Navigating the Gray
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsNotes
Transcript
Decision Making
Decision Making
How many decisions do you think you make every day?
Harvard Business Review suggests 33,000-35,000 decisions every day.
What to eat. What to wear. What to say or not say. Where to walk. How fast to walk.....
Most decisions aren’t that hard. But some can be really difficult can’t they?
Some are really clear, while others are fuzzier to discern the right thing to do.
How do we make the right decisions in life when there doesn’t seem to be a black or white answer?
How do we navigate through the GRAY areas.
Moral Dilemma Activity
Groups read through their moral dilemma and discuss how to best answer it.
Is there a passage in the bible that speaks to these dilemmas?
Share as a group.
Food Offered to Idols
Food Offered to Idols
Paul deals with a gray area question in 1 Corinthians 10. Should Christians eat food that was offered to idols, or should they abstain.
There were lots of other religions and gods that were worshipped in Corinth by all kinds of people.
The Christians were asking Paul if they should eat food offered to those false gods if they are invited to a festival.
Paul’s answer in verse 14-22 is no. Sense the food was used as a means of worship, by eating it, they would be participating in worship.
The next section is where the gray area comes in.
If someone invites you to their house to eat and offers you food, should you ask them first if the food was an offering before you eat it?
Listen to the passage.
23 “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything builds up. 24 No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person. 25 Eat everything that is sold in the meat market, without raising questions for the sake of conscience, 26 since the earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it. 27 If any of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions for the sake of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This is food from a sacrifice,” do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience. 29 I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged by another person’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I criticized because of something for which I give thanks? 31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God,
Notice how his response starts out…He quotes what they are saying and responds to their thoughts.
“Everything is permissible” is the argument that “who care where the food came from, I believe in Jesus, but I am hungry and there is food in front of me.”
The reason this is a gray area is that the Christians really did have freedom to eat whatever food there was.
The food wasn’t tainted or spiritually empowered by being offered to a false god, so they weren’t really worshipping the god by eating it.
They could still praise Jesus and eat the food.
But Paul brings up three questions they must ask themselves before they decide what to do in this gray area.
How does it influence me?
How does it influence me?
In a similar passage back in chapter 6, Paul speaks to a similar issue, but one that is more concerned with ourselves and not others.
12 “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.
Like in Chapter 10, the Corinthians are making a case that they have freedom to act and speak in certain ways.
6:12 and 10:23 seem to be very similar, but Paul’s response is different.
“I will not be mastered by anything.”
In this case, Paul is saying to the Corinthians to not let something that might be not seem to be sinful, wrong, or unwise become something that takes over your life.
The way we spend our time, the amount of time and energy we put into certain things, and what those activities do to us when we do them are all things we must consider when we are making a decision on whether something is good or bad.
God’s Word is clear on a lot of things in life, but there are areas of our lives that the Bible doesn’t speak directly to.
God is clear on sexual sin, on telling the truth, on being kind and generous, and on many more things.
But there isn’t a passage that tells us how long we should play video games, scroll social media, or how much we should worry about grades and such.
There is guidance in the bible on how we should use money, but there isn’t a verse on whether you should spend money on specific brands of clothing or on coffee at Starbucks 3 times a week.
Though those things are directly mentioned in the Bible, we can ask the question and seek answers in the principles of the bible on whether something is good or bad for us as we seek to follow Jesus.
How does this influence my ability to follow Jesus and live a healthy, faithful life.
How does it influence others?
How does it influence others?
Paul spends most of the rest of 10 talking about how our decisions influence other people.
Most people would tell you “Who care how my decisions affect other people. It isn’t their business.” But Paul does not agree with that idea.
24 No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person.
He challenges us to think about how the words we say and the things we do can influence the people watching us.
28 But if someone says to you, “This is food from a sacrifice,” do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience. 29 I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged by another person’s conscience?
Paul is arguing, and I believe he is right, that what we do, how we speak, and what we make a big deal out of influences other people and that should matter to us.
When you are at school with friends or on a team, how you speak and how you act can influence the way they see God and perceive you.
This doesn’t mean we can joke around or can’t be really serious about playing hard or get upset about things.
It means that before we speak or act, we should consider how our words or actions might affect someone else and my witness to them.
How does it influence God?
How does it influence God?
The last questions comes from verse 31
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
How does what I am doing or saying bring glory to God?
We can do a lot of things, outside of singing worship songs and going to church, to glorify God.
You can play a sport to the glory of God.
You can date someone to the glory of God.
You can use social media to the glory of God.
You can eat food to the glory of God.
You can hang out with friends to the glory of God.
But each of those good things, can also become things in your life that do not bring glory to God.
They can become things that master you, that tear others down, or that negatively affect your relationship with God.
One of the most important questions we can ask is how our word, thoughts and actions bring glory to God.
Not all 35,000 decisions you make tomorrow are going to glorify God, but my prayer is that, through the Holy Spirit’s help, with other Christian’s accountability, and God’s Word as my guide, maybe a good number of them will.