Alright, well we'll get started you guys. We're actually studying today in depth until verse 22. I had notes up until 31 but it's just kind of too much to cover at one time. So I want to, there's a bunch of announcements happening but a couple ones I want to highlight is that this coming Saturday we have the Sisters Fellowship and then the weekend after is our membership meeting.

So if you guys know that you can't make it to the membership meeting, please make sure to email us. Also that week happens to be communion and I want to just mention today's passage has a little bit to do with communion. It's important time for the entire church to just kind of reflect, to focus, to remember more than anything and then to celebrate God's return, Christ's return.

So please take time to prepare for that. Also again in the month of October we have lots of stuff, bigger events happening. Sports day is happening, we have couples retreat and then we have Reformation Night. If you guys want to volunteer for any of this stuff, please make sure just to email me and I'll direct you in the right way.

Okay? Cool. Alright, well that being said, let's open up our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10. And we've already been in the book of 1 Corinthians for some time and again I've loved it because there's a sense in which by hitting some of the major things that the church struggles with, Paul is calling for maturity.

Can you believe we're already into week 19 of studying 1 Corinthians? Let's take a look starting from verse 14, I'm just going to read it since the paragraph begins there and then go to verse 22. And it says, "Therefore my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men, you judge what I say.

Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body. For we all partake of the one bread. Look at the nation Israel.

Are not those who eat the sacrifices a share in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I want you to become, I do not want you to become sharers in demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he, are we? All right, let's take a moment to pray that God will bless the study of his word.

Father God, we do pray. Lord, each time we open up, we pray that there would be a spiritual work done. God, I pray that this, it would not simply be an accumulation of knowledge, but God, that there would be true fruit of the spirit, which leads to conviction of righteousness, of holiness, of sin, which leads to greater love and dedication to you.

And I pray God that again, your spirit would go before us tonight as we study. And I pray God that our hearts would be attentive. It's in Christ name we pray, amen. Okay, well, jumping straight into the lesson for today, we take a look at verse 14 through 15.

And I want to ask you guys, in taking a look at that, what do you see as Apostle Paul's expectation? Expectation or shins? That the listeners be wise? Okay, good. So Apostle Paul expects that the people he is talking to, that they be wise enough. Okay? And it's been quite interesting because he's been frustrated with their wisdom and discernment.

And he says, I expect you to be discerning enough. Okay? Any other expectation that you see? Okay, to follow his argument and his train of reasoning, it kind of comes out as like, so I'm speaking to you in this way, you need to judge what I'm saying. Like follow what I'm saying, like get it, you know?

And I find that quite interesting as he's talking to them. And let me take a moment to think about that with you guys for a moment is, you know, he's making an argument now, but realize that his argument has been building since the beginning of the letter, right? His argument has been building from the beginning of the letter where he began saying, look, you guys are believers and I thank God for you, every single one of you.

And I, and he essentially has a warm fatherly attitude towards everybody in the church. But then as he's writing to them, he starts building this argument about how they need to be humble, how they need to be united and essentially mature in every single way you can think of and purity and everything, you know?

But he comes back to this point as he's talking to them is, I want you to be wise enough and I expect you to be discerning enough. If you are Christian, you need to get what I'm saying. And earlier I mentioned that I love this book because it really is a call to maturity.

I find that perhaps there is a frustration in him saying like, you guys don't get it, but I expect you to get it. But perhaps it's because there is this gap here where the people are still arguing on the level of like what's right and wrong, right? But Apostle Paul is arguing on the level of be discerning and wise.

Okay? So you can imagine when there's somebody who is a Christian and he's learning, and he's learning principles and truth, he could be pointing at a very specific passage and saying, look it, that's what it says. This is the truth. Look here. But the whole time Apostle Paul is saying, look here.

I see your argument, but look here, I'm pointing towards greater maturity. He expects them to be wise. He expects them to exercise their judgment and discernment as to what he is saying. Okay? And today as I was studying this passage, I want you to think about that. There is a difference between just deciding what's right, acceptable, okay?

As opposed to what's wise, which mature. Okay? All right. But what's the other expectation in the form of a clear command? You're expected to recognize and flee from idolatry. Excellent. I like how he put it. Both recognize and flee from the idols. Okay? I remember I used to say something to the extent of like, in the Bible, you know, the only sin that God tells us flee is sexual immorality.

And I was studying this passage, I was like, God, I wonder why I said that. Because here it says flee from idolatry. So there's multiple places where he says flee. And I want you guys to just think about that for a moment. Because to flee, obviously, is quite an intense word.

You know? You think about various things he wants you to overcome, be victorious, be overcomers, you know? And then it's like, flee! Just run! And you've got to ask the question, like, how severe and how perhaps, again, how severe he sees this problem and the ramifications of it, right?

So these are his expectations for us, the clear command for us to flee what is idolatry. What's really interesting to me is it's so emphatic that he just places it at the front and then he's going to give us reasons why. I asked you guys to outline the passage.

The outlining of the passage to me really is this command, flee, is at the top. Boom. And then the various sections that come after, including sections like 16, or verse 16 through 18, verse 19 to 21, verse 22, and then even further on, verse 22 down to whatever, these are reasons why you need to flee.

Okay? He's giving us the reason, he's giving us the points. Here's premise one, premise two, premise three, therefore flee is one way to do it. The other way to do it is run! And then tell you why. Okay? And so you've got to ask the question, in Apostle Paul's mind, how severe does he see the sin of idolatry?

Okay? Well, let's move forward then. What's one of the first reasons why Apostle Paul gives as to why we need to flee idolatry? Can I have, whose back of the head am I looking at there? Is that Randall? Can you read nicely for us, verse 16 through 18? It's not the color of the sea which is the best insurance for the human race.

It's not the birth history that we should regret sharing with all of the rest. Since there is no birth, we need to learn about it. So we don't have to take that risk. But, look at the issue here. A lot of girls who leave us are sick. The second question is, seriously, what's the answer?

Okay, thank you. So, I'm going to ask you for a huge favor. Would you mind closing the doors in the back for us? I can hear the airplanes and stuff. I opened it all up because when I got in here, it was all like warm and, you know, in the room.

Thank you. All right. So as you take a look at that passage, let's first do a quick observation. So just throw it out to me, you guys, what you see, and then we're going to do a what's the point. Okay? So first question is, can you just list the different references that he's pointing out here?

Or the things that he's pointing to to make his argument. He lists the cup of blessing, and then he lists the bread, and then the? Okay. Actually, in order to help you put the list together, let's put them, like put the things together. So the cup of blessing, and then the blood, bread, and then the body.

And then there's the, someone said it here, sacrifices that attaches to the altar. Okay, great. So what you see is he's got these reference points. Okay? He's like, hey, don't we have this cup of blessing? Share in the blood of Christ. Don't we have this bread? Share in the body of Christ.

Don't we have the sacrifices? Share in the altar. All right. So, okay, you've just listed three various things. What's the point? The sharing in Christ. Okay, good. So with each element, what you have is a sharing of Christ. Well, the first two is very clear. We have the communion table.

And those of you guys who recently went through BCC, or if you guys remember, in BCC class, I go down in week seven, this whole list of what the communion represents, right? And I go down the whole list of talking about how in the Old Testament, blood represented life.

The blood represented life. And the thing about it is, in so taking part of that blood, you're saying, this is Christ's blood shed for me. That's his life shed for me. And so when you take part of that blood, the life of Christ, right? Likewise, the bread is the same thing, is the life of Christ.

And then what's furthermore, the bread represents the body of Christ. You're literally taking part in Christ, in the person of Christ, right? And so when you do that act of communion, you're remembering everything that is of Christ. When you take that communion, it's like, you know, looking at a perfect picture.

Sometimes you know, we look at certain photos on Facebook, you look at photos on your wall, and you sometimes sit there mesmerizing or reflecting, remembering whatever it is, right? It causes you to feel the emotions and all that kind of stuff. That's what communion is a picture of. It's just reminding you, Christ, who he is, what he's done, how he's coming back, all of that, right?

But his point is that by doing the communion, which is the picture, you share in it. So if you guys would jot this down as a note, what's really interesting is the repeated term is that concept of sharing. Sharing in the blood of Christ, sharing in the body of Christ, partake of the one bread, share is in the altar.

That's his point. And what's really interesting about that is the words for sharing is the word koinonia. It's the word koinonia. Jot that down as a note. And you guys have heard that term before. You know, it's like, come on guys, let's have real koinonia, you know? And what they're saying is like, let's have real fellowship.

Let's really be one, united in the right thing. And other pastors of the Bible use koinonia to say you are a partaker, like a participant, two partners joined together to accomplish something. Okay? So Apostle Paul is making the point, look, when you do something, you are a share in what it represents.

You're a part of that. That's your fellowship. That's you partaking of that. And so how does that connect with his argument? Well, he just said, flee from idolatry. Right? Because there's a sense in which then spiritually, if you allow yourself to haphazardly do the stuff that's associated with idolatry, what are you doing?

You're joining yourself. Right? And so let's think about kind of a summary to that point then. You know? To that segment in which Apostle Paul is pointing out to us, you need to flee from idolatry. But the first point Apostle Paul is making is because look, in everything you do, you are fellowshipping.

So my exhortation would be, pick the right fellowship. If you were to think about, you know, an instance where you, you know, have one group versus another, one posse versus another, even in, you know, just this morning we were out on Ring Road and it was funny because we were passing out Berean flyers, but then I walked over to our table and we had all these different club flyers, you know, like double ACF flyers, CCM flyers, other campus ministry flyers on our Berean table.

And what was hilarious was one of the students, as soon as they saw me, they were like, "Oh shoot!" And they just laughed, you know, because there's, you know, like in the mentality is like, "I'm supposed to be promoting Berean, what are you doing with that flyer?" You know?

Well, amongst Christians, I say, "Hey, we're all believers and I'm okay with you passing out those other flyers." But I just use that as an example to say, imagine, I mean, if we were two competing fellowships, you would be like, "What the, why would you even promote that?" You know?

In like vein, do we recognize that when whatever we're doing, there's a sense in which we are joining in fellowship with it. And when I said earlier, as an exhortation, "Pick the right fellowship," there's a sense in which not only do you need to pick the right fellowship, but you got to look like you belong.

You can't straddle the fence of belonging to this club and that club, you can't have an identity crisis, "I want to be a part of this, I want to be a part of that." There's a sense in which, no, Apostle Paul expects a mature individual to fully belong to that fellowship.

And you guys know where that's leading, because later on he's going to say very, very explicitly, you can't be a part of both. Right? Okay. Moving forward then, to verses 19 through 21. Can I have, KJ, can you read that please? "What do I mean then? They think sacrifice idles a thing in things, but I idle a thing in things.

Know that I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, is sacrifice of demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers of demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord because of demons. Do not partake of this table, the Lord and the table of demons." Okay.

So, there we have it. The exhortation that we were just anticipating. And in verse 19 to 21, he essentially kind of builds on the last point, look, we're partakers and sharers in it, so what do I mean? And then he starts to clarify that a thing sacrificed to idles is anything, or that an idol itself is anything.

So picture again, please, the scenario that I brought up, starting from chapter eight. Back in that culture, idolatry was rampant. If you guys have ever visited certain other nations and other countries, especially places like let's say Thailand or India, where you have like a plethora of like idols everywhere, whether it be little Buddhas, whether it be little icons and all that kind of stuff.

Just imagine that, you know, back then you'd have all these different figurines and no matter what kind of social environment you went to, there was always some kind of element of that idolatry in there. And even to this day, every time I go to like certain restaurants and I see like a big old Buddha in the front, it always makes me feel like, I don't know, I don't know, you know?

But the thing about it is, I want you to just picture that kind of scenario. And remember that the scenario is, Apostle Paul initially said, look, we know that first there is the food that you're eating and you're wondering was that sacrifice to idols? And then there's the idol itself.

We know that's nothing, okay? We know that's nothing. But here and now he's giving the exhortation, but do you need to flee? Okay? So how do we reconcile that? Well, he repeats this idea again that a thing sacrificed to idols, is it anything? And he says, no, it's not.

Well, I've got this little table for you and it's an easy question, but I just want you to like, I want to highlight a point here. So I want you to just, you know, bear with me on this. You've got on one side cup, bread, idol, and you got on the right side, blood, body, false God.

What's the relationship from column A to column B? Thank you. Representation. It's representation. And I want you guys to just think about that for a moment and just kind of think through what that is, right? Behind the food and behind the idol, literally it's just a piece of wood.

It's no holier, no special than let's say this pulpit made of wood, right? That's literal spiritual reality. But where it starts to really count is the representation. And so there's a sense in which even for us, what's weird is there's a dual element of when we do certain ordinances like baptism that we just had.

So Peter typically says like, this doesn't really do anything. But then there would be a question then of like, then what's the point of doing it? Why would we have all our members think deeply about getting baptized and not only get baptized, but get baptized in the right mode, right?

And the importance lies in what it represents. Okay? And this is the point to which I want to, I want to really like push and emphasize to you because it's so important. Remember earlier how I talked about how apostle Paul was frustrated because although the Corinthians church, they're Christians and some of them might've been Christians for some time, some of them are obviously newer believers.

They're arguing with him like, look at this Bible verse, look at this truth. It's not wrong. But apostle Paul is saying, I see that, but I want you to look here to ask, is it mature? And this is one of the points to which that point of maturity really comes into the forefront.

Because for us as Christians, we need to represent, right? In what we do, we need to reveal, manifest. We need to witness, we need to bear light. And so in doing that, there isn't a bare minimum. There isn't a line, just do this, this and this, and now you're represented.

Do whatever you want with your freedom next. Apostle Paul, his mentality is we need to represent. So in all you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. So there isn't a line for apostle Paul. You see that? And so there's this, still sitting here, but look, it's not wrong.

Apostle Paul is like, you're still looking at a point. Get your eyes off of that. Apostle Paul expects the church to mature way beyond that, to identify when you do what you do, what does it represent? That's an important question, right? And so that's why he might make the point, hey look, these idols really, really are nothing.

But in maturity, you need to see beyond that. So if in maturity you need to see beyond that, there is like rampant idolatry where literally you're bowing to a God and saying, you're my God. But this is where the question comes in. What other idolatrous things are there? What other forms, in the definition of idolatry, what other concepts have you seen in scripture?

If you guys want to volunteer and just list some of those. What other things categorize as idolatry in the scriptures? Oh yeah, coveting. When you're coveting in your heart, what else? Relying on other things. Relying on other things. And that idea, both those concepts encompass a lot of stuff, right?

When you're coveting, you're like, you know, you have a desire and you have jealousy and stuff like that. Relying on other things, that's where your trust is, that's where your security is, you know? Good. When your reliance is on anything, when you're relying on something and that something takes greater trust, it receives greater confidence in the Lord God than you've committed idolatry.

Anything else? Your pursuits. And typically it's like pursuit of success, pursuit of money. There was a passage that really kind of talked about idolatry and various things in the book of Job, interestingly enough. If you guys turn your Bible to Job 31. Job 31, okay. In Job 31, starting from verse 24, this is what it says.

It says, "If I have put my confidence in gold and called fine gold my trust, if I have gloated because my wealth was great and because my hand had secured so much, if I have looked at the sun when it shone or the moon going in splendor and my heart became secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, that too would have been an iniquity calling for judgment for I would have denied God above." Now that passage to me, you know, it encapsulates a lot of what is at the heart of idolatry.

What is at the heart of idolatry is the replacement of God, right? At the heart of idolatry is a substitution. When God in the Ten Commandments talks about using his name in vain, having an image, having other gods, what is that but the replacement, the dethroning of God, right?

But that is not the nature of what we do in sin. Whether it be I make God look like me, I make God look like something that serves me, it is a dethroning of the Lord above. That is at the heart of idolatry. Now in talking about all of these things, in talking about all of these things, we have to exercise great discernment, right?

Because we realize that the tipping point from, you know, completely legitimate pursuit of money, success, our ambitions, and happiness, the tipping point is not so clear, is it? And what's crazy and dangerous about it is the tipping point is not so clear, but it could also happen so rapidly, right?

Almost instantaneously. And so Apostle Paul again is calling the Christians at Corinth to not practice the kind of righteousness to which they say, "Well, here's the line. I haven't done anything wrong." Because in his eyes, that's not maturity. But in his eyes, the various forms of idolatry that will enter into our hearts, enter into our church, you are mature enough to see, right?

And then to flee. So he mentions that, but in summary, or not in summary, but in moving forward, he talks about another aspect of it. He says, "No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become shares in demons." Okay?

And that point's just obvious. Why flee from idolatry? Because it's demonic. Right? So here, I wanted to ask you guys the question, do you believe that demons attack believers either in the Bible or today? And then I'm gonna ask probably a follow-up question, which is like, what does that look like, you know?

So anyone? Do you believe that demons, and I'm talking specifically attacking believers, Christians, do demons attack Christians? And I'm gonna ask follow-up is, what do you think that looks like? - Yes. - Okay, yes. And then the follow-up question is? - I don't have to say that part. - What?

- I said Matthew's gonna answer that. - Oh, nice. Tag. - Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree. - Nice. - So, it looks like, in part, even what it says here, like, I guess in the next part of the passage, like, it could be a direct attack on us, but it could be an attack, like, where maybe we use the word "demon" to describe a demon, and then we use the word "Christian" to describe a Christian.

And then we use the word "demon" to describe a Christian. And then we use the word "demon" to describe a Christian. And then we use the word "Christian" to describe a Christian. And then we use the word "demon" to describe a Christian. And then we use the word "demon" to describe a Christian.

And then we use the word "demon" to describe a Christian. - Okay. Cool. Thank you. Anybody else want to add to that, or just even just... So if you guys ever wonder that kind of question, you know, people have asked me a lot of times, do demons, like, internally influence us?

That's why I pose the question. It's like, does a demon, like, cause me to say stuff? You know, if he's gonna attack the church and his unity, does he make me say nasty things and all that kind of stuff? And so, you know, there are questions about that. And I'm not gonna answer those questions specifically, but I do also concur.

Demons, the demonic forces, Satan, they try. They do whatever they can to attack Christians today. And sometimes I feel like that's kind of a blind spot to just modern Christianity, you know? Maybe there are those people who make much of it, and that could be even one of Satan's strategies too.

It's like, get them so engulfed in one aspect of your spiritual life that that's all you really ever think about. But in my mind, when I think about this truth, he's like, there is a spiritual realm here. I mean, he's trying to talk about the physical, which was the cup, the bread, the statue, the meat, and all that kind of stuff.

But then he wants the Christians to be mature enough to observe the spiritual, right? And he says the spiritual is, there is this representation of their demonic worship, of their demonic influence, of their deception, and what is the twisted, perverted truth, right? And then I take a moment to think about that.

And how many of you guys were with us when we read that book, Darkness and the Glory? Okay, a good number of you. I recommend it to you. Some of it, it sounds like conspiracy theory and it's a little confusing. Some of it's like gold, okay? But the main argument in that book is that Satan, being the father of deception, is so deceived himself, and he has so deceived himself, he believes he can win.

Satan believes he can usurp the hand of God and deceive the Christian to fail. Satan believes that he can so attack Christ that Christ would fail. And so the argument in that book is, not only is the spiritual battle alive, and not only is it rampant, Satan will literally do every single thing in his power, every single arsenal, every arrow, every scheme, every lie, Satan will throw.

And the book makes the argument that whatever Satan has, he threw at Christ and he's gonna throw at you. And I kinda see that. So someone can ask me, "Hey, do you think Satan is gonna try to use our words?" I'm like, "I don't believe Satan or the devils have control over a Christian, because we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

But would he use words? Yeah. Would he use whatever he could? Yeah. Would he use certain people who came in and they were teaching false stuff? Yes he would. And Apostle Paul is very clear. That's gonna happen. That's one of Satan's schemes. You throw him out. Don't listen to him.

Don't invite him into your home. Right? But it's gonna happen. There's gonna be people who are coming through those doors, claiming to be Christians, but will teach falsehood. Will Satan attack leaders? Yes he will. Will Satan attack the members? Yes he will. Satan will stop at nothing to thwart us.

And that's one of the things I just want us to highlight is just like, and so he's calling these Christians to mature a bit here. And he's saying, you know, like, do you see, you know, what you're espousing when you don't care about the other Christians and you say, well, this is my right.

Well, this is my freedom. Well, this is my liberty and I know what's best. I know what's right. I'm completely legitimate in doing this. It's like, man, don't you know the spiritual battle is real? Okay? All right. So that's verses 19 through 21 for the blank is spiritual reality, right?

Spiritual reality. And to sum that up, he's essentially saying flee from idolatry because it's demonic, because it represents demonic activity. Okay. Did I give you the blank for number, the first one? I can't remember. For verses 16, 18? Well, if I didn't, it's a conflict of fellowship. You can't, you can't fellowship in two camps.

All right. Next section. Can I have Jonas Alejo? Can you read verse 22 please? Oh, sorry. Yes. 22. Okay. So we provoke the Lord to jealousy. Are we stronger than he? Okay. So we're taking a look here at verse 22 and it says, or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?

We are not stronger than he, are we? Right? And so this to me, again, pose another reason. So the fleeing moral, uh, idolatry, right? And it had this idea of what you share in. And then when he said, what I mean is, that's how I'd split that up and said, okay, that's an indicator where he's at least making another premise or just building on top.

And then when he said, or that's when I realized, okay, he's probably doing another argument and thinking, helping us think of something else. And this, the reason why I, if I were to, you know, entitle this as a sermon, I would call it like true maturity. Although it's talking about true idolatry or flee from idolatry, I'll talk about as true maturity is because to me, in my mind, a truly mature Christian always asked the question, what about God?

Right? A really mature Christian will ask the question, well, what does God think of it? Because that maturity is a maturity as a son who considers the father, a daughter who is in tune with the father's heart, right? Someone who has read the scriptures enough, has prayed, has communed with God, is going to have a sense for what pleases the Lord or displeases the Lord.

Someone who has really been in harmony with God is going to feel sensitivity. Well, what about God? And that to me is a mark of somebody who is very, very mature. I don't think I could do that. Why? There's no problem with this. Like, I just, I don't know how God would think of that.

I think I would look at that and, and they're able to say that because they've thought deeply of what the Lord's perspective on us would be. A selfish child, a child who's living in the moment, a child who's living on earth, simply in the material, simply here and now.

They're considering immediate cost benefits, immediate risk, immediate kickback, how it affects me. But the child of God who is mature is thinking on a broader scale. But what about God? How does he view this? And that's essentially what he's saying. He's asking this question, or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?

And it immediately brings into question, how would God look at this? And I want you to turn to a scary passage in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter 32. And I call it a scary passage because if you read the whole chapter, it's pretty scary. It sounds almost just like the segments of revelations where you just, it's hard to keep reading because it's just like so descriptive of the kind of wrath that God is going to impose on the earth.

But in chapter 32, starting from verse 19, okay, Deuteronomy chapter 32, starting from verse 19, it says, "The Lord saw this and spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and daughters. Then he said, 'I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be, for they are a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faithfulness.

They have made me jealous with what is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their idols, so I will make them jealous with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with the foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in my anger and burns to the lowest part of Sheol and consumes the earth with its shield and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

I will heap misfortunes on them. I will use my arrows on them. They will be wasted by famine and consumed by plagues or bitter destruction. And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, with the venom of crawling things of dust. Outside the sword will bereave and inside terror.

Both young man and virgin, but the nurseling and the man, gray in hair, I would have said, I will cut them to pieces. I will remove the memory of them from men.'" That's one of those passages where it's kind of crazy because you see what he's saying, he's just like, "They provoked me to such anger.

I'm going to have such vengeance on them. I'm going to completely turn the whole tables upside down. You provoke me to anger, I'm going to provoke you. And after you've been provoked, I'm going to completely destroy you. Both the babies, both the senior citizens, everybody. And not a single soul will ever remember you because you will be annihilated." I mean, that's the kind of stuff that he's saying, right?

That's what I mean when I say, man, it reads just like Revelation. It's just kind of scary. But the fact of the matter is, if we were to ask, what about God? We realize God is a jealous God. That much is clear in the Bible. And I ask you this question.

Paul says, "Flee idolatry." And his last point clearly is, because God is a jealous God. How would you explain that to a young Christian? How would you explain that to somebody who's new to the faith and maybe all they've heard is like, "And God has a great plan for you, huge hope for the future.

Come into the church, learn the Bible, have fellowship. Do you want to find community? Here you are." And then he learns Deuteronomy chapter 32 and he's just like, "Duh." How do you explain that? Anybody want to take a shot at that, please? Someone in our table offered the example of marriage.

Good. I like how you use the word "the right." The right. You know, Pastor Peter posted up a testimony recently of a professor who was part of the gay and lesbian community and through a lot of going back and forth with Christians and writing articles and she essentially was kind of a leader of that liberal camp and she was converted and I listened to it and I was just so thoroughly encouraged.

If you guys haven't had a chance to listen to it, I really encourage that you do. Especially for those of you guys who perhaps never felt, you know, sometimes people ask me, "I believe in God, I have surrendered to God, but sometimes I don't feel it." She talks about that.

She's like, "I've surrendered. I didn't have this burst of tears and emotions, but I surrendered." And in talking about the surrender, she gave this example and said, "A lot of the questions I get sometimes are weird because one of the most frequently asked questions is, 'Why can't you just be both?

Why can't you just accept Christianity and still be lesbian?'" And then instead of answering the question, she just started to talk. And she started to talk about how God is Lord and she is not. So how can one have the audacity and the pride to tell God, "Well, this is how it shall be because I want both." And the reason why I like the fact that, you know, David said, "In the context when you have a right, then you have a right to be jealous." But God is God.

He created everything. He owns everything. He's the one who gave us purpose. He's the one who gave us life. He's the one who sustains our existence. He has a right. Okay? And where there is a right, there is a right to be jealous. And He has that right to perfection.

He is Lord. And only when you understand the spiritual reality of God's Lordship, that God is God exalted and almighty, does this jealousy make sense. Right? And so as a kind of, you know, kind of summing up, summing up of the lesson today, let's stop there and really think about what is maturity, you know?

Christian maturity. Christian maturity looks so much different than what the world would view as maturity, you know? Worldly maturity means I pay my own bills and I do what I want without my parents. Right? Worldly maturity means my parents don't tell me what to do anymore. I dictate what I do with my life.

In the family of God, in the relationship of us as sons and daughters of God, that maturity looks quite different, you know? And I think Apostle Paul, through these passages, have been challenging us to not think on such a base level of, "Well, I did base minimum," or "I met the line, I've met the requirement, let me exercise my freedoms." Apostle Paul is saying, "Now you have the freedom.

Glorify God. Consider Him. Represent." What a huge challenge for us, amen? Alright. Any questions about the passage today? Going from verse 14 to 22? Okay. Let's bow for a prayer and you guys can have your time of discussion. Okay? Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your grace.

God, I pray that in our spiritual lives, it is a battle truly of truth and comprehending and grasping reality. I pray, God, that we would live in the spiritual realities revealed to us by scripture. I pray, God, that you would not allow us to live long simply by sight, but God, to live truly in faith.

I pray, Lord, that we would take the call to mature as Apostle Paul is expecting the church to not simply live by the letter of the law or simply live by what is base minimum, but really to represent God in this world and be a light. And I pray, Father God, that you would challenge us that whatever freedoms, whatever blessings we have, we would turn that all to your glory and honor.

We thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Okay. Again, I tried my best with the discussion questions. Some of them not so good. The first one, I was like, "Have you ever been attacked?" What I mean by that is, have you ever felt like demonic, spiritual attack? If you have a good story of what it was like, tell the story.

Tell me too later. And I'll tell you if it really is. The other ones is just try to evaluate self. Are there anything that you feel is idolatry? There's stuff that's apparent, stuff that's more subtle, and please talk about that, okay? All right. Thank you. Thank you.