Take your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10.

Last week, Brother Adam preached a message from this chapter and did an excellent job. By the way, Adam, I learned a neat trick this week. I can go into youtube and copy the transcript of your whole message, have AI clean it up and format it, and then paste it into my notes and be reminded of exactly what you taught on. Pretty neat stuff!

Anyways, starting in chapter 8 through this chapter, Paul is talking about the subject of Christian liberty.

The general principle is this: in areas where the word of God is not crystal clear, we have a general liberty.

The Bible is not going to define everything. It is not going to cover every single situation. For instance, there is nothing directly in the scripture about smoking marijauna. Marijauna is legal here in Illinois. There are stores popping up everywhere.

If you asked me "Pastor, do you think Marijauna should be legal?" I'm not sure I have a good answer for that. I don't know if I want people going to jail for smoking marijuana, but I absolutely want people to be fined for smelling like it or stinking up the neighborhood. (I'm joking.)

But seriously? What does the Bible say about pot? What about edible gummies? What about AI girlfriends? What about buying a wife from the Philippines? What about facebook or twitter? What about watching ai generated videos of extremely fat people pole vaulting? (Don't ask.)

There are so many things the Bible doesn't specifically talk about. The scripture may give us principles. But the application of those principles is up to us as churches and as families and as individuals.

So Paul gives this general principle - we have liberty in Christ. All things are lawful for us. But then he goes on and gives three whole chapters about how liberty can be abused. He uses the example that was common in their culture but foreign to ours, of meat being offered to idols.

Some Christians had no problem eating this meat. Some had a big problem eating the meat offered to idols. Paul has been talking about it for three whole chapters and using it to teach us principles and guidelines for using our Christian liberty.

In our text tonight, Paul wraps up this discussion of liberty and gives us some very clear principles to apply to every area of our life. Let's go ahead and read verses 23-33.

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 10:23-33 - KJV 23. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. 24. Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth. 25. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake: 26. For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. 27. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake. 28. But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof: 29. Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience? 30. For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? 31. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 32. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: 33. Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

Paul starts this section by reiterating this phrase "All things are lawful for me." We are not under the law. We are in Christ, and we have this general freedom.

But just because all things are lawful, doesn't mean all things are good for you as a Christian.

You know, I'm an adult. I can eat whatever I want. You may not know this about me, but I LOVE ice cream. I just love it. There was a period of my life when I was like "I'm an adult, my mom isn't here anymore, I'm going to eat ice cream every day."

When I was in college, I would literally buy a pint of mayfield ice cream (the good stuff) and just sit there and polish it off in one sitting. It didn't affect me at all.

All foods are lawful for me. But that doesn't mean that all foods are good for me. I've already had the conversation with the doctor about high cholesterol. I've had to replace my wardrobe a couple of times.

Now I'm eating my vegetables and watching my sugar - not because mommy is going to give me a spanking, but because maturity is about learning how to be responsible with liberty.

Is the answer a law banning ice cream? Or is the answer that I learn to live responsibly with my adult freedom?

Today we are going to look at three principles that will help you live? They are the three steps to moving past the "I need rules for everything" stage to "I'm a mature adult" stage and they come right from this text.

Look at verse 23 again:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 10:23 - KJV 23. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

Now, hold your finger here and go back to chapter 6 verse 12:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 6:12 - KJV 12. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Paul is repeating that phrase here. But he's adding to it. In both chapter six and chapter 1o he said "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient."

In chapter six he says "I will not be brought under the power of any." Here in chapter 10 he says "all things edify not."

So we have three principles here on how we should live our life. Three guiding principles for living with liberty.

I'm going to explain the rest of the passage, but I'm going to do it as we think about these three principles tonight.

Let's pray and we'll jump into that.

The first principle we need to apply if we are going to live in liberty is...

1. The principle of utility

In other words, we have to ask, is this thing good for me?

That's what the word "expedient" means in verse 23. It means "helpful" or "good for me."

Just because you can do something, just because there is no law against it, doesn't mean that that thing is good for you. It doesn't mean that it helps you.

An immature person says "I can do whatever I want." But maturity asks "is this really helping me? Is this good for me?"

We can go through any number of gray area issues and apply this question to it. It's not about whether or not it's bad or good, it's about whether it is good or best. It is about whether it is truly helping me.

Let's have a few examples: the bank or the car dealership is willing to finance a brand new truck. Only $45,000. You look at your budget and you can make the payments, but it will be really close.

Is it a sin for you to buy a truck? Is there a law against it? No and no. But is it expedient? Is it good for you? Probably not. That's going to put lots of financial stress on you for a long time.

Another example: is it a sin to have Netflix? There is no law against it. It is a gray area. But if you are staying up till 2am and dragging yourself through the next day because you couldn't stop watching Squid Game. That isn't expedient.

We could apply this utility test to any area of our life. Is this thing I'm going to do really going to help me?

That's just one principle. The second principle we need to consider is what Paul asked back in chapter 6.

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 6:12 - KJV 12. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

So the second thing we need to think about is

2. The principle of authority

In other words "am I going to control this thing, or is this thing going to control me?"

There are lots of things that are, by themselves, fairly harmless and not against God's law - but become something that controls you.

I could pick on cigarettes or vaping here. You might argue that the Bible doesn't say anything about smoking. I've heard smokers say that the same principles people use about smoking also apply to donuts - and they aren't wrong.

Except, cigarettes are very addictive. It starts out as something you do, and it becomes a compelling addiction. It begins to control you.

I'll give you a personal example: I started drinking coffee every day when I was seven years old. For most of my adult life, I have drunk about six cups of coffee every day. I needed the caffeine. I was under the power of caffeine.

Sometimes, I would go on trips and go to starbucks 4 times in one day. That's $20.

And it wasn't just a lot of money, but it was also affecting my health. I started having ocular migraines several years ago and there were days when I couldn't do much besides lie in bed with my eyes closed. Those correlated strongly with too much caffeine in my system.

So I decided, it's time to make a change and I haven't had any caffeine in over a month. I'm still drinking coffee - I have a cup or two of decaf (because I enjoy it). But I won't let that thing have power over me any more. I'm going to control it; it's not going to control me.

And listen, for you it might not be coffee. It might be your phone, your gaming, your spending habits, sugar, whatever. But if you can't go without it, if you organize your life around it, if it's making decisions for you—then you need to ask yourself: who's really in charge here?

• The principle of utility - is it helpful?
• The principle of authority - will it control me?

Now, those first two principles are about YOU—is it good for you, does it control you. But Paul doesn't stop there. He moves us from thinking about ourselves to thinking about others. Look at the second half of verse 23

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 10:23 - KJV 23. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

Now we are adding a third principle...

3. The principle of charity

In other words "how does this thing affect other people?"

To "edify" means to build up. So Paul's third test for using our liberty is "does it edify?"

And that is what most of the rest of this text is about. It is applying this last test.

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 10:24 - KJV 24. Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.

It's not just about you! We aren't in this thing as lone rangers. We have a responsibility to edify and build up each other. To look out for each other.

I was reading recently an anecdote from a pastor and he had a man come into his church who would skip the song service and take off before the end of the invitation. He was basically just there for the sermon.

And the pastor confronted him about it. He said "why are you only coming for the sermon?" and the man said "Well, I don't really get anything out of the other parts."

And the pastor said "Don't you want to fellowship with others? Don't you want to join the church?"

And he said "Join the church? fellowship with others? Those people would just slow me down."

And the pastor said "Maybe God wants you to speed them up."

Listen, our life is not supposed to be just about us. It is supposed to be about others. We do not do things just because of us - we also have to think of how they affect others.

Now, for most of these chapters Paul has been giving principles and illustrations. But at the end here Paul gives three specific instructions to the people about eating meat that may or may not be offered to idols. I think there is a lot for us to learn here.

First, he tells them that if they go to the market (the shambles) to buy meat - they shouldn't ask questions. That means the meat may have been offered to idols, it may not be offered to idols. It doesn't matter if they do not know about it.

What Paul was saying here is that meat cannot be possessed with demons and that at the end of the day, meat is meat. It's all God's creation, given to us for our enjoyment. As one preacher said "the cow was God's creation on the hoof and the cow is God's creation on the barbeque."

But he tells them to not ask questions. So what is the lesson for us? I think the lesson is that we shouldn't go around looking and digging for what is wrong with everything, we should just take things as gifts from God and enjoy them, unless there is some obvious evil. We don't need to be spiritual busybodies. We don't need to be detectives looking for the evil in everything. Just live your life and praise God for the good.

We don't need to be spiritual busybodies, investigating everything. 'Is this company owned by someone who supports X? Was this product made in a country that does Y? Did the person who wrote this song believe Z?' Look, if there's obvious evil, fine. But don't manufacture problems. Don't become paralyzed by over-analysis.

The general principle is in verse 31:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 10:31 - KJV 31. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

The second specific instruction Paul gives them is that if they get invited over an unbeliever's house, and they want to go, they should just eat what is served them and not ask any questions about it.

Now, first, this tells us that there is nothing wrong with socializing with unsaved people. Paul expected that to happen.

Can imagine the scenario? A Christian family gets invited over an non-Christian families home for a meal, and the Christian family brings a cooler. "What's that?"

Oh, that's our food. We can't eat your food, because you offer it to idols.

That would have been highly offensive. So Paul says, just eat it. Don't ask questions.

But what if the host knows you are a Christian and says "By the way, this meat is offered to idols." That's the third scenario. In that case, Paul says "don't eat it."

Why? Is it because you know it's offered to idols? No. It's not about your conscience, it's about the hosts conscience and about your testimony.

Why would someone tell you? Maybe they're testing you. Maybe there's a weaker Christian at the table who would be bothered. Maybe they just want to be transparent. Whatever the reason, Paul says: don't eat it. Not because the meat is evil, but because love for others matters more than your freedom.

And you might think, that's not fair? Why would I give up my freedom for other people? Read the text, Paul anticipates those questions and brings us back to the main principle.

Look at verses 32-33 again:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 10:32-33 - KJV 32. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: 33. Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

This is the principle of charity. Don't offend anyone. Don't trip anyone up. Don't do things just for yourself, but consider how it might help or hurt others and how it might affect your evangelistic testimony. Christian liberty is great, but Christian liberty cannot be more important than our care for others.

Conclusion

So we have these three principles:

• The principle of utility - is this thing good for me?
• The principle of authority - will this thing control me?
• The principle of charity - will this thing help or hurt others?

Now, those three principles become a pretty good steering wheel for how we should live our life. When you apply them to different situations that are gray areas - they make it really easy to make wise decisions.

Paul gives one more tip - one more helper to these people as they seek to make wise decisions. He says in verse 1 of chapter 11:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 11:1 - KJV

1. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

Paul is saying "if you don't know what to do, you can use me as an example - but the ultimate example is Christ."

That is our goal - not to get away with as much as we can, but to live like Christ.

Think about how Jesus handled His rights: Jesus had every right to stay in heaven. He had every right to be served rather than serve. But Philippians 2 tells us He emptied Himself, took on flesh, and died for us. That's the pattern.

Christian liberty isn't about maximizing your freedom—it's about imitating Christ's self-giving love.

So here is what I want you to do. This week I want you to take 1 are of your life, maybe it's your social media, maybe it's the shows you are watching, maybe it's your spending habits, maybe its the things you are talking about with your girlfriends.

Take one area, be specific about it, and apply these three tests to it:

• Utility - does this thing really help me?
• Authority - is this thing bringing me in bondage? Is this thing addicting? Most importantly...
• Charity - is this thing hurting other people or building them up? Is this making me a better witness to others or a worse one?

Do that with one area this week - and if you need motivation - look to Christ. What would Jesus do?

Because that's what spiritual maturity looks like—not 'how much can I get away with?' but 'how can I be more like Jesus?

Let's pray and then we'll take the Lord's supper.