it’s not about me! 1 Cor. 10:24

I was do doing discipleship with a new believer a few months ago. He asked me to clarify something he had read in the Purpose Driven Life. These words are found in Chapter 1:

“It’s not about you.

The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose. The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That’s because we typically begin at the wrong starting point - ourselves…

You were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not your using him for your own purpose.”

As we discussed this chapter, I was floored to see that he was not only shocked by this radical view of life, but he had embraced it! He wondered if he was accurate to realign his life with these new priorities – God and others first, himself last.

I stammered in amazed delight – he had grasped a truth even I had not fully embraced. Life is not about me!

Look at the two greatest commandments: love God and love others (Matt. 22:37-40). Where am I in that equation? I am the subject – God and others are the object. I am the giver – not the receiver.

It is in this spirit Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:24: “Let no one seek his own good, but that of others.”

This is a command we wish children would obey! This is a command all of us must learn. However, practicing selflessness is in utter contradiction to our human nature!

Here are some burning questions:
1. Why do I find it so hard to set aside my feelings, hurts, and expectations?
2. What have I done recently to seek the good of someone else above myself?
3. How committed am I to putting others before myself?
4. What will I do this week to seek the good of someone above myself? (Come to class prepared to share what you did!)

In a Christian community,
I am last – others are first.

It’s MY life! 1 Cor. 10:23

How many times have you heard someone when confronted in sin reply: “It’s MY life”??!!! Christians from Corinth to Kirkwood and everywhere in-between use this excuse.

Take a deeper look with me at Paul’s powerfully potent words:

“All things are lawful,”
but not all things are helpful.
“All things are lawful,”
but not all things build up. (ESV)

Paul is trying to expose the selfishness of the average Corinthian John and Jane. They were living their lives as if they were an island. What they did was their own personal business. “Leave my private life alone” they declared.

Paul again mocks the Corinthian adage that “all things are lawful” and that private choices don’t really matter to the community (see 6:12 also). God does give me freedom in Christ. But, NOT every choice, behavior, or action is helpful. Only certain choices, behaviors, and actions build up.

Burning Question: Can I really live however I want? Is it really MY life?

Weekly Nuggets:

~ If you are a Christian, you no longer own your life.

~ Your character is who you are & what you do – in public AND in private.

~ You may be making private choices that are tearing others down.

The wall between our home and our church
is thinner than we may think.

How do I practice idolatry? PART II 1 Cor. 10:12-22

Thanks for the excellent discussion in class this week! We are asking the question: How do I practice idolatry?

Let us begin by asking: “What is idolatry?” Idolatry simply put is “worship – of anything than God”. Wondering what you worship? Simply look at 15 of the largest industries in America:

1) Starbucks, McDonalds…Fast food industry – the idol of my convenience
2) Planet Fitness… body building/workout industry – the idol of my body
3) GNC stores…health industry– the idol of my health
4) Adult entertainment, Playboy, online pornography…sex industry – the idol of my lust
5) Hollywood, Regal cinemas…movie industry – the idol of my entertainment
6) NFL, NHL, NBA, NCAA…all things sports – the idol of my pride & human fitness
7) American Idol, America’s Got Talent… pop culture fame – the idol of my fame
8) IPods, ITunes, MP3…music – the idol of my music
9) Wal-Mart, Target…retailers – the idol of my wants
10) Ford, Toyota, GM…auto makers – the idol of my self-image
11) Citigroup, HSBC, Capital One, Visions…banks, credit cards – the idol of my greed
12) AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner…phone companies – the idol of my gossip
13) DishTV, DirecTV…cable TV – the idol of my laziness
14) Century 21, ReMaxx…realty – the idol of my discontent
15) Applebees, Tullys, Ponderosa…restaurants – the idol of my gluttony

I could go on and on. So could you. We have so many idols! Do you notice they all came back to me? Our idolatrous society is no different from India with their many gods. We just call our gods by other names.

“But I don’t worship them,” you say. Idolatry isn’t about bowing down. It’s about distracting us from True Worship. For the Corinthians, it meant going into a temple. For us, we live IN the temple! Our culture immerses us in the worship of ourselves and our lusts.

Think about it. How much of your week is spent in True Worship of God? How much is spent in worship of the above “idols”? Are you distracted? I am too.

Maybe you don’t have an idol – maybe you are one! Perhaps we struggle more with idolatry than we realize.

Perhaps we are really worshipping ourselves!

How do I practice idolatry? 1 Cor. 10:12-22

Last week we concluded that the three major temptations faced by Israel were: immorality, idolatry, and ingratitude. What were they supposed to be practicing? Purity, true worship, and trust/gratitude. If we could learn to practice these three behaviors, our lives & families & churches would be so drastically different!

The passage for this week is1 Corinthians 10:12-22. (Please read in NLT if available!)

This week continues the theme of idolatry from chapter 10. I have thought long and hard about idolatry the past few weeks. Isn’t this an outdated sin? Well, most commentators say that it is anything that comes before God in my life. So I suppose idolatry is everything! This is much too broad to have application for me.

What do you think about idolatry? How is idolatry different today than it was for the Corinthians? How is it the same? What does American idolatry look like?

I have come to some conclusions in my life that blew me away. It was after I asked myself lots of questions. What does my culture value? What do I value?

When it comes to idolatry, eventually you lose control. Eventually your idol eats your time, money, and family. You are at its mercy.

How do you commit idolatry? Answering this question was hard for me and will be for you. But it is a question we both must answer.

we are no different…1 Cor. 10:1-11 (NLT)

¹ I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago.

Paul was concerned that the Corinthian believers were unaware of their spiritual history. He wants to eradicate their ignorance, and replace it with historically accurate truth. The following historical facts he considers crucial to their present walk:

All of them

were guided by a cloud

that moved ahead of them,

and all of them

walked through the sea

on dry ground. ²

In the cloud

and in the sea,

all of them were baptized

as followers of Moses.

³ All of them ate the same spiritual food,

⁴ and all of them drank the same spiritual water.

For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them,

and that rock was Christ.

Paul considers it significant that they were “all” guided by the same cloud, walked through the same sea, and traveled the same ground. They were all “baptized” into the same group as followers of Moses, ate the same “spiritual food” and drank the same “spiritual water”. Their source for all of this was….drum roll please….Christ!

How shocking this would have been for a Jewish believer to comprehend. Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of the Church, was also the source of life for Israel thousands of years prior to His birth! They had the same Jesus we do. They were eerily similar to a “church”. They had a community with shared experiences and teaching – and where did it get them?

⁵ Yet God was not pleased with most of them,

and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Ouch! Could Paul possibly have been more harsh? They (the Jewish slave escapees from Egypt) were quite similar to us (believers in Corinth/Kirkwood). And the punch line is --- they were NOT acceptable to God. Somehow, they disqualified themselves.

⁶ These things happened as a warning to us,

so that we would not crave evil things as they did, ⁷

or worship idols as some of them did.

Yikes, their deaths became our object lesson. Their God is my God. Their disobedience my disobedience. Why am I not more afraid that their fate could become mine?

As the Scriptures say,

“The people celebrated

with feasting and drinking,

and they indulged in pagan revelry.”

Shouldn’t I be trembling? My carnal cravings also lead to death. Here are take-home lessons Paul shouts out:

⁸ And we must not engage in sexual immorality

as some of them did,

causing 23,000 of them to die in one day.

Purity – a theme we have seen before in 1 Corithains. Absolutely essential for a child of God. God does not accept our immorality or our excuses. Are you failing morally? Get help! Are you struggling with a sexual addiction or fantasy? Seek counsel. The battle is not won alone. Losing this battle is not an option.

⁹ Nor should we put Christ to the test,

as some of them did

and then died from snakebites.

Testing God – a sin of unbelief. How big is my faith? Some of Israel’s faith was small enough to deserve venomous snakebites. Perhaps I should focus on growing my faith and increasing my dependence on God.

¹⁰ And don’t grumble as some of them did,

and then were destroyed by the angel of death.

Complaining – another theme of 1 Corinthians that seeps from many pages. Learn to be content! Stop being negative and muttering about how poor your life is. Do you think the angel of death is dead? I don’t think Paul believed that!

¹¹ These things happened to them as examples for us.

They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.

You mean we are not all that different? That is exactly Paul’s point.

Catching (not casting) Crowns…1 Cor. 9:24-27

²⁴ You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. ²⁵ All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally. ²⁶ I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! ²⁷ I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself. --- 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (The Message)

What are you doing in your life right now that is putting you on track for a heavenly gold medal? Are you investing heavily in a person, missionary, Christian organization? Are you praying regularly and passionately for God to intervene in a crucial situation? Are you volunteering your time to serve Christ? Is there something, anything, in your life that merits a gold medal?

The Apostle Paul was convinced that he was running in a competition. He was not satisfied with the silver or bronze – just as most Olympic athletes scorn any medal other than the coveted gold. If you’ve been watching the Beijing 2008 Olympics, you even saw an athlete throw his bronze medal down and walk away. Paul too wanted to win the 1^st place prize (vs. 24).

Some people run for fun. Others run to win. Put Paul in the latter camp. He appeals to us to do the same: “Run in such a way that you may obtain it (the prize)” (vs. 24b). Olympic athletes run to win a medal they can’t take with them when they die. Christians run to win a medal that is “imperishable”.

Last night some high-profile runners were disqualified from the men’s 200 meter race after finishing 2^nd and 3^rd. Why? They ran out of their lanes!

Paul was extremely concerned that he might be disqualified. Rigid personal discipline is how Paul kept himself from elimination (vs. 27).

The greatly admired and respected Apostle Paul took extreme risks for Christ. He ran to win. He was competing for a permanent crown. He did whatever it took to remain in the race and stay in his “lane”. What are you competing for? Are you running for fun, or to win?

Iowa Testimonies

This video tells a bit of our story from Cedar Falls, Iowa. Annie, Sommer, Dani, Brittany, and I spent a week (July 28-Aug 2) volunteering with Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief - and it was life-changing!!!