MOVE | Week 5 | Bill Bush · Rewind

MOVE | Week 5 | Bill Bush · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Apr 3, 2022

Big Idea

Disagreement over disputable matters is an opportunity for discipleship, not division — we don't need uniformity, but we do need unity, and that comes by building each other up.

Church isn't a restaurant you visit for what suits you — it's a body we belong to, where our choices genuinely affect the people around us. When it comes to matters the Bible leaves silent, Pastor Bill shows from Romans 14 that God calls the strong to love and the weak to grow in grace, so that instead of fighting over secondary things, we keep the main thing the main thing and build one another up in Christ.

Key points

1
1Disputable matters are issues Scripture doesn't clearly settle, and they've always divided churches.
Pastor Bill explains that Paul had to address this same issue in several New Testament letters. In the Roman church it centered on three things: diet (meat sacrificed to idols), days (which day to worship), and drink (alcohol) — none clearly commanded or forbidden in Scripture, so it came down to personal conviction.
2
2Our actions in these gray areas actually affect the people around us — we can cause someone to stumble, fumble, or crumble.
Pastor Bill walks through how the way we exercise freedom or conviction can trip up another believer's faith, cause them real distress, or even make them walk away from Christianity altogether, believing it is what we showed them rather than the real thing. He ties this to Romans 14:12, that each of us gives a personal account to God for how we treated others in the church.
3
3The 'strong' and the 'weak' aren't what we assume — the one who makes the most rules is usually the weaker one.
Pastor Bill clarifies that strong means understanding your freedom in Christ, while weak means having an overly sensitive conscience that turns personal conviction into a rule for everyone. Quoting J. Vernon McGee, he notes that most people assume the weak one is always the other guy.
4
4Building each other up means valuing people and keeping the main thing the main thing.
Pastor Bill teaches that judging the church is judging ourselves, since we are the church, not just attenders of it. He warns against letting politics or culture wars become the focus, using the Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian Orthodox Church's fight over robe tassels as a picture of majoring on minors while everything else crumbles.
5
5The strong are called to limit their liberty out of love rather than parade their freedom.
Pastor Bill lists four times it's wrong to act: violating a clear biblical standard, failing to do the good God commands, acting against your own doubts, and causing another believer to stumble even when the act itself is fine. He applies this to his own COVID mask decision, explaining he personally disagreed with mandates but chose the safer, more loving route for the weaker among the congregation.
6
6The weak are called not to force their opinion or convictions onto everyone else as an absolute.
Pastor Bill describes how some turn a personal application of Scripture into a rule for everybody, even jumping through hoops to claim scriptural support that isn't really there. He points to the church's own approach, borrowed from Augustine: unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and love in everything.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to keep the main thing the main thing by choosing to build each other up instead of battling over what doesn't matter.

Choose to value people over preferences
Remember you are the church, not just a visitor to it — get into real community instead of just showing up and leaving, and stop judging the church as if it were someone else's organization.
Focus on what's important, not the temporal
Don't let politics or culture-war anxiety become the measure of whether Christ's cause succeeds; keep pointing people to Jesus rather than trying to control laws or culture.
If you're strong, limit your liberty out of love
If you have freedom in a disputable matter, practice it without parading it, and be willing to set it aside when it could cause someone else to stumble.
If you're weak, don't force your conviction on everyone
Don't turn your personal application of Scripture into an absolute rule for others; follow your own conscience without demanding uniformity from the whole church.

Take it into your week

Sign in to ask Rewind about this sermon

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

Every community of believers — no matter the century — has had its Romans 14 moments. Someone thinks a certain practice is fine; someone else thinks it's off-limits. Paul opens this chapter not by declaring a winner but by asking both sides to receive one another. That word 'receive' is relational. It means genuinely welcome, not merely tolerate. Pastor Bill set the table for the whole sermon here: the disagreements we're talking about are not over essentials. They are disputable matters — areas where the Bible neither clearly commands nor clearly prohibits. And yet these secondary issues have fractured churches, wounded friendships, and distracted believers from the main thing. Before you can examine which role you tend to play — the strong or the weak — it helps to simply acknowledge that you are in a body. You are not a solo act before God. What you do, how you hold your convictions, how you treat the person who sees things differently — all of it touches the people around you. That's not a warning; it's an invitation. The very tensions that feel like problems are actually the places where growth tends to happen, if we let them be.

For reflection

Think of a secondary issue where you've felt genuine friction with another believer. What would it look like to 'receive' that person this week — not just tolerate them?

Pray

Pray for a willingness to genuinely welcome someone whose convictions differ from yours on a secondary matter.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Romans 14 drops us into a first-century church that was fracturing over secondary issues — and the tensions Paul describes feel surprisingly familiar. As you settle in, think about what drew you to this passage or to Pastor Bill's message on it.

Discussion questions

1
In Romans 14:12-13, Paul says every believer will give a personal account to God and should stop passing judgment on one another. What does that double accountability — to God and toward each other — suggest about how disagreements inside the church are meant to be handled?
2
Romans 14:17-18 describes the kingdom of God not as external rules about food and drink but as 'goodness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.' How does keeping that definition in view change the way a community weighs its disagreements over secondary issues?
3
Pastor Bill described two tendencies in Romans 14 — the strong believer who exercises freedom without regard for others, and the weak believer who elevates personal convictions into universal rules. What does Paul's letter suggest each group needs to understand about the other?
4
Romans 14:22-23 addresses the believer with a sensitive conscience, and Pastor Bill made the distinction between a personal application of truth and a command that applies to everyone. Where do you think communities most often blur that line, and what makes it hard to keep clear?
5
Romans 14:19 calls the whole church to pursue harmony and build each other up. Pastor Bill summed this up as 'in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in everything love.' What does it actually look like in community life to pursue that kind of harmony without flattening real differences?
6
Pastor Bill challenged everyone to get into real community with people who don't agree with them on everything and let those differences become discipleship moments. What would it take — practically — for a group like this one to make that kind of space for each other?

Pray together

Ask God for the humility to hold secondary things loosely and the courage to keep what is central — the gospel and love for one another — actually central

Sign in to save this message.

Topics

Building Up Others Christian Unity Disputable Matters Liberty and Love Secondary vs. Essential Issues

Powered by Rewind · make your church's Rewind →