Do You Glory In God
1 Cor. 1:10-31
10 Nor should we complain as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape, so that you are able to bear it. 14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
15 I am speaking as to wise people. Judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for all of us share that one bread. 18 Look at the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? 19 What am I saying then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons! 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
23 "Everything is permissible," but not everything is helpful. "Everything is permissible," but not everything builds up. 24 No one should seek his own good, but the good of the other person. 25 Eat everything that is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience’ sake, for 26 the earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it. 27 If one of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, "This is food offered to an idol," do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake. 29 I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged by another person’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thanks, why am I slandered because of something for which I give thanks? 31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.
Prayer
What makes you heart skip a beat? How about a beautiful landscape, your children, or a terrible tragedy? What exactly causes your heart to ache? Does it ache because of a great sadness, a loss, or how about a great love? Who did you lift up today? These are all questions that each of us need to ask ourselves daily. And why do we need to ask ourselves these questions? The answer is simple without the self-examination of our life we tend to get caught up in the it is all about me attitude and forget that it is not about me but instead it is all about God. Every part of our life, everything we do, everything we think, and everything we say is to bring honor and glory to God. This is not something that Brother David says we are to do this is what God’s Word commands us to do.
When something goes wrong at work, home, the shopping mall or where ever else we have a choice to make. The first choice is we can choose to grumble. Why did this have to happen to me, why did this have to happen now, I was just about to leave and this had to happen, Why me or I don’t understand why nothing can ever go my way? I know that all of us either knows someone or works with someone with this type of attitude. They are not pleasant to be around. In fact their attitude makes you want to get as far away as possible from them. They always have a negative attitude. They are miserable and it seems it is their mission to make you miserable also. You do not want to talk to them or be around them. In fact the look that they have on their faces announces their feeling and dejection. They are coming to invite you to their pity party. You just want to run away and hide from them don’t you? Well, Brother and Sisters, lets take a very hard look at ourselves before we condemn those we just describe. Are we not that way a lot? Don’t we complain when things don’t go our way? Don’t we become so ensnared by the temptations of this world that we allow them to overshadow the blessings God is giving us? Let’s be honest, how many of us actually think about the blessings that God has given us when we are being raked over the coals by our bosses? How many of us thank God for our blessings when we are sick or facing tribulation? Not many, because we tend to become absorbed in ourselves and what is happening to us at that moment. These verses teaches us that we can not divide Christ. We can not drink from Christ’s cup and the world’s cup. Verse 21 says You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons. We can either glorify God all the time or we can glorify the demons of this world.
If we are to busy glorifying God we will not have the time to become blinded by this world’s temptations. That is what is meant in v13. No matter the temptation it is not new as long as our eyes are focused on Christ we will continue to glorify God. And God is worthy of glorification. He is a creator and the creation must glorify Him. God has said that no temptation will be give unto us that we can’t overcome as long as we keep our sights on Christ. But the moment we take our sights of Christ we become as the foolish. We fall down flat on our faces. As long as we are watching Christ we can walk but the moment we take our eyes of Him we will fall down. Only He is able to pick us back up and brush us off and set our feet back on the right path.
Paul also points out that the unsaved sacrifice to demons and warns us not to partake in that. Today we don’t have many people who practice animal sacrifices but when they do they are actually sacrificing not to God but to demons. Those who don’t sacrifice animals today still sacrifice to demons. They sacrifice family, friends, and themselves to demons through the use of drugs, alcohol, lusts, work, and so much more. Paul warns us not to be that way. Paul says to us don’t share in that with them. Don’t take your eyes off of Jesus and become entrapped by these desires. God wants your service. He does not want to share you with Satan. When we do try to split our service between God and this world the Bible says that we provoke God.
I don’t know about you but I don’t want to provoke God in any way. How far have we fallen to be even willing to provoke God? How arrogant have we become? I don’t know about you but I don’t want my Lord and Savior mad at me. I never ever thought about how my actions and thoughts might provoke God. I never realized that my not living my life as to glorify God would provoke my God. Today so many of the Christians are living their lives to suite themselves with ever having a thought about God. And the reason they are willing to do so is because for the last 40 years the church has not preached about an angry God. Instead it has preached about a touchy feely God of love. And God is a God of love but the bible also talks about a jealous God, an angry God, and a God of justice. God demands that we be His servants and He does not share. God is a jealous God, He is a faithful God, He is a powerful God, He is a just God, and when His servants go about our lives of service doing what only pleases us and not worrying about what pleases Him HE gets Angry. The Bible is full of God’s wrath but it is also full of His mercy and grace. God was merciful to man in providing a way for us to be reconciled to Him. And He is merciful in providing us with a way to be forgiven when we turn from Him after salvation. But we must confess our sins 1John 1:9 and God will forgive them but we must still understand that we will have to face the consequences of our actions. In everything that we do we need to do it to bring honor and glory unto God.
Now that may mean that we have to give us something we like doing and it may mean we will have to quite putting ourselves before Christ in our life. But it is what God calls us to do. We will have to take down that picture of ourselves that we have hung in our hearts and hang a portrait of Christ in its place. But who else deserves that honor, glory and praise. Not some demon. Give up your demons today anything that takes away God’s glory, honor and praise in your life is your demon throw it away today and grab a hold of Christ. He will hold you harder than you hold Him. Don’t look back or to you right or left but keep your eyes forward on Jesus Christ because only through Him can you ever hope to overcome.
Present the plan of Salvation here.
