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Romans 9-16

Applying Righteousness: Towards Others/Selflessness

Mitchell Holmes · Sunday, 23 November 2025 · Romans 14:1-15:13 · 28:35 · 5,002 words

Romans S31 · 14:1-15:13

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

welcome 26 pokemon 8 sister 13 game 12 divide 8 eat 15 conviction 9 play 10 opinion 7 brother 12 abstain 5 servant 8

Topics

Salvation 2 Judgment 2 The Weaker Brother 1 Freedom 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 The Holy Spirit 1 Conscience 1 Unity 1 Righteousness 1 Faith 1

Scripture referenced 15

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 12 13:51 Romans 13 13:51 Romans 14 13:57 Romans 14:13-23 14:43 Romans 14:13 14:43 Galatians 5:13 17:57 Galatians 5:16-17 18:04 Romans 14:19 18:49 Romans 12:18 18:56 Romans 12:20 20:15 Romans 15 22:38 Romans 15:1 22:47 Romans 12:1 23:25 John 13 25:04 Romans 14 26:44

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

not to tolerate those around us, not to endure our brothers and sisters, not to just pacify them and

be like, okay, fine, do what you got to. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, no, you need

to welcome them. The root language there is we need to embrace them. It's as if he's saying we

need to include them. He says it so strongly that we need to draw them in. If they're an outsider

because of their beliefs, we need to draw them in. I'll tell you what, growing up, so I'm the oldest

of four. The other three are all girls, and my sisters will tell you I was not very good at

welcoming them, okay? I'd be playing a game. My favorite game was Star Wars Battlefront, and I was

a big Star Wars guy. I mentioned that already. I'd be playing Star Wars Battlefront, and my sister,

the same little twerp, you know, she'd come up and be like, hey, can I play Star Wars with you?

And I'd be like, what? I don't want to split the screen because then it's, you know, I have half

the field of view. I'm trying to kill battle droids, you know, like, let me do this. And my mom would say,

no, let her play. And I'd be like, fine. Actually, we both control the same trooper. So here's your

controller, plugged into nothing, and we're going to both, we're both going to play. Yeah, that's so

crazy. Good shot, good shot. And we play, and she had no idea I was playing, not her, you know.

I was not very welcoming. I was not very welcoming. I tolerated. I endured it. She complained, and

she threw a fit. My mom made me. I did not want to welcome her.

Now, the weak here, Paul's not trying to put people down. He's not trying to say,

ah, you're weak if you don't eat meat. You're, you're, you're clueless. You don't have any

idea what's going on. He's not trying to put anyone down. He's saying, hey, there are people

out there. He uses the word weak to talk about people who have sensitive consciences and

convictions. Often, these are former Jews who've been raised their whole lives with a set of,

of strict rules to follow. So they would avoid these, these certain foods. They would observe,

the Sabbath. Their convictions were sincere. Their love for God is real, but their conscience

is fragile. And Paul says, we need to welcome these people, not to fight about differing

opinions, not to say, oh, you can't eat meat. Like, that's crazy. Like, not to fight about

these differing opinions, he says, but to welcome them and love on them as a brother and sister

in Christ. Now, some things that if we were to disagree about, I would say, whoa, what are we

on salvation? It's a big deal. If we disagree on the gospel, it's a big deal. But some disagreements

are not about salvation. They're not about holiness. Some of them are unique convictions

to us. They become about our preferences, our traditions, our backgrounds, our, our thoughts.

And there is a big difference between these things. Now, we, we look back and we're like,

what the early church was fighting about, whether you could eat meat or not. Like, how foolish can

you be? But we do the same thing today. If we were to look at some things that churches are

dividing us from, we would say, oh, we're not fighting about this. We're not fighting about

this. We're dividing over. I'm just going to list a few for you. Whether or not Christians can go to

the theater, how much cosmetics we can take part in, how much alcohol we can drink, whether we can

smoke tobacco, playing cards, dancing, fashion, Bible translation, sports, music, material wealth.

These are all things that churches right now are currently dividing over. And some are dividing

over way sillier things than this. Some of them can't decide what carpet to put in, and they're

all over the planet. There are churches that are dividing over the smallest things, such as what

instruments we play in worship, the carpet on the ground, whether or not we're going to have this

sign or that sign out front. There are churches that are dividing over this. The idea here that

Paul's trying to hammer is he's saying, hey, there are those out there that have certain Christian

freedoms and we can't push them away. They cannot be condescended to for their beliefs. Specifically,

he's talking to the weak Christian there. He says,

while the weak, you guys have to be careful not to box people into a corner and start to think,

well, surely that guy is not a very good Christian. Surely that person doesn't follow Christ very well

because they do or don't do X, Y, or Z. I heard that so-and-so smokes a cigar every once in a

while. Let's not be a very good Christian. It happens. We have to avoid both of these things,

the temptation to look down and the temptation to judge. Now, the easy solution, as I mentioned

already, would be to divide.

Divide the church to split into two. I say it's easy as if that isn't full of heartache and

division and all these things, but that would be the easy solution. Instead, Paul's pushing us to

do something far more noble and far more difficult. He's saying, put those petty differences aside

and unite. Unite and be a strong front for the Lord. Verse number three, let me reread it. It

says this,

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. Now, here's the part

I want to focus on. For God has welcomed him. So in saying why, I believe that smoking a cigar is

terrible. We shouldn't be doing that. That is your personal conviction, but we cannot then push

someone away who does, because it says God has welcomed him. If God has welcomed someone in

Christ, this would be my question to you, what right do I have to withhold my welcome? And here's

the question. Where do you find yourself wanting to correct someone when God has simply said,

I want you to welcome them? Where do you find yourself wanting to correct someone when all God

has called us to is to be welcoming? Now, in verse four, he starts to pivot. Actually, I'm sorry,

before I get into that, I've got to share one more story. So growing up, my favorite game was

Pokemon, okay? If you don't know, I mean, I bet a lot of you do know, but if you don't know,

the concept of the game is you try and capture these creatures that are in the game, and you

have special powers, you throw a ball at them, it captures them, and then you can throw the ball

again to re-release them into the wild to fight against other creatures, and you try and level

them up and stuff like that, okay? And I remember when I was a kid, the internet wasn't super

available like it is now. So I didn't know that in my version of the game, there were certain

Pokemon that I simply could not catch, that didn't exist in my game. The idea was, tell your friend

to buy the other version, and then trade with each other, right? So I didn't know that in my version

of the game, all right? So that's marketing 101 for you. And so I, and I remember being furious. I

would hunt for hours and hours every day to try and find a certain Pokemon, like, oh, this Pokemon's

so cool. Unbeknownst to me, it didn't exist in my game. And so then the day came where I'm roaming

around, and this character in the game says, hey, I want to battle you. And I'm like, okay, I mean,

let's battle. And so I battle him, and out comes this Pokemon that I wanted. And so I tried to

his Pokemon, and I'm like, give me your Pokemon, because I want that Pokemon. And I mean, I was

probably seven, and I, I just remember being blinded with rage when the game was like, that's

against the rules. You can't steal someone else's guy. And I'm like, what? I want that Pokemon,

though. And I just remember being so upset, like, give me, I want this guy, all right? Give him to

me. Even though he belongs to someone else, I don't care. Give him to me. And I just remember

being so mad. So as we move into verse four here, Paul's going to address, he's going to

say, hey, I need you to remember, you are not these people's master. You don't get to exert

authority over them, right? In the same way that I, you know, that was someone else's guy. I had

no authority to tell him what to do and make him mine, right? Paul's, let me read it in verse four.

He's going to say that you are not their master. 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. Verse five.

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. 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, gives thanks to God. Or the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives

thanks to God. I missed a line there. Now, reminder, we are not each other's masters. Christ is our master.

Christ is your master.

So who am I, as a servant of Almighty God, to say, actually, I feel I'm going to give you orders on

this matter? Christ also, later in verse four, it says, sustains his people. Thank goodness for that,

because it is not the preacher's call to sustain the people. It's not Pastor Justin's call to

sustain God's people. And it's not your call to sustain God's people. Christ does that. This is a

role that convicts others. I continued into verse five and six, and these verses remind us that these

convictions can be different, and yet we can both honor God. Kent Hughes is a pastor and commentator.

He says this. He says, it's possible to have two people with completely opposing viewpoints and

both be in right standing before God. If instead of asking the question, how could you possibly

not land on the same decision that I made? How could you possibly not agree? Instead of asking

the question, was your decision made out of a desire to honor Jesus? And if the answer is yes,

let us welcome them. First Corinthians 1031 hammers this home a little bit differently. It says,

whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whatever it is that you

do, whatever your personal convictions are, whatever it is that you have been called to do,

make it so that you are doing that to honor God. There are going to be people who have different

about the decision that you've made. If it's not a sin issue, if it's not a gospel issue,

if it's not about being set apart and holy, then welcome them. Verses seven through nine reinforces

this. It says this, for none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. 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. For this end, for to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord

to the dead and of the living. We belong to Christ. Our salvation is in him. Our salvation

is not in our convictions. Our salvation is not in the checklist. This is why Jesus came so strongly

against the Pharisees. He's like, I don't care. I don't care that you prayed on this day versus

that day. I don't care whether you eat this meat or that meat. I don't care. Follow me.

Our salvation is in Jesus, not in our convictions.

Not in the letter of the law. Verse number 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,

for it is written, and he quotes the Old Testament, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to

me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

This reminds us that our duty is, instead of looking out at everyone around us saying, oh my

different opinion than me, I can't. Instead, it's saying, focus on your walk with the Lord. Keep your

feet on the path in front of you and walk because each of us has to make an account for ourselves

on judgment day, not for how highly we held other people to our standards. On judgment day, it's

going to be about our decisions, not them. Prepare our hearts for the day that we're going to stand

before Almighty Christ in heaven. When you stand before Jesus, is he going to be more concerned

about your opinions on secondary matters? Is he going to be more concerned about your opinions

on secondary matters or the posture of your heart towards loving your brother and sister? My sister,

when she came in and wanted to watch that movie, I will tell you, it ruined the movie for me. That's

how upset I was. Now, do I think I was justified? Yes, but it ruined the movie for me, okay? It

ruined the movie for me. How sweet would it have been if my 17-year-old brain had been able to say,

hey, this isn't right. I'm going to enjoy a movie with my sister. How much sweeter would that have

been? Kent Hughes, again, he says this,

he says this whole section of scripture is part of an extended commentary on the command of Jesus

to love one another. And this has been the subject since Paul began the practical section of the

letter. In chapter 12, we saw that the nature of love is to serve. Chapter 13, we discovered that

love must be submissive. And here in chapter 14, we learn that love must be patient and tolerant

of other people's views. Who cares who's right or wrong? If it's not a sin issue, it's not about

gospel. Who cares?

Who cares? Be united. This first point, the first point that Paul is hammering for us is to be

united. Specifically, I put, welcome one another without quarreling was point one. Be united. It

ought to be said of Christ's people that we are the most unified human beings on the planet. We

should be unified because the gospel alone lets us walk lock and step with one another towards

the ultimate goal of reaching lost souls, then gathering and growing together as we grow closer

Be unified, Paul says. There are some things that are worth dying over. There are others, many, many others that are not. Give those things up. Who cares who's right and wrong and walk together. The second point, he pivots slightly in verses 13 through 23. The second point is to walk in love, not as a stumbling block. Verse 13, Paul says this, 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. I know when I'm

persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks

it unclean. 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. So here he pivots ever so slightly. Previously

saying, welcome them regardless of opinion differences. And now he's saying, but also

recognize we have a duty to be mindful that our actions as we walk like this and take these steps

we also have to be able to look up and look at those around us every once in a while and be able

to say, hey, the way I'm walking is hurting someone around me. I have to be careful not to be a

stumbling block or a hindrance. My actions affect those around me. So we have a responsibility of

avoiding the stumbling blocks. We have a responsibility to ask ourselves the question,

is my behavior helping them follow Jesus or is it making it harder for them? When they look at me,

what are they doing? What are they doing to me? What are they doing to me? What are they doing to

me? What are they seeing? Because it's possible to be completely 100% theologically sound in our

opinion that we've made for ourselves, to be executing it in our Christian freedom and be

perfectly correct and yet still not be very loving. It says if they are grieved by what we eat and by

extension, anything we do, then we are not being loving. If you invite someone over to, to, to

fellowship with them and they're recovering alcoholic and you pour a glass of wine for

yourself, is that the wisest thing to do in that moment? Is that the loving thing to do in that

moment? Is that the loving thing to do? You can be executing your Christian freedom flawlessly. You

can have a conviction that, hey, I enjoy a glass of wine every once in a while. And you may be able

to do that on your own. But if by doing so you place a stumbling block or a hindrance in front

of your brother, you are not walking in love. Someone else put it this way. They said, you may

have the freedom to eat peanuts, but if your child is allergic to peanuts, would you not

prioritize their safety over your desire to eat peanuts in order that you can love them

well? In the same way, in our Christian walks, we show our maturity. This is what you guys have

been talking about for three weeks now. We show our maturity by not how much freedom we insist on

having, but how much of it we're willing to let go of in the name of loving our brother and sister

and honoring God. A different pastor and commentator, he says this,

our Christian lives must be salted with a refusal to do anything that will harm the

spiritual life of a weaker brother. Galatians 5.13 says, do not use your freedom as an opportunity

for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. Verses 16, 17, 18, and 19 say this.

So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter

of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus

serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace

and for mutual upbuilding. The Christian church is not built on our ability to agree about every

little thing. Each of these debatable issues,

we're not going to agree, and thank goodness the church isn't built on that. Instead, we are to be

a mutually unified front that agrees on righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit.

It is to be rooted on the gospel. Verse 19, again, it pushes us to pursue peace,

not avoid conflict, not run from discussion, but to pursue peace. Romans 12.18 says,

if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. The push here is to

constantly be looking for ways to chase after mutual uplifting of one another. Again, that

doesn't mean that you can't disagree. That doesn't mean you can't have discussion,

but look to push one another up and be uplifting. I once heard it said that the process of pursuing

peace must be much like a stonemason, as they take each brick and carefully lay it,

and they've mapped out in their mind how each of these things are going to build on one another

to make it structurally sound, so every interaction within the church strengthens,

the unity of the body, or weakens it. If we are not being calculated about where we lay our bricks

with our actions, if we're not being calculated about whether or not it hurts the foundation

or helps it, we risk being disunified. It's not about our external beings, but our eternal beings.

If we start to think like the Pharisees and elevate the external at the cost of neglecting

our personal, internal, or eternal things, we're missing the point of what Paul is saying here.

And as he wraps up the chapter,

he says this in verse 20,

for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. He ends by pushing us to be hyper aware of the fact

that we like to be right. We like to be right. And in an effort to pursue being right, oftentimes

we're okay with tearing something down that Christ was building up all in the name of winning an

argument. Maybe you're better than me, but man, I felt that a lot when I was reading it. There was

a time, different sister this time, I guess I should have told my sisters they're such a heavy

part of this message.

So there was a time, we had a rule in the house, you get 30 minutes of screen time. And my sister

and I wanted the same one. And I was like, man, I'm so loving, you can go first, okay? And then

I started a timer for 30 minutes. And I remember walking in and being like, spend 30 minutes. And

she's like, yeah, okay, there's two minutes left in the episode. And this is how much of a jerk I

was. I walked over and ejected the disc because I'm like, no, the rule is 30 minutes. It's time

for Star Wars Battlefront, okay?

I'm going to play my game.

You had your 30 minutes.

I even let you go first.

It's time.

Was I right?

By the letter of the law, I was right.

But how unloving.

I see now how much of my frustrations and problems as a kid were my fault.

So how unloving I was.

Instead, choose to take every thought captive.

Every day, we have got to have the mindset of unity.

If all of Christ's church pursued this level of unity with one another,

what do you think the difference would look like?

How much more effective might the church be?

How much more effective might we be for the gospel message

if we so singularly focused on the kingdom

and stopped caring about these secondary issues?

Our third and final point comes in chapter 15.

The third point is build one another up for the glory of God.

Here's what it says.

15 verse 1.

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak

and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.

For Christ did not please.

He did not please himself, but as it is written,

the reproaches of those who reproached, you fell on me.

Here, Paul's saying, I want you to reject your human nature.

If you're a follower of Christ, then you're saying,

I'm going to intentionally and proactively take the role of being a servant.

And you don't think you have to?

You're wrong.

He says, he draws on the example of Almighty God.

Remember, going back to Romans 12, 1, it says,

I will let my life be a living sacrifice,

not because I can't do this thing,

but because it is my privilege to lay it down for another.

He's telling us to adjust our lifestyle

to whatever will contribute to the spiritual good of another person.

And for the first time in 14 chapters, he says,

you know what?

I need to make sure you're hearing this.

So I'm going to use the best example,

the one that is the ultimate trump card, Christ.

To hammer the severity of what we're called to do,

he says, Christ did this.

Christ went to the cross.

Christ took the role of a servant.

Christ did this.

Christ did this.

Christ did this.

Christ did this.

This example is not only a call for us

and a reminder for us on how we ought to live,

but it's also a reminder that the only way to live our lives

against our human nature and become a servant

is through the power of Christ.

If we're called to change some element of our lives

and lay something on the altar

that we feel we have the freedom to exercise,

it is only through Christ

that we will have the ability to do that.

One commentator says,

it's no small thing to be asked to forego legitimate rights

for the building up of your brothers and sisters.

It's demanding.

But it's perfectly reasonable and possible

because Christ did it.

And secondly, it is indispensable to true worship.

Christ's example is so strong, so all-encompassing

because no one had more right to please themselves than God.

And yet he laid down everything for you, for me, for your neighbor.

One of my favorite chapters in all the Bible is in John 13

when Christ, the creator of every atom, planet in the universe,

creature, every thought,

in existence, left perfection behind,

came as a servant and washed feet.

He left heaven to wash feet.

Now, maybe you're here today and you're like,

who is this guy, Jesus?

You're talking about he washed feet.

He was the creator.

Who is this guy, Jesus?

If you're here today and you don't know,

the most important truth in the universe

is that Jesus left heaven behind, the son of God,

came and lived here as a servant.

He lived and he walked with us

and never once did he make a mistake.

Never once.

Never once did he sin.

And at the end of his life, they killed him for it.

And when he went to the cross paying the ultimate sacrifice,

he laid his life down for you, for me.

In so doing, he said, if you repent of your sin

and you believe in me,

I will reunite you to a relationship with our heavenly father.

You can't get there on your own because you've sinned.

You've fallen short.

But if you repent and believe in me, I will bridge the gap.

Now, if you're here today and you don't know about this,

I would love to talk to you about it.

Pastor Justin would love to talk to you about it.

If there's someone you're more comfortable,

talk to them and say,

I don't, I want to learn more about this guy, Jesus.

We'd love to talk to you about it today.

Now, for those of you who do know Jesus,

knowing this knowledge,

knowing the ultimate sacrifice that was prayed,

how can we remind ourselves of this

and yet still squabble over the type of music we use for worship?

Romans 14 and 15 give us a simple but difficult question.

How can I welcome others the way that Christ welcomed me?

When I was stabbing him in the back,

when I was his enemy,

Christ died for me.

Christ welcomed you when you were wrong.

Christ welcomed you when you were weak.

Christ welcomed you when you were messy.

Christ welcomed you when you brought more baggage than blessing.

And now he says,

go welcome these people the same way that I welcomed you.

So as we close,

what would our church look like this month?

What would our church look like if every believer,

every servant of Christ,

we treated every other believer as someone who Christ himself welcomed?

What a beautiful picture it would be.

What a witness to the word of God.

What a witness to the word of God.

What a world that would be.

And what glory to God would it bring.

Will you pray with me, please?

Lord, we love you.

God, I again thank you for the opportunity and privilege to come

share your word with your church, Lord.

I just pray for myself and the people in this room

that each one of us be convicted to follow you, Lord.

Convicted to prioritize you and your kingdom above all else.

Expose in us, Lord, the areas where we've fallen short in this.

Expose in us areas where we need to go back and make amends

and help us to walk,

step by step with our brothers and sisters going forward.

Help us to pursue you with all that we say, think, and do.

In your name we pray.

Thank you, church.

Church, won't you please stand and join us for our last song?