Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Hello. It's a Wednesday, December 11th. Uh, yes, it is. Yeah. It is, and we've got Romans 14 through 16 today. I have a lot of text today. Yeah, we do. And we know what I was looking at our calendar. We have, we, we, we tackle some pretty big chunks in the next two weeks. I'm a little upset about it. That's all I'm going to say. I tried to say that, I think like a couple months ago now, And we're like, yeah, well, leading into it and leading into it. But now that we're in the last two weeks and I feel like we're sprinting through some really. Thick. Yeah. Passages. I mean, it's going to be, it's going to be a different approach. You're going to read it in a way and have an appreciation for it. That's like, oh, I get it. I get a better sense of that. The, the whole now, as opposed to the way you typically read an epistle, which is, you know, a chapter or two at a time, sometimes even a couple of verses, right? Uh, but anyway, I wish I were going slower, but I, I still appreciate it. Even, you know, where you're going to be reading all of Colassians and all of five Lehman, believe it or not. Uh, yeah. All if I leave me, you're going to be reading all of cloth. Coming up here, which is. You know, four chapters and it's, it's not any more necessarily than you've been reading previously, but. It is. Yeah, it's an entire book. And yet the having the background of the end of the book of acts and understanding the, you know, Paul's writing this from prison in Rome and, and you've read about this in acts it's it's. That's the benefit to this planet and why we're excited to do it again next year. Oh, totally. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, be a be encouraged and also maybe carve out a little bit more time than you normally do. Because you're going to have to tackle larger, larger chunks. Larger sections. Um, but it's going to be good. It's going to be good. Yeah. Uh, Wednesday night youth, you still in the book of Matthew? Yes. We will be there for a little bit. You didn't finish it. No, not yet. I think we're going to be there at least at the end of the school year. I'm hoping to be done by that. This is more depressed. It's a bigger bite than I expect. So I have to, I have to go faster way faster than I really cared. It didn't cover a larger texts. Um, which just means I have to be more summarization in my approach, which is fine. I like it. I'm okay with it. And then you guys are taking a couple of weeks off for Christmas. Are you? Well, we're going to six flags. Don't forget that. Oh, yeah. During that 21st on the 21st. That's right. So the 21st we're gonna get six flags basically all day. And then we come back and we're basically it's Christmas week. So we'll be off for Christmas and the new year, week. Um, Which no. W yeah, 20, that would be the 27th. No, no, no, no. Wait what's the Wednesday, the Wednesday would be the 25th. That's right. Because Christmas is on Wednesday. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, w that Christmas day, and then I guess that, that following day we should be the first we're off. And then we're back at it again. Awesome. And then I'm covering the pulpit for you on that. That that weekend. The fifth. Yep. Cause you're going to be, you're leaving us. You're going somewhere out to California. What suffering in sunny, Southern California. What part of Southern California, we're going to San Diego to visit my in-laws. Okay. So during Christmas, out there with them. Oh, that's going to be fun. I'm sure it'll be good. Go surfing on Christmas day, whatever. Yeah. We're driving because plane tickets are expensive for seven people. They are. So we will be, uh, we, we drive it. You can pray for us on that front. Are you guys breaking it up or you just taking one trip? Uh, we'll break it up. We're going to shoot for, I think Arizona day one, um, to make a long day at a day one. And then I have a shorter day on day two. Yikes. Yeah. Well, Is what it is. It's better than doing it straight through. I used to do it straight through all the time, which was insane. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Maybe you can just, you and Amanda could split it up. One of you drives well, The other jobs and other, yeah, although not this one, we're going to be going back out there and in the summer, um, for a vacation and, uh, Josh will be 16. So. Let him drive a little bit. That's terrifying. It is a little bit, but, uh, And somebody is going to email me about that. They're going to be like, Hey, you shouldn't do that. And. Thank you in advance for your email. I appreciate it. Tia. Tia as they put on. Social media. Uh, Romans 14, 3 16. Let's do it. All right. Uh, speaking of. Those emails. Uh, this section in ESB is called, do not pass judgment. On one another. Um, yeah. No. He, uh, is it gets in here. He's talking about areas of personal freedom and conscience, and he's saying this is not something for you to judge. Uh, we've talked about times to judge and even as pastor rod is going through the book of Matthew, we find that in the book of Matthew, in the sermon, on the Mount we're, we're instructed to. Uh, remove the log that's in our own eyes so that we might be able to see clearly to remove the speck that's in our brother's eyes. The implication there being that the spec is something sinful. This is about matters of conscience that. If you're dealing with somebody who's, who's got a conviction. Hey, I'm not going to eat the meat that you purchased from the market because it was sacrificed to an idol first. Okay, fine. Don't judge them for having that conviction. And to the other person who is sitting there and looking at the person who does eat, don't judge them for not having the same conviction you have, where the Bible is silent. There's Liberty. There's freedom there. And yet we need to love each other well enough not to. Uh, to pass judgment, and this is the context. Uh, similar that we found back in first Corinthians chapter 10, where we find them 10 31, whether you eat or drink or the implication being, whether you abstained from eating and drinking or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. That's what our focus needs to be. And that's why he says none of us lives and dies to himself. Uh, we live. If we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord. So everything about us. Is about pleasing the Lord. That's where we need to be. And that's where our conviction needs to be. Because at the end it's going to be us and God, we're going to have to give an account for our decisions, our actions before him. Verses 13 and following then he builds on this idea and he says, so then love each other. And don't cause each other to stumble. Uh, if, if you're in a situation where your brothers greet by what you eat, don't eat. Um, don't drink in. And I think. I think wine, I think alcohol is probably the lowest hanging fruit for us in our context, with this example, I think if, if you have the conviction where you would say, you know what, I don't think it's wrong for a Christian to drink alcohol because the Bible doesn't. Explicitly prohibited. Okay, great. Yeah, you're right. The Bible doesn't explicitly prohibit it. It does prohibit drunkenness, but not necessarily that. But if you're going to have somebody over for dinner and you know, that that person does struggle with that, or does have a strong conviction, even, maybe they don't struggle with it. They've got a strong conviction. I don't believe that Christian should drink. Then don't serve alcohol there. Uh, and not only just don't offer it to them, but maybe you're not going to drink either. That's this type of love that we're talking about here in Romans 14. Yeah. And I guess you could, you could think about smoking cigars, cigarettes, or whatever else. And whatever else, if it's legal, I know in California, we had this issue, not so much here. Uh, smoking other things besides nicotine. Or tobacco that is. Uh, there's, there's a lot of things and we've, we've kind of danced on this conversation before, and I think really the, the best operating principle, modus operandi. It's to say, let love, let love decide for you what you're going to do. In fact, that's a little bit about Paul says here, decided never to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother. Which is a really good rule of thumb that doesn't resolve all the issues for you. Neat and clean. But it sure does clarify for you what the goal is. If I'm operating from any other place besides love and creating a stumbling block for somebody, then I'm doing it wrong. As the kids say. Um, you're doing too much. Uh, what you got to do is operate from the place of love. How can I serve my brothers and sisters by the way that I live. And I really think that will help clarify so many questions that you might have about this. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the context in which he says in verse 23 in the end there for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. He's talking about when we cause other people to doubt and in. In question, their convictions and, and all of a sudden they're going to sin against their conscience because. Uh, what they were once strongly, they're now questioning, or they're now doubting or they're not wrestling with. And so he's encouraging again that, that love and care for one another's godliness. Um, which is something that we all need to keep in mind. Uh, yeah, there's bigger fights that we need to fight as Christians. We don't need to be fighting about the, the smaller level things. Romans 15. Then he goes on to talk about, um, not just putting up with the weak, but loving them as we've just been talking about and what that is actually going to, uh, show up as an and look like. And he says in verse four, 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. And we might have verse five harmony that we might together live with one voice in glorify the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Again, the unity that we're called to have as brothers and sisters in Christ. So 14, he's talking about our freedoms and then he's talking about not causing people to stumble. And then he was kind of culminating this in chapter 15, saying we need to have harmony and unity with one another. And then he goes on and explains the fact that the, probably the greatest example in the greatest tension here was the addition of the Gentiles to the Jews and how that was causing a questions of what should I eat? What should I not eat? Should abstain. Should I not abstain? I needed. Just wants to remind everybody, Hey, the Gentiles have been part of God's plan from the very beginning. It's not as though this is God's plan B that all of a sudden, he was like, oh, wait a minute. We've got these other people. What are we going to do with them? Uh let's let's uh, let's send the gospel to them to. And he quotes these old Testament passages there. Second Samuel 22 Psalm 18. Uh, Deuteronomy 32 Psalm one 17, Isaiah 11. Paul's just going back through the old Testament, saying, look at how many times God references the Gentiles as part of his plan in the old Testament, he's trying to remind people. This is not God's plan B, which we take for granted because we're part of the church. But at this time this would have been. Some something somewhat radical. Like when you you've been reminded of something from a passage of scripture, by a pastor or somebody else and you go, oh, you know what? I've read that so many times. I guess I never saw that before. And I think that's what Paul's doing here with the Jewish readers going, Hey, look at, remember the Gentiles have always been part of God's plan. Verse seven. He says, therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. And so I think part of this is look at the way that God has welcomed the Gentiles. Look at the way he's included them. Do the same thing for others. I think it's a driving point, but the gentle is serving as the illustration of that. And I feel like I'm doing that as a Jewish person with you, pastor PJ. I did welcoming you. I appreciate it so much, man. And now that I've got Jewish socks, Thanks to you. I feel like my Jewishness has never been more. How do you, how do you people, you GenTel say, uh, more, uh, authentic more 100. Is that a Gentile state? That's what you Gentiles Tennessee is what I'm saying. My Jewish socks and I don't, I don't know. We don't really speak the language of the, of the Gentiles. We speak the, the, the language of the Hebrew. Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah, this cow has been milked so dry. It really has, it has no more milk to give, but I'm going to keep trying to get it out. Yeah. Pastor rod got Gentile slippers or Jewish. No they're Jewish. Yeah. Yeah, Jewish slippers. So we had a party on Sunday. You had a party, you hosted it. And it was a sock exchange and there was one pair of Jewish socks. There are slippers. Technically they were slippers that you purchased. I did. And I was, it was my turn to go and grab the item and I sent Edith Kogan to get it for me. Yes. And would, you know, God sent her to my Jewish slippers. It was just like Gideon's fleece. Exactly like that. I just feel like God endorsed it as. Either slippers. That's right? Yeah, no, we had a community group leader. Party and did a sock exchange, which was fun. But anyways, chapter 15. And he goes on to talk about his own pursuit of the Gentiles there. And, uh, it says in verse 20 that's I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ is already been named. Lest I build on someone else's foundation, Paul, the tree, we had the heart. To get the gospel out as far and wide as he possibly could. And he really was not as much interested to any more and going where the gospel had already been named, but wanted to go and preach the gospel to other people. His ambition was to get to Rome as he's been talking about. Uh, in this a Pissle saying I want to get up to you. He wanted to go to Spain. You wanted to travel other places to. Uh, to take the gospel everywhere he could get it to you. And I was talking to somebody recently about when someone's saved and when they're saved radically, which certainly Paul was, they that's their heart. That's their passion. That's they want to let everybody know. They want to say, Hey. God saved me. Look at this. You need to hear about this. And I think we see Paul's evangelist heart here in this part of chapter 15. He goes on to talk about his desire. Uh, to visit Rome and why he had been hindered at this point and what his plan was. In trying to still get there. Um, and. Asks them to pray for him as he was going to bring this offering to the saints in Jerusalem there, that he would be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea. That's some foreshadowing of what's going to take place coming up in the book of acts there. Um, so that by God's will, he may come back to them, to the believers in Rome and be refreshed in your company. So, and then an in chapter 16, he really just gets into the personal greetings of saying goodbye. Uh, in this letter and I was struck pastor rod by how many. Personal names show up in the first 16 verses there it's so many there that you don't, you just kind of glaze over until you stop and pay attention to them. And what's more interesting is that Paul has not yet even visited Rome. Right? How does he know all of these people? Yeah. How does it really though? Uh, I'm curious, I guess he must've come across these people. And some of his other missionary journeys where he said, oh, you live in Rome. Great. Hopefully I'll be there. Yeah. And he remembers their names. So, I mean, that's impressive. He knows them well enough to say, okay, greet this person, that person knows their names, knows them well enough to say to some of them. Um, He says something like Ortiz. He's a greeter. Uh, greet Andronicus and Juliet, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners. They are well-known to the apostles and they were in Christ before me. So, I mean, just stuff like that, where it shows not only personal awareness, but just a personal knowledge of these people, he cares about them. He loves them. They're Rome. He hasn't been there yet, which again, I think is impressive. And then he tells him to start kissing one another in verse 16, he does. I love that. Everyone with a holy kiss. Yeah. The family of narcissists. I have always wondered. Does that mean narcissist is not included? Like it's just as family. Don't don't greet narcissist. Family if narcissist narcissist, Narcissus, Narcissus, Narcissus. Yeah, those are funny names. Yeah. Well, I think that's the, he's probably named after the Greek. God. Yeah. Narcissist narcissist. I think who was the one that looked into the water and narcissist was so in love with his reflection. That's where we get the word narcissist. Right, right, right. Maybe he knew the Greek God. But probably not because he doesn't exist. It does not exist. Is it D he's a demon. So there's that too, right? And then he ends the letter as he often does. Before you do that. Oh, no. Okay. First. First one is Phoebe. A servant or a Deaconess. And why did the ESB translators choose servant? Uh, because they don't want to ruffle the. The feathers of the egalitarian complimentarian debate. I think she's a Deaconess. Well, why would they translate it servant though? Which it could legitimately could be servant. It could be. Uh, but the word underneath that word is diakon us, which is the word for deacon, right? We translated deacon earlier in acts chapter six. Right. And yet here we translated as servant. And probably for the reasons that you mentioned, right. I think that maybe the ESB translators are convinced that she is a servant and not a Deaconess, but I think. That's fair to say. She's probably a Deaconess and we're okay with that because. Uh, and we'll get there, but the qualifications of a deacon's. It's it's different than the qualifications of an elder in that the, uh, the exercising of authority and the preaching and teaching is not part of the role of a deacon. So that's why we can look at a deacon and say, you know, women are qualified to service as deacons in the church. It's not a, an authoritative position. It's not. Uh, position of teaching and preaching that that is strictly forbidden. And reserved for men in the exercise of ministry there. So I think I have no problem saying, Hey yeah, Phoebe was a Deaconess. That's right. Yeah. Alright, then he turns to the. Signing off basically and says, Hey, be careful what people are going to come in and try to distort the doctrine. Um, That I've been teaching to you. Uh, avoid them, uh, be careful about that. Continue to obey your obedience is known to all I rejoice over that he says in verse 19. Um, Timothy sends him greeting. And then we find out that Tertius is the guy that was writing the letter Paul's and Emmanuel and men, you Insys. This is what it's referred to. Because Paul. Something that is thrown in the flesh was that he couldn't see very well. And so he needed somebody to write for him. And so Tertius is the guy that writes this one. And then he ends with this doxology, which is actually a callback to chapter one. Uh, where we get in verse 26. That he references again, the, uh, command to the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith. So that is a callback to how he began the letter with a reminder of the purpose of the gospel. I found it interesting in verse 22 and 23, you have what appear to be brothers. Uh, I got caught up with the name Cortis and I thought, oh, I wonder if this is a slave. Uh, cause it wasn't uncommon to name a slave after a number and that's what court court. As you hear the word court and there is four, uh, but tertiary is three. Uh, in verse 22 seems to be the Emmanuel ANSYS. Who perhaps is also re referring to his brother here, chorus, which seems to be that the better reading as I scour some of the commentaries and responses to this, it seems like this could either be a family relationship. As in this is brother number three, this is brother number four. Now it's possible. Although less likely that there's a slave in implication, there. All right. Well, I've been pushing for Matt and Brianna to name their. Seem to be born child Barnabas, Barnabas, PJ. Well, no, I'm thinking Barnabas. One part of this one, Barnabas. UNO. If we're going to go with the numbers, why don't we just conflate them? Barno. But part of Bruno. Luna bar. Anyways. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. I hadn't noticed that that. But yeah, Theresa's three quarter stamp for that. Makes sense. Let's pray. And then we'll be done with this episode of the daily Bible podcast. God, we are overwhelmed with the amount of truth that is conveyed in your word. And certainly as we're reading such broad. Uh, sections of it in large chunks of it. I pray that you'd give us attentiveness. I pray that we would walk away. Um, remembering things that we've read and not just. Being able to, to check a box and say, Hey, we're done with another section of the daily Bible reading, but I pray that we would really. Uh, find occasion to still marinate in your word and to meditate on it and to think about it and to chew it over and to apply it to our lives. And so help us to do that effectively, especially as we're stepping into a season of reading more and more. Um, as we draw closer to the end of the year. And so we pray that your word would have its transforming impact on our life, by your spirit in Jesus name. Amen. Yes. And amen. All right, I'll keep it in your Bibles and turn it again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Or else by.