WWUTT 222 Never Put a Stumbling Block?

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Rather than judging a brother or sister because of their particular tastes or interests or beliefs, how about this, putting your own interests aside and thinking of their needs ahead of your own, when we understand the text.
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This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.
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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. Romans chapter 14 again today, and we'll be looking at verses 13 through 19.
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I think yesterday I read all the way to the end of the chapter, but for a couple of days, we'll just be focusing on this particular paragraph.
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So I'll just read through verse 19 here. Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
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I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.
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For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom
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Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the
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Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
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So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
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We'll come back here to verse 13. Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
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Now we'll split this verse in half, looking first at everything on the left side of the comma.
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Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer. And we have to understand the kind of judgment that Paul is talking about here.
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Because you can't just simply not judge at all. You make judgments every day.
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You're making judgments right now. You're judging and discerning the things that I am saying and weighing them against the authority of the scriptures.
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That's a judgment. And that's absolutely what we should do. Anybody who is speaking the word of God, we need to go to the word of God and we need to make sure what they are saying is according to the authority of God's word, not the authority of the person who is speaking it.
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So anyway, that to say that anybody who speaks the word of God is ultimately subject to the word of God itself, not that they in and of themselves are an authority.
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So judgments. Again, we're making judgments all the time. You look at a person and you say, boy, he's a really nice guy.
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Or you look at somebody else and go, you know, he just does not display the kind of character that I think a person in his position should be displaying.
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And that's a judgment call. You ask the guy at Walmart for help because he's wearing a blue vest.
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You're making a judgment. You would not leave your kids with the person across the street because they display some behavior that's just quite frankly, a little bit off enough so that you would not ask them to be your babysitter.
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That is a right and a good judgment to make. But the kind of judgment that Paul is talking about here in Romans 14, 13 is in terms of condemnation.
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We should not be condemning one another any longer over these tertiary matters.
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Now remember, that's the context. We talked yesterday about primary and secondary and tertiary doctrines.
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So here we are talking about related to these tertiary issues. There is not a reason to have to divide past judgment on one another over these things that rather should be used to encourage and grow each other instead of divide each other.
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Don't pass judgment, these condemnations on a person over these simple, unnecessary things, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother.
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Like for example, alcohol I think is the biggest one. Paul is using food here.
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We don't enter into a whole lot of squabbles about what is acceptable food and what is not.
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There is still some of that that exists, but that's not necessarily as prevalent in the church today.
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Remember what we talked about last week? We have to think of this in the context of Paul's talking to Jews and Gentiles and there were
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Jews that were still clinging to certain aspects of the Mosaic law and Gentiles that were going, well, we don't,
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I mean, we never followed the Mosaic law and Christ fulfilled the law and the prophets. Why do we have to do that now? So that's the context that Paul is speaking into.
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So let's apply this in a more modern way or something that's a little bit more relatable. And I think the easiest one to come to is alcohol.
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There is nothing inherently wrong with drinking alcohol, drinking wine, having some wine in the fridge, having a beer every once in a while, nothing wrong with that.
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But there are some people that just should not be touching it at all because they have a problem controlling themselves or maybe they had an addiction in the past.
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And so to even smell the stuff could awaken that desire and place a stumbling block in front of somebody else.
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Now, as a pastor, though, I don't think that it is inherently wrong for anybody to consume alcohol.
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I don't have any in my home. I know my wife would like, would like to, she would like to have a drink of wine every once in a while, although she shouldn't now because she's pregnant.
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But anyway, but it's, I've just taken it upon myself not to have it in the home at all because I don't want there to be any risk that I could cause a person to stumble.
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We had a time in the past where we did have an addiction recovery ministry from our church because I had somebody in my church that was able to to run that.
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But we don't have that anymore. So we don't have as many folks coming to our church that had a history of addiction and had come out of that addiction, but we used to.
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And so during that period of time, I just had made a decision that I was not going to have any alcohol in the home whatsoever because I had somebody who may have had addiction in the past come into the home and they see the pastors got it in their fridge.
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They think it's okay to do. And then they fall right back into the addiction that they had in the past.
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And so we should not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God, as Paul says in Romans 1420.
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Okay. So don't have a beer. If it means that the guy who is trying to recover from alcoholism is going to stumble as a result of you having a beer, it's just not worth it.
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And there's a lot of different things that are like that. I think alcohol is the easiest go to example in our particular culture now, but there's a lot of different things that you could probably think of that you enjoy that just does not have to be a big deal because you might be causing somebody else to stumble.
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For me as a pastor, it's also music and movies. I'm very careful with what it is that I say that I am watching or listening to.
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Well, listening to, I mean, I have a very small playlist. You can find in my CD player it's either it's going to be hymns, classical music, movie scores, or Michael W.
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Smith. That's pretty much what Gabe is listening to. But as far as music and movies are concerned,
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I'm very careful, very selective about what it is that I say that I am watching because I don't want to cause anybody else to stumble.
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And it's not bad stuff. But I mean, there might be somebody out there who thinks that even a certain PG -13 movie is something that a pastor should never be listening or watching.
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And so I just don't want to cause that person to therefore watch that movie and hear certain language being used or certain jokes being said and then it therefore causes them to stumble.
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So I'm just not going to present that kind of a stumbling block. Now understand there are certain things we absolutely should not be watching or listening to.
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Nobody should go see the movie Deadpool, which is a blog that I wrote a month ago, two months ago, however long ago it was that that movie came out.
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I wrote a blog as to why Christians should not go see that movie. And this was coming from a person who grew up with comic books and collects comic books and even still has comic books in his home, the comic books that I've collected.
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And yet here I was saying, don't go see this movie because of the content that's in this film is so, so bad, you know, and Beyonce, that is an artist that I've said no one should be listening to Beyonce.
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The kind of witness that she gives, the kind of example that she gives, the things that are in her lyrics, horrible stuff.
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It doesn't matter how upbeat that you think that her music is, and it's just kind of catchy to you. Nobody should be listening to it.
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So there's just a couple of examples. There are things that we absolutely should not watch or listen to. But in terms of my own personal tastes, there's no reason for me to say, here's what
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I'm watching or to try to, you know, start some kind of club. Hey, let's all get together and watch this together because I don't want it to cause a stumbling block to somebody else and to some people that it will.
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So we need to be careful and don't cause divisions over these simple little things. This can even happen with theology.
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So we have differing eschatological views, end times views. You might be pre -trib.
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I'm not. Okay. You might be pre -millennial. I'm not pre -millennial. But we can have these different views, and I'm not specific on which one
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I am because I honestly don't know. I'm not pre -trib. I'm not totally sold on post -trib.
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I'm definitely not mid -trib. I am not pre -millennial. Definitely not that.
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Definitely not post -millennial. So I'm kind of amillennial by default, in case anybody was curious as to where I fall on those things.
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Some of you may not even know what I'm talking about. That's okay. We'll talk about those things as we go. But we can differ on these opinions and it not cause division, although I have seen it cause division.
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When I was in high school, I was in a church that split because the church, there were some members of that church that wanted to remove from their membership requirements that people had to be pre -trib and pre -millennial.
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All they wanted to do was remove it from the membership requirements. So a person can be anything that they want to be pertaining to the end times, whether they have a pre -trib view or a post -trib view.
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They didn't have to have a particular view in order to be a member of that church. And just because it was being proposed that that be taken out of the membership requirement, there was a church split because there were some that thought that, no, you have to be pre -trib and pre -millennial in order to be a member of this church.
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And so the church split and there was one church that was pre -trib and pre -mill and there was another church that was not.
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They had it open in their membership as to where a person wanted to be according to their eschatological viewpoint.
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So this is an example of how even theology can differ within the same church congregation and it not cause a major split.
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Okay? So don't pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother.
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You may have a certain theological viewpoint that is tertiary and you don't need to make it such a platform that it puts a stumbling block in front of your brother in such a way that the two of you begin quarreling and now you're both guilty of sin.
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So pertaining to the food example that Paul has given before, verse 14, I know and am persuaded in the
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Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it's unclean if anyone thinks that it's unclean.
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So let's go back to the music and movies example. I look at a particular film and I see the content of that film and I think to myself,
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I don't see anything wrong with that movie and I can watch it just fine and not be tempted or persuaded in any way to do something that would violate my conscience or be sin in the eyes of God.
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However, there may be somebody else who sees a particular scene and that movie is being particularly troubling and it would cause them to sin.
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They might be tempted by something that was said or done in that film. Maybe even just the language of the movie would cause them in their minds to think that swearing is okay.
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So I don't want to put that stumbling block in front of another person. I can watch that movie to my own personal taste just fine without making some sort of a presentation on the film and thus causing a brother or sister in Christ to stumble because they watched the movie.
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My grandmother was an awesome woman in the Lord. Mimi was what we called her.
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She studied her King James Bible every single morning and I mean knew it backwards and frontwards.
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I was sometimes convinced that she had the entire Bible memorized. It was incredible the amount of scripture that could just come off of the top of her head.
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After she passed away, and this was April two years ago, there were
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DVDs that were being distributed among some of our grandkids and we were saying, hey, I want that DVD.
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There was a particular DVD in her collection. I won't tell you what it is. It's fine. The content is fine.
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I thought of herself as being this very pious, almost fundamentalist sort of a woman because of her love for the
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King James Bible. When I saw that movie in her collection, I was going, really? Oh my goodness,
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Mimi loved and watched that movie? I can't believe it. Anyway, that just kind of goes to show you, in her own life, in her own example, there were certain films that she enjoyed to her particular taste that she didn't present in front of anybody else because she didn't want it to be a stumbling block to somebody.
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That's the kind of way that we need to approach one another in the body of Christ. We need to be careful about some of the things that we would lift up, some of our particular hobby horses, our tastes, or our even certain doctrines that we have.
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When it comes to doctrine and theology, great to discuss, and I think that we should. But there are certain things that I think that should not become quarrels.
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That's especially the point that we need to be careful of, not turning those things into quarrelsome topics because then we put a stumbling block in front of somebody else and we cause them to sin, as I said before.
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I'm persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in and of itself, but it's unclean if anyone thinks that it is unclean.
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If a person thinks a particular thing, music or movie or hobby or something like this is unclean, then by presenting it to this other person, we might cause them to stumble.
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If your brother is greed by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love, so be willing to sacrifice for the sake of the conscience of your brother or sister in Christ.
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You should not have to impose upon them, brother, sister, I think you need to just lighten up and let me enjoy this.
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Why can't you consider their needs ahead of your own and maybe think to yourself, you know, there's not a reason for me to have to enjoy this right now or make a big deal out of this right now.
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I can put this aside. We won't talk about it. We won't do it for the sake of the conscience of my brother or sister.
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Maybe they need to grow up a little bit. Not saying that that's not the case, but you yourself, what can you sacrifice for the sake of the conscience of your brother or sister in Christ?
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Again, this comes back to what Paul said in Philippians chapter 2, to consider others' needs ahead of your own.
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We need to look out for one another in the body of Christ, growing, admonishing, encouraging one another. Yes, absolutely we should do those things, but in that process, let's not make a big stink out of it right now in such a way that we might cause someone else to stumble.
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Be mindful of one another's hearts. Be considerate of each other. It is okay and it is right for you to think of how this decision or how this thing that you say will affect somebody else.
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And you're doing this for their benefit, not because you're conforming to the pattern of the world, not because you're going to let other people dictate all of your actions and all this kind of, it's not what we're talking about.
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You're putting their best interest in mind and thinking to yourself, what would be the most edifying for my brother or sister in Christ in terms of this decision that I'm going to make?
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So that's the way that we need to consider. The choices that we make, the things that we say, what we present in front of other people, don't put a stumbling block in front of somebody else and be discerning about these things.
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Pray, ask the Lord to guide you and help you, giving you wisdom and a right mind on how to conduct yourselves among your brothers and sisters in Christ, that you may be the most encouraging brother or sister that you can be.
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Our great God, we thank you for these instructions here. And I pray that as we continue to talk about these things this week, we continue to meditate on it, that you would give us right discernment on how it is that we can be a fellow brother or sister encouraging one another here in this body of Christ that we are in.
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Help us, according to the word of God, to be able to weigh and measure what is clean and what is not.
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Give us a right spirit in that way so that we would also not give ourselves over to things that would cause us to fall into temptation and therefore we would cause somebody else to fall into temptation.
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So let us meditate on the things that are right and good and pure, according to what Paul had talked about with the Philippians in Philippians chapter 4.
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We thank you for your continued patience with us and the growth that you are continuing in each and every one of us.
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I am persuaded and am convinced that he who began a good work in me will be faithful to bring it to completion on the day of Christ.
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And so Lord, I pray this for each and every one of us as we grow in your word, in the name of Jesus we pray, amen.
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This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt
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.com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.