Accept Him Whose Faith Is Weak Series

ILL.- I remember many years ago working in church camp with senior high kids. Some of the preacher faculty members wanted to serve communion or the Lord’s Supper one evening to the young people and guess what? Some of the other faculty members thought that it was totally wrong to do that, saying that the early Christians observing the Lord’s Supper ONLY on the Lord’s Day and to do otherwise would be sinful.

I want you to know that I was NOT in the ANTI-group! I was all for it. Jesus said, “As often as you do this, do in remembrance of me.” Which, I thought, meant any time we wanted to remember the body and blood of our Lord then it was ok with Him! In fact, I think it’s right to remember Him at any time, in any way! The more, the better!

ILL.- A young girl asked her neighbor, “Do you go to church?

“Yes, do you?”

“We’re Methodists and I go every Sunday with my mother.”

“Doesn’t your daddy go to church?”

“No.”

“Isn’t he a Methodist?”

“I’m not sure. My mother says he’s a Seventh Day Absentist.”

What about people who observe special or sacred days? For example, what about the Seventh Day Adventists who believe they should worship on the Sabbath day which is Saturday? Are they Christians and can we accept them as Christian brothers and sisters?

It seems to me that if they believe in the Lord Jesus and confess faith in Him then I must accept them as my Christian brethren even though I don’t agree with the day they worship. You see, I believe that we must worship the Lord every day and not just on Saturday or Sunday!

And I have discovered that if a person is faithful to worship the Lord every day then they won’t have a problem with assembling on the Lord’s Day or any other day, for that matter!

5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.

III. WE MUST ACCEPT OTHERS WITHOUT JUDGING THEM

9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’” 12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

ILL.- In a sailing vessel, the mate of the ship, yielding to temptation, became drunk. The captain entered in the log of the ship the record for the day: “Mate drunk today.”

When the mate read this entry, he asked the captain to take it out of the record. He said that when it was read by the owners of the ship, it would cost him his job, and the captain well knew that this was his first offense. But the captain refused to change the record, and said to the mate, “This is the fact, and into the log it goes.”