 I'll begin reading at verse 23 and I'll read all the way to verse 1 of chapter 11, beginning at verse 23, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul writes, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but all things do not edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience's sake. For the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. If any of those who do not believe invite you to dinner and you desire to go, eat whatever set before you, asking no questions for conscience's sake. But if anyone says to you, this was offered to idols. Do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience's sake, for the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. Conscience I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience? But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil-spoken of for the food over which I give thanks? And therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And no offense, either to the Jews, or to the Greeks, or to the church of God. Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. In this passage, as we begin, the apostle Paul is contrasting two things. He's contrasting self-service with service to God. And two verses illustrate the contrast clearly. In verse 24, he said, let no one seek his own but the other's well-being. And then in verse 31, he says, do all to the glory of God. And so he wants us to know that the service that we are to offer is to be to the Lord and yet is always going to be in one way or another practically applied in a rendering to those things for others. And so as we look at this glorifying God, this is what he's speaking about, glorify God through dying to yourself. That is a cardinal part of being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. As I begin, this is one of those things that probably needs to be repeated all the time. It's needed to be repeated in my spiritual life through all the years that I followed the Lord. This one thing, concern for others, is a tangible evidence of regeneration. If you actually know the Lord, then you're going to have an emblem of that. There are quite a number of people over the years that I've encountered who will speak concerning the great love they have for God. But the problem is, is they don't love people. I've had people speak to me in the past, one in particular stands out who said to me, I love ministry. I love ministry. It's people I can't stand. And so there, that was a true statement. I mean, they were actually saying that I love ministry, but it's people I can't stand. There are people who like doing things that are called spiritual, but they don't understand that what we're doing is as unto the Lord and for one another. And so the emblem of a believer, the mark of the Christian, as Jesus taught it, as we've already got in the Old Testament, is love. It's going to be love for God. And love for God is always going to be evidenced by a love for others. That's why when the Lord Jesus Christ had an individual approach him on one occasion and spoke to him and said, Master, what is the premier? What is the chief? What is the greatest commandment in the law? Being what would be called a reductionist, the Jews like to reduce the many to the few in order that they might reduce it to the basic. And so that was a common question during the time of Christ. There may be 613 commandments in the law. But which out of those 613 commands is the greatest of all? And they were used to doing that. They were used to bringing questions like that to rabbis and therefore they brought it to Jesus, who is a rabbi. And they say, what is the premier? What is the chief? What is the greatest commandment in the law? So they were expecting the Lord to do what the Pharisees did at that time. And Jesus just cut to the chase and said, here, oh Israel, the Lord thy God, he is one. Love God with all of your heart, soul, strength. Love him with everything that is within you. And there's a second, like unto the first, love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. This is what it's all about. It's always going to be love. Now we know that God gave the specific command to love him with all of our hearts to a man by the name of Moses. Moses is the one who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to pin that for us in what is called the Shema, the great statement of faith. The nation of Israel to this day continues to understand and even carry at least intellectually and carries within their phylacteries or their Mizzuzas. They carry within those scripture, you know, here, oh Israel, the Lord thy God is one. Love him with all your heart. Moses, as we've said recently more than once, Moses was the one who was inspired by God to write that down. Yet when you look in the life of Moses, you discover that Moses, though he knew that law, God gave it to him, didn't keep that law himself. He didn't enter into the promised land. He misrepresented the Lord and he had a chance to look into the promised land, but never had an opportunity to cross into it. And you look at the others in the Bible who received those kinds of laws, those commands, the greatest man. One of the greatest men that ever lived was David, not this one, but another one. David and David, he's the sweet psalmist of Israel, we all know this. He would be outside looking at the stars and he'd say, what is man that thou art mindful of him, the son of man that thou should consider him? When I see the magnificence of your creation and I realize how minuscule I am in comparison, why have you even put your thoughts on one such as I? God speaking of David said, this is a man after my own heart. And yet, when I say David, what's the first name that comes into the mind of most people? Bathsheba. David was a man who loved God. God said he's after my heart, but when you think of David, was David someone who kept the law of God to love God with all of his heart, all of his soul, all of his mind, all of his strength? Even the great psalmist, David himself, failed. And you can go through all the names of the greats that you know of in Scripture, the psalmons who were the wisest and others like them, and you will discover that not a single one of them ever kept that law perfectly. Every one of them had a failure of one sort or another, and many of those failures are recorded in Scripture. Love God. Love God. We bring it up to the time of Christ. Once again, the apostle Peter says to Jesus, I love you more than these. I love you more than anything. I'll die for you. And yet, we find the apostle Peter denying the Lord three times. A man who claimed to actually obey what God had said when God said, love me with all of your heart. And yet, the apostle Peter, when it came down to it, couldn't even stand up in the face of a young woman by a campfire. Yet, he's saying, I'd die for you. Then you have somebody else by the name of John, who does not run around saying how much he loves Jesus. He five times in the Gospel of John reminds us of one thing. We all know this. I've said this before recently. He had one thing to say about himself, and that is this. I'm the one Jesus loved. And so what you end up with is an understanding, theologically, that most people to this day don't understand. And it's this. If you say that you love God with all your heart and you're going to die for him if you have to, when it comes down to it, you'll probably run away like the apostle Peter. But when you say he loves me, that love has a tendency of drawing you to even the cross, the foot of Christ, when he's dying to witness that, because I am loved by God. And what God is calling us to do is to love him. Because why? He first loved us. So it doesn't begin in me, and it's not based on me. It is always based on him. And so that love is to drive my life, that love fuels my life, and that's the essence of Christianity. It's not a bunch of rules and regulations. It's a love relationship that God so loved me that he gave his son for me. And my response is to give my life to him, you see. And so love is always the emblem. Love is always the tangible evidence of regeneration. By this, he said, Jesus, shall all men know that you're my disciples? If you play in the worship team and you're tired, then you read the bullet. No, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if you have love one for another. This is the mark of a believer. This is the mark of someone who knows Jesus Christ to get away from the petty judgments that we make on one another so consistently and love one another in a way that God loved us in an accepting way, in a pure way, in a challenging way, but in a strong way. How do I know that I have a relationship with God? I have love for him, and I have love for others. In Romans chapter 12, verse 10, the apostle Paul said, be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. In 1 John 3, 17 and 18, John said, if anyone has material possessions, sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Beloved, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. So Paul's been writing, Paul has been writing concerning what is called Christian liberty. He's been teaching the Corinthians that liberty in Jesus is not license. Those are two different concepts. Again, we've seen this already, and we've been looking at this closely. I'll refresh your memory. There are those who believe that in Christ, because we have grace, I can basically do anything I want whenever I want. Everything is lawful for me, and therefore, I'll just do what I feel like doing. And unfortunately, what that can give rise to is a lifestyle of what is called license. License being the root for licentiousness. Licentious is a word that we use, but it simply means without restraint. And there are those who live without restraint, and there are those who claim to love Christ, who live without any rules in their own life. And they say it's because of the grace of God. And so on the one hand, you can have a lifestyle that you just basically do whatever you want, whenever you want, with no concern for the Lord or other people. There's no love involved here at all, except for yourself. And what you end up doing is you end up living a life of license. But then, on the other hand, you have a life of legalism. Well, you can't do anything. You don't smoke, and you don't chew, and you don't date those who do. You've got this mentality of I don't want anything to do with people who aren't living as righteously as I am. So on the one hand, you've got somebody who lives out on this side, and then you have somebody on the other side living over here, and neither one of those positions is right, biblical or good. Neither one of those is healthy. What God has called us to live is under the law of love. And when you're under the law of love, then you have liberty in Jesus Christ, and you use your freedom, not for excess. You use your freedom to serve other people. And that's how the Lord begins to work in, as some God has called us to do, is live in such a fashion. So he's been teaching the Corinthians that liberty in Jesus isn't licensed. In Romans chapter six, verses one and two, the apostle Paul asked this question, shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? God forbid, by no means, we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? If we died to sin, why would I make it my lifestyle is the point that he's making. So Paul is now sharing with believers what they should understand about Christian liberty. And if we understand these things, we're gonna be able to glorify God in all that we do. Jesus said it like this. He said in John 15, 8, this is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. So Paul begins in verse 23, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. The Corinthians believe that God's grace gave them permission to do what they wanted to do. Now, this is obviously true in areas of Christian living that is not specifically addressed by scripture. Obviously, believers are not free to do that, which is clearly forbidden in scripture. But Paul admits in light of the grace of God that he's free to do all things. But I want you to notice something, he is also quick to point out, spiritual edification must be chosen over self-gratification. If you're gonna pursue something, pursue being built up in Jesus Christ. Pursue walking with the Lord. Pursue the edification. The word edify means to build up. Pursue that which builds you up, not tears you down. And die to the things that would simply gratify your desires of your flesh. Die to those things. You see, he says in verse 23, all things are not helpful. He's saying all things don't edify. When he speaks of that, that isn't helpful. That word helpful means to be profitable. Not all things are profitable. And the context of the word profitable would be, not all things are profitable spiritually. When he says not all things edify, the word edify actually has a root word that speaks of building a house up from the foundation. In this context, it speaks of promoting growth in Christian wisdom, affection, grace, virtue, holiness and blessedness. Not all things build me up in these things. And therefore freedom in Jesus is intended to build me up in my faith and not to diminish me. My freedom in Jesus should never negatively affect my life. And it should never undermine another believer's life. The freedoms that I have shouldn't be used in such a ways to cause someone to stumble. It shouldn't be used in such a way to destroy somebody's walk. I'm free in the Lord Jesus Christ, but I'm not to be entangled again in bondage to sin. In Romans 6, 13, it says do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. And so that's what the Lord has called us to. You know one of the things about going through the word of God verse by verse that has a positive, but also has a negative effect. It has a positive effect in that people hear the whole counsel and have an opportunity to say, Lord, do that in me. Oh Lord, I didn't know that, you didn't approve of that. You know, and you get counsel from scripture. And that's a benefit, that's a blessing. But one of the other things that I've discovered is when you teach the word of God undiluted, when you basically try to divide it and present it correctly, there are numbers of people who have a real difficulty with that because they think you're preaching legalism that you're actually raining on their parade because they want to continue to do certain things and when the scripture is presented in such a way that it cuts to their heart, rather than them saying, Lord, that's what I'm like. Forgive me and help me to be other than that. They just get angry and go someplace else that doesn't ever say anything like that because the church that they want to is the church called the church on home on the range. You know, where never has heard a discouraging word and when something is said that discourages them, they get all uptight and upset because the fact is, is they have yet to understand that the pursuit of God is the only thing in a man or woman's life that has eternal benefits to it. A lot of times we think, well, I'm young right now. I still have things to do. I still have certain things I'd like to do and we make excuses to continue in certain sins because we love them so much. We enjoy them so much. Yeah, we've heard Bible studies that say I shouldn't do certain things, but man, that guy's an old man. What does he know? He's just an old man. He was probably born with a pulpit and a Bible in his hand and it's never experienced life. And I was talking to a young man not that long ago and we were sharing about certain things and I felt inclined to say, you know, I lived a much more radical life than you ever have. I think I understand some of those things that perhaps you have yet to ever understand and maybe never will and I pray that they never do. And I can tell you the difference between good and evil because I've experienced both. When I was a little boy, story time. When I was a little boy, I was about eight years old, nine years old, many, many, many years ago. I was walking home from school. And one of the things that I like to do is I like to gross little girls out. Every little boy that I've ever known likes to gross little girls out. Some boys like to gross little boys out and they've got problems. But anyway, but I used to like to gross little girls out. And so I would do the things that would gross them out. One of the things that I still remember doing is drinking gutter water. There you go, all the girls, it still works. The guys go, the girls go, ooh, you know, it works perfectly every time. But it's true. I knelt down and the water was running through the gutter and this little girl was, and then I drank some of the water and go, ha, ha, ha, you know, in that cool leaves in your face and everything else. Desperate need for attention. I know the difference between gutter water and pariette. I know the difference by experience. I know the difference between sin and what it's like to walk in sin and the joy of walking with the Lord. And so if you understood my teaching from that perspective, I don't want you drinking gutter water, it would make sense to you. But there are still plenty of people who say, you know what, I'm gonna kneel down and I'm gonna drink it anyway, because I like gutter water. No, you don't. You never really will. You never really could because it's gutter water. It'll hurt you. And that's why I teach the way that I do, kind of like somebody who's been there to some a brother, to some a father, to some a grandfather, but the bottom line is, do what's right and be blessed by God. Walk in his counsel and watch him bless your life or rebel against him and watch him chasing you. My preference is to be blessed by God. That is not legalism. That's called wisdom in scripture. Doing the right thing and receiving God's blessings is a wise thing. And that's what we basically look at. And that's why we do the right thing. And so we don't offer our body parts up as offerings to sin any longer. You see, Paul's desire for the Corinthians is their discipline, not indifference. He desires them to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ who is his savior. And that results from spiritual discipline. Your growth in grace and the knowledge of God does not occur by accident. You can't go to bed at night playing a CD of the Bible and wake up the next morning thoroughly imbued with the knowledge of scripture. There are some people who used to do that they would play something all night long thinking that they were learning in their sleep. And there are people to this day who think that spiritual maturity comes almost by osmosis. It just kind of leaks into your life. That's not how it works. Spiritual maturity is the result of a disciplined lifestyle. It comes from seeking and pursuing the Lord. And so God would call us to that. Recently we had the Olympic Games and most of us are familiar with that. And some of you perhaps watched a few of the events and all and you saw the races, whatever it was that you might enjoy for me. I like to watch the sprints, I'm just amazed at how fast Usain can run and all of that. And it just blows my mind just to see that. I mean, how fast these men and the women run and how high they can jump. And I watched that as I'm laying down on my couch. Man, that guy's fast. You see, they didn't ask me to be in the Olympics. And if I went there and tried to run, they don't give gold medals to people like me. They don't. You don't get a, you tried medal. When you go into the Olympics, not everybody gets a little badge that mama puts, you know, or a bumper sticker that mama puts on the car. My child was an Olympic star. It doesn't work that way. You receive your prize. And there's only one gold medal winner. You receive it after years of discipline, giving up things that others never gave up or would even think of giving up. You gave your whole life over to one thing and that is to win the gold. And that's the mentality of a winner, someone who's going to excel. So they don't give gold medals to every participant. They give gold medals to the best athlete and that one disciplined himself. It wasn't somebody who just, you know, woke up, rubbed their eye. Oh, it's a prelims today I'm supposed to run. It wasn't anything like that. They diet, they work out, they run. They give up all kinds of things. They make it to the Olympics. They go through all the preliminaries. They end up in the finals. They run the race of their life. They end up standing on a stand. They hear their national anthem playing, dang, dang, dang, dang. The Wheaties says, hey, we'll put you on the box. You're famous for a while. And then when you're my age, you have this big old belly and a gold medal that's in every once in a while. You bring someone and say, look what I won when I used to be able to run. And they go, wow, that's neat. You know, got any Wheaties? No, I don't eat that junk, but I do have a picture of me on the box if you'd like to see it. And that's about it. That's what happened. And you know, Paul used that illustration. We already saw it in chapter nine. He says, I don't run in an undisciplined way. I don't fight with uncertainty. I beat my body into subjection because I don't want to be disqualified. I want to win the prize. And so the Lord has called us to live a disciplined life, which means to put aside these desires for things that don't edify and to concentrate on the things that do. Now, they're gonna be edified by personally remaining hungry for the word of God. In the book of Acts chapter 20, verse 32, Paul speaks of the word of his grace, which he says is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Do you want to be built up? Stay personally hungry for the word of God. Get up in the morning tomorrow if you don't do this regularly. Open up your Bible and read a chapter, at least one. Just read a chapter. You might find yourself enjoying it so much you'll read two and even three. Read it. It takes you five minutes. Read the word of God. Then you close the Bible and you say, Jesus, what you're saying to me right now in your word, may that be true for me today in my life. It's all you need to do. Do that tomorrow. Do it Tuesday. Do it Wednesday. Do it Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Do it through the next week, the next week, the next week, the next month, the next year, the next 10 years, until the Lord returns. Your life will radically change by simply devoting yourself to the word of God, disciplining yourself. I cannot tell you how aware I am today of the average believer's lack of understanding and knowledge of the word of God. It's just an amazing thing that people know what's on TV at certain times where their favorite shows are. They can tell you what they're gonna watch. They can tell you what they're T-vowing. They can tell you in advance what they're gonna watch. They know all these things. I'm not knocking that, it's a fact, they do. But when you say something to them about the word of God, they're Christians, you know, I really don't know that. Well, let's get to know that. Let's spend time in the word. Have your devotions. Secondly, not only have personal time with the Lord, but if you wanna be disciplined and grow and learn how to love and be edified, give ear to the word of God as it's being taught. As it says in Psalm 119, 130, the unfolding of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. Bible studies are times of formal teaching where you have an opportunity to hear God's word rightly divided and presented to you. Give yourself over to that kind of discipline. And then third, learn to serve other people because that actually will build you up. We already saw in chapter eight, verse one, that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. And when you practically apply God's word to other people's lives as well as your own, you're gonna grow. And so when he says in verse 23, and that's basically your introduction, we better move into verse 24, when he says, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful, all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. He goes on to say, verse 24, let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. Seek to minister to other people is what he's saying and use your freedom to serve. That obviously as opposed to human nature because serving isn't always pleasant. Serving isn't always pleasant, we know that. There are things that you really couldn't pay me to do. You just couldn't. I don't wanna do it. I don't care how much money you give me. I'm not gonna do it. I just can't do that. How many of you would apply for a job cleaning up throw up? Anybody here want a job, $10 an hour, cleaning up throw up, $15 an hour? Well, there's one who would, you know, but we counsel him regularly, so I'm gonna ignore him. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that. But as a parent, I did that. There are things that love will provoke you to do that money never will. I loved my babies. They got sick to their stomach. I called Marie, she wouldn't come. I did it, I did it. Changing diapers, that's gotta be the 11th commandment. Thou shalt not clean dirty diapers. I wouldn't stand in line for that job. Oh please, oh please, oh Jesus, give me that job. I, no, did it plenty of times. Why? There are things that love moves you to do that nothing else can move you to do. So we learn to love. And when you learn to love, then you serve because you're loving the body of Christ and you're loving the Lord who saved you. And that's basically how it works. Now moving on, he says this in verse 25. He says, eat whatever is sold in the meat market, ask ye no questions for conscience's sake. For the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. If any of those who do not believe invites you to dinner and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, ask ye no questions for conscience's sake. But if anyone says to you this was offered to idols, do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you. And for conscience's sake, for the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. Conscience, I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience? But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken up for the food over which I give thanks? And so as he's speaking here, and I want you to notice, and he says in verse 25, eat whatever is sold in the meat market. Remember with me, we already looked at chapter eight. And in chapter eight, Paul had begun to address this issue. Some of the meat that people were purchasing had prior to being sold in what are called the shambles or the meat market had been offered to idols. And so people would buy that meat, they would take it home, they would prepare it for meals. Now he's saying if it doesn't bother your conscience, feel free, buy it, take it home. Because according to verse 26, the earth is the Lord's and everything that's in it, it all belongs to the Lord. He's given us freedom to use it. So if you buy meat at this market, that's not participating in idolatry, it's simply meat. There are certain stores that are owned by organizations that you morally have a problem with. Certain products that are sold that you would have a problem with the philosophy of the individuals who market that particular material, whatever it may be. I get emails on occasion where people ask me questions related to that. Well what if you know that this particular company contributes to causes that are opposed to our values? What should we do? Well there are some who say that's pretty much normal for every major corporation in the United States. So what am I supposed to do? Vet every one of them and stop going to certain places? Some people do, others don't. That's a matter of conscience. That's something that you determined to do. It was similar during the time of Paul when I would go to the meat market, buy some meat. It may very well have been offered first to an idol, then sold in that market. But I don't have a problem with that because I know an idol is nothing. So it doesn't offend me at all to eat a good barbecue. But I have the freedom to do that. Now if I go to somebody's house and somebody is offering me this meat, I have the freedom to eat it. And I don't ask questions about it. I don't sit down and say, before I eat this, I need to ask you, where did you buy this? Oh I bought it at Pagan Bob's. Well I don't know if I want to eat that, you know? Is that deviled him? You know, I, that was good, I like that one. I just eat it, he's saying, just eat it. It's no big deal. But what happens if I'm seated next to a brother or a sister and they bring this t-bone and the onions and some mushrooms on the side. And what if they bring it? And I'm about to dive into it. And then I have a believer next to me and they whisper in my ear, that was sold in the idol meat market. What are you supposed to do? Oh really, are you sure? Wow, I shouldn't have eaten that. Well it's gonna stumble my brother. What Paul is saying is, you just move it away from yourself. Is that right? And it's not because of your conscience because you have no conscience towards that. It doesn't offend you and it's not a problem with you. It's not you at all. It's for the sake of somebody else. By the way, that thing that I just said is foreign to a lot of people today, even believers. Because a lot of believers today would simply say, I don't care if it stumbles, you are not. Grow up man, read your Bible. I'm gonna eat this and chow this down because you know what, it's good stuff, you know? And that's how people think. But Paul said, no, see what you're doing is you're using your freedom as an opportunity to stumble a brother or a sister and you're losing relationship with them over something that doesn't matter. And so over the years there are freedoms that I have that are not huge freedoms to be honest with you but I don't have a stumbling over them that other people might. For their sake, I just won't do it. It just doesn't matter. It's not that important. What is important is a relationship with another brother or another sister. That's what's important. And secondly, what's important is me not thinking I'm so much more mature than you are. You need to grow up to where I'm at because if I'm really there, if I'm all that, then I'm gonna love them even more. I'm not gonna use my liberty as a pretense to continue doing things that are offensive to other people. That's what Paul is speaking about. And so he's saying this meat that is sold in the shambles, if somebody speaks to you and says to you, that was offered to an idol, don't eat it. Why? Because it'll cause your brother or your sister to stumble. And I noticed verse 29, he says, you don't eat for his conscience's sake, he's what he's talking about, not your own. You're loving them. So be careful not to go to extremes exalting your personal tastes. If you have a brother or a sister who's weak in conscience, offended at your eating, Paul is saying, then just don't eat. In verse 29, why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience? So on one hand, I'm not living my life by someone else's personal standards. I have to be careful with that. I've had people in the past who get upset at me. I'll never forget this one. I've used this illustration before, but it was just so amazing to me that I haven't ever forgotten it. Maybe I'm supposed to, maybe the Lord is teaching me to forget it, so I'll forget it after I use this illustration one more time. But it just blew my mind. This was back in 92, 20 years ago. I bought a red car. And I was talking to somebody on the phone and they said, you're carnal. And I said, yeah, I know, honey, don't tell anybody else. No, they said, you're carnal. I said, yeah. No, you're carnal because of your car. And I said, okay, what about my car? It's red. Yeah, I like red. That's not a color a pastor should drive. Really? Really? I hadn't read that yet. What book is that in, you know? Why am I not, you know, this got me. Why am I not supposed to drive a red car? Because it's too noticeable. And I said, really? I said, so red is too noticeable? What color should I drive? White. Oh, he had a color picked out for me. I said, oh really, white? Why would you have me drive a white car? Because white is a color of purity. And I said, red is the color of the blood of Jesus. Your turn. That doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. And so there is something, you know, I do my best. I should be careful here. I don't want to stumble people, God knows that. But Paul is saying, why am I being judged by another man's conscience? I can't live up to other people's personal standards yet at the same time. Do nothing to cause him to stumble either. Don't intentionally do that. If I, verse 30, partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken up for the food over which I give thanks? My freedom is in Jesus. And it's not to be judged by someone else's personal standards. I must express my freedoms though in such a way that doesn't give others an opportunity to judge. Verse 31, therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to the Jews or the Greeks or to the church of God. Just as I also please all men in all things, not seek in my own prophet but the prophet of many that they may be saved. And then he says, imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. Verse 31 is a very special verse to me. I'll touch on a couple of things and we'll close. In verse 31, the key to mature Christian living, learn to do things to glorify the Lord. I can live a life that brings glory to God or a life that dishonors him. And the key to growing in maturity is to seek daily to be pleasing to him. If I stumble people and they enter into sin because of me, I have dishonored him. And so whatever it is that you do, do all as unto the glory of God. Now, couple of other thoughts and then we'll close. In the Old Testament, when you look at how the Lord God speaks concerning humanity in general, he divides humanity into two segments, the Jew and the Gentile. And so in the Old Testament, when the Lord God is speaking concerning general humanity, he'll speak of them as being the Gentile. All of those who are not Jewish fall under the classification of the Goim, the people of the nations, the Gentiles. But you have what are called the people of God, that is the Jew. So in the Old Testament, humanity's divided Jew and Gentile. In the New Testament, you actually have humanity divided into three segments. You have Jew, you have Gentile, and you have the Church of God. The Church of God is made up of all believers in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile. Paul speaks of that in the Book of Ephesians as becoming the new man. So that's new man, the church, which was a mystery in the Old revealed in the new, is composed of Jew and Gentile who believe in Jesus Christ, who become one in him and have broken down that barrier of separation that one time existed between us. And now we're one in him. That's why a Messianic believer, a Jewish believer, and a Gentile can have fellowship because we are not fellowshiping over the law, we're fellowshiping over Jesus Christ who fulfilled the law. So you can have relationship with him. So notice with me in verse 32 how he divided humanity. Give no offense either to the Jew or to the Greek or to the Church of God. And so there you see a subtle indication that that's how humanity is divided. And then finally I wanna close with this. This is an important thing. Verse one, chapter 11, imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. Jesus did not come to please only himself. Jesus came to please the one who sent him. And so he's saying, I'm not seeking my own prophet. What I'm seeking is the glory of the Lord. And as I seek to glorify God, imitate me in this, glorify the Lord. Love God and love his children. And when he says, imitate me, I want you to think about this for just a moment. Can you imagine? I don't know that I, after walking with the Lord as long as I have, I don't know that I could ever be seated up here and say to you, imitate me because I see myself still for what I am. So as I look at this, I think, what an amazing sense of who he is in Christ that he would be able to say, imitate me. But imitate me as I imitate Christ. Imitate me insofar as my invitation of Christ is appropriate. Love Christ, Paul could say, as I do. Love people as I do. What a powerful thing, but do you know that every parent in this room has already been preaching that message to our children? That's what we've taught them their entire lives. Imitate me as I imitate Christ. They've already been learning that lesson all along. We are the most firm expression of Jesus Christ that our children will ever see because they live in a house with a person who claims to follow Jesus Christ. In Philippians chapter four, Paul said it like this, verse nine, the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me these do and the God of peace will be with you. What a powerful thing to be able to say. All of that you've seen in me and you've learned from me, you've received from me, all these things, well, let's take it a step further, do these things. And if you do these things, the God of peace will be in your life. Now, isn't that a worthy goal for us to be able to say, Jesus, would you make me like that? That I might be able to say, imitate me as I imitate Christ and that Jesus working in my life is such a blessing that I want you to have the same blessings he's poured into me. What a goal.