Romans Chapter 14:17-20

You know in the movies, you know where the little angel pops up on one side, and a little demon pops up, or Satan pops up? Don't you wish life was that easy? When you got to a decision, you were going, hmm, wonder what I should do, and boom! You go, oh wow, well this is an easy one. I think I'm not going to choose the guy in the red suit with the horns.

I'm going to choose the guy in the cloud and the wings. It's not always that easy, is it? Your soul weighs in the balance. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. Whether you know it or not, there is a war going on, a war between light and darkness. And the question is, what side are you fighting on? Find out more today as Pastor David continues in Romans 14 with his teaching, Accountable to God.

Here's David McGee. Turn with me to Romans chapter 14. Let's look at verse 14. I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. But to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. This is a staggering verse.

And here's why. Paul was brought up as a rabbi in Judaism. He converts, uh, shouldn't even be sick of him. He fulfills the Jewishness by accepting Jesus as his Messiah. Because he was, you know, Judaism, one God, bright God. Jesus comes along as a fulfillment of the Jewish prophecies of the Jewish scriptures. We accept your Jewish Jesus Messiah. Now, did that mean that Paul immediately threw off everything Jewish?

It does not. If you read the Bible, it does mean that when he sat with Gentiles, he ate stuff that was a little bit unclean. When he sat with Jewish people, he did not. He didn't.

Why? Because he didn't want to offend them. He wanted to minister to them. Now he could have sat with his Jewish friends and thought, I'm eating pork. Praise God.

I've been set free. He didn't do that. Why? Because he loved them. He could have sat and told his, his Gentile friends, well, this is Levitically unclean because he didn't do that.

Why? Because he loved them. It was interesting. A few weeks ago, a young man over at the house and he was, uh, a seventh-day Adventist and seventh-day Adventist, um, believe you should worship on the Saturday and which I, you know, I'm okay with as long as we don't say we're going to hell because we worship on this day or that day. Um, and also they, they try to eat Levitically pure and some of them just are just vegetarians. So this guy's over at the house and now I could have said, hey, you know, you want a bacon lettuce and made a sandwich here, buddy.

I didn't do that. We had garden burgers. They're like soy protein. It's a trick.

There's no meat in them, but they're pretty good by the time you put all the stuff on them, you know? So we have those and then we had an interesting conversation about food, about God, about the word of God. And I wasn't being harsh or legalistic. He ended up coming here and I saw him out in public shortly ago and he introduced me as this pastor.

I was like, wow. Why? I didn't want to argue over food. If you think something's wrong, don't do it, but be very careful about making blanket statements. Since you don't do it, no one should or the other one will have liberty to do this. Okay, fine. I'm all right with it. Well, if I have liberty to do this, everybody should have liberty to time out.

Front. We're all in different places. You may be okay watching certain movies and another person may not. You may be okay listening to certain music. A person may not.

You may be okay eating certain foods. Another person may not. Don't pretend like you're their God and you're going to tell them what to do and how to do it because we're all at different places. What should we do about stumbling people?

Air on the side of caution. People go, well, I got freedom. You're supposed to walk in love. You're not supposed to be governed by your freedom. You're supposed to be governed by love. The Bible says it's the love of God that constrains me.

Not just love each other, but I mean be tender, be sensitive to one another. Verse 15, I'm not going to tell you what to do with your brother. Verse 15, yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you're no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.

And you can put different. Do not destroy with movies the one for whom Christ died. Do not destroy with drink the one for whom Christ died. Be careful. Give you a couple versions of this. New Living Translation reads, and if another Christian is distressed by what you watch, listen to, you're not acting in love if you eat it.

Watch it, listen to it. Don't let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died. There's this thing, it's called antinomianism, and basically it's, well, because I've been saved by grace, I can do whatever I want to. The Bible says no. Is there freedom?

Yeah. Constrained by love and being sensitive to other people. Romans 14, 15 in the amplified version says, but if your brother is being pained or his feelings hurt or if he's being injured by what you eat, then you're no longer walking in love. You've ceased to be living and conducting yourself by the standard of love towards him.

Do not let what you eat hurt or cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. Be sensitive. There are things that you're convicted about that other people are not convicted about right now.

They're convicted about something that you're not convicted about. How often we get into these arguments and these discussions and we're shooting each other down and blasting each other out of the water, we should be encouraging one another. And if you're enjoying your freedom and it's hurting somebody, stop. Stop.

You can't do it at the cost of love. Look at these words that are being used. Stumble, verse 15, grieved, destroy.

These are strong words. I would rather be inconvenienced and want to watch, eat, listen to, then destroy, grieve or stumble somebody. The life lesson here, Jesus died for and loves the ones around you.

Jesus died for and loves the ones around you. We make these blanket statements and we need to be careful. You know, we're going to get in this end of the chapter, but when it comes up, well, is it okay to drink a beer? You know, I don't drink beer. I drink my share and about eight other people's before, but I don't, I don't drink beer anymore. And some people go, well, I think it's okay for me to drink a beer. You know, we're going to get into this next week. But you know, the question is, once you think that, what do you do with that? See, because that person, so many times I see this, well, if I can drink a beer, it's okay for everybody else to drink a beer. Time out. It's not.

There are some here listening. You've got no business drinking a beer because one is not enough. And you know, or what's that saying? One's too many and a thousand is not enough.

That's the reality. So when you start walking in your freedom, you stumble somebody you're held accountable. You're not walking in love. We'll get more on that drinking thing next week, but the stumble thing, we need to encourage people and not stumble them. There's a passage. Here's the scripture. Jesus said, Matthew, 18, six, he said, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him of a millstone will hung around his neck.

And he were drowned in the depth of the sea. That helps us to know that offending somebody stumbling them is a pretty serious thing. Something we should be careful of. And you know, when they do a, any sort of Navy exercises, there's boats in that convoy. Some of them are very fast. Some of them are slow. Now, do you think the fast ones go on fast and go, come on, hurry up.

You're tracking. No, no, no, the fastest boat goes the same speed as the slowest boat. So they stay together and they're protected. That's what's supposed to be going on in the body, body of Christ. Let's look at verse 16. Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil. What's Paul saying?

He's saying that if you exercise your Liberty, but somebody else thinks that's wrong and you do it publicly, then they're going to say, that's not Liberty. That's sin. And you're good. We'll be spooking evil off. You know, one of the cool things about Christianity is while we're here, we're not done.

We're not finished. I don't stand up here going out. Well, I used to sin. Let me tell you how I quit. You know, I was joking on Facebook, went on there and said, yeah, I quit sinning when I became a pastor.

It was a joke. And then I followed up with, I'm a great sinner. Christ is a great savior. We're not finished. Don't act like you're finished. Nobody's going to believe that. I don't stand up here and go, well, I'm finished.

You should stop sending like me. I sat under a teacher and this guy said that he hadn't sinned for four days. One word came to my mind. Liar.

And even if it was true, you just blew it because you can't say you hadn't sinned for four days without getting into pride. Two things that are walking us through this consistent with these practical things. Number one, know your Bible. Number two, walk in love. Walk in love. When you first discover the grace of Jesus Christ, then, you know, in a large part you do, you walk in love, but you know nothing about your Bible. You just know nothing. You know, people say something you're like, well, is that in there?

Well, yeah, it is. And for the most part, you're walking in love. And he said, you know, once you get saved, and then that next family gathering that you go to, you know, and you're very concerned about the souls and the well-beings of your family, but expresses itself by you hopping up on the Thanksgiving table going, you're all going to hell, you know. Just wanted to tell you that in love, you know, just want to offer you the grace of God, but yeah, it's not really walking in love, but you got to get to know your Bible. Now, as you get to know your Bible, guess what you got to do? Walk in love. Because I know people that know their Bible, they're not walking in love.

You can look at their families, you can look at their marriages, don't see it. I don't see walking in love. So as we go, as we progress, keep these two things, knowing your Bible and walking in love.

And don't let your good be spoken of as even, and encourage people. And as they stumble, man, I had three kids that are, you know, taught to walk, you know, and when they fell down, when they were trying to walk, I didn't go, well, look at you now. You should have listened to me in the way I said the walk. Look at you eating carpet.

What are you doing? You know? And I said, here, take my hand. Come on, let's try again, you know, and help them walk. Now, if you've got more than one kid, you know what happens? I had three, and so by the time Benjamin came around, you know, the other two thought it was kind of fun to push him down when he was trying to walk. That's not good. That's what we do sometimes.

Somebody's trying to walk. Let me stumble you with something. You know why you're there. You know what's wrong with you.

Careful friend. Here, come on, let's try again. Let's get up. They don't want to hear about Isaac Newton and the laws of gravity. Now, later on as they grow, yeah, hey, there's an apple thing, really cool thing. I mean, because we are supposed to be growing.

I'm called upon as a pastor to encourage you all to grow, to teach you things, to help you to grow, to cause you to grow. And you're supposed to be growing. You know, you go into nursing and it's a beautiful picture. You know, you go and look at a baby. Babies just do something to you.

God designed us like that. You know, you look at a baby and all of a sudden you're making weird words and stupid noises, you know, and it's like, I do it too. But you know, it's just a really, especially, you know, they got a little bottle. It's just a cute little picture.

But imagine if a man walked in here, 30, 40 years old, walked in here to the front row, kicked back on the front row, had a diaper on, drinking from a bottle. Something wrong with that picture in there. I mean, you're talking about safety. Help me.

Why? Because he's supposed to be growing. We're supposed to be growing in God's grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. And as we grow, we leave some of this stuff behind.

But we're all at different stages, different places. You've been listening to Cross the Bridge. We'll return to David's study in Romans in just a moment. But first, I would like to let you know about a new product that we're excited about here at Cross the Bridge. Each year, David McGee spends countless hours combing through the Bible in preparation to teach God's Word. This is clearly seen every week as he proclaims the amazing truths found in the Bible to his home church and through the radio ministry. That's why this month we want you to be blessed by some of our favorite teachings from this year with the Cross the Bridge Best of 2013.

These three powerful teachings will help you to live victoriously in Christ through a better understanding of who Jesus really is. The Best of 2013 is our gift to you this month when you give to Cross the Bridge. Your gift will be used to reach countless people with the Gospel while also encouraging other believers to stand firm in the faith. To help us take God's Word to the world, please contact us at 877-458-5508 or visit us online at crossthebridge.com. Friend, do you have a heart for the lost? I invite you to send us the first names of your lost loved ones and we will have hundreds of people praying for them. Just go to crossthebridge.com and click on the prayer button and you'll enter their name. And if you put your name and email address in there, I'll send you free resources to equip you to pray and teach you how to reach your lost loved ones. Please, don't wait.

This is so important. So please, again, go to crossthebridge.com and click on the prayer button and send us the first names of lost loved ones. We'll send you some free information and together we can partner to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ to the whole world.

The whole book for the whole world. Now, let's return to David McGee's verse by verse teaching in the book of Romans. Verse 17, great verse. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Let's break this down. Kingdom of God. Friend, you need to be aware that there's two kingdoms at work in this world.

Kingdom of God, kingdom of light, kingdom of the enemy, kingdom of darkness. They are at war. There is a battle going on. There's a battle going on in your life. There's a battle going on if you're married, in your marriage. There's a battle going on in your house, in your workplace. There's a battle going on in this church.

The battle is a very real thing. The kingdom of God, the enemy wants to take you down, wants to take you out. He wants to mess up your life. He wants to mess up your family.

wants to mess up your marriage. You have to understand this. When we come in here on a Thursday night, when we come in here on a Sunday morning, we don't check the devil at the door. We don't go, well, I'm just gonna shake off all evil things and all evil thoughts.

And we come in carrying all this stuff in here. And sometimes people come in and they're so burdened down by the enemy and they come in here and, well, I'm gonna go in there and I'm gonna figure out what all is wrong with these people what all is wrong with that guy up there talking what all is wrong with this, what all is wrong with the music. No, I'm not gonna really respond to the message of salvation, grace, hope and love. I'm not gonna be discipled. I'm not gonna grow in that.

I'm just gonna go in here and leave and figure out what's wrong with these people. Man, I've seen it more than once. There's a battle. I wish the battle, you know, in the movies, you know, where the little angel pops up on one side and a little demon pops up or Satan pops up. Don't you wish life was that easy? When you got to a decision, you were going, hmm, wonder what I should do and boom. And you go, oh, wow, well, this is an easy one. I think I'm not going to choose the guy in the red suit with the horns.

I'm gonna choose the guy in the cloud and the wings. It's not always that easy, is it? Your soul weighs in the balance. The souls of loved ones that you influence weigh in the balance.

It's not eating and drinking. The kingdom of God's much more than just sitting around talking about what you can eat and what you can drink, what you can wear, what you can watch. Righteousness, peace, joy. Our lives will be filled with these things if we are filled with Him. If we are filled with God, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, because this is in the Holy Spirit, we'll be filled with these things. You'll be filled with righteousness, peace, and joy.

Let me ask you a question, are you? Are you filled with righteousness, peace, and joy? Now, I doubt there's anybody in here who go, righteousness, peace, and joy.

I don't want any of that. No, we want maybe less so some of us righteousness, but these things appeal to people in our, is your life filled with these things? Do you have joy? Maybe you're sitting there going, well, I don't have much joy, you know, buh, buh, buh, buh, this happened and that happened.

You know what, I had a lot happen this past week. I still have joy. I still have joy. Let me give you a definition of joy. Joy is a delight of the mind arising from the consideration of a present or assured possession of a future good.

I love that definition. Joy is a delight of the mind arising from the consideration of a present or assured possession of a future good. That's joy. You can have joy that doesn't go away, that's constant, no matter what's going on around you. You can have joy. There's a saying that comes in the next life lesson, happiness depends on what happens. Joy, J-O-Y, Jesus over you comes from God. Happiness depends on what happens. Joy, Jesus over you comes from God.

In other words, yeah, you may be bummed out in the sense you're not happy over something, but you can have this joy that never goes away. Why? This future assurance. See, we get in the middle of these trials and we think, well, I'm just gonna be stuck in this trial for eternity. No, you're not.

That's a lie. That trial's gonna end. When somebody asks me to pray for them for physical healing, I know God is gonna heal them. I don't know if it's gonna be at that moment, but I know they're gonna be healed. If they know Jesus as their savior, their soul has already been healed, and physically, man, they may walk all the way through this life without physical condition, they're not gonna take it into heaven. You may take your scars and your sickness up to heaven, you're not taking them in. You'll be healed.

You'll be set free. Let that bring joy. It's a fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, 22 says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against which there is no law. Joy and peace.

I'll give you some more references for joy. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you for all your progress and joy of faith. Acts 15, three. So being sent on their way by the church, they pass through Phoenicia and Samaria describing the conversions of the Gentiles and they cause great joy to all the brothers.

Let me ask you a question. Do you cause people in this church great joy or great sorrow? It's the fruit of the Spirit.

We should be causing great joy. John 16, 22. Therefore, you now have sorrow, but I will see again, your heart will rejoice and your joy no one will take from you. Philippians 4, four. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice.

1 Peter 1, eight. Whom you having not seen you love, though now you do not see him yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Joy of all the people roaming around this planet earth.

Those who know Jesus and are following him should have the most joy. But let me ask you a question. Is that what we're known for? It's not.

Why is that? We don't understand this concept. We're gonna be with God one day. And on that day, everything's gonna be all right. And if on that day, everything's gonna be all right, guess what?

We should walk around today knowing it's gonna be all right. I didn't bring Eeyore and Tigger out here today, but I could have. Too many Christians are like Eeyore.

And we wonder why we're not more contagious as Christians. You invite people to church. I don't know why people aren't coming, I invite them.

How do you invite them? Hey man, I'll go to this church. Music's too loud, guy talks too long, you wanna go? Okay, all right. Well, my life has changed, joy of the Lord. You want this life change?

Wait, no. If you had joy, it ran out your feet or something there, buddy, you got baptized in vinegar and you got pickle face. Don't. The joy of the Lord, more like Tigger, man, pouncing around. Man, I'm going to church. Lives are gonna be changed. I'm gonna walk in there and I'm gonna walk out different than when I walked in there.

When I go, Shane McGill, roll off like water on a duck's back. You wanna go? Yeah. Do you hear the difference in that?

Yeah. Joy, joy in the Lord. So friend, if we have this joy that's set before us, why do you get freaked out when you get a bill you weren't counting on?

Maybe your paycheck's a little less than you thought it would be. Or life throws you a curve ball. You're gonna pour out your joy? Because joy, again, is tied with this word peace. Again, tied with the fruit of the Spirit. It's not something you may have.

It's something you're supposed to have. Galatians 5, 22. Again, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Romans 1 and 7 says, to all who are in Rome, beloved to God, called to be saints, grace to you, when peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And here's an interesting thing. Grace and peace occur a lot in the scripture in that order. It's never peace and grace.

Why is that? When you understand the grace of God that's been given to you, that your sins can be forgiven, your past be pardoned, and heaven assured, man, that brings peace. It's no longer about chasing your little financial dream or corporate success or drugs or sex or alcohol. It's like, man, I can have peace. I'm not talking about next week. I'm not talking about a month from now.

I'm talking about right now. When you understand the grace, you can have peace. I say that in the service a lot. Grace and peace. You got grace, have peace.

Romans 5, 1, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the kingdoms and the battles going on, man, this battle's not gonna go on forever. Be encouraged, friend. Fight to fight. Walk the walk, talk the talk, because one day the battle's over. And on that day, I wanna hear, well done.

I hope you do as well. Revelation 11, 15 tells us, then that seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. Forgetting the things which are behind us, pressing forward, loving each other, not stumbling each other, helping each other up, not using our freedoms as a license to stumble people, and understanding that everybody's different in a different way on this spiritual path. Friend, if you're here today and you don't have peace, you can have peace. You can have joy. We don't have peace when we're not connected with God. God loves you so much that he wired you to only experience that kind of peace when you're in a right relationship with him. And when you're in a right relationship with him, you will have that peace. If you don't have that peace, you have to ask yourself the hard question, what's going on in my life? What's going on in my life that I'm carrying around that I shouldn't be? The things you're carrying around, set them down today. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I wanna lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If this was your first time praying that prayer with Pastor David, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Also, if you contact us this month, we will send you the Cross the Bridge Best of 2013 for your gift of any amount. If you've ever wondered how we can walk in the full power of God's Spirit, then this new product is just for you and we'll send it to you as a way of saying thanks for your donation. You can give any time by calling us toll free at 877-458-5508.

That's 877-458-5508. Or go online to crossthebridge.com. While there, make sure to sign up for the free email devotional. That's just one more way we can bless you in your walk with Christ. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thank you for listening and I pray you'll join us next time as we Cross the Bridge.