Romans 14:1-12
Getting on the Same Page as God About When Christians Disagree (Part 1)
Introduction
A. Growing up here in PA I never realized how big the Civil War is even to this day in the South
B. I thought we were over that
C. When I went down to Toccoa Falls In GA I quickly realized they still cared about the war
D. I have always been a Yankee and always sided with the Yankees
E. Then the movie “God’s and Generals” came out. Now I am a little more confused
F. One of the reasons is because of General Robert E. Lee. I am really impressed with this mans dedication and honor
G. I was ready about Lee the other day and I cam across this:
a. Robert e. Lee was asked what he thought of a fellow officer in the confederate army who had made some derogatory remarks about him. Lee responded and rated the fellow officer as being very satisfactory.
b. The person who asks this question said, “I guess you don’t know what has been saying about you?
c. “I know,” answered Lee. “But I was asked my opinion of Him, not his opinion of me.
H. Robert E. Lee Gut’s it!
I. Today we are going to look at when Christians Disagree
J. We are going to see how we are to handle these disagreements
K. Specifically we are going to look at the fact that:
a. God has Received Us
b. God sustains Us
c. Jesus Christ is Lord
d. Jesus Christ is Judge
I. God Has Received Us (1-3)
A. Explanation
1. Let us first key in on the last part of verse 3. “For God has accepted Him”
2. Who did Christ die for?
3. He died for all
4. That does not mean that he died just for the people who “only eat vegetables”
5. That does not mean that he died just for the people who “eat Meet”
6. He died for all
7. We have been talking a lot the last couple of months about the fact that none of us deserve to be saved, but yet “God has accepted Him”
8. God knew what he was getting Himself into when He sent His Son Jesus to accept us
9. Paul is tells us not to pass judgment on disputable matters
10. Now if someone tells you there are other ways to Heaven other then Jesus, there wrong
11. If someone tells you that they feel the rapture of the Church will happen before the great tribulation and you feel it will happen after the tribulation, FORGET IT, these are the things we are to avoid
B. Application
1. What can we gain from this and apply it to our lives?
2. To set up man made restrictions on basis of our own personal prejudices (or even our own convictions) is to go beyond the Word of God
3. Because God has Received us, we must receive one another
4. We must not argue over these non essential matters
5. We must not Judge over these non essential matters
6. We must not despise over these non essential matters
7. One of the great thinkers and writers in all of Church History is St. Augustine
8. He put it like this “In essential, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, Love”
C. Illustration
1. In Acts we are told about the vision that Peter received and how he began ministering to the Gentiles, this made the church upset and they held a special conference to deal with this matter
2. The conclusion was that “Christ died for everyone and the Gentiles need to here the Gospel”
3. Now it is interesting to note that Peter still struggled in this area. In Galatians 2:11-13 we read were Paul rebuked Peter for snubbing the Gentiles
4. God showed both Peter and Paul that Christian fellowship was not to be based on food or religious calendars
5. In Every church you are going to find week and strong believers
a) The weak believer must not condemn the strong and call them unspiritual
b) And the Strong Believer must not despise the week and call them immure
6. God has received both the week and the strong, therefore we should receive one another
II. God Sustains His Own (4)
A. Explanation
1. Verse 4 has become my “verse of the week”
2. Take a look at it. Read Verse 4
3. Obviously you know I like things that hit me right in the eye
4. When we see the word Servant that is referring to a Christian
5. The master is God
6. God knows what his servant is capable of, God knows what he wants his servant to do
7. Do you know? NO
8. You are just another servant; you do know what God has told him to do.
9. God is the Mater we are the servants
10. It is wrong for anyone to interfere with this relationship
B. Application
1. How do we apply this to our lives?
2. This should be encouraging to you, what I am about to say to you should bring a sigh of relief and a sense of joy to your face
a) Your success in the Christian life does not depend of the opinions or attitudes of other Christians
b) They are not your boss
c) They are not the judge
d) God is your boss, He is your judge
e) You do not need to worry about what others think
3. Notice the word “servant” if we are a servant that implies that we will be busy serving the Lord
4. If that is the case we will not have the time or inclination to judge or condemn other Christians
5. Warren Wiersbe has a great quote “People who are busy winning souls to Christ have more important things to do than to investigate the lives of the saints”
C. Illustration
III. Jesus Christ is Lord (5-9)
A. Explanation
1. In these 4 verses (verse 5-9) 8 times Paul uses “Lord”
2. It is safe to say that Paul wanted to make sure that this was centered on the Lord
3. In verse 5 Paul is talking about keeping one day sacred and the other person keeps ever day alike
a) Notice how Paul answers this: To the person who keeps the one day a week sacred they are to do to the Lord, they are to keep it sacred because of God
b) The Bible does not say that is the way it has to be, this is no an absolute
4. What the Bible does is tells us that we should be fully convinced in our own minds
5. We are to make sure that everything that we do, we do for the Lord’s sake
6. That we are not just doing something based of some bias or a sudden impulse
7. Christ is the Lord, Christ is the Master
8. We need only to worry about His Standards, we are to live and die to Christ
9. Not our interpretations
B. Illustration
1. I go through phases in my life. Ever so often I will go through a phase were I would not listen to any secular music. There has been a couple times in my life were I have bought some secular must and then went into my “I will not listen to any secular music phases” when that would happen I would get rid of my secular music. That gets expensive
2. I have got to the point in my life where I will not buy any secular music. Now notice I did not say that I would not listen to secular music. There are times in my life when I will and times when I wont
3. I will not judge someone conviction on that, Obviously I don’t have one standard
C. Application
1. But this is what to apply to your life
2. Should you do this or should you do that? What should you do what should you not do? I can’t answer those questions
3. However, whatever you do or do not do so to the Lord
4. Let Him lead you and guide you
5. People in bars need to here the Gospel, however if you are a recovering alcoholic, it might not be the best mission field for you
6. On the other hand, there are some people who are able to have a very effective ministry in bars
7. Jesus is the Lord, He is the one you have to answer to
8. No matter what you do or do not do, do it to the Lord
9. Don’t worry about the other person
10. At the end of John, we read of were Jesus reinstates Peter after his three denials of Christ
11. When Jesus said Follow Me, Peter looked around and saw John there
12. Peter asked “Lord, what about Him
13. Notice the way Jesus responded (Read John 21:22)
14. Jesus is saying “Let me worry about John, you worry about Peter”
15. Don’t worry about the other person, worry about do everything for the Lord
IV. Jesus Christ is Judge (10-12)
A. Explanation
1. Paul begins in verse 10 asking the plain and simple question to both the week and the strong “Why are you judging each other”
2. Look at the last part of verse 10
3. There is says that we will all stand before God’s judgment seat
4. Let me explain this. The Greek word here is Bema – meaning Judgment seat
5. This Judgment seat has nothing to do with our sins, for clearly we could never pay for our sins, and besides that Christ has paid in full for our sins if he paid for them in full what is there left to pay?
6. When we are on the judgment seat we then receive our rewards, based on what we do with our time and talents
7. So how do we prepare for the Judgment seat?
8. By making Jesus Christ Lord of our life and faithfully obeying Him
9. Instead of Judging other Christians, we had better judge our own lives
10. Making sure we are ready to meet Christ at the Beema seat
B. Application
1. What can we apply to our lives?
2. We are not in a completion against the person sitting next to you
3. Look at the person next to you and say this “you are not my completion”
4. Your only completion Is yourself
5. You only need to be concerned with what Christ is going to say when you are on the Beema seat
6. So how can you be sure your ready for the judgment seat
7. Make Jesus First in your life
8. Make your life revolve around Christ, not Christ revolving around you
9. By doing this you will not only receive the judgment that you are hoping for
10. You will also be too busy to worry about the what type of judgment the person sitting next to you will receive
C. Illustration
Conclusion
A. God has made us all different
B. We are all at different points in our maturity in Christ
C. Some of us are stronger others are weaker
D. Allow me to make some concluding thought
a. #1: You are not the Judge! – Do not worry what Other Christians are doing, worry about those who do not know Jesus
b. #2: God is the Judge! – God knows all, sees all, and is always just.
c. #3: Be prepared to meet the Judge – Popular opinion does not matter
E. What about you?
F. Have you fallen into the trap of worrying about what others are doing?
G. Have you been too concerned with trying to beat the completion?
H. Do you need to change you actions so that everything you do you do to the Lord?
I. If this is you, feel free to come up here, feel free to apologize to anyone you need to apologize to, do what you need to do to straighten these issues up
J. The question is: are you on the Same Page as God about When Christians Disagree?
