As a Christian, Is it OK if I...? | Sunday Message

Greg, Lori, and Harvest Ministries would like to send you the movie Unsung Hero, the back story of the music group for King and Country. It's a story of a mom and a dad and their seven kids putting their faith into action. You're going to be deeply moved by this story of the amazing small-bone family that have gone on to impact so many through their music, and we are offering this film to you for your gift of any size.

Get the DVD and digital download of Unsung Hero at Harvest.org. Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Lori podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Lori, encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to Harvest.org. Amen, let's all pray together. Father, we do proclaim, you are good. You are good, you are faithful. God, you are there for us when we need you the most.

The darkest times of our lives, the times when it seems like the bottom has dropped out. Father, you've been there for us. Literally, like a father comforting his child, God, you are so good, and we are so thankful to be called your sons and your daughters.

That is a privilege. Lord, the inheritance that you offer to us, the price you paid for us, Jesus. When you shed your blood on that cross, paying for our sin, which we committed, Jesus, you were sinless, you were perfect, and you came and did this because you love us. And now you call us friends. You don't call us servants, you call us friends. And Lord, we just confess that today we recognize we are unworthy.

There's nothing that we have done to earn this. And so Lord, we just say today, thank you, and that we love you. That's all we can do is sing to you and give our lives to you. And so today, Lord, as we look at this time of Bible study now and we talk about these hot button issues, Lord, we ask that you would just help us to see all of these things the way that you do.

Help us to see our lives, our choices, the various things that we have to do on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis. Lord, with your perspective, we want to bring you glory. We want to do that. We already have said that we want to give you our lives.

Well, that's what that means. So help us, Lord, to do that. Help us to lay our lives down for you. So we thank you, Father, for the work you're going to do today. It's in Jesus' name we pray together. Amen. Amen. You can have a seat. Welcome to church, everybody.

It's good to see you all. I'm Pastor Jonathan Laurie. If you want to turn in your Bibles, we're going to be in 1 Corinthians Chapter 8.

1 Corinthians Chapter 8. All right, quick poll. How many of you here today are parents? Raise your hand up. Let's see the parents.

Awesome. That's a new parent over there doing the woo. No. How many of you are grandparents?

Raise your hand up. Where are the grandparents at? All right, no, I feel like you should be the ones going like, woo. Like, yeah, no, grandparents where it's at. Yeah. All right, how about great-grandparents?

Do we have any great-grandparents? Awesome. Right there. Awesome. In the back?

In the back over there. Great-grandparents. That's amazing. Do we get great-great-grandparents? Do we have any double-grades? OK, we had a couple in Riverside.

Of course, they were at the first service. Well, that's awesome. I love it.

We've got the full spectrum here, the full gamut. Great-grandparents to single people, everybody in between. I found that as my kids have gotten older, we have a 19-year-old who's just starting college.

We have a 14-year-old, a soon-to-be 14-year-old, rather, who's in eighth grade and a 12-year-old. And it just seems like the older that the kids have gotten, the more difficult it is to get everybody in one place at one time, especially for dinner. You know, I'm a fan of family dinners. I think that they're important. I think that it's a great time for the family to get together and connect, talk about what's going on, establish that family culture, pray together, enjoy each other's company.

Inevitably, somebody gets mad at the other person. That's OK. That's part of it. I think you want to establish that routine, though, of being together as a family. But one thing that's happened, especially lately, is the kids come up to me, and they say, Dad, is it OK if I have a bowl of ice cream before dinner? No, you can't have a bowl of ice cream before dinner. Mom's cooking, and you need to save your appetite. Or they'll say, is it OK, Dad, Dad, can we, is it OK if we go to In-N-Out?

And I'm like, eh, it's fine with me. And I don't think to check in with my wife. And she's cooking dinner, and the kids have already asked her. And she's told them no, but what do they do? They've learned the ancient strategy of dividing and conquering. They know that if they don't get the answer they want from my wife or from me, they go to the other parent, and they try and get the answer that they want.

This happens with video games. Dad, can I have an extra hour of screen time? Oh, sure, that's fine. My wife already gave him one.

She gave him two. You know, it's like the kids like to use that strategy. They're smart. They're smart. They're cunning.

I don't think anybody had to teach that in them. I think that's just their little sinful nature showing, right? They know what they're doing, manipulating Mom and Dad. Well, I feel like this is a tactic that the devil uses in our own lives. He tries to divide and conquer. He knows that if he comes right out and says, hi, I'm the devil, and I want to destroy your life, I want to take everything that you love and make you miserable as humanly possible in your existence on the earth, and ultimately, I want to rob you of heaven.

How are you? If he did that, it's not going to work so good. But he's sneaky, and he goes and he markets things a certain way and presents them in a certain manner that they seem innocuous. He tries to divide and conquer. He tries to cut our relationship with God.

He knows that if he takes our time, if he takes, you know, some attention off of the Lord that he can affect us and hurt us more successfully. Many Christians ask the question, is it okay if I dot, dot, dot? Is it okay if I, as a Christian, do X?

It's about usually various life choices, but we have found that the reality, the only opinion that matters is God's. You know, you could find the right answer if you're looking for it. Go talk to a pastor. No, I didn't like that answer. Go talk to your old Christian neighbor down the street. No, I don't like that answer.

Go on the internet. There you go. I like that answer.

That's the one that I'm going to go with and find the answer that I've been looking for. But the only opinion that matters is not your pastors. It's not your neighbors.

It's not even your parents. It's the Bibles, because that's ultimately the Lord's opinion. That's ultimately God's opinion. God's word is supreme, and God's plan, as expressed in his word, is the best plan for our lives, because it gives us guidance on how to live, how to find purpose, and how to achieve true success in this life on earth.

And so that's a given here. God's plan is the best. But what about the areas of life where the Bible is silent? The topics in life that we approach when we ask, as a Christian, is it OK if I dot, dot, dot? No, I would say that it really depends on the heart behind the question. Are you asking, as a Christian, is it OK if I do X? Because you want to know where that line is, so you can walk right up to it and look over the edge. Or are you asking so you can keep some healthy distance between you and that, so you don't get too close and accidentally fall off?

How much freedom do Christians have when it comes to the things the Bible doesn't specifically say are wrong and sinful? Now, those aren't the easiest questions to answer. But here's a good follow-up question to ask yourself that we've heard my dad share in the past. He tells us to ask ourselves this question. Does this build me up spiritually? Does it build me up spiritually? Does this bring me under its power? Could this bring me under its power? Do I have an uneasy conscience about this?

And lastly, could this cause someone else to stumble? Those are good questions to ask ourselves as we're thinking about whatever behavior, whatever thing, whatever decision we want to engage in. The fact is the Bible talks about this quite clearly in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians chapter 7 to 10, we see the Apostle Paul address it quite clearly. In fact, the church in Corinth might as well be called the church in California. We have a lot in common with them.

Super affluent, very diverse, surrounded with tons of distractions and tons of influences, positive and definitely negative. They were multicultural and multiethnic, really a melting pot of the ancient world. And as a result, the church in Corinth, they sent the Apostle Paul a letter.

They were asking him some very specific questions about the influences they were getting from the outside world. They were Christians, but they didn't have the Bible like we have it today. They didn't have churches like we have them today because, well, they were the first century church.

They were the prototype. And so they were asking questions. Thankfully, they had a great guy to ask them to, the Apostle Paul. And so they wrote this letter to him asking about things like marriage, sexual conduct, biblical doctrines, and church discipline, and more. And so they sent the Apostle Paul asking him to help settle this question, this discussion once and for all, which is, as a Christian, is it OK if I fill in the blank? And we're going to see contextually they're talking about meat being sacrificed to idols.

So what we're going to do together in our time is look contextually at this, get some information, understand where their headspace was at, and then practically and applicationally we'll look at how it works out for us as we answer these questions. Does that sound OK? Yeah. Great.

All right. Let's read together in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, starting in verse 1. I'm reading from the New Living Translation, if you'd like to follow along. Starting in verse 1, the Apostle Paul says, now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols, yes, we know that we have all knowledge, I love that it puts that in quotes, that was their question, about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. You might want to underline that. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much.

I love that one. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. So what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there really is only one God. There may be so-called gods, both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. But for us, there is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created and through whom we live. Verse 7. However, not all believers know this.

Some are accustomed to thinking of idols being real. So when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. Now it's true that we can't win God's approval by what we eat. We don't lose anything if we don't eat it, and we don't gain anything if we do. But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.

Definitely highlight that one. For if others see you with your superior knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, won't they be encouraged to then violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live, because I don't want to cause another believer to stumble.

Let's stop there. And so, Father, as we look at these words now, we pray that, Lord, we would see how this applies to us today. Lord, all of us engage in different liberties. Some are more disagreeable than others.

Some are more socially acceptable. Lord, again, our prayer is what we asked earlier, that you would help us to see these things the way that you do. We want your heart, God. So we are asking, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you would fill us, that you would give us discernment, that you would give us wisdom, and that, Lord, above all, you would give us love, because that is the defining characteristic that Jesus, you have called us to have. By this, they will know that you are my disciples by your love for one another. So do that today, we pray, in Jesus' name we ask. Amen. Amen. OK. Point number one, point number one, liberty versus liability.

Liberty versus liability. A little context about the church in Corinth. They were a very well-educated group.

It was a city established by the Greeks, and it was ultimately the place where the whole Greek and Roman conflict began and started right there, and that's where Rome began its occupation and its ultimate conquering of the Greek superpower. And so it's interesting to note, the Romans, of course, stole pretty much all of Greek culture, their philosophers, their way of thinking, even their gods and their belief system about how the earth was created. They stole all of that from the Greeks. But the believers in Corinth, and actually just the, sorry, the people in Corinth as a whole, they were well-educated. They were smart. They liked to debate.

They liked to ask questions. And we assume that this letter that was written to Paul, which he is responding to here in 1 Corinthians, was likely penned by the top Christian students, likely penned by the smartest philosophers because they had felt they somewhat settled this matter even before they sent Paul the letter. They feel they settled this matter because they said, Paul quotes them, they had all knowledge. This was probably a direct reference to one of Paul's letters that he wrote while he was in Corinth with him. He was sending a letter to the church in Rome, a group of believers who were being persecuted, and we all know the book of Romans. And he wrote this letter to Rome while he was in Corinth, and likely anybody who was interested in what was happening was looking over Paul's shoulder and seeing what was being written. And what likely was happening was Paul was giving this message verbally, and somebody was writing it down for him. And so as Paul was talking to the church in Rome, they were eavesdropping.

They were listening. And they picked up on this phrase, I would assume, in Romans 15, 14, where Paul says this to the church in Rome, but he doesn't say this to the church in Corinth. He says this, I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

Filled with all knowledge. And so again, Paul references this in the first three verses of chapter 8. Any good Christian would have been eager to hear what Paul was saying, and so they felt he was saying that maybe about them, where he says, now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols, yes, we know we have all knowledge about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church.

Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much. Now just imagine you're the guy who wrote that, hey, Paul, want to ask you about a question? Some of the weaker believers that are new or feel convicted about the fact that we're eating meat, and we've just been telling them, don't worry about it. What is an idol? It means nothing.

Just eat the meat. Stop complaining. Because Paul, we know that an idol is really nothing. We know this. We have all knowledge. And so imagine you're the guy that wrote that, and then Paul sends this back.

Anyone who claims to have all the answers doesn't really know very much. You're feeling about this big when you read that part of the letter written back to you out loud, right? This is the part where the guy shrunk down in his seat and didn't feel so good. Paul put them in their place. He put them in their place. They had all knowledge. They were.

They were smart. They knew God's word. Knowledge of God's word is extremely important. It's impossible to believe or obey what you do not know. In the book of Hosea, God says to his people, my people are destroyed.

They perish for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. As Christians, we are all called to rightly divide the word of truth. And we are called to be students of the Bible and to have that knowledge. But knowledge on its own, even of God's word, is not enough.

It's not enough. John MacArthur, a pastor and Bible commentator said, to have love but no knowledge is unfortunate. But to have knowledge and no love is equally tragic. And so what Paul is getting at here is while, yes, you may have the liberty to eat meat and to have meat sacrificed to idols, while exercising your liberty, though, you might stumble another believer with a weaker conscience. OK, so that's some of the context.

Now let's take this to a topic that is going to ruffle some feathers maybe here. But let's talk about how this applies to the topic of alcohol. Many in the church enjoy a glass of wine with their dinner.

They have a couple of beers while flipping burgers on a hot day at the barbecue. And it has zero effect on them. I know many of these people, meaning they can have one or two and not drink to excess.

They're not going to have 10 if they have one and fall off the wagon, so to say. Their conscience is clear. They are not becoming impaired. They're strong enough to have a drink or two and not have it bring them down spiritually.

And they're not getting drunk. OK, that's great. That's an OK way to do it.

That's fine. That may be your liberty. But as we saw in scripture just now, we should not only think of ourselves in this matter, how we can handle it, but how it affects others outside of us. It could be that your spouse is a recovering alcoholic, but you really like to have a cocktail before dinner, right? And so you keep a couple of bottles of liquor in the cabinet, I would say to you, you are inviting the opportunity for disaster. You should not only expect that that person's will and their strong desire to stay away from it is the thing that will keep them from alcohol. Yes, we know that they could go drive down to the liquor store and get the liquor if they want, but what about giving them the opportunity right there in front of them?

I would rethink those things. I would say you are inviting the opportunity for disaster. Now, I've been to plenty of weddings and parties and dinners where some alcohol is served, and I'm not going to stand on the table and say, have you guys thought about the guy here who's a recovering alcoholic? And that's not fair to him. None of you should drink because of that one guy. No, because that's also getting into the side of legalism, and that's not what we're called to do either.

But I will tell you this. As a pastor, you will catch me dead before you see me with a drink in my hand at one of those events, though I could. Though I could because I did not have an addiction to alcohol. I could have a couple of drinks without it becoming a problem for me, but I choose to abstain even toasting with champagne.

Why? I choose to because as a pastor, I know that even though having a beer or a couple of glasses of wine would not affect me, I am not addicted to alcohol and never have been, but it could give license to someone else who is struggling. I don't want my liberty to become a liability.

I don't want my liberty to become a liability. I remember when I was not walking with the Lord, and I was partying, I was drinking, and I went to church, and this particular church, not Harvest, the pastor got up and said, you know, after church, me and some of the boys like to go down to the local bar and throw a couple back, and we watch the game together, and it's like, first of all, can I just say to you, anybody who's watching this, if you were a pastor and you drink alcohol, can you just shut up about it? So don't bring it up, because what that did for me is it gave me license to go, I felt, engaged in drinking in excess. I would drink to excess. I drank to get drunk.

That was the only reason I drank. And so when I heard this pastor go and say, yeah, I drink. It's cool, man.

It's all good. That may be true. The pastor may have that license. I'm not arguing with that. What I am saying is his promotion of it, his endorsement of it, led me to feel comfortable in my sin, and that ultimately led me down a darker path. I'm not going to say it was his fault.

My sin was my own thing. I am responsible for that, but I am just saying, as a pastor, I choose to not have my liberty become a liability. This is part of the problem with drinking. It does seem that everybody has to highlight it and promote it. Why is it when you go on vacation, you have to post the video of you drinking?

A gallon of vodka out of a cowboy shoe or out of a cowboy boot. It's like, OK, we get it. You're on vacation. You're enjoying it.

That's fine. You've got your picture with your wine, but it seems like people really want you to know that they're getting drunk, that they're hammered. They're posting videos of themselves being sloppy, and it's like, that doesn't look attractive to me.

I don't know about you. Your promotion, your celebration of it, the reality is it could hurt someone that you never intended. What you enjoy in moderation has the potential to ruin the lives of the people you love most. So we must be sober-minded in how we handle it. Let's talk some more about liberties.

We having fun yet? Listen, I hope you know that as I speak about this topic as a pastor, as your pastor, I speak with conviction and I speak with compassion, specifically because alcohol has hurt so many of the people that I love in my life, and it has nearly killed a number of friends and family members. I have people in my family who are recovering alcoholics. They can't have a sip. They'll completely fall off the wagon.

It's a big thing. And I say this because, yes, you know the story of my grandmother. You know the story of my dad and how much alcohol ravaged their family. Listen, I choose to abstain from these things, its social functions and wherever else because I don't want it to stumble somebody.

I don't want someone to fall into this because they think, well, everybody else is doing it and it's okay. And so I say this because I love you and I love so many in this church and I know that alcohol has damaged so many people's lives. The statistics on it are truly devastating when you talk about DUIs, when you talk about alcohol-induced issues and health problems. Alcohol and drinking to excess has hurt more people than drug overdoses every year without question. And so I'm reminded of what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way.

It is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Okay, so we're done with alcohol. Now let's talk about another topic, prescription drugs, prescription drugs. It is no secret that pharmaceuticals are a trillion dollar a year industry. Coming out with drugs that can make you do everything from make you feel happier, make you stronger, make you lose weight, make you gain weight, make you less depressed, make you smarter, make you more focused, make you grow hair, make you lose hair, and so much more. There's a pill for everything these days. Now again, I've got to establish at the very onset, I recognize there are people that need to be on some kind of medication. I know people that have schizophrenia, that have all kinds of, you know, different issues and they have to be on a certain kind of medication to help them.

I am not arguing with that. But doctors more and more are coming out and news reports are coming out more and more saying that America as a whole is overmedicated. So many people who go with, oh, I deal with sadness, I deal with discouragement, I deal with depression, doctor, what are you going to do for me? Listen, I'm not going to get into the, you know, put my tinfoil hat on here, but we know that these doctors are able to get kickbacks. You see the girls that are walking up with their little pill packets and bringing the things to the doctors, hey, if you prescribe this amount, you can get this kind of kickback.

And there's not supposed to be a quid pro quo there, but they figured out loopholes, we're great at that. And so these doctors, hey, oh, you're discouraged, you're depressed, you're sad. Well, yeah, my family just died. And so, yeah, you should feel depressed. OK, well, here's some drugs to help you feel good about that.

OK, that's not exactly how it should work out. I do not deny, again, some people need to be on medication. But we are living in an age where everyone has some kind of disorder and there is a medication to resolve it. A recent study was done that says 75% of the kids who are diagnosed with ADHD have been prescribed some kind of medication.

My goodness, if you wanted to meet a kid with ADD, you should have come and met me when I was a little kid. Oh, my gosh. I couldn't focus for anything. But you know what it ultimately was? I lacked discipline and I lacked attention in what was going on. I didn't care what you said because it was boring and video games were way better than listening to you talk.

And that's what I'd rather do. How much more are we seeing kids do this? You put a kid in front of a screen 24-7 and then you expect them to sit still and pay attention in a classroom environment?

I can hardly do that as a grown man. The answer is to not prescribe the kid Ritalin or whatever else is out there. For years, we've been told that large portions of the population need to be on prescription drugs because of a chemical imbalance, which has now been revealed to be a pharmaceutical marketing tool, the chemical imbalance. We all heard about that. Some people just have this thing and some people are, you know, they need a drug to make them feel better. Maybe there's some cases like that, but as a whole, that was used as a marketing strategy.

For years, we've been told this. As of 2018, 37.3 million people in the United States take antidepressants, take antidepressants. Again, you go to your doctor, you tell them that you have anxiety or you have depression or you have an attention deficit, the odds are in your favor, they will write you a script. I know people will not like to hear this, but I believe that there are people in the church who are taking medication that they do not need. They're taking medication that they do not need. Now listen, I'm not going to go and be the pastor that says, stop taking your drugs and throw them out the window.

You don't need that. No, talk to your doctor. But I would ask them the question, hey, is there like a natural remedy to work with this? Is there something that I could do to maybe get off of these drugs?

How about start with that? It used to be that people would get sad. They would get sad when they thought about death or they get anxious about a social situation. Now it's a symptom to be diagnosed and to bring that chemical imbalance into order by giving you some kind of medication. I personally believe that the things we all must face like death, fear, worry, anxiety, suffering, are opportunities for spiritual growth.

I believe they are. Because the Bible tells us, the Bible tells us in 2 Peter 1, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us his own to glory and excellence. That means that God has equipped us with everything we need to overcome the trials and tribulations in this life.

He's given us everything we need. Now again, I know it may not be the popular opinion and again, I do believe there are cases that people need to be prescribed something to help. But I think so many of us look at psych meds and attention deficit meds the way that maybe we would look at an antibiotic, right? When you get a bad cut on your arm and it gets infected, what do you do? You go to the emergency room or you go to the clinic or you go to your doctor or you do the Teladoc thing and they prescribe you Zithromycin or Amoxicillin or Penicillin and what does that do?

It takes care of that problem. It's amazing. It's a miracle when you find out the way they learned how to create Penicillin. It's amazing.

No question. But what it does is it kills that bacteria. It kills that infection in your arm.

It has a beginning, a middle and an end. Usually you take that routine, you take that drug for seven days, right? You take two pills on the first day and then one for every following day. You call your doctor and you follow up and you let them know how it's going. You're done taking it.

When you get prescribed some of these psych meds, what happens? It actually becomes worse if you get off the medication and you may become dependent for life on the medication. That is not fixing the problem. That is making the problem worse.

That is teaching you to depend on a chemical in order for your brain to solve this issue. Again, as believers, we are told in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Now you might think, well that's great for temptation.

What does that have to do with what we're talking about here? That Greek word for temptation is the word parasmos. And parasmos is translated three times into three different words in our New Testament. It's translated as temptation, trial, or test.

So let's look back at that verse now knowing that information. God will not allow you to be tried beyond your ability to resist without providing a way of escape. He will not allow you to be tested. He will not allow you to go through something that is so hard that it will completely destroy you.

No. God brought you to it. He will bring you through it.

He will not allow you to go through a trial beyond your ability without providing a path to endure it. Now again, we're talking about the majority of people and yes, there are people who need it. Okay, great.

Talk to your doctor. That may be you, but likely it's not. I know for me, when I lost my brother in 2008, 16 years ago, I woke up multiple times a night for the following weeks, months, and even years. And I would wake up feeling like there was a sucking chest wound that just opened up. I would be grieving. My pillow would be covered in tears. I was devastated. I miss my brother. I still wake up after having a dream and I sob.

I miss him desperately and I look forward to seeing him. But when I lost sleep and I lost my appetite and there were moments of doubt and fears, but as a drug user at the time, when my brother went to be with the Lord, nothing was more appealing to me in that moment than to go back to drugs. To go back and smoke some weed, to drink some alcohol, to take some pills, some chemical to take the edge off. Marijuana in particular was a big draw for me at the time and more than ever, people are smoking weed now that it's legal here in California. The marijuana that's available now is so potent that it's closer to a narcotic than it is a natural plant.

It's crazy what they have now. People are experiencing marijuana-induced psychosis. People are becoming schizophrenic over smoking weed. That is intense. It's so powerful, but people believe because it's natural, it's okay.

So listen, here's my ultimate point. Whatever you're using, whether it's alcohol or drugs, prescriptions, smoking weed, whatever it might be to escape from or to endure, God is so much powerful. He is so much more powerful. Whatever you're using and you're going after and you're using your liberty as an excuse to be able to use it, whatever reason you are pursuing that, I want to tell you, yes, God is so much more powerful. We think that the people who wrote the scriptures don't know how hard it is to live in the day and age that we do today, and it's true.

Everybody is at an all-time high. Kids in school are dealing with online bullying and just really difficult stuff that we never had to deal with, and no question, it is hard. But to think that the people that wrote the scriptures didn't have it hard is just foolish. They were being killed. They were being persecuted for their faith. They were being ostracized from their communities because they put their faith in Christ. Families were being ripped apart.

Literally, fathers would be executed in front of their children. Jewish leaders were being crucified and decapitated and fed to wild animals. You want to tell me they didn't experience some trauma and pain and suffering on a whole different level?

Listen, don't rob yourself of the opportunity to depend on God. When I was walking, excuse me, when I was not walking with God, I took many of those drugs. I took some of those pharmaceuticals and party atmospheres. I've abused those things, and I tell you what, they feel good. You feel good. You feel high. You feel happy.

You don't know why you're happy, but you just are, and you're glad to be there in the moment. But I got to tell you, pain, pain was the catalyst that brought me closer to God. Pain was the catalyst that made me look to his promises, that made me look to a hope that was beyond this life, a hope beyond the grave, and that was my faith in Jesus Christ. And God was there for me, and the church was there for me, and his word did bring comfort.

Yes, there were tears, but we did not grieve as those who had no hope. This is an area we must be sober-minded about. We are spiritual beings, and the Bible warns us clearly not to be brought under the power of anything.

That brings us to number two. Number two, stewarding time and guarding our minds. Stewarding time and guarding our minds. First Corinthians 8, verse 8, Paul says, it's true, we can't win God's approval by what we eat.

We don't lose anything if we don't eat it, and we don't gain anything if we do. And Paul kind of continues this same sentiment in First Corinthians 10, 23. He says, all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things build me up. Let's talk about social media for a moment.

Okay, we're going to nail everybody on this one. You might say, come on, Jonathan, social media, it's not a spiritual thing. I mean, the church has multiple social media accounts, you know, it's a great way to connect with people.

It's true. Social media in and of itself is not a bad thing, but as with many things, it can be used and it can cause harm. 275 million Americans are active on social media, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, whatever else. That means 82% of our nation's population is active on social media.

That's pretty staggering. 252 billion hours are spent by Americans on social media every year. Let me say that again, 252 billion hours are spent on social media by Americans every year. Now people can use social media to keep in touch with each other. They can use social media to find dates now, to explore restaurants, hear inspirational messages, find new music.

It is an amazing tool, no question. But there is an epidemic that is happening, especially among young people. I'm seeing in Gen Z and Gen Alpha and even in the millennials, particularly where we are seeing the marriage rate go down. We're seeing the marriage rate go down and the age of those getting married get higher and higher. It's really interesting. You know, I used to hear about people getting married, not in my generation, but like in the, you know, in the 60s and 70s when they're 18 years old and 19 years old and 21 years old and 22 years old.

And now we're hearing people get married in their late 30s, you know, and, you know, even later than that. Why is that? Well, for the sake of a point here is we're talking about social media and based on the small amount of research I've done, it seems that social media actually might be filling a void, especially with girls, where a man should be filling. Social media can be scratching that itch, giving that affirmation where a guy could be filling that affirmation, could be scratching that itch.

Think about it. You post a pretty picture of yourself, you get some guys affirming you, telling you how nice you look. Hey, that's a nice feeling. Who doesn't want to be told you're pretty?

Who doesn't want to be told that you're handsome? But that usually isn't enough, so you post more often and then you post more revealing and stuff and then your following grows and now, hey, now you're a social media celebrity or at least you're getting the affirmation you're looking for. Guys aren't finding that thrill on social media, though. Particularly, it seems the guys are finding that thrill and scratching that itch through pornography, through pornography. Conservative estimates say that 50 to 70% of Americans access pornography at least one time a year.

That's 192 million people. Now it used to be that porn was accessed by going to a CD bookstore in a sketchy part of town and you had to actually buy it from a person and it was embarrassing and gross and whatever else. Today, pornography is accessible on your phone by just a couple of quick taps on Google and boom, there you are, literally able to access free, easy, and discreet with literally hundreds of millions of hours available to you. And only recently have there been positive strides made toward age verification, meaning any kid with an iPad who searches Google can access this type of content in a matter of seconds. I was born in 1986 and so when I was in sixth grade, we were assigned to do a paper and it was like the first time they let the school use the internet as a resource to go and search for things. I was doing some research on, I think, the president or the White House or something like that and I went to whitehouse.com, don't worry, it's not this anymore, I went to whitehouse.com, it was a porn site, full blown, explicit porn site, 11-year-old little kid trying to find out information about the presidency, about the Oval Office and whatever and is completely exposed, Pandora's box completely opened up. That, you tell me, that isn't pure evil. I'm thankful that the laws have become more restrictive but the goal is the same, get as many people hooked as early as possible for as long as possible.

Without question, pornography is robbing young men of their spiritual, emotional and relational growth. It used to be that if a guy liked a girl and asked her out and she turned him down, what did he do? He had to go and figure out what the problem was. Well, okay, you know, I look in the mirror and I see that I haven't shaved and I'm unkempt and you know, I'm not taking care of myself so I'm gonna go to the gym and I'm gonna get a haircut and I'm gonna put some nicer clothes on and I'm gonna show up with flowers to her front door and oh, she, you know, she turns me down again. Nowadays it's called abuse if you do that, if you ask a girl out more than once.

But it used to be, you know, you find out what she's into, oh, she likes this musician, maybe I'll buy her tickets for this concert and see if she'll go with me and oh, boom, there you go, now you've got an opportunity. We hear stories like that all the time but today what's happening is devastating because so many, oh yeah, I want to get married or a lot of times for a guy, I want to, you know, have sex, I want to have this relationship and you know, I'm getting turned down and so what do they turn to? They turn to pornography.

And what happens? It cuts them off at the knees. They don't even give themselves the opportunity to try and better themselves, much less make them, you know, an attractive person to marry and care for a family. It is an epidemic. And so while yes, I realize social media is not pornography, though it seems like it is turning into that in many ways, both of these things can be detrimental to our growth and our relationship with God and ultimately in our own personal growth. And here's what it comes down to, drugs, alcohol, pornography, looking for affirmation online or in sexual relationships, whatever it might be.

It's actually a void in your life that you haven't allowed God to fill. Yes, you can argue that you have the liberty to engage in certain behaviors. Some of these things you have liberties in, others you absolutely do not. Pornography, you do not have the liberty in pornography, black and white, straight and simple, you do not have that liberty. But as you talk about these things and you argue, oh, I have the liberty to do this, I can engage in this, what you are actually doing is you are filling a void in your life that you haven't allowed God to fill.

I make a choice to abstain from those things because I know they will ultimately bring me harm and stunt my spiritual growth. And so my exhortation to you in closing now is that you would ask God to reveal the areas in your life that you think are liberties but are in fact liabilities leading you away from Him. Would you pray with me now? Father, as we consider what we just read and we think about these areas, we know there are so many topics that we could have hit, so many things that are important to address.

But Lord, you've given us the template. You have given us the answer key on how to approach these things in 1 Corinthians 8. As we see the believers there struggling with me being sacrificed to idols and their consciences being affected, Lord, our request to you is that you would sensitize our consciences, that you would help us to see the things in our life that are hurting us and could potentially hurt others around us. Lord, we pray that you would give us all grace, that you would give us all love, and you would give us charity if one person has this liberty and we do not, that we would not condemn someone for that, that we would not be legalistic. We don't want to be pharisaical like the religious leaders were in your time, Jesus.

We want to ultimately bring the message of the gospel, which is the most important thing, the most important message that we share, not following some rules or legalism but the relationship with you, Jesus. We thank you that you give us pleasure in this life. We can enjoy things.

We can have fun. We can see things the way that you see them, Jesus, and so our prayer is just that you would give us discernment and you would give us wisdom on these various topics. And now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying together, I know there are some here who have come to the same conclusion that I did 16 years ago and that is that alcohol and drugs and pornography and partying and whatever it might be is not going to fill that hole in your heart. You're not going to find what you're looking for outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ. The peace that he brings, the fulfillment he brings, and the purpose that he brings, the opportunities for growth, you're not going to find anywhere else.

In fact, if you look anywhere else, you are going to find that it is pulling you down and you are more empty than when you first started off. And so if you'd like to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and have your sin forgiven and even be delivered from that lifestyle, be delivered from those temptations and dare I say, even those addictions, yes, God can deliver you from those addictions just as he did for me. If you'd like to receive that relationship with Christ, would you just raise your hand up wherever you are and I want to lead you in a very simple prayer of asking him to come into your life. Wherever you are, wherever you might be watching, just raise your hand up and we'll pray together. God bless you. God bless you. Raise your hand up high where I can see it and we'll pray together.

God bless you. If you are watching on one of our online campuses or over in Riverside or wherever you might be, you raise your hand up as well. I can't see you but the Lord sees you. Just raise your hand and we'll pray together.

It's awesome. For those of you that prayed, or excuse me, raised your hand, just pray this out loud after me wherever you are. Pray this now. Jesus, I know I'm a sinner but I know that Jesus is the Savior who died on the cross for my sin. And I turn from that sin now from this moment forward. And I ask that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit. And Jesus, you would help me to see the things the way that you do. Be my Savior, be my Lord, be my God, and be my friend. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. God bless you that prayed that prayer. God bless you.

Amazing. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.