Mature Thinking

Let's take our Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians 14. If I can't preach after that, might as well just hang it up, you know what I'm saying? 1 Corinthians 14. We're gonna look at just one verse this morning. That's a little out of the ordinary for us. We just completed a spring series in the book of Daniel. A wonderful and rich portion of God's word that's all about lifting us up out of our daily experience to see how big God is, how he's in control of all of history, how we can trust him with the future. That's a really important part of God's word that we came to love and treasure, but we're moving out of that now.

And I think a lot of us come to church sometimes with the question in our hearts, "Can you just tell me what to do? Can you give me something just really practical? I know that all of God's word is practical, ultimately, because it shapes the way that we live, how we think about God, but can you just take me to the nuts and bolts about how to live for the Lord Monday through Saturday? Because that's where I'm at. That's what I need." Does anybody ever feel like that when you come to church? And so before we moved into a new sermon series through a new book of the Bible, I wanted to just help us with what I think is about the most practical issue that any of us face. And that's how to make good decisions, how to make good choices in the big stuff of life and in the little daily stuff of life that's flying at us all the time. How can we make wise, Godly, and mature decisions for the glory of God? So would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's word? Just one verse. We're gonna look at several passages in 1 Corinthians--just an amazingly helpful letter. I'm gonna hang our thoughts on this verse: 1 Corinthians 14:20

This is God's word. Father, would you help us now to hear and receive your life-giving word for your glory in Jesus' name? Amen. You can be seated.

Several years ago now, my good friend Gary Smith, he's here today, was helping me with a project at my house. He was helping with some electrical things in the shop at my house. And I don't know anything about any of that stuff and that's an understatement, but Gary knows everything about all that. And he was helping me. And I said, "well, please just let me do something to contribute. How can I make this easier on you? Just tell me what to buy for this project and I'll just have it there. So any time you want to swing by and tinker with something you'll just have what you need." And he said, "great, let me tell you exactly what you need." He explained it to me. He described it to me. It was all very helpful. I said, "I got it, I got it. I got it. It'll be waiting on you whenever you come by." So I did it, went to the store, got the stuff, dropped it off. And then I got a phone call from Gary a little bit later. "Well, I guess I'm just gonna have to stay with you." That's what he said. And as we talked it was clear I had gotten all the wrong stuff. None of it would fit, none of it would work for it. And he said, "tell you what, I'll just get it and we can settle up later on."

"I guess I'll just have to stay with you." In other words, "you can't really handle this on your own. I'm going to have to hold your hand and say get this, don't get that, do this, don't do that." Of course, we're joking. We're old friends. That's what makes it funny. It's unrealistic that Gary and Jeff Parish and Greg Young can walk around with me through life and manage my every decision for me. I'd be better off for it, but that's unrealistic, right? They can't just stay with me, but that's exactly how the Apostle Paul has got to feel when he thinks about the church at Corinth.

Now, the Corinthian church in a lot of ways is Paul's most exciting, most dynamic, most gifted church of all the churches that he serves. They got saved radically out of a very dark and worldly environment. The city of Corinth is just known for its immorality and its godlessness and these folks really got saved. They met the Lord and they're kind of on fire for the Lord. So when they come together for worship, it's the place to be. It's the new show in town because the preacher is throwing fire, and the people show up ready to engage, and the music is hot, and everybody has all these gifts that they're able to employ and exercise. It's a happening place. But when they leave worship, they are a disaster. Their personal lives are a mess. Their dating lives are crazy. They're dating the wrong people and making really bad choices with them. Their relationships with each other in the church are marked by factions and strife and cliques and divisions. They are visiting prostitutes. They're cheating each other in business and then taking each other to court, standing in front of non-Christian judges to straighten out their business disputes, because they're all trying to crook each other during the week at work. They are mistreating their spouses. They're leaving their spouses for no good reason and saying that they're doing it in Jesus' name because God led them to do it. They're hanging out with the rich, influential people during the week who don't love God and look down on their brothers and sisters just because they wanna be a part of that in-crowd. I mean, they are a hot mess.

Is it possible for a church to really have it going on when they come together for a public worship service and be a total disaster in their personal lives? Is that possible? It is possible. I've heard that it's possible, right? And when Paul hears about this, he's kind of like the gif that Matthew sent me the other day of the guy who shows up with pizza ready for a good time and finds out that the apartment's on fire. Have y'all seen that one? That's a very effective gif. He comes up with all this and the whole thing is engulfed in flames. That's how Paul is when he hears about Corinth. Because when he left them, he was there for like 18 months, everything was going great. All these saved people were showing up for church excited about walking with the Lord. But he's gotten this report back now that they are falling apart in their personal lives.

And he's got to be thinking, "I'm just gonna have to stay with all y'all. I've got to literally walk through life with you holding your hand saying, "don't do this, don't do that, quit doing that, don't talk to him that way, quit all that stuff, don't do that. That's why I'm going to have to live with y'all just so that you can survive and not kill each other and make our church look like a huge joke in front of this whole town."

That's how he feels, but Paul can't do that. That's unrealistic, right? Parents treat small children like that, right? We literally hold their hands. We literally walk with them through life. We literally say, "do this, don't do that, pick this, don't pick that." That's how we treat little kids and that's fine. That's how it's supposed to work. But our goal is to not have to do that forever, amen? Our goal is that at some point they internalize what we're teaching them and they mature so that they're able without anybody else there to make wise independent choices. They just know what's right and what's wrong. They know what's good, better, and best. And they can choose those things on their own without mom and dad standing right there, or without the pastor standing right there, or without the Apostle Paul standing right there. That's the goal in parenting is to raise our children to maturity. Paul says that's the same goal spiritually--that we all start out not knowing up from down in the Christian life, whatever background we've been saved out of, there's so much that we don't know and don't understand. We need somebody to hold our hand and say "do this, don't do that. That honors the Lord, that dishonors the Lord." We need that. That's fine. But the goal is to go on from that to a place of maturity. And that's Paul's heart in 1 Corinthians 14:20.

I really think that's the theme of this whole letter is how Christians grow up in the Lord, how Christians become mature before God. Paul says, look, "if you're gonna be a baby in something, be a baby in evil, right? I don't know anything about that, but be mature in your thinking. So that in every area of your life: work, home, social relationships, church relationships, whatever the situation, you know how to think like a mature, wise, Godly person. I want you to be infants in evil and mature in your thinking. Corinthians, I'm afraid you're mature in evil and babies in your thinking, and we want to reverse that. Do you know what you call the process of reversing that where you become infants in evil and mature in your thinking? We call it discipleship. That's what discipleship is. You are growing up in the Lord, you're being trained, you're being taught, you're being shaped. Our church's mission statement is to make disciples of Jesus. We're learning like the Great Commission says to obey everything that Jesus commanded us because it's for our good and it's for his glory. And so this letter of 1 Corinthians is designed to teach us how to think with maturity and make those wise choices.

And as you walk along through the letter, Paul introduces a series of questions that we can all ask every single day of the choices that we make--the big choices and the little choices. We can apply these questions to our decisions as Christian believers. And I never tell you to write stuff down. But this would really be a good week to write the write stuff down. I would encourage you to write these questions down and consult them until they become instinctive for you. As you're making decisions, they become kind of a filter that we can run our choices through. Some of you say, "I don't have a filter." I was gonna say there's a word for that. There's lots of words for that actually. But the biblical word for that is immaturity. When I just say or do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it, the nice word for that is immaturity. And we want to come to a place of maturity, so that we're honoring the Lord with the decisions that we make. I have found this so helpful and continue to find it so needed in my own life. So I'm sharing this with you as someone who struggles to honor God with my choices, but who really wants to.

And I think that's where we're at this morning. I don't think we would have come to church if we didn't want to honor God with our decisions. Can y'all get behind that? You're not gonna say no to it because you're in church and you know better than that. So let's walk through these questions. Like I said, I only read one verse, but we're gonna look at several parts of this letter. Here are the questions.

I can apply this to any decision. Is it lawful? Turn to 1 Corinthians 6:9-12. Listen to what Paul says,

"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God, 'all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.'"

Let's pause right there. The Corinthians are using that slogan that I just read in verse 12. They're throwing this around. All things are lawful. What they mean by that is "once I got saved, Jesus saved me from the law, right?" The condemnation of the law, we know that that's right. But they're taking it a step further saying, "yeah, Jesus saved me from ever keeping the law, from worrying about the law. I don't have to live with rules about right and wrong and moral and immoral because I'm freed from that. I've been liberated. I have God's spirit. I can do what I want." And Paul says, "actually, no, actually, no, God's law reflects God's character. God's own holy, and good, and wise character, it reflects his good and wise design for human life. And so God hasn't gotten rid of the law. God is pro law. And he wants his children to keep the law so that their lives will reflect his character.

Jesus was no legalist. He was no uptight legalist, but Jesus lived his life in accordance with the law of God, because that's how his life shined brightly for the glory of God and showed God's character. So the first question Paul teaches us to ask about any decision is, "is it lawful?" In other words, does God's word permit me to do this, right? Is there a Bible verse that tells me not to do this? Some decisions really are that black and white. Because if God's word says not to do it, then for me to do it would be a sin and I don't want to do that. Now, Paul lists several sinful decisions and lifestyles in verses 9-11. And he says, "look, the people who give themselves to these lifestyles that are contrary to God's word, they don't inherit the Kingdom of God, because they're in rebellion against the king of the Kingdom of God.

Now, all of you Corinthians, all of us here at Sharon Baptist Church, we've been guilty of more than one thing on that list, right? But praise God, Jesus died for us. He's washed us in his blood. We're clean before the Lord now. And that means we don't want to go back to making those same choices that Jesus had to die for. Now, we belong to him. Now, we want to choose obedience. Now, we still actively choose sin sometimes, don't we? And when we realize we've done that, that should grieve us and it should prompt repentance in our lives, because we don't want to break God's law. No, we belong to him and we want to obey him.

So the first question we learn to ask is really the simplest. Does God allow it? Is it right? Or is it wrong? Is it sin or is it righteousness? I've been bought with a price. I obey him. Y'all, that question is really simple, but it clarifies a lot of choices that you make every single day, doesn't it? It makes everything a lot clearer. And let's be real. If everybody in this room started consistently asking just that question, "is it lawful?", It would clean up a lot of stuff, amen? But that's only the first question. So we need to ask, is it lawful?

But number two, we need to ask, is it helpful? That's right here in 1 Corinthians 6:12. We've already read it. Children when they're small can really only grasp two categories, can't they? Is it good or is it bad? Is it right or is it wrong? Is this OK or is this not OK? Right? There are just two simple categories. But as we mature, we understand that life is a little bit more complicated than that. And we can expand our understanding of the choices that we make. Because would you agree that a decision that I make--it can be lawful, permitted by God, not a sin, but not particularly helpful. Would you agree with that? There's no verse in the Bible that says I couldn't stay up all night last night playing video games. Would that have been helpful for me today to do the things I've got to do? Probably not. Yeah. So something could be lawful, but not be helpful. Agreed? We're on the same page there? That's what Paul is saying here.

So I can make choices as a Christian that are not sinful, that don't break God's law, but they also don't benefit me in the Lord. They don't help me. And you are moving into maturity (this is really important), you're moving into maturity when you stop just asking, "well, what's wrong with it?" And you start asking, "well, what's right with it?" When you move from saying, "show me a verse that says I can't do that" to asking yourself the question, "will this help me be everything Jesus saved me to be? Is this going to move me to the goal that Christ has for me in my life?"

So y'all let's just agree as a church family to ask the question, is it helpful to all those neutral areas in our life? And that's a bunch of them. I mean those areas that don't have a specific Bible verse attached to them. So: Should I take this job? Should I watch this on TV? Should I visit this website? Should I go to that party? Should I hang out with these people? Should I be a part of this conversation? Let's ask the question: "Will this honestly help me follow Jesus better? Will this help me become the person, God saved me to be?" And if the answer is clearly no, then why do it?

We each have to work this out for ourselves, which means there may be many things that are perfectly ok for you that are not helpful for me. There may be many things that were helpful and were fine for me in a different season of my life that right here right now are no longer helpful for me as God is at work in my life. There could be things that I choose to do that are not sinful, but they hinder what God is doing to develop Christ in me. There may be things that are perfectly lawful, that I can choose to do, that for me are just a big distraction because they take so much of my thoughts and my emotion and my energy from what should be a priority for me. There could be things that I choose to do that are not unlawful in and of themselves, but for me at least they introduce temptations to sin that I just do not need in my life.

So we want to learn to ask the question, not only is it lawful, but is it helpful? Now, I had to apply this to social media years ago. There's nothing simple with having a Facebook account, or a Twitter account, or an Instagram account, or any of that stuff. But for me, as I stepped back to look at my responsibilities before God of being a pastor, being a husband, being a dad, trying to get some stuff written, going to school at the time, I just had to look at social media and say, "you know, this really isn't that helpful for me. It's taken up time that I really can't afford to give." Also sometimes people would say things about me without saying things about me, and it would really make me mad, you know? And then I'd be mad for the rest of the day. It's like, I don't need this in my life. And so the choice that I made was to just delete all those. Man, I haven't had social media in 10 years. I hadn't missed it a day! I'm not saying that's what you need to do at all. I don't think that's what you need to do. But I do think you need to ask the question, "Is this helpful?" And if it's not, what adjustments do I need to make so it will be helpful?

I've had to ask this question about lots of entertainment choices. Y'all, I love to laugh. I know I'm not very funny, but I love to laugh. And I like comedies, right? I love it when people are telling jokes and trying to get me weak. I love that stuff. But you know what? The world doesn't really know how to do comedy without being pretty vulgar, because that's always just a real cheap, easy laugh. If you say something vulgar, everybody's gonna laugh by reflex. And for me, I realize stuff stays with me. Y'all when I hear a dirty joke, I want to tell it. When I hear something bad, I think about it all week long. I can't just lay it down. When I see something bad, it stays in there. Maybe y'all aren't like me, but I have a feeling I'm not that strange. And I just had to realize for me, this has taken my mind to places that it doesn't need to be. I probably could watch this and not be sinning against God. But it sure isn't helping me get to where I know God's called me to be. So I just had to weed out some of the things I let go in my ears and go through my eyes. Does that make sense to y'all? Not just, is it lawful, but is it helpful? 

I have to do this with time commitments. Here's something that I am coming to later in life, but everything I I say 'yes' to means I'm saying 'no' to a bunch of other stuff. When I say 'yes' to something, that means I have to say 'no' to a bunch of other stuff. That doesn't mean you don't ever say yes. Some of us have commitment-phobia, but you just respect it. You take it with some weight when you say 'yes' to something, because it means I'm gonna have to say 'no' to some other things. And there are commitments in my life that I realize in the big scheme of what God's called me to do, it's not helpful for me. 500 other Christians could do it for the glory of God, but for me, it's just not helpful right now.

And so I want to encourage you to join me in asking not only is it lawful, but is it helpful?

Third question, is it enslaving? That's still here in 1 Corinthians 6:12. Paul's quoting them, "All things are lawful for me," he adds, "but not all things are helpful." He quotes them again, "All things are lawful for me," and then he says, "but I will not be dominated by anything." So as a Christian, here's the principle: Jesus is now my Lord. Didn't you all love it last week when Megan got baptized and I asked her to make that confession, "Jesus is Lord" and she said, "Jesus is Lord!" Wasn't that awesome? That's straight out of Romans 10: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

To become a Christian means Jesus is your Lord. I answer to him. I live for him. He now has control of every part of my life: not just Sunday mornings, not just when the church gathers, but every part of my life. And here's what we learn as we mature: There are some choices I can make that put me under the power and the control of something else besides Jesus. There are some things I can bring into my life that so dominate my life that I'm no longer free to live for the Lord and to serve him because there's another Lord in my life.

So of course we think immediately about alcohol. We think about prescription drugs and other substances that we can put in our bodies. Is there always a "thou shalt not" tag hanging off all those things? I read the Bible a lot. I read it for a living, and there's not always a 'thou shalt not tag' applied to those things. But Christians should take it really seriously and proceed with caution if for no other reason than we know those things can be physically enslaving.

And even if I never get tore down drunk or high as a kite, I can develop a physical dependence on something just to cope with life. And I will develop that dependence way before I recognize it. The other people in my life may recognize it, but I won't recognize it. "I'm fine. I'm in total control. And I'm the furthest thing from control." Do y'all know what I'm talking about? Is that real? It's real. Just take it from a pastor. It's real.

And so I want to handle with caution, anything that could enslave me. Y'all again, viewing sexually explicit images (I'm not talking about sneaking off to the dirty truck stop off of I-40 or looking at some x-rated website, we know that stuff's wrong and off limits for Christians even if there's a fight in our life about it), I'm talking about the mainstream sexually explicit stuff which is everywhere. I can't look at the weather forecast without them trying to throw up some kind of sidebar on me. And if I let that into my life, even if it's in its mainstream forms, that is preying on a very powerful and God given desire and drive that he put there, but it's twisting it, right? Those images create an excitement, and they create a desire for more--for more and more explicit, more and more out of bounds. And before I know it, I've become enslaved to something that I've viewed. So I want to be very careful. Obviously, the things that we know are pornography, we know that Christians are to say no to that for God's glory. But I just want to urge you to be cautious about those two or three steps before you get to the pornography part, because they can be so enslaving.

Sports betting is totally socially acceptable now. This is kind of funny the day after the Kentucky Derby. I enjoyed watching it. But sports betting is so socially acceptable. I mean, the Mannings are making jokes about it and making millions more dollars off of it. But there's a reason why Kurt Warner had to make that commercial for the NFL saying, "now y'all might want to be careful with this." Why? Because it's enslaving. And because people's personal lives and homes get wrecked by it. If you've not seen it, just trust a pastor, it's enslaving. I want to handle that stuff with care.

Now, mature believers also apply this, "Is it enslaving" question beyond vices... Oh Eric's talking about all the bad stuff, you know--betting, and drinking, and smoking, and looking at porn. We want to apply this beyond that, don't we? There are some financial commitments that I make that can enslave me. There are some jobs I can accept that don't just want my time, they want my soul to enslave me. There are some relationships that can enslave me because they're so controlling and so demanding. My extracurricular commitments that I make, they can end up running my life instead of enriching my life, which is the whole point, isn't it? So I just want to be really careful as someone who says that "Jesus is Lord," that I don't end up giving my life into the hand of another Lord. And it takes maturity to be able to say, you know, this is actually a good thing in its place, but it can't be in my life without enslaving me, and I want to stay free and available to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Is it lawful? Is it helpful? Is it enslaving?

Number four. Does it build up? Everybody's mad now, haha. 1 Corinthians 8:1, Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge, this knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Paul is gonna say that again in chapter 10, verse 23. I don't have time to get into the weeds today about what's going on in Corinth, but let's leave it at this. Some of the Corinthian Christians are making decisions during the week that negatively affect the other Christians in Corinth, right? They're doing things, saying things that discourage, that hurt, that belittle, that confuse. And so Paul is asking us to take another step of maturity here.

So all the questions we've asked so far really just have to do with me and how the choices that I make affect me. Paul is saying that's really a good start, but we're only just getting started, because I want you to learn to ask the question, "Not only how does this affect me," but "how does it affect you?" How does it affect my brother, my sister in Christ? Are my actions and my words building you up, positively helping you love Jesus more and follow him closely? Am I considering you? Am I loving you? Am I putting you before me or am I only thinking about me?

As a Christian man, you know where I've got to start applying this principle? At my house, in my home. As a husband, I can't just say, "I wanna do this and there's nothing wrong with it. So I'm doing it." You know why I can't say that? Because I've got a wife and kids, and the choices that I make affect them. And so I've got to ask the question, "is what I'm choosing to, does it build them up?" I'm not asking those unlawful questions like "does stealing build them up?" "Is cheating on my wife building her up?" I don't mean that--the unlawful stuff. That's way back in category one! That's Christian kindergarten. We've moved on. We're trying to mature here.

So I have to ask, do my hobbies build my family up? All the hobbies that I like involve me being all by myself. What does that mean? I love to do woodworking. I love to go for long runs. I love to read books, and I love to write books. All of that involves me being by myself thinking. I don't know why--it's not because I'm smart. That's just how God wired me. And I can do all those things to the glory of God. They can be so joy-giving and life-giving for me. And I think I can serve God by doing those things, but if that's all I do, and I do that with every spare second, guess who I'm never serving? My wife and my three children. So I've got to ask the question before I just launch whole hog into those hobbies and the things I like to do, "am I building up my wife right now?"

And guys, we're really not smart enough to answer that question. Why don't you ask her? "Am I building you up right now? If I go for this long run or if I withdraw to read this book? Is this good? Are we good?" I need to think about those things. I need to think about my work commitments. I need to think about the social choices that I'm making. Am I building up my spouse? Am I building up my children with the choices that I'm making? And guys, if what I'm doing isn't building my family up in the Lord, it needs to stop today. Today. If what I'm doing is not actively building my wife and my kids up in the Lord, it's got to go. Today. I trust that women can apply it for themselves, but I'm a man and I know how we are. So we've got to ask the question. Does it build up? 

I've got to apply it at church. The Corinthians come to church as you would know if you read the letter for yourself with this selfish 'me first' attitude. I wanna hang out with my friends, sing my songs, use my gifts. That's why Paul writes them the famous love chapter. It's not because they're good at loving. It's because they're really bad at it. That's why they get 1 Corinthians 13--the love chapter. So what I want you to see: Paul is calling us to take a critical step of maturity when we gather with other believers, filtering my words, my actions, through the simple question: "Is this building these folks up? Am I building you up right now? Am I encouraging you? Am I blessing you? Am I setting a good example?" Not just, "am I sinning" Man that's elementary. I'm trying to mature. Am I building you up in the conversations that I'm holding? And on and on it goes... we're gonna run out of time. You say you ran out of time 15 minutes ago.

Is it lawful? Is it helpful? Is it enslaving? Does it build up? 

Look at 1 Corinthians 9:12. So many helpful verses here.  "....Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ." Verse 19: "For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them." Verse 22 and following: "To the weak, I became weak that I might win the weak. I've become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings."

If we were to work through chapter 9, we would see Paul has a filter he runs everything through--every choice he makes. His goal is to see people saved. His goal is to advance the gospel in his time to help other people hear and believe the message that Jesus died and rose for them. And he has enough grace for them to bring them into the family of God forever. He wants other people to meet the Lord and experience his love. And that goal shapes all his choices. And that goal should shape our choices too.

It should shape the way that I do my job--the desire to see people saved. The way that I transact my business, the way I respond to frustrations out in public, the way I act at sporting events and coach my kids' teams, the way I interact with servers at a restaurant. The way that I deal with my neighbors as things come up in the coming and going of life. I've got to remind myself--I'm representing the gospel! I'm an ambassador of Jesus. My daily behavior (let's be confrontational), your daily behavior, your daily speech, your daily conduct, your daily relationships with other people. You can make a tremendous difference in this community, right? You can make Jesus look more beautiful, more desirable to the people in your life. And your choices and your behavior and your speech and all the rest, it can also make the gospel look cheap, and phony, and a sham. We've got that power. We've got that stake in this game. That's a really big deal.

So by God's grace, we want to think like mature Christians. Am I advancing the ball of the gospel with my coworkers, with my neighbors, with my family members, etc.? Or am I getting thrown for a loss? Am I throwing pick-sixes on a regular basis? And have I put on the uniform of the other team? I want to advance the gospel with what I do. So here's what this means.

If choice A puts me out and is inconvenient for me, but it displays the goodness and glory of Jesus, I'm going to pick Choice A. If choice B is what I'd rather do and there's, "nothing wrong with it," but it puts an obstacle up for that lost person to see who Jesus really is and believe in him, I'm not going to pick choice B. Does that make sense to y'all? That's how Paul lives his whole life. That's how he's calling us to live our lives as mature men and women of God.

We're gonna close with this. We've said, is it lawful? Is it helpful? Is it enslaving? Does it build up? Does it advance the gospel?

Finally, Does it glorify God? Let me give you some church history ultra quick. The Westminster shorter catechism.. it's this question and answer discipleship book that Christians have been using for hundreds of years. And the first question in this long series of questions and answers is, "what is the chief end of man?" What's the ultimate goal for a human being? Why did God make us? What did he put us here for? What is the chief end of man? And the answer that kids learn to respond with when they're learning this is this, "the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever." Y'all, that's what human beings are for. That's why you're here: to shine a light on the greatness of God.

And that's the final question Paul teaches us to ask. He takes us to that ultimate place. Look at 1 Corinthians 10:30-31, "If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced? Because of that, for which I give thanks. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Whatever you do! It doesn't just say listen to sermons to the glory of God, or sing Christian songs to the glory of God. Whatever you do in the commonness of everyday life, my ultimate desire is to shine a light on this great God who made me, who loved me, who saved me through his son Jesus. I wanna glorify him. And so the practical way we can begin to do this is in whatever choice we've got to make, just ask these two questions.

#1 - Can I thank God for letting me do this? Can I partake with thankfulness? "God, Thank you for letting me do this right now." That would cut out a lot. Would you agree?

And the second question is:

#2 - Can I say, "God, I glorify you in this?" "Lord, this is for your glory." That would cut out a lot wouldn't it? Because there's a bunch of stuff that I can't say, 'thank you Lord for' in my life without being ashamed. And there's a lot of stuff that I can't say 'for your glory Lord' because I'm doing it for Eric's glory. And so Paul takes us to this ultimate place, reminding us what human beings are for is to bring glory to God.

Now, some of you may be hearing this and saying, "This is crazy! This guy's tying himself in knots about every little decision, you know, talking about filters and questions and running all these things through these grids and all that mess. I just want to do whatever I wanna do. I'm gonna do whatever I wanna do." And I understand that. That's exactly how I would expect an unsaved person to respond to all this. If you've never known the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ in your life, I would expect you to just say, "I'm gonna do whatever I want to do and I don't care who it hurts or what they think or anything like that." I would expect a lost person to say that. If you're a Christian who says that, that raises some other concerns, doesn't it? Best case scenario: you are incredibly immature. Worst case scenario: you've never met Jesus Christ really. But I got good news for both of those: Jesus loves immature folks like me. Amen?

And Jesus loves lost people who've never really met him, even if they've spent their whole lives in church, amen? And Jesus invites you into a relationship where you don't do all this stuff to earn God's favor, right? We can't ever earn the favor of this perfect holy God no matter how carefully we make all our little decisions. That's not what this is about. That's crazy. No, no, Jesus invites you into a relationship where He gives you everything: his perfect righteous life, his sin-bearing death in your place, eternity in heaven with God, his holy spirit living with you moment by moment all through this life. He gives you everything for free! Grace, grace, grace.

And that grace is so good, so rich that it makes you want to do everything for the glory of God. That's what it means to be a Christian.

If you've not tasted that, this is your invitation. Let's pray.

Sermon by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church