Music
Alright, good morning everybody. Welcome to Easter Sunday. It's exciting to be here on Easter and take out your bulletin here today and great singing everybody.
That last song we sung, you know, I grew up in West Virginia. I can't help but sing it with a country accent and this big twang in my voice.
I don't know if my wife noticed that a second ago but that's just how I've always heard it.
But our verse of the week is Matthew 28 verse 6.
He is not here for he is risen as he said, come see the place where the Lord lay. That's a great verse there.
And we are a family integrated church meaning children and infants are welcome during the services.
We do have the mother baby room back there for your convenience as well as the ladies restroom.
You can watch the video and hear the audio of the sermon back there.
The men's restroom is up here in front. Remember no eating during the services. Maintain a professional atmosphere.
And keep the children from running and rough housing before and after the church services.
Our weekly service time is listed. Our first service is at 10 a.m.
And our second service is at 1130. Wednesday evening Bible study.
So this week we will be at 4 p.m. again for the Wednesday evening Bible study.
So we'll do this for a little while. Last year and a half it's like the Wednesday time. It's like it just keeps changing.
That's why we took it off the invitation because it's like I have no idea what the time is going to be.
But it will be 4 p.m. here today. So soul winning will be at 2 p.m.
So two hours before church starts at 4 p.m.
And we'll have soul winning at 2 p.m. here on Wednesday I should say.
Saturday soul winning. Round one soul winning is 10 to 12.
Brief lunch and then the second round 2 to 4. If you have any questions ask Brother Ehrman about that.
And then Sunday afternoon our soul winning starts around 2.15 p.m. here today.
As I mentioned in the group chat last night especially if you're coming from a long distance away.
Don't feel obligated to stick around for soul winning. I would encourage you to get back.
You know make sure you get back before 6 p.m.
We left soul winning very early yesterday in Pampanga to make sure we got back and didn't have to worry about it.
So I don't think you're watered down.
If you say brother's sake I want to make sure I get back without any problems.
I would highly recommend you doing that.
And so if you're not able to stick around for soul winning no problem.
We do have a lunch fellowship here today. We're going to provide the pizza and the chicken here today.
And so we're going to have a great time.
And our fellowship will probably last a little bit longer than normal.
Our soul winning is probably going to be very close to the building.
And I know we've hit these doors a million times.
And I tell people well get saved and we'll quit talking to you. Right?
It's like this is the fifth time I've talked to you. Just get saved and I'll never knock on your door again. Right?
And so but anyways in terms of our soul winning.
Because you know my goal was that this week we'd have a record number of salvation, soul winners and attendance.
Obviously things have been more difficult with everything that happened.
But I will say this. We've already broken a record for salvation in a week.
So you know what? I'd love to hit 300 as our church here total.
We'll see what happens today. But obviously we're going to hit areas that have been hit quite a bit.
But we do have a record. So great job everybody.
And so even with the difficulties we did a great job.
And so let's see. Praise report for 2021. Zero salvations this month.
Okay that's not updated.
Zero in Pampanga. Zero in St. Louis. We're really doing bad this month. Right?
You know ever since this lockdown happened. Just kidding.
But anyways birthdays and anniversaries. This is anniversary week.
I mean if you look at the bulletin. Look at all the anniversaries. Right?
Brother Emin and Sister Jane. Brother Jay and Sister Raquel. Brother Chris and Sister Risa.
My wife and I our anniversary was last week. So it's that time of year I guess.
And my wife was actually born on Easter.
So if you look at her name. People always you know say Tan.
But her full name is Chris Tan.
Christ and because my wife was born on Easter. Okay?
And so anyways information for first time guests.
If you're a first time guest we're so happy to have you.
We do have a gift for you here today.
And somebody will give that to you after the service.
If you're able to fill out the communication card either in your bulletin.
Or there should be one on the back table.
And put that in the offering plate.
On the next page our Bible memorization challenge.
So this Wednesday is the last sermon in the book of Hosea.
You know Hosea chapter 14.
But you do have more time to finish this if you're still working on it.
And so if you're not able to finish challenge A.
Which is finishing you know or challenge B I should say.
Finishing the entire book.
You can still work on challenge A.
After Hosea we're probably going to be doing first John for the Bible memorization challenge.
So if you want to get a head start on that.
Upcoming activities.
So we do have the choir performance that will perform right after the announcements here.
And this Friday another soul winning marathon.
Say brother stuck you another soul winning marathon.
It's not my fault there are so many holidays in this country.
There's like a million holidays.
It's like well you know we'll do a soul winning.
As long as people show up for the soul winning marathons.
You know we'll do that.
So you know on Friday we'll have a soul winning marathon.
We're going to celebrate the people that have died in the war right.
The day of valor by just going out.
They died to give us freedom to preach the gospel.
Amen.
So anyways current and upcoming series.
The book of Hosea will finish up this Wednesday.
The book of Romans.
We're in Romans 14 here today.
We're almost done.
And then we're going to go back to our series on false philosophy starting next week.
Information on the group chat down there below.
And then on the back page there is a place for notes for both sermons here today.
The first sermon on Romans 14 handling doubtful disputations.
We'll finish the whole chapter today.
But we do have another sermon from Romans 14 next week.
And then our sermon on Easter will be the second sermon here today.
So I believe that's it for announcements.
At this time we'll have Brother Raffi and our choir come up here to perform.
All right.
Let us open our Bibles to Romans chapter 14.
As is our custom, we will read the whole chapter.
Romans chapter 14.
Please say amen when you're there.
Romans 14.
All right.
For to this end, Christ both died and arose, and derived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
But why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set at naught thy brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block on occasion to fall in his brother's way.
I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of himself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
What is thy brother? Be grieved with thy meat. Now walkest though not charitable.
Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
Let not then your goods be even spoken of.
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
For he that in these things service Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men.
Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and think that with one may edify another.
For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense.
It is good neither to flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.
Health of faith, happy to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith.
God, whoever is not of faith, is sinned.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the Bible, for this chapter, Lord.
Please open our hearts to understand this, and also everything what we hear, help us to really adopt it in our lives and to live for you.
And please support the Preach of the Day, and bring your name to Christ. Amen.
But we're going to cover the entire chapter here of Romans 14.
And the name of the sermon is, Handling Doubtful Disputations.
Handling Doubtful Disputations.
And the first point is this, what are some examples of doubtful disputations?
What does that mean? Notice verse 1.
Him that is weak in the faith receive thee, but not to doubtful disputations.
Now you see the word disputation, think of a dispute.
What is a dispute? It's a fight. It's a disagreement. It's an argument.
And the Bible is saying that if somebody is weak in the faith, meaning they have some beliefs that are wrong,
they don't know what is proper beliefs, and they have some wrong things in their life they need to change,
we're supposed to receive those people except if they're going to come in and start a bunch of fights.
That's what a doubtful disputation would be.
Basically, they come in and they want to dispute about this doctrine that they disagree.
It's okay for people to come here and have different beliefs in us as long as they don't try to change what we believe.
Because we're very clear with what we believe, and I'm okay with reaching new people that don't believe everything.
And look, the reality is, if somebody just gets saved and visits our church,
even if they don't say this audibly, in the back of their mind they're saying,
I like the preaching, but Brother Stuckey's is too mean.
He's a little bit too harsh.
You know, he's a little bit over the top.
That's how all of us feel when we first start listening to this preaching.
So look, I'm okay with people being new, and a lot of this stuff they don't necessarily agree or understand yet,
and they're willing to grow and learn as long as they don't come in here and start a fight about it.
Now the examples he's going to give about this are things that are not sinful either way.
Basically, disagreements where one side might be right, but the other side's not in sin by doing it this way.
Here's a couple examples. Verse 2.
For one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs.
So here at the first part of verse 2, you've got one person says, I can eat anything.
I can eat any meat. There's no problem with it. There's no sin in it. I can eat any food.
But then the one who is weak is a vegetarian.
The one who is weak is a vegan. Perhaps a vegan, right?
Sometimes they'll eat fish and eggs, but basically the one who is wrong is the person who says you can't eat meat.
It's very clear in verse 2.
One believeth that he can eat all things. The one who is weak, all he eats are herbs.
Just vegetables, no meat.
Now here's the thing about this. Which side is right?
Well, the side that says you can eat anything.
You say, well, how do you know that?
Because in Acts, you don't have to turn there, but in Acts 10, Peter was confused about this.
And he had a dream and three times he sees this and he's told, rise up and slay and eat.
And he's like, I've never eaten anything unclean.
He's like, I can't eat an unclean animal.
Because it says he saw all manner of four-footed beasts, all manner of everything.
So every animal, everything out there, he saw it all and he was told, rise up, slay and eat because he was hungry.
And he's thinking, I can't eat pork. I can't eat bacon.
I mean, it's an unclean animal or all these other animals that would be unclean.
And God says, what I have cleansed, don't call common or unclean.
And that is about food, but then also in Acts 11, it's tied together with the fact that the Jews had this idea,
we're like the clean race and the Gentiles are the unclean race.
And it's like they can't get saved.
So both of those things are tied together, but the direct application is with food.
So Peter got it, wow, I should also give the gospel to people like Cornelius.
And even unsaved people that don't have this sort of background could still fear God and get saved if they heard the gospel.
And they should have known that because the Bible always says, spread the gospel to the ends of the world.
And yet they had this racist, wrong sort of idea that we're the chosen people and no one else can get saved, which is wrong, right?
But it says in verse 2, one believeth that he may eat all things, and that's my position.
I believe you can eat all things, but the one who is weak eateth herbs.
The one who is weak says, I can't eat certain foods because they're unclean, they're wrong, or they're sinful, okay?
Now there's no question that this side is right.
However, is it a sin to be a vegetarian? No.
Is it a sin to be a vegan? No.
And so look, if somebody joins our church who's a vegetarian, I have no problem with that.
I'm not going to try to cause a problem with them.
The only thing is if they came into church and tried to change what we're teaching,
and then they say, no, wait a minute, wait, wait a minute, it's great you have a lunch fellowship, but wait a minute,
is there going to be meat on that pizza?
I mean, what kind of chicken are you eating? Is it like vegetarian chicken that you're going to eat?
I don't know, is there vegetarian? Because I know there's these vegetarian burgers, which I've never tried,
but is there vegetarian chicken on the menu?
And it's just like, if they were to come in and criticize, then, you know what, there would be a problem.
Now here's the thing, though. If they stayed for lunch fellowship and just brought, you know, their own food,
I wouldn't try to force them to eat the chicken or the pizza because, you know what,
it's perfectly fine if they want to adhere to that diet, okay?
If they say, I should not eat any meat, as long as they don't cause a fight about it,
they're welcome to have that opinion.
And I'll tell you what, diets are something that people have drastically different opinions about.
I mean, I'll be honest, I'm very opinionated about diets, and I've read a lot of books about diets.
It's a topic I find very interesting, and so I have a lot of strong opinions,
but here's the thing about this. If someone's not following a sinful diet,
I should not try to change them, even if I think they're wrong,
because it's not a sin for them to avoid eating meat, okay?
Now, look, I personally, I understand all animals, all beasts, they're all clean because God's cleansed them,
but at the same time, I am not going to be eating E-piece or soup with a bat in it.
Here's the thing, though. If somebody comes to our church and stuff, like, you know,
when I eat seasick, sometimes you want to have, like, something crunchy on the top,
you put a little bit of chicharron. If someone says, I want to add that little crunch,
I'm going to add an E-piece on the top and just, here's the thing,
they're welcome to eat that and fellowship with us, but I'm not going to take a bite of that,
because even though I know it's clean, it still feels very unclean to me, right?
And it's just like, you know, where somebody, if they had soup, you know,
because in some parts of the world, I know in China, maybe other countries in Asia,
it's like a delicacy to have soup with a dead bat in it, and then you eat it and stuff like.
Now, look, that's not going to be what I eat. However, somebody came to our church,
and that's, you know, what they brought for their meal, they're welcome to eat that,
and here's the thing, it would be wrong for us to offend them and say you're wrong,
because it's still clean, according to the Bible. God has cleansed it. It's okay to eat that.
Now, it's not going to be my personal choice, but you know what?
If they want to eat that, that's fine. And you have to realize something.
When it comes to food, depending on what part of the world you're in,
some people will find certain foods bizarre that other countries will eat.
Let me explain to you something that people find very bizarre in the U.S. Avocados and desserts.
They find it bizarre. I mean, when you tell people, man, you know, avocado ice cream,
they're like, oh, my goodness. Now, I love avocado ice cream,
but the first time I heard of avocado ice cream, I'm like, what in the world?
It's just like, because, you know, in the U.S., avocados are not very sweet,
so you put them on chips, tortilla chips with salsa.
But here, avocados are very sweet, so it makes sense, you know, that they would be in a dessert.
When you really stop to think about it, there's a lot of foods that might not seem
like they're very tasty by themselves, but they make good desserts like pumpkins.
Have you ever tried pumpkin by itself?
Pumpkin pie, that's like an American tradition, pumpkin pie,
but it's like the greatest tasting thing ever.
But, you know, pumpkin by itself, you're just like, man.
But in a dessert, it tastes great.
But it might not seem great to people because they've tasted it before.
Maybe they have it as just a vegetable, not really in desserts.
So here's the thing. Depending on where you live, you eat different types of foods.
But it's okay for people to have different diets
as long as they don't try to shove those beliefs down everybody's throat
and cause a bunch of fights about it.
Verse 3, let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not.
So here's the thing. If you eat all things and you eat meat,
don't despise or hate your vegetarian brother.
And the reason why I believe it says despise is because of the fact
people that have different views from like traditional sorts of views,
people that are vegetarians, oftentimes they really try to change people's perspective on this
and say, well, you shouldn't really eat that.
Anyway, it could cause us to maybe despise them because we're offended by them.
We might get mad at them for saying something like that.
The Bible says we should not hate our brothers and sisters in Christ
just because they have a different opinion than us, okay?
And it also says, and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth.
So if somebody were to say, I don't think it's right to eat meat,
it would be wrong for them to judge their brother who is eating meat
and look down on their brother for eating meat.
And you say, why is that? Well, show me the verse that says,
Thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not eat.
Because what God said in Acts chapter 10 is everything has been cleansed
and you can eat whatever you want, okay?
And so, look, it would be wrong to look down on someone
and we need to be very careful about this
because people have different opinions on diets
and sometimes we let opinions fly and they can be very offensive.
And let me make it practical.
Let me tell you a very common diet.
And look, the only reason why I'm saying this is
because I'm the one preaching
and I'm not going to go too much in depth with it, but let me say this.
I've run into a lot of people
and I don't believe this is the best diet to do.
It's certainly not fully founded on the Bible.
But I know a lot of people that do this diet
and I don't try to change their opinion.
Look, the Atkins diet is not a biblical diet.
The Bible says, Give us this day our daily bread.
And if you're on the Atkins diet,
you can only have 40 grams of carbohydrates per day
so you can keep ketosis.
Now here's the thing about this, though.
Isn't fruit a good thing in the Bible?
A land flowing with milk and honey.
Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates.
Now the reason why people are really into low-carb diets
is they will cause you to lose weight.
But you have to remember, going back to Genesis,
it's like by the sweat of your brow,
you're going to provide meat for yourself.
Look, we have a lot of sedentary jobs where we don't move much,
but if we were, you know, living like Makalumong style
and really it was difficult,
we're always working hard and sweating,
you're not going to worry about cutting down on your carbs.
You're like, Man, I need the energy to work out on the farm all day.
Right?
And so look, here's the thing.
That is not the diet that I would follow,
but it's not a sin to follow that diet.
It wouldn't be the advice I would give.
In fact, I preached a whole sermon on biblical health,
on referring to diet, and I showed that a good balance,
milk, honey, fruit is good for you.
So is meat.
So are vegetables.
And here's the thing about this.
You know, people will say, Well, you know,
the bread is different today than it used to be.
Yes, but there's a difference between sky flakes and oatmeal.
There are healthy breads.
I get the fact that breads have been changed,
but you know, there's still healthy carbohydrates out there.
It's not like every carbohydrate is unhealthy.
But you know what?
If people want to follow that diet
because they think it's going to help them with their health,
it's perfectly fine for them to do that.
Okay?
There's nothing wrong or simple about it.
It wouldn't be what I would suggest,
but you know what?
I've run into so many people.
In fact, two of my best friends in the U.S.
either strictly follow the Atkins or from time to time,
and we're close friends, so we go back and forth, you know,
but talking about it.
But just everyday people that follow it,
I never try to criticize them.
There's a lot of people at Verity that follow the Atkins diet.
They bring different food, you know, for lunch and stuff,
you know, vegetarian, or not vegetarian,
but like non-carb pizza and stuff like that.
There's no point to make a comment that's rude to them
if somebody has a specific diet.
Just let them follow whatever diet they want,
and here's the thing.
I'm sure my opinions on diets you would probably disagree with too.
We have different opinions,
and that's okay because neither one is a sin.
It's not a sin to be vegetarian.
It's not a sin to be a carnivore.
It's not a sin to have a balance either, okay?
Any one of those are fine,
and so what?
There's no point to try to criticize
or make this small little comment.
Look, that is how you get into arguments,
and here's the thing about this.
This is not something like,
Thus saith the Lord, thou shalt eat this.
It's like there's practical advice throughout the Bible,
lots of little stuff that you can see.
You can go back and listen to my sermon from a couple years ago,
but here's the thing about it.
It's not a sin to be vegetarian.
It's not a sin to be, you know, just all meat.
It's not a sin to say I'm not going to eat certain foods.
It's fine what people's opinions are,
and it's not worth getting into a fight about
or criticizing and saying,
Well, you've got to do it my way.
Well, if their way's not a sin, let them do it their way, okay?
There's nothing wrong with that, okay?
Then it says, For God hath received him.
God hath received who?
Well, it's referring to the person that eats all things.
So if you're someone who says it's wrong to eat meat,
don't judge your brother who chooses to eat everything
because God hath received him, the Bible says.
Now, once again, it's clear the person who is right
is the person who says you can eat all things,
but my point is this.
It's also not a sin to avoid eating certain things, okay?
That's perfectly fine as well.
Now, I will say this.
When it says those that are weak in the faith,
it's referring to spiritually weak.
Let me just give you some practical advice.
You go all vegan, you are going to be physically weak as well.
I mean, if you choose to eat no meat,
there's a reason why God gives you a balance on everything.
You've got your fruits and vegetables provide,
you know, your vitamins.
Your fruit basically curbs your appetite for unhealthy sugars
by giving you a more natural substance,
and there's a lot of dietary fiber and berries
and things like that.
Your bread gives you a lot of energy,
and it says bread strengtheneth the heart,
which is why I would not advise no bread.
Bread strengtheneth the heart.
So you need bread in your diet, right, according to the Bible.
Milk and dairy products are the most important thing
for your teeth, and then meat is very good for protein,
especially if you're working out a lot and you want to be strong.
There was a fighter from years ago,
and he was the number two ranked fighter in the world at Welderweight.
You know, his name was John Fitch,
and he was the number two ranked fighter,
and he wanted to beat George St. Pierre.
I don't know if anyone knows George St. Pierre,
but he was like the best fighter at Welderweight for a while,
and he just wanted to kind of find some sort of technique
to get better and be able to be strong enough to beat him.
So he went all vegan, right?
And he said, this is the best I've ever felt.
I feel so slender.
I feel great.
I have energy.
And then he got like knocked unconscious four straight fights,
like right at the beginning of the fight.
Well, you become physically weak if you don't have any meat, right?
I mean, meat is an important part of your diet.
I just don't think you should only do meat.
I think there's a reason why God created.
Everything God's created is good according to Genesis 1,
so you can't sit here and tell me that, you know,
fruit's bad for you if it's listed as good in Genesis 1, okay?
Verse 4.
So the Bible's saying,
why are you judging somebody else when it's in God's hands to judge that person?
Now, we're going to talk about judging later on in the sermon
because judging is not a sin,
but the point is if you're judging somebody who's not doing anything sinful or wrong,
where you have no Bible to say that they're wrong,
you're looking down on them
because they have a different diet that you don't approve of.
It's not a sin for them to have a different diet.
It would be wrong for you to look down on them
either way to judge that person
or to look down on them and criticize them
when they're not committing sins.
We're not talking about they murdered someone you can't judge.
We're talking about they choose not to eat a certain food.
There's nothing wrong with that.
It's not a sin to avoid eating certain foods, okay?
The problem would be if somebody tries to push their beliefs.
This is the first example that's mentioned,
and here's the thing.
As I said, this is like the Seventh-day Adventist chapter
because here's the thing.
Ellen G. White in the 19th century,
she basically would get possessed by devils.
She would just like pass out and get into a trance.
She'd wake up.
We're not supposed to eat meat.
That's why Seventh-day Adventists follow a mainly vegetarian.
I believe they're allowed to eat fish and certain foods,
but there's a lot of foods they don't eat
which the Bible says are clean, okay?
But the reason why is not a Bible verse,
but just a possessed woman passed out and says,
okay, we're not...
I mean, that's what their beliefs are based off of.
Just a woman having trances and saying,
this is what we should follow.
Don't eat steak.
Don't eat this.
And then people are like,
well, I guess we're not supposed...
It doesn't matter what the Bible says.
It doesn't matter if God's...
I guess God went from making it clean to unclean now
because we've got this modern-day prophecy that's coming.
It's ridiculous.
We have the Word of God.
It's finished.
It's final.
There's no modern-day prophecy,
and all of these cults like to give you this modern-day prophecy,
these modern-day prophets.
It's garbage.
The Bible says it's clean.
Any means, okay?
Now let me give you a couple of examples
of where we might get somebody saved
and they join our church
and you know what?
Their diet might be a little bit different
because of their background.
Let's say that you get a Hindu...