The Bigger Picture
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning!
Good Morning!
Turn to your neighbor and tell them your in the right place.
Welcome to Freedom Chapel. My name is Pastor Terry and I am the lead Pastor here at Freedom Chapel. If you are new with us this this morning thank you for joining us. Please fill out the welcome card in your bulletin or online by using the QR Code
Our mission as a church is to bring Hope to our community. We do that by being a Place to Belong, Church for the Whole Family. We want every person who attends here to have the opportunity to Know God, Find Freedom, Discover Purpose, and to Go out and Make a Difference.
Chris and Sarah Geeseka with Church Mobilization.
Chris and Sarah Geeseka with Church Mobilization.
Offering
Offering
Turn with me to Romans chapter 14.
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.
15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.
16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.
21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
The title of today’s is the bigger picture.
As we have been reading through Chapters 12, 13 and now 14 we need to see that Paul is framing this entire portion of the letter around this idea that we should live within the the confines of a “by the mercys of God mentality”
By the Mercies of God Mentality
By the Mercies of God Mentality
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
As I continue to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us into all the God has called us to Paul then goes on to lay out this mercies of God mentality.
Which is to say since the Creator of all that is and was and will be showed me mercy I ought to set my sights on the things that please him. I want to see the Bigger Picture.
So today as we dive into Chapter 14 we are going to look at it from a since I was shown mercy lens. There are three distinct Bigger Picture Themes lined out in Chapter 14.
1. Love Others
1. Love Others
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Paul starts out by simply saying stop judging each other.
He starts with those of weaker faith
Romans 14:1 (ESV)
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
He then moves on to food. When you have a church full of a mixture of Jews and Gentiles we are going to have arguments when it comes to food and what is allowable to eat.
Romans 14:3 (ESV)
3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
This considered an area of conscience.
Area of Conscience - is an issue where there is no explicit command in Scripture but is where a person should apply the general teaching of the gospel in order to come to a decision on what is right or wrong.
Area of Conscience - is an issue where there is no explicit command in Scripture but is where a person should apply the general teaching of the gospel in order to come to a decision on what is right or wrong.
What I have found in my walk with God is that the more I am transformed the more areas of conscience begin to come up in my life.
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
So let’s look at how this works when it comes to Romans.
Romans 14:14 (NLT)
14 I know and am convinced on the authority of the Lord Jesus that no food, in and of itself, is wrong to eat.
But if someone believes it is wrong, then for that person it is wrong.
We have this issue in the church of trying to force our areas of conscience on to others.
One would think it would end here. You do you and I will do me but like everything in the new testament Paul dials it up another notch.
Don’t Judge each other But..........
Romans 14:15 (ESV)
15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.
Romans 14:20–21 (ESV)
20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.
21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
If I know my brother is offended by pork I am not going to walk around in front of him with a plate full of bacon.
If the Bigger Picture is Loving Others I abstain from the things that cause them to stumble in front of them.
1 Corinthians 8:13 (NLT)
13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.
If the Bigger Picture is Loving Others than:
Romans 14:13 (NLT)
13 So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.
Romans 14:19 (ESV)
19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Which leads me to my next point. The Bigger Picture of the By Mercies of God Mentality should be to Honor God in all I do.
2. Honor God
2. Honor God
4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
You do not Honor God by passing judgement on each other.
Paul is basically saying here “You don’t own them”
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
You are going to be judged for being judgemental.
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
What we need to realize is that God has it covered. I Honor him by loving my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and trusting that God is Sovereign enough to correct their actions.
4 Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God’s welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.
So that means I can live my life anyway I want and no body can judge me right. That is not at all what Paul is saying.
Romans 14:10b (ESV)
For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
One of my favorite line to use when fellow Christians try to give me excuses for why they are acting or feeling about a situation is simply this. “If you were having this conversation with Jesus would it hold up?”
Do my Excuses Honor God?
Do my Excuses Honor God?
Romans 14:17–19 (NLT)
17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18 If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too.
19 So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.
Lastly when I begin to look at the Bigger Picture of living wit a “by the mercies of God mentality”.
I choose to Live By Faith.
3. Live by Faith
3. Live by Faith
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Faith through the Guidance of the Holy Spirit leads to a conscience led by by faith not fear.