0:09 Good morning, church. Let's read our memory verse together. Uh from Romans chapter 14 verse 17. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So, I would like to uh give some thoughts on this. So, Paul was speaking to believers 0:27 who had differences about uh opinions about food, special days, and personal convictions. If you read about uh uh this verse and previous conversations, uh so, they were all sincere believers, but they did not agree on everything. There are some 0:42 differences. Paul reminds them that the kingdom of God is bigger than these disagreements in the church. So, sometimes as believers, we can become focused on our opinions or preferences or proving that we are right, but Paul 0:56 brings us back to what really matters, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. I was once like that uh all thinking about righteousness or uh blundering in my failures about my failures, but God gives us grace. Uh so, 1:11 righteousness means walking rightly before God. That's very important. So, the question is not always, "Am I right?" The deeper question is, "Am I honoring God in the way I speak, act, and respond?" Uh when we walk by the Spirit, his 1:25 character should become visible in our lives. Yeah, the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, it mentions love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So, righteousness is not 1:38 listed here as one of the nine uh characters of the fruit, but that does not mean the Spirit does not produce righteousness. It's very important. But, the fruit shows us the Christ-like character then becoming visible when we 1:51 walk by the Spirit. So, humility is very important. We emphasize in this church the secret of victorious life is humility, humility, humility. But the in the church the secret is not righteousness, righteousness, righteousness. It's not it. So, we go by 2:07 the love, joy, peace. Here peace is maintained. Joy in the Holy Spirit is more important. So, in Romans 14 especially about how we treat one another when we disagree. That's more important. And that is what we continue Romans 14:19 2:24 says "So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another." So, I love the word pursue. We put our efforts. So, peace does not always happen automatically. Sometimes we need to listen. Sometimes we need to 2:40 humble ourselves, which is very important. Sometimes we need to put aside our preferences for the sake of another believer. Build them up. We may not agree on everything, but we can still love one another, honor one another, and build one another up. So, 2:53 finally in the joy joy in the Holy Spirit. Our Christian life should not be controlled by constant disagreement, suspicion, or condemnation. Our joy does not depend on everything going perfectly. This year last 2 years I learned this 3:10 God is teaching me. Everything doesn't go perfectly. Our joy comes from Christ and from the Holy Spirit. So, when we disagree let us not ask only who is right. Let us also ask ask, "Am I walking in righteousness? Am I perceiving peace? And am I walking in 3:27 the joy of the Holy Spirit?" May Lord bless us and may people see Christ in us not because we agree on everything. There are some disagreements, but because Jesus is at the center of everything. Among everything we do, we 3:43 pursue for peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And also patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control, faithfulness. We let the Lord give us grace to follow that. Amen. 4:06 >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> It's a wonderful verse. I think I shared in my testimony last week that Matthew 6:33 was the verse that I moved to Austin with, you know, with the Lord put on my mind, you know, seek ye first the 4:19 kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. This verse, our memory verse today, tells me if I'm on the right track. Right? Like I started with that verse, but am I am I on the right track in pursuing 4:33 the kingdom of God? Because it says this is what the kingdom of God is, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. So, that's it. This is a test. You know, I can set my course, but how do I know if I've gone astray? You 4:46 know, are these things becoming evident in my life and in in my heart? So, very encouraging verse this morning. Thank you, Joseph, for sharing that.
