Love Over Liberty: Finding Harmony Among Believers - Sunday Evening - October 20, 2024

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Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

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My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

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I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

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Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

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All right, well, we're going to go ahead and get into acts 15.

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If you have your bibles, turn to acts 15, and we are going to start in verse number 22.

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Now, if you were not here last week, we covered a lot of ground last week, and so I'm going to try to recap it the best that I can without preaching the message again.

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If you would like to go back and understand the context of what we're going to be talking about tonight, I would encourage you to somewhere on the Internet, find it.

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There's multiple places you can find it.

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You can go to YouTube, you can go back on facebook, or if you listen to podcasts, it's on the podcast on our church network.

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But I would say it would help to have listened to that sermon as we come forward and listen to this one.

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I'm not saying it's impossible for you to understand this tonight, but it would give you some context.

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It would give you some understanding.

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But what have we been talking about?

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Well, in acts chapter 15, we've been talking about the law, liberty, and love.

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The law, liberty, and love.

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How do those three things come together?

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Is the law a real thing?

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Yes.

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Is it important?

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Yes.

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But how does the law integrate with liberty?

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Do we as christians have liberty, freedom?

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Yes.

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And so then how do those things, the law and liberty, tie in together with love?

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Well, we're going to talk more about that here this evening.

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Tonight's more of a transitionary message to get to our next story.

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But here we're going to see that the believers there in Jerusalem, after the Jerusalem council, are going to send news.

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They're going to send a letter back to the gentile believers, back to the jewish believers at a place called Antioch.

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And so they're going to pass along the news of what the conclusion was at the Jerusalem council.

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What was the issue at the Jerusalem council?

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Okay, I know this can be a little bit brainy here, but I.

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Follow me because this is important.

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There were jewish Christians coming from Jerusalem, which was the capital, which was the centerpiece, which was the heartbeat of the church.

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And they were going around specifically to churches that had gentile believers.

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So you had Jews and gentiles both Christians in the same church.

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And what was happening is that there were these jewish Christians that were going to the Gentile Christians and telling them, you have to become a jew to become a Christian.

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You have to be a Jew to continue to stay being a Christian.

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And the issue was that the Gentiles were confused because they were hearing from Paul and Barnabas and the other people.

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No, it was by faith alone.

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And so this was confusing them.

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This was causing them issues.

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This was becoming a stumbling block.

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So now it's faith plus doing all the acts of a person according to the jewish law, the levitical law.

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And so they were confused.

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They didn't know what to do.

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So they went back to Jerusalem and they had this council.

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Paul, Barnabas, Peter, James, and many of the other apostles and the fathers of the ministry there at that point were going to have this discussion.

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And they had two sides, one side, faith and faith alone.

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You dont have to become a Jew to become a Christian.

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And the other side was, no, you got to adhere to all these things.

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And what they came to this conclusion in this passage was this salvation and sanctification.

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So your salvation, that's your transformation in Christ and your spiritual growth comes from faith and faith alone.

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It does not come from the action of following the law.

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The law is important to show us what is right and wrong, but the law does not save us, and the law does not keep us saved.

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But there were people that were confused with this because they were saying, well, why did God give us the law?

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And now he's saying that we have liberty.

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Do we need to follow the law?

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Well, what they came up with was basically a compromise or a list of rules, basically guidelines for the Gentiles to be able to walk in unity with the jewish people.

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And so what it was, was this.

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You have the freedom to.

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In this case, it was eat meat.

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Sacrifice to idols.

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You have the freedom to do these things in your culture, but your freedom does not trump your love for your fellow brother and sister in Christ.

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And so the.

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The pinnacle of the teaching here in acts chapter 15 was unity.

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I want you to think about that.

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It's unity.

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It's not your liberty, it's not the law, it's unity.

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So how can we have unity when you have two different groups of people within the same body of believers?

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So let's you say, well, what does that mean for us Jews and gentiles?

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Okay, well, we don't necessarily wrestle with Jews and gentiles within our church.

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We might wrestle with people that grew up in a very legalistic, law abiding church and maybe people that didn't grow up in that environment.

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So how do we with people that are offended by certain things that aren't necessarily listed in scripture, how do we deal with people in that regard, with people that come in and say, well, why is it wrong to do this?

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Show me in the Bible where it says that what we see here in this passage, that there wasn't necessarily a list of rules that they said you have to do to become a Christian, you have to do become a church member.

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But they said these are things that you need to follow so that there can be unity in the church.

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So my love was my.

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What?

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It was the focus.

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So, my liberty, I want you to think about this phrase here this evening as we jump into our text.

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My liberty as a Christian is limited by my love for my fellow brother and sister in Christ.

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I have complete liberty in Christ, but also my liberty needs to be thinking about the love that I have for another Christian.

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I don't want to be a stumbling block for somebody else.

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So I have the freedom to live out in my life, my convictions, but I don't have the freedom to offend a brother or sister in Christ to allow them to come to a place of sin.

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And so there's a passage of scripture in first corinthians that talks all about that.

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And I think it's such an important verse to understand when it comes to our christian life and our christian maturity.

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This is all I believe, talking about christian maturity, because when I'm a new Christian, I'm like, you know, very much, what does the Bible say about XYz?

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And that's a good thing to be in.

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We should always be seeing what the Bible says about XYz.

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Okay.

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What does the Bible say about love?

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What does the Bible say about sin?

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What does the Bible say about this?

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But then there's a place in our life where we need to have grace and patience with other people that might be at different steps of the path that we are on.

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And so it's that unity that we're praying for.

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Yeah.

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We can exercise our judgment upon people within the church.

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Let's be honest.

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Let's pick out a person every single week.

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You know, we pick out a missionary of the week.

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Let's pick out a church member of the week, and let's follow him around the whole week.

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Okay.

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And let's.

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Let's judge every single action that they do.

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Could we find some stones to throw?

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Could we find some issues with every single person in this room.

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Of course we could, but that's not the purpose.

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The purpose is to exercise love in accordance to our liberty and not allow the law to be a division amongst the believers.

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The law is important because the law tells us what's right and wrong, but the law isn't what we have to follow to keep our salvation.

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And so, first corinthians, chapter ten, verse 23, says this.

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We're not going to read the whole passage, but I think that this is a core tenet to living within a church with different types of people.

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It says, all things are lawful for me.

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Paul says, I can do what I want.

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I have the freedom, okay?

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I'm not bound by the law anymore.

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Romans talks all about this.

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I'm not under the bondage of the law.

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I am now under the freedom of forgiveness.

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But he says, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.

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Expedient means beneficial.

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There are things that we can do as christians that are not beneficial for us.

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Okay?

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And then he goes on to say, all things are lawful, but all things edify not.

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Now, in this case, we could talk about the own edification in our life, but the edification of others.

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So, yeah, could I exercise my freedom in front of a fellow brother or sister in Christ?

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Yes, but that might not be edifying for them.

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So I need to choose in my life with discernment the times where I exercise my liberty and the times where I.

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I limit my liberty for the sake of my weaker brother or sister in Christ.

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Or my brother or sister in Christ.

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That's different than me, that has a different background.

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So we don't deal with the Jew and Gentile issues so much in our church, but we might deal with people that come from different backgrounds.

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We might have people coming from backgrounds that are very legalistic or very law driven.

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We might have people coming from backgrounds of a.

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I mean, maybe a cult.

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I don't know.

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We have a diverse background, so we have people bringing in a lot of baggage, and we have people coming in from backgrounds that say, well, I was at a church that said I could do whatever I wanted to do and it didn't matter.

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And so that, how do we coincide?

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How can we live together in peace and unity?

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The Bible says it's practicing this liberty, but also in the sake of love.

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So all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient.

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Beneficial for me.

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All things are lawful, but not all things edify my brothers and sisters in Christ.

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So you might say, well, what, what, what does that look like today.

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Okay?

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So we go back and we look at what the rules were.

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Go back to verse number 20 with me in acts chapter 15.

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There's a long Runway here, but we're getting there.

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He says, but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollution of idols.

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Now, in this case, in the King James, it doesn't clarify this completely, but this is specifically talking about the eating of meat sacrificed to idols.

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Okay?

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Now, I mentioned this last week kind of as a joke.

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None of us are going over to each other's house guessing that, hey, you know what?

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I wonder if they sacrificed this meat to Baal.

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We don't have to struggle with that, okay?

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That's not common.

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Now, if we lived in another country, maybe.

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Maybe this is a big issue.

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But then we see other things.

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Now it says from fornication.

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Now, we know that fornication is sin.

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But in this case, in their society, they practice, in their culture, marriage, a lot different than the jewish people practice marriage.

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And so for the jewish people, they were looking at the way that the former pagans were living in their marriages, and they were like, the way that you guys are married and remarried, and all of this is an issue.

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And so they said, follow the laws of God when it comes to your eating, it comes to your marriage.

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And then it goes on to say, from the things strangled and from blood, that's talking about eating kosher food, eating food that was passed by, passed through the levitical law.

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So he says, hey, for the gentile believers at this church in Antioch, okay, and maybe in Corinth and maybe in some of these other places, he says this.

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He says, eat the kosher meat so that you're not an offense to your fellow brother and sister in Christ, or at least in their presence.

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And so what we can see here is this one commentator put it this way.

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Gentiles had the right to eat meat sacrificed to idols, to continue in their marriage practices, and to eat food without kosher bleeding.

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Because these were aspects of the mosaic law.

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They were definitely not under the mosaic law.

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However, they were encouraged, or even possibly we could challenge, required from the early church to lay down their rights in these matters as a display of love to their jewish brethren.

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And so the true question is this.

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Am I willing to limit my liberty for the sake of my fellow brother or sister in Christ?

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Am I willing to say, yeah, I have the right to do that, but in this time of my life, I'm going to not do that so I can be a better example for that person.

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Now, again, we talked about this last week.

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There are some people that would say, I don't want you to do that because I don't like you to do that.

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Okay, well, just because you don't like someone doing something, that doesn't mean.

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That doesn't give you the right to limit them.

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It's specifically in the case of offending them to sin.

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So for an example, let's say, you know, let's say somebody had a background in a certain lifestyle, and me, as a Christian, I can kind of dabble in that.

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Maybe I can say, well, you know what?

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It's okay to watch this or listen to that.

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And for them, they're like, no, because when I'm around that, that brings me back to what I used to be.

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And please, brother, please don't do that around me because that causes me to get back into that life.

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Now, that's the way it should happen.

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Now then it's my job to say, how am I going to respond to that?

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Well, who are you to tell me that that's not a problem.

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That doesn't bother me at all.

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But that, brother, has asked you in grace to say that just around me, please don't do that.

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Please don't say that.

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Please don't listen to that.

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Please don't do that.

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And then we can say, okay, now I can then exercise my love for that person and say, you know what, around you, I will guard you from that.

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That doesn't mean that in my life, I have to avoid everything that person's conviction is.

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But around them, I need to be cautious, and there needs to be dialogue.

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And so me sacrifice to idols is not something that we struggle with.

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But there's a lot of things that we struggle with.

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I mean, I grew up, I could talk about real practical things here, and I'm probably going to offend some people tonight, but these are just things that we have to talk about.

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I grew up in an environment that going to a movie theater was a sin.

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Okay?

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In their mind, like, you can't walk into a movie theater.

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If you walk into a movie theater, you have committed a sin.

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Doesn't matter if you're going to watch a kid's movie right now, is it a sin to walk into a movie theater?

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No.

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Can it be a sin by going in and watching the thing that you shouldn't watch?

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Or some would argue you're promoting Hollywood, right?

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And we could discuss that, right?

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But in and of itself, me walking in there is not a sin.

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Now, if someone said, hey, it's a conviction for me not to go there and to support that.

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Okay, well, I'm not going to say, hey, we're going to go out and have a fellowship and Bible study.

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We're going to go to the movies first.

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No, I've then offended their conviction.

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I've offended their biblical preference, and I'm using that as an example.

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There's a lot of other things that we could talk about, and all of, you know, these hot button issues.

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And a lot of people say, there's no gray in the Bible.

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There's no.

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It's all black and white in scripture, folks.

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There's a lot of things that scripture speaks to, principles about things.

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But the Bible doesn't address 21st century items.

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Okay, so, for example, the Bible doesn't mention an iPhone.

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Okay?

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I've got my iPhone up here reading my notes.

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The Bible doesn't say, you know what?

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As a good Christian, you should not have an iPhone.

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But can an iPhone be a stumbling block to someone who is struggling with certain sins?

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Of course.

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Of course it can be.

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And so for me, as a Christian, I can't go up to someone and go, well, you don't have an iPhone.

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You don't have a smartphone.

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You don't allow your kids to have a smartphone.

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Oh, come on.

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Grow up.

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Come on.

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It's the 21st century.

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No.

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If that's that person's conviction within the church, honor that conviction for them and respect that conviction doesn't mean that you have to follow that.

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Now, we're not talking about items in scripture that are clearly stated.

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So if someone comes up and says, you know what, pastor?

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I really do feel that I can lie and cheat and steal all I want, okay?

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I can be unfaithful to my spouse.

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I can do all this.

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I can do all that.

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And no, no, that's not what that's talking about there.

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It's talking about issues that aren't explicitly stated in scripture.

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And so what we're seeing here in this case is that they leave with unity.

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They leave an agreement.

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Now, we could talk about this a lot more, but we're not gonna continue on in that mind.

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We're gonna leave the Jerusalem council in their answer, and we're gonna leave to them reporting that back to the Gentile Christians and the jewish Christians there at Antioch.

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So let's pick it up in verse 22.

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Okay.

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We're going to see the product or the result of unity.

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We're going to see the product of love before liberty.

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What happens then pleased it the apostles and elders with the whole church.

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Now, this is the church in Jerusalem.

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They're in unity here.

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They all came in in disagreement.

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They're leaving with unity.

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This is how it should work.

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We come in maybe with different opinions, different thoughts, different convictions, but we should leave here in unity.

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And it says, they leave.

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And they were pleased to send chosen men of their company to Antioch.

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That's the original church with the conflict with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, surnamed Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren.

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So you say, what's going on here?

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Well, they are leaving with unity, and they're excited to report this back to the church in Antioch.

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And I would say that much of the credit goes to these certain men listening to the spirit of God walking in unity.

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They allow themselves to be convinced by the evidence from scripture and the confirmation of the Holy Spirit, and they're in agreement.

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This is beautiful.

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I think of the verse in psalm 133.

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Psalm 133, verse one.

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It says this, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

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There's something miraculous about unity.

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People from different backgrounds, different cultures, different preferences can walk in unity.

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And the Bible says how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together with unity.

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It is the heart of God for christians to walk in unity.

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The reality is, is that there's going to be conflict.

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How do we deal with the conflict?

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We deal with the conflict with seeking after scripture, seeking after the spirit, and walking in unity together.

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When we leave in unity, when we leave in unity, we leave, as it says here, with joy and pleasure.

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It doesn't mean that we'll leave with our way.

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You know what happens sometimes with christians when we come in with a conflict?

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We want to leave the room with our way.

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I'm the right one and no one could tell me else.

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No one could tell me another way.

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The truth is, is are we open to have dialogue with a fellow brother and sister in Christ and ultimately check it with scripture.

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Check it with scripture.

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And that's what they did here.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:14

And so they wrote letters, verse 23.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:16

And they wrote letters by them after this manner, the apostles and elders and brethren saying, greeting unto the brethren, which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, for as much as we have heard.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:27

So they heard the conflict that certain men went out from us having troubled you with words.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:32

So they're admitting wrong.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:34

You see that there part of joy and unity is admitting, hey, we are responsible for this.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:39

Some of our own people went out and caused issues, they said, for certain, which went out from us having troubled you with words subverting your souls, saying, ye must be circumcised and keep the law.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:52

So they're admitting they're wrong.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:53

They said, some of us went out to you and said, some of you have to be circumcised to be saved.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:58

And some of you have.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:59

And all of you have to keep the law to be saved.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:02

And therefore, they're admitting where they fell.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:04

They're admitting where they had flaws and admitted that they had to get this right.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:09

And they said, to whom we gave no such commandment meaning, hey, we didn't tell them to do this, but they did this anyway.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:15

It seemed good unto us being assembled with one accord.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:18

So they came together in one accord to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of Lord Jesus Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:27

So they said, we're sending real legitimate people to you, real legitimate missionaries to come to you to bring this important message, verse 27.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:35

We have sent, therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:39

And so they said, we have these individuals that are going to come and they're going to bring this letter to you and they're going to explain this.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:45

And so the letter gives the express decision of the Jerusalem council that the Gentiles should consider themselves under no obligation to the rituals of Judaism except for the sensitivity which love demands.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:58

You're not under the law, but love might demand you to be subject to some of the other people there in your fellowship, that is, to preserve the fellowship of the jewish and gentile believers.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:11

And so this letter was written specifically to those churches where Jews and Gentiles mix together.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:16

There was potential tension and conflict with them.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:20

It was not addressed to every gentile congregation because there were gentile congregations that would have not had this conflict.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:26

They wouldn't have had any Jews in their midst.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:28

So this wouldn't have been an issue.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:29

This was for congregations that were diverse.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:33

And there are a lot of churches in this world today, in this country today, that everybody in the seats have the same convictions.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:42

And there isn't going to be a conflict in that, right?

Pastor Josh: 00:20:44

The conflicts come from the color of the carpet, color of the paint on the walls.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:49

If they're going to have a potluck on the first Sunday of the month or the second Sunday of the month, those are silly stuff that we really shouldn't even be arguing about.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:56

But when we have a church like Middletown Baptist church with so much diversity, I'm going to tell you, I've been to a lot of churches.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:02

There's a lot of diversity at Middletown Baptist church, and we welcome that.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:05

Sometimes as a pastor, there's a little bit more of a stress than that.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:09

Okay, so people coming, you know, I was at a part of a church, or everyone was there.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:12

They were Baptists since they were born.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:14

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:21:15

Everyone's Baptist is just Baptist.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:16

Moved from this church to this church, and everyone's Baptist.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:18

You know, we've had people coming from.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:20

To our church from other denominations.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:22

It's like, okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:23

And that's scary for me as a pastor.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:25

Someone comes into my front door and they're like, hey, we came from so and so church across town, or we came from so and so church, and I'm like, wait, they're not Baptist?

Pastor Josh: 00:21:31

Oh, man, we got to deal with this.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:33

And so immediately the struggle is, okay, we've got to make them Baptist before they can come into our church and fellowship.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:39

But the truth is, we are a baptist church.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:41

But the deeper purpose is being christians right now.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:44

We're Baptist by conviction, but it's salvation and faith.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:48

And then we show them scripturally why we have these personal convictions with the way that we do church.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:54

And so what the difficulty is with that is that when we have a diverse church with different ages and different backgrounds and different cultures and different denominations, there is a challenge to have some conflict there.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:04

Why do you have a problem with that?

Pastor Josh: 00:22:06

You've heard that conversation.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:07

But come on, let's be honest.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:08

All of us have had conversations before with someone else, and they go, well, I was always taught that that was wrong.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:13

Well, why would you have a problem with that?

Pastor Josh: 00:22:14

Well, that's just what I grew up with.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:16

And so instead of just pushing their conviction aside, there's dialogue that needs to happen.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:24

And maybe that person can grow in that area, or maybe I can grow in that area because maybe they have something to teach me about why I'm overstepping in my legalism.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:32

Because, most of you know, I've explained to you before, I'm a recovering pharisee, okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:22:36

Each day I wake up and my flesh wants to judge and say, we have to be a certain way, a certain path.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:43

And there's nothing wrong with that.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:44

There's nothing wrong with having our baggage, because that's actually what we all have, whether we deny it or not.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:51

We all have a preconceived bias when we come into a situation, but it's understanding that it's the love of Christ and the conviction of the spirit that should drive us and not our own personal preferences.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:01

And so they go back and they say, hey, we're bringing stuff to you.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:03

We're bringing this lesson to you.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:05

And this message is, this lesson is so that the congregation here in Antioch can have unity.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:12

So remember, it was James, the half brother of Jesus, who voiced the decision of the council.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:17

But the unity behind the decision was one of several evidences that it was the work of the spirit.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:23

How else could all of these really strong headed Menta in the Jerusalem council come together with this unity?

Pastor Josh: 00:23:29

I mean, you had Peter in the room, you had Paul in the room.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:32

You had Barnabas, you had James, you had all these other people, and they weren't yes men, okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:23:38

They went out and did a lot of stuff.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:39

So how could they have left?

Pastor Josh: 00:23:41

With unity?

Pastor Josh: 00:23:41

It's a work of the spirit.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:43

Let me tell you, church unity is a work of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:47

That is not something that happens naturally.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:49

It's actually the opposite.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:51

Church unity is foreign to our flesh.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:55

And the moment we divorce ourselves away from the spirit, when we're making decisions within the church, is the moment our church unity is severed.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:06

Folks, some of the most dangerous places that we could ever be is a baptist business meeting.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:13

I've seen some fur fly.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:15

I've seen arrows flown across the room.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:17

Not literally, hopefully.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:19

You've never been to a place where literal arrows are flying.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:22

But the truth is there are going to be conflicts within the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:28

But there's a way to do that in the spirit of unity for the purpose of the gospel, that we can come together and say, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:24:38

We can leave in fellowship because we're in this now.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:41

Are there going to be?

Pastor Josh: 00:24:42

Cause a lot of times people will say, well, I'm in unity, but the other person is not in unity.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:46

All we can be concerned with is where we stand before God and how we represent the Lord in our conflicts.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:51

And so in this case, there was unity.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:54

And it was proven by the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of all these men, so much so that they could say that the decision was made in the cooperation of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:02

You can see that right there in scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:04

We can see that it actually says there that it was made in the Spirit.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:11

We can see that he says in verse 40 28, that's right there.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:14

It says, for it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:24

So they admit here that this was a decision made by the Holy Spirit, made by God.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:31

And I'm going to tell you here at Middletown Baptist Church, and it might not always look this way, but the decisions that are made for this church are bathed in prayer.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:42

Multiple people look at it.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:44

Multiple people, I hope, will consult the Lord on this.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:47

And the decisions that we make, in my opinion, are led by the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:52

Now.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:52

Now, there are certain times where someone might say, that can't be the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:56

Come on.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:56

What's going on?

Pastor Josh: 00:25:57

We should have done this.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:57

This or this.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:58

I understand that.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:00

And we're not perfect, and certainly we can be making mistakes within the ministry here in the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:06

But I can tell you that the heartbeat of the church is that we follow the spirit.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:12

There's a lot of things that my flesh wants to do.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:15

There's a lot of things that I want to do in the concept of growing our church or changing things or moving here or doing that.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:22

But, folks, if the Holy Spirit is not strongly convicting us, there is a time to say, Lord, it's not.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:28

We believe that.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:29

It's not your will.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:30

We believe that.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:30

This is our fleshly desire to do this.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:32

Until the Lord makes it very clear in our lives, we have to be cautious.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:35

We never want to get ahead of the Lord.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:37

You can see story after story in scripture where individuals try to get ahead of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:42

Let me give you one example.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:43

Abraham.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:44

Abraham was told he was going to have a son, and God was going to promise it to me.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:48

And then he was like, well, God, I know he said it, but, like, let me try to help him out with this.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:53

Let me try to get ahead of him.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:55

And so let me go with Hagar.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:57

Let me go do this.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:59

That's sometimes what we can do in church.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:00

Do we know that God wants this church to grow?

Pastor Josh: 00:27:02

Yes.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:03

But sometimes what can happen is we can say, you know what, God?

Pastor Josh: 00:27:06

It's not happening at the speed I would want it to happen.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:08

So let's get.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:09

Let's get ahead of it.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:10

There's an issue there, and so we have to be cautious with that.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:13

So it was a spirit led decision.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:16

And then he explains what that decision was in verse 29.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:18

That you abstain from meats offered to idols and from blood and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which, if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well, fare ye well, meaning this is going to give you unity within the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:32

This is going to.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:33

This is going to demonstrate love to your fellow church member.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:39

So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle or the letter.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:46

So they're delivering this letter from the church at Jerusalem, which, when they read, they rejoiced for the consolation.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:56

There was joy because they were encouraged by this letter.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:00

You know, we would think, you know, the gentile Christians hear this message and go, what we have to follow these things that these jewish people know.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:09

They received it, as it says here, they received it with joy and encouragement, which, when they read, had read.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:16

They rejoiced for the consolation.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:18

It means encouragement.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:20

And so how relieved they were to see that the principle of grace had been preserved here.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:27

They heard that they were saved by faith alone, and they were right with God after all, and they had a path to move forward in unison and in fellowship with each other.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:39

So it says verse 33, and after they had tarried their space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:49

And so we see that the results of this unity is exhortation, consolation.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:57

That's encouragement and peace.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:00

Anytime we see the unity of the spirit within the church and the spirit's guidance in the church, we see comfort, we see exhortation.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:14

So let's say it this way, encouragement, exhortation, and we see their peace.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:22

They were let go in peace.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:24

Now, these are all things that we should strive for in our church.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:27

Exhortation is challenging each other, encouraging each other to love and good works.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:30

The Bible says that's our job within the church, to spur each other on to love and good works.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:36

You know, I think a lot of times we think in the very western mindset of, like, I'm an individual within the church, and I'm doing my thing here and everyone else is doing their thing, and, you know, just don't get in my way.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:47

That's not what the Bible teaches.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:48

The Bible teaches is that it is the role of the church to exhort each other to love and good works, to challenge each other to love and good works.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:57

And that doesn't come with judgment.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:59

That comes with, hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:30:00

I'm doing this.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:01

Hey, you want to come do this with me?

Pastor Josh: 00:30:02

You want to pray along with me?

Pastor Josh: 00:30:03

You want to do this Bible study with me?

Pastor Josh: 00:30:04

You want to come share the gospel with me?

Pastor Josh: 00:30:07

And it goes on from there.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:09

And so we see that there's encouragement, we see that there's comfort, and we see that there's peace.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:14

And then it says here, verse 34 notwithstanding, it pleased Silas to abide there still.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:19

And so Silas actually stays there.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:21

Silas says, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:30:22

We're going to stay there.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:23

And we actually see that Silas and Judas stay there, and so we see that they are going to stay, and, well, actually, actually, Silas stays and then Judas returns, leaving Silas and Antioch for the future ministry.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:37

So Silas stays there longer.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:38

And so they linger there for a time.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:41

Both of them linger there for a time.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:42

One leaves and then Silas stays.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:44

And I think that we see the heart of Silas here as a heart of a pastor to encourage and to minister.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:50

And that's really what the church should be.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:52

The church should not just be a place where we give them the truth and we walk away.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:56

How many times?

Pastor Josh: 00:30:58

Maybe this hasn't been what you have seen, but we've had an event or an opportunity and we've preached the gospel to people and then we just let them go and figure it out on their own.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:06

That's not what the church is for.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:08

The church is there to be a long term partner with people.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:12

So I give you the gospel.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:13

But now, as the great commission says, I teach you the gospel.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:17

I teach you what it means to obey Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:19

I teach you what it means to go through the difficulties.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:22

You know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:31:23

That's sometimes what happens in our society is we have a very transient society, meaning, like, we're here at a time until we need to move on and there's no investment.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:33

The average lifespan of a person in ministry is like two and a half years.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:37

You see that happening so often.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:38

I mean, Middletown Baptist Church has been, has been graced with longevity, with pastors.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:44

And I'm going to tell you, that's not the norm.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:46

The norm is pastor comes in for two or three years, something more interesting comes along.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:51

Or maybe God does call them away and we see just a lot of movement.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:54

A lot of movement.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:56

And the truth is, is that that isn't necessarily always what God's will is.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:59

God's will is that there's long term investment with the fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:04

And so for me, I could say to you, hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:32:06

Be faithful in the ministry.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:08

But if I don't demonstrate to you what it means to be faithful in the ministry, how can you know what it means to be faithful in the ministry?

Pastor Josh: 00:32:13

Hey, love your brother and sister in Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:15

But if I'm teaching you and demonstrating to you what loving my fellow brother and sister in Christ means, and I don't show that to you, you know, it would be like me, like, yeah, I don't know if some of you played sports or maybe you didn't play sports.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:26

Maybe you had a, maybe you played an instrument or maybe you took up a hobby or something and you had a teacher, okay, or a coach.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:35

And the coach came up to you and said, hey, let's use baseball as an example.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:40

I grew up playing baseball.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:41

I had a lot of coaches.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:42

My personal coach, my one on one coach, used to play in the major leagues.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:47

He played for the San Francisco Giants.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:49

Coach, Coach Redmond.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:51

He's an awesome guy.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:52

He taught me a lot about baseball.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:53

But he would sit there with me, and he would say, okay, when you hit the ball, you need to keep your eye on the ball.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:57

You need to twist your hips.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:58

You need to hit the ball like that.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:00

And I would say, okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:01

And I would do it wrong.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:02

And guess what helped me?

Pastor Josh: 00:33:04

When he would show me how to do it, he said, let me show you how it looks.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:07

And then he would walk me through it.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:08

He would show me every step of the way.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:09

And that meant so much more for me than some of the coaches that I've had in my life, that, go, come on.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:13

Go.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:14

Hit the ball, son.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:15

Well, how do I do that?

Pastor Josh: 00:33:16

We'll just do it.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:17

That doesn't help, right?

Pastor Josh: 00:33:19

And so it's that demonstration of the actual principle being taught that helps out a lot more.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:25

And so I would encourage you, as a church member, a ministry leader, possibly, if you want to be a discipler, demonstrate what it means to do the things that you're expecting your students to learn.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:39

And so, you know, for me, there is that struggle, because I get to preach to you a lot.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:46

And the truth is, is that a lot of times, people get the perception that pastors are perfect, and we expect you to have perfection.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:54

But the truth is, is that we're, you know, when I preach to you, I'm preaching to myself.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:59

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:34:00

When I do my notes in the week, I can tell you some of the most convicting moments of life is when I'm sitting there planning my sermons, because I'm sitting there going, wow, it's gonna be a tough one for me to say, because I struggle with that today.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:12

And so let me tell you, when I'm preaching, if, if, big, if.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:16

If there's conviction in your heart out there from the preaching of the word, the conviction is also here.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:20

I can tell you that.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:22

And so, so what I want you to understand is that here, as we conclude this passage, that Silas wanted to stay.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:28

He wanted to be planted in.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:29

And so these certain Mendez who had come from Judea, they were teaching and preaching, it says there in verse 35, Paul also, and Barnabas continue in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:42

And so they had a desire not just to give them this message, but to teach and preach what the word of the Lord.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:52

Paul didn't preach his way.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:55

Paul didn't preach his opinions.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:56

Paul preached the word of the Lord.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:58

So because of the situation and because it was handled correctly, the christians here were strengthened, and the word of God pushed forward.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:07

Let me tell you, one of the hindrances to the word of God being pushed forward is disunity within the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:13

If the proper measures are taken to conflict, the word of God is pushed forward.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:20

That's the best testimony when we can come in with a disagreement and leave in unity.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:26

And that's what we see happening here.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:28

The word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:28

That's where it ends.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:29

The thought here ends with Paul and Barnabas.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:33

And Silas taught and preached the word of the Lord with many others also.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:39

And so Judas and Silas came.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:41

These two men served well in Antioch.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:43

And after visiting from Jerusalem, Judas returns, Silas stays.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:47

We see for a time, Paul and Barnabas stay, and everything seems to be going well.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:53

And I wish I could tell you that after that first conflict is fixed, then we're set.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:59

I remember thinking, as a pastor, when's the first problem gonna drop, okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:36:07

How are we gonna deal with this?

Pastor Josh: 00:36:08

And I remember a problem was there.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:12

And you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:36:14

I had a pastor friend one time tell me, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:36:16

The problem that you're going through right now is not gonna be the problem you're dealing with next year, okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:36:20

So in my mind, I'm thinking, well, that means that I'm gonna be, if I get rid of this problem in my life, if we deal with this problem properly, everything will be okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:28

The issue is, is that I realized very quickly within ministry that after this problem is resolved, there's another problem that comes right in its place.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:34

And so that's what we're gonna see here.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:36

In acts, acts 15, it says in verse 36, I'm just gonna kind of whet your appetite for next week.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:43

It says, oh, actually, not next week.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:44

I'll tell you more about next week.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:45

In two weeks says, in some days after, and we don't know how many days after, you could, you could have your gospel imagination and think, seven days, 30 days, 50 days.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:57

But, and some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit another brethren.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:02

And, hey, sounds great.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:04

And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:07

And Paul thought, not good to take them.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:09

And so we're going to see that Paul and Barnabas have a conflict, and we're going to see how they deal with that conflict, and we're not going to see necessarily the resolution in this passage, we're going to see the first part of it.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:21

We are going to see the resolution in another passage of scripture later on.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:25

And we're going to see that some conflict doesn't get fixed over a Jerusalem council.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:29

Some conflict takes years and humility and struggles to get fixed.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:34

But what we're going to see here is that there always is a biblical resolution.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:38

Sometimes it's not the resolution that we want.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:40

Sometimes the resolution is, is that we can't be together.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:42

The Bible says to live peaceably with all men if possible.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:47

And so there is a conflict sometimes that we have to say, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:37:51

There isn't unity here, and both sides have to be in agreement to unity or there isn't going to be unity.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:57

And that's all the more reason why we have to take the responsibility for ourselves to do the right thing in our place.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:03

And so, you know, sometimes it's the classic example of, well, I'm in the right place, but it's that person's fault, why I'm this way.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:11

Well, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:38:12

Get where you need to be.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:13

And that's, and that's the best way.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:15

That's the best remedy for peace and unity.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:18

I heard recently there was this individual that they said, I really want to find a good spouse.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:23

They were single.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:24

It was a young man.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:26

He says, you know, I want to find a good spouse.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:28

I want to find a christian woman.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:29

I want to find a lady who is faithful to me, loving, checking all the boxes.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:34

And this guy said, okay, I've got some advice for you.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:36

I want you to get a piece of paper out, and I want you to write down all the qualifications that you want for a wife.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:41

And he's like, okay, okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:43

So he wrote down 55 things down on the paper.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:46

He was like, 55 qualifications that I want for a spouse.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:50

And then he says, okay, write your name up at the top of that.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:52

And so he write.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:53

So he writes his name up, or actually, he said, write the name up at the top.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:56

He said, I messed up the joke, or it's kind of a joke.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:58

It's an analogy.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:59

He says, write up at the top my future wife at the beginning.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:03

And then at the end, when he wrote all the qualifications, he said, okay, now erase future wife and put your name in the blank, right?

Pastor Josh: 00:39:09

If you want that type of spouse, you need to be that type of spouse in preparation for that, you know?

Pastor Josh: 00:39:15

And so, so many times we say, okay, we want good church members in the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:19

And so we want people that are dedicated.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:21

We want people that are faithful.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:22

We want people that are loving, forgiving.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:24

Well, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:39:25

If that's our goal for church members within Middletown Baptist Church, maybe we need to erase that and put our name in the blanket, say, that's what I need to strive for.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:33

And I think that's something to think about when it comes to conflict and unity within the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:38

Putting the responsibility on ourselves.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:40

Putting the responsibility on ourselves as a qualification to be that church member.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:45

Desiring unity.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:47

Folks, I'm going to tell you, the average Christian within the church isn't dwelling on unity.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:54

They're dwelling on what does this mean for me?

Pastor Josh: 00:39:57

How can.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:58

What can I get out of this?

Pastor Josh: 00:40:00

And.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:00

And that isn't.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:02

I'm gonna speak in love to you tonight.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:04

I hope I've proven to you that I love you.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:06

The Bible doesn't say that that is the first and foremost priority within the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:10

The first and foremost priority in the church is unity and edification and exhortation.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:14

The Bible says that the gifts of the spirit that are given to us are not for our own good.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:19

It's for the good of others within the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:21

That shows you right there where the priority is.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:24

The priority is others.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:26

The priority is Jesus others.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:29

And then you.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:30

You heard that acronym, Joy?

Pastor Josh: 00:40:31

Jesus others.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:32

You.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:33

It's not.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:34

It's not about you others and then Jesus.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:36

It's.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:37

It needs to be flipped.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:38

And so I would encourage you to think about that within the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:40

I would encourage myself to think about that within the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:43

This isn't about getting what I want.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:44

It's about getting what the Lord wants and how I can love and.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:47

And sacrifice for other people.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:48

And that's how we have unity.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:50

That's how we can resolve issues within the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:52

Well, you.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:53

I can't believe that your family goes here and does this.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:57

Okay, well, let's do a real life example.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:00

I've got.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:00

I've got, like, seven minutes here to the end of the hour.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:02

Let's do a real life experience.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:03

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:41:03

So I've got brother a over here and brother b.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:07

Brother a and brother b, brother a goes, I can't believe that your family does this.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:12

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:41:13

We don't do that in brother a family.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:16

Brother B, you're a sinner.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:17

Okay, well, if he has a problem with brother b, his issue should be, hey, brother a goes, talk to brother b, and we talk this out.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:26

Why would you do that?

Pastor Josh: 00:41:27

Can you show me in the word of God, why that's wrong?

Pastor Josh: 00:41:29

Why that's right.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:29

Whatever the problem comes is when brother a goes over here and says to brother c, can you believe what brother b does with his family?

Pastor Josh: 00:41:38

Oh, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:41:39

He's just.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:40

He's a second class citizen because he does that.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:43

But pray for him.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:45

The problem is, is now brother a has one issue here with brother b, and now he's created another issue with c.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:51

And now there's an issue between a and c and c and B.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:54

And c and b would have never had an issue.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:56

Right?

Pastor Josh: 00:41:56

You see how that goes now?

Pastor Josh: 00:41:58

And then c over here goes to, I'm gonna go over here to d.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:01

And then D has.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:02

You can see how that it's a ripple effect and a poor poison can spread.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:05

But if a says, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:42:08

Brother B has his own convictions, I'm not going to judge him for that.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:10

I won't.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:12

I don't.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:12

And then brother B could say, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:42:15

I didn't know that you had a problem with me going here.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:18

Well, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:42:19

I don't need to do that.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:21

Or maybe I won't do that around you, or we won't go there and do that together.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:25

Do you see how it's that deference deferring because of my love?

Pastor Josh: 00:42:29

It's not pride.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:30

It's not, I get to do this.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:32

I have the right to do this.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:34

I will be willing to die to myself so that that person can be edified.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:38

Now, there's some silliness with that.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:40

Like, sometimes we can get silly within the church, okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:42:44

And the truth is, is that when I'm thinking about myself and myself alone, I've got more issues that are going to come because everything's an offense to me.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:55

But when I'm thinking about others, I don't take things as personally.

Pastor Josh: 00:42:59

Hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:43:00

Maybe they're having a bad day.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:01

I can tell you there have been times where I have had a tough day, and in no way was I trying to be rude to somebody, but I came across as rude.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:11

You know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:43:11

And so what I need to do is I need to assume that in my brother or sister, okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:43:16

The bible says in one corinthians, chapter 13 that true agape love does not assume the worst, does not assume evil.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:24

What happens within church?

Pastor Josh: 00:43:26

Is this, okay, walking out, someone else says something to me or has a bad response.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:33

Ugh, they must hate me.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:36

You know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:43:36

I knew they didn't like me.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:38

I saw that from the very beginning.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:39

When they started coming into church, I knew they had a problem with me from the very beginning.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:42

I bet you they're talking about me right now.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:44

And the truth is, is that maybe they are.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:47

Maybe.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:48

But the initial assumption should not be that that is the case.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:53

That's biblical love.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:54

Getting to the bottom of it.

Pastor Josh: 00:43:56

Now, the way you get to the bottom of it is go right up to him and say, hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:43:59

You did that to me.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:00

Is that.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:00

Is that an issue?

Pastor Josh: 00:44:01

Like, did I do something?

Pastor Josh: 00:44:03

I apologize if I did, and then go from there, and then the reality will come forward.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:10

Yeah, I do have a problem with you, and I don't like that you do that.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:12

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:44:13

Now we go from that to something else.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:16

Now we go to conflict resolution.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:18

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:44:18

And so that's.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:19

That's how we have to go through these things.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:20

And so it's like what we talked about this morning.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:23

Think biblically about something.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:25

See it through the lens of scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:27

You ever heard the statement, rose colored glasses?

Pastor Josh: 00:44:29

Like, you put red glasses on, everything's red.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:32

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:44:33

See, have your gospel glasses.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:34

Have your Bible glasses.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:36

And so see everything through the lens of scripture and say, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:44:40

It's not about me.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:41

I am not the protagonist of scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:45

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:44:46

A lot of times, we think we are the main character of scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:50

And there's a lot of churches out there that preach that.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:52

You are the main character.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:53

Right at the end of the day, you are the main character.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:55

It's all about you.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:56

This lesson's about you today.

Pastor Josh: 00:44:57

And the lesson can apply to me, but I'm not the main character of scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:02

All scripture is given by inspiration of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:03

And we know that it's profitable for all these things in my life.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:06

But scripture is not.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:07

I'm not the centerpiece of scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:10

Jesus is.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:11

We sang a song about it tonight.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:12

Jesus is that sure foundation.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:14

Jesus is the centerpiece.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:16

And so when we fight, you know what the Bible says when we fight in the midst of our church, when we struggle within the midst of our church, we're actually offending the Lord.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:25

We're actually causing issues for his kingdom to move forward.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:28

Not my kingdom.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:30

My kingdom means nothing.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:32

My kingdom is zero, zilch, nada.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:34

Like, I don't have a kingdom.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:35

And even if I think I have a kingdom, that kingdom is not going to last.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:38

Think about all the dictators that have passed throughout history, okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:45:42

All of them have died.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:43

All their kingdoms have fallen.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:45

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:45:45

Think about the greatest ones.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:47

And the truth is that our kingdoms don't matter.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:49

And so if we see it from that perspective, we can leave with unity.

Pastor Josh: 00:45:53

So how does liberty, law, and love mingle together?

Pastor Josh: 00:45:57

Well, the law is given to us to show us that none of us can meet God's standard.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:02

It shows us the heart of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:04

It shows us how we can follow him to the best of our ability, but it also shows us that we need Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:11

And so liberty is that I'm saved from the bondage of law and I'm now in grace, and I can live with freedom to know that I am going to fail.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:21

But my failure is ultimately swallowed up in Christ's victory.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:26

And so that's my liberty.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:28

But my love says this.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:30

Okay, I'm not going to extend the law to someone, but I'm also not going to extend my liberty to a point where I limit them in their specific spiritual walk.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:39

And so are there things that you can do as a Christian?

Pastor Josh: 00:46:42

Yes, you have the freedom to do it.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:44

Paul says it, all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:48

Now, all things are beneficial for your christian walk.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:51

So if you come up to me and you say, pastor, can I do this?

Pastor Josh: 00:46:54

You know, like, theologically, my answer to you is, yeah, you can.

Pastor Josh: 00:46:58

You had the freedom to choose whatever.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:01

Now some of your choices are going to have really bad consequences.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:05

You can choose your sin, but you can't choose your outcome.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:09

But what I will say is this.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:10

Yeah, you had the freedom to do that.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:12

Well, am I sinning?

Pastor Josh: 00:47:14

Well, I can't show you a chapter, verse that you're sinning, but let me ask you this question.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:17

Is this beneficial for your spiritual growth?

Pastor Josh: 00:47:21

Is this going to hinder your spiritual growth?

Pastor Josh: 00:47:24

Some things are just going to be neutral, like, okay, me going to McDonald's or Burger King today.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:29

Okay, is that neither one?

Pastor Josh: 00:47:32

Some of you might say, well, it might hinder you in other ways, but the idea is, is that there are some things in our life that aren't going to necessarily edify us and build us up to Christ, but there are going to be some things that do pull us down.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:43

There are going to be some things that hold us back from our spiritual growth.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:46

So that first check is this.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:48

Is it expedient for my spiritual walk?

Pastor Josh: 00:47:51

And then that second check, is this.

Pastor Josh: 00:47:53

Is it edifying to the saints?

Pastor Josh: 00:47:55

First Corinthians: 1023

Pastor Josh: 00:47:57

Is it edifying?

Pastor Josh: 00:47:58

Is it building up other christians?

Pastor Josh: 00:48:01

Or is my decision in my freedom gonna tear somebody else down?

Pastor Josh: 00:48:07

Well, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:48:08

They need to grow up.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:09

Yes, they do.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:10

Okay, maybe they do.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:11

Maybe they need to mature.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:12

But who is going to demonstrate to them that spiritual maturity to get to that place?

Pastor Josh: 00:48:17

And so that's where it's at.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:18

That's where our christian life is.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:19

And so, as a servant of the living God.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:21

We have an opportunity to exercise our liberty, but not at the sake of hindering others in the process.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:29

And so I know that's difficult because it would be a lot easier, it would be a lot more easy for me to say, hey, guys, if you're a christian, just follow these rules.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:40

I want it to be that way.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:41

I want it to be where I can give you a list of rules.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:44

And if you follow all these rules, you'll be a perfect Christianity.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:46

But even if I give you the list of rules and you check your box, it's not going to be where your heart is in the right place.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:51

It could be, but it might not be.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:54

We can all follow a list of rules.

Pastor Josh: 00:48:56

And so the christian life is not about list following.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:00

You say what?

Pastor Josh: 00:49:01

I've never heard this before.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:02

Okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:02

The christian life is not about list following.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:04

The christian life is about following Jesus.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:06

And our hearts change to where many of the things that we do because of our love for him do align with that.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:11

Listen, not going to want to say these things anymore.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:15

I'm going to love my neighbor.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:17

I am going to live a life of forgiveness and grace.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:19

But it's not because I'm checking a box to get closer to God.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:22

It's because he's already shown me the love and I'm reciprocating that.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:25

And that's the natural change that happens.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:27

Or let me say it this way, better the supernatural change that happens in my heart with a transition for loving myself to loving God.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:34

And so a lot of people struggle with that.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:37

But Romans, chapter six, Paul addresses that.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:39

Cause Paul gets done with preaching all about grace, and then he goes, oh, wait, they're gonna think that they can just abuse grace.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:45

So what does he do?

Pastor Josh: 00:49:46

He says, guys, don't continue to sin, that grace just abounds.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:51

Don't abuse grace.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:52

He says, God forbid, why would you wanna go back to that sin that God saved you from?

Pastor Josh: 00:49:56

And so when you understand God's grace, you don't wanna abuse it.

Pastor Josh: 00:49:59

When I was a young Christian and when someone really sat down with me and explained to me grace, I was like, wait, that means that I can just go sin and ask for forgiveness?

Pastor Josh: 00:50:09

And they're like, no, that's not what that's saying there.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:12

You don't understand grace yet.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:14

So when you grow in grace, you grow in your understanding of, yes, you do have the freedom and God's forgiveness is mighty and vast, but you don't want to do that anymore.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:25

You don't want to do that anymore.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:27

It's kind of like this.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:29

I'll end with this.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:31

When I was growing up with my parents in the house, they had rules, okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:50:37

They had things that they expected me to do and not to do.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:41

And I felt like it was oppressive.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:43

Come on, guys, all my friends are doing this and I can't do this.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:47

And so now I catch myself.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:50

And the reason why I obeyed them, I'm just gonna tell you the reason.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:53

When I was a little kid and I obeyed my parents was not because I love them, because I feared my dad.

Pastor Josh: 00:50:58

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:50:59

Just gonna be honest.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:00

I feared him.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:01

It's like, dad, I do not want to get dad mad at me.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:04

But as I grew, I started to understand that, that discipline.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:09

Cause he used to tell me this thing, son, this hurts me more than it hurts you.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:13

I'm like, no way.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:14

This is so wrong.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:16

But as I saw his discipline over the years, I saw that it was out of love.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:22

So then after a time, it wasn't so much that I would obey him out of fear, it was out of love.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:26

You know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:51:27

There was a time where I got stronger than my dad.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:30

It's like now I can overpower him and I can stop him from getting.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:33

But then I was like, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:51:34

No.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:34

Now is the time where I don't want to do that.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:36

Now's the time where I say, dad, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:51:38

I understand what you're saying.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:40

,: 1920

Pastor Josh: 00:51:43

And now I'm saying, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:51:45

He's talking in the back of my mind and I'm going, yeah, this would not be wise for me to do.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:49

And so then it became something that was ingrained in me and it was something that I did because I love my dad and I respected my dad.

Pastor Josh: 00:51:56

And that's that progression of maturity in my life where that's the same thing as a Christian.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:00

When we start out, it's like God's going to strike me down.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:04

And then it gets to the point where knowing that he's not going to strike me down, but then knowing that he expects this out of me, out of love, and he disciplines me out of love, and therefore he doesn't enjoy doing that.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:14

And let me tell you, the moment that I really realized that my dad did not enjoy disciplining me, when I had to start disciplining my children, that's when I'm like, oh, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:52:24

I know what he was saying now.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:25

I totally understand this now, but I want to discipline them because I love them.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:29

And that's the process.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:32

God disciplines us and guides us and corrects us because he loves us.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:37

And it is that love that we can understand in our lives.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:39

And so we'll end with that.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:42

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist church podcast.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:46

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:49

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us@middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

Pastor Josh: 00:52:58

You can also email me directly@joshmissaroiddletownbaptastchurch.com.

Pastor Josh: 00:53:04

if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcasts and updates.

Pastor Josh: 00:53:11

Thank you so much.

Pastor Josh: 00:53:12

God bless.

Pastor Josh: 00:53:13

Have a wonderful day.