So Let's Stop Condeming Each Other ROMANS 14:13

O crux gloriosa O. Crux adoranda O So let's stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall. That's Romans 14, 13. We're living in an infrastructure of sin. Do you hear what I'm telling you? It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. You exist in an infrastructure of sin. It's all around you. It's been built over years. Who knows if it was built on purpose or not. All of that doesn't really matter. What matters is that you recognize the fact that you don't just sin because you're imperfect. You don't have those moments of weakness. where you sin, you are in a war. And the infrastructure of that war is everywhere. It's all around you. And you need only, I mean, I have been thinking a lot about sin lately, and that's what brought me to this whole concept of it, just an infrastructure of sin that we live in, confined in. over at Red Beacon Media on the Light Keepers side for you Light Keepers out there. On August 28th, I published an article called The Infrastructure of Sin. Right? Sin makes you feel like you're alone on a deserted island with your little silicone rectangle portal to hell. It's the wrong metaphor. That's the introductory sentence. Or two sentences. But I want to read the next section to you. It's very short. Because this is the real picture. You know how you feel. Right? When you're doing wrong. You know how you feel when you are in sin. And it does feel like that. It does feel like you're singled out. And that's part of it. And we'll talk about demons. In the literal sense. Because we have to. It's part of the deal too. Picture instead a crowded street in a sprawling cyberpunk style city where every street building beam and holographic advertisement is part of an infrastructure of sin. We're awash in it because the words repent and confess are basically misunderstood jargon to most people. They never ask God for forgiveness. Which brings us to the true pollution of such an infrastructure. It's called cumulative sin. Right. It's fodder, right? It's feed. And what I find, the more literal I am with all this, the better I behave. The more literal I am with all this, with the Bible, The better it serves me, the better I serve God. I don't think that's accidental. You can look at things metaphorically. You can look at things philosophically in the Bible. There's a lot of pride in that. There's a lot of pride in deciphering the Bible and explaining from one human to the next human that I understand that and I'll tell you what is actually meant in the Word. Any proximity to the Bible is better than none. What I find, and that's what I can bring to you, is that it's not good for me to make believe that I'm in a metaphorical battle against demons. It's much better for me to understand the reality that we don't see everything there is to see. This is not This is well understood. Scientifically, it's well understood. We know there are other dimensions. It's not, again, these are not far-out ideas. I know. I didn't know it for a long time. I wish I had known it. I wish I had taken this more literally. But I know the voice of the demon that I have to fight on a day-to-day basis. Now I know it. Before, I had no idea. Oh, man, you're just having crazy thoughts. Where did that crazy thought come from? What is this crazy desire and drive in you right now? The moment you can recognize that in your best moments, in your worst moments, in all moments, I picture this guy, this beast, this demon, It never dies. The never born, they never die. They can be cast out and cast off. Right. But you you're in a situation where you have something clinging to you. And it feeds off of you. Or or it starves. And you decide how that goes. Do you know what I mean? It can feed off of you and get stronger and stronger. That's sin. That's what sin is. That's what self-destruction is. That's what depression is, right? And you can circle back into all things. See, up to me, all things tend to lead back to this battle that you're having each and every day of your life. And everybody's having it. In one way or another. Some of us more affected than others, right? Some of us less affected than others. But there's no doubt about it. I think the biggest difference now is we live within an infrastructure of sin. So it's impossible. Well, not impossible, but it's very hard to wrap your head around where you're at. When you talk about things like lust and wrath and gluttony, right? Outrage is social media. Gluttony is everywhere you go. Do I need to talk about greed? Do I need to talk about greed with the gas price and the price of food and the price of this and the price of that? Do I have to talk about the sin of greed? Do I have to talk about the sin of pride where we have an entire month named after it? You see, we exist in a world and an infrastructure of sin that we probably each and every one of us need to beg for forgiveness at the end of the day just for existing in it, just for allowing it to exist. Like I said, for me, there is no greater return on avoiding sin than understanding that, not in a metaphorical sense, not in some science fiction take, but to know that truly, you're starving and crushing and breaking and torturing. the demon that so wishes to torture you, which in turn, you know, forces all those dark powers to suffer. And the reason I bring it all up is to drive home the point, the Romans 14.13 point, because we exist in the opposite realm right now. What's important to know is this all started, right? You have Paul who is stuck in between the Jews returning. Kicked out of Rome and then returning under Nero. And in the church there's a big battle. You can't drink. You can drink. You can't eat meat. You can eat meat on these days. You can't do this. You can do... We don't do it that way. Well, we do do it that way. And it's this battle that's forming in the church. And Paul has to fight that battle. He has to stand between those two groups and say, let's stop condemning each other and decide instead to live in such a way that you'll not cause another believer to stumble and fall. And I want you to look at your life. I want you to look at how you approach the people in your life. What you talk about. How you dress, ladies. How you exist in the world. Is it a situation where you are causing another believer to stumble and fall? Because I believe we're all in a world where at least at some point in our day, we're in that sort of situation. I repost things on Twitter that are designed for wrath. And I just think there's a lot to gain in that. There's more to gain in that than almost anything. Right? And if we're looking to gain for God's kingdom, then we have to be intentional about it. And I don't think before I read Romans 14, 13, did I ever even really think about that concept of what kind of an effect you can have on another believer? You know what I mean? Like, what effect can you have? And you think about, like, evangelizing. You know what I mean? And how valuable or invaluable that can be, depending on where a person is at in their own life. Right? Like, this idea that you're going to hit someone with just the right line at just the right time. It's possible. It happens. Anybody who's done it for any length of time also knows that it's also like shouting at a brick wall if the timing is wrong. This is another angle, right? Instead of the evangelizing side of things, it's to look at yourself and say, okay, Well, how am I pushing people off the edge? Because it's not hard to do. Especially not these days. What would it look like if you decided instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall? You follow me on that, right? You follow Paul on that. Stumble and fall. What is it? Because again, like I mentioned, you're in an infrastructure of it. You're surrounded by it. It's beaming into your life. I mean, through a variety of ways. So there's already all that pressure that exists. The other thing is like, you know, how much do you have to push somebody for them to make a bad decision, right? That camaraderie amongst men, that camaraderie amongst women at work. There's always that weird desire to rile people up in one way or another. It's fun. Put yourself in Paul's position and then think about the world today, which is just a much bigger version of it. It's a much bigger version of it. What do we all do every single day? So let's stop condemning each other. I mean, it is the age of condemnation. That's what it is. Every day we're condemning one person or another. The biggest news stories that exist are condemnation, right? The Clancy trial. And how many years of your life, how many decades of your life have trials like that been? The top story. The condemnation, right? It grips the entire nation. It puts them in a position where now they have the chance to condemn someone else. And it is, man, I'll tell you what, it is so much about, it's so similar to diet. It is so similar to diet. And for years I've always told you it's not about omitting diet. foods from your diet. It's about prioritizing foods in your diet, right? It's not about teetotaling on anything that tastes good and eating rice cakes with honey for the rest of your life, right? But it's about taking in the right things so that you don't fill up on the wrong things because then your body doesn't get what it needs, right? If you're 75% corn chip, then you're going to have problems. It's the same way with faith. It really is. It's the exact same thing. It's not like you're going to get outside of the infrastructure of sin altogether. Maybe some will. But in all honesty, we're in this world, baby. This is our world that we've created or that we've inherited and built on. You're not going to get outside of it. But what do you do first thing in the morning, right? Do you dive headlong into that infrastructure of sin? You can decide what you do first thing in the morning. It's up to you. It's up to you what you do before bed. It's up to you what you do on your lunch break. It's up to you what you do in your quiet moments. And, you know, I'm not asking you to be a nun or a priest. It's just like the diet. You don't fill up on corn chips. You don't fill up on sin first thing in the morning. As tempting as it is. But you can at least get a good diet of the Word. But I think actions are important, just as important. You know what I mean? I don't think it is just about reading the Bible and praying. I think actions are important. Actions are everything. It's an essential piece. What you did today and didn't do today. How did you succeed? When the day is over, is your boot on the neck of the demon or is it the other way around? Because at the end of the day, it's something. There is an outcome at the end of each day. And you should start keeping count. You know what I mean? You should really start keeping count of what the end of the day feels like and looks like in that spiritual battle. And like I told you, to me, literalism is what serves. And nothing else has and nothing else does for me. Right? This sort of metaphorical mentality and metaphorical take on it. Yeah, then metaphorically I'll behave. You know what I mean? That's what it feels like. But the moment you give it real teeth, I think there's something to it. When it becomes a real battle worth fighting, right? That's when you start hearing the voice of everything that's trying to tear you down and tear what you've made apart. So let's stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that He'll not cause another believer to stumble and fall. Take stock, PBN family, of your actions day to day. What can you do today, if nothing else, than to prevent a believer to stumble and fall? Now let's listen to the Norbertine Canonesses in their O-Cross chant to end the show. I hope you enjoyed it. It's been on my mind. This one Bible verse has been on my mind a couple weeks now. Strong. Looking to get the most, I don't know how else to say it, but the most bang for the buck out of the spiritual practice, right? How can we have the most effect? What's the routine? What's the programming? This helps. Satsang with Mooji O come, let us pray. O come, let us pray. Accordatia corus estictus, erundus Christi Sancti Meritantus. Amen. Hallelujah.