Conviction & Freedom (Romans 14:1-12)

Romans chapter 14, verses 1 through twelve.

Romans 14:1

Accept anyone who is weak in faith, but don't argue about disputed matters.

One person believes he may eat anything, while one who is weak eats only vegetables.

One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat.

And one who does not eat must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him.

Who are you to judge another's household servant before his own Lord?

He stands or falls.

And he will stand because the Lord is able to make him stand.

One person judges one day to be more important than another day.

Someone else judges every day to be the same.

Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind.

Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord.

Whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God.

And whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat it, and gives thanks to God.

For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself.

If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord.

Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Christ died and returned to life for this, that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living.

But you, why do you judge your brother or sister?

Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?

For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God.

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word, Lord, as we often do.

We thank you so much for the instruction that you've left us through it.

God, I pray that as we jump into these verses, Lord, that you would give us hearts that are ready to receive.

Lord, whatever it might be that you want us to hear this morning, whatever it is that you might want to change and shape and mold inside of each one of us, Lord, I pray that you would do that work and that we would be willing to allow you to do that work.

That we wouldn't be hesitant, that we wouldn't be trying to crawl off the altar, so to speak, Lord, but that we would allow you to penetrate our hearts with your word.

So Lord, I pray that you would help me to rightly divide your word here this morning.

Lord, I pray that your spirit would be the one speaking, and it would be speaking directly to each one of us.

We pray.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So before we jump into verse 1 here, I want each one of us to answer a question in our own mind and then hold on to that till the end, and we're gonna talk about it at the end.

But I want you to answer this question: What is the most heinous and wicked sin that you can think of?

I know.

Great way to start the morning, isn't it?

But think on that, and then hold on to it because we're gonna talk a little bit about that at the very end.

Okay?

Got it?

Everybody got it?

Okay.

So today we're gonna be continuing on in what it looks like to be a living sacrifice.

As Paul continues to give us practical things that we need to be doing as we follow Christ.

You know, so far, since we started talking about this in chapter 12, he's talked about existing as a body of Christ.

And he talked about spiritual gifts and how that plays in.

He talked about Christian ethics, so to speak, of how we need to be behaving.

Then he jumped into how to exist in a government under its God-ordained authority that God has given it.

Then we talked about how to love our neighbor.

Then how to put on Christ.

This is all just in the last two chapters.

But today it's gonna be all about unity.

It's gonna be about the body of Christ and how we can dwell in unity with each other.

So let's jump in right here, verse one.

He starts off.

Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but don't argue about disputed matters.

You know, it's our desire as a church to welcome everybody that walks through that back door here every Sunday morning.

You know, as the leadership of the church, the only people that we're supposed to turn away and not welcome are those that call themselves Christians, but then deliberately live in sin.

They say, you know, I know this is against God's word, yet I'm still gonna do it, and God can't tell me what to do.

Biblically, those are the only people that should not be welcome in this room.

You know, then as leadership, according to Scripture, we're to cut those people off from the body of God until they're willing to repent and then go through a restoration process, and then we should be waiting with welcome arms to welcome them back into the building.

So why am I telling you all of this?

Because we really have to distinguish between those that are weak in their faith and those that are living in rebellion to God.

Those that are living in sin, so to speak.

Because those that are living in that rebellion are not welcome.

But everyone else is welcome in this church, including those that are not following Christ in very obvious ways.

Because we want them to come in here and to hear God's word and to come face to face with the gospel of Jesus and to be saved.

And if they don't feel welcome, they're not gonna stick around long enough to hear the gospel for the first time.

Or maybe they'll hear it and not care because they don't want to be like us.

So they're like, you know, I heard the gospel, that's interesting, but I really don't want to be like those people that were so rude to me when I walked in.

What Paul's talking about, I want to assure you, has nothing to do with being seeker sensitive as a church.

You know, seeker sensitive means it's softening the gospel, it's not treating sin seriously, or it's compromising God's word in some way to make it more flowery.

What Paul is talking about here is about loving those weaker in the faith and having patience with them.

So he's talking about Christians loving Christians.

You know, believe it or not, we've all been weak in our faith.

We've all been infants in the faith when we first came to Jesus Christ.

And at times, we've all believed things that were wrong about God.

I know I sure have.

I'm sure everybody could raise their hand and say, oh yeah, there's I used to believe this about God, but then the word set me straight, you know, with whatever that might be.

And all of us have some theology that needs to be created, needs to be corrected.

Every single one of us has something that we believe because nobody understands the Bible perfectly.

That's something for the rest of our lives we're gonna be digging into and understanding.

But we what we can so easily fall into, and this is really what Paul's heart is, I believe, is the arrogance of judging weak Christians.

Because maybe they're not as informed as we are.

Or maybe they believe something that we don't believe, and we can start looking down on those people.

But what Paul is saying is we need to welcome those that are weak in faith and have an abundance of patience with those people, with those that may lack maturity, that are having issues trusting God, maybe, that have never read the Bible for themselves, maybe.

Those that are struggling with a concept, maybe it's heaven or hell or homosexuality or whatever it might be, and they're wrestling with those things and they don't fully understand God's view on it.

Or maybe it's people that are deceived with some strange theology that they heard about or they read about in some way.

We're to welcome those people in, and we should be excited that they're at a church that is teaching God's word.

Because really, what better place is there for those weak Christians than to be here hearing God's word and being loved by a community of mature believers?

And then what does Paul say?

He says, then don't argue about disputed matters specifically with those people.

So I think that begs the question: what is a disputed matter?

It's really anything that we can choose to do or not do as Christians.

Anything that is not clearly defined as sin or not sin within Scripture.

And it's usually where, you know, one Christian can do something with a clear conscience, and another cannot do that same thing with a clear conscience.

You know, I think what Paul's saying here is if all you can find in common with that person is Christ and Him crucified, let's just keep talking about Christ and Him crucified.

And be glad that they're here at this church in a place where they're going to hear God's word and they're going to see God's love.

Because in a group this size, we're going to have differing opinions.

We're going to have differing convictions about a lot of different things.

And that's okay, because our goal isn't to get each other to all think the same.

Our goal isn't to make everybody think the same way that we do, and that includes me.

That is not my goal when I get up here and teach on Sunday mornings.

My goal is to teach the word in such a way that you can come to your own conclusion and make your own decisions through the lens of Scripture with the help of the Holy Spirit as your teacher.

Our goal, my goal, I should say too, is to first walk by the Spirit ourselves and then encourage others to do the same.

Because if someone has some gnarly theology that God wants to change, he'll do it.

And he'll do the convicting.

And he'll do it in his timing through the work of the Holy Spirit.

And he may use you or me to help show them that scripture.

I think of Matthew 18 and the whole process within that.

But it has to be done in God's timing, and it has to be done through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

And it has to be filled with grace and with humility.

Because if we do it in pride, or if we approach some person to confront them based on legalism, or we do it outside of God's timing, I guarantee that'll end up in an argument over disputed matters, as Paul's talking about here.

Or they'll just leave.

And then that someone that is weak in faith won't get a chance to hear the Bible taught.

And they won't get a chance to experience what real Christian community looks like.

Because they leave and they never come back.

Look at verse 2.

One person believes he may eat anything, while one who is weak eats only vegetables.

You know, a big dispute that we see throughout the New Testament is whether people could rightfully eat meat that was offered to idols.

And then we also see other instances where Jews were struggling with whether they could eat meat that was deemed unkosher in the past, but now it's okay.

And their conscience was struggling with whether they can do that or not.

You know, Paul really gets deep into this topic, a lot deeper than we get here in Romans, in 1 Corinthians 8.

And in 1 Corinthians 8, he's talking about, even though it was now lawful to eat any meat, if somebody coming from a Jewish faith, for instance, was struggling with eating meat offered to an idol, Paul says, don't stumble them with asking them to do something that is against their conscience.

And don't even dispute with them about it.

And if they're around, why don't you just abstain from it as well?

Just so that you don't stumble somebody that's weaker in the faith.

And really the heart behind this is so that the one with a stricter conscience can focus on the more important things that they should be focusing on.

Like getting to know God better.

Like getting to understand his word better.

And then God will take care of the little things like their conscience and their diet, you know, and things like that as they begin to mature more and more in the faith.

You know, I find it interesting, though, that Paul calls the more legalistic Christian here with the stricter conscience, he calls them the ones that are weaker in the faith in verse 2.

You know, I think oftentimes we can get that backwards.

You know, we can think of a stricter conscience as being more mature.

But that's not how God sees it.

And Paul tells us that right here.

So Paul says, just don't talk about those things and end up in these disputes between yourselves.

Like I said, if all the common ground that we have with somebody in this church is Christ and Him crucified, just keep talking about Christ and Him crucified.

Keep loving that person and allowing the Holy Spirit to do the convicting in their life.

Look at verse 3 with me.

One who eats must not look down on, your translation might say despise, one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him.

What we're going to be looking at here is really convictions and freedoms.

That's what we're gonna this is gonna come down to.

Convictions being where your conscience is saying, I'm not comfortable with this, so therefore I'm going to abstain from doing whatever it might be.

And freedoms being places in your life that you can do certain things that other Christians can't without their conscience being stumbled.

So you have freedoms in areas that other Christians might not.

For instance, I think of like secular music, and I'm not talking about like foul mouth secular music, just secular music.

Some Christians can listen to it and it doesn't affect them.

It's like, oh yeah, whatever, no big deal.

Others listen to it and then they get stumbled by whatever music that might be because it might remind them of their past.

It might remind them of the things that they used to do, might bring up emotions and memories that arise within them, or might make them think of back to their drug days or their alcoholic days or when they were being overly promiscuous.

Well, I guess not over, just being promiscuous.

Gotta be careful there.

So Paul gives us two words or phrases regarding both sides here.

The two words or phrases that we need to look at are look down on and judge.

And if you highlight and underline your Bible, those are the two words or phrases that you want to highlight and underline.

Look down on and judge.

So look down on, which means to utterly despise.

And this is talking about in this context.

It's talking about the Christian with a freedom.

And how they must not look down on or despise the one that has the conviction and is abstaining from whatever it might be.

Because according to 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 2, right here, the one with the freedom is the one that is the more mature believer in Christ.

So the one with the freedom, do not despise the less mature.

And like I said, the second word here is judge.

And this is regarding judging whether something is right or wrong specifically for another person.

Telling another Christian, hey, what you're doing is sin, when in reality the Bible doesn't say that is sin.

And this is talking about the less mature Christian that has a strong conviction on whatever it might be, judging the more mature Christian.

And I think in our culture, we have a hard time wrapping our head around Paul's example here in our modern context, because this isn't talking about when he's talking about this meat and whether you eat it or not, he's not talking about vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

This is talking about people's consciences being convicted about eating meat that was offered to idols.

Which we don't really have to worry about too much in our grocery stores today, do we?

Like, was this one offered to an idol?

How about, you know, it's like that doesn't even cross our mind when we go into the grocery store.

But I think a modern-day version of this would probably be talking about alcohol.

Yep, I'm opening that can of worms.

Because it's very applicable right here, and I think it's something we can relate to a lot more.

You know, the Bible clearly says, do not get drunk.

There's no question that it says that.

That is sin.

That's not what we're talking about here.

We're going to talk about, because you know, this is wine country that we're in.

We're going to talk about a glass of wine with dinner.

Okay?

For some sitting here today, that would be sin if you did that.

Because maybe you have a history with alcohol.

And this would open up just a huge can of worms for you if you were even tempted in that way.

Or maybe you have an addictive personality and you know you just have to stay away from it.

You can't have it in the house.

You can't even go out to dinner with people that are ordering it.

And then for some of you, having a glass of wine with dinner would not be simple.

You've never had an issue with alcohol.

You've never abused it.

Maybe you've never been drunk.

You have no temptation to get drunk.

And you have no temptation then to have it, you know, maybe a couple times a month or something like that.

Now, with that scenario, I want to plug that into verse 3 and see how it reads.

One who drinks a glass of wine must not look down on one who does not drink a glass of wine.

And one who does not drink a glass of wine must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him.

You know, I think that hits home in our culture just a little bit closer than the whole meat debate that Paul was bringing up.

You know, our problem is we would like everybody to have the same convictions that we do.

Really?

I mean, isn't that what it comes down to?

We're just, it would be so much easier if everybody just believed the same things I did, had the same convictions that I do, and then, oh man, it'd be so much better.

And I think what happens is we want to start taking on this attitude of, you know, well, if I can't have it, then nobody should.

Or if I can practice this freedom, then everybody should.

You know, and me, maybe not having wine actually makes me a bit more spiritual when you think about it.

Or it could be on the other side.

Well, because of my freedoms, that actually makes me a more mature believer.

But if you have those freedoms, let me repeat this, you better not stumble the weaker brother or sister with whatever that freedom might be.

You know, I really think Paul is saying here, just don't have those conversations.

And definitely let's not argue or debate over those things.

And you may be asking at this point, well, then, why don't we just abstain from everything that's a gray area?

Wouldn't that just make it way easier if we just all just said if it's a gray area, we're just not gonna do it?

Well, then my question is, well, then who gets to decide what a gray area is?

You know, and I've never seen that approach of just everything that's a gray area, we're not gonna do it.

I've never seen that lead to a healthy church culture.

You know, near where I grew up, there was a church, I don't know if we can call it a church, we might want to call it a cult, actually.

Um, but some of my friends were forced to go to this church by their parents, and I knew them pretty well, so I kind of had the inside scoop on what happened at this church.

And the pastors and elders would show up at their congregants' houses to do surprise inspections, to see if they had a TV in their house, to see if they had alcohol in their cabinets, to see if they had secular music in the home.

All because someone in leadership had strong convictions on those things, and decided that the whole church needed to have strong convictions on those same exact things.

And then decided if other churches, and I'm not joking here, it was really bad, they decided if other churches didn't have those same convictions, that they were evil and that they were not really Christians, including the church that I grew up in, because of the freedoms that other Christians had that they didn't because of the leadership.

And what it does in effect when leaders do this is it eliminates the role of the Holy Spirit to convict.

Instead of allowing the individual congregant to walk by the Spirit and allowing God to do his conviction in his timing with each one of those congregants.

You know, the leadership in essence in this church was saying, you know, we don't trust you to listen to the Holy Spirit, so we'll Usurp that role in your life and will tell you what you need to be convicted about.

And then they would show up and then they would do their surprise inspections of the congregants in their houses.

You know, I think Paul's heart here in these first three verses is that there's so many more productive things that we can be doing and we can be focusing on other than questioning each other's convictions and debating each other on non-salvific issues.

I think Paul's saying, hey, let's worry about the plank that's in our own eye before we start to concern ourselves with the sliver that is in our brother or sister's eyes.

Verse 4.

Who are you to judge another's household servant?

Before his own Lord he stands or falls, and he will stand because the Lord is able to make him stand.

So these household servants that are mentioned here is referring to every Christian in the household or the kingdom of God.

And I think Paul's heart is who are we to place ourselves in God's place as judge and then judge a servant of God, another servant of God?

Because that's not our job.

It's our job to love other servants and to play into a place of deeper surrender to God.

Again, the exception are those living in sin that are under church discipline.

But even still, that discipline is to be carried out by church leadership through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as Matthew 18 says, and not by individuals.

Individuals can approach, but the actual church discipline needs to take place by the leaders of the church.

And it reminds me of what Billy Graham used to so famously say.

He used to say, it's the Holy Spirit's job to convict, it's God's job to judge, and it's my job to love.

Because as it says right here in verse 4, before his own Lord he stands or falls.

So if whoever it is that we're tempted to judge already has God as their perfect judge.

You know, the only one that really knows their heart.

Paul is telling this group that it's not your job.

They already have a judge over them.

They have a perfect judge over them.

Let God do his job.

Paul isn't telling this group to all become the same.

He's telling them to set aside their differences and not judge each other and live, and he's encouraging them to live in unity through what they have in common.

And what they have in common are the big issues that do have to do with salvation.

He's saying, focus on those things.

And if there's anything that could be disputed, just don't talk about it.

It's just not that important.

Look at verse 5.

One person judges one day to be more important than another day.

Someone else judges every day to be the same.

Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind.

You know, the Jewish faith saw Saturday, the Sabbath, as the day to worship.

And then the church comes along after Jesus' ascension, and we choose to worship on Sunday because that's the day that Jesus was raised from the dead.

And these people over here, they celebrate this religious holiday, but these people over here, they don't celebrate this religious holiday, and back and forth, and there's all these differences.

But what Paul's saying is what does matter, as we'll see in verse 6, is that whatever you're doing, that you're doing it to honor the Lord.

Look at verse 6.

Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord.

Whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God.

And whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat it, and he gives thanks to God.

So whatever your convictions are in all of these areas, and every other area as well, just make sure the conviction is for the purpose of honoring God.

And not for building yourself up, not for the sake of legalism, or to make us feel more holy, as if we can do that through our own works.

I think the biggest thing here is to not do anything for the sake of our pride.

You know, anything that makes us feel like, well, you know, this makes me feel superior and self-righteous, therefore I'll worship on Saturday, or I'll abstain from meat altogether.

I won't drink, and I won't watch movies that are stronger than PG, or I won't, you know, fill in the blank.

If you abstain from anything, it better be for the glory of God and nothing else.

And definitely not because we want to maintain a feeling of superiority.

Definitely not because we want the approval of somebody else that's overly legalistic.

Look at verse 7.

For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself.

If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord.

Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Now, as Paul's been talking about over the last 13 chapters of Romans that we've been going through, we see this theme that we need to remove the word self from the equation of holiness.

Because we no longer live, but Christ lives in us.

And the life we now live in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.

You know, Paul also talks about this in Philippians 1, verses 21 through 24.

Philippians 1:21–24

He says, For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Now, if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me.

And I don't know which one I should choose.

I'm torn between the two.

I long to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

Paul so clearly understood that his life was not his own life.

He understood that living and dying were going to be for God's glory, and he committed his life to that.

And not for Paul's own selfish purposes.

His life and his death would be for the purpose of God's kingdom.

Look at verse 9.

Christ died and returned to life for this, that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living.

So not just those in heaven, but Lord now over the living.

That's why it says in verse 7, none of us live for ourselves.

Paul, for the last three chapters, is still talking about what it looks like to be a living sacrifice, to live a life that is wholly dedicated to God's kingdom.

Verse 10.

But you, why do you judge your brother or sister?

Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?

For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

You know, when we try to help God be God, you know how we often do, it never ends well.

And it usually just ends up with us hurting people.

And we just end up feeling self-righteous in the end.

As we put ourselves in the judgment seat of God, that is mentioned at the end of verse 10.

But we never rightfully sit in that seat.

But one day we will stand before that throne, and God will be the one in that seat, and we're going to be judged for our works at that time.

1 Corinthians 3 11 talks about this, and I'll read it to you.

For one, for no one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid down.

That foundation is Jesus Christ.

If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become obvious.

For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire.

The fire will test the quality of each one's work.

If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward.

If anyone's work is burned up, he will experience loss.

But he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Our good works will survive that fire, and we will be rewarded for those things.

Because this is a reference by Paul to the Bima seat, where Olympic athletes would be rewarded their crowns for victory after the Games.

Similarly, we're going to be judged and rewarded for our good works as well.

But our works that were corrupted by our flesh are going to be burned up.

And notice this isn't about salvation.

This isn't about anything else.

This is just about works that we're talking about here.

Even if your works are burned up, it says here that you will still be saved.

So when Paul mentions his judgment seat, this is what he's talking about.

A seat that only God sits in.

But a seat that we often ask him, hey, can you scooch over a little bit?

I think you need a little help here, God.

Let me help you out.

But here's the question we have to ask ourselves.

Do we want to be judged in the same way that we judge others?

Matthew 7, 1 through 5 says this, do not judge, so that you won't be judged.

For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others.

And you will be measured by the same measure you use.

Why do you look at the splinter in your brother's eye, but don't notice the beam of wood in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the splinter out of your eye, and look, there's a beam of wood in your own eye.

Hypocrite, first take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.

You know, I think this is the only time in Scripture that we're told to be self-focused and not others focused.

And it's in evaluating and judging our own sin in our own life.

For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, as it says right here.

But praise God for Romans 8:1, that we went through probably about a month ago.

Romans 8:1

There is now no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

Look at verse 11 with me.

For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God.

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

And this is from Isaiah 45, 23, if you want to turn back and read that during the week.

But it's just a humble reminder that everyone will bow before God and give an account for themselves.

And that's it.

Just for themselves and nobody else.

The last thing God needs is other believers giving an account for somebody else.

I think we all know the story of Peter denying Jesus three times, right?

Hopefully.

And after Jesus' resurrection in John 21, Jesus restores Peter.

And you probably know the story where he says, Peter, do you love me?

Feed my sheep.

And they go through that three different times.

And Peter is restored.

And then immediately after, Peter points to the apostle John, who also abandoned Jesus, and he says, What about that guy?

What are you going to do with that guy?

And I love Jesus' words.

He says, What is that to you?

As for you, you follow me.

Don't worry about John.

Peter, I just restored you.

You should just be so thankful that you're restored right now.

But now all of a sudden you're so concerned about this other disciple over here.

I think Jesus is telling Peter, don't worry about how I'm dealing with anyone else, Peter.

You just follow me.

Keep your eyes on me, Peter.

Don't worry about how I restore John.

You just worry about your relationship with me.

Keep your eyes on me, Peter.

And I really think that that is our takeaway today.

For us to take home with us and to think on during the week.

For our own personal application.

Jesus' words to Peter are words that we need, I think, on a daily basis.

As for you, follow me.

So I think that's the question.

How are we doing with that?

How are we doing following Jesus and keeping our eyes fixed on him and not on others?

Are we comparing ourselves to Jesus Christ and realizing that we fall short every day?

Or are we comparing ourselves to other Christians and saying, well, at least I'm better than they are?

When we're abiding in Christ, I think they're, I think of that kind of a scale in my head of when we first come to Christ, we think of our sin, you know, maybe as not as serious as we should be.

But then we see others sinning, it's like, oh man, these sins are heinous over here.

I can't believe that these people are doing those things.

But then I think as we mature, we realize that our own sin, as we talked about at the very beginning, is the most heinous sin that we can think of.

And we're not even paying attention to this sin over here because we're so concerned that we're falling short daily.

And then we see these people over here, and we just have a love and a compassion and a heart of restoration for these people, and a heart to see those people come to a deeper, abiding relationship with Jesus Christ so that their maturity can grow.

And we start asking ourselves, not like what are they doing that's that's awful and judging them, but asking, okay, God, how can I help that person?

How can I love that person?

How can I help build that person up in the faith as well so that they can mature as well?

You know, Paul called himself the chief of sinners.

He understood this concept.

He knew that his own sin in his own life was the worst sin that he could think of.

And he knew that who he was was the chief of all sinners.

He considered himself the worst of all sinners.

He understood this.

And I think we need to come to that same realization as well.

And that's when I think we're we'll start seeing more and more unity within the body when we start judging each other and when we start loving each other, when we stop worrying about the disputed matters, and we start worrying about are we abiding in Christ as closely as we can?

And are we discipling others to do the same?

Let's pray.

God, I thank you so much.

This is a hard scripture.

I'm I'm convicted.

We're just hearing it and reading these words and studying it this uh this week, Lord.

We we make it so easy to elevate ourselves.

But Lord, help us to see how heinous our own sin is, where we fall short, where we are weak in faith.

Lord, I pray that you would be the one that does the work.

You would be the one doing the convicting and the building up and the judging, Lord, and we would just let you do your job.

Lord, we realize there are times where you ask us to be involved with that process, never of judgment, Lord, but that process of maybe calling a brother or sister out, um, of restoring an individual that's been living in sin that wants to come back into the fold.

We realize you use us in those situations, but Lord, I pray we would only jump into those situations by the guidance of your Holy Spirit in your timing, and because you've given us clear direction to do so.

And when we do, Lord, I pray that we do it with all grace and humility that can only come from you.

Lord, would you do that work in our lives?

Would you show us how to live as a united body of Christ here in Atascadero?

And I pray that we would flourish in that, that people would come through those doors and that they would feel welcome, that they would know that there is a God and that you're it and you're the only one, and that they would desire to come into that relationship with you.

Lord, bring people that we can love.

Bring we Christians that we can help build up.

Bring people that don't follow you, that need to hear the gospel, need to hear your word taught.

Lord, bring those people we pray and help us to receive them well and to love them well.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.