It's great to see everybody here this afternoon.
If we can go ahead and find a hymnal.
And then go ahead and find song number 230.
Song number 230
Heavenly sunlight let's all sing it out together song number 230
this afternoon. Thank you for all the souls that were saved and thank you for
just the opportunity to serve you Lord in such a great church. We just ask now
that you fill it with your spirit and bless everything that we do and it's in
Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right for our next song let's go to song number
It's all singing out loudly together, days are filled with sorrow and care.
Thank you for coming to St. Baptist Baptist Church.
If you didn't already get a bulletin,
you would like one, just lift up your hand real quick.
On our front, we have our Bible memory passage,
Jude 6.
And then on the insides, our service,
and soul winning times, our church stats.
And we're still crushing evangelists or bannock.
Let's keep that up.
But honestly, you know, they had a church service yesterday, they had 45 people come out for their service,
and then 40 in the evening, and then they had 10 soul-winners, 30 salvation.
So they're doing a great work over there, keep them in your prayers.
And honestly, I hope he beats us because that just means he's going to do epic,
because we're going to keep on going and we're going to keep doing great.
And I know they're working really hard over there,
and Brother James has also been working with him and getting a lot of salvation, too.
Continue to pray for the work in the Philippines.
On the right, we have the list of our expecting ladies.
Upcoming events is our gerant marathon.
There's a sign up sheet.
Make sure to please do that today
so that we can get the food and everything prepped.
We are gonna be having lunch and it sounds really good.
I'm pretty excited about it.
But we'll be meeting up there for breakfast at a park area.
The address is there in the bulletin.
We'll put it in our group chats as well, and then we'll be meeting for lunch and then going out for soul-winning in the afternoon as well
So it should be a lot of fun to go out there on the back. We have a list of our expecting ladies
So I'm sorry prayer requests, please be in prayer for our prayer requests, and that's pretty much all I have
Let's go ahead and sing our Psalm of the week Psalm 149 in our Psalm binder Psalm
149
All right, that was Psalm 149.
Psalm chapter 149.
Let's all sing it out together.
Psalm 149.
Frazy the Lord, singing to the Lord, a new song.
Let the children of Zion rejoice with their king.
Let them praise his name in the dance.
Let them sing praises unto him.
He will beautify the meat with salvation.
Let the saints be joyful.
Everybody now as the offering plates are being passed around go ahead and open your Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter number 10
That's the book of 1st Corinthians chapter number
Corinthians chapter 10, read along with me,
moreover brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant
how that all our fathers were under the cloud
and all passed through the sea,
and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud
and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat.
And did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them.
As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three
and twenty thousand.
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
Now all these things happen unto them for in samples, and they are written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able,
but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it.
Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
I speak as to wise men.
Judge ye what I say.
The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ the bread which we break
Is it not the communion of the body of Christ for we being many are one bread and one body
For we are all partakers of that one bread
Behold Israel after the flesh are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar
What say I then that the idol is anything or that which is offered and sacrificed to idols is anything?
But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils and not to God
And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.
You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils.
Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we stronger than He?
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.
All things are lawful for me but all things edify not let no man seek his own
But every man another's wealth whatsoever is sold in the shambles that eat asking no question for conscience sake
For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof if any of them that believe not bid you to a feast
and ye be disposed to go,
whatsoever is set before you eat,
asking no question for conscience's sake.
But if any man say unto you,
this is offered in sacrifice unto idols,
eat not for his sake that showed it,
and for conscience's sake,
for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.
Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other.
For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?
For if I, by grace, be a partaker,
Why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks?
Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God
Give none offense neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the church of God
Even as I please all men in all things not seeking my own prophet
But the prophet of many that they may be saved. Let us pray. Dear heavenly father. I thank you for the word of God
I thank you for the great works that you've allowed us to do
in steadfast Baptist church.
I ask you to continue to bless us.
Please bless this upcoming soul winning marathon
and please help Pastor Shelley as he preaches,
give him boldness to preach what you've laid on his heart.
Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
I want to preach a sermon this evening
called Convictions versus Commandments.
Convictions versus Commandments.
And I think it's a really important sermon
to pay attention because if you're not paying attention,
take something I say the wrong way.
And I think this chapter,
you have noticed that Paul also has the same concern.
Notice in verse five,
I speak as to wise men,
judge ye what I say.
So the apostle Paul in the preceding verse warns,
wherefore my dearly beloved,
flee from idolatry.
The Bible's very clear that idolatry
is a very grievous sin,
it's a bad sin,
you should stay away from it,
you should flee from it.
but he also in this chapter is kind of giving a little bit of nuance
to help explain that while we flee from idolatry
there can still be a little bit of balance here into how he lives his life
and some of the decisions that he makes and really
you know convictions there's nothing wrong with convictions
what is a conviction it's just something that you personally don't want to do
But there's not an explicit verse in the Bible condemning what you believe is wrong.
You personally don't like it, the standard for you or your family is different,
and there's nothing wrong with it, it's just simply not Bible, okay?
And here's the thing, there's nothing wrong with convictions.
I don't want people to change their convictions necessarily.
But what can often happen is people are preaching their convictions as if they're a commandment.
other people for not having their convictions even though they're not an actual commandment.
And really I worry that a lot of churches today in an effort to fill pulpit time,
spend all this time preaching their convictions and not the commandments.
And I think as pastors we should really emphasize what the Bible says
and not emphasize what the Bible doesn't say.
There's a lot of things that the Bible doesn't talk about.
And you say, well, who's going to talk about it?
Maybe we don't really need to talk about it in church that much.
You know, I mean, have you ever thought like, hey, the Bible seems silent on this issue.
Maybe we should be silent then from the pulpit.
Again, that doesn't mean that we're not going to fill the gaps in ourselves.
That doesn't mean that me as a pastor, I don't think that I have the liberty
to occasionally express my opinion or my personal convictions or my standards or my example.
But I hope that people will often listen when I'm talking
and hopefully I do a good job of caveating like,
hey, this is just what I do,
or this is my personal opinion,
but this is not the Bible.
You know, here's where the Bible's at,
here's maybe how I apply things.
But I feel like a lot of preachers today
and a lot of preaching today
is pretty much just emphasizing
all these things the Bible's not talking about
as opposed to things the Bible are actually talking about.
And, you know, I hope that continued preaching a lot of sermons on this issue because I
hope you as a congregation, you know, can make clear lines in your head of what the Bible
is actually saying versus where people are just filling in the gaps themselves, okay?
And in this chapter, it deals with the subject and nuance of, quote, fleeing idolatry.
because fleeing idolatry could be interpreted several different ways, couldn't it?
Now, number one, it is a commandment.
We should flee idolatry, but at the end of the same time,
what does that look like different people?
What is the exact line?
He kind of addresses that issue in this chapter.
Now, as let's keep reading, it says,
I speak as to wise men, judge you what I say,
the cup of blessing which we bless is not the communion of the blood of Christ.
The bread which we break is not the communion of the body of Christ.
For we being many,
are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.
The old Israel out the flesh are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar.
So what is he saying? He's saying, when we have communion, it's like there's this spiritual element to the food,
and we still think that that's special.
So then he likens that into idolatry, and he says, what say I then, that the idol is anything,
or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything,
But I say that the things with the Gentile sacrifice,
they sacrifice to devils and not to God.
And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils.
So he's saying, since there's a spiritual element
sometimes to food, like we have communion
and there's a spiritual symbol, symbol in there,
there could be in the same way like in a false religion,
when they're offering meat under their false gods
or partaking in their celebrations,
that they're somehow communing with.
devils and we should not do that. We should not be participating in some kind of a food event
that's in a worship of a false god or a false religion. He's saying this is wrong.
And he's saying you cannot drink the cup of the Lord in the cup of devils. You cannot be
partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord's jealousy?
Are we stronger than He? Now this is what he says,
all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me,
but all things edify not.
So, and I'm gonna explain Romans 14 in correlation to this, but what he's trying to say is hey, I'm not worshiping devils ever
And technically, a rock's a rock.
And technically, meat is meat.
And technically, if I just say,
God, bless this meal and I eat it,
there's no problem, no fault.
That's why it's saying specifically,
all things are lawful for me.
That's the context.
It's not saying literally everything's lawful.
It's saying that eating any kind of meat is lawful
because it's meat at the end of the day.
But it may not be expedient,
meaning a good idea,
because by eating meat,
in sacrifice to false religion could cause other people to get confused
or possibly led down the wrong path or think that false religions
is okay now or wondering why Paul is somehow partaking in
other religions and it could confuse other people,
it could cause other people to start making bad decisions
and so he's trying to say it's probably not a good idea
for me to eat meat sacrifice and idols and so that's the primary reason why he's
saying I'll never do it.
He's saying, I'm never going to do it, and of course, we should flee idolatry anyways, right?
He says, let no man seek his own, but every man and others' wealth.
So he's saying, I'm not doing this for my own benefit, I'm doing it for other people's benefit,
I'm not eating meat, sacrifice, and idols.
What's over is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for content's sake.
So he's giving two different examples.
One is, you're at a meal, and there's somehow they're just like, we're worshiping this false God.
Here's meat that we sacrifice to this false God.
He's saying, never eat it.
If they tell you that's the case, then don't eat it.
But let's say you're just at the supermarket
and it has a Middle Eastern label on there.
You just grab the meat and go.
But if it says, like, sacrifice to Allah,
then you say, no, I'm not going to eat that meat.
And you have to understand that a lot of Middle Easterners,
when they slaughter their animals,
they will slaughter it with their head pointed to Mecca,
and they'll slit the throat and it's like,
say this, you know, Arabic prayer,
say recite something to their false god.
They're like sacrificing every single animal to idols, okay?
And if you go to a lot of Thai restaurants,
Vietnamese restaurants, all these things,
you can see they have their idolatry
and their false religion sometimes on display.
I wouldn't be surprised if sometimes
they do things that we don't know about.
But here's the thing, if you really like that pho,
you just don't ask questions, is what it's saying, all right?
If you really like that meal,
you just don't even ask questions.
But if you know,
And it's public knowledge that this is meat sacrifice
in idols, or this is somehow part of a false religion.
You just shouldn't partake, it's not the right thing to do.
That's what he's explaining okay. He says for the earth is the lords in the fullness thereof if any of them that bid
Believe not bid you to a feast and you be disposed to go what server set before you eat asking no question for conscience sake
But if any man say unto you this is offered to sacrifice an idols eat not for his sake that showed it and for
Conscious sake for the earth is the lords in the fullness thereof conscience. I say not thine own
But of the other for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience and so he's saying hey
I'm not not eating this meal because I feel bad about it
I'm not eating it because I don't want to wound someone else's conscience.
I don't want someone else to get the wrong idea.
I don't want someone that's in a false religion that's not saved
to see me participating with them in the worship of false God
and think, oh, Christianity is not real then.
This guy doesn't take his religion seriously.
Or this false God's not a big deal
and they end up not getting saved as a result
or they don't take Christianity as serious as a result.
So he's saying, hey, if someone told me
This is, you know, for this false religion I should just say why can't do that because I'm a Christian.
To make it clear that Christianity is serious.
Not that he couldn't, in his own private home, eat something because it's just meat.
It wouldn't be a big deal.
He's not saying he feels bad about it.
He doesn't want to wound the other guy's conscience.
And he says,
You know, we have liberty in Christianity to do certain things,
and just because you feel bad about it doesn't mean that I have to observe your conscience.
But, at the same time, I should be conscious of your conscience
and potentially not do things that would wound your conscience or cause you to stumble.
So, it's kind of tricky the way he's wording this.
But it's basically saying in private, you know,
you don't have to do things that other people want you to do.
But maybe in public, we should consider one another
and sometimes we should refrain from certain activities
or certain behaviors or our own personal things
just so that we don't offend other people unnecessarily.
Okay, and so sometimes it's okay
to adopt another person's convictions when around them
so as not to offend them.
that doesn't mean that you have to adopt their conviction
and we shouldn't judge other people for not having their conviction.
It's basically the conviction is yours, not theirs.
And that's what we should do.
We should have convictions for ourselves, not for others.
We should judge ourselves and not others.
We should limit ourselves and not others.
We give liberty and grace to others, but we constrict ourselves.
We convict ourselves.
We judge ourselves.
Whereas most people, what they want to do is they want to judge others and give themselves
liberty.
This is like the Pharisees, this is the hypocrites, where they want to give you strict rules to follow,
but they themselves don't actually keep their own rules or keep their own customs.
And we want to stay really far away from that attitude and that behavior.
He says in verse 34,
If I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks?
Whether, therefore, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God.
Even as I please all men and all things,
not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, they may be saved.
So, we have to understand, hey, just because I have liberty to do something,
just because I can do all things, they're all lawful to me,
doesn't mean we should always do them.
because it may not be expedient.
I mean, it may not be a very good idea.
It could cause other people problems.
It could wound other people's consciences.
And so we should be careful in the decisions that we make.
And there's always a good time to have,
like we should have some convictions in our life,
but we don't wanna enforce that on other people.
We want to give other people grace and we want to keep the convictions to ourselves
but we should consider other people's convictions and
Sometimes we should observe their convictions not for our own sake
But for theirs and especially in this context of an unsaved person
That's the main context of this passage is going and eating with an unsaved person
not doing something that seems bizarre as a Christian to do and around unsay
people so as they get confused. So it's basically saying we should be on good
behavior. We should be the best version of ourselves. Let's go to Romans chapter 14
and we're going to kind of go through this passage as well.
This is kind of a more difficult subject, okay?
This is not an easy subject to be understood.
This is a more mature Christian subject
that we're talking about.
This isn't necessarily a baby Christian subject, okay?
And it's implied in verse,
the verse that we read to start off with,
in 1 Corinthians, it says,
hey, I'm speaking to wise men.
Here it's also implied in Romans 14 verse one.
Look what it says.
Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye,
but not the doubtful disputations.
That's not written to the guy that's weak, that's written to the guy that's strong.
That's not written to the immature Christian, that's written to the mature Christian.
That's not written to the baby Christian, that's written to the full-aged Christian, okay?
And we have to understand that the full-aged Christian
should receive him that is weak in the faith, but not the doubtful disputations.
Now, this wording is extremely difficult to understand.
But essentially what it's trying to say is,
hey, we should still be friend, baby Christians,
immature Christians, people that are new in the faith,
we should be kind to them, we should hang out with them,
we should be nice to them, whatever.
We should be around them.
We shouldn't be afraid to hang out with them.
But we don't want to argue with people
and we don't want to put some kind of a standard on them
that we ourselves have created.
So, if you think about it, as a mature Christian, over time, if you've been serving God for
a long period of time, you might have adopted a lot of convictions that you did not have
when you first got saved.
You might have made a bunch of convictions like, hey, I'm not going to watch TV the way
I used to watch TV anymore.
I'm not going to go to certain movies anymore.
I'm going to have different dress standards.
I'm going to kind of start living a completely different life.
And you start building all these convictions.
I'm not even saying that it's wrong.
What I am saying is that we shouldn't then go to the new Christian or the weaker Christian
and start making them feel really bad about convictions when they're not commandments.
Because so many people, they get offended by convictions and they're not even a commandment
and you're just thinking like, well, you don't have to do those things to be a Christian.
That's just this person having their own particular convictions.
What would be an example of this?
I don't know, like Adam Fannin saying you can't eat lemons in your water.
Where is that in the Bible?
I kid you not, so I took over Stefa's Baptist Church.
People are calling me from Jacksonville, Florida asking me if it's okay to have a microwave at the church.
And I'm thinkin' like, yeah?
Like, you kind of at first, you're worried to say yes,
cause you're thinkin' like, why is this even a question?
Like, why are we so nervous about having this device or something like that?
And it's like, you know, some people have a conviction.
They say, you know what, I don't want to use a microwave.
Maybe they're worried about the little bit of radiation.
Maybe they think that it causes people to be lazy.
I don't know.
You could have all kinds of different reasons why you don't like a microwave.
But you know what, show me that in the Bible.
And frankly speaking, if you go online,
I could find you an article condemning
every single way food is prepared and cooked.
Whether it's in Teflon, stainless steel,
on gas, not on gas, on stove, not on the stove,
microplastics, wood, I mean it doesn't matter
what you material use, someone's against it.
It's hurting the environment for somebody.
It's causing you cancer, everything's causing cancer.
You know, sugar's bad, butter's bad, margarine's bad,
butter's better, whole milk, no skim milk.
I mean, it's just, it's all over the map.
And if you want to believe something is bad,
there is definitely articles and doctors and experts
that will agree with you.
Every opinion is validated on the internet if you want it.
So be careful with that.
But then people create all these convictions
and then they pass them off as commandments.
I'm not joking, but someone preached the whole sermon at this church saying that it was a sin to have a baby in the hospital.
I mean, that's not a commandment, okay? That is a conviction. That is not what the Bible says.
People are going to differ on things. The use of prescription drugs. That's a conviction, however you feel about those things.
Non-organic food.
Somebody's gonna get offended, okay?
Now look, I'm not even saying that, like, let's be clear.
A lot of us have probably adapted to or created or adopted
some similar convictions, but at the same time,
let's be really clear, some things are not commandments.
The Bible doesn't say, thou shalt eat organic food.
And somebody's gonna be like, I can prove it right now.
Okay
Public school private school, you know, obviously we emphasize homeschooling
I emphasize homeschooling. I'm super pro homeschooling
But I don't want someone to think like they're this wicked evil person because their kids are in public school or something
Or private school because it's more of a conviction than it is a commandment. There's not a Bible verse
It says thou shalt not put kids in public education
Now is that like oh Pastor Shelley you want public school now? No
Hey pastor, so you want a private school? No
But at the same time, I don't want to start expressing my convictions as commandments in the Bible
Athletics people are gonna really differ on athletics whether they let their kids participate not participate
Guys play girls play ages whatever people are gonna have widely different opinions on these things
Let's keep them convictions and not commandments
Dancing boy, you're gonna get bad just mad on this one
Let me explain something the Bible does not say thou should not dance in fact the Bible has Psalms singing about dancing
Is the Bible like sinful now?
But at the same time, you know, why do people create convictions on these things?
Because obviously you go to a dance hall or you go to the club or somewhere where there's a lot of, you know, bedroom dancing.
Yeah, obviously that's a sinful thing.
But then we don't want to go so extreme to start saying like all dancing is just evil now or wrong or convictions.
Of course, throughout time people have done all kinds of things like square dancing or ballroom dancing.
people when they would do this, you know, a lot of the dancing is not done with just a partner.
It's done as a whole group and you're constantly switching partners. Some people might be really
offended at the fact that when you're switching partners, you're not always literally dancing
with your spouse. And is that sinful?
I don't think you could say that it's necessarily thou shalt not,
but at the end of the day, a lot of people might have a conviction and say,
I don't want that.
I don't want to participate in that.
And I'm for your conviction.
But let's not express it as a commandment.
Let's not get up and start condemning things that just aren't in the Bible.
It makes Christianity look bad in my opinion.
And I'm wondering why people are spending so much time
addressing issues that just aren't in the Bible.
Like, there's enough in the Bible to address.
There's really, there's sins that God's getting really mad about and those sins people are committing
Like I could see if we just the things the Bible keep bringing up. No one's ever guilty of we just never have a problem
Okay, let's try to work on some issues that we have but let me tell you something the things the Bible bringing up are real common
They're really happening and they really need to be emphasized
How about which style of music you listen to?
Which genre of music you like? Now, I would love to believe that country music is a sin
Because it's you know, it's it's harmful to the ears, but I can't say that
And you know what? I mean obviously some music genres today
Tend to be more sinful than others. I get that and I think we should have good convictions on this
Don't I hope that you're listening as a wise man
Cause like I said earlier in the sermon,
somebody could hear what I'm saying and think like,
oh man, I can't wait to listen to all this rap music
and go dancing and hanging out
at all these shady establishments
and I'm just done putting my kids in public school,
whatever man.
No, no, no, I'm not saying that.
Okay.
I want you to get what I'm saying.
Let's not just constantly express our convictions
as commandments.
And as a pastor, as a preacher,
you know, it shouldn't be me getting up here
just constantly telling you what I personally think
and my convictions and my standards.
It should be Bible, Bible, Bible.
It should be God's word, God's command.
And when you're listening to a preacher
say a bunch of stuff and it's not in the Bible,
be careful what you're listening to.
Be careful what you're listening to there's old IB preachers that'll say it's wrong to have a beard
They won't even let people preach with a beard. They like you wouldn't let Jesus preach
They'll say I don't know this one brother fur told me this
He said that some of them would be against wearing shorts men were just like not allowed to wear shorts
And I'm not saying like in church. I'm just saying in general like somehow shorts was wrong or something
And I'm thinking like man. I love shorts
I need shorts. We live in Texas, okay?
Maybe this was created up north, but man, down south, we need some shorts, you know what I mean?
I love shorts. I'm not gonna wear them to church, you know, when it's the service,
but hey, I love shorts. If I could, I probably would.
I have a conviction there that I don't want to necessarily do that, right?
And I have certain standards for a church, and there's nothing wrong with those,
but let's make it clear it's standard. How about this, having drums as a part of your worship service?
I can't say that that's a sin.
But you know, as a conviction, I'm not going to do that.
But again, I'm not going to sit here and damn churches,
like, the problem with churches today is drums.
No, the problem is the woman preacher
that you have getting up, preaching out of the NIV.
That's the problem, okay?
And maybe if you had some biblical standards,
you'd get some other good standards along with that.
How about women working a job?
I can't say that that's a sin.
Now, is my wife going to go work?
No.
Do I need her to work?
No.
Am I going to emphasize women staying home and guiding the house?
Yep.
But here's the thing, if a woman is doing all that the Bible is requiring her to and
out of job, I can't condemn that.
I can't say that that's a sin.
And you know, sometimes women find themselves in different situations
because maybe they're newly married, they don't have much to do,
or maybe they've already raised other kids and they don't have much to do.
Maybe they're a widow.
There's going to be all kinds of exceptions.
I'm not going to get up here and preach
women could never have a job of any kind or that it's super sinful or something
because this is not biblical.
Here's ones that I hear recently a lot.
that spanking teenagers is a sin and I'm just thinking like how is that in the Bible?
You know and again if someone has a conviction and they say we don't want to do that you can do whatever you want.
I already preached a pretty clear sermon on king of the castle. Please please men should be the king of their castle.
They get to decide what's right for their household, but don't get up here and start preaching things that's during the Bible.
And I've just noticed there's just all these sermons about exactly how to discipline kids
and exactly all the ages and the exact instruments and all this stuff.
And I'm just thinking like, where, where is this stuff in the Bible?
And again, if that's your conviction, go for, I'm not against convictions.
You know, some people might get offended at a particular word.
They may not like a certain word.
But let me tell you something, just like I think all meat is on the table, I think all
But okay, wait a minute just just because all meets on the table. Isn't there certain situations where I shouldn't eat certain meat
Because it could offend other people and so yeah
I still think that certain words maybe we don't use certain words around certain people in certain situations because we don't want to offend them
Yeah, and sometimes we curb that and look if you as a as the man of your house say we don't want to use this word
Don't use that word
If you're at your company and your boss says don't use that type of word don't use that kind of word around your boss
Okay, but why should my liver to be judged of another man's conscience?
Why should just because you think this way means that I have to feel that way that's not how it works
You know, there's certain races that can use certain words and other races that can't use certain words. How's that fair?
But you know what so as to not offend I probably shouldn't say that word
Not because I don't have liberty, but so that I don't offend people unnecessarily
Right, so you know we want to make sure that we're preaching stuff that makes sense
Hey, if you want to preach against strong language by saying we shouldn't just unnecessarily offend people
I'll agree with you all day long, but if you want to start giving me a bad word list
I'm gonna say where's that in the Bible and a lot of people are preaching their convictions and not the commandments
And the Bible is really, really clear on that. We should be avoiding that.
How you argue with people or how you argue with your spouse.
I've heard a lot of people say you should never argue in front of your spouse.
Where does the Bible say that?
You can never yell at each other. Where does it say that?
Now here's the thing. Do I think that husbands and wives should constantly argue and yell at each other?
Probably not.
It's probably not a good idea. It may not be expedient, but is that a commandment?
No, how people this and look I think it's somewhat healthy that sometimes your kids do see you having disagreements and handling it in a good way
Don't don't start don't start thinking that like just because somebody has a conviction and they say well
We never argue. Okay. Good for you. We do
This isn't deciding who's a Christian and who's not a Christian here
But some people literally will say like you're not a Christian if you're doing this stuff.
And I'm thinking like where in the Bible does it say that?
I mean Jesus argues with his disciples.
He yells at his disciples.
Is he a Christian?
I mean is that a fair question?
I mean if Jesus is arguing with his disciples and he's yelling at them can I do that?
I mean it just kind of starts getting silly.
You know people are going to have a lot of convictions on dating ages.
Like my kids won't date until they're this age and insert the number people have 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
I mean I've heard all kinds of stuff
But what 40? Oh man
That's a scary household
Yeah, whoever has that standard once they turn about 25 they'll change maybe like get out of the house
basement dweller but at the end of the day like hey if one family has a
conviction you know hey that's that's great I'm gonna try and observe that you
know if there was a family that my kid was interested in one of their kids and
they have a particular convict conviction I want to honor that
conviction but I'm not gonna then force my conviction on other people
If I have a higher standard than someone else, I'm not going to say,
how dare you wicked Christian allow your child to date at an age that I wouldn't let my child date.
Or the manner in which they date.
Or what they even do.
Now, this is in context of Romans 14, and we're going to explain this here,
but, you know, when it comes to dating, some people probably can't handle things the same as others.
And what do I mean by that?
Exactly how you should allow your kids to date.
Should they ever hold hands?
Should they ever even give a kiss before they get married?
Now, some people would say, no, some people have a strong conviction, they would say,
like, you know, that should never happen, I would never allow that.
Some people may go down that road.
And I would think that's a pretty similar concept as what we're seeing here.
When we talk about flea fornication in the Bible, that's a commandment.
How you observe that exact, exactly, is going to be a little bit of discretion on certain
individuals.
Some people may be able to handle that, and it's not that big a deal.
That's just not really very reasonable. If they do that, it's gonna be a strong temptation and vornication
They're not gonna be able to handle themselves and so it's just better for them to literally not even touch and you wouldn't want to
necessarily encourage someone
to do something that may cause them to be more likely to sin or stumble.
You know, there could be a couple that's dating and they can be alone together
and they actually wouldn't commit fornication, but for most people they would.
And maybe their friends are encouraging them, hey, it's no problem.
Be alone or do these things, and they're putting them in situations that they probably shouldn't.
And so we need to be careful and think about other people.
Notice it says,
him that is weak in the faith,
receive you but not to double disputations.
Some men, a lot of men,
can't be alone with the opposite gender
and couldn't be touching hands
and not be extremely tempted to go down fornication.
So what you wouldn't want to do
is if you could handle that for some reason
and someone else couldn't,
to encourage someone to do that,
and cause them to stumble or cause them to fall
just because they might be a little bit weaker in the faith.
Meaning what?
That they are a little bit more likely to sin in that area.
Some people are tempted to drink alcohol.
Others are not.
You could put yourself in an atmosphere or a situation
where they're more likely to sin.
And I'm not saying the bar, but here's an idea.
How about cruise ship missions trips?
There's a thing, I'm not against cruise ship missions trips.
Well, let me tell you, there's sin on the boat.
Yeah.
And maybe you have zero temptation to sin in certain areas.
You wouldn't necessarily want to encourage your brother
to go with you to areas or do certain things
that they might be actually really likely to sin
or go down a bad path.
You want to say, hey, you know what?
Maybe we should both have a high conviction right now
and stay away from these things
so as I don't cause other people to stumble.
Because I don't think that a lot of us are necessarily, you know, enticing other people to eat meat, sacrifice, and idols.
But we can apply this to other areas of our life where there could be an area where someone's a little bit more immature,
maybe they have a little bit stronger temptation in certain areas, and we should be conscious of that,
and not try to encourage our brother and our sister into sin in those areas.
You know, maybe some ladies that you're friends with,
tend to gossip more than other ladies and maybe you just shouldn't tell them
certain things because you don't want to tempt them to go and spread all this
information. You know you should be careful what you do around other people.
Look what it says in verse 2, for one believe it that he may eat all things
another who is weak eateth herbs.
Let not him that Edith despise him that Edith not and let not him which Edith not judge him the Edith for God
I've received him so he's just saying like hey if you have a conviction to do something
Don't judge the guy for not doing it and if you have judge you have a conviction to not do it
Don't judge the guy that does it
And we can apply this to all the things that I just brought up.
Hey, the guy that's wearing shorts, don't condemn the guy wearing pants.
And the guy wearing pants, don't condemn the guy wearing shorts, right?
In this particular passage, it brings up two examples.
Eating meat, sacrificing idols, and observing days in a celebration to the Lord.
Saying, hey, some guy thinks, I can't do Christmas because it's too pagan.
Some people have that idea.
You say like, okay, I'm just not going to invite you to my Christmas party then.
Right because here's the thing if somebody really thinks that Christmas is bad
To him it is bad and if you encouraged him to go to your little Christmas party
And he's feeling weird about it the whole time and doesn't like it
You're actually encouraging him to sin in a way
So you should just say, hey, I'm just I'm not gonna, you know, basically force the issue and make you celebrate Christmas with me
If you don't like it necessarily and then the guy that is celebrating Christmas
Hey, don't go around and treat that guy bad or judge that guy get mad at that guy for having a Christmas party or
Wearing a Christmas tie or doing whatever just because you don't celebrate it
It's just basically saying hey, we should have our own convictions. The convictions are for ourselves not for other people
We should judge ourselves and not judge other people we should have liberty. Hey, this guy uses a word
I don't like okay. Well, he gets to use it
Don't get mad at him for using it, and I shouldn't get mad at the guy for not using it
Now obviously all the things we're saying have clear exceptions. I will get mad at for somebody not wanting to use words in the Bible I
Would get offended at somebody that says I can't read that word in the Bible. It's a bad word. No, you're bad the Bible's good
Okay, so obviously, you know, there's certain things that we understand that cross certain boundaries and lines
I'm saying all the stuff in the middle. What's a doubtful disputation? It's unclear
There's certain things in the Bible that just aren't very clear and we don't know exactly and
People have different ideas and look the topics I brought up you'll find a lot of Christians having varying opinions on this stuff
Some people think hey, you can't use certain words people say I think I can use words and it's a it's you know
Nobody really knows
Why do we not know? Because there's not anything clear in the Bible, you know, when it comes
to drugs, prescription drugs, hospital uses, dating, parenting advice, marriage advice,
and you know what we should do? We should try to be silent where the Bible is silent.
If you're going to judge your brother, you better come with a Bible verse in hand. And
a clear one. Not like, abstain from all appearance of evil, brother. Be good, brother.
You know, don't...
You know, this is what you should do.
Interpret vague verses in the Bible with clear verses in the Bible.
Don't come to me with vague verses in the Bible.
Come to me with clear verses in the Bible.
Yet, let the vague verses...
You know why the Bible has vague verses?
To encompass all the clear verses in one package.
Not to insert a whole bunch of stuff the Bible never brought up.
If the Bible wants to bring up a topic, it'll bring up a topic.
Okay, abstain from all appearance of evil.
What's evil? The things the Bible said were evil.
not your laundry list of things that aren't in the Bible.
So don't use a vague verse to enforce your convictions
because they're not in the Bible.
Now again, I'm not against convictions.
We should have convictions.
Do what's right.
Try to have high standards.
I like standards.
But at the end of the day,
let's have standards for ourselves, not for other people.
And we should be cautious about the opinions that we give
when they're not Bible.
We should express them as our opinion, our standards, our beliefs, if someone asked.
And look, I think as a pastor, sometimes when I just express, this is kind of how I do things,
so this is my example, it helps people to not be as weird.
Okay, you just kind of fill in the gaps a little bit, but at the end of the day, you
should really only care what the Bible says.
That is our standard, that is where we draw the line, and you should be very careful of
people expressing all kinds of verses, or expressing all kinds of ideas that are not in clear verses.
Where is the clear verse?
The Bible is really big and it has a lot of commandments.
Why am I so worried about the things the Bible doesn't say?
I should be worried about the things that the Bible said.
That's the ones that God was really worried about.
If God was really worried about something, don't you think you had to put it in here?
And so, so funny, I get all these emails about questions,
and it's always things that the Bible doesn't bring up.
And I'm just thinking like, well, you know why it's not brought up?
Because I guess it just doesn't matter that much.
Or they'll be like, what about this exception?
Well, here's the thing, you don't think that God thought of that exception?
God thought of that exception.
But you know what, it wasn't important enough to bring up
Just do what the Bible says and quit worrying about the exception because if there was an exception that was needed to be brought out
He would bring out the exception
He must not care about the exception that much because he's not bringing up.
Because sometimes he does bring up exceptions, okay?
Let's keep reading here.
It says,
Who art thou that judges another man's servant?
To his own mastery standeth their falleth.
Yea, he shall be holding up, for God is able to make him stand.
One man esteemed with one day above another, another esteemed with every day alike.
Every man, or sorry, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Isn't this kind of respecting the opinion of other people?
It's not just other people, it's us, that a lot of us struggle with respecting other people's opinions.
Where we are prideful and we think all of our convictions are right.
We think that all of our opinions are right. We think all of our beliefs are right.
Every man does that which is right in his own eyes.
And we need to be careful and have respect for other people and say,
let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Let them decide what's right and wrong, you know whenever I had heard seen whenever I heard sermons
Especially going to church often because I don't listen to as much anymore
But when I listen to sermons if I hear something I disagree with I don't immediately think that they're wrong. I
Don't immediately think that they're wrong because you know what sometimes I'm wrong and I have to think hey who's right here
I'd notice the difference, but then I think, okay, let's go to here and let's see who's right and wrong.
Because I can be wrong. You can be wrong.
Let us not sit here and just always think that we're right.
Let us challenge ourselves on what the Bible says.
And you know what, sometimes we won't even know who's right or wrong.
It's a doubtful disputation and then we just do what?
We give grace and we don't judge one another and we don't want to hold other people to our convictions when they're not commandments.
Verse six, he that regarded the day, regarded it on the Lord,
and he that regarded not the day to the Lord,
he does not regard it.
He that eateth, eateth to the Lord.
Forgive of God, thanks.
And he that eateth not, the Lord eateth not.
And give of God, thanks.
For none of us liveth to himself,
and no man dieeth to himself.
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord,
and whether we die, we die unto the Lord.
Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived,
that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living.
But why dost thou judge thy brother?
or why it is thus set at not thy brother, for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ."
He's saying, look, Jesus died for this person. And he's a servant of Jesus.
And if he's doing something in his mind to serve Jesus, he's doing something to please Jesus.
Let him, let Jesus deal with it. Jesus is the judge. No one's going to get away with anything.
Why are you so worried about everybody else?
You know, if Peter's just so worried
about what's gonna happen to John,
and he's like, hey, don't worry about John.
What if he tarried till I came?
It doesn't matter.
So you serve me, you follow me, you do your job,
you pay attention to you, judge yourself.
Take all that judgment that you're constantly wanting to pour on other people and pour it on yourself
In our society be way better if you're constantly criticizing ourselves and judging ourselves as opposed to criticizing and judging everyone else
And you know you should be really careful when you're expressing criticism or judgment towards others that you're on solid ground
When you're condemning other people's lifestyles opinions what they do we need to make sure that we're doing what the Bible says
But you know what when the Bible is silent silent. I mean think about it. We're in the Garden of Eden
You know, maybe Adam's like hey, I like this section of the garden. Okay?
Maybe I like another section of the garden, you know Adam likes oranges. I like apples
It's not who's right or wrong. We're both right and we shouldn't have this doubtful disputation on
Well, you better come over to my side or do it my way or do this. No, no
We just both make sure that we don't eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, right?
That's the commandment everything else we have liberty now at the end of the day if there's a particular tree right next to it
That I know my brother might struggle if we go eat from that tree
Because it's near that one and he's tempted then I might say hey
Let's just eat of the trees near the edge, so we just stay away from the tree in the midst of the garden
Right even though I have the liberty to go eat at the tree right next to it
I could get up right next to I can stand I can observe it
I can look at it, and I'm not gonna say but you know maybe my brother is not as you know
Strong in the faith or struggles a little bit more. I shouldn't necessarily go over there with them
So I'm observing his conviction of saying I kind of stay away from that area. I don't even go that direction
I don't want to do those things because I'm just afraid of what's gonna happen. We don't want to encourage them
to go down a bad path.
We don't want to encourage and do something
that they would end up stumbling or thinking is wrong.
Because frankly speaking,
we just don't want to destroy another man's conscience.
We don't want to hurt our brother.
It says here in verse number 11,
for it is written as I live, say to the Lord,
every knee shall bow to me and every tongue confess,
shall confess to God,
so then every one of us shall give an account
of himself to God.
Let us therefore, I'm sorry, let us not therefore
judge one another anymore.
but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.
Now, again, liberals might love this verse of just saying, let's never judge again.
It's in the context of doubtful disputations.
It's not saying we should never judge.
It's saying, look, on things that are convictions,
on things that are in Christian liberty,
on things that are doubtful, stop judging each other.
Stop expressing your personal opinion.
Let's stick to the commandments, okay?
And we don't want to constantly cause issues with our brother.
It says in verse number 14,
But to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean,
to him it is unclean.
So he's saying technically no meat is unclean.
But if someone believes that meat is unclean
and they eat it, it's a sin for them.
Because sin is contextual.
Sin is not, there's not a lot of things that are inherently sinful.
Sin in a lot of ways is based on the circumstances and even how you feel about it.
If you are to eat something in a lack of faith, you would be damning yourself, you would be doing something that's wrong.
You know, we should be doing things that we own, that we personally believe.
Isn't that kind of comforting?
Do you want to go to a church where the church is asking you to do things you don't agree with?
And then you just feel obligated or forced to do it,
like eating the Eucharist at the Catholic Church.
I mean, don't you think that some people might have come down
and kind of been like, I don't know about this,
this is weird, I'm eating blood,
like I'm eating Jesus' body,
they might have been freaked out
because it's obviously false doctrine.
And then they are forcing them to do this kind of stuff.
Like, you know, as a church,
you know, we shouldn't be forcing people
to do things they don't feel comfortable with.
You should be doing things that you are fully persuaded in your own mind and don't participate
in things that you think are questionable.
And if someone else has a conviction, we should respect their conviction.
We should not judge them for their conviction.
And if you don't have a conviction that someone else has, we shouldn't judge them for not
having the same conviction.
We should honor both sides.
Verse 15,
for meat destroyed, not the works of God.
All things indeed are pure,
but it is evil for that man who eateth with a fence.
It is neither good, it is good neither to eat flesh,
nor to drink wine, nor anything,
whereby thy brother stumbleth,
or as offended, or as made weak.
Hast thou faith?
Have it to thyself before God.
Happy is he that can dim not himself
in that thing which he hath allowed,
and he that doubteth is damned if he eat,
because he eateth not of faith,
for whatsoever is not of faith a sin."
So again, that's just expressing what I said.
that if you encouraged your brother to eat meat sacrificed under idols,
when he feels iffy about it, it would be a sin for him.
Even if you felt right about it, it would be bad for him, and it could cause him to be condemned by God
because he's not eating of faith, and he's not thanking God for it, and he's confused about it.
And the same way, we don't want to encourage people to have dating standards,
or to have dress standards, or to have language standards, or to have argument standards,
or to have all these different things that they don't actually personally have.
and then we end up causing them to do all kinds of weird things.
You know, if you're around somebody and they don't want to use certain words,
don't force them to do it.
Don't force them to dress a certain way or act a certain way,
or, hey, if you can listen to certain music and it doesn't really offend you,
but it could offend your brother, just don't listen to it.
If putting on a TV show is gonna offend your brother,
don't put it on.
You know, maybe you allow your kids to watch certain things
that they wouldn't want their kids to watch.
And what you don't wanna do is force your personal conviction
or liberty on another person.
And so if you're there and they're saying,
we don't do this, just observe that.
Just honor that.
Don't cause them to stumble.
Don't cause them to get offended.
We should be very careful.
Now, there's other things in the Bible that are not mentioned directly that could probably
still just easily be proven to be a sin.
So I want to kind of cover three categories.
I already talked about one at first, which is like convictions.
I listed a whole bunch of stuff.
There's probably more, and I might even get some help on that for a second.
But here's a category of things that I don't believe there's an explicit verse on, but
Principles in the Bible and say this still seems like a sinful activity we should avoid.
Things like smoking, playing the lottery, gambling.
I don't think there's any verse in the Bible that says any of those things are a sin.
But there's things that say, hey, covetousness is a sin.
The Bible talks about our body being a temple of the Holy Ghost and that we should, you know, do good under our body.
So doing harmful things to our body, you could extrapolate from that and say it seems like anything harmful is probably a sin.
But at the end of the day, you can't necessarily prove that.
When it comes to playing the lottery or gambling,
yeah, having a love of money or having covetous attitudes
or opinions, that's for sure a sin.
It's pretty hard to imagine someone doing those things
and not having a covetous attitude.
So it's probably pretty much a sin.
But in the day, should we be spending most of the sermons,
most of the preaching on smoking, lottery, and gambling
when it's just not even mentioned in the Bible?
Probably not again.
Now, here are some things that are mentioned in the Bible that a lot of people won't preach,
that should be preached, that people get confused on the difference between standards and convictions
and commandments.
Women wearing modest clothing.
Go over to 1st Timothy chapter number two.
That is not a conviction.
That's a commandment.
Right?
The Bible, but this is what people don't, you know, in the world especially, they don't see the difference between some of our convictions and some of our commandments on these issues.
We want to make it clear that we believe in the commandments even if they are a little bit unpopular.
And this is what I find. I personally believe that when you only emphasize the controversial commandments and you show the liberty on the convictions, it's a little bit more palatable people.
Because a lot of people, they can't really understand the difference.
And when you're not judging people for your convictions,
it makes some of these more controversial commandments a little bit more palatable.
And at the end of the day, I would rather you preach on the things that the Bible actually says
than the things the Bible doesn't say.
Here's one, 1 Timothy 2, look at verse 9,
That's a commandment.
I mean, that's in the Bible.
It's bring up modest apparel.
Women shouldn't be wearing clothing that's not modest.
And of course, then we don't want to then necessarily
try to identify on a chart.
You know, we're not the IBLP.
The IBLP literally had...
a diagram of like certain, you know, clothing designs and colors and shapes and all, I mean like,
you know, obviously there's going to be discretion on exactly how that's applied and that's where the conviction can come in
and that's why people get confused on a commandment like this, because yeah, it is a commandment to wear modest apparel.
What that exactly looks like? Well, sometimes there's going to be a little bit of discretion.
Some of the Bible though brings up that hey to cover your nakedness is from the loins unto the unto the you know knee
Up earth I that's again not a conviction. That's a commandment
But here's things some people say I think you need to have ankle length dresses for women
Well, that's a conviction not a commandment. You just cross the threshold if you say well
I think mid calf, you know, there's some churches where it's like mid calf
It's like hey as long as it's to the knee. It's to the knee
Right some people would be like it has to cover the knee. It's to the knee right at the end of the day
And of course, you know, you you don't think that God thought about this as well that
If it's to the knee and you you know do a move or you sit like a little bit of it might be pulled up
That's okay
We shouldn't you know don't look at a woman that if a woman comes to church and she wears this dress or a skirt that comes to the knee
Obviously a skirt, not a dress, but a skirt to the knee.
Don't think like, man, what a horse,
he's wearing it right to the line.
No, it's the God didn't want the mini skirt,
because then when you do a move or sit in the mini skirt,
a lot's revealed.
And that's what God's really worried about.
He's not necessarily super worried
about that extra inch above the knee.
I've never heard a guy in the locker room be like,
man, have you seen that inch above the knee?
But you know what the mini skirt? Yeah, obviously we understand why God has that opinion and guys, please wear it down to the knee
All right, I'm not interested either
But it's not because oh man that one little inch above the knees the such as the danger zone or something like now guys have
to wear baggy pants or something like that
Obviously God has clothing standards for a reason and we're the Bible silent. Let's be silent
If you have a personal conviction, you say, you know what, I want my wife to wear
stuff that goes way down further to just be extra modest, I'm for you.
I will not fight you.
But if you have that conviction, don't judge other people that don't have your conviction.
Now, if someone dresses across the line, then we can say, hey,
this is what the Bible is saying, you should probably change it.
Because that's what the Bible says, not your opinion.
1 Corinthians 11 also brings up hair length go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11
And again, we have to be careful where these lines are of commandments and convictions. It's a commandment of the Bible for
men basically to have short hair and women have long hair, but it doesn't save a length and
Again, that's where people might have certain convictions
You know, do I think it's wrong for a guy that has curly hair to let it grow out a little bit or to style it?
No, I don't think everybody has to have a military cut
But obviously, there's going to come a point when that mullet looks gross.
And obviously, there's going to be a point when a woman's hair gets too short where it's
just like, hey, this is just not really long hair anymore, and it just doesn't look good.
Women always look best with long hair.
But the Bible literally says this.
12, for as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things
of God.
Judging yourselves, this is a commonly that a woman pray unto God uncovered, does not
even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him, but
if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for covering.
And it's so funny that then all of these cult groups make their women wear hats and then
say that's their covering when the Bible just explicitly says the hair is their covering.
I mean, by their logic, a woman could be bald with a hat on and she'd be good.
But that would be weird looking.
It's the hair that makes her look, you know, have the glory and look good,
and that's what the Bible is bringing up.
But again, the exact length, that's going to be based on convictions.
I'm not going to go to all these for a sake of time,
but you know, the Bible says to not print marks on your body.
Tattoos is not a conviction, buddy, it's a commandment.
and people that get a tattoo are wrong.
And I will judge you for that.
But you know what, I'm not going to judge you
for lots of other things that we brought up earlier.
We want to make sure we have the right convictions.
You know, getting divorced is a sin.
Fornication is a sin.
Drunkenness is a sin.
Railing is a sin.
The Bible says to be sober.
So obviously not all drug usage is okay.
Recreational drug use, I believe, is a sin.
Obviously, there's going to be medicinal times when things make sense, but look, when you're
taking drugs, not for an obvious health issue, you know, I believe that's clearly violating
the Bible's commandments to be sober.
That's not me just making stuff up.
That's a clear verse that the Bible is bringing up.
And we want to make sure that we're not majoring on the minors, but we're focusing on the commandments.
Here's one.
How about focus on the 10 commandments?
You know, it's funny how preachers will preach their 10 opinions and not the 10 commandments.
Yeah, how about that?
It's like we need to emphasize the things that the Bible are emphasizing.
I want to go to a few more verses and we'll finish.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 4.
2 Timothy chapter 4.
Please please listen to preaching where people are expressing what the Bible is saying and not their
Convictions not their personal opinion and in one area that I've noticed is a really bad area in is marriage advice
And I don't know why it's
I've heard people that I respect and people that I like give advice and I'm just thinking like well, you know
That's your opinion man
Good for you
But you know we should be careful where we're listening to these things because you know you say oh well the Bible doesn't bring this up
There's probably a reason
Well the Bible is not filling in this gap, then don't fill it in
Just let the what is the Bible actually and it's funny because people preach whole sermons on marriage
No verses of what the Bible says on marriage and then just all their opinion on marriage or all their opinion on raising children
or all their opinion on life and all these different things like
You didn't come to that conclusion from reading the Bible.
You just wanted to get up and tell everybody how you feel about things.
And look, I have lots of opinions.
I could tell you all kinds of things I think about golf.
I could tell you all the problems that the Dallas Cowboys have.
I could tell you how much I dislike Jason Garrett.
I could tell you all the problems at Wells Fargo.
That bank sucks.
I can tell you all the problems with our government.
I can give you my ideas about all the different conspiracy theories.
I can get up here and give you all my personal opinions about food and the foods I like and how to prepare them.
I can teach you how to actually grill a steak.
I mean, hey, I have lots of things that I can say that are my opinion.
But you know what? That's not what you come to church for.
You shouldn't come to church to hear Jonathan Shelley's opinions.
You should come to church to hear Pastor Shelley preach the Word of God.
That's what you should hear.
And look, obviously, because I'm trying to make things relatable and applicable, I'm
going to bring up things that make sense to me and things that I like just to kind of
express that.
But don't take my personal opinions or personal ideas as the word of God.
We need to make sure that we understand the Word of God is the real thing that we're observing here,
not some personal standard that I have.
Look at what it says in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 2.
Preach the Word.
Be instant in season, out of season, or prove rebuke of all and suffering and doctrine.
We need preachers to preach the Bible and preach doctrine and not their opinion.
Go to Deuteronomy 4. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 4.
I'll just read for you Matthew 15 9 but in vain they do worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men
Let me tell you something sermons that are preaching opinions are in vain
There's no point. There was no point listening to it. There was no point in expressing it
You know what we need preachers to preach the Bible
But there's this this pride and man that wants to get up and preach their little cute opinions on everything
So that everybody all look at them and be like oh this guy's so smart and so wise
Because you couldn't get that opinion from the Bible you had to get it from guru
Pastor guru pastor guru is gonna tell you all the secrets to life
Well, let me tell you I'll tell you how to have a good marriage. Well, why didn't God tell us?
Well, I'll tell you how to have good kids.
Why didn't God give us all those instructions?
Why do we need your opinion to have a good life?
Sounds like you're a guru and not a pastor.
Sounds like you're not a preacher of God's word.
Because let me tell you something.
The gurus are full of themselves and they're prideful and they don't realize why they're
being successful.
You're going to be successful because of what the Bible says, not because of your guru
opinions, not because you dreamed up something in some standard, some conviction you have.
If it was needful, God would say it.
God would put it in the Bible.
Deuteronomy 4, look at verse 2.
You shall not add under the word which I command you.
A lot of people are adding under the Bible today.
We always talk about the modern versions taking things out,
but let me tell you something, there's a lot of people adding things too.
Don't add to the Bible neither shall you diminish ought from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God
Which I command you we need to emphasize the commandments of God
We need to emphasize Genesis to Revelation. We need to emphasize the ten commandments
We need to emphasize the things the Bible emphasizes. So you're not gonna grow a church like that. Why don't care?
Do you know what the Bible emphasizes?
It emphasizes things like fornication.
It emphasizes divorce.
It emphasizes not being covetous.
It emphasizes soul winning.
It emphasizes that the Jews are not God's chosen people.
You know, some people are like,
man, you preach about the Jews a lot.
It's called the Bible.
Sorry, do you not like the Bible?
Oh, the Bible constantly talks about people rebelling
and sin and people going against authority.
Yeah, it's called the whole Bible.
I don't know why you have to constantly bring up this issue.
The Bible's bringing it up.
You know, you can start getting mad at me when I'm not showing you things in the Bible.
If I'm showing you things in the Bible, you know you're mad at God and not me.
And there's a lot of preachers that are getting up and they're trying to basically force their
conscience onto you, their conviction onto you, but why should I be judged of another
man's conscience?
Hey, I'm glad you have a conviction buddy, but don't pass that off as the good word of God here
Look at Juno 12 verse 32. Do you know me chapter 12 verse 32? You know the Pharisees are guilty of exactly what I'm saying
Expressing their convictions above the Bible wash your hands before you eat
Now is that a bad idea?
It's not even a bad idea
But you know what God got really mad at them for expressing that opinion because it's not in the Bible
If we had to wash our hands before we eat God would have told us
Now look, I'm not saying don't
Someone's gonna take this sermon the wrong way
But why would God get so mad at that if it wasn't important it is important
It's important to emphasize what God said and to not talk about the things God didn't talk about
Now at the end of the day, hey, I'm not saying that me as your pastor, I won't occasionally express my opinion
I'm not saying I won't express my preferences occasionally
I preach the sermon one time
Pastors preferences, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but at the end of the day
That's not every single week
And a lot of times I was showing you Bible principles as to why I had certain convictions
But at the end of the day, you know, you shouldn't be coming to church hearing
Convictions and personal opinions should be coming to hear the word of God
and hearing the Bible.
Do you know any 12 verse 32?
Whatsoever I command you, observe to do it.
Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Go to 1 Corinthians 10, we'll finish there.
Go back if you would.
The Bible says in Mark 7,
how be it in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,
for laying aside the commandment of God,
ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots
and cups and many other such like things ye do.
Not only was Jesus rebuking them for saying,
hey, you should wash your hands,
he was saying, you have an idea of washing pots.
Is it bad to wash pots?
I mean, we wash our pots after every use.
Who washes their pot after every use?
Yeah.
But you know what? If you didn't raise your hand, I'm not judging you.
I won't even ask if I have a meal.
I won't say, hey, did you wash that pot before you cooked this meal in it?
You know, because at the end of the day, that's the Pharisees' opinion, isn't it?
And we want to make sure that we're staying in our lane,
and we're staying...
And look, if a Christian is not breaking the Ken Commandments, if a Christian is not on the first Corinthians 5 issue list,
a Christian is going soul-winning and reading the Bible, I think they're a great Christian.
But then people will be like, oh, this guy uses microwaves, though.
Who cares?
I saw this guy not, he had non-organic cereal.
He had he had this kind of milk, you know, it's like what is that what it means to be in the new IFB?
I don't want to be in the new IFB if that's what it means to be in the new IFB
If being in the new IFB means that you have to have all these personal convictions and all that you can't spake teenagers
And you can't date at this age you can't I don't want to be a part of it
Because you know what I just want to emphasize what the Bible emphasizes and I want you to keep your stupid opinion to yourself
Because a lot of times I don't like your opinion. All right there. I said it
And hey, why?
Because everybody thinks their own opinions are right.
We all think that we're right and you think you're wrong.
But we should all just say, you know what,
no matter what we think about stuff,
this is right and we're wrong.
This is right and you're wrong.
First Corinthians 10, look at verse 23.
All things are lawful for me.
but all things are not expedient.
All things are lawful for me,
but all things edify not.
Let no man seek his own,
but every man another's wealth.
You know, we should be very,
very conscious of what the Bible says,
and making sure we're observing what the Bible says.
When it comes to our own convictions,
hey, I'm for you having them,
but let us not judge other people for that.
And in the day, just because something you can do
doesn't mean you should always do it.
So we have to take this sermon with a grain of salt and say,
okay, Pastor Shelley said I can do whatever I want.
No, that's not what I said.
I'm saying we're going to let other people do whatever they want.
You do what they want you to do.
You have their convictions so as not to offend them.
But do not force your convictions on other people.
Don't hold people to a standard that you're not willing to keep and at the end of the day if it's not in the Bible
Just just say God bless them. God will deal with them if I think this is wrong
Let them deal with them. Maybe God's gonna have to give them more grace for their diet or for their attitudes or whatever they do
But who cares? I mean there's people that chain smoke and drink coke every day and they live to be a hundred and
Then there's people that eat all organic and diet 30
You know you can't sit here and just get so nitpicky on all this stuff
You know why people die young because they disobeyed their parents and you know why people died old because they obeyed their parents
It's like some grandmas are sitting there eating, you know the Teflon chicken
It's like where's half this pan? I don't know. It's in the meals that you've been eating
And this other person's eating on like organic wood or something like that and then they die young
because it's like, why are we emphasizing the things the Bible's not emphasizing?
Let us get, you know, maybe I'm challenging you a little bit.
If you're offended at me poking at your standard,
just say, hey, let's make sure that what we believe is important is that the Bible says.
And look, if you have a conviction, keep it.
I'm not telling you to get rid of it.
I'm just telling you, don't judge other people for not having your conviction.
And can we please, please identify the difference between a conviction and a commandment?
What's a commandment? It's in the Bible.
Sin is the transgression of the law.
If you don't have something in here, don't make it a commandment.
There's plenty and plenty of commandments that we need to keep.
And when you get a chance to preach behind this pulpit,
please preach the commandments and not your convictions.
Please preach what the Bible says and not your opinion and if you do express your opinion make it clear that you're expressing your opinion
When you guys are listening to sermons
Be careful what you're listening to and make sure that the advice you're taking is Bible and not someone's personal opinion
It's closing prayer. Thank you heavenly father so much for giving us the word of God for giving us the
Light and the lamp of our life. I pray that we would live by it. I
Pray that we would be careful when people are expressing their opinion
I pray that you would help us to not judge other people
where there's Christian liberty.
And I pray that you would help us to not put a stumbling block in front of our brethren
if we can sometimes convict ourselves, limit ourselves, and judge ourselves
so as to not cause our brother to stumble.
I pray that we would have the maturity to not exercise that liberty
because not all things are expedient.
But I pray at the same time we would observe the commandments as the only real standard
we have in our lives, and we will be willing to be flexible on our convictions.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right, for our last song, let's get our binders out and go to Seek ye first.
Sing it out loud, my first, if you know it well, sing it out loud.
Seek ye first.
See.