SPEAKER_00: You can turn to Luke, Luke 17.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 17 is where we are at in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to pray one more time for once we go through these first two verses.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually just looking at two verses this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke 17, it's always good to have it in front of you or on your phone.
SPEAKER_00: You got it?
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 17.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke 17 is where we've been at.
SPEAKER_00: We've been going through the book of Luke for about a year.
SPEAKER_00: It's really been rich.
SPEAKER_00: I know for me personally, I feel like I'm still digesting last week's sermon, trying to live that out.
SPEAKER_00: And here we are one week later.
SPEAKER_00: So God thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's uh look at these two verses.
SPEAKER_00: And actually the break here, there's actually 3A belongs in this as well.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to his disciples, things that cause people to stumble are bound to come.
SPEAKER_00: But woe to anyone through whom they come, it would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: So watch out.
SPEAKER_00: Watch out for yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Take heed to yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to be in this text, but as we always do, before we open up God's word, but anytime we read God's word and we want God to speak to us, what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: We pray, right?
SPEAKER_00: So when you're reading your Bible on a weekly basis, right?
SPEAKER_00: On a daily basis, and you open up your God's word, pray.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, well, what do I pray?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what you pray.
SPEAKER_00: It's real simple.
SPEAKER_00: David, David gave us this in the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: He says in Psalm 119, open up my eyes that I may see wonderful things from your word.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a great prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Open up my eyes that I may see wonderful things from your word.
SPEAKER_00: So let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, we um we want to pray that you would open up our eyes, Lord, our spiritual eyes, our capacity to see, that we'd see wonderful things from your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we've got our own stories.
SPEAKER_00: We're not the same.
SPEAKER_00: We're so different.
SPEAKER_00: We're so, so different.
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Just the different stories that are represented in this room.
SPEAKER_00: And yet by your spirit, you can speak to us on like right where we're at.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you know the anxiety in our heart, you know the heartbreak, you know the questions that just like are racking our brain.
SPEAKER_00: Um you know the things that overwhelm us.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, you can take this scripture, you can speak to us today in this time.
SPEAKER_00: And so we um yield ourselves to you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, um, before we go into the text, Lord, we want to just pray and ask that you would be merciful upon those um in the Carolinas that have been just inundated with rain this week.
SPEAKER_00: Would you um uh cause the water to uh go away, that the um water levels would go down?
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you would sustain people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there are people that are waiting to be rescued even now.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that, Lord, you'd sustain people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we pray that you'd use your church this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is there's a lot of churches that aren't meeting down there today because of uh these storms.
SPEAKER_00: We just pray that you would use believers in that setting in a powerful, powerful way.
SPEAKER_00: So bless them.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we pray that uh you'd be with uh Don, heal Don, who's sick this morning, be with Christine, be with Marvin and Tracy and their uh father-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for healing over his body.
SPEAKER_00: Um, Lord, be with Lavon.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, uh, there's many that are not with us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We just ask that you'd be gracious and merciful in their lives, Lord, to touch them.
SPEAKER_00: And for Scott that's coming in this week, bless him too, as he arrives.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's look at this passage.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna um, why you're like, Josh, we've been going through like a chapter a week, and now here we are doing just two verses.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like all of a sudden we're on slow-mo.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, my plan throughout the week was actually to do 19 verses.
SPEAKER_00: But as I was looking at this text, I was just like, man, this week it talks about sin, and then um right after this, he talks about forgiveness, and then right after that, he talks about this attitude of um entitlement.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then right after that he talks about gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: And I was just looking at this and I'm like, man, if we could just if we could just get those things right, like sin, get sin out of our life, and our relationship with others, like hurting other people, and then learn how to forgive people, and then learn how to be um not proud and arrogant and be gracious, like we'd be set.
SPEAKER_00: Like we would be doing good.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, as as I looked at the text, I thought, let's let's just slow down and let's consider um these things.
SPEAKER_00: So in a minute, I'm gonna give you six freedom principles that relate to this idea of stumbling one another, and we're gonna narrow in on a couple of them, but um let's just look really really quickly at um at this particular text.
SPEAKER_00: It says, things that cause people to stumble are gonna come.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's to be expected that people are that there's sin in the world, right?
SPEAKER_00: We live in a sinful world.
SPEAKER_00: Now, um that's not a common or a popular teaching.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a lot of people that believe that when babies are born, that they are born in a neutral position, and that the world is just kind of a victim of corruption and a few evil people that have kind of got it spinning out of control.
SPEAKER_00: But if we as humanity can just, you know, spend our money in the right way and organize the government in the right way and just change the environment, that um evil will be reduced and even maybe um it'll go away.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible teaches that evil is fundamental to humanity.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus here is affirming what it says in Romans chapter 3 that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is a reality, it's to be expected.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying to his disciples, things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to uh anyone through whom they come.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to anyone through whom they come.
SPEAKER_00: So the idea of stumbling, literally, it's um the word scandalon in the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: It's where we get the idea of a scandal, and it's just like tripping somebody.
SPEAKER_00: You're running through, you know, if you like to go trail running and you trip over a root, you know, that's like that's an offense, literally.
SPEAKER_00: That root is causing you to stumble.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is one of seven words that is used in the New Testament for sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's again, scandal on, it's an offense, it's the idea of tripping somebody up.
SPEAKER_00: So here, Jesus is not talking about your sin where you're violating God's law, but how you relate to other people.
SPEAKER_00: So, as you know, when God works in your life, in my life, or even before you allow God to work in your life, you're in relationship with other people.
SPEAKER_00: You mean it's it's um it's just a part of who we are as humans, that we interact with other people.
SPEAKER_00: And in those relationships, we're bound to sin, we're bound to cause problems in other people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Has that ever happened to you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you a victim of other people's bad behavior?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, amen.
SPEAKER_00: We all can relate to that.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus here is warning us and saying warning, or you're using here the word woe to anyone through whom this stumbling, uh, this causing to stumble comes or this offense comes.
SPEAKER_00: The word woe is just like the sign at the propane tank or at the um next to the propane tank where it says, you know, warning, no smoking near the propane tank, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's what the word woe means.
SPEAKER_00: It's like warning.
SPEAKER_00: Be on guard, be careful not to be a person who is the source of offense in other people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says it would be better for that person if to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
SPEAKER_00: So watch out for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So a millstone, this was one of those large stones used to press out olives to make olive oil.
SPEAKER_00: Um there may be a play on words here that I can't put heads or tails on with Jesus', because the the stone would literally turn inside of what was called the sea.
SPEAKER_00: So you'd stick your olives inside of a sea, and then the stone would turn.
SPEAKER_00: And here Jesus is saying that you should have that stone tied around your neck and thrown into the sea.
SPEAKER_00: So if there's something going on there, it's above, it's over my head.
SPEAKER_00: But um uh it's the same, it's the same word.
SPEAKER_00: And and the picture is just this severe judgment.
SPEAKER_00: If you're the source of offense for these little ones, and he could either be referring to children or to the disciples, he says, uh, this is a severe punishment.
SPEAKER_00: No, right off the bat, I just want to recognize that here we are at church, right?
SPEAKER_00: And we live in a month, like in a month where one of the major news stories is this sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we're not a Catholic church, but we are a religious entity.
SPEAKER_00: And so literally, I don't know if you watched um uh the Netflix series The The Keepers, it's like that that's like terrible.
SPEAKER_00: Like, did you see that?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what was happening in in these this Catholic school and just the abuse that was there, or if you watched like the movie Spotlight, I mean that's one of my favorite movies, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just watching the story of like the cover-up of uh the abuse.
SPEAKER_00: So uh you know, if I was gonna make an application from this text, I would say that's that's a perfect application because here's these uh men who are abusing these kids, causing these kids to stumble, screwing them up.
SPEAKER_00: Um one of the most common um uh uh uh uh abusers in any setting, sexual abusers are people who have been abused themselves.
SPEAKER_00: So when these when these Catholic priests or these religious leaders are abusing kids, they are starting, they're just I mean, they are just so damaging, these kids.
SPEAKER_00: And here's as our culture rightfully cries out against these things and says, this is horrendous, Jesus agrees with our culture.
SPEAKER_00: It's important because oftentimes, especially if you're not familiar with going to church, you you kind of get this idea of what Christianity is.
SPEAKER_00: You can think that Jesus is very much against our culture, and but this is one of those times where Jesus is horrified at the idea of somebody offending somebody else, and he says the judgment against that person should be severe.
SPEAKER_00: So in this particular case, Jesus is is condemning something that that right now is in a good way being condemned.
SPEAKER_00: And for us as a church, just so you know, like if people are gonna work in children's ministry, they've gotta they've gotta pass a background test, right?
SPEAKER_00: They they've got to have a criminal background.
SPEAKER_00: We pay for it as a church.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna work with my kids without going through that, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Um and it's a reality in the church.
SPEAKER_00: So there's there's there's like just because you walk through that door doesn't take away abuse.
SPEAKER_00: So we have controls in place.
SPEAKER_00: Like we have a governing board that that I'm accountable to.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to our finances, I s I there's a report that is generated every month on how our money gets spent.
SPEAKER_00: Um like even this morning, part of this is like when when we do the offering, we have other people that are that are um handling the finances, doing the count.
SPEAKER_00: That that envelope that they put the money in, it goes to the bank and it gets deposited, it doesn't get opened up, right?
SPEAKER_00: So there's there's controls that are in place, and as we grow as a church, those things are important.
SPEAKER_00: Um because unfortunately, we live in a day and age where it's almost like, yeah, you're a church, so what?
SPEAKER_00: There's all these scandals that have taken place.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever have a question or you ever have a concern, um let me know.
SPEAKER_00: There's about there's four of us, even just this month, that did the sexual abuse training um as us guys, um, because we want to make sure that we have systems in place so that there's not there's nothing sketchy, and and there's this open invitation of like, hey, if you ever feel like something's weird, or if you want to know, like, how does the money work in this church, or where does it go?
SPEAKER_00: All that stuff is open.
SPEAKER_00: You can ask any of those questions.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I will not be offended.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's it's very healthy, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's the way that these issues kind of developed in the Catholic Church is because there was a hierarchy, there was protection, there was not the ability to ask questions.
SPEAKER_00: So um help us, help us be accountable.
SPEAKER_00: Um, anyway, that's my soapbox.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let me give you six freedom principles.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just read this really quickly before we get into the six freedom principles.
SPEAKER_00: This is a scenario that was playing out in the early church.
SPEAKER_00: This is what ro this is Romans 14, 1 through 3.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read what Paul said to the early church and you'll pick up the concept.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 14, 1 through 3, accept the one who is weak in faith without quarreling over disputable matters.
SPEAKER_00: One person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another's whose faith is weak eats only vegetables.
SPEAKER_00: The one who eats everything must not treat the contempt with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does.
SPEAKER_00: For God has accepted them.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you to judge someone else else's servant?
SPEAKER_00: To their own master's servant, they stand or fall, and they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
SPEAKER_00: One person considers one day more sacred than another, another considers every day alike.
SPEAKER_00: Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever regards one day as special does not do so to the Lord, and whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God, and whoever abstains does so to the Lord, and gives thanks to God.
SPEAKER_00: For none of us live for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.
SPEAKER_00: If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For this very reason Christ died and returned to life, so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
SPEAKER_00: You then, why do you judge your brother or sister, or why do you treat them with contempt?
SPEAKER_00: For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.
SPEAKER_00: It is written, As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow, every tongue will acknowledge God.
SPEAKER_00: So then each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the same word, stumbling block?
SPEAKER_00: So here's what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: You have the church.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine our church, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's some people, like everybody on this side of the room thinks it's more holy to be vegetarians.
SPEAKER_00: And then on this side of the church, you've got all these carnivores, right?
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, this is what it means to be holy.
SPEAKER_00: And there's this war of like who are the, and they're judging Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like these guys are pointing at these people, like, oh, you're less spiritual, and these guys are like, oh no, you're less spiritual, right?
SPEAKER_00: And Corinth, they had a similar issue in that some um some people were going to the market and they wanted a deal on their meat, and you could get a good deal on meat that was already offered to an idol.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, if you are like a bargain hunter like I am, you could go in and you could find um a deal on meat offered to idols.
SPEAKER_00: But there were some people in the church who are like, no, no, no, no, that's um that's been defiled.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be spiritually defiled if you eat that meat.
SPEAKER_00: And so again, you had a conflict that arose in the church over meat offered to idols.
SPEAKER_00: So this is what happened in Paul's day.
SPEAKER_00: We have in our day our own set of issues that are what we call matters of conscience, where it's like, well, is this right?
SPEAKER_00: Is this wrong?
SPEAKER_00: How does this work?
SPEAKER_00: Here is um a few of those things.
SPEAKER_00: Let me go over.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go backwards and forwards.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some of the things that are kind of contested things.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you um if you grew up in a church, you're probably around somebody that had a strong stance on one of these things.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Homeschooling.
SPEAKER_00: I've met people who said, like, if you send your kids to public school, you're gonna go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: I've known those people.
SPEAKER_00: I've met that I've met that person.
SPEAKER_00: Eating junk food, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's some people that take their diet to a degree where they feel like if you don't follow this diet, then you're not a spiritual person.
SPEAKER_00: Alcohol is another one, right?
SPEAKER_00: We know the Bible forbids drunkenness, but a God blessed Israel with wine.
SPEAKER_00: Um, luxuries, right?
SPEAKER_00: How do you spend your money?
SPEAKER_00: Work on Sundays, yoga, credit cards, R-rated movies, two-piece bathing suits, dancing, tattoos, secular music, all of those are issues that come up in different ways.
SPEAKER_00: And people have strong opinions on those.
SPEAKER_00: They can develop strong opinions on those.
SPEAKER_00: But really, if you go and you try to find the verse about two-piece bathing suits, you won't find it.
SPEAKER_00: You won't find it, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you go and try to find the verse about yoga, you won't find it.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you six principles that kind of direct us on what we should do.
SPEAKER_00: This is the, this is the this is where we start.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 5, verse 1 says this.
SPEAKER_00: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm then.
SPEAKER_00: Do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has set you free.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that under the law, the law of the Old Testament, God had a relationship with humanity.
SPEAKER_00: God related to humanity in a way that was based off the law, right?
SPEAKER_00: So you had people, you had the children of Israel who were only doing works so that God would bless them.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They did not have the ability to relate to God according to grace.
SPEAKER_00: When we get to the new covenant, what we see is that Jesus starts a new system of relating to God.
SPEAKER_00: Christ sets people free, not because the law is null and void, but because Jesus fulfills the law.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this newfound freedom that we have as we relate to God.
SPEAKER_00: So the difficulty is, okay, so um we know the holy standard of the law, and yet Jesus has forgiven our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And what do we do now?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what do we do with our credit cards?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with music?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with entertainment?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with all these things?
SPEAKER_00: How do we know what's right and wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's uh six ways.
SPEAKER_00: Six ways to know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: The first freedom principle is this I have the freedom and the right to do whatever is not forbidden explicitly in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I have the responsibility to take a stand for the freedom I have in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: My choice is between God and me.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, that's quite a statement.
SPEAKER_00: That's quite a statement.
SPEAKER_00: You have the responsibility to take a stand for this freedom.
SPEAKER_00: You see, when Jesus died on the cross, he paid for your sin and my sin, but he also paid for your liberty.
SPEAKER_00: He paid for you to be a very free person.
SPEAKER_00: And so when somebody comes along and they say, Look, if you want to be really spiritual, you need to follow my diet, what they're doing is they're insulting the work of Christ's cross.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: If somebody comes along and they add to the law, they take away from the freedom you have in Christ, they're insulting Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're not just hurting your relationship with God, potentially, but they're also insulting what Jesus purchased, which was your freedom.
SPEAKER_00: So again, I have the freedom and the right to do whatever is not forbidden explicitly in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: If you were going to kind of draw this, here's what it would look like.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You have the limits, the boundaries of Scripture, and inside that box is everything you're allowed to do.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Scripture gives us great, great freedom to do a whole lot.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that box gets a little smaller with something called the conscience.
SPEAKER_00: Some choices are considered matters of conscience.
SPEAKER_00: Um I want to just show you my graphic of what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this this box with a circle inside of it, that circle represents your conscience, right?
SPEAKER_00: So you have the things that Scripture says are the boundaries.
SPEAKER_00: Boundaries, and then your conscience comes along and shrinks the boundaries a bit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, your circle may be really tiny, and that means you have a really sensitive conscience, right?
SPEAKER_00: But our conscience is a gift that God gives us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not infallible, it sometimes does not accurately reflect the truth of God, but it is nonetheless really important.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to violate your conscience?
SPEAKER_00: First of all, if you participate in any activity outside activity that your conscience is telling you is wrong, it's sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's Romans 14, 23.
SPEAKER_00: So God has given you this thing called a compass or a conscience, this inward compass.
SPEAKER_00: If you decide that you're going to violate your conscience, even though you're not crossing over a scriptural line, that is sin.
SPEAKER_00: You can look at Romans 14, 23.
SPEAKER_00: Also, if you know that you should do something and you don't do it, that is also sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's James 4.17.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't do something in faith, it says in Romans 14, 23 that it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So we're supposed to do everything.
SPEAKER_00: Anything not done by faith is sin.
SPEAKER_00: So those are some additional boundaries, right?
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus has paid for your freedom.
SPEAKER_00: He's paid for you to be a free person.
SPEAKER_00: He's given his word as the X, the outline in which we're operating.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the second thing.
SPEAKER_00: The second principle is this.
SPEAKER_00: I have a responsibility to limit my freedom in Christ for the sake of other believers who may be caused to stumble.
SPEAKER_00: The word stumble has the idea of falling into sin themselves, not just being bothered.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we start with this wide open territory.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has paid for us to be a free people.
SPEAKER_00: But then we come along and we begin to place limits on ourselves for the sake of other people.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where we we the the this is the principle that runs parallel to the text we're looking at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you read through 1 Corinthians 8, which we don't have the time to do this morning, you'll see this principle laid out.
SPEAKER_00: But again, it's the idea that I'm gonna limit my freedom in Christ for the sake of other believers who may be caused to stumble.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say, for example, that you have somebody who feels like it is immoral to eat food at a Chinese food restaurant where they have one of those little Buddhas and they offer like the incense and the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been to one of those Chinese food restaurants?
SPEAKER_00: You've seen that, right?
SPEAKER_00: So let's say you have a friend, do they go there and they just feel like, oh, I can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: I just feel like that's um that's not right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be spiritually defiled by going there.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is, do you just kind of say, come on, man?
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't be so sensitive.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: The idea of freedom principle number two is that we want to be open to limiting our freedom for the sake of other believers.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing, when you get into 1 Corinthians 8, it's such a cool text.
SPEAKER_00: Some what happens is when we take our liberty and we exercise our liberty at the expense of somebody else who has feels like in their conscience it'd be wrong to do that, we're interrupting their relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: We're causing them to stumble, we're causing them to feel this distance and this guilt, this shame between them and God.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says that person's relationship with God is more important than you exercising your liberty.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: The third freedom principle is this.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same as the second one, but it's the it's for non-believers, right?
SPEAKER_00: I have the responsibility to limit my freedom for the sake of non-believers because winning them to Christ is the most important issue.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the idea that like I can go and have a glass of wine, the freedom to go and have wine, that's not the most important issue.
SPEAKER_00: The most important issue is will my drinking a glass of wine, is that somehow going to affect my witness to the person I'm trying to share the gospel with?
SPEAKER_00: This becomes very real as you know your neighbors, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um I think the last time something like this came up was when I had to break my lease in November and I was moving into a new house, and the owner of the house knew I was a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm thinking in my head, not like how do I get out of this lease without with paying the least amount of money or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: But I told her when I got on the phone with her, because it got really hairy, there was a management company that was really trying to um charge me a bunch of extra money that was unethical.
SPEAKER_00: And so I ended up having to hash it out with the owner.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I said is, look, I don't think what your management company is doing is right, but at the same time, I know you know I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And as much as I don't want to lose money, I also want to make sure that I don't give you a bad um concept of how Christians act and how a pastor acts, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's just as important.
SPEAKER_00: So we have we have a witness that's at stake.
SPEAKER_00: So the third freedom principle is that we're willing to limit our freedom so that we're not stumbling a non-believer.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We want to make decisions for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul said as a missionary, sometimes he would act more Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: He would he would follow the law so that Jewish people would not be stumbled by his liberty, right?
SPEAKER_00: He would follow the law, even though he had been set free from the sacram uh sac uh the uh the ceremonial aspect of the law.
SPEAKER_00: He would do it so that Jews would come to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Other times he was doing things so that Gentiles would come to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He was changing his behavior so that the gospel would go forward.
SPEAKER_00: The fourth freedom principle is this, and we're not going to spend a ton of time on this, um, four and five and six, but um, we will come back to it at some future time.
SPEAKER_00: I must limit my freedom when it indulges my sinful nature, right?
SPEAKER_00: So there can be um, for me, this is like watching TV.
SPEAKER_00: If I watch a ton of TV, it's not necessarily a sin, but it causes me to be have a bad mood, be in a bad mood, and be less willing to serve my family.
SPEAKER_00: Um, same thing with food.
SPEAKER_00: Like if I go and eat a bunch of junk, it makes me feel junky, and then I don't end up serving my family or um serving the church in the way that I ought to, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm at I'm at liberty eating a bunch of sugar, right?
SPEAKER_00: I have that liberty.
SPEAKER_00: But I choose to limit that freedom so that as a believer, I'm not led into sin.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Um freedom principle number five.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be careful about imposing my personal convictions on someone else, thus erring by judging others.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that when you become a Christian, God puts his spirit in you, you have a relationship with God, and you're making these types of decisions with God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: God is leading you on your diet, on your music, on your entertainment, on what you wear.
SPEAKER_00: All of those things God has a voice into.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the funnest parts about being a Christian is letting God speak to you about those things.
SPEAKER_00: I love listening to for the Lord and asking God how He wants me to do my life.
SPEAKER_00: The problem becomes is when God speaks to me, and then I become really passionate and say, here's what God's shown me, and that's your law too.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had somebody do that to you where they're like, oh no, you can't get tattoos.
SPEAKER_00: You can't get tattoos.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's like sin.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God can't love you if you have a tattoo.
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell Derek that.
SPEAKER_00: And Robert.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But but that what that is, is that's somebody taking maybe a personal conviction, which is not well informed by Scripture, right?
SPEAKER_00: But that's that's their conscience, right?
SPEAKER_00: We we want to be careful with their conviction.
SPEAKER_00: But we want to, if if you take, if they take that conviction and put it on somebody else, then they're judging somebody else, they could damage um damage the other person's relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a bunch of other scriptures you can look up.
SPEAKER_00: Final freedom principle.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then this is another boundary that we have.
SPEAKER_00: I must submit myself to those whom God has placed in authorities in my life, recognizing that leaders, pastors, parents, government have an obligation to encourage people to live godly lives, warn them about dangers of life choices, and impose limitations when necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So the government plays a role, not just government, but also parents, they play a role in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we need to follow those limits as well.
SPEAKER_00: So while we may so it it doesn't work to say I'm free in Christ, so I'm not gonna pay my taxes, or I'm free in Christ, so I'm gonna drive like 40 miles an hour over the speed limit.
SPEAKER_00: Like that doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: The governing authorities are there by God.
SPEAKER_00: This becomes really important as we do life together as a church, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're gonna have a personal relationship with God, you're gonna relate to God, but as you're relating to God and He's showing you specific things in your life that need to take place, um, you're gonna you may communicate those things.
SPEAKER_00: Like I've talked to you about my own health.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure, like I love health, like I've I've lost a lot of weight in the last couple years.
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited about what God's done.
SPEAKER_00: But some people are like, we need to talk about health more in our church.
SPEAKER_00: And my response to them is like, I'm I'm afraid to do that because of the last thing I want people to feel like is that somehow by being healthy like me is more spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus came into the world, died on the cross, forgave our sins, he gave you the same position in heaven as me.
SPEAKER_00: Your righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, is the same righteousness that I have and that you have, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're on the same footing.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus in this text, in Luke 17, is really, really trying to just um warn the disciples that they're being careful not to cause stumbling, not to cause an offense in other people's life.
SPEAKER_00: It's a serious thing.
SPEAKER_00: So there's obvious stuff like abusive leaders and um open public sin and unrepentant sin.
SPEAKER_00: Those things are obvious.
SPEAKER_00: But then there's the subtle things of just this judging that can come in and just taking personal convictions and putting them on other people that can be really difficult.
SPEAKER_00: This is good disciples.
SPEAKER_00: So some of you are leading other people, some of you are discipling other people.
SPEAKER_00: These six freedom principles, going through them in depth, going through the text on them, is really important ground to cover because it's because people want to know like how do I know what's right and wrong in my own walk with God?
SPEAKER_00: I'd encourage you to take take this and um take these things and run with it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The um we're gonna celebrate communion together as a church family now.
SPEAKER_00: So um what I want to do is let's um let's come up and take the elements.
SPEAKER_00: So take the elements, go back to your seat.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take um communion together.
SPEAKER_00: So um come on up, get the cup, the bread, and um and then we'll take it together.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you, Minister Key.
SPEAKER_00: And as you're as you're coming forward, the the cup, Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: Um the cup represents Jesus' blood.
SPEAKER_00: The um wafer, the cracker, represents um Jesus' body being broken on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And as we um as we do this, we remember that Jesus died on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Um He He took the cup, he took the bread on the night before he was crucified, and He told the disciples, do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: So we we remember, we remember Jesus' body being broken on our behalf through these elements.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this, there's a work in our own hearts where we want to repent of sin.
SPEAKER_00: So if there's anything you came in this morning with and you're just like, you haven't told God you're sorry for those things yet, then now's the time to just say, God, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Um this is this represents your forgiveness, right?
SPEAKER_00: My forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Um we want to say thank you, right?
SPEAKER_00: We so there's this rejoicing that we have, and then there's a just a remembering.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: So um let's let's take the um the wafer, hold it up, and let's uh pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for your body being broken for us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, that um we gather around this work on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We need we need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the forgiveness we have in you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the fact that your body was broken in our place.
SPEAKER_00: So we are so grateful and we remember.
SPEAKER_00: We remember what you did on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take the bread.
SPEAKER_00: And the cup.
SPEAKER_00: The cup Lord represents your blood being spilled for our on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And uh man, just a new covenant of grace where you're just this is like the cup of freedom.
SPEAKER_00: It represents just this total liberty that we have.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, let us be a free people.
SPEAKER_00: Let us be a people that are just set free to serve you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your your blood being shed on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take the cup together.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we um we lift up our lives to you.
SPEAKER_00: Have mercy, have mercy upon us.
SPEAKER_00: Have mercy upon us.
SPEAKER_00: Like in our lives with you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand, let's sing this last song together.