Don't Waste Your Life

DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

[12] All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. [13] Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. [14] And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. [15] Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! [16] Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh." [17] But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. [18] Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. [19] Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? [20] For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. [NKJV]

OPENING REMARKS

Don’t Waste Your Life

John Piper

I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider this story from the February 1998 Reader’s Digest: A couple ‘took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast fives years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. . . .’ Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: ‘Look, Lord. See my shells.’ That is a tragedy.

“God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives.” ----- [Don’t Waste Your Life, Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2003, rear jacket] -----

An old TV commercial concerning the loss of not educating a young mind but refusing to permit such to happen due to the lack of funds to send one to college said: “It is a terrible thing to waste a mind.” With that thought in mind – how much more tragic would it be for one to Waste a Life?

.. Don’t Waste Your Life!

1. In Your Liberty.

2. In Your Daily Walk.

3. In Your Witness.

TEXT

I. In Your Liberty –

12

12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

A. All Things Are Lawful for Me …

.. Freedom in Christ

. This is a truth that we should never become tired of emphasizing.

. As a believer I have the right to eat, to drink, to sleep, to work, and to pursue enjoyment.

. No individual has the right to tell me how to live my life. God’s word is my guide not someone else’s principles and traditions.

.. This is because Jesus has paid the price for my sins and has set me free from all condemnation concerning them. In Him all of my sins have been forgiven and forgotten by God (Psalm 103:10-12).

Romans 8:1a

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

B. But All Things Are Not Helpful …

1. Our freedom in Christ is not to cause our brother/sister to stumble.

Romans 14:14-23

14 I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15 Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. 21 It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. 22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. 23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.