Love Trumps Liberty 12-03-23

Overview: Pastor Williams begins with a prayer for hope and encouragement, emphasizing that our hope should be in Christ, not in ourselves or worldly things. He then discusses the importance of love and focusing on others rather than ourselves. He points out that God has a purpose for each of us and that our lives have meaning and value. He further encourages the audience to edify and build up one another, rather than tearing each other down. He emphasize the importance of humility and submitting to God's purposes. The goal is to live a life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Transcription: Let's pray together. Father, let Your hope arise in our hearts. Lord, lift up our eyes to see that You alone are where our hope comes from. Lord, help us to shake off the anxiety, the discouragements, the distractions and the distresses that have filled this year. May we pause to remember that we have hope in You. Lord, You know the end of our stories. And we give thanks to You because You have promised that it will be a victorious ending. Give us the grace we need to wrap up this year in hope. Lord, we invite Your Spirit into this beautiful Advent season. Renew our sense of holy anticipation. Let us be those who are waiting eagerly for Jesus to come again. Lord, more than anything, we ask that You be glorified in this season of expectation. And all of God's people said, Amen. Amen. Isn't it great to know that we have a hope? No matter what's going on in this world, no matter what's going on in our homes, no matter what's going on in our hearts, we have a hope that is sure. We have a hope that is foundational. We have a hope that cannot be shaken by any storm or struggle or situation that we find ourselves in. We have hope in Christ. I'm glad my hope's not in myself, because I fail constantly. I'm glad my hope's not in my family, because one day they will not be here. I'm glad my hope is not in my finances, because those come and go so quickly. My hope is not in my possessions, because they are constantly breaking down and needing to be fixed. But my hope, and prayerfully your hope, is found in the One that is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That needs no fixing. That needs no additives. That needs no rebuilding or remodeling or restructuring. Our hope is found in Christ. And beloved, that's exactly where Paul found his hope. That's where Paul in the book of Romans, once again in chapter 14, the end of 14, the beginning of 15, Paul has found his hope in Christ and he is instructing us to find our hope in Christ and to allow others to find their hope in Christ so that we're not looking at one another in judgmental fashions, but we're also not looking to take our freedom to the level of hurting or hindering or tearing down our brothers and sisters in Christ. I finished this series this morning of Love Trumps Liberty. Love trumps liberty, Paul touches, by refocusing us on others and getting our focus off of ourselves and culminating in this question and answer. Am I my brother's keeper? Absolutely yes. You and I are to a certain degree responsible for the spiritual maturity of those around us. If our actions hurt and hinder the spiritual maturity of our brothers and sisters in Christ, then we are in the wrong. And I love you enough to tell you that. But I also love you enough to tell you this, that no matter how wrong we are, we can be made right through the Word of God as we'll see this morning. Love trumps liberty by refocusing us and by reminding us of what's important. He lists in chapter 14, verse 17 and 18 three things that are important and the key way to focus on those things. What's important? Righteousness, peace, and joy. And how do we find these things? By being in the Holy Spirit. So by refocusing us and by reminding us of what's important. And thirdly, love trumps liberty by repurposing us. Now we all know this truth that God has a plan and a purpose for each and every one of us. That our lives are not insignificant or valueless. That our lives have meaning and they have purpose, not because this world gives it to us, not because we stand up and say, hey, this is what I want to do with my life. But our life has purpose and meaning because God Himself gives us purpose and meaning. And I want you to hear me well this morning that there's not a single soul seated in these pews. There's not a single soul listening by way of radio that God does not have a purpose for. And you are valuable. That you are loved. And that you matter. And I want to remind you for just a moment that you matter enough to God that He sent His beloved Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God loved you enough to send Jesus. Jesus loved you enough to step down out of glory, to take on the form of man, emptying Himself of some of His glory, and He chose to do that for you. I don't know what your neighbors say about you. I don't know what your friends or your so-called friends, your frenemies. I don't know what your co-workers. I don't know what your parents. I don't know what your aunts and uncles and cousins have ever said about you. But if they've ever made you feel like you weren't valuable, if they ever made you feel like you weren't loved, if they ever made you feel like you didn't matter, they were wrong. And God's proved that. And so, love trumps liberty by giving us a purpose or repurposing us. There are three purposes that God gives us that Paul tells us here in Romans 14-15. The first comes from 14.19 and following. Paul says in Romans 14.19, therefore, you find out what it's there for, right? Well, this is right after Paul says in 16, therefore, do not let your good be spoken of easily, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, for he who serves Christ in these things, righteousness, peace, joy in the Spirit, is acceptable to God and approved by men. So, we're acceptable to God and approved by men if we're in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if we're in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, we're acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. And then he goes on for a few verses to elaborate on that. What does it mean to edify one another? Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat from faith, for whatever is not from faith is sin. Chapter 15 verse 1, We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me. Now, Paul says a lot in those few verses. But here's the bottom line. We are strong believers in Christ. One of the purposes that we have in this life is to edify those around us. Not to serve self. This lie from the gates of hell that God helps those who help themselves, you will not find here. You know the kind of people that God helps? Those that humble themselves. Those that submit themselves to Him, to His purposes, to His ways, to seek His thoughts and His character and His purposes. Not the ones that say, well, I can do this on my own. Not the ones that say, hey, it's all about me and you better serve me and you better do what I want you to do when I want you to do it and how I want you to do it. Now, I've got a couple of young ones in here. I just want you to hear me say this. That's how your parents should run their house. Your parents are the parents. Not you. You're not in charge. Now, some of your parents are getting a little squirmy here. Now, wait a minute, preacher. If children are allowed not to respect their parents, the authority of their parents, they'll never respect the authority of God. Now, I hope y'all hear my heart in this. I'm not saying that parents, we go around and abuse our children and beat our children and yell at them for no reason and kick them when they're down and just really belittle them. No, no, no. But we as parents have a right and responsibility to teach our children that we are the authority. Because if we don't, when it comes to the purposes of God, they will grow up with this mentality that it's all about me. And I'm going to tell you, sometimes as an adult, I need to be reminded of it's not about me. It's not about my purposes, my desires, my will. It's about what God says that we are. Who He says we are. What we shall do. And what He says right here is we are to live a life of edification. Building up, teaching, training. That word edification literally means building up. It means promoting another's growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, and holiness. It does not mean that we get away and can do whatever that we want to do. It means there's a standard. There are rules. There are purposes and procedures that God has put into place that is for our good and for our holiness and for His glory. And so our job for one another, this is what Paul is saying, is don't beat each other down with your freedom. And don't beat each other down and look on each other with judgment. But help one another. Have conversations about godly things. Talk about the struggles. Talk about the hurts, the heartaches, the doubts. And let's dive into the Word of God together. Beloved, one of my jobs here at this very moment is to rightly divide the Word of God that the man of God may be complete in all things. But I want to edify you enough so that when you leave here, you are closer to understanding what God has for you than where you were when you walked in. Scripture says one of my jobs as the pastor and preacher of this church is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. And so what Paul is doing here in Scripture and what I am seeking to do this morning, I'm going to lay it out here before you. I want to get your mind on this thought of edification so that when you go outside these doors, you're looking for ways to edify one another. Because it's really easy to get out there in this dark world and get a spirit of darkness. To get a spirit of complaint. To get a spirit of griping and grumbling, right? Because nobody does it the way I think they should do it when we get outside these walls. I went to KFC the other day. And I was expecting some good old fried crispy chicken. You know what I got? Soggy chicken. And I was expecting to go to their buffet. I'm on a cheat month for my diet. So I was like, well, I'm going to do it big. So I'm going to go to a buffet. And I expected macaroni and cheese to be on their buffet. It's not. And they didn't even put out the fried okra until I was done, right? I could have went over there and I could have just... It would have been really easy to complain. To fuss. To fight. I paid this money. I expected to get what I expected. This chicken ain't any good. It's really easy to get out there and get that spirit. Instead of having the spirit, man, how can I edify? How can I look at those ladies back there working hard and build them up today? So you know what I did? I lied a little bit, man. Walked out there. Ladies, appreciate it. It's good. It's delicious. Thank y'all. I say I lied. It was really good. The skin wasn't crispy, right? But the chicken was good. Banana pudding. Apple cobbler. Just looking for ways to build up and encourage. Parents, instead of focusing so hard and so long and so critical of the bad things that our kids are doing. It's easy to do. How about we try to be edifying? Encouraging. Building them up in their faith, in their life. Purposing us for edification, for hope. God's timing is immaculate here as our candle of hope has been lit. Look at chapter 15, verse 4. For whatever things were written before were written for our learning that through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. What should give us hope in this season of hope? First, it says the Scriptures, right? It says the patience and comfort of the Scriptures. Does that mean the Scriptures should give us hope? Absolutely. The Word of God is full of hope. Not only at the second coming of Christ that our Savior one day is going to split that eastern sky and that trumpet's going to sound, and the dead in Christ will rise first and those of us that remain will be changed in the twinkling of an eye in a moment with a shout. We'll meet Him in the air. And then we'll be taken back to Him. And He'll eventually build a new Jerusalem, a new heaven and a new earth. And we'll reign with Him forever and ever. We have that hope. That's what's coming for us who are in Christ. But we don't only have that hope. We have this hope. That no matter how dark and dingy and deceptive our sin has been, forgiveness is available. Preacher, you don't know what I've done. It doesn't matter what you've done. There is no sin that is too powerful to overcome the love of Christ. No sin. You can think of the worst, the most rotten person that you could ever think of, and the grace of God is powerful enough to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. There's nothing too dark for God to overcome. We have hope in that. But it keeps going. We have hope that the purposes of God in our life are far exceedingly above anything we could ask or think. That God can take someone like me, who made fun of Christians, who, I don't know if I've ever shared this with you or not, but there was a time in my life where I was so worried about looks, and I was so messed up in this world, that I had a gold chain. And I had two charms on this chain. One was a gold cross, because that's what everybody wore. Man, everybody had a cross around their neck, right? You had to have this cross. That's what saved you is just wearing a cross around your neck. But also, I had a little bunny on the same chain as that cross. Y'all understand what I mean by bunny? I'm trying to shield some ears here. A little bunny and a cross on the same chain. Didn't see anything wrong with it. I just wanted to fit in with all the crowds. That's who I was. And someone can take someone like that, who saved their soul, radically changed him, break every form of addiction that he has in his life, break the constant need to be accepted, to be liked, to be seen as someone who mattered, and use them for His glory. Scripture's full of people like that. Matthew was a tax collector. Paul was a persecutor of the church. David was an adulterer and a murderer over and over and over again. We see God using people that we look at and say, not in my church. Let's say something happened to me today. I didn't ever come back. You start looking for another pastor. And on the application, you see murder and adultery. Yep, he's going to the top of the stat. On the other one, you say, well, I imprisoned people for their faith. Okay. Hmm. Maybe. The reality is if we look at the people who stood out in the Bible, we would never consider their resume for pastor. But what God says is, I'm going to make much of them because the world has counted them out. The world has chewed them up and spit them out. Now God says, I'm going to use them because I'm going to use the weak things of this world to confound the strong. I'm going to use the ignorant things to confound the wise. Peter and John, when they were finished preaching and the people conceived them as ignorant and unlearned men. But it was Peter that preached the great sermon after they had Pentecosted and thousands were added to the church because the Spirit of God was on them. Beloved, let me tell you something. We have hope today because God can use you, will use you, if you will just submit to Him. And that's true for everybody in this room. God wants to use you for His plan of reconciliation. All He asks is that we respond just as the prophets responded. Here I am, Lord. Send me. There's hope through the Scriptures. There's hope through the patience of the Scriptures. Through the prophets, they preached, they warned, they begged the people to turn to God. It wasn't just as soon as they stepped out, then God said, they're gone. Now God can do that and He did do that in a couple of instances with Ananias and Sapphira, right? They lied, boom, they were gone. But when you look at the history of God with His people, patience is what we see in Scripture. 2 Peter 3, 9 says it this way, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Why hasn't God the Father sent Jesus back yet? Because He is patient toward us. Because He wants us, He wants all people to come to repentance through the patience of the Scripture, through the comfort of the Scripture. That word translated comfort there could mean consolation or encouragement or calling. There's great comfort that comes from the Word of God. There's great comfort that comes from the Word of God. There's great consolation. How many of you have heard this when you've lost a loved one? To be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. That verse brings great consolation in those times, doesn't it? And I'm not saying when it's overused, but when you truly understand what that means. When you truly understand and you see in the midst of that. I experienced this a couple years ago with my dad. You guys walked through that with me. I appreciate your prayers and your love and your support. But there's a time where I had to wrestle with the hurt and the heartache that I was feeling. The grief. I had a moment just last night watching a movie. I said, man, I wish I could call my dad and ask that question because he would know. Then I fall back on verses like that. Man, I miss him. Man, it hurts. To be absent from the body. To be present with the Lord. Not for one second would I wish that he would step down to where he's at to answer my little question about is this actor related to that actor? Not one question. Would I say, God, if you'll send my dad back for just one minute so I can talk to him. No, why? Because I understand where he's at. And that brings me great consolation. And I know where he's at. Not because you told me. Not because I feel it. Because I trust in the promises of God's Word. The comfort of the Scripture. Consolation, it means encouragement. I can be encouraged by the Word of God. But in this world, you will have troubles. Thanks God, that makes me feel better. I was having a pretty good day, but now you're telling me troubles are coming? My goodness, why even try if troubles are going to come, right? Because that verse continues. But fear not, for I have overcome the world. I take great encouragement in knowing that no matter what situation I'm facing, what storm I'm walking through, verses like, I will never leave you nor forsake you, even through the ends of the earth, I'm there with you. Scripture like, He makes me lie down in green pastures. Leads me beside the still waters. Scripture's like, I have a plan for you. Not to harm you, but to give you hope and a future. I'm encouraged to persevere, to keep going, to keep walking. The moments I find myself getting discouraged are when I start listening to the voices around me rather than the voice of God. Because the Scriptures are full of comfort, encouragement, consolation, and lastly, calling. There's a calling that each of you have on your life right here in this very moment. There's a calling that God has given you. Some of you, that calling is salvation. You've never put your faith and trust in Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. You've been playing church. You've been coming. Or maybe not been playing church. You're just here to appease somebody. You know what? They invited me, so I guess I'll go. Maybe they brought you here with a promise of lunch. Hey, I'll buy you lunch if you'll go to this meeting with me. But the reality is, you're here this morning. You've never put your faith and trust in Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. You've never trusted in the work that He accomplished on the cross. Where the Scripture tells us again, that made Him who knew no sin, Christ, to be sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. Bless you. See, I stand before you this morning nothing special. I stand before you this morning by admission, a sinner who struggles in certain ways in my life. Thoughts, words. But I stand before you this morning, having been cleansed from all unrighteousness through the blood of Christ. Some of you, the calling is for salvation. Some of you, the calling is for service. And there's a great number of ways that you can serve the Lord. You can serve Him in the choir, as Eliot would say, you can serve Him in Sunday school. Listen, Sunday school is not only about being a teacher. You need to be in Sunday school because somebody needs you to be there that you can speak encouragement in their life. That Sunday school class needs you to serve one another in that class. This is a great group. We're very close. But I can't minister to all of you. I would run myself ragged trying to do that. So we have deacons. Some of you have been called to serve again as a deacon. But what about Sunday school classes? They're small groups. But you can minister to one another better than you can outside of that. Some of you have been called to service through Sunday school. Some of you have been called to service in other ways in this church. Some of you have been called to service in ministry. The Lord's been dealing with you about studying to be a preacher, a missionary. God's calling you. There's not one single person in here that God's not calling into something. Here's what I know He's calling me and you into. A deeper relationship with Him. So then the question comes back to us. How will we respond? How will we respond? God's given us, He's repurposed us in our freedom. He's repurposed us for edification. He's repurposed us by calling us into a deeper relationship with Him. How will you respond this morning? Ms. Patsy is going to come. She's going to play something on the organ. What's God calling you into this morning? The purpose that He has given all of us is edification and hope for His glory. That's what it all comes down to. It's for His glory. We see this. Verses 5 and 6 of chapter 15. May the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we want to do this morning is to glorify God the Father. As we stand together, as the music plays, will you glorify God the Father by giving your heart to Him? Acknowledging Him as your Lord and Savior? Will you glorify God the Father by surrendering to His calling that He's placed on your life? You come as the music plays for this time of invitation. I'd love to pray with you. I'd love to pray for you. Share with you more about what salvation means and how to be saved. You come as this altar is open. I'll be down front.