Introduction:
What if My Conviction Offends Someone? (1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1)
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CHOOSE to CONSTRUCT. (1 Cor 10:23-24)
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CONCEDE for the CONSCIENCE. (1 Cor 10:25-30)
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CELEBRATE our CREATOR. (1 Cor 31-11:1)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Morning, Church. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10.
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We're going to start in verse 23 and go through the first verse of chapter 11.
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Have you ever had one of those moments where you walked away from a conversation and immediately thought, well, I really stepped in it on that one?
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You know the feeling. You say something and at first you think it was just something harmless, right?
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But then you notice the silence. Where you see the look on someone's face and the room gets just a little awkward, right? And suddenly there's this chill in the air and you start replaying the conversation in your mind and you start thinking, well, what did I just say? Most of us have had a moment like that, right? I remember one time in particular when Elizabeth and I were a young couple before we had any kids.
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We got invited over to a dinner party. And we didn't know one of the couples in particular very well. And so we were brought together and they were trying to do some, you know, friend matchmaking kind of a thing. It was nice. We had a good dinner and a good time and we were just chatting with one another and telling funny stories and whatever. And I seized on the opportunity to tell a really, what I thought was funny story about an experience that Elizabeth and I had had just a few days prior.
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And Elizabeth and I had gone to a high school band concert. You remember this? Yeah. Of course she does. We had gone to a high school band concert just a few days before. And I'll just tell you that it was not the greatest concert ever. In fact, it was, in my opinion, it was pretty bad. And I thought it would be a great opportunity to make everybody laugh. So I'm telling about how the trumpets are squeaking and how the trombones were just a few notes, a little off and you know the the kid playing the triangle got a little too excited and you know i'm getting laughs and it's it's a great time we're all yucking it up i did notice there was one couple though the couple we didn't know too well they weren't really engaged in my story and so you know i just bore in i'm telling it a little more getting a little trying to get some more laughs so i finished my story and then uh the husband of the couple that was quiet that we don't know very well he kind of leans in and raises his head and says I'm the band director at that school. That's a true story. That one hurt. That one really hurt, you know? Maybe you've been there. I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one. Maybe that's the worst example in the room. But I felt awful. You know the Homer Simpson meme where he just backs up into the shrubs? You've seen it, right? You've sent it, right? Yeah, that was what I wanted to do. I just wanted the earth to open up, swallow me whole, and I just wanted to be gone. But you know, honestly, they took it really, really well. They were very gracious. And we laughed about it. And I think they got over it. We never got invited over for dinner again. But you know, I think they got over it. At least that's what I tell myself. You know, in most circumstances like that, most social mistakes, they're just accidental. I didn't mean to offend them. I thought I was just being funny. And they're awkward, but eventually we get over it and we work through it and we laugh and we kind of move on.
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But sometimes that sort of thing, that can even happen here in the church, right? You know, some of the hardest conflicts that we find ourselves in in the church and in our lives, sometimes they're not accidents. They happen when we are absolutely convinced that we are right about something, and we need to get that out of our heads.
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It can happen when our personal convictions, our preferences, and what we believe, that we have every right and good purpose to say, begin to collide with someone else's preferences or someone else's conscience or conviction. And that is a much, much harder problem. Because now it's not just, oops, I misspoke, I didn't realize. Now it's, I believe I am right. I believe I have the freedom here to say what I think I need to say and to express myself.
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And so, what do we do in that instance? What do we do with that conviction if it offends someone or if it's going to offend someone? Maybe just to make sure you understand, maybe it's a situation like this. Maybe you're in a group, even here at church, right? And you're having a conversation and you say something like, I just, for the life of me, I can't really understand how people can send their kids to public school. I mean, it's just a terrible place.
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Do they know what they're doing? And then someone in that group goes to public school. Or is a school board member. Or is a teacher, right? Or how about you're expressing that absolute correct conviction that anyone who goes to a non-Christian concert or, heaven forbid, takes their kids there, right? They're doing a terrible disservice to their family. Or how about expressing the very strong and, of course, correct that anyone who chooses not to follow the right vaccination schedule for their kids, they're just a looney tune, right? Or anyone who lets their kids participate in Halloween in any form, they're just inviting their children to be overcome by evil spirits. Or one more, maybe you have a strong conviction that you know that someone who is not a five-point Calvinist, right? They know what all the tulip letters stand for.
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Maybe they're destined for help. And you know that you're right. You know that your purpose is to declare your conviction in these circumstances. And you don't really have to have much regard for the people around you. And this is where 1 Corinthians 10 brings us this morning. I mean, we all have convictions, of course. These strong opinions.
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And if it's not one of the ones I listed, maybe it's the idea of drinking that Jeff talked us, walked us through with that example in the small group, right? We had a few months ago or heaven forbid politics or dress standards or social media. So the question then becomes, what do I do with these convictions? What do I do with my convictions on a non-essential, non-salvation issue that offends somebody else?
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thinking.
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Because I know you.
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Some of you right now are thinking, I'm a black and white kind of a person.
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I'm right.
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The rest of the world, they're wrong.
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So what do I do?
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What do I do?
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If I have this strong conviction, do I stand my ground, defend my rights?
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Do I prove my theology?
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Do I push harder because I know I'm correct and it's just going to require a little more convincing?
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You might be thinking, of course I do.
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That is my role in this world.
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Why else would God put those things in my head or on my heart? Paul has some things to say about this issue, and that's what we're going to dive into. So before we get into Paul's instructions, let's pray. And in our normal harvest tradition, I would ask that you take a moment and pray for me, and I will pray for you.
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Holy Father, I pray that your word would speak loudly this morning. I pray, God, that the wisdom that our brother Paul brings us in the Holy Scriptures, God, would convict us where we need to be convicted and would encourage us where we need to be encouraged. And God, that we would leave a changed people in whatever way you know that we need to be changed. It's in Christ's holy and precious name we pray. Amen. So Paul has been building us up. We've been in 1 Corinthians for a while now, right?
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And Paul has been building us up to this point. In chapters 1-4, in this letter to the Corinthians, he's correcting their wisdom. He's saying, are you following human personalities or are you following Christ and the cross? Remember the sections we had Taylor and Jeff and Rich? He's saying, who are you following? And then in chapters 5-7, Paul is correcting their conduct. He says, how do Christians, how are we supposed to handle these topics of sexuality, marriage, holiness? The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
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And then in chapters 8 and 9, he spends some time correcting their rights. He says, knowledge without love is pretty dangerous, actually. The Christian liberty is real, but liberty without love, it can become really destructive. And then here we are in chapter 10. Paul is going to show us how to actually live this out. This is the practice of this liberty that Paul has been talking to the Corinthians about. Because he acknowledges you have rights, you have freedoms, you have convictions.
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But how do we use them in a way that helps people instead of hurting people or pushing them away? How do you handle these convictions in a way that is honoring to Christ? So let's look at three clear responses from Paul for us on this particular topic. If you look at verse, starting in verse 23 and we'll look at 24, Paul begins by saying, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.
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All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Apparently this phrase, all things are lawful, it had become kind of a favorite slogan of the Corinthians. So much so that you might remember that Paul already talked about this and used this same language back in chapter 6. And back in that chapter, Paul was using this rhetorical argument, This rhetorical technique to say to the Corinthians and now to us, freedom isn't just what you can do, but rather what you should be looking at what you should do. This idea that we all have this freedom in Christ, Paul asks us, how are you using it in light of what is good and what is helpful to do? See, the Corinthians were saying, and you might remember from a few weeks ago, or maybe you don't, so I'll remind you, I'm free, I'm under grace, I have rights, I can do this. And in some sense, they were right. But actually, Paul is talking about a term that some theologians will use. It's called adiophora. It's really just getting to this idea of these matters of indifference. These things that are neither clearly commanded nor forbidden by God in Scripture. They're not sin. Not holiness issues.
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with explicit commands, but you might call them gray areas. Questions like, can I eat this? Can I eat that? Can I go here, participate in this, celebrate that, enjoy this freedom? So Paul doesn't deny Christian liberty and Christian freedom at all. He doesn't say actually nothing is lawful. Instead, he applies two simple, profound filters. Yes, it may be lawful, but he says, but is it helpful?
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Yes, it may be permitted, but does it build up? And that is a completely different standard, isn't it? It's not, what am I allowed to do? Whether or not something is lawful, that is really the bare minimum for a believer. Instead, whether something is helpful should be our standard, and that's what Paul is calling us to. So I want to focus a little bit on this word build up, this two-word phrase build up.
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In the Greek it literally means to build a house. And Paul is saying your liberty should function like a construction project, not demolition work. Christian freedom is not a license for self-gratification. It's a tool. It's a tool for church building, for people building, and disciple building. So the question is not what can I get away with? The question is what helps build up the people around me.
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And that's our first point this morning that Paul is bringing to us. What do I do if my conviction offends someone? You choose to construct. You choose to construct. If my freedom tears down a brother, then my freedom has actually become selfish. Paul then takes it in a slightly different direction than he did back in chapter 6 when he says, Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Boy, that's really hard, isn't it? Because what's our natural tendency? Do you naturally seek your neighbor first? Probably not. Probably not, at least most of the time. We think about my preference, my conviction, my right, my comfort. But Paul says, with all this freedom, with all this liberty, start with your neighbor instead of yourself. That is the way of Christ. Let me illustrate it to you maybe this way. Maybe this will help. Drive home the point. Let's just say I decide to do a renovation project in my house. Actually, you know what? Better yet. Let's say I have a neighbor who calls me up and says, hey, you know what? I want to do a renovation project in my house. Would you help me? I'm a good neighbor, right?
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This guy lives next to me, Larry. He's a pastor. He's a good guy. So he gives me a call and I say, you know what? Yeah, I'll help you out, Larry. I'll come over. I'll help you with your renovation project. Well, what's the first step in any good reno job? Demo day, right? So Larry calls me up and I decide, okay, yeah, I'm going to go help Larry and I go grab my sledgehammer like a good neighbor and I walk over there and I am prepared. I am ready to help him do some demo.
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I have every right to be there, don't I? I mean, he invited me. So legally, I'm allowed in his house, and I brought the right tool. I brought the sledgehammer, right? And Larry, I mean, he knows. He knows how I feel about demo. He knows that I'm really excited about this, and I'm going to have some skill, and I'm probably going to have some, maybe some opinions, too. So Larry invites me over, and we're maybe talking a little bit about the project. He gives me some of his opinions and some of his thoughts, and I'm thinking, you know, and I'm like, yeah, you know, okay.
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Larry knows me. He knows I've done some demo in my day and I've got some things to offer here. And I'm thinking, you know what? I heard his ideas, but there's this one wall. It's right in the middle of the house. And I have a very strong conviction that that wall, it's got to go. I mean, for the good of his family, for the good of Larry and Kimmy and their girls and grandbabies, that wall, it's going because I feel very strongly about this. In fact, I feel strongly enough that my sledgehammer, I take it.
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And I just knocked that wall down. That wasn't Larry's idea. That was my conviction. Well, that wall just so happened to be very structurally integral to the house. So what happens when I take that wall down? The second story of that house is now directly on the first floor. But it didn't just fall on me. It fell on Larry and his wife and their girls.
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See, my exercise of my freedom in that instance, it became destruction. And Paul says that's exactly how some Christians handle their own personal liberty. They swing the sledgehammer of personal rights without asking what they're hitting, without thinking about it. They say, I'm free, I'm right, I can do this, I feel very convicted about this. In a sense, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I That's okay. That's true. But are you building the house or are you collapsing it? With your conviction. Because in the church, just like in Larry's house, it's not just you. There are other people under this roof. There are younger believers watching. There are weaker believers learning. There are unbelievers observing. There are hurting people trying to heal. And your liberty, it affects them too.
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So the application here, it's simple, but it's kind of uncomfortable. Ask yourself, am I more interested in defending my rights or protecting the structural integrity of my brother's house? And in this week, instead of swinging a hammer, a sledgehammer of your conviction, maybe choose to lay a brick of encouragement. Maybe instead of proving your point, you protect a person. And maybe instead of demanding liberty, you ask, what would help them the most? So what do I do if my conviction offends someone? I choose to construct. And then Paul goes on to take it even further because sometimes this issue, it's not just about general building up or edification. Sometimes someone else's conscience is actually involved. And that leads us to Paul's second point. Look at verses 25 to 30. Paul goes on to say, eat whatever is sold in the meat market.
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without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. You can pause there. Paul maintains a very high view of God's creation. Paul's actually quoting King David here from Psalm 24 and he's telling us, listen, this is similar to back in chapter 6. He says, meat is just meat. The earth, all of this, it belongs to the Lord. An idol, it's nothing. Food itself is morally neutral.
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So Paul tells strong believers, stop turning everything into a theological investigation. Go buy the meat. Eat dinner. Don't interrogate the butcher. You do not need to walk into the meat market saying, excuse me, before I purchase this ribeye, I need a full spiritual background on this cow, please. No. Relax. That is not Paul's point at all.
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He says, enjoy the meat, enjoy God's provision without unnecessary anxiety.
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And He goes on to say, if one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.
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He says, if you want to go to the unbeliever's house and have dinner, if you think it's a worthwhile time, if you think it's going to be good, it's a good opportunity, then go and eat.
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And don't worry.
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He says, without raising any question on the ground of conscience.
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Concede your conscience on this non-essential and non-sin issue and go.
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But then the situation changes somewhat.
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Verse 28, look at that.
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It says, But if someone says to you, This has been offered in sacrifice, then do not eat it.
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So now there's an informant at the dinner table.
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A believer sitting next to you who says, he points out that this meat, it's been sacrificed to idols.
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It's tainted, right?
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He says, now someone's conscience, now someone else's conscience is involved in this scenario.
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And now the issue is no longer about the meat.
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It's now about the person.
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Paul then says, stop eating.
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Stop.
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For the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of their conscience. Not yours, but their conscience. Not because the meat is suddenly bad. Not because the conscience of another person is at stake. This is where we Christians get it wrong so often. We think the goal is to prove, that we have to prove that we are theologically on this non-essential issue. That we think we have to convince the weaker brother that we are totally right on this issue. And if we don't, then we've done something wrong. But Paul says the goal is to protect the person. For the weaker brother, eating that meat would have been a violation of his conscience. Even if the act is objectively fine, which Paul has already told us, it is.
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If he believes it's wrong, but does it anyway, he's training himself to disobey what he believes God wants him to do. It's kind of like what Paul says in his letter to the Romans in chapter 14 where he says, But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. The issue isn't just about the external act.
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of eating.
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It's about the intent of the heart on these negotiable issues.
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These negotiable convictions.
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If this guy were to go ahead and eat the meat.
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And go against his conscience.
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His conscience guided conviction.
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He would actually be sinning.
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Because as it says in Romans.
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This man's faith.
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Or in that context.
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Faith means a conviction or an assurance.
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His assurance is that eating the meat does not honor God.
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So would he be honoring the Lord? And Paul says to concede. To yield. Not because your theology has changed. Not because your conviction has disappeared. But because the love of your brother matters more than proving your point. So we have to concede for the conscience. That's our second point. Concede for the conscience.
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So to drive this home a little bit, why don't we reverse the scenario a little bit and say, imagine the believer goes into the marketplace and he starts just making a total scene. He's flipping tables over. He's tossing meat away. He's tossing it on the ground stomping on. He says, this whole place is compromised. This meat, it's pagan. Everyone here is wrong. You're all going straight to hell.
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None of us would ever do anything about a particular issue we feel strongly about on social media, right? But what does that accomplish? What would that accomplish in this scenario? Would that help to reach anyone? Or does it simply create noise and disagreement? So continuing on in Paul's scenario, imagine that you get invited to dinner by an unbeliever and you say, yeah, I'll come over. I'll come over.
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But only if... Fill in the blank. I'm only going to come over if there's no alcohol there whatsoever. Or, you know what? I'm only going to come over if everyone agrees with my political... No MAGA hats, please. There's not going to be any MAGA hats, right? Or everybody's vaccinated, right? Everybody's had the COVID and the double and they're wearing the masks, right? You remember those days? Or I'm only going to come... You know what? You guys only read from the ESV version of the Bible, right?
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Okay, good. And I'll come over then. Or, you know, there's no evolution or there's no old earth people at this dinner, right? We're all seven-day young earth people, right? I'll come over if your family does things my way. Is that building a bridge to the gospel? Is it building a wall, isn't it? And then continue on, right? Imagine that someone at the table, they're struggling with the conscience issue of, eating whatever's in front of them for whatever reason, instead of gently stepping back, the stronger believer, maybe you in this case, you actually launch into a theological debate. You are going to convince this guy why he is wrong about his conviction. Nobody gets helped in that scenario. In fact, the dinner becomes a courtroom scene, right? Everybody gets exhausted, and Paul says, stop trying.
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to win all the arguments in the moment all the time. You've lost your focus when you're doing that. He says sometimes, or we can say that sometimes, that weaker brother's conscience, it's not an invitation for debate. Maybe it's a check engine light on our liberty or on what we think. The Holy Spirit might just be saying to you, you know what? In this instance, slow down. This is not about you. This is not about your rights anymore. This is about your witness.
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of me.
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So, is there a non-essential issue where you could maybe take a step back?
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Not because you're weak.
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Not because your convictions are wrong.
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Maybe it's in your family.
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Maybe it's in your small group.
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Maybe it's in your workplace or with a newer believer or somebody you're trying to win for Christ.
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If your conviction on a non-essential issue, on a non-salvation issue, is consistently resulting in people being pushed away or being hurt. Maybe your knowledge isn't the problem. Maybe it's your pride. Because sometimes the greatest display of spiritual maturity is not just standing your ground in a confrontational way. It's actually being willing to take a step back and concede to the conscience of someone else. Now I know, Again, because I know you, because I know myself. Some of you are out there saying, Brian, I cannot, I can't, I can't believe Jeff and Taylor are letting you stand up there and say this. I mean, I have strong convictions. Is Paul telling me to just take them all and just set them aside? Set them on fire over here? They're useless? Isn't that a violation of my own conscience? That's not what's being said here at all. Our convictions are important.
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And do you really think Paul, a guy who has a fair amount of pretty strong convictions on issues like sex, marriage, gender roles, spiritual gifts, etc., do you really think he would tell us your personal convictions, they don't matter at all? No. And in fact, I would say that discussing your convictions with believers or non-believers in a non-confrontational way, it can be really helpful. That's where iron sharpening iron can come, right? You can help a believer with your convictions. But remember, like Jeff told us last week or two weeks ago, we should all be believers in legalism. But what kind? Personal legalism, right? We should be very strict on ourselves according to conviction from Scripture, but to have that be general legalism to everybody else, that's where we get in big trouble. And all of this, that leads us to Paul's final and biggest point.
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Why do all of this? Paul goes on to ask a couple of questions. He says, For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced? Because of that for which I give thanks. In other words, why do this? Why lay down my rights? Why surrender preferences? Why choose people over liberty? Why choose to concede for the conscience? Is it so that people think we're nice?
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Is it so they think that we're really winsome and non-argumentative and non-confrontational? We're just go along to get along people? Is it so we can fill every seat in this auditorium two Sundays a week? Is that why we do this? Let's see what Paul has to say. Go ahead and look at verse 31. Paul lands this entire argument when he says, So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God. Just try, just as I try, to please everyone in everything I do. Not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. This is the center of everything. Glory to God alone.
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If you eat the meat, do it, give thanks, and go. If you abstain in order to protect your brother's conscience, do it to the glory of God alone. Not just in the big spiritual moments either, not just church and missions and all that, but in the mundane. The eating, the drinking, posting, talking, working, walking. Because every ordinary moment Paul is sharing with us can become an opportunity to put the character of God on display. And he is most with His people when we value Him and His family more than our own freedoms and our own right to express those convictions. So this is the how. How do we keep our conviction from becoming barriers? Or what do we do when our conviction offends someone? Our third point is that we celebrate our Creator. We celebrate our Creator.
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We need to ask, does this make God look amazing and beautiful? Does this glorify Him and bring honor to Christ? We need to celebrate the Creator. Because if eating the meat, if it creates a scandal and confusion and makes your neighbor think that Christ is compromised, then it doesn't matter how correct your theology is, you are not glorifying God.
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Verses 32 and 33 just shows us how broad this responsibility is. Paul says again, give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God. He's got all the bases covered there. Jews, they were people with religious history and pretty strong convictions. Greeks, people outside the faith who are watching Christianity and seeing what it looks like. And the church, fellow believers who have different and may have different maturity levels than we do. And Paul is saying, be a universal witness to them all. Don't put any unnecessary obstacles in front of them. I've got to pause one more time and say, I think I know what you're thinking. This is just not right. We can't be this way. I know those kinds of Christians. The ones that are so agreeable, so winsome that they stand for, nothing.
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They're just a bunch of people-pleasing, gospel-compromising weaklings.
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Guys, this is not, do not misunderstand Paul or me.
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This is not about people-pleasing.
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Because people-pleasing, what is it?
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It's self-centered, right?
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It's me controlling all your perceptions of me.
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That's not what's going on here.
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Paul is talking about being a person who is strategically on mission for Christ always.
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He is saying, I will gladly set aside my negotiable preferences and hold my convictions personally at every opportunity I have if it removes barriers between someone and Jesus.
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And that is radically different than a washed down or watered down, unoffensive gospel.
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That is not what we're talking about here.
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Paul says, he goes on to say, be imitators of me as I am of Christ.
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And he's pointing us to Christ.
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He wants us to celebrate Christ.
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and to celebrate the Creator. There might be someone here this morning who doesn't usually come to church. Or maybe you've been to church a lot, but you know the truth in your heart is that you've never trusted Christ as your Savior. And maybe all of this hasn't really resonated with you for that reason. Well, this point, Paul's point here, our Creator, that's to you. It's to all of us. But I want to make sure that you tune in here. Because he says, look at Jesus. Jesus as God's Son, who was with Him from the creation of everything, had every right, every freedom, every authority, all power, and yet what did He do? He laid it down. Philippians says that Christ did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, But he emptied himself. Christ didn't cling to any of these divine rights, divine privileges that he had as the Son of God. Instead, he moved toward sacrifice. His entire earthly life was a steady march to sacrifice. Toward death on the cross so that he could overcome death and become the perfect substitute for spiritual death for all of those who choose to follow him.
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And if that's not something you've done yet, if you haven't trusted Christ as your Savior, if you've never looked to Christ as your only refuge and strength, please talk to me. Talk to Jeff or Taylor or go to the prayer corner after church. We'd love to talk to you more about that. Because Paul says, look to Christ. And he says, watch me do the same. Paul says, I'm just a regular guy following Christ.
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If I can lay down my rights for the sake of the gospel, then you can too. And honestly, that is where we probably need, I know I need sometimes, the strongest correction. Because so much of our culture and in our mindset, it sounds so often like Corinth, right? We say, I know an idol is nothing. I know Halloween is pagan. Democrats are evil. Republicans are selfish. Drinking is wrong. Drinking is right. Whatever. You fill it all in. Maybe sometimes we're right, but Paul is saying, hear me on this.
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there's a better question. Do you know what your neighbor needs? Do you know what your neighbor needs? He needs Christ. That's the point. We say, I have all these freedoms. Yes. But you also have the power through Christ to abstain from freely expressing all of those convictions that you have all the time to everyone.
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Or even better yet, perhaps, you have the power through Christ to be patient. To be patient with someone else, a weaker brother, to come to a better understanding of their faith. And to grow in their own convictions. So do you have the patience to allow the Holy Spirit to work in your brother's life in that moment? Or do you feel like you have to be the Holy Spirit in their life?
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for them.
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That is maturity.
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Having that patience.
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In the Corinthian way that Paul is pushing back against says, my goal is personal liberty.
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I am free.
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I am independent.
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I am a Corinthian.
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I'm an American.
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The way of Christ says, my goal is to win people for Jesus.
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The way of Christ is self-denial for the good of others.
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The way of Christ says it is not about me. It's about Him. It's about people's eternal souls and the gospel and God's glory. Our worship team can make their way on up as I finish up. Because the Corinthian way, which is oftentimes our way, it produces pride and it produces division.
38:40
Christ's way produces humility and unity and brings glory to our Heavenly Father, but I've got to ask you this morning, which way will you choose? The Corinthian way or Christ's way? So what if my conviction offends someone? Choose to construct. Use your liberty to build people up and not demolish them.
39:09
What if my conviction offends someone? Concede for the conscience. Value the person more than proving your point. What if my conviction offends someone? Celebrate the Creator. Let your highest goal be the glory of God, not the defense of self. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, God, for your word. We thank you that, God, that it answers all of our questions.
39:39
God, that it so clearly cuts into all of our circumstances. God, and we just, we think of this word from Paul this morning, and God, I pray that our hearts would be looking to our neighbor. God, that through the power of your Spirit, that we would be turned away from ourselves, from selfishness. God, and that we would look to the needs of those around us. God, that we would seek to build others up.
40:09
God, and that we would follow the leading of your Holy Spirit in those moments when we're wondering, do I say what I feel strongly about? Or do I hold back? Do I concede on this issue or do I push in? God, I pray that your Spirit would work strongly in each of our lives, God, and that we would hear Him. Lord, and most of all, I pray that our goal would be to bring you glory, to look to you in all things. To celebrate you as our Heavenly Father. And to look to Jesus as our one and only Savior. We love you and we're grateful for all you do for us. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
In what area of life are you most tempted to defend your “rights” or personal convictions instead of asking, “Is this actually building others up?” What would it look like to choose construction over demolition there?
Can you think of a time when someone’s conscience, weakness, or spiritual maturity should have mattered more than proving your point? How did you handle it, and would you handle it differently now?
Where is God calling you to “concede for the conscience” of someone else right now—maybe in your family, friendships, workplace, or at Harvest? Why is that so difficult for you?
Paul says, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” How can you tell when your convictions are truly about God’s glory versus when they are really about pride, preference, or control?
Breakout
Pray for one another.