About Life, Love, And Liberty Series

SERIES: “OVERCOMING OBSTACLES THAT OBSTRUCT OBEDIENCE”

TEXT: 1 CORINTHIANS 8:1-13

TITLE: “ABOUT LIFE, LOVE, AND LIBERTY”

INTRODUCTION: A. A very well-respected, Nobel prize-winning physicist was asked to travel the

country and lecture on some of his current theories. The people sponsoring the

lectureship provided a limousine and a chauffeur in which to travel the country. Night

after night, from town to town, and banquet after banquet, the physicist delivered the

same basic speech.

After all the miles on the road together, the physicist and the chauffeur became

good friends. One night, while driving the physicist to the next town, the chauffeur

says, “Hey, Doc. I’m getting tired of hearing the same speech night after night.” The

physicist says, “You know, I’m getting tired of delivering the same speech night after

night.”

The chauffeur replies, “I’ve heard that speech so many times, I could give it and no

one would know the difference.” The physicist asks, “Do you really think so?” The

chauffeur says, “Sure, Doc. No problem.” The physicist thinks on it for awhile and

finally says, “Tell you what. Just to make tomorrow night interesting, I’m going to

let you do the speech. You wear the tux and I’ll wear your chauffeur’s outfit. This is

going to be fun.”

According to the plan, the next night the chauffeur wears the tuxedo and delivers

the speech while the physicist wears the chauffeur’s outfit and sits at the back of the

banquet room. The speech goes so well that the chauffeur finishes a few minutes

early. As he goes to his seat at the head table, the emcee says, “Since we have a few

minutes left, I’m going to open the floor for any questions for our venerable guest.”

The first person stands up and asks a very intricate and complicated question

concerning a principle in physics. The physicist sitting in the back is panicked! He

could easily answer the question but there’s no way the chauffeur can answer it. His

stomach starts to churn and a bead of sweat breaks out across his brow. He just knows

that they’re sunk. Their little prank has backfired.

Meanwhile, the chauffeur has a huge grin on his face. He pauses for a moment

after the question and says, “That question is so easy that any one should be able to

answer it. And to prove my point, I’m going to let my chauffeur come up to the

microphone and do just that.”

1. Some questions are difficult to answer

2. Other questions seem to have obvious answers

--A young boy was helping his grandfather dig potatoes. After several minutes of

this strenuous work, he began to tire. Wearily he asks, “Grandpa, what made you

bury these things anyway?”

3. Some questions are annoying

a. When you’re playing golf, why do people have to ask, “Did you lose your ball?”

or “Did you find it yet?” when you’re out in the rough looking for it?

--What do they think you’re doing out there? Checking out the flora and

fauna?

b. Why do people ask someone who’s digging their car out of a snow bank, “Are

you stuck?”

--You feel like saying, “No, my car died, and I wanted to give it a decent

burial!”

c. How about when you’re wet, disgusted and irritated with a flat tire on a rainy

night beside a busy road? Why does anyone have to ask, “Have you got a flat

tire?”

--You fell like replying, “No, of course not. I always rotate my tires at night on

a busy road when its raining!”

4. Some questions are important to living the Christian life.

B. Last week in Chapt. 7, Paul starts the section off by stating that he was going to take

some time to answer some questions.

--Some of the Christians in Corinth had questions concerning living the Christian life

1. The first question was answered in last week’s message

--“Waiting, Dating, and Mating” concerning marriage and sexuality

2. The second question is in tonight’s text.

--“What about eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols?”

a. Corinth was a town with a large pagan temple

b. Most of the meat available to purchase had at one time been part of the pagan

sacrifices

--Part of the meat was burnt as an offering, part was taken by the priests for

their meals. The rest given to public officials as part of their salaries. The

rest was sold to the markets for general sale.

3. Meat sacrificed to idols is not a problem for us in 21st century USA

--However, there are behavior and situations in our society which the Bible does

not explicitly endorse nor does it specifically forbid: dancing, smoking, social

drinking, Sunday recreation or work, playing card games, styles of clothing,

going to movies, watching television, surfing the Internet and so forth