Well, if you have your Bible here today, and I hope that you do, I'd love for you to join me in 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. First Corinthians chapter number 10. This is our third week in our series entitled Not About Me. Can we all say that together? Not about me.
In fact, look to your neighbor on your right or left and say, it's not about you. And now tell them, but it's not about me either, okay? We're in week number three of this series, not about me. And we're slowly walking through just a few chapters of Paul's writing to the church. At Corinth, and just kind of some of the questions he's answering that the church at Corinth had.
Now, a couple of things, just to kind of, if you're just joining us or you missed the last couple of weeks, to fill you in, this was written, this letter to the church was written about five years after the church at Corinth was started.
Now, the Apostle Paul had planted the church at Corinth, and so about five years after he planted the church, he's writing this letter to the church.
Now, you can imagine this church had been around for five years, okay? Much different than our church who's celebrating 79 years in October, okay? And so, this church was five years old, and a lot of new believers, a lot of what we would consider babes in Christ, and they had questions. And by the way, for some of you who have been in church a whole long time, when we have new people coming, this is the best place to ask questions. And I know where I grew up, it was kind of like you don't ask any questions, you just do what you were told.
This is the best place to ask questions because if they don't ask questions in here and they ask questions out there and get answers out there, that's not what we want. We want them to have answers from God's word, and that's what we're here to do. And so, the church at Corinth had a lot of real questions that new believers a lot of times would have. And so, Paul writes, and this is a very what I would call correctional. As well as an instructional letter to the church answering some real questions that they had.
One of the main questions that they've been asking, and we've been talking about this each and every week of our series, is this question pertaining to meat sacrificed to idols. And I understand that for you, you don't have to worry about this when you go to lunch here today. But the question that they were asking was: many of them were saved out of some of these Roman pagan practices. And what was happening there in Rome is that they would. They would kill an animal and they would take it to one of their Roman temples, not a Jewish temple, a Roman temple.
And they would take this animal and they would sacrifice the fat of the animal and they would offer it up to some of these fake gods like Zeus and some of the other gods that they worshiped, Little G. And what would happen is the meat that was left over from that sacrifice, they would take to some of their meat markets, if you would, and they would sell the leftover meat. And so, some of these church people that were in the church at Corinth, when they would go to lunch or they would have dinner, or they would get something for their family from the meat market, they were asking, Can I purchase this meat at the meat market if it was just sacrificed? To idols beforehand. And you had people on both sides of this in the church.
Some were saying, absolutely not. That meat is tainted. It was offered to idols. There is no way that we as Christians could ever partake. And then you had this whole other group of people that were saying, hey, the idols that this meat was offered to aren't even real anyway.
It doesn't matter. You're free in Christ. Eat as much of that meat as you possibly want to eat. And so you had both of these.
So they're asking these questions like, hey, Paul, what do we do? In the middle, what do we do with these questions that maybe the Bible doesn't have a scripture verse and a reference that we could go to that says, Thou shalt or thou shalt not about some of these what we would call gray areas of life. And in this section, really, chapters, you could go back, we started in chapter eight, but really chapters seven, eight, nine, and ten are all addressing how we handle. These types of issues. And as we come to chapter number 10, Paul is still talking about the same thing and about these middle ground issues and how we are supposed to deal with some of the differences that we have in church and some of the different preferences and stuff like that.
Paul, in chapter 10, he uses the history of Israel. As an example. He basically is saying in chapter 10, he wants us to learn. From Jewish history and see that through Jewish history, there is actually application for how we are to handle these type of middle ground issues. And so we're not going to read the entire chapter, but just giving you a little bit of a synopsis of verse 1 through 22, he's talking about Jewish history and you see things like this in verse 6.
They lusted after stuff from God. And he said, don't lust. In verse 6, they became idolatrous.
So don't be idolatrous. In verse 7. In Jewish history, they became immoral, verse 8.
So he says, don't be immoral as they were. In verse 9, they tested God.
So he says, don't test God. And then in verse 10, he says, Israel murmured, so don't murmur. And he summarizes as he's looking throughout Jewish history and specifically their time in those wilderness wandering years that you can read about back in Exodus when they left. Egypt and they wandered around in the wilderness. And some of these things happened.
You know, that they lusted, they became idolatrous, they became immoral, they tested God, they murmured. All of these different things happened while they were wandering around in the wilderness. And he's using a point to say that in these issues and how we relate to one another and how we deal with our freedom in Christ and our Christian liberty and different things like that, he's telling us to learn. From the nation of Israel. And then he summarizes really this whole section of the nation of Israel in verse number 12 of chapter 10.
You'll see it up on the screen. He summarizes it by saying this: that the Israelites, they thought that they could handle some of these things on their own, but they couldn't, which led to all of these different things. And he summarizes this when he kind of talks about the history of Israel. He says in verse 12, wherefore let him, just like Israel, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he Lest he fall. And here's what I'll tell you: some of these middle ground issues, like meat sacrifice to idols, some of you may think you can handle the things in the middle.
And what Paul's saying is that we must take heed because you You could still fall by the things that are in the middle. In other words, just like Jewish history, they thought they could handle some things, and they found out that they couldn't. And so, therefore, there is sometimes wisdom. And staying away from things that you even have liberty to partake in. Is what he's trying to say.
And so he goes on, and I'm going to get to the text. We're going to look at verses 23 through 33 today of chapter number 10. But as we jump into this, I want you to say, I mentioned this two weeks ago. There's like, you guys don't have to struggle when you go to lunch today with like, hey, you know, your conversation in the car when you go to like Texas Roadhouse after this, right? You're not going to be asking, like, can I eat this steak, you know, or can I eat this chicken?
I just don't know if this was offered up earlier to an idol. And so it's easy to look at this conversation that Paul's having with the church at Corinth and say, how in the world does this apply to us?
Well, I want you to know the scripture says that it is profitable for you. In other words, there's something you can learn here. And even though meat sacrificed to idols is not the thing that we necessarily are kind of, you know, on different opinions of, there's a lot of things in the middle that we struggle with that you have a conviction about that somebody else might not have a conviction about. How in the world do you handle that if there's not a direct scripture reference for how to deal with it? I mentioned a list a few weeks ago that I just kind of made up about these things.
Like, what are modern day issues? that we disagree on from time to time. That are like the early church and meat sacrificed to idols. Here's the list that I mentioned. I'm gonna mention it again because I think it'll help us as we get into verse 23.
Music Movies, tattoos, smoking, private school, public school, or homeschool, Target, alcohol, Starbucks, piercings, birth control, church dress, how you dress at church, movie theaters, face cards, Disney, video games, kids, cell phones, social media, and different things like that. You see, all of these different things, it's kind of like, hey, I disagree with somebody on something. I have a strong opinion and a strong conviction about something on here. And by the way, if you have something that I did not mention, you can add it to your own list, okay? But here's what I'll tell you.
There's a plethora of things that are kind of like, how do we handle it? Because I feel so strongly about it, but the person at the other end of the, maybe even the seat that you're sitting on. Feels totally different. Like, what are we supposed to do? And here in verses 23 through 33.
He's going to summarize. This idea. With this. God's glory. over self.
It's about God's glory. Over ourselves.
Now, let me remind you: in chapter 9, when he was talking about this, here's what he told us: it's about others. Over yourself. It's about thinking of the good of the people around you. over your preference or over your liberty. and your freedom.
And sometimes we got to think about others over ourselves. And then in chapter number nine. It was gospel. over ourselves. In other words, you should care more about the gospel than you do your right.
You should care more about the gospel than you do your preferences, right? You should care more about the gospel than those things.
Well, here in chapter number 10, as he continues this narrative about these things when it pertains to one another and how we disagree from time to time, he says it should be about God's glory. Over yourself. Here's what he says: verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 10. He says, all things are lawful for me. But all things are not expedient.
All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. In other words, what he's saying is: this: I might have freedom to do something, but it might not be beneficial for me. In other words, you might have all the freedom in the middle. Hey, I can do whatever I want, I can listen to whatever I want, I can do all these different things right in the middle. And you might have freedom to do so, but what he's saying is those things in the middle, it might not be beneficial, it might not be good for me.
There's some things that I have freedom to do that it's best that I not partake in. It's wise that I don't participate in. Verse 24. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth. In other words, what he's saying is this, my own position, my own preferences, my own liberty, let's not seek our own.
It's about the good of others. And then he goes on, verse 25. Whatever is sold in the shambles, that's referring to what I mentioned earlier, like the meat market or the supermarket or something. This meat that was sacrificed to idols just before they would take the leftover and they would sell it in the shambles in these markets. And he says, whatever is sold in the markets, that eat, asking no question for conscience's sake.
For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go, whatever is set before you, eat. Asking no question for conscience's sake.
So Paul's saying this: like, listen. It's okay. Like, you have the freedom to participate. You have the freedom to eat this meat in Christ. And so, if people invite you over, like, you have the freedom to do it.
Verse 28. But if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake, that showed it, and for conscience's sake, for the earth is the Lord in the fullness thereof. In other words, what he's saying is this: you have the freedom to do it, but then if you're hanging out with somebody else who has a conviction. About the same thing that you have freedom to do, and maybe your conscience says otherwise. He's saying this.
He's like, for the good of your brother or sister. Don't participate. He's saying, listen, for the good of somebody else, stay away from it because it should be about them. It should be about the gospel. It should be about his glory over.
Our personal preferences or our personal Right, verse 29: Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other. For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? And by the way, this is where legalism creeps in. This is Pharisaical, if you would, because here's what the Pharisees would do. They had standards out the wazoo, and so they kept every rule, every piece of the law, and different things like that.
So, what they would do is because they kept everything kind of, you know, they dotted every I, they crossed every T, what they would do is they would determine their spirituality based on their rules. based on their standards. Based on what they did or did not do. And what they would do is they would walk around and say, I don't do what that person does, so I must be more spiritual than them. I don't do what they do, so I must be closer to God than they do.
It'd be like this, because let's just be real, let's think about this in a practical application. It'd be like this: I listen to a certain type of music, and they listen to a different type of music, therefore, I must be more spiritual than them. Or, how about this? I dress a certain way to church, and they dress a different way to church, so therefore I must be more spiritual than them. I must be closer to God.
Than they are.
Now, are we speaking the language now? Because here's what I'll tell you: as a church kid, let's just be real. Isn't that how we feel sometimes? We equate spirituality and being close to God sometimes by what we do and what we don't do about these things in the middle. And so, Paul saying this is like, hey, you can't judge another person with these things that the Bible might not be clear on, like meat sacrificed to idols.
You can't judge another person if the conscience is different. That's that question. Why is my liberty judge of another man's conscience? He goes on in verse 30: For if I By grace, be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that which I give thanks? And then here's the here's the here's the key.
He says, verse 31, very famous verse that we learn. If you ever went to the wilds growing up, you quoted this before every meal, okay? And so, our kids and stuff, this is what we do. We go to the wilds. I went to the wilds growing up.
If you don't know what the wilds is, it's a camp. You're like, what is this place, right? And so it's a camp that you would go to, and before every single meal, we would quote verse 31. Here it is: Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all. to the glory of God.
Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God, even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit or mine own good. but the profit of many that they may be saved. that they may be saved. Here's the thing. It's really, I mean, he's talking, he gives us, he just kind of continues this narrative as we kind of work through.
So we've seen God, it's about others over ourselves. It's about the gospel over ourselves. And today it's about God's glory. Over. Here's really the big idea for you today.
Last week, Paul talked about the Christian life and he likened it to a race. Paul was a sports guy, and he constantly likened things to the games or to the races and different stuff like that. And so I'm going to carry on that theme that he mentioned. And here's what I will tell you: the race of the Christian life. is about God's glory, not our comfort.
It's about God's glory. Not your comfort. It's about God's glory. not your preferences. It's about God's glory.
Not your liberty. It's about God's glory, not your right. It's about God's glory, not your freedom. It's about God's glory, not your career. It's about God's glory.
Not about anything else. You see, the reason why we were created is to give him glory. That's the reason why you're here. That's the reason. That's your purpose.
I know we're all talking about like, where's our purpose in life? What's my purpose in life, depending on what age you are? And here's what I'll tell you: here's your ultimate purpose: it's not to make money, it's not to build a family, it's not any of those things. Here's what your ultimate purpose is: it's to give him glory in everything that you do. In everything that you do, it's to bring God glory.
And here he's saying that life is all about the glory of God. God. And when we look at this, he really kind of is summarizing this with this verse, verse 31. And he really is summarizing everything he just said. And there's a couple of points of what I read that I want to kind of just hone on in for just a few moments here today.
He expounds upon it. Here's the first thing.
So if you're taking notes, this might help you. God's glory. Should matter more. than our freedom. And that's hard.
So we always always like kind of some of our freedom, don't we? God's glory should matter more. than our freedom. Look back at verse 23. I read some of this earlier.
He says, All things are lawful for me.
Okay, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me. But all things edify Not. Here's what he's really saying. You might have.
Now, you know, I mentioned that modern list a second ago, and I was worried about making that list because I was afraid some of you were going to get onto me for that list, okay? But we've all had conversations about things on that list with other people, and you're kind of like, hey, what does this mean? How do we disagree? Like, what do we do? What's right, what's wrong?
And different things like this. I'm just going to be very clear with you, and I'm not going to tell you what you can and cannot. People probably are wondering where I stand on every one of those issues. And if you come up to me, I will give you my personal opinion, but I will give you grace for your personal opinion, okay? But here's what I'll tell you: you might have freedom to participate.
and everything I mention. You might have that freedom. In other words, it might be lawful for you. It might be good for you, but listen, let me tell you this. It might not be beneficial for you.
And that's something that you, through the Holy Spirit of God and the conscience that He has given you. You're going to have to figure out. Because what he's saying is this: that there's some things in the middle. that that we don't have a clear answer on That are lawful for us, that we have the freedom in Christ to participate on, and He's given you a conscience. He's given you the Holy Spirit of God.
You can make the decision of what you think is best for you or best for your family and things like that. And we shouldn't judge you for it. But here's what I'm gonna tell you, and I'm just gonna tell you as your pastor: there's some people who play with fire, though. There's some people who use those middle grounds issues and say, hey, listen, I can do this. I can participate in this.
I can do whatever I want. Nobody can tell me what to do. And I have the freedom. To participate in whatever I want to participate in. And what Paul's telling the church at Corinth is this, whatever.
He's saying this. It might not be beneficial for you. In other words, here's another way to say it. It might not be good for you. It might not be wise.
For you. I mentioned this point in week number one of our series. And I want to kind of mention it again because I think it'll help you. Immature believers. Look at kind of that middle ground.
All the things in the middle, and here's what they say. Do I have a right to do this? Is it permissible? Do I have the freedom to participate? All these things in the middle.
Nobody's going to tell me what to do. That's kind of what the immature believer says. But as you grow in Christ, here's what mature believers, how they approach the same situation, here's what they say: Does this have the ability to control me? Because if it has the ability to control me, it might not be wise for me to participate. It might not be beneficial.
For me to participate in whatever I even have the freedom. To do. And what he's saying here in verse number 23, because he also says at the end of this, all things edify not. He's saying that our choices in life On these middle ground type of issues, they should be grounded in how you make a decision. It should be grounded.
in the glory of Christ. and the edification of others. In other words, everything that I just List it off for you. Here's what I'll tell you. If you're kind of like, hey, what do I do?
And as a pastor, from time to time, I get asked, hey, is this okay? Is this okay? Is this okay? And things like that. And I'm not the Holy Spirit in your life.
But here's what I will tell you: is this: how you make those decisions, how you come to the conclusion should be based and rooted on two things. The glory of Christ and the edification of others. And that should drive how you make those decisions and those middle ground issues because true freedom. And Christ is living for his glory, not your own liberty. Like sometimes we think that true freedom is: man, I got, you know, I can do whatever I want, and I can live however I want, and I'm not under any rules anymore, and different things like that.
And here's what I'll tell you: Scripture would tell you that true freedom in Christ is more about living for Him and His glory than it is your own personal freedom. And so, what we learn from this text is this: God's glory should matter more to us. Than our freedom. Or you could say God's glory should matter more than your rights. If you find yourself saying, Nobody can tell me what to do, I can do whatever I want.
I don't have to live for them. I can make every decision that I want. You might be living for your freedom more than you are His glory. And what he's saying is, is this. God's glory should matter more.
Than your freedom. God's glory, number two, and I already kind of got into this, God's glory should matter more. Then you're right. God's glory should matter more to you than your rights. In verse 28, he says, But if any man say unto you, this is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eaten off for his sake, that showed it.
In other words, if somebody comes to you and says, Hey, this is tainted, this was offered to an idol, whatever, we shouldn't participate in. Hey, for the good of your brother or sister in Christ, or for the good of somebody else, for the sake of the gospel and the sake of the glory of Christ, hey, I should be willing to lay down. I might have the right to participate. I might have the right to eat this or whatever, but I'm going to lay it down for the good of somebody else. I'm going to lay down my right.
Because God's glory means more to me. God's glory means more. You say, Why is that? Paul, time and time again, this is what he was saying, if you remember in chapter 9. We looked at this last week.
He used his personal testimony. He said this to the church. He said, I have the right. To take money from the church.
Now, not in an unlawful, unbiblical way, but as a pastor, that's and a preacher, that's kind of how you know it's done. That's a biblical thing. That's not pastors saying this. No, that's how churches should support their pastor. And I'm grateful that we have that here.
But what he said to the church at Corinth is there were some people there that were questioning his apostleship, they were questioning if he really had the authority to say what he was trying to tell them. And here's what he said: he said, Me and Barnabas, we laid down, we have the right to take money from you, but we laid down that right for the good of something else, for the good of the gospel. Because if I took that money, there were people in the church who were going to judge us and say certain things about it. And so we are going to forsake that. For the good of the gospel, Paul laid down his rights.
For others, he laid down his rights for God's glory, and he laid down his rights for God. For the gospel to go forward. You see, here's the point. God's glory shines brightest. when we choose to surrender our rights for the good of others.
God's glory. God gets more glory when we choose to lay down our rights. for the good of somebody else.
So God's glory should matter more than our freedom. God's glory should matter more than our rights. You guys still with me? Can you say amen?
Some of you, you guys judge me for this sermon?
Okay, so listen, it's my liberty, and so not to.
So, and then number three. God's glory should matter more. Then our preferences. I'm not going to say anything about it. You want to go to point number four?
This one's where we struggle, right? God's glory should matter more, not only than my freedom, than my rights, but also my preferences. And here's what, you know, he says, verse 31: whether therefore you eat or drink. Or whatever you do. On those things in the middle.
Remember, we love this verse, but we forget the context in which it was written. Like I grew up quoting this before every meal. And I didn't realize all of the context of chapter 10. It's talking about my rights, talking about my freedom, it's talking about my preferences. And he says, whatever you do, whatever you choose to do with all those things in the middle.
We're not going to judge you for those things. 'Kay. It might not be best for you, and that's where we land on some of those things. But here's what I'll tell you: we're not going to judge you on those. But he said this: whatever you choose to do with all of those things like meat sacrificed to idols, whatever you choose to watch, whatever you choose to listen to, whatever you choose to participate in.
Do all. to the glory. of God. Do all to the glory of God. of God.
You see, the goal and purpose of our lives It's not about comfort. It's not about convenience. It's about his glory. It's about his glory. It's about giving him glory in all things.
And here's what I'll tell you: as a church guy, you know, I've been around church my entire life. And now, as a pastor, it's amazing. Here's what I'll tell you: is this, is that predominantly, and listen, I want you to understand this, so hear me correctly, all right? Don't misinterpret what I'm saying. I talk to a lot of people about our church.
And when I was in Florida, I talked about our church to lots of people. And here's what I'll tell you: and this is where we go wrong. We look at church. As consumers Like, that's really it. And I get it that we do that.
And we want everything to be good. We want the music to be good. We want to be greeted. We want to be welcomed. We want our kids to enjoy church.
We want, you know, there to be things for my children. We want all of these different things, right? We want it to sound good. We want the preacher to sound good. All these kinds of things, right?
Well, you missed it there, okay, if that's what you're looking for. But here's what I'm going to tell you: we look at church as consumers. I talk to a lot of people. Why'd you leave our church?
Well, there wasn't this, there wasn't this, there wasn't this, whatever. And here's all I'm going to tell you, or whatever, is that a lot of times we look at church to make sure it matches the cookie cutter Christian that we're looking for. And if it doesn't match every single thing that I like, every preference that I have, if church is not filled with a bunch of people that look at every single issue the exact same way that I look at it, then I'm going to go find another church that does if that one doesn't fit me. And what you have is a lot of people that go from church to church looking for that. And here's where we've missed the mark.
is because we've made church. We've made our relationship with Christ. We've made our spiritual journey all about our preferences and our traditions, and we've forgotten the most important thing. It has nothing to do with those things. It has everything to do with giving them glory.
It has everything to do with giving him glory. And so when I talk to people and I'm like, oh, you left our church for this, and they've left that church because of this, and they're now in whatever, I'm just kind of like, man, I really wish that that person would understand that the church is not about them. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's not about anybody in here.
It's not about our staff. It's not about our deacons. It's not about any of that. Here's what it is: it's about giving him glory in all things. In all things.
And that should trump everything that you think about church. In other words, They sang a song we don't like. But if God got glory, fool. Was it worth it? Absolutely.
They did something that I didn't like. Pastor said something I didn't like. But did God get glory? Yes. Was it worth it?
Then yes. And that's the point. And sometimes we got to really evaluate. And examine ourselves to see are we in it for our own self? Are you here because this church fits every preference that you have?
Are you here because of tradition? Are you here because of rituals? Are you here because your mom and dad brought you? Are you here for all these different things? Or are you here?
And young person, listen to me. I get it. I grew up, my parents dragged me to church. I get it, okay? But listen, you can still, as a young person, understand that church is about his glory, not yourself.
It's about his glory, not your preferences. It's about his glory, not your rights. It's about his glory, not your freedom. Listen, there's a lot of churches that people look at church as like, man, I've been here 50 years. I've been here my whole life.
Doesn't that count for something? Hey, listen, I'm going to honor your faithfulness all day long, but I'm also going to remind you that I don't care how long you've been here, 50 years or five weeks, it's not about you. It's about him. And it's by his glory. And it's about the good of others.
And it's about the gospel. And that's the point. And that's what we have to learn. It's all about his glory, not ourselves. And what he's saying is, is this, every decision...
Every choice. that we make. It has the potential to point people in his direction. And so, therefore, you might have the liberty to do things in the middle. You might have the liberty, but if it's pointing people away from Christ, it might not be beneficial.
for you to participate in.
So my question is this, as we wrap this up. How much? Does God's glory really matter to you. And usually, here's the best way that I can tell you. 'Kay.
How you answer that question is directly related. to what you are willing to give up. for his glory to go forward. When we ask the question, what does God's glory really mean to you? The answer is what are you willing to give up?
for that. Are you willing to lay down a right that you might have? Because you feel like not participating would give him more glory? Are you willing to lay down your freedom to do something in the middle? Because God's glory means more to you than your freedom to participate?
Are you willing to lay down your preference on something? And we all have preferences. I don't want you to feel like I'm making you feel guilty for it. We all got them. I got them.
You got them. We all do, okay? But I hope that my preferences and my traditions don't become more to me than God's glory. And I know that that's true of your heart as well, but what we're willing to give up for the glory of God will determine. How much his glory is worth.
Really worth it to you. It's God's glory. over our self. Can we pray together? Um
