Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:36 — 23.1MB)
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: Romans 15:7, John 13:34-35, Romans 14, Romans 15, Matthew 25:40-45
One Anothering
Accept One Another
Romans 15:7, John 13:34-35, Romans 14, Romans 15, Matthew 25:40-45
Do you think that Jesus is welcome here at Richmond Community Church? How welcoming and accepting of others are we as a church?
By His loving acceptance, He was able to make a distinction between who people are and what they have done or what they have allowed themselves to become.
God has created all of us with the need to be loved and accepted, and God’s intent is for the church to be the place where love and acceptance can be realized.
I would like to suggest that the “who” we are to accept includes both non-Christians and Christians.
Everyone should matter to us, and everyone should be welcome to come among us at church.
So, we must do our best to accept people without prejudice or being judgmental.
If God has not given a clear command and instruction on the matter, then let’s give each other the right to come to our own conclusions, to make our own personal choices.
Paul meant that we don’t want to cause a Christian to do something that they cannot do with a clear conscience and therefore cause them to sin against the Lord.
What would happen if we tried to treat each person the way we would treat Jesus himself?