In Jason Dohm's sermon 'Walking in Love in Our Differences,' the primary focus is on how believers can live harmoniously despite differing levels of understanding on various issues. Drawing from Romans 14 and 15, the sermon emphasizes the teachings of Apostle Paul, who advises Christians not to judge one another but instead to avoid placing stumbling blocks in each other's paths. This involves recognizing that while some have mature understandings of certain liberties, others may not, and thus, those with greater understanding should exercise their freedoms with sensitivity. Paul provides case studies such as dietary practices and observance of special days to illustrate these principles. The sermon further discusses the importance of prioritizing spiritual values like righteousness, peace, and joy over physical liberties and urges believers to align their actions with the kingdom's central principle of love. Ultimately, it calls for Christians to set their minds on spiritual things and to act in a way that is well-pleasing to God and approved by others.

Okay Jason will be unfolding verses 14 through 18 but for context I'm gonna start us in verse 7 and work our way through 18. For none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself for if we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord therefore whether we live or die we are the Lord's for to this end Christ died and rose and lived again that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living but why do you judge your brother or why do you show contempt for your brother For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, As I live says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus.

There is nothing unclean of itself. But to him who considers anything to be unclean to him it is unclean. Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let your good be spoken of as evil.

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Title of the sermon this morning is Walking in Love in Our Differences. Apostle Paul knows full well that it's impossible that we would all be on the same point in our curve of understanding of different issues. Every issue has a curve of understanding.

You're not even on the same point of the curve in different points of understanding when you're with yourself and some points of understanding, you're way far along on the curve. And in some points of understanding, you're just getting on the curve. How much more when we multiply that by all the believers in the room, all the believers in our community, all the believers in our state. And so we're going to have to learn, if we're going to walk in love, we're going to have to learn how to walk in love when we have differences on this point or that point. And the Apostle Paul knows it, and the Apostle Paul is helping us with it and I'm glad that we've been brought here.

I think this can help us so much. We've been two weeks already in chapter 14 now. There will be today, there will be one more week, and then there's about half of chapter 15, which is on this same topic. So if you want to know whether this matters to the Apostle Paul or not, just think. He's given a whole chapter and a half of the letter to the Romans to this one single topic.

What do we do when believers have a different understanding? And instead of just leaving us with the principles, and hoping that we can sort it out ourselves, he's actually done something really helpful. He's put flesh on the bones. He's given us two different case studies to help us understand how he applies these principles. So are we given the principles?

Absolutely. Did he leave us with just the principles? Absolutely not. He's given us two specific examples and told us how we ought to apply the principles. The first is eating all things or just vegetables.

That's a good case study to help us. The second case study is having days of special religious observance or not. I think there are these special days and we ought to observe them in this special way. You think it couldn't matter less. Okay, now what?

Now what do we do? The Apostle Paul helps us understand what we should do. Verse 13 is the connective tissue between last week's text and his instructions from there and this week's text and his instructions in this week's text. So just look back at verse 13. It really is the hinge point.

When you look at the commentators, about half of them join 13 to last week's text and about half of them actually join 13 to this week's text and how they divide it up. So that tells you it really is reaching back and also reaching forward. So we ought to be very aware of it as we exit last week's text and come into this week's text. Verse 13 says this, therefore let us not judge one another anymore but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. So Paul is getting us focused on what we have to be careful not to do.

Don't put something that will trip someone up and cause them to fall in their way. And that leads into our text. Paul is directing the instructions from this week's text to the strong in understanding. So on the side of any matter, the person who has a mature understanding and the correct understanding, how should they view how they're to interact with someone who doesn't have a mature understanding and isn't thinking about it rightly the instructions are to that person to the person with the mature correct understanding what if a mature correct understanding of eating meat or not heating or not needing to observe the days that just pointed to and taught about Jesus, gives me that liberty, but my brother or sister isn't yet at liberty because they don't yet understand these things. So I have the liberty to eat all things because I have a mature understanding, a right understanding, so I can eat that meat by faith or I understand that that religious calendar, its whole purpose was to point forward to and teach about Jesus and his kingdom.

But now that Jesus has come and done his saving work, the need for that is no longer present. So it really doesn't matter if I observe those days, I have those correct understandings. But but my brother or sister yet doesn't have the liberty that I have, because they don't have the understanding that I have, what should we do then? That's where the Apostle Paul has brought us. Let's pray.

God, there's such valuable instruction here. We need it so much. Pray that we wouldn't come and go from these texts and unchanged, unmoved by what we're learning, but that we would advance in not just our understanding, but in how we're sensitive to each other, how that we're filled with grace towards each other. May that be the end of our time here, I pray in Jesus name, amen. Well, let's start by just looking at verse 14 by itself.

And then we'll move on to some other subsections. The first is just 14 by itself. Follow along as I reread Romans chapter 14, verse 14. Paul writes, I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. But to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him It is unclean.

In this verse, Paul sets before us a matter and how we consider the matter. So there are really two different things in view here. One is the matter itself. And again, he gives us a specific example to consider. But then there's also how we're thinking about that matter.

And both of these are significant, is what Paul is teaching. Here, Paul sets before us something that He has 100% certainty about. So Paul knows the answer to the test. He knows with 100% certainty what the mature view, the mature understanding, and the right understanding is. He knows it and his conviction on the matter comes from being convinced by the Lord Jesus.

So it doesn't get any better than that. He knows it. He's fully convinced in his own mind to pull in language from verse 5. That was the language from verse 5. Be fully convinced in your own mind.

He is that. Well, who convinced him? The Lord Jesus convinced him. So it doesn't get any better than that. This is a matter that he has 100% certainty about.

By the way, the New Testament totally backs up the Apostle Paul on this. Even outside of the writings of Paul, Paul says that nothing is unclean in itself, and in the next verse it's going to become crystal clear that actually what he's talking about is food. So, of the foods that there are, there's nothing unclean in and of itself. In Mark chapter 7, Jesus says this, whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach and is eliminated and is eliminated thus purifying all foods. So Jesus himself in Mark chapter 7 says that actually all foods are pure.

None of them are unclean. Why is that? Well, because they just come and go. They come in through the mouth, they go out of your body, and they never touch the heart. So there's nothing that's actually spiritually defiling.

If it could touch the heart, maybe it could be spiritually defiling, but the food comes and goes, never touches the heart, and so it isn't spiritually defiling. Jesus himself taught that. In Acts chapter 10, Peter has this vision from heaven where the sheep comes down and there are things that have during the whole course of the Old Covenant have been ceremonially unclean and a voice from heaven says rise kill and eat and Peter says not so I've never eaten anything unclean and the voice from heaven says what God has cleansed you must not call common or unclean. You have to stop calling these things unclean now because they were never inherently spiritually defiling. That was always figurative.

So you have the old covenant, and there's two lists. Unclean and a long list. Clean and a long list. What you can't eat is in this column and what you can eat is in this column. But in this vision from heaven, and by the way it has to repeat three times to get through the point.

So even Peter, which among humans on earth, Peter's going to tend towards the mature understanding, the correct understanding. He's been under the direct discipleship of Jesus for three years. And even Peter needed a vision from heaven that recurs three times to tell him, stop calling that unclean. God has cleansed it. Stop calling it unclean.

So no food is inherently spiritually defiling. There was a list of things that were, air quotes, unclean, but they weren't inherently spiritually defiling. They were pointing to and teaching about greater spiritual realities. And now that they've been fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ, there's no reason to keep going with the things that were just pointing to the greater reality. When the greater reality comes, you don't need those shadows anymore.

So that is the matter itself. And Paul knows that he knows that he knows that he has a mature and correct understanding of the matter. We say, okay, sounds like we're done here. We understand the matter. The inspired by the Holy Spirit, Apostle Paul knows that he knows, that he knows that his conviction has been given to him by the Lord Jesus.

It doesn't get any better than that. So The matter is settled. We're done here. Paul says, not so fast. Are we really done here?

No, we're not done here. What about the believer who doesn't know that he knows that he knows? What about the believer that doesn't know that she knows that she knows this, and has a good understanding of the Old Covenant and the two lists, the unclean and the clean, the can't eat and the can eat, and they haven't gotten the memo yet that all that was just pointing forward to and teaching about the greater spirituality the greater spiritual reality that has now been fulfilled with the coming of Messiah It's so important that we get this. If I know that I know that I know it's grounded in the Word of God using the language of verse 5, I'm fully convinced in my own mind by the Word of God and I'm correct I really am at liberty it's not fake liberty it's not imagined liberty it is it is a real liberty but the day before I was fully convinced in my own mind and obtained this firm, mature, correct understanding of the matter. I was not at liberty.

Nothing changed overnight. Not a single thing changed overnight about this list and that list, about this food and that food. All of it was completely the same as the day before. But Today I'm at liberty, but yesterday I wasn't fully convinced. My understanding wasn't grounded in the Word of God, so I had doubts about these things.

In that condition, I was not at liberty. It was never inherently spiritually defiling, but the day before, I didn't understand that, and so the day before, I wasn't at liberty, even though nothing about the food changed. Now Why wasn't I at liberty the day before? Verse 23 says it the most precisely. Look at the last verse of the chapter, verse 23.

He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith. He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith. For whatever is not from faith is sin. Yesterday I doubted so I would have been condemned if I ate, because I wouldn't have been eating out of faith that this is fine to do. This is right to do.

This doesn't dishonor God in any way to do. The day before I would have eaten out of a place of doubt, not eaten out of a place of faith. So the dishonor of God would not have originated in anything inherent in the food. In other words, had I eaten in that condition, it wouldn't have been anything about the food that dishonored God, the dishonor of God would have originated in my willingness to risk dishonoring God. I'm not sure.

It might dishonor God, it might not dishonor God. So I'll take my chances. That is sin. That dishonors God. Let me re-quote Calvin from last week.

It's only a portion of what I quoted last week. But but Calvin in what I quoted last week was of a man who rightly holds back because he has a doubting conscience on a matter. So Calvin is observing this hypothetical person who has a doubting conscience, he's not fully convinced in his own mind at all. He, he not sure whether it'll dishonor God. And so while as long as he's in that state, he's not about to do it, because he's not sure.

And Calvin looks on that man and says this, nothing then remained but that he waiting for a fuller revelation should keep himself within the limits of his knowledge and not to avail himself of the benefit of liberty before he embraced it by faith. So that man is saying, until I can embrace what I think might be a liberty by faith, I'm staying within the limits of my knowledge. Now we're never ever ever ever ever discouraged from expanding the limit of our knowledge. Every day that we're alive, we should be expanding the limit of our knowledge. This ought to make us think, this actually might expand the limits of my liberty.

There may be things that are true liberties, but I'm in this doubtful condition, And as I expand the limits of my knowledge, this may very well expand the limits of my liberty, because I actually gain a more mature, more correct understanding of what the Word of God is teaching. But until that moment arrives, I'm not going to risk dishonoring God while I'm in this doubtful state. It's not safe. Is it safe to risk dishonoring God? Is that how Christians who have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ ought to be thinking, well it's probably okay or it might be okay I'll risk it for a little meat eating.

I'll risk it for a little meat eating. When you think it in those terms, it becomes unthinkable that I would risk dishonoring God who sent his son to bleed and die for him for a little meat eating. Until I'm fully convinced that I have an understanding that is in line with the Word of God that this is really fun. I can actually give thanks for it. Back to last week's text, the one who eats, he's giving thanks for it.

He's fully convinced in his own mind, when I'm in that state, I'm gonna eat up. Until I'm in that state, I can't risk it. It might be to dishonor God as far as I know. I'm going to keep myself within the limits of my knowledge, desiring always to expand the limits of my knowledge. I think this is where God would have us be.

You have a conscience. You came here knowing that. It is a gift from God. It is meant to give his children a sense of what's good, not good. True, not true.

Honors him, doesn't honor him. We come with an inborn sense of those things and it is a gift from God. And it is meant to be listened to and handled with care. Know this about your conscience. You're supposed to listen to it and you're supposed to handle it with care.

It is not meant to be trifled with. It is certainly not meant to be trampled. Too many of us have trifled with our consciences for too long. Too many of us have trampled our consciences for too long. And it used to be a sharp prick, a sense of what was good, not good, of what was true, not true, of what would honor God, of what would dishonor God.

It used to be a very sharp prick, but because we trifled with it and because we trampled on it, we've got calluses. I got calluses right here. You take a pen and I might feel a little pressure. I don't even know if I would even feel a little pressure anymore, but it's certainly not the the pin prick that I would get if you took it to the back of my hand. The back of my hand is still like a pinprick.

On the calluses, it's barely the feeling of pressure. It's not a sharp prick at all. By trifling with your conscience, by trampling on your conscience, you turn what God wanted to be a pinprick sensitivity to what honors Him and what dishonors Him. And you don't even feel a dull thud anymore. You're without a dull thud.

And God made you to have pinprick sensitivity to the things that honor him and dishonor him. This conscience that God made to be pinprick sensitive can be dulled, quieted, seared. That's how Paul describes when you go way down the road and you've trampled it for so long, it's seared. Paul actually calls it beyond feeling. That's just a terrifying thought that any of us would be beyond feeling.

Not have any orientation to the things that are right, wrong, true, not true. Honor God, dishonor God. So I need to consider our text and I need to think what is the place where I have been willing to risk dishonoring God? What is it? Have you got one of those?

I'm not sure. You know, maybe I'm just being too uptight. I don't know. It might be fine. I'll risk it.

But we never finished the sentence, right? I'll risk dishonoring God for a little meat eating or a little whatever. What is that place? You've been willing to dishonor God, and all the time you've been trifling with your conscience. You've been desensitizing your conscience.

You've been growing calluses that make this pinprick sensitive conscience that God has given you to where you don't hardly even feel any application of pressure anymore. You might have felt dry and cold for a while now. Christians, do you know anything about a season of being dry and cold? I've been in the Lord now for more than 30 years, and I know about seasons of being dry and cold. And there are different reasons for that.

It's not all one reason. I'm not saying you can attribute that always to this. But if you find yourself in a season of being dry, being cold, and you may have been in this season for a while now, you should ask, could that be because I have trifled with my conscience and so I don't even feel the pinpricks anymore. It's so dry. I never feel those times of sweetness that I used to feel.

Maybe you've just desensitized your conscience and the Lord is displeased because you did that with a gift that He gave to you and So He's letting you feel distance. He's letting you feel the dryness and letting you feel distant so that you'll want to come back into this full fellowship where you're being really careful with your conscience and not ignoring the gift that God gave to you. Could that be it? Could that be at the root of your dryness and your coldness? If so, if you find that that's the case, just repent so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

That's wonderful language from Acts chapter 4 in Peter's preaching. He tells the people, repent so that times of refreshing will come on you from the presence of the Lord. If you're dry and cold, you don't want anything more than the times of refreshing would come to you from the presence of the Lord. We just need to repent if we find ourselves having trifled with our conscience and trampled our conscience and desensitized our conscience. Verses 15 through 17, this next subsection, Romans 4, 15 through 17.

Paul continues, Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. In these three verses, Paul teaches us when a liberty ceases to be a liberty. So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in the blank, ceases, fills in the blank.

When a liberty ceases to be a liberty. Again, these are instructions for a brother or sister with a mature correct understanding on a matter who is dealing with a brother or sister with a weak, incorrect understanding on that matter. Therefore, they don't have the liberty that you have. They're in the same state that you were the day before. You were fully convinced and had a correct understanding grounded in the Word of God that gave you that liberty.

They are now where you were then, not at liberty. Again, the core of the instruction is verse 13. I'll reread verse 13. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. So there was this play on words in the Greek with the same Greek word translated judge and translated resolve and that's so the play on words is this.

Don't judge one another. Rise to pronounce this verdict. You're guilty. Stop doing that to your brother. But rather, judge this.

Rise to pronounce this verdict. I will never put a stumbling block or a cause to fall. That should be your verdict. Not to keep condemnation on your brother, but your verdict should be, as for me, I'm not putting any stumbling blocks or any causes to fall before any of my brothers and sister. The key concern here is that my liberty will lure that brother or sister with the weak, inaccurate, incorrect understanding that my liberty will lure that brother or sister into defiling his or her conscience because he or she cannot eat by faith.

I can, I can eat by faith? I can give thanks and eat. But they can't give thanks and eat because they have a weaker, incorrect understanding. The exercise of my liberty can lure them into defiling their conscience by doing what I can do with a clear conscience, but they can't. The Greek word in verse 13, which is translated cause to fall, That Greek word we translated in English is cause to fall, but it literally means trigger of a trap.

So you're resolving no stumbling blocks. I'm not putting anything in the road that they might trip over. Or a cause to fall. I'm not putting a trap out there with a trigger on it that will ensnare them. When they hit it, it will entrap them.

You've seen really primitive traps where there's a stick and a box. As soon as the critter goes under the propped up box you pull the stick okay that's what this cause to fall is it's the trigger of the trap that you spring a trap on them so thankfully we have Paul's commentary on Paul in 1 Corinthians 8. We have been referring to 1 Corinthians 8, but I want to refer to it again. So if you'd like, you can turn to 1 Corinthians 8. This is Paul's expansion in 1 Corinthians on what is in our text.

It's really helpful because he draws on the same language you can tell. He's talking about exactly the same thing, but he talks about it more comprehensively there. So let's look at it. I'm going to start by reading 1 Corinthians 8, 4 through 6. 1 Corinthians 8, 4 through 6.

Therefore, concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, there are many little G gods and many Lords, yet for us there is one God, one capital G God, the Father of whom are all things and we for him and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we live." So here Paul, he starts out by just giving us the mature understanding. He's giving you the answer to the test. Is there really food offered to idols? No, not really.

These idols are nothing. They make them out of wood. They make them out of silver or gold. They can't talk. They can't hear.

They can't see. It's just a piece of stuff. That's no god. It's a little G god. Somebody says this is a god because they took a piece of wood and carved and said this is a god.

That's no god at all. There's nothing really happening when you sacrifice to this piece of wood because the wood is nothing, the gold is nothing, the silver is nothing. So this is the mature and the correct understanding of the matter. Now let's pick it up in seven and read. However, there is this mature understanding, this right understanding.

However, there is not in everyone that knowledge. For some with consciousness of the idol, until now, eat it as a thing offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food does not commend us to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, Nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware, lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols?

And because of your knowledge shall the weaker brother perish for whom Christ died you see all this language that's identical to our text being used verse 12 but when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience you sin against Christ Therefore if food makes my brother stumble I will never again eat meat lest I make my brother stumble." The key phrase here is be emboldened. You're the strong brother. You have the mature right understanding on the matter. But you have a brother who doesn't have that knowledge. They have a weaker understanding, an incorrect understanding.

And the exercise of your liberty, which is fine in itself, could embolden them to defile their conscience by doing the thing that doesn't defile your conscience at all. You can do it with a clear conscience, but they can't. And you embolden them by the use of your liberty to defile their conscience. That's the words that Paul uses. They could be emboldened to defile their conscience.

You were the trigger on the trap. If it wasn't for you and how you used your liberty, they wouldn't have been emboldened to defile their conscience. They wouldn't have risked dishonoring God by doing what you're doing. In our text, Paul looks on this instance and says, you're no longer walking in love. You're no longer walking in love.

If you loved that brother or sister, you wouldn't have set the spring on a trap and embolden them to defile their conscience because of how you used your liberty. Is this a big deal or a little deal? Paul says that the misuse of your liberty can have destructive effects in the life of your brother or sister. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Don't destroy them with your use of food.

Of course it's a big deal. If he's Using the language of destruction, Paul has marked this out as a big deal. We know it doesn't physically destroy them. It won't kill them to eat meat. We know it doesn't make a true believer an unbeliever.

So we're not talking about the eternal destruction of someone who before that moment had truly trusted in Christ. He's speaking of how unsafe and destructive it is to defile your conscience. It is so unsafe. It is so destructive to defile your conscience. And you let them right into the trap and you set the spring on the trap.

It can set a believer back weeks, months, years in his or her growth in the Lord if they defile their conscience. If they say, this trinket is worth the risk of dishonoring the Lord you know when you do that you have a sense of it when you do that okay I want the trinket. I want the bobble, the shiny thing. And I'm not sure, but I'll risk dishonoring the Lord to have the bobble, the trinket, the shiny thing. You know when you do that.

You set yourself back when you do that. Maybe a week, maybe a month, maybe a year you set yourself back. It is a destructive influence when you do that. Your growth in the Lord comes to a screeching stop when you do that. Now, Paul goes out of his way to describe this brother or sister, this believer, as one for whom Christ died.

Why did he do that? It's not efficient. It's a lot more efficient to just say, believer. One word. So, why the expansion to, it is true all believers are people for whom Christ died, but surely he had a reason to use the extra words.

What's the reason? Why go out of your way to call a believer one for whom Christ died? The point Paul is making by doing that is this. Jesus died for him. Jesus died for her.

But you won't forgo a little meat. Jesus, Jesus' love for him, Jesus' love for her is so deep and profound that he'll go to the cross and bleed and die for him or her. You won't even pass on meat. What we're called to in this text is grounded in Christ, Jesus, and His willingness to set aside all of His rights to come and display at a profound deep level His great love for sinners. That's the grounds of all this.

Think if Jesus insisted on his rights. There's no cross. If Jesus just stands on his rights, I don't have to die for those sinners. Why would I die for those sinners? There's no cross.

There is no work that brings us together with God and we're just left in our sins. And now Paul says you blood-bought people. Jesus bled and died for you, and bled and died for your spiritual brothers and sisters. You won't even pass by meat. You're so unlike your Savior.

Oh, this cuts. This cuts in such a helpful way. I think it's surgery. It's not cut to wound. It really is cut to heal.

He's bringing us face to face about what would Jesus do for a sinner and what we won't even do for a brother or sister. Think of what Jesus would do for love of sin sinners and I won't even do this little thing out of love for a brother or sister. When I misuse my liberty in such a way, it brings the use of a real liberty in contempt. Somebody's watching. Somebody's observing.

Inside the faith, okay. Outside the faith, okay. I'm not sure it matters. Somebody's watching. And they can see the harm that comes from how I'm using my liberty.

It brings that liberty into contempt. So that my good, this legitimate liberty, this thing that I can legitimately give thanks for and enter into because it's grounded in the truth of God, a liberty is good. It begins to be spoken of as evil. Paul says don't let that happen. Don't let your misuse of the liberty become so associated with the destructive effects in the life of your weaker brother or sister, that those destructive effects are wrongly laid at the feet of the Liberty.

See what happens when you eat the meat? And so the middle gets taken out, and you're just left with the liberty and the destructive effects. Now people start to think that meat is destroying believers. In other words, I am not at liberty to misuse my liberty. This is where a liberty ceases to be a liberty.

I'm not at liberty to misuse my liberty. Remember back to last week's text and the emphasis on Jesus dying, rising from the dead, and living again to be Lord of both the dead and the living. So that whatever believers do we do to the Lord. You remember that over and over again, six times in the text last week. To the Lord.

Jesus died, he rose from the dead, he lives again, that he could be Lord of the dead and the living. Everything a believer does is to be to the Lord. The point of that is that my liberty is not absolute. It is real, it is legitimate, it does exist, it's not imaginary, but it's not absolute. The kingship of Jesus is absolute.

The exercise in my liberty is always underneath the kingship of Jesus and therefore love is absolute. My liberty is subservient to the kingship of Jesus and to the central principle of his kingdom, which is love. My liberty is subservient to the central principle of Jesus' kingdom, which is love. You should think about that for just one second. Imagine a kingdom where the central principle is love.

I'm learning to love, I'm receiving love, I'm supposed to be loving all the time. I'm receiving love all the time. Where do I sign up for a kingdom like that? This is Jesus' kingdom. The central principle is love.

Everything in his kingdom bows to the central principle of love. Four says Paul, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Believers don't prioritize the physical things, like eating and drinking, over the spiritual things, like righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Believers prioritize the spiritual things and then exercise our liberties in physical things in contexts where those spiritual things are preserved for both myself and my brothers and sisters. Say that again, that was a mouthful.

Believers are to prioritize the spiritual things and then exercise our liberties in physical things in context where those spiritual things are preserved for me and you. It would be like a flight crew checking on the drinks and snacks. Got enough soda? Yeah, we got enough soda. Got enough peanuts?

Yeah, we got enough peanuts. But not going through the checks on the major systems in the instrumentation. You checked the landing gear? No, I forgot about that checklist. We were checking on the soda and the peanuts.

You want off that plane? I want off that plane. Don't shut the door. Let me off. Jesus' kingdom is marked by righteousness.

We're so unrighteous, but He takes care of the righteousness. Jesus comes and lives a perfectly righteous life and then gives it to us and takes our unrighteousness on himself. So he sees to it that we're righteous. And then we actually grow in our ability to do what's right. So there's this God righteousness that he gives to us.

But then by the presence of the Spirit in us, he helps us to grow and actually doing the things that honor him, which are the right things. This is the mark of his kingdom. The starting point is the righteousness of God being put in my account, but then he teaches me how to more and more do what's right. Learn to live in a way that honors God. Jesus's kingdom is marked by peace.

It used to be at war with God. I would never have described it that way, but I knew in my heart of hearts that things weren't right between me and I couldn't shake that uneasiness, that there was something really wrong with me that put me at odds with God and coming into his kingdom swept all that away and now I know that even though there are so many things that still aren't right about me There are a lot of things that are still wrong about me, but I'm at peace with God. God settled that through his own work. And because of that, we can relate to each other in a fundamentally different way, because we're not competing with each other in the way that unbelievers have to compete for the limited resources. We don't even think that way anymore.

We can actually be at peace with each other. Even when I don't treat you right, You can be at peace and peaceable towards me, or even when you don't treat me right, I can be at peace, because things have actually, at the most fundamental level, not only is the war gone, peace is more than just we're not at war. At the most fundamental level, we Christians have harmony in their heart, this sense that things are going to be fine, things are right, and the most fundamental level. I have joy in the Holy Spirit, So you can be in the middle of a hurricane and you can still have this the sweetest sense. All your circumstances pointing in one direction which is turmoil and unhappiness and yet somehow even in the middle of that you have this satisfaction in in God.

You can experience sometimes the sweetest experience of the presence of God and just being God and being under His wing happens actually in the hurricane and not on days like this morning where the weather was just perfect when we were praying before the service morning. Sun on our shoulders and the birds are singing. You can actually have much sweeter times than that in the middle of the hurricane because of the joy that God imparts to the soul of a believer at the hands of the Holy Spirit. Joy in the Holy Spirit. We're talking about fruits of the spirit.

Love, joy, peace are all in our text. These are things that the Spirit of God produces in the hearts of his believer. Brothers and sisters, we should organize our walk in life around those things, those spiritual things that are the marks of the kingdom of God. Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We might have some liberties that have to do with physical things, but we should organize our walk in life around those spiritual things like righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

We should prioritize around those things. Okay. Based on this section, look at your patterns and ask two questions. One, am I doing anything in a way that emboldens a brother or sister to defile his conscience or her conscience by doing anything that emboldens them. I'm using my liberty, doesn't defile my conscience, but I'm emboldening them to defile their conscience because they have a different understanding.

We should go on the search for those things and eliminate them. Am I Sabotaging the spiritual blessings of Jesus' kingdom. Because I've oriented myself around external things. I'm thinking too much about the soda and the peanuts. So I'm sabotaging the spiritual blessings.

Anyone want less righteousness, less peace, less joy in the Holy Spirit? Anyone not desire more righteousness, peace, joy, and the Holy Spirit? No one would say that of themselves. Of course you don't want less. Of course you want more of the spiritual things.

Well then, could it be that you're sabotaging the blessings of these spiritual things in your life because you've actually oriented way too much around things that don't mean anything. Verse 18. Final verse for the week. Verse 18. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

If you serve Christ in these things, you're acceptable to God and approved by men. If you serve Christ in these things, you're acceptable to God and approved by men. What are these things? He who serves Christ in these things. What are those?

It is walking in love. It is bypassing your liberty in order to keep from harming your brother or sister. It is not bringing a liberty into contempt by misusing it. It is prioritizing the spiritual over the physical. God is pleased with that.

Acceptable to God is an okay translation, But well pleasing to God is every bit as accurate and suits the context better. God is well pleased. Acceptable has such a pass fail ring to it. You cleared the bar. Good for you.

Clap for you. No, no, no. God is well pleased. It delights God when his children walk in love. It.

God is well pleased. It delights God when you bypass your liberty in order to keep from harming your brother or sister. God is well pleased. It delights him when we don't bring a liberty into contempt by misusing it. God is well pleased.

It delights him when we prioritize spiritual blessing. We just want more of the spiritual blessings and we're willing to deprioritize these physical things even that are liberties. We just keep them in their proper place, in perspective. And people approve of it. It says it's approved by men.

Men, the Greek word there, we use men in a non-gender specific way a lot just meaning mankind that's exactly how it is in the group and and Thropos is not gender centric at all it means people people approve of it So now Paul has said it both ways. If you misuse your liberty, your good is spoken evil of. But if you're willing to forgo a liberty out of grace-filled sensitivity for a brother or sister who has a different understanding, people look on that with approval. So it is both ways. You can bring your liberty into contempt, but you can also, people approve of it when any of us forgoes something that would be okay for us to do normally, but we're filled with grace filled sensitivity for a brother or sister has a deeper understanding people look at that and say that right on.

That's good. This is how we walk in love in our differences. And it matters, and it matters a lot. I'm going to close with Colossians 3, 1 through 3. Just listen to Colossians 3, 1 through 3.

Two believers, Paul writes, If then you are raised with Christ, Seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. This is the fundamental frame of mind that ought to belong to the Christian. We don't always function in this frame of mind, but it's good.

It's well pleasing to God every time we're functioning in this frame of mind where we're happy to have these physical things for our use but we would never misuse it. Our thoughts are with Christ in heaven. We're fixed. Our minds are fixed on spiritual things so if we have to bypass a physical thing or two out of you know out of care for You or you or me then we'll happily do it because the things that we treasure are with Christ in heaven God make us this way I pray. Make us more this way.

The things that we love being spiritual things. We're thankful for the physical blessings and thankful for all the liberties that we have related to physical things but we want to have them we want to think rightly about them and never cling to them to an extent where we would risk harming each other over these things Help us to think rightly about them. Thank you for your goodness and teaching us these things. In Jesus name, Amen.