The Lord Vs Demons
Lessons From 1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme: Lessons From 1 Corinthians
Hope: To learn from the vast number of various doctrines so as to have a better and more clear understanding of God’s word.
In 1993 Robin Williams stared in a very popular movie called “Mrs Doubtfire.”
Robin Williams plays a divorced man who is trying desperately to spend more time with his children when he discovers his ex-wife is hiring a nanny. He dresses up as grandmotherly type person, befriends his ex-wife without here realizing who it is, and become the nanny for the children.
At the end of the movie there is a scene where Robin Williams is expected to be a restaurant for both his ex-wife’s boyfriend’s birthday party and a job interview for a promotion at his daytime “job.”
Though the scene is humerus you can imagine that trying to sit at two different tables at the same time does not go well and ends up exposing how completely impossible the task was, eventually exposing that Mrs Doubtfire was the ex-husband and leaving the kids and ex-wife confused and hurt.
The spiritual reality of that scene, trying to juggle two different existences at the same time, is described by the apostle Paul in our text this evening, so let’s read 1 Corinthians 10:15-22.
15 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
1 Corinthians 10:19–22 (ESV)
19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Here Paul, inspired by God teaches that in the life of humanity it is “The Lord Vs Demons.”
In other words, we either worship and serve God or we end up worshiping and serving demons.
And if we choose to sit at the table of demons over God “we can be sure to provoke the Lord to jealously and he is far stronger than we ever imagined being.”
It’s no wonder Jesus stated…
Matthew 6:24 (ESV)
24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
So, what happens when we “try and straddle the fence” outside of the obvious reality that we will be serving Satan rather than God.
Well, one issue is we will only be
Halfway Serving God
Halfway Serving God
Our Whole Self Isn’t Into It.
Our Whole Self Isn’t Into It.
Unfortunately throughout history humanity has not been very good at giving God our all.
Numbers 32:11 (ESV)
11 ‘Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me
6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done.
And even when we look like we are doing well…
Our Whole Heart Isn’t Into It.
Our Whole Heart Isn’t Into It.
Sadly, man not only has a historical tendency to not give God our all but we even when we do “appear” to be doing so we don’t do it whole heartily.
1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.
Jeremiah 3:10 (ESV)
10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.
2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
Summary
Summary
Halfway serving God is not actually serving the Lord but demons.
You cannot “halfway” serve him because you end up wholly serving demons.
Straddling the fence is also an issue because we will end up only…
Halfway Worshiping God
Halfway Worshiping God
Leads To Idol Worship.
Leads To Idol Worship.
This is the crux of Paul’s message in our text for this evening.
When we worship God i.e., partake of the cup and bread we commune or worship God as one body in full fellowship with him and all those that are like minded (1 John 1:7).
However, we simply cannot worship, commune, and be in fellowship with God halfway because…
We end up dishonoring God.
Matthew 15:8 (ESV)
8 This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me
When we dishonor God this way we either end up honoring ourselves.
Colossians 2:23 (ESV)
23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
Or we end up “neglecting our worshiping of God.”
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Summary
Summary
Once we go down the path of only “halfway worshiping God” we will dishonor him, serve ourselves, and forsake his assembly for our own selfish desires.
When that happens we will no long we serving God but demons.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As our Creator, Sustainer, and corrector of our sin as our Savior, all our God asks of us is for us to give our “whole selves to him.”
Luke 10:27 (ESV)
27 …You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
We must always be guarding against mediocrity in our Christianity.
Because it is “The Lord Vs Demons” for our very soul.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.