Which Side of the Cross - Lesson 16

Alright, we are on lesson 16, and if you did not get a lesson 16, there are printed copies in the back. I think we now have that, so if you need one, they're in the back. I think we're just starting question 2. We just began to address that one. We really love, and again this is lesson 16 of which side of the cross you live on, for those who are on the tape. We really love other believers. We want God's best for them. We want them to grow.

So what is the third principle? So if we go back to the verses, we just went back to 1 Corinthians 8, 9 through 13, and we're talking about stumbling. I'll read through the whole thing, and then the principle is toward the last verse, 13. So I'll begin in verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 8.

But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you who have knowledge dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

So it's really in verse 13. What is the principle that is exhibited in 13? We've been talking about the liberty that we have in Christ through grace. And we went about what that means. And we have vast liberty under grace. We don't have the rule book. We don't have each day on our refrigerator a new list that the Lord puts on that these are the things do's and don'ts. We have great liberty and grace. We have principles to live by under grace, or principles that grace operates.

And we're looking, this is the third principle. And so what is exhibited in that last statement where he can eat meat, but he's stumbling a brother. So he says in the end, therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. What is the principle there?

Let me add to this, look at Colossians 3.12-14. I'll read them. So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, and bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Does that help you more on this principle? What is the principle? Love.

We talked about it last time, and I was actually cracking up, Mike, from your response about your brother who is a Catholic, and the things about offending somebody versus stumbling. We went into great detail about that, the differences between stumbling and offending. And where stumbling is created, doing something in your liberty that causes a brother to go back to a sinful behavior.

We talked about alcoholism, more current day than what the scripture is pointing out about eating meat from an idle temple. But that brought a brother back to the temple, eating meat, and back to the actual prostitution that was occurring in the idle temples. Today is more contemporary would be you know somebody's an alcoholic and would you ask him to go have a beer with you? No. If they have another addiction or something like that, you know it's a problem, it's a weakness, it'll bring them back to a sinful behavior.

You don't draw them into that. Even though you have the liberty to go have a beer at a bar, if you have no brother who's an alcoholic, you're stumbling him by bringing that. So that was the stumbling part. But offending was just, I don't like what you're doing. Not a scripture that backs it up. Just, I don't like what you're doing. And that offends me.

And I talked about this too, which I've said a hundred times, but you choose to be offended. And if you really take hold of that, that will free you immensely. If you realize that you being offended is your own choice, your choice, no matter what anybody does to you, it's your choice to be offended. Now, again, there are things that offend, and what we talked about was if something I know offends Your brother, and he's Catholic, and you know certain things just irritate his socks, and you go and you repeatedly do it just because you know you're irritating him.

Does that evoke this principle? No. So even though we have the liberty to do things, it's also the principle of love behind it. We could do lots of things. We have great freedom, but if you know it irritates somebody and you just keep going back and just...

That's not done in principle of love. So even though you have the freedom to do it, the liberty to do it, you're not doing it out of the principle of love. And that violates how grace should operate. So the principle of love, we want others to grow, and if my liberty hinders their growth, then I put it aside.

And that's what Paul says in the Corinthians verse. He says, even though I can eat meat, I will never eat meat again if it causes my brother to stumble. That's out of love. He could eat that steak every time, but out of love for his brother, he's not going to do it. So, again, the principle, the third principle of what we're looking under grace of how it operates is love.

So, you good with that? Also, who determines that they will give something up? The person. What? The person. The person. You don't decide for me what I'm giving up. You decide what you give up. You really should just give up going to the movies. That offends Russ. That really offends him. You should stop that.

So again, the individual decides what to give up, not somebody else or put a rule on them. Because as soon as you do that, you're sinning by putting a rule on somebody else. So again, this comes back to that, at least for me, kind of that hard concept of individuality under grace. That these are determined a lot by the individual.

Because what offends you or creates havoc in your life may not be in yours. So there's not a global offending list because everybody is offended differently by different things or something bothers you that you don't want to do. It maybe irritates you or causes anger or whatever. That's different for every different person.

So that's why under grace and how this operates, it's still under individual judgment. where Paul could eat meat, or remember the other verses we were doing, that I did not want to bring out the fact that people who eat vegetables are weak. In the verses, I think, yeah, it was on Romans 14, 1 through 4. We looked at that under question one, about he who has faith may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Not that he was condemning vegetarians, but it was the one who is weak is the one who puts restrictions on. The one who is weak is the one who has all these boundaries and boxes and things, because that's the one who's going to be offended and want to change you.

That's the one who says, boy, I only eat vegetables, and that's the healthy thing to do. You eat steak? You heathen! You are so unhealthy, you're defiling the temple, the body, and they come all on you about that, because their box is tight. So those are called out in scripture being the weaker one, not that eating vegetables that you're weak. I don't think that's the principle here, what's in the Romans 14 verse. But again, the ones who have restrictions and a lot more boxes, are the weaker ones because they tend to inflict that on other people, which is incorrect. It's individuals. Okay? We good with that? Okay.

Well, also who determines who will give something? The person who is offended or who is weak? Is that the one who is offended usually is the one who has the boxes, the restrictions. They're the ones who get offended first. The one who has liberty is not as offended. It's okay if you eat vegetables. It's okay. I eat meat, I eat vegetables, I eat everything.

So the principle out of Romans 14 was, you know, the person who has the boxes is the one who's going to be offended and is going to be the weaker one. So, again, just kind of under the principle of love, again, it's individual. You have your areas, you have yours. If I know that irritates you, you don't go after them. So the principle of getting back to what the question is about love. So, question three. What if a believer comes up to you and says that your exercise of your liberty offends me?

Are you obligated to give it up? You should know this by now. So are you obligated to give it up? No. Why? Well, you've got to teach them, though. Lovingly. So you're going to teach them to do what you do? No. What's acceptable to me is not acceptable to them. That's still okay. Yes. Yeah, you're not going to teach them that you really shouldn't go to the movies. That's not what you mean by the teaching. The teaching is about being offended or stumbling and I can't put those restrictions on you. Yes.

The minute they open their mouth, they sin by imposing a law or rule on you outside of their authority. And remember we talked about authorities? The elders have an authority. Who do they have an authority over? This body. A husband and a wife. Who do they have authority over? Children. So there are these cut-out authorities in grace that give us abilities to say something, do something, tell somebody something.

So if I'm outside of my authority, you know, you shouldn't be, and you shouldn't be, and you shouldn't be, I have no authority. I'm not an elder, I'm not part of your family, I have nothing. So once I've done that, I've invoked a rule or a law on that person. What have I done? I've sinned. Because I'm trying to put a rule on you and I'm misleading you by putting a rule on you.

It just goes back to the time of Paul and there is a weak believer who sees another believer eating meat and he's thinking, oh my goodness, that's horrible. It seems like the strong believer would be willing to say, I'll never eat meat again. So it's sort of like I'm not obligated to not do it, but I would be willing to not stumble. And of course, he's using the word offense, not stumble. But it's just kind of a fine line between someone who says that something that I'm doing is offending them, It seems like I should feel, and might need to consider not doing it, might help the penis.

You know, I guess it's out of the principle of love. One, should they be coming to you and telling you, just because you wore that shirt today, you know, I really don't like that color. You know, it really should be a long sleeve shirt. You're showing a lot of your arm today, you know. I mean, where's the line?

And that's the problem, and we'll get into a little bit more of that in that where is the line where you're evoking a rule or a law on somebody else. Now, you can be sensitive to somebody and use this principle of love like Paul did. Paul says, I know this is leading to stumbling, so I'm going to pull back on my liberty because I love my brother. I think that can still be used in an offense, but the tendency is for the weaker one to keep on going.

You know, and I blow it every time. Give a moose a cookie? No, what is it? Give a mouse a cookie and a moose a something or other. Anyway, what is that? You know, you give them one and they want more? Come on, all of you. What is it? A moose a muffin, that's what it is. And a mouse a cookie, right? Thank you. The principle is you give them a little bit and what do they do? If I give them a cookie, what do they want? They want a little milk with it. And I want more. I want another cookie. You know what?

So I think the principle of love can be used in an offense. But the danger I think in that is to keep emboldening that person who is trying to evoke their principles on you, or their boxes, their restrictions on you. I think you can be sensitive, but again, once that goes, well, you know, it's not only your shirt.

Those pants are a little ragged today. What about those shoes? We only have black patent leather shoes here. So, you see what I mean? There's a danger, and I still think there's a principle of love that has to be evoked in this, but it's more dangerous under just an offense.

Under a stumbling, absolutely. That's what Paul says. It's definite there. If you're stumbling, you give up to liberty that's stumbling a brother or a sister. So I went back to the Romans 14. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats. So this goes back to this condition of individuality first, but it's a liberty within your own area of authority. your individuality or within the church, the family, husband and wife, all those different authorities. But again, the principle underneath that is love.

And that's where I think a lot of people don't. When I'm offended, am I loving by saying, you should change? Depends on the context, but probably not. Any other thoughts? You know, it comes to my mind, one of the things that we face when we're working with people of a different culture is that we're face to face with what they believe to be right and wrong. Could be a real detriment, a real stumbling block, such as the beat in music and stuff in the Saskatchewan area. We can't even carry Walkmans and things because of that. But see, you know what stumbles them. That brings them to a point where...

This really extends the principle of love to being sensitive to what people are not just offended by, but led into sin by. Right, well that's the whole principle of what Paul says in Corinthians about the stumbling part, and that's absolutely. If that's bringing them to a point where they're committing suicide and all those different things, if that's a tangible result of the music, then that's directly what Paul is talking about.

But that's today. I was just giving that as an example. No, I think that's a great example of you know that stumbles and that, so you're not going to go around with your walkman blaring this kind of music. Because you're sensitive to what their weakness is that stumbles them, that creates, that stumbles them. Not only it may offend them, but also it's a stumbling. And that's very clear in what Paul says.

I think one of the issues here we might be missing, and that is, if we love our brothers, we have certain desires for them, which is to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. So that is the focus that we have, rather than avoiding what not to do. What I really care about is their spiritual growth. pray for them in a certain way or talk to them in a certain way. From this perspective, it's better to do this rather than this from a biblical standpoint. If I am not coming to church, Would it be okay for me to go and say, hey, look, you know, we're exhorted in the word not to gather together? You ought to be doing that. Well, and that's again, but that's based on scriptural principles. It's not just because, you know, we meet this way and you should meet here.

It's Acts 2.42, which is, you know, fellowship, prayer, all those things that are called out for the church. One of those being fellowship.

In lieu of going to church, there's something else on Sunday morning that they're involved in and they have made the choice to be involved in. I don't know what it is. Maybe the Broncos play every week for six months. And so they never come to church when the Broncos are at home.

Should you mention that to them? See, I think as an elder, yes. Not me. As an elder, yes, that's your flock, your body, you do that. Me coming up is evoking my principle on him. It's not my authority. You know, again, coming before a weaker brother, and we'll get down to it, the next principle is about edifying and building up of the body. So there are some principles about that, that if you see a weaker brother and you want, you go and have a Bible study with him. If they're not showing, there's ways to do it without evoking a law on them.

You have to be here on Sunday. Like I said, as an elder, that's more in your bailiwick. But as a parent with a child who's still in my house, it's my authority to say, no, you're not going to the Bronco games every Sunday. You're coming to church. Because that's my authority as a parent. But as, you know, I can't tell your child, they shouldn't be going to the Bronco game. What are they doing?

That's totally outside of my authority to do that. So, yeah, basically I said, I'm not to criticize about the liberty behavior of other believers and vice versa. Think how many problems would be eliminated if we stuck to the biblical principle. of this, of not doing this. Let's get into question four.

Is there a difference between specific commands and taboos? Political correctness. The specific commands of the scripture are from God. Taboos are from men. Thank you. Yes. And they're vastly different. The Word of God is specific about certain issues. Don't be drunk, don't steal, several different specific commands. And again, under the authorities, what the elders do, what parents do, what husband and wife, all those different authorities under grace, they're very specific things. As a husband, I'm supposed to love my wife as Christ loved the church. That's a specific we're not supposed to be drunk or as we talked last week you know with what's the contemporary thing right now is in Colorado it's legal to smoke marijuana. I think that is the equivalent of being drunk, as we talked last week.

You can't just take a little bit of marijuana, you know, just for the flavor. I think you said a nose hit, you know. That's not, you know, if you go to most concerts, you already get the nose hit from everybody who is legally smoking that. But that's, so again on that one I think is very specific. I don't think there's a little bit that's okay. Whereas you could have a glass of wine or a glass of beer or, you know, beer and not have, be drunk. You like the flavor of it and you leave it. But you're not getting drunk. Whereas marijuana is a whole different animal.

So I think there's, that drunkenness would be specific under scripture on that. So it's very specific about certain issues. However, there's a wide freedom for the believer's behavior based on biblical principles. Taboos, on the other hand, are behaviors dictated by the society, church body we attend, or the worldly restraints that may be put upon us. So this is where the contrast is funny.

So, we have all these things. You know, how many people, and my kids, I did this as an authority at that point when my kids were in, under my household and our control, you know, going to R-rated movies, said no. You know, can't do that, don't like that. Or we'd pre-check them, you know, and see what the content was and we'd say yes or no. So, what about that now? Can I tell him not to go to an R-rated movie? So these are taboos, you know, or things. You know, it used to be going to movies or bowling or dancing. Dancing? Hoo hoo hoo!

You know, actually I shouldn't. There was, being on the board of directors now for 27 years or something at Camp Elam, we had a major issue about that. One of the churches did not like line dancing. They had a line dancing thing and we had to have all the board of directors go and talk to the elders because they thought that was wholly inappropriate for Camp Elam to have line dancing. It wasn't like ballroom dancing, close contact. This is line dancing. So we spent lots of time and effort trying to convince them about this. One note of hilarity in all this was, I think two of the elders were in square dancing.

What? So the hypocrisy of that was rather evident at the time. We were trying to say, but you know, but that was okay because they weren't children and they weren't an atom. So anyway, but that was, that was a big, that was a big deal. We had, we had to address them. They weren't going to send any more kids to Camp Eelam because of it.

So for dancing, and this isn't like, Well, I've been on board 27 years. It was probably 15 years ago that this happened. So this isn't prehistoric time. This was recent. The dancing was Theobaldian. So again, these are some negatives. Now, the flip side of this, which is the funny part to me, is how many fights are there over specific commands in the Bible? We go after movies.

He drank a beer. Ooh, I saw him out in the parking lot and he had a cigar. He smoked a cigar out there! What? We go through all those. How many fights have we had about specific commands in the Bible? How many times have we addressed somebody who was being kicked out of the church for not rejoicing? That's a specific command, right? 1 Thessalonians 5 16 Rejoice always. You aren't rejoicing. You're out of here. Pray without ceasing. Verse 17 In everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

How many fights have we picked about that one? Versus worried about what you're wearing, dancing, bowling. We go after those all the time where there's no specifics. But the ones that are specific, we rarely address those that are specific. And what we were talking about last week, Roy, we were talking about all the natives.

These are positives. These are positive statements. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. How about being kicked out for being anxious? Philippians 4, 6, in nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. So, are you anxious? Who's anxious?

Let's address those things. You shouldn't be anxious. I mean, we should be building up, which is our next principle about edifying and building up. Instead, we go after all these political and non-specific things that are outside of our purview under grace, the authorities that we have. We go after those all day long, but we don't build up somebody about rejoice always. Give thanks. Hey, give thanks. Come beside them. Give thanks. Don't be anxious for anything. Go before the Lord. Are you anxious? So somebody calls you up on the phone and says, I've just had an anxiety attack. And you say, well, open up your Bible, Philippians 4, 6, you're not supposed to be doing it.

What is the principle that we're dealing with before? This is the principle number three. We love it. Right. So am I going to be... I wouldn't be as callous as that in love. You can't just pick and choose one or two. All the principles go together. The point that I'm making is that anxiety and depression and some of those things today are accepted in society. But they do seem to be acceptable from a biblical standpoint. Right.

And we never address those. We'll address going to the movies, or smoking, or drinking, or whatever. Well, not drinking, that's specific. The non-specific commands. We go all day long about attacking those. But we don't do the things that the scripture clearly says. And these are the positive things. Don't be anxious. You know, and I'd come beside him and say, don't, you know, hey, what's going on? How can I help you? You know, scripture says this, hey, let's see how we work this out in love.

Well, I was thinking, you know, how we've said that we all think we're strong believers. That's more of an indication that we're not. You know, he that is weak in the faith, right? I mean, I think that applies to all of us. Oh, yeah. Well, as I said, we all think we're strong. And we all have weaknesses.

But then you talk about the stand fast or the rejoice always. I mean, those issues. Or we listed a couple of them. You know, and that's Roy's point last week was, well, why are we focusing on the negative? Well, that's the whole point. We focus on the negatives that are not specific in Scripture, but we let all the beautiful things of Scripture go by. We're much more apt to attack somebody on something rather than come beside them and say, hey, rejoice always. Hey, how's it going? You're anxious? Why? Come on, let's come over. Let's talk. Let's have a cup of coffee.

Well, I think in light of that, the positive commands in scripture are based on an awful lot of information that goes before the command. about rejoicing, about not being anxious, that you have to have that basic understanding. All of that stuff that comes before the word therefore. But that's why the stronger believer comes and teaches about that. In love. Getting to the next principle which will be edify. It's to build up. That's what you do. In love. All these principles go together.

So I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if that were the modus operandi that was in play within the body of believers, we wouldn't have time to criticize them. Exactly. We'd be involved in the building up of every other believer all the time. We wouldn't have time to criticize them because we have the answer. That's the whole point of this. We spend our time on all the non-essential junk and we leave the things that are specific alone. We don't come beside a brother who's anxious or isn't rejoicing. They're down. Why are you down? You're down because you lost your car? Well, and we jump on them. No, it's you come beside them in love, the principle of love. Next one we'll look at is edifying. You edify, you come up, you build them up. Hey, don't be anxious. We're not supposed to be that. This is why, and we teach them why.

You know, one that I committed to memory years ago was the James one, which, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, but I always blew them. I always thought that, yeah, get toughened up, stiffen up, be the Marine, be a jarhead, you know, toughen up. Careful, I'm offended. I know. I was testing the offense.

You know, but it says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of what? Your faith. It isn't testing you on other things. It's testing your faith. It isn't testing your resiliency to fight off whatever the trial is. It's faith. Rejoice always. Be anxious for nothing. In everything, by prayer and supplication, let your thanksgiving be known to God.

So those are the positive things that you can go to somebody and say, hey, you going through a trial? I know it's tough. I've been through six of them. Six of the same thing. And also with the Corinthians, I think it's 1 Corinthians, about how those who go through trials, the reason for you going through trials is later to support somebody who goes through that same trial. So again, all these things wind together into a perfect, fitting operation of grace.

Did you have something, Roy? But yeah, the direction of our conversation is sort of inward. It's like we're looking at the metric measurement of are we rejoicing or are we anxious versus what is the manifestation of what we know, what we believe in Christ. And I think that's where you're going. But so far what we've been talking about, right, is inward looking versus upward rejoicing.

It's letting Christ live and being rejoicing when you see his life being manifested because he's the one that rejoices. Right, I think a couple of principles. One, it goes back to what Mike's saying, you have to teach that ahead of time, why these principles are there, or why these statements are there. Why aren't you anxious? Because look at all you have in Christ. Your life is Christ. And all the teaching prior to this... Okay, but what I'm trying to say is, who is Christ? And what has he done? What's he doing? What's he going to do?

Should be the focus of our attention. And this is the work of God, to make him There's different levels too, I mean there's body concept, there's individuals, there's the body here, there's a lot of different ways we function. We all individually focus on Christ, that's it, that's true. But a lot of what we're talking about too is on body concept, how the body functions together. And again, going back, it's the teaching about who we have in Christ. I think going back to the identification truths, the truth is all there. All those different things that you have a life, your life is now hid with God, in Christ, in God.

Colossians 3.3. Those are the things. And again, the manifestation. This is also part of the spiritual growth of a person. It's all that rolled up into this. Yes, it's always about Christ and the manifestation of him, the transformation, all the different things. It's the expression of Christ's life through me. This is more on how we deal with in the body concept.

Individuality, yes. I think there's two different things maybe we're looking at. And they both work together. I mean, individually, you have to be strong in the Lord, know these things, as you go, as a strong believer, to come beside a weaker one. Your manifestation of Christ in love will be evident if you are strong in the Word. So, yeah, these are, I guess, you know, put in, they're kind of going to the same thing. All these commands that are specific in the scriptures about rejoice, pray without ceasing, all these different things. I put in some of the things.

Now what if I smoked on the front porch of the church, went to an R-rated movie, or listened to hard rock music in my car while waiting for Sunday school? I'd probably have somebody come out and tell me, what are you doing smoking in your car there, bud? But if I'm down or I'm not rejoicing, I'm anxious, they'll pass by me like a bad penny. I don't want to get involved with that one. But I'm sure going to tell you about the smoking out in the car bit.

Just the flip-flop of what we normally do and how we operate. Under grace, you know, you're not attacking people when we should be going on the positive things. Come beside him as a strong brother or sister to the weaker who has restrictions or something and just come beside. Be anxious for nothing. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.

Those are the things we should be focused on. That's the growth. That's where the spiritual growth will happen. How would you say that? Well, I think that's what we were saying. A lot of that is that, you know, what's going on in your life? You're anxious? Why are you anxious? And then drill down into that.

You know, Hal was great at that. Hal was probably the best person I know. One of the things I can think of is coming alongside of someone and being sensitive to the manifestation of Christ in their life. And mentioning that and saying, man, it's sure good to see these sufferings and that you are strong because he's enabled you to do that.

Yeah, I guess mine is that my hesitancy about doing this, one size doesn't fit all. I know, but I'm just trying to give you an example. Yeah, I mean that's one of a hundred and how you come beside him. I think it's still coming beside him with all these principles in play. love, edification, all these different things are coming, and a stronger one, someone who is stronger than the Word can come beside somebody. And I think those are the times the Lord allows that. He's allowed that for you to come before that brother. I think it's all in His hand. And I also think it's for your growth, too. I use this all the time. I'm helping you, but three of those fingers are pointing back at me. It's helping me, too, in my growth. in my relationship with the Lord.

So I think it's all, if we use the principles that are laid out here, it's growth for all parties. But the hilarious part is we focus on the negatives and the things that are not specific, but we let the things that are specific go by. That's what's, I think, strange. I think one of the things that has really helped me in this church is that I had all the ridiculous kind of things.

If you do this, I'm going to blush you. If you don't do that, I'm going to curse you. And I had that. And so sometimes I might be telling somebody, well, you can't do this thing because God's got his big hammer. You better look out. And so when you understand grace in a position, like I had a guy tell me, he said, Kevin, it's my Bible. If I didn't shut up, I'm done. Because I just, I had no idea about grace and who I was in Christ. You know, I think that a lot of things wrapped up in what you were saying, a lot of things. You know, I look, I confess I went through a long period that I thought God was there with a big stick. That, you know, I'm learning his principles and he just wants to beat the tar out of me if I don't do them. And how wrong is that? That's why I've really gravitated in many of my prayers, I say it too.

God is sovereign. He's in control of all things. And the second fact is, He has an eternal love for me, that it can't be broken. So if He loves me, is He waiting out there just to beat the tar out of me? No. So whatever He brings to me, it's in love. That trial, when I had the $4,000 bill on my truck, when I went in for a $200 fix, was he just being cruel to me? No, he knew exactly what was going on. He knew exactly. And I go back to, he's in control of all things, and he loves me.

Okay, what am I learning through all this? So, again, I just, you know, The big stick aspect, if we don't do these things, how corrupting is that of God's love? I look in the mirror. I've worked through that a lot, where He's just not there to beat me up. If I hiccup, He's not going to beat me. He's going to even intensify His love to me. If I fail, he's going to intensify that love to me. That's the way I look at it now.

So I mean those are things that, you know, just differences. Like in these principles of grace that we have, a lot of it is love and edifying, building up. These are all the positive things. We under grace tend to, and that's the whole point of these past questions, is that we contort that and we go after things that are not what we should be. we should be focusing on the good things, the things that are positive about us in Christ.

So, I think we're done, right? Was it the second verse? Or the first? Could you say the scripture verses that you talked about about positive demand? Yeah, there's 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18, and Philippians 4, 6. Just quickly, we can get through this one, yes or no. Question five, which one of these causes greater problems in the church? Taboos, by far. Taboos are usually the bigger than anything about what we're not doing according to the word. And that's wrong. That's wrong. The taboos should not be the big things. Was that the second bell? Name some positive commands from the word. Are they in the forefront of our thinking?

Some of these are 1 Thessalonians 5, 16-18. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. That's what he wants. That's what he wants, for us to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, always in communication with him, and in everything give thanks. Does that correlate with James? Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials? Give thanks, even in the trial.

It hurts, but if you understand he's in control and he loves you, that's how that verse makes sense to me. Colossians 3, 1-3, Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

How fantastic is that? I always think this is the double insurance policy. This is the double walls around me that can't be broken. I am hidden, seated in the heavenlies. Remember, we're seated in the heavenlies. They've been raised up with Christ, seeking the things. Now, you have died, everything's erased from my Adamic life, and your life is hidden with Christ, or in Christ, in God. Where would you rather be? Is there a better place than that?

And that's where he says we are, positionally, right now. Do you believe that? This comes to our last section, which is faith. Do you believe that? If it is, that is an incredible thing. That's how to consider it all joy. How you can rejoice always. Because positionally, I am in Christ, in God, in the heavenlies. That's how God sees me right now. How about that bad day you're having? Guess where God sees you? Right beside Him, in Christ. So again, that's how all these things fit together. If we know these truths that are under our grace, where we have all this liberty, there are tremendous things.

Anyway, we'll finish up pretty quickly, I think, in the last few questions. We'll start with seven next week. Or no, are we next week? Yeah, that's later today. It's the following week. So yeah, we'll be there next week. We'll finish with question seven, or start with seven. Alright, let's pray.

Covenant Father, we thank you. Again, we thank you for all the truths you have in your word to us. There are just so many exciting, positive things that are true about us right now. Right now, not waiting until we step into eternity. These are true of us right now. Just the realization of these truths gives us that joy, the peace that surpasses all understanding that you say in your scripture. There is strength, there is comfort, there are all these things that you have told us is true about us and true that we can understand them. And I just pray that in our hearts we'll understand these positive truths that are explained in your scripture, that again, we can rejoice always, we can pray without ceasing, we have all these things that we can do right now, and you've allowed that. And again, as I opened up, It's nothing of what we have done. There is no beauty in the Adamic life. You did what was absolutely correct with our life associated with Adam. You crucified it, removed it completely, and now we have new life in Christ.

And again, we thank you that it was by all that work that we have all these positive truths about us right now. So we thank you for that. And again, just all that we say and do, I pray, will honor and glorify you this day. And we pray for Vern, too, as he opens up the word next meeting. And again, just prepare our hearts to receive it. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.