American Idols

American Idols 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 New King James Version (NKJV) 1 Corinthians 8 Be Sensitive to Conscience 1 Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. 2 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him. 4 Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. 7 However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. 9 But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idols temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? 11 And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12 But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble This is the Word of God, for us the people of God, thanks be to God!...Amen. Let us pray Heavenly Father, our Rock and our Refuge. You who fromed us from the dust of the earth. We come to you and ask that you bless us with your presence and with a word that is your will for us today. We ask these things in the name of our Redeemer, Your Son Jesus the Christ. Amen. Our scripture reading begins with Paul speaking to us of knowledge. He tells us that our worldly knowledge that we have attained does nothing more than puff us up and make us believe that we're smarter than we really are. In essense, he's telling us that though we think we know much, we really don't know anything in the grander scheme of things. Oh, how true that satement is. How often has a little knowledge led us or someone around us into the sin of pride and arrogance? He goes on to tell us that if anyone loves God, they are known by God. If we truly love God, He will bless us by putting His knowledge, true knowledge in our hearts throughout our lives if we'll only humble ourselves to His way and not ours. As the scripture says in Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. I pray that we all learn to have the kind of fear that the proverb speaks of here. Not the trembling fear of destruction many people picture when they hear the term 'God Fearing'. The fear of the Lord described here means to have respect for His ways for His Word, to respect Him as our Creator, our Protector, and our Lord. To have a loving respect for our God, not a loathing fear. That is how we receive true knowledge. In verse four we literally get into the meat of the message. As we learned in our message a few weeks ago, this is taking place around 54 A.D. During the time of Paul's writings to the church in Corinth it was normal practice for Christian people's neighbors to sacrifice animals to pagan idols. I say idols and not Gods because we know that the objects that pagans worship and give offerings to are just lifeless, manmade objects, not Gods. There is only one God afterall. This was a huge part of Corinthian culture. Temples to a vast array of pagan deities were everywhere in their city. For a Corinthian not to take part in these pagan religions was to make one's self a social outcast. Religion was the major part of their culture. You would not have been able to walk the streets of the city without passing by a multitude of temples and shrines. You also would have had a nearly impossible time trying not to witness animals being sacrificed in one of this locations. After these animals were killed as a sacrifice, the meat was often eaten by the one making the offering, by priests of that particular idol, or sold at the city markets. Early Christians were often times in a moral dilemma about such practices. Where their Jewish born brethren were absolutely forbidden of such practices under the Mosaic Law, Christains many of which were gentile born, weren't under the dietary laws throughout their lives that they were. Even so, some of them still felt that by eating these meats sacrificed to idols, they were in a way participating in idolatry. They were also concerned that this would give a confusing message to new Christians whose faith may still be weak or undeveloped. Many new Christians at the time would have also been recent converts from these pagan religions and these mixed signals from fellow believers may have lead them to fall back into their old practices. Some of them who had now given themselves to Christ may have also felt guilt in eating these meats because they would known exactly where it came from. It may have given these new converts the idea that it was ok to take part in pagan rituals, or that is was ok to keep some old habits that were contrary to Christ's teachings. In effect, they were worried that it would hinder their 'witness' to the newly reborn in Christ. Well, how does all of this idol worshipping and animal sacrificing apply to us in 2012 A.D.? We don't see temples built to false Gods on every corner of our citites and animal sacrifice is certainly not something we see day to day during our times. So what form does idolatry and our being a bad witness to fellow Christians take on today? Well, in verses nine and ten Paul tells us 9 But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idols temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? Though we're not knowingly eating in an idol's temple, we do have thing in our lives that we allow to take priority over our serving God and for people in our lives who are new Christians, we can trun these things into stumbling blocks for them. Let's say that you have a family member, a friend, or a co-worker you've been witnessing Christ to and now they've started going to church and learning more about Jesus' teachings. Or maybe it's not someone you've been witnessing to, but they're new to your church. These new Christians are going to be watching those around them who profess to be Christians very closely. They're going to be watching how people carry themselves, how they speak, how they pray, how they study, and so on. They're new to the faith and their faith may not be that strong yet. These people may even still be resistant to making this sort of lifestyle change. At this point in their faith walk they are very easily influenced as well as very easily disappointed. If they see someone who claims to be a Christian, especially someone they respect acting or doing something contrary to the way they think a Christian should be acting, they could very easily be pushed away from the church and away from God. As Christians we have a responsibility in being true to who we claim to be at church on Sunday. Remember they Jesus told us in Luke 9:23: Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. We must deny ourselves all of those temptations that we embraced before we entered into our own faithwalk with Christ. We must put aside our old habits, our old ways, our old vices, and our old idols, so that we can focus our lives on Christ. Remember in our scripture today that Paul told us in verse 5 'For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),'. There ARE many gods and many lords in our lives if we aloow them to be. We can allow ourselves to be obssessed with so many things in life without even realizing it. It could be a something as serious as an alcohol problem, a drug problem, be it legal medications or illicit drugs. It could be that we're obssessed with more and more material possessions, such as bigger houses, newer cars, fine clothing, jewelry, or quite simply, money itself. We can even obssessed with relationships in our lives, some of which aren't healthy for us. There's all this and a myriad of other things that we can put ahead of our faithwalk and our focus on being a Christian and the new Christians in our lives are watching all of this whether we realize it or not. If your friend that you've been talking to for so long about church comes over to your home for a visit and hears you cussing like a sailor, or you're mad and yelling at your loved ones, what kind of a witness is that to them? Remember that Colossians 3:8 tells us: But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. What if they're walking down main street on a Friday night and run into you staggering out of the local bar? Remember that yes, Paul told his brother in Christ in 1 Timothy 5:23 No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomachs sake and your frequent infirmities, but Jesus also tells us in Luke 21:33-35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. 34 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. For a new Christian to witness one of us acting in such a manner could give them a low opinion of Christians altogether. It could lead them to say 'I was living like this without being a Christian, so what's the use?'. Through our actions, our missteps, we could unintentionally drive someone away from God. We fail by giving in to soething that was an idol in our old life and the new believer fails by keeping their eye on others of the faith instead of on Christ and therefore 'idolizing' their fellow Christian. They may see us as a hypocrit instead of as the flawed human beings that we are. We know that churches are full of imperfect people. We all have our own flaws our own failings, but it doesn't make us hypocrits. Of course there will always be some people who only talk the talk, but never walk the walk. I won't even get into that now. We'll leave that for another day. To the new believer or to the unbeliever, anyone claiming to be a Christian and acting very unchristian is just giving them ammunition to take shots at our faith as a whole. We must put away our own idols and be able to be a good witness of our faith in all aspects of our life. We must be aware of the influence we either knowingly or unknowingly have on those around us. You make not think that it matters that you watch a movie full of illicit behavior and foul language or if you listen to a musician who's singing about doing some very unchristian things, but it does matter when you're claiming to be a follower of Christ and all eyes are on you. You may think it's of no consequence when your friend asks you where you've been the last couple of Sundays and you tell them you were gone fishing or you were at the races or the football games or playing golf. In the new believer's eyes though, it may make a world of difference. Now, I'm not endorsing or condemning anyone for enjoying many of the things that our world has to offer. There are many activities we can enjoy in moderation. There's nothing wrong with having a good time at a ballgame or going fishing, but when we start putting any activities before God and letting them interfere with our capability of being a good witness to those who aren't as strong in the faith as us, we allow it to become a stubling block to us and to them. We must keep verses ten and eleven in mind: 11 And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12 But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. We must put aside the habits and idols in our lives lest they cause our brother to stumble. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...Amen. God bless you my friends, Pete.