or he'd cut that hair and then

31:53

I think wait a minute where'd I get that Jesus had long hair you know so where'd

32:00

I get that well I got that from Preston Bunnell and his name is not Preston Christ Bunnell right it might have been

32:08

Sandy Lucifer Bunnell I don't know I just they're probably going to hear this somehow but if they do guys

32:15

I hope you've changed I have I've changed I hope you've changed if you hear this but anyway you you see my point so we carry these things if you ever were in a legalistic church you carry it still in your mind which is part of yourself and so you got to deal with it continually the way you deal with it is is it in this book if it's not in this book a man made to rule up and you don't have to live by it that's what

32:41

God taught Peter himself three times because Peter couldn't get it and Paul tells us this at least twice more than that but two really specific times so what you need to do is is you need to examine things and make sure they're not from your background rather than the scripture if they're binding you up and let the scriptures set you free the scripture is the only thing that can set you free now so I don't know how to say that any better so let's let's move along here does anybody have a question about that though does that bring to mind anything or any questions about it

33:18

I mean you have to understand this too a lot of the thing especially if you got it from a church they will show you scripture that it's wrong but if you go back and you study that scripture in context it's not even talking about what they're applying it to it's not even it's not even close to talking about what they're applying it to in other words they took it out of context and it's not really a rule for us today maybe never was a rule so you got to really check it out it's got to be in context and it's got to be for you or it shouldn't bind you and I yeah and if you ever said for me for me whoa so yeah so you you were guilty because you couldn't do it or didn't want to do it or whatever so so Ron said he grew up in church where they spoke in tongues and if you didn't speak in tongues or you ever said well that's not for me

34:24

I don't have that gift then they would say you committed the unpardonable sin and so he carried some doubt around with him for years probably because he didn't he he couldn't see

34:36

Ron was honest enough not to fake it and he couldn't really do it so he felt

34:41

God wasn't with him right that's bad false doctrine yeah yeah yeah there yeah yeah yeah so bird said yeah yeah bird said he went to church grew up in a church where you had to be baptized to be in water to be saved and if you didn't you weren't saved yet blah blah yeah yeah there's satan loves to infiltrate legalism into every church and there's a little bit of it everywhere and you just have to you got to use the scripture in context to know and if you ever have a question ask your pastor

35:29

I will help you with context and then if you don't agree with me fine show me show me what you think it's talking about and we'll discuss it so you know main thing is don't be bound up by man's rules it will take the joy of christianity right out of your life and and you won't serve the lord as well because you can't serve him under rules you just won't do it you'll be all bound up so that I think that's what that passage there in romans 14 14 b is all about what we cannot do in faith is sin but how do you do it in faith well if the bible doesn't say

36:03

I can't do it then I can do it but I got to check it by a couple of other things what are they will it make my brother stumble and will it edify my brothers if I do this or not so now it's all in context okay now um the ninth thing that I see in this passage is if you love a brother you will not do something that is not a sin for you in front of a brother that thinks it is a sin does that make sense even though you know it's not a sin but you know he thinks it is you won't do it in front of him and in other words you sure wouldn't do it in purpose just to prove a point you because you don't want to make him stumble right so verse 15 says but if thy brother be grieved with the meat you're eating now you're not walking in love wow that's pretty strong because god is love and the very first thing he gave us one of the first things one of the 33 things he gave us when he saved us was agape in our heart for other people that we're not we don't always walk in agape because we're flesh and spirit right so sometimes we mess up but one of the ways we can mess up is by um and I'll use one because this is just not me

37:22

I don't have any use for alcohol when god saved me took it out of my life because I used to abuse it a little bit and so he took it out for me well

37:30

I didn't know at the time he's gonna make me a preacher in the south and preachers in the south can't drink you just don't like you don't drink and that's good because I don't

37:39

I don't go for it anyway I think alcohol destroys so many families and lives it's just incredible uh but um what if I you know you know if I went strictly by the bible

37:51

I and I had a drink and it made a brother stumble and I knew that he believed that you just never touch it if you're saved or whatever and I drank it in front of him anyway just to show and honestly honestly

38:06

I know people that have done that to me where they did something in front of me that they knew I had a problem with on purpose to show me it was okay it hurt my heart a little bit even though I don't consider myself a baby christian