Lesson 58d
Romans 14:14-23 · Courtney Hemenway · Sep 27, 2020
Romans (2018-21), No. 131
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192022466

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, we are still in Lesson 58. We will hopefully be done today. One thing I'm going to read, just because it'll prep for the last question, and if we get pressed for time, I didn't want to miss this. It was in The Hungry Heart. And the last verse we'll get into about faith. And I thought this was just a great, let me get this here. Just a great statement about faith. It was on the 924 Hungry Heart. And I think about this just as we've prayed. And I think about this a lot, about how, what we do in faith. And it was, I think, very pertinent.

Faith is not a power that one possesses by which he can move the arm of God and work miracles. I thought, how many times do I try and pray to change God's mind? And is my faith to try and change him? So I like that. Faith is not a power that one possesses by which he can move the arm of God and work miracles. Faith accepts quiet guidance. Only unbelief demands a miracle. There is nothing in true faith that the flesh can glory in. The power is God's.

It is the Father who works and does it according to His own wisdom and will. Faith is simply absolute confidence in the Father, which gives the certainty that He will fulfill His word. Faith must be based on certainty. There must be the definite knowledge of and confidence in the Father's purpose and will. Without that, there can be no true faith, for faith is not a force that we can exercise or a striving to believe that something shall be, thinking that if we believe hard enough, it will come to pass.

I thought, man, that was very convicting to me. How many times do I pray trying to convince God of my great thoughts and direction and all that? We prayed with Tom and all these. It's really in accordance with God's will. He wants us to come before us with prayer and to have the communication with Him. But ultimately, his will will be done. And our acceptance is that we truly believe that he is a sovereign God in control of all this. And again, I just find myself a lot of times trying to convince God. And if I pray hard enough, he'll listen and change his mind.

And I thought this was very convicting to me to read this. Well, according to your point, that's very much a charismatic perspective of faith. So it's quite popular, but not biblical. I know. But confessions, I mean, how many times do we think of that, that we're going to convince them? Honestly, with my own, that's why I said when I read it was very convicting, because how many times do I pray thinking that if I pray hard enough he'll change his mind or come in accordance with what I want.

And faith, when we get down to the bottom verse, 24, we'll talk about faith. And again, I think it's very interesting to see what faith is. And we went through a whole class on faith and what it means. And again, the essence verb is in Hebrews 11. We'll find out about that. But let's move on to the class here. We, I think, we were at the bottom of question seven.

How do we tear down the work of God? And that was in verses 19 and 20. So then when we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another, do not tear down the work of God. for the sake of food. So we talked about what the word of God is, and Newell put it this way. The work of God here refers to the operation of the spirit of God within the soul, the fabric with which the grace of God has begun, and which the edification of Christians by each other may help to raise. And then we looked at how do we tear it down, and how do we tear down the work of God? Hold on. What? We're all done. We're all done. Who's the all done? I don't know who that was but uh I know who it is. Oh, oh, that's David. Hi, David.

So we tear it down by not using our liberty in accordance with love, that we force things on. Even though we have the liberty to do numerous things, if we don't use that liberty in love, we tear down the work of God. So, and we looked through several verses, and I think we're just on the last couple ones. I think we read through 1 Corinthians 9, 19. These are others from Paul's epistles.

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. 1 Corinthians 10, 24. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. And first corinthians 10 33 just as I also please all men and all things not seeking my own profit But the profit of the many so that they may be saved So again, this is the thought that even though we have the liberty to do all things we in love back off of that liberty in order to bring a brother or sister up and strengthen them and to not tear them down by um our conscience having the freedom to do things, but their conscience is not. So again, as I said, the funnel of all these chapters comes down to love. And I think that's what Paul is speaking about here.

I had the question, I think, just before we stopped last week was, is this convicting to you? Do you do this? Do you think about this? Or do you bow your back and say, I have the freedom to do this? I think, again, the pertinent side of this is what we're going through, mask or no mask, or all these things we do.

I think most meetings we've been at, I think we have shown in love. If somebody feels about a mask very strongly, we help them out. I'm not a big mask fan, but if somebody is, I will defer. I think a lot of these principles are, again, what we've been through on government in 13 and now. All these things are very pertinent, the verses that we're going through. Again, I think everything's got to come down to being in love, love for the brother or sister. Even though you have the freedom, you have to exercise that freedom and love.

All right, so again, 1 Corinthians 11, 1, Paul speaking, be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. So again, we're being Christ-like when we do that. Christ didn't push himself, I mean, he had all power, he's full deity, but he, what do you say, he stepped back from his, deity and put on man. So again, it's being the imitator of Christ. And Paul saying, be an imitator of me. So I want to get to, we're gonna kind of skip over, let me, not skip over, but it's kind of a restatement. I'll get verses 20 and 21 here, let me pull those up. 20 and 21, do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food.

All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who cares and gives offense. who eats, excuse me, eats and gives offense. Sorry, my cursor was right over the word. So all things indeed are clean, but they're evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves."

So, getting back down to the questions now. So it's basically the same thing. It's tearing down somebody because you have the freedom to eat whatever you want, to drink You know, if you don't mind a glass of wine, but the brother or sister who has a conviction against that, you don't flaunt that or do something out of spite.

So again, it's the same principle that he's been talking about in all these verses. So I think question eight now. I guess the verses about 2021, these verses somewhat reiterate or emphasize what Paul has been teaching on, that all foods and meats that are from God are clean. However, do not let your freedom or liberty in the Lord be used in such a way that it obstructs a weaker believer's walk. That's, again, the same idea that he's been expressing all through this.

So, get to question eight. What is the faith spoken of in verse 22? The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. So who's he referring to? The stronger or the weaker brother or both? The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God.

Oh, go ahead. I would think it would be both. Both? Others? I would think it'd be the strong. Okay. Do we have anybody for the week here? We're taking a poll now. Well, I'm here for the week. Yeah, that's right. You are both. That's right. So you got a half vote in there. So that's right. Any other thoughts? I think I agree with Kathy. I think it could be both. You know, you need to keep your convictions to yourself I think it's mainly for the stronger brother because he doesn't want to offend the weaker brother, but also for the weaker brother, he just needs to keep it to himself and just wait and watch.

Is there a definite article in front of the word faith? I'm sure, I don't think it is. I think I looked that up and it wasn't the faith. When we did that class on faith that we talked about, the faith or the essence of it, which is just what it is in and of itself. If it has a definite article in front of it, it can refer to all of the doctrine of the church or some specific doctrine. Then it talked about faith as a principle and then my personal faith. So there are four different aspects. And I don't know, that's why I asked about the definite articles, because that would, may help us.

I don't think that is, let me see. So you think he's talking about personal faith? I think it's personal faith. My faith. Thou faith. Okay. It's thou faith. Yeah. So it's not the definite article. I was pretty sure you had looked that up. It's just about your conviction about non-essential and immoral practices in this context, isn't it? Right, but is this the stronger believer or the weaker, or both? You have to touch the button. I would say everybody thinks they're the stronger believer, so it would apply to both. Interesting. Everybody hear that? Everybody hear Donna? Yes. Yeah, she said, everybody believes that you're the stronger believer, so you fall in both categories, so it's both. Yeah. Another way to say it may be that there's always a weaker believer than the weaker believer. And so it might apply to both. Or there's always a guy higher up the ladder than you are. We're always looking ahead or behind and everything, yeah. The weaker brother is going to have a conviction about What you're doing is wrong. Yeah, that's right. I like what he says. He says that people willingly alter their pace of walking while leading a small child by the hand so he or she will not stumble. How much more should we be willing to alter our Christian walk for the benefit of a weaker brother or sister in Christ whom we are leading?

So that would argue for the stronger believer. And that's really why I came down on this, because Paul has been talking about this. Go to context, that basically he's talking about as a stronger believer, you have all this, the liberty and freedom we have in Christ. But what's he talking about? It's the stronger believer deferring that liberty and love. So I think this is really referring to the stronger believer.

It may be for both, but I think it's really focused, if you put it in context of what we've been talking about. I find it interesting that if you start with the principle that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that sets the tone for the love of God, which is part of When you ratchet it down to who we are resurrected in Christ, that's the life and the love that we have as believers because we have his very life. And the demonstration of it is, as Jim just read, it's really cool, that we take preference to the other believer over ourselves.

Now, that doesn't happen the day after you're saved. It takes a while to it takes a while to get to the point where you begin to see that but as you the closer we get to Christ, the more we and the more we behold his glory, the more we become like him and Paul is just laying out here. You know, look as a believer, a growing believer, here's what it looks like. This isn't a refrigerator list item that you have to imitate.

This is what the life of Christ You walk by the information given to you in God's word, and you rest in that, and you trust the Lord as personally as you can, and this is the way it looks. That's why, basically, I read 1 Corinthians 11. Be imitators of me, also that I'm of Christ. That's ultimately what we're doing. On this one, the faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. I really think this is talking to the stronger believer. Paul is saying to the strong believer who understands his freedom in Christ, who has that imitation of Christ who deferred all of his glory and all those things. To what? Save us? To come here?

Well, actually he did it to do the Father's will. And I think that's kind of where we go. We're interested in doing the Lord Jesus and the Father's will and so we'll sacrifice anything personally for that one purpose. But ultimately, it's ours conforming to the image. That's right. I mean, that's ultimately what's here. And if we're conformed to his image, we're not selfish. That's exactly right. We are doing the Father's will. So the focus is the Father's will as Christ was following the Father's will also. Right.

So, Courtney, could we say this verse is for all believers and practiced out with our relationship with weaker believers, because there's every spectrum of stronger believers. So to me, it seems like it's meant for all believers, but in our relationship with weaker believers, we don't offend those. Right. Yeah, this is for all believers. And again, where are you in the pecking order? Nobody knows, you know, really. So this is for any believer to defer to a believer who you think is weaker or doesn't have the same conviction as you. You don't ram it down their throat. You use your liberty in love, which means, I'm not going to ram this down your throat. I'm not going to make you do this.

I may lovingly come beside you and explain why. It's kind of like my shorts and long pants story last week. And all of you who came to church and were giving me comments about my legs last week, I shouldn't have said anything about it, but that's the same sort of thing. It's coming beside, talking, bringing them along.

But Jim, I agree with what you're saying is that it applies to all because we don't know where, I mean, I may be a strong, somebody who has a conviction and works with somebody and they have somebody who has another one that kind of trickles down and you're right, it applies to all. The principle is the same for all, wherever you are on the spectrum, as far as stronger or weaker goes. Yeah.

I was thinking in the sense that if we're thinking in terms of our faith and our own convictions, if I'm a person who actually thinks that if I was to drink, it would be sinful to do it. My conviction right this moment is I shouldn't do that. I'm gonna follow my convictions as I feel, and maybe someday a stronger brother will teach me it's okay to do whatever.

That's what the verse says. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. If you're not comfortable with drinking, That's your conviction. That's what you have before God, and there's nothing wrong with that. If I believe I can have a beer or a glass of wine or something like that, that's my conviction. Again, coming before, if that stumbles you or whatever, we come beside you. If I know that irritates you, I'm not going to come before you and say, let's go get a beer. You know, let's have a glass of wine at dinner or something like that. I'm not going to do that because I know your conviction. I may walk you through and say, hey, this is why I have my conviction, but I'm not going to run it down your throat.

And that's really what all of these verses are talking about. Let me give you an example that happened to me this week. There was a guy who was Zooming in on our Tuesday men's Bible study. and we're in Philippians, and Philippians is really a spiritual book. It's really interesting.

Well, after the meeting, I got a text from this guy saying, I didn't understand very much of what you said. So I thought, immediately I thought, well, I probably ought to try to bring this guy up to speed, but I thought, no, that's not my job. So I said to him, you know, You know, everyone, every guy in that meeting is somewhere on the spiritual growth road and walking and you can't feel despondent because you didn't understand. Then he texted back to me, he said, you guys are all eating T-bones and I'm eating pablum.

Well, when he said that, I thought, you know what? My job with this guy just changed. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you've got to go to him. This is exactly what these verses are. You come beside him and walk him through. And slowly. And tell him, hey, you're blessed beyond belief just to actually have those questions. Yes.

And sometimes when we get to Holly Hills, it's like drinking from a fire hose. We have so much information, so much stuff, we have to step back and help those who, it's like the identification truce. If you walk into Holly Hills, and as we've said several times from the main service, it's crowded on the cross. People go, what, what does that mean, huh? We have to walk them through that and bring them along. And what identification means and all these things.

So that's, yeah, I mean, you as a believer, wherever on the spectrum, you always come to walk the believer, whoever doesn't understand why. And they may convince you. It really is dependent, but it's all done, the whole thing, like I said, every time I look at it, it just comes down this funnel to love. You do it in love. There's always somebody out in front of you. Yeah. And there's always somebody behind you, right? There always is.

And so that that metaphor in Hebrews about the race of Bibles, the race, the race, the glory, which is right. Come beside a believer who's slowing or or needs a little bit more One even says too, the other is, there's some that need milk and some that are meat. There's a spectrum. And if somebody's in the milk phase, you help them along. Basically, I said for this one, it's the stronger.

Paul is saying to the strong believer who understands his freedom in Christ and is walking in the Holy Spirit, have as your own conviction before God. You have faith or believe in what the Holy Spirit has directed you concerning the freedom you have in Christ. Again, you have a conviction. You're convicted about that. But again, it comes down to the love.

I also said the word for faith here is pistis, which means to win over, persuade. Faith, subjectively meaning firm persuasion, conviction, belief in the truth, veracity, reality, or faithfulness, though rare. Objectively meaning that which is believed, doctrine, the received articles of faith. So again, this is more on the personal faith side. If you go back to our faith class and the difference, this is really personal faith, your personal faith, what you've been convicted by the Holy Spirit. So specifically in Romans 14, 22, hast thou faith means persuasion about what God wants you to do.

And then concerning this, Newell has a good summary. It is much more blessed to have a liberty before God, which we do not use on account of our brother's weakness, than to insist on our liberty, though it be distinctly given. I think that summarized it pretty well. This is also reinforced in the end of verse 22. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God.

Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. So there's joy in the fact that you are deferring your liberty and you're using love as the principle. The strong believer is happy because he who can eat what he pleases and drinks what he pleases without any qualm of conscience to condemn while he does. So he is happy because he can do all this, but he's not condemning his brother. He's not doing it out of spite.

So Newell ends the discussion with this. It is yet more blessed to have that faith before God when using freedom it gives might perplex another. So using if it perplexes somebody or confuses somebody, it's more blessed to have faith before God in that, that you have that liberty and not use it than to perplex a brother or sister.

So, we'll move on to question nine. I think I might be able to get through this, but the last verse is my killer one. That's the one I've been wanting to get to for weeks. So, what is meant by condemnation and to whom does it apply in verse 22 and 23? This is also going back to the question two that Mike had put together and I skipped.

What is Paul's attitude regarding one who has a conscience that may not be free from doubts? So verse 22, the faith which you have have is your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself and what he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats. Because he is eating not from faith and whatever is from faith, whether it is not from faith is sin.

So I said, first let's look the word, the use of condemn. So what do you think that means to condemn? Few doubts is condemned. Because of Romans 8, 1, we know it has nothing to do with our salvation. Good. So it's not salvation-based. We're not being condemned pertaining to salvation. So what does it mean? Isn't it talking more about your conscience? Yes.

So in the New Testament, it means to judge, the word is krino in the Greek. In the New Testament, it means to judge, to form or give an opinion after separating and considering the particulars of a case. So, whoever doubts is condemned. So, if you're doubting, you don't know, you're judging, I don't know, it's complex, you know, it's that form of thing.

So, he who does not condemn, happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. So, what he approves i'm convicted i'm convinced so i'm not condemned there's no judging in my mind there's no doubt there's no concern about what my conviction is. But then he goes, whoever doubts is condemned. So if I'm not real sure about this thing, I'm already condemned not being in the condemnation side, but judge, judging myself.

Do I know what's going on? What's going on? And so if you have a doubt about it, there's an internal judging of yourself. So happy is the one who's convicted of it, the flip side is unhappy of the one who is not convicted or not convinced of whatever his conscience is telling. So again, it's kind of, it's not condemnation is what Russ said. It's the judging part. So the word is a little bit different than what we typically use in condemnation.

And Romans 8.1 tells us that we're not condemned. So this is someone who, after judging the facts, is convinced that it is of the Lord. So that's the happy person.

What is the context of this judging? Is the person judging all aspects of the Christian life and the Lord's directions for a believer? Is that what he's judging in this? Is that what he's talking about? Judging everything? No, it's just a specific sin that he's talking about. Context, what have we been talking about here? It's not about Christian life. What Gary? Food, things, non-relevant stuff. So this isn't a condemnation or anything about the whole Christian life. This is about the non-essential things. Food, drink, festivals, days, all the things that are in I think one of my kids was giving me grief.

I used Jermaine many, too many times last week. So pertinent, I figured out another one, pertinent than Jermaine. I'm trying to expand my vocabulary. So that it's not pertinent to our Christian life or the life of Christ in us. So, yeah, again, it's related to those things. The second word to condemn is on the personal side, the one who doubts. It's a different word. It's catachry.

And this means by implication to contend by contrast, i.e. to show by one's good conduct that others are guilty of misconduct and deserve condemnation. So the one who doubts that condemnation, you're trying to judge somebody on something that you're not even convinced about. And so you are judging something on something that you're not yourself convinced about. So happy is the one who is convicted, convinced.

The flip side, unhappy, is the one who doubts or is not real sure about this, but I'm gonna tell you that, yeah, you should be doing this. So again, that's the flip side of this. Again, it's kind of two different sides of the coin. Happy is the one who knows and is convicted of these truths. The one who doubt, you're not happy and you shouldn't be doing it. So, good on that one? We have 10 minutes to get to my final one here.

And explain verse 23, which I think can be used and abused. So, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith. This is the one. Whatever is not from faith is sin. Pretty powerful. So does that mean I can't go to the Bronco game? It's not a faith. What about watching TV? Well, yes it is. Yeah, this year and every year. What about going to work? What about watching TV?

Are they all sinful because they are not of faith? So if you answer, you have to give me a reason why. That's why nobody's answering. Whatever is not of faith is sin. So go ahead, Jim. That's why nobody's answering, because they don't want to. I will not snap at you.

I want this. Because I must say, and I have to confess, I think Mike used this in the wrong way on me years ago. And this has been a burr under my saddle for a long time. So that's my firm confession. So I say that is why this has been. Is this when I came alongside of you? Yeah. And you put the wrong burr under the saddle here. So, what does it mean? I had a couple of thoughts. One, you know, an Old Testament verse is that the just shall live by faith. And when you talk about sin, You know, I think most believers think, oh, sin is some bad thing that I've done, and it's not what it means at all. It means to miss the mark. So what's the mark? Well, the mark, obviously, is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's him himself.

And with that in mind, then I was thinking, did the Lord Jesus live by faith when he was here? Totally. Yeah, I mean, he totally did. Yeah, but he was yeah, and only doing the will of the Father. His faith has to do with every every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, maybe. The Word of God is part of this.

We would not know anything about the resurrected life of Christ if we didn't have the word to tell us about it. It doesn't, you know, it seems like, well I have to be pumping up my belief system every minute of every day. No, that's not what it means, I don't think. I have a life to live in Christ, dependent on the Spirit, and to whatever degree I don't live that life, I've missed the mark, maybe is the way to say it.

So, if I go to work, and I'm doing it according to whatever. Is that sinful? Well, it depends. Based on the previous verses, it depends. I may have a job that at some point or something about the job I have that I ran into that in my business. There were certain transactions I found myself in that at least a couple times I had to back out of them because I was convicted about them.

It didn't mean I didn't go to work the next day. Other thoughts? Anybody else on this? Yeah, I've got a thought on this. Yep. I believe he's referring to how we either walk in the spirit or walk after the flesh. Walking by faith is walking after the spirit. So if we're not doing that, we're doing something that's in the flesh and that's sinful. Okay. Other thoughts? I like what Constable has to say.

He says, if a person does what he believes to be wrong, eats with doubts, even though it is not wrong in itself, it becomes sin for him. He has violated what he believes to be God's will. His action has become an act of rebellion against God for him. Perhaps he who creates divisions would be a better translation of the Greek word than he who doubts. Jay? I'm Jay Vernon McGee.

Opinion is just like that. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah as many opinions I can before I Give my thoughts I'll pipe in when I go to a Bronco game, which is which is pretty rare. I I go and I'm there with God. I'm you know, I may be appalled by certain things I see I may really lose my love for going to those games as I've gotten to be along the path, but I'm there and trying, you know, living by faith is moment by moment. Sometimes I fall even during that game. But so everything I try to do, whether it's work or playing a game of golf, I don't restrict myself. I just may lose the desire to do it as I go along. I try to do it by faith.

You know, Jimmy, I think that's a good point because I remember years and years ago when I had good wheels, I did a lot of jogging and the jogging started to get in the way, it became more important to me than most anything else I was doing. I got obsessed with it.

And because of that, you know, one day I'm out running and it's like the Lord said to me, how's it going with you there in that running thing, you know? Is that the first thing in your life? Yeah, I think it's the, if it owns you, then it controls you, and that's a sin. Where you're putting something before God. And we touch on that in our faith classes and all that.

So I don't have much time. So I basically said, it's not talking about all those things. Think of the context. This is in context of, this is getting down to a point, and actually we're talking about how 14 and 15 will come together. But this is coming down to what we've been talking about. Paul's been addressing things that are not pertinent to our life in Christ, food and festivals, days.

So it might also help to define the term. So Mike hit on it, which I think is when I finally, Aaron and I had a discussion because I was struggling with this. And we kind of sat around on the back patio and we're talking about this. And we walked around and came to where I think it ends up.

Sin is not all the bad things. It's missing the mark, and the word is harmatia, and sin, missing the true end and scope of our lives, which is God. An offense in relation to God with emphasis on guilt, but it's the missing the mark. So that's really, so sin means missing the mark with respect to your life in Christ. So what is the definition of faith? If you look at that in Hebrews 11, now faith is, The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

So again, this was, the is is the essence verb. So this is what it is, unlike Bill Clinton. Is means is, I'm sorry, politics. And so whatever is not from faith is sin. So, but we have to put it in context. So, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. So going back to the verse, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats because. He is eating, his eating is not from faith. And whatever is not from faith is sin.

So we would read it as, whatever is not from the assurance of things hoped for, the certainty of God and his promises, the conviction of things not seen, it misses the mark. So it's basically those things, and in other words, I said, and all the things that are not relevant to our life in Christ misses the mark of God conforming us to his image of his son. In the context of what Paul has been teaching in chapter 14, all that is not focused on the Lord, meets, days, festivals, et cetera, misses the mark of our being conformed to the image of Christ or Lord Jesus. So again, it's all those things, the superfluous stuff. That is not sin like the sin.

This is, you're missing the mark. If you're focusing on running, you're focusing on, I think you have a friend who's a golf guy, I said that was his thing. And all those things that are distracting you, pulling you away, that's what he's talking about here. All those things, specifically in this context, it's days, festivals, meets, and all those things. That misses the mark if you're focused on that.

So Newell explains it this way. But what is, and I kind of got, when I looked at Newell, I'm all excited about this, and he has the shortest commentary on this whole section, is on this portion of the chapter, and I thought, man, I'm like, this is my main verse that I've been thinking about, and he's got just a little bit on it. But what he says, what is meant is the state of conscious condemnation into which one falls who goes beyond his faith in the exercise of his liberty. For he who acts thus enters the realm of self-will, the lawlessness which God declares as sin.

So again, it's kind of going back to the fact that if we're exercising our freedom in Christ in an inappropriate way, we miss the mark. that if we're if we're telling somebody, you know, it has to be this way and we're not in doing it in love. We missed the mark. We're not we're selfish. Yeah, I knew the last paragraph says, I love this. He says, the definition of sin here is quote, what is not a faith is most searching. Yeah, it will drive us to our knees. It reaches everything in our lives in which we do not have faith to proceed, in which we cannot walk with God. So that's really good. Right.

You know, again, the whole thing is this is put in context. And this is where I think years ago somebody used it inappropriately on me. wasn't in context of the verses. That person remained nameless. Oh, wait, I already did name him. Anyway, so it's the context of this. We have to pull it down into what Paul's talking about here. And I think that last paragraph and what Newell says does summarize it. But I think people can use this in an inappropriate way.

So you're watching the Bronco game. That's not of faith. It's sin. it then falls into those same verses that we have in. You're using your liberty that says, you know, Broncos are bad or whatever. And so, you're not exercising it in love. So, it still fits with, you know, all that we're talking about. But again, it's the thought that these verses are talking about things that are not relevant to our life in Christ. It just misses the mark.

So, everybody good with that? JD, you will be up next week. Yes, sir. I'm ready. And I think Mike sent out the questions to everybody this morning, so we should have it. All right. Any other final thoughts before we close? I just had one real quick one. Yep.

You know the concept of, you know, pick up your cross daily and follow me and all that? Some people can take that to the point where They could never go to a football game because, you know, I don't think I'm really carrying my cross at the football game. I mean, it's kind of confusing, you know? Well, and again, I think this really is, those who try to convict because you went to the Bronco game are wrong.

There's nothing, you know, and this whole thing says we have so much freedom, the Galatians 5.1, stand fast in your liberty, but exercise it in love, which is this part of the scripture. You have all this freedom, so if it really irritates somebody, just explain to them, how does this, you know, and you walk beside them as the brother or sister who's telling you that. Why is that? I have liberty to do that, but why is it?

Let's talk about it. That's it. Well, I think and just to quote first JD, God loves football. I'm glad you didn't have A on that, that it's the Pittsburgh Steelers or something like that. Then that is of sin. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this time.

We thank you for this portion of scripture, which gives us guidance on our life in Christ and just our relationship between believers. And we first understand that we have so much freedom in Christ, but that freedom has to be exercised in love when we have the relationship between believers. So we just thank you for that, the scripture that points it out, that we don't exercise our liberty in a way that is offensive or is applied not in love. So we thank you for that, we thank you again just for your scripture and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that convinces us and convicts us of these truths. And we just thank you that we couldn't accomplish any of this without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So we thank you for that. We just thank you now for this time we've had, and we look forward to the next meeting, just to bring forth your words. We thank you for all these things, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.