What Do You Do With Your Knowledge? Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: June 25, 2014

Date Preached: June 29, 2014

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: A Series in 1 Corinthians

Sermon Title: What do you do with your knowledge?

Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 [ESV]

TEXT:

Essence of the Text: Paul tells the Corinthian believers that the they possess great knowledge in Christ.

Essence of the Sermon: We learn here that ‘in Christ’ we also have great knowledge!

Main Question(s) of the Sermon: What do you do with YOUR knowledge?

Applicable Objective of the Sermon: You will hear the:

WORD PROCLAIMED: In Christ I have knowledge of how to live right before God …

WORD EXPLAINED: This knowledge is for my living and the improvement of the fellowship NOT for my judgment

WORD MADE PERSONAL: I must live in a manner that exalts Christ and uplifts the body

Introduction

How much do you KNOW? What is your ‘knowledge’ base when it comes to your faith? Many of us think that we don’t ‘know’ anything or that we ‘know’ very little…

But Jesus tells us that when we profess Him as Savior and when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts that He brings with Him the knowledge of all truth… He brings discernment FOR truth…

Paul writes to many believers and the focus of his prayer for these believers is mainly that they grow in the KNOWLEDGE and grace of Christ! In other words… to the Christian… KNOWLEDGE is about MUCH more than just information… it is taking what God instills in us and using it the right way!

So often we take our ‘knowledge’ and we allow it to override our calling in Christ to love Him and to love our fellow humans… We use our knowledge to press down others when it should be used to lift them up…

Paul was speaking to the believers in Corinth and he was responding to some questions that had been posed by the group… here they had obviously asked him about what they were to do in a certain situation.

The situation he uses to illustrate his point was the eating of meat sacrificed to pagan gods. Let’s go to the scripture and see what Paul how he tells these believers to USE the knowledge God has granted to them in the wisest and most Kingdom-friendly manner!

When we read this Scripture we can see it divides into 3 aspects of knowledge… the first being…

Christian Knowledge (v1)

1Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. 2 If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; 3 but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

The question Paul raises here is one the church had asked him regarding meat that had been sacrificed to an idol. They wanted to know if they should attend meals where that sort of meat was going to be served, or not?

Paul’s answer probably angered some of those in the church, but I am sure it also gave MANY good guidance and direction on how to live out their Christian witness.

Paul basically told the believers in Corinth… “Hey sometimes we tend to think that we know it all or ALL we need to know to answer these kinds of questions—but I want to tell you that sometimes our humble hearts are a much greater help to us than our proud minds.

Then Paul gives a little shot to all those who THOUGHT that they had it all together and knew everything… Paul tells them that we never really know enough until we recognize that only God knows it all…

When we look at v1-2 we see that Paul is basically saying that the knowledge we have ‘in Christ’… when it is in Human control…

1… we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant… 2If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know…

Knowledge in Human control leads to arrogance (v1-2)

The knowledge Paul is referring to here is the knowledge & wisdom of God that comes through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when we ‘grow’ and mature in our faith…

How often do we seen Scripture taken and perverted by those who claim to have knowledge? They use Scripture to validate their own agenda and what Paul is saying here is that when we take the wisdom and knowledge of Scripture and use it to validate our own agenda…it leads to an arrogant heart.

God hates arrogance! When we begin to take ‘control’ of the knowledge God grants us, as humans, we begin to think it is OUR intelligence and NOT God’s wisdom. This leads us to the belief that we are more important than we are… We must realize that we are of WORTH to Christ, but our value to Him is NOT in our wisdom or knowledge!