09-25-11 Learning To Live In His Love

OK, after spending nearly four weeks on background principles for our study of Romans 14 and 15,

today we’re going to jump into the passage itself in a big way.

If you’re new to our study

you’ll need to know that Paul uses this section of his letter to the Christians at Rome

to equip his readers with the principles we need

for the correct use of our freedom in Christ.

I was involved in a conversation some time ago with a mom who has several children.

We were enjoying the wonder of how completely unique each of those children are.

They all have the same parents,

being raised in exactly the same home,

the same environment,

and yet their personalities,

and abilities,

and interests,

and mental processes are utterly unique and distinct from one another.

And, of course, the same thing can be said of every human being who has ever lived.

Look at us all here -

we have a whole room full of people,

and every one of us

is unique in all of creation.

Of course, our own insecurities keep us forever looking at those around us,

telling ourselves that we should be more like this person,

or that person,

telling ourselves that we are a defective model of some non-existent “perfect” human being,

but the truth is

it is our absolute uniqueness

that gives us such eternal value to our Creator.

For reasons that will forever baffle the human mind,

our God delights in His friendship with us.

In the final hours prior to His crucifixion,

when Jesus wanted to communicate to His men

what it was that made it worth it to Him

to go through what He was about to go through,

He said this:

JOH 15:15 "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

That’s it.

I have called you friends.

And He says the same thing to us.

He calls us friends,

and when He does that

He is also revealing to us

what it is He values about us -

it is our friendship with Him,

not our mechanical submission to some rigid, predetermined religious structure or routine,

but our entrance into a unique,

fluid, growing, changing friendship between us and Him.

When my daughter, Joni, was seven years old,

she and I use to put on magic shows for mom.

She would get dressed up in a princess outfit,

and she had a “magic wand”

that she would use to transform me into a puppy dog.

She’d whack me on the head

and I would drop to my hands and knees and do puppy tricks for her...or at least I was suppose to.

Unfortunately, sometimes something would go wrong with her wand,

and, rather than my being transformed into an obedient little puppy,

I would end up as a doberman pincher

that would run around pinching her

as she kept whacking on me over and over again with her wand,

trying to get me turned back into daddy.

Those magic shows went by the way

as Joni grew older

and they were replaced each year by a whole new set of experiences,

and emotions,

and conversations together that were fitting and appropriate for her age at the time.

And now all of them go together to form the foundation

for the still growing and changing relationship I share with her as a married woman and mother.

Certainly, as parents, Sandee and I provided our daughter

with a framework for her life

and for our life together as a family.

It was a framework that provided her with responsibilities she had to fulfill

and with limits to what she could and could not do.

But that framework was only the stage

upon which the real life drama of our friendship was played out.

My desire as her dad

was certainly not to create a parent/child relationship

in which her obedience and submission to my will was the high goal I was seeking to achieve.

My goal, and the great desire of my heart

was the ever changing friendship that we shared,

and the framework we established was nothing more than a tool that made that friendship possible.

And I hope my point here is obvious.

You see, it’s the same way with us and our Creator.

Certainly there is a moral framework He provides for us as His creation.

But His goal

is the unique friendship He seeks to share with each of us.

The framework He provides for us

is simply the solid footing

upon which those friendships are lived out.

And, remarkably, even at those places where our foundation is shaky,

or non-existent,

He shares the reconstruction process with us

in a way that enables our friendship with Him to grow.

Man-made religious systems

seek to strip us of our uniqueness

by squeezing us all into the same little religious form.

Religion’s highest goal is the creation of a mass of adherents

who all faithfully check off the same list of religious duties each day.

True Christianity, on the other hand,

invites each one of us into an absolutely unique walk with God,

one in which His Spirit leads us into a growing friendship with our Lord

that is utterly personal and perfect for us alone.

And it is this absolutely personal aspect of our relationship with God

that results in the tremendous diversity within the Body of Christ -

diversity of life-styles,

diversity of approaches,

diversity of structures,

diversity of daily routines in our life with the King.

Which brings us back to Romans 14 and 15.

Simply put,

Paul is telling us in Romans 14

that, if we are doing this Christian thing

the way God intended for us to do it,

we are all going to look very different from one another.

And he then gives to us the principles

that allow us to relate to that diversity

without damaging ourselves or one another, or our relationships within the family of God.

And if you’re new to the study,

just keep in mind

that Paul has written this section of his letter to equip us with the principles we need

for handling the freedom and diversity that will always exist

in any group of Christians

operating under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Now, let’s sprint through this 14^th chapter

in what will be more of an outline form

just so that we can look at the major principles together.

We’ve already spend quite a bit of time

on the 1^st principle governing our freedom,

given to us in 14:1.

ROM 14:1 Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.

Those who are stronger are to use their strength to support and encourage those who are weaker in their faith.

We’ve also looked at the three illustrations in verses 2-6

used by Paul to illustrate this principle: eating meat sacrificed to idols,

the absurdity of one man criticizing another man’s servant,

and the different approaches we take to special days in our Christian lives.

Then, in 14:7-12,

Paul offers us the second major principle.

The passage says,

ROM 14:7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself;

ROM 14:8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

ROM 14:9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

ROM 14:10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.

ROM 14:11 For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God."

ROM 14:12 So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.

The second principle he offers us

is the understanding that our greatest accountability is to God Himself.

And, when correctly understood,

this second principle becomes one of the most freeing truths ever given to us by our God.

Do you know why religious systems

draw and hold so many people in their grip?

Part of the reason

is because those systems answer all the questions for the adherents.

It’s a package deal,

with all the boundaries already established by the system,

all the rules in place,

and success and status are achieved simply by following the system.

The true walk with our Lord, on the other hand,

stretches us in ways that religious systems can never do,

and there are times when that living interaction with our God

can be hard stuff for us,

calling us to listen,

and to learn,

and to continually reexamine what’s going on in our life and why.

The basics of life with the King are not complicated.

We recognize our need for Him

and place our lives into His hands

through faith in the death of Christ as payment for our sins.

What we often expect is that our God will then hand us the LIST of things we must now do

in order to be good Christians.

But what we actually receive from Him

is His affirmation that now,

as a result of our faith in Christ,

ROM 5:1 ...we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand...”

He gives us peace with Him forever,

and a walk with Him bathed in His grace.

Then He places His Holy Spirit within us,

and tells us that His Spirit will literally direct our steps

and live through us

in just the way that fits His plans and purposes for our lives.

GAL 2:20 "... it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.

But the truth is,

for most of us

that level of freedom is way beyond anything we can handle early in our Christian lives.

So, typically, what do we do?

We look for some authoritative voice

to tell us what we must DO

in order to be good Christians.

We join a church group and then look around us at what the pillars of the group are doing, or not doing,

and then try to imitate them.

We read books offering us 10 steps to spiritual maturity,

or 5 things every good Christian must do.

In effect,

because our God did not give us a system,

and because we do not yet know the sound of His voice

or recognize clearly the leadership of His Spirit in our lives,

we build a system for ourselves.

And a huge part of Christian growth involves

God’s Spirit leading us through a pilgrimage

in which He gradually replaces that system of religious duties

with His own voice in our lives.

But there will be times when such a pilgrimage

will cause tension between those involved in it

and the religious community around them.

There will be times when, as we become more skilled in hearing the voice of our Lord,

we will find Him asking us to do something

that no one else around us is doing,

or He will ask us to reject some part of our religious system

that everyone else wholeheartedly accepts,

and firmly believes must be done.

And there will be those within the religious community around us

who will attack us

and attempt to bring us back under the system.

It is for such times as these

that Paul writes verses 7-12 of chapter 14.

He knows there will be times in our lives

when we must know that what matters most

is not our success or failure in the eyes of the religious community around us,

what matters most is our faithfulness to the voice of our God in our lives.

ROM 14:12 So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Folks, that isn’t a threat,

it’s a tremendous statement of freedom for the growing child of God.

That’s Paul telling us

that we don’t have to

and in fact should not keep our eyes glued to those around us

trying to figure out how they’re evaluating our Christian lives.

All we have to do is to keep our eyes fixed on our King,

knowing that He’s the only audience that really matters.

When Paul says that,

along with it he is offering us the strong assurance

that, if we are at peace with our Lord’s response to what we’re doing or not doing,

then it does not matter

and should not matter to us what those around us may say.

I love the way Paul expresses this to the Corinthians.

1CO 4:1-4 Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.

And before we move on

I want to say one thing more about this pilgrimage from religion into relationship.

During the past few minutes

I have talked about hearing the voice of God

and knowing the leadership of the Spirit of God in our lives.

And what I’ve said

may have sounded as if it were something

that comes to us with a clarity and precision we simply cannot miss.

That isn’t really the way it works most of the time.

God’s Spirit definitely does dwell in us,

and work through us,

and lead us in the way He wants us to go.

But in my experience

most of the time I see that process best

when I look back on it.

Some of the most significant events in my life,

events carefully designed by God

to alter me and my entire future in profound ways,

have taken place without me having any conscious awareness of their significance at the time.

My marriage to Sandee,

and through our marriage

the birth of my daughter, Joni,

in fact my involvement in this church

and my standing before you today

are all the result of the fact that, in 1974 I was unemployed

and a friend from my college days

sent me a ticket to come visit him in Kenai, Alaska.

The two great tools being used by the Spirit of God

at that point in my life to accomplish His purposes within me

were boredom and frustration.

The truth is

most of the time what we can offer our God

is not razor sharp spiritual insight

that keenly discerns the purpose and will of the Spirit of God within us.

Most of the time

throughout most of the Christian life

what we can offer God are just two things:

A heart of submissive trust in His leadership,

and the faith to believe He is doing just that

even when we can’t see it,

or sense it,

or appreciate what’s going on.

Let me make it even more personal.

Do you know the kind of conversations I have with my Lord at the beginning of most days?

I begin by saying things like,

“Lord, I’m going to be talking with some people today.

I have absolutely no idea what you want me to say,

or what you want me to hear.

All I’ve got is your assurance

that You’re living in me

and You’ll express Yourself through me

in the way that best serves your purpose.

All I can offer You is my willingness

to trust that You’ll do just that.”

Some time ago

I came away from a conversation with a person I care about very much

feeling as though I did it all wrong.

I was certain I hadn’t said what should be said,

and said some other things I probably shouldn’t have said,

and just generally made a mess of it.

I brooded over it for a few days,

and then finally pointed out to the Lord once again...(I’m often pointing out things to the Lord that I think He might have missed...or forgotten),

I pointed out to Him

that I never promised I’d do this thing right,

all I promised is that I’d let Him do what He wanted

the way He wanted

to the best of my fumbling abilities to hear Him and follow His lead.

Then several days later

a family member of the person I’d had that conversation with

just happened to mention to me

what a change they’d noticed in that individual’s life following our conversation.

So often I simply don’t see what He’s doing, or why.

Well, let me see if I can pull together what I’ve been trying to say this morning this way.

Our Lord has not called us to a religious system,

He has called us to friendship with Himself,

a friendship in which He places His Spirit within us

and then seeks to live out His life through us.

When we first enter His family

we are unaccustomed to the sound of His voice,

and we just naturally support ourselves

with some form of religious system

as we grow in our knowledge of Him.

That religious system is not necessarily wrong.

Frequently it is a crucial and valuable protective framework

that helps to guard and protect us in the areas where we are weak

until our spirit grows in the knowledge of the truth

and learns to hear and trust the sound of the voice of our King.

As we learn the sound of His voice,

and grow in our ability to trust that voice,

He builds for each of us

an approach to life that fits perfectly

with our unique strengths, weaknesses, gifts, abilities, and personalities.