Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing bath? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His graces? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments, fathers, are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you walking daily by the Savior's side? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Do you rest each moment in the crucifix? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments boundless, are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? When the bridegroom cometh, will your robes be worn? the blood of the Lamb. Will you so be ready for the mansions bright and be washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood? In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments boundless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin And be washed in the blood of the Lamb There's a fountain flowing for the soul unclean, who'll be washed in the blood of the Lamb. blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb. Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Brother Bogg, would you ask the blessing on the offering? You may be seated. And at this time, and you can't get out of it, I had a little friend tell me about some birthdays today. So we do have birthdays. And it's going to be Uncle Poe, probably. So we need to sing out here, or not. It's gotta mean something to you. Something with the month, I guess. OK. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. And do we have any anniversaries? No anniversary, Pastor. How many of y'all... Thank you. Micah came and picked me up from the airport yesterday and what a blessing that was and thankful for that. We had a fun ride back and weren't even close to any accidents or anything. It was good. It was very nice. No, no, no air conditioning. It was cold. So, anyway. Yeah, I keep forgetting I have a birthday. You know, I don't, I don't know if that, that must be an age thing, right? So, and my brother texted me from Australia and I'm like, oh yeah, I got a birthday. And of course he's like a day early because I don't know. He goes, I think you have a birthday soon. Happy birthday. Yeah, let me check the clock and see when it is. It is soon. So thank the Lord for another year. And we only get so many years to glorify Him. And when we die, there will be no need to glorify Him. And this is the only chance we have. And how often are we reminded we haven't done a very good job at it sometimes. And thankful for the years that He gives us. Amen? All right. Romans chapter 14 this morning. We're going to jump into a subject about how we live with one another here in our church. We're going to Look at the subject of edification, of edifying one another, lifting up and building up one another. And no doubt some of you all have stories growing up in life when there may be somebody special to you, somebody that stood out, maybe not even in your own home, maybe just somebody at a school or wherever it might have been that just, I tell you what, you might have had a lot of negativity and this person just came along and just encouraged you. and things like that. I remember my sister, who is the next up from me, that sister, and she'll remain nameless, but something was said to me when I was young, you know, high school age, and no doubt the individual who said it maybe thought they were being helpful. And they made some pretty negative comment. And my sister came into the room later and said, don't listen to that. It's not true. And I remember that, obviously I remember that to this day, and it was a helpful thing, it really was, and it was a positive thing. And she didn't know it, because I didn't at the time, I could have cared less where Romans 14 was, but I didn't pull out my Bible and say, well, wow, Jen, oh, I just gave her name, Jen, thanks. You just edified me, according to Romans 14, and I'm so thankful for that edification, thank you. And I wouldn't have known that then or wouldn't have understood that then, but I do today. And how imperative that is, that we are in a habit of edifying one another, right? Edifying and lifting up and encouraging one another. And we need to do that. Charlie Brown, he was at Lucy's psychiatric help booth. It was five cents for this psychiatric help. And Charlie came up and said he had deep feelings of depression. He said, what can I do about it? And she snapped at him. She says, just snap out of it. Five cents, please. Just snap out of it. That was her help, right? And that's what some people have for what they think is help. And no doubt, sometimes people need a snap out of it, right? I knew a pastor, he had lost his wife, and he was going to the grave every day for, I don't know how long, it had been almost a year. And a pastor friend of his called and said, when's this gonna stop? Ooh, that was rough. But he needed that at the time because he was in a wrong place beyond the normal of grieving. And yeah, sometimes there is a snap out of it that you need every once in a while. It can only come from the right person and the right friendship that God gives you. But normally what we need is a good dose of edification. There's another strip of Charlie Brown and he said, I'm not sure what happiness means. Lucy was telling Charlie Brown this. I'm not really sure I know what happiness means, but I look in your eyes and I know that it isn't there. That's not edification, right? That is not edification. To edify means to build up. And here in our text today, the Apostle Paul is gonna talk to this church at Rome, and it's a process of faith and growth, of learning to edify one another. So let's look at Romans chapter 14, verse 11. He says, for it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us, shall give an account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that it seemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably? Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. Let not then your good be evil spoken of. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace." Here it is. and things wherewith one may edify another." Okay? So we're not supposed to be a stumbling block to one another. We're supposed to search out for those things and follow after those things, which not only make for peace, but those things wherewith we may edify and build up one another. Life is hard enough, amen? It's tough enough. And the Christian life adds a whole nother paradigm to the struggles and the difficulties that we have in this life. And the last thing that we need is, you know, the Debbie Downer always coming around, or the, let me think of what's that, there's a Debbie Downer, we gotta find another D, Daniel Downer, there we go, we don't wanna just pick on the girls, right? And we don't need those type coming around all the time. There's a place for that but boy we really need at times we really need some edification. Now Paul is writing here to challenge them to grow in grace. and to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to realize this church at Rome was a mixed church. There was Gentiles in this church. There was Jews in this church from after 70 A.D. when Rome came in and fell, came in upon, when Titus came into Jerusalem and kind of destroyed the temple and wiped everything out. The Jews began to scatter. They began to go all throughout that area and a whole lot of them ended up in Rome and so this church here in Rome was mixed. There was Romans and there were Jews in the church, there were Greeks and so there was the Gentile believers who were saved out of paganism and things that way and so they had different views of observing certain holy days and and holidays, right? Things like that. Different views on things about eating meat and things sacrificed to idols that you would buy in the marketplace. So they had their views of that. But the Jews didn't really grow up in that. So they didn't have all of that problem. The Jews were appalled at the Gentiles eating the meat which was associated with idols, right? They thought that was horrible, you know? But Gentiles, I hope I'm not confusing here, the Gentile believers wouldn't have thought that so awful, but the Jews would have thought it awful. And so you have these differencing of opinions of one saying, well, I can't believe you're doing that. I can't believe you're eating that. You are really eating that possum, right? Now, it wouldn't be the problem was the possum. The problem was, well, they offered that up to an idol, right? So now you have two problems. You're eating a possum, and you're eating a possum that was offered to an idol, which... Not a very good idol if you're going to offer him a possum. But anyway, they had contention, all right? They had differing of opinions, and it could get to creating these stumbling blocks and just not helping one another, not building one another up, but tearing them down. And in a church family, listen, our differences can either harm the church or bring harmony to it, right? I make a lot of jokes. The Lord kind of got on to me for making so many jokes about, you know, New Jersey and all of the California and all of these different places, right? And I'm thinking of jokes right at this moment that could come out. But you know what? It's not very edifying. And these differing, these people that have moved, these people, these people that have moved. No, I didn't mean it that way. All these people that have moved into this area, right? And we're so thankful for those that are in our church. They bring all different experiences to our church that are actually are wonderful. They're excellent, you know. I mean, we can look around and we can see, you know, the rural setting that we're in, although it doesn't look very rural anymore. And we have our own challenges and we can get discouraged about how we reach the loss and how we reach a community that seems to have no desire for the things of God. But then you have a family that moves in from New Jersey and the inner city and the challenge is there and you realize, well, they, they built a church in that environment well we can build God can build a church here if you can build one there and watch it bring some it adds some some what do I say help to us at different points of view and broaden our horizon and don't get so myopic looking at things And it can be an encouragement to the body. And so God, you know, we know if we believe this, right, God places in the body whom He pleases, right? He puts us where He wants us. So it means He has a place for everybody in this body and your background and your experiences in your time in Christ, they all add to the benefit, or they can add to the benefit of the body. So the point is not our differences, the differences can be very good, right? And they can be a place of edification and helping one another. I'm still trying to figure out Martin, but no. No. Martian. Yes, the Martian. Listen, I love the people that God has brought here from every walk of life. Everybody's a blessing. Everybody's a joy. Everybody has their own experiences. Everybody has their heart for God and a desire for the things of God. And I love it. Everybody has that. But on top of that though, everybody has a need just to continue to grow. We haven't all arrived, right? We haven't all got there. We still have our self that we're dealing with. We still have sins that we are dealing with. We still have attitudes and things like that that we are dealing with. We're still trying to stop telling jokes about other parts of the country. Except Arkansas. Arkansas is always available for a joke. I'm just telling you, God has put us together and one of the things we need to major on is not necessarily the differences but how to edify one another in spite of the differences and along with the differences because God knows those differences and He brings them into the church and He's allowed them and they're for a purpose, right? And so edification, we need to learn to edify one another. It doesn't happen by accident. Becoming somebody who edifies one another doesn't happen by accident. It's kind of not in our nature. Now, there are those that just have the gift of edification. God, it's just natural to them, and they are so good at coming to somebody and going, boy, I love how you did that. Boy, you did a great job on that. Boy, I mean, I would have never thought of that. Man, that is so good. I hope you can continue to do that. That is really a help. I mean, some people just have that ability, and it just rolls off. I mean, it's just easy for them. But watch this, it can come out of us genuinely, eventually, right? If we determine to live a life of obedience to God, in the command to edify one another, right? Watch this. Do you know that once you begin to, once you put a stake in the ground and decide, like a tent stake, not a steak stake, but once you put a, drive a stake into the ground and decide, I'm gonna obey God on this issue, you know what happens immediately? You get grace. God gives you, not just favor, right? You know what else grace means, right? Divine enablement. God, He causes us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And so too is this thing of edification. When we decide that, Lord, I want you to check me every time that something comes out negative and is not the most edifying. Number one, I want your Holy Spirit to go, hey, That's not very edifying, right? And then secondly, I wanna grow in the ability and the grace to edify one another and edify those that you've put around us. The minute you decide to do that, that's when the grace of God comes in and enables us and begins to work in us and to change us to make us a people who edify. So you might say, you might say, well, I'm just not good at that. I'm just not good at that. Well, fine, God is. Right? You're not good at saving yourself either, but are you pretty sure you're saved? How many sure they're saved? Okay, right? You didn't have a thing to do with that, did you? All you had to do is believe and receive and say yes, right? And God did the rest. Well, you know what? The same way you got saved is the same way that we obey everything that God gives us to do. It's His divine enablement and it's His grace. And so we can be those who edify. We can become that, a body who edifies one another. We're told here that in verse 19, we're told here to follow after the things which make for peace. So that word follow after there means to run after, to pursue, to seek eagerly, all right? To run after and to pursue, yeah. You've seen it happen and some of you have done it. Run after and pursue. How many's married? How many of you men are married? Yeah. Did you ever run after? Did you ever pursue? Yes, you did. Yeah, you did. Maybe there might have been a couple that were like, uh-uh, she hunted me down. And she's going, oh, you wish. Yeah. Hey, some of you know, listen, we all know how to run after and pursue the things we want. Some run after careers, some run after money, some run after all sorts of things. I mean, listen, we know how to do that and we're commanded here to follow after, to pursue, to run after, to seek after eagerly, to follow after the things which make for peace. You know what it is easy to do? It's easy to follow after those things that make chaos and destruction and upheaval and fighting. I mean if we just live to the flesh that's easy. I mean we're constantly doing that. But we need to actively pursue peace, right? Somebody said this, I've got it written down here, it's difficult to live peaceably with others around us, even in our homes, right? It is, it's difficult. So somebody said this one time, if we could just get everyone to close their eyes in the world, everybody in the world, get them to close their eyes and to visualize world peace for an hour. Just imagine how quiet and serene the world would be until the looting started. Listen, I mean, you have to actively pursue this thing of peace, right? The world can imagine, I mean, you remember those things, you know, seek peace, world peace, visualize, imagine peace, and things like that. Well, you can imagine all you want. It doesn't happen. Actually, it's got to be actively sought after. It's got to be sought after. So Romans 14 here is going to give us four steps how to live peaceably with each other. Number one, we're going to find here in verses 7 and 8, And let's read the verses and I'll tell you what it is. For none of us liveth to himself and no man doth to himself. For whether we live, we live under the Lord and whether we die, we die under the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. So, number one, the first step to living peaceably and seeking after edification one of another is to stop living for self. Yeah. That's our biggest problem, isn't it? I, I am the problem, the capital I. If you want a book later, I'll give it to you. Tell me, I've got copies of them. I think, Miss Julie, I think I gave you one once before and called The Calvary Road by Roy Hessen. Anybody ever read that book? I would recommend you read it once a year. It's a wonderful book. I'll give you a copy. I've got several of them if you want it. But he says, and this is the thrust of the entire book, is dying to self, not I but Christ, Paul said, over in Galatians, not I. And he said, see, we're the I, and he said the letter I, the capital I is straight up and down. It's a stiff letter. It doesn't move. He said, but the C in Christ is an I that's bent. And he said, until we who bend ourselves and mold ourselves to Christ, we'll always live a life that's just straight and rigid and self-centered. We've got to bend ourselves, yield ourselves unto Christ. It's a hard thing to do, and we've got to be reminded of it constantly. And listen, you know what we have found out, and you have found this out if you're in Christ, you have found out it's the most natural thing to live to self, and it's the most unrewarding thing to live to self. The world will never understand it. They will never get it. At times we have to be reminded of it on a daily basis because our flesh is so strong. But the joyful life is actually the selfless life. And it's the self-centered life is actually the miserable life. Why? Because you can never get everything you want, right? Over in Proverbs, there are four things that are never satisfied, right? You write the fire, the barren womb. I'm trying to remember the other two. I'll go back to them another time and remember them. But drought, you know, and then there's something else. But we're just never satisfied, right? And so you live to yourself and you're constantly looking for somebody to fulfill you. Well, they can't. Yeah, get this down, nobody can completely fulfill you. No person can, right? And what happens when you are seeking to an individual to fulfill you, it's really a cruel thing to do to them because they're not capable and then you're gonna be missing out because they're not capable, right? They are missing out because you're never satisfied with them and then you are missing out because you're never satisfied with yourself because you're still gonna always look for more and more and more and more. It's a fruitless life. It's a futile attempt to live to self. How many get reminded of this on a daily basis? I'm trying it once again, to live to self. and get what I want and you know I've got to be the first in line and I've got to be the first here. You just travel. Get on an airplane every day and watch the world live to self. Oh my goodness. It's unbelievable. Get on the highway and watch people drive. Get in the store and watch. I mean it's just this constant push of trying to get ahead and be the first and this and that and it's the most natural thing we can do. but it takes a supernatural God living in us to remind us and to enable us that no, this isn't the fulfilling life, right? You'll never have enough money. You'll never have enough people. You'll never have the right spouse. You'll never have the right stuff. You'll never have the right friendships. It will never, ever, ever, ever be enough, right? So watch, when it comes to the place when you can die to self and Christ is enough, then everybody around you will be enough. Because you're not looking to it anyway, right? You're not looking to the stuff and the money and things like that. Well, does that mean we have to be paupers? No, it doesn't. Listen, God has created us to produce, and some produce at different levels, right? Some produce millions and billions, some produce thousands and hundreds. But the point is, you can be content where God has put you, and you don't have to look to those things for your contentment. But boy, you start running after them, you're never going to get there, you won't. If you want to live peaceably among the brethren, Listen, we've got to stop living for ourselves. We can't do it. The only way we're going to live for one another is live for the Lord first. Live for Him. Then we'll be able to seek peace one for another. Number two, realize the Gospel is the focus. Stop living for yourself and realize the point of why we're here. Why did God leave us on the earth? What did Jesus say? Occupy till I come. What are we supposed to be occupied with? Go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in. Go into all the world and preach the gospel, right? We are supposed to realize and remember on a day-to-day basis that the gospel is the focus. The gospel is the focus, right? You say, well, I'm just a grandma, I'm just a mother, I'm just, I got little ones, or I just got grandkids, I'm not the place where I'm going out. Well, you got, hey, can you teach little ones the gospel and we're gonna go out with it someday? Can you equip them with the gospel and they're gonna go out with it someday? I'm telling you, some of you, some of the moms that are still at home, the grandmothers that are just, in their grandkids' lives. Boy, you talk about a building project. building program there with those little ones that you have in the gospel, right? Being a mother, being a grandmother, being a father, being a grandfather, all of those things, you've got to realize it's all about the gospel, it's all about the gospel of Jesus Christ, right? How you raise them, how you direct them, everything, you know, but the things that we get worked up about, oh goodness, you know, you've got to remember When the gospel is the focus, we've gotta be reminded on a daily basis that some things aren't worth it for the gospel's sake. How many get reminded of your flesh? I mean, you think you're clicking on really good? You're like, boy, I'm living in victory, and boy, boom, something comes up and you go, whoa. I didn't know that was there. I was coming home yesterday, I was on a flight between Charlotte and coming home to Springfield, and just sitting on my little row, you know, I'm next to the window seat, and we're getting close, so we just come over Rogersville, and coming in, and I'm looking out my window, my window's down about, shade's about that far, and this stewardess walks by and she goes, you need to put your shade up for landing, and I'm like, I mean, just that quick, I'm like, I'm like, it's up, it's down there, and I'm looking over, and everybody else's window's down, and she didn't say a word to them. Right? Listen, the Lord will work through you through other people. Don't get bitter. Sometimes if things are going on, you're like, why'd they say that? Maybe you ought to stop and say, okay, speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. What are you showing me? You know what I did? I put the little window shade up, and for about 10 minutes, I had to go, stop it, just stop, no, stop it. Because my insides are, my flesh is wearing up, right? Like I was, you know, you know, I was, you know, what's that word they like to use nowadays? I've forgotten. Anyway, I've been discriminated against, right? It's because of my red hair. I know it. Yeah. You know what would have been really bad is to say something because I've done it before. And then later the Holy Spirit says, usually about three seconds after it comes out of my mouth, right? Probably be a bad time to give him a tract now, don't you think? Yeah. Man, it was... It was the attorney, some of you probably heard him, David Gibbs talked about being at a drive-thru and the lady could not get the order right. It was him and his wife and his grandkids couldn't get the order right and he kept trying to go over. He goes, I'm getting mad and mad and angry and angry. And finally I'm like, you know, lady, what do you have, boxing gloves on there? Are you trying to hit the keys with me? I know you can't hit the right key. And he goes, I'm getting mad. My wife's telling me to stop. And he said, I pulled up to the drive-through window and the manager came out and said, I appreciate your patience. You know, she just lost her son last night and she's really having trouble or something to that effect. I'm like, and he was like, oh, you know, yeah. And yeah, some things aren't worth the damage done to the gospel. Yeah. And we've all done it, haven't we? Yep, I've done it, I've done it. And said things, right, and made, didn't die to self, forgot that the gospel was the focus of our life. And it might have been justified in it, right? And not saying that some things don't need to be said at the right time with the help and the aid of the Spirit of God, but a lot of things that we are frustrated at is just because of self. And so Jesus Christ, what did He do? He came with one focus, didn't He? To seek and to save that which was lost. That was it, that's why I'm here. He goes, I'm just saying what my Father says. I'm just doing what my Father has told me to do. I'm doing nothing else but what I've been given to do. That's the whole purpose of my life. And we seem to think that the purpose of Jesus' life is just something that gets tacked on to ours and we go along with our life and just drag Him along with us. But no, His life is our life, right? You say, that sounds, does it sound miserable? Does it sound like it's overwhelming? Does it sound like, boy, I don't know if that sounds real fun? Well, no, no, this is good news, because it might, because I've had times like that, that doesn't sound fun, right? When you're battling your flight, that doesn't sound, just, that's it? That's the purpose of our life, right? Well, you know what you find out? With the help and the aid of the Spirit of God, you begin to learn that no, this is the joy. The gospel-centered life is the joy. Watching somebody trust Christ is, there is, listen, there is zero, none, no experience on this planet greater than watching somebody humble themselves before God and give their life to Jesus Christ and then God allowing you to be a part of it. Nothing greater. Nothing greater. Yep. If we're going to edify one another, if we're going to help the body, we've got to realize that it's not about us. We've got to stop living for self. We've got to realize the gospel is the focus. And then we need to remember that all things are going to get settled at the judgment seat of Christ. Look at verse 10 and 12, But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Now obviously he's speaking to believers here because unbelievers do not go to the judgment seat of Christ, they go to the bema seat, the great white throne judgment. But he's talking to believers. the ones that we are just irritated with, the ones that have legitimately done wrong and maybe have sinned against you and have never said a word to you about it and then we get into the place of bitterness and anger and it's ruling our life and they're ruling our life and watch what happens, this just follows suit really when you get into the place of living in bitterness and anger you know your life becomes self-centered, yeah No, there's, all of these things are still a list. They begin to reveal that we're living to sell. Well, they did me wrong. Well, they did Jesus wrong too. You've never been done as wrong as Jesus has been run wrong. I know that becomes cliched, right? We make these statements kind of trite, but it's really very, very, very true. No matter what has happened to us, there'll be nothing, nothing to compare what we did to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what it reveals in us is when we get that attitude in that way and start getting irritated about what somebody else has done to us, though as right as we may be, We've got to be careful because it can turn into self-centeredness. It can become about my rights and my this and my that. And watch, all of a sudden you're living for self. You get your focus off of the gospel because you think things need to be settled now and you're just all up in arms because they're just getting away with it. They're getting away with it. Can I tell you, friend, they're not. and the same grace God is giving them and the space God is giving them to repent, let me tell you something, Bubba, you'll be very happy when God gives you that space to you when you need to repent and get right with God. You'll be very happy for that space and grace, won't you? Absolutely. And so remember, we just have to remember that some things are going to get settled at the judgment seat of Christ. This word judge in verse 10 means to be contentious, to dispute with others, and to sit at not here means to despise utterly. To be contentious, to dispute with others, and to despise utterly. Listen, it is easy to get that way with one another in the body. It is. There's a few people in this room, I don't see how this is possible, but I'm sure it is. But just to be all inclusive and not leave anybody out. Every one of us know how to get on somebody's nerves. Like I said, there's a couple that I can't figure out how they would do that, because they just don't seem like that at all. But I'm sure there's somebody somewhere that would say, yeah, that's kind of irritating, right? Listen, we can. We all know how to get on to one another's nerves. We all do things. We have all our own idiosyncrasies. We all have our own foibles. We all have our own weirdnesses about us. And we can grade on one another, right? And there can be even some things that are, okay, yeah, that is just sin. But if you're not careful, right, we will shift from living to edify one another and to strengthen the body, we'll drift backwards to living to self. And then the gospel goes out the window, right, and the purpose why we're here goes away, and life just becomes about self again, and then edification doesn't happen, and then we're just a body that's kind of miserable, kind of miserable. Yeah. So all things are going to get settled at the judgment. Don't forget that. Finally, avoid causing others to stumble as well. Did you know if we all lived with this on the very forefront of our mind, Father, would you show me, would you make sure you help me see where I might be a stumbling block to somebody else? Now, not, you know, some people can just pick anything out. Oh, that's a stumbling block. You need to stop. You know, it's like, you know, maybe you just need to figure out how to deal with life, right? I mean, yeah, self-centered too, yeah. And it can be, absolutely. But there are some things that, like between the Jews and the Greeks, here in this Church of Rome, there's some very important things here that could be stumbling blocks to somebody else right if the Greeks didn't have any problem eating meat and there's a Paul writes about this right over in Corinthians and there's a there's a young believer young Jew that's just accepted Christ and he's still like Peter and he's like oh nothing Nothing undefiled has touched my lips, you know. And this Greek says, hey, why don't you come over for supper? Okay. And he puts out, you know, a pound of bacon, you know. Maybe at this stage in his life, watch, as that Gentile, maybe he ought to have been less self-centered and said, and he may not have done it self-centeredly, but maybe he could look at himself and go, you know what, I can do without this. They're growing, they're young in the Lord. I don't want this to make them stumble. Why don't we not do this? We'll go ahead and serve up that possum. And we'll see how that goes. And, but I had a meeting one time, a sales meeting out in Oklahoma with this group that had bought several truck stops. And they were changing out all the sign package, large, very large stuff. And their last name was Sing, S-I-N-G. G and H or something like that. It was Indian. And they were Sikhs. They were the type that wore the turbans. I didn't know anything about them, okay? I didn't know. I said, hey, why don't we go ahead and we'll meet at Newton's Steakhouse. I'm sorry, we do not eat meat. I'm like, oh, okay. Well, We're in Oklahoma, I don't know where we're gonna go eat. I don't know what we're gonna do. We ended up at an Indian restaurant. Anyway, but they paid, so I was good. But I had rice and nuts and fruit. It was actually really good. But no meat. No assembling block, right. We need to make sure, we need to avoid causing others to stumble. Look at verse 13. Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. If you're going to call somebody a brother, there's a relationship involved there. We're to esteem others above ourselves, are we not? We're supposed to esteem others better than ourselves. So if there's something that we know would be a problem, maybe they haven't, maybe they're young in the Lord, they haven't grown up in some of the grace that they understand that they had, maybe there's things that maybe you haven't come to know that you ought to do, right? Hey, there's some people that are at a, a stage in their Christian maturity and there's some things that the Lord has brought them to get out of their life and away from their life and they're the mature ones and you're the immature one that you haven't got there yet, right? And maybe you don't need to be, you could be the stumbling block by introducing something back into their life that they don't really want to deal with or look at anymore, right? Listen, the point is We need to be sensitive to the Spirit of God to shut our own needs off and be alert and aware what everybody else, what our other brothers and sisters needs are so we can edify one another in the body of Christ. So we can lift up and so we can help. Paul told the Gentile believers right here that while you do have liberty to take meat, yeah, He says you shouldn't do it if it's gonna cause the Jewish believers to stumble there in the church. Just don't do it. Don't do it. You remember the definition of Christian liberty? I think it was Charles Ryrie. I think I just quoted this not too long ago. Charles Ryrie said that Christian liberty is the freedom to be a slave to righteousness. the freedom to be a slave to righteousness. What is righteousness? Right doing, right living. And so we have that in Christ. Warren Worsby said this, there is one thing we should judge. We should judge ourselves to see whether we are abusing our Christian liberty and making ourselves stumble. It's easy to judge somebody else, but maybe we ought to start, right? Judgment must begin at the house of God. Physician, heal thyself. Sometimes judgment begins to begin with ourselves. He goes on to say, "...certainly nothing is unclean of itself, but some practices and habits are considered unclean by others. Therefore, if we deliberately do something that makes our brothers stumble, we are not living according to the rule of love." We're living according to the rule of self. itself. So if we're going to live peaceably with one another, if we're going to live to where we edify one another and where we took a place where we don't cause others to stumble, right, we're going to have to live peaceably. And then finally, we're just going to have to build up, build up one another strongly. And we're going to stop there, build one another strongly. We see here there's a priority in edification. It's necessary. We need to edify one another. It's an aspect of our life that needs to become more and more normal. And how will it become more and more normal in our life? Easier. How will it more easily flow out of our life? When we live less and less and less to self. Right. We will we will naturally live like Jesus and live to edify and build up and encourage and strengthen one another. The body needs it. It definitely needs it. And so let's let's ask the Lord today to help us to be aware of the fact that we need to live a life that edifies