I Corinthians 10:23-33
I Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted
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I Corinthians 10:23-33
Building up others up for God’s glory.
Big Idea: I am called to Glorify God, to edify others, and not self-gratify.
My desire for you at the end of this message is to look at areas of your lives and ask, “Am I edifying others, or am I gratifying myself?”
Read I Corinthians 10:22-33
Pray
You’ve all heard the saying
“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
This became clear to me as a middle schooler in my neighborhood with friends building hime made bike ramps, nothing more than a rotten piece of ply wood from a trash pile & a cinder block.
Just because you can make a ramp and attempt a bike jump doesn’t mean you should.
One memory comes when I was on vacation with the family at a campground in North Carolina. At the camp ground there was a 100 yard down hill road into the camp ground with a few small speed bumps. Another boys I met at the campground and hung around decided he wanted to skate board down the hill.
We looked at the small speed bumps & decided he could handle them, he built up the courage and got to the top of the hill. He started down that hill and got a good rate of speed. He handled the speed bumps just fine. I thought he might be home free.
-Just as he was about to pass where I was standing about 3/4th of the way down, I looked down at the road and noticed a significant amount of gravel on the road.
-It was too late to warn him.
-His skateboard hit the gravel. It came to a dead stop.
-His body kept going and he fell full speed on that gravel.
-It chewed him up.
-Some of you all have heard the saying, “If you’re gonna be dumb, you better be tough.” He handled being badly chewed up very well.
-I learned an important lesson that day.
-Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
___________________________________
Transition
The Corinthians were having a spiritual & relational skateboard wreck.
Some of them were doing something that was causing others pain.
The body of Christ in Corinth was getting chewed up by gravel.
They had to learn that exercising their freedom, doing something they want to do, can leave others hurt.
-Sometimes I must give up a preference of mine so others in the body of Christ can go up spiritually.
-Example, Politics - I have political opinions & I don’t advertise them.
Why not? I’d rather have a spiritual conversation with someone, then for them not listen to spiritual things because we differ politically.
-Some people will turn you off spiritually because they differ with you politically.
-Sometimes you have to give something up - So others can spiritually go up.
Transition- and this leads us to our first point.
I. vs. 23-26, Seek to Build Up, to Edify
Read verses 23-24
Edification - The word in the greek comes from the root word meaning “to build a house”.
As Christ Followers we seek to build each other up. We are responsible for each other’s spiritual walk. We build up the body of Christ. We build up the spiritual house of God.
-When you are faced with a choice to do something that may be in a spiritual grey area ask ourselves this question.
Will what I’m about to do build up the other person spiritually?
Is what I am doing Edification or Gratification?
-Example, vs. 25 -Meat Sacrificed to Idols
In Corinth during Bible times there were many Cult Temples small and great all over the city.
Sometimes in cult worship
-A worshiper would bring in a bull before the alter.
-The worshiper would place his hand on the bull’s head and dedicate it to Zeus.
-The worshiper would then sit under the bulls neck, the bulls throat would be slit, the worshiper would be showered with blood from the dying animal. This sacrifice was falsely believed to forgive sin.
-The priest would take certain organs and offer them to the god at the alter.
-The priest would take some of the meat for his family.
-Much of the other meat was sold in the market, or a butcher shop next door. The money went to support the Cult Temple to Zeus or another god.
-There was so much animal sacrificing in Corinth that many times there was no way of knowing if the meat you bought at the market was from a Cult Temple or not.
-Some Christ Followers wanted nothing to do with meat sacrificed to a false god.
Illustration - In India on a missions trip an 18 year old Christian young man from the orphanage approach me.
He asked me, Is it ok for a Christian to go to the Hindu temple and eat the sacrificed food?
I remembered passages like this in I Corinthians.
-When I told him, yes, you have the freedom to do that.
He looked at me like I had just grown 5 heads with horns.
- He was mortified that I a professing Christ Follower would suggest that was ok.
-He and I had to look at 1st Corinthians and work through it.
Paul says, It’s OK to eat the food. It’s just meat. God created it. The meat is His. Eat and enjoy the food.
You do have freedom to enjoy the food offered to idols.
Verse 26 says it this way.
“For the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.”
vs. 26, It’s all God’s and is given to us to be enjoyed.
Here is the caveat ...
vs. 24, “Seek the good of your neighbor/other person.
If I am ruled by the law of love & I care about my Indian friend, when I am around him, I will not eat food from any Hindu Temple.
He can’t seperate eating the food from worshiping that god.
“all things are lawful, but all things are not helpful”
If this is a spiritually grey area - Is what I am doing Edification or Gratification?
Question - If you shouldn’t do what would offend or bother then what should I do?
Here we come to a new concept in I Corinthians,
We value what builds up. We value what edifies.
24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
Phil 2:4 “Do not seek your own interest, but the interest of others.”
Loving someone well includes seeking what is best for others.
-We don’t want our choices to please self to harm others spiritual walk.
Illustration
-If you have a friend who is fighting alcoholism, you wouldn’t bring him to a place where there was heavy drinking.
-If you have a boisterous personality, you know to tone it down when you are a guest in a quiet home.
-Avoiding sensitive subject around ethnic groups,
(It aught to be obvious you don’t make jokes about Hitler or talk about concentration camps when you meet a native from Germany.)
-When a visiting child comes to your home, you are careful about what’s on the TV & what their parents allow. t
-You may not be offended by violence in a movie you watch, but you know better than to have that movie on when someone who is sensitive is in the room.
-You limit yourself, because you love others.
You want to be able to build them up spiritually, so you give up your preference - so you can build up others.
-The Corinthians loved their freedom. Their culture taught them to feed their appetites for overeating, drunkenness, sexual looseness … and to be about the self.
There is another teaching in our passage -it is in verse 25-26.
Enjoy what God has given.
-Don’t look to be offended.
-With my friend in India, If I come to his house with grapes and bananas, he is instructed, not to ask, “Did this come from the Hindu Temple.” He is instructed to enjoy.
-If you are person who will not touch alcohol and you are at a friends house eating pan seared chicken and it has a different taste. You are not to ask, “Was this cooked in alcohol?” but instead, just enjoy it - because it is from God.
For a church to thrive we have to be for each other.
By not placing a stumbling block in front of someone. AND
Not looking to be easily offended.
Question - Is there an area of your life that you need to give up, that could be a stumbling block to someone else?
Transition - Then Paul gives us another principle in our passage. He starts with the illustration and then gives the teaching.
II. vs. 27-31, Seek God’s Glory when making a personal sacrifice
Read 27-31
Story Tell - Imagine that you are a citizen of Corinth and a Christ follower. You are invited to game night at an unbelieving friends house. There are lots of people you know there, even a few from church.
You go get a plate of loaded nacho’s and other great snacks.
-You sit down for a competitive game of Connect 4.
-A friend from church whispers in your ear. You know the beef on those loaded nacho’s is meat sacrificed to an idol.
-You think to yourself, I didn’t need to know that. All I wanted to do is just eat some good nacho’s.
-You set your nacho plate down. Later, when no one is looking you throw it out.
-You set your freedom and preference aside for the sake of someone else’s conscience - even for the sake of an unbeliever. Who would be offended.
-You choose to love others well.
Illustration - I’ve led several mission trips to Brazil.
-We would do VBS in the Brazilian slums. And go door to door and share the Gospel.
- In many cultures a home owner is expected to offer the visitor something to eat.
-Our students were told that if they were offered something they had to take it.
-Why? If you don’t receive, you will offend.
-If the people in the slum were to offer you food, they were offering you the 1 meal for the family that day.
-If you offend you will set up a barrier when you share the Gospel.
-If they offered you, you better take it.
We are given 2 motivations in these verses.
-For the sake of not offending someone else’s conscience. (Even an unbeliever.)
2nd motivation - the greatest motivation of all.
What I am about to share with you is the greatest motivation a Christ Follower could ever have.
vs. 31
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
For the sake of God’s Glory - Whatever i do is for the sake of God’s glory!!!
The foundational motivation for everything that God does is that He will receive glory.
Listen to how God is passionate for His glory. For how this is the greatest motivation.
25 “I, I am he
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Speaking of Lazerus death
4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
God loves His glory so much - He has told us to make His glory our chief motivator.
The great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon of the 1800’s enjoyed smoking cigars. This was during a time when the health risk of Tobacco use was unknown. When confronted about his cigar smoking Spurgeon said this.
I wish to say I am not ashamed of anything whatever that I do, and I don’t feel that smoking makes me ashamed, and therefore I mean to smoke to the glory of God.’
Question - Are you willing to give up a freedom, a preference, or a gratification - if it will bring God more glory?
Transition - in our last point we see this.
III. Sacrifice for the salvation & sanctification of others.
verses 32-11:1
Vs. 33 - The goal is salvation.
The goal is -A person in your circle of influence coming to faith in Jesus.
The goal is -Someone being changed for eternity.
The goal is - An individual going from spiritual death to life
The goal is - Someone escaping the condemnation of their sin in hell and gaining forgiveness and heaven with God.
The beauty of how God works is that
-The salvation of others is the greatest way that God is glorified.
-With this great goal in mind, you and I should happily give up our preferences.
In the context of this verse 32 the one who could be offended is someone who we disagree with, that is don’t see it the same way. Their thought is different than ours.
In our day we would say that this person is of a different political persuasion.
They shop in a different grocery store than we do.
They like a different style of music.
Their view of church & worship is different than ours.
They vote for a different political party.
They use their money in a different way than we would.
-For the sake of their salvation, we choose not to unnecessarily offend.
-We walk in love. We walk in humility. We walk in encouragement.
Example about “J” at pizza hut.
Illustration - Recently I ran into a young man at pizza hut.
I asked him how his day had been going.
He said, to be honest, real bad. Drama in his life.
I told him I would pray for him.
He said, They would be really great if you are serious and will do it.
A few minutes later I was waiting for my order and he referred to him having a real bad day, I told him, “I’m going to pray for you on that.” He said, “That’s good, but only if your serious.”
He was looking for a Christian who was serious.
He had encountered people who were not serious about their faith.
Who had been a spiritual stumbling block to him.
Your actions and words either build up or tear down.
As a missionary - Paul recognized that he had to really understand the different cultures around him, so he didn’t stick his foot in his mouth.
If you are going to be effective for Jesus you have to have a grasp on culture.
In our community, whites - upper and lower class, blacks, hispanic, Mennonite, and so forth ...
For the glory of God and the salvation of others, will you make sure that your words are seasoned with salt?
That you are acting and speaking in a way that builds up.
The unsaved are watching and listening.
3 Final Questions:
Is there something in your life that could be a stumbling block to a believer or unbeliever?
Do you live your life with the motivation to give God glory and reach unbelievers?
If you are not a Christ Follower, will you say Yes to His call to you right now?
He is inviting you to be saved