Liberty, Love, & Loyalty | Ps. Petey Bingham

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.

Good morning, everyone.

Hi, uh, what a pleasure it is to be here.

Thank you so much.

And listen, um, I just want to start by saying this.

Um, you talk about me, I'm gonna talk about y'all, okay?

Here's the deal, okay?

He's right.

Me and the Pittmans, we've been we've been doing this for a long time.

A long time.

And and look me in the eyes.

We have seen some things.

A lot of pain.

A lot of joy, a lot of pain.

Um, but listen, I I tell you, uh, the Pittmans have been such um an incredible gift of God in my life, in my family's life, in Farah's life.

Oh, it's gonna make me a little bit emotional.

But um, you know, I was thinking about it this morning on the way here, and um there was I remember the day we were standing in a lobby, and they told me that they were uh leaving Jacksonville to go and and move on, and obviously staying in the family, but moving on.

And I remember um I remember when they told me, you know, they were excited, they were, you know, they were they were following God, and I remember how seemingly crushed I was, you know, because they were they meant so much to me and they were such an incredible part of my journey in particular.

And um and thinking about this morning, you know, the truth of the matter is um what I realized about the Pittmans after they left is they did not make disciples of the Pittmans out of me.

They made disciples of Jesus out of me.

Okay, and their departure did not impact me spiritually at all.

And I mean that in terms of like obviously it it deeply emotionally impacted me, but they, the Lord used them so powerfully in my life that even when they stepped, well, they never stepped out of it, but even when they were no longer within the vicinity, um Jesus was I was still a disciple of Jesus.

And I want you guys to know, you are, I don't know if lucky is the right word to use on a Sunday morning, you know, whatever, but you guys are so blessed.

Let's go with that.

You are um blessed to have the Pittmans.

Um I know it from the bottom of my heart, and you should too.

So I love you both.

Thanks, and thank you to the whole Orlando team and everybody for having me today.

It means the world that you would trust me with this.

I mean, this is terrifying.

But um, anyway, we'll we'll see what happens with it.

And so here's the deal.

Uh, Pastor Keith knows this.

I actually do not like preaching.

I'm not a huge preacher boy.

I really like reading books and looking at computer screens.

You know what I mean?

That's my hobby.

And it's weird, and I admit it.

Um, but when he called me and he was like, here's the deal.

This is just a straight up Bible study.

I was like, I'm in, okay?

So here's the deal.

I know you're used to Pastor Keith, and he rhymes and uses alliteration, and he looks significantly better than I do.

This ain't gonna be polished and it ain't gonna be pretty, but we're gonna study the Bible.

Okay, I hope you're all right with that.

So let's pray.

And uh, we're just gonna go, all right?

I don't know, whatever.

Ain't nothing gonna run.

Deal with it, okay?

Lord, we love you, Jesus, and we are just so thankful, God, for your presence here in this room.

God, we're thankful um that your greatness is something that we cannot comprehend, and yet, and yet, you in your limitless nature have made yourself knowable to us.

And God, in that goodness, a goodness that we have somewhat of a capacity to understand, and yet goodness that goes beyond what we have, the ability to fully comprehend, you bestow it upon us even within the midst of this room, right here and right now.

God, for that, all we really know how to do is just stop and say thank you.

God, we're grateful for your goodness and your greatness.

God, I just pray um for today.

God, um, gosh, most specifically, that these words are yours, they're not mine.

God, that I decrease and you increase.

And God, that as we pull the word, Jesus, we pull meaning and uh and and and and divine insight out of scripture today, um, that it speaks as many messages as it needs to speak.

God, I just pray nothing more than you have your way in this room.

Holy Spirit, our eyes are open and our ears are attuned.

It's in your sons, holy and precious name that we pray.

Amen.

Okay, so here's the deal.

Before we start reading, okay, um, um, obviously, you know, Pastor Keith has done a phenomenal job.

I did go back and listen.

I really did.

I did not listen to the podcast.

My bad, okay?

I ran out of time.

But I did listen to the messages.

Amazing, right?

Corinthians is such both first and second Corinthians are both a uh, you know, I don't know if rich is the right word because it's a bit um it's a bit corrective, but it's a good time.

You know what I mean?

And uh and Pastor Keith has done really incredible, you know, pulling out meaning from this, especially last week.

I'm just thankful I didn't have to show up last week.

You know what I mean?

That'd have been weird.

I was like, well, what's up, guys?

My name's Petey, let's talk about sex.

Anyway, um, Lord help me.

All right, so here we are today to talk about something even weirder.

Meat.

Anyway, but um, and so it's been really fun so far.

And uh this is going south.

Anyway, um, and uh and I'm and I, you know, and I just uh I can't wait to kind of pull out more of everything that we've talked about.

But I think what's most important for us to really grasp in terms of what we're gonna discuss today is the concept that Pastor Keith landed with last week, and that is what it means to be free in Jesus, and what it means to have liberty now, right?

At its very core, the simplicity of this, I say simple, but really freedom in Jesus means we are no longer enslaved to the power that is sin, right?

It means that no longer do we have to live our lives with hopelessness, but now our hope is anchored in something eternal and not temporal.

In other words, something that cannot be moved or shaken.

And so now, though this kingdom, this side of things, has some pretty shaky ground, that is no longer our anchor.

Our freedom is found in the eternal reality that is in Jesus Christ.

Yeah?

And ultimately we can look at that, and even in the most horrible times of suffering, we can have joy and hopeful expectation.

Yeah?

And so um, what we're gonna talk about today and what Paul really dives into as we continue on in 1 Corinthians is what does it look like to practically live out that freedom?

You know?

And the truth is, I think the answer might shock you a little bit.

Maybe.

Let me tell you a story, okay?

So uh I went to the University of Florida, Go Gators.

How about that game yesterday?

You know what I'm saying?

Georgia Tech?

Anyway, um, in Ireland of all places, anyway.

Um, so I went to the University of Florida, and uh, when we started, me and three of my friends moved down there and we dormed together, right?

Always a dangerous plan, okay?

And uh we roll down there and uh all of our parents drop us off.

I remember like it was yesterday.

They drop us off at the dorm and then they leave.

And one of my roommates is like, freedom.

I mean, literally, just like almost was like turning into a monster.

I don't know what his name is like freedom.

So he's like, What do we do?

We can do anything we want, we don't have to do anything, what do we do, you know?

And so you know what we did?

We went to Jimmy John's, whatever, dude.

And whatever we went to Jimmy Johns and we and we ate Jimmy Johns and we didn't have to ask our parents.

It was awesome, right?

And then we got home, and that same friend, he was like, We're free! So we started blasting music, and there was music just blaring through our dorm, and everyone around us hated us.

And then he bought a drum set.

I don't even think you're allowed to do that, but he brought a drum set, this thing, and put it in our little dorm area.

We're just playing drums and stuff.

He's like, I'm free.

So finally, one of my more brave friends, he um he looked at him and he goes, dude, you gotta you gotta cut this out.

Like, this is too much.

And my friend goes, Yeah, you know, the the original friend, the loud friend, he goes, but we're free now.

And then my other friends look at him and he says, Yeah, but your freedom is ruining mine.

And so for the rest of our college career, I made fun of that friend all of the time and say, Oh, is his freedom ruining your freedom?

Like all the time.

Anyway, now that I'm older, I've realized how profound that actually is, you know?

Isn't it interesting that oftentimes what we do when we think about freedom is we think of it in terms of what we no longer have to do.

Right?

So we think about the lack.

We think about my parents aren't here anymore, so I can play my music as loud as I want, and I can go spend money haphazardly however I want to do it.

But you know what's interesting about freedom is what the Bible says is that freedom is less about the lack of something and more so about the presence of something else.

It tells us that in the presence of what?

Jesus, there is liberty.

And therefore, in that presence, the lack then is the enslavement to sin.

But primarily what it is, is liberty is recognizing the presence of Jesus.

And so until we understand why that has to be the priority, it's gonna be hard for us to put together the pieces of what it looks like to be free.

Because what can happen is if you take your Christian freedom too far, you enter into what we call license.

And license means that I can do whatever I want because the Lord forgives me.

It's the opposite of legalism.

Legalism is I'm gonna stick to the books head for here, and if you don't, I'm gonna ostracize you publicly, right?

License is I can do whatever I want because I'm free in Jesus, and he'll forgive me for it anyway.

And the truth is, ain't nothing good in extremes.

You know what I mean?

So the answer is in the middle.

And that is where Paul helps guide us, well, really helps guide the Corinthian church, and then we can principally apply to our life as well.

Does that make any sense?

And by tracking, okay.

So I kind of woo.

All right, so here we go.

Your freedom's ruining my freedom.

No, I'm just kidding.

Um, okay, so this is what we're gonna do.

We're just gonna literally read scripture from beginning to end, and we're just gonna stop and study it.

And then when the time runs out, it runs out.

Does that sound fun?

Cool.

Three people like that idea.

All right, let's do it.

So um, we're coming out of, you know, obviously, uh up to this point, he has addressed um the problem with division in the church and lifting one teacher up above another, in other words, making disciples of teachers, not of Jesus, right?

So we've dealt with that.

Then we moved into the sexuality and the body as a temple and those sorts of things.

Now we're moving into an interesting uh dilemma that they face at the Corinthian church.

And here's what it says.

Starting in verse 1, we are in chapter 8.

I think the Sky Bible will give it to us too, so you can follow along.

Here's what it says it says, now concerning food offered to idols.

All right, let's stop there.

What is an idol?

An idol is anything that uh is falsely worshipped instead of God.

All right, let's just keep it that simple, right?

So it's something that you put in front of God and you worship it.

What is worship?

Worship is just ascribing worth to something and then acting accordingly, right?

If you worship money, then your life will revolve around money.

If you worship the Lord, your life will revolve around the Lord.

Make sense, right?

So um, so they were making uh so what would happen is uh in this city of Corinth, as Pastor Keith has beautifully taught, the city is such an interesting eclectic city.

It's this port city in the first century that, by the way, was really, really, really big in Greece.

Now remember, we're in Rome, but what preceded Rome was Greece, the Macedonian Empire led by Alexander the Great.

And the city of Corinth was one of the most influential places, particularly for religious practice and philosophy, interestingly enough, right?

So in Greece, that was like kind of the Mecca of what it looked like to have religious thought and um religious ritualistic practices.

So if you go to Corinth, what you'll find is there's all these temples, right, that are dedicated to all these false pagan gods and doing all sorts of things.

And one of the things that they would do in these temples is they would sacrifice meat, sacrifice animals, to these false gods.

And basically what would happen is the priests would bring it in, they'd sacrifice it to this false god, then the priest would eat a little bit of it, and then what the temple would do is sell that meat to the marketplace to be sold, and the temple would make money on it.

So here's the problem.

If you're in Corinth and you're a Christian, and the only meat in town at the marketplace is meat that has been sacrificed to a false god, what do you do?

Honestly, great question.

You know what I mean?

Like they're like, yeah, they sacrificed this meat to idols, and now I did do I eat it or do I avoid it?

But like I kind of need meat, you know what I mean?

So, like, what do I do?

So at the end, at the end of the day, it's a really good question.

And that's ultimately what's happening here.

But what we're gonna find is that people and leaders within the Corinthian church are getting the answer a little bit skewed, okay?

Verse one, now concerning food offering to idols, we know that, notice the quotes, notice the quotes, we know that all of us possess knowledge.

Why is that in quotes?

Because apparently this is something that they were teaching within the church.

Okay?

Now here's the deal.

Um, knowledge inherently is not a bad thing, right?

We all know that.

The Bible says that uh that God's people, uh, God's people will perish for a lack of knowledge.

You know what I mean?

So we know that inherently knowledge is not a bad thing.

But again, anything in extremes goes bad, right?

So if you take knowledge to the extreme, something not good will happen.

What is it?

Let's keep reading.

All of us possess knowledge.

This knowledge you speak of puffs up or uh uh creates pride.

And why is that?

Remember, I told you that Corinth was uh one of the city centers of the Greek world and then moving into the Roman world of philosophical thought.

And interestingly enough, um, when Paul goes and plants this church, I think it's in Acts 18, um right before that in Acts 17, he's in Athens, where he deals with two different types of philosophical thought pattern of people.

Uh they're called the Epicureans and the Stoics.

And the Stoics in particular actually worship knowledge as though it is divine.

And that very same sentiment was also running rampant in Corinth.

So if you grew up your whole life worshipping knowledge, I called it the Logos, which is interesting because who, you know, uh the uh John would actually say that, you know, the Logos, the Word, has become flesh in Jesus.

But anyway, that's outside the point.

My point is this is that ultimately that knowledge was something that they worshipped.

And so this knowledge for them was actually something that they made an idol out of.

So interestingly enough, they're asking a question about food being an idol, not realizing that the knowledge that they're trying that they're using to try and fix the problem is the idol itself.

That knowledge puffs up.

Did you know?

Well, no, no, let me hold that.

Okay.

This knowledge puffs up, but watch this, this is what he says.

But love builds up.

In other words, love sorry, knowledge without love misses the point.

Knowledge without love misses the point.

Did you know?

It is possible.

I tell you what, if anybody in this room has any authority to tell you what I'm about to tell you, it's this.

Why?

Because I have three master's degrees, a PhD, and six figures of crippling student debt.

Okay?

And here's what I've come to tell you knowledge doesn't do it.

You can know um, you can know a lot about God and never actually know him.

You hear what I'm saying?

You can know a lot about God and never actually know God.

You can worship knowing about God over your relationship with God itself.

Why is this?

Because God's a relational God.

In my marriage with Pharaoh, if I go and know a lot about Pharaoh but don't know her, I am a stalker.

You know what I'm saying?

Don't be a stalker.

Forgot where I was going with that.

Anyway, yeah.

But because I know Pharaoh, she's my wife, I know a lot about her through relationship.

I know her deeper than I would if I just read about her in a book or stalked her on Instagram.

You see what I'm saying?

Right?

So the way we know God is by knowing God.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, right?

That's the kind of thing that uh that that that actually will build up is through love.

Verse two, watch this.

If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

Because God is relational, because God has made a limitless God has made himself knowable despite the fact that he is incomprehenible.

Does that make sense?

He's made himself knowable despite the fact he is inherently incomprehenible.

And the way that we know him is through relationship, and the way we learn more about him is in that relationship.

Knowledge without love completely misses the point.

And so what Paul is saying is don't get this messed up.

What you are doing is trying to solve the food problem with another idol.

Don't do that.

Make sense?

Cool.

Let's move on.

Verse 4.

Here's what it says.

Therefore, good hermeneutic, therefore means uh we're talking about, you know, the implications of what preceded this.

So therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that, notice the quotes, an idol has no real existence.

And here's the thing, they got it right, right?

So, like, okay, good.

An idol really, you know, it's just a piece of wood, all right, whatever.

And that there is no God but one.

What is this calling to?

This is comment calling to the Shema prayer, right, from Deuteronomy chapter six, where they are called to love the Lord God with our heart, soul, strength, right?

And then ultimately, Jesus will reimagine the Shema prayer and what we call the Jesus Creed, when he will say in the greatest commandment, right, that we love the Lord God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and we love others as that we love ourselves, right?

Yep.

So he's kind of bringing all these pieces together.

This will make sense in a second.

Verse five.

For although there may be so-called lowercase G gods, did you know that there are other lowercase G gods?

What makes those things gods is one, they're supernatural, and number two, there are things that we make idols out of.

We worship them over the Lord Himself, right?

And those things are very real.

We'll talk more about that in a second.

But notice he doesn't say that these things don't exist.

He said they are so-called gods, there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords.

Yet, for us, for the church at Corinth, for the church at Celebration in Orlando, there is one God, the Father from whom all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things and through whom we exist.

Hey, fun fact, side note.

Um, did you know that this is one of the most important scriptures regarding the divinity of Christ?

Because it actually puts the uh uh Jesus as the one Lord?

Yeah.

Fun fact.

Go study church history.

This is a big one in the divinity of Christ doctrine.

Anyway, moving right along.

Okay, so another like Paul is adding Jesus to the Shema prayer.

Let's go, dude.

Okay, all right.

Verse 7.

Here's what it says.

However, not all possess this knowledge.

Now, what I want you to notice about that is notice this knowledge is not in quotes.

In other words, this is the knowledge we're after.

Not all possess this knowledge.

You know what I found is that um not all possess this knowledge.

You know what I mean?

And uh and and and I think the more that not only do we I'll put it this way, the best way to learn this knowledge is through experience.

The best way to learn this knowledge is by being known by God.

And you'll see that it makes all the difference in the world.

Not all possess this knowledge, but some through former association with idols.

In other words, there were people in the church who practiced idolatry previous to their salvation moment, okay, and reality thereafter.

Okay.

So the truth is that's true for many of us.

Right?

So it's easy for us to sit here and say, like, oh, you know, all these people that used to be involved in all these, you know, other practices and da-da-da-da.

But the truth of the matter is, is we all have a little bit of it.

You know, we all have a backstory, we all have a testimony, we all have a story of some idols that we had in our lives before Jesus.

You know?

And uh and I look back at some of those things, and and it's interesting to see uh that some of those same vices that I fought back then like to creep their way in when I get prideful.

You know what I mean?

Right?

So, in other words, guess what?

This speaks really heavily to me.

And let me tell you why.

Because I would say that previous to Jesus, I worshipped knowledge.

I made I made idol, I'm sorry, I made an idol out of knowledge.

I enjoyed learning to an extent that it no longer became something fruitful, but instead something enslaving.

Does that make sense?

Like it weighed heavily, like I had this deep, innate desire to know more than everybody else did.

And I'm willing to say it, you know?

Whereas today, what I have learned about this knowledge is that this knowledge is not reserved for one particular group of spiritually elite people.

This knowledge is made available to everyone.

This is a knowledge that God has bestowed upon his people, not just to give them vertically, that is, from God to this people himself.

But also horizontally, it is our responsibility to not only teach this knowledge, but exemplify, demonstrate, represent, and be an ambassador for that knowledge.

What is that knowledge?

To be known by God.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

I feel like I'm talking a lot.

All right, now we're uh all this knowledge, but some, though, former associated with idols, right?

Eat food as really offered to an idol.

In other words, they are just slipping right back into the old practices that they had before.

There are people in the church of Corinth that used to attend these temple sacrifices and then go to the marketplace and eat this meat as a means to worship the God in which it was sacrificed to, right?

Um basically, the long the long of the short here is they believe that when you sacrifice that animal to your God and then ate of that animal, that you would possess some of the knowledge of that divine God.

Pagan, false divine God.

You know what I'm saying?

Right?

So they would enter into that kind of practice, and that's what they used to do.

And now they're coming out of that in their new Christian walk.

And their conscience, being weak, what is conscience?

Typically in the Bible, when we use the word conscience, um, it is uh it is something that is helping us uh delineate right from wrong.

So it's that part of you that is uh that is uh the deep-rooted morality within you, right?

It's the thing, uh it's the thing that makes you deter that that helps you to determine whether or not you should or should not do something, or you should walk this way and not that way.

Right?

The whole idea of repentance is built around conscience.

So remember, con uh repentance means to turn, right?

So what it means is um I used to look into myself as a means to decide what is right and wrong.

But now I have turned away from that and I look to Jesus as my source of conscience.

I look to Jesus as what is right and what is wrong.

But when my conscience is weak, it's no longer fixed on Jesus, it's fixed on Instagram and celebrities and all sorts of other decision-making factors that don't necessarily lead to a fruitful life.

Does that make sense?

That's when your conscience is weak.

So these people that used to practice in this idol worship of eating these foods sacrificed to false gods, their conscience would grow weaker the more that they participated in that activity.

Does that make sense?

But their conscience being weak is defiled.

Verse 8 food will not commend us to God.

We are no worse off if we do not eat it, no better off if we do.

So this is Paul.

This is Paul saying, here's the deal.

You are free in Jesus.

This right of yours is speaking to the liberty.

Right?

This freedom that we now have in Jesus means if that meat is sacrificed to a false God and it's the only meat in town, you can eat the meat.

Okay, it's fine.

Eat the meat because you ain't worshiping that God, your eyes are focused on Jesus.

But notice what comes in verse 9.

But there's a caveat here when it comes to this liberty.

But take care that this right of yours, this freedom, this ability to eat the meat that was sacrificed to a false God, and despite that fact, you can still eat it, okay?

This liberty, no, you know, in other words, you're no you're no longer enslaved to that false God.

So you have this right now, you can eat the meat.

But but take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

Who are the weak?

The people with the conscience that is not focused on Jesus that we just that Paul just outlined before.

In other words, before we do anything in our Christian freedom, the first question that we need to ask is how does this impact others?

It's easy for us to ask the question, is this the right thing to do vertically?

Lord, is this what I am to do next?

Is this what I should I eat the meat?

God, should I do this?

Should I do that?

That's the easy part, right?

The next step in that that we often miss, and that Paul is making the church at Corinth recognize, is you cannot negate the horizontal aspect of it.

You have to look to your left and your right, to your brother and your sister, and ask, how does this impact them?

In other words, don't let your freedom ruin someone else's.

Okay?

Here's what it says.

Verse 10.

For if anyone sees you who have knowledge of eating in an idol's temple, in other words, the people that used to eat in the temple, and it's their weakness, it's the thing that draws them back, it's the high, it's the drunken knight, it's the party, it's the um, it's the immorality, it's the um, it's the uh TV shows they used to watch, it's the stuff on the internet they used to Google.

You see what I'm saying?

Right?

It's all that stuff.

If they used to be in that temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat the food offered to idols?

In other words, if you attempt somebody in your Christian freedom to then challenge their own freedom and lead them to a place of license where now they are going to enter into sin again, then you have in fact not expressed knowledge with love.

Does that make sense?

Let's keep reading fast.

Anyway, um, verse 11.

And so by your knowledge, this weak person, listen, this weak person is destroyed.

Do you know that you have the ability and the decisions you make to destroy other people?

That's terrifying.

How?

The brother for whom Christ died.

Thus, listen to this sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it's weak, you sin against Christ.

So what that means is if I put myself in a situation in which I cause my friend, the person to my left or to my right, who has struggled with something in the past, and in my liberty, I have the ability to do that very thing, but it's something that they struggle with the moment that they see me do it and they enter back into it.

Guess what?

Not only have I sinned horizontally, but I have also sinned vertically.

Sinning against my brother or my sister is equivalent to sinning against Jesus.

I had a guy in my office the other day.

Oh, seven minutes?

No way.

Anyway, um, I had a guy in my office the other day, and um it was really interesting.

He um he had been sober for like five years, right?

And I like I I remember all the way back five years ago when he started the Tham.

It was just, you know, this thing.

And he came to my office, and the moment he stepped in and I shut the door to the office, he just weeped.

And I was like, what is wrong?

And he's like, I drank.

And I said, Okay, it's fine, okay, just take a seat, let's, you know, let's talk about it, whatever.

And listen to this.

And you know why he did it?

Because he went out to dinner with his parents, and his parents got drinked and offered him one.

And so he was like, Okay, I'll take it.

And he takes it and he drinks it.

And then a week later, he rolls into my office after having missed work that whole week, and is now like it was like I think he said he had like 12 bottles of vodka.

All it took was one.

And so that's the that's the thing, is you need to be smart enough to recognize that if there's a stumbling block for your brother, make sure that you be careful what you do with yourself.

Don't just think vertically, think horizontally.

It's essential to allow to not allowing your liberty to ruin someone else's.

That that that man was free in Jesus.

And then in a single bad decision, fell off the train.

But he's back on.

Let's go.

Anyway, um, things are looking up.

Okay.

Um verse 13.

Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble.

In other words, what you got to recognize here is there's things that you might have the ability to do, but it might be smart to never do them anyway.

You know what I mean?

And you just gotta follow God on that and you gotta look around and keep your eyes open because there are things that maybe your brother can do that you can't do because of the way that it impacts people around you, right?

What you have to remember is that even though we have given our loyalty to Jesus and we are now in the kingdom of God, and we are now ambassadors for this kingdom, it does not mean you're still not a part of this one.

And we are to model this kingdom, this where we have our citizenship in heaven, right, with Jesus as our king in the kingdom, we are to model that value system here.

And so there are things that we are to do to ensure that as we're modeling, so too can our brothers and sisters in Christ.

You know what I mean?

And so having that liberty does not mean that you can become legalistic, and in this case, does not mean that you can now possess a load of license.

You've got to live a very humble life above reproach.

Does that make sense?

Amen.

That's why you had me come today.

Okay, anyway, uh Lord.

So then we skip ahead a little bit.

Now he's gonna go into a few different uh talking specifically about idolatry.

Like Paul's gonna take some some time to kind of hash out what is idolatry, what other idols are there, and those sorts of things.

And then he's gonna come back and he's gonna revisit this topic of the meat.

Um, and this is when we get now deeper into chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians.

So we're just skipping a little bit, but when we get to chapter 10, here's what it says starting in verse 14.

It says, Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry, which is essentially what he said back in chapter 8.

Just get away from those idols, right?

Free from idolatry.

I speak as to sensible people.

In the Greek, that just means he is, he knows their wives.

In other words, it's like him saying, I know that you're smart enough to get this.

You know what I mean?

Like, I know, I know that you're smart enough to understand what this said is.

So listen up and listen closely, right?

He says, Judge for yourselves what I say.

Check this out.

We just uh we just took communion, so this is kind of cool.

Verse 16 the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

In other words, right?

You have a participation in the new covenant as made possible to us by Jesus through the bloodshed of him on the cross, that cruciform body, as Pastor Keith so beautifully said today.

Do you guys notice that?

He said cruciform body.

I was like, dang, dude, half the room's googling.

Anyway.

Um And then he says, the bread that we break, is it not participation in the body of Christ or our union with Christ?

Is it not a means by which now we can experience and remember not just the life and work of Jesus, but also do it alongside him as well?

What a cool thing to be a part of.

Verse 17, because there is one bread, we who are many are one body.

We are the church collective, we are the horizontal.

For we all partake of that bread.

In other words, Jesus.

Jesus is what ties us together as the church.

We are the bride, he is the groom.

Verse 18, consider the people of Israel.

Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

Verse 19.

What do I imply then?

The other word was like, what am I getting at here?

What am I trying to say?

Here's what I'm trying to say: that food offers to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?

Nah, nah.

I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God.

You know, just by the mere fact that I have two minutes left, here's what I'm gonna say, what are demons?

Uh uh, demons are just simply false gods that lead us away from the Lord.

Let's just keep it that simple.

And um, if you want to know more, give me four hours.

Anyway, um, so demons and not God.

They're idols, right?

I do not want you to participate with demons.

This is a call back to Deuteronomy 32, whole nother Old Testament deal that to that you know journey we could go down, but just know um it's probably smart not to hang out with demons.

Okay, all right.

Verse 21 you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.

You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

In other words, you need to know what table you are sitting at.

Because the problem is if you're sitting at a table with demons, then you are practicing idolatry and not only ruining your relationship with God, but also causing a stumbling block for the people around you.

Because that table with the demons is enticing.

They're good at drawing you in and good at convincing you they're not at the table.

You hear what I said?

Right?

You have to make sure you're at the right table.

Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy?

Are we stronger than He?

What we have to recognize, yes, spiritual, what we have to recognize is that we need to be intrinsically aware of our surroundings at all times, in both spiritual terms and physical terms.

Are we sitting at the right table?

Vertical, and are our eyes open to the needs and and shortcomings of the people around us until you grasp that, as Paul teaches, once you get that revelation, now as an ambassador for the kingdom, incredible things.

So let me give you five quick things.

We got 20 seconds.

Let me give you five, let me give you five quick things.

Um, take pictures of this, it's gonna be behind me.

Um, of just really important takeaways from this message.

Number one, knowledge without love reveals a lack of true understanding.

Right?

So remember, your knowledge should always be paired with Jesus.

Number two, true freedom respects and uplifts others.

If you really want to experience freedom in Jesus, it's not only vertical, it's also horizontal.

Don't ruin the freedom of your brother and sisters.

Number three, avoid anything that challenges your loyalty to Christ.

Your loyalty is primarily to the Lord who sits on the throne, embodied and in love.

Hear me?

Right?

Be careful not to give your loyalty to anything other than Jesus.

Number four, unity in Christ means living as one body.

We are the church, and we are to be aware of our surroundings.

We are to act in accordance with that.

One mind.

Worship because it belongs to the Lord, to the Lord alone.

That's the table we sit at.

Together.

We sit at the table with the Father, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit, together.

We love you, Jesus.

We give this time to you.

And God, we're thankful uh just for the incredible work that you do in us.

And God, we just give this time to you.

God, just um continue to work and move in your people today.

And God, give us the courage to recognize not just our vertical relationship with you, but our horizontal relationship with each other.

Love you so much.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks, Sean.

Love you so much.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl, or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.