Worry About Yourself First B Jackson 2016-11-06 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- How about that? Let's sing sing folks in. We've got a couple of songs before we have announcements. There we go. We've got we've a story to tell to the nations. Would you stand and sing with me? We've a story to tell to the nations that shall turn their hearts to the right a story of truth and mercy a story of peace and light, a story of peace and light. For the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noonday bright and Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth the kingdom of love and light we've a song to be sung to the nations that shall lift their hearts to the Lord a song that shall conquer evil and shatter the spear and sword and shatter the spear and sword for the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noonday bright and Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth the kingdom of love and light we've a message to give to the nations that the Lord who reigneth above had sent us his son to save us and show us that God is love and show us that God is love. For the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright, and Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth the kingdom of love and light we've a savior to show to the nations who the path of sorrow hath trod that all the world's great peoples might come to the truth of God might come to the truth of God for the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noonday bright and Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth the kingdom of love and light Amen. He keeps me singing. How about that? Hymn number 746. If you want to sing your part, hymn seven forty six. There's within my heart a mellow deed Jesus whispers sweet and low. Fear not, I am with thee. Peace be still. In all of life's ebb and flow. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. All my life was wrecked by sin and strife. Discord filled my heart with pain. Jesus swept across the broken strings, filled the stumbling chords again. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go, feasting on the riches of his grace, resting beneath his sheltering wing always looking on his smiling face that is why I shout and sing Jesus Jesus Jesus sweetest name I know, fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go, Though sometimes he leads through waters deep, trials fall across my way. Though sometimes the path seems rough and steep, see his footsteps all the way. Jesus Jesus Jesus sweetest name I know is my every longing keeps me singing as I go on the last That was the last. Soon he's coming back. Y'all don't know that one. Wait a second. The the board doesn't know it. Let's sing it. Anyway, soon he's coming back to welcome me, alright? Far beyond the starry sky, I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown. I shall reign with him on high. Alright, here we go. Hit it. Soon he's coming back to welcome me far beyond the starry sky. I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown. I shall reign with him on high Jesus Jesus Jesus sweetest name my name I know fills my every care and every longing in my heart keep me singing as I go amen if we're not singing what's written not written I can sing it however I to sing it right alright have a seat and we'll have a couple of announcements here Connect hour. Y'all know what's happening in between the fellowship hall. I wanna thank the volunteers that do that. It it is so helpful between services to have something that bonds these two services together and y'all all do a great job. Thank you. I'm I'm looking at a lot of you right now. Thank you for doing that. So, that's in the fellowship hall between services and it's a good time to get together. Awana is happening tomorrow night right in this big room right here. We start off at 06:00 because kids matter to God. We're pouring scripture into the hearts and minds of the young people and Monday nights is happening at the same time down the hall. So, Monday nights at first being, we've kind of aligned the time features a little better nowadays. So, about the time that I want is getting out, Monday nights is getting out at the same time. So, that's nice and it is Carl is preaching from the book of Luke and he's in Luke six right now. Operation Christmas Child. So, the deadline is fast approaching. November 16 is the party for wrapping up all the presents, all the stuff that's left over. So, if you want to get your own shoebox filled and wrapped a little nice presents to be sent all around the world for children who might not otherwise have present. If you would want to do that, you can wrap your own and bring it into the church office but if you want to bring in just some different items, you're welcome to bring those in too and then we'll have a present wrapping party on November 16 and y'all know what this is, right? Operation Christmas Child from Samaritan's Purse. Very good. It's something that we've been taking a party in for a long long time and it's a really good ministry and you can check your bulletin for more details but November 16 is that time frame. So, get em on in here. And I'm going to invite Eric Wakub up, our church moderator. Good morning. And Matt Lutzelman too. Well, I'm here this morning to ask for your continued prayers for our our what we kind of are referring to as the kitchen project. But really it is more than just the kitchen. And in a similar way, the kitchen is is more than just the facilities here. What we do as a church body when we come together often involves food. It often it should involve fellowship. And so we've we've noted we've known for years that the kitchen really is a it's kind of a linchpin in terms of the facilities that we have here to how these various ministries in our church actually reach out and share Christ's love among our body and with the world at large. So with that in mind this is probably the maybe the third or fourth time you've heard us stand up here and say we are raising funds above and beyond our normal giving to be earmarked directly for this project. The for the remodel of the kitchen and a a refresh of the fellowship hall. And there's several different ways that that you can give and prayerfully give, of course. My wife, Colleen, and I, we're we've made a pledge that we'll continue to honor over some months here, through the spring. So your gift does not have to be given all at one time. It can be paced to to suit your budget. So if that's something that you're interested in, there are pledge forms in the back, and you can turn in a pledge form and or your donation to the church. And I I wanna say too that well, Matt's gonna share a bit more about how it the facilities have impacted him personally and and and impact our church. But before he does that, the the giving that we're doing goes to that specific purpose so that we can reach people for Christ. We see this and and the church body as a whole has has been reaffirming this. It's a it's a way to further and better equip our various ministries here for the very specific end of reaching people for Christ. So with that in mind, Matt's gonna share a little bit more specifically about how a couple of two ministries in our church have been impacted by that kitchen. Thank you, Eric. Good morning. In the in the first service, as soon as Eric handed me the microphone, my my left knee began to shake. So, with that in mind, I am very happy to be a part of the men's ministry in this body and that particularly group of God or that ministry in particular ministers to a a pretty large range of of men and from various churches in the body and every morning, we prepare breakfast for 30 plus men and quite honestly, our our kitchen is is a little on the decline, obviously, and it would be very nice to have some new appliances and and commercial dishwashers, those types of things. So, we're very excited about the the upgrade and the remodel and also just just the team of guys that minute that prepare breakfast, that is a small group onto themselves. There's a lot of ministry that happens just in fellowship and preparing breakfast for the rest of the guys And and it is huge blessing just to serve the men in this body and in other bodies in the community. Secondly, for me personally, my dad passed away a couple of years ago. We had the funeral service here and the reception in the fellowship hall. And it was a huge blessing to my family and to to be ministered to in that way and the kitchen definitely is much needed in that regard. So, I would like to say thanks. Thanks to First B and then also just encourage you in your giving that it is a huge part of the ministry in this church and I think that's all I really have to add right now. I just thanks thanks so much. Miss Diane has something to add. One thing I'd just like to add real quick, in the foyer, we had a lady who has never attended here before give a very generous contribution to this cause and was just really impacted by the members here and by our beloved pastor and just to let you know that we are touching folks here. Amen. Thank you, Matt. So, for every other announcement, you can just check your bulletins and there are probably some several things that I would normally have mentioned but I don't know what they are. They're in your bulletin, alright? They're not up on that screen. So, if you would, stand up and greet one another. We'll bring you back together with a peppy song. Hymn number five zero five as he touched me. Shackled by a heavy burden need the Lord of guilt and shame then the hand of Jesus touched me and now I am no longer the same he touched me oh he touched me and all the joy that floods my soul something touched me will never cease to praise him I'll shout it while eternity he touched me oh he touched me joy that floods my soul something happened We're singing another one. Greatest thing in all my life is knowing you. Six forty four. The greatest thing I want to know the is loving I want to love I want to love the greatest thing in all my life the greatest thing my the greatest thing I want to serve serve want to serve greatest thing Y'all can have a seat and invite the frontline team to come forward and when I sing that song, the greatest thing in all my life is knowing you. The greatest thing in all my life is loving you and the greatest thing is serving you. I I think of those three and I go, that's three things. The greatest three things in all my life are knowing, loving, and serving but the truth is to know God, to really know God in the experiential way that that's talking about is to love him. You cannot know him and not love him and you cannot love him without serving him. If you love me, keep my commands, he says. And so, that is the greatest thing in all my life is knowing and loving and serving him. So, God, thank you for the privilege and opportunity to to love you. Lord, I thank you that we can love others because you first loved us and I thank you for calling that to our attention by the gospel. Whatever that person was doing or whoever that person was that that actually had the audacity to proclaim your good news, lord. Thank you. Thank you. That that's the way that you work. God, I I want for us as a church to be able to be proclaiming that good news gospel of grace. So, lord, we just ask you right now, would you use us to bring more people into a relationship where they know you and they love you and they serve you? So, we would like for this to be an exponential thing in your kingdom, lord. Thank you and so God, we come to this time where we take up tithes and offerings and we ask that you would take these gifts, these acknowledgements that you are our provider and you are the giver of every good and perfect gift. You've provided for us and we wanna provide that good news of the gospel to others. So, would you take this and multiply it to do your kingdom's work? In Jesus name, lord, we humbly ask for your blessing on this. Amen. Ladies. So, this morning, we have arrived at Romans 14. Now, last week, I went to the end of chapter 13 and I said, it closed it off, tied everything up with a nice, neat, little bow and actually, if you're reading through Romans and you got to the end of Romans 13, you could feel like, wow. That was great. It's over. It it seems like he's closed it off without the typical greetings and stuff but it seems like he's made his point. He's had all the theological points of chapters one through eight and then nine through 11. He's made this answer to a question. And then in twelve, twelve and thirteen, both of those chapters, he hones in on application. And so there's two straight chapters of application, short few verses. In fact, it's just two verses about serving God. And then just a couple of verses about how you serve the church, then a few about how you serve outsiders, and then seven about how you serve government under the government, you know. And then he starts coming back around, and he comes back around through those same concentric circles back to others, and then back to the church, and back to serving God and you would think that when he kinda closed it off at the end of last week, that would be the end of Romans. Now, Romans 14 to me, after having passed through all of that other, I feel like this is the point of the letter. Do you get what I'm saying? All of that was great, but then he gets to now. Now that I've said all that, this is what I wrote to talk to you about. So you're gonna get for chapter 14, the whole of chapter 14 and the first half of 15, some on the subject of disputable matters. Now, this is not talking about sin. This is talking about disputable matters. So, there is a difference there. Hopefully, it'll come up several times in the discussion of this today but Romans 14 and the beginning part of 15 is about matters of conscience, matters of Christian conscience. So, it's disputable matters. Reasonable Christians can disagree on these things and Romans 14, it looks like this. There's one very strong imperative at the beginning. So that's a command. It's a very strong one. And it has, following it, a very important caveat. So the important caveat, in in some translations, it comes across as two commands. The important caveat, I think, is a better way to put it. Then there are two specific examples of disputable matters that were going on at that time. And there are application points all along the way. Mainly, those application points are the commands and the caveat in the first verse. So, we're going to go forward from there. Now, except. So, he said all that he said up through 13 chapters and then, he starts off this one. Now, except the one who is weak in faith. So, accept the one who is weak in faith. Accept is the command there and when I read that to begin with, the one. I grew up in a town of 500 people. We knew where everybody stood on Jesus. You know what I mean? When somebody knew would come into town, maybe we were hoping that someone would come into the church that was new that we didn't know. So, we would have accepted absolutely anybody. So, we were looking forward to accepting anybody that came in. If they came in, we wanted for that to be the case. No matter what their faith looked like, no matter what. If they were there, we wanted to accept them and I I still I'm glad that this church is like that too. Accept the one who is weak in faith. This is the strong imperative that I mentioned. Accept. Doesn't sound like a very strong thing, does it? Doesn't sound all that aggressive. It's just accept. Receive some translations use. It's from this long Greek word, pros, lambonesta, and for you grammar nerds, there are a few of you here. Present middle imperative. So, the imperative means it's a command. The present tense in Greek means that it is an ongoing thing. Be accepting or be receiving. The middle though means it is in your best interest to do this. For your own sake, be accepting unto yourselves. And it's a second person plural. It's a y'all. All of y'all do this. From pros Lombano, it comes from two different Greek words and the pros is towards or interactively meaning with. It's right up on. It's a very engaging thing and pros in front of Lombano like that intensifies it and the the meaning of Lombano is to lay hold of it with initiative, to grab hold of it, and bring it in tight to receive. So, does that make any sense to you? That's an intense thing. To aggressively receive with a strong personal interest. So, if I had to translate it like amplified Bible style, it would be this. Y'all be doing all that y'all can, all that y'all can do to be receiving the one who is weak into y'all's fellowship. You get that? Y'all be doing this. It's a constant thing. And it's very much motivated by godly interest. Your personal fellowship will do well if you will be as accepting as you can. For those matters of Christian conference, constituents, it's not talking about sin like I said. So, now, except the one who is weak in faith, this is the strong caveat. Important caveat but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. Now, that's a very important caveat. Accepting somebody is one thing. When they walk through the back door of the church and they get there, that's great. Oh yeah, we warmly welcome them. But then a couple weeks in when they start going, you know, we don't wear blue jeans to church. Or they say, I don't know if you know yet, but we don't we don't sing like that or you know, I'm not sure where you grew up but that's passing judgment on their opinions, okay? It says, accept them but don't accept them just to change em into being who you are. Do you get that? Okay. Accept the one who's weak. One of the strongest imperatives that could be used for that. Be receiving the one who is weak in faith but not for passing judgement on their opinions. That's very important caveat. One person has faith that he may eat all things. That's me. Sometimes try to do it all at the same time. One person has faith that he may eat all things but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Now, this is talking about a stronger and a weaker faith. I think that Paul's being intentionally vague though about that because it could be other disputable matters. It's not just this, these are representative examples but one person has faith that he may eat all things. That's me but he who is weak in faith, it says, eats vegetables only. Now, that's example one. If at the time you were talking to him, it probably would have been somebody who ate kosher, maybe, it might have been somebody who just had a conviction about not eating meat for whatever reason. It could be either of those two things, but he's saying some of you eat everything, some of you don't eat vegetables. That's example one. So this guy is Eugene Morningstar. Eugene Morningstar is a part of the band in the first service. He stood over here this morning and played an electric guitar. He has hair like that, and he also eats only vegetables. He does not eat meat. And he hasn't since I've known him and he hasn't. I asked him if I if it'd be alright if I shared this, and he said yes. He does that out of personal conviction, and so be it. That's just the way it is. I eat the way that I eat. Sometimes, out of personal conviction. I eat too much sometimes for my own personal conviction and I struggle with that. I've admitted that before but in this case, I can eat meat. He cannot eat meat under his own personal conviction. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt, the one who does not eat. So, I'm not to have any contempt for Eugene and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats. So, Eugene is not to judge me for my freedom in Christ to eat meat. For God has accepted him. God has accepted me. God has accepted Eugene. Not on the basis of who we are or what we do but he's accepted us on the basis of Christ's blood. Not because of who we are or what we do but because of who he is and what he did. We've accepted that. So, he has accepted us. So, simple application points. I said they're all along the way. Simple as can be. Omnivores. Don't make fun of herbivores, okay? If you're one of those who feels you can eat anything, don't make fun of the vegetarians or the vegans or the ovoviegans or there are so many different distinctions here in Jackson. The gluten free, don't make fun of those people if you're an omnivore, herbivores. Do not judge the omnivores because they do and there's a lot of that going on. Do y'all see it? Do y'all see it as much as I see it? There's a lot of judging that's going on. So, why don't you? Why not? Paul answers that in the next verse. He says, who are you to judge the servant of another? So, if Eugene is accepted on the basis of Christ's blood and I'm accepted on the basis of Christ's blood, Then, we have one lord and master, our savior, Jesus Christ and so Eugene does what he does and answers to Christ for that and I do what I do and I answer to Christ for that and each of us has to go with our personal convictions. Now, the way that he plays and where he plays and when he plays guitar is part of that. The what the way that he eats is part of that. The way that I sing, the way that I do, what I do is a part of that conviction too. Does that make sense to you? Those could be disputable matters. Who are you though to judge the servant of another? Jesus is telling him what he needs to do and he is responsible for that. He's telling me, direct relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. To his own master, he stands or falls. Eugene has to answer for Eugene. Ray has to answer for Ray. And he will stand. This is nice. This is saying that he will stand. Why? Because the Lord is able to make him stand. If Christ is the one who has saved us, he is the one who has redeemed us. He is the one who is actively pursuing a sanctifying role in our lives. It's on Christ to do that. So, here we go. Application, I think, is, can we do this? Assume that other Christians are doing whatever it is that they are doing out of devoted service to Christ, their master. Can we, can we do that? Assume that? It's not always easy to do. Now, I'm not talking about sin. When somebody is in sin, Paul says in other places that yes, you should be judging sin but I'm talking about disputable matters. This question of eating or drinking, this question of the next one we're going to get to right here is one person regards one day above another and another regards every day alike. Would you all agree with that? Are there some of you here who are the event people who are day people? Day people, special day people, where special days are special and they stand out. Are there any of you here? Would you raise your hand? As opposed to the people who think every day is alike, no big deal, everyone is the same. I'm that kind. Yes. That's right. Okay. So, one person regards one day above another and another regards every day alike. This is a difference in opinion. Is either of those sinful? Has either of those been charged as sinful by the other group? Yes. You hear it from time to time. This is example number two. So, simple application points along the way. Special day people. Those of you who are special day people, do not torment that every day is the same people. No matter how hot by humbug you think they are. And every day is the same people. Do not judge the special day people. No matter how outlandish you think their preparation for a certain time of year or day or festival or whatever is. Don't hold them in contempt for that. That is the way that God has wired them. It's the way that he's made them. It's the way that he has convicted them. Now, if you look at these, you might think that I'm one of those and Tanya's other. Actually, Tanya and I are every day is the same people and Paschal is a special day person. We never really celebrated anniversaries or birthdays so much until Paschal came along and then all of a sudden, it became very very important to us. We're Tanya's someone event driven and likes to prepare for events but I feel like if you're not celebrating Christmas and Easter every day, why celebrate em twice a year, right? So, it's an everyday is the same for me but I understand that you know what? We want to make this special and call special attention to Christ's birth and this is an exciting thing for just at the right time, Christ came and Easter because that's where the gospel hangs on that. So, going forward from here, verse five, I've already read one person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Imma leave out the second half of that verse for a second and then skip down to six. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord and he who eats does so for the Lord. For he who for he gives thanks to God and he who eats not for the Lord, he does not eat and he gives thanks to God. So, this is saying that both of them can be right within their Christian convictions and do different things. Are you with me? That's a that's a huge deal. Not every Christian is gifted the same way. We cover that in chapter 12 and not every Christian has exactly the same convictions and that's an important thing that people can have different convictions that they need to live out. Assume that other Christians are doing whatever they're doing out of devoted service to Christ their master. You can make that assumption because we are in one family. This is a great one about the unity of the body. Last week, we celebrated communion and we're saying that what draws us together is the blood of Christ. Now, if he's our master, we have to do as he leads for us to do. So, then, Ray, you're saying it doesn't matter what we think or what we do. There are no standards at all. No. I'm not saying that. I'm saying, we have the Bible. We have the Holy Spirit in our lives. Christians and this was written specifically to Christians. Jewish flavored Christians, Gentile flavored Christians. Today, it might be churchy church, Christians, and folks coming to Jesus later in life who've never had any church background whatsoever and when you blend those two together, yes, there are some standards. Yes, there are some things that we need to pay attention to. Sin is one of em and that makes a difference but each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. This is an incredibly simple concept that you have to walk your walk before God based on what you have in your mind, in your heart. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind in what it is that he's doing. Do you get that? So, First Timothy two fifteen says, and this is good old King James. This is the way I learned it. Study to shoe thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Praise God. If you are to be fully convinced in your own mind, then you need to go to God. Go to the scriptures and study that. In fact, be diligent in studying it. Be diligent. It's probably a slightly better translation. Be diligent to present yourself, approve to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, who is accurately handling the word of truth. So, we should take scripture, take it into our lives, and then see what God is directing us to do from that. Individually, it may look different. The way that Florine serves Christ is different than the way that I serve Christ. And this one. Oh my. James says this very clearly. The to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it to him, it is sin. Now, this is not talking about the 10 commandments right here. This is not talking about, well, it could be. I suppose it could be that too but it's talking about knowing the right thing to do from your own personal conviction that God is leading and not doing it. To him, it's sin and that to him is what's in there. It's individual. There are certain sins that none of us are supposed to do but there are certain good things that one of us is supposed to do and if we don't do it, then it's sin. Do you get that? To him, it is sin. Now, there's a fellow that was talking to me this morning. He had a piece of property and he was considering feeling like God was leading to sell that certain piece of property and as he would take in the funds for that, donating that to help a church in need. Now, that's not something that the Bible says specifically to do. It's not something that I have ever really considered doing as I have no property. But for him not to do it, if God is the one leading it, for him not to do it, it would be sin. Be, are are you with me on that? It's very individual. I mentioned in the first service, this old southern colloquialism, not one person knew it, not one person. It's every tub sits on its own bottom. Has anybody heard that before? Ah, there's one, two. Good. I knew I knew y'all would be with me. Good. So every tub sits on its own bottom. I know when it's used. I I was wondering exactly how it's proper to use it but so when somebody like I have an aunt who has four kids and when each one of those children would do something, they'd say, but so and so did didn't get that or didn't do that. She said, listen, every tub sits on its own bottom. All you have to answer for is what I told you to do. And that's very much like our relationship with God. The way that Florine lives out his calling or Eugene or Carl or I could pick anyone of y'all. The way that Lucy lives out her calling is going to be different than mine but both of us serve the same master and so we have to go with what he leads us. So, what are the rules? Everybody wants rules. I get calls sometimes that'll say, so how long should I read my Bible each day? Like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how much Bible you need each day. But I do know that if you're asking the question, you're convicted about it and so, I'm not going to say, well, fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes before breakfast is the rule. Dog on it, we're gonna do fifteen minutes before breakfast and that's it because if it's just about checking the box, I've done that. Now, I can go on with my life. No. Just like when during the offering, it said each one should give as God has placed in his heart as he not under compulsion. It's not about checking the boxes. It is about knowing and doing the will of God. Be in there, communing with him. Some of you, it actually might take a while. It might take you more than fifteen minutes to get in touch with what God has for you that day and some of you might be able to check occasionally because your hands are in the work and you're living out the scriptural call that he's given you. So, what are the rules? I get a lot of questions like that actually but I don't know what they are exactly for you. I do know that there are some things about sin and I'll we can talk about that but there are a lot of em that are individually. What is God showed you to do? He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord and he who eats does so for the Lord and for he gives thanks to God and he who eats not for the Lord, he does not eat and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself and Paul includes himself and the other people there in that. For not one of us, Christians, lives for himself and not one of us dies for himself. For if we live, we live for the Lord. Praise God. If we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord. Amen. For this end, Christ died and lived again. This is the gospel. This is what unifies us. This is what brings us together that he might be lord both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? Why do you? Why are you going to do that? And you, again, it's talking one side and then the other from those two examples to begin. Why do you judge your brother or you? Again, why do you regard your brother with contempt for we all will stand before the judgment seat of God. That's a sobering thought. I'm not going to answer for your list and you're not going to answer for mine. You're going to answer for yours. For it is written as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall give praise to God. So then, each one of us will give an account of himself to God. Again, of himself. How you deal with what God has given you is very very important. That's why we say that a relationship with Christ is important and not just a religiosity. There is a certain religiosity that comes out. Different denominations have different viewpoints on different things, different people have taken the scriptures to mean different things and what this passage is saying is that is normal. That is somewhat normal and the unity in the body is important enough that we should be aggressively accepting the other. Now, the chasm between that is great, a great chasm that has been fixed. You remember Jesus's story about Lazarus and the rich man. There's a great chasm that's fixed. That great chasm is between those who believe the gospel and those who reject the gospel. We cannot place the chasm between those who accepted the gospel in exactly the same fashion that we have practiced it. Do you get that? This is pointing us towards a greater unity. So the takeaways, I'm gonna use this little girl again actually. So Blake, I think it was on loop last time. Can you turn the sound up? This girl comes up from time to time. And I think it's important. I had somebody after the first service, an older gentleman told me, I think I'd spanked that young'un but I want you to listen to her and I want you to listen to what the dad is saying. Worry about yourself. Worry about Worry about yourself. Can I help? No. I help. She's trying to get in her car seat. We are out here. You can help when we're out to eat. Do you have dishes, please? Probably. You want me to help, Rose? No. Thank you. No. Thank you. What do you want me to do? What about yourself? What about yourself? I'll do this one. So, gonna do that. You drive. What about yourself? Don't drive. So, she's he's saying, can I help you? Can I please help you? I'll help you. Now, he can't drive until she puts that car seat on, right? And she's saying, you worry about yourself. What do you want me to do? Worry about yourself. You drive. That's your job. You do that. I'm not going to drive. I'm not asking you if I can drive. You drive. I will do this. You can help me when to get to the restaurant. I am convinced. The more I stay in pastoring and counseling, you cannot help somebody until they ask for your help. You just can't help em until they're ready for you to help em. Now, at the restaurant, she probably wanted him to help all but she was not going to have him help with that. You can't convince somebody to surrender. Now, the Holy Spirit does the convicting. If we present the truth of the gospel but there are, let me see, other disputable matters. There are other things that are probably not essentials of the faith that we argue over all the time. So can you think of any examples, modern examples of disputable matters? The first service chuckled when I said that. Yes. Yes. We can think of em. We can all think of em. So, there are so many different examples. Politics was the first one that somebody hollowed out in the first. Music style. Worship wars, it's been called. Actually, we sang a couple of choruses today that when I was in church as a little kid, we would not sing those except on Wednesday nights. Can't sing those on Sunday mornings. It's unacceptable. It's fine on Wednesday night. Don't know. We moved to Mexico. It's not okay to wear blue jeans to church. It's just the way that it was. They they had decided this is something. This is important. We're going to do it like this. I've got a list right here. I want for us to live out and live by the scripture. I don't want for us to add unnecessary boundaries and barriers and chasms between us and others. I have taught every pastor in town. There there are lots of pastors in town and we all do things in a slightly different way. My manner is not the same as some of those other guys. I'm not exactly the same theologically as Mike down at Rivercross, and I'm not the same in method to Eric over at Cornerstone. I'm not the same as Don in my teaching style. I'm not the same as those guys. But you know what? Every single one of those guys is doing what they're doing out of conviction before the Lord and I trust that that's true. I send people to him. Had a guy come in here one time, sat back in the back during the service. I had met with him. He had a mentor call me from out of state and said, I'm sending a young man up there. I want to make sure he finds a good church home. I said, well, that's great. So, I went to lunch with him during the week before he ever come had come to a service. His mentor had checked us out. We talked theology for a little while. We talked about practice for a little while. The guy came in. He sat in the back. I remember which sermon it was. I know everything about it and there were several places during the sermon where we laughed and it was, honestly, I thought, it was funny, you know? So, when we got through, that guy came forward and he was not happy. He didn't like reach out, shake my hand, and you know, right hand the Christian fellowship kind of way. He said, just like that. Shook his head back and forth and said, I don't want to laugh at church. I thought, oh my goodness and he said, nope, I want a preacher that will pin me to the wall. I don't want to laugh in church. I won't be back and I said, alright. I got a list of a few names. So, people who pin you to the wall. You know what I'm saying? But and he has not been back. I see him in the grocery store. He's still a brother in Christ. I know that he is. I don't have any doubt about whether he is but my style just didn't suit him, you know? I love what the other guys are doing. I'm going read a list. This is from a real church policies and procedures manual. The common example, be not conformed to the world is the citing and we've talked about this in Romans twelve two. Be not conformed to the world and citing that as their rationale. This was their statement in their policies and procedures manual for their members. Members shall not indulge in the world's methods of pleasure seeking, amusements and entertainment, patronizing or taking part in fairs, parades, circuses, moving picture shows, theaters, drama, public bathing resorts, organized contesting of ball teams, dancing, card parties, races, various forms of gambling, scavenger hunts, mystery suppers, hay rides, and such like. Inasmuch as our automobiles, as well as all our possessions are gifts from God, they should be in keeping with biblical modesty and separation, and the use of them should always glorify God. The more expensive cars, cars with contrasting colors, sports cars, as well as vehicles as well as sports features on regular cars, all striped tires shall be avoided. This is a real thing. I'm not making this up. The appearance and use of all of our vehicles shall be consistent with the principles and regulations. Because of the effectiveness of the radio to propagate evil and increased end time deception, thereby destroying true spirituality in the home and church, its use is not permitted. Because of the evils of television, those who are responsible for the sale or use of the same forfeit their membership. Video cassette recorders and other entertainment systems shall not be used. We likewise sense the dangers of the news media such as daily papers and magazines in the home. And from there, he cites Psalm one zero one three and Psalm one two. So, according to It's harder for me to make my point after that, amen. That most Christians cannot abide by that list or would not be abiding by that list in their pursuit of God. Now, for the guy who wrote that list, if he is convicted in exactly that way, that is exactly the way that he should live and I and I would have I have no quarrel with that whatsoever. It is when we take on ourselves the prerogative of the Holy Spirit to direct other people in matters that are less than essential. The chasm that is great and is fixed is between those who believe the gospel and those who reject the gospel. For those who believe it's the power of God unto salvation and for those who reject, it is mere foolishness to those who are not believing. I didn't actually bring that up to make fun of that. I'm saying that is one extreme. The other extreme may be there are lots of examples of license in church. And those are just as just as far from the center of orthodoxy. I'm saying that if they call on the name of Jesus, we should do our best in our practice to bring one another back to the center. Does that, do you agree with that? I think that that's what the main thrust of the passage for today. Now, it talks about the stronger brother and the weaker brother in this first portion and it goes on for the next two Sundays. We'll talk about where it is to be working from the strong position. The strong position is for freedom in Christ. Liberty in Christ. Eternal vigilance is required when you're talking about liberty. The weaker position is the more scrupulous position in this passage. Do you understand that? So, as we go forward in the next couple weeks, I wanna think about how it is that we are aggressively seeking to engage and keep in fellowship those who disagree with us personally. On matters not related to sin. Alright. So, I think that that's it, Judy. You want to come forward? Are we going to play Blessed Be the Tide that Binds this week? Alright, let's do that. I usually, yeah, I'm wing it sometimes and that I did last week but it's good to play it and sing it. That's that's alright. That's good. Would you stand up and join us, please? Amen. Now, thanks be to God that he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our human inclination is to separate ourselves. Have you seen it? We are so polarized right now as a nation. It's unbelievable. On just about every political front and on theological fronts, Christians for years have been lobbing volleys against the other side. On this side of the chasm, it is Christ who gives the victory not just in salvation but in sanctification. Praise God. Thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.