Well today we are beginning a brand new series, which I'm super excited about. And we'll put this up on the screen. And the series, I mentioned it last week, it is entitled Not About Me. Can we say that all together? Not about me.
Isn't that why you came to church today to hear this, right? And you can hide your excitement about that, okay?
Some of you lock the doors. We're not letting you out at this point. And I know a series title like this, you're thinking, wow, that is a negative series title. But sometimes we need to be reminded that life is not all about us, right? That life and your life and what's happening here, our purpose, is not all just about us.
Us, but I'll tell you this: if you're like me, a lot of times, you can find yourselves and you can lean yourselves into a tendency where you do make life all about you. Right, I know that you're like that. I mean, just a few examples when I was studying this, just to kind of get our minds wrapped around this idea that life is not all about us, is if you think about it. You know, if you take a family photo. And maybe you take a family photo and then you see it afterwards, maybe on your phone.
What's the first thing you normally look at? Yourself, right? You're like, man, did I look good? Did I look? And I mean, for some of us, I mean, it is what it is.
Like, you can't do a whole lot with it. And so, but we immediately looked ourselves, or perhaps, you know, just to get very personal for just a moment, it's like if somebody comes to you with really good news, or maybe a success or something happened in their life that they're really excited about, and they begin to tell you something great that happened to them, you immediately start to think, like, well, what's going to happen to me? You start thinking kind of selfishly about their success and what they are doing. And the reason is, is because our flesh. Our flesh is always wanting life and our purpose to be about us.
about what we want. about our glory. About everything. And sometimes, if you're not careful, we can make life about us. But you know what we can do?
And there's a lot of churches like this around in the world today. They will make their church all about them. Or they'll make their church all about their tradition, or make their church all about different things and stuff like that. And if we're not careful, we can slowly start to lend ourselves into making things about us and not about what Christ has wanted us as the church to make things about. And here's the thing: in 1 Corinthians, and you can turn there if you haven't already gone there, but in 1 Corinthians.
We see the church of Corinth struggling with this same idea. They were making life about them. They had questions about different things that were kind of, and I believe a lot of times the enemy was sometimes like trying to get their minds on other things so that they wouldn't focus on the main thing. And we are reminded here from 1 Corinthians chapter 8 through 10, we're reminded. About how life isn't about us.
That there's some things that are more important than some things that we like and us and different things like that. There's some things that Paul is going to write about and challenge us on a little bit about making this more about him and the gospel and others. Then Ourself.
So, week number one, here's what we're gonna look at today: is this idea: others over self. Others over self. Can we say that together? Others over self. Others over self.
We're going to look at that idea from 1 Corinthians chapter number 8 today.
Now, one thing as we dive in, I'm going to just tell you a couple of things.
So, first of all, we just came through a summer teaching series.
So, if you're kind of new to us, you might not have any clue that we're, you know, we just finished a series we've been in in the last two and a half months and that kind of thing. And that series was heavy gospel, you know, about the grace and mercy and kindness of Jesus. This series is going to be very, and if I can have the liberty to say this, it's going to be very pastoral. It's going to be extremely practical to help you. And so, if you're one of these that's like, man, I need just practical application of scripture, how it's going to affect me Monday through Saturday, this series is for you.
And so, I want to encourage you to just open up your mind. It's going to challenge every single one of us. It's challenged me already in my study of 1 Corinthians 8, probably as much as any series that I've preached in a very long time on a personal level. And so, I want you to have your Heart and mind open as we approach some interesting dialogue that Paul is having with the church here at Corinth.
Now, the church at Corinth, as we get rolling into this before we dive into the text, the church at Corinth was about five years old. When this was written. And so, can you imagine that? Many of these Christians were saved out of pagan lifestyles. Many of these Christians had come to faith and belief in Jesus.
They were what we would call in modern-day church kind of baby Christians. They were new believers. And so, Paul is really going to have to teach them some things, but they were asking some very intentional questions about faith. And practice, faith and practice, and how this looks out. We know we're saved by faith.
How does this get played out into everyday life? And they're asking all these questions. And Paul is going to answer some of their questions here. And in chapter 8, it was about meat sacrificed to idols, which we'll get into. Here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to read verses 1 through 13. We're going to dive right through it, and then we'll give you some real practical application. But I'm going to read this so I know you can get lost in the middle.
So 13 verses reading without commentary in the middle can be a lot.
So look to your neighbors, say, buckle up. All right.
So here we go. Verse number one says this.
Now as touching things offered unto idols, We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of him. As concerning, therefore, the eating of those things that are offered and sacrificed unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
Verse 5: For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many and Lords many, but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. Howbeit, there is not in every man that knowledge. For some, with conscience, mark that word, we're going to come back there here in a moment, of the idol. Unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience being weak. is defiled.
But meat commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not. Are we the worst? And so he's talking about this idea of sacrificing, you know, these sacrifices to idols, this meat. Can we partake of this meat that's sacrificed to idols? And he says, hey, if you do it, it doesn't make you more spiritual.
If you don't do it, it doesn't make you more spiritual. Verse 9. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them. Better weak. For if any man see thee, which hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idols' temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols.
And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died. Verse 12, we're almost there. But when ye sin, sow against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to To offend.
Now, here's what I will tell you: that's a lot. I hope you stayed engaged through all 13 verses because that's a lot. And sometimes the Apostle Paul, it can be difficult to understand exactly what he's trying to tell us here. But these new believers, they had some questions about faith. And about practice.
In order for you to understand the question that they're asking here in chapter number eight, you have to understand predominantly what many of them had been saved out of. The church at Corinth, there were Jews there, of course, but there was also some Gentile converts, some Gentile believers. And so the church was made up of both. And so many people through faith had come to faith in Christ, and they were saved out of a pagan practice, most probably from the Roman Empire and the Roman government. They were saved out of that pagan practice.
And so, for you to understand what they're asking here in chapter number eight, you have to understand a little bit of history of this.
So, the Roman Empire. was known for being uh polytheistic. In other words, they worship many gods, little g. And they had tons of temples around Rome that were, that people would come into these temples, not Jewish temples, they were pagan Roman temples, and they would offer up sacrifices. They would kill a goat or a cow or whatever, and they would take the meat and they would offer it up in a pagan temple there in Rome, and they would sacrifice the fat and it would send an aroma up to.
to their false god, basically, you know, appeasing them for their wrongdoing and different things like this.
Now, remember, there's a difference in the Jewish sacrifices in the Old Testament than this, but this is what Rome would do, and they would do this for all of these false gods.
Well, what would happen is they would offer these sacrifices to these false gods, and then they would take of the meat that was left over, they would take that to like your think your local meat market or whatever, and they would sell the meat. That was left over from these sacrifices to these false idols, and they would just sell it out in the public into the meat market. And so, what was happening here was the Christians that were saved out of these pagan practices, they were seeing this, and they were like, you know, if they're hungry, they're thinking, man, can we, as followers of Jesus, can we partake of this meat? That was at one time sacrificed to idols. Can we take of this leftover meat?
Is this something that we. As Christians could really do or not. And what was happening here, and what we find here in chapter number eight, is that some Christians were saying, absolutely not. We cannot take of this meat that was once sacrificed to idols because it's tainted and we are Christians and there's no way that we can do it. But yet there was other Christians in Corinth that were saying, well, these are false gods anyway.
It matters nothing. And they don't even exist. These gods that they are worshiping and these gods, whatever.
So if I want to partake of this, I certainly can. And so there was this battle there in the church at Corinth of can we partake of this meat or not? And so the question that they're asking Paul is this, can we as believers eat meat that was once sacrificed to To idols.
Now, as we get into this, I know here's what you're probably already thinking: What in the world, Pastor, does this have to do with me?
Some of you are probably already asked that or whatever. I get it that you're not going to leave here today and you're going to go to one of the local steakhouses or stuff like that, and you don't have to ask yourself, Man, can I do this? I mean, I don't know if this steak was offered to an idol an hour earlier or whatever. Can I do that? I don't know, right?
And so, I get it that when you look at this, you're probably immediately thinking, you don't have to worry about your steak that you're going to eat at lunch, right? And wonder if it was offered days or hours up to a false god like Artemis or Zeus or one of these false gods that we look at in history. But in the New Testament, And also in the modern-day church, there's a lot of very similar issues. That are more modern day that are very similar in terms of uh of nature As what they were asking here. In fact, in Romans chapter number 14, the Apostle Paul's writing to the church at Rome, and he calls these things doubtful disputations.
In other words, that word disputations, it literally means like our preferences, things that the Bible might not be clear on, right? There's not a verse that just says a thou shalt or a thou shalt not. And how do you handle those kind of things? Because that's what the church at Corinth was asking. They're like, hey, Paul, there's not really a thou shalt and a thou shalt not.
What are we supposed to do? This is what we would call a gray area of life. Do we have liberty to partake or don't we? And we don't know what to do. And so the Apostle Paul is writing back to them.
Trying to answer their question of can we do one or the other and how do we handle these disputable matters that are not addressed directly in scripture, like meat sacrificed to idols. And he uses a word, and we're going to get into the practical application here in a moment, I promise, but I want to. He uses a word, a very specific word, three times here. It's the word conscience. It's the word conscience.
It's important that you understand that. If you're marking your Bible, I'd encourage you to mark this. It's mentioned in verse 7. There's 10. And verse number 12.
The word conscience. Comes from really two Latin words. The word con, which means with. The word siente, which means knowledge.
So you could translate this with, with knowledge. Binds comes in and he translates this word from the Greek. And here's his definition or whatever, as a co-knowledge with oneself and God. And so, what's happening here is the Apostle Paul is saying that a lot of these matters that we don't have a scripture verse with, that there is this thing that God has given us called a conscience that can help us decide if that is best for you to participate in, such as meet. Sacrifice to idols.
And so when we look at this word conscience here in Romans chapter 8, here's a good working definition that you can understand. Conscience. Is a God-given inner voice that approves when we do right and disapproves when we do wrong. The conscience that he's talking about here in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 isn't the spirit. I'm going to get there.
It is, this is this conscience, it's a moral compass for you. And we all have a built-in moral compass in life. That's why even unbelievers know the difference between right and wrong. Because they are born with a conscience. They're not born with the spirit.
We know that from a spiritual perspective. They're born with a conscience. And so it's this inner voice, this ability that we have, this voice inside of us that approves when we do right and disapproves. When we do wrong. And so for us as Christians, We have a conscience, this inner voice, but what he's also alluding to here is this: that you also, as a believer and follower of Christ, you have the Spirit of God in your life too.
And so you have a conscience that'll tell you right from wrong, and then you have the Spirit of God as well that will help that. And here's what that does: Christians have a heightened conscience. Awareness of right from wrong. That Christians have more than just a conscience, that we as followers of Christ, we have this heightened awareness to where we can look at issues and be able to kind of help understand if we can partake in certain things or. Or not.
And so here's what I want you to understand.
So when we think about this not about me type of thing. We all have some things in life. That we feel very strong about, that you could argue. You ever argued with somebody about something between right and wrong, and somebody feels they are 100% dogmatically that they are right, but there's not a scripture reference to prove it? Have you ever been in a conversation like that?
Let's just be honest. There's a lot of them. And here, the issue that they were facing was meat sacrificed to idols. They had some Christians that were saying, we will dogmatically never partake. And they felt that because they decided not to, that they were more spiritual than the ones who did.
And then there were some that were saying, Hey, I have no problem. I can do this. It doesn't matter. I have liberty. I'm good.
And so who cares what they think? I'm going to do what I want to do because there's not a scripture verse.
So, how do we deal with those? And so I know that for you. Meat sacrificed to idols is not one of those things. I'm sure on the way to church today, you weren't asking your spouse, like, hey, can we eat of the steak today or not? Like, what do you think?
You know, it's not so, but here's some common. Things that I have heard.
Now, I've only been a pastor for about 15 years, and these are the common things that are kind of these what I would call gray areas. In the middle. that we kind of like how do we differentiate on? Music. Movies.
Tattoos. Smoking. Private school, public school, or homeschool, Target, alcohol, Starbucks, Piercings, Birth Control, Church dress, movie theaters, face cards, Disney, video games, kids and cell phones, social media, Duke versus North Carolina. Like, is that not in? I mean, the Bible's clear, okay, on that last one.
But hey, easy, easy. Our associate pastor down here, okay? Listen, here's what I want you to understand. You probably, as a believer, have had a conversation about one of those things and you've disagreed with somebody over it. Like, and you probably talked to somebody, it's like, we absolutely will not do this.
We absolutely will not partake in this. And you feel strongly about it, and then you talk to somebody else, and you're like, man, that person's godly. They love the Lord, and they are. And so it's like, how do we handle these types of situations? And what Paul is saying through the inspiration of the Spirit here in 1 Corinthians 8 is, he's saying this.
I gave you my spirit and a conscience for you to discern.
Now, for some of us, and I'll put myself here. This is an extremely uncomfortable type of topic. And here's why. It's because if you're like me, you like things black and white. You're like, hey, just tell me what I'm supposed to do.
Don't leave any gray area. I'm a rule follower. And I need to know exactly what I'm supposed to do. When you give me this middle ground, liberty, conscience type of thing, I do not know how to handle it. I'm just, I want to know what's right, and I want to know what's wrong, and I don't want anything in the middle.
Give me ultra clear. boundaries and guidelines to abide by.
Now some of that is is the way that I was raised. That could be true of you. I was raised. I'll give you a little personal thing. I was raised in a very strict environment.
How many of you were in a very strict environment? Raise your hand, okay? And so I was in a very strict environment.
So my church was strict, my Christian school was strict, my home was strict. My parents sometimes watch our services from time to time. This is one they don't need to tune into it.
Okay, so I'll be sure to take this offline afterwards so they have no access. But here's what I'll tell you: in a good way, I respect every way that I was raised and I loved it, and it really helped mold me to where I am. But here's what I'll tell you: when I say strict, here's what that means.
So growing up, I could not go to the movie theater. Movie theaters was of the devil. Like, and here's what everybody apparently that I was told: that you can't go to a movie because nobody, you know, nobody knows what you're coming out of.
So, if you're walking out of a movie theater, people don't know that you're coming out of a very good, clean movie. And my parents would tell me that growing up. And here's always what I would say: I was like, Mom, I'll just be honest with you guys, no one cares where you're coming out of. Like, they just, no one's asking that question and stuff. All my friends are going, like, and they're good people, and they love God.
Their families are great, and they go to our church, and yet they go, but why can't I go? And things like this. And they had a conscience. that they felt that that was best for us, and that's fine. That's fine.
And so, my pastor that I was growing up with, it's kind of the wildest thing to me. My pastor, growing up, so we would get together and we'd have card nights and stuff. My pastor would not allow us to play with face cards. You couldn't play with face cards. And so when we would play things with face cards, we'd have to use other cards.
We'd have to use like rook cards. And stuff. A raven, if you're familiar with rook, is not a clean animal in scripture, so I don't understand it. But that was a conviction that he had that we could not do. Very conservative music.
And when you get, you talk to someone else who they listen to something a little bit different, and they're godly, and you're kind of like, where is the middle ground? Who's right? Who's wrong? I mean, in my culture growing up, good Christians dressed a certain way to church. Just what you did.
And that's the thing. I mean, one thing when I married Abby. We started, you know, I'd go to her grandmother's house, and one strong conviction that she had, and her whole life, and because her husband, Abby's grandfather, was a pastor, a conviction that they had was that you could not eat out on a Sunday.
Something you couldn't do. And so I'm thinking, I love eating out on Sundays. I'm like, what in the world? Who's right? Who's wrong?
What do we do in these types of situations? And here, Paul gives us guidelines in 1 Corinthians 8 for how we are to help that.
Now, last thing, this is the longest introduction of a sermon I've ever given, okay? I promise you that. But there's two types of people in this room, and this is where it's going to make you feel uncomfortable, okay, for just a few months.
Some of you are excited because I'm going to tell all these people. That's what they say they have liberty on, that they are wrong, and some of you are already excited that pastor is going to prove that you're right and they're wrong. That's not where we're going.
Okay, and then some are going to feel super spiritual today because you're going to think. My convictions are higher than anybody else's. And so clearly, I am the most spiritual when it comes to this. But here's what I'll tell you. We're all going to feel a little uncomfortable as we go through this.
And if you're wondering, on that list that I gave you earlier that I've just heard people debate to no end on, if you're wondering if I'm going to come out and say, Here's where the scripture says, whatever. I'm not going to do that on any of those issues. I'm going to give you principles of what 1 Corinthians, what Paul is trying to tell us about how you should act. With these issues in the middle. When it comes to areas of life, there's two words that I want you to understand that's going to drive where we're going when we talk about these issues that are in the middle and we all disagree on them.
How do we handle these things? Two words. Here's what it is: spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity. If I could boil down 1 Corinthians 8.
They're really eleven. And even chapter 7. It's really just spiritually maturity. It's spiritual maturity. And here's what I'm going to do for you.
I'm not going to tell you what you can, cannot do. No pastor should be doing that, okay? For these areas.
Now, they can advise things. And if you want to ask my opinion on some of these things, on where my conscience stands and where I believe, have at it. I'll be an open book with you, but I'm not going to preach thou shalt or thou shalt not if the Bible doesn't.
Okay? But I'm going to give you some good principles that I think will help you that really convicted me this week that I think God gave us.
So, part of being a mature follower of Jesus, and I know I keep saying more in my introduction than I want to. But part of being a mature father, don't miss this. Part of being a mature follower of Jesus. It's not just obeying God in what he does say. Listen.
It is about obeying God sometimes in the things he doesn't. Say.
So, part of being a spiritually mature Christian, which I hope every one of you, if I was to walk around the room and say, Hey, do you want to be a spiritually mature Christian? I hope every one of you would say yes, right? I hope we're all on that journey.
Now, here's the beauty of the church: we're all on different stages of the journey.
Some people just started their journey in the last month in this place. And some people started their journey 50 years ago. And so we're all on different stages of the journey, but here's the point: we all should be moving in the same direction to spiritual maturity. And here's what I've learned as I've studied this: part of being a spiritual mature believer, follower of Christ, is not just obeying God in the thou shalt and the thou shalt nots, it's obeying God in the middle. And the things that he doesn't say.
And so, as we look at this, I want to give you, I want to kind of go between a mature follower of Christ. And an immature follower of Christ. And how that list that I mentioned, all these middle ground things. And if there's something I didn't mention in that list, you can add it to your own list of the middle ground things, whatever. How do we handle those things?
And I want to dissect what a mature believer and an immature believer looks at the same situation, how they look at it differently.
So here we go. You guys with me? Are you still here? All right.
Some of you are leaving membership today. I can feel it. All right.
And so here's the deal. Immature, listen, don't miss this. Immature believers ask. Is this permissible? Mature believers ask, can this control me?
Now, let me say that again. Immature believers say, Hey, can I partake? Do I have liberty to do this? A mature follower of Christ is looking at the exact same scenario, and they're saying, Does this have Any chance that it can control and consume. Bay.
In 1 Corinthians 6. Paul says this, verse 12. All things are lawful, okay? All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be, listen to this, be brought under the power of any.
In other words, what he's saying is, yes, there's things in the middle. There's things that we don't know, you know, the Bible is not clear on, and God's given us conscience, and God's given us the Holy Spirit. How do we handle these things in the middle? You know, if God's not told you exactly what type of music to listen to, or exactly the type of, you know, movies to watch, or exactly the type of whatever, it's this thing in the middle. How am I supposed to handle this?
And here's what I'll tell you: I'm not going to tell you yes, no to certain things. Here's what I'm going to tell you: an immature believer says, Hey, can I do this? A mature believer says, hey, can this control me? You see, here's the point. What he's saying in 1 Corinthians 6 is this: is that good things.
can become bad things. when they become consuming things. Let me say that again. Good things. Can become bad things.
If they become consuming things. And so if you have something that's in the middle and you're debating, do I do it? Don't I do it? Do I have, here's the thing. Don't ask, can I?
Because you might have liberty. If there's not a scripture verse, you might have liberty to partake in that. A better question that will determine if you're a spiritually mature believer is this, not can I partake, it's does this have the ability to control me? And if it does have the ability to control me and it could control me, then it's probably best that I don't participate. That's what he's saying.
And so mature believers say, can it control me? Immature believers say, is this allowed? The second thing is this. Immature believers? care more about what they know.
Mature believers care more about those they love. Immature believers, they care more about what they know. Immature believers or mature believers care more about those that they love. In 1 Corinthians 8, verse 1, he says this.
Now, as touching things offered unto idols.
So there's that conversation again. He says, We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffed up, but guess what? Charity edifieth. Here's the thing.
Let me just be very clear. You may have liberty to engage in something. But you should be willing to lay that thing aside for the good of your friend. And that's hard. You may have liberty, and we can't argue, like, hey, can you, can you not?
And you may have the liberty in the middle, but here's what I'm going to tell you: you should be willing to lay that thing down for the good of your friend. And that's what he's saying. People should matter more. than your preferences. People should matter more than your opinion about these kinds of things.
And what he's saying is: this: You might feel like, man, nobody tells me what to do. I have the right to do this.
Well, guess what? You should be willing, you should care more about the person you're arguing against. than what you're arguing for. And that's what he's trying to say. Number three.
Immature believers. Cause others to stumble. Mature believers Seek to edify. Others.
So in 1 Corinthians 8, our text He says in verse number nine. Take heed. lest by any means this liberty of yours Become a stumbling block to them that are weak. For if any man see thee, which hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered unto idols. In other words, what he's saying is this, is that sometimes your liberty can cause somebody else to stumble.
And if you do it anyway, that's where sin can creep in. The word stumble into Greek literally means to trip up.
So when he says this, he's saying this: like, you might have liberty to do something, but if your brother or sister. If it can be a stumbling block to them, here's what Paul is saying, or whatever. If you're going to be a stumbling block to them, Whatever it's best that you you kind of disregard whatever it is. For the good of your brother. For the good of your sister.
I don't think any of you would say, Man, I really want my brother or sister to. you know, trip up in their spiritual journey. Right? None of you want that. I know you well enough to know.
I mean, you're here on a Sunday morning. You do not want that to happen to your brother and sister. But guess what? Are you willing to lay down what you have liberty to do in order to help them grow in their relationship with Christ? And here's why.
And let me say one more thing, because I got to hustle. Everything you do or say has an impact on others spiritually. Think about this. I was thinking about this this week. Everything that I do.
Will lead someone to Christ. It will encourage someone in their journey with Christ, or it will hinder someone from coming. or growing in Christ. Everything that I do. Now, you might say, because this is how I felt when I was convicted in the office this week about this, you might say, that's way too much pressure, Pastor.
I don't want that type of pressure. And here's what I will tell you, because this is kind of what the Holy Spirit told me a different way. He spoke in Greek. And so, but here's what he told me: he said, get over it. And here's why.
You might think, like, there's not enough pressure, right? I don't like this type of pressure. Like, who cares? I can do what I want. I don't need, but listen, when you said yes to Jesus, you put on the team jersey.
You have Team Jesus across your chest, right? And so here's the point. Everything that you do, whether you like it or not, it's going to lead someone to Christ. It's going to edify somebody in their walk with Christ. Or it's going to do the complete opposite.
It's going to hinder them from coming to Christ or hinder them from growing to Christ. And what we have to care about is way more about the good of others than we do what we are arguing for. Four. Because we're all in this. Together.
So immature, number four, immature believers. care more about their rights. This one got me. Mature believers care more about their witness. Immature believers say, I have the right to do this.
Mature believers say, is this going to hinder my witness? And that's where it really gets rough because we like what we have the right to do, but maturity sometimes speaks in and says, Is this going to hinder people? Is this going to hurt my example? Is this going to hurt my testimony? That's where 1 Corinthians.
10, 31 to 33 comes in. Whether therefore, and we'll get there in this series, whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. of God. Paul is saying that my bigger concern, and that church at Corinth, your bigger concern. It shouldn't be your liberty.
It should be your witness. In other words, the gospel should matter more to you than your liberty to do something. And you should be willing for the sake of the gospel to lay aside your personal liberty in order to help somebody come to faith in Christ. That's what he's saying here in 1 Corinthians 10, and we'll get there. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 33, he says this: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, that's my own good.
But the profit of many that they may be saved. In other words, what he's saying is, I might have the liberty to do something, I might have this, and it doesn't go against my conscience. But at the end of the day, if it's going to hurt my witness, if it's going to hurt my testimony, if it's going to hurt someone from coming to faith in Christ, I better be willing to lay that aside for the good of the gospel. That's what he's saying. And then last, and we'll be done.
Immature believers. Judge others for their liberties. Mature believers accept others with their liberty.
Now this is where it gets real.
Okay. It's where it gets hard. This is where, if you're like me and you were brought up in a certain environment and you see things that are just different than what you were raised in, you just assume like you're the more spiritual one and they are not, right? I listen to more conservative music. There ain't one bit of rhythm in my music.
There ain't one bit of drum in my music.
So I feel really good and I'm real spiritual. And those that listen to something different aren't. And what he's saying is this, immature believers. They judge others for their liberties. Mature believers.
They accept others with their liberties. Look at what he says in Romans 14. He says, This is the word. This isn't me, okay?
So that every one of us shall give account of himself to God. He goes on in verse 13. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. Verse 14, I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. If you look back in 1 Corinthians 8, our text today, here's what he said in verse number 8, 1 Corinthians 8.
But meat commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat, are we the better? Neither if we eat not, are we the worse? Here's what he's saying. Whatever. These middle ground issues, like.
Meat offered from idols, and should we eat of it? He says it doesn't make you more spiritual, and it doesn't make you less spiritual. Where we have to care about is are we going to become a stumbling block for somebody else? That's where that gets. And so the danger.
With all of this, when we talk about liberty, is this. I'm just going to be very clear. The danger is when we begin to think that our standards are better. or higher than others, and here's what the result of that is. Legalism.
That's legalism. That's Judaism. That's what the Pharisees thought. They thought my standards Everything that I've done, I'm more strict than anybody else, so therefore that must mean I'm more godly than anybody else. And here's what Apostle Paul's coming by.
He's changing that whole thing that Corinth was struggling with. He says, absolutely not. How high your standards are, that doesn't mean if you're spiritual or not. What he's saying is: this: how much you care for somebody else and how much you're willing to lay aside your personal opinion over something for the good of the gospel and for the good of others. That determines your spirituality and how well you're willing to accept somebody else for their liberty and not judge them for it.
That is a better. Uh the a determining factor. with your spiritual maturity. You see, there's a lot of these things. And listen, if you're uncomfortable in here today, that's probably a good thing.
Because that's how I was when I was studying this, because I feel strongly about some things, right? And sometimes I can think, man, I'm way more spiritual. I don't do that or I do this, and that person does or doesn't. Or whatever. And I've had to learn that, you know, these gray areas of life, it's more about others.
Than it is myself. It's more about the gospel. Then it is my right. It's more about the people getting saved and my witness for Jesus Christ than it is my right to do whatever I want to do. And that's what Paul's saying.
And really, to kind of bring us to a close and land the plane here, it's this. Spiritual maturity, part of being a mature follower of Jesus, is what I said earlier. It's not just obeying God in what he does say. That's the easy thing. Thou shalt not, thou shalt, right?
I got those. We're good. We understand that. If you break those, you know you're wrong. But these things in the middle He might not say you can or can't.
He gives you principles of how you are to approach one another with these things in the middle. And he says, part of being a spiritual, mature follower of Jesus is not only obeying God in what he does or doesn't say. Or w in in the middle there. And that's what we are supposed to do. It's about pleasing him.
In the things that he doesn't say, those middle ground things. There's still ways that you can please Christ and you can honor Christ and your testimony can be at the utmost highest for Christ because it should be in the middle ground. And there still be this freedom and liberty that we have based on somebody's individual conscience. That makes sense. It's others over yourself.
It's others over yourself. Can we pray together? Mm.
