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Monday nights at first B which is down the hall in the fellowship hall. Carl is preaching through the book of Luke section by section kind of not exactly verse by verse but he's had some great great insights about primarily about attitude so far but this week, it's going to be love your enemies from Luke chapter six starting at 06:00 tomorrow night. Ladies Christmas luncheon is happening and I know y'all can't read all of that. It's happening on December 7 and you can be looking for a paper invitation. Tanya, you want to talk about that?
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Keep that close.
0:34
Okay, if you get your paper invitation, they're right here. The beauty of this Christmas luncheon is that last year, when we we had some pioneers almost that were really excited about extending it community wide. And we it was beautiful. If you missed it, the hope in extending it community wide is that a bunch of churches would want to pick it up and absorb it as a truly community wide event. So this year, I guess, because it was so fun and beautiful and lots of hearts went into it last year, it is, several churches have picked up and are donating and contributing to it, which is very exciting, and isn't that the purpose?
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So here are paper invitations for this. There e there is an equal amount of ladies that are really involved this year. And there are envelopes. There's some that you can stick on your refrigerator, and there's some that are already loaded in envelopes so that you can hand them or mail them to a friend. And we thank y'all so much for participating and praying for this, and we are really would really be grateful if you would come.
1:34
It was it's gonna be beautiful. Okay. That's that announcement. Yep. Oh, you wanna do the video first?
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Yes. Yes. Yes.
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Imagine if an entire community could be transformed by a simple gift. When you pack a shoebox with Operation Christmas Child, you're packing more than just a gift. You're sending love to children in need all across the world. With each gift given in Jesus name and fueled by the power of prayer, a teddy bear becomes a friend, a letter, an inspiration, school supplies, an opportunity. And as children hear the good news of Jesus Christ, God's love touches their hearts, churches are formed, and entire communities hear the gospel.
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And it all begins with your simple gift.
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This should I kill that spider right for you? Right there, Ray? Okay. He has arachnophobia. Okay.
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So y'all have heard the cartoon version of this, but I cannot emphasize, and many of you that have been to third world countries are well aware that these Christmas boxes mean so much. And if you wanna hear some of the stories that I know about, come ask me because I couldn't even go into it. But I've got my little helper up here, Georgia, who's a kid, and she loves stuff like this, and packing them is is lots of fun that they she's holding things like batteries, really great socks. The teenage boy things are the hardest, and teenage girl things are the hardest to fill the boxes because lots of people like to do it as a mission with their children, and that's obvious and fantastic. But if you don't wanna do it like that, feeling for a teenage girl or boy is great.
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We can put tools in there to help them with their trade, Leatherman tools, lunch containers, rain ponchos. Also, in this service especially, we have lots of angels. I'm holding an angel contribution right here, and that's because once we fill the boxes, which will be Wednesday at 05:30, they have a $7 charge that helps them get in the crates and get to the children, which lots of people don't know about it. And furthermore, when a family has filled the box tight and wrapped it full of these wonderful things, $7 is just a is another is another extension of it that they might have not forgotten about. And I see three of my angels out here who every year write a check for some amount of boxes, however much they want.
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They're $7 apiece. So filling boxes is not your thing. The opportunity to bless a double blessing because some people have filled them without understanding that part. We are so thankful for and so grateful for. So if you wanna be here Wednesday at 05:30 to help us, that's awesome.
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If you wanna buy 15 pairs of gloves, that's awesome. If you wanna buy something, it doesn't matter. You don't have to pack a box. Please bring it in here, or dump it all in Carl's office. I'm just kidding.
4:55
Put it anywhere up here. It'll be good. He's back there, and that kind of thing makes him nervous for us to thank you.
5:02
Would you hand that to Eric?
5:10
Thank you, Tanya. Well, good morning. I'd like to refresh in your minds that the kitchen campaign, which we know is more than just the kitchen, the fellowship hall, the kitchen remodel, and our fundraising for that is very much in swing, underway. Last week, if you recall, Matt Litzelman stood up here and told you about how it affects one particular ministry that he's associated with, the men's breakfast ministry. He told you a bit about how the use of the kitchen was very helpful to him and his family when his father passed away a while back and and his family was able to make use of the facilities.
5:57
As we go forward you're gonna hear from other folks that that tell you about why this kitchen is is worth spending money on. And I just want to reiterate that so much of what we do is focused and centered around coming together. It's often over food but coming together as a body to reach out to others. Bringing new folks into church often involves sharing a meal together. It certainly does on Monday nights and other times.
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And after you share a meal together you got some dishes to do. And you know that's one one small aspect of what this upgrade is about. It will give us a dishwasher that's actually going to sanitize the dishes so that we're we're not sharing germs. As a as a as a practical example of of why we're we're doing what we're doing. So what I want what I want you to do is if you leave here with anything today, not from the sermon.
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I hope you leave here with a lot from the sermon. But as you think about the fellowship hall and our and our kitchen remodel, oftentimes, to come to a decision to give above and beyond your regular church giving, that doesn't just happen. That's something that you should certainly pray about, pray earnestly about, and then you need to talk with your spouse also. So you've heard me stand up here for several weeks in a row now and you probably aren't thinking about it on Wednesday or Friday or anything like that. But your homework assignment is to discuss with your, your spouse, your significant other, how can how can you be a part of this?
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And then please spend some time praying about that. So that when you come back next week you can grab one of these flyers right here. They're they're hanging in the back next to some of the illustrations and, make a commitment to give. And again that the giving part of what we're doing doesn't have to happen right now. We're asking for pledges, that can be fulfilled up and until construction is is underway in the spring.
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So, please give that some some consideration. Thank you. So,
8:07
for everything else, there there are other announcements and they're all in the bulletin. So, if you have those, you can see what else is going on this week. Would you stand up and greet one another and Judy will begin to play here shortly and we'll bring you back together with a song. Amen. Freely, freely.
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Amazing grace given freely, freely. Amen. Hymn number four thirty six. Amen. Y'all can have a seat.
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Except for the frontline team, I'll ask you to come forward Would y'all pray with me? God, thank you for this beautiful day. I thank you for this incredible season. And I pray for harmony, Lord, among all of those Christians living in this valley. I pray that you would draw us lord closer and closer to your table that we would realize the mercy that you have bestowed on us and the grace that you give to be a conduit and a channel of blessing.
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So, lord, would you accept these offerings, lord, that we give, these tithes and offerings that we give, acknowledging that you are the giver, our Jehovah Jireh, the provider, the one who supplies our need. And Lord, out of our resources that you've given, we want to give back to let you do what you will in this community, state, country, and to the ends of the earth, Lord. So would you take a portion of that which you've given to us that we give trusting and acknowledging, and would you multiply it? And would you spread your good gospel, lord, so that others may know that you live. In Jesus name, would you bless this offering?
13:28
Amen. Amen. So, we are kind of in the middle of something. Last week, we started a section of scripture and I told you last week, I feel like Paul had written all of Romans, this great theology in the first eight chapters, answered a couple of questions in nine, ten, and 11 and then, in twelve and thirteen, gave some very practical advice for living that was directly related to everything he had said in front of that. He gives us two chapters of just pure, this is how you should live.
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How then should we live just like this? 12 to four, twelve to 13, all the way through 12, all the way through 13 and then, it feels like to me at least and I told you this last week, he gets to the point of the letter. Fourteen one through 12, he starts talking about what is specifically going on in the church at Rome at that time. So, in Rome, at that time, Paul had never visited this church but he had heard reports back. He mentions where how he had heard a couple of the reports back.
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Rome had seen some difficult political times and there was this kind of building up of the church which the Roman government blamed on Christians or blame on, sorry, excuse me, blamed on Jews and so they cast all of the Jews out of Rome for a time and then the next emperor comes along and the Jews are allowed to come back to Rome. They did not feel like they were under political pressure anymore. So, they're able to come back. Well, when the Jewish Christians left Rome, they left their church. There were other Gentile flavored Christians and other people that come out of paganism and other backgrounds to become Christians.
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When the Jewish folks left or the Jewish flavored Christians left, they were out for a time and when they came back, they found that their church had been kind of taken over by these Gentile believers and I've been saying since the beginning of Romans that so Paul's writing to church. He's never been to that has two significant groups of people. One of them is a Jewish flavored background. The other is a Gentile flavored background and I've equated it to being like folks who grew up in church your whole life like me and those who come to Christ later on in life or have no other background for it coming together. Now, there are differences in practice.
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There are differences in things that people find to be essentials and in Romans 14 starting in one through 12, he says that this is what we do about matters in dispute, disputable matters, or things indifferent, not sin. It's not about sin. 13 through 23 is a continuation continuation of last week's theme. So, last week, we examined fourteen one to 12 and it's on disputable matters. This was kind of the overarching point of the whole passage for me.
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I discussed Eugene the vegetarian. Y'all remember that? Eugene's a vegetarian. I mentioned that and I said, so I because I'm an omnivore. He's a herbivore.
18:59
I'm not to make fun of him and he's not to judge me. I mentioned the special day people versus the everyday is the same people. I mean, every day is the same but Paschal, my daughter, is a special day person. Every, she elevates some days very much higher than others. I tend to be in every day the same but I'm not to have contempt for her and she's not to judge me and so, that's what we got to.
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Assume that other Christians are doing whatever it is that they're doing out of devoted service to Christ their master. That's a good rule to live by. Assume that another believer, since they are answering to God for themselves and not for you, assume that other Christians are doing whatever they're doing out of devoted service to Christ their master. Romans fourteen twelve where we ended says this, so then each one of us, brothers and sisters, whether you're Jewish background or Gentile background, whether you're churchy church person or whether you're somebody that came later in life, each one of us will give an account of himself to God. I cannot answer for you.
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You won't have to answer for me and so, it's a very individual thing, this relationship with Christ. It is not religiosity. It's not that. It is a relationship and it's you are accountable to God for that relationship. So, I ended right here.
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Actually, I think I ended with a video. The video was, you worry about yourself. The little girl in the in the suit the car seat, you worry about yourself. Can you think of any modern examples of disputable matters? Now, I brought this up on November 6.
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November the sixth, two days before the November eighth election and I think if all of us had been pulled right before to figure out who was going to be there, coming back this week, we might not have thought that it would be exactly like it is right now, would you? From what we're being told in the news and everything else. So, yeah. In fact, in the first service, when when I said, can you think of any modern examples of disputable matters? Somebody sitting right there in the second row, second seat said, politics.
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That is actually a matter that is disputable. Now, I know that the majority of y'all feel one way. I know that but I have been consoling a lot of people that don't feel that way that are conscientious believers in Jesus, answerable to him for the way that they vote, answerable to him for the way that they consider things and treat people. So, that is one of those disputable matters and it's been an interesting week. A very, very interesting week.
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I was thinking that I would be consoling a different group this week. Quite honestly, when I split this message in two, Romans 13 starts off after having that assuming that all Christians are doing what it is that they're doing, answerable to God, assume that they're doing it out of service to their master. Romans 13 says, therefore, let us not judge one another anymore The anymore in there, I didn't point this out in the first service. I forgot about it. The anymore means they were doing this.
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This is a continuous action verb. Let us not be judging each other anymore because you are doing it right now. Church, you're lobbing grenades back and forth. You are judging one another now. Let us now not be doing that anymore.
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Let us not be judging and the word judge there points toward this but rather determine this. That's not a pun in English but it is in Greek. The words in Greek are and that is let us not be judging one another but rather have completely judged this. Come down on the side of good judgment and judge this. Not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way.
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So, don't be judging each other but judge this way. Settle your mind on this question. You are not going to be the reason that somebody stumbles. Does that make sense? Do not put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way.
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By the way, you live your life, you don't want to cause anybody else harm or cause them doubt, cause them to stumble, cause their faith and I usually think of when I think of this type of passage, I think of somebody who's a recovering drug addict or recovering alcoholic and if that guy is a recovering alcoholic and he does not, cannot, will not, has determined in his life. He is not going to ever have another alcoholic drink in his life and you insist on your Christian liberty hanging out with him and just drink away because you can and Jesus, then, you're not listening. You're not paying attention and you're putting a stumbling block in your brother's pathway. There are lots of other ways. If you know that somebody is prone to gossip and you give them a juicy tidbit.
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You may be putting a stumbling block in your brothers or your sister's way. I like the stumbling block analogy. It comes from actually the Old Testament law. Leviticus 19 says, you shall not curse a deaf man. Think about that.
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You shall not curse a deaf man. He's not going to hear you. Really? You shall not curse a deaf man nor are you to place a stumbling block before the blind. Now, that just sounds evil, doesn't it?
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Set up something that he's going to trip over but you shall revere your God, I am the Lord. So, God on the basis of his self existent nature, on the basis of who he is, he says, you shall revere me and because you revere me, you will not curse someone who may never know about it or put a stumbling block in front of somebody who cannot see it. Think about our own spiritual blindness. Have you ever been convicted of something all of a sudden that you were never convicted of before? I have been.
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You were blind to it. Up until that moment, you're blind to it. Never place a stumbling block before the blind but you shall revere your God. There's a picture of a of a cobblestone street with a block which otherwise would just be a pavement block, a paver, a stone. Normally, that's not a stumbling block.
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It's something you walk on. I've heard other people say, turn your stumbling blocks into stepping stones but this is just the way that roads are built. At that time, that's the way roads were built and if one of em got dislodged and was just up out of the way, that is a stumbling block. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It's the position that it's in at the time that it's in it.
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Not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. Actually, I highlighted that because later on in the passage, we're going to hit another place where it says that. I probably will stop before we get to the end of 23. I'm probably going stop about eighteen on today. 14 says, I know and I am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.
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What's he saying here? I know and I am convinced in the Lord Jesus. There's no doubt about this in Paul's mind and he's got it on good authority in Christ Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. What he's saying here is the medium is actually neutral. Speech can be used for blessing but it can also be used for cursing.
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Speech itself is a neutral medium. Music can be used to praise God but it can also be used to actually praise the devil. It can it can be used for harm. It can be used to pull people away from God. The medium though is neutral.
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The print. So, there are plenty of things. When the Gutenberg Bible was printed, it made the gospel spread so much faster because it was easier to just hand this propositional truth of the Bible and put it in someone's hand. The whole communicate could come to learn of it because it was now there. Now, immediately thereafter, print started to be used to use it for pornography and for other nefarious purposes.
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So, print is a neutral medium. Radio, do you remember the list that I read last week? That was we will not listen to the radio. We will not watch television. Any any member who has a television will be kicked out.
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Well, the radio, he said in that list, he said, because it's used to promote heresy in end times matters and since that, then we're going to throw the whole radio out. Now, satellite seven, Sat seven broadcasting from Southern Spain into all of North Africa has seen hundreds, probably thousands, I don't know how many thousands of Muslims come to faith in Jesus because Sat seven broadcast the gospel every single day, 24 a day, all the time. Amazing. Radio is a neutral medium. It can be used for good but it can be used for bad.
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Television is the same way. I don't have to tell you about the bad stuff. You flip channels all all day long and see it. You can even see heretical preaching but you do occasionally see something really good on there too, right? Internet is the same way.
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There are now ways for people to connect with other believers. Persecuted Christians are able to connect with believers and be encouraged by them that has is possible in a way that was never possible before. Now, they say close to two thirds of the internet is filth too. The medium though is neutral. That's what Paul is saying when he says, I know and I am convinced in the Lord Jesus.
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There's nothing is unclean in itself. It's neutral. Now, sin is sin. He's not talking about sin. He's talking about disputable matters but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
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So, I said last week with that long list, the sporty cars and the sporty features on regular cars. For that guy who wrote that list, he felt deeply convicted that that would be a show of himself. It would be drawing attention to himself and he did not want that. He wanted the focus to be on Jesus. Praise God that he is has that type of conviction and for that guy, he does not need to do that.
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I have a buddy who is y'all hear me talk about him when I talk to him with all my friends. I say, my long haired buddy. His name is Sean. He has hair down about right here. He toured as a traveling musician with a rock band for about ten years, maybe fifteen years.
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It was a long time and as he was traveling around with him, he played in nightclubs every night. He, you know, drive four, five hundred miles, go to the next place, play again and he was a good, good guy. His marriage was falling apart. He was hooked on alcohol to get to sleep and other things to wake him up and he got saved. And when he got saved, God changed everything about him except for his haircut.
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His haircut was still like this. So, that's why call him my long hair buddy. He's a good, good, good man. He's a good guy. After he left from the rock band, he took some time off.
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He read the Bible. He read Job the first night which I would not have started there but he started there and his wife and his life, his marriage came back together, his life in some ways got a whole lot easier. In some ways, it got a lot more difficult. After a time of just kind of pouring in, studying the word, he began to serve at a church and help out with the church and then he started helping out with an itinerant Christian traveling band. He played guitar in that band too and while he was doing that all the time, when he's listening to his own music, what he's listening to is high church music like old fashioned high church music and the other people in the Christian band were saying, man, you don't have to quit listening to all that southern rock that you grew up on.
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You don't have to quit listening to Pink Floyd and leds up on all that stuff you used to listen to. You don't have to quit. You know, you you know that you can do that, right? Your liberty in Christ, you can do that. He goes, I know but I don't have to, do I?
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No, you don't have to. He didn't want to. For him, he had an unclean association with that music. It told him of a time in his life where he was destitute on anything spiritually. He was dead and so he did not want to dwell on that.
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So, to him, it was unclean and so he kept, he didn't mind if the other folks listened to it. He wasn't judging them. He wasn't didn't have any contempt for them but for him, he wanted to fill his heart and his mind with good things. So, to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him, it's unclean. And again, I go back to 12.
31:42
So then, each one of us will give account of himself to God. For if because of food, your brother is hurt, you're no longer walking according to love. Now, he's given a couple of examples. One of em is food. One of em was the special day thing and he's saying, if one of these disputable matters like food, if it's because of your freedom in Christ and your liberty, you're hurting someone else, then, you're no longer walking in love.
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If you're insisting on, I can do this if I want to because Jesus said it was okay. You know, yet you're hurting your brother, you're no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food, with your whatever your disputable matter happens to be. Do not destroy with your food, him for whom Christ died. Now, I I broke this down for the first service especially but maybe for y'all too.
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I don't know. For if because of food your brother's hurt, you're no longer walking according to love. You really do. Love is seeking the best of the other. Seeking the best of the other.
32:42
If what you do causes a problem for a brother or sister in Christ, do not destroy with your food or whatever your matter is, him for whom Christ died. Now, for the first service, I changed it up. For if because of Facebook, Your brother is hurt. You're no longer walking according to love. There has been a volley this week of grenades back and forth on Facebook and I heard about it from people crying and I heard about it from people gloating and neither of those are good positions to be in.
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If because of Facebook, you have to share your opinion. There are some people that I know and I love dearly when I'm with them but my goodness, from what I, I'm not on Facebook anyway. I don't know but I've heard a lot. Amen. But I hear a lot from people.
33:32
It's a neutral medium. It can go either way. It really can. It can promote love. It can.
33:37
I I have heard from a lot of people this week who are really really hard pressed by other believers in their position. So, there are some folks that I really really love in person but I was on Facebook for a very short time and got off of Facebook because I don't want to think that about those people. Does that make sense? Y'all know these people. Okay.
33:56
Alright. Communication. If you if you look at this, Facebook's a big deal. Social networking is a big deal for communication and actually, the other reason I use this primarily at this time period that we're talking about for the book of Romans, table fellowship was a big question. Table fellowship, who gets to partake in the Lord's supper?
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Who is it that gets to partake? And the Judaizers and the Jewish extreme was saying, you have to be circumcised, you have to be all of these things, you have to have this. And the other side would say, no, that's not true. It's completely wide open. The standard there, who gets to have table fellowship was a big deal.
34:37
Friending and unfriending is similar to that. I hate to profane that but it it really is similar. Everybody would tell you that communication is a problem. If you are a counselor and people come to you for marriage counseling like they do to me sometimes. Everybody that comes to says, I think it's just communication.
34:56
I think it's just communication. My professor for marital premarital and family counseling said, it's not communication. Communication is neutral. Speech can go either way. This is the problem.
35:10
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, and who can understand it? In our humanity, alone, there's a bunch of junk. There's a bunch of cruddy, cruddy, cruddy stuff and when we are yielding to that cruddy stuff, that's what's going to come out of our mouth. That's what's going to come through our fingers into the keyboard especially with that little bit of perceived distance that we have from the next person. Communication is not the problem.
35:45
The heart is the problem. 16 says, therefore, do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. If Eugene were to say, if somebody would say, well, no, no, no, no, no, about vegetarians. Ah. Bunch of hooey, old tree hugging, blah, blah, blah.
36:04
They start that sort of talk about Eugene and Eugene's like, I'm a conscientious believer in Jesus and I'm not asking you to be a vegetarian. I just don't feel like I can do this. That's the answer right there. Therefore, don't let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. I haven't bought the company line all the way down.
36:24
I'm just don't feel comfortable with that. So, that's what I'm doing. For the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is not eating or drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I I had not expected to this morning but I I thought of a place in my own life.
36:50
When I was about 14 years old, we had had in my life, we'd had one pastor that I remember for eleven years from the time I was about two until 13 and then we had another pastor there for about a year, year and a half maybe and during that time, one of the deacons in the church and a close friend of ours, my family, my dad's, my mom's. I knew his kids. There are two main families in our church, my family, and then his family and it's a town of 500 people. Everybody knows everybody's business all the time. This fellow retired from the mill that he had been working in his whole life, you know, retired twenty five years or whatever at the mill and he bought his cousin's gas station.
37:32
So, his cousin had owned the gas station my whole life and he bought his cousin's gas station so his cousin could retire. He just kind of has something to do in a little sleepy town in Georgia. Figuring rest of his days and he did not know when he bought the place that 70% of his profit came from beer sales. I grew up Southern Baptist in Rural Georgia. It's a big deal.
37:54
I didn't drink. I didn't know anybody who admitted to drinking. They might have but I didn't know anybody that did and so mister Buck bought this convenience store and when he when he did, the pastor went to him and said, you're a deacon in the church according to the Baptist Faith and Message nineteen fifty two. We are against the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages and you are deacon. You can't be a deacon anymore and he said, oh well, I I I'm not I'm not going to stop.
38:22
I I don't even drink. You know, but he wasn't going to stop. That was where his business was coming from. Maybe he should have. I'm not arguing the point right now.
38:29
I'm just telling you this was in my formative years, it was a really big deal. It was about 14 and for my brother, it was a big deal. He's about 11.5. And it came down to the pastor went to him and the pastor took another deacon back with him and he took a couple of guys back with him and then they brought the matter before the church and then it came down to voting on whether mister Buck and his wife were going to be members of the church or not. So, we're going vote him out of the church.
38:59
We're going to vote to keep him in and that was a tough time. A lot of the balance that you hear in my sermons comes from difficult church splits in the past. So, actually, the day of the vote, I could not vote. I I got up and I I said, mister Buck, I believe with all of my heart that your name is written in the lamb's book of life and nothing will ever blot that out but I also believe by who showed up today, you're probably going to be voted out of the church but I can't I can't be a part of it and I kind of walked out the back, had several of my cousins join and they voted him out. And the kingdom of God is not about eating or drinking.
39:43
It's about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Now, both sides felt justified in what they're voting for. Both sides felt justified and it took for a long long time for the church to come back together. Half of them left immediately. And that's the way church splits usually do.
40:00
Half leave immediately, 30% will come back somewhere at some point. 20% will never come back again. Kingdom of God is not about eating or drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That was not a biblical issue. That was a baptist faith and message 1952 issue.
40:21
Could have been the gracious thing for him to just step down, just withdraw. Could've been. But I think pride has has lob volleys back and forth until we can have a final decision. I said, Yeah. Let's just skip that.
40:39
For he who, for he who in this way serves Christ in righteousness, peace, and joy. That's what I want to back up to. Righteousness, peace, and joy. So, I've read about 15 different commentaries this week and the righteousness, peace, and joy everybody wants to explain in a slightly different way but the kingdom of God is not about eating or drinking but righteousness. Now, this is a thirty fifth or thirty sixth time in the book of Romans that the word righteousness has been used and each time it's been proffered as a gift by believing in Jesus.
41:07
Righteousness is offered and the opportunity to yield to righteousness has been offered to be a channel, to be open to God, producing in you, through you, his righteousness because of what Jesus did. So, right, the righteousness of God has been made possible by the peace that Jesus Christ made possible on the cross through his perfect life and his shed blood and then the result is joy in the Holy Spirit. If you truly understand how dead you were and how life has been offered and proffered through Jesus's perfect life. That'll result in peace and joy. In the Holy Spirit.
41:54
For he who in this way serves Christ, is acceptable to God and is approved by men. He who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. That's watching out for yourself. Watching out for your walk and doing what it is that he directs you to do is acceptable to God and approved by men. I mentioned in the first service and I don't know why it came up but from either extreme, the person in the middle seems wishy washy.
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Have you seen that? I seem wishy washy to some folks around and I hear that occasionally and I'm willing to take it because if it's coming from either extreme, the middle does seem wishy washy. This week, I dealt with, like I said, I I was consoling a different group than I thought that I would be. But they're they're Christians and they love Jesus and they're committed to him and committed to the sacrifice that he made, committed, and understand that. Now, they don't know what to do with themselves right now.
43:00
Didn't know what to do with themselves when they woke up on Wednesday morning. Would I say that the extremes can only be pulled to the center of by this, by the life of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus. There is nothing that draws us together except for this. We are all different stripes, all different backgrounds, all different kinds of cultures but we are one in Christ alone. So, we're going to go ahead and I'm going to invite the frontline team to come forward.
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Judy, would you play something pretty? Thank you. I'll try. As God is my helper. That's what I like that.
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As God is my helper, yes, I will. God, would you please bless this time right now as we distribute this bread? Would you allow us to see lord your perfection, your goodness, the way that you walked in this life. In real time, the way that you walked in were without sin. Tempted in every way just as we're tempted but walked.
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Surrendered and yielded to the Holy Spirit. So, would you convict us of our own sin? Have us be confessing that before you and turning from it, repenting. So, lord, would you bless this bread as we distribute it, these little crackers? For each one who would partake, lord, that you convince them more and more of your goodness and your grace.
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And your need, their need for you and for each one, lord, who has to let it pass because they really just don't believe. Lord, would you draw them through the the loving actions and life of those who are filling this room right now. In Jesus name, would you please bless this bread? Amen. And on the same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper and after he had given thanks, he broke it and he said to his disciples, that this is my body is broken for you.
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Take this and eat and do it in remembrance as a symbol of me. Lord God almighty, we thank you for sending Jesus and for that perfect life that you lived through him, in him. Lord, God, would you, right now, convict us of the sin and convince us of your righteousness. Lord, as we go into this time where we remember your blood that was spilled, perfect, innocent, Jesus was crucified on our behalf. Lord, would you remind us of how precious precious that blood is, that washes us from all unrighteousness.
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Lord, as we distribute this grape juice, this symbol of your blood. Would you work on our hearts. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Paul says that as often as we do this, we proclaim Jesus's death until he comes again and it is being buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life that we are proclaiming.
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So, let's walk in that newness of life. I actually have a couple of other slides. One of em Renzi, can you go to the DL Moody quote? So, DL Moody said, many a professing Christian. You know how we're not supposed to place a stumbling block in front of Many a professing Christian is a stumbling block because his worship is divided.
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On Sunday, he worships God but on weekdays, God has little or no place in his thoughts. That's a convicting thing to acknowledge and so I'm asking that you think about that and then, the benediction is fourteen nineteen. The very next verse that we would come to. Renzi, it should be near the end somewhere. So then, we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.
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Instead of walking however we feel like we should in our extremes, we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another and I think that where that lies is in recognizing that we all are sinners. No one is righteous. No, not one. Yet, we can come together around the body and blood of Christ. So, he draws us together.
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Would you stand with me? And we're going to sing actually kind of a high church song, not the one that's listed right there. Do y'all know the glory bees? Glory be to the father. Okay.
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Glory be to the father and to the as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be Amen.
