Asking the Lord to bring us through huh use it all we want to learn through it all That's the key with going through these trials and troubles and testing and all that when I was Foolish and unwise. I just wanted to get through the test, you know Just I just want to pass in grades. Let me get past. That's all I want. I ain't got to learn it all I want to do is get that C on there and I'll be content and I'll be in good shape. I'd have been perfectly fine with it not foreseeing that it would continue to cost you down the road and where maturity comes in and say look I want to learn this and I want to know it so I could not only understand it, but also I can help somebody else understand it down the road. Let's tie that over into walking with the Lord. Everything is a test and tribulations, they all have their purpose. And that's why he tells us, James says, let patience have its perfect work. The only way to learn that is through the testing. And so you're saying to the Lord, I want to learn all I can as I walk through this. I just don't want it to come and go, it may not learn from it. So help me with this, whatever it is. And that's an everyday life, both the triumphs and the trials of saying, I want to learn through this and also want to glean and learn from others as they walk through the troubles and the trials in their life. That's why he says, you don't count it joy for what you're going through. You count it joy that God's at work in what you're going through. and maturing us is the idea. Let's jump in it, let's jump. We're in Romans, we're gonna be wrapping up with it here shortly. We'll be in the book of Philippians coming up. We'll be through it fairly quick, four chapters. I know I sent out a picture, you'll have it, but if you, I did print out a couple pages that if you'd like a copy of it, there's not many. If you keep up with the picture, that'd be great. Some don't and can't, don't have that accessibility. We'll save them for them, but it's easy when you're in Romans. You got 16 chapters in the first 16 days, but once we start transitioning from book to book, it can get a little lost in there. But yeah, anything, anything in Romans, 16 glorious, rich, tremendous words that are piled in these chapters. Now we have chapters, they didn't have chapters at that time. It was one letter written by a guy upon dictation by the Apostle Paul. He tells us that if you look in chapter 16 at the close, you'll see where as the Spirit led Paul, Paul then led another person and that person repented as he was dictated. You see in verse 22, he tells us that that he wrote this epistle, he greeted them in the Lord, and guys, my host and the host of the whole church greet you. And then we see in verse 24, Paul's normal clothes in the letter. the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. That was a pattern in most every word that he wrote. He says, grace to you and grace be with you. In the front part of it, grace to you. At the close, grace be with you. And so we understand that this was a message that the Spirit had for us. It was directed by Paul, the apostle, but actually penned by someone else, a faithful brother who stood in the gap and wrote these things down. And in verse number 25, I could only imagine such an extensive word when you consider Romans in its breadth and width and depth and height of such a magnificent message to a group of people for whom Paul had not been with outside of those that he lists in chapter 16. There is a good number that he knew and he tells us that all these were most likely at some point in time in various places like at Ephesus and Corinth and those things. For an example, we'll look at 25 in a moment, but go back to verse 1 of chapter number 16. This reminds us that most likely it was Phoebe who carried this message, and that she had business that she had been assigned to. So when Paul says, That is, I put my hand of affirmation on Phoebe. In those days, they would send, and even today it happens at times, you need letters of recommendation. You commend somebody, you introduce them to say that I know who they are, I know what they stand for, I know how they lived. As Paul would with Timothy and the various others, he says, look, I know his manner of life. I know he'll care for you. And like Phoebe here, he's doing that because I would imagine that when she showed up at Rome and she brought this message to the brethren and she says, Hey, my name is Phoebe. I've been sent here to bring this letter to you. And well, who are you? And she hands them the letter. And remember, there's no chapters in here and said, well, let's just go to the back of it. Paul says, I commend to you Phoebe, our sister. She's a family member. Family of the faith, who is not only a family member, but she's a servant. That same word servant is used in multiple ways in reference to those who kick up dust behind them in their service, who gird their waist with the cloth so that they can wash the disciples' feet in the sense of they've given, she's a servant. That's how you would characterize her as a servant. It was used for deacons. It was used for anybody that would just serve. And there was an office set aside for it, but he's making reference to her. She is known as a loyal and loving servant of the church in Sincrea. Sincrea was a port city in Corinth. So that's where she was from, that you may receive her or welcome her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, that you would treat her like you would any other saint, that you would treat her like you would a man that I sent this letter by. Because in those days, just like in our day, there would be some potential discreditation in the sense that she was the one given the responsibility to make sure this letter got to her and she had business there. And Paul was saying, look, she's got a proven character and she's a servant no matter where she's at. And you treat her worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever business she has need of for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also. So a helper, a servant, a saint, a sister, man, those are all great commending words that introduce somebody, isn't it? I wouldn't mind that being said about me. They're a builder. They are holy and set apart for God's service. They're going to serve the brethren, and they have business. That is, they've got a ministry to fulfill. She could have been a businesswoman. who had, Lydia was a businesswoman, the scripture says, and she could have been one too that had business that she had to take care of in Rome and with the opportunity to her going. So Paul says, well, look, I need you to bring this letter to them. And I want you to know, I want them to know outside of God's providence for the gospel sake, that's the only reason I hadn't come to them yet. I wanted to come to them. but I've been hindered in doing what God's given me to do. Now, places have run out for me here. So I'm ready to go to Spain. And when I go to Spain, I'm gonna stop there in Rome and see you. So you see how this letter was directed. And if you then you go back to verse 25, I think about how he just dictated all this. In verse 22, how would you say that? Terodos, who wrote this, greets you. But then as he possibly, if you think about it, he dictated, he wrote it down. If it was me, I would want to proof it. I would want him to maybe read it back to me, let me listen to what he wrote. So potentially, He does that, said, won't you read it back to me? As Paul signed off in verse 24, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen. And then he also, we see a very similar in verse number 20. He's asking him maybe to reread it to him. And when he does, Paul said, well, look, write this down too, because we're gonna be purposeful and pointed. I can't help but give glory to God. Verse 25, now to him who is able to establish you. According to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that has been kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest, and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith. To God alone wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever and all God's people said amen. So when you're thinking about how these things come together, he's done given two closes in this and then he decides to to share this praise toward God who was able to what? Keep you, establish you, equip you, encourage you, but then he's got a process of how he does it. And if you notice that, something you wanna pick up on, and we've talked about this, I know, in the past, I see them as bookends. Notice that phrase in verse 26, that last phrase, for obedience to the faith. Paul has already said that. He said that in chapter one. In chapter one in verse number five, he says, we've received grace and the calling upon our life for obedience to the faith. So we see in that as possibly when he read back what he dictated to him, that front part of that obedience to the faith stuck out to him again and said, well, how is God gonna keep them and keep them obedient and establish them for where it's gonna be through Jesus is gonna be through the message of the gospel and it's gonna be through the scriptures and they're all been given to us by God through grace for this glory that we all be obedient to the faith. And that just blessed me. It's like if you walk on a bookshelf in your house and you got bookends on there that helps keep those stacks of books up because if you didn't have it, they would wanna fall over. Well, here's this great letter, and he's got two bookends. It starts out, hey, God's done this work in our life for obedience to the faith, and he closes with the same message, that all that I said, you gotta have God establish you. It's gotta be through the gospel. It's gotta be according to grace, and it's gotta be according to the scriptures that's been given to us, and may God will keep you that you may be obedient to the faith and we just gonna give him glory for it all in the midst of it. Just a great, great word to consider and think about it from that perspective. So I refer that to bookends and for obedience to the faith, that I've been saved to be obedient, that I've been delivered to be obedient, that I've been graced to be obedient, that I've been granted a gift in the kingdom of God to be obedient, to the delivered faith, to that which I've been delivered to. And he's already mentioned that. Look in chapter six, Paul tells us in six that God has delivered us something. He's delivered us over to a way. Look what he says in verse number 17, 617. But God bethink that though you were slaves of sin, yet you what? Obeyed. from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. To which you were delivered. Not only was it delivered to you, but you were delivered to it. You've been set apart for it. You were delivered to it. And the word doctrine we know is the idea of a body of truth, a teaching, a way. And you can take for an example, Jude, when he wrote his letter, he said, brother, and I wanted to talk to you about our common salvation that we have, but I felt compelled that you, I needed to write to you so that you will contend earnestly for the faith. You were delivered to this. You're to be obedient to this. Not only was it brought to you, but you've been brought to it. And God's given it to you and you want to walk in it. You want to obey it. So we were delivered to this teaching and this teaching was delivered to us. And so we look for that, don't we? He tells us, even in the clothes, he said, if people won't walk and they fight you over this teaching, over this doctrine, don't have fellowship with them. Why? Because they're corrupt. They're going to mislead you and misguide you. And not over doubtless stuff, meaning things we don't have clarity on, not over frivolous things, but there are things that are worth dying for. Some things ain't worth dying for. But this teaching that he's talking about, this doctrine that we've been given is worth dying for. But some things just ain't worth going to fight over. It might be just a matter of opinion. Like for an example, some people would say that you couldn't preach effectively if you don't wear a tie. I mean, there are people out there. There are people out there that says if you don't have a white shirt on and a coat, you're not a properly suited to preach the message. One that didn't have ties and coats on set in the back. People are sticklers. See, but those things, we don't have any clarity that specifically says that's the, matter of fact, I can't fathom anybody in the New Testament wearing a tie, can y'all? That's the point I'm making, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sanctify yourself. He said, clean up. We're about to do something here. God's fixing to do something. He was about to cross that Jordan River. And he was letting them know to be prepared and make your heart ready, because we're fixing to have an encounter with God. Yeah, but the point- There's so many things. For an example, a woman not wearing a dress. She's not suitable. Or if she's got makeup on. She's a Jezebel, if she's got an earring in her ear. So there's all kind of different things that people, and Paul dealt with it in chapter 14, when it came to like eating and drinking and Sabbath days and feast. And he's saying, there's some things that are just matters of opinion. And he says that we've got to be careful about when we welcome people to us, We don't wanna welcome them in only to try to fight with them. Because that's what some will do. Well, they invite you to come in so they can debate with you about it. And he says that you don't wanna be characterized as that kind of person. That there are some things that are essential, and some things that are non-essential. And those are some of the non-essential. Like translations, for an example. Some believe if you're not preaching from a specific translation, that you're not preaching God's words. I've even heard them say that they could correct the Greek manuscripts by the King James. And if you think about that, now you're making something into an idol and you don't want to do that. And because we believe that God inspired this message in the original content and letter that was written by the Apostle Paul. Now, has God preserved it for us? Oh, no doubt about it, and it's dependable. Yeah, as long as you get in the heart of the message coming across. Now, I do believe that some things are paraphrases. Matter of fact, when all of us teach anything, we are paraphrasing, giving commentary on a passage. And then sometimes what you find is somebody's giving commentary on a commentary. That's why you want to have the best tools you can to study what was originally given to us so that you can decipher and cut it straight. But the idea of saying that there's no way God can work in another translation, a reliable translation is just a lie because we know we can and we've watched him do it. The whole point is that we want to help. One, we want to make sure we're always evangelistic in the sense that we bring in the good news, the gospel. As Paul closes that letter out, that God's going to establish you by the gospel. You can't be established, you're not even on starting ground if you're not established by the gospel. And that gospel is going to be in regards to, he refers to it as the mystery of Jesus, but has been made manifested. And also then the prophetic scriptures, that is the Word of God. As even Jesus himself, the whole word has been written about me. So we're still teaching them about Jesus, the teaching and preaching of Jesus. And all of it is not so that we can pat ourself on the back, or not that we can make somebody look small, it's so that they can be what? Obedient to the faith. That we can point them to him so that he can take them and they can walk with him in faith. And that's everything that we are designed as the believer to do. And it's not to hurt, it's not to harm, it's to heal. It's to bring them to Jesus who is able to mend them, heal them, restore them, reconcile them, forgive them, pardon them, adopt them. Everything that is gonna be done in the kingdom is gonna be through Jesus. So we're always bringing Jesus, bringing Jesus to them. Like you said, in 14, it's two where it says, you know, there's somebody, All things. And other than hooves, some of it, we eat it as herbs. Well, the idea here is if we try to raise ourselves up above somebody, they're not going to learn from us. We can't teach them anything. We can't show them anything. We can't help them in any way because we're trying to think that we're better than that. And then we need to be, if it offends them to eat meat, well then don't eat meat. You don't have to have it right now. You can go home and eat your meat if you want to. But the thing is, is there's so many things that are out there now that I have, I struggle with this, I'm gonna tell you right now. I struggle with this chapter 14. Because there's some things I hear out there that I don't feel like it's, Mm-hmm. Well, see, the gospel is essential. But somebody does. They think it's gospel. And so this tells me to humble myself and be meek. But then there's a James that tells me not to give them God's speed. So where do I fall? Well, the gospel is essential. That's a hill to die on, on the authenticity of the truth of the gospel. That is not something that we have the authority to negotiate on. We don't have the authority to negotiate mistreat it, we don't have the authority to negotiate over what is, what's not. We take what the scriptures reveal to us as the gospel. And that's one of them that is a non-essential. That's what Paul is going back to this doctrine. You stand on that and you don't waver there. It's on things that he's referring to here in the sense that there are things that don't make a real big difference in the everyday life of the believer, but they make a difference in the conscience of the person if they eat meat or only eat vegetables. Some believe. Now, here's the thing. Whatever they are holding to in these non-essentials, it still goes back to faith. Because he says in verse 23, look in 23, 14. He says, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats or he don't eat, either way. Because he does not eat them from what? Faith, for whatever is not from faith is sin. So we're dealing with an issue that if a person believes they are to practice a particular day as a Sabbath day, that means they have a word from the Lord that they're trusting, that that's God's way. And then another person says, no, I'm free from that particular way. Well, they need to have a revelation, a word from the Lord while they believe that. And he says, it ain't worth fighting over. You let them in their conscience do what they do. You do what you do and you build one another up. But when it comes to the gospel, that has to be right. There is no waiver and there is no matter of opinion because the Bible is clear on that. When I say the gospel, we know who and why it is centered in Christ and what the gospel message is, where some people have another, Paul talks about it, they bring another gospel to you, they are what, accursed. We have to take that into account. And the Bible is saying that if the Bible has described it as being unclean, it's unclean. If it's defiled, it's defiled. There's no wavering in those things. He's talking about things that can be a matter of opinion on a thing. But if the Bible, whereas meat for an example, the Old Testament told them they were not to eat swine. But in the New Testament, When it came to this picture of separation between the Jew and the Gentile, remember what he told Peter, he saw all this unclean stuff coming down. And Peter said, I've never had any of that. Y'all come on in. I've never had any of that. And he says, whatever he's declared clean is what? Clean. And he was illustrating it between the Jew and the Gentile coming together because they saw the Gentiles as being unclean. Well, through the gospel, they are made clean. Well, scripture in the New Testament says that No animal in and of itself is necessarily unclean if you eat it with thanksgiving. So some people say, well, we could eat meat then. Remember in Corinth, a lot of the meat was sacrificed to idols. And Paul's saying an idol is just a figment of imagination. There is no other gods and those who have a strong faith can eat that and it doesn't bother them. But there may be somebody else that watches them eat it and it messes with their conscience thinking you ought to not be eating that. So Paul says, don't eat it. You ain't got to eat it, even though you got liberty to eat it, don't eat it because it causes a brother to stumble. So that's what we're dealing with in that context, yes. Morning, good morning. Yes, yes, that's why we got to know the truth. entrust it, and then look at, well, is this something that is essential for fellowship and with the Lord, or is it something that I don't, it's something that I can overlook, even if it's just a matter of opinion, because ultimately, we wanna glorify the Lord through it, amen? But some things you can't debate on. They're pretty solid. For an example, the return of the Lord. Some people believe various things. Those are not, those are, or what you would consider non-essential. Now, what is essential, though, is the fact that He is coming. That's a non-essential. Is He coming back? Yes. When will it be? Well, that's a matter of opinion, because there's good teaching on either side that can validate either way. You go with what your conscience leads you to go with, but the fact is, you know He's coming. Now, if you don't think He's coming, Now you're dealing with something that's also a gospel issue. Because he promised in the gospel he would return, right? So that's how we have to decipher some of those things, Brother Shannon. Good to see y'all today. That's right, we're talking about that. Ties and coats. Now, some people believe you gotta have all that or you can't preach, you know, you shouldn't preach, put it that way. Good morning, good to see y'all today. Good to see you, good to see you. Good morning, good morning, good morning. I hear somebody's gonna be cut on this week.