Book of Romans - Ch. 14, Vs. 9-19 (05/14/2000)

Park Meadows Church

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I want us to go back to the 14th chapter of Romans, to the 9th verse, please.

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Most of you have been through this a couple of weeks ago. But somehow our tape got messed up, and we're so close to getting a full set of tapes.

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I wanted to go back and get this lesson again. And everyone heard us. We're in 14 .9,

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Book of Romans. Live while you live, the world would say, and seize the pleasures of the day.

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Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries, and give to God each moment as it flies.

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Lord, in my view, let both united be.

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I live in pleasure while I live for thee. Life's evening, or each day, will take its character from the day which preceded it.

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Couldn't help but think of Rocky with this. And if we would close our career in the comfort of religious hope, we must prepare for it by early and continuous

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Christian habits. Verse 9, and to this end,

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Christ both died and rose and revived, or resurrected, that he might be the

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Lord both of the dead and the living. Now, this is talking about physically dead, not spiritually dead.

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So it makes absolutely no difference, David, whether you're alive physically or you're dead physically.

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He's still our Lord. Death is but a separation. The physical death is the separation of the body from the soul and spirit.

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That is, if you have a new soul, which God has given you. There are no moral blanks.

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There are no neutral characters. Each day, we go forth and sow the seed that has been given to us, which even if it's good seed or bad seed depends upon our nature.

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We have the new nature. Therefore, we have been given the good seed.

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Verse 10, but why doest thou, weak brother, judge thy brother?

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Or why doest thou, strong brother, set it not thy brother?

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For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Myron, everybody goes to court someday.

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Everybody. This week has been not really difficult, but a time of thinking more so for me.

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And if my pocket was full of stones, I have no right to throw one of them at the greatest backslider that ever lived.

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The only difference between he and I is the grace of God. Our little minds cannot determine who's saved and who's not.

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What are you supposed to be like if we could? What, David, what would that lead to if we could determine?

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Well, I'm so glad it is not like that. Sure. No, no.

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We think we know it all. So you see how wise he is.

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So if we show hatred against the sinner instead of the sin, what are we doing?

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We're sinning. Who said that? Bill. If we but had a believing belief regarding the judgment of that great day.

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Now, we say we believe it, but I don't believe it. And most of us say we really believe it or we'd act a little bit different.

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If we did, it would silence all of our condemnation of everyone else.

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Verse 11, for it is written. Martin, what's that mean when it says it is written?

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All right, so what he's going to say is nothing new then, no new doctrine or revelation.

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It is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

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Bill, give me your thoughts on every tongue confessing to God.

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Well, what would they confess? So even the worst sinner that has ever lived would worship

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God? They would recognize who he is.

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See, as people that have gone through their lives saying there is no God or we have the only

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God or only we have the God, someday we'll realize different.

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Martin, my trouble is, my problem, and every day I face this,

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I'm going to say it anyhow, I would like for Bill Clinton to be judged right now.

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I'd like to see it. Now, that's wrong for even saying it, but I think

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I'm voicing the thoughts of a lot of people. But we do have comfort in knowing that everybody will face judgment.

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And as Paul tells us, we each will have to give an account of ourselves, not others.

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He's going to do it. Oh, I'm so glad to hear that. That was worthwhile of you coming.

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Every knee, and as Garland said, that means every knee means both of them. So then, every one of us shall give an account of himself to God, not others, but himself.

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Let us not therefore judge one another any more. The any more indicates that they have been doing that.

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But judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

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Let's talk about that for a little bit. That no man, be thinking of an illustration of how we as a

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Christian in living our normal everyday life could put a stumbling block in somebody's way, some weaker

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Christian, weaker in learning just who he is. Byron, can you give me a hypothetical situation?

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You could have if I hadn't asked. Yeah, it would have been a whole lot easier if you had asked somebody else. Diane? Put a stumbling block in his path that would bring dishonor to God.

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Well, I want an illustration. I look at children all the time, and I try to think of everything that you try to tell them to do not to put anything that has any importance above Christ Jesus.

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Try not to put academics. Try not to put baseball. Try not to put, so I'm going to use the example of children.

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Try not to place anything above so that that will cause them to stumble and worship a specific

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Christ Jesus. All right. Bill, give me a practical, everyday, down -to -earth illustration of how this could be.

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Well, I don't know if I could do that. But I was thinking, one of the greatest stumbling blocks that we present to fellow

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Christians and to sinners alike is when we accept as being okay activities and actions that we know are wrong.

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I don't think that I go around and do things deliberately on purpose to make somebody mess up and stumble.

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I don't do that. But what I do is I sometimes turn my back and pretend

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I don't see something that is wrong. And I'll speak out against it or about it, and I don't.

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So I make a rule and say, don't judge that person. But if you don't inform a person that they're doing something wrong, you say, this is not a proper thing to do.

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And I think you are putting stumbling blocks above. All right. Especially for me or for David being in the ministry full time, it would be easy for us to cause somebody to stumble by the words that we might say.

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For instance, I'm a relatively level -headed fellow most of the time, but sometimes

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I lose my grip a little bit. And for somebody to hear me say something, you know, especially if my wife and my children would come first, because they're with me most of the time, if I'm driving down the road and somebody cuts me off, and I don't just think, but I actually say, man, that guy must have left his brain in the house this morning.

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He's a real idiot to cut me off like that. That could cause them to stumble in that, one, thinking that saying something like that is okay, and two, in thinking,

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I can't believe that my husband and my dad, quote, man of God, would say something like that.

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The Bible says, be not many masters, for in many things we offend all. So oftentimes by the words we say, we can cause somebody else to stumble.

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Okay. But that man might have been an idiot. He might have been. That's a good illustration.

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In off -guarded moments, in times when words seem to come out without planning it, just a reaction to things.

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Now, another aspect at which we must look is that for me to prevent my putting a stumbling block in another

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Christian's way, then I must be sensitive to the other Christian.

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I must know to the best of my ability at what level they are. And all the time that I sit here,

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I'm evaluating each one of you. And that's just the teacher's job.

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So, even, even if I think I know where you are and what you believe,

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I still have to be very, very careful. Because what Myron said, these phrases that we use, now we cannot guard all of them.

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Let me give you an example. Joe Shepard, he used to live here, was a very dear friend of mine.

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He moved to Kansas. I have one other friend. He lives in La Jolla. But, he and I was talking one day at church.

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And it was before services, and he was talking about this suit that I have on today.

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He gave it to me. He wore it one time to his daughter's wedding. He never wore it again.

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So he said, I want you to have it. And he says, I've outgrown it.

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I can't wear it anymore. He said, I was 59 when

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I started. Now, and I mean 29. He's talking about waist measurements.

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Well, some elderly woman heard him and told somebody else that he was 29 when he got married.

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Now, that's the way things get started. Now, she fortunately said it where Joe could hear, and he corrected her, but I just wonder how many times we say things and people just hear half of it and then assume the rest of it, and we're in trouble.

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We cannot guard against all of that. So it behooves us to always watch, make it a habit of what you say.

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Be very careful. Think before you speak. And that's my problem.

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I speak lots of times without thinking. And it's very obvious. Alright, let us not therefore judge one another and to the very best of our

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Christian ability to not leave a stumbling block for someone to fall.

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In other words, stop trying to direct the pathway of others all of the time. I know, and I am persuaded by the

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Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. Now, this is

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Paul stating his mind. He says to me, there is nothing unclean of itself.

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So by that, what it does not tell us is just as important that there is nothing clean by itself.

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Inadimate objects have neither good nor bad. It depends upon totally upon the use of it.

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But then he goes ahead and says, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is.

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Now, let's see what that says. First of all, Bill, what does the word esteemeth mean?

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I think it means to hold it in high honor, high regard. Alright. But to him that holds a certain thing in high honor or believes a certain thing to be a certain way, then to him it is that way.

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So that, first of all, proves sin is where? In the mind.

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And if someone thinks that we are supposed to meet on Tuesdays instead of Sundays and they really believe that and they practice it, even though they are the only ones and they really believe it, is it wrong for them to do that?

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That's right. So, then it'd be alright for us to find fault with them because there's nobody else there?

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If a person believes something to be unclean, now Paul's talking about, specifically about eating beefsteak that had been, the meat had been offered to an idol someplace and then taken down to the shambles and sold and that was usually the best meat in town and he had no problem with that because it was just meat.

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But if his neighbor who was not as firmly founded in the truth as Paul, saw him eating that and knew from where it came, then that would cause the neighbor to do one or two things.

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Condemn Paul, well, maybe three things. Ignore it or do the same thing when his conscience would not allow him.

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Therefore, he sinned doing the same thing that Paul did that did not sin. The conscience of a child of God is what?

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The voice of God. A man who tells the truth, believing it to be a lie, he's guilty of a lie.

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A man that tells the truth and believes what he told you to be a lie, then he's guilty of telling a lie.

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You follow that? You can tell the truth in such a way that people don't believe you.

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But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably.

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You're not walking in love. Destroy not him with thy meat because Christ died for both.

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Treat all others as the Lord treated you. David, how did he treat us?

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He treated us as one of his from before the beginning. Let not then your good be evil spoken of if we do good.

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Myron, listen to me. At least he has his recorder going.

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If we do good when we could have done better, then our good becomes evil.

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So whatever you're doing, whatever it is, do it the very best you know how to do it, even if it's robbing a bank.

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Do it the very best that you know how. If that had been pounded into my head and heart when

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I was real young, my life would have been different. But it wasn't, so I'm not.

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For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.

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Verge, what other words could we substitute for meat and drink? For the kingdom of God is not what?

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Clarence? Well, it's not anything of the world in spiritual terms.

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Alright. The kingdom of God. First of all, kingdom means what? Authority, rulership.

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So his rulership is not composed of material things. Yes. Yes.

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Anything you can measure is not the kingdom of God.

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But it is righteousness and peace and joy in the

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Holy Ghost. That's what it is. The kingdom of God is rulership of God and does not consist of things.

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For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men.

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Now, David, why is the distinction made here between the that you serve

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Christ is acceptable of God? What's the distinction between Christ and God in this verse?

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Would you rather I hadn't asked you? Laughter You gave 120 minutes.

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Laughter Realize that Christ is

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Jesus Christ and both man and God. Both man and God. It's also a difference between the father and the son.

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When we serve Christ, he said when we do this to the least of these my children, you've done it unto me.

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So when we're in Christ, we serve Christ and that is acceptable to God and nothing else is.

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That's right. And God here, speaking of God the Father, so the

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Father looks at us through the filter of the blood of Christ. Everything, going and coming, passes through Jesus Christ, by faith.

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Isn't it interesting that Brother Otis speaks of righteousness and peace and joy in the

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Holy Ghost, which seem to be inward things. And it says that you're serving

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Christ. That's right. But most people think they have to go out and do a bunch of busy work.

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Oh, that's a good point.

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I went to church today, so that pleased God. I tied my shoes this morning, so that pleased

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God. Things, things are not where it is.

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Thank you, David. These things, righteousness, peace, and joy, this is all that we should desire, because this is all we need.

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Let us, therefore, follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

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And, Diane, what's the word edify mean?

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It means to give education, which is like building up, bringing that point alongside, and letting

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Christ work in you. All right.

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From edify, we get, or from the root of edify, we get our word education. And that's the purpose of the local churches, to educate its members.

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They, in turn, go out and exercise their gift. Edify one another.

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Our thinking of an act to be unlawful makes it unlawful for us. But our thinking it to be lawful does not make it lawful for us.

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Well, we went through this faster than we did last time. Who said that?

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All right. Expound. I don't even know what the word means.

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All right, let me say it again. Our thinking of an act to be unlawful makes it unlawful.

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Paula just covered that a short ways back, that if your brother considers what you do to not be right, then it's not right for your brother.

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Because he thinks it should not be. So, our thinking of an act to be unlawful makes it unlawful.

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All right. But our thinking it to be lawful does not make it lawful.

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We cannot take something that is wrong and decide it's all right for me, and that makes it right.

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You understand? Like our whole world's right. That's right. That's right. The whole world is chasing things, and they always have.

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And I used to do the same thing. But not anymore.

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That doesn't mean we're not supposed to have things. We have whatever we have by the gift of God.

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Nothing. What can you give Him? You can't give

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Him anything. The heart.

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Joy. We can't give God anything.

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He will give to us.

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Okay. I think what Diane was talking about was in our own mind, in our own heart, we surrender to Him in obedience.

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But that... No, I know that. I just wanted everybody to understand.

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And even in that, we cannot give Him anything. You can...

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Well... Yes. For example, I think that in my life, much for me, sometimes

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I want to give them something back. But it's impossible for me to in any way give back what they've done for me.

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And if that's true, then it's a thousand times more true of our heavenly

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Father. That's right. Everything we have has been given to us.

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We come into this world with nothing, and we'll leave with nothing. But I think on the other hand,

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Diane's point is... Diane's point is that 5 -year -old son brings me...

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It may be something I gave him 10 days ago. He brings it and gives it to me. I like that.

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And I'm pleased with it. So I think that when we give the word praise or thanksgiving and obedience, it's not like giving something we already have.

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Give her something. And it continued for a few years.

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Well, I'll...

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But without ever saying so, without ever expressing, I love you, what

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I found... And rocks in our country was very, very scarce. It was all sand. But when

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I would find a shiny rock, I'd take it home to Mother. And she'd lay it up on the windowsill.

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I wanted to give her something. That's just built into us. If we love someone, we want to give them something.

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And if we love Christ, we want to give Him something. Even... That's right.

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And the best thing that we can give our

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Lord is obedience. No.

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No. Yes.

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Yes. That's right.

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That's right. That's a good example.

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We're saying we cannot give God anything.

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But God's already given it all, which is Peter. We didn't please

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Him all day long to talk about obedience.

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We still come back and we cannot give Him anything. That's right. That's right. That's right.

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That's right. That's right. That brings me to another point which you touched on.

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So many times, I know in our personal life, and it's got to be in yours too, someone wants to give you something, and you feel like in your heart they cannot afford it.

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So you try to not let them do it. Now, there is a very, very fine line of using and manipulating people to give you things, and then on the other side of the line, when they truly want to present you with this, don't stop them because you've robbed them of a blessing.

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But it takes very sensitive intelligence to know when.

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So I would urge you to be very cautious and very careful because some people can give more than others.

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We know that. But if God has prompted you to do something, you best do it.

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And I would not want to put a stumbling block in their way by not accepting it.

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Anything else? Sure.

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Yes. Yes. Yes.

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Yes. That's right. Yes. You need to know when to speak and when not to.

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Let me give you an example. And maybe I've given you this before, but we have a very dear friend.

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He was in Dallas. He retired from a phone company 30 years ago or more and now lives up in Frisco.

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And when he was with the phone company, he was in the management end, and about every quarter they would have a quarterly meeting.

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And he said they always had refreshments and food, and they always had liquor.

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But he wouldn't drink it. He got him a glass and put

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Coke in it. Well, he never made a big deal out of it, but there was a younger telephone employee there that knew

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Mac, and he would always take the liquor.

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Well, after one particular meeting, this younger employee went home and told his wife, he says, you know, if Mac can do that,

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I can do that. So he did. Mac told me years later, he says, he now is a deacon in a

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Baptist church, a wonderful Christian, and Mac's not drinking liquor had a direct effect upon that.

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So we need to be very, very cautious. This Christian life demands that we live it all of the time, wherever we are and whatever we're doing.

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If there's nothing else, let's stand and we'll be dismissed. Myron, would you dismiss us, please?

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Father, thank you for the goodness to us and your grace and your mercy. Thank you for your love.

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Thank you for your word. Thank you, Father, for giving us brothers and sisters in Christ, and I pray that you help us indeed to live as brothers and sisters, not judging, not causing disturbance.

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Thank you for bringing us here today. I pray that you just continue to bless us.