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Romans 9-16

Applying Righteousness: Towards Others/Selflessness

Jayson Combs · Sunday, 23 November 2025 · Romans 14:1-15:13 · 41:01 · 6,241 words

Romans S31 · 14:1-15:13 Waterford

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

Romans 14 is the focus of the message, showing how Christians should respond when they disagree on non‑essential matters. The preacher explains that believers are called to unity, to lay down personal freedoms for the sake of others, and to pursue peace and mutual upbuilding. Listeners are challenged to examine their own judgments, repent of attitudes that have caused division, and go to those they have wronged to seek reconciliation. The sermon urges followers of Jesus to live as living sacrifices, loving one another even when convictions differ.

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.

conviction 28 unclean 17 disagree 16 eat 23 bible 33 church 46 bucket 6 helmet 5 weak 10 lifestyle 8 drink 10 disagreements 5

Topics

Prayer 3 The Weaker Brother 2 Faith 2 Government & Authority 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Sin 1 Judgment 1 Conscience 1 Salvation 1

Scripture referenced 17

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

Romans 14 0:40 Romans 12 3:16 Romans 13 3:49 Romans 14 4:55 Romans 13 4:59 Romans 14 5:04 Romans 14 8:02 Psalms 133 10:29 2 Corinthians 13:11 10:35 Romans 14:3 11:40 Romans 13 15:13 Galatians 1:10 15:36 Romans 13:5 21:10 Romans 13:14 23:46 Romans 13:13 29:36 Romans 15 37:34 Romans 15:3 37:34

Transcript

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

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:35. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Josh, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

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Good morning, everybody. Good to see you all. Glad you're here at the River Church.

If you have your Bible, it will be in Romans 14.

Last week, I let you know we started a campaign for the church.

Our fiscal year wraps up at the end of December.

Those of you who this is your home, this is your church home, we want to let you know we are currently short on our budget for the year.

Last week, we challenged...

At all of our locations, 1,000 people on top of their normal giving would give $100.

And so we just challenged you with that.

And we had our calculation around 370 people give to that.

And over $65,000 came in this last week.

So thanks, church. Appreciate it.

As we give together, yeah.

And also just want to challenge you.

We really are looking to see if 1,000 people will be a part of that.

Thankfully, at our gatherings at nine locations,

we have around 5,000 people that are part of the gathering.

So we just want you to pray about that.

May the Lord lay that upon your heart.

And as I always say at the River Church, there's nothing hidden.

You want to know what we spend, why we spend, why it goes where it goes, come ask.

You are welcome to come sit down with me, and we'll share those things with you as we honestly try to honor the Lord

and be good stewards of what God's blessed us with, to reach people with the gospel, to gather together, and to grow.

All right?

And if you would like to give, I don't think I said this at the nine.

So if somebody comes here, like, where do I go?

How do I give?

You can, if you go online, the give tab, it'll be right there to give to that.

Or if you want to give in person, there's giving envelopes.

Just write 1,000 times 100 on it for that.

Okay?

All right.

So Romans chapter number 14, the last couple weeks.

And we only have one more week in the book of Romans.

I think somebody amen that at the nine o'clock.

I think somebody did.

Church discipline.

No.

But one more week.

I've enjoyed this.

I hope you have enjoyed it.

But the last few weeks, as we've got to Romans chapter number 12, we've looked at the lifestyle of the follower of Jesus.

What does a lifestyle of somebody who truly follows Jesus look like?

What does the Bible tell us?

And it all goes back to the motivation is the cross.

And our aim is to be a living sacrifice that is pleasing and that worships the Lord.

And that we're continually being changed into the likeness to think like him.

In this lifestyle, we're challenged to be unified in the church, to use our gifts, to serve one another, to love each other.

And as Romans 12 said, this Christian love is a crazy thing.

It's different.

It's not just an emotional love.

Christian love is when we are not phony.

We're not fake.

This isn't fake love.

This is real.

We hate what is evil, but we sure cling to what is good.

This love leads us to be patient.

This love leads us to be generous.

And this love leads us.

To love people who don't even love us.

We're not kind to us.

This is the lifestyle of a Christian.

In the beginning of chapter 13, we looked at the lifestyle believers called to submit to authority.

Submit to government.

Submit to at work or in the church.

There is this submitting to authority.

And last week, we looked at the illustration.

The lifestyle of a Christian, there's this outfit.

It looks like Jesus.

It's an outfit of debt that we're called to look at people with a debt.

That we owe them love.

Not because they owe us something, but because Christ loved us so much.

And this outfit is an outfit of urgency.

Not knowing when Christ will come back.

It could be at any moment.

This outfit looks like Jesus.

It loves like Jesus.

It cares for people.

And this outfit rejects the style of sin.

Now, not all of these verses are easy to take in.

Some of them, we can give pushback.

We can be like, I don't know if I like that.

And in the last couple weeks,

in what we're preaching, we're like, submit to government.

All of us smile and go, that's so easy.

But what the Lord calls us to do, well, this chapter, chapter 14,

if chapter 13 in government got under your skin,

this probably will take it to a whole new level.

Because in chapter 14, the Bible speaks about what to do as a Christian.

The lifestyle of a Christian.

What do we do when we disagree?

What do we do when we look at other people and go, well, you're wrong and I'm right.

Oh, we never look at it.

We don't look at anybody else and go, they're right and I'm wrong.

We don't ever do that.

What happens when we look at other people and go, man, you are foolish.

We look at other people and what they do and how they live and go, what?

Well, I don't like that.

And then in the church that we're called to be unified,

we're called to have this unity together.

We're in this place that is really, really diverse.

Different backgrounds, different cultures, different upbringings.

This is the church.

And the Bible says, be unified together.

And then we get in the church.

And people think weird.

People don't do what I think they should do.

We think what they do is wrong.

So we look at these things and, you know, we can look at the styles of music.

I mean, how do we love people who love Ohio State?

How do we do that?

No.

How do we disagree?

Are we allowed to disagree?

And in our culture today, it's, I don't know if like COVID and that era,

spurred this on, but everything.

There is like, you disagree with somebody and it's a riot.

Like, it's like, how do I fight against you?

How do I use words that slash you?

What can I do if you don't agree with me?

There is this boiling over.

But the church is supposed to look different.

And there's always going to be like a fresh cause of contention.

There's going to be a new book, a new leadership controversy.

Somebody says something.

There's this trend going on.

What do we do in the church?

We're supposed to follow Jesus.

What do we do when we handle things differently?

What's the church supposed to do?

So let's pray and we'll dive into God's word.

Lord, we pray for your help this morning.

Lord, I pray that, Lord, I so want to be obedient to you and teach your word.

Lord, may you use it this morning.

May everyone who hears hear the full truth.

Lord, you know it's my worry that they'll just catch one little bit and miss the whole truth.

So Lord God, may you use me.

I pray, Lord, they'll hear your truth.

Pray for your help in Jesus' name.

All right.

So Romans 14.

Let's read a couple of verses.

The Bible says this.

As for the one who is weak in faith, you know, those people, not those, those people are

weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions or other translations will say

not to quarrel over disputable matters, that there's a differing of opinions.

There's, there's matters that can be disputed.

One person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables.

Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains.

Let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats for God has welcomed him.

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.

So here in this passage in the church in Rome, there's, there's this.

There's this dispute coming on or this dispute going on.

There's this friction in the church and this is not the vegetarians versus the carnivores.

It's not what I want you to see a little bit.

What's happening is there are Jews who are raised in a culture, very specific that they

couldn't just eat any kind of meat.

There were rules and laws that they followed and they've been doing it since they were

a child and their grandpa showed them in there.

It was all a part of their culture and it was a part of the law.

There were certain meats they could not eat.

And then the Gentiles come into the church.

Those are the non-Jews.

They don't have any of these laws.

They're eating everything.

And then you'll see, as we keep reading that the Jews had these, these laws.

When it came to the calendar, there was a weekly Sabbath.

There was a monthly and annual ceremonies.

And so the Gentiles said they don't have any of these things.

And so they joined together under Christ.

And now there's this friction, the Jews who are doing these things going, we can't eat that.

And they come in and now they're like, what are you doing?

You're you.

You can't.

You can't just eat that.

What do you mean?

You're not going to celebrate this ceremony.

And so there is this friction.

There is this quarreling that's happening in the church.

And again, as the Bible says over and over again, we're called to unity.

Like Psalms 133, behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

The second Corinthians 13:11, finally brothers rejoice, aim for restoration, comfort one

another, agree with one another, live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with

you.

There is this specific teaching that we're to be unified, yet disagree.

And this is what's happening in the church in Rome.

And Paul writes to the church in Rome and he puts two groups, he says there's the group.

He says there's the strong and then there's the weak.

And when he classifies the weak, he's talking about probably the Jews here who are very,

very rigid on what they eat and don't eat and the ceremonial laws.

They're following these things.

And Jesus has already said, and the Bible is very clear, like Jesus said, we are free.

We can eat whatever we want.

We are free of these things, the ceremony.

We are free of these things.

So he says, says the weak and what's happening with the weak.

The Bible specifically says verse three, let the one who abstains from eating don't pass

judgment on the one who eats.

Why would they say that?

Because they're looking at people in the church who are not doing what they think they should

do.

And they're going, I don't know if you're a Christian.

You're not following this.

You're not doing this.

You come in here and you just do whatever you want.

I don't know if you're a believer.

So the weak in general, and we look at what I believe the Bible is pointing at, the weak

are generally the most fervent and diligent in trying to please Christ.

But where they are weak is there's the remnants of this legalistic spirit that they still

So they look down on those who don't follow their customs, right, they tend to promote

and regard their non-discipline.

They tend to look at the unessential things as most important.

And so when people don't do those things, they automatically are judging them.

It's separating them and they're free to eat, but there's this conviction that they have.

And then the strong, they're likely those who, you know, they feel like they're advanced

and mature and they're believing they're wise, they're spiritually sophisticated and they

flaunt their freedom.

What do you mean?

We can do this.

We can do this.

I can go here.

I can do, I, I, the Bible doesn't say I have to go to church every Sunday.

The Bible doesn't say I can't drink a beer.

There is this flaunting of, I can do whatever.

But the Bible says what happens?

They then start to have this disdain for others in the church, right?

They have this very common, you want to know what it is?

It's the roll your eyes thing.

We look and we go, you see what they're doing?

Like, why are you doing that?

We don't have to do that anymore.

We were free to, why?

Why?

Why are you doing that?

And so you have those who are this more legalistic view, those who have the more free view, and

now they are clashing.

And so here in the passage, Paul is saying, we are going to differ.

There are going to be things that we see differently and look at differently.

This should not crush the church.

This should not break us apart.

Now, as we read this, I want you to see some godly guardrails here.

When you read this, you see that Paul.

Paul assumes that there are correct answers.

And what I mean by that, Paul later on says, and the Lord says, you're free to eat whatever you want.

It is not just whatever opinion somebody has, their opinion and our opinion.

We're just going to be kind of, we just want to smile and be nice to people.

And that's how we're going to be unified.

That's not what the Bible says, right?

There are things in scripture.

When we read scripture, we see his truth.

We hold on to his truth.

When we read this passage, there are places.

Places where when we look at scripture, there are disputable matters.

There are things that are of secondary.

They're not of first importance.

So how do we deal with it?

In the sea, right?

When Paul teaches, right?

The chapter before in chapter 13, he just calls out a list of sins.

We're not getting to 14 and go, no, sin.

Whatever you feel like is okay, then it's okay.

That's not what we're doing here.

The Bible still gives us truth, direction.

There are some great.

What do we do with these?

How do we deal with these?

So it's not throwing those things out.

Galatians 1.10 says that we live to honor God, not to honor men.

So when you read this, it isn't reading like, man, we just need to make sure we treat people nice

and honor them with whatever their thoughts are, whatever their opinion are, they're good.

That's not what the Bible is saying here.

We're grounded in the word, grounded in God's truth, grounded in what God's called us to do.

But there's going to be things, non-essential things that we're going to disagree on.

So what do we do?

Thought about bringing out a bucket and putting on it, call it the beef bucket.

But just to say, hey, we all have beefs with people.

We all have things.

No, the youth pastor said I should call this sermon, where's the beef?

But we're not doing that, all right?

But there's a bowl of disagreements that in this room, we have different convictions,

different desires, different thoughts, different upbringings.

So in this, our bucket of disagreements, let me throw some things in there

that may stir you up a little bit, okay?

We have disagreements when it comes to guns.

We have disagreements when it comes to homeschooling and private schooling and public schooling.

You can throw Santa in that bucket.

That's as far as we'll go, right?

You throw alcohol in that bucket, caffeine in that bucket.

You can throw, you pull in the parking lot today and somebody else pulls in with their new Cadillac

and you go, well, they don't spend their money right.

They should give that to an orphanage.

And we automatically look at them and go, well, what I'm doing is right,

but how you're spending is wrong.

And then we do it with the church budget, too.

I sometimes hear about this.

There are things that you're passionate about, things that you serve in,

whether it's the food bank where we served like 180 families yesterday for Thanksgiving,

which is incredible, right?

Or it's Tuesday night in our addiction recovery.

Or it's our student ministry.

Or it's our mission.

Whatever that is, there's things you're passionate about.

And what happens is people come in and go, why aren't we giving more money to this?

I think we should give more money to this.

It's how the church spends the money, how we use social media,

and you don't ever look at how somebody uses social media and go, that's foolish.

None of you have ever done that.

I do it every day.

Entertainment, how we express ourselves politically, music.

So I was this pastor, a book I was reading, Daniel Durini explained this.

I thought so well.

I think it was so helpful.

He gave this illustration.

He said, imagine a community of believers said, hey, let's all move into the same neighborhood.

And so they all moved into the same neighborhood.

And children come along.

And now the question comes up with these families.

What is our view of child safety?

Is the goal to remove risk or to teach our children to assess risk?

Can they walk several blocks or just two houses down?

Will children wear bike helmets when they go biking, when they go sledding?

Are the kids going to wear bike helmets?

And I love what Durini said here.

He goes this.

He says, if one parent calls helmets a basic safety measure and another calls them the

chief indicator of the paranoid parenting that enfeebles children's souls, they will

not settle the issue by having their children wear helmets on alternate days.

Why?

Because the Joey from the family who doesn't wear helmets is going to see his friend with

a helmet on and he's going to call him a sissy.

And when they get away from mom and dad, he's going to look at them and say, I don't know

if you're going to look at them and go, hey, you can take that helmet off now.

They're not around.

I won't tell anybody.

It's all good.

You don't have to wear that.

And then as soon as Joey wipes out on his bike and smashes his face on the pavement

and is bleeding, his friend runs up to him and goes, ha ha, I told you you should have

What a moron.

Right?

Like he just, he looks at him and instead of care and love, he looks at him with disdain

If you would have done what I did, you would have not been where you're at.

See, it gets more personal when it comes to.

Oh, parenting differences, right?

This happens in the church that people have differences.

And sometimes we just try to persuade them and go, hey, we won't tell anybody you did

this.

It's okay.

Or people get hurt.

Things happen.

And instead of loving them and caring for them, we go, well, you should have thought

like I thought and you'd have been okay.

And we're missing what the church is called to be.

So here in the passage, what does the church do that disagrees?

Verse five, the Bible says,

While another esteems all days the same.

So there are festivals and ceremonies and Sabbath.

Some are holding to that.

Some believe each should be, or excuse me, the end of the verse says,

Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

The one who observes the day, observes it in the honor of the Lord.

And the one who eats, eats in the honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God.

I believe here's the first direction.

When we disagree.

The Bible says we must fully be convinced ourself what we believe here.

There is this conviction that we're to follow.

And listen, conviction isn't just a feeling.

When the Bible talks about conviction, I love one said this conviction should be informed.

Our conscience should be informed by what Tim Keller says it this way to be convinced.

First means we see whether the Bible.

Really commands or forbids some practice or whether it leaves us to have a conscience that's free.

We first go to the word.

We just don't say, well, whatever my conscience feels is right.

No, your conscience could be wrong.

But what we do, we must educate our conscience.

So the first thing we study God's word in determining what to do and how to live.

It's not just to go by the whim or go by what you used to do.

We as Christians, we seek God's word to look and go.

Is this what?

The Lord is saying leading.

Is this how the Lord is telling me to live?

This is when we have the church that we go to brothers and sisters in the Lord who know scripture more.

And we go, what does it say?

And so we take that and we're convinced if the Bible says it wrong, be convinced it's wrong.

If it says it's right, be convinced it's right.

And then if the Bible leaves us free, here's the deal.

The Bible can leave us free.

And then still in some areas, we will choose.

We choose to abstain because a matter of conscience, that there's this conviction.

This is what's happening in Rome.

And what does the Bible say on this?

The Bible says to follow your conviction.

If you look at verse 14, it says it very clear.

It says, I know and I'm persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.

But like Paul is telling the truth.

This is not unclean, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean.

It is unclean.

It is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean.

It is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean.

It is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean.

It is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean.

It is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean.

It is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean.

The Bible tells us to educate our conscience, to follow God's word.

And there are going to be areas that we are called to follow our conviction.

And if we don't, we're sinning.

We're called to follow our conviction.

Now, if conviction goes against the word of God, we know our conviction is wrong.

But there are times we feel like, man, I'm convicted of this.

I can't do this.

Follow your conviction.

I read a story of a lady who felt convicted that no matter what she had, even if she had tea,

she felt like she needed to pray over that and bless that.

And I think most of us say that drinking tea without saying a prayer right before it,

this is not violating God's law.

But she had this conviction.

You know when they bring chips and salt to the table,

do we pray before chips and salt or after chips and salt?

What do we do?

And so she had this conviction.

And she stopped praying because of social embarrassment.

She stopped praying because she was pressured to not do that anymore.

And when you look at Scripture, you go, no.

If this is a conviction,

if this is what you feel like you should do,

everything we do should bring honor to the Lord.

And when you pray, guess what you're doing?

You're bringing honor to the Lord.

And so we live in these things, whether we eat or don't eat.

If our mindset is to honor and follow Jesus,

the Scripture says this is how we're called to live.

Now, when we think of conviction, even when we read here,

like Paul's saying their conviction about food, they were okay to eat food.

Paul says you should follow God.

Follow your conviction.

Now, I think this is to set up in our lives a routine.

It sets up what's going to happen normally in life.

When we're convicted, we're going to follow our conviction.

But also, what I want you to think about conviction

is we don't all have the same conviction.

Listen, there are things that you can do that I can't do.

There are places you can go I can't go.

There are shows you can watch I can't watch.

For some of you, you can't watch war movies.

Because of your history, because of what has happened in your life,

because of that struggle.

When you watch it, it takes you to a dark place and it leads you to sin.

So you have a conviction, I can't watch those shows.

I can't do that.

Some of you should stop watching UFC fighting.

Why? Because you're a brawler.

You're a fighter in your heart.

And when you watch those things, it pours into that anger spirit.

It pours in it.

So for you, it is a conviction because it leads to hurt and pain in your life.

For some of you, you need to stop watching home.

Mark Christmas movies.

Just because. No reason.

Just out, you know.

No, seriously, some of you shouldn't watch those.

Why?

Because it's leading your heart to fantasize about somebody else other than your husband.

It's leading your heart down a road.

So it's hurting you.

Here, as we read 14, what does it say?

It says, Christ is the judge.

We seek to honor the Lord in everything that we do.

And so our convictions, so when we seek God's word,

when we convict or we convince ourself by studying, by praying,

by seeking the Holy Spirit, by carefully do this, doing this,

we then, with our brothers and sisters, have careful conversation.

We have respectful discussion.

We're not condemning each other when we come to the word and see,

man, there can be differences.

This is a secondary issue.

Now, I want you to hear me.

We're not talking about things the Bible,

is calling sin and not sin and life he calls us to, right?

To say, well, I can just abandon the church and do whatever I want.

You go, no, that's not what the Bible tells us.

That's not what we're called to do.

So this isn't becoming wishy-washy on things.

Kent Hughes said this.

He says, we're not talking about basic doctrines such as sin,

the deity of Christ, salvation by faith,

or clear spiritual commands against adultery or lying.

We're talking about these non-essential conviction areas

if there are areas where there are sin.

We love people enough to go care for them and love them

by speaking the truth to them.

If they're a believer, we show them these things,

say, this is not what the Lord has called us to.

But there are other areas where we will differ.

So when we read verse 13, it says this.

In the way of a brother.

Love for one another governs our action.

As we truly love people and look what's best for them in the Lord,

this is what governs our action.

So we go, I'm not going to be a stumbling block.

I'm not going to be a hindrance.

I thought this was wonderful.

I looked at these.

The stumbling block is different than hindrance.

A stumbling block is when you mean you carelessly leave something out

and somebody falls over.

It says as a Christian, we're not careless.

In these things, we're careful with our mouth.

We don't just spew out something about our opinion in this

without being careful with it.

Why?

Because then we can be a stumbling block to somebody,

but we're also not a hindrance.

This is something that we deliberately leave out there to ensnare another.

We lay down our rights to care and love for one another.

You may tell your kid to put the helmet on when he goes out with the other kids

and you talk to him and go, hey, this is why.

Their mom is concerned about this.

We're going to put the helmet on.

We're going to be okay.

Listen, the Lord calls us to lay things down, church.

And I'm not sure in our American Christian culture, we really get,

we're looking for God to just please us.

And the Bible says, hey, you want to please me and to please me.

There's going to be sometimes you give up what's pleasing to you.

It's like foreign to many people that hear about Christ.

They miss God will call us sometimes to lay.

Things down to go.

I know I'm free to do it.

I know God says it's okay, but because I know it may hurt you or hinder your walk with the Lord.

I'm going to give it up.

There's so many areas we could, we could talk about drinking and alcohol.

And it's been just in my lifetime, just hearing the fight about alcohol is bad.

I grew up in a church.

Nobody, it was nobody drank unless they didn't let anybody else know they drink.

Okay.

But it was bad to drink.

And then it's okay to drink.

And then it's okay to drink.

It's celebrated to drink in the church.

Like it's just all over the place.

When we look at scripture, right?

We can look and go, well, the Bible doesn't say if you like touch a alcohol and put it in your mouth, you're sinning, right?

It doesn't say it doesn't, doesn't forbid it.

It does say drunkenness is a sin and it does warn us.

So what happens is what I've seen the slide is now I have the freedom to do this.

And now so many people, they flaunt their freedom.

I get to drink.

I don't care.

And the Bible says there may be a time you lay it.

You don't.

Order a beer when you go out to eat with that couple because you know what it's going to do.

You don't have it in your house.

For some of us, we just lay it down all together.

We don't want it.

Why?

It is a mindset that there are going to be things where we differ and there are going to be struggles in people's lives.

And there are going to be times that God calls me to lay down things.

If it's going to help that brother's walk in the Lord, specifically in verse 15, it says you can destroy them by being careless.

Sometimes you lay down the argument.

It doesn't matter.

Sometimes you lay down the political view that you just are trying to bomb.

You lay it down.

Let me read verse 19.

It says this.

Let us pursue what makes peace and for mutual a building.

This is the goal.

Verse 20 says do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God.

What thing do you want to put in there for food that you can look at church after church that the work of God has been destroyed?

Because people are going to argue and fight and debate and separate and go.

I'm no longer with you.

I'm not talking to you.

I'm going somewhere out where the church of the meats were the church of the vegetarians were out.

We're going to split.

How many times has the work of the Lord been destroyed because we're going to fight and bicker over things that don't matter instead of looking to love one another to sacrifice for one another here.

Bible goes on to say verse 21.

It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble and that word good means the word beautiful.

So in a sense one said it's beautiful.

If you lay something down, it's beautiful because your arrogance is gone.

It's beautiful because you're unselfish and you're seeking to honor Jesus.

What do we do when we disagree first?

We seek the Lord be convinced in ourself and what the word says there are going to be times when.

Someone that you love and the church has fallen sin.

This doesn't mean to shy away from that.

This means no, you go and care for people to share the truth of the Lord, but there are going to be other times where you'll look and go man.

This is not an essential item.

This is something that we can respectfully talk about and disagree and love one another.

But what so happens in the church is that we stay in the church.

The truth is you're bitter with the person over there.

You're mad at a decision they made and you.

Just now avoid them and we're big enough a church.

You can just avoid them that sinful so this doesn't mean we don't share our opinion don't care for one another.

It's when we look and see things that is this passage says that is a disputable matter.

We look how to honor the Lord in these things.

I know this may be shocking to many of you, but as a pastor, I deal with a lot of disputable matters of people in the church.

There's lots of conversations about it had one this week beautiful matter.

We sat down and had a disagreement about something in the church and can I tell you it was one of the most beautiful wonderful conversations why because we sat at that meeting we looked at God's word and go what does the word of God say and we both sought the Lord to honor the Lord and we honored each other and we loved each other and I will tell you I am stronger as a brother with that man today than I was four days ago.

Why because we can look at things and we can love each other and go.

We're going to the word first what's it say what's the Lord's conviction if it's a conviction from the Lord we're going to follow it how do we how are we unified together be the church God's called us to be chapter 15 says we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the week and not to please ourselves let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up and verse 3 I just want you to see as we close for Christ did not.

Please himself but as it is written the reproaches of those who approach you fell on me this lifestyle is for those of us who have been saved by Jesus and we look to Christ because Jesus the Bible says not did not come to be served but to serve the Christ went to the cross for you that he died on the cross and rose again and offers us eternal life we will repent of our sins and trust Christ to have salvation.

But for those of us who are saved maybe understand that we're going to disagree but we're called to be godly in our disagreements one last kind of action out of this I would challenge you maybe this morning maybe you've realized in a situation you've judged wrongly maybe you realize you made a bigger deal out of something then you should have the Bible says what to do then then we repent of that we tell the Lord Lord I judge wrongly here and I made this too big of a deal.

And then you go that extra step and you go to that person and you ask them you say how do you do I need you to forgive me I made this too big of a deal in our relationship with the Lord and maybe you're in here and there was a big deal and the scripture showed it out and you were not brave enough or bold enough to go speak to them and love them enough to show them well then you need to do the same to go to them and to care for them how the church disagrees for us to grow for us to continue mature it'll be for us in here to learn how to do the same.

How do we seek the Lord to love one another to care as Christ cared for us let's stand together Lord God thanks for this morning may use this morning for your glory praise you praise in Jesus name amen.