Romans Wrap Up, Review, and Rolling of the Credits

Read Romans 16

Paul finally concludes this lengthy epistle in what we define as the 16^th chapter.  It is the longest of his letters.  That’s why it traditionally comes first in your Bibles.  His letters to the churches are sequenced not by date but by length with the short pastoral letters after that.

At the end of a stage play, the cast comes out for a last curtain call.  There are bows and curtsies.  Many are acknowledged with applause for their performances.

In a major motion picture, the credits may roll for ten minutes after the story is over.  The credits often have their own musical score.  They are something of a production in themselves.

Paul, in similar fashion, rolled the credits at the end of his longest letter.  He acknowledged those who had helped him in many ways.  We may know some of these people.  Some are from Corinth.  Some likely from Rome.  Some may have carried the letter penned by Paul’s scribe, Tertius, who is also acknowledged in this chapter for being the speech to text app that put Paul’s pontifications to papyrus.

Paul has a final piece of counsel to add to his acknowledgements, closes with a benediction, and in this final chapter has said, “That’s enough for this letter.”  His hope was to visit this congregation in person.  He mentioned that in the beginning and explained more of how that might happen near the end.

As we have approached this letter mostly as a biblical textbook, let’s do our final review.

·     By the evidence of creation itself, everyone should know there is a God.  He is real and you should know that with or without a preacher, a Bible, or instructions from another person.

·     God’s wrath awaits the rebellious person.  We deserve it.

·     OBTW—we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

·     We—just as Abraham who was the greatest example to the Jews—are justified by faith.  It’s not by our bloodline or strict compliance with the law, but by faith.

·     OK, let’s get historical and theological for a moment.  Sin entered the world through one man.  You guessed it.  Adam takes the rap for this one.  Sin’s partner in crime, death, followed closely in trace.  But through one man—Jesus who walked this earth as God in the flesh—we are made right with God again.  We are right with God.

·     We didn’t have to do anything to earn this gift of grace, so what should we do?  Go on sinning so we can get more grace.  No!  That is not who we are anymore.  In that “No” Paul begins his discourse on discipleship.

·     Discipleship is our response to God’s incredible and undeserved love.  It is how we love God back, and sometimes it is a struggle.  Salvation came in an instant.  Discipleship is a process and sometimes that process finds us doing things that we never intended to do.

·     And then we come to what we mark as Paul’s 8^th chapter.  Paul talked about struggling and then follows it with affirmation after affirmation, at the heart of it all is that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!  That affirmation alone should get us through the toughest of days.

·     Our suffering in this present age can’t compare with what is to come.  Suffering, pain, and persecution may seem intense to us now, but won’t even muster an afterthought when we are living in what God has in store for us.

·     In all of these things that we deal with in our discipleship, we need to realize that we are victorious because of Christ Jesus.  In all these things, we are more than conquerors.

·     Sometimes we can’t make sense of much of anything but we are assured that God takes all things and works them for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

·     What can we say here?  If God is for us, who can stand against us.  Remember that this is a rhetorical question.  God is for us.  We should have the boldness of David when he faced the giant named Goliath.  Don’t you wish that Mister T had written this part of the Bible.  “I pity the fool that doesn’t have God and comes up against his servant.  That poor, uncircumcised Philistine.”  God is with us!  God is for us!  Who and what can stand against us?

·     And then we come to some of the most poetic and empowering of Paul’s words.  Here they are in the New Living Translation.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

·     Just as it seemed that Paul was on a roll with discipleship and had accompanied it with some of the strongest affirmations in the New Testament, he changes course.  He tells us that we need to understand God’s sovereignty.  God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy.  That turns out to be a good thing for everyone who was not in the bloodline of Abraham, those people known only as gentiles at the time.

·     God has a chosen people but for a time they were blinded, numb, or in a stupor when the Messiah came, taught, healed, died for the sins of humankind, and took his life up again.  Most of the Hebrew people, especially their religious hierarchy, just missed it.

·     That’s good news for us and as it turns out, good news for these Chosen People as well.  All have been bound over to disobedience so that all my come to know God not by the bloodline of Abraham but by the sacrificial blood of Christ Jesus.

·     By the time that we get to chapter 12, Paul begins his upper level instruction in discipleship.  Some of what he has to say takes us to graduate coursework.

·     It begins with being a living sacrifice.  This could be an oxymoron or a paradox.  Most sacrifices don’t get to live.  The two words usually don’t go together, but when we give ourselves fully to God then we finally come to know the abundant life that Jesus came to give us.  I’m I thinking that I am coining my own Pauline term—paradoxymoron.  I think Living Sacrifice is a paradox of truth contain in this oxymoron.  Plus, I like inventing my own terms.

·     Next we are called to renew our minds.  We can’t just give God a little part of our mind and expect to see transformation.  We need to let him replough our entire field so we can be transformed into the exact person that he wants us to be.

·     OBTW—there is a fantastic benefit to giving our entire lives to God and surrendering to this transformation process.  We get to know God’s will.  We should not shrink back from this for it is a good and pleasing and perfect will.  Of course, we must surrender one of our biggest excuses when we become a living sacrifice and commit to the renewing of our mind; we have to give up saying, I don’t know what God wants me to do.  I don’t know what God wants me to do with my life.

·     Paul continues his discipleship discussion with a short discourse on gifts.  Our salvation was not just a Get out of Hell Free Card.  It also came with Spiritual Gifts.  We are to take our gifts and use them.  If God gifted us to teach, then teach.  If he equipped us to cook, then cook.  If he put music in you, then sing and play and lift your voice to the Lord like no other so as to bring him glory.  If it is to write, then write.  If it is to speak an immediate message from God—we call that prophesying—then speak the truth that God has given you.  Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that so many people die with their music still in them.  What a tragedy.  What terrible discipleship.  God gave us gifts so that we could put them to use and bring glory to his name and produce fruit for the body of Christ.

·     Paul then jumps to graduate level discipleship.  Love must be sincere.  Do you know how hard it is to fake sincerity?  Now that should be an oxymoron.  Our heart is being shaped like God’s.  We must have genuine love for one another—even the knuckleheads.

·     While Paul is working at the graduate level, he adds:  Bless those who persecute you.  To which many of us reply, I am happy with an undergrad degree. 

·     Do not repay evil for evil but overcome evil with good.  You can’t fake this, at least not for long.  It goes back to love must be sincere.  That goes back to our transformation.  We are being shaped in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus.  That goes back to our entire lives being given to God as our reasonable act of service, as our true worship, as the only acceptable response to God’s mercy and grace.

·     The next part doesn’t get any easier, especially for Americans.  We are to submit to authority. Ouch!  We are a nation born in rebellion.  We would rather dump tea into Boston Harbor than submit to what we thought or think is unjust governing.  This goes back to God is sovereign.

·     Those in power are there at the pleasure of God.  There serve as his lieutenants and if we are doing the right things, they shouldn’t bother us much.

·     Paul pushes further.  Pay your taxes.  Did he know what the tax rates would be in the 21^st century when he said that?  Probably not, but the counsel stands.

·     Give honor and respect where they are due.  Okay, that makes this authority stuff a little easier to stomach.  We respect our service men and women, police and emergency service workers, and even the guy who climbs the pole in the ice storm to get our power back on.

·     Here comes some more graduate level stuff. Accept fellow believers even if they are weak.

·     We probably won’t agree on everything and we don’t have to.  There are some things that we might label disputable matters.  It’s just another term for stuff that we don’t have to agree on as we respond to God’s grace with our discipleship.

·     In that context we are counseled not to be a stumbling block to those who may be struggling with their faith by how you live out your salvation.  Don’t abuse the freedom that you have in Christ by making obstacles for those who are struggling in their faith.

·     Help those who are struggling in their faith.  Encourage and coach and mentor and help!

·     Do not judge fellow believers.  We are all accepted by Christ and will all make account to God one day.  Our sin won’t come into play during this accounting.  The blood of Jesus took care of that, but we will account for how we lived out our salvation.

·     Go to God’s word for our encouragement.  These words not only challenge us to live a better life, they encourage us along the way.  Dig into God’s holy word and know hope.  The verses that we memorize, the pericopes that we study, and the entire biblical witness that we have received give us hope.

·     And so we come to Paul’s final piece of challenge and counsel.  He told the Roman believers and is telling us, “Watch out for those who try to sell you a bill of goods.”  Be on the lookout for those with teachings contrary to what you have received. 

·     Watch out for what Paul elsewhere described as one who would preach to itching ears.  They serve their own interests and not the Lord.

·     For those who have stayed the course through these 5 letters of Paul, you might have asked yourself, “Why did he start in Galatians?”  The reason is simple and straightforward—to begin with this message:  There is no other gospel!  We wrap up Romans in the way we began this series.  There is no other gospel.

·     We are to stick to what we know to be true.  Don’t compromise the truth by making it fit into what would be easier to contend with by making it comply with your comfort zone.

·     Don’t try to make the gospel friendlier to what others think of you.  Stick to the truth.

·     Remember the words of Jesus as revealed in John’s gospel.  If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed; and you will know the truth and the truth will set your free.

·     Hold fast to the truth.  No compromise.  Jesus is Lord!  Let us live our lives according to that truth that will never change.  Let’s live in response to the mercy and grace of God that we call salvation by being Christ’s disciples.

We have made it through Paul’s letter to these first century Roman believers.  We have remained faithful to the chapter per message model that we began with.  That is a double-edged sword.

It did get us through 5 of Paul’s letters at a good clip, but it also left many areas with only a 10,000 foot AGL fly over instead of digging in at every point of some very rich theology.  So don’t put Paul’s letters on the shelf.  Keep them on your reading list.  Much will sound familiar but you will find much that will speak to you anew.

Amen.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving

It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing [a word that we don’t use much meaning graciously granting] to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth and has crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of October, A.D. 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

It’s not just Turkey Day!

It is more than a day to have a feast followed by days of turkey sandwiches.

It is not about a full Thursday of football.

It is even more than pies and Cool Whip.

We should be thankful all year long, every day, and every hour; but it is good that one day is set aside.  It is a day that we can look forward to in anticipation.

We do this with Christmas and Easter.  We can celebrate the birth of Christ any time that we desire.  We can celebrate the resurrection in every day and in every breath, but it is good to have a day to look forward to with excitement.

So let us make this Thursday a special day of thanks to God.  Family gatherings are wonderful.  Feasting is fantastic, but let us first remember and praise the God from whom all blessing flow.

Amen!

That we might have hope

Read Romans 15

Jesus was on the cross-losing blood and struggling to breath.  He had been beaten and his body mutilated before he was elevated on this instrument of death designed to be ever so painful to the one being executed and a strong visual deterrent to anyone who happened to see any part of one of these executions.

When the lamb was headed to the temple to be sacrificed, it probably didn’t know what was ahead.  It’s moment of sacrifice was brief.  Nobody shouted insults and curses at it.  Nobody taunted the sacrifice.

But the Lamb of God that we know as Jesus did know what was ahead. He did suffer extreme pain. His human body felt every lash of the whip and every sin of humankind.  His innocent flesh was the only sacrifice that would atone for our sin once and for all but this sacrifice lasted more than a moment.

From that cross—that cruel instrument of death—Jesus spoke, “Father, forgive them.  The do not know what they are doing.”

To those who shouted, Crucify him, Jesus replied, Forgive them.              

                                

To those who taunted him to save himself, Jesus ask his Father to consider that they don’t know what they are doing.

To those who just stood by dumbfounded, Jesus saw only people who needed mercy and forgiveness.

In Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, Paul charged us to take on the nature of a servant as Christ did when he set aside his place in heaven to live and die as a man.  Jesus knew that he would endure much for our sake.  He would give up his life before he took it up again.

Paul told his readers to consider the humility of our Master and be like him.

Now as Paul nears the end of his letter to believers in Rome, he charged them and charges us to once again consider all that Christ did for us.  We who are strong in our faith need to go the extra mile for those who are not. 

We need not only to avoid the things that might be stumbling blocks to another believer, but we are to build up the one who is struggling in their faith.  Sometimes that takes a heart that says, “Forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

It’s another round of It’s not all about me but Paul pushes beyond not being an obstacle to being a helper.  Even for those who are making bad decisions, and sometimes repeating them, we are still to assist them in growing in their faith. 

We must not condemn them.  We help them grow in grace.  That does not mean that we reinforce the bad decisions.  It means that we do not condemn people for their mistakes.

Just as Christ accepted us—sometimes after years of being a Christian we forget that part—so too we must accept the fledgling believer who needs our help often more than we realize.

We often say that we meet people where they are.  It is a good mantra for this century, but incomplete.  We must add that we meet people where they are, do so without condemnation, and with the divine heart of Jesus to accept them and help them in their faith.

We are helpers and encouragers and guides and mentors and sometimes even teachers.  Elsewhere Paul wrote that he became all things to all people so that so might be saved.  He builds on that here challenging us to be all things to all believers that they might grow in God’s grace.

What if the person who struggles in their faith never seems to grow?

That doesn’t change much for us.  We accept the one who is weak period.  We would love for everyone to know the joy and peace and abundant life that we know in Christ, but if some struggle all their lives we still accept them as fellow believers.

They are still our brothers and sisters in Christ and we who continue to grow in God’s grace must grow not only in knowledge but in mercy.  God is shaping us in the image of Christ Jesus.  Much of that comes with the renewing of our mind, but much is accomplished in the heart as well.

We are being shaped from the inside out.  It is not all about us and we are being given a heart to live that way and eyes to see our brothers and sisters with such understanding and compassion.

We began Romans knowing that much of it would sound like a biblical textbook but we must take note that is was a letter and contain those things that letters contain.

For instance, Paul noted that he had not only wanted to visit Rome but had at least a strawman of a plan of how that might happen.  He had covered much territory already but was sure that he could be the first to lay the foundation of Christ as Lord and Savior in Spain.

First, however, he had an offering for the poor in Jerusalem that he would take personally.  This was important not only to him but to all those believers in Macedonia and Greece that had given cheerfully and perhaps even sacrificially.

Little did Paul know that this would also lead to that fourth missionary journey to Rome, yes, it would be by government transportation that included a shipwreck and snakebite at no extra cost.  When Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, he was on his way to visit these very believers to whom he had written in Rome.  He just didn’t know it yet.

In the words, “I appeal to Caesar,” Paul’s fourth missionary Journey began.  Granted he would have some substantial prison time along the way, but Paul knew the risk in going to Jerusalem.

He asked the believers in Rome to pray the he be delivered from those who did not believe in Jerusalem while at the same time his service to his Lord be acceptable to those who did believe.  Paul knew that he was doing a wonderful thing by delivering this offering.  He knew he was going into a hornet’s nest in respect to the ruling Jews.  He knew there were also followers of Jesus in Jerusalem that he did not want to disappoint by being less than he had charged all those who follow Christ to be.

It sounds like a crazy place to go and surely a crazy thing to do.  It also sounds a lot like our modern world with so many factions pitted against each other.  I can only think that Paul remembered his own words from this letter.  If God is for us, who can be against us?

Paul wraps up his letter in the next chapter but he has given us a challenge in this chapter.  Accept the one who is weak in his faith.  Not only accept, but help them—go out of our way to help them grow in God’s grace.

Sometimes we think that we get a whole lot of challenge every time that we read the Bible –especially in Paul’s letters—when what we think we need is a bunch of support.  When we consistently dig into God’s holy word, we get both.

If you have ever been a mentor or studied mentoring, you know that these are the two elements of mentoring—challenge and support.  The desired result is growth.

If you challenge too much, your protégée often retreats.  If you support too much, your protégée is simply confirmed in their current state and there is no growth.

There must be a balance.  Challenge must be accompanied by support.  That’s how we get to growth.

But what about those of us who are supporting those who are struggling in their faith, don’t we need some support too?  

Where do we turn?

We are the body of Christ and have each other, but we also have the scriptures for these holy words not only challenge us but give us support and encouragement as well.

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

These holy words give us hope.  We know that the prophets before us were often rejected by the world but right with God.  The saints of the early church were often persecuted by the world but preserved by God.

Some scriptures seem to challenge us.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

We are to be strong and courageous, but we should note that this verse that challenges also supports.  God says, I am with you wherever you go!

God told us the same thing in our commission.  We are to take his authority and go into the world making disciples, baptizing, and teaching others what he taught us, but that’s not the end of the commission.  Jesus reminds all of those who follow him that he is with us to the very end of the age.

Remember what Paul wrote Timothy.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Paul reminded the church in Philippi of this.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Let’s go all the way back to the Proverbs.  God has been giving us both challenge and support in the same verses.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

The challenge is to trust God over the ways of the world and to be public about that trust.  The support is that God says, “I’ve got this!”

When we read this verse—for the very few of you who might not have it committed to memory—we need to hear God telling us, “I’ve got this!”

We are to be encouraged.  We are to have hope.  We will grow in grace as we dig deeper and deeper into God’s word.

The psalmist tells us that God’s word is a lamp—a light that shows us where to step.  It is illuminates the path before us.

Paul tells us that this same holy word is our encouragement and our hope.

We who are strong or stronger in our faith than others we know are to help them while we are being helped by God’s word.

Here is the thing that we must understand.  Those who follow Jesus never go it alone.  The body of Christ encourages and supports and sometimes even challenges.

God’s word challenges and supports.

God’s own Spirit lives within us and walks beside us and if we will listen, tells us exactly what we should know.

We have given ourselves completely to God—body and mind—and we are being transformed into the exact person that he wants us to be.

That person knows God’s will and that in itself is encouraging for his will is good, pleasing, and perfect.

So we are to help other believers who are struggling and take the help and encouragement and hope that comes in reading and knowing God’s holy word.

It is part of our discipleship.  It is part of following Jesus.  It is part of who we are as his disciples

Amen.

Fully Convinced

Read Romans 14

Paul continues his discourse on discipleship and brings us to this epiphany.  News Flash!  It’s not all about me.

Each of us may respond to God’s grace differently and that’s just fine.  Some might respond by singing and shouting and praising the Lord.  You might be going saw, saw, saw, pound, pound, pound, build a house for Jesus that won’t fall down.

I might be singing and sawing and shouting and pounding and that’s just fine.  We will not all respond to the grace and mercy of God that we know in Christ Jesus in the same way.

We should not judge each other’s response.  Maybe we hold Sunday in the highest regard and make it a very special day.  Maybe every day is special to us, so much so that it doesn’t make sense to distinguish any day from another.  Both are good responses to God’s grace and mercy.

Both are just part of each of us living out our discipleship.  Paul tells us that we don’t live or die unto ourselves.  That’s good biblespeak for it’s not all about me.

We live and die unto the Lord.  It is all about bringing glory to God, but in bringing him glory, God gives us considerable freedom and latitude and endless choices.  Suddenly, all of our decisions matter.  You and I may decide and respond differently to God’s love, grace, and mercy but so long as we are convinced in our own mind that this is the way to bring glory to God, then it’s just fine, well sort of…

Remember back in chapter 12 we discussed being transformed by the renewing of our minds?  We need to be convinced in our renewed mind of how we will respond to God’s mercy and grace.  Too often we are convinced in our carnal mind of how we are to live out our salvation.  Too often the mind shaped by the patterns of the world wants to govern our discipleship.

We need to remember that our best response to God’s mercy and grace is to give ourselves entirely to God—a living sacrifice if you will.  Then we begin a process of transformation from the creature that was shaped by the patterns of the world to the one made in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus.  The renewing of our mind is the engine that drives this transformation.

It is that renewed mind that guides our steps.  When we give ourselves body and mind to the Lord, the Lord directs our steps, gives us our words, and establishes our thoughts.

What you do in response to God’s love might look strange to me, but I am counseled not to judge you.  God is the only judge.  We are not entitled to judge his servants.  We examine ourselves. We will stand before the Lord at some point, but we are not to sit in the judgment seat.

We will stand before the Lord knowing that his blood has taken away all our sin, but we will account for the lives that we lived in the freedom that he gave us.  Did we respond to his great love with everything that we are?

God alone is entitled to judge.  Who am I to judge another’s servant?

Paul embarked upon a discourse of clean and unclean food.  That topic is not an issue in this modern century, especially in this country.  You may or may not want to know what is in that hotdog that you ate at the picnic, but it probably was not sacrificed to an idol before it was packaged, shipped to the store, and then charred on the grill.

But Paul’s discussion is not about food.  It is about our response to God’s mercy and how we work out our salvation as Paul put it when he wrote to the church in Philippi.  We have choices, many choices, that we make in living out our salvation.

Choices of this century are:

·     Do I drink alcohol or not?

·     Do I use tobacco products?

·     What do I put into this temple that I call my body?

·     Sweetened or unsweetened tea?

You can overdo it with any of these, but in and of themselves, alcohol, tobacco, sugar, coffee, tea, or dark chocolate are neither good or bad, holy or unholy, clean or unclean.  Unless…

Unless, in your personal convictions, coffee is no good for you in your Christian walk.  In that case, to you it is unclean and you should treat it accordingly.  You do not need to impose that belief on anyone else, but if you believe it, then live it whole-heartedly.

In today’s world, some have rejected modern devices and electronic media as unclean.  There are days that I am about ready to join their ranks when the acrimony and vitriol hit new highs, or perhaps new lows is more accurate.

But then I think about posting pictures of my grandkids or seeing your kids dressed as superheroes or in 1970’s fashions or hitting a homerun.  I think just how awesome is it that someone in China and Russia and even Burns Flat reads my messages, prayers, and devotions that I post online.

I am convinced in my own mind that I can use this medium to produce good fruit for the Lord.  I am fully convinced!

Now I see others that post nice Christian messages all the time, they like my posts that praise the Lord, they like my pictures of the what I call the Burns Flat Cross, and occasionally they even quote scripture.  Many of these people do not come to worship, tithe or make any kind of offering, join in the many service projects and ministries that are underway just about any time of year, or do much else to respond to God’s love.

My carnal mind wants to judge them.  My renewed mind tells me that they alone will answer for their response to God’s mercy and grace and God does not need a consulting opinion from me.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t continue to share, invite, encourage, and show others how to worship God in Spirit and live in the truth; but judging another believer is not in my job description.

I challenge you to find a week in the past decade where I have not invited someone to come worship with us, serve the Lord with us, or grow in God’s grace with us.  That’s not going to stop.  That’s not going to change.  Nobody’s opinion will get me off course here.  Their response belongs to them and the Holy Spirit and I have not been appointed judge over either.

Paul says blessed is the person who does not condemn himself by what he approves.  We each decide for ourselves with our renewed mind what is good and pleasing and perfect for having surrendered ourselves fully to Christ, we know God’s will.

My choices are also influenced by how they impact other people.  That does not mean that I am a people pleaser.  Believe me, there are plenty of people who are not pleased with me.  But I am called to be a God pleaser.  To please God, my choices are not only for my enrichment and edification but also for those of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

It’s not all about me.

Elsewhere in his letters, Paul counseled his readers to regard others more highly than ourselves.  In this chapter of Romans, he charges us not to become a stumbling block for another believer.  If someone is struggling with something—anything—and I flaunt the fact that I am not, then I probably am not helping this believer work through this issue.

I am not being helpful in his or her discipleship and thus am not being governed by the renewed mind that should be making very deliberate and mindful choices. I am not going to change my belief, but I won’t exercise my belief so as to hurt my fellow believer.

We not only run the race for ourselves, we help others along the way.  In the least, we don’t put obstacles in their paths. 

We carry our own load but we carry each other’s burdens.  We don’t need to add burdens to others by our choices.

It’s not all about me!

We have been given very wide boundaries in living out our salvation.  We are to do so in love and thereby we will fulfill the law, but we are called to consider our steps with regard to what we firmly believe.  We are to live in faith and not fear.

We must be convinced that the decisions that we make, the things that we do, and the things that we will not do bring glory to God and do not create stumbling blocks to another believer’s faith. 

Isaiah prophesied that one would come who would bring freedom to the captives.  This was more than freedom from Babylon.  This was and is complete freedom to live.  The prophesied one came.  His name is Jesus.  He liberated us from sin and from death and wants us to live to the full.

That’s impossible to do with our carnal mind in charge.  We will stumble and will be obstacles to other believers.  But with our lives given completely to God in response to his incredible mercy and grace, we embark on this course of transformation, so much of which depends upon letting God have his way in shaping our thoughts.

When we live with a renewed mind we will know exactly what God wants us to do.  We will know and we will live by faith.  Living by rules, or trying to guess what God wants, or just living to gratify ourselves or please others is sin.  It misses the mark of bring glory to God and living to the full.

If we do anything but live by faith, we have sinned.  What you do in faith and what I do in faith may be different, and that is just fine.  Just as our gifts are different, so too we live out our faith differently.

Can a body of believers that differ in so many ways still be a body in one accord?  Absolutely!  The things that we differ in are what might be classified as disputable matters.  They are in a category of things that we don’t have to agree on.

We agree that there is one true God.  We agree that Jesus Christ is his Son and by his blood our sins are washed away.  We are forgiven!  We believe that God’s Spirit is with us.

We believe that we are to be known as followers of Jesus—disciples—by our love.  We have been given life, seek life to the full in this age, and have the promise of life eternal.

We believe that there is one church and Jesus is the head of that church.  Regardless of the name on the side of the building or the way you baptize or take communion, we are one body.  We have some differences.  Some of them seem big.  Some seem to work to create friction in the universal church, but we who follow Jesus are not here to add to that friction by judging other believers.

We are not to judge another servant in how he responds to God’s mercy and grace with his renewed mind.  We don’t judge her choices in a life given completely to God—body and mind—as a living sacrifice.

We need to be fully convinced in our own renewed mind of our decisions as we respond to God’s mercy and grace.  

Fully convinced!  We consider our steps.

I don’t want you to have the image of walking across ice on a pond listening for cracks along the way in living out your salvation.  Our steps are considered but we are not timid.  We know the course that God has set for us for we have given him our lives to include our minds.  We are not brash but we are purposeful.

In the course of living my faith in response to God’s incredible mercy, I am fully convinced of three things.  This is Tom being fully convinced in his own mind and I am not asking you to adopt this thinking, but don’t be surprised when you hear it from me time and again because I am fully convinced.

In the wide boundaries of living out my salvation, I am called to trust, obey, and love.  I am convinced of these things.

I am called to trust God completely, even when and especially when he takes me out of my comfort zone.

I am called to obey God completely, even when his way is not my first, second, or forty-second choice.

I am called to love God by loving others, even when those others don’t like me that much or wish that I would just go away.

There are some things that are not as clear to me in my transformation process, but I can trust, obey, and love fully convinced in my own mind that this is God’s will and purpose for me in my life.  I can take bold but deliberate steps.  I can be Christ’s disciple and bring glory to God.

I challenge all of us to examine those things of which we are fully convinced in our own renewed minds.  Yes, we are still in the transformation process, but we are making progress.  The fruit of being a living sacrifice and being transformed by the renewing of our minds is that we will know what God’s will is.

It is a good and pleasing and perfect will and we can know it!

Examine what you know God has called you to do.  Be fully convinced in your own mind.  Live by faith.  Do this without focusing on how others respond to God in their transformation process.

It’s not all about me, but some of it is.  Some of following Jesus is all about what I am firmly convinced of in my own renewed mind.  We need to know and be fully convinced of how we are to respond to God’s incredible mercy and grace.

Take this week to dig into your discipleship.  Know with certainty how you are to respond to God’s love and live it fully convinced of your choices not worried if it’s like everyone else’s response and and do it without judging everyone else’s response to God’s mercy and grace. 

Live in faith!

Amen.