Dale Partridge - June 03, 2025


Romans 14_13-23 - How to Navigate Differences in Christian Liberty and Conviction： Part 2


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59 minutes

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136.33699

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8,140

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440

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Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 well good morning again and uh i feel like even just a little bit of cloud coverage for arizonans
00:00:11.840 just makes everybody tired and so by god's grace we will wake up here and hear the word of the lord
00:00:18.080 this is part two of a three-part section in the 14th chapter of romans i've titled this
00:00:28.060 how to navigate differences in Christian liberty and convictions. This is part two. Last week is
00:00:35.080 part one, and next week will be part three, because this text really goes from 14, chapter 14, verse
00:00:42.220 one, all the way to 15, verse seven. Now, if you recall, Paul spent the first 11 chapters of Romans
00:00:49.560 dealing with the fundamentals and laying the foundation of the gospel. And we went through
00:00:56.540 that extensively for the last almost two years. He shifted in chapter 12 to show us that
00:01:04.360 what we believe should inform how we behave. And that was really the shift of the epistle,
00:01:11.940 moving from doctrine to behavior. In chapter 13, we saw how our relationship ought to be with the
00:01:19.640 civil rulers and also with the world. And then we moved into chapter 14, where we are now dealing
00:01:28.340 with cultivating unity, particularly between weak and strong Christians. How do you have unity 0.79
00:01:37.720 between weak and strong Christians? I'll even say new and mature Christians, or people that are 1.00
00:01:45.060 coming out of cults and people that have been raised up since childhood in the faith and a
00:01:51.480 very healthy home. There is a variety of applications to this text that will be very
00:01:56.060 helpful for your Christian life. Now, some believe, some believers might be stumbled by
00:02:05.480 the freedoms of the strong. This is kind of the main point of this section of scripture.
00:02:11.540 Some believers might be stumbled by the liberties of the freedoms of the strong, while those folks with those freedoms may be frustrated with the sensitivities of the weak and their convictions upon them.
00:02:26.580 That really happens, and you'll hear a variety of examples of how that might play out in the local context.
00:02:33.040 Paul used two examples in this text from his period of time that I believe this principle
00:02:39.980 is universal, but the application is local and the local application for him was this.
00:02:44.960 It was eating particular foods, maybe foods that were sacrificed to idols, as we see in
00:02:52.000 1 Corinthians chapters 8, 9, and 10.
00:02:54.380 It also could be speaking to Judaism and coming out of the ceremonial law and particular feasts
00:03:01.760 and dietary restrictions that came with Jewish festivities and religious convictions. It could
00:03:08.600 also be, as he speaks about, the reality of festivals and celebrations and religious ceremonies.
00:03:16.180 And so all of these areas are areas that are in Paul's day, but today we might face similar
00:03:22.580 situations that can extend beyond those particular examples. I've seen, even just in my own walk,
00:03:30.720 in my own journey as a pastor, conflicts on a variety of issues, but particularly around
00:03:37.240 modesty, dress length, if women should wear jewelry, how long their hair should be.
00:03:46.960 I've seen it around drinking, around smoking, around particular language, celebrating Christmas.
00:03:56.040 what is the sabbath should it be observed what can you do on the sabbath
00:04:01.060 i've even seen people fight over if they could use esa for their government for government money
00:04:07.600 for their children's education i'm talking there is opportunity for these principles
00:04:12.660 to be applied in a variety of circumstances in the local church
00:04:18.260 now you have a strong brother who understands the freedom
00:04:22.780 from religious externalism. Let's just say that you have a strong brother in the church
00:04:27.760 or sister in the church that really understands the freedom of the gospel to free us from
00:04:34.260 religious externalism that comes from the old covenant and the old Testament, the ceremonial
00:04:39.240 law, the dietary law, all of the things that came with that world, but they're free from that.
00:04:44.780 But then you have also in the same church, a weak brother in Paul's time. Again,
00:04:50.840 they're probably shaped by Judaism or maybe some local paganism. But in our time, it's probably 0.83
00:04:57.660 some form of intense Christian legalism. I just met a lady that came to our Bible study who came
00:05:05.620 out of a legitimate cult. I believe she loves the Lord and knows the Lord, and she is still fighting
00:05:11.540 the battle if she can wear pants or if she must wear a dress. She is working through those
00:05:17.380 realities. But her convictions and conscience is currently bound to what she has been raised in
00:05:23.460 for many, many years. And so we are going to see a variety of manifestations of this scenario
00:05:34.020 that make it great for application in the local church.
00:05:40.600 How are Christians to sustain unity in these conflicts?
00:05:44.200 how are we to uphold edification how are we to protect the testimony of the church that we are
00:05:51.960 a group of people who actually love one of another i i really think that is the main
00:06:00.140 question that this passage is trying to answer how can we navigate the differences of christian
00:06:08.320 liberty and conviction while maintaining humility and charity for the sake of unity. That is really
00:06:16.680 what Paul is getting at. Now, as I mentioned last week, the easy solution for local churches would
00:06:23.340 just be to eliminate all opportunities for friction and create some sort of standardized
00:06:28.320 policy. Well, we just don't do this here. We just don't do that here. I gave you examples that there
00:06:34.620 are churches that force women to wear head coverings, and then there are churches who
00:06:38.540 forbid women from wearing head coverings. I know pastors on both sides, and I think both of those
00:06:44.800 options are wrong. And I said that because I don't think that imposing policies or rules or
00:06:52.120 standardizations is really what we see in the scriptures, because the church is not a factory
00:06:58.380 that we are here to produce sameness. The church is a garden where we are learning to embrace the
00:07:04.540 differences that are happening in the members of the body of Christ and how we do that in love.
00:07:10.840 How do we do that in love? Now, last week we saw that Paul was addressing tensions that had
00:07:17.800 escalated apparently so far that people were judging one another's salvation. And again,
00:07:23.560 this happens all the time. You see someone that has a different conviction than you
00:07:28.200 and maybe has a different story than you, came from a different denomination than you,
00:07:34.540 Maybe he doesn't buy into Calvinism like you do, and eventually you get to the conclusion they're probably not even saved.
00:07:42.040 That is a wrong posture to take.
00:07:45.300 The right posture is to look at fruit.
00:07:47.960 Does their life exhibit fruit?
00:07:51.060 Maybe not look at it for a week, but maybe after a year or two, you could start to really get an accurate assessment if this person is producing fruit.
00:08:01.800 now paul strongly rebuked that behavior of judging one another salvation he says why do you pass
00:08:09.880 judgment on one another why do you despise your brother think about that why do you despise
00:08:18.800 your brother how much hatred do you have in your heart for somebody maybe in this church or someone
00:08:23.600 else at a different church it's a brother let it go let it go paul says for we will
00:08:31.500 all stand before God and give an account for ourselves.
00:08:35.940 That intense judgment that you have for somebody else, let the Lord deal with it.
00:08:41.540 Your purpose and duty is
00:08:43.500 to exhibit love and peace and unity. Let the Lord deal with it.
00:08:47.480 Pray for that brother or sister. So if last week's sermon
00:08:51.360 was focused on tolerating the different convictions
00:08:54.420 on secondary and tertiary matters or non-essential matters,
00:08:58.660 today's sermon really focuses on exercising those convictions with charity and humility
00:09:06.360 so first you have to kind of know that they exist and tolerate but now it's like how do you actually
00:09:10.400 exercise that conviction that you have around x y or z and how do you do that well while maintaining
00:09:16.860 unity in the church to not create a divisive environment in the local congregation well
00:09:24.100 Paul says in verse 13, he says, therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any
00:09:31.420 longer. So just think about that for a second. Have you passed judgment upon somebody in
00:09:38.920 this church or somebody at another church or maybe a Christian that's far away? It says,
00:09:46.420 let us not pass judgment on one another any longer. Now we need to keep this in context.
00:09:54.100 This doesn't mean that we can't judge the moral failures of somebody.
00:09:57.660 It's talking about secondary, non-essential matters and convictions around those issues.
00:10:02.200 And he says, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of that brother, that sister.
00:10:12.320 Now this verse addresses both parties, the strong and the weak, the new and the old.
00:10:18.500 the weak who are offended by the liberties of the strong
00:10:23.540 and the strong who are offended by the sensitivities of the weak
00:10:25.940 it is addressing both parties
00:10:29.440 both are to stop their judgments and to figure out
00:10:33.220 how can I make the priority edification and not judgment
00:10:36.820 now notice that Paul
00:10:40.740 begins with the word therefore
00:10:42.760 now we're smart Bible interpreters
00:10:44.880 we're not going to be those people that have been around the scriptures for 20 years
00:10:47.780 and don't know how to read our own Bibles.
00:10:49.660 The word, therefore, signals that the actions that are in this particular verse
00:10:54.120 are referring to the reasoning in the previous verse.
00:10:58.060 That's just basic grammatical analysis.
00:11:01.520 And he gives us two actions.
00:11:03.220 Two actions.
00:11:04.480 Number one is because we can trust God to judge His people,
00:11:08.500 we are free from making those judgments ourselves.
00:11:11.960 When you judge somebody, it's saying, I don't believe that God will do it.
00:11:16.260 So I'm going to do it for him.
00:11:19.060 I'm going to do it for him.
00:11:21.000 I'm going to spend my time judging this person because you know what?
00:11:27.080 God's not going to do it and I could do it better.
00:11:29.640 It's extremely prideful.
00:11:32.120 Number two.
00:11:36.780 In the latter half of verse 13, he uses a contrast clause.
00:11:42.520 Contrast clause is the word but or yet.
00:11:46.260 Right? The idea is, it's a contrast of the previous verse to the second part of the verse.
00:11:52.940 And he introduces an alternative to judging.
00:11:57.060 He basically says, therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer.
00:12:02.640 Point.
00:12:03.940 But, contrast, rather decide never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in front of a brother.
00:12:11.840 Essentially, Paul is saying, don't do that, and instead do this.
00:12:16.260 That's the contrast there.
00:12:18.500 Don't condemn your brothers and sisters for their liberties or their sensitivities,
00:12:21.860 but rather limit your liberties and limit your sensitivities
00:12:26.380 in an effort to stop offending your brothers and sisters and foster unity in the church.
00:12:35.260 What does unity do in the world?
00:12:38.480 we can know if we read john 17 jesus's high priestly prayer
00:12:46.420 he says father i pray that they are one as we are one so that purpose clause the world will believe
00:12:57.220 that you sent me when the church is unified i'm not talking about superficial unity i'm talking
00:13:06.620 deep, rich, sacrificial unity. The world sees that, and they believe that God sent Christ.
00:13:19.280 But when you bicker and fight and divide, it produces an expelling reaction.
00:13:29.020 It makes people doubt that this is a group of God. In fact, I've seen this on social media.
00:13:34.780 We see it across Reformed communities on X, fighting, infighting, Christian cannibalism is what I call it. 0.95
00:13:44.460 And it's ejecting people to Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy where there's a perceived sense of romantic unity. 1.00
00:13:54.360 Somebody needs to stand up and yell and say, stop it. 0.54
00:13:59.880 It's wicked to be dividing against other people.
00:14:04.780 have discussions, do it in love,
00:14:09.780 try to do it privately if maybe your discussion might stumble a thousand people.
00:14:15.680 But no, everybody decides to have their quarrels open up in the air
00:14:19.760 because nobody has self-control.
00:14:26.600 Now, I believe the lesson of this verse applies more directly to the strong 0.92
00:14:31.120 who especially in, again, the Reformed community can often flaunt their liberties.
00:14:38.140 We can flaunt our liberties because there is a lot of spiritual maturity, I believe, in the Reformed community.
00:14:45.480 They understand the gospel. They understand the freedom that comes with the gospel.
00:14:50.040 We're no longer under the law, but we're under grace. We get that to the core.
00:14:53.720 but they're not thinking all the time about how their freedoms might cause a weaker or younger
00:15:01.060 believer to doubt their sanctification or doubt their salvation or doubt that they're in a group
00:15:09.480 of people that are also saved for example a weak believer might see a strong believer
00:15:14.980 drinking alcohol smoking tobacco watching a particular tv show that might not be appropriate
00:15:23.320 for one person who doesn't have the freedom to do so.
00:15:26.400 For someone maybe that's going to Las Vegas for the weekend
00:15:29.460 for an anniversary trip.
00:15:33.440 And because these liberties go beyond their convictions
00:15:36.280 of the weaker brother,
00:15:38.040 they may conclude that the stronger believer is actually not saved.
00:15:43.220 That happens all the time.
00:15:45.960 You might not know or hear about it
00:15:47.760 because you're not in pastoral ministry,
00:15:49.460 but I hear about it a lot.
00:15:51.080 Not necessarily in our particular church,
00:15:53.040 but people that write me comments or write me emails or write me questions or respond to different things,
00:15:58.400 responding to my book or different things that happen in greater Christendom.
00:16:04.440 The even worse scenario is that your liberty as a strong believer who understands the freedom of the gospel
00:16:11.340 might cause someone with a sensitive conscience to partake in those freedoms with you,
00:16:15.920 cause them to feel a conflict of conscience and maybe even get them to a place where they are sinning against their conscience
00:16:24.220 and sinning against God, causing division, causing deep bitterness and frustration in the body of Christ.
00:16:31.420 This is exactly what Paul is trying to avoid. 0.66
00:16:35.960 In other words, I've seen strong Christian men and strong Christian women encourage or even pressure. 0.90
00:16:42.540 I've seen it. Even pressure. Weaker Christians to partake in something that in and of itself is not sinful.
00:16:53.740 It's not sinful. Drinking a glass of wine in and of itself is not sinful.
00:16:58.940 However, for some believers, it is. For some believers, it is.
00:17:06.280 and by pressuring people into those particular positions
00:17:11.500 they cause the weaker christian to violate their own conscience to act without faith which is
00:17:17.540 ultimately sinful and so this happens again it happens i would say even more often in the reform
00:17:25.180 communities because we are a strong bunch understanding the freedom of grace that we
00:17:31.860 have around particular activities. Now, the issue usually rises because the strong doesn't
00:17:39.560 understand how their objectively sinless liberty, you know, going to Vegas is not sinful. Now,
00:17:51.240 it can be sinful, but objectively going to Las Vegas is not sinful. But they don't understand
00:17:58.100 how that can actually genuinely be sinful
00:18:01.200 for someone who has a weaker conscience
00:18:03.500 or maybe a pass with gambling.
00:18:08.400 So Paul speaks to this exact scenario
00:18:10.700 in the next verse.
00:18:11.600 If you look to verse 14,
00:18:13.420 he says,
00:18:14.340 I know and I am persuaded in the Lord
00:18:16.540 that nothing is unclean in itself.
00:18:19.480 There it is.
00:18:21.320 The wine, the Vegas,
00:18:24.040 nothing is unclean in and of itself,
00:18:25.940 but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it's unclean he says oof okay that's a new category
00:18:35.720 that most christians don't know how to deal it verse 15 for if your brother is grieved by what
00:18:42.720 you eat you are no longer walking in love but what you eat or by what you eat do not destroy
00:18:50.920 Or it means to kind of have a devastating spiritual setback.
00:18:57.900 Do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.
00:19:01.520 Verse 16.
00:19:03.000 So do not let what you regard as good, sinless or freedom or liberty,
00:19:09.920 be spoken of as evil by someone that's watching with a weaker conscience.
00:19:16.020 So Paul acknowledges that the things like eating food to sacrifice idols,
00:19:20.920 consuming certain animals,
00:19:24.440 not celebrating certain religious ceremonies or festivals or activities.
00:19:31.440 They're not inherently sinful.
00:19:34.360 We have freedom in Christ.
00:19:38.380 But he places the responsibility on the strong
00:19:41.380 to sacrifice or limit their liberties for the weak.
00:19:46.560 Now, when you do sacrifice that liberty for the sake of the weak,
00:19:56.100 it's easy for the strong to feel as if you've lost an opportunity for discipleship.
00:20:03.020 You go, ah, I want this brother to have the same freedom that I have.
00:20:07.200 I want to bring him along.
00:20:08.700 Just one sip, man.
00:20:10.300 You're fine.
00:20:11.020 That's not the instruction
00:20:14.600 That's given here in the scriptures
00:20:17.020 Paul makes the priority
00:20:22.140 Not strengthening the weak
00:20:24.800 Through persuasion or pressure
00:20:26.120 That's not the priority
00:20:28.500 He makes the priority
00:20:31.720 About
00:20:35.660 Sacrificing the liberty
00:20:38.080 In the sake of unity
00:20:39.460 in the sake of not offending.
00:20:42.880 I think 1 Corinthians 10, 23, which says, is very helpful.
00:20:48.480 It says, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.
00:20:54.220 All things are lawful, but not all things build up.
00:21:00.640 As a Christian, all things are lawful for me.
00:21:03.320 I'm not under the law. I'm under grace.
00:21:06.380 It doesn't mean that everything is sinless.
00:21:09.080 That's not what it's saying.
00:21:10.260 It's not saying that I can go commit adultery and that's not, oh, it's lawful.
00:21:14.380 Adultery is lawful for me.
00:21:15.380 That's not what it's saying.
00:21:16.200 No.
00:21:17.520 No.
00:21:18.240 Christian liberty is not the liberty to do whatever you please, but to do what is helpful and edifying.
00:21:27.180 You are free to do anything that is helpful and edifying.
00:21:32.740 And sometimes what is most helpful and edifying is not exercising your liberty.
00:21:39.760 That is a conundrum, right?
00:21:44.380 Christian liberty is not the liberty to do what we please, but to do what is helpful and edifying.
00:21:49.360 And sometimes what is most helpful and edifying is not exercising your liberty.
00:21:55.840 That's hard. That's hard.
00:21:58.980 In other words, if you're strong, you get to limit your liberties for the sake of others.
00:22:08.800 In verse 16, Paul addresses the potential outcome.
00:22:14.860 Saying, so do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.
00:22:23.480 You know, that's that liberty that you have.
00:22:26.000 Don't allow that thing to be spoken of as evil.
00:22:30.300 He's not saying when someone says it's evil to go correct him.
00:22:34.840 No, Paul is not just describing the result.
00:22:38.800 someone speaking evil of what you regard as good,
00:22:42.380 but he's inadvertently giving an instruction in this passage.
00:22:45.080 He's saying, don't exercise your freedoms or your liberties
00:22:49.980 in a way that they could be viewed by someone with a weaker conscience
00:22:54.080 who might call them evil.
00:22:57.680 There's a privacy element that we're about to see
00:23:02.140 when it comes to liberties.
00:23:04.960 now sometimes this is difficult to do
00:23:09.640 because we live in a world where it's easily to get easy to get offended and you can't protect
00:23:16.320 everybody from everyone uh we live in a rated r world if you haven't noticed and there is a
00:23:21.860 variety of conflict points that you cannot get around what you want to do is make sure that your
00:23:28.200 life is not unintentionally or intentionally offending somebody, especially a brother,
00:23:38.020 especially a sister.
00:23:42.380 For example, I check with every man that comes to our men's meetings.
00:23:48.200 Our men's meetings, we'll have guys that will have a beer or smoke a cigar after our
00:23:53.740 gathering. I check with every man that's his first time coming and I go, hey, is this a struggle that
00:24:01.940 you've had in the past? If so, can we talk about it? Is this going to be a stumbling block for you?
00:24:08.200 I have those conversations. What would be easy would to become a factory and say, you know,
00:24:12.900 let's just make it. No, we're not going to do any of that here. No, but we're a garden.
00:24:18.860 We get to deal with both sides.
00:24:21.380 The people who are strong, who have the freedom,
00:24:25.860 and the people who are weak, who have the sensitive consciences.
00:24:30.560 Now, we don't want the tyranny of the sensitive conscience
00:24:34.100 to completely obliterate the freedoms of the strong.
00:24:37.820 We also don't want the strong to be a tyranny
00:24:41.560 to the sensitive consciences of the weak.
00:24:44.660 You can start to see the pastoral conundrum.
00:24:47.480 How do you walk through this?
00:24:48.920 Well, we're not in a factory.
00:24:50.540 We're in a garden.
00:24:51.760 We don't create policies.
00:24:53.260 We work through sanctification.
00:24:54.920 We have discussions.
00:24:56.060 We do discipleship.
00:24:57.200 We talk.
00:24:58.180 We pray.
00:24:59.280 That's hard.
00:25:01.000 And it takes time.
00:25:04.080 It takes time.
00:25:05.220 Just last week, I heard that another local church refers to us as the bad boy church
00:25:19.160 because we have alcohol and smoke cigars at our men's meeting.
00:25:25.240 That's what we're referred to as.
00:25:29.220 And that's a prime example of verse 16.
00:25:31.760 It says, do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.
00:25:38.400 So as a pastor, I go, what do I do with that?
00:25:43.940 What do I do with that?
00:25:48.080 This is something that I'm praying on how to address.
00:25:50.700 Again, the easy solution is the factory.
00:25:55.100 What's the right solution?
00:25:56.960 I don't know yet.
00:25:58.920 It's going to require probably a handful of discussions.
00:26:01.760 Meeting with other pastors, meeting with other church members, meeting with folks in our congregation here.
00:26:10.060 But it's not something we just ignore and push under the rug.
00:26:14.100 Another church in this town has labeled our church with a reputation that we are a bad boy church.
00:26:25.300 Is that right?
00:26:26.460 well i think that both parties particularly might be in some degree of wrong
00:26:32.500 so how do we deal with that well again it's not the factory it's the garden
00:26:39.400 we need to figure out how to work through our differences in humility and love for the sake
00:26:47.440 of unity for the purpose of the testimony of the church so that the people in press
00:26:52.700 it can see unity instead of division between churches.
00:27:00.120 So we have two takeaways from this particular section, this verse.
00:27:06.380 Stronger believers are not to let their legitimate freedoms lead weaker believers to speak of those freedoms as evil.
00:27:13.580 That's a thing.
00:27:15.200 We've got to be careful about that.
00:27:17.360 Part of our responsibility.
00:27:19.640 You know what?
00:27:20.180 But I have been particularly careful, I don't drink alcohol anymore because my body won't let me, but when I used to be able to drink alcohol, I was particularly careful about posting pictures on social media of me drinking alcohol as a pastor because that might lead to someone else feeling permission to drink because I can drink.
00:27:43.820 now if you want a more extreme example
00:27:46.720 you can use
00:27:48.020 you know a different
00:27:50.760 action or activity or substance
00:27:53.060 or whatever you want to go with
00:27:54.180 but it's a real truth
00:27:56.060 and that was just my own personal conviction on the matter
00:28:00.880 now both Kingsway and this other church are called to act in love
00:28:09.340 we want to avoid offense
00:28:11.920 we want to avoid judgment
00:28:13.060 and we want to have that unity.
00:28:17.120 And this is why Paul tells us
00:28:18.900 we are to keep this principle within the church.
00:28:22.060 Verse 17, he says,
00:28:24.660 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking,
00:28:26.980 but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
00:28:33.760 So one, we should make sure that
00:28:36.140 there's not a priority in this kind of deep desire
00:28:39.620 that we need to have a cigar and a beer at our gatherings.
00:28:44.200 That makes us so much better.
00:28:47.400 And then on the other side, are you really condemning a church because of eating and drinking?
00:28:53.520 There's both sides.
00:28:56.460 Both sides.
00:29:01.000 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking,
00:29:04.000 but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
00:29:07.160 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by man.
00:29:12.640 So then let us pursue, let us, let both churches, let all the Christians in Prescott,
00:29:22.300 let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding.
00:29:30.360 That is the righteous thing to do.
00:29:32.280 for us to walk out, to try to meet with other churches,
00:29:37.920 to try to meet with other pastors, try to meet with other Christians,
00:29:41.580 and to make sure that we are constantly, in every case, in every season,
00:29:45.620 for every year that we are in this town, trying to build peace
00:29:49.200 with other Christians in Prescott.
00:29:55.240 Now, on this passage here, in verse 17,
00:29:58.600 I want you to first notice how he uses the term kingdom of God.
00:30:02.960 Anytime I get a chance to slip this in, I will.
00:30:06.380 It's in the present tense.
00:30:08.240 It's demonstrating how we, the church, are operating in a current kingdom.
00:30:14.640 Whether you interpret it to be spiritual only, whether you interpret it to be physical and spiritual,
00:30:20.000 or both, the fact of the passage is that it assumes a current kingdom which the members are partaking.
00:30:26.760 Second, Paul makes it clear that the personal doctrines or convictions that we often prioritize,
00:30:36.280 these personal things, whether it's a conviction of conscience, a sensitivity, or a freedom or liberty,
00:30:44.340 just think about those things in your own life. We all have them.
00:30:46.600 he makes it clear that those things we often prioritize are not central to God's kingdom
00:30:56.800 they're not the priority it's not the priority if it is become the priority if you become
00:31:03.600 your pet doctrines have become the front runner of what you talk about that's a problem
00:31:09.600 and again i hope that i've you know modeled this i have lots of fun doctrines that i enjoy
00:31:18.500 i wrote an entire book on head coverings and i've never given a sermon on it and it's because it's
00:31:25.040 not a priority you know it is a priority justification by faith the imputed righteousness
00:31:31.380 of christ understanding god's wrath for sin and i try to make that a priority as often as i possibly
00:31:37.740 can. We cannot make the minors the majors and the majors the
00:31:46.000 minors. In Paul's example, he shocks his audience, okay? You
00:31:55.420 don't understand because you are not from a Jewish descent, but
00:32:01.540 when he says the kingdom of God is not about eating and
00:32:04.520 drinking? Okay, if you were a Jew, you'd go, what? If you're just a brand new Jewish convert 0.96
00:32:10.580 coming to Christ, the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking or particular festivals? 0.65
00:32:19.640 Are you serious? My entire life has been surrounded. What did Peter say when he is
00:32:26.020 having the vision and God says that everything is clean? He says, Lord, I have never let an
00:32:31.480 unclean thing into my mouth. Do you understand the degree of eating and drinking, how that played
00:32:40.400 into religious life for a Jewish person? And then Paul comes in and says, for the kingdom of God's
00:32:48.640 not about eating and drinking or about those festivals. That's a shocker. That's jarring to
00:32:57.300 this group. That's something that they have done their entire lives. So Paul, again, is reorienting
00:33:06.780 believers from focusing on religious externalism, showing that the shadows of the externalism
00:33:14.880 have now been fulfilled in the substance of Christ. But the reality is the transition from that
00:33:23.400 to this for some people is extremely difficult the transition from being in bondage to alcoholism
00:33:35.120 and gambling and smoking to being born again and free in christ and not being in bondage to sin
00:33:44.140 where you can actually partake of those things without falling into addiction
00:33:51.200 That transition is a long transition.
00:33:54.460 Some people never make it.
00:33:57.980 If you made it, praise the Lord.
00:34:01.640 What a beautiful work that God has done in you.
00:34:04.580 But do not project your freedoms on others.
00:34:10.040 Do not project your sensitivities, if you're mature enough to see this, on the strong.
00:34:15.600 where you're making everybody feel that they're sinning
00:34:19.080 because they don't share the same convictions as you.
00:34:21.960 There is tyranny on both sides.
00:34:26.720 Ultimately, the kingdom of God is not about outward religious life
00:34:30.060 or persuading others about your personal convictions
00:34:34.380 on these non-essential matters.
00:34:36.440 It's about something greater.
00:34:39.080 It's about peace.
00:34:41.520 Peace.
00:34:42.120 you know what we should be trying to do
00:34:45.940 with churches in this town
00:34:47.100 and what they should be trying to do with us
00:34:49.020 is finding peace
00:34:51.440 everybody needs to figure that out
00:34:56.560 now
00:34:57.780 the reality is
00:35:00.260 finding peace is hard in the flesh
00:35:02.200 finding peace is hard
00:35:04.240 for even the best saints
00:35:09.200 do you remember
00:35:11.280 Paul and Barnabas trying to find peace?
00:35:17.300 It resulted in a sharp
00:35:19.000 disagreement. Do you remember
00:35:22.640 Peter and Paul trying to find peace? It resulted
00:35:26.880 in a rebuke.
00:35:32.860 Do you remember the disciples trying to find peace among one another?
00:35:37.960 Peace is extremely difficult. It can only be
00:35:41.040 done through the Holy Spirit. And not to say that the church is here
00:35:45.120 or the church is anywhere or anybody else in our world is not trying.
00:35:49.240 I think that everybody is actually trying.
00:35:55.820 It's a work of God.
00:35:58.280 And we as a church need to be constantly praying
00:36:01.340 for peace. Peace. We want to be
00:36:05.360 at peace. We can have differences.
00:36:07.940 That is a constant framework for the Christian life.
00:36:15.560 The goal is peace and unity.
00:36:20.040 Because our unity is a tool in the means by which God uses to convince the world that he sent Christ as the Messiah.
00:36:37.940 and we should be willing to do whatever it takes short of sinful compromise but whatever it takes
00:36:48.000 outside of just like an absolute sinful compromise we should be willing to do whatever it takes
00:36:53.000 to maintain that peace if it means that we never smoke a cigar ever again we will do it if it means
00:37:01.480 that we never drink alcohol ever again i would do it that's exactly what paul says in first
00:37:07.340 Corinthians if you've never read it. If it means that I should never eat meat again, I will never
00:37:11.160 do it, is what Paul says. That's the degree of sacrifice
00:37:15.300 that I will take. Now my assumption is that Paul probably
00:37:19.140 continued to eat meat.
00:37:22.780 But his heart was willing to do whatever it took to
00:37:27.160 keep peace among the church. And so what do we do?
00:37:32.220 Well, again, we don't go for the factory model.
00:37:34.880 we dive in to discussions with prayer and humility and charity with one another.
00:37:44.060 Now, in the last section here,
00:37:48.160 Paul reiterates his points with some additional clarity. He says,
00:37:53.120 Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean,
00:37:57.520 but it is wrong for anyone who makes another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat
00:38:03.580 meat, or drink wine, or do anything
00:38:06.500 that causes your brother to stumble. There it is. If you wanted the text
00:38:11.460 to support what I just said, it's right there.
00:38:16.940 We don't need to go flaunt our liberties.
00:38:22.880 Again,
00:38:23.420 I think that Paul is addressing both parties. To the sensitive, he says,
00:38:27.080 if you look at verse 20, everything is clean
00:38:30.360 to the sensitive.
00:38:33.580 imagine reading that from the apostle you just came out of judaism and you're really struggling
00:38:41.420 with eating shrimp and paul says everything is clean that's a pretty bold statement to you okay
00:38:51.360 to the strong he says it is wrong for you to make another stumble by what you eat
00:38:58.800 that's another big push he's pushing on both sides and you know what he didn't do
00:39:07.140 he didn't necessarily make a policy he gave a principle he gave truth and speaking the truth
00:39:13.900 in love and he lets those principles unfold how they may in the grace of the holy spirit
00:39:20.700 in a local context. Now I know two Christian families, two Christian families who do not eat 0.73
00:39:29.580 pork specifically because they do not believe it is a righteous decision. I've known them,
00:39:38.800 I've known one of them for a long time, over 10 years. They don't believe a person is condemned
00:39:43.980 if they do eat pork, but they do believe without a doubt that God is pleased with those who refrain
00:39:50.420 from eating pork.
00:39:54.520 Now, I believe
00:39:55.940 truly, systematically,
00:39:58.360 theologically, exegetically,
00:40:00.360 absolutely
00:40:01.840 that God in the scriptures
00:40:04.000 rejects that idea.
00:40:06.540 I believe that everything
00:40:08.140 is clean.
00:40:12.980 That should settle it, right?
00:40:14.680 That should settle it.
00:40:16.500 But unfortunately,
00:40:17.760 it doesn't.
00:40:20.000 It doesn't settle it.
00:40:21.060 Do you think that I have not had this conversation with my friends about this particular scripture?
00:40:25.160 Yes, I have.
00:40:29.320 Their bondage to that particular position.
00:40:32.720 Paul says, hey, I get it.
00:40:34.740 You are right.
00:40:36.380 This isn't sinful.
00:40:37.920 But it's sinful for them.
00:40:42.000 Man, that's hard.
00:40:43.640 That is a hard position to take.
00:40:49.240 Their bondage to legalism has prevented them from seeing the lawful nature of pork.
00:40:55.840 And you know, it's really easy for someone to go, they don't get the gospel.
00:40:59.700 They're not saved.
00:41:01.860 No.
00:41:02.900 These people love the Lord.
00:41:05.320 They can recite back to me some of the greatest doctrines of the scriptures.
00:41:08.660 Why they don't get this position is a thing that we get to work through via prayer and humble discussion over long periods of time.
00:41:21.260 It's not me bringing bacon over on a Saturday to their house for barbecue.
00:41:27.880 That's not how you do it.
00:41:30.440 That's not how you do it.
00:41:32.280 I'm not going to let my liberty try to persuade.
00:41:34.200 Just try a bite, man.
00:41:35.540 Come on.
00:41:38.660 That's not the way to do it.
00:41:45.940 It's actually better for me to sacrifice my liberty for the sake of their conscience.
00:41:54.140 In 1 Corinthians, I don't have the text up, but I was reading it this week.
00:41:58.660 There's a scenario where Paul speaks of, you're at a pagan's house.
00:42:06.400 and the pagan serves you up some meat that was sacrificed to idols. 0.70
00:42:15.140 That's what they used to do. 0.97
00:42:15.960 They would go to the temples and they would sacrifice meat
00:42:19.340 and they would take a portion of it.
00:42:21.320 The rest of that meat they would sell in the meat market
00:42:23.780 and the meat market would be cheaper.
00:42:24.880 So the host that you're trying to evangelize,
00:42:27.820 you're over at their house hoping to give them the gospel.
00:42:30.300 And this individual brings out this meat and says out loud, this was meat that was sacrificed to Diana.
00:42:46.080 Well, you're there with a brother who just came out and you were hoping that that guy was going to help evangelize this guy.
00:42:55.520 But what happens is your brother now goes, I can't eat that.
00:43:00.300 I can't eat that because I just came out of that.
00:43:04.620 I don't want to eat that.
00:43:06.820 And the question Paul brings up is, what do you do?
00:43:10.800 Do you offend the pagan that you're trying to evangelize, or do you offend the brother?
00:43:15.620 Now, the reality is, unfortunately, many Christians would rather offend their brother than offend the pagan.
00:43:25.420 But Paul does not instruct that.
00:43:28.440 Paul says, offend the pagan.
00:43:30.300 offend the pagan 0.91
00:43:32.940 don't eat 1.00
00:43:34.220 if you know and it will offend your brother
00:43:36.980 well then what you do is you go
00:43:38.920 to the guy and you go hey
00:43:40.060 I can't this brother just came out of it
00:43:42.820 let me tell you why you turn that into
00:43:45.100 an evangelistic opportunity
00:43:46.880 and you let the Lord do the heavy lifting
00:43:50.560 you let the Lord do the work
00:43:53.160 that's the degree of
00:43:54.980 unity that we are to be committed to
00:43:56.760 with each other
00:43:58.400 brothers first
00:44:01.660 I'm not going to go inside 1.00
00:44:03.980 and make the pagan comfortable 1.00
00:44:05.160 while making my brother or sister uncomfortable
00:44:07.740 you could change that out
00:44:10.360 with alcohol all day long
00:44:12.460 for examples by the way
00:44:13.700 or cigarettes
00:44:15.620 or smoking cigars
00:44:16.860 or gambling and playing poker
00:44:19.320 whatever it may be
00:44:28.400 What I want you to understand is that you're refraining, you're refraining from if you're strong and you just limit your liberty.
00:44:37.720 It's not saying and I'm not saying and the scripture is not saying that what you're doing is actually sinful and that's why you're stopping.
00:44:44.420 No, no, it's it's it's an act of love, not an act of I was sitting in my freedom.
00:44:50.100 No. It's acknowledging that your actions might be the cause to offend somebody that you are covenantally committed to not offending.
00:45:03.360 So Paul gives you exactly what to do in verse 22.
00:45:09.400 He says, and this is very important, this speaks to the privacy.
00:45:16.040 He says, the faith that you have, and what he means by that is the strong liberty you have.
00:45:23.160 The faith that you have, keep it between yourself and God.
00:45:28.580 He goes on, he says, blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.
00:45:35.980 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith.
00:45:42.880 For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
00:45:46.840 Alright.
00:45:47.880 So again, look at verse 22.
00:45:50.620 Paul is using the term faith as like a synonym for your strong spiritual freedoms.
00:45:57.940 The strong spiritual freedoms and liberties that you have, keep them between yourself and God.
00:46:05.260 Keep them there.
00:46:06.160 and yes i would argue that you can keep them between those brothers and sisters that you know
00:46:12.060 also have that strong liberty because you'll find those men and women
00:46:17.820 you might have watched a particular show and you go hey yeah did you see that episode yeah it was
00:46:25.540 great you might be careful about mentioning that you're watching that show in front of somebody
00:46:33.060 else that might not be as strong in that particular liberty. The idea of reserving our convictions
00:46:42.820 is quite difficult for some. And I'll even say for me, I like to share my convictions.
00:46:50.820 I'm a pastor. I'm a preacher. That's what I do as I share my convictions and my positions.
00:46:59.900 Now, our society has become more and more and more and more and more public.
00:47:04.580 Your life has great access to everybody through social media.
00:47:09.560 And self-expression is so saturated in our culture that you almost feel like it's your duty to let everybody know about your freedoms.
00:47:19.940 About who you are and your positions.
00:47:24.880 We become almost like recruiters.
00:47:26.860 you know evangelizing our own positions all the time
00:47:31.140 and we are to do that certainly with the gospel
00:47:34.220 and certainly with other doctrines
00:47:36.600 but it's not equally beneficial to publicly advocate
00:47:43.400 for certain liberties and certain convictions
00:47:47.780 that are not so widely shared
00:47:49.700 and I think that this has become a very popular thing
00:47:54.460 You'll take something that is like no one ever thought was a vital thing and you make the main thing, or this minor thing, the main thing.
00:48:02.740 And all of a sudden, now the whole church is talking about this thing that was a minor thing for centuries.
00:48:09.520 Now it's a major thing.
00:48:11.020 It's very strange.
00:48:17.400 I have a friend who lives on the East Coast and he's got a neurological disorder.
00:48:22.840 He's been fighting it for a long time.
00:48:24.300 he reached out to me because he knew that I had struggled with chronic illness, and I had also
00:48:27.500 some neurological things, including seizures. And he's a strong brother in the Lord. He was
00:48:32.700 considering enrolling in seminary. He knows the doctrines in and out. He's a faithful man. He's
00:48:37.760 got a good family, healthy children, takes care of his finances. Good guy.
00:48:44.820 Some of his stuff, some of his symptoms actually get him to a place where he almost thought he
00:48:48.620 had Parkinson's. He was shaky on his hands, his feet. And I don't know about you, but if you look
00:48:54.260 at some of the drugs that they prescribe for neurological things they're they're really
00:48:57.900 poisonous they're almost in every way they're toxic and when you do the research on some of
00:49:05.100 these drugs because i've been prescribed some of these things in the past they're really bad for
00:49:09.160 you now they solve some of the symptoms some of the problems but they're really bad for you and
00:49:14.580 this brother came out and reached out to me and asked me a question about this because he was in
00:49:18.820 a private forum with other people that had some of the same debilitating symptoms and somebody had
00:49:24.820 recommended that he uses a thc mint okay you can see where i'm going right so it's legal in his
00:49:32.920 state for uh cannabis and he was came to me privately and he was asking about hey
00:49:40.220 what do you think about this and he had a conversation about his liberties
00:49:46.880 and a conversation about his convictions.
00:49:52.240 And he balanced out the differences between the toxicity of the prescriptions
00:49:57.400 and the toxicity of this alternative medicine.
00:50:03.220 Now, I don't know where he landed.
00:50:07.100 But I will tell you this.
00:50:09.160 Let's just say that he landed on taking those alternative medicines.
00:50:14.360 Do you think that would be a good thing to talk about with his entire church?
00:50:18.260 No.
00:50:20.220 No.
00:50:22.460 In fact, it would actually be really wise of him to follow verse 22 that says,
00:50:26.120 The faith that you have, keep it between yourself and God.
00:50:30.900 There are unique situations where you might have a particular freedom to do something.
00:50:36.660 What you don't need to do is cause a scenario where you have some sort of information bias,
00:50:41.440 where you're trying to figure out a way
00:50:43.720 to get everybody to affirm
00:50:45.380 that what you're doing is actually okay.
00:50:49.980 If you have a freedom before the Lord,
00:50:51.560 you don't have a conviction of conscience,
00:50:52.840 and it's something that's not as inherently sinful,
00:50:56.480 and this is gray area, guys,
00:50:58.580 that we're talking about here.
00:51:01.640 Keep it between yourself and the Lord. 0.91
00:51:04.140 Don't go and bring it in.
00:51:05.600 You know what that would do to that local church?
00:51:08.260 You know how many conversations that would start?
00:51:09.860 it might end up in church discipline
00:51:12.460 he might end up actually getting kicked out
00:51:14.260 I don't know I'm not him and I'm not in his church
00:51:16.900 but I do know
00:51:17.940 that it has potential to cause a lot
00:51:20.960 of division
00:51:22.120 and Paul says
00:51:24.860 your faith
00:51:27.080 that you have that strong
00:51:28.560 spiritual liberty that you might have on a particular
00:51:31.040 subject keep it between
00:51:33.040 yourself and the Lord
00:51:35.040 I'm almost done here
00:51:37.160 in the second part of verse 22
00:51:49.160 Paul affirms this blessing of understanding
00:51:51.020 the freedom of the gospel and what it offers
00:51:52.740 it's a great blessing to have freedom
00:51:54.780 it's a great blessing
00:51:56.380 I love
00:51:58.480 that in the gospel I have so much
00:52:01.360 freedom but not just because it's lawful
00:52:03.480 for me doesn't mean it's profitable
00:52:05.320 for me. Just because I can
00:52:07.300 doesn't mean I should.
00:52:09.900 Just because it's smart
00:52:11.160 doesn't mean it's right.
00:52:17.200 He then reminds those who have this freedom
00:52:19.480 that others don't share the same
00:52:21.580 degree of liberty. 0.98
00:52:23.360 And when those weaker believers partake in 0.80
00:52:25.480 whatever activity you're free to engage in, 1.00
00:52:28.060 they sin
00:52:29.000 because they do so from pressure
00:52:31.380 and against their conscience and rather
00:52:33.360 from faith. They're not doing it from faith.
00:52:35.320 They're doing it from pressure.
00:52:37.200 And to think that grown men don't have peer pressure is a lie.
00:52:40.260 No, it's very real.
00:52:42.520 The apostle closes with this vital statement in the very last verse of the chapter.
00:52:46.060 He says, for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
00:52:53.540 Sin is not just breaking the law of God.
00:52:59.000 It's breaking the law of conscience.
00:53:01.060 James 4 17 says so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him it is sin
00:53:12.680 have you ever done something that there's not a particular text of scripture that condemns what
00:53:17.780 you're doing but you just did something and you have a conviction that you need to go
00:53:22.600 say something to somebody or apologize to someone or to do something different than what you just
00:53:29.300 did. You're not going to find a verse that says you just sinned, but for
00:53:33.300 you, you had a conviction to do something that was right,
00:53:37.180 but you did not do it, and for you, because you're violating your own
00:53:41.280 conscience, it is sin.
00:53:45.480 That's happened to me all the time.
00:53:48.820 It's weird gray area things, and you're like, you just have a sensitive conscience. I don't know if
00:53:53.200 I offended that guy or not. I'm just going to go apologize to him. If I
00:53:57.300 didn't apologize to him, it would have been sin because I'm not obeying the sensitivities
00:54:01.620 of my own conscience. And man, there are so many passages
00:54:05.540 of scripture talking about obeying conscience. But we don't have time to do that.
00:54:09.360 J.I. Packer says, the conscience is God's appointed guide
00:54:13.020 for the believer's decisions.
00:54:17.880 And when we go against it, we are not merely rejecting a personal
00:54:21.460 preference, but defying God's will as he has revealed it to
00:54:25.340 us, end quote. You never want to aid someone in violating their own conscience. You don't want
00:54:35.000 to do that. Yes, you want to disciple them towards truth. If I get a brother who
00:54:42.480 believes that drinking wine is inherently sinful, objectively sinful, 0.96
00:54:51.000 and there's plenty of Baptists that hold this position in the South, okay? 1.00
00:54:55.340 I want to work with them to get there.
00:55:00.480 But the way to do that is not to switch out his grape juice for the wine and sneak it into his cup.
00:55:08.040 Okay?
00:55:08.960 That's not the way to do it.
00:55:14.340 You want to disciple them graciously, patiently, over long periods of time.
00:55:21.520 And you can do this also with your own children.
00:55:26.040 I'm going to close with 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
00:55:28.700 Why don't you turn there?
00:55:29.420 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
00:55:32.500 Paul, in this passage of Scripture, is actually speaking to the almost identical circumstances.
00:55:38.040 Certainly the same treatment of the same issues.
00:55:41.580 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
00:55:42.960 It's one book over.
00:55:44.740 It's verses 31 through 33.
00:55:49.260 And he says, as a conclusion.
00:55:53.500 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
00:56:02.880 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks, now pay attention here, or to the church of God.
00:56:15.580 Okay, it's not just talking about outsiders, it's talking about insiders as well.
00:56:19.940 So, just as I, the apostle, tried to please everything or everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but the advantage of many that they may be saved.
00:56:42.360 What an amazing passage of scripture.
00:56:44.820 just as I try to please everyone
00:56:51.960 and everything I do
00:56:53.260 now this is
00:56:54.740 you can totally run with this
00:56:55.880 and just become a man pleaser
00:56:57.060 where you're a social chameleon
00:56:59.520 and you're trying to turn into anything
00:57:00.820 for everybody
00:57:01.700 just to make your point
00:57:03.360 that's not what Paul's doing
00:57:04.700 he's speaking the truth of love
00:57:08.180 he's not compromising on convictions
00:57:09.560 on sound doctrine
00:57:10.320 but he's not intentionally
00:57:13.000 trying to offend people
00:57:14.300 Timothy
00:57:17.000 I don't know if you know Timothy's story
00:57:19.580 as a grown man
00:57:21.180 what does he do?
00:57:23.860 he goes and gets circumcised
00:57:25.820 why?
00:57:27.200 not because he needed to
00:57:28.380 but that some might be saved
00:57:31.980 that his lack of being circumcised
00:57:36.040 might inhibit his ability
00:57:38.060 to communicate
00:57:38.820 to those who would only listen 0.67
00:57:41.300 to someone who was circumcised
00:57:42.700 all right if timothy's willing to do that i think you should be willing to do almost anything all
00:57:47.900 right so to the strong your priority is not to advertise your freedoms to those who are weak
00:57:56.300 keep it between you and yourself and the lord and those who share those freedoms
00:58:01.820 clearly with you to the sensitive your priority is not to condemn those who are free
00:58:09.280 and operating in things that the Bible has said are clean.
00:58:14.380 We are called to hypervigilance.
00:58:17.720 Hypervigilance that's driven by charity and humility
00:58:20.880 for the sake of unity,
00:58:23.500 for the purpose of the testimony of the church to the world.
00:58:27.760 Amen?
00:58:28.820 Amen.
00:58:29.400 Let's get a better amen.
00:58:30.200 Amen?
00:58:31.060 Amen.
00:58:31.880 All right, let's pray.
00:58:34.160 Father, we thank you, Lord.
00:58:35.420 And we ask that you would work in this garden
00:58:38.640 Lord, that you would work in the greater garden
00:58:43.860 that you would bring unity in all the churches
00:58:48.200 of the saints
00:58:50.480 Lord, in all the churches that we love dearly
00:58:55.300 the churches in Moscow, the churches in Ogden, the churches in Georgetown
00:58:59.380 the churches in Tennessee
00:59:03.240 and Ohio and Texas, Lord, all of the people that are in the denomination
00:59:07.540 that we're trying to join, the CREC.
00:59:09.180 Lord, we pray that you would continue
00:59:11.420 to just bring about humility and charity
00:59:15.440 for the sake of unity,
00:59:17.220 for the purpose of a testimony
00:59:18.440 that the world might see
00:59:20.460 that we love one another
00:59:23.760 and believe that you sent your son Jesus.
00:59:28.560 We ask that you would do that work
00:59:29.980 not just afar,
00:59:32.820 but Lord, in here, in our own hearts,
00:59:34.760 in our own minds,
00:59:35.820 that we would be careful
00:59:36.760 not to offend anyone in the name of Christ.
00:59:40.780 In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.