Summer in Rome | Romans 14:13 - Romans 15:7

As Summer in Rome continues, Pastor Ben Kaempfer explores Romans 14:13–15:7, where Paul challenges believers to move beyond personal preferences and pursue what builds up the body of Christ. Rather than causing others to stumble, Christians are called to live with humility, love, and a willingness to put the needs of others before their own. Ultimately, this passage reminds us that Christ welcomed us with grace, and we are called to extend that same grace to one another. May this message encourage listeners to pursue unity, bear with one another in love, and glorify God together with one voice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, thank you for joining us as we continue our summer series, Summer in Rome. At Downtown Community Church, our mission is simple to love God, make disciples, and be great neighbors. Whether through giving, serving, or using your gifts to care for others, thank you for partnering with us as we seek to share the love of Christ in Tallahassee and beyond. If you're looking to get connected, visit Downtown CommunityCurch dot com to learn more about serving and taking your next step. You can also follow us on Instagram at DCCTally and Facebook at Downtown Community Church to stay up to date with everything happening here at DCC. And if you're looking for a practical way to love your neighbors, consider joining the foster crew, a ministry that supports foster families through meals, child care, prayer, and encouragement. You can learn more at onemorechrial.org. Today we'll continue our study in Romans, where Paul reminds us to put aside our personal preferences and pursue what builds up the body of Christ. As we've been welcomed by the grace of Jesus, we're called to extend that same grace to one another, pursuing unity, humility, and love. We hope today's message encourages you to reflect Christ's love, build up those around you, and glorify God together as one body. Thanks again for listening and enjoy today's message.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Thanks, y'all. Good morning, everybody. Please stay standing for the reading of God's Word. We are in Romans 15, starting in verse 1. Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weakness of those without strength and not to please ourselves. Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice. Therefore, welcome one another just as Christ also welcomed you to the glory of God. Kiddos, y'all can go to your classes now and everyone else can have a seat.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Oh, that's amazing. They're like, let's go. Make sure I'm good. Alright, kiddos, we love you guys. Oh, look at this father's son. Just just with the same plaid. Stop it. You're just like, how can we be the two cutest people walking out of the church last? My name is Ben, and I have the honor of serving here as the uh lead pastor at DCC. Man, awesome, awesome stuff so far. Um a couple things. One is that was Sarah Kerwin who just did our scripture reading. They announced that. And if um you were wondering, Sarah was the one who um helped start an architect, and she's the director of Foster Crew. She is immediately after the service gonna be right at the connect desk. Um, if you have any questions, how you can anything from just like if you're somebody who is in need of support to you want to help support, or you just want to know how can you pray more. I mean, she was is we'd love to answer any and all questions. Um, I got one thing I want everybody to know about before we get started this morning, and that is that on August 9th, I'm Saturday, Sunday, August 9th, immediately after church, um, we're gonna have a brief cookout. Um, it's gonna be one of our our uh our services that we have all together afterwards. We're gonna have a brief cookout, and then we're gonna come back. Um, and if you were here a while back, then you know uh in April we have what's called a church family meeting. Um, and so we're gonna have another one of those. We got a ton of stuff that we've been working on, some stuff that we want to update you on, where everything is, church, uh, where everything is, mission, vision, kind of where God has us positioned uh going into the fall. And so we just want to kind of give everybody tons and tons of updates on some really important and interesting stuff that I think you're gonna be um pretty fascinated by. So we would love for you to be here. We made it easy as possible so that you could be here. So we didn't want you to have to go somewhere and then come back. So grab a quick bite with us and then we're gonna jump right back in um after church. Does that make sense? Woo! Thank you. Thank you, Nicole. You're like, yeah, let's go. All right, let's pray. Jesus, thank you for this time that we have together. Would you just speak to us, each and every one of us, no matter where we are in terms of our relationship with you? For those of us who walked in and we've been walking with you for a long time, would you challenge us? Help us to be more like you refine us, wake us up if we're asleep spiritually. For those of us who have been following you just recently, would you help us to see what this life is? Life patterned after you. King Jesus. And for those of us who walked in and we're still trying to figure this whole thing out, God, we need to see you clearly today. Because people who were nothing like you flocked to see you, to hear you, because you had the words of life. And so, Jesus, we pray that would be true and we would simply see you, because if we see you, you'll change everything in our hearts. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Um, we're going through the book of Romans, uh, or the second kind of half of the book of Romans, and by half I mean where he goes from theology to application. Paul is writing this letter to a persecuted church who's at Rome, uh, and he's writing to them about how to basically get along one another. Persecution's just starting up, but they had this huge conflict between Jews and Gentiles. And it's kind of hard in our modern context to draw the level to which there was tension and animosity historically with these two groups. And problematically, the emperor of Rome had basically said to all the Jewish folks, you've got to leave for about five years. They kind of started to get so kind of tense between Jews and Christians that they said, okay, everybody who's who's Jewish, you've got to get out. And so all the Jewish folk left. Well, what's left is all the Gentiles. The Gentiles are in the church, they were the new folks. And so you've got these people who don't have the background of faith, don't have all the prophets, don't have all the lessons, don't have all the history, and they're coming in, and now they're running the church for about five years. If you ever experienced a military family, when one of the members of the family is on deployment for an extended time, there becomes a new operating order in the household. Well, problematically, about five years later, they're able to come back. And so now you have this really kind of tense group between the Jewish folk who felt like they were the ones who were initially and originally handed this, and the Gentile folk who the gospel had gone to. And there was all kinds of tension in their background. And so what Paul is writing, we're actually jumping into a part two of what Nate started last week, where there was this tension. And how do they live with each other? How do they exist with each other with such extreme differences? And honestly, not just differences in thought, difference in conscience. Difference in conscience. Isn't this true? That every single one of us, because of our background, because of our context, our conscience is informed to things that go beyond just what the Bible says. See, what they're dealing with here is when wisdom becomes a righteousness issue. And what do they do? And he starts off by saying, Hey, I want you to continue to make space. I want you to open up, invite into your inner circle your people. He deals with their posture and says, and so don't judge, don't judge, because who are you to judge somebody else's master? In fact, in fact, they are all they're living to God, and as long as they're living to God, then here's what we know every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. And Nate just hit that so well last week. Because at the end of the day, here's what he's saying. With things that are disputable, I can fool you or you can fool me. But he says we need to be fully convinced because ultimately none of us can fool God. And if you have that classic, you know, well, only God can judge me. Well, first off, everybody can judge you, only God should judge you. But second off, if you say that to me and you're worried about Ben, good luck with a holy God.

unknown 8:10

Right?

SPEAKER_00 8:11

That should that should be terrifying, not defiant. And so what he's dealing with here again is what happens when wisdom issues become righteousness issues. Now, I know that you guys have spent a little time in the church as I have, or some of you have. And if you haven't, you just kind of know that this is true. And so I wrote down a couple of things that I thought, you know, here are some interesting things that in the church world, and this is just honestly the the almost like a surface level stab at this. Let me just tell you a couple of things that I thought about. Number one, well, this isn't really number one, it's just one starting point. Watching R-rated movies, celebrating Halloween. Or should you celebrate it as Hallelujah harvest? Smoking cigars, drinking a craft beer, or just a bud heavy, visiting a winery, going to a sports bar, fantasy football for money, going to a casino on vacation, listening to secular music, letting your kids listen to Taylor Swift, wearing a hat in church, dressing casually for lunch. By the way, if you have a hat, keep it on. I'd be just saying. Dressing casually for church, raising your hand during worship, buying a second home, buying a new car instead of a used car, buying from companies with questionable labor practices. Right? All of these things you look at and you think, man, we would all look at this in the Bible, doesn't say, here's exactly what you should do in this area. But how do we, how do we consider this in a way because we will have differences in where we fall on all of these things? Everybody, when I said those things, you automatically have a this is what I think. Natural. Homeschooling. Should you send your kids to public school? Should you send your kids to private school? Should you give your kids an iPhone in middle school, in elementary school, in high school, ever? Letting your teenager have Instagram, using TikTok, using AI, taking medication for ADHD and depression. Voting Republican, voting Democrat. Can you vote at all? Can you be a Christian and not vote? Now what's interesting is we could sit in any community group in our church and have discussions about all of these things. And they're all fascinating, and they're all incredibly important. But what's interesting, what's interesting, is what Paul is contending here is that though we have differentiation, there's actually something that God is up to when it comes to our differences. There's actually something that's bigger and better in store than the differences that we have with one another. So this is what he says in Romans chapter 4. We're going to start in 14, a little bit before the verses that Sarah read. Start at verse, actually start at verse 11. It says, For it is written. As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Verse 13. So he says, okay, so we're all going to give an account to God. Therefore, let us not pass judgment, or let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide to never put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother. Now, what is he talking about here? Well, in chapter 14, verse 1, he says this, as for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to correl over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, another person believes he may only eat vegetables. Sorry. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains. Not the one who abstains, pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. This is interesting. He says, okay, I want you to welcome in. And what he calls the weaker brother. The weaker brother. And what is the weaker brother? The weaker brother is the one who hasn't fully understood the implications of the gospel. Who hasn't fully understood the freedom in the gospel. And what he's going to say in verse 14 is that nothing that God has created is unclean. But when they would come together, there were some Jewish folk, especially in this context, who, because of their background, their whole time, these foods, these kosher, dietary laws, these were not okay. And now all of a sudden the Gentiles, you're just eating all of it. Now the implications of the gospel, well, that was now okay, that was now free. There wasn't anything unclean. In fact, in verse 14, he's going to say that. But he says, here's what I want you to do. I want you to welcome each other in. And in fact, in verse 13, he says, let us not put judgment on one another, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block in the hindrance of a brother. In other words, hey, you've got a decision, you got a decision. When you realize that there is a disagreement, when you realize there is a there is a of a disputable matter, not it's sin, just something that what does wisdom look like? What does what does not salvation, but what does the imitation of Jesus actually look like in this? He said, here's what I want you to do. You can do what everybody else in this world does, which is to leverage the fact that you're right. Because I'm right, so this is what we should do. He says, There's a problem with that. He says, actually, verse 14, let me give you clarity. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But it's unclean for anyone who thinks it's unclean, because it violates your conscience. He's saying, so man, if because of your background there's something that isn't okay that's not wise for you, if for you it violates your conscience, it makes it feel like there's something between you and God. Even if in Christ it's okay, he says, for you, pay attention to that. Because if it's not for you, then it's not. And here's here's here's why. Here's what Paul's going to contend. He wants our faith to precede our behavior, not our behavior to inform our faith. He says, I want this to come from a clear conscience that this is the outer working of the gospel. He says, now I want you to know that nothing is itself is unclean. Why? Because they thought some of the food was unclean or not clean. He said, No, it's fine. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let us, so do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy and the Holy Spirit. He says, okay, so don't for the sake of your freedom destroy the work of God in somebody else's life. Now let me tell you what is difficult about this for us. This means he is assuming, number one, that we are close enough in proximity to people different than us. Which in America is a big assumption. Think about that. That there's actually different, you see, we have such clear lines because we don't like the intertention of disagreement. But that comes at a cost that we don't realize. We're gonna talk about in a second. But he's saying, okay, so first, you've got to realize this is that when you're in this context, in this place where different backgrounds, different contexts, different spaces, you you want to look at each other and you want to say, okay, what is it, what is the freedom that I feel because of the fact that I'm right to express? He says, and I want you to see that and be conscious, be conscious, be conscious of unaware of how that impacts the other person. Then I had a um a friend. I visited a number of times. They were working at this camp, and I went to the camp and and I got to know some of the people who were on staff, and and man, this one time I went and and they told me this story, and it was and it was really, really sad and disappointing, honestly. I was asking why so-and-so wasn't there, and they were like, oh man, they just, you know, there was some stuff that happened. I was like, man, what went down? And they basically told me this story. There was a guy who was working at the camp who struggled with alcoholism. Now, there was a speaker who was coming in, and two friends were going to pick up a speaker. There's one guy's best friend, the other guy who, you know, was the guy who had historically struggled with alcoholism. Now, in Christ, in Christ, having wine, having a beer, you know, whatever it is, there's freedom in Christ in that. Not to get drunk, but in moderation. But this one guy, man, he he they were going to pick a friend up. The guy went, they they both picked him up from the airport. They were about to drive back, but there was a game on, and they said, Hey, let's go buy, let's go watch the game at a sports bar. The guy said, Man, that's not just not good for me because of the fact that I have always historically struggled with this. They said, Come on, it'll be fine, you're with us. He said, I don't know. They said, Come on, you're gonna be fine, you're gonna be with us, it's not gonna be a big deal. You know what happened? He went. It was fine, and it wasn't a big deal. Except for the next time. Because the last time he went, he realized he had gone with his friends, he had gone with his people, and he was okay in there. And another game that came on that he wanted to go watch and he had violated his conscience, it began to be a little bit callous. And so then he went by himself and he did fall, and he continued to fall, and his life began to become unraveled. Now, does that mean every single time it's gonna happen? No. But what's his point? Don't for the sake of the work of God destroy this person because you realize that there is liberty in this area, and you're trying to convince people of things that violate their conscience. So he says, Don't do that. In fact, this next thing, this is why I love this. This is why I love Paul. He says, so whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue, this is what he says, what makes for peace, and then this last word, which is huge, he says, mutual upbuilding. Mutual upbuilding, which means both are going to be built up. Now, how does the weaker build the stronger? It's a great question. In Romans 14, Paul is dealing with Jewish dietary laws, and which days are more holy than the other? What's interesting is if you do a kind of a cross study, Corinthians 8. There's this thing happening in the church where there's food sacrificed to idols. All of the Gentiles, because of their background, you see, they came from an idolatry background. There was a ton of different gods, a ton of different things and places and people that were sacrificed to. And oftentimes what would happen is they would go to the temple, these pagan temples, they would sacrifice, and then with the leftover meat, they would actually sell them in the market. Oftentimes at a discount. Now, one thing Christians love is BOGO chicken, right? And so they would see this that's happening out there, and they would say, okay, we want some of that. It's a meat at a good deal. And here was the reality of what they knew: there were no other gods. There were no other gods. So this meat's fine to eat. But for the Gentiles, it violated their conscience. And Paul says, be careful of that. Now, here is what you can't miss. And if you are in here and you've been a Christian for a while, please listen at this part. Because this is what almost every single Christian I know interprets this as. I'm not the weaker brother. But look at this. The Gentiles, because of their background, because of their context, had places that they saw the gospel clearly that the Jews didn't. They said, no, no, no, no. There is not this sense of because of the fact that this kosher dietary law, like that. There's freedom in Christ in that. One day whole in the next. There's freedom in that because of their background. They could see that clearly. The Gentiles on the other side, because of their background, they said, man, food sacrifice, idols, this is really tough for us. But the Jews said, there is no other God. That's easy. Here's the point. Both were the weaker brother. They never would have known had they not been together. Every single one of us in here thinks that we're the stronger brother. And the reason is because you're fully convinced of what you already think, which is good. Does that mean you're right? No. Just means you think you are. And maybe you are. But here's the point the reason why they build each other up is because depending on the context, depending on the situation, depending on the area, every single one of us has places that we see the gospel clearly and places that we see the gospel cloudy. And when I say that, I do not mean simply salvation. I mean Imitation of what it looks like to follow Jesus. There's places because of my background, you see, that I see following Jesus clearly in places where I've really had to grow. Because I don't. In fact, this is kind of his point. He says, so, by the way, verse 20, do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean. And I love it because he's like, okay, so what do we do, right? So we're both here, and these people are coming over for dinner and they don't want to eat meat, they only want to eat vegetables, and so what should we do? He says, he says, okay, here's what I want you to know. Don't destroy. Don't destroy. And in fact, it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have. He said, if you get this, this is funny. He says, keep it between yourself and God. If we were in 2026 and he was writing this and we were writing how we behave and act, it would say, keep that between yourself and every follower you have on social media. It makes sure they know and are clear because the last thing that you want to be labeled as is a heretic because you're not clear. Because you know what happens when you spend time with people who disagree with you and you don't spend the entire time debating on who's right? People start to think that you're that. And let me just say, Christians, the greatest fear that we have is not the fear of the person who doesn't know Jesus and rejects us, it's the fear of the people who sit in high towers and are the theology bros. That are the people who sit back and it's like the heretic police. And there's no sense of living together, there's no sense of the centrality of Christ. There's no sense that, okay, I don't know, I don't this, I don't agree. But here's what I know. If you are fully convinced and you are fully living for Jesus, someday you're gonna have to stand before him. And I am too. He says, so the faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who, by the way, has no reason to pass judgment on him for suffering what he approves. In other words, who has no reason to feel self-condemned because of what he actually eats. But whoever's doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating is not from faith. In other words, I want it to not come from behavior. I want it to come from faith. Most people I know who have walked away from the faith have not walked away from the faith. Not all, most have not walked away because of an intellectual ascent. Their life walked away. Their behavior walked away. And a lot of times it was the intellectual justifications that went with it. Let your faith inform your behavior. And so we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak. And not to please ourselves. But let us each please his neighbor for his good to build him up. Now, the longer you follow Jesus, the more in-depth this gets. So I just want to be transparent and vulnerable. I'm gonna tell you a couple areas in my life. Just because I frankly think if we aren't identifying places that we're the weaker brother, then there's a good chance we're not growing to the capacity that God has called us to. Let me tell you a couple areas that God has been working in me, that through this I was able to think and reflect and realize, man, these are some areas where I was the weaker brother, and I just didn't even realize it. And it's not that anybody debated me and had a conversation with it. As you guys know, man, in church world, it's easy as a pastor to sit in an ivory tower. There's so many people, so many needs, so many things that happen just in the life of the church. And one of the things that I've been privy to is some people around me, some believers, some that are close, some that go to this church, and some that don't, some that are pretty far away. And I've seen the way that despite the reputational concerns, then they just hang out with people. Hang out with people who you would say are the last, the least, the downcast. A couple of weeks ago, I preached at college night on Luke 15, where Jesus is giving these parables and he talks about the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son. And you know what's preceded by? All of the religious folk looked at Jesus. He was hanging out with tax collectors, sinners. He was hanging out with the worst of the worst. He was hanging out with the modern equivalent. Who Jesus was hanging out with? He was hanging out with, you know, those people who like they'll like email, you know, here's this, you know, prince in Kenya that's gonna send you a million dollars and they just scam people, right? They used and utilized their position to take advantage of other people. That's a tax collector. That's who Jesus was hanging out with. He was hanging out with them and the prostitutes. You know what I got convicted of? Because I saw people's lives and no one said this to me. No one said, hey, let's have a discussion about it, let's have a conversation about it. I realized that Jesus was constantly accused of hanging out with sinners, and in my 15 years of ministry, I have never, as a pastor, been accused of that. And it's because of the fear of the reputation of the religious that I refused at times to get dirty and I realized and I had to repent of that. And some of you say, man, God been on the I've seen you talk to anybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll talk to anybody. But he's saying that, man, I want you to aggressively make space almost in your inner circle for people who are different than you. Christian, when was the last time somebody looked at you and said, you hang out with too many sinners? The Messiah who we pattern our life after. That was his primary accusation by the religious leaders. I don't think we're doing it right if we're not. At least I'm not. And I realized, man, I was the weaker brother. I didn't realize the implication of the gospel. That Jesus came to seek and to save those that are lost. And though I know that conceptually, my life doesn't imitate it. Galatians 6 has this really, really beautiful verse. Verse 1 and 2, he talks about knowing God and when you're stuck in sin. And then he says this really incredible thing. He says, You are to, you are to carry one another's burdens. Carry one another's burdens. Can I just tell you, church? I have been awful at that for a long time, and I probably should apologize. There's some of y'all that have been hurting that I just haven't been there for. And it's because honestly, what I thought, I thought caring was sending a text once and saying, How are you? Like Jesus says, I want you to bear, like carry these burdens. Now I'm not going to carry it more than you, but part of the reason that we have people who are getting off the street, part of their testimony, and then some of them, not all of them, some of them have been that that you did not, y'all did not give up on me, even when I gave up on me. Miss Daisy said that, and it just it blew my mind because I'm like, man, that is that that's it. That's what it means to carry one another's burdens. And you know why I didn't? Because of my background. My background says, which comes from a suburban upper middle class, that says you segment off life, you present a sense that which your family is good, your family is perfect, you don't let any people into your burdens, and you dare not impose yourself too much in somebody else's. Somebody else's hurt and pain. And no one sat me down and said, Ben, you ought to. Ben, you have to. But I watched. The people around, I watched some of our staff. He's so interruptible. I watched some of our staff carry in love, not just the burdens of the people, but each other's burdens even. In such a beautiful way. That I realized. But in terms of imitating the full outer working, the implications of the gospel. Man, I'm the weaker brother. And it wasn't that somebody came along and said, let's debate it. They welcomed me in, they showed me their life. I saw the way they followed Jesus in an area that my following of Jesus was not fully developed. And I saw that, and I thought, man, I need to begin to see that better. And I read the scriptures and I understood it better, and I thought, oh my gosh, and I began to repent of it and say, God, I'm sorry. I've been walking just with what's comfortable for me, because the reason is that that differentiation is difficult, is because it's uncomfortable. So he says, Man, the purpose of this, let us please his neighbor for his good. Why? To build him up. And here's the thing you can't build somebody up you don't know. You can't build somebody up you're not in community with. You can't build someone up you're not communing with. We'll never build what's separate. He says, and let me just let me just be clear. The the impetus of this is not that you just thought, I'm such a good person. He says, No. For Christ did not please himself. He says, in fact, here's what's Christ, the reproach of those who reproached you fell on me. For whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction, that through the endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together, with one voice, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Man, it's going to be this glorious, beautiful thing that when you come together, there's here's here's here's the picture of this. There's a uh a story that C.S. Lewis talks about in his book Four Loves. And he talks about how, and if you don't know this, he's he's a he's a famous kind of prolific writer. He was friends with a couple others. One was a guy named Charles, one was a guy by the last name of Tolkien. When his friend Tolkien passed away, and they would go to tea every week, talk, writers, be creative and think. When his friend passed away, one of them, there was a little part that he talked about. He was kind of excited because he was gonna get all of the attention from this one friend. This one friend who was still there, he was Charles, he was gonna get all the attention from him because Ronald had passed away. And so he went to tea, and after he went a couple of times, he realized it's different. There are things that only this other friend could bring out of me, right? There's things that only this other person can bring out of me. And you we we've all been there, right? You have friends who it's like, some friends you're like very like contained and normal, and then that one friend shows up and you're just like off the wall, you know? With my friends who know Jesus, I somehow tend to be the rebel. My friends who don't know Jesus, they're like, thank God Ben's here, because now it's gonna be okay. You know? Things are safe. You know this. There are things that one friend brings out of you that another friend doesn't. And we as people, right, are only fully known in the context of community. Things that Lindsay brings out of me, things that Rhodes brings out of me, things that A, just within my family, things that my dad brings out, I mean, just within our context. And if that's true of me, being a finite being, how much more can we only fully understand God through the lens of other people's eyes as well? There are things that I don't see clearly about Jesus unless I have you with me. There are things that you don't see clearly about Jesus unless you see you have me with you. And the problem is, is for too long we've we've loved the comfort of this false tension, this false peace that really doesn't this glorifying thing. Don't you see, don't you think? Like when we're in life together and you got to figure out when we're group and we're Bible studying, there's kids that are happening. Different backgrounds, different contexts, how we deal with those things. Man, those are complex. Should we say something? Should we not say something? Should we be patient? Should we be be honest? Man, what does that look like? That's not a tension you settle. That's where sanctification happens. So here's the question: Who's the people that you're making room for? Because we will only see Jesus fully and clearly. When we see Jesus through the eyes of each other. When I realize that there's areas where I'm the weaker brother, when you realize those areas you're the weaker brother. And we come with humility. We say, okay, but are you doing fully condensed and doing this for God? They say, yes. Are you fully? Okay. Now let's just live our lives. We have doctrinal clarity. Let's just live our lives together. And you begin to see Christ in the other. He ends by saying this. He ends the very same concept that he started, 14 1. Therefore, welcome one another. Embrace one another. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. And he didn't welcome you because you were perfect. He didn't welcome you because you were good. He welcomed you simply because he loved you. Because he died for you. He says, and that now lives inside of you who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. He says, and by the way, in case you don't know this, here's why all of this matters. Because God will be glorified. When people see different groups of people coming together, learning, growing, becoming like, and embodying the person of Jesus. Man, there's this beautiful sense in which God is going to be glorified. And it's almost like he's saying, okay, let me make this whole thing clear. Chapter 14, 1. I want you to not quarrel over, but I want you to welcome in. 15 7. I want you to welcome in just as Christ is about welcome to you, because every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, and we want to do what we can to glorify God. And in this life, it is our responsibility to embrace one another, to see a more whole and full picture of Jesus, not to embrace this false, this cheap peace, but the radical tension that comes with diverse, beautiful perspectives of our King and Savior having the humility to see that I'm not perfect and I am the weaker brother, and so are you. I mean, come on. Can you imagine? I mean, genuinely imagine what this looks like. It's so different in a world of differentiation and segmentation. Think if we did this, and as we do this, just like Nate talked about. It's like this unhideable city on a hill. Let me ask you. Do you have people in your life that aren't like you? The gospel's for every people, every nation. Do you have people in your life that you're more like Jesus because they're different than you? It's tough because none of us wants to be the weaker brother. As your pastor, there are plenty of areas where I'm the weaker brother. And I just want you to know it's okay. Because when we all see that, we all grow, we all begin to glorify God. Let's pray. Jesus, I ask and pray that you would just speak to each and every one of us. Areas where we need to go, areas where we need to grow. Areas maybe where we've pushed away because it's uncomfortable or difficult. And your call was not to make this comfortable. Your call was to embrace, to love, to accept. But not because we're good, not because we're great, but because Jesus, that's what you did for us. You loved us when we had burdens. You loved us when we were in our sin. You loved us when we were running from you. It's your goodness, it's your kindness that draws us and brings us to repentance, to realize you, the goodness of God. And so, God, I pray that we lay down our pride. I pray that we lay down our preference. I pray we lay down the idolatry of the cheap peace that leaves us in theological segmentations and never growing to be more like you, King Jesus. Help us to be more like you. Help us to embrace one another. As you embraced us, God, we know that the mature believer is not the one who understands the liberty in Christ. The mature believer is the one who understands that freedom, but is willing to withhold that freedom so that Christ, you, can be fully formed in the other. Help us to be that. It's in your name we pray. Amen.