Living in God's Kingdom (Closed Captioned)

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Duration: 17 minutes and 58 seconds

Country: United States

Language: English

License: CC - Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives

Genre: Instructional

Producer: R & M

Director: Jesus

Views: 29 (1 embedded)

Posted by: hischild on Aug 19, 2010

Knowing, and remembering, we are blessed because of Christ's righteousness in us, we can live at peace with God and with others in our daily lives. To contact Pastor Dave: www.ziontorrance.info

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August 15, 2010 Sermon
Our text is taken from the Epistle to the Romans,
where we read from Chapter 14
beginning with Verse 13:
THEREFORE LET US STOP PASSING JUDGMENT ON ONE ANOTHER.
INSTEAD, MAKE UP YOUR MIND
NOT TO PUT ANY STUMBLING BLOCK
OR OBSTACLE IN YOUR BROTHER'S WAY.
AS ONE WHO IS IN THE LORD JESUS, I AM
FULLY CONVINCED THAT NO FOOD IS UNCLEAN
IN ITSELF. BUT IF ANYONE REGARDS
SOMETHING AS UNCLEAN, THEN FOR HIM
IT IS UNCLEAN. IF YOUR BROTHER IS DISTRESSED
BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU EAT, YOU ARE NO LONGER
ACTING IN LOVE. DO NOT BY YOUR EATING
DESTROY YOUR BROTHER FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED.
DO NOT ALLOW WHAT YOU CONSIDER GOOD
TO BE SPOKEN OF AS EVIL.
FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT A MATTER OF EATING AND
DRINKING, BUT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE
AND JOY IN THE HOLY SPIRIT,
BECAUSE ANYONE WHO SERVES CHRIST IN THIS WAY
IS PLEASING TO GOD AND APPROVED BY MEN.
LET US THEREFORE MAKE EVERY EFFORT
TO DO WHAT LEADS TO PEACE AND TO
MUTUAL EDIFICATION. This is the Word of our Lord.
Let us pray:
This is the day that the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.
Text taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL
VERSION 1978, used by permission of
Zondervan Bible Publishers.
Dear Followers of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
Remember Lot's wife?
Jesus said to His disciples,
in talking about the Kingdom of God:
"Remember Lot's wife"
who with her husband, moved
to the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.
They looked at that area and
it looked good to them. It was a great place
to live. There were lots of blessings.
So Lot and his wife, moved near
to that city. All of a sudden then
we hear that they were living IN the city.
And we're all familiar with the account
of when the angels came to visit Lot,
and how depraved and sick
the people of that time were.
Lot's wife was IN THAT HOUSE
when those people were beating down
the door to rape their visitors.
Lot's wife was IN THAT HOUSE
when Lot offered his daughters
to those people instead.
Lot's wife
was WITH Lot when God came to
rescue him from that depravity
from the world that was not uplifting him
and not supporting his faith
and Lot and his family ran from
Sodom and Gomorrah ...
"Remember Lot's wife".
She looked back.
I wonder what she thought ...
Oh my beautiful house,
all of those things
that I had there;
I had to leave them behind. All of my
wonderful friends. All of
the things of this world
that she had to see
one more time
but the fire and brimstone raining down from heaven
and annihilated
everything that her mind
was fixed on.
"Remember Lot's
wife".
Because how difficult it is
even for us today who live
in the Kingdom of God ...
who have received faith by the gift
of the Holy Spirit ... who know and understand what
God's will is ... how easy it is
for us ... to look back.
To want something else.
To look at the world and be envious
Scripture says that's even a problem for us.
But we live in the Kingdom of God.
And we are to live in God's righteousness
but we know how difficult that is
for us. Even how difficult it was
for the church in Rome that Paul was writing to.
That was an interesting congregation
because it had both converts
from Judaism in it as well as
new Christian Gentiles in it;
coming together ... trying to figure out how they were
going to live and work together
to promote God's Kingdom.
And it wasn't going so well
because they had difficulties
'cause they kept looking back.
The Jews kept looking back to what was so
familiar to them. Their dietary
laws, the Laws of Scripture,
circumcision. The Gentiles
kept looking back to everything that they had
in their life before coming to faith
and it was destroying their congregation ...
because everybody was passing judgment
on everyone else.
We had the Gentiles saying to the Jews: Stop
cramming the Law down us.
That doesn't apply anymore. Christ destroyed it. We
live in freedom. We can eat
whatever we want ... bacon cheeseburgers,
if we want, are fine now.
But the Jews kept saying:
Oh, it just irks me when those Gentiles
go over there and eat that meat that is on sale
because it was sacrificed to idols.
How can they even think
of putting that food
into their mouths knowing that it was that close
to an idol.
And they just kept tearing the congregation apart
by arguing and bickering and judging
each other. And the Apostle Paul
came to them and said: You know the Kingdom of God is not
about what you eat. It's not about
what you drink. The Kingdom of God is about the
righteousness of Christ. It is
what is INSIDE of you. It is not
living in such a way as to
make yourself look good. Or to make yourself
look better than the person next to you.
It is about Christ living IN you.
That faith that has been given to you
and that wonderful gift of God enables you
to live in a way that pleases God;
in the freedom from your sins.
The removal of those sins from you means that there is
no longer guilt in your life.
Because you can't have guilt for something
you don't have.
And you don't have that punishment of sin on you.
Christ took that punishment on Himself.
He took that punishment
to the cross of Calvary.
And He died so that
we could be forgiven.
He took our sins upon Himself
and in place He has
given us His righteousness ...
His holiness. And we're reminded
that we're to live in that righteousness,
not some manmade righteousness that we make up and
decide this is what makes us a good Christian.
And there are a lot of groups and people
that do that today. If you wanna be a good Christian
you can't have any alcohol ever.
If you wanna live your life of faith, you should have no
caffeine. You should never treat ... mistreat animals
therefore all of us should be vegans.
We all come to this place
with our own ideas.
And there's nothing wrong with some of those ideas.
If you cannot use alcohol wisely,
then you shouldn't be drinking it.
And, for you, that is something that is going to be
outside of what you can do.
But you can't make that law and say:
This is what ALL Christians do.
Or more importantly ... to stand in judgment
on someone else and say: I am better
because you do that. The Apostle Paul says
it's not about what you drink.
It's not about what you eat, so STOP
judging each other.
Stop coming down so hard on each other and maybe
look at yourself.
Because it may be perfectly fine
for you to eat meat bought at a store
that is run by a bunch of Mormons.
How dare you support the Mormon Church with your money?
Well, let's not go to Vons anymore. You know let's never
drink a Coke because they're owned by the Mormons, too.
We may as well just run over there and give them an
offering and there are people who think that way. That's not
what the Kingdom of God is about.
It's about believing in Jesus Christ
and living that life of love
so that the people who are
your believers are encouraged
and not torn down.
And you can have your opinion.
It's not law; it is an opinion.
But if your opinion
is putting someone else who worships
with you into a place of despair,
into a place of feeling that they're somehow not as good a
Christian, or that they are second-rate in comparison
to you, you have NOT
treated your brother or sister in the faith
with love.
You put a stumbling block in the way to their
relationship with Christ.
So sometimes it means even though we know we
CAN ...
we may not do it.
Because Paul says it's all about
loving each other ... supporting each other.
It doesn't mean that you're going to let anyone else
speak badly of what you
consider good.
But you're going to educate that person.
And sometimes it's going to take years of education,
as well as years of example,
to say that this is okay.
For someone
who can't drink any alcohol at all,
and it really is a serious issue for them.
You don't bring them into your home and pour them a glass of
wine and yourself a glass of wine and toast them
even though you could.
But there may be a time when you can sit down with them and
say: I understand that this is a difficulty for you.
But God in His Scripture even says:
A little wine is good for the stomach.
But we do that in love,
not in condemnation.
Living in the Kingdom of God
means that we live at peace with God.
And that really is, I think, the first place for us
to start. We, as individuals,
need to be at peace with God
in our relationship with Him.
To honestly know and understand
that He loves us. That He
has freed us from our sins. That He
says to us: This world is
yours to use in connection with your faith
if you use it wisely.
And that's fine
and we make those decisions for our life
based on the Law of God
and the common sense that He has given to us.
And we live at peace with that.
And we realize that the person who sits in the pew behind us
or in front of us, in
adiaphora can come to different conclusions
that are the total opposite of ours.
But, in peace, we can come
and worship together.
To love each other. To understand
each other. Because it is about
the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness. Not looking back
to what we missed from the days when we were outside
of the faith. Not looking back
to holding on to the things of this world. Because Jesus
told His disciples that's what
everybody was doing.
When Lot and his wife left the house,
that's what everybody was doing.
When Noah was building the ark, everybody was
going along their merry little life, having a
wonderful time; they were eating, they were drinking,
they were sleeping, they were going to work. They were
doing the things of daily life.
Nobody heard ... the door
on the ark close.
Nobody saw ...
Lot and his wife running to the hills
and the fire and brimstone coming down.
And the Kingdom of God is going to come
in the same way to us.
You're gonna be outside of your house;
you're not gonna have time to run in and grab whatever you
think you have to have with you to go to heaven.
If you're at work,
you're not gonna get home.
You may be lying in bed with your wife,
or your husband and it's still going to happen.
And the faithful
are going to be taken to be with the Lord.
And those who do not believe
will be eternally condemned.
[Pause]
And that could happen today.
So we look at our lives
and we understand they're temporary.
We understand ... that we're
here to help each other and support each other
through the difficulties of living
in this world.
So we stop judging each other. We stop
nitpicking and ripping each other apart.
But we come back to what James said:
Submit to the will of God.
Be at peace with God.
Live at peace, and live in the joy
of the Holy Spirit. Not looking to the world
for its answers and its pleasures, but turning
to our King. Turning to our God and saying:
I live for You because
You lived and died for me.
"Remember Lot's wife".
Every time you pick up that salt shaker ...
that really was her end.
We have so much more
in store. We have
the Kingdom of God for all eternity
with Christ in His heaven.
Live in the Kingdom of God
and serve Him.
Amen.
Let us rise.
Now may the peace of God which goes beyond
all of our understanding, keep your hearts
and your minds and especially your lives,
in the one true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.

Living in God's Kingdom (Closed Captioned)

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