Romans 14:1-13

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="097285a1erlcgo.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>Grace Evangelical Church</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Grace Evangelical Church"><U><B>home</B></U></A><B>    </B></div> <div> <A HREF="id296.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 13:17 p1"><U>Romans 13:1-7 p1</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id306.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 13:17 p2"><U>Romans 13:1-7 p2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id307.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 13:810"><U>Romans 13:8-10</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id309.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 13:1114"><U>Romans 13:11-14</U></A>   |   <B>Romans 14:1-13</B>   |   <A HREF="id311.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 14:1423"><U>Romans 14:14-23</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id320.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 15:16"><U>Romans 15:1-6</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id321.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 15:713"><U>Romans 15:7-13</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id329.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 15:14"><U>Romans 15:14</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id330.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" Romans 15:1521"><U> Romans 15:15-21</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id331.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 15:2223"><U>Romans 15:22-23</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id332.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 16:116"><U>Romans 16:1-16</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id342.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 16:1727"><U>Romans 16:17-27</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="096d2c00dkelyh.png"> <div> Main Menu:</div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Who Are We?"><U>Who Are We?</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What Do We Believe?"><U>What Do We Believe?</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Where Do We Meet?"><U>Where Do We Meet?</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Good News For You!"><U>Good News For You!</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A></div> <bR> <div> Life of the Church:</div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Announcements"><U>Announcements</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Calendar"><U>Calendar</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id398.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Newsletters"><U>Newsletters</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Staff"><U>Staff</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id267.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermon MP3s"><U>Sermon MP3's</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id341.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Library"><U>Library</U></A></div> <bR> <div> Ministries:</div> <div> <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fellowship Groups"><U>Fellowship Groups</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Missions Ministry"><U>Missions Ministry</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mens Ministry"><U>Men's Ministry</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Womens Ministry"><U>Women's Ministry</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Childrens Ministries"><U>Children's Ministries</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Youth Ministries"><U>Youth Ministries</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Romans 14:1-13</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="0a7bc4b0.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="75" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Edify or Edifice?   Part 1-</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Rom 14:1-13</B></I></div> <bR> <div> Acts 11:1-3; Romans 16:17-19  </div> <div> <B>How should you help your brother, when an issue is not sin?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Accept your brother where he is 14:1-2</B></div> <bR> <div> These issues are not sin issues 14:1  </div> <div> Romans 4:19; 14:21; 15:1; 1 Corinthians 8:7-13</div> <div> 2 John 10; 3 John 8-10</div> <div> The issues are doubtful issues 14:2 </div> <div> Genesis 1:29; Romans 6:23.</div> <div> Mark 7:19; Acts 10-11; Romans 14:20; 1 Corinthians 10:25</div> <bR> <div> <B>Accept your brother's non-biblically-directed decisions 14:3-5</B></div> <bR> <div> Avoid criticism 14:3  </div> <div> Each person is a <STRIKE>servant</STRIKE> house slave 14:4  </div> <div> Rom. 6:22  </div> <div> We all have differences 14:5 </div> <div> Romans 4:21 </div> <bR> <div> <B>Accept your brother's accountability to the Lord Rom. 14:6-13</B></div> <bR> <div> Your differences are before the Lord 14:6 </div> <div> You live before the Lord 14:7-9</div> <div> God is the ultimate discipler 14:10-12</div> <div> You edify your brother 14:13</div> <div> John 21: 20-21 </div> <div> Every word must edify Eph. 4:29</div> <div> We need to care-front a brother who is sinning. Gal. 6:1 </div> <div> When your brother repents, forgive him Luke 17:3-4</div> <div> Disciple to better ways of living Matt 28:19</div> <div> Rom. 12:3</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><B>Accept your brother where he is and where God has him growing.</B></I></div> <div> <B>Biblical Teaching on God living in the Believer's Soul (part thirteen)</B></div> <bR> <div>      <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >This study continues the study of God's work in creating a home in your soul, i.e. a temple for the residence of Jesus Christ.  This week we discuss the last two rooms in the soul - the bathroom and the bedroom.  Proverbs 24:3 notes, “Through wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established.”</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <U>The Bathroom 1 John 1:9; 2 Cor. 7:9-10</U></div> <bR> <div>      Now, how many of you get embarrassed because you have to use the shower every day?  How many of you get embarrassed because your hands get dirty when you work in the garden or work on your car?  Dirt is a normal part of working on dirty things.   We don't think twice about taking a shower in the morning or washing our hands when we have been working in the dirt, grime, or grease in life.  Beloved, don't we work in a sin-infested world?  Don't we live in the muck and mire of the world?  As long as we live in this, we are going to stumble and sin.  That is not an excuse or license for sin.  We are called to holy, sanctified living.  But no one, even the most holy saint of God is sinless in his daily walk.    The greatest saint will realize how utterly sinful he is because he will have a more clear view of God's holiness and the sinfulness of his own independence from God or indifference toward daily living.  Well, why is it such a big deal for some people to realize they have sin in their lives and to repent before God? Paul wrote <I>I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think  so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.</I>  We need to humble ourselves, orient to God's authority and confess our sins to God when it happens.  </div> <bR> <div>      What happens when we don't confess our sins to God?  When I was in infantry training at CityplaceFort Benning country-regionGeorgia, we went out into the field for several days at a time.  We had lots of fun digging holes in the dirt, crawling through mudholes and then just sleeping in our clothes.  Four sand castles dug, three dragoons slayed,  one damsel in distress retrieved and back to garrison we marched.  All of a sudden, we were no longer in the open air conditioning God provided.  All of a sudden we were in the cramped buffet lines of the Hotel Marquee.  Whoa, I thought.  What died?  Standing three inches from the man in front of me in the delightful 90 degree Georgian humidity, I “noticed” the guy in front of me.  But then I smelled myself and I wasn't sure which of us had died, or maybe it was the guy behind me.  What would happen if I went off post to enjoy a ball game?  No one would sit near me!  No one would forgive me for being so rude and boorish.  That's what the bathroom is for, to get cleaned up and be able to fellowship with others.  </div> <bR> <div>      The bathroom in our soul is for the confession of sin so we can have fellowship with God<I>.  1 John 1:9,”If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  </I>Once I do that, I move on in life.   When I take a shower, I don't gather up the dirt in the drain or carry dirty towels around with me.  I let the dirt wash down the drain and throw the towel into the laundry to be washed and forget it.  But people who walk around looking at the sin or living with the guilt of sin are like people who grab some dirt out of the drain and smear it back on their face or body.</div> <bR> <div>      Now, everyone has a sin nature.  Paul calls it the old man (Eph. 4:22)  or the flesh (country-regionplaceRom. 7:5).  We cannot get rid of it until we die (1 Cor. 15:53-57).  So, when we sin, God wants us to do one thing, acknowledge it to Him, and walk again in His Spirit and truth.  God knows I am going to sin the rest of my life.  He even knows what they are (Heb. 4:12-13)  We will sin less as we mature in Christ (1 Thes. 4:3), but we will sin.  So, we change our thinking because the Word convicts us of sin (2 Cor. 7:9; 2 Tim. 3:16).  We should repent of our sins, but not go through emotional flagellation about the cleanup.  That stalls spiritual recovery and further advancement in God's Word.  Clean up and move back into the living room and fellowship with God.  </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <U>The Bedroom</U>  Ps. 127:1-3; Heb. 4:1-12</div> <bR> <div>      God designed work for us so that we would be dependent on Him.  Availability of work and strength to accomplish the work are gifts of God.  He also designed sleep for our bodies.  We need sleep to teach us we are not able to continue apart from rest.  Spiritually, we cannot walk in the Spirit, unless we are resting in His power to perform His work through us.  When we deprive our bodies of rest, we become less effective.  We retire for the night and allow God to minister grace blessings even while we sleep.  The Psalmist writes, </div> <bR> <div> <I>Unless the Lord builds the house,</I></div> <div> <I>They labor in vain who build it;</I></div> <div> <I>Unless the Lord guards the city</I></div> <div> <I>The watchman keeps awake in vain.</I></div> <div> <I>It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late,</I></div> <div> <I>To eat the bread of painful labors; </I></div> <div> <I>For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep (Ps. 127:1-3).</I></div> <bR> <div> The psalm addresses our dependence on Him for every aspect in life.  It addresses our need for rest, because lack of rest may be a sign of not trusting in Him.  The bedroom of the soul is a picture of resting by faith in the promises of God.  This is called “Faith Rest.”  It is resting by faith in the promises and power of God.  After learning the word of God in the kitchen of our soul, getting cleaned up in the bathroom, and living in the living room, we rest in the bedroom of the soul on the beauty rest promises of God.  </div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id311.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Romans 14:1423"><U><B>Next Page</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Grace Evangelical Church"><U><B><IMG SRC="0c740400.gif" border=0 width="64" height="64" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Grace Evangelical Church"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>