If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 14, we're going to be reading from verse 13 all the way down to the end of the chapter, verse 23. Our main focus this morning is going to be on verse 20 to 23. Romans chapter 14, verse 13 to 23.

"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 and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is 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 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 building. 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.

It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Christ is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 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. That's right. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the constant mercy, grace, forgiveness, Lord, that causes us to persevere. Help us to have a greater glimpse of who you are, not just understand the letter of the law, but your very heart, Lord God, that is contained in these words.

I pray that your word that is truly living and active would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart, that we may see beyond the superficial and to search within our own hearts, Lord God, that we may establish Christ inside and out. May your name be exalted. May your church hear your voice and follow you.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, so as we've been in Romans chapter 14, the practical application of what it means to be saved. And that's basically the theme of chapter 12 all the way to chapter 16. Understanding the grace of God, the justification, what does that look like in the life of a Christian individually and collectively?

And so that's the overarching theme in the text that we're at. And in that overarching theme, he's talking about how to practice love. And again, you can talk about love in the workplace, you can talk about love in the family, and that's not uniquely Christian. Any human being is going to teach their children to love their brother.

And if you're a good parent, you might teach people how to love people who are strangers, social justice, feed the homeless. But the love that the scripture teaches goes much beyond that. It says it's to reflect the love of Christ. Love people that are hard to love. That are things that are naturally that we may not practice, but we practice because of what Christ has done.

So he's not just teaching us just to practice any kind of love. He's trying to teach us what it means to practice a love that is compelled by the love of Christ. And this very specific context he's talking about is where you're in a context where you feel that you are right, but you're in a context of other people who don't agree with you.

Throughout the years, I've had so many different conversations, and we would call these areas gray areas, right? Whereas there's no clear right or wrong. Whether there's clear right or wrong, people have all kinds of opinions on it. Some people have very strong opinions, some people are neutral, some people are negative.

The obvious one is drinking, and Paul actually talks about drinking in this text. I don't know how many times I've had conversations throughout the years about is it okay, is it not okay? What context? Who's drinking it? What has too much alcohol? What does not? Smoking? What kind of movies that Christians should be watching or not watching?

Clothing, what does it mean to be modest? Well, one person considers modest, another person thinks it is not. Using band in worship, I know today it's pretty much accepted all across the board, right? Most churches you go to will use some sort of praise team. This was pretty new.

The modern day praise team that you see here, this is not how worship looked like maybe about 25 years ago. When I first became a Christian, it was really rare to see somebody up on the stage with even a guitar. It was usually pipes or a piano. And it wasn't until the charismatic movement came in where the praise team started to pick up.

And I remember at that time there was a big debate, is that okay? To have a praise team and a band and then a lot of the older generation were saying, "Hey, it looks more like a rock concert than worship." Even though today it's no longer a debate. I remember when projectors started coming in.

Sometimes we don't remember, but when we used to use projector, we're talking about this projector. Prior to that was the Scantron. And then prior to that was just a piece of paper, right? But I remember people had a problem with that paper because prior to that, we all sang hymn books.

You went to church, there was a hymn book sitting where you had to buy a hymn book to come to church and that's what we sang. And so when the contemporary music started coming in, they didn't have books to have, so they would write it out on a large piece of paper and they would flip the page.

So we were singing songs and you're done with one sheet, you would just put it over and then you would sing that one. Then if you want to go back and repeat, you got to go back and do this and repeat that other. And then the Scantrons came on and then I don't remember the big debate over the Scantron, but the projection when it came on, there was a lot of debate.

Should a church be using this? This is too modern. This is going to be distracting from God's word. I mean, I don't know any church that doesn't use that now, but I remember having discussions with other Christians at that time about is it right for the church to use projection?

Use of skits during services, family worship, should the children be joining the main service or not? I've had discussions about worship isn't true worship until we recite the Apostles' Creed and Lord's Prayer. How often should we have communion? Every Sunday, every other Sunday, once a month, once a year, only on special occasions.

How we dress on Sunday, should we be wearing a tie? Should we make it a mandate that everybody dress a certain way? What we do on Sunday, are you allowed to work on Sunday, not work on Sunday? You will be traveling on Sunday? Does worship even have to be on Sunday?

That was a big debate when the Seeker Friendly Movement came in. Can we have it on Wednesday? More and more churches are having worships on Friday nights or Saturday. And I remember when that first came in. Now there's a debate, you know, there's discussion as multi-sites where somebody preaches and then they project the pastor on another screen in another campus in order to accommodate the growth.

I mean, all kinds of things. Should we have membership, not have membership? And various opinions all over. And sad to say, some churches, I mean, we're talking about the universal churches, divided over a lot of these non-essential things. And again, I haven't been a Christian long, but I've been Christian long enough to see different trends coming in and what Christianity, at least on the surface, looked like 34 years ago, 35 years ago, is very different than Christianity today.

So if I was to take myself out from 1983 and pluck myself in today, Christianity looks very different than when I first became a Christian. And I had to go through some transitions to be okay with certain things that was coming into the church. What things do I need to fight for and what things I just need to learn to change?

When I first went to Biola, I had to actually sign a statement saying that I will never drink, smoke, or dance. Some of you guys are laughing. It's like, "Oh my gosh, they made you sign that?" It was not unique to Biola. If you went to a Christian school, that was the requirement of many of the schools.

Again, it's like, okay, drinking, okay. Smoking for sure. Dancing, right? And some of you guys love swing dancing. You guys would not have been accepted to Biola. So I know times have changed. Certain things that would have shocked people 30 years ago is no longer the issue today, and it may not be an issue of sin or compromise.

Some of the things in culture just don't have that same kind of stigma. Paul is not talking about being loosey-goosey at church where there are no boundaries, there are no teachings that if you feel right in your heart, just practice, don't judge anybody. That is not what Paul is saying here at all.

The scripture is very clear in its mandates about our relationships, about our marriage, about use of spiritual gifts, money, stewardship, sexuality, social justice, raising children, lawsuits in the church. Even in the church, it talks about ordinances and how to choose leadership, disciplining those who are hurting the church and hurting themselves, sending out missionaries, laying hands, ordination.

The scripture is not just saying, "Well, if you feel right in your heart, you can do whatever you want." That is not the case at all. Oftentimes we use this passage to talk about gray area, right? Like how do we deal with gray area? It is the appropriate text to talk about that because the principles that he teaches apply to that.

But is the issue of eating meat and celebrating special days, was that a confusing issue? It was confusing because it was during a period of transition. But was Paul confused about this idea? Does Paul not have an opinion on this? He said, "Well, God has nothing to say about this.

You just choose whatever you want." Is that what Paul says about this? No, Paul is very clear about this. In fact, he talks about it quite a bit in all of his writings, that that covenant has passed, that meat is clean. He actually wants the weaker brothers to eventually become strong.

So he's not talking about an issue that's debatable and it's right on both sides. That's why he used the term weak and strong. The strong brothers are the ones who are able to accept this truth and it has already transitioned. So he's talking about an issue, in dealing with an issue where there is a clear right, but being patient with those who have not come to terms with that yet.

The reason why this is so important is because the way we approach when we know it's a gray issue, I could be wrong, I could be right. We can be a little bit more generous. We can be a bit more gracious. The problem that we run into is when we are convinced we are right.

How do we deal with weaker brothers or people who may not agree with us, but it seems to be that that's what the scripture teaches? Because oftentimes it's the way that we deal with truth that causes the divisions and the fights in the church. So what I want to look at today, and I'm going to work backwards, we're looking at verse 20 to verse 23, and I'm going to work with the second part of that, verse 22 and 23, and then we're going to get to the beginning part of it, because I believe that this is a conclusion of what he's been saying, or at least kind of beginning to wrap up, and the main part of what he wants to say is really stated in the first part, verse 20 and 21.

So it's a two-point, and I'm going to get to, again, the main part in verse 20 and 21. So I'm going to reverse the order. First part, let me read that passage, 22 to 23. 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.

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. So the first part I want to convey to you is that Christian liberty can lead us to sin when practiced selfishly. Even if it is right, even if you're convinced that it's right, when truth is practiced selfishly, self-righteously, without considering the conscience of others, it could literally lead to sin.

So in this passage, verse 22, it says, "In the faith that you have, keep between yourself and God." What does that mean? Keep it between yourself and God. Stay quiet. Don't say anything. Right? That's what we may first think that he is saying. What he is saying is, you are blessed to be able to live with a clear conscience.

Before you pass judgment on other people, when he says, "Keep it to yourself," he says, "Don't flaunt your freedom because you're right." Let me say that again. Don't flaunt your freedom because you're right. Jesus declared very clearly that the food was clean. In Mark chapter 7, 18-19, he says, "He said to them, 'Then you are also without understanding.

Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled?' Thus he declared all foods to be clean." Imagine how radical that is. We've been studying the book of Leviticus, and God made it very clear.

If you eat this, you become unclean. And Jesus Christ says all of that ultimately was part of God's redemptive plan to keep the nation of Israel separate and holy. Now that the kingdom of God is going to be open to the Gentiles, he's taken away the barrier that separated the Gentiles and the Jews.

So Christ is about to bring in the new covenant, and to prepare them for that, he's getting rid of the division that was caused because of this food, unclean and clean. So Jesus says, "In and of itself, it never really made you unclean. In and of itself, just because you ate pork, all of a sudden, did not cause you to be a sinner.

It was the rebellion against God, refusal to obey God. That's where the sin lied. But it wasn't independently, it's something innately evil about pork." So Jesus made it very clear where he stands on this. He's trying to get the weaker brother to become strong. Jesus says it again in Acts 10, 9 through 16.

He's talking to Peter, who's about to bring the gospel to the Gentile world. And this is what he says, "The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens open and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.

In it were all kinds of animals, reptiles and birds of the air." And all of these things are declared unclean in the book of Leviticus. And there came a voice to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." Which is something that Peter as a good Jew never did. And Peter said, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." Peter probably thought this was some kind of a test, right?

He said he failed before. He's not going to fail this one. He said, "No, I'm not going to do this." And the voice came to him and again, a second time, "What God has made clean, do not call common." This happened three times and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

So he made it absolutely crystal clear as Peter, as the leader among the apostles, that Jesus says it's clean. So as long as he says it clean, you don't declare it unclean. And he says it three times for confirmation, right? Then right after this, he is called to a Gentile home in order for him to pray for him and then bring him to Christ.

So it was signaling that the kingdom is opening up to the Gentiles. Now why do I say all of this? Because Paul is not dealing with something that was great that could be right or wrong. Paul is declaring something that where he has a clear stance on. God has moved from the old covenant to the new covenant, but he's dealing with the situation where you know this is true, but you're dealing with people who are slow to come to that turn, come to those terms.

Why is this so important? Because if we don't deal with truth in grace and love, what did we say last week? My main point last week is the same point this week. If you deal with truth without grace and love, it always leads to condemnation. And that's what a church looks like that is high on truth and theology, but low on grace leads to Phariseeism.

And all it does is train a bunch of people to see who's doing wrong. And we feel compelled to point out what's wrong because we have the word of God behind us. That's the situation that Paul is dealing with, with this. The stronger brothers acting in selfishness instead of helping the weaker brothers, just condemning them.

So that's what he means when he says something good can easily turn to evil. Keep it between yourself. In other words, practice what you believe. The Lord has blessed you. It is only by the grace of God that you're able to understand that and able to enjoy the food.

And that's what he means. Enjoy it without judging others. But whoever doubts if he eats it because he is eating it not in faith, he is condemned. Isaiah chapter 1, 11, God sends the prophet Isaiah to point out their sins. And in their sin basically says, "What to me is a multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord.

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or the lambs or the goats." Which is every part of what he said here, they were doing in obedience to God. Who told them to give burnt offerings and the rams and all these sacrifices?

God did. And yet God says, "I detest them." Why does he detest them? Because they were practicing truth on the outside while their inside was full of corruption. Again, it says in Isaiah 5, 20-22, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil." You know, who is he referring to?

Israel. He's not talking about those bad people in Assyria or Babylon because Isaiah was sent to bring the message to Israelites who are very religious but inwardly they were calling good evil and evil good. "Who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink." They created for themselves, "Well, as long as I'm giving a lot of burnt offerings, as long as I'm giving all of these things, and as long as I'm very active at the temple, they're blind to their own sins." And because they were practicing truth without grace, it was leading to condemnation.

What does it mean when he says, "If your brother's conscience, if it bothers him and it's not of faith, to him it is sin." Why is this such a big deal? And I'm going to give you, I think the best way to share with you what he says here is to give you a very specific story that I remember.

When I was a youth pastor, there was a, again, she was a young girl at that time, she's not young now, but I remember when she was younger in youth group, she was so excited about her faith. She was the one who started the Christian club at Irvine High School, and this is years ago.

And she was so active, she was, I think she was on the ASB, and so she was in honors. And so she was very popular and had a lot of friends, had a lot of influence. And so when we were having youth group, I was at Irvine Baptist, it was only about a block away from Irvine High School, so we started afternoon Bible studies.

And because she was such a popular girl, during lunchtime, she would bring all her friends. So every Wednesday, we would have Bible study at Irvine Baptist during lunchtime, and they would come, about 30 of them would come, and I would share the gospel, give them pizza, and then they would go back, and it was a great time.

And as she was graduating, she was sharing with me how she wanted to become a missionary and how she wanted to really serve God. And then she got great grades and she got into Berkeley. And then, this is before Facebook and all this stuff, and it's hard to keep in touch, and she went up to Berkeley, and then she would come down only during the break.

But I could tell that each time she came down, she just was not the same person. And after about a year, year and a half passed, I could tell she completely drifted away from her faith. And so obviously, being her former youth pastor, I was concerned, and so I met up with her and knocked her, "Hey, what happened to you?

What happened up there?" She said she went to this particular church, and it was great. All of her friends went there, and it was exciting as a freshman, and she said, "But something strange happened." What happened was after the Bible study, the small group leader would invite all of the students to go to the bar and hang out.

So initially, obviously, coming from a conservative church, she thought it was weird, but everybody else was going. This is our small group leader inviting her to go, and it bothered her conscience, but all her friends were going. This was our small group leader. And it was nothing to do in and of itself of drinking, but it bothered her conscience.

And she decided to give in, because that was the culture. So the issue wasn't drinking in and of itself. And I never said to her that Christians should never drink, because that's not my position. I don't have a strong position one way or the other. I think it's completely just, I know some people grew up drinking at home, and some people have a very harsh disdain toward drinking.

So I don't have that strong position, so that's not what I said to her. But it was a conservative church, generally. But once she crossed that line where it bothered her conscience, that set the pattern for her. And so other things would happen, and she crossed that line, because she crossed the line over here, and there was no clear reason why she crossed this line, other than other people were doing it.

So once she crossed that line, there was another line that was to be crossed, and then she crossed that, and another line to be crossed that. And then eventually, when it was very clear that it was wrong, because she set a pattern of going against her conscience, it completely ruined her.

When Paul says here, "Not to go against your conscience, because whatever is not of faith, it is sin," that's what he is referring to. The act in and of itself may not be sin, but the fact that we think that it might be, and then we go ahead and do it anyway, that pattern is going to manifest in other areas of our life, whether it is with purity, whether it is with relationship, whether it is use of money, whatever seems to be convenient, that we will set a pattern of setting aside convictions and truth for the purpose of belonging, and acceptance, and convenience, and safety.

That's what he means. So in practice of liberty, in the practice of truth, if we don't consider the context, if we don't consider our conscience, it can easily lead to not only to condemnation of others, but even our own condemnation. So to go against conscience is not safe. Secondly, which is where I want to spend the rest of our time here, secondly, Christian liberty, the liberty that God has given us to enjoy the things that we have been given.

Christian liberty was meant to build and not to destroy God's work. Christian liberty was meant to build and not to destroy God's work. Verse 20, "Do not for the sake of good destroy the work of God." God in and of itself is very confused. Do not for the sake of good destroy the work of God.

Because we would normally think, well, if it's good, if it's biblical, it's going to build up the kingdom. But he says, no, do not for the sake of good. What you think is good, what you are convicted is good. Don't let it destroy God's work. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.

It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. In other words, in and of itself, it may be good. But when we are practicing it outside of the context of the people that we are around, and we don't care about their conscience, we don't care about the unity, we are just practicing truth because I am convinced this is true.

He says, in the end, you may cause someone else to stumble, and as a result of that, you are destroying God's work. So something that was good can easily be turned to something evil or destructive if we practice it selfishly. So what does it mean to destroy the work of God?

Well, there are two specific things that he speaks about. One is the specifics of the weaker brother, how it bothers his conscience. We can destroy his conscience with our freedom, and as a result of that, be condemned ourselves. In Romans 14, 15, he says, "For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love." You just practice your truth because this is what I believe, and he just does whatever.

He says, "But you're not walking in love." And walking in love is the primary call, primary motive. It is not one of many things that God has called us to do. It is the primary thing that he calls us to do. So he says, "In your practice of freedom, if it causes your brother to be grieved, you may be strong in your theological position, but you are weak in practice." You're immature in practice because you're not considering others.

He says, "By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died." Paul goes so far as to say that it is wrong to practice your newfound freedom with food without acknowledging the weaker brother's conscience. It is wrong. Again, in 1 Corinthians 11, remember we talked about how the whole book of Corinthians is about this disunity, this selfish, self-centered practice of truth which led them to be divided in the church.

"I'm right. You're right." And it divided between people who were loyal to Peter, to Apollos, to whoever, and he said that caused all kinds of chaos in the church. And even at the communion table, they were coming to communion. And again, in the early church, it was kind of like a potluck.

Everybody got together and they shared their food, but the rich people obviously who had more than abundance of food, they would come early to the church and they would just eat. And then the people who didn't have money would come, and by the time they came, there was nothing there.

And by doing that, not only were the people not eating, it was highlighting the fact that poor people didn't have that blessing. So it was causing this division between the rich and the poor. It is in that context where Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, "He who eats and drinks without acknowledging the body of Christ does what?

Eats and drinks judgment upon himself." So this sacred communion table, which God gave as a blessing to bring the church together because of the way that they were practicing it in selfishness, was actually causing divisions in the church because it was causing other people to stumble. So let me say this again.

The practice of truth without grace and mercy always leads to condemnation. And that's what he was dealing with. And that's why he says in 1 Corinthians 14, 12, "So with yourself, since you are eager for manifestation of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church." Whatever opinions you have, whatever practices you have, does it build, does it destroy?

1 Corinthians 10, 23, 24. All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. You may be right legally, but is it helpful? Does it produce, does it build up? But not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Now I can say all this stuff and you may feel stressed.

Not only do I seek the truth, I have to seek truth in the context of what other people are proposing, and I know where this discussion usually will end. Where do you draw the line? Because you feel burdened. Because, you know, like, "Hi." You know, somebody goes, "Somebody stumbled because he wore a tie." Yeah, I've had discussions with people.

"Why do you do that?" You know, like a Pharisee. And then there's people who are disturbed that I don't wear a tie. Or, "Yeah, how come you don't wear a tie? Are we becoming seeker-friendly? What's going on?" Right? I mean, anything that we do, right, is going to, "How come the children aren't in the worship?

How come you don't do this? Why do you do that?" You know what I mean? "Why do you have two guitars?" You'd be surprised what bothers people. It bothers people, right? I lost my train of thought. Where was I? All right. I was just venting. It could easily lead to that.

It could lead to, like, "Well, where do we draw the line?" And then when you get to that point, it kind of bounces back. So we don't draw any line. "Yes, you're right. You're right. You're right. Oh, but where do we draw the line?" Boom, we're back over here where nothing matters, right?

What Paul is saying here, if it is not compelled and ground in love, it can easily lead to that. It can lead to frustration, feeling judged, or, you know, for doing one thing, or judged if you don't do one thing, and everybody's watching you. Even in practice of grace, right, we're looking at each other, "Who's more gracious?

Who's more humble?" Right? Because that's what we are. But again, let me give you a life illustration where I think will help us understand this, right? Esser and I love watching action movies, right? We don't go to watch movies to be fed. We do quiet time for that, right?

So I don't go to movies to be like, "Oh, I want to be stimulated in my intellect." I want to go there and just blow up stuff, right? Just blow up stuff, action. I want to be awake for a while, and then if it's not, you know, the other benefit is I can sleep, right?

So either way, if it's boring, I get to sleep. If it's exciting, you know, I get to entertain. But ever since we've had kids, you know, we can't just go watch because, you know, a lot of these action movies are, you know, even though it may be innocent, younger kids can't watch it.

So we can't watch. We haven't been able to watch these like Avengers and all this stuff, but now that our kids are a bit older, you know, we're starting to able to because now our little kid, he's 10, and we've desensitized him to certain things. And so he's okay.

We built up tolerance for him so he can go in, okay? So you can judge me. Judge me, okay? So we went to watch Spider-Man not too long ago with everybody because, you know, somebody saw it and said, "I think it's safe." And then we went to watch. What was the latest one?

Infinity War. Thank you. Okay. So we took the whole family to watch it, and we were able to enjoy it. You know, it came out and we talked about it, and it was kind of like a family bonding time. This is our family bonding time, right? And it was great.

We were able to enjoy it, but for all these years, we didn't go. Even though Esther and I enjoy watching these movies, and before we had kids, I mean, that's how we spent our time, watching action movies. But there's a long period of I don't know how many years where we stopped watching it because our kids can't come with us.

Now during that period, it was like, "Oh my gosh. I have this freedom." There's nothing wrong with this. And force them to watch and then be disturbed and have a nightmare. That's your problem. I have freedom in Christ. There's nothing wrong with this, right? I'm being entertained. I get to sleep.

It's good for my health. You know, like this is good. I don't know any parent who does that. Once you have a kid, you're looking out for the benefit of your children. Certain things that you would do as an adult that you have clear conscience doing, you would stop doing it because of the presence of your children in your life.

And you do it voluntarily. And the reason why you do it is because you love them. Paul is not asking us just to suck it up. He's asking us to practice this love. See when you take love out of that relationship, then it just becomes like, "Where do we draw the line?

Like I got to live for them?" And that's why he uses the context of walking in love, to walk in love. So don't practice your freedom devoid of the context that you're in. To practice the love that Christ has given us. First Corinthians 18 to 13, "For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in idols temple, will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols?

And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus sinning against your brother and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. What would have been perfectly innocent, dragging my three-year-old to watch something because I wanted to and then destroying him, causing him nightmares, is what he said he can easily lead to sin.

For if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble." This is what it means by destroying your brother with what we consider to be good. But there is a bigger part of what he's talking about. When we destroy not just the individual, if we walk in truth and our actions are actually destroying the brothers and sisters around us, it can actually ultimately destroy the church and the witness that God has brought.

In First Corinthians 3, 16 and 17, it says, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" He's saying this because he's frustrated with this church who's practicing truth but dividing the church in their practice. If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him.

He's talking about division in the church, he's talking about practicing truth, but they were doing it selfishly, devoid of context. And it says God's will burn, God's anger will burn against him. God's temple is holy and you are that temple. A church divided and a church infighting is not concerned about the witness of reaching the lost.

It just is not. All our energy is spent infighting. All our energy is spent in just trying to put up with one another. A church that's divided is no longer talking about the Great Commission or practicing the Great Commission. We don't have the energy to do that. That's why Paul says in First Corinthians 9, 19-23, "For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win the Jew. To those under the law I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law." Let me stop right there. Apostle Paul lived this whole life being obedient to the law.

And he had a radical transformation, radical revelation when he met Christ on the road to Damascus. And now that he's free, he can eat whatever, he can go wherever, he can wear whatever. And he was living in freedom. And all of a sudden he says he's willing to go back into that heavy burden of the law, which Paul says in Galatians.

We've been freed. We don't have to live under this condemnation. And so he's experienced this freedom, he's enjoying this freedom, but he says he's willing to let go of that for the greater joy of spreading the gospel. He's willing to go back and become that Jew. He was willing to become a Pharisee because he has a bigger picture in mind, God's glory, because he knows that ultimate freedom for him is not here.

That ultimate experience of life is not here. He's willing to live in bondage. He's willing to let go of his freedom. He's willing to draw the line way over here for the purpose of building and spreading of the gospel. Verse 21, "To those outside the law I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law.

To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that I by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessing." He took Timothy, who didn't need to be circumcised, and circumcised him.

This was not a stamp on his hand. He circumcised him just strictly for the purpose of spreading the gospel. An immature person is only concerned about the practice of his freedom and how it affects him. You know, we hear people say oftentimes, "Oh, I'm a girl. I'm a guy.

I'm an introvert. I'm an extrovert. I was raised this way, and I'm an Asian, or I'm not an Asian." And so we all declare basically, "This is who I am, so don't expect me to change." You know what causes problems in marriage? You have a husband and wife, and the wife says, "Well, this is just how I am," and the husband says, "Well, this is the way I am." And so you're looking for somebody who's going to accept you exactly the way you are, and there is nobody, because at the core of it, it's selfishness.

It's not because you're a woman. It's not because you're a guy. It's just selfishness. This is who I am, so I want you to change for me. That's the beginning of a bad marriage. A good marriage recognizes, "This is where I am. This is where she is, and for her sake, I need to become different.

For his sake, I need to be different." And that's what Paul means here. He says, "Mature to practice the truth for the sake of others." Until we empty ourselves of ourselves, we will always be self-centered, and that's why the call of Christ is, "He who finds his life," what?

"Will lose it." If your whole purpose of truth is about you, you will lose it. He who loses his life for my sake, he will find it. That's the initial call to live, is to die. Until we die to ourselves, the cross is not going to make any sense.

Not only did he die, he told us to die, because only in our death can we walk truly in love. Even in the context of practicing truth, even when we are theologically correct, it could all be about ourselves if we're not careful. We can easily win the battle, but lose the war.

Many people who have been compelled by this love of Christ, what changed you? What compels you? What motivates you? If it is not the love of Christ, this is not something you can do by just willpower, because you want to be a good person. Only those who've been deeply affected will understand.

I'm going to conclude. I'm going to read a short passage of a letter that was written by a young communist member in the beginnings of communism, where he was breaking off with his girlfriend because he went off to basically fight for communism. In this letter, he's explaining to her why he's not coming home.

Let me read this letter to you, just a portion of it. We communists have a high casualty rate. We are the ones who get shot and hung and ridiculed and fired from our jobs and in every other way, made as uncomfortable as possible. A certain percentage of us get killed or imprisoned.

We live in virtual poverty. We turn back to the party every penny we make above what is absolutely necessary to keep us alive. We communists do not have the time or money or many movies or concerts or T-bone steaks or decent homes or new cars. We have been described as fanatics.

We are fanatics. Our lives are dominated by one great overshadowing factor, the struggle for world communism. We communists have a philosophy of life that no amount of money can buy. We have a cause to fight for, a definite purpose in life. We subordinate our petty personal selves to the great movement of humanity.

And if our personal lives seem hard or our egos appear to suffer through subordination to the party, then we are adequately compensated by the thought that each of us, in a small way, is contributing to something new and true and better for mankind. We read that of communism and a young member who was committed and we may be disturbed.

This is the reason why communists took off. It's clearly proven today, even in communist countries, that communism just doesn't work. The communistic philosophy has been proven to be false. In fact, more and more communist countries call themselves socialists because it's kind of like a halfway compromise without admitting that they failed.

And yet it was this type of commitment, this type of ideology that causes, caused it to catch on fire. How much more should we consider the truth? Not only will it affect this life for eternity, how much of every decision that we make, every penny that we spend, everything that we do, that we should consider how it affects eternity and not just here.

And that's exactly what Paul is saying in chapter 14. To pursue truth in grace and love, to build up the kingdom and not to destroy. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team comes out. (audience applauding)