Church Gone Wild, Week 5

Written By Tim Rivers
 

Can you take 10 seconds and give God your best praise? Isn't God good? I love that we get to be in the presence of God. I'm telling you there's nothing more refreshing, nothing more enjoyable than being in the presence of God. When people are going through things, their facing stuff, they got questions, I always try to encourage them. No matter what you do, just get into his house. There's something about being in the presence of God. It gives you the answers that you need and sometimes they may not be the answers that you want, but they'll be the answers that you need. I'm so glad that you're here. For those that are visiting with us, thank you so much for being with us. Those that are watching online, thank you for joining us. Grab your Bibles. We're going to First Corinthians chapter eight. How many have brought their paper Bibles? Make some noise. Alright, how about electronic Bibles?

Screens?

Let me encourage you, if you don't have a paper Bible, I would encourage you to get one. And the reason being is having a paper Bible allows you to navigate through the scriptures pretty easily. It also lets you know kind of where the books of the Bible are, and you remember when back in the day when you would get up to preach and they would say, turn to Ezekiel chapter four in somebody's way over here in Revelation. And it was a habit for preachers to say, we'll wait on you. I still hear pages turning, so anybody grew up like that. But I encourage you to bring your Bible so you can get familiar with it. And sometimes you got to wear band-aids because the Bible is sharp and sometimes you just need to get the sword out, a physical sword and get through it, and the Lord would really just kind of help you knit your heart with the word of God. When people say, how do I know how don't know. I want to hear from God. This is the guaranteed way. This is the word of God. People try to be ethereal about it.

Just read the word. It's guaranteed to be the word of God. So first Corinthians chapter eight, Hey, before you turn there or while you turn there, or if you are already there, prayer meeting tonight at 6:00 PM Come on now.

Prayer is probably the number one thing that people struggle with the most as Christians because it's awkward talking to a God that you don't see but believe in can feel weird. But the best way to learn how to pray is to be around people that pray. And lemme tell you what we do here when we have prayer nights, it's not just prayer. It's actually a time that we take for allowing you to get deep into the presence of the Lord. There'll be a time of worship, but it is a perfect time that if you are praying about something, if you are fasting about something, if you need an answer from God, I'm telling you this is a perfect time to come. It doesn't matter your skill level. It doesn't matter if you're a loud prayer warrior or you're a quiet prayer, it doesn't matter. Come here at 6:00 PM We're not going to keep you very long, but be here and let's pray together and somebody say amen.

Amen. Alright, first Corinthians chapter eight verse number one. Now concerning food offered to idols, lemme just make a real quick note anytime when you read First Corinthians, and you'll see this phrase now concerning that Paul uses anytime you see that phrase now concerning Paul is making a transition from one topic to another. Alright? Just so you know now, concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. This quote, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. Therefore, as do the eating of food offered idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God, but one for, although there be many so-called Gods in heaven or on earth as indeed there are many gods or many lords.

Yet for us there is one God, the Father from whom all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things and through whom we exist. However, not all possess this knowledge, but some through former association with idols eat food as really offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat and know better off if we do. But take care that this rite of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols. And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother of whom Christ died, thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience. When it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will not eat meat lest I make my brother stumble and somebody say Amen. Alright, my topic for today is sex in the church part three. I'm just kidding.

Gotcha. My title is How to Deal with Gray Matters,

How to Deal With Gray Matters. Let's Pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and mercy. I pray, Lord, that you would have your way in and through us. Help us to commit ourselves to you and your word. Help us to walk out of here different than the way we walked in. Give us ears to hear, a heart to receive and a mind to understand what the spirit would say. We give you a name, the praise and the glory in Jesus' name. And everybody say amen. Amen. Amen. How to deal with gray matters. I want to do a little survey. Now don't raise your hand, don't look around at your neighbor. I'm going to ask you a series of questions and you answer the question internally. Let me reemphasize internally, it's going to be hard for some of y'all. I want you to think about these questions and answer. If you think that these are sins, is it a sin to go to a bar and have alcoholic beverages? You could cut it with a knife. Detention, alright? Do you think it is a sin to move in with your boyfriend or girlfriend,

Sleep in separate rooms with no funny business? Do you think it's a sin to smoke weed in states where it's legal? Some of y'all are trying so hard not to look around. Do you think it's a sin? This is going to be a good one to make out with your boyfriend or girlfriend. See why I said don't raise your hand. Do you think it's a sin to listen to secular music? Do you think it's a sin to smoke cigarettes? But don't inhale, people would be all with the technicalities know. Do you think it's a sin to post thirst trap videos on social media? Now we're talking about this and I'm asking you this because these are actually hot topics in the Christian community at large. Now, some of y'all who grew up old school, you're like, that ain't even a discussion. All those things are sin. And then some of you who may have just recently became Christians, you're going like, I didn't even know that was a question. The real struggle for most Christians is not with what we know as black and white. Most of us, if you come into it, no matter your background or how long you've been in the church, most of us understand that thou shall and thou shalt nots. We understand the 10 commandments. Most people don't struggle with what is black and what is white.

I pray that nobody in here is struggling with murder.

Hopefully that is something that is wrong. It's not even on the charts. Don't even consider it. You know what I'm saying? We all know adultery is wrong. We know that there are things that the scripture tells us in black and white don't do these things. So most people, most Christians don't struggle with what is black or what is white, what's socially acceptable. But there are things that are not explicitly prohibited in scripture, but could socially and culturally be considered controversial. There are things that the Bible does not say you cannot do this, but it's what we call a gray matter. It's a gray area, and gray is the result of mixing black and white. I don't know if you've ever painted with your kids or whatever. If you have black and you have white and you want to make gray, you just mix the two, right?

And that's how you have great. I have this little graph because I want you to see that on one side you have what scripture tells us. This is prohibited. On the other side, scripture allows, most Christians don't struggle with being in the black or being the white. Most of us struggle with being in the middle, which are gray matters, matters of contention, matters of opinion. For instance, lemme just go ahead and bring up one alcohol now that is a Bible scholar or that has looked at the scriptures or has studied the scriptures, know that the scripture does not strictly prohibit alcohol. It's over here in the white area, but the scripture does speak against drunkenness, which is over here in the black, right? So the scripture says nothing about you can't have alcohol. In fact, Paul encouraged Timothy, Hey, have a little wine for your stomach's sake. Lemme give you context. People are like, man, my stomach's hurting. That ain't it? That is not it. What Paul was telling, apparently some church historians believed that Timothy had some kind of gut issue and they would use wine, ferment wine and it would mix it with water because the wine, the fermentation in the wine would cleanse the water. So it was used as a purification process. So when Paul says, have a little wine for your stomach sake, he ain't saying, yo, turn up bro.

He's saying, you've got probably some parasites and some stuff going on in your gut. You need to purify it out. But we do know that the Bible strictly tells us that drunkenness is wrong. Alright, so then the question then to most Christian is what defines drunkenness? Is it a buzz pastor? Don't come at the buzz, don't come at the buzz,

Right? It is considered, oh, gray matter right Now, some of y'all, this message is going to make you, it really agitates you because I am not going to give you the answer. I want to teach you how you can find the answer. Is that all right? Because I think when you start going, well point something, something you end up in legalism. And what the Lord is trying to develop in you as a Christian is a sensitivity to the Lord working in you and moving through you. I'm getting ahead of myself, but this is where we're going. All right? So there are matters of black and white. The question is what do we do in the middle? And this is exactly where the church of Corinth was. When Paul is writing here in this passage, he's dealing with what the Corinthians are dealing with, which is meat offered to an idol.

Now, let me give you context. In the Corinthian world, in the society of the Corinthians, essentially what was happening is there was a lot of pagan practices, meaning there were a lot of pagan temples, there were a lot of pagan worship. We've already talked about it for the last several weeks. Obviously sexual immorality was a big problem and paganism was a big problem. And one of the things that pagan's practice is animal sacrifices in their temples. So what idols people would do or pagans would do, is they would bring their lamb or goat or whatever animal to the temple. And in the temple had butchers, the butchers would take the animal, let's say it's a lamb, they would take the lamb, they would butcher it, they would dress it, and then the individuals would say, alright, I'm offering this lamb chop to this God. So they would give it to the priest.

The priest would go in, offer this lamb chop as a sacrifice to their idols, and it also would bless the rest of the animal, which would then either stay in the butcher shop, go to the meat market or go home with the family. So what was happening is Christians were kind of torn between two because they would go to the meat market knowing that this lamb was offered to an idol, and now I'm buying the lamb because I want lamb chops. The difficulty was that some in the church, they knew that idols were nothing. They basically were like, Hey, yo, it don't matter if you go and offer this lamb. We know that there are no pagan gods beside, there is no God beside God. So no matter how much you go out here and you go through the rituals or whatever, it does nothing to the meat because we know that idols are just make believe. So they would go to the temple. Some of the temples had restaurants, they would go to the temple, had lamb chops.

New York strip before New York was the thing, Corinthians strips ribeyes. They'd sit there and eat in the temple. It was nothing. Why? Because they're like, yo, we know that everything that y'all doing is dumb, right? So I got a discount on this meat. They're running a special, so I'm going to eat this meat. Well, what's happening is while they were eating, there were certain Christians converts who used to be idolatrous, and they used to be pagans. So they used to be in the temples offering their sacrifices to idols in sincerity, believing in actuality that there was a God or goddesses and there were sacrificing. And so when they got delivered, they said, I ain't having nothing to do with any meat that's been offered to an idol.

Well, then they go by one of the temples and they see brother John chow chowing down on a ribeye, offered to an idol, and they're like, does he not know the implications of eating this meat? This meat was offered to an idol. How dare he? And brother John is like, yo, what's up Billy? Come over here and eat this. And Billy's like, no, bro. That was offered to an idol. And John's like, the idols are nothing. And so this creates a controversy in the church. So much so that they write to Paul and say, Paul, listen, we know that idols are nothing but there's faction, there's a division in the church between can we eat this meat or can we not? Hey Paul, tell us, just give us the answer, should we or should we not? This is where we find ourselves in First Corinthians chapter eight. Now some of you're like, I would never go to a restaurant knowing that they've offered that food to an idol. Okay, next time you go to a Thai restaurant, it's going to mess some of y'all up. Take a look around. You may see a statue right there by the castrate store or in the corner, go to an Indian restaurant. You may see a statue of Ra Krishna or whatnot. Now here's the thing, I will continue to go to Thai restaurants.

I know that an idol is nothing, but there may be somebody who was a practicing Buddhist that has converted to Christianity. They should probably not go there because it reminds them they're going to have a conflict.

Now, it must've been those that had no problems with idols that wrote to Paul, because when they write to Paul, Paul writes the letter back and his response is not concerning food offered to idols. We know that all of us possess knowledge. So what Paul is replying to is that there were certain Christians who were writing to Paul that were saying, Hey Paul, don't you agree that idols mean nothing? Don't you agree that there is no God beside the one true God? Don't you agree that these practices, these idol worshipers and these practices of other religion is invalid? It's basically fake. And so even though they know they struggled, those that were converted from idolatry, even though they knew in their head that there was no other God beside God, their conscience hadn't caught up with their head knowledge.

And Paul is dealing here with what we call gray matters because how is it that something is wrong or something is right, but you still struggle in between. Has that ever happened to anybody where you have rationalized in your mind this is wrong, but I'm in the gray area. And usually what happens is when we're in the gray area, we end up going to somebody else and we want them to answer the question for us. Hey, convince me that what I'm about to do is the right thing. Convince me that me fill in the blank is the right thing. Why? Because nobody likes to deal with gray matters. We like things to be black and white. Even in gray matters, we still try to convince ourselves that it's black and white. Well, the scripture don't say anything about it. It's not illegal, it's not prohibited, right? What we're talking about is Christian liberties. That is what Paul is addressing. He's addressing Christian liberties. Now, let me say this, Christian liberty comes with Christian responsibility. Some of what need to write that down responsibility to God and to others. Oh, I thought my whole life as a Christian only had to do with pleasing God and only looking out for what God says. Nope. You also have a responsibility to your fellow brother and sister. This is what communion is. See, I got y'all. If you took communion, you just agreed

That you are not just going to take part of the bread with Christ, but also with your brother and sister, meaning that you have a responsibility as a Christian not only to look out for the best interest of Christ, but also for the best interest of your brother or sister.

Now, the definition of liberty in the world is the ability to say yes. We pride ourselves here, especially here in the United States. We are a country that's free, which means that we can say yes to everything. And what's happening is people were coming out of their religious practices into Christianity and they said, the Lord has set me free from the laws and the restrictions of the Pharisees, from the laws of the pagans. I'm about to go do everything because I'm covered on the grace. But true Christian liberty is less about you being able to say yes and more about you being able to say no. The greatest ability that freed slaves have is not the ability to say yes to more things is the ability to say no to the things that enslaved them.

Say it again.

I don't know if I can say it just like that,

But the greatest ability that somebody who has been freed has is the ability to say no. It's the ability. When slavery was abolished here, the greatest strength that somebody had was to walk away from that cotton field and say, I ain't picking your cotton no more. No, I'm not cleaning your house. No, I'm not going to do your dishes. No, I'm not cleaning the stall. True Christian liberty is the ability to look sin in the face and say, no, I'm no longer going to be bound by this. I'm no longer going to be sleeping with all those people.

We always think that Christianity gives us more ability to say yes, but no. It empowers you to actually say no because the scripture says that as long as you are not in the body of Christ, you are a slave to sin. Meaning that whatever sin tells you to do, you have to do it. And when you get liberated from sin, now you have the ability to tell sin no. So how do we handle gray matters? Well, first we have to understand the difference between two words that Paul uses. Paul uses the word knowledge and he uses the word the conscience. So let's define these. Let's look at what knowledge is. Knowledge in the Greek is the word gnosis. It means to know it's the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning. In other words, knowledge is something that you gain over time. The older you are, the more knowledge you should have. Age is not necessarily an indication of knowledge. Know what I'm saying? Have you ever met somebody that should have knowledge and then you realize,

Have you not learned anything? Knowledge is something that you should seek out. Sometimes it is endued by the Lord, but knowledge is the ability to gain understanding. It's to gain perception. It is the ability to learn and to reason. So knowledge is you using your brain to gather information. Knowledge informs you of what's black and white. So when you become a Christian, when you read the word of God and you're taught the word of God, you gain knowledge. Knowledge comes with understanding. Okay, now I understand what is black and white. I understand I have knowledge now of what's sin and what's not. Sin knowledge helps you discern between right and wrong and black and white.

But Paul uses this other word called the conscience, and the Greek word for conscience is sunis and it is a moral awareness. Now here's where the knowledge and conscience is different. I'm going to nerd out for a little while, right? The conscience is the psychological faculty that distinguishes between right and wrong and either afflicts or comforts the person depending upon their actions. So knowledge tells you what is black and white. The conscience, it convicts you on whether or not evaluates your value system within what you know. Does that make sense? Yes. The conscience is defined as the part of the human psyche that includes mental anguish and feelings of guilt when we violate it and feelings of pleasure or wellbeing, when our actions, thoughts and words are in conformity to our value system. Can I tell you that from the very first moment that you were born, you were born innate with a conscience. Meaning that even before knowing what is black and white, there's something within you because you're creating the image and likeness of God. There's something within your psyche that recognizes this ain't right. For instance, how many of you have children

Watching your child from an early age without even giving them knowledge? Have you ever watched a kid hit another kid, maybe their brother or sister, and then look at you like you may never have taught them, don't hit your brother and sister, but they instinctively know this, don't feel right, but I'm looking for approval. What they're doing is their conscience is telling them their natural innate conscience is telling them this ain't right. Now what they're trying to do is gain knowledge on whether the feeling they had was right or wrong. That's where the conscience automatically convict you. And so when you build your value system based on knowledge, your conscience will tell you whether you're right or wrong. So if your value system is low, then your conscience is weak.

If your value system is high, then your conscience is more aware. Can I keep teaching? The conscience reacts when one's actions, thoughts and words conform to or are contrary to a standard of right and wrong. The New Testament concept of conscience is more individual in nature and involves three major truths. Number one, first the conscience is God-given capacity for human beings to exercise self-evaluation. Again, this is the child who has done something wrong, they've never been taught it's wrong, but something within them says, just don't feel right. This also happens to adults. There are times this often happens with somebody who was raised in a strict home and then they go out and do something that's contrary to their value system. Their conscience bothers them all night, even for something that may be okay to do. I remember that happened for me. I remember I grew up, we didn't wear long short sleeves. We kind of had the sleeves down here. Remember the first day I walked out, I let the gun show out. Boy I was Lord, this don't feel right because my conscience was reacting to my value system at the time. The conscience gives us a guilty or innocent verdict. Number two. Second, the New Testament portrays the conscience as a witness to something. This is what I was just saying earlier. Paul says, the Gentiles have a conscience that bears witness to the presence of the law of God written on their hearts even though they did not have the law of Moses. Sometimes you may not know what's black and white, but through the power, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, Uhuh, don't do this, don't go there. And the conscience can be annoying,

Especially when you know something is black and white and then the conscience says it may be black and white and okay for them, but it ain't okay for you. This is what Paul says in Romans chapter two, verse 15. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accused or even excuse them. So it's interesting to note, alright,

I've taught this before, that we're tri dimensional body, soul, spirit, and the soul is the ck, which includes three faculties or three abilities. Your mind will and emotions. Your mind can be another word for mind could be thoughts. It's interesting that God has paired your soul or your mind, your ability to think with your conscience. And the conscience is a faculty of your spirit. So what happens is when your conscience is telling you, eh, you go to your thoughts to evaluate whether your conscience is right or wrong. So this often is what happens. Your conscience will tell you this is wrong and then your thoughts will try to reason with your conscience on whether or not your conscience is right or wrong based on what you have gathered in your knowledge system. I lost some of y'all. I'll keep going. Then third, the conscience is a servant of the individual individual's value system. An immature or weak value system produces a weak conscience while a fully informed value system produces a strong sense of right and wrong in the Christian life. One's conscience can be driven by an inadequate understanding of scriptural truths and can produce feelings of guilt and shame disproportionate to the issue at hand.

Maturing in the faith strengthens the conscience. When something is gray, the conscience is what helps us discern the correct course of action based on us as individuals.

Now here's something interesting. There is no word for conscience in the Hebrew. That's because the value system in prior to the new covenant in the Old Testament was largely based on group think. So as long as all of us have the same, we all have the mosaic law, we all have to obey it. We're going to do this. It's not really based on the individual person, it's really just all of us together. When you come into the New Testament, the Holy Spirit, which is now given to us as individuals, interacts with us as individuals through our conscience. So for instance, the conscience instinctively tells us what's right and wrong. The conscience will inform you when something is wrong. This is why we use the phrase a guilty conscience because your conscience will tell you if you're guilty. Now here's the problem. None of us like the feeling of being guilty.

Does anybody love me? I love being guilty. The more guilt the better. No one likes to feel guilty. So this is what we do when the conscience tells us, Hey, that's wrong, and we have the feelings of guilt, then we go to our thoughts, our knowledge, and we rely on our knowledge to either do away with the guilt or retrain the conscience, oh, that really wasn't wrong. Well, they shouldn't have done that to me in the first place. That's not illegal. I'm covered by grace. And here's the thing, if you continue to rely on your knowledge versus the Holy Spirit using your conscience, you will end up overriding your conscience. And this is what the Bible says, searing the conscience, meaning that the conscience no longer has the ability to tell you whether you're right or wrong. And this is what Paul says. You have relied so much on knowledge that has made you prideful. This is what it means if you rely simply on knowledge, it puffs you up, meaning that I don't have to rely on my conscience. I know what's right and wrong. And when you override the conscience, it is the faculty that the Holy Spirit uses inside of you to guide you as an individual. That's why some people can eat meat, offer to an idol and some cannot. Why? Because the Holy Spirit works in us.

God allows the mind, the thoughts and the conscience to be paired so that the mind through knowledge can rationally determine objectively if the guilt we feel is legitimate according to the word of God. If you continue to rely on your knowledge to override your conscience, scripture says you will sear your conscience. And when you sear your conscience, you end up not being able to discern right or wrong. So you end up in behaviors that you've justified that are actually wrong for you, but because your conscience is sd, it has no more feeling. Now, can you repair it? Yes. How? Stop searing it. Remember I talked about this maybe a couple of weeks ago, that searing of conscience is like your finger and you burn it on a hot stove. When you burn on a hot stove, you remove a layer of feeling. When you remove that layer of feeling, then no matter what you touch, you can't tell if it's rough or smooth. You can't tell if it's hot or cold. It will grow back if you leave it alone because now you have knowledge. This thing is hot and my conscience was telling me it's hot. Now if you want to override that, keep putting your finger on there and you'll end up burning it so much that you won't be able to tell the difference.

And when that happens, all you have to do is stop it and trust that the Lord is using your conscience to tell you stop going there that's burning you.

What a word is good, isn't it? Alright, let's go to Hebrews chapter four, verse 12. Here's the question that we're answering. How should we handle gray matters? Here's the answer. By using the word of God. As a Christian, the word of God is your antidote. Alright, Hebrews chapter four, verse 12. For the word of God is living and active is not dead. It's very much alive, sharper than any two-edged sword piercing. Somebody say piercing, piercing, piercing to the division of soul and spirit. This is why a lot of people don't like the word of God, because the word of God pierces, piercing hurts. Have you ever been pierced and said, oh, that's great. If you've ever gotten your ear pierced, it hurts.

Right? And the scripture tells us that the word of God will pierce to the division of soul and spirit. And this is where we have the concept that there is a distinct difference between the soul and spirit. Sometimes it's used interchangeable because you can't separate the two. You can't have a soul without a spirit. They're together, but they're distinctly separate of joints and of moral. And check this word out. Discerning somebody, say discerning. Discerning means the ability to move one thing over. And another thing over is discerning, right the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. So how do we handle gray matter? I want to give you four questions that you should ask yourself anytime you're dealing with a gray matter. Number one, write this down. Is it helpful? Is it helpful? One Corinthians chapter six, verse 12, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful if you're k, j, v expedient. Just because something is legal or permitted does not mean that it's helpful for you. Helpful. The word helpful means to be advantageous. The question is when you end up with a gray matter, whatever it is, and we all have something in our mind that's coming up right now. Oh, this is a gray area in my life. Alright, let me ask you this. Is it advantageous to you? Is it advantageous here physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually? Is what you are doing advantageous? Is it helpful for you? Your experiences should inform your decisions.

Okay, here's a perfect example. Applebee's. Somebody say Applebee's. Applebee's. I'm not sure why I had you say Applebee's, but let's go with it. Applebee's, they're known for their ribs. I'm just kidding. They're not. Applebee's is your most American restaurant, and I'm sorry if you love Applebee's,

But Applebee's is just a regular, how many have gone to Applebee's? Yeah, it's just, let's go hang out at Applebee's, right? Well, I knew of an individual that I went to church with. We would go to Applebee's after service and he wouldn't go to Applebee's. He would go to any other restaurant, but he wouldn't go to Applebee's. And I remember one time asking him, yo, what's up man? You don't like the food or whatever, you can just order water and some chicken fingers. It's all right. And I asked him, why wouldn't you go to Applebee's? And his response was, he doesn't go to Applebee's because prior to coming to church, prior to becoming a Christian, he and the boys after work would go to Applebee's and that's where they would have their drinks and he would get sloshed at Applebee's, and then he would go home and he said, I cannot, even though I know there's nothing wrong with Applebee's, I cannot go to Applebee's because it's not helpful for me to be in an environment that was a big part of brokenness in my life. Some of y'all need this quick going to some places.

Well, it's not wrong. That's not the point. It's also not helpful, it's not advantageous. It's not doing for you. So ask yourself the question, is this activity harmful or helpful to me? Is it helpful? Well, I'm just trying to knock the edge off every night, and you can fill in the blank. Some of y'all are like, oh, you talking about alcohol? Could be medication, could be that TV show, not the TV show. No, please not my Netflix. Yes. Ooh, man, I'm having too much fun. Number one, is it helpful? Alright, number two, does it have power over me? One Corinthians chapter six, verse 12, continuing in that scripture, the first part of it says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. The raid misconception in about Christian liberties is what I was saying earlier is people think that becoming a Christian gives you the superpower to say yes to everything. No, it does not. It actually gives you the superpower to say no. And here's the thing, it is very easy for things to have power over you, and a lot of times things will dominate us and have power in our lives and we don't even recognize it.

First Corinthians chapter 10, verse number six through 14, we're not going to go there, but in your own spirit time would like for you to read it because Paul is explaining to the Corinthians, remember chapters 8, 9, 10, Paul is talking about Christian liberties and what we should do. And in chapters 10, Paul is explaining to the Christians, listen, y'all, the children of Israel are an example to us of what we should not be doing. When the children of Israel come out of Egypt and they cross the Red Sea and they see all these miracles and blah, blah, blah, and they come over to the side, they're like this, we're free. So guess what they do? They go buck wild. They start saying yes to everything. Moses is up there getting black and white, the commandments. And while he's getting the commandments, he comes down and when he comes down, he sees the church, these liberated people going crazy, doing everything that they've just been delivered from. Isn't it interesting that you've been freed from slavery and in your freedom you still got slavery behaviors? And Aaron thought he was slick. He was like, man, I took the gold and threw it in the fire and out jumps the calf.

That's literally what he said. Moses said, what happened? He said, bro, I just, man, I don't know. It's magic stuff is going crazy out here. Manna, cloud of fire, bam calf. And Paul is, and Moses is like, y'all are whack. Y'all misunderstood freedom. Freedom is not about your ability to say yes. It's about your ability to say no. You are no longer under the power of enslavement. So stop acting like it. Does it have power over you? How do you know if something is dominating you when it becomes an idol? Well, how do you know something becomes an idol when it has a position above Jesus? In other words, are you going to that thing first before Christ? When you're dealing with an issue in your life? Are you going to God first or are you going to that and it can be a person

That's good.

Oh, I better call Mary and figure out what she thinks about the situation. Call Jesus. Don't call me. Call Jesus, right? Don't allow yourself to be dominated by something. So if that thing is bringing you peace and tranquility and joy outside of Christ, it may have power over you. Number three. Ooh, this is a good one. Will it hurt others? Now, pastor me and Jesus has got our own thing going. Good, but you're in the body of Christ. Well, I'd like to be solo. A disattached finger does not work right? I remember this is kind of gruesome, but I have to tell it. I remember being at a church work Saturday. Remember those? We're reading up at the church. We're going to work. So we're working, and while we're working, I hear this loud screaming. I mean, it's like bloody murder. We go over there and we find one of our brothers in Christ who had been cutting a longboard on the table saw and he slipped and he cut his thumb off. Now he's holding his hand and his thumb is right here. We take his thumb, we put it on ice to try to, maybe they can reattach it.

Imagine the thumb ain't working, it's not moving. It's not saying anything. Why? Because it's detached from the body. You cannot function detached from the body. You cannot live a Christian life solo. You're attached to the body. This is why it's very important for us to look out for the health of the entire body because guess what? When your stomach is hurting, it affects your head. One Corinthians chapter eight, verse nine. But take care that this rite of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block for the week. There are things that you can do that are perfectly fine for you. Your conscience doesn't bother you. You have knowledge of what's good, what's right and wrong, and you're participating. You're eating meat offered to an hour. You up in that restaurant, that restaurant, go ahead, get you some panang, get you some fried rice. Man, y'all are hungry. I know it. Get you some egg rolls. But take care that this rite of yours is not somehow become a stumbling block for the week. For if anyone sees you have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to an idol? Have you ever done something in front of your kids and your kid think that they can do it? Right? Here's a very elementary example. You're sitting there cutting, let's say celery. I don't know why you'd be cutting celery.

You're cutting potatoes to make mashed potatoes. You're cutting potatoes and your kid walks up and says, I'd like to do it. And you go, no, you shouldn't, right? Because you don't have knowledge of how this works, yet it would be folly for you to hand the knife to the kid and let them cut the potatoes. Why? Because they're too immature, right? So what do you do as a good parent? You either teach them, Hey, you cannot do it at this time. Watch me do it. Or you say, Hey, go to your room and play to remove them from the temptation of them grabbing a knife and cutting themselves. This is what Paul is saying. Hey, listen, if you're at a restaurant and you're eating and a brother comes to you who sees you eating and they're like, this is wrong. Don't say, Hey, forget your conscience. Sit down and have a meal. He says, it's incumbent upon you as the mature believer to say, Hey, I'll take it to go

For if anyone sees you have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged if his conscious is weak to eat food offered to an idol? And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, ouch. The brother for whom Christ died, thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience. When it is weak, you sin against Christ. Whoa. Meaning that if there are liberties that you have that you feel no shame about, and it's not against the word of God, blah, blah, blah, but you deliberately do it in front of somebody who is weak, you are sinning against them and causing them to sin. That's strong language. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble. Not everyone's conscience allows them to participate in things that are not inherently sin. Can I tell you, there may be gray areas that are okay for you to participate in, but if a brother or sister is in your circle and they are weak, you as the more mature believer, must set that thing aside, get to it later. Go do it somewhere else, whatever, but don't cause your brother or sister to stumble. We have to have responsibility for our brothers and sisters.

So are you saying don't do it? Nope. I'm saying follow this formula, which is given to us by the word of God. Here's the last point. Ask yourself this question. Does it glorify God? One Corinthians chapter 10 31. So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, somebody say, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Colossians three 17, and whatever you do in word or deed to everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving things to God the Father through him, there are times where you may say, well, this is not harmful to me and it's not affecting my brother or sister. And you go through the list and then you get to the end and go, yeah, but it ain't glorifying God as a Christian. Everything we do glorify God. Can you participate in what it is that may be a gray matter and say, I can do this to the glory of God. Because that's the litmus test for how to deal with gray matters. Well, pastor, you ain't telling us black and white. No, because the word of God does that. So anything that isn't black and white in scripture, then you have to rely on the Holy Spirit working through your conscience to lead and guide you. And even if you rationalize eyes

That it's not wrong, if your conscience does not allow you to do it, don't

Do it.

Well, I'm going to miss out, miss out. Well, they're going to make fun of me at the party that's on them. Amen. Amen. Dear Lord, we're so thankful, so thankful that you're using the Holy Spirit through our conscience

To guide and direct us in matters of gray. There are a lot of things, Lord, especially in our society and our culture, that man, we have a lot of questions about. We don't really understand how they work, but if we submit to you and your authority, we know that you will guide and lead us. So I pray for all my brothers and sisters here in this building. I'm watching online that you would strengthen our relationship with you, that you would give us knowledge, that you would give us understanding, and that you would strengthen our conscience, our value system, so that we may do the right thing, that we may understand that through our conscience, you are working all things for our good and for those Lord that may be dealing with temptations in certain settings. I pray that you would give them strength because with every temptation, there's a way of escape. Help them to see the door of escape. We surrender to you. We give ourselves and our lives to you in Jesus' name and everybody say Amen. Can you stand your feet all across this place?

How many have ever dealt with gray matters as everybody, right? Yeah. Okay. This is what I want you to do. There may be something that the Lord is highlighting for you right now that you're going, oh man, I wish he did a different subject. I'm going to say this. The Holy Spirit, I'm going to say this. The Lord bringing that up for you. He's been trying to confront it for a while, and now he's confronting it. We're going to have a singular short moment of worship. While that happens, I just want you to surrender that area to the Lord and let the Lord tell you what to do with it. Alright, father, one more time. We surrender to you in the next few minutes, Lord, next couple minutes. Not very long. We just want to take this time of worship to pause and reflect and submit ourselves to you in your way.

Tim Rivers
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