And as you make your way over there, I want to recap. Two weeks ago we started the study here in Chapter 8, verses 1 through 3. And I made mention that the church sometimes has a lot of issues. And the particular issue at hand for the Church of Corinth, among the many, was the fact that they had a question.

There are foods and meat offered to idols in their culture. It happens a lot. What do we do with it? There was a group of people in the church who said, "It's nothing. Those wood idols are nothing, represents nothing. We know there's only one God. We serve the right God.

Let's eat." And the others are saying, "No, it really bothers us. It's associated with things that aren't right. I don't want to do it. Not only do I not want to do it, I think it's wrong." And so they were at odds with each other. Obviously, perhaps some of the people who were there for a long time, or perhaps some individual who had a relationship with Apostle Paul wrote a letter saying, "This is what's going on.

Can you address the issue, please? We really believe that it's okay to eat meat." And Apostle Paul, I made the case that he responded with, "Listen, it's not enough for you to make a decision just based on your knowledge. It's not enough for you to just make a decision based on the facts.

You need to care for your brothers." And so I made the case that your knowledge cannot be in a vacuum, but it needs to end in love. Right? There's a case where in which you need, in every case, you need to evaluate, understand what's going on, but understand who you're talking to.

Right? Big blanket statement, everything, typically doesn't help. Now there's a case, there's a time for when there is an objective truth to be met, yes, we need to stand ground, we need to make sure it's right. But then this situation was not so much clear cut, was it? So I made mention of the fact that I felt like Apostle Paul as a spiritual father, he was instructing us as his children, giving us wisdom.

This is how you decide and make choices, the right choices in this environment. And he encouraged us and said, "Do it in love. Do it in love." Let's take a look at the passage that we have today. And I'm going to read the whole section, so verses one through 13.

Please follow along. It says, "Now concerning the things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

Therefore, considering the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we exist through Him.

However, not all men have this knowledge, but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrifice to an idol, and their conscience being weak as to file. But food will not commend us to God. We are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.

But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you who have knowledge dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.

And so by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. Let's take a moment to pray. Father God, we thank you for your truth, we thank you for your word.

God, as your scripture has instructions on not only spiritual matters of belief, but how we are to behave, how we are to make decisions, I pray that in every single way, we would desire to be faithful to you, that in sincerity of faith, Lord, we would take your directives, your path, and to do things your way.

We thank you for your truth that's in Christ, and we pray, amen. So again, I am really impressed by people, like I mentioned the last time, who can make strong decisions and they can make them fast. There are people who are just gifted at, you ask them, what do we do?

And they can evaluate the situation. Give me all the info. Bam, this is what we need to do. And everything seems very clear cut. Now along with being able to make a decision, I really like it when somebody is able to have the right priorities. Meaning they know what matters, okay, in making a decision.

Now I noticed that in the summer, a lot of people moved, okay? A lot of youth collegians moved, a lot of people, you know, moved homes and purchased and all that kind of stuff. And we moved too, my wife and I. And it's evident that all this is happening because our brewing coupon page is like going nuts, right?

There's so much happening on that, there's so much action. And what happens is a lot of times you have to decide, what do I keep and what do I throw away, right? And isn't that the question? Like we have so much junk, but do I keep this? That's just a question, do I keep it?

But when you look at the scenario, you have to use certain criteria in order to decide. But which criteria is best? A guy would typically think on finances. If it's worth it, if I can sell it on eBay, then let's keep it, you know? But if it's not worth it, if I sell it and all I get is a dollar, then I'm just going to give it to somebody and there you go, a brewing coupon page.

I'm just kidding. There's a lot of good stuff on the brewing coupon. The thing about it is though, I had a hard time this past month trying to decide, man, we have so much stuff. A lot of the stuff we just accumulate. And Bia and I both like, you know, we kind of have that Korean mentality of like, dude, if we can wash it and keep it, just keep it, you know?

But there are other reasons why you would keep something. Emotional attachment, right? Sometimes you keep things for just utility. One day I'm going to use this, you know, three years down the line. Now one time I'm going to use it. And so there was actually a moment when I was holding this little bag and I was sitting in front of, you know, in the kitchen and whatnot.

And I just sat there thinking, keep it, not keep it. Keep it, not keep it. And I was just like, like, you know, killing myself trying to decide, should I not keep it? And this stuff, do you know what it was? It was a zip tie. Do you know what a zip tie is?

It's just a piece of plastic that you use to tie together a wire, you know, or something to like secure together. You can buy like a hundred of those for like a dollar. And I live right next to Home Depot, so I could just run over and get some more, you know?

So I was like, man, should I keep it? And then, you know, for a lot of you guys, it's easy because you're like, just keep everything, you know? It's difficult. How do you decide? Sometimes it just doesn't matter if it's a zip tie, does it? It just doesn't matter.

And the reason why I bring that up is because Apostle Paul, he's writing this to a church that's chock full of issues of pride, dissension, arrogance, competing with each other, licentiousness, immorality of some of the worst kinds and perversions. And then what do we do about food? Can you imagine from a leader's perspective, receiving perhaps what I presume to be quite a long argumentation like, let me tell you why we should be able to eat this, you know?

There's a sense in which perhaps Apostle Paul is thinking, oh my God, I just, you know, I just need to talk to you about what really matters here. And the more I read this chapter in chapter eight, I realized this is a part of a bigger scope. This is a part of a bigger argument that Apostle Paul is making.

And I made the mention that chapter eight does not stand alone. Chapter eight, its argument goes all the way to the end of chapter 10. And today's message is entitled, Take Care. But I want to start off by saying there's a sense in which when you care for something, there's a sense in which when you're trying to do anything, there's always a priority issue of what really matters.

What really matters. So today's sermon is going to be based on Apostle Paul's thought of what matters in his mind. Let's take a look really quickly, chapter eight, verse eight. And I'm going to give you the first header, okay? The verse reads like this, "But food will not commend us to God.

We are neither the worst if we do eat it, nor the better if we do." Okay? So if we don't eat it, we're not better or we're not worse. If we do eat it, we're not any better or any worse. You know what that means? It doesn't matter. That's what that means.

It's like when you do it and there's nothing, then it doesn't matter. Okay? So heading number one is this, food does not matter, but what matters is the one true God. If you're taking notes, please write all of that. I know it's a long heading, but you need all those words.

Food does not matter, but what matters is the one true God. Why do I say this? It's because in verse four through six, he makes a theological affirmation, meaning he's responding to the letter of the Corinthian church and he is affirming something, but that theological truth is so emphatic, we have to pay attention.

Let's take a look. Verse four, it says this, "Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world and that there is no God but one." What is the theological truth? It is monotheistic. There is one God.

How does that argument fit? If there is one God, all these thousands of other gods, these idols, the wooden figures, the temples, you know what? You could have millions if you want. None of it is real because we believe there's only one. And then he continues, "For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, according to their culture and custom, there is so many.

Yet for us there is but one God, the Father from whom all things, and we exist for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we exist through him." Now what I'd like to do is, if you're taking notes, you have to take notes here, okay?

Because this is almost like a side note, but it's so pivotal to the rest of the sermon, okay? Write a couple statements. You know how the doctrine of the Trinity has various statements? We believe one true God, there's three persons, each person is fully God. It's not like they're one third God, one third God, one third God, and you piece them together, and the pie makes the whole, you know, each piece of the pie makes the whole pizza, you know?

It's not like that. So you have these three statements. Well, what's really interesting about here is he starts off by saying this, "There's one God," right? End of verse four, "There is no God but one." That's statement number one. Statement number two, notice what he says here about God the Father.

He says in verse six, "But there is one God, the Father." So number two looks like this, "One God equals Father." Okay? Statement number three looks like this. He says, "And one Lord, Jesus Christ," right? "One Lord equals Jesus Christ." Now you might be thinking, "Huh, okay, I see what you're going at.

Jesus Christ is God." Well, I want you to think about that in context with what's happening. If you go in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four, this sentence structure in many ways has affinity and similarity to what Moses says in Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four. I'm not going to read verses one through five, but go to Deuteronomy.

And as you go there, I want to remind you that Deuteronomy is such a pivotal book in the Bible. It is the second law, meaning it's the review of the law. Moses is telling the people, "This is what God wants of you. This is what you needed to do in your life before the Lord, in the presence of God." Verse one, chapter six, verse one, "Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey." Listen to this. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might." This is called the great Shema. It's called the Shema because in Hebrew, that line in verse four, "Hear, O Israel," is an emphatic statement. In the Hebrew, it sounds like, "Shema Yisrael." And that is the tag that the Israelites used in all of their services and all their, you know, synagogue meetings and prayer meetings and worship and sacrifices.

As a matter of fact, in the culture, the Jewish people prayed twice in the morning and in the evening, and do you know what they opened with? That line. A monotheistic, "We believe in one God." Why? Contrary to the pagan nations of the day, contrary to the rest of the world, where they worship everything from the moon, the sun, the ground, the cows, and the animals, we worship the one true God.

We are the people of the one true God. That's the first thing they said and the last thing they said. They prayed that twice every single day. If you go over just in your Bibles, just to Deuteronomy chapter 10, and if you, I'm gonna read to us verses 12 through 17.

It says, "Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes, which I am commanding you today for your good?

Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose or descended after them even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer.

For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who does not take a bribe." What I'm wanting to emphasize is this. Who is the Lord? He is the Lord, their God. He is the Lord, our God.

And if you would go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, look at the sentence structure of what he's saying. He's saying such a profound statement. I never realized that this passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, talking about food, Apostle Paul would put in a theological statement that's perhaps one of the most explicit statements that proves the deity of Christ.

Right? He says, "There is one God, God the Father, and it describes Him, the one from whom are all things and we are for Him. And then there's one Lord." Who is the Lord? The Lord, our God. He's God. So this is like a Christological monotheistic statement. It's Christ, it's God, but they're one.

Profound truth of the Bible. Right? Now, there is this big, "So what?" Why would he put this here? Is he just saying, "Yeah, yeah, people, I understand what you're saying. You're saying there's one God. There's no other God, so voila." You know? I think Apostle Paul is emphasizing this thing, "You know, I see an issue.

I see an issue with the way you guys are thinking. Because you are telling me in your argumentation, 'Hey, we can eat because there's one God.' But for you, the emphasis is, the application of this theology that God is one is, 'So now we can eat?' So what's your major concern?

Now we can eat." Apostle Paul is saying, "Really? That's what matters to you? Now we can eat?" Beautiful theology, connecting Old Testament truth of how God is the Lord, he is the Lord God, God of gods, the Lord your God who brought you out. He's connected with Christ, our Lord, our Savior.

And the oneness that exists in them now has application to, "And now we can eat?" I wonder if Apostle Paul is frustrated. I bet he was frustrated. The application is missing something great. Because in their making much of the eating and the food, they neglect the weightier issue. The weightier issue is that people are debating idolatry.

Right? The weightier issue isn't, "Oh, it's just, can we eat and eat or not?" Like, "It's better to be a vegan, actually." There's a passage in the Bible that says, "If you're vegan, you are weak." No, I'm just kidding. All right. There's a passage in the book of Romans that talks about this whole idea.

There are those individuals who are struggling, just like in the church of Corinth, in the church of Rome, they're struggling with the same idea. Remember that I told you last time that this is not just an isolated event. For us, we might be thinking, "This is not even a big issue to us." For us, we might be thinking, "Yeah, I think I know that one guy who used to go to this one cult and he considers stuff like days, one day better than another day.

You know, it has to be this day or that day. He considers certain foods unclean." And you might be thinking, "This is a pretty isolated event." Remember, this is not an isolated event. Just about every single person deals with this issue. The only issue is time. There are people who recently converted and they're very accustomed to that culture of idolatry.

Remember, everybody worshiped a god. There weren't really atheists who said there was absolutely no god. Even if they didn't believe in one particular god, they just still were agnostic and said, "I worship and offer sacrifices to some god." Remember I said that in social environments, in workplace environments, they would run into this all the time.

Wedding ceremonies, graduation ceremonies, any big event, any big commemoration of anything, maybe an academic achievement, would have been involved, perhaps, thanks to a god. And there would be food. What do you do? Right? Apostle Paul is almost saying, "If you cared for truly the theology of the one true god, wouldn't you be careful about idolatry?" But now you're more concerned about the food.

If you really cared about the one true god who has this oneness between god the father and the son, wouldn't you care about the unity? You're missing a huge point here. You care too much about the food and not so much about being careful. Because there is that question.

I mean, if you believe in a god almighty, if you believe, just like the Jews did, in this one true lord, the god of gods, elevated amongst all any deities that people would lift it up, and he is the lord of lords, how careful should you be about offending that god?

Write that in there. How careful should you be? Because that's going to be a theme of what I'm going to be talking about today. How careful should you be? Not just insignificant matters, like I mentioned earlier. I can be super duper careful. Should I throw this away? Should I not?

But if it's a zip tie, it's one thing. If it's a family heirloom album, it's another. But the thing about it is, the way you care for one and the other should be very different. So Paul is getting at that idea. You guys are still writing to me about food.

There are weightier matters at stake. What is the weightier matter? We're going to number two now. So number one was, food does not matter, but what matters is the one true god. His next train of thought is number two, there exists a threat of objective idolatry and subjective idolatry.

So number two is, there exists a threat of objective idolatry and subjective idolatry. What do I mean by that? Well there is obviously objective idolatry in the sense that, okay, if you imagine objective idolatry, to be objective is there is a standard that is independent of personal feelings, who you are.

There's just this independent standard that applies to all. So you're talking something objective. So yeah, if you say, "I offer this to you, Molech." No matter what you say, you could swear like, "I didn't mean it, I didn't mean to do it." You can say whatever you want, but objectively you worship the idol, right?

But what are we talking about in terms of this case? We're not talking about clear cut, biblically wrong, standard of God, you offended the Lord, you transgressed, that kind of stuff here, are we? We're really talking about subjective idolatry, meaning perhaps in the eyes of others, perhaps in the perspective of the community, they don't see it necessarily something wrong.

But if in your own mind, you associate that with something wrong, if your own conscience something tells you, "I shouldn't do this." But then you decide, "I'm going to do it anyway." What is that? Subjective idolatry, that's what he says. So if you go back, he says in verse seven, "However, not all men have this knowledge, but some being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were a sacrifice to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled." So I asked earlier, I made mention of this, that the weak individual in this passage, he's not the person who is lacking knowledge.

He's not the person who just doesn't happen to know. To tell you honestly, sometimes that's how I feel. I feel weak in my mind because I don't know what to do. Someone asked me a question about counseling, it's like, "Duh, I'll have to get back to you." I feel weak.

If my wife asks me, "What should we do about this? Some family issue, parenting issue, how to discipline our kids, and I don't know what to do because I just don't have experience." Yes, I feel weak, but that's not the kind of weakness that this particular passage is talking about.

Although that is a kind of weakness referenced in Romans chapter 14, that's not the kind of weakness this is talking about. This is talking about the weakness when you know what is right and wrong, but your heart is weak to say no. And can I ask you, have you personally ever been in that situation?

I know I have. I know I have. And I'm sure you have too. Because every single one of us wrestles with issues. These people have social issues. "Pastor Paul, if I say no to this food, then they're going to reject me. If I say no to this food, I might potentially actually offend a higher official.

Typically the people who are putting out food, they're not just poor people, they're probably powerful people. And if I reject the food, then what's going to happen to me?" There are social pressures, aren't there? We experience social pressures. I want approval. I want people to like me. I want the people who are above me to think I'm doing a good job.

And in that is always what? A temptation to do something against my conscience. To do something that's not clear. Can I give a challenge now? You know before, two weeks ago, I made the exhortation that sometimes you need to make a decision based on love. You know certain things, you have knowledge of certain things, you know what's wise, and you feel like you should do something and something seems really practical.

But against that practicality is the condition of love, right? But here and now, let me say this. Sometimes you need to make a decision simply on the fact that you have to, you have to keep a clear conscience. You cannot default. Do you notice the words that he used in this passage to talk about the guilty conscience?

The conscience that goes against what he knows to be right? He talks about it as the conscience being defiled. He talks about the weak person being ruined. He talks about the weak person being destroyed. In other passages, again I keep referencing Romans chapter 14, we're going to read over that a little bit later.

He talks about the individual literally being destroyed as in pummeled. Because when you feel like something is right, but because of other people, because of your desires, because of your cravings, whatever the issue is, and you start thinking like maybe it's okay. Do you know what you do to your conscience?

You pummel it. You beat it up. You destroy it. And let me give a warning. If you guys have felt this, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If your conscience is not clear, your life is in ruin. Your life is utterly in ruin. If you go against your conscience, you're rebelling against the probing and the prodding of the Holy Spirit, the conviction of God in us.

There's no way you're going to be okay. And whatever you think of your life, how you interpret your life, how you interpret the world around you, that's going to be skewed. If you go against your conscience, there's going to be guilt. If you go against your conscience, there's going to be uneasiness.

And now you interpret everything like, "Oh my gosh, is God rebuking me? Is God, you know, punishing me?" If you do not have a clear conscience, you have no confidence. How can you raise your hands and say, "And I lift my holy hands." You can't. How can you say boldly, "Hey brother, you know what?

I think you ought to." Because you know exactly what they're going to say. "Oh, pfft. You're the one to talk about you should." You can't talk about you should because you ruined and defiled your conscience. If you ignore your conscience, you defile it. What you do when you go against your faith is you're ruining your conscience.

So notice, Apostle Paul currently is not endeavoring to simply teach the weak and say, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Stop rocking the boat. Meat is good. Meat's yummy. You can eat it, okay? God is one. Let me show you this amazing theology of a Christological monotheism that Christ is God, he is Lord, and through him everything was created.

Just say thank you. Yum, yum, yum." That's not what he's saying. He's encouraging the weak, "Don't you dare go against your conscience." Right? "Don't you dare go against your conviction." Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 14. In Romans chapter 14, same problems. And I'm going to emphasize certain things here.

I'm going to read verses 1 through 5, and then I'm going to start reading from verse 22. Verses 1 through 5 reads like this. Okay? I'm going to give you a moment to get there. He says, "Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions." So not speaking to the weak people, but speaking to the people who are thinking they're strong.

He says, "Don't pass judgment on these people." He says, "One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.

Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind." Do you see that?

You need to be convinced in your own mind. So earlier I asked you this question. If we have a theology, if we have a theology that God is the one true God, then we need to be really careful, right? We need to be really, really careful. But here in line also, if there is a threat of idolatry, you need to be really, really careful.

Are you sure? And if you're not convinced, then can you move on it? It's better and safer not to. Remember the words of Martin Luther. He said very clearly, he said, you know, "I cannot recant of anything. I will not go against my conscience," because he says, "It's neither safe nor right." It's neither safe nor right to go against my conscience.

It's not right because in God's eyes, as he sees that, he's looking at not so much the food because the food is not the matter. He's looking at your willingness to rebel against your own faith and say, "I'm going to do it anyway." I wondered, you know, how many of us sometimes do that?

Sometimes if I can openly confess a little bit, there are times when I know like something I shouldn't do and it's maybe something minor, something small, but have you ever done this? Like you know that certain people are going to be bothered. If you have some people in your life who are clear cut, straight shooters, they're the rule meisters, they'll always tell you how it is and I love having those people in my life because it always keeps me straight, you know?

But if you have those people in your life, there's a temptation. I know it's going to bother him, so I'm just going to keep it to myself and do it on my own. Have you guys ever done that? I know it's going to bother her, so I just keep it low on the down low.

That's why I didn't say anything. That's why I didn't. I mean, is that the right response? Is that being careful? If there is a threat of subjective sin, subjective idolatry because you want to do something, but you know that certain things won't be approved, so what do you do?

You have to what? Beat up your conscience. You have to beat up your thought. You have to beat up your faith in order to do what you want. What is that but idolatry? Apostle Paul is saying there's a bigger issue than just food. A bigger issue than just food.

So Apostle Paul gives this, I think really indirectly, gives this exhortation to those who can relate to the weak. It is not just an issue of lack of knowledge. It is not just an issue of I don't know. It's an issue of a lack of willpower. It's an issue of a lack of strength, and truly I believe that is where strong decisions are made.

I hope that as a young guy for me that I grow in that. Apostle Paul says by the exercise of truth, by the practice of righteousness, we mature. And I get that because when you make strong decisions, when you make decisions that you know to be right in your conscience, then you have a greater confidence to walk and be bold in that righteousness in the future.

But I pray that I grow in that, and I pray that for you. Keep your conscience absolutely pure. Do not ever compromise the thought in your mind, God might not be pleased by this. Now, moving to number three then, Apostle Paul gives the exhortation in 1 Corinthians chapter 8.

He says in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, starting from verse 9, "But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. If someone sees you who has knowledge, dining in idols' temples, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strained for him to eat things sacrificed to idols?" In other passages it says, "Wouldn't he be emboldened?" I mean in the ESV translation.

"For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again." He said, "I will not cause my brother to stumble." I know that in our generation, we don't like having such huge expectations on us.

It's like, dang, for the Bible to call on us to go and care for the brother to the extent that we would never eat meat? I mean, at least be willing to do that. He's not calling everybody to give up meat, but he's saying at least be willing to do that.

He said, "I would. I would give that up. If it causes my brother to stumble, I would give up meat." Think about the degree of care. Think about the degree of caution. Think about the degree of burden. Did you ever think about that a little bit? Or I may have you think about that a little bit.

Do you perhaps think like, "Whoa, that's kind of crazy. I mean, if you take that, if you play the devil's advocate, it's like, then I can't do anything. Because hypothetically, someone might see you, so I can't ever." Whatever it is, fill in the blank there. Purposely, I didn't talk about drinking, going to clubs and lounges, tattoos on your body.

I didn't talk about that stuff, because why? Romans taught us you need to be convinced in your own mind. And all these passages about making your decisions wisely about your love, about your knowledge, about your clarity of conscience, you apply those things. But fill in the blank there. Someone could play the devil's advocate and be like, "So I guess I can't do anything.

Because if that guy is hurting, if that guy says, 'Oh, that bothers me,' then I just can't do it, huh?" It is a big burden, isn't it? To care for the church and the people around you, to care about your image. I mean, do I not have to care about my image?

I don't like that. And I could hear somebody saying, "That's not peace. That's oppressive. I don't want to live like that." Well, brothers and sisters, if we don't care, what you are is reckless. If you don't carry that burden, what you are is careless. I mean, think about this for a moment, okay?

I have kids, and a lot of times people want to play with my kids. And my second one, Emmett, he's really light, so people like to throw him around a little bit. Throw him up in the air. And I remember we just went to a birthday party, and someone threw him up, and his head came this close to a water pipe.

It was like, "Ooooop!" I was like, "Eeeew!" It was like, "Stop it!" And the thing about it is, if I'm carrying something precious, you know, some of you guys have, again, precious art pieces you made at home. If someone's carrying that, it's okay for you to be like, "Can you be careful with that?" If someone's caring for your baby, and they're holding them, you have to be careful.

And if the parent says, "Can you be careful with that?" If you're driving someone's car, and you're not careful, the driver or the owner of the car has the right to be like, "Can you please be careful?" Okay, be careful. And the thing about it is, you can't sit there and be like, "Ugh, you're so mean.

So oppressive. You gotta let me be free." No. Whenever you're, the fact of the matter is, whenever you hold anything precious, you have to be careful. And Apostle Paul, you potentially can place a stumbling block before the precious children for whom Christ died. There is nothing more precious that is worth the blood of Christ.

And repeat that again. You think about the value of something. There is nothing as precious as the blood of Christ spilled for us. That means you, yes you, are precious in the sight of God, and Apostle Paul believes that. So he's exhorting us, the church, "Can you please be careful?

You're arguing with me about eating food. Can I ask you just to be careful with these children whom Christ died for?" He is a father at heart. He said, "Can you please be careful with these?" And if that's a stumbling block to them, guess what for me? I'd rather die than be a stumbling block for my kids.

I won't eat meat. You see what I'm saying? You see what he's saying? So if you go over in Romans, he says the same things. I'm gonna start reading from verse 13 down to the end. Okay? He says, "Therefore, let us not judge one another any more, but rather determine this, not to put a stumbling block, or an obstacle, or a stumbling block in a brother's way." He's like frustrated.

I want you guys to love each other. I want you guys to have an application of the truth that God is one, that you guys will be one. But you're not even being one. You guys are fighting each other and fighting each other over food. Stop judging each other.

And then he goes on, verse 14, "I know that I am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean and of itself, but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean." You must be convinced in your own mind. "For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love, do not destroy with your food him whom Christ died." That's the emphatic point.

Be careful. Verse 16, "Therefore, do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who is this way serves Christ as acceptable to God and approved by men.

So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or do anything by which your brother stumbles.

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith and whatever is not from faith is sin." Now I want to wrap up by saying this.

I started the sermon by saying whatever the controversial issues in our day, Apostle Paul gives certain clear grounds and wisdom principles to decide what to do about it. He talks about what's profitable, what's not profitable. He talks about what's controlling, what's not controlling. He talks about what's going to give us clarity of conscience, what's not going to give us clarity of conscience.

He talks about what's going to be really loving and what's going to not be loving. He's giving so many different criteria about how we ought to decide. And I can almost hear just some of the people still complaining. It's like, "Gosh, but it's hard. If we don't eat this food, then seriously, we're going to get rejected.

It might be really hard for me to advance so it's related to my job. It might give excuses like, "You know, if we don't eat, then we can't reach out to these people. We can't socialize with them. So it's better not to offend them so that we can reach out." Not only that, but this is everywhere.

There's all these excuses. This is everywhere. It's everywhere around us. It's this cultural norm. How do you avoid it? You can't. We just should eat it. Plus, theologically, it was permissible. But remember what I said. Those are all reasons. I'm glad you thought of them. But Apostle Paul is pushing for something greater.

And he's asking, "Are you in this debate arguing with me about food?" But the other question is, "Are you pursuing something greater?" Earlier, Apostle Paul in Romans chapter, when I read to you that passage in chapter 14, he says in verse 19, "So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another." Are you pursuing that?

And if you go in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, he talks about the food offered to idols. And he essentially is going to say, "Listen to me. I said earlier, the food is nothing. And I believe it. The food is nothing. But guess what? Don't eat it." That's what he says.

Why? Because in verse 23, he says, "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking question for conscience sake.

For the earth is the Lord's and all that's in it." I'm on chapter 10, verse 27. It says, "If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience sake." I'm going to jump down to verse 31.

"Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God. Just as I also please all men and all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many so that they may be saved." Don't argue with me just about what's permissible because then you're not really pursuing the greater things that matter.

All you're doing is holding a zip tie and saying, "Should I or should I not? Should I or should I not?" Throw it away and give attention to the things that matter, to the things that's going to edify, the things that's going to glorify. Consider the one true God.

Consider Him to whom you might potentially commit subjective idolatry. He's summarizing the great law. Love God and love your neighbor. Consider your neighbor so important that you would sacrifice, that you would consider what you would give up, that you would be so careful. We know that things go viral.

We know that things pervade. We know that things move so fast. So let's be careful. Let's be careful with the church that God's given us and primarily the gospel that you contain, that you possess, gives you now an obligation to guard against anything, anything that will put a stumbling block before the redemption cause of God.

Let's make sure that we are sober and walking in a way where we place no thorn in the buck, but rather it's very clear we are pursuing the greater matters. Let's pray. God, we want to first thank you again so much God.