Food Offered to Idols

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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We're back in 1 Corinthians chapter 8. And we'll be exploring a few different things today.

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So again, so welcome everyone. It's good to see everyone again. So just a couple notes before we actually get into the passage formally here.

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It is a little bit of a technical passage. There are things that we're going to look at. And for the sake of time, we won't have time to look at all ideas.

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But we are going to look at a breadth of many because there is a lot of technical aspects to this passage.

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And there are things that we're going to look at that might cause some kind of, what might seem like an apparent paradox in the

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Word of God. But there are solutions and there are answers to these things. So we'll look at those things as we look, as we go forward here.

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And the reason that this is so, why this connects us so much is because it is a common experience that every single person and every carnal person here, the wood, has an experience of and that is food.

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We all experience food. We all have the shared knowledge, the shared experience about food because we are of fleshy nature.

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The average person consumes about two to three meals a day. You multiply that by 365 days a year and the number of years that a person on average lives, you come to realize that we eat a lot.

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We humans, we consume a lot, especially in North America. Actually, we consume probably more than most people on Earth. And it might seem like that's what we do probably a lot more than we should.

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And if you're like anything like in our family, in our house, sometimes it seems like you're eating a lot all the time. So that is something that is common to every single one of us.

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So we can understand that there is, there's something more important about food than maybe we might first imagine or we might first understand that.

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But food at the very basic level does one thing. We need it to survive. That is common amongst all living creatures here on this

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Earth. But there's obviously more to that and that's what we're going to be looking at today. Like I said, very fortunately for us, we're very blessed here to be able to, to be able to enjoy as much provision that the

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Lord has provided for us. But there are circumstances where that does conflict or we might have issues with the kind of food that we're going to consume.

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So we're going to look into that. But before we do that, we're going to get into somewhat of a mental image or a mental exercise.

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So if you guys, maybe the kids, if you guys want to close your eyes. You guys can. I won't judge you if you don't. But I want us to imagine for a moment that you have been invited to a dinner party by a friend.

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So maybe, like I said, maybe kids, you've been invited to a party of some kind. That might apply here as well.

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So a party of some, like a birthday party. Let's say a dinner party, a fancy dinner party with your family.

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Imagine that you, as you arrive at this dinner party, that you arrive on time, everyone's there, it's a busy, it's a bustling environment, and there's lots of food laid out in front of you.

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There's lots of food, and it looks delicious, it smells great, and you are very hungry. As you go to sit down to eat, as you're about to go to partake of the supper that lies before you, you become aware that the food before you has been provided by a religious group following some kind of ceremony or some kind of religious purpose or something to that degree.

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So the food has been provided by a religious group. The following questions might immediately come to mind.

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Can I eat of this? What will my friend think?

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Remember, you've been invited, right? You've been invited by a guest. You're a guest here. Someone has invited you, has extended that hand for you to come forward.

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Will they be offended? What does this do for them? Will the Lord look down upon this?

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What does he think about the food in front of me? Am I allowed to consume this? What's going to happen if I do? What happens if I don't?

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These are all really valid questions. All of them are all valid questions. And if it's not something that has come up in regular day life, then consider yourself blessed.

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But this is something that we ought to have an answer for. We should know what to do in the circumstances like this.

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And it is something that we do need to have an answer for. And actually, that is exactly what we're going to be learning about today.

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What do we do with food concerning idols and the source of the food? And to whom is this food for?

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We're going to consider all these questions. Again, so my hope is by the end of today, that by the end of our time here, when we look at the

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Scripture that we look at and we finish our time here, we will have this, a rightful understanding about our relationship towards food, but more importantly, how the

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Lord corrects our view about how and what we eat. So that is our intention for today.

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But before that, let us seek the Lord in prayer. Dear Father, Lord, we take many things for granted.

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Lord, for many of us, we do not worry about our provision, Lord. We worry not about where our next meal shall come from,

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Lord. Father, we know that you provide all things in abundance and goodness, Lord. And Father, sometimes we neglect,

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Lord. We become ignorant of the realities of some of the consequences of our actions, Lord. Especially concerning food,

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Lord. Something that is common to us all, Lord. We've all consumed food here, Father. We've all consumed it.

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And we've all been thankful for your provision, Lord. But often, Lord, in that provision, we become somewhat arrogant,

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Lord. And we truly don't know the consequences of our actions, Lord. We don't consider every single facet of how it is we consume this food.

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So Father, I ask, Lord, that you correct this, Father. That by the end of today, Lord, that we would have a rightful understanding of not just what we eat, but how we eat,

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Lord. How you are honoured in that or dishonoured in that. Lord, that our consciences would be calibrated to your word.

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And that we would have, again, a rightful understanding of what food looks like as a Christian. Father, we pray that this would be done, not just for your glory, but for the glory of the church and your saints,

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Lord. That they would be built up in love. So Lord, we ask these things in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

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Amen. Okay, so like I said, if you guys can turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. We're picking up,

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I'll be speaking to the whole chapter today, like Shane said. So, like I said, we'll take some big chunks of Scripture.

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Like I said, we'll parse it out and we'll come to understand what Paul is trying to get at in chapter 8. But as we turn there, like I said,

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I want to consider the mental exercise. We just kind of embarked on this little mental adventure we just did.

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It's likely that many of us haven't gone into a situation like the one I described. If that's the case, then praise the

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Lord you've been spared from maybe some awkward conversations, or maybe a guilty conscience.

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This is not something that occurs very much in our society. But we have to understand that this was something that very much so affected the church in Corinth.

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If we remember the geographical and the historical context of 1

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Corinthians, this is a church that is smack dab in the middle of pagan worship and idolatry. With many temples, ceremonies, and different idols and forms of worship, oftentimes food was something that was used at the center or the forefront of these ceremonies or these festivals that would take place.

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So again, we're looking back at just the context of 1 Corinthians. We have to look back also at the context of the people and the people that it is

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Paul was writing to. Remember that these were humble people. These were humble people of humble means.

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Looking back at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, it says, For consider your calling, brothers.

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Not many of you were wise according to world standards. Not many of you were powerful. Not many of you were of noble birth.

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So these are humble people. And one of the challenges of living in these circumstances is that sometimes you truly didn't know where you would get your food.

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Provision was a lot more of a difficult question than it might be in our day -to -day life today. And often, some of those options that were available to the church in Corinth were options that were perhaps leftovers or unused parts of sacrifices from different parts of different pagan worship in Corinth.

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So we have to understand that this was a reality for the church in Corinth.

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This was almost a daily occurrence depending on the brother or sister that it affected. But this was something that everyone was coming into contact with.

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This was, again, causing another rift in this young church. We've looked at so many. But like this, like many of the other ones, this too was causing a schism.

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And rightfully so. The Corinthians knew, perhaps somewhat naively, or maybe immaturely,

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I should say, that there was more to food than just the consumption. But they were wrestling with this idea, but they all knew the power of God and the salvation through Jesus.

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So the question kept coming up. So what's the right answer to these problems? Do I eat or do

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I not eat? What's the right answer in these circumstances? Can I purchase this food at the market that has been used or unused from a leftover ceremony?

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Or am I forsaking God in this? And there was a body of opinions.

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They all asserted the power and the authority of God, but there was a lot of divide about this.

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So again, to answer that question, we're just going to look at the text. And we're going to look at what Paul writes to this church in Corinth and how it is that he addresses some of these concerns.

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Like I said, 1 Corinthians chapter 8. And while we read, the ESV does it...

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I appreciate the way the ESV renders this chapter in the

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Bible, because I want us to note some of the grammar. I don't want to be too much of a stickler for quotation and grammar, but it really does reveal the kind of the spirit and the tone with which

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Paul writes. So I want us to look there real quick. So I want us to look at verses 1 to 3, and it says this.

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Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

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If anyone imagines that he knows something, he knows not yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves

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God, he is known by God. The Greek word used for knowledge in this chapter is the word gnosis.

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I don't know if you guys are familiar with this word, the Greek word gnosis. And it means a deeper, more perfect knowledge of this religion, such as belongs to the more advanced.

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I don't know if you've noticed some of the scare quotes I'm throwing in here, but you can kind of see why

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Paul uses this word and how it is as he's using it. If anyone is a fan of sarcasm, like me,

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I love sarcasm, then you can see this is exactly what Paul is doing here. Looking at verses 1 to 2, we see, as the

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ESV has rendered it, there's quotations, because Paul isn't chastising them for their knowledge of God.

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Everyone here knows that knowledge about the deeper things of God is a good thing. And we should be aspiring to read and to learn more of the word and become more acquainted with the word that the

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Lord has provided us. That's not a bad thing. So I don't want to leave with any idea that I'm condemning or that Paul is condemning these

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Corinthians for having a high view of the Scriptures or a high view of knowledge. Again, it's not the knowledge.

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Paul loves these believers and he wants them to grow in the knowledge and the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ. In another letter to the

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Colossians, he writes this in chapter 1. You guys don't have to turn there, but Colossians chapter 1, verse 9 to 14, he says this.

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And again, note the love with which Paul writes to this church and what he says. Starting at verse 9, he says this.

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And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

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So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.

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Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience and joy, giving thanks to the

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Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and has transferred to us the kingdom of his beloved

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Son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. So just note the love with which he's writing to the

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Colossian church there. Paul has not ceased to pray for them. He loves these believers. They're brothers and sisters in Christ.

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He loves them. And looking at verse 9 specifically, it says that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

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Paul isn't chastising knowledge. He isn't chastising it at all. What Paul is chastising here is an attitude about knowledge and what that knowledge has driven this church in Corinth to do.

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It is a knowledge that has not been done in love. It has actually been puffing up. It has bloated these

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Corinthians. And this knowledge that they're so fond of and that they pursue has actually built up a sense of arrogance and pride within them that is not centered in love.

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And it's actually puffed up these believers and caused scorn amongst and a schism between them.

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And that is what Paul is chastising. It's not the knowledge, but what they are doing with that knowledge. Again, this higher knowledge that some of the

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Corinthians possessed was leading to arrogance. Again, remember, although the knowledge is good, Proverbs 1 .7

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says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

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So it was the lack of fear that was causing this arrogance, this pride that was assuming the position in Corinth, that was causing the schisms about what do we do with this knowledge, how it is that we conduct ourselves with food.

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So again, it wasn't puffing up. Sorry, this knowledge was puffing up. It wasn't building up in love. So continuing in our chapter here, looking up, continuing in verse 4, you have to understand, again, this sarcasm continues.

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Again, if you guys are a fan of sarcasm, I love sarcasm. It practically oozes out of the page. In chapter 8, it is so pungent.

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But Paul really is getting at a point here. He's driving at a point. And we have to note this. Reading verses 4 and 6, it says,

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Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no god but one.

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Notice the scare quotes again. For although there may be so -called gods in heaven and on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one

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God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one

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Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. So Paul states something that should be abundantly clear to believers.

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Anything offered to any other god is useless. Why? Because there are no other gods.

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This is clear to all believers. We all believe this and we all know this to be true. At least we ought to.

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The Bible makes no apologies about the supremacy of our God. It really doesn't. If you've read the

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Old Testament, you know that the Lord is very clear about His supremacy and His dominion over all creation.

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He makes no apologies and He ought not to because He is the Lord. He is almighty. He is all -powerful.

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He does not hide that fact. Actually, and furthermore, the

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Bible goes on to mock other forms of worship. It goes to mock other idols and so -called gods in the

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Old Testament. And I don't know if any of you are familiar with it, but I found no better example to illustrate this point than the story of Elijah versus the prophets of Baal.

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Who here is familiar with that? Just a show of hands. Okay, well maybe some of the kids. Any of the kids, are you guys familiar with the story of Elijah versus the prophets of Baal?

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Okay, well maybe I won't call on you guys just yet. You guys stay put for a minute. Because I have a couple points to make here.

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So for the sake of time, it's a big chapter. We're going to 1 Kings chapter 18. Like I said,

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I won't have an opportunity to really delve into all the nuance and intricacies here. But at some point,

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I highly suggest you go and perhaps throughout sometime this week that you revisit this chapter and read it and just note the supremacy of God.

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Note His all -sufficiency, His power, especially in light of this big spectacle that takes place here.

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It really is pretty crazy, but it is an incredible story.

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And it really does illustrate the power of our Lord. He makes no apologies and He doesn't back down about who

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He is. So just to summarize quickly, Elijah the prophet in this story confronts the prophets of Baal.

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Elijah is one person. I found that interesting because he confronts the prophets of the demon

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Baal who happen to be 450 in number. So imagine Elijah in his circumstance and there's a 450 who oppose him.

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So Elijah comes forth and he proposes a challenge towards these prophets. And he says, and the challenge is this, that they will erect two altars.

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On both altars they will have sacrificed a bull and they will have prepared the sacrifice.

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And whoever God is mightier will light the altar independent of what man does.

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So their prophets stand in this corner, Elijah stands in the other. And they were to have their altars lit through praise and worship alone to their gods.

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And this was this big challenge, this big, it's almost like this big spectacle that was about to take place.

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So you can imagine this roused some curiosity and some people come forward and they want to see, you know, whose

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God stands authoritative? Whose God stands more supreme in all of this? Again, just by numbers alone, the prophets of Baal begin very smugly.

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They're very smug and they're very arrogant. But as they begin to realize, as time goes on and the hours draw, that smugness turns to fear and turns to desperation.

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This challenge that was once so easy for them to look at and say, well, we have this in the bag, has now turned into somewhat of a nightmare and they become more desperate and their forms of worship become more perverse.

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And yet nothing, nothing happens. You see, again in the story, 450 prophets and yet not a single chaff is lit.

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Nothing is lit on this fire, on this altar. And then their whole spectacle ends in verse 29.

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1 Kings chapter 18 verse 29 says, And as midday passed, they raved on until their time of the offering of oblation.

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But there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention.

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So despite their best efforts, despite 450 strong, at least initially, nothing.

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Hours have passed and nothing has come up of this fire. So then comes Elijah's turn. Elijah has been sitting there waiting patiently, mocking them actually in the midst of all of this.

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He waits patiently his turn. And so the kids who haven't actually done, what do you think

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Elijah does with his offering? So imagine for a minute, imagine over here for a minute, that an altar is set.

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There is a sacrifice ready to be consumed by fire. And it has just been sitting there. What do you think

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Elijah? Okay, you hold on. I feel like you know the answer. But what do you think Elijah does here?

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Elise, do you have any idea? He does pray.

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But before that, what do you think, if he's going to make a point, do you think he does anything with that offering?

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What do you think would be something that you wouldn't do if you're trying to make a point? You're going to try to make that thing worse.

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What do you think he does with that? Well, it does get there. Exactly that.

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So he comes up. And as the story goes, Elijah calls servants, witnesses to bring forth big jars of clay.

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I would presume they're pretty big jars of clay. Multiple servants have to carry four jars of clay. And what they do to this offering is they douse this offering.

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If you're going to make a point and you're trying to light something, the last thing you want to do is get any fire or any kind of flint or anything, any wood wet.

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There's nothing worse than wet wood. That is useless. And yet that's exactly what he does. He draws these four big jars of water and he commands servants to pour it on top.

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And then what does he do? He does it again. So there's four jars.

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They bring four more. And they pour it on top again. The water is overflowing at this point. What happens then?

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Any guesses? He does it again. He does it a third time.

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Twelve jars in total have been brought forward. And the water, like the kid said, is overflowing.

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It is in the trenches. This offering is now drenched. If there was any hope of lighting this fire, it is no longer there.

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Unless it is done by the will of God. So then what does Elijah do? You said it earlier.

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No, he said something after. He prays. That's right, he prays to the Lord. And what happens? In an instant, the whole thing goes up.

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The whole thing goes up in flames. And it is so hot that all the water that was running in the trenches, that was drenched within that offering on the altar, in the wood, in everything, has been consumed.

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Evaporated. No chance whatsoever. The Lord has no equal here.

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And he makes it so clear to these people that there is no other equal.

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It is God and God alone. So the question becomes, okay, so then what do we do with this?

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We have an Almighty God. How does this apply to us? Well, for those of us who believe, for those of us who are in Christ, we have this gnosis, we have this knowledge, that Jesus Christ has redeemed us all of sin.

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However, we can't let this gnosis, this knowledge, right, we can't let this knowledge puff us up. We can't let it get the better of us, although there is the temptation and there is the freedom, and we'll get to that freedom.

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There is the temptation to be puffed up. We must not let that be the case. So for an application, just as we look at this first portion of Scripture, we can apply this to our hearts at this very moment.

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Allow God to humble us and to love one another. That is the easiest application that we can take from this very moment.

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Romans 12 .10 says this, To love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

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While self -love of knowledge, of conceit, of arrogance, puffs up and keeps us looking inwards and makes us arrogant.

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We're going to look at, we're going to talk about that inward looking and issues of the heart in just a little bit. True love, on the other side, by contrast, values other people's before you and puts the needs of others higher than your own.

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There's true love that must take place, and God is the only one that allows us to do that.

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So allow God to do that and take care to love one another humbly.

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Charles Hodge, a theologian from the 1900s, said it better than I could, so I'm just going to quote him.

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If they have no more than knowledge, they are incapable of judgment, for knowledge alone will make them conceited.

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But if love is there, love is concerned, love is concerned not with personal advantage, but with others.

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And we'll focus on this in the next point. It builds up. Love builds up. Although we are going to see how we love one another in the context of food, because again, we have to go back to what

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Paul is addressing here, is the idols and food, sacrificed idols. We can apply this passage, and we can apply this point to our lives immediately, that we ought to live our lives outdoing one another in humility, being humble, not letting this knowledge puff us up, otherwise arrogance creeps in.

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Okay, so again, with the idea of building one another up in love, we'll move on to our second point. So again, if you're looking at your notes, the second point, again, is serve one another.

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It's a pretty self -explanatory point, but there's nuance here, and we need to look at that. So if you guys are taking notes, we're on the second point right now.

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Okay, so looking at, going back to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, we have to look at what happens in the second half of this chapter.

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Paul continues to expand on the idea that love should be used to build up fellow saints. If there's shared knowledge, as believers, it is this, and I'm just going to quote verse 6.

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It is that there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are all, sorry, from whom are all things, and for whom we exist, and one

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Lord, one Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we exist. The question is, how is this knowledge being misused?

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So if this is the good knowledge of the gospel, that we are in Jesus Christ, and this is a good thing, how is this being misused?

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Verses 7 to 8 contextualize this for us, and give us some context as to how it is this is taking place.

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So again, back to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 7, it says, however, not all possess this knowledge, again, the knowledge we just talked about, but some, through former association with idols, eat food as is really offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled.

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Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

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Those being young in the Lord, perhaps showing some immaturity, didn't have this knowledge, the only higher knowledge that can exist, the eminency of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ, at the forefront of their minds.

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And this is relatable. I think we can all relate to this point, because in one sense or another, we are all on this path together towards Jesus.

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We're all on the same path. The end destination is the same as our Lord and Savior. We're all on that same path.

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I, for example, I might be ahead of some others on this trail, by God's grace, by God's grace, but I am woefully, infinitely far off of where I want to be.

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We're all on this path together. While some are a little bit farther along than others, some are much farther along in their journey of sanctification.

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We're all on this path together. With this in mind, I think we can see how some, perhaps some younger believers, some more immature in the

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Lord, some just much younger in the Lord, how they would believe that if they were taking food offered to an idol and consuming it, they were taking away

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God's power. This is what the Bible means by a defiled conscience.

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That immaturity that the believer was partaking in, the sufficiency and the power of Jesus Christ was lessened by their consumption of food.

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So, I'll just say that again. So the immaturity of the believers was causing a defilement of their conscience.

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That by consuming the food, consuming something bought in the market, offered to another god of some kind, was defiling their conscience and reducing, in their minds, reducing the power of God in their life.

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What the reality is, God is not lessened. Again, food does not commend us to God.

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It's interesting because we used to talk about this a lot with our students at the university, if you guys are familiar. We used to draw,

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Shane would draw a graph on the whiteboard, and the first thing he would say to them is, you already have the

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A+. You already have your 4 .0 as you enter the class. There's nothing you can do to reduce that, but enjoy the content.

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And this was a conversation that would baffle the students because they worked really hard for their grades, and they found it really difficult that, how can you just give someone something like that?

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Like, we work really hard for our marks, and I want to work hard for this 4. But the reality is, those immature in Christ would have seen such an obstacle, such a situation, and thought that the power of Jesus Christ was being lessened by their actions, when that is not true.

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Again, Paul refutes this idea that eating of food brings us any closer to God.

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Positionally, food does nothing for our souls. Positionally, in terms of our salvific grace, it does nothing for our souls.

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Again, food does not affect God's righteousness in our lives. However, there are caveats because notice what happens in the rest of the chapter from 9 to 13 here.

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Paul does something very interesting. Paul makes the argument about what we ought to do versus what we are allowed to do.

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This might be something more relevant today than perhaps any time in recent history. He brings up this argument of what we are allowed to do versus what we ought to do.

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In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 12, he's referenced this already. He says this, All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

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I like the word expedient here. Other translations render the word expedient, which means to bear one another in struggle and to bear one another in love.

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Because we are in community. We are a fellowship. We are a church. And not all things are helpful to every single one of us.

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Speaking to today's climate politically, of course, the conversation of a person's rights and freedoms has reached somewhat of a fever pitch.

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You'd be living under a rock if you haven't heard of it. It would seem that as each passing week goes on, we are confronted with yet another challenge that could serve to undermine our rights, which does concern us, and it should.

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And although these conversations should continue to be had, and they will no doubt continue to be had in the coming weeks and months, and however long it is that the

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Lord has for this in mind, this isn't what Paul's talking about. And actually what Paul is talking about is a lot more profound.

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What Paul intends to correct here is a conversation of rights and freedoms that is more profound that no man nor demon can take away.

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This is something that we are afforded as Christians. And sometimes we forget how profound and how beautiful this is.

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Taking into account other people's consciences, in Jesus we are afforded a very different right. Something unavailable to anybody else.

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In Romans 14, thank you, Shane, for reading that for us. It's providential, truly, that we read the whole chapter because that does lessen the load as to how much

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I have to go into here. But Paul, again, addresses this issue of rights and the defiling of consciences of brothers.

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So in chapter 14, I'm only going to look at a couple verses, and I really want to hone in on a couple. So let's quickly look at verse 14.

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Well, let's start at 13 for reference, and then we'll read. So again, if you guys are turning with me to Romans chapter 14, in verse 14 it says this,

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Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

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I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.

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So just to state the fact again, there is nothing unclean before the Lord. The food, the provision that the Lord provides is good.

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There's nothing unclean about it. Again, the sacrificing to idols is a waste of time because idols don't exist, other gods don't exist.

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God makes that very clear, and we don't have to have an issue of conscience individually about that. However, this is not about that.

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This is not about our individual freedoms. Paul's talking about something even greater than that. If you read, if we continue to read here, it says in the rest of verse 14,

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But it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.

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By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.

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For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

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And whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding.

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And the point is this, brothers. The point Paul is making in this second half of chapter 8 is this.

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That real freedom is not the freedom to eat of anything, even though that is permissible. It is, the real freedom is that we are allowed, we have the privilege, the opportunity to abstain for one another, for the sacrificial building and loving of one another.

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So I'll say that one more time. The real freedom is abstaining for the sacrificial love of one another.

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In terms of application, this is kind of a hard passage to find application for, but immediately upon reading this, I thought about hospitality, especially in today's climate.

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Although it's becoming even more difficult than it has in recent history to be able to be hospitable and loving towards people, this shouldn't dissuade us from finding ways of serving one another.

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We shouldn't be deterred or be discouraged from doing it. Actually, we should be doing it more. In particular, this is an area that, as I was reading,

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I was highly convicted of. As we grow as people, as a church, as a body of believers, who love one another and serve one another, how often do we consider our dietary convictions of our fellow saints?

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Genuinely, how often do we consider that as people come over, as we invite people, as we host people? Do we consider them in terms of what they eat?

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Are their consciences defiled? Do we have consciences that are sensitive to other people coming in through the door as we offer them things?

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If a fellow believer guest comes into your home and feels convicted, for example, not to eat bacon or even red meat, for example, for the sake of their conscience, do we love them enough to abstain for a time from those things in exchange for sacrificially serving those individuals?

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And I want us to think about that. Again, this is somewhat of a question, of a probing question. I want us to consider, do we love our brother and sister enough to abstain from things for a short time, especially in issues of food?

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If someone were to say, you know, I cannot eat bacon, brother, because I don't, it would defile my conscience before the

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Lord. Do we love them enough to do the same, to join, to bear with them? After all, the physical body is temporary.

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It does not last forever. These are tents made of flesh and they will not persist.

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However, the righteous fruit of serving one another in true Christian love, that lasts forever.

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And brothers and sisters, that is a freedom only available to the Christian, despite political parties, despite who is in power, what has been taken away.

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We can always be hospitable and we have the freedom to serve one another up in love. That is something that no other person can claim.

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Only those Christians who say, we love our brother and sister, I am abstaining for their very good, for their very upbuilding, to not puff them up, not puff myself up.

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No one else can say that. That is true freedom. So as we continue to navigate, again, just an application, we continue to navigate this

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COVID world with regulations and mandates and whatever. Let's not neglect

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Christian hospitality, true Christian hospitality in matters of food and beyond, as we continue to build one another up in the love of Jesus Christ.

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So that's one thing we can do right off the bat as we leave here today. We can learn to be more hospitable. Again, that is something that I'm convicted of and something that I can do better of.

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For those of you paying attention, that's the end of the chapter eight. You might say, well, okay, so what's next? Is that it?

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Well, no, but not yet anyways. The point three I want to get to is actually a little bit, it might seem somewhat of a paradox, but before I get into any of that, before I kind of hit you with the more technical side of what our passage looks like today,

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I want to share with you just a short story about our campus ministry.

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I brought it up earlier, but this came up in mind as I was preparing for this. Many of you know that Shane, myself, and some others here were involved with the campus ministry at McEwen for a couple of years.

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It was a real blessed time to be able to go to a university campus and open up the

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Bible on Friday nights with believers. It really is a blessing. And again, I give thanks to the Lord that I was able to partake.

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I'm praying that the seeds sown in that ministry continue to grow and bear righteous fruit in the lives of those who are able to come.

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And it was one Bible study in particular, I can't remember the context or what we were studying, but I think we were nearing the end of the study.

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And I remember one of our more astute, probably one of our more, I don't want to say cynical because that's not the word

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I'm looking for, but astute is probably the best word I can use. Students came up to the class as a whole or the group and he asked this question.

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And I want us to think about this. And as only universities can ask, I guess, or university students can ask, does the

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Lord care about what color pen I use? And that was an interesting question.

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I mean, I still remember it to this day and it seems somewhat inconsequential, doesn't it? I mean, that's probably the last thing we probably think about in terms of, what color ink does the

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Lord care about? Is it blue or black? Which one honors God more? It's kind of an odd question. And to be fair, it left, like I said,

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I still, it was a good question because I still remember it to this day. And maybe I'm wondering, does he really care about what pen do

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I use? Again, the color ink is probably the last thing on our minds. But again, the

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Lord sees and weighs all our actions and we are told to do all to the glory of God. So the question is, does he really care?

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I don't know. Maybe I'll ask the kids. What do you guys think? Does he care? What color pencil crayon do you use?

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What color? Does anyone think he does care? Maybe?

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I don't know. It's an interesting question. And the answer is, well, it depends.

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Taking notes from our passage today, Paul starts really practically, right? Like he starts talking about food.

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Something, it's a shared experience amongst all, not just believers, but all living things, right?

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We all consume to eat food because we must do it to survive. Paul answers in many places in the

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Bible. Another place he talks about this is in 1 Timothy chapter four, verse four. And he says, So the simple act of eating food brings us no closer to God, nor does it drive us away from him.

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So again, it starts really practical. It starts with food. But then Paul does something else. He broadens this out.

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He takes a step back and has us look at a bigger portion. He says, So it's no longer just my own situation about whether I'm hungry or not.

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Now I'm considering the consciousness of those around me. Will I defile them by consuming what it is that's laid before me on my plate of food?

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Or can I take this opportunity to build them up in love? Let's remember that we didn't get a chance to look into it as thoroughly, but in Romans 14 in chapter eight that we just looked at, it says that Christ died for these brothers and sisters and their consciences.

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Christ died for them and their consciences. We have to take that as a whole. Therefore, we should love these people, our brothers and sisters, as people that Jesus Christ is willing to die for.

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If Jesus Christ is willing to die for them, it does lay the question about I can at least abstain from food, can't

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I? And this is where the third and final point is made. As we turn just a little bit, a couple chapters down to 1

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Corinthians chapter 10, and it's this. If we're going to model our lives according to what the Bible instructs, we must also take another step back.

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So again, taking another step back and looking at the bigger picture and realize that all the matters that we're talking about are all concerning matters of the heart.

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And I'll take it one step forward, what we idolize, what becomes the idol of our hearts. So like I said, looking at just a couple chapters forward,

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I'll turn your attention to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 14 to 23.

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I won't preach someone else's sermon on chapter 10. I think that there's too much left unsaid for me to just gloss over, for us to ignore this chapter, even from what

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I've said today. But there are things that we can glean from it as we look at this chapter. There's a lot of things we can learn from it.

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And we will. Sorry, I lost my place here. So looking at verses 16 to 17, specifically, this should be something that's familiar to us, all of us here.

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I mean, we've all at least been witnesses of this. Starting in verses 16, chapter 10, it says, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

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The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one bread.

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These verses remind us that we partake of the Lord's Supper. And those that do, we are participants in the one body of Jesus Christ.

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And that's profound. And that's something that really every time we go to step up to have the Lord's Supper, should be at the forefront of our minds.

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We are partaking with Him. We are a nation of saints, a nation of priests in holy communion with Him.

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If the point isn't clear enough, he goes even farther in verse 18 to compare us to the priests that were privileged and blessed to enter or to partake of the sacrifice that were offered to Him in the atonement.

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And all the different laws that would require sacrifices for the atoning of sin in the Old Testament, the priests partook of those.

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And they were blessed to be able to, although they had no right to do so. Those are to God and to God alone for the sin of the people.

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Paul makes the point that this is as grave a matter as this, the Lord's Supper. We are of one body.

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Verse 18, consider the people of Israel are not those who eat the sacrifices, participants in the altar.

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I'll read a little bit more. What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything?

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No. I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God.

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I do not want you to be participants with demons. And that's where we're going to park for just a couple more minutes.

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Like I said, I thank you for your attentiveness because there's a lot of technical stuff here. And again, if we had more hours in the day,

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I would be here to really break each and every single verse down. But reading verses 19 to 20, once again, especially in light of what we just read in chapters, chapter eight of 1

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Corinthians, what do I imply then that food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? Obviously, no.

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Paul answers that. No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God.

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You might be tempted to look at this and say, well, just wait a minute. I mean, didn't you just say that food has no positional, does nothing positionally for us?

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Does it not, doesn't make us better if we don't or better off if we abstain? Like, what's the problem there? Why the disagreement?

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You might look at that and say, that's a contradiction and I don't understand what that is. However, this is an issue of the heart.

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This is what Paul is talking about, especially in chapter 10. As we look to this chapter in the near future, we're going to come to understand more about what idolatry looks like.

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But idolatry begins in the matters of the heart. Again, looking at just how practical it was at the beginning, this gnosis, this knowledge, it puffed up, it created an idol in some of the believers in Corinth that was puffing them up, that raised their esteem just a little too high and brought the view of God just a little too low and created an idol in them.

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These are all matters of the heart and that's what Paul intends to correct in this. There's no contradiction here.

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The contradiction only being that what we as humans have in our hearts as we do things. We can even make what we talked about, hospitality, an idol.

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That is possible. We can make knowledge of God an idol. We forget to worship him in light of knowing more of the

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Bible, being able to quote more scripture, being able to memorize more. If that is our idol, then we would do best to walk away from that.

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We would do well to walk away from that, brothers and sisters. Again, so once again, just consider, who are we honoring when we are doing these things?

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Abstaining from food, again, very practical matter, builds up to one another. But is that becoming an idol?

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That could also become an idol. And Paul aims exactly this paradox. He spends a chapter speaking to it and goes back to it later to really strike this part.

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It is about a matter of the heart and we need to address those. And if there is idols in our heart, we would do well to walk away from them.

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So that's what our application is going to be for our third and final point today. Anything sacrificed, so be it food, gifts, time, money, you know, so on and so forth, without the thought of first honoring the

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Lord. You can give charitably if you want. That's a good place where you might say,

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I give charitably to the church, but if I do it as one to honor myself first and foremost or for my own glory, keep your offering.

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Because what you're doing is you're creating an idol. And that is a far worse consequence for any one of us than the money that would go into an offering.

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So let's apply this to our lives. So again, just an application. Let's, as we examine what it is we've learned today, let us examine the intention of our offering.

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Again, whether it's, you know, in this case, food, as we've talked about in chapter eight, whether it's food, time, money, service, you name it.

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If it does not honor God, it is an idol, and we need to correct this as soon as possible. So again, just to close for today, the shared experience of food and dining together, it's a gift of God or from God.

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It really is. We enjoy, especially as Latinos, we love food, we love to host, and we love big parties.

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It's really hard, actually, not to be able to do that as often as we'd like to. But we enjoy it. I mean, that's part of the culture, but it's also a gift from God.

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It's a gift of grace to be able to break bread with one another. It really is. And like we've seen today, it's not always as simple as it looks.

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I mean, we're blessed here in North America that we don't have as many issues of conscience. This is a very secular society, but even in that secularism, there is opportunity for us to abstain and to love one another sacrificially.

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And furthermore, it's not even, it's not abstaining. It's an opportunity that we would take something like the scenario we talked about at the beginning or whatever nuanced situation might come up.

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We are not to become discouraged, but actually we should rejoice at the opportunity we receive to love believers and others and an opportunity to be able to demonstrate sacrificial love for one another, to sacrificially give.

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So again, I want every Christian here to leave feeling absolutely encouraged that, again, we have true freedom, the ability to live truly sacrificially for our brothers and sisters and for the glory of God.

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No other person, no other religion, no other group says that. We have this right. We have this freedom and it is one that we should use often.

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But the next part, I address to those living on the outskirts, those outside the grace of God, Charles Spurgeon called it the wicked gate.

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Those who walk alongside the holy city, peering into the inside, looking at all the beauty and the grace that has befallen them, common grace, and yet do not make the effort to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

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I'm talking to those people. Those who look at the loving, righteous fruit of believers and acknowledge that that is love, but they themselves don't acknowledge the source or the person from whom all those things come from.

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My message is for you. Know that Jesus Christ loves you.

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As this passage says, He is jealous for you. He is jealous. It says in verse 22 of chapter 10, it says,

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Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? He is jealous for you and He's seeking you out and He stands there waiting.

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And for those, again, who are warm to the gift of hospitality, who see all the good and righteous gifts that come before them, but fail to walk just but one step into the light of Christ and to follow

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Him, you're provoking His jealousy. So I do this.

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I beg you. I beseech you. I beg you. Don't provoke Him. Seek Jesus Christ. Turn to Him and find all the riches and graces, this love that we share amongst believers.

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It's a shadow. It's an echo of the love that is poured out by Jesus on the cross for every single person who would come to Him in faith.

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So that's my quiet. That's my extolling to you guys. Father, brothers and sisters, let us pray.