Book of Romans, 14:13-15 - Freedom in Christ | Handling Doubtful Disputations, Pt. 6 (05/01/2022)

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Wow, that was beautiful, Maddie. You know, most of the great singers in this country learned to sing in church.

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And we watched Maddie, since she was a little bitty, singing and just budding as a singer.

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And now she's blossomed. And so you're going to hear things about her in this country,

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I think. She's got one of those kinds of voices where she's going to be well -known. And I'll promise you this, she'll be an influence for Jesus.

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That's what she will do. So, so proud.

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Were you asking if I taught her to sing, Sharon? I said, did you teach?

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You asked me if she taught herself to play the piano? No, she did. Yeah. Yeah.

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She is teaching herself to play the piano. And I hope Papa can get some time to help with that.

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That would be fun. I'll have to have a good memory. It's been a long time. And if I'm not around, you can always talk to Glenda.

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Glenda, that was beautiful this morning, too. Thank you so much. Yeah, Ron picks on you a little bit.

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But it's because of your humility. You know, you act like you're just not special.

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But you are so special. I'm glad we got you away from those fundamentalists.

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Around here, around here, around here, you're numero uno.

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Number one. Thank you so much. Wow. What a wonderful church this is.

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We just love being here. And every single one of you is so special.

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And you guys, too. Thank you for being with us. It's a real blessing. All right, let's go to Romans chapter 14, if you would.

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And I got to hold Ada this morning for about Sunday school hour.

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And Brother Bill, it speaks well of your teaching that I still was paying attention to your lesson as I was holding my precious grandbaby girl.

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And it was a great lesson, by the way. And so that special,

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I whispered to her, Ada, and I said, you're trying to get in between me and Jemma, aren't you?

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She said, well, keep working at it. All right, so this one,

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Romans chapter 14, verse 1, tells what the whole chapter is about. He that is weak in the faith, receive, but not to doubtful disputation.

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So you don't want people coming into your church and bringing up little things, divisive things, to try to cause division in the church over things that don't even matter.

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And there's so many of those things that aren't major things that should never be a test of fellowship.

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And this whole chapter is about that. This chapter can get a little uncomfortable, actually, because, especially for me, there are things in here that I probably haven't always operated according to these imperatives.

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And we've been talking about imperatives a lot in this chapter, because in Greek and in English, you have imperatives, which means it's like a command.

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Go do this. And we talk about grace. I appreciate what you said,

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Ron. I always appreciate your messages. You give messages before we even sing, and I appreciate it from your heart.

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You're an evangelist. You could be a Bible conference preacher.

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You get everyone fired up, wanting to go do something for the Lord. But what you said about grace is so important and so true.

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If you don't get that, you miss Jesus, actually. But he also, once we are saved, he tells us how to live, doesn't he?

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He tells us things to do and things not to do, especially with regard to each other.

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Be kind one to another, gentle hearted. And you say, well, Paul said that. No, Jesus said that.

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He told it to Paul when he was in the Arabian Desert, face to face. And there's no secret to how

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Paul wrote most of the New Testament. He spent more one -on -one time with Jesus than any of the other apostles in person, which is a miracle, because Jesus had already ascended into heaven.

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And he spent that time with the apostle Paul, because the Lord had planned the entire church becoming more and more

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Gentile over time. And Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. Such a brilliant man. But we got to look at these imperatives.

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And we've been doing that. So where there is an imperative, where Jesus tells us how to live, we should do that.

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We should live by that. But a lot of human beings like to come into churches and add things that Jesus never said and act like it's an imperative, that it's equal in power, equal in authority.

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And that's what this chapter is about, is don't allow that to happen. So we've been talking about that quite a bit. And so over the last couple of times, we've talked about going through the scriptures there in Romans chapter 14, moving all the way down from verse one to people about through verse six or so is where we are now.

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But we've seen several points that we're learning about how to deal with these things that we're not supposed to argue about, not supposed to have debate about.

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And so first one was, we must recognize that our brother or sister is another man's servant, not our servant.

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Remember that from maybe last time? Our brothers and sisters are not our servants.

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They don't have to live exactly like we want them to live. They serve the Lord, right? And the

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Lord has the ability through himself, through his word, through the Holy Spirit to mold all of us into what he wants us to be.

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We don't have to spend a lot of time trying to make each other be exactly like ourselves.

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And that's what a lot of this chapter is about. Recognize that our brother or sister is another man's servant. They belong to Jesus Christ, not to us.

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Therefore, they will stand or fall when they are judged by Jesus, not when they're judged by us.

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That's the first point. By his or her own master, shall he or she stand?

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See how modern I am? In the old days, we would just use the formal masculine, but now we got it right.

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In fact, if you wanted to get it really right, you would just say they, and that way it has no sex. So by they own master, shall they stand is exactly how they're saying it in the universities.

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And the first use of they there is totally incorrect grammatically, but that's how they're doing it.

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But anyway, so our brothers and sisters stand by their own master,

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Jesus Christ, not us. In fact, he, our brother or sister that we may be having this dispute with is actually held up by Jesus.

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He's holding them up at the time we're trying to tear them down. Because what we tend to do as humans is we have parties like Republican and Democrat, Sharon.

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Parties, think of it that way. The Greek word for division is the best English word is parties. So the two parties don't like each other, right?

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So when we tend to have a debate with one person in church, we'll go get four or five others to be on our team, and they might get four or five others to get on their team, or they may not, they may be more godly than we are, and they're just sitting there and we're building a team against that team.

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You see how that works? And that's of Satan, every time that's of the devil. So we have to guard against that because Jesus is holding them up at the same time we're trying to tear them down.

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Who do you think is gonna win? Jesus is gonna win that little battle, and it won't go well for us. The third thing is let every man be persuaded in his own mind.

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You have some disputable things that are not even in the Bible. Bible doesn't tell you exactly how to dress, what music to listen to, whether you can have a social drink or two or four, it doesn't tell you.

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You know why it doesn't tell you? Because we want it to tell us so that it's all black and white and we can put a list, no more than two drinks in Park Meadows Church of alcohol.

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Beyond that, you're going to hell, all right? No more than a half a cigarette a week or you're going to hell, right?

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Or for me, no more than one donut a week and you're in trouble, right? But the

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Lord didn't set it up that way. He set it up where each of us individually have to have a walk with Jesus Christ through his

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Holy Spirit. And we have to have such a close walk that he tells us what pleases him and doesn't, and that's what we do and don't do.

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It's that simple and no one wants to live that way, mostly in the churches. They want to have sets of these rules.

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But that's why it says, let each person be persuaded in their own mind.

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And then the fourth thing is, now that mind, by the way, should be informed by scripture. Would you agree with that?

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It's not like humanism we're talking about. It is a, it's kind of like we do in stock trading, right?

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An educated risk or in science, an educated guess, hypothesis, an educated guess, all right?

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But in Bible, it's a Bible -informed thought. Like we must be persuaded that what we're doing is not a sin or we shouldn't be doing it.

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And we're persuaded by how much of this we've been taught by the Holy Spirit and our teachers and every different way

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God teaches us. And that's how we're persuaded. So let every man be persuaded in his own mind, all right? And then the fourth, let's take any perceived imperative in context of the

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Bible to make sure it's actually saying to do that or not do it before judging our brother or sister.

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And then the fifth thing we've learned is we are not to judge others with regard to disputable things because each of us live and die unto the

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Lord and Him only. That kind of fits with like point number one we just discussed, all right?

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And then the sixth thing was, and this is the one that's a problem for me. I mean, it says everything, number point one through five, everything we just talked about indicates that in grace we're free, right?

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We're not bound by rules. And then the sixth point comes in, yeah, but don't make your brother stumble.

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So there you go. So now here in Texas, I'm not able to drink a beer, okay?

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I just can't drink one, not even one. Why? Because I'm a pastor. And in the Bible belt, you go to hell if you drink one beer, if you're a pastor.

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Now it used to be for anybody. It used to be for deacons and godly men and women.

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Now it's okay for the rest of y 'all to drink. In fact, right after the Bible study, you can go off to Dallas, find a club and have drinks.

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I know of a church where they do that with their college and career class. It's in Ennis, Texas. And I have drinks after Bible study.

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I don't, see, I'm, you see why I have a problem with chapter 14, right? I am violating it right now.

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I'm pointing the finger at those people. Oh, this is a tough chapter. I told you it was boring.

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I was being facetious. It's like, I don't like the chapter. It's too hard. So, so you, so now you can't make your brother stumble.

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All right, so what does that, you could go with that for hours thinking about, well, what does that mean? Does that mean

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I can like, I can have a beer if I'm by myself with Charlotte? No, because that would make her stumble for real.

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Cause her dad was an alcoholic and died at the age of 30 something from it. She has never touched alcohol.

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So what does it mean? You see how tough that one is? So we kind of talked about that one last time.

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In fact, chapter 14, verse 14 says, I know, well, let's look at verse 13.

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Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or occasion to fall in his brother's way.

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Wow. Now, now we, now we tighten it back up and get a little stricter, don't we? We get a little stricter on what we allow ourselves to say and do and so forth.

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And so then we come to the seventh one, I want to talk to you a little bit today is, Paul says there is nothing unclean in and of itself.

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And he was taught that by Jesus. So was Peter because Jesus lowered his sheep with what

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Peter thought was unclean food. We talked about it. Peter said, I'm not eating it because it's unclean. And God said, don't call what

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I now say is clean. Don't call it unclean because Jesus has died, buried, risen again.

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He's in heaven, he presented the blood. You're not a Jew anymore. It's neither

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Jew nor Gentile. Now you're a Christian and it's clean for you. That's what God taught him.

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So now God teaches Paul these things. So in this verse 14, it says,

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I know, and this is interesting, the emphasis Paul puts here. I know, and I am persuaded.

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Now, if you already know it, why do you have to be persuaded? Because you can start to doubt it, right?

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So he knows this is true. And then he's persuaded by the Holy Spirit. Yeah, it's still true. You might doubt it from time to time, but it's still true.

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There's Fern, she's doing the same thing. All doing the same thing.

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Trying to get the greater part of my inheritance. It's a great game we play. I know, and I'm persuaded by the

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Lord Jesus. And then Matty sings like that. So like, until I looked at Fern, Matty had it, right?

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I don't know, it goes back and forth. I've got to live to be 200 years old, that's the key. I am, and I'm persuaded by the

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Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, in and of itself, Paul says.

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Now, do you think it's interesting he says, I know, and I'm persuaded, the Holy Spirit, like, I know from my walk with God, I know from what

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Jesus taught me when I was face -to -face with him, but I also know, since that part's over now, the

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Holy Spirit persuades me, I'm right about this. Wow, and right before it, he said, don't let your brother stumble.

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Now, how do you like putting those two together? All right, so Paul says, okay, if you're born again, and the

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Lord is living in your heart, and you're walking with him, and you're spirit -filled, there is nothing unclean in and of itself.

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You won't do anything unclean, but don't make your brother stumble, because to him, what you're doing might not be right.

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He may think it's not right, because he doesn't understand grace yet. So, it's the reason

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I taught Ron grace, so that I can do whatever I want to with Ron, because it won't bother Ron anymore.

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Probably the wrong dude to teach that to, right, Pam? Wrong guy to teach that to, all right.

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So, now we gotta deal with this thing about all things are, no things are unclean.

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So, let me take you to an interesting parallel passage, and the Holy Spirit used Paul to write this one, too.

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It's in 1 Corinthians 10, 23. We always remember God's the author of all of it.

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That's why I don't have a red letter Bible, because the words of Jesus are no more important than the words of Paul, because Jesus gave those words to Paul, and they're the words of Jesus, too.

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There's no difference. The Bible is all of it, God breathes. All of it is by the

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Holy Spirit. And so, it's all important. So, look at this one, 1 Corinthians 10, 23.

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All things are lawful for me. Now, in the one we're studying in Romans today, he says there is nothing unclean.

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He kind of puts it in the negative. This one, he puts it in the positive. So, look at this.

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I know and I'm persuaded that there's nothing unclean in and of itself. Now, this one puts it in the positive and says, all things are lawful for me.

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Wow, grace is pretty good, isn't it? It's almost like the Garden of Eden again, isn't it?

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He said, the problem there is you had one thing that wasn't lawful. You had that tree. But he says, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.

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What does that mean? All things are lawful for me, but not all things help me grow to be the strongest. I don't want to be the strongest Christian I can be.

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Yeah, I mean, great example is the social drink. Just so you know where I stand. Some of you haven't been around a long time.

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Like kids ask me, well, show me in the Bible where I can't have a social drink. And I'll say, you're asking the wrong question.

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The question should be, show me in the Bible where that'll make me a better witness to Christ if I drink and they find out about it.

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So that if they need help, they would come to me, but I drink with them, probably not gonna come to me. That's the better question.

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Will it help me be a better witness to Christ and live a better Christian life and be happier? That's a better question, but you can ask the other question too, because it does say all things are lawful for me, but it also says not all things are best.

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Not all things are expedient. Not all things, if you really like, here's what you gotta ask yourself as a

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Christian. Paul likens it to a race often. Do you want to put ankle weights on your ankles before you go run a hundred yard dash and try to beat the rest of us?

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Those ankle weights, isn't that something? I mean, you can go buy them.

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You can put them on your weight, on your ankle. You can take off running and try to beat us. But the rest of us, maybe we put those on.

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We choose to try to win the race, right? So you gotta ask what kind of athlete are you gonna be? You gonna sit on the bench?

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Are you gonna work out more? Are you gonna get in shape more? Are you gonna eat the right food more because you want to win?

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Like he was Tiger Woods in the golf world. Tiger Woods, like there's nobody that could touch him because he did everything.

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His dad was, was he a Marine? He was something like that. Or maybe Green Beret, I think is what he was. His dad taught him, it's like being a good soldier.

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Like you have to work for this every day if you're gonna win. And no one could beat him in his day.

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I wish he would get born again. I wish he has had some of the other professional golfers that are good born again

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Christians, like Bubba Watson, for example, have witnessed to him. But about a year and six months ago, he had a terrible car wreck.

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People wonder how that happened. Well, who knows? He might've, makes you wonder.

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And it crushed his legs. So just two, three weeks ago, he played in the

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Masters, the biggest tournament in the world, again, after recovering. And you imagine what he went through to get where he could even walk again.

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Let alone play professional golf at that level. He didn't come anywhere close to winning, but he finished.

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He played four days and finished. And so here people will do that for an earthly, like a trophy that may be this tall.

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Or in that case, you don't even get a trophy. You get a jacket like this, that's green. You get a green jacket and they will do that for that.

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And here we're living for God. God is our boss. He owns us.

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He owns our team. Like he's the team owner of us. He's also our coach. He's also our father.

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And so he's given us a race to run. And the question is, do we want to win it? Come in second, come in third place, be in the top 10, be a bench warmer.

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What do we want to be? So that's what the word expedient means. Probably didn't think I'd take that much time on that one word, did you?

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Me neither. All things are lawful for me, but all things don't edify.

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So now we have two qualifiers and most people just read right past those two. And they like the part that says all things are lawful for me.

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But there are two qualifiers. If it's not expedient, and if it doesn't edify your brothers and sisters and build them up and edify yourself and build you up as a strong Christian, maybe you shouldn't do it.

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But does that mean you can tell your brother or sister not to ever do it and look down on them when they do whatever this thing is?

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No, that's what the first part means. All things are lawful. That's what the first part means is to keep us from judging each other.

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Because we are not all at the same place. And some of us that think we're here are not even there because the fact we think we're there shows we're down here spiritually.

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You know, we're just all over the place. Like my friend in Mahea, the wonderful tall farmer who was a multi, not multi, but he was definitely a millionaire from farming, but he was also a postman.

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And the only Calvinist brother that I had at First Baptist Mahea, and he'd come in my office, he'd say, keep the faith,

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Brother David. I was a young dude at that time. He just, what he meant by that, remain a Calvinist. But then he would say,

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I would say, why don't you leave that church and come to our little new church, which was this one. I just wanted him to switch over and come to ours.

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He said, God's got me over there. I got lots of people to minister to over there.

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And he said, we're a motley crew, Brother David. We're all a motley crew. Don't forget that. And he'd walk out.

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And what he meant by that to me as a young man is don't you get to thinking you're up here because you're in a church that's going and doing stuff and knocking on doors and preaching the

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Bible. And you got this church you think is carnal. He knew me. And he said, we're all a motley crew,

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Brother David. God's kids are all motley crew. I never forgot that. Well, we should ask, does it build us up?

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Does it build our brothers up? And is it something that's going to make us stronger? Now, verse 24 says, let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.

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Wow. And wealth is inserted. It's not in the Greek. So it doesn't really, it really doesn't mean, kind of an old

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English way of saying it. It's not like the trade way, meaning when we say wealth, because when we say wealth, we mean wealth in trade way.

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But what this means is the betterment of the other. So let no man seek his own thing, but let every man seek another's.

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That's where the Greek stops. Don't seek your own, let every man seek another's well -being.

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That's a good one to live by, isn't it? That's an imperative, you see. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles.

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Now it switches back to another example of different foods we might eat or not eat when we judge each other for it.

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Whatever is sold in the shambles. He's kind of finishing his thoughts on the food thing. Now you're picking on each other, thinking each one's more spiritual than the other.

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He ends it with this. Whatever is sold in the shambles or in the market, and specifically in the market where they had offered these animals as sacrifices and then they took the meat.

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He said, whatever's sold there, eat it, asking no questions for your own conscience sake.

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Like, don't say, hey, is this offered to Baal? And they say, yeah, and then you buy it and eat it.

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He said, don't do that. Just buy the meat, take it home and eat it and enjoy it because I made it for you. In fact, he's saying, they put everything on the shelf for my children.

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So it's all on the shelf for you. Just don't ask any questions. Now look what else he says.

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For the earth is the Lord's and the fullest thereof. Boy, no one ever taught me that better than Brother Otis because he's the one that taught me.

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As long as I live, never forget it. I've told this to thousands of people at this point in the country. Every time

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I tell it, they go, whoa, like that. It's how God uses lost people.

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He uses goats. He uses lost sheep. He uses the sheep. He uses all human beings to put everything on the shelf for his own children, for God's children.

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Wow, that is amazing. So the earth is the Lord's and the fullest thereof.

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And therefore all things are lawful for me. That sets us free, doesn't it? But we have some sub points is don't make your brother stumble.

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Do it if it's not expedient for you or others, and don't do it if it doesn't edify yourself and others.

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Build you up to make you stronger. So I think it's fascinating that in verse 25 there in 1

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Corinthians 10, he ends up with, if it's sold, buy it and eat it, but don't ask about it.

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Don't ask about it. All right, all right. So now we come to another,

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I think, I mean, I think we could spend a lot more time on all things are lawful to me.

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Don't you? Don't you find that you could think of a lot of questions to ask about that? What does that mean? How do we interpret that?

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How do we live by it? A lot of it is, don't you think it's amazing how concise God is when he writes the

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Bible? Way more concise than one of my sermons or anything I would write, that's for sure. But in that one verse where he says, all things are lawful for me, he says, but not everything's expedient and not everything edifies.

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Well, that says a whole lot about answering the questions about how you deal with that freedom that we have.

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All right, but now let's go to another point that I think is equally, maybe even deeper, on a deeper level, more difficult to understand and deal with.

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I don't think it's that hard to understand. I think it's hard to deal with it. And here it is.

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Look at a chapter, we're back in Romans again now. Chapter 14, we're gonna look at the second half of verse 14, okay?

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Romans 14, 14b, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

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Now, isn't that interesting? Now, in Romans 14, 14a, he just got through saying all things are lawful to me.

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14, 13, he's in 14. I am persuaded, let's see.

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Yeah, okay, sorry. Yeah, it's the one where he puts it in the negative. I wasn't thinking about Corinthians. So 14a says,

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I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean in and of itself.

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The second half of the verse says, but to him that esteems a thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

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Wow, all right, now think about that. This is taught elsewhere in the scripture, but this is, you know, we'll go look at one place where it's interesting, one or two, but what it amounts to is this.

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What we cannot do in faith, to us, it is sin. Now, that one is deep, and it also relates to how much scripture we have read and been taught by the

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Holy Spirit where we are in our walk. So it's just difficult to deal with on a practical level.

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So let's think about it now. Here's one that brings some light on it, is James 4, 17. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

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That's not quite, you know, it's not quite the same thing. It's kind of the opposite side of the same coin though, wouldn't you say that?

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Like, if you know that some good thing you ought to do and you don't do it, you just sin. Okay, well, in Romans 14, 14b, if you think something's unclean and you do it, it's a sin.

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Even if God says it's fine, even if some brother that studied 10 years longer than you knows there's actually no reason we can't do that.

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We're just kind of hung up in the rules. You have that trouble, and I do too, because of my fundamental, and that couple right over there does, because of our fundamental independent background, we have things that we still don't like, and we already know they're okay, but we just don't like them, right?

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We've got to admit it, we do. So we have to shed those over time though. Otherwise we hold it over a brother or sister, and to them it's not a problem, and we make it a problem.

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We don't want to do that. So, but here's the thing. If you can't lose the thought that it's not right for you, then don't do it because it is a sin in God's eyes if you think it's not right and you do it.

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Isn't that interesting? So let me give you another one. And let's just drop, if you've got a real

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Bible, drop down to verse 23 in this same chapter of Romans 14, and it sheds light on the same verse we're studying today, verse 14.

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Look at verse 23. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat.

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So now he goes back to his allegory. So I guess it's not so much an allegory, it's an example of what he's trying to teach on the food, like vegetables versus meat, right?

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Or can you buy meat that was sacrificed to a false God and eat that and be okay?

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Why does he say, well, don't even ask where the meat came from? Because he's, because Paul is saying some of you would have a conscience problem if you knew it was offered to Baal.

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Some of you would say, hey, Baal doesn't even exist. I don't care, and you would eat the meat. That would be me at this point.

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But 15 years ago, might not have been me. Raymond and Sharon knew me when

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I had some rules, didn't you? Yeah. Oh, right.

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But this one, he that doubts, like if you think

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Baal is real and it's really evil to offer meat to him, an animal, and then eat that meat, then if you eat it, you're damned.

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Now, does that mean you go to hell? No, because you have to go to the

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Greek there. It's an old English way of using the word damned.

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It doesn't always mean go to hell to the 1611 person as it does to us when we say it now, it just means hell, right?

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What it actually means, a better way to put it is condemned, okay? So, and he that doubts is condemned if he eats it.

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It means your own mind is condemning you. You got to know that or you'll get this one wrong.

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It's not like God's gonna send you to hell because God's already said it's lawful. You get that? I mean, we're in the same chapter where he said all things are lawful.

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All right, so it doesn't mean damned to hell. What it means is if you doubt and you do that thing, like to you, it's questionable whether you should even be and you do it, it will condemn your own conscience.

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That's a bad thing because it's hard to walk in fellowship with the Lord when you're feeling guilty. Would you agree with that? And that's what exactly what it does.

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And so it says, and he that doubted is damned if he eats because he eats not by faith.

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Now there's the key. So my whole point on this one is whatever we cannot do in faith is a sin, all right?

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So whoever doubts, but then eats anyways, using that example, it doesn't mean only food.

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It can be anything that you want to do. And you'd say, well, you know, I don't know if a Christian should do this, but I'm going to do it.

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You just sin. Even if the thing is lawful because you doubt it, you didn't do it in faith.

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Like you forgot to ask this, Holy Spirit, would you do this with me? Or would you be uncomfortable doing this with me right now?

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You forgot to ask that. But if you will ask that, you won't doubt, especially if you know the

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Bible well, as you get to know better and better. And you ask the question, will you do this with me,

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Holy Spirit, and be pleased, can we do this together? And he says, yes, then you won't sin this way, right?

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So there's some practical information for how to deal with this, but it's really quite fascinating.

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He that doubteth is going to condemn if he eats when he didn't think he should eat that particular meat offered to that idol because he eats not by faith.

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For whatsoever is not of faith is what? Sin. So if you can't do it, knowing that the

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Holy Spirit's pleased with you, that's what it means doing it by faith, doing it by, like by faith, we can see

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God with us. We see him with our eyes of faith. We see Jesus walking with us, or actually really us walking with him throughout our day.

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By faith, we see him and we turn to him and we say, you want to drink this beer together?

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And I see that's hard for me. What about you, Brother Paul? You want to have one together, me and you? Would that be hard or difficult?

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Right, so if we did it, what would we be doing? Either hiding from everybody or sinning or both, right?

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We just like, we've got enough fundamentalist in this where I'm going to doubt that one.

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And I'm not even saying it's right for me to doubt it. I don't know. All I know is I do.

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So for me, it's a sin. You get the teaching. I hate to use us as an example, but I think we're safe on that one.

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So, wow, it's interesting. Okay, so now let's see.

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Let's take one more. Let me read that one again. He that doubteth is condemned if he eats because he eats not by faith, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

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Now that'll keep us in line with our grace thing, won't it? All things are lawful, but if you have doubts about whether you ought to do it, just don't do it, because if you do, it's a sin.

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Now, the ninth point that I see here is in verse 15. If you love a brother, you will not do something that, now, you got to listen to me carefully because this is really cumbersome the way

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I said it, but it kind of gets the point across. If you love a brother or sister, you will not do something that is not a sin to you in front of the brother or sister who is bothered by it in his own conscience.

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That's cumbersome, so let me say it again. If you love your brother or sister, you will not do something that's not a sin for you, but you won't do that thing in front of that brother or sister if it bothers his conscience and you know it.

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So there could conceivably come a time, nevermind, Paul, I'm not going to say that. Like, one of us might do that without the other, but you never know.

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Depends on who grows the strongest, the fastest, and it'll probably be me. I'll be the stronger one faster, and then y 'all will kick me out.

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So I think, I just don't think it's going to happen. Romans 14, 15, let's just see it in the scripture.

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But if thy brother be grieved with the meat that you're eating that was offered to an idol, that is okay for you because you don't even believe he's real, right?

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But if your brother is grieved by it, now you are not walking in love.

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That word is agape right there, where it says charitably. You're not walking in love if you eat that in front of him. Wow, you see why

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I don't like this chapter much? Now that'll take you like that.

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This will separate the men from the boys on Christianity, on how good a Christian we are, right there, right?

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Okay, brother Myron, I know you don't like ham and meat and stuff, so I just won't eat it in front of you.

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I've broken that one a few times with brother Myron. Myron, this bacon sure is good. I didn't even think about this verse, but the thing about Myron, he doesn't think it's unlawful.

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He just thinks it's unhealthy. But still, I shouldn't eat it in front of him, right? Terrible, gosh, this is hard stuff.

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But if your brother is grieved by your bacon, now walk, you're not walking in love.

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Destroy not him with your bacon, for whom Christ died. Is that a good way to remember it?

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Wow, that put it right out there in the real world. All right, so let's just stop right there.

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I think that's more than we can chew on, don't you think? Let's stand and have prayer together.

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I think my mom was listening today. So mom, we're glad you're listening and able to watch us and be with us in church again.

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Thank you so much, Lord, for getting her to that place. Lord, thank you for this day.

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We ask you to bless our meal that we're about to have together. Bless the food, bless the words of God that we heard today in our hearts so that we can live by them as we go out into the world and our families and our homes.

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Most important place, Lord, is help us live these things in our homes. And Lord, go with us, be with my mom, continue to give her strength and all the other prayer requests so important today.

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We thank you for hearing them. And Lord, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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I had a great question by one of our online listeners before I even got here and texted it to me.

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I won't tell you who it was, but it was a great question. It's like an Otis question.

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And the question was, why is prayer so important? If God is sovereign, he's ordained everything, there's only one plan, it's all gonna play out exactly according to his plan.

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Why is prayer so important? So I answered it this way. I said, you know what? I'm gonna give you the most amazing...

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Forgot how to say it exactly. The most amazing, incredible answer you've ever heard to that question, but I can't do it right now.

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It's gonna take a while. We'll have to have a Bible and a telephone. We'll do it. So I'm gonna go into Roman. I'm not gonna say it cause he's listening.

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Or she, he or she is listening. All right. Think about that. It's a good question though. But the answer is in the